21 replies to this topic

[disneysw]

** Updated 30 April 2011 **

• Updated dsdt - more comments, few changes & power button sometimes works

** Updated 29 April 2011 **

• Internal speakers now working (at the expense of audio via HDMI)

** Updated 24 April 2011 **

• Updated dsdt to fix RTC corruption and support FN keys (keyboard brightness and volume controls)
• LCD now dims while on battery power
• Started adding comments to dsdt.dsl to help me understand what its doing and to highlight my changes

Quick write up on how I installed OSX on my Alienware M17x R2, please note I have only had the machine for a few days and may have made mistakes in documenting the process - use the following info at your own risk.

I take no credit for this, I just pulled info from various places on the net and sifted through a lot of miss-information to get the Radeon 5780 working.


My configuration:

Intel i7 840
4GB RAM
2 x 500GB
Single ATI Radeon Mobility 5780 Graphics Card with 1GB
Dell Bluetooth 370 Card
Blu-ray/DVD combo


To start you will need:

1. [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD and [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 3.4 both of which can be downloaded from here http://tonymacx86.bl...ac-os-x-on.html

2. A retail copy of OSX


Installing the base OSX

1. Start the machine and press F2 to enter setup
2. Insure the hard drive mode is set to ACHI
3. Insert the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD
4. Restart the system and press F12 and select the DVD/CD drive to start [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]
5. One [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] has started, replace the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] disc with the OSX retail disc
6. Press F10 to rescan the drives and select the ‘OSX Install disk’
7. Use the options (I believe them to be case sensitive) -x GraphicsEnabler=no

This should boot the standard install OSX install DVD and allow you to perform a standard OSX install on the hard drive.

The system will automatically try to reboot when finished.

At this point OSX is installed but will not be bootable.

Remove the OSX DVD and insert the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD.

Restart the system again using F12 to select the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD.

You should now be able to boot the new OSX partition using the -x GraphicsEnabler=no options

Complete the standard OSX install.

At this point OSX should be running and you should be able to use the wired Ethernet connection- USB ports will NOT be working.


Install or download [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 3.4using the link above.

Download the “10.6.6. OSX combo update” from here http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1349 (You can probably use the 10.6.7 combo update...)

Install the OSX update but do not reboot at the end of the process.

Run [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] and use it to install ‘EasyBeast’ this will install a bootloader plus some basic KEXTs.

Restart [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] and use it to install:
Chameleon 2.0 RC5 ATI Experemental Bootloader
Voodoo PS2 Controller
Voodoo PS2 Trackpad
VoodooHDA 2.72
Hnaks AppleIntel 1000e Ethernet
JMicron36xATA
JMicron36xSATA
JMicron36xeSATA

Install the Dell Bluetooth package from http://www.insanelym...hp/t136515.html.

Download the attached boot file, uncompress it and move it to root directory on your OSX drive using the command sudo mv boot /boot (this has to be done from a command prompt as it is replacing a hidden file - this process will need to be repeated should you reinstall the boot loader).

Edit /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist to match the following:

com.apple.Boot.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com...yList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key> <string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=i386</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>UseAtiROM</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>AtiConfig</key>
<string>Uakari</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>1</string>
<key>Legacy Logo</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>
</dict>
</plist>


Note: The AtiConfig value does not seem to be being used on my system as 'system profiler' says the ATI card is using the Nomascus framebuffer.


Double check your /Extra/smbios.plist file looks like this (most of this is irrelevant anyway):

smbios.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com...yList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>SMfamily</key>
<string>Mac Pro</string>
<key>SMproductname</key>
<string>MacPro3,1</string>
<key>SMboardproduct</key>
<string>Mac-F42C88C8</string>
<key>SMserial</key>
<string>G88454535J4</string>
<key>SMbiosversion</key>
<string>[url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url].tonymacx86.com</string>
</dict>
</plist>

and your /Extra/Extensions directory should have the following files:

/Extra/Extensions

drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 29 Oct 2009 EvOreboot.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 6 Jan 15:39 FakeSMC.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 17 Jul 2009 JMicron36xATA.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 6 Dec 01:10 JMicron36xSATA.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 6 Dec 01:10 JMicron36xeSATA.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 22 Aug 2009 LegacyAppleRTC.kext
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 22 Aug 2009 NullCPUPowerManagement.kext

Uncompress and move the attached ATI ROM file to /Extra/1002_68a0_043a1028.rom

Note, different boot loaders use different file naming conventions for this file - the 'boot' file provided expects this specific format. Read-up on the Kabyl ATI patch for more info.


Internal speaker Fix
There is a bug in VoodooHDA which affects systems with more than one audio device. In my case the HDMI audio device is detected after the HDEF audio chip causing the internal 'speaker device' to be replaced by the HDMI audio port.I am pretty sure this is due to both of them being assigned the same IOAudioEngineGlobalUniqueID (see ioregistryexplorer). To resolve the problem you need to modify Info.plist within VoodooHDA.kext so it stops searching for generic audio devices and just uses a specific device instead.

<!--
					 <key>IOPCIClassMatch</key>
					 <string>0x04030000&amp;0xffff0000</string>
		 -->
					 <key>IOPCIMatch</key>
					 <string>0x3b568086</string>

You can see from the above I commented out the IOPCIClassMatch section (generic audio devices) and replaced it with a IOPCIMatch opton that specifies my primary audio device. If you are using the same laptop it should have the same device ID. For other with a similar problem us ioregistryexplorer, browse to the hdef (audio) section and look at the compatible property. Mine has a value of <"pci1028,43a", "pci8086,3b56", "pciclass,040300">. Alternatively you can use lspci to get the same device ID.
Obviously a side effect of this patch is that you will no longer be able to select HDMI as an output device. (I added my patched VoodooHDA for ease of reference)


After modifying or adding any kexts, if a change did not seem to work
As a final double check re-run [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] and select the ‘System Utilities’ to rebuild the caches and check the file permissions.





Sleep Mode
To enable some form of sleep mode unzip the attached dsdt.zip file and move the dsdt.aml file to /dsdt.aml. Then open a command terminal and type 'sudo pmset –a hibern­ate­mode 1' this will cause the contents of RAM to be written to the hard-disk when the computer goes to sleep. Finally you need to go to 'System Prefs/Security/General' and insure "Use secure virtual memory" is not selected.


FYI:

“sudo pmset –a hibern­ate­mode 0″ = sus­pend to RAM only (default on desktops)
“sudo pmset –a hibern­ate­mode 1″ = sus­pend to disk only
“sudo pmset –a hibern­ate­mode 3″ = sus­pend to disk + RAM (default on laptops)

To see your cur­rent hibern­ate­mode: “pmset –g | grep hibernatemode”.



You can now reboot and if all is well you should have a nearly working machine. Feel free to install the 10.6.7 upgrade.


What works?

Built-in screen up to 1920x1280, display port connector and HDMI connector
Bluetooth
USB Ports
Firewire
Wired Ethernet
Audio – Except HDMI
Built-in camera
DVD Drive
FN Keys


What does not work:

The supplied Intel 6300 WAN card – Replace it with a cheap mini AR9285 WAN card from eBay (these are supported by OSX but you may need a KEXT to enable the specific PCI vendor ID depending on which one you get). I’ll add the info if anyone is interested.

HDMI Audio - see comments above

VGA out - other video ports seem fine
Partial sleep mode – A hibernation file is created and 90% of the time the system will resume OK but the system has to be manually powered off - so make sure you wait until OSX has finished writing to the disk! Most of my issues with resume seem to happen if I add/remove display devices while the system is hibernating.

I seem to have broken the power button. This was working via the dsdt but I must have changed something....

Attached Files

•  1002_68a0_043a1028.rom.gz   46.44KB   169 downloads
•  boot.gz   102.83KB   149 downloads
•  dsdt.zip   51.99KB   179 downloads
•  VoodooHDA.kext.zip   156.42KB   141 downloads

[mwally]

Great info, please let me know if you have any updates. I'm going to be performing this on my m17xr2 soon.

[disneysw]

Great info, please let me know if you have any updates. I'm going to be performing this on my m17xr2 soon.

