ACER Aspire 4752 10.9.5 Guide with kextpack

[themacmeister]

I do not have a modified BIOS. Apparently the Tiano Secure BIOS is a real bas*ard to crack. This is why I have my disk formatted to MBR partitioning, and patched the installer for MBR (via MyH*ck).

 

There does not seem to be a whitelist for anything, unlike my previous HP Pavilion G6 (which had WiFi whitelist in BIOS).

 

There are people working on unlocked BIOS, which should allow full GUID booting, but until then... stick with this. The computer locks up about 2% of startups (no disk activity), which I am sure is a side-effect of MBR partitioning. I have full Intel CPU PM without patching the BIOS (which is handy). This laptop only seems to have a few states (Core i3) which means it runs pretty hot all the time. It did this under Win7 as well.

 

It is the hyper-threading Core-i3, which means 4 threads, probably why it runs so hot, but so smooth :-)

 

Hope that answers your question.

[themacmeister]

Tried ChromeOS on the laptop -- looked good, but COMPLETELY DESTROYED my existing MBR OSX partition. Needed to reinstall from scratch. Luckily I had my kextpack still, and did the same as my other machine (after having to revert to 10.8.2 to MBR patch the USB installer). Followed the following guide, using the SSDT at the end using RevoGirl method, instead of Generating States etc. -> http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/291852-p67a-gd55b3-100-1095/?do=findComment&comment=2106639.

 

Back working perfectly with only a few hours lost.

[themacmeister]

Had the main wireless router replaced at work, and have not had a single WIFI dropout at work -- ie: the AR9285 is working perfectly (and always had).

 

I'm surprised more people are not using this as a Hackintosh, as it is more compatible than the HP ProBooks that are listed as the perfect Hackintosh laptops on many lists (this computer is not listed at all). Also, the HP G6 range of laptops are pretty much fully compatible (and have lid-wake). I switched to this one for portability.

 

I am sticking with this setup forever now... it runs so sweetly. Only improvement would be 16GB RAM upgrade. PS. I think I am using 1600MHz RAM, just didn't update smbios.plist

[themacmeister]

That is the EAPDFix.kext (to fix port sensing).

 

I found an identical 500GB laptop HDD, so I did a bootable clone of existing drive... talk about a brilliant (almost instant) emergency restore method !!!

 

Late-2013 iMac is in the shop... used this laptop as a backup machine... apart from CPU temps, has worked flawlessly.

[themacmeister]

Security Update (2015-002) breaks Bluetooth, make sure to backup IOBluetoothFamily.kext before, and reinstall with Kext Utility after update.

[themacmeister]

Approaching one full year using this laptop... never skipped a beat. Cannot believe my luck.

[themacmeister]

I had the dreaded "no disk activity" freeze about 3 times while on holiday recently (on battery each time). This usually only occurs about once in every fifty startups... so a bit worrying.

 

Last two boots have gone smoothly. This may or may not happen with true UEFI booting, but with the BIOS locked, I don't know if I can do this, I certainly cannot convert my existing MBR to UEFI GPT safely :-(

[themacmeister]

Don't know what happened, but I lost Bluetooth again... will try reinstalling IOBluetoothController kext again (or whatever it is called), was working and seeing other laptop from live linux last night.

[themacmeister]

More than a year now, and still going strong! Google Chrome can really get the system working overtime... might switch to Firefox again if it becomes an issue.

 

Still running 10.9.5, still running perfectly. The ONLY issue I have come across, is that once in every 25 or so boots, the had drive activity light doesn't come on, and laptop needs to be reset with power button. So rare that it does not bother me... 

[RGhabriel]

More than a year now, and still going strong! Google Chrome can really get the system working overtime... might switch to Firefox again if it becomes an issue.

 

Still running 10.9.5, still running perfectly. The ONLY issue I have come across, is that once in every 25 or so boots, the had drive activity light doesn't come on, and laptop needs to be reset with power button. So rare that it does not bother me...

 

Wow congrats bro, its looks promising for me, I also use the same laptop. is there a tutorial from the start so that I can also use this device to fully work with osx, one week I've repeatedly reinstall using distro niresh :'( , but could not successfully boot from the hard drive (I think you have explained in detail the issue "using MBR not GPT").

I plan to start from scratch, especially using the 10.9.5 I get from the iStore. Can i follow your tutorial in the first post?

 

Ps.I was so grateful for your dedication to explain every problem and its solution in detail.

[themacmeister]

This post is a guide, and it comes with everything you need, go back to post#1 on Page 1, and see what I did (you need myHack (latest) to create the USB installer patched for MBR - an option during creation).

 

You also need to install Chameleon/Chimera 3.x, but Chameleon is installed by myHack during OS X install, and that is enough until you are booted into OS X and can install Chimera.

 

If you want, you can copy my Extra folder to USB, and have working SpeedStep, Video etc. during install (do not replace it, just copy files over the top of other files... you still need PS2 kexts for trackpad etc.)

 

Best of luck!

 

PS. I recently recreated the 10.9.5 boot USB and copied over my Extra folder to test if my method still worked, and it booted to the installer just fine... all disks showed up in Disk Utility, so I think this method still works for 10.9.5.

 

NOTE: You will need to update RAM to 8GB to get rid of (almost non-existent) screen artefacts... They are quite rare, but very annoying. Updating the RAM (thus allowing 5xx MB RAM for video) solves this issue completely :-)

 

SMBIOS=MacBookPro8,1

[RGhabriel]

sorry bro, I too long giving feedback, all the way you give it works very well, now I am at Yosemite 10.10.5, with some kext I manually updated, I am quite happy with what I'm using now. thank you for all you have given.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated System & Kext :

• ACPIBacklight - for more brighness smoothing
• AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB - for Intel HDGraphic 1024 NVRam
• VoodooPS2Controller - Yosemite bugfix
• IONetworkingFamily & IO80211Family - Fix LAN card & WiFi card (my vendor hardware - AR9287)
• VoodoHDA
• Chameleon r2700 - fixed booting kernel (auto detect kext-dev-mode so doesn't need in Boot.plist)

 

Known Issue :

• Wi-Fi maximum download rate is 1MB/s, i don't have idea about it (in toledaARPT user guide he say AR9287 - 2.4 GHz, abgn, 2 stream, 300 Mpbs) 
• Bluetooth hardware is detected but i cant find other device - its fine as i know, i using unsupported hardware 
• NVRAM - not working anymore (don't know what's wrong) 
• Synaptic Touchpanel - Somethime work sometime did't 

overall its great system, thanks       

 

now i am waiting for new SSD and HDD-Caddy to replace unused DVD-Drive, next will try to update to El-Cap 

[RGhabriel]

Wi-Fi maximum download rate is 1MB/s, i don't have idea about it (in toledaARPT user guide he say AR9287 - 2.4 GHz, abgn, 2 stream, 300 Mpbs) - Fixed

set Network hardware MTU manualy ( Standart 1500 ). now i have fully worked Wireless Device.

Synaptic Touchpanel - Somethime work sometime did't - Fixed

Add USBBusFix=Yes to org.chameleon.Boot.plist 

[themacmeister]

Touchpad is not USB, so that fix should not have worked... I have patched AppleHDA working for full Apple sound support (even across sleep). You may want to consider downloading one of toleda's or Mirone's patched AppleHDA kexts (269). I really want to know how you got it to boot with Yosemite... without EFI partition or Recovery Partition?!?!?!?!

 

Please tell me how you did it!!!

>for Intel HDGraphic 1024 NVRam

 

Note, you do not have 1024MB vRAM, that is just for the display in About this Mac, and is not needed at all (I have 8GB RAM, and only 512MB vRAM)

If you are using Atheros AR5B195 combo card, you will need to cover pin 51 on your card to have bluetooth detected properly (I did - suddenly have fully working Bluetooth after nearly a year without it!!). There is a great tutorial on YouTube, look up WIFI pin 20

 

Never mind, here it is -> 

 

Best of luck!

[RGhabriel]

here the step : *** backup the partition / Partition cloner is recomended

1. Boot OS X Mavericks
2. Remove /Extra/modules/FileNVRAM.dylib if present
3. Remove /System/Library/Extensions/GenericUSBXHCI.kext if present
4. Edit /Extra/org.chameleon.Boot.plist to remove the following 2 lines if present:

5. <key>Kernel</key>
   <string>math_kernel</string>

6. Create a bootable USB using U_ni_ Be_ast 5 
7. Boot from USB and install OS X Yosemite over your existing Mavericks installation
8. Reboot from USB into OS X Yosemite.
9. Rebuild Cache and Repair Permission (i use Kext Wizard).
10. Eject your USB and Shutdown.

