Snow Leopard on Inspiron 530

[Cheezmen]

I tried that before, with an error, but of course I wasn't using these files. I'll have to try again tomorrow, though tomorrow I don't have nearly as much time to work on this. I'll have to see, If we can, I would be able to get back my 110GB HD as a Rescue or TM!

 

The problem with this is that the boot loader would have to be installed on the Install partition, because we'll be wiping out the Main, then once installed we'll install it to the main, then delete the install partition. Hope!

Yes, if you restore the dvd to a Partition on your HD it will work aswell

[stealth]

I've got SL working mostly on my 530, but my second SATA HDD isn't showing up. Anyone have any idea what the issue could be?

[weeze]

I have an inspiron 530 as well, and am looking for a way to get it up and running with a retail install. So far no luck, but I also have an ATI HD4670...

 

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E7400 (3MB L2, 2.80GHz, 1066 FSB)

Raptor 70 GB with Vista

500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM) - where I want to install Snow Leopard

4 GB DDR2 NON-ECC SDRAM 800MHz (4 DIMMs)

with a Belkin USB Wireless Network Adaptor

 

Anyone have any tips?

 

-Nathan

Have you tried my previous reply?

Yes, if you restore the dvd to a Partition on your HD it will work aswell

Thanks for information. I'm trying that now.

I've got SL working mostly on my 530, but my second SATA HDD isn't showing up. Anyone have any idea what the issue could be?

Some 530's have 4 SATA slots, 1 2 4 and 5. Others have just 1 and 2. Try plugging the HD into 2 instead of the cd driver, and plug the cd drive 4. That's reccomended by Dell. (They reccomend 1 and 2 for HD's, 4 and 5 for CD.

 

Maybe someone else has that working.

[splonk]

Bump.

 

Ok, sorry for posting the kext before, I misread your posts, I thought you didn't have it working.

 

Big News: after 10 hours of work, research, trial and error, I have figured out a way to install retail on the Inspiron. I combined a few guides, mainly using Adam Pash's (Lifehacker) guide with modified Extra files, and success. I will be writing a guide, however, unless you have a Mac nearby, you need a working 10.5 installation. For you guys, you seem to know what you are doing, so here's the lowdown:.....

 

Well, I have got this up and running on an external USB drive to test before trashing my working 10.5.8 install, but there are a few niggles in the way. My Airport (DLink PCI card supported by IO80211Family.kext) is not recognised, although my ethernet and bluetooth are. Rather more puzzling is that only one of the two SATA drives is detected - this has Vista on it. The other with Leopard on it is just not picked up at all.

[weeze]

Well, I have got this up and running on an external USB drive to test before trashing my working 10.5.8 install, but there are a few niggles in the way. My Airport (DLink PCI card supported by IO80211Family.kext) is not recognised, although my ethernet and bluetooth are. Rather more puzzling is that only one of the two SATA drives is detected - this has Vista on it. The other with Leopard on it is just not picked up at all.

 

Many people have had problems with two hard drives, the second not being recongnized. Since Vista has proprietary drivers from Intel (no doubt it does), it wouldn't matter whether it was 1st or 2nd, so try switching where their plugged in (e.g switch Vista to SATA 1 and Leopard SATA 0). Then see if it's recongnized (and Vista isn't). Report back to help others.

 

For the Dlink, the kext might have changed, I would see if it's possible (I'm hoping, as it isn't USB, rather PCI) to inject it to either com.apple.Boot.plist or DSDT. I'm having problems with my audio, and am going to see if I can inject it into DSDT on Thursday. (Monday through Wednesday busy).

 

Good luck.

[splonk]

Hmm. A quick glance at the wiki suggests that only 32 bit drivers are working for wireless on SL so far, which is why I have lost Airport, although the relevant 64 drivers have loaded according to kextstat. My graphics are also not accelerated although I have put the correct EFI string in. Looking at that first.

 

Come to think of it, are the PCI slots in the Dell 64 bit or 32 bit, in any case? I am running Vista 32 bit with a view to chucking in Windows 7 64 bit, but have yet to do this.

[Cheezmen]

Hmm. A quick glance at the wiki suggests that only 32 bit drivers are working for wireless on SL so far, which is why I have lost Airport, although the relevant 64 drivers have loaded according to kextstat. My graphics are also not accelerated although I have put the correct EFI string in. Looking at that first.

 

Come to think of it, are the PCI slots in the Dell 64 bit or 32 bit, in any case? I am running Vista 32 bit with a view to chucking in Windows 7 64 bit, but have yet to do this.

Nah, i remember that my pci ethernet card works in 64bit mode

[Sysagent]

Still no working solution for the ATI2600XT card yet then?

[splonk]

Some headway on the GFX problem. It seems as if the attached dsdt.aml file is pointing towards PciRoot(0x1) as the address for the GFX card, when it should be PciRoot(0x0), at least in my case, as I have disabled the onboard card in the bios. Chameleon is sending the instructions to the wrong place. Patching the dsdt.aml file fixed this.

 

The only problem is, even after having treble-checked the string settings, I am getting SysProfiler telling my my 8800GT is an 8400GS, so I have acceleration, but not as smooth as it should be.

 

If you have the same problems with your card, you can have a read of this

 

http://www.darwinx86.org/guides/installer-...er/chameleon/32

 

It's in French, so throw it in google.translate if you have trouble following it.

[athletics29]

can i just partiton the hd instead of using a thumb drive

[yelloguy]

can i just partiton the hd instead of using a thumb drive

 

If you can boot from the HD then yes. In fact this is exactly what I did. Make an 8GB partition and restore the dmg to it. Then install Chameleon to this partition and boot from it. If you have the correct kexts, the installer should start promptly.

[splonk]

OK, after futzing around on the intarwebs, it would appear that there is no 64 bit driver for the Atheros (or perhaps any Atheros) chipset in my Dlink wireless card. So, I had to replace the 64 bit drivers in the Extra folder with Universal drivers and boot in 32 bit mode. Airport is back.

 

I have the Q6600 cpu in my 530, but SysProfiler is reporting it as 2.46GHz. You see, Snow Leopard is faster than Leopard, by 0.06GHz!

 

Graphics is stumping me. I rolled my own dsdt.aml file but still no go. 8800GT is still being reported as 8400GS. Will try Chameleon's graphic injection method, but I don't hold out much hope there, either, if the EFI strings aren't working.

 

[edit] Decided to extract the EFI string manually from my own card and surprise, surprise, it is completely different from what EFI Studio or OSX86Tools was telling me. Reboot and I have 8800GT in Sys Profiler. One small blemish is that it is only reporting half the VRAM, but 256MB will do me for now.

[weeze]

Graphics is stumping me. I rolled my own dsdt.aml file but still no go. 8800GT is still being reported as 8400GS. Will try Chameleon's graphic injection method, but I don't hold out much hope there, either, if the EFI strings aren't working.

 

[edit] Decided to extract the EFI string manually from my own card and surprise, surprise, it is completely different from what EFI Studio or OSX86Tools was telling me. Reboot and I have 8800GT in Sys Profiler. One small blemish is that it is only reporting half the VRAM, but 256MB will do me for now.

 

Hey splonk, glad you could fix the wireless problem, and the graphics problem. I have one small question, though. I'm got my 8400GS in the mail today, and EFI Strings, NVinject don't work. To see if it was SL, I installed Leopard and nothing works, still. I'm hoping you could help me, could you provide a link or what not on extracting it from the card itself? I cannot seem to get the graphics working.

 

THe problem might not be the same though. I am able to get it to recongnize the card, and all compatible resolutions, but when i select the resolution, 1920x1080, it returns a light blue screen, like the default desktop background. Perhaps the screen is just too big? I have a another monitor, 1440x900, but it only works with DVI, I can't find my DVI cord, and obviously would like to use the bigger monitor. Any ideas?

[dmbfan33]

Hi guys, I'm a bit puzzled. I have a i530 that was running 10.5.8. I installed from a USB flash using a SL upgrade disk (retail).

 

It installs fine, but when I try to boot from the hard drive, I get "waiting for root device".

 

If I put in the flash drive and set that as the first boot device in BIOS, I can then select the hard drive from the chameleon menu and get up and running.