I'll post a preliminary DSDT soon that gets the power button working and allows deep sleep mode to nearly work (the machine goes too sleep OK but the laptop won't actually power down. You can still manually power it off and it will resume OK). I also had to temporaraly disable the laptop screen saver as it wont recover if the back light is turned off - for some reason this is not an issue when an external monitor is attached.

You can see why I was not in a rush to release my DSDT yet :-)

Oh, I also know the VGA port is not working and that VoodooHDA seems to detect the audio hardware OK but the apple control panel does not showing all of the available ports i.e. the speakers don't appear as a possible option on the apple control panel.

[opchronatron]

I'll post a preliminary DSDT soon that gets the power button working and allows deep sleep mode to nearly work (the machine goes too sleep OK but the laptop won't actually power down. You can still manually power it off and it will resume OK). I also had to temporaraly disable the laptop screen saver as it wont recover if the back light is turned off - for some reason this is not an issue when an external monitor is attached.

You can see why I was not in a rush to release my DSDT yet :-)

Oh, I also know the VGA port is not working and that VoodooHDA seems to detect the audio hardware OK but the apple control panel does not showing all of the available ports i.e. the speakers don't appear as a possible option on the apple control panel.

I just went though this and everything is working ok, except for display port. How did you test Display port? When I try to detect the screen it does not show up. When the screen is plugged in at startup it mirrors everything up to the apple logo then every thing goes dark and a hard reset is necessary. Great tutorial by the way it is much appreciated!

Best Regards.

[mwally]

I'll post a preliminary DSDT soon that gets the power button working and allows deep sleep mode to nearly work (the machine goes too sleep OK but the laptop won't actually power down. You can still manually power it off and it will resume OK). I also had to temporaraly disable the laptop screen saver as it wont recover if the back light is turned off - for some reason this is not an issue when an external monitor is attached.

You can see why I was not in a rush to release my DSDT yet :-)

Oh, I also know the VGA port is not working and that VoodooHDA seems to detect the audio hardware OK but the apple control panel does not showing all of the available ports i.e. the speakers don't appear as a possible option on the apple control panel.

I have the dual 4870's on my R2 and am not able to boot up without the -x GraphicsEnabler=no command. If i dont use the command it gives me a blank white screen after the apple boot screen. Please let me know if you have any insight into what i need to change in the files. Other than that the install has been working as you have listed.

Thank you for all your work.

[disneysw]

I just went though this and everything is working ok, except for display port. How did you test Display port? When I try to detect the screen it does not show up. When the screen is plugged in at startup it mirrors everything up to the apple logo then every thing goes dark and a hard reset is necessary. Great tutorial by the way it is much appreciated!

Best Regards.

I just plugged in the screen and it was detected by OSX. I can then go into the display properties and set it up as either mirrored or as a secondary screen. This seems to work fine for both display port and hdmi.

I have the dual 4870's on my R2 and am not able to boot up without the -x GraphicsEnabler=no command. If i dont use the command it gives me a blank white screen after the apple boot screen. Please let me know if you have any insight into what i need to change in the files. Other than that the install has been working as you have listed.

Thank you for all your work.

I think you need to use a different ATI ROM for the 4870. For my own machine I originally tried dumping my cards ROM under windows and downloading the graphics card ROM update from the Dell site - neither worked for me (I did a binary file compare of what I dumped and the working ROM and they are identical, so ignore that comment). The ROM I'm using was posted by someone else with the same graphics card.

During my research I think I read your card may just work. So you could try removing the following setting or setting it to NO:

<key>UseAtiROM</key>
<string>Yes</string>

in your com.apple.boot.plist file.

[mwally]

I think you need to use a different ATI ROM for the 4870. For my own machine I originally tried dumping my cards ROM under windows and downloading the graphics card ROM update from the Dell site - neither worked for me. The ROM I'm using was posted by someone else with the same graphics card.

During my research I think I read your card may just work. So you could try removing the following setting or setting it to NO:

<key>UseAtiROM</key>
<string>Yes</string>

in your com.apple.boot.plist file.

Had to take out the aticonfig lines too and it boots up without the safe mode. Although in system profiler it has my gfxcards labeled as 5870's instead of 4870's and my resolution is stuck at 1024x768.