PS. make sure you remove FileNVRAM.dylib & GenericUSBXHCI.kext before create installer.
 
if you get mach_kernel not found or something like that when try to booting from Yosemite Partition / [HDD]:

• Boot into single user mode from USB into your [HDD] ( -v -f -s ).
• then mount the hdd ( mount -uw / ).
• Copy the yosemite kernel to top of Yosemite Partition ( cp /Volume/[HDD]/System/Library/Kernels/kernel /Volume/[HDD]/mach_kernel ).
• Remove kernel & kext Caches ( rm -R /Volume/[HDD]/System/Library/Caches/* ).
• Reboot ( shutdown -r now ).
• Try to boot again with ( -v -f ).

NOTE : Make sure you add Yosemite MBR Patch to your installer, otherwise update process will aborted. i get Yosemite Install.app from iStore and copy it in another drive.

 

Good Luck 

for update Chameleon follow this step:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/164809-how-to-install-chameleon-manually-v-2-and-v-1/

 

OR 

 

follow my step

 

1. booting use USB into Yosemite Installer.

2. Open disk utility.

3. Unmount your Yosemite partition.

4. Close disk utility

5. Open terminal.

 

write down your hdd partition (my partition is rdisk1s1)

diskutil list

Install boot1h to the bootsector of your OS X partition:

dd if=/Volumes/USB/usr/standalone/i386/boot1h of=/dev/rdisk1s1

Copy boot file to root partition

cp /Volumes/USB/usr/standalone/i386/boot /Volumes/HDD/boot

6. Close terminal

7. Open disk utility

8. Mount Partition > Verify Disk & Permission (Make sure its okay)

9. Reboot

[RGhabriel]

Install ACPICodec.dylib to remaping brightnes control from fn + F12 to fn + Left 

[themacmeister]

Many thanks indeed, I think I will try this today!

 

(after 350GB+ backup -- sigh)

Install ACPICodec.dylib to remaping brightnes control from fn + F12 to fn + Left 

 

Where do I find that? The only link I can find is from OSXLatitude.com, and that is archived?

 

Do you just install it in /Extra/modules?
 

I am a bit lost... :-(

[themacmeister]

PS. make sure you remove FileNVRAM.dylib

 

NOTE: There is an updated FileNVRAM.dylib and FileNVRAM.kext that works with Yosemite now :-)

 

I have a copy if you cannot find it...

Renasas USB3.0 should work with patched AppleUSBXHCI.kext, I'll send you a copy of the patched file if you want native working USB3.0 :-)

[themacmeister]

Patched USB3.0 AppleUSBXHCI works beautifully :-)

 

New 2TB portable drive easily the fastest write speed from Mac OS X to USB 3.0 external I have ever seen (nearly twice as fast as my old seagate). Copying the three installers (Mavericks, Yosemite and El Capitan GM Candidate) via USB3.0 to external took about 5 minutes (for 17+ GB).

 

I have it all working now except for sound (fixing that now), and booting with kextcache doesn't work (I believe Atheros kext tries to write to nvRAM at startup, and when this fails, boot takes forever). I'm going to dump the Bluetooth kexts (again) to see if that helps improve the situation...

 

I may also try those FileNVRAM files I have (yikes!)

 

More news soon (PS. Your instructions worked perfectly -- I will be posting another guide under Yosemite section, pointing to this post)

[themacmeister]

You will need to uninstall IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins/AppleBCM570x.kext, and reinstall changed IONetworkingFamily with Kext Utility, and then reinstall my kext from the kextpack - BOOM!

 

I believe I only have a couple of things left to do now I have kextcache=Yes working (used kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel)

 

Sound getting done now, and then I *might* have a look at Bluetooth (although I do not care about it one iota).

 

I had to reinstall NullCPUPowerManagement until I could patch AICPM kext :-)

 

Startup seems noticeably faster, especially when the Desktop appears (with Mavericks, it was still a good few minutes until I could access Applications from Dock).

Note to self: Still need to update to 10.10.5

[RGhabriel]

 

Many thanks indeed, I think I will try this today!

 

(after 350GB+ backup -- sigh)

 

Where do I find that? The only link I can find is from OSXLatitude.com, and that is archived?

 

Do you just install it in /Extra/modules?

 

I am a bit lost... :-(

 

 

i installed using Chameleon Wizard in Modules section.

NOTE: There is an updated FileNVRAM.dylib and FileNVRAM.kext that works with Yosemite now :-)

 

I have a copy if you cannot find it...

Renasas USB3.0 should work with patched AppleUSBXHCI.kext, I'll send you a copy of the patched file if you want native working USB3.0 :-)

 

Yep i have too, but my brightness value can't saved after reboot. Let me try your AppleUSBXHCI.kext

 

You will need to uninstall IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins/AppleBCM570x.kext, and reinstall changed IONetworkingFamily with Kext Utility, and then reinstall my kext from the kextpack - BOOM!

 

I believe I only have a couple of things left to do now I have kextcache=Yes working (used kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel)

 

Sound getting done now, and then I *might* have a look at Bluetooth (although I do not care about it one iota).

 

I had to reinstall NullCPUPowerManagement until I could patch AICPM kext :-)

 

Startup seems noticeably faster, especially when the Desktop appears (with Mavericks, it was still a good few minutes until I could access Applications from Dock).

Note to self: Still need to update to 10.10.5

 

what i do just Rebuild Cache & Repair Permission   and its work. Bluetooth!! who care its useless for me. why you need update to 10.10.5 where you get Yosemite installer, as i found from Apple Store is 10.10.5.

 

!! Did you know El-Capitan already Public Release today, hopefully it work more better   

[themacmeister]

Updated to 10.10.5 -- all good (see below)

 

Installed Clover (boot0ah  to MBR) per instructions, Screen Brightness fixed immediately :-)

 

Actually, the only three things that aren't working (HDMI audio/VGA/Bluetooth) are all things I have never used, and have no plans to use... I use headphone-out port to speakers/amp anyway. These three items were all originally fixed with hex and kext patches... I messed around with some IntelSNBFramebuffer settings and screwed my graphics up (more artefacts than I have ever seen), so I dumped all those patches.

 

You will need to reinstall Java for Mac OS X 2014-001 again.

 

You will need to reset your Security settings to "Allow from Anywhere" again.

 

You may need to re-register the odd application (Audio Hijack Pro for example).

 

Apart from that, everything works 100%

 

I'll gladly post my config.plist if you want it - but it is nothing special, just Intel injection really (WARNING: my config.plist does an instant boot into Yosemite, so you will need to edit out "Fast" option with Clover Configurator before you restart laptop). There is a key you can hold down to force Clover screen appearing (escape ??) but I don't know which it is.

 

Thanks so much @RHGabriel, now I have Ethernet/WIFI/AppleHDA sound/Video/Touchpad/USB2.0+3.0/DVD-Burner/SpeedStep/Sleep+Wake all working as before. It is actually impossible to tell the difference (it still had Mavericks desktop picture!) except for dark boot screen. I removed CPU speed and bus speed from Clover fields, and computer is now WAY faster/responsive. Also, disabling XMP detection (was set on YES - set it to NO) made a large difference in performance.

 

I'll post the IOUSBFamily kext (which includes the fix) and my config.plist later today.

[RGhabriel]

that is great, for bootloader I still like using Chameleon than Clover, now I start download El-capitan and try to integrate with MBRPatch. HDMI audio/VGA/Bluetooth i never use too, but my vga port doesn't work   

[themacmeister]

VGA can be MADE to WORK, using a hex patch in the Connectors, in the IntelHD kext. I did have it running nicely on mine, but don't really care about it now... going to use HDMI if and when I need to (NEVER).

 

Could you post your ACPICodec.dylib, as I'm pretty sure that Chameleon Wizard is just an app, and doesn't provide it :-(

 

If you mean Chameleon Wizard downloading and installing a new version of the bootloader, that I can understand!

 

Anyways, I wouldn't know how to use it with Clover now :-(

 

Many thanks for the great help so far. It is nice to have a "Guinea Pig" to test these things first :-D

[RGhabriel]

i think its enough for now, all of 4752 hardware supported and worked in yosemite, so you can create or update the tutorial