[GUIDE] Snow Leopard 10.6.6 on Acer Aspire 5740G

[theakseffect]

1. INTRODUCTION

 

This is my first "guide" on how to get the following working on your Acer Aspire 5740G:

• ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 (QE/CI and res on laptop screen)
  
• Keyboard and trackpad (incl tapping)
  
• Sound
  

The things that I don't have working (yet) are:

• Trackpad 2-finger (or more) scrolling
  
• Sleep
  
• Laptop battery icon
  
• 64 bit mode (working)
  

Things that I haven't looked into (and don't really need yet) are:

• VGA output
  
• HDMI output
  
• SPDIF output
  
• Mic input
  
• Ethernet
  

This means those might be working or might not be.

 

Please bear with me, since I don't know if all the steps I'm about to describe are necessary, but it's what worked for me. If anyone knows of an easier way to get things to work on this laptop, please share.

 

Also: why I mentioned "guide" (using quotation marks), is because this isn't as much a guide as it is a collection of referrals to other guides, so credit goes out to the people who made those.

 

Another sidenote: I extracted my EDID beforehand in Windows using the guide mentioned in step 4.2.

 

 

2. HARDWARE

 

First off: for those who have the 8GB version of this laptop like I do, I removed 1 of the RAM modules (which is 4GB) to get this to install.

 

 

3. BIOS

 

I didn't have to make changes in my BIOS, just had to make sure AHCI was enabled instead of IDE.

 

 

4. INSTALLING OSX

 

1. I followed 'Phase One: Partitioning & Formatting' and 'Phase Two: Installing Snow Leopard', from step 1 through 12 of this guide
   
2. after this I was able to boot into the partition I created for OSX using the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] Supported CD and then, I followed this guide to inject my EDID (which I obtained beforehand, in Windows)
   
3. right after that (without rebooting) I installed [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 3.3 (selecting [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url], Voodoo PS/2 Controller and Chameleon RC5 ATI experimental bootloader)
   
4. the next step for me was following this guide from step 4 through 6 (!), I don't remember if I had to use the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD again to boot into my OSX partition before that though
   
5. after step 6 I followed atlee's directions (from the same topic), which are:
   'First time you boot, boot using GraphicsEnabler=No, Install a program called SwitchresX which you can set screen res 1366x768 for your laptop screen, save it. Reboot using GraphicsEnabler=Yes and AtiConfig=Eulemur, Now you will have QE/CI, Full resolution!'
   
6. finally I used this guide (post #24) using Kexthelper to get sound working correctly
   

DisplayProductID.zip

[dd10986]

I have the same notebook with M520 (2.4GHz-2.9GHz) and followed your 'guide'. only difference was that the framebuffer used is (for me) 'Vervet'. I tried all other mentioned framebuffers and nothing worked and just by trial and error, i ended up having a nice hackintosh with sound, wireless and graphics. now, with the biggest (graphics) problem solved i will try to fine tune with dsdt etc.

Keyboard and trackpad, working but without tapping. can you direct me to a link with your kext? Thanks for posting your success which helped me and surely others.

[Azeazezar]

I have a 7740G also with 8GB ram and an ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 not identical but close.

Will try this tomorrow.

 

Thanks!

[theakseffect]

Keyboard and trackpad, working but without tapping. can you direct me to a link with your kext?

 

I attached the VoodooPS2Controller.kext from my /Extra/Extensions folder (installed with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]). I can't remember if I deleted 1 or 2 kexts from /System/Library/Extensions though.

 

The attached kext doesn't work in 64 bit for me btw (I'm guessing a newer version of the kext will though (the newest version however, didn't work for me in 32bit)).

 

Btw, did you use AtiConfig, AtiFb or both? I'm asking this because I'm experiencing banding (color/pixel depth is 16bit or lower, even though system info says otherwise).

VoodooPS2Controller.kext.zip

[dd10986]

I attached the VoodooPS2Controller.kext from my /Extra/Extensions folder (installed with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]). I can't remember if I deleted 1 or 2 kexts from /System/Library/Extensions though.