[timbojill]

should this work on a Dell XPS M1730 ? I used another install method. The way I did it i was able to go to 10.6.7 but no audio, no usb, devices, no wireless, no ethernet, and no sleep.

[disneysw]

should this work on a Dell XPS M1730 ? I used another install method. The way I did it i was able to go to 10.6.7 but no audio, no usb, devices, no wireless, no ethernet, and no sleep.

Sorry your going to have to search for the individual kext files for the specific hardware in your M1730. Because Dell machines are built to order even machines with the same model number can have very different hardware.

All I can really suggest is that you try searching this forum.

[disneysw]

The pwr button is driving me nuts - It was the first thing I got working when I started playing with the dsdt after reading a few posts on the subject but now I've broken it and I just can't seem to get it to work again....... Any advice on the subject would be welcome.


I don't think it is important but I nolonger have EvOreboot.kext installed and I have made minor changes to smbios.plist, mainly making my system look like a MacBookPro6,2.

There are no messages in the logs, just instant power off.

[disneysw]

The pwr button is driving me nuts - It was the first thing I got working when I started playing with the dsdt after reading a few posts on the subject but now I've broken it and I just can't seem to get it to work again....... Any advice on the subject would be welcome.


I don't think it is important but I nolonger have EvOreboot.kext installed and I have made minor changes to smbios.plist, mainly making my system look like a MacBookPro6,2.

There are no messages in the logs, just instant power off.

I have discovered that sometimes the power button actually does work, I just don't know why it only works sometimes. I have added my current dsdt in case someone can enlighten me.

[Seoscrero]

disneysw
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this tutorial!

[disneysw]

When I have time I will add some notes for better speedstep enabling.

[r00tlolz]

Nice tut! One note about the AR9285- it's the same one in my laptop, and I got it working by doing the following in Mac OS X 10.6.7-

1) Go to /S/L/E, open up IO80211Family.kext (Show Package Contents)
2) Go to /Contents/Plugins inside the IO80211Family kext
3) Find the Info.plist in AirportAtheros.kext and AirportAtheros21, and plug in your device ID's
4) Repair permissions, remove boot caches
5) Reboot- your WiFi should be working!

*NOTE- Your system must be on 10.6.7! I do believe it works on 10.6.6, but I haven't tried it on 10.6.6. I know for a fact it doesn't work on 10.6-10.6.3.

[XxJessusxX]

Alright so guys heres my problem, I have alienware m17x-r2, specs are...
Core i7 620m @ 2.6ghz
4gb DDR3 1333mhz(I think)
2x5870
etc...

so anyway I installed 10.6 using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] and GraphicsEnabler=No on boot, that was fine it booted and everything, now heres the thing, during the install of the update I got a panic screen on 1.6.6 combo update, didn't think much of it, flattened the drive and reinstalled snow leopard, got a panic screen again on a 10.6.8 combo update, it seems everytime I try and do a combo update I get a panic screen, after the panic screen on the update, I can't boot, I tryed safe mode, verbose(or whatever its called), single user, etc. nothing it just keeps freezing, or taking a stupidly long time to load something(more than 30 minutes). It seems like I have a computer almost exactly like your's, any idea where I went wrong? Also I don't know if this is relevent but i'm using a single 320gb sata drive in ACHI mode and I have hardware virtualization enabled in the bios. I have been trying all day to get this working.

p.s. my email is aaronwatson1990@gmail.com

Any help would be muchly appreciated, Thanks! [=

[bassistas]

hello ,
I have an alienware m17x r2 with dual 5870 cards ,4gb ram and i7 920xm.
I installed everything from this guide, i followed the same procedure as it describes here .I boot the first time to macOS partition with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] cd and -x GraphicsEnabler=no, I set up all with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] and before I have already update to 10.6.7 (tried also 10.6.6 and 10.6.8) ,but when I restart it freezes at boot. I try to boot with -x GraphicsEnabler=no but still no luck. I see it stuck at [PCI Configuration Begin]!!!
So, can anyone help me please, I have reinstalled the leopard more than 10 times and tried to not select all options from [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] , but still hangs at boot. any suggestions?
As I see the only major difference in my machine is the dual crossfire cards 5870 but I dont beleive this is a problem because I saw on another forum a guy with the same cards installed successfuly leopard.

