1265 replies to this topic

[kellis]

Mammoth, on Jun 29 2010, 11:32 PM, said:

There is a new BIOS available, F.25, and they are saying it corrects an issue with not being able to start the machine. Maybe this is what you are seeing.
DV8t-1100 Download page

Try it and let us know if it fixes it.

Mammoth

very possible, but i have the dv7 3180us model, which i think carries a different bios.
and i had updated mine to the latest, this was few days ago.
maybe that fix didn't make it to my bios yet. but at least i found a way to get it to work with that workaround.

[Nativedude]

Thank you very much Mammoth for this very helpful guide
I have OS X running really smooth on my DV7T-3300 Quad

Can't wait for further updates so when can get these things running vanilla

[kellis]

Hi guys, any of you got the screen brightness to work?
through the prefpanel, or even through the keyboard FN keys?

(nvidia 230m)

[Mammoth]

Nativedude, on Jun 30 2010, 09:19 AM, said:

Thank you very much Mammoth for this very helpful guide
I have OS X running really smooth on my DV7T-3300 Quad

Can't wait for further updates so when can get these things running vanilla

Awesome! Thanks for posting about your success. I thought it would, but it's good to know for sure that the guide works for the DV7t series too.

Some of our next goals are to work on getting sound to work (without using VoodooHDA), more functionality through DSDT improvements, customized SMBIOS, and also getting even better video support via DSDT rather than just GraphicsEnabler. Everyone should post their wish list for fixes / support and I will add them to the main post.

I'm also going to be experimenting with a Dell WiFi card to see if we can get a wireless solution. I already know of a guy who has done this, so I know it works. I'm waiting for mine to arrive so I can begin testing.

Thanks again, and I'm happy it worked so well for you!

Mammoth

[Mammoth]

kellis, on Jun 30 2010, 09:28 AM, said:

Hi guys, any of you got the screen brightness to work?
through the prefpanel, or even through the keyboard FN keys?

(nvidia 230m)

So you are correct. No way to adjust the brightness, not that I could find. However, this is also the case with my other 2 Hack desktops. : |

So if anyone knows how to add this functionality, please let us know.

Thanks,

[kellis]

Mammoth, on Jun 30 2010, 01:35 PM, said:

So you are correct. No way to adjust the brightness, not that I could find. However, this is also the case with my other 2 Hack desktops. : |

So if anyone knows how to add this functionality, please let us know.

Thanks,

My other hack* which is an acer a0a150 has the screen brightness functionality through the FN keys.
So i am pretty sure it is possible to achieve.

[Mammoth]

kellis, on Jun 30 2010, 11:51 AM, said:

My other hack* which is an acer a0a150 has the screen brightness functionality through the FN keys.
So i am pretty sure it is possible to achieve.

OK, that's good to know then. How did you get video working, DSDT, GraphicsEnabler? Do you have special kexts loaded that might have added that functionality? Like I said, I don't have any machines that is working on. So if you could figure it out, that would be great.

Thanks,

Mammoth

[kellis]

Mammoth, on Jun 30 2010, 04:11 PM, said:

OK, that's good to know then. How did you get video working, DSDT, GraphicsEnabler? Do you have special kexts loaded that might have added that functionality? Like I said, I don't have any machines that is working on. So if you could figure it out, that would be great.

Thanks,

Mammoth

for which machine would you like to know?

my acer atom a0a150?  (intel GMA)

or my dv7 3180us machine (i7- nvidia 230m)?

[Mac Man 50]

Mammoth, on Jun 30 2010, 06:41 PM, said:

Awesome! Thanks for posting about your success. I thought it would, but it's good to know for sure that the guide works for the DV7t series too.

Some of our next goals are to work on getting sound to work (without using VoodooHDA), more functionality through DSDT improvements, customized SMBIOS, and also getting even better video support via DSDT rather than just GraphicsEnabler. Everyone should post their wish list for fixes / support and I will add them to the main post.

I'm also going to be experimenting with a Dell WiFi card to see if we can get a wireless solution. I already know of a guy who has done this, so I know it works. I'm waiting for mine to arrive so I can begin testing.

Thanks again, and I'm happy it worked so well for you!

