Dell E6220 - Sierra possible or not?

[brainwash]

Hi, complete newbie here.

 

I've tried following all the guides I could find to get MacOS on a Dell E6220 i3-2330m laptop. The guide on this forum is for El Capitan but unfortunately I could not find any install image/package for El Capitan. I did all the steps in an El Capitan VM (there were no issues) but I could get access to a MBPro or MBAir (with Sierra) if required. I don't think that's the case.

For reference, this will be the guide I'm referring to: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/308711-guide-run-os-x-el-capitan-on-a-dell-latitude-e6320/This has been reported as working with E6220 as well.

 

What I did so far: used the CreateInstallMedia script to partition the USB drive and build the Sierra install on it. Also did this manually through the installation.app script, no changes. Ran Clover with the following options: 'install on esp', 'install in mbr', Clover 64-bit SATA was already selected, 'install rc scripts on target', selected all themes. The last option - clover preference pane - was disabled and could not be selected. Destination was USB disk.

I replaced the Clover folder from EFI with the one found in E6320 zip file.

I ran Clover Configuration, chose the config.plist file inside the EFI partition, in SMBIOS replaced a few characters in the Serial Number and Board-id.

On the target laptop tried booting UEFI - the BIOS does not recognize the bootable files, it shows messed up names when I navigate to choose a *.efi file. Booted from USB with MBR, got the clover boot screen. From there I chose 'install macos X sierra' - this pauses for a while, displays the logo, then displays a 'no parking' sign. Chose the other option - 'boot into Clover' - but this just spins up the fans and puts the laptop to sleep.

 

Another try: I found an El Capitan gold master dmg from a semi-reputable source. Partitioned the USB drive, opened the application package, ran create install media but the disk was not bootable. I might try it again, I think I messed some steps before I actually understood what needs to happen.

 

My questions:

- any obvious mistakes?

- is Sierra actually possible using the same guides as El Capitan?

- does a Clover configuration built for a cpu (i5-2xxxM)  need to be updated to work with another same-gen cpu (i3-2330m)?

- bios boot from MBR or UEFI? I suppose MBR but none of the guides I've seen mention this

[brainwash]

Thank you for the reply!

 

The El Capitan image is an official GM candidate. I also have a pkg file (from the store) but could not 'mount' it. Sierra is from the store.

I will try your guide and hopefully it will at least get me booted. From there on the real fun begins...

[brainwash]

I've ran through the guide with the following changes:

- checked all BIOS settings, they were similar

- copied the Patched_AICPUPM_10.12.1 in the proper place

- copied the patched ssdt for i3-2330m

- copied the vanilla 10.12.1 kernel into the proper place

 

Not sure if there were customizations required in the Enoch installer, I left them as-is.

 

Booted from the ESATA/USB from a card reader (it's faster than a stick), I got a jumping O letter then "Memory Allocation Error 0xDeadbeef". Moved to the other USB ports and got past the jumping letter to a gray background screen, then got the error again but this time on the graphical screen. Tried it again, it stuck to the gray screen and restarted itself. I am reinstalling Enoch to see if it fixes anything and run a disk check.

 

EDIT: I am also switching to another card reader, after the failed boot attempts now the reader disconnects itself from MacOS VM every minute but is stable under Windows (probably). Maybe the card got killed or the reader, not sure.

 

EDIT2: After swapping the card reader and reinstalling Enoch (default options) now the laptop booted to the Apple logo, the progress bar is moving, slowly.

EDIT3: The progress bar took ~20 minutes to get to the 90% position, left it overnight, got stuck at 100%.

[brainwash]

Another update:

Reinstalled everything on the stick (Sierra), according to the guide above, disabled graphical boot and enabled verbose mode. I was only able to get so far until it stuck: http://imgur.com/a/tINrG

The boot kernel was still responding to USB insertion/removal with a warning, but it was doing nothing more.

 

I was able to get a hold of an El Capitan installer and trying it now with the steps outlined in the tutorial linked above. Not sure how to set the boot flags: 

• Boot the 10.11 USB installer (it may take a little time to kick in) with -f -v boot flags

From what I understand these can be set from the Enoch installer to mean 'no gui boot' and 'kernel verbose mode', though I cannot see this explanation. Is there any other way to set those flags? Does re-running the Enoch installer overwrite the changes already made (bootpack and kernel patch)?

I've been watching the Apple logo progress bar for ~12 minutes now, it does move slowly, I'll update if there are any changes.

 

EDIT: Ok, I assume it means editing Extra\org.chameleon.Boot.plist: <key>Kernel Flags</key> <string>kext-dev-mode=1</string> to add -f and -v in the string property. set the Quiet Boot property to 'No' and then type -v -f and hit enter on Chameleon boot. -f forces a restart for me.

[brainwash]

I'm doing the steps as I'm writing this.  One question though: "Copy the appropriate Sierra kernel to /System/Library/Kernels" - does this mean the vanilla kernel only or the patched kext (/System/Library/Extensions) as well?

 

For DSDT I am using the file from here: https://sourceforge.net/p/edp-osxlatitude/svn/94/tree/cpupacks/Core_i3/SandyBridge/i3-2330M/SSDT.aml. Previously I used one from a zip package (forgot where I got it from) where there were all CPUs listed. However the file from the zip is only 710b while the one in your pack and in the link above are around 2k, so that might've been a source of the issues.

[brainwash]

 I installed only the vanilla kernel, not the patch. Was able to install everything but there were some problems:

- the menu bar at install time has disappeared. To get it back I type Win+L to open the log window then Ctrl+F2 to focus on the menu bar and used keyboard from there to get to Disk Utilities or Terminal. Most mouse actions worked only while keeping Win pressed before clicking.

- I get an error on standard boot, but it boots ok with the -f flag. I assume this means that the kernel patch was supposed to be applied. http://imgur.com/a/Vk1yh

- "sudo hibernatefile /dev/null" - the command does not exist

 

Edit: after booting with -f and doing the required post-installation changes it's booting fine. Many thanks.

Edi2: one minor issue, is there any way to customize the trackpad? Tap-to-click does not work. I will sort it out eventually.

[brainwash]

Just a suggestion to make the pack better: the improved Alps touchpad driver/kext from RehabMan should be included in it. Also there is no sound.

[brainwash]

I re-ran the kext post-installation steps and now I have sound but the touchpad is still the same (unpatched). So I downloaded the RehabMan kext, installed it using a "kext wizard", rebuilt the cache and permissions and now I have a crash. So I assume it's not really plug&play.

 

I will try booting from the USB stick and see if I can replace back the driver from there, hopefully it will work.

 

Edit: I've removed the offending VoodooPS2*kext from the terminal utility on the bootable usb stick then reinstalled it while using a USB keyboard. It's still the 'old' touchpad driver so tap-to-click and double-finger gestures do not work.

I can confirm however that sound works, webcam works, power management seems ok so far. Would wish there was a clear explanation on how to get the updated touchