Vanilla install on Dell Vostro 1510 - 1520

[johngalt929]

The Airport Update after 10.6.2 has left me with an unstable wireless connection and no DVD player / quartz extreme, so may go back to 10.6. I grabbed the IO80211Family.kext from an earlier 10.6.2 system that i had on time machine, but is there a way to rollback that entire airport update? In the future, I'll be more careful about updates.

 

DUAL BOOT WINDOWS 7...

 

This has taken way too much of my time over the last week, but I think I'm there:

 

Dual Boot with windows 7 is perfect. here's how I did it.

 

1. Format as Jason parks instructs in first post, but make a second partition for windows.

2. Install everything as in first post for the Mac.

3. Install Windows 7

4. Install EasyBCD from windows.

5. Go to Diagnostics Center in EasyBCD and run the HFS+ partition fix.

6. Go to Add/Remove Entries and add your mac partition.

7. Reboot into mac. You MAY need to boot from SL boot cd one more time, I can't reacall.

8. Install Chamelon again. This may not be necessary, but it's what I did and eveyrhting works.

 

Now, when I boot up, EasyBCD comes up first with the OS options, then if I goto mac, Chamelon takes over and boots into my macintosh partition.

 

I've also got MacDrive8 running on windows, but having issues with MacFuse and NTFS3g on the mac side...but close to fusioney goodness.

[troglos]

I grabbed the IO80211Family.kext from an earlier 10.6.2 system that i had on time machine

try to use a 10.6.0 or 10.6.1 one instead

[dr.vox]

@troglos: Slow shutdown seems to go on for ages, just constantly cycles 'PID still valid' messages, I haven't bothered waiting for it to shut down properly yet.

I have, however, figured that using the options from the Apple menu (top left > Shut Down/Restart) seem to work perfectly (<5 secs).

 

@Jason Parks: I did, but it didn't work. I reran it like 20 times.

However I now have working wifi.

 

@klk: As far as I know, I don't have working ethernet. Not sure which card I have but it's the default one Dell ships with Dec '09 1520s. Would be nice to see a fix.

 

@johngalt: If you're with the 1397, you can use this kext which seems to be very stable.

 

Speaking of Airport/wifi, does anyone know how we could get the Airport On button to work? When I forget to turn the wifi switch on the bottom left on, I have to reboot or Airport won't recongise the card. I tried kextload'ing IO80211Family.kext to no avail.

[Peterverve]

Really struggling

 

when I try to boot the snow leopard disk from snow boot I get a Mach kernel error

 

any idea why?

 

Also should I remove all existing partitions on hard drive or will that make no difference

 

thanks

[Berillo]

 

This is a tutorial on how to install OS X 10.6 on a Dell Vostro 1510 and 1520. It is mostly for my own sake when I crash one of my laptops and cant find my Time Machine backup. Hopefully others will benefit from the months of research and trial/error it took me to get these installs just right.

 

 

You will need the following:

1. Dell Vostro 1510 or 1520

2. A retail Snow Leopard Installation disk

3. Snowboot Boot disk available here or here

4. Either the 1510 or 1520 zip files which includes DSDT, boot.plist and all the kext files needed for a perfect install.

5. Chameleon boot loader available here

 

 

The first step is to burn the Snowboot iso to a cd. Then boot the Vostro from this disk. Once the system is booted and the drives are displayed, eject the boot disk and insert the retail Snow Leopard disk. Wait for the drive lights to stop flashing, and hit F5 to refresh the drive list. Select the installation disk and hit enter. Once the installer boots, select your language and the in the upper menu bar select utilities, disk utility. Select your drive and partition with a single partition. You can name it anything you like as long as the volume name does not include spaces. I used MacintoshHD for my volume name. In the options tab select GUID partition table instead of MBR. Next allow the system to complete partitioning and exit the disk utility. Then complete the installation as usual. Once the installer completes and the system reboots, replace the installation disk with the snowboot disk and reboot. When the drive list menu shows up select the volume you installed SnowLeo to (MacintoshHD) and boot. At this point you should be able to see the welcome screen. Go thru the rest of the installation process and user creation. Once the installer completes and it boots to your desktop, copy the 1510 or 1520 zip file and the chameleon installer to your desktop. Run the chameleon installer and make sure it is installing to the correct drive. (MacintoshHD) Then extract the correct zip file to your desktop. Next we do the following:

 

1. Copy the files in /Vostro1510/Extra or Vostro 1520/Extra to /Extra on MacintoshHD

 

2. Copy com.Apple.Boot.plist to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.Apple.Boot.plist overwriting the one that is already there.

 

3. Copy dsdt.aml to root of MacintoshHD

 

4. Delete /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext

 

5. Delete /System/Library/Extensions/ApplePS2Controller.kext

 

6. Copy VoodooPower.kext VoodooHDA.kext and VoodooPS2Controller.kext to /System/Library/Extensions/

 

7. Delete /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Keyboard.prefpane

 

8. Copy included Keyboard.prefpane and Trackpad.prefpane to /System/Library/PreferencePanes/

 

9. Run Kext Utility to repair all extension permissions and create the necessary kext caches.

 

10. Run disk utility and repair permissions for your Snow Leopard volume (MacintoshHD)

 

11. Reboot into a working 32 bit Snow Leopard

 

12. enable QE/CI for your graphics card. If you have a Intel Graphics adapter it "SHOULD" just work. On my Vostro 1520 I have a Nvidia GEForce 9350M GS which works correctly with the included com.Apple.Boot.plist which has the kernel flag for graphics enabler turned on. Otherwise search Google for a supported enabler for your setup

***If you are using X3100 You MAY have to delete the X3100 drivers and install X3100 kext from 10.5

I did not have to but other users of this guide have reported they did.

 

13. All that's left to do now is enable the wireless card with the included shell script(drag on a terminal window and follow instructions) reboot and run software update......

 

 

Currently I have everything working except the media card reader and the integrated biometric finger print scanner.

 

***Please note:

 

I did NOT create or modify the included files or utilities. I simply collected them from around the net and packaged them in the included zip files for the sake of convenience.Thanks to all who DID create the included files and tools without which none of this would be possible.

 

 

I DID purchase a legitimate copy of OS X 10.6

 

Dear Mr. Parks:

 

Thanks a lot for publishing this tutorial an all the uploads.

I was waiting for this, for I intend to purchase a Vostro 1520 to install SL.

Please forgive my ignorance, but could please explain how to "enable QE/CI"?

The Vostro 1520 I intend to buy comes with the NVIDIA GEFORCE 9300M GS 256 MB.

Thanks again.

Best Regards.

Berilo Faccio

[dr.vox]

@Berillo: I think QE/CI is natively supported (you don't need to do anything to enable QE/CI, it works straight away (immediately)).

[Berillo]

@Berillo: I think QE/CI is natively supported (you don't need to do anything to enable QE/CI, it works straight away (immediately)).

 

@Dr. Vox: Thanks, Dr. Vox. I hope you are right.

[freeman76]

Hi all. I have a Vostro 1510, Core Duo T5670 1.8Ghz CPU, 2 GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 8400M GS, and I'm running into a couple of issues when I follow these instructions. Firstly though I should mention that I'm trying to install retail Leopard instead of Snow Leopard (the installer appears to want to load at least though so I'm assuming it doesn't matter...?) Anyways the issues:

 

1) When I boot off my snowboot cd, I see this:

EBIOS Read Error: Device Timeout

Block 0x532c Sectors 0

 

2) After I see #1, I still get a drive list and can sort of load up off my retail Leopard DVD. The problem here is that the installer never really fully loads up. I just see the background, and a spinning cursor. After about 5 minutes the DVD spins up as if something is about to happen, but about 10 seconds after that it goes silent again. I thought maybe my machine was just slow, so I let it sit overnight with the spinning cursor, but nothing had happened by the next morning (the cursor still moved though so it wasn't a completely frozen system)

 

Anyone know what might be happening in #1 or #2? Is there a better distribution of OSX for vostro 1510 that I should use instead? Or a different boot loader since I'm trying to use Leopard instead of Snow Leopard? I tried boot 132 also but it did the same thing, though the cursor seemed to spin faster...

 

When you see

EBIOS Read Error: Device Timeout

Block 0x532c Sectors 0

 

Simply remove your boot cd and insert snow leopard dvd installation, you should now see the screen with the DVD and the partitions, press F5 to refresh.

 

Hi Jason,

 

First of all a big thank you for this tutorial, I`ve been trying for a couple of days now and was never able to install snow leopard.

Almost everything works except the sound and I have only 1024x768 screen resolution. Sound and Video are built in, do you have any suggestion to solve this problem?

 

Another problem I have is that I can`t boot without the CD. If I remove the CD it gives me "No Operating System Found"

 

Again, any suggestion to solve this problem?

 

Once again, thank you very much.

[Jason Parks]

When you see

EBIOS Read Error: Device Timeout

Block 0x532c Sectors 0

 

Simply remove your boot cd and insert snow leopard dvd installation, you should now see the screen with the DVD and the partitions, press F5 to refresh.

 

Hi Jason,

 

First of all a big thank you for this tutorial, I`ve been trying for a couple of days now and was never able to install snow leopard.

Almost everything works except the sound and I have only 1024x768 screen resolution. Sound and Video are built in, do you have any suggestion to solve this problem?

 

Another problem I have is that I can`t boot without the CD. If I remove the CD it gives me "No Operating System Found"

 

Again, any suggestion to solve this problem?

 

Once again, thank you very much.

 

After installing repair permissions with the disk utility, and then install Chameleon. You can download the new version (RC3) or use the one included on the Snow Boot disk. Once you have that set up modify your com.apple.boot.plist with graphicsenabler=yes (or similar read chameleon documentation for actual syntax or look at my attached com.apple.boot.plist) for sound remove AppleHDA from /Extra/Extensions and /System/Library/Extensions, and then install VoodooHDA repair with Kext Utility and reboot.....

 

AWESOME guide. Thank you for posting it.

I am having 3 problems though. I'm on a 1510.

 

1. Wireless card isnt showing up. I'm not sure if the last step (run updates) is intended to fix this, but I ran updates once and it killed my system. Gave me a kernal panic and I had to reload...so I haven't tried it again. I'm hoping to get everything working perfectly, then do a complete backup, then try running updates again. I have a Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN mini-card. Am I going to have to get a hold of a 1397?

 

2. As I mentioned in #1, updater ends with a kernal panic after reboot.

 

3. Choppy video. Anything animated is choppy. I have a GeForce 8400M GS.

 

Anybody have any ideas?

 

Get rid of the sleepenabler.kext in /Extra or get version 2(I think) that should be what is causing kernel panic after update to 10.6.2

 

The Airport Update after 10.6.2 has left me with an unstable wireless connection and no DVD player / quartz extreme, so may go back to 10.6.

 

You should be able to rerun the included wireless script to re-enable wireless. If it works, keep it handy because you will need to do this after EVERY wireless update. It adds the Hardware ID's back into the io80211.kext so OS X can regognize your hardware. Not sure why QE/CI would stop workinh unless you were using Natit or similar for acceleration. My card is handled natively through Chameleon

[klk1351]

Ok gave it another whirl on installation last night and things are looking up. Follow the instructions at the beginning of the thread and everything should work for you. The Realtek card will not work, I cannot find anything to make it work. My wireless worked without the script being run and had problems when I did run the script so you might have to just play with that.

 

So far:

 

I have a USB 10/100 wired adapter working flawlessly.

The Wireless N card is running without a hitch, it isn't the fastest but it isn't slow either.

Safari/Updates working

10.6.1 installs without a problem, you do have to copy some of the original files from the start of the thread back in place to get things running right again. I did at least.

10.6.2 installed without a hitch, everything works well including the wireless and the usb10/100 ethernet. The Wireless is slow, not near what it was originally so that will be something to work on but overall a good deal here. I have rebooted about 20 times now and it works each time. Will post up bugs as I find them.

 

Thus far running Firefox, Thunderbird, Safari, Adium Logitech MX1000 software and my trusty terminal without problems.

 

I have not figured out the sleep/hibernate/screen saver locks. Anyone had any luck with them? I disabled them all for the time being, but this thing won't come out of any of them without having to be hard booted. At least if a screen saver worked it would be nice, going to play with graphics some to see what I can find.

[klk1351]

Ok, still cannot get the sleep or hibernate to wake up. Anyone found a fix for that?

[kojiki75]

A major problem (for me) is that the provided Keyboard.prefpane doesn't allow Modifier keys to be changed. This is basically useless for me, because I always remap Cmd to the Ctrl key, Control to the Win key and Option to the Alt key. And disable caps lock.

Any help, please?

 

I've tried this instalation on my vostro 1510, everything is working, exept of course the card reader, and sleep. Shut down is a little too long but acceptable.

But the major problem for me is the modifier keys, i can't change them ! I don't know what to do, what's hapening if i don't install the keyboard.prefpanes ?