 

I've tried installing Chameleon 2 RC2 and RC3 to the hard drive and installation fails. I've also tried using BootThink 2.3 I think.

 

At any rate, it runs just fine as long as I start from the USB before the hard drive. If I start from the hard drive, waiting for root device or a kernel panic.

 

I'm running the latest BIOS in IDE mode. I've also tried manually assigning active partitions via terminal.

 

Thoughts?

[yelloguy]

If I put in the flash drive and set that as the first boot device in BIOS, I can then select the hard drive from the chameleon menu and get up and running.

 

I've tried installing Chameleon 2 RC2 and RC3 to the hard drive and installation fails. I've also tried using BootThink 2.3 I think.

 

If you can boot fine using the USB drive, then you need to fix your boot partition on the hard drive. If Chameleon installer fails, you can install it manually. Its really easy. The instructions are in the readme. There are only three commands.

Make sure you copy the Extra/Extensions folder from the USB drive's chameleon partition to load the correct kexts when booting from the hard disk.

[splonk]

Hi guys, I'm a bit puzzled. I have a i530 that was running 10.5.8. I installed from a USB flash using a SL upgrade disk (retail).

 

It installs fine, but when I try to boot from the hard drive, I get "waiting for root device".

 

Thoughts?

 

Just to follow on from yellowguy's recommendation, if you looked at chameleon.osx86.hu, you would see that there is a bug in Chameleon 2 RC2's installer and for that reason no installer was released for RC3. Chameleon's developers recommend that you install it manually until they fix the installer.

 

@weeze,

 

no idea what is causing the bluescreen. Perhaps it is not detecting your screen properly, whatever it is. There should be an entry against your particular screen in /Sys/Lib/Displays/Overrides. You will have to google for your particular DisplayVendor ID.

 

If your card is being recognised properly, you should be seeing the translucent menubar, as SysProfiler no longer lists QE/CI support in SL, so it is not immediately apparent if you have full support for your card. Look at the second page at the link to the French site in my previous post for instructions on extracting your own EFI string. I can fathom no reason why these are not matching EFI Studio/OSX86 Tools in SL, as I had no problems whatsoever in Leopard. You could also try injecting via Chameleon. Remove whatever EFI string you have in /Extra/c.a.B.plist and /Lib/Prefs/Sys Conf/c.a.B.plist and add these two lines instead

 

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>y</string>

 

didn't work for me, but who knows? Might do the trick for you. One thing you shouldn't need to use is Nvinject/Nvkush/Natit etc.

[mega369]

I finally got the retail version working using http://www.mattisz.com/hacks/snow-leopard-inspiron-530 . Everything is right there and props goes to mattisz who made the guide. Unfortunately, i won't be using my snow install because I can't get my rosewill rnx-easyn1 working in snow leopard.

[mattisz]

I finally got the retail version working using http://www.mattisz.com/hacks/snow-leopard-inspiron-530 . Everything is right there and props goes to mattisz who made the guide. Unfortunately, i won't be using my snow install because I can't get my rosewill rnx-easyn1 working in snow leopard.

Thanks for the recognition. That guide took me about an hour to write and about 8 of trial and error to actually get it installed on my computer. I appreciate the props (sincerity) considering that's the first guide I've ever written and it actually worked for someone! I hope others use this guide because I have a retail Snow Leopard Dell Inspiron 530 running almost perfectly (no sleep but I don't use sleep anyway because I use my Dell as a server). Thanks again!

-Mattisz

[Apoc112]

I've been stupid and gotten myself into a situation where my i530 is no longer booting into leo (dumb mistake when trying to upgrade 10.5.6 to .8) and i cannot find my old leo distro DVD. My i530 is also my only DVD burner, so without installing windows on it, I can't burn myself another DVD.

 

I do, however, have a retail SL disc and a windows laptop with a CD-R with which to try kdetech's SL boot132 disc. has anyone else tried it? without touching my BIOS from my old leo setup, i get a KP as soon as i put in the SL disc. enabling RAID/ACHI gets me to a point where the installer hangs on the initial load. I'm going to try the DSDT.aml posted on the first page of this thread, but i also have a feeling i'll need the EFI string from my 8600 GT before this will work. would anyone be able to post the EFI string on here for me? TIA!