[sev7en]

Hi!
I was trying to install the latest Lion OS by using this great guide as reference but after I switch the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] disk I get this error message:"Memory Allocation Error" File=ati.c.
I'm using your kernel strings but no way to sort it out.


Cheers,

[NomadUK]

hello ,
I have an alienware m17x r2 with dual 5870 cards ,4gb ram and i7 920xm.
I installed everything from this guide, i followed the same procedure as it describes here .I boot the first time to macOS partition with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] cd and -x GraphicsEnabler=no, I set up all with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] and before I have already update to 10.6.7 (tried also 10.6.6 and 10.6.8) ,but when I restart it freezes at boot. I try to boot with -x GraphicsEnabler=no but still no luck. I see it stuck at [PCI Configuration Begin]!!!
So, can anyone help me please, I have reinstalled the leopard more than 10 times and tried to not select all options from [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] , but still hangs at boot. any suggestions?
As I see the only major difference in my machine is the dual crossfire cards 5870 but I dont beleive this is a problem because I saw on another forum a guy with the same cards installed successfuly leopard.

there are a number of things that could be causing this.. have you set your bios to ahci? not raid. took a while for me to get it to work also..

the way I did it was to install from the original disk. update to 10.6.7 using combo update dont reboot and use kexts from above and repair permissions.. if it still doesnt load do -x busratio=17 cpus=1

I was having alot of issues from my second install.. the first time I used a external usb drive and it worked great.. when I went to a non raid drive I had all the issues with trying to keep the windows 7 on dual boot.. if your looking for this route I would recommend acronis to backup the installation of windows 7 delete raid then recover the recovery backup to a single drive then install the mac on the other drive.

you must have the bios set to AHCI tho or it wont work for either installation. when using acronis set the recovery option to recover to a "Different" computer.. this will allow windows 7 to install the different drivers for the raid configuration.. (7 weeks of playing to find that one)

let me know how you get on.

"edited to add this" I still havent managed to get combo update 10.6.8 working. havent tried for a while either..

[bassistas]

there are a number of things that could be causing this.. have you set your bios to ahci? not raid. took a while for me to get it to work also..

the way I did it was to install from the original disk. update to 10.6.7 using combo update dont reboot and use kexts from above and repair permissions.. if it still doesnt load do -x busratio=17 cpus=1

I was having alot of issues from my second install.. the first time I used a external usb drive and it worked great.. when I went to a non raid drive I had all the issues with trying to keep the windows 7 on dual boot.. if your looking for this route I would recommend acronis to backup the installation of windows 7 delete raid then recover the recovery backup to a single drive then install the mac on the other drive.

you must have the bios set to AHCI tho or it wont work for either installation. when using acronis set the recovery option to recover to a "Different" computer.. this will allow windows 7 to install the different drivers for the raid configuration.. (7 weeks of playing to find that one)

let me know how you get on.

"edited to add this" I still havent managed to get combo update 10.6.8 working. havent tried for a while either..

hello again,
thanks for the information but the AHCI was the first thing I enabled before I start ! For some strange reason if I update from 10.6.3 to 10.6.6 , 10.6.7 or 10.6.8 just dies, cannot boot anymore. I only managed to boot with clean installation of 10.6.3 iso (tried 10.6.0 also) and of course with GraphicsEnabler=no mode, all other except the Graphics cards are seem to working. I also noticed that when this tutorial written by the author he used an older [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] version. Does this mean that the newer may cause problems to me? I also tried the commands you wrote, but still cannot boot.
I have re-flashed my ati 5870 cards with an overclocked bios. Do you think that this may cause the problem?

George

[mmvie]

Hello disneysw,

Nice work!

I've got the AlienwareM14x but having a hard time trying to make the sound work. I was wondering what sound you've got? I've got ALC665. VoodooHDA has caused nothing but kernel panics here but by patching it, it might do otherwise.

Also, how did you manage to get your USB 2.0 working ? My USB 3.0 works out of the box in Lion 10.7...

Thanks in advance !