[dr.vox]

Well I've still not installed the ones provided and I've been using Snow Leo for many hours, encountering no problems as far as I can tell.

 

Would be nice if Jason told us what the 32-bit prepfanes were for, considering I see no difference.

[kojiki75]

Well I've still not installed the ones provided and I've been using Snow Leo for many hours, encountering no problems as far as I can tell.

 

Would be nice if Jason told us what the 32-bit prepfanes were for, considering I see no difference.

 

Ok and with the old prefpane you can modifie the key modifiers ? If yes can you send me your file ? Because i don't have the old one ...

[Jason Parks]

Well I've still not installed the ones provided and I've been using Snow Leo for many hours, encountering no problems as far as I can tell.

 

Would be nice if Jason told us what the 32-bit prepfanes were for, considering I see no difference.

 

32 bit pref panes for what? The included keyboard and trackpad pref panes came with the VoodooPS2.kext to enable tap click and scrolling from your trackpad. If you don't need them I wouldn't worry about them....

[kojiki75]

Maybe the sleep issue came from the absence of the good dsdt.aml file, no ?

 

I also have an other issue, my processor is recognised as a core 2 duo 1.62, but it's a 1.8. When i install snow leo for the first time everything is well recognised but after the modifications the processor is recognised as a 1.62... I am the only one with this issue ?

[Jason Parks]

Maybe the sleep issue came from the absence of the good dsdt.aml file, no ?

 

I also have an other issue, my processor is recognised as a core 2 duo 1.62, but it's a 1.8. When i install snow leo for the first time everything is well recognised but after the modifications the processor is recognised as a 1.62... I am the only one with this issue ?

 

Sleep has always been an issue, even with a correct dsdt file which you can compile for yourself fairly easy if you google. Run the included about this mac.pkg to fix any improper system info.

[dr.vox]

Tap click had to be enabled through the (64-bit, original) trackpad prefpane and scrolling was automatically enabled.

 

And yeah, I can change the modifier keys using the original.

 

I'm uploading the original prefpanes now. They'll be available here (15.7MB).

[kojiki75]

Original prefpanes are perfect ! Thx a lot !

My last problem is the recognisation of my processor, even with the utilisation of the AboutThisMac.pkg ...

[Jason Parks]

Tap click had to be enabled through the (64-bit, original) trackpad prefpane and scrolling was automatically enabled.

 

And yeah, I can change the modifier keys using the original.

 

I'm uploading the original prefpanes now. They'll be available here (15.7MB).

 

What Dell model are you using?

[Berillo]

Currently I have everything working except the media card reader and the integrated biometric finger print scanner.

 

@JasonParks

 

In terms of performance, how does it compare to the real thing, i.e, a Macbook with SL?

[Jason Parks]

Currently I have everything working except the media card reader and the integrated biometric finger print scanner.

 

@JasonParks

 

In terms of performance, how does it compare to the real thing, i.e, a Macbook with SL?

 

I guess that would depend on the model, however I would say compared to the ones I have used nearly identical with the exception of battery life (7 hrs on new mac books) and no light up Apple logo on the lid :-)

[Berillo]

I am using the Dell wireless 1397 card

 

@JasonParks: Are the 5100 and 5300 Wi-Fi cards any better, and would they work with this installation?

 

Or would it be wiser to go with the 1397?

 

Thanks again.

[Jason Parks]

I am using the Dell wireless 1397 card

 

@JasonParks: Are the 5100 and 5300 Wi-Fi cards any better, and would they work with this installation?

 

Or would it be wiser to go with the 1397?

 

Thanks again.

 

Hard to say, I can only confirm that the 1397 does work. Not sure whats in my wifes Vostro 1510, I think it's a Dell 1395? and it works flawlessly as well.

 

Tap click had to be enabled through the (64-bit, original) trackpad prefpane and scrolling was automatically enabled.

 

And yeah, I can change the modifier keys using the original.

 

I'm uploading the original prefpanes now. They'll be available here (15.7MB).

 

Does trackpad prefpane display when you are using these prefpanes? When I install them, I no longer have the trackpad prefpane that enabled tap click and scrolling. I am able to use both scrolling and tap click, I assume because the variables were set before replacing the prefpanes, but if I wanted to change them back (which is highly unlikely) I can not

[kojiki75]

For the trackpad the best is to keep the prefpanes of the tutorial.

 

last news: Kernel panic after update ... Let's go for another installation !