 

The attached kext doesn't work in 64 bit for me btw (I'm guessing a newer version of the kext will though (the newest version however, didn't work for me in 32bit)).

 

Btw, did you use AtiConfig, AtiFb or both? I'm asking this because I'm experiencing banding (color/pixel depth is 16bit or lower, even though system info says otherwise).

 

Thanks for the kext I will try it later, i am running 64 bit but will change to test it. I use AtiConfig=Vervet, and color seems normal 32bit, but not so sure now that you mention; have to try a HD video to see. Sound with voodoohda is not the best and i don't known out to make it work with applehda or dsdt, but it's working. Bluetooth is another thing i'll have to look into later. Display arrangement gives me 2 displays, which i dont have and gives an option to mirror display!! I can change display color option but it looks like a backlight. Do you also have 2 displays showing on systems preferences? I have installed SwitchResX4 and not sure if this is messing things up.

[lince5]

The things that I don't have working (yet) are:

• Trackpad 2-finger (or more) scrolling
  
• Sleep
  
• Laptop battery icon
  

 

Did you tried to install voodoobattery.kext for the battery icon? And sleepenabler.kext? About two finger scrolling and other advanced functions on trackpad what i just know is to make a dsdt fix.

[dd10986]

Did you tried to install voodoobattery.kext for the battery icon? And sleepenabler.kext? About two finger scrolling and other advanced functions on trackpad what i just know is to make a dsdt fix.

 

Voodoobattery working, no probs. Card reader works, no prob. Trackpad working with 2 finger scrolling, but tapping not working, haven't tried sleepenabler.kext.

Computer goes to sleep but doesn't wake properly, by that I mean, I have to press on/off button and when it restarts the sleep image is loaded and i have everything restored. Believe that with the advise from some dsdt expert this could be easly solved. VoodooHDA that i'm using is not the best version as i still have some crackling when changing volume during video palying. If I had enough knowledge of dsdt, all of the above could be solved. I only use 3 kexts in /Extra, so it's not too bad.

[lince5]

Voodoobattery working, no probs. Card reader works, no prob. Trackpad working with 2 finger scrolling, but tapping not working, haven't tried sleepenabler.kext.

Computer goes to sleep but doesn't wake properly, by that I mean, I have to press on/off button and when it restarts the sleep image is loaded and i have everything restored. Believe that with the advise from some dsdt expert this could be easly solved. VoodooHDA that i'm using is not the best version as i still have some crackling when changing volume during video palying. If I had enough knowledge of dsdt, all of the above could be solved. I only use 3 kexts in /Extra, so it's not too bad.

 

 

Solve the sound is easy. Just use hdaenabler.kext and legacyapplehda.kext. With this you can use native applehda.kext, so this kexts just injects the necessary data into applehda.kext and modify it "on the fly". And the apple audio kexts updates will take effect. To know how to do this, search in google a guide to install mac os x 10.6.x in a Dell Mini 10v. There it will explain that.

 

About DSDT: I analized my DSDT and i found that there are some fixes that mustn't be aplied. For example, the typical "ALIAS PROCESSOR" (sorry if you don't undersatnd this). So, this will be "easy".

 

PS: Which are the kexts you use in /Extra folder?

[dervisionar]

This thread is of interest to me. I have a 7740g and this should be similar. I've been lurking here a while. OP: I have some questions for you. I'm a bit of a mac n00b, so bear with me.

 

1) You did get this to work on your 5740g, right? it is booting normally without any special boot loader instructions you need to do at the Chameleon Screen? (like "GraphicsEnabler=No", or "GraphicsEnabler=Yes AtiConfig=Eulemur")

 

2) In reference to step #2 and substeps therein; I've been up and down your recommented steps for the whole process and I'm still having limited success with the video portion. One step I've been half skipping because of my level of n00bness is the EDID, but I did everything else. Is that essential to getting OSX to work with the ATI5000 Kext file?

 

2a) Related: Did you have to do any DSDT editing? Do you need to?

 

3) Does it make a difference if you do your 10.6.7 upgrade from your "/" directory? I've read a forum link here where it did. I've been running (or copying to run before booting into safe mode) the update from an NTFS USB drive before applying MultiBoot.