Mammoth

Mammoth:
 
Thanks for all the guides (very informative and descriptive). However, I do have some issues:
a. I followed your 1.10 of the guide religiously and I'm stuck on the page 8 on the Part 3 of the guide. I followed, double checked line by line in installing Chameleon onto the Chameleon partition and after restart (removing the Mammoth 1.10 boot cd), I'm seeing a blinking cursor and nothing is happening. Then, what I did is to boot thru the CD again and then SL was able to boot from the HDD. I quickly checked up what's in the Chameleon partition on the HDD and found that it is just having a folder named "Extra". Inside "Extra",  there are lot of files which I presume are Chameleon boot files. Do I have to move these files to the root of the Chameleon partition deleting the "Extra" folder? This step is not found in your guide or I'm missing something.
 
b. Fan seems to be always running. I turned off "Fan always on" in the BIOS (F.24) and I don't think it has any effect. I'm not running anything.
 
c. It seems to be slightly high on the warm side.
 
d. How long does the battery last on a full charge?
 
e. Not that bright. I know you're working on enabling the Fn keys which will enable brightness. Btw, I changed the color profile to go with "Generic RGB" and removed the pinkish look. Can I also run the Calibration tool to see if I can do something there with colors? The reason why I'm saying is the other day I checked up the new MacBook Pro and it looks gorgeous. The display is very bright and rich in colors. Wonder, if we can achieve the same thing on our dv8t by doing color calibration built into SL or get a third party tool to do it for us.
 
f. While I'm writing this, I was still thinking of getting the dv7t-3180us which has LED display.
 
g. Any news on the true vanilla kernel w/ 64 bit?
 
 
Thanks for all your hard work.

kellis, on Jul 1 2010, 05:36 PM, said:

for which machine would you like to know?

my acer atom a0a150?  (intel GMA)

or my dv7 3180us machine (i7- nvidia 230m)?

hi Kellis,

I definitely believe that mammoth would love to
hear from you abt the dv7t-3180us. Btw, how is the
display on your dv7t-3180 as it comes with LED display?
Is it looking gorgeous? Mammoth and I have the LCD
on the dv8t and not LED.

Please reply.

[kellis]

Mac Man 50, on Jul 1 2010, 03:51 PM, said:

Mammoth:

Thanks for all the guides (very informative and descriptive). However, I do have some issues:
a. I followed your 1.10 of the guide religiously and I'm stuck on the page 8 on the Part 3 of the guide. I followed, double checked line by line in installing Chameleon onto the Chameleon partition and after restart (removing the Mammoth 1.10 boot cd), I'm seeing a blinking cursor and nothing is happening. Then, what I did is to boot thru the CD again and then SL was able to boot from the HDD. I quickly checked up what's in the Chameleon partition on the HDD and found that it is just having a folder named "Extra". Inside "Extra",  there are lot of files which I presume are Chameleon boot files. Do I have to move these files to the root of the Chameleon partition deleting the "Extra" folder? This step is not found in your guide or I'm missing something.

b. Fan seems to be always running. I turned off "Fan always on" in the BIOS (F.24) and I don't think it has any effect. I'm not running anything.

c. It seems to be slightly high on the warm side.

d. How long does the battery last on a full charge?

e. Not that bright. I know you're working on enabling the Fn keys which will enable brightness. Btw, I changed the color profile to go with "Generic RGB" and removed the pinkish look. Can I also run the Calibration tool to see if I can do something there with colors? The reason why I'm saying is the other day I checked up the new MacBook Pro and it looks gorgeous. The display is very bright and rich in colors. Wonder, if we can achieve the same thing on our dv8t by doing color calibration built into SL or get a third party tool to do it for us.

f. While I'm writing this, I was still thinking of getting the dv7t-3180us which has LED display.

g. Any news on the true vanilla kernel w/ 64 bit?


Thanks for all your hard work.





hi Kellis,

I definitely believe that mammoth would love to
hear from you abt the dv7t-3180us. Btw, how is the
display on your dv7t-3180 as it comes with LED display?
Is it looking gorgeous? Mammoth and I have the LCD
on the dv8t and not LED.

Please reply.

I have to say that the screen is just awesome. it is bright. Accurate, and the resolution is just perfect. 1600x900.

Here's where i am with the dv7-3180us

What works:

8 cores.

memory

power/battery/sleep (even with LID)

nvidia accelerated. (resolution switching etc)

audio (even internal mic) (although i THINK only the right speaker)

all USB

sim card reader

trackpad/keyboard

ethernet card (eth0)

internal camera (HP)

geekbench around 4750.

==

All this is without any DSDT.

but i am trying to edit my own to fix:

the display brightness

and function keys (like FN keys)

As far as the NVIDIA, i didnt have to do crap really, i just used the graphicsenabler=yes and the nvenabler kext, although i think i removed it. I will check later to really see what i have.

i plan to do a write up, and i even started a new thread in this forum about the installation and tweaks.
here's the new thread:
http://www.insanelym...p;#entry1501651

[Mammoth]

kellis, on Jul 1 2010, 09:36 AM, said:

for which machine would you like to know?

my acer atom a0a150?  (intel GMA)

or my dv7 3180us machine (i7- nvidia 230m)?

I was talking about the Acer because that's the one you have the brightness working on.

Mammoth

Mac Man 50, on Jul 1 2010, 01:51 PM, said:

Mammoth:
 
Thanks for all the guides (very informative and descriptive). However, I do have some issues:
a. I followed your 1.10 of the guide religiously and I'm stuck on the page 8 on the Part 3 of the guide. I followed, double checked line by line in installing Chameleon onto the Chameleon partition and after restart (removing the Mammoth 1.10 boot cd), I'm seeing a blinking cursor and nothing is happening. Then, what I did is to boot thru the CD again and then SL was able to boot from the HDD. I quickly checked up what's in the Chameleon partition on the HDD and found that it is just having a folder named "Extra". Inside "Extra",  there are lot of files which I presume are Chameleon boot files. Do I have to move these files to the root of the Chameleon partition deleting the "Extra" folder? This step is not found in your guide or I'm missing something.

Hello MacMan50,

I think you may be missing something. I have gone through the installation a few times following the guide step-by-step to make sure it all works, plus others have been successful too.

The steps I put in the guide are VERY comprehensive, so you don't have to do anything that's not in the guides, such as moving folders / files an deleting them (unless specifically told to do so).

The Chameleon installation starts on page 4 of guide 3, and if you follow it precisely, it will work (unless there is some additional problem). Before you began the installation, did you do a complete Erase on the entire drive? If not, I would try that.

To reinstall Chameleon, use Disk Utility to Erase JUST the Cham partition, and then start over on Page 4, Guide 3 and re-do the "INSTALLING CHAMELEON" steps. It SHOULD work.

Mammoth

@MacMan50
 
b. Fan seems to be always running. I turned off "Fan always on" in the BIOS (F.24) and I don't think it has any effect. I'm not running anything.

I'm not sure about this, I will have to check into it. This is probably where a DSDT modification is needed to correct (or maybe a kext).

 
c. It seems to be slightly high on the warm side.
 
Same as above.


d. How long does the battery last on a full charge?
 
Not long at all! I haven't timed it, but I was using it on battery a few days ago and it really sucked... but I will be using it as a "portable computer", almost always having power, so it's not an issue for me.


e. Not that bright. I know you're working on enabling the Fn keys which will enable brightness. Btw, I changed the color profile to go with "Generic RGB" and removed the pinkish look. Can I also run the Calibration tool to see if I can do something there with colors? The reason why I'm saying is the other day I checked up the new MacBook Pro and it looks gorgeous. The display is very bright and rich in colors. Wonder, if we can achieve the same thing on our dv8t by doing color calibration built into SL or get a third party tool to do it for us.
 
We should be able to gain greater control of the display, and I think in time we will. Yes, you can run the calibration.


f. While I'm writing this, I was still thinking of getting the dv7t-3180us which has LED display.
 
It has been confirmed (as you know) that the guide will work on that machine, so that's doable. For me, I need the large, full HD screen only the DV8t offers.


g. Any news on the true vanilla kernel w/ 64 bit?

Yes, a lot of progress is being made on this, and I expect we will have a solution soon, but others are working on that, not me, so we will have to watch and wait.


Mammoth 

[Mac Man 50]

Hi Mammoth,

Atlast!! I got it. I was able to resolve the Chameleon boot issues and I also have one excellent news for you (more on that later**).

Firstly, when booting SL 10.6.4 from HDD, it shows me some APIC errors, NullPowerManagement errors, Firewire - defaulting to full securee etc...Are these all showing up because of the patched kernel and not using the vanilla kernel?. During shutdown/restart too, I see some text written to the screen.

Kernel panic happened when SL was idle as I didn't follow directions on the 3rd part - 3rd page (not disabling computer sleep and display sleep)
   After this kernel panic, I coulnd't get back to SL after a reboot. I saw the Chameleon boot loader and pressing ENTER did nothing. Luckily, I have backed up the entire HDD (all the partitions) using Clonezilla and was able to restore absolutely fine. So, this is the excellent news . Clonezilla can backup the entire HDD (all partitions - it supports NTFS, HFS+ etc), so, you can get everything back including the EFI and Chameleon boot partition with no single issue. Also, another luck is I got my new dv8t-1200 with dual HDDs and was able to backup to the second HDD with no problems. So, the solution is to use Clonezilla which is free too!!!

Btw, I have attached some screenshots and my explanations are there for each:

1. Desktop status bar.jpg
The Desktop status bar.jpg is what is getting displayed when I click on the icon on the upper status bar. Don't know what it is.

2. About this Mac.jpg
This displays some incorrect information:
Processor info is wrong.
Memory should be 1033 Mhz DDR3 SDRAM.

3. Hardware Overview.jpg
In the Hardware Overview.jpg, Model Identifier says 6.1. Isn't 6.2? The other day I checked up Apple Store and found that the new Macbook Pro model (Core i7) says 6.2 and also it corrrectly identifies the Processor as Core i7. The Processor Speed says 3Ghz. Is this right? Don't know if the Bus speed is correct. Maybe, the BootROM version will change if we go with 6.2 I think. I always wonder whether it is a cosmetic issue that we can fix easily or we are unfortunate to live with what SL 10.6.4 identifies with our hardware specs.

4. Bluetooth.jpg
I'm surprised to see this info about Bluetooth. I don't know how to check if it is working.

5. Power On Self Test.jpg
The Power  On Self Test says "it is failing". Is this cause for concern? I only have 4GB RAM on one of the DIMM slot.

Also, the left side of the USB is not working after doing a restart. The right side USB is working fine though (all the time). Also, I really need the Brightness option in the Display under System Preferences.


Appreciate all your help.

Thanks.

Attached Files

•  Bluetooth.jpg   2.29MB   29 downloads
•  Hardware_Overview.jpg   1.4MB   21 downloads
•  Desktop_status_bar.jpg   1.51MB   22 downloads
•  About_this_Mac.jpg   1.58MB   23 downloads
•  Power_On_Self_Test.jpg   1.43MB   11 downloads

[kellis]

Mac Man 50, on Jul 2 2010, 04:31 PM, said:

Hi Mammoth,

Atlast!! I got it. I was able to resolve the Chameleon boot issues and I also have one excellent news for you (more on that later**).

Firstly, when booting SL 10.6.4 from HDD, it shows me some APIC errors, NullPowerManagement errors, Firewire - defaulting to full securee etc...Are these all showing up because of the patched kernel and not using the vanilla kernel?. During shutdown/restart too, I see some text written to the screen.

Kernel panic happened when SL was idle as I didn't follow directions on the 3rd part - 3rd page (not disabling computer sleep and display sleep)
   After this kernel panic, I coulnd't get back to SL after a reboot. I saw the Chameleon boot loader and pressing ENTER did nothing. Luckily, I have backed up the entire HDD (all the partitions) using Clonezilla and was able to restore absolutely fine. So, this is the excellent news . Clonezilla can backup the entire HDD (all partitions - it supports NTFS, HFS+ etc), so, you can get everything back including the EFI and Chameleon boot partition with no single issue. Also, another luck is I got my new dv8t-1200 with dual HDDs and was able to backup to the second HDD with no problems. So, the solution is to use Clonezilla which is free too!!!

Btw, I have attached some screenshots and my explanations are there for each:

1. Desktop status bar.jpg
The Desktop status bar.jpg is what is getting displayed when I click on the icon on the upper status bar. Don't know what it is.

2. About this Mac.jpg
This displays some incorrect information:
Processor info is wrong.
Memory should be 1033 Mhz DDR3 SDRAM.

3. Hardware Overview.jpg
In the Hardware Overview.jpg, Model Identifier says 6.1. Isn't 6.2? The other day I checked up Apple Store and found that the new Macbook Pro model (Core i7) says 6.2 and also it corrrectly identifies the Processor as Core i7. The Processor Speed says 3Ghz. Is this right? Don't know if the Bus speed is correct. Maybe, the BootROM version will change if we go with 6.2 I think. I always wonder whether it is a cosmetic issue that we can fix easily or we are unfortunate to live with what SL 10.6.4 identifies with our hardware specs.

4. Bluetooth.jpg
I'm surprised to see this info about Bluetooth. I don't know how to check if it is working.

5. Power On Self Test.jpg
The Power  On Self Test says "it is failing". Is this cause for concern? I only have 4GB RAM on one of the DIMM slot.

Also, the left side of the USB is not working after doing a restart. The right side USB is working fine though (all the time). Also, I really need the Brightness option in the Display under System Preferences.


Appreciate all your help.

Thanks.

Hey man, i am in the exact same situation.
1) no brightness
2) my ram diagnostic in the mac says failed just like yours

3) i can't even extract the DSDT correctly and recompile it without hundreds of errors.
and if i do fix them, KP when trying.
How are you guys fixing and actually getting the DSDT.aml to work fine?
I would think that an extract then compilation without any edit would work, but it doesn't.
Something is flawed somewhere.

[Mac Man 50]

kellis, on Jul 3 2010, 08:06 AM, said:

Hey man, i am in the exact same situation.
1) no brightness
2) my ram diagnostic in the mac says failed just like yours

3) i can't even extract the DSDT correctly and recompile it without hundreds of errors.
and if i do fix them, KP when trying.
How are you guys fixing and actually getting the DSDT.aml to work fine?
I would think that an extract then compilation without any edit would work, but it doesn't.
Something is flawed somewhere.

Hi kellis,

Thanks for your reply. While I'm waiting for Mammoth's expert solutions to my issues (your issues too), I thought I can ask on how the following works for you:

1. power/battery/sleep (even with LID). Mammoth has recommended in his guides to set the Energy Saver settings "Never" both for Power and battery while he may be working on a fix.

2. Fan always running and also machine running slightly higher on the warm side.

3. SD reader

4. Audio including both speakers and internal dual mics

5. Brightness control (need it the most)

6. resolution switching - When I switch to any resolution other than the 1920x1080, I get KP.

Also, USB is acting weird. After a restart, SL forgets it and I have to remove it and reinsert it. This is an issue on all USB ports. I also tried VoodooHDA.kext for audio and SD reader kexts and both give KP after few seconds. After this happens, I have to restore the cloned image as SL doesn't boot at all.

Do you have working kexts for the ones mentioned above to work? Please let me know. I wanted to try them as I have already backed up a working install using Clonezilla.

Thanks.

[kellis]

Mac Man 50, on Jul 3 2010, 10:36 PM, said:

Hi kellis,

Thanks for your reply. While I'm waiting for Mammoth's expert solutions to my issues (your issues too), I thought I can ask on how the following works for you:

1. power/battery/sleep (even with LID). Mammoth has recommended in his guides to set the Energy Saver settings "Never" both for Power and battery while he may be working on a fix.

2. Fan always running and also machine running slightly higher on the warm side.

3. SD reader

4. Audio including both speakers and internal dual mics

5. Brightness control (need it the most)

6. resolution switching - When I switch to any resolution other than the 1920x1080, I get KP.

Also, USB is acting weird. After a restart, SL forgets it and I have to remove it and reinsert it. This is an issue on all USB ports. I also tried VoodooHDA.kext for audio and SD reader kexts and both give KP after few seconds. After this happens, I have to restore the cloned image as SL doesn't boot at all.

Do you have working kexts for the ones mentioned above to work? Please let me know. I wanted to try them as I have already backed up a working install using Clonezilla.

Thanks.

Hi, actually, mine doesn't have that many issues.
The power is handled well, as well as cpu fan etc.
Note that i do not use any DSDT.aml files. Only kexts.
Here's my list of all my kexts in my /E/E

AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext
JMicron36xSATA.kext
SleepEnabler.kext
EvOreboot.kext
LegacyIOAHCIBlockStorage.kext
fakesmc.kext
JMicron36xATA.kext
NullCPUPowerManagement.kext


Note that i run in 32bit.

In my /S/L/E i added these:

drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel    102 Jun 27 21:39 IOSDHCIBlockDevice.kext
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel    102 Jun 27 20:50 VoodooHDA.kext
drwxr-xr-x    2 root  wheel    136 Jun 27 20:37 IOPCIFamily.kext
drwxr-xr-x@   3 root  wheel    102 Jun 27 20:34 AppleHDA.kext
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel    102 Mar  9 03:10 VoodooPS2Controller.kext
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel    102 Feb 14 05:37 VoodooBattery.kext
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel    102 Feb  9 15:34 VoodooSDHC.kext
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel    102 Dec  3  2009 RealtekR1000SL.kext

Now as far as the nvdia, do you have the 230m?
in my case, i didn't have to do anything other than add graphics enabler in chameleon. (i use rc4 btw).
i can switch resolution without any issues or crash.
Hope this helps.
I tried to get the latest kext for the above files. (from insanelymac, or kexts.com)

Let me know how that goes.

[Mac Man 50]

Mammoth:

I'm eagerly waiting for your input.
Also, while you're working on the issues I have mentioned
I was able to get a custom calibrated icc file which
looks gorgeous on the display. Had we have the
brightness option, it will definitely rival the new
mac book pros. I will upload it shortly.

Thanks again. Without your help and your guides, I will
be nowhere near to SL on dv8t.

Thanks.

Update: (icc profiles)

Color_LCD_Perfect.zip has a icc file which I personally didn't like it.
SuperCal-1-1.zip is excellent and seems to be having a perfect color balance although slightly dimmer. This can be overcome once we have the Brightness issue resolved.

Another Update:
It seems Bluetooth is working great. I didn't do anything special. I was able to pair to my iphone. Thanks Mammoth.
Also, the resolution change is working fine. No KP. Also, here, I didn't do anything extra.

Thanks.

