[UPDATED] Dell Optiplex 760 SFF Setup for ML, Lion & SL

[LatinMcG]

what dvd drive model ?

i use optiarc as they allow sleep properly

[gygabyte666]

It's a HL-DT-ST GT10N. I'm pretty sure LG is the manufacturer. Could be Panasonic though too. I think you've got the best diagnosis for it too. I was beginning to think the same thing, that it disconnects when it tries to put itself to sleep, and save power by functioning in a similar manner as the HDD when it's not in use for a certain period of time.

 

I guess I either need to find a way to disable the sleep function for the drive or try to find a way to change how it behaves prior to the device sleeping. It makes the most sense and it fits the time frame for when I've come to expect the device to disconnect. Is there a way to go about this without breaking sleep ability on other hardware, such as the HDD? Is it even possible at all to do something like this?

[gygabyte666]

Finally figured out a solution! It will likely be temporary but it seems to be working, for the moment at least. I simply unchecked the allow HDD to sleep when possible checkbox in the Power Saving pref pane and rebooted. Been using the system for about 30 mins now and no disconnect. Before it only took roughly between 10-20 mins before power savings kicked in and disconnected the drive.

 

It sucks since I would like my HDD to continue to sleep but as long as the dvd drive isn't disconnecting itself, i'll live with it. Maybe this info will help someone else out in the future. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure this fix is actually working but for now, it seems to be doing the trick.

 

UPDATE: I ran the system all day with the settings from above and the disconnect problem never happened once. Power saving was the problem all along. Calling this one solved.

[AnonMac]

Thanks for the information...

Also, sleep somehow fixed itself for me...or maybe it was 10.7.4, not sure. If you have dev access, you might want to try it. I think it also helped with the audio detection.

 

[LatinMcG]

yes i forgot to mention uncheck that..

its treating dvd as hdd. switch to optiarc sata 7xxx models work fine and cheap .. $22 or so.

[gygabyte666]

@Anon, thanks for the info but I'll likely just wait till apple releases it publicly.

 

@Latin, sadly I can't afford to replace the drive ATM but I'll keep that in mind for the future. Thanks.

[luke255]

Just like to say a big thanks for this, your files have proved most helpful. I haven't had a hacintosh for a long time (about 6 years) so was out of the loop a bit, not counting a Dell Mini 9 (which was criminally easy thanks to netbookmaker).

 

But thanks to this thread I now have turned an old Optiplex 760 into a decent Mac.

 

I know it's ambitious but I ideally would like to use this machine to run XBMC with HDMI audio, so if anyone is still in this thread that can offer any advice that would be great. My mobo has DisplayPort but I am almost certain the intel graphics on this machine have no real OSX support. There are PCI express ports so a low profile card shouldn't be a problem.

 

So if there is an OSX friendly low profile graphics card with HDMI available in the UK I'm half way there, and if anyone has any HDMI audio advice that would be great. If it's easier to obtain a PCI/USB sound card with SPDIF out that is CoreAudio/XBMC friendly then I'm all for that too.

 

Also if anyone needs any advice/details on how to get to my stage let me know, I did use tools from tonymac but it seems they're not too popular on here, but I like an easy life and it was very easy.

[gygabyte666]

Hello luke I'm glad you found the thread helpful. Glad to hear you got yours up and running without much hassle.

 

About your concerns, yeah the onboard GFX are terrible and won't give QE/CI support under OS X since it isn't supported. However, using a PCI-E low profile (or full) supported GFX card can fix that. I'm using a GeForce 9500 GT, which has HDMI and works great, although there is no audio support option that I could find to use. Although, the onboard audio works fine using the VoodooHDA kext. I bet you could just as easily pick up a supported PCI audio card that would work too, although I'm not aware of which to recommend. The only downside to the 9500 GT (aside from being low profile) is it's scarcity. I believe I have a Display Port too but haven't tested it and considering it will likely rely on the onboard GFX I doubt it'll work but if you test it and I'm wrong please let me know so I can add it to the thread.