 

4) In reference to step #4: Did you use the custom boot.zip that was included in those steps? I've tried with that file and without with no difference, unless there's some kind of permissions I need to fix on that file.

 

One other note for everyone else on this thread: "GraphicsEnabler=No" is IMPERATIVE to use @ boot in every part of the install process until the graphics portion is fixed @ step 5.

 

Once I get this working myself, I'd like to help you clean this up and make it concise.

 

edit: I'm going to edit this post with some citations of what I was reading. And again... all my problems are stemming from me doing it wrong, I'm sure.

[theakseffect]

This thread is of interest to me. I have a 7740g and this should be similar. I've been lurking here a while. OP: I have some questions for you. I'm a bit of a mac n00b, so bear with me.

 

1) You did get this to work on your 5740g, right? it is booting normally without any special boot loader instructions you need to do at the Chameleon Screen? (like "GraphicsEnabler=No", or "GraphicsEnabler=Yes AtiConfig=Eulemur")

Yes to the first part, I had it working on my Acer 5740G (see sig, removed 1 of the RAM modules though, so was/am on 4GB), however, using the sleepenabler kext and then removing it corrupted my hackinstall, so I'm typing this off the top of my head. On the second part: I edited my com.apple.boot.plist (in my 'Extra' folder, if I remember correctly) and used 'GraphicsEnabler=Yes' and 'AtiConfig=Eulemur'.

 

2) In reference to step #2 and substeps therein; I've been up and down your recommented steps for the whole process and I'm still having limited success with the video portion. One step I've been half skipping because of my level of n00bness is the EDID, but I did everything else. Is that essential to getting OSX to work with the ATI5000 Kext file?

Unfortunately, I do not know if extracting your EDID is necessary, all I know is I did it and it worked for me (well, kind of, the color or pixel depth (whatever you want to call it) is always said to be 16 bit (in system profiler), but it was definitely lower).

 

I too didn't really want to do the 'EDID extraction and insertion step', but following that guide 1 step at a time really worked well and wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be.

 

2a) Related: Did you have to do any DSDT editing? Do you need to?

I haven't researched anything about editing DSDT yet, so no, I haven't edited or created it myself at all.

 

3) Does it make a difference if you do your 10.6.7 upgrade from your "/" directory? I've read a forum link here where it did. I've been running (or copying to run before booting into safe mode) the update from an NTFS USB drive before applying MultiBoot.

I never updated to 10.6.7, although I did use some 10.7 (Lion) kexts, as per those guides. See step 4.4 (in the first post) on the way I updated to 10.6.6.

 

4) In reference to step #4: Did you use the custom boot.zip that was included in those steps? I've tried with that file and without with no difference, unless there's some kind of permissions I need to fix on that file.

I did in fact use that boot file, yes (which is said to be edited for the ATI Radeon 5650 Mobility).

 

I think I looked into making hidden files visible in Finder (via Google), to make sure the current boot file actually got overwritten (they are different file sizes and have different creation dates).

 

Once I get this working myself, I'd like to help you clean this up and make it concise.

Thanks and good luck!

[dervisionar]

Here's where I'm at right now with the process (and to address some of your posts):

 

 

I'm still trying to get Chameleon to install properly to the EFI partition. I keep getting this BOOT0:Error... which I know is common, but I can't seem to find a stand-alone install file of v2.0 RC5 Ati Experimental to just install it outright without using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] (v3.4, I think. for reference). I checked the install log but I can't remember what problem it said it was. Probably should have did that before I posted. Anyway...

 

I didn't know about editing the com.apple.boot.plist file. I'm going to look at that because that's some good information. I'll nose through it a bit and see what I can learn.

 

Turns out I figured out how to inject the EDID RAW data into the Display file. Although it doesn't seem to make any difference. But in all fairness, I'm still booting off the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] CD. So I have a hunch that makes a difference.

 

Good to know about the DSDT editing. I was sweating bullets over that undertaking.

 

Hmm... I followed the guide that directed me to 10.6.7... which consequently breaks my wifi and sound. I'll have to see if I can just find the 6.6 update. But I tried using the ATI drivers that were packaged inside [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url].