Attached Files

•  Color_LCD_Perfect.zip   2.82K   27 downloads
•  SuperCal_1_1.zip   1.95K   32 downloads

[Mac Man 50]

kellis:

I'm not doing any new kexts additions right now. I would rather wait for Mammoth's instructions. I think he's super busy over the long weekend which I totally understand.

Just this: This posting has code that shows how to make the Brightness slider show up in the Display preferences. http://www.insanelym...howtopic=211705

Thanks anyways.

[Mac Man 50]

Mammoth:

I was just curious to see if I can make the Brightness slider show up in the Display Preferences. And, I was successful but with issues:

I added the following code to make it visible:

Device (PNLF)
{
    Name (_HID, EisaId ("APP0002"))
    Name (_CID, "backlight")
    Name (_UID, 0x0A)
    Name (_STA, 0x0B)
}

I used DSDTE to edit the dsdt.aml under the Chameleon\Extra partition by placing the above mentioned method just above Device (PWRB) as suggested here: http://www.mydellmin...g-audio-19.html. I then compiled and it compiled with no errors or warnings and rebooted keeping my fingers crossed and it actually worked.

The Display preferences is able to show the Brightness slider. But, it is always set at maximum and there is no effect in sliding it and also even if I move the slider left or right, it moves to the maximum immediately. So, definitely, I'm missing something.

Just wanted to let you know.

Thanks.

Attached Files

•  Brightness_Slider.jpg   1.58MB   17 downloads

[Mammoth]

Hello everyone,

I'm back from my 4th of July weekend in Vegas and ready to get caught up with you all on our DVx progress. I wanted to keep up while in Vegas, but the hotel did NOT have free Internet and there are some bugs with my new iPhone 4 which will not allow me to post on InsanelyMac as I was able to do with my 3G and prior to iOS 4.0.

So bear with me while I re-read all your posts and respond to all of them.

I am very happy to see people working to resolve issues and making progress!

Mammoth

[Mammoth]

Mac Man 50, on Jul 2 2010, 02:31 PM, said:

Hi Mammoth,

Atlast!! I got it. I was able to resolve the Chameleon boot issues and I also have one excellent news for you (more on that later**).

Firstly, when booting SL 10.6.4 from HDD, it shows me some APIC errors, NullPowerManagement errors, Firewire - defaulting to full securee etc...Are these all showing up because of the patched kernel and not using the vanilla kernel?. During shutdown/restart too, I see some text written to the screen.


Mine does all of those too, some related to vanilla kernel, but some appear with mach_kernel also. These are things we need to work on.


Kernel panic happened when SL was idle as I didn't follow directions on the 3rd part - 3rd page (not disabling computer sleep and display sleep)
After this kernel panic, I coulnd't get back to SL after a reboot. I saw the Chameleon boot loader and pressing ENTER did nothing. Luckily, I have backed up the entire HDD (all the partitions) using Clonezilla and was able to restore absolutely fine. So, this is the excellent news . Clonezilla can backup the entire HDD (all partitions - it supports NTFS, HFS+ etc), so, you can get everything back including the EFI and Chameleon boot partition with no single issue. Also, another luck is I got my new dv8t-1200 with dual HDDs and was able to backup to the second HDD with no problems. So, the solution is to use Clonezilla which is free too!!!

WOW! Great find with Clonezilla. I haven't heard of the that, but since you have tried it and it works, I will be trying it too. THANKS!!!

Btw, I have attached some screenshots and my explanations are there for each:

1. Desktop status bar.jpg
The Desktop status bar.jpg is what is getting displayed when I click on the icon on the upper status bar. Don't know what it is.

If you are talking about the ones with the "Power off Card", I believe those are for Express Slot cards.


2. About this Mac.jpg
This displays some incorrect information:
Processor info is wrong.
Memory should be 1033 Mhz DDR3 SDRAM.


Yes, these are mostly cosmetic. They are controlled by SMBIOS.plist and FAKESMC.kext. This is another area I haven't focused on yet. I found an updated version of FAKESMC.kext, but when I tried it I got a KP. I was in a rush at the time, so I didn't experiment with it beyond that. I think some of those entries are supposed to covered in  future updates to Chameleon as well.


3. Hardware Overview.jpg
In the Hardware Overview.jpg, Model Identifier says 6.1. Isn't 6.2? The other day I checked up Apple Store and found that the new Macbook Pro model (Core i7) says 6.2 and also it corrrectly identifies the Processor as Core i7. The Processor Speed says 3Ghz. Is this right? Don't know if the Bus speed is correct. Maybe, the BootROM version will change if we go with 6.2 I think. I always wonder whether it is a cosmetic issue that we can fix easily or we are unfortunate to live with what SL 10.6.4 identifies with our hardware specs.