 

Anyway I hope this helps to solve your problem and concerns. Good luck.

[luke255]

Thanks for the info. Could I pick your brain some more? :-D

 

I'm having some display freezing issues, they're not major, as clicking the mouse will cure it 100% of the time but it would be nice to let my display sleep automatically rather than using the power button.

 

There are 3 things I have found that trigger this. If the hard drives or display are put to sleep the image on screen will freeze. I changed the engery saver preferences to avoid this. Also, if the computer is put to sleep the screen will go black (not off) and the machine will remain fully powered on. Again just clicking the mouse returns normal function so not a major issue.

 

EDIT: The tools I used are censored! How bizarre! Why do IM care how I got my Hac working...? Well I used some beasty tools from someone called tony. </EDIT>

 

For my install I used U.N.I. with 10.7.4 and then used M.U.L.T.I to just install your DSDT and I assume this installed a boot loader. I used kext helper to install the kexts you posted (thanks again by the way!).

 

I don't know how much effort would be required to fix these little issues. Also a even smaller issue I might as well throw out there is that none of the system monitoring software I use can detect a temperature sensor or fan speed sensor. For all I know there aren't any sensors in this machine, but if that's an easy fix I'd be interested.

 

I will continue to research these issues but I suspect the solution will be specific to our combination of machine and DSDT file, which leaves this thread my sole source of info! I'm happy to do a bit of leg work and my install is safely backed up so I may experiment but apart from poking around in my file system I'm not sure where to start. Any useful info I do manage to get will be shared here for any future Googlers to stumble upon.

[gygabyte666]

That sounds like artifacts. I am not surprised you're seeing those especially if you are still using the onboard GFX. As I said before, it is NOT supported by OS X and without QE/CI many of the effects and transitions that OS X relies on won't function. The only way to remedy that is to just upgrade to a supported PCI-E card and cease use of the onboard while running OS X.

 

Let me say this since it is VERY important. If you are using my provided DSDT, you may want to reconsider that. I heavily tweaked it specifically for my system and setup and it may cause you problems if you continue to rely on it. That goes double if you aren't using the EXACT same processor as me which is the E5200. Since I added in SpeedStep + C/P States functionality into it and using that on incorrect or unsupported processors is DANGEROUS. My 760 is the small form factor and if yours is another model then you should consider dumping your own DSDT and modifying it for your system instead of using mine, since different model types usually have different ports or hardware. Feel free to use mine as a reference if you want but be sure you don't add in the SpeedStep + C/P States fix unless you have the E5200! Most everything else should be safe to use.

 

Now then, the black screen issue is something I have had trouble with since day one. It has given me such trouble for so long that I effectively gave up on trying to fix it, especially since i've lived without it just fine. I found if I ever put my system to sleep that everything would be fine (the system would go into low power mode and "turn off" without an issue, after extensive DSDT edits, of course). The REAL problem arose when it would wake up. Upon waking up, I discovered that my BIOS settings would reset from corruption. This was bad, real BAD since upon waking I would instantly lose internet and several other functions from the settings defaulting. After about 2-3 months of trying anything and everything I could to try to fix it, I gave up and learned to live without sleep support. I just make sure to uncheck the "allow hard drives to sleep" option in the energy saver prefs pane and set it up to NEVER allow the computer to sleep. I also use the free and wonderful Caffeine app to ensure it won't sleep. The display should be able to sleep just fine but it has to have a supported GFX card before it will work properly. If you're feeling up to it, feel free to try and tackle this one someday. I just came to the conclusion that fixing it wasn't worth the trouble or time I would have likely needed to invest into it.

 

For your temp monitoring, you might be SOL. I use a monitor on my 9500 GT here and there and I check my CPU temp occasionally but I'm pretty sure that's related to my SpeedStep + C/P States DSDT fix and VoodooMonitor. If your CPU is supported you should Google for the VoodooMonitor app and kext and install them. If you can't find them or whatever let me know and i'll post the ones up I have. I could have sworn that I added them into my zip from the thread though, maybe not. The GFX/GPU has a sensor and support built in but my CPU probably wouldn't show me anything if I didn't add in the SpeedStep fix and the VoodooMonitor.