[mellowboy]

10. On finish/reboot, you might have the cmos problem (I did). Fix everything back to how it was before, and boot from the USB again, this time in Chameleon select the newly installed Snow Leopard Partition.

 

11. Install the ethernet, sound kexts, and use EFIStudio to install your GFX card (the onboard is incompatible, and will most

likely stay that way, so invest in a card).

12. Repeat the terminal steps, this time in your Snow Leopard installation. Instead of re-fixing the Extra folder, just Copy it from your USB.

 

I've been following weeze's guide and it's gone well, I have snow leopard (I even copied my leo disk in my 530 onto a spare and upgraded it to snowleo)

It doesn't boot by itself, but it does boot via Chameleon on the USB, and I get that step 12 should fix that.

 

What I don't get is step 10... and I DO get a CMOS error.. what specifically does "Fix everything back to how it was before" mean??

 

Sorry if I'm slow here...

[splonk]

I've been following weeze's guide and it's gone well, I have snow leopard (I even copied my leo disk in my 530 onto a spare and upgraded it to snowleo)

It doesn't boot by itself, but it does boot via Chameleon on the USB, and I get that step 12 should fix that.

 

What I don't get is step 10... and I DO get a CMOS error.. what specifically does "Fix everything back to how it was before" mean??

 

Sorry if I'm slow here...

 

I didn't quite get that either, but it doesn't really matter. If you get the CMOS error, you will need to patch your dsdt.aml file sooner or later or it will keep happening. You could try the dsdt.aml file in mattisz' link. He has helpfully patched it so that audio works (can confirm this) so kudos to him as my first attempt failed. I don't get a CMOS error.

 

@Apoc 112

 

This is the string for an 8600GT with 512MB of VRAM. You need to specify the amount on board. I am guessing it is 512MB, as that seems to be the most common amount. You should not need the string as it will boot to a gui regardless, possibly at a lower resolution.

 

6c0200000100000001000000600200000d00000002010c00d041030a000000000101060000010101

060000007fff04001e00000072006f006d002d007200650076006900730069006f006e0000002e000

0006e5669646961204765466f7263652038363030204754204f70656e474c20456e67696e65205b45

46495d22000000400030002c006400650076006900630065005f00740079007000650000000b00000

0646973706c6179100000004e00560043004100500000001800000004000000000003000c00000000

000007000000000e0000006e0061006d00650000000b000000646973706c617914000000400030002

c006e0061006d0065000000120000004e5644412c446973706c61792d41100000006d006f00640065

006c0000001a0000006e5669646961204765466f72636520383630302047540e0000004e005600500

04d000000200000000100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000014000000

400031002c006e0061006d0065000000120000004e5644412c446973706c61792d422000000040003

1002c0063006f006d00700061007400690062006c00650000000e0000004e5644412c4e564d616322

0000005600520041004d002c0074006f00740061006c00730069007a0065000000080000000000002

020000000400030002c0063006f006d00700061007400690062006c00650000000e0000004e564441

2c4e564d616322000000400031002c006400650076006900630065005f00740079007000650000000

b000000646973706c61791c0000006400650076006900630065005f00740079007000650000000f00

00004e5644412c506172656e74

[Apoc112]

This is the string for an 8600GT with 512MB of VRAM. You need to specify the amount on board. I am guessing it is 512MB, as that seems to be the most common amount. You should not need the string as it will boot to a gui regardless, possibly at a lower resolution.

 

@splonk: thanks but mine is 256mb (forgot to mention it in my post, but it is in my sig).

 

from some of the tutorials i've read, people have said if the installer hangs or locks up, it may be the graphics card. i may be way off base... i'm not very good with this stuff. my only previous experience was a vanilla leo install with a kaly distro, so a lot of this is new to me. i appreciate the help, though..