Same as above. Yes, I believe our machines are closer to a 6,2. I have the complete IOReg and System Profiler from a 6,2 machine I will post soon. ; )


4. Bluetooth.jpg
I'm surprised to see this info about Bluetooth. I don't know how to check if it is working.

Yes, this was very nice for me too... even though I don't use it.

5. Power On Self Test.jpg
The Power On Self Test says "it is failing". Is this cause for concern? I only have 4GB RAM on one of the DIMM slot.

Yes, I get this too and it sounds like we all will, for now. We couldn't all have failures, so it's cosmetic, as far as I can tell.

Also, the left side of the USB is not working after doing a restart. The right side USB is working fine though (all the time). Also, I really need the Brightness option in the Display under System Preferences.

Hmmm. If this is true, I haven't noticed (or maybe tried) the left side USB. I'll check it and let you know.



Appreciate all your help.

Thanks.


Thanks for your work and help too! You are certainly an asset to this thread. Keep it up!

Mammoth

kellis, on Jul 3 2010, 01:06 AM, said:

Hey man, i am in the exact same situation.
1) no brightness
2) my ram diagnostic in the mac says failed just like yours

3) i can't even extract the DSDT correctly and recompile it without hundreds of errors.
and if i do fix them, KP when trying.
How are you guys fixing and actually getting the DSDT.aml to work fine?
I would think that an extract then compilation without any edit would work, but it doesn't.
Something is flawed somewhere.

Yes, I was having trouble getting a clean DSDT and it's probably due to the "very strange" Insyde BIOS HP is now using. On the home post of this thread, at the bottom, I have links to other realated sites and threads. Check out the one from "Yehia Amer":

"[GUIDE] Snow Leopard on HP dvx Quad Core i7 QM, Installing Method, Kexts, and DSDT fixes"

He has been doing a lot with DSDT on a DV7 (very close to ours) and that is the one I started using.

Mammoth

Mac Man 50, on Jul 3 2010, 08:36 PM, said:

Hi kellis,

Thanks for your reply. While I'm waiting for Mammoth's expert solutions to my issues (your issues too), I thought I can ask on how the following works for you:

1. power/battery/sleep (even with LID). Mammoth has recommended in his guides to set the Energy Saver settings "Never" both for Power and battery while he may be working on a fix.

2. Fan always running and also machine running slightly higher on the warm side.

3. SD reader

4. Audio including both speakers and internal dual mics

5. Brightness control (need it the most)

6. resolution switching - When I switch to any resolution other than the 1920x1080, I get KP.

Also, USB is acting weird. After a restart, SL forgets it and I have to remove it and reinsert it. This is an issue on all USB ports. I also tried VoodooHDA.kext for audio and SD reader kexts and both give KP after few seconds. After this happens, I have to restore the cloned image as SL doesn't boot at all.

On the USB issue, while I have not noticed that yet on my machine, this is a common anomaly in the osX86 scene experienced with several machines. It is fixable, ideally, through DSDT edits, or there is a .kext that can be used (I'll have to see if I can find which one.)


Do you have working kexts for the ones mentioned above to work? Please let me know. I wanted to try them as I have already backed up a working install using Clonezilla.

Thanks.

kellis, on Jul 4 2010, 10:01 AM, said:

Hi, actually, mine doesn't have that many issues.
The power is handled well, as well as cpu fan etc.
Note that i do not use any DSDT.aml files. Only kexts.
Here's my list of all my kexts in my /E/E

AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext ===> This one is what makes the keyboard & TrackPad work
JMicron36xSATA.kext  ===> Our machines don't have JMicron controllers. So remove.
SleepEnabler.kext ===> We should be able to get this via DSDT, but maybe fine until then.
EvOreboot.kext ===> We are already using this one.
LegacyIOAHCIBlockStorage.kext ===> I believe this is the one that fixes the USB issues. Again, better done with a DSDT edit when possible.
fakesmc.kext ===> We are already using this one.
JMicron36xATA.kext ===> Our machines don't have JMicron controllers. So remove.
NullCPUPowerManagement.kext ===> We should be able to get this via DSDT, but maybe fine until then.

The above in blue are just my quick comments. I have not tested any of these. If some could test each one by removing, then testing, then reporting results, that would be very helpful. Also test without DSDT (I have not had time to do this yet.) Because are machines are somewhat EFI ready, perhaps this is why many things are working without a DSDT. Again, more testing is needed.
Note that i run in 32bit.

In my /S/L/E i added these:

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 27 21:39 IOSDHCIBlockDevice.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 27 20:50 VoodooHDA.kext
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 136 Jun 27 20:37 IOPCIFamily.kext
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 root wheel 102 Jun 27 20:34 AppleHDA.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Mar 9 03:10 VoodooPS2Controller.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Feb 14 05:37 VoodooBattery.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Feb 9 15:34 VoodooSDHC.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Dec 3 2009 RealtekR1000SL.kext

I would try to keep as many of these in /C/E/E/ as possible.