 

HAHA! Yeah, tony's tools aren't all that popular around here as you've likely noticed. They are automation tools that have no learning benefit to new users so I personally don't like them for that reason but IM likely has another reason for hating on them, for which I am not aware of, I figure it's probably the fact that he has a dedicated forum for his stuff and people come on here whining about their issues with it, probably just pisses the mods and all off. Either way, I would refrain from dropping his name or the name of his tools around here.

 

I'd like to help you some more but ATM i'm on my MacBook and can't access my 760 right now. Let me know if you'd like more info and i'll do what I can to help.

[luke255]

Thanks for the info, I was planning on getting a support graphics card down the line, so I'm glad this will let the screen sleep (this was my main concern).

 

So far I've had no noticeable issues with your DSDT. I had a kernel panic when I shut down once, but that could have been anything. I'm not sure how to get the exact model of my processor but this is the info System Profiler gives:

 

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

 

I found some info about an auto patcher but it doesn't have patches for the 760. I also have to install Java which I would rather not do unless it will definitely help! I will try booting without your DSDT and see what effect that has.

 

I can live without sleep, I have done for a year in my Mini 9. The role of this machine will be a server of sorts, so it should be awake 24/7 anyway.

 

Your upload did include VoodooMonitor so I may indeed be SOL! Like I said though this isn't a major issue, I expect the machine will shut off if it gets close to overheating.

[gygabyte666]

It would probably be easiest if you just went into your BIOS to get your processor info. Don't trust what System Profiler says...It's usually wrong.

 

Yeah if you can get by without using my DSDT then I say go for it. Who knows, your system might actually run better without using the tweaks that mine needed.

 

The Mini 9 doesn't sleep? Really? That's actually really surprising since my 10v can and AFAIK the 10v & 9 both had very similar system specs. Weird. I blame it on that {censored}, outdated NBI {censored}. I stopped using it years ago and did all my installs manually.

 

Good! Glad to hear that the upload had VoodooMonitor in it. Did it come with both the kext and the app? The kext has to be installed into S/L/E and then the app has to be ran in order to check your CPU stats.

[luke255]

OK so after much messing about and pulling out my hair I have some good results. Things seem to work best when using gygabyte's DSDT, are there any potential dangers I should worry about? In the BIOS my CPU is reported as "Intel® Core2 Duo CPU E7500 @ 2.93GHz". Is there a better option?

 

I purchased an EVGA Nvidia 8400 GS graphics card after some research, added the device ID to a kext and that was good to go. (In reality I spent all day messing with boot flags to get it working). Once or twice I have kernel panics just before the login window loads, but I can't decipher the error and can't reproduce it, it seems completely random! Hopefully that wont persist.

 

In other news sleep works perfectly. I wasn't even trying to fix it, I just accidentally clicked sleep in the menu.

 

I'm a little disappointed in graphics performance, but I am asking a lot. Connected to a 1080p screen and using XBMC, high bitrate 1080p h.264 can struggle, I'm going to look into enabling OpenCl as I've seen posts mentioning it but it could already be enabled for all I know! Performance is obviously worse when attaching a second monitor, but this increases the machines usefulness greatly. If I can't improve performance I may see if the Broadcom crystal HD chip might help. I know there were Mac OS drivers but they might no longer be in development. I also don't know what the second connector on the motherboard is (below PCIe) and if an adapter is available to connect the two!

 

Another concern is digital audio. To use XBMC to its full potential I need a digital audio connection to my receiver. Apparently HDMI audio is out which I assumed anyway but is a shame none the less. I had assumed it would be a simple matter of obtaining a USB sound card with SPDIF out, I'd budgeted about £15 for this. It would appear that these sound cards are something that only exist in my imagination, I cannot find a Mac compatible one anywhere. The closest I got was one from Turtle Beach (of gaming headset fame) which advertised Mac compatibility but specifically states 5.1 is only for Windows. I assume this refers to the lack of native support in Mac OS and Apple apps for 5.1 but perhaps XBMC will be able to bypass this restriction as it does in Intel Macs (over mini toslink connectors). I may resort to buying this device and hoping for the best as I cannot find a single example online of anyone else using XBMC to stream 5.1 over spdif with a hackintosh, I can't be the only one?

