Snow Leopard on Dell Precision 690

[iverasp]

Hi,

 

thought I'd share some info on how I (hopefully) got my Dell Precision 690 working with OSX and also get some help on how to do so

 

I recently aquired this machine with an Intel Xeon CPU which finally allows me to try OSX (my AMD machines just wont let me). The installation of 10.6.3 went quite smooth with the only hickup being that I have to use the mach_modbin kernel to boot my system (with mach_kernel the machine reboots after "Starting Darwin"). I then upgraded to 10.6.8 through the official 10.6.8 Update Combo: here I had to downgrade to the previous IOUSB* kexts for USB-support (remember to take a copy of S/L/E in 10.6.3)

 

I tried the official 10.7.3 update but it gives me an error stating that I do not have a supported CPU (OSX lists my Xeon as a Core 2 Duo, both which are supported). I'll have a look at that later, for now 10.6.8 is sufficient for my usage.

 

And now the real problems:

 

With NVEnabler I got dual screen working at the correct resolution and QE/CI enabled. However, after a while my screens flicker insanely and I'm only able to move the mouse cursor, everything else is frozen. I booted the install DVD and removed NVEnabler.kext hoping that a different aproach would work.

 

Now when I try to boot the computer hangs at "ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin :: registerLPCDriver - WARNING - LPC device initialization failed: C-state power management not initialized". I believe I have seen this warning before but I was able to boot just fine previously. Also, it doesn't seem related to NVEnabler or any adjustments I could have done. Could OSX have updated a kext automatically?

 

I have extracted a DSDT using Ubuntu, compiled it and placed it under /Extra. I have not modified it in any way, yet.

 

Hardware specs:

 

Intel Xeon 5060 3.2Ghz 4Mb L2

Intel 5000X chipset

Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 512Mb

4Gb PC2 something ECC RAM

Broadcom 5752 Gbit ethernet (onboard)

 

Notes so far:

 

HyperThreading causes kernel panic and must be disabled in BIOS.

I have not enabled the onboard firewire, parallel or serial controllers.

Remember to make a copy of S/L/E for downgrading the IOUSB* kexts after 10.6.8 upgrade.

The onboard ethernet-controller works with this kext: http://www.osx86.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=2515

After 10.6.8 upgrade you have to install SLKexts (google it). If not the computer hangs at "PCI Configuration Begin".