 

I eventually figured out where the boot file was (in "/", yes?), but that still didn't help to get my hackbook to boot. Again, I think it goes back to not having Chameleon installed properly.

 

I'm going to try [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 3.5 with a fresh install and see if I have better luck. I was reading the changes on that and it may have the answer I'm looking for. But if there's anything I can take away from this project, I can say I learned something about Mac underpinnings.

 

I'll keep you posted for what I find. And thanks for the reply, theakseffect! I'll be less of a n00b once I figure this out.

[skatopsix0s]

ok, so here is the deal...

I tried to do as you said and i stacked in the EDID step-For some reason...

anyway here's what i did and i need help...

1) install the 10.6.3 Retail

2)update with 10.6.7 combo

3)before reboot

i)run bridge helper

ii)run [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 3.7.1 with no any ati kext

iii)install chimera

4) and now reboot with GraphicsEnabler=No

*After that, it reboots normally with the apple logo and the thing that spins... and thats it!!! it keeps spinning forever !!!!!!!

What am i doing wrong?

INFO---> I ran the -v flag in the bootloader to see where it is stacked and it seems that the problem is this

"ACPI_SMC_PlatFormPlugin::start - waitForService(resourceMatching(AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement) time out"

This is the last line.....

 

What am i doing wrong? Please i need this to work

-Acer AspireOne 5740, i7-620m(2.8Ghz)-6GB RAM, ATI MOBILITY RADEON 5650 (1GB)

 

Thanks

[theakseffect]

ok, so here is the deal...

I tried to do as you said and i stacked in the EDID step-For some reason...

anyway here's what i did and i need help...

1) install the 10.6.3 Retail

2)update with 10.6.7 combo

3)before reboot

i)run bridge helper

ii)run [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 3.7.1 with no any ati kext

iii)install chimera

4) and now reboot with GraphicsEnabler=No

*After that, it reboots normally with the apple logo and the thing that spins... and thats it!!! it keeps spinning forever !!!!!!!

What am i doing wrong?

INFO---> I ran the -v flag in the bootloader to see where it is stacked and it seems that the problem is this

"ACPI_SMC_PlatFormPlugin::start - waitForService(resourceMatching(AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement) time out"

This is the last line.....

 

What am i doing wrong? Please i need this to work

-Acer AspireOne 5740, i7-620m(2.8Ghz)-6GB RAM, ATI MOBILITY RADEON 5650 (1GB)

 

Thanks

 

Sorry for the very late reply, but I only updated to 10.6.6 and I used [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 3.3 to get things to work. But since I was experiencing banding I'm no longer on OSX right now, so I'm afraid I can't be much of a help right now.

[_dogmeat]

Hey guys,

 

I'll just copy the link to my thread I made about this, which was at the wrong forums and not really needed (since this thread exists):

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=273270&pid=1776892&st=0entry1776892

 

Things that don't work:

 

Internal Display

Sleep

Sound after sleep (crackles a lot), otherwise it's perfect

DVD player

 

 

Things that do work:

 

Full resolution with QE/CI on the external monitor

Transparent menu bar and ripple effects

Sound is perfect, no feedback from the michrophone, both the internal speakers and connected headphones

Wi-Fi (sometimes it disconnects unexpectedly, but I just find my network and reconnect again)

Trackpad w/ two finger scrolling; tapping works but it's somewhat buggy

Internal keyboard is detected fine

Chicony webcam

HD videos from youtube and downloaded work perfectly

 

Things I haven't tested:

 

Ethernet

Microphone

Haven't tried any games

 

I know I'm prolly getting greedy with everything working on the external now. I was almost content with using that ugly ass 1024x768 res. Then I had a breakthrough and I exploded with joy, lol.

 

But I still want to see if you guys can figure out something, since I'm done. I can't really see what else I can do. I've tried everything I can think of, and custom personality editing is not really in my capabilities, I think.

 

Also, if anyone wants to know what kexts I've been using, you can see it in the post. If you want me to make you a DSDT or something, just post here and I'll attach it to the thread.

 

Cheers!