 

Well that was a little longer than I was expecting, but there it is. As a server it's running perfectly, thanks to this thread. As a HTPC, it needs some work.

[gygabyte666]

The only concern is for the CPU. As I said, i'm using an E5200 and the DSDT was tailored to that CPU for SpeedStep. I am unsure of the E7500's SpeedStep ability under OS X. Even if a fix exists for it, it would require the fix to be added in place of mine in the DSDT to function. As it stands, using my fix in the DSDT with your CPU is likely dangerous. If I were you, I would be cautious of that and just remove my fix for it now before anything bad is given time to happen later.

 

In my experience, KPs before the login window are tied directly to the GFX card either sending bad "directions" to the kexts associated with it (Nvidia card = NVDA kexts, etc.) or the reverse, the kexts are sending something bad to the card that it "can't" perform. Could be CPU related too though. Again, these are based on my own tests in the past and could vary from yours. I would check the DSDT and/or all your modifications for errors, incomplete data, etc. If you're unsure, it's usually best to not use it or modify it.

 

It's good that sleep works but beware. As mentioned, technically mine works too. I would just watch out for BIOS corruptions.

 

First, is this card a full or low profile card? Low profile cards always perform worse than full. How much RAM are you running with? Lion is a RAM eater and tends to be sluggish with anything less than 2-3GB. The method of getting the card working is important too. The less help a card needs to properly function in OS X, the better the chance of it running smoother. In my humble opinion and through past experience...EVGA sucks. Sure, they work but i've always had issues with them. Mostly, it was just poor construction and my card(s) usually suffered from overheating problems, which through use of better cooling methods than the factory provided rarely helped. In one or two instances under-clocking helped a little but I really wouldn't recommend that while using OS X. I would just be careful about pushing it too far. Not much else you can do AFAIK, aside from testing another card. It's worth mentioning that OpenCL should be enabled by default under Lion for supported GFX cards. That's a should though since i'm not entirely positive. The unknown port may be an eSATA port. My 760 has one and it's likely yours does too.

 

Again, I have no helpful info on the SPDIF audio issue since I don't use it and have never needed or desired to. I'm not even entirely sure it's supported under OS X although I imagine it probably is assuming proper driver support was added or allowed by Apple. I agree that maybe you're aiming a bit high but hopefully you'll figure all the issues you're having out and can achieve the HTPC you desire. It'll likely require a bit more work though to be successful. Either way, I wish you luck.

[LatinMcG]

GeneratePStates ,GenerateCStates should work if we rip out cpu mod from dsdt.

 

video i think its better to get nvidia gt 210 or gts220

[luke255]

OK just a quick one. I currently can't boot with correct graphics support unless I use your DSDT. To be clear, I have not modified it further and wouldn't know how. If the main problem is the different CPU it seems easier for me to just buy the CPU this DSDT was written for. I assume the sockets are the same, my machine is small form factor too, so the mother boards should be identical.

 

I'm really struggling at the moment. I don't enjoy having problems to fix, every time I see a kernel panic I die a little inside. It's so bad I'm contemplating putting Windows on it, the drivers would all be there (maybe) but all my AppleScripts would be useless.

 

I downloaded a DSDT auto patcher but it only supported a very limited number of machines. An Optilex 780 was an option but it gave me an error when I tried it. If I had the money I would buy a mac but I don't. I was given this machine and have spent about 3 weeks wages buying a graphics card (which doesn't even work as I expected), ir receiver and upgrading the CPU fan and thermal paste.

 

Thinking about it the CPU fan (original and new) has never increased it's speed that I've noticed so the CPU will probably over heat during heavy load. I hate technology, I think I was born a few hundred years too early.

