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[MiniGuide] Installing El Capitan on an old 2007 Acer Aspire 5315/5715z "Unsupported" Laptop


skyfly555
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ACER 5315: INTRO

As you may know, in 2011 I created 2 mini-guides about installing Snow Leopard on Acer Aspire 5315/5715z and an Acer 4310. The link to the 5315 miniguide is: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/265919-miniguide-iatkos-s3-v2-installation-on-the-acer-aspire-5315-5715z-mac-osx-1063/

 

Until now, I've been with Snow Leo very happy but this month I've updated the 5315 machine to El Capitan (yes, Acer 4310 is history).

 

So, the config: C2D T7300 (upgraded), 3 GB RAM (the maximum possible), GMA X3100, SSD Hyper X Fury 120 GB (Blackdisk Test Magic says: write 110-30 MB/s, write 210-240 Mb/s), Broadcom  BCM4311 (Wi-Fi).

 

What is interesting is that this computer is very similar to the Macbook 4,1, so, it's not supported by Mac OS X El Capitan, neither by Hackintosh.

 

INSTALLATION

The installation process is easy, you can see this other post to know how to do it: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/309544-guide-acer-aspire-7720g-el-capitan-legacy-clover/ I used a Tony tool, but it's not mandatory.

Important: bootloader has to be clover, and you have to install it as legacy because this computer has a BIOS and it's not UEFI (I've used Clover Legacy v3320).

 

If you install it with Clover "as it is", with default settings, you will have your system working, but without the kexts and optimizations: this is what I'm attaching here.

You can update El Capitan up to 10.11.5 (the actual version) without any problems, of course.

 

POST-INSTALLATION

Afer you've installed El Capitan and the Clover Legacy Bootloader as stated in the Acer 7720g post, this is what you have to do as post-installation

- Some kexts have to go to: /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/10.11 (you have them here)

- Other kexts I've installed on System/Library/Extensions but nearly all of them can be installed on /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/10.11, except AppleHDA.kext that needs to be under S/L/E. (SLE.zip)

- Another important thing is having a good config.plist (config.plist.zip). It goes to: /EFI/CLOVER

- Finally, a DSDT.aml, created by myself, using Windows To Go and XP_DSDT, and not patched because you don't need to have it patched (dsdt.aml.zip). It has to go to: /EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched

You can do all this using Finder (and your password when you are asked for).

 

IMPORTANT NOTES

1-I had issues with Kext Utility v2.6.5... the kexts were not being installed, and I got error messages! I installed them using Kext Wizard instead of using Kext Utility. Be sure the kexts are correctly installed (permissions, caches...): Kext Wizard let you know which kexts are really loaded, if somehing goes wrong, use this.

 

2- Remember that this computer (as Macbook 4,1) is not supported because of the GMA X3100, it doesn't support OpenGL v2.2 and Apple dropped support on Lion. This wants to say you will not have QE/CI, neither will be able to sleep/wake up because you need QE/CI to wake your computer up after sleeping (I recommend using NoSleep). For this reason, it can be interesting to use other things like OS X Animation Disabler, to have more fluid graphics.

 

3- Everything is working, including the webcam (you can FaceTime with it!). The only issue is one of the three USBs (left down USB), I think this happens because in config.plist I have defined the computer as a Macbook 5,1, whih has only 2 USBs. This can be solved, but it's not a problem for me.

 

4- Remember: if you update El Capitan to 10.11.6 (or whatever in the future) you will probably need to reinstall the kexts you have installed into S/L/E.

 

5- You can see videos better using Mpeg Streamclip (http://www.squared5.com/svideo/MPEG_Streamclip_1.9.3b8.dmg) because VLC will not work (more details: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-yosemite-on-unsupported-macs-guide.1761432/).

 

ACER 5715Z

I have this computer, too. It's very similar to 5315, but without a webcam. What I've done is cloning the SSD from the Acer5315 to an image using Clonezilla. After that, I have restored the Clonezilla image to the 5715z (I have the same SSD inside of it). The only difference is that you need to delete DSDT.aml, because DSDT.aml is not the same!

 

If you want to install El Capitan directly to an Acer 5715z, you just have to do the same as you need to do with 5315, just don't use DSDT.aml

 

I hope this can help somebody,

 

PS1 I tried to install Yosemite before doing it with El Capitan on the 5715z. How did I do that? I Carbon Copy Cloned my hard disk from an old Macbook 2,1 (not supported by Yosemite, but Yosemite installed thanks to MacPostFactor from OS X Hackers), I installed Chimera 4.0.1 (using one infamous tool from Tony*, easyDSDT...-Chimera is based upon Chameleon 2.2 svn bootloader)-all done from my real Macbook, connecting the SSD drive as an external drive), and the acer 5315 booted with the only addition of the IGPEnabler=No flag. After that, I installed the same kexts I'm using here for El Capitan and one or two more, included with the Tony tool (as the SATA 3rd party drivers, Macbook Pro 6,1 definition...). Although we don't have QE/CI, it's incredible how this computer runs! So, if you have this old computer, you don't need to throw it away or to install Windows 10... but with Windows 10 you will have hardware graphical acceleration!

PS2 I know Tony tools are not supported here, but I admit having used it, because they are a fast way to do some things.

PS3 These are curious machines. From 2007, they were made by FoxConn, the same who were making Macbook 2,1 that year. Macbook 2,1 had a GMA 950 64 MB RAM, and these Acers had a better graphical card, but they were sold with Celeron and Dual Core processors. Upgradeable to Core2Duo, they are better 2007 Hackintoshes than the real Apple Macbook of the same year, and they costed les than a half of the price of the real Macbook.

PS4 I attach Sata 3rd Party Kext.

config.plist.zip

DSDT.aml.zip

SLE.zip

AHCI_3rdParty_SATA.kext.zip

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