[Guide] Dell XPS 15 L502X (Early 2011) Snow Leopard Install (possibly L702x too)

[DoiX]

Good thing you still have free space on you desktop, mine is full.

 

I know of the Legacy issue, i tried to boot Windows on UEFI on clover months ago (OS X wouldn't boot, no matter what i tried, figured it's a bug so i gave up the UEFI idea). 

 

Does Windows in UEFI mode install the same way it would in legacy or some extra steps are necessary?

 

Another thing: do you experience audio issues when overclocking in clover?

[TimeWalker75a]

It installes the same way, you just have to have MSDN copies of x64 Windows at hand to perform a UEFI install. Oh, and it's better off to disable Legacy mode in BIOS before you do so, just to be extra sure. Perhaps one thing that will save you from a lot of frustration later is to format your HDD with GPT partition scheme from OSX Disk Utility (via installer media) so that it would create a proper partiotion to put Clover on there. As windows still partitions it as MBR for some odd reason. Format the primary partition as FAT32 and upon installing Windows just wipe it and create a partition just for Windows (so that it won't create 100 Meg System Reserved partition which is not quite ESP).

 

I don't do OC, my laptop is quite hot as is with a core i3, which I find really odd considering people with i5s get lower temps than I do.. and I had my cooling assembly replaced, so no idea what happening there. What causes audio issues with OC is improper TSC calibration. Since Clover 1928 it's being autocalculated on the fly in UEFI mode, previously such behavior wasn't coded in and you had to manually config the BusFrequencyKhz ( I may have butchered this lol.. but you get the idea). 

[DoiX]

I see, one more reason to go UEFI. Thanks.

 

What temps are you getting? I'm constantly between 50-55ºC. I also have a cooling pad but it's not helping in this heat wave. (38ºC outside - 30ºC Inside during the day). Funny thing is that on windows the temps are higher, maybe because the Nvidia GPU.

[TimeWalker75a]

On Windows temps are higher since _PSS probably have higher VIDs.

I also have my laptop on a raised cooling pad and my temps normally fluctuate around 55C with minimum load (couple of tabs open in Chrome) raising to high 70s when CPU is packed.

[DoiX]

That's high indeed. Are you experiencing localized heating in areas that shouldn't normally heat up?

[TimeWalker75a]

Nah, it's the usual ones. The area where heatsinc copper pipe propagates.  Reminding you here that i'm rocking a Vostro of the same generation, so the size of the unit may be related to a shrunken down cooling assembly therefore resulting in poorer heat dissipation.

 

What can I do .. 

 

 

 

 

[DoiX]

Hehe, apply for a job and show them how it's done!

 

I had a similar issue months ago, my cpu temps were around 65ºC idle. I traced the problem to a ribbon cable from the power button, one of the flat metal-pin-thingy on the end that gets plugged in (i have no idea how to call them) were overlapped.

[TimeWalker75a]

I have some sort of blue plasticky housing on all the ribbon cables' end so I guess this shouldn't be a similar case scenario for me.. oh well, i can live with it. May be just a matter of hot weather and high humidity.

[ITRaider]

 

 

 

 

 

Someone on UEFI Clover (versio 1928 and up preferably) experiencing shutdown issues? Like the machine just hangs after halts and the fans spin up and you have to force it by holding the power button? If so we would like to see Darwindumps (of version 2.7.8 preferably, set your dumps as private) - one for when the shutdown worked for a given session and another one when it didn't. So far there are 3 people with different setups who are facing the aforementioned issue. I know there are more since this is the issue discussed here: 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/284363-how-to-boot-os-x-mountain-lion-with-uefi-and-gpt-hdd/

I experienced one time yesterday   Clover version:1928

 

Finally installed clover on L502X used unlocked BIOS：

problems i met before were caused by the drivers in EFI\CLOVER\drivers64UEFI folder

I figure something like these:

 

EmuVariableUefi-64 was needed if you have Win8 installed on your notebook,without it Win8 can't boot

 

OsxAptioFixDrv-64 was needed at least on my laptop,without a five-country screen will appear,and if you boot with "-v"

an error called " AppleACPIPlatform " will appear

 

FSInject-64.efi was needed

 

Edited July 31, 2013 by ITRaider

[TimeWalker75a]

I do know all of this, you also need FatBinary to be able to start boot.efi for systems below version 10.9. The drivers have been tested and don't seem to cause any major issues. What is up is that if cpu gets stressed enough right before shutdown it won't properly go to s lower state and machine would freeze after halt.

[jkbuha]

Hey guys, been long since I posted here. Hope you guys enjoying summer as well

 

@TW: I have the same issue with _PSS values in Win64, though I'd suspect if we repatch the DSDT with lower _PSS values we should be able to boot cooler win machines?

[TimeWalker75a]

Nice to see you around too. The summer is meh, it's mostly overcast and raining. Though temp and humidity are high.

As far as I understand pss are being generated on the fly and ssdt tables only hold generic placeholders for these methods. Same as OperationRegions remain blank and are filled in when system is booted.

 

[Air]

@DoiX, I was able to get 10.8.4 working by doing incremental updates (although I skipped 10.8.3 as I was successfully able to do last time), and by using a nonadvanced format HD on MBR. If I'm to guess which was responsible for the success I would say it's the HD...I think for some reason booting straight from the HD made it work versus having to boot from an external first. Not sure why this would be the case but it works. Thanks again for your help.