 

Is there any point trying to replace the DSDT or shall I just run it until the CPU dies? (Or option C, throw myself off a bridge and stop wasting the time of someone who is actually smart enough to make this work)

[gygabyte666]

The only reason why your GFX won't function properly without using my DSDT is likely because it requires the UID=0 fix from the DSDT to work. As mentioned I wouldn't continue using my CPU fix (or the more accurate P/CStates fix as Latin refers to it, i'm just lazy ;p) with your system. It's fairly easy to edit out. If you're having trouble editing it and if you're willing to wait a little bit while I get a little free time, I don't see why I couldn't just strip it out for you and re-upload it. Doing a bit of further research on DSDT editing wouldn't hurt for future reference though. There are a ton of articles and such for it here on IM and even more across the web, so finding info shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Kernel Panics happen for a wide variety of reasons. It would be helpful to know what kinds of KPs you are experiencing. No one can really help you without knowing more about them. Taking a picture with a camera and uploading it is usually the best option to get some help. I hate assuming things but if I had to guess, I almost bet you that you got a bunch of extra kexts and fixes your system doesn't need from using those tools by tony. That is precisely why I recommend new users to NEVER use automated tools. Purely an educated guess though, pictures might prove me wrong.

 

Honestly, osx86 isn't for everybody. Lots of people become discouraged and give up when they are new at osx86, i'd like to think it's because they are involved in it for the wrong reasons. I'm fairly confident in saying that odds are that the majority of the successful users on the forum, are into this not for a super cheap "Apple" machine but for the love of knowing and understanding what makes them tick. It's a fascination for what makes them work that drives us, at least it is the very core of why I enjoy it. For some, it comes fairly easy, others have to work harder for it to work out the way they want and some never get it. Just like some are better with OS X, some Windows and some Linux. You have to find what works best for you. If it ever becomes to much, what do you really lose by giving it up and using Windows/Linux instead? Most OSs perform almost the same functions now anyways. I can say this though, if you are really passionate about it and you really put forth the effort and time into it, you'll do nothing but get better at it, you might not ever get the results you really want but you'll at least have the satisfaction of knowing you did your best and the challenge will always be there. If that's not your cup of tea, then maybe Windows is the best idea. I know it's probably not what you want to hear but it's the truth of how i've always seen it.

 

DSDT Autopatcher isn't the best option for every machine. If you really want to get a clean, fresh DSDT from your system I recommend Linux, it's the way i've been doing it for years and i've never had it fail on me. I'm not sure what your familiarity of Linux is but If you don't have a copy of Linux around or don't know how to use it, I recommend you download a free copy of a live disc of Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 (The newer versions will more than likely work the same but I really dislike the new UI, Unity). You can either burn the ISO to a blank CD-R or you can write it to a USB flash drive and boot off that. Ubuntu's documentation and forum are wonderful so if you get stuck on something, check them out. Pick the live disc option (so you don't make changes to your computer) and once it has booted up, open Terminal and type in this, it will extract your system's DSDT and place it in your home folder. Just make sure you copy the DSDT over to a USB flash drive or some other media before rebooting because all changes are erased upon restarts.

 

sudo cat /proc/acpi/dsdt > dsdt.aml

 

Hope it helps! Good luck.

[LatinMcG]

when osx gives u multiple headaches.. theres always linuxmint

one more thing i did to the dsdt was remove the onboard grapihics so it would let the pci-e take over after wake.

[gygabyte666]

luke255, here is the DSDT that I said I would do for you, with the E5200 C/PState, SpeedStep fix removed and replaced with the stock from an unmodified, clean DSDT from the system. The CPU fix is the only thing that was changed. This one should be safe for you to keep using with your system without fear of damaging your CPU. You can get it here NoE5200SpeedStep.zip. I uploaded it to my Dropbox because for some reason, the forum's upload function isn't working right now for me. Anyway, once you download the zip archive, uncompress it (which OS X will likely do automatically) and then rename it to dsdt.aml, place it in your /Extra folder and reboot to start using it.