[jespin4845]

Ok...i ve been able to install using weeze's guide on the second page, and voodooHDA for sound as the older kext do not work anymore...sleep still doesnt work, dont really care...but all the sata ports arent working...when you open the computer, only the top two are working,...i tried switching them around, and if you put the HD with snow leopard on any of the bottom two it gets the "still waiting for root device" message,...but if you put the HD on the 0 or 1 port, it boots fine and loads the other sata device either on 0 or 1, be it a DVD drive or another HD...i have an extra hard drive and the DVD.

 

I am in IDE mode,...i have no idea how RAID works and how to install in RAID

 

I remember this happeneing on the update to 10.5.8 but it was a simple fix of loading an older kext, it was either IOATAfamily or AppleIntelPIIXATA, i can't remember...and everything started mounting fine.

 

Ive tried loading various kext again such as netkas's...and Mattisz's...and the 10.5.8 kext (which causes a major panic, had to re-install) but after a couple of hours i am starting to give up...anyone have any ideas??????

 

On a side note, I fiddled around to get my 7200gs Asus card working,...EFI under Snow Leopard was giving me a string completely different than the string i would get in Leopard, and none of them worked if I tried writing it the easy way using EFIstudio...i found this link below to be helpful...i went into /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist and entered the string generated in Leopard manually just like described on the link below, the one generated in Snow Leopard did not work... Rebooted and Voila, 1080p!!!

 

 

http://www.teknojunkie.com/2009/08/guide-s...32-coming-soon/

 

Any help with the other two SATA ports would be greatly appreciated...i hope its just a simple kext

 

Mattisz, with your install method are you able to use all SATA ports?

[mattisz]

Jespin, I have included the AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext for Snow Leopard in my guide's .zip. You might want to try wiping your HD and doing a fresh install with that kext if it's the one you believe to be required. Unfortunately the only to SATA devices I have are my HD and DVD drive (cheapest 530) so I can't confirm whether or not my other SATA ports work. If the kext I have provided doesn't work, you might want to check out this great source of kexts all for Snow Leopard, http://cid-8b65993ef55cf014.skydrive.live....x/.Public/OSx86. There are tons of kexts there so check it out. Hope I can help.

 

-Mattisz

[peestandingup]

Jespin, I have included the AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext for Snow Leopard in my guide's .zip. You might want to try wiping your HD and doing a fresh install with that kext if it's the one you believe to be required. Unfortunately the only to SATA devices I have are my HD and DVD drive (cheapest 530) so I can't confirm whether or not my other SATA ports work. If the kext I have provided doesn't work, you might want to check out this great source of kexts all for Snow Leopard, http://cid-8b65993ef55cf014.skydrive.live....x/.Public/OSx86. There are tons of kexts there so check it out. Hope I can help.

 

-Mattisz

Your method worked great! Thanks!!

 

Unfortunately though, the other 2 SATA ports on the "higher end" 530 doesn't currently work with your retail install method. Bummer for me because I use 3 outta the 4 SATA connections on the board (2 for hard drives, 1 for the DVD drive), so that means I'll prob have to disconnect one of the hard drives & use it externally in an enclosure (for now at least).

 

I used the Nvidia injector from Netkas to get my 9600GT card working. So almost everything is perfect. Those SATA ports are really the only thing keeping me from having a perfect system. So close.

 

Has anyone tried anything else?? I will tell you that before I did the retail install, I tried the "SnowOSX Universal 3.5" iso that you guys discussed earlier in this thread & all the SATA ports DID indeed work. Is there anything in that iso that we could take out & use for the retail method to get them to work??

 

EDIT: So, I was doing some research & found this about our SATA options from another user named HolyCrap who was using the iATKOS method in Leopard.

 

Intel SATA (this is not the Intel SATA AHCI option, the 530 doesn't offer an AHCI setting in the BIOS even though the chipset has been reported to support AHCI. Some believe that putting the SATA MODEin "RAID" mode in the BIOS might enable AHCI. In windows there is reportedly a way to activate AHCI via software. All of this is googled info, I really don't know but my "SATA Mode" settings in the BIOS are set to "IDE" and not "RAID" and I'm installing the non-AHCI option here)

So apparently, in the options he had to choose the non-AHCI Intel SATA option during install. Dont know if that would help someone with more knowledge than me figure this out, but sounded like it might.