Now as far as the nvdia, do you have the 230m?
in my case, i didn't have to do anything other than add graphics enabler in chameleon. (i use rc4 btw).
i can switch resolution without any issues or crash.
Hope this helps.
I tried to get the latest kext for the above files. (from insanelymac, or kexts.com)

Let me know how that goes.

Mac Man 50, on Jul 4 2010, 10:34 AM, said:

Mammoth:

I'm eagerly waiting for your input.
Also, while you're working on the issues I have mentioned
I was able to get a custom calibrated icc file which
looks gorgeous on the display. Had we have the
brightness option, it will definitely rival the new
mac book pros. I will upload it shortly.

Thanks again. Without your help and your guides, I will
be nowhere near to SL on dv8t.

Thanks.

Update: (icc profiles)

Color_LCD_Perfect.zip has a icc file which I personally didn't like it.
SuperCal-1-1.zip is excellent and seems to be having a perfect color balance although slightly dimmer. This can be overcome once we have the Brightness issue resolved.

Another Update:
It seems Bluetooth is working great. I didn't do anything special. I was able to pair to my iphone. Thanks Mammoth.
Also, the resolution change is working fine. No KP. Also, here, I didn't do anything extra.

Thanks.

Great work MacMan50!!!

I haven't had a chance to try ICC profile, but I will and report back. I'm sure it's as good as you say, so I will be using it.

Thanks!

Mammoth

Mac Man 50, on Jul 5 2010, 08:49 AM, said:

kellis:

I'm not doing any new kexts additions right now. I would rather wait for Mammoth's instructions. I think he's super busy over the long weekend which I totally understand.

Thanks MacMan50! As mentioined, you were correct; I was a bit out of touch over the long weekend.

On the kext issues, we want to avoid them as much as possible and do things through DSDT edits; however, until proper DSDT code and edits can be discovered, we may have to use other means as a crutch temporarily. As new updates are released from Apple, these kext files can stop working or cause other problems.

Just this: This posting has code that shows how to make the Brightness slider show up in the Display preferences. http://www.insanelym...howtopic=211705

This is really encouraging! Let's keep at this.

Mammoth


Thanks anyways.

Mac Man 50, on Jul 5 2010, 02:13 PM, said:

Mammoth:

I was just curious to see if I can make the Brightness slider show up in the Display Preferences. And, I was successful but with issues:

I added the following code to make it visible:

Device (PNLF)
{
Name (_HID, EisaId ("APP0002"))
Name (_CID, "backlight")
Name (_UID, 0x0A)
Name (_STA, 0x0B)
}

I used DSDTE to edit the dsdt.aml under the Chameleon\Extra partition by placing the above mentioned method just above Device (PWRB) as suggested here: http://www.mydellmin...g-audio-19.html. I then compiled and it compiled with no errors or warnings and rebooted keeping my fingers crossed and it actually worked.

The Display preferences is able to show the Brightness slider. But, it is always set at maximum and there is no effect in sliding it and also even if I move the slider left or right, it moves to the maximum immediately. So, definitely, I'm missing something.

Just wanted to let you know.

Thanks.

I was just curious to see if I can make the Brightness slider show up in the Display Preferences. And, I was successful but with issues:

This is fantastic progress MacMan50. Very nice work!


I added the following code to make it visible:

Device (PNLF)
{
Name (_HID, EisaId ("APP0002"))
Name (_CID, "backlight")
Name (_UID, 0x0A)
Name (_STA, 0x0B)
}

I used DSDTE to edit the dsdt.aml under the Chameleon\Extra partition by placing the above mentioned method just above Device (PWRB) as suggested here: http://www.mydellmin...g-audio-19.html. I then compiled and it compiled with no errors or warnings and rebooted keeping my fingers crossed and it actually worked.

The Display preferences is able to show the Brightness slider. But, it is always set at maximum and there is no effect in sliding it and also even if I move the slider left or right, it moves to the maximum immediately. So, definitely, I'm missing something.

You are really on to something here. Everyone needs to understand this about DSDTs: There are different "Device" labels (and other parameters as well) between PC based machines and Macs. I think all that may be needed to get this to work is to locate the section in the DSDT that is PC specific, and modify it with the Mac equivalent. I don't if this is what you have already done or not, but if so (if you have located the correct section for the brightness), then I believe only slight tweaks would be needed to get it working. If on the other hand you simply inserted that code into the DSDT, then I don't think that will work; we have to do as I first mentioned.

Mammoth