 

Now maybe you can do me a favor. You claim that sleep is fully working without side effects on your system, correct? I'd be interested in your setup to see if I can resolve my sleep problem too. What are your BIOS settings set to? On that same note, what is your BIOS revision at?

[luke255]

Thanks for the DSDT I am using it now.

 

I get kernel panics at various stages during boot, but I just reset until it works, which it eventually does. I don't understand how a problem can be there for one boot and not later on, when I haven't changed anything. I think i'll put the -v flag in so if there are any errors I can photograph them and see if the erros share a common cause, that also allows me to share them as you say.

 

Your assumption is correct, I have many kexts installed with Tonys multi tool, when I feel up to it I will try a fresh install on another drive but I initially tired to use

this method (without using Uni*****) but I couldn't get the installer to boot after following the (vague) instructions to the letter.

 

It's probably fair to say I am into OSX86 for the wrong reasons. If I could afford Apple hardware I wouldn't even consider doing this unless I had a lot of spare time. I have been an OSX user for half my life and wouldn't consider another OS unless I absolutely had to.

 

Apart from the kernel panics I am happy with how my machine runs, graphics have improved (though I'm not sure exactly why) and 1080p is almost perfect, which is an improvement over my previous set up. Sleep doesn't work they way it did. The machine will sleep as before but can't be woken up with my mouse or keyboard. My bios settings are default, with the exception of Power on after AC loss. My BIOS is A05. I believe the steps I had taken to make it work were as follows: Install Mac OS with Uni*****, boot with Uni and install DSDT with Multi****, add my graphics card device ID to

NVDANV50Hal.kext. I may have also upgraded to the latest version of FakeSMC. I know this is not very helpful, when I do my secondary install I will attempt to replicate the behaviour so I can help you. As far as I am aware sleep worked fine with no side effects. If I can give you any more info please let me know.

[gygabyte666]

Your idea of redoing the OS sounds like a good one to me. Tony's tools include TONS of extra modifications that most new users install for "just in case" scenarios, before they do any research and discover those extra things they installed are very likely causing more problems for them and have wasted more of their time than if they just did a clean install and manually used trial and error to discover what they need and don't need to use. The guide you were using looked pretty solid. You probably just need a few more details to get it working. Ask if you would like, I don't mind helping if I can and have time.

Again, I don't know of your experience with Linux but I think everyone should give it a try. I've switched many friends, family and general strangers over to Linux from being lifelong Windows users and most of them wish they had tried it sooner. If you ever do try, again I suggest Ubuntu 10.04 or earlier and as Latin suggests I would also highly recommend Mint. They are both wonderful OSs and worth the time to try.

Too bad sleep isn't consistent for you. Yet again why I will likely never fix it. Too much hassle for not enough pay off and not being able to accurately discover why it works sometimes and why it doesn't others is not helping solve the issue any. Don't worry about it. I was just curious about your setup. Thanks for the info anyway.

[gygabyte666]

Been trying to update my 760 from 10.7.4 to 10.8 since ML has finally released in the App Store but i've run into a wall. Upon trying to run the ML installer from a USB HDD the system reboots after loading all the kexts. At first, I though my E5200 wasn't supported to run ML and figured the new mach_kernel was causing the reboot but then I tested it again on an i7-equipped laptop and it rebooted on that too after loading the kexts.

 

Anyone else experience this or have a solution to fix it?

 

I'm an idiot. Out of habit, I formatted my USB HDD as MBR for the ML install which it clearly refuses to use. After reformatting it to GUID and testing again everything worked as it should and within a few minutes, the installer screen popped up. Honest mistake, lesson learned ;-p

 

I am currently backing up important data before I go through with the upgrade. After everything is safe I will continue with the ML install and will update this page with progress and assuming all goes well, I will again provide a zip archive with my required files for ease of use to other users. See ya soon...

 

UPDATE: First post is updated again with all the required stuff for running Mountain Lion! Since it is such a "minor" update, most of the files are the same ones used for Lion. The exception is FakeSMC, which was updated.