[jkbuha]

hmmm pity - though I recall i had read somewhere that there is a way of forcing the default _pss tables to be used but it required a (as yet unknown) hack. i'll have a look through the usual sources...

 

on another note chameleon's bypass graphics enabler parameter has been fixed in r2255. it's working again properly on all machines that bypass graphicsenabler

[TimeWalker75a]

@jkbuha could you, perhaps, do the two dumps I had requested in case you still have UEFI clover around, of the later version preferably? This might help troubleshoot the shutdown freeze.. Just to remind that this happens when you turn off the laptop while some of the cores are at some load.

[jkbuha]

sure thing tw - could you remind me what/how to do them?

(let me see if i can find my clover stick to boot uefi as well )

[TimeWalker75a]

Just do 2 private DarwinDumps /w v2.7.8. One when laptop shuts down fine and the other one when it freezes at black screen upon shutdown. Just do the dumps while you are logged in and proceed to shutdown in one case with 0 apps running and with lots of stuff happening in the other.

[DoiX]

Did anyone manage to boot UEFI Clover using a USB stick on a L502x with modded BIOS?

 

Also can you guys test this app? It basically transforms your webcam in an ambient light sensor and then sets the screen brightness according to that. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16173714/Theia.zip for more info read the info panel from within the app. 

 

Thanks!

 

P.S If anyone is rich enough to have an Apple external display, or access to it, could you test the app with it? In theory, it should set the screen brightness of both displays (internal and apple one), it may depend on how you have it set up (mirrored or not)

[TimeWalker75a]

You ought to have a modded bios with unlocked advanced setting. What seems to be the problem? I can include my set of files when I'm at my lappy, it will be the same for your XPS.

[TimeWalker75a]

Here is the setup that should do for L502x, make sure to replace ACPI tables in patched folder with your own (I left mine there on purpose since the tables are virtually identical, so you can study mine in case you find something interesting):  https://www.dropbox.com/s/1q3oqe6cidfu7v8/L502x.zip

Just place the EFI folder to a FAT32 MBR USB flashdrive and boot with UEFI enabled in BIOS, it should pick up the efi executable from /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi and you should see the Bootcamp-eske Clover GUI. 

Also, you need rc scripts for bootlog and proper NVRAM support, this will allow for preserving brightness levels across reboots and in case you do set up UEFI windows installation will enable you to utilize Startup Disk preference pane to boot into it right from OSX. Here are the scrips: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dp94g2ce14480x5/rc.scripts.zip

To install them place them in /etc folder in your OSX installation and set proper permissions to them, 644 or better of 755 would do! You have to shutdown once for nvram.plist to generate in the root of you disk (you won't see it as it being flagged as hidden). 

[DoiX]

I followed the information on formatting and installing Clover on the usb from the doc/ folder. When i boot it, i get "Non-System Disk" and then it says press any key to reboot. Any idea?

 

Edit: i'll see if what you provided does the trick. UEFI is enabled in BIOS.

[TimeWalker75a]

Re: Theia .. well, it shines a bright white LED from the camera in my face but it's yet to change any of my brightness settings even if I shove a flashlight into the camera which in theory should set the brightness at the highest setting in order for me to see "in the bright sunlight". 

[DoiX]

Check the debug box in settings, then check console for any error.

 

[TimeWalker75a]

Here is the debug log:

 

 

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Debug: 1

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Loop: 1

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Timer: 30.000000

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Sensor Sensitivity Value: 255

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Start Wrapper: 1

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Start Core: 1

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Debug: Theia_Wrapper Init OK

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_core[721]: Debug: Theia_Core Init OK

Aug  1 20:08:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local mds[39]: (/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/D770D76B-69F2-4CDD-8054-992C2C91041A)(Error) IndexCI in void _CIUpdateTimeStamp(ContentIndexPtr, time_t, _Bool):time stamp should be more recent new:1375376646, old:1375386380

Aug  1 20:09:25 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Debug: Theia_Wrapper Init OK

Aug  1 20:09:25 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_core[723]: Debug: Theia_Core Init OK

Aug  1 20:09:35 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local mds[39]: (/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/D770D76B-69F2-4CDD-8054-992C2C91041A)(Error) IndexCI in void _CIUpdateTimeStamp(ContentIndexPtr, time_t, _Bool):time stamp should be more recent new:1375376960, old:1375386380

Aug  1 20:09:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_wrapper[720]: Debug: Theia_Wrapper Init OK

Aug  1 20:09:55 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local theia_core[726]: Debug: Theia_Core Init OK

Aug  1 20:10:02 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro kernel[0]: [sendHCIRequestFormatted] ### ERROR: [0x0411] (Authentication Requested) -- Send request failed (err = 0x0005 (kBluetoothHCIErrorAuthenticationFailure))

Aug  1 20:10:11 Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.local ReportCrash[730]: Saved crash report for theia_core[721] version ??? to /Users/dmitry/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/theia_core_2013-08-01-201011_Dmitrys-MacBook-Pro.crash

Here is one of the crash reports: http://cl.ly/1z35220A0V0m

[DoiX]

Eh, it works. I interpreted the documentation bad, I understood that the BOOT folder should be in EFI/CLOVER/ not /EFI/. Thanks

 

As for theia. I'm puzzled, to be frank. Try this: start the app, click on autostart, close it. then execute theia_core from the resource folder of Theia.app in the terminal with the sudo command. I think there might be some sort of conflict. I'm not sure.