Vostro 1720

[ukhan]

I dont have a USB drive big enough for it right now. But do you think a straight upgrade will work? Or is there anything I should be paying attention to?

[Khan_Man]

You using Chameleon 2 r640 as a boot loader? Is it SL compatible? I've used r640 in a few spots but haven't paid attention to its SL compatibility. I've read the other boot loader (non graphic, EFI?, v10) is SL compatible.

 

Khan

[ukhan]

Ok I finally took the plunge and installed Snow Leopard. There are some issues, but its a good step in the right direction. This is what I did:

 

I used the following guides as a basis:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=180954

and

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182227

 

Note: This had to be a fresh install...upgrading did not work. However, you need to start off in an existing OSX installation in order to prepare the USB Install Image. You need a 8GB USB stick to do this.

 

Note 2: This is only working right now for 32-bit as I havent tried 64 bit.

 

Note 3: You need to use a USB keyboard and mouse!

 

1. In a working OSX install, create a bootable USB drive containing Mac OS X 10.6

This can be done with either a USB hard drive or a Memory stick with a minimum storage of 8GB.

Insert your USB drive and load up Disk Utility and partition the USB drive (name it Install) and make sure it has a GUID partition table.

 

2. Select the USB partition and click the info button, copy the UUID hex code and keep it somewhere.

 

3.Install Chameleon 2.0 RC2 r640 to the USB stick

 

4. Now copy Netkas’ PC EFI v10.1 boot file on to the USB To do this you are going to need to load up the Terminal then copy the file using the command below.

 

mv -f boot /Volumes/Install/

 

(Note the boot file is in the zip attached)

 

5. Next, go back to Disk Utility and select Install from the left pane and then click Restore (4th Tab). For the source image locate your Mac OS X disc image file on your hard drive and Install as the Destination, then making sure ‘Erase Destination’ is unchecked, click Restore. This will restore the 10.6 installer on to your USB drive.

 

6. Next add all the following kexts from my zip file in to the /Extra/Extensions folder on the USB.

 

7. Copy the com.apple.Boot.plist file from the zip file to the Extra folder on the USB. Note this includes the EFI string for the graphics card. Snow Leopard actually already supports the GeForce 9600 GS video card out of the box, but not full QE/CI. This string is need for QE/CI. Also note the old SleepEnabler with Cameleon 2.0RC2 doesn't work right now with Snow Leopard. NOTE: You might want to change the resolution set in the file to correspond to your screen.

 

8. Copy the SMBIOS.plist file to the Extra folder on the USB stick. This SMBIOS.plist was taken from one of the guides above. In order to use it, you need to edit the SMBIOS.plist and paste the UUID hex code you copied earlier, under SMUUID. The other fields can be changed, but I didn't bother.

 

9. Now you can boot this USB directly to install. Chameleon will load when you boot from the USB. Simply select the Install selection.

 

10. In order to make things easier, I reworked my mac partitions and formatted my old Mac partition. I created a small EFI partition for Chameleon as the first partition and then Mac OSX as the second (and Windows 7 and others as 4th, etc. This is optional). This EFI partition should be HFS+ and can be as little as 1GB.

 

11. When you install Snow Leopard, towards the end, the installer will complain that it cannot restart. Simple close it and restart manually. Boot using the chameleon loader on the USB and select the Mac OSX selection.

 

12. Snow Leopard will now load. Create your user, etc. and now you will be in snow leopard.

 

13. Now you need to do similar steps to get your SL installation to boot without a USB. Simply install Chameleon 2.0 RC2 r640 to the EFI partition we created earlier. Make sure you customize and untick everything except the Themes, here I have only selected the standard Theme, but it’s up to you. Then choose then the EFI partition as the target location and install. Chameleon will complain that install failed, but ignore it, it still works.

 

14. Then again, copy the kexts to /Extra/Extensions on the EFI partition, copy over boot to the root of the EFI partition, and copy both SMBIOS.plist and com.apple.Boot.plist to the Extra folder on the EFI parititon.

 

15. In addition, in the "kexts to be used after install" are kexts for ps2 keyboard and mouse and VoodooHDA. These were taken from http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182227 However, the trackpad is still not working. The PS2 keyboard on the laptop is. The VoodooHDA is also not working. I only included it to see if anyone else could help fix it. Copy these kexts to the /Extra/Extensions folder on the EFI partition.

 

15. Finally, you need to update SMBIOS.plist with the UUID of your SL parition. Again this can be taken from DiskUtil

 

16. Finally, reboot without the USB stick and you should be able to boot into Snow Leopard. If you have any issues with any further kexts you try, you can always boot with USB to boot into your SL installation and fix any issues.

 

What doesn't work yet:

- Sound - I tried various kexts, none work.

- Trackpad - I tried many again, none work

- Ethernet - I tried many again, none work

- Voodoo Battery and Power don't seem to work

 

I hope this is a good start, maybe you guys can help me get these issues fixed. Also, please try to put kexts in the Extra/Extensions folder on the EFI partition as it helps to fix issues and keep the installation Vanilla.

vostro1720_SL.zip

[Khan_Man]

Thanks ukhan, for taking the plunge and writing such a great report. I'm starting school so I doubt if I'll have time and inclination to get into such a project but who knows, maybe I'll get bored.

 

Khan

[ukhan]

Hey guys, I started a new thread in the OSX 10.6 Installation folder so that hopefully we get more visibility to others. I doubt many people check the Hardware and Drivers folder. New location here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=183025

[Khan_Man]

Just updated Vostro 1720 to 10.5.8

 

Environment:

10.5.6 iPC

Chameleon RC3 w/nvidia inject

HD is MBR (computer is duel boot w/ XP)

 

 

Updated to 10.5.8, secupdate 005, Safari 4.0.3, Java 5, and Quicktime 7.6.4.

 

All went well with the exception I had to reinstall the wireless driver.

 

Khan

[dsl-man]

Work your Quartz extreme ?

can you change the display resolution ?

[Khan_Man]

Yes, there are three ways to get the 9600m GS accelerated.

 

-Using the injector in Chameleon

-a string in boot plist file

-nvinject

[cx650t]

I've got a touchsmart 846 with the nvidia 9600m gs. I can manually insert graphics mode 1920x1200x32@85

when starting Chameleon. However if I add that line to the com.apple.Boot.plist the PC just goes into endless rebooting.

 

What did I miss?

 

I can recover by placing a Deneb 10.5.7 dvd in my drive and letting it boot the computer and then removing the two lines

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>1920x1200x32@85</string>

 

The only distribution I found that would even install on this HP was the iAtkos V7 using cpus=1 at the initial boot prompt.

 

I would like to get this set up with quartz and any other special video modes which this card should support.

This is a multi-boot setup with Win7, Vista, XP Pro, and Kubuntu via Grub.

[Khan_Man]

Tell us a little more about your install and what version of Chameleon. If you truly have QE and CI running you shouldn't need any resolution boot flags.

 

Khan

[djvak]

FYI XxX OSX 10.5.6 also works with no issues out of the box.

 

 

Hey Ukhan, need a little help here with the XXX OSX Installation. Have tried all the Intel ICH9 drivers but still getting "waiting for root device" error.

 

Thanks in advance for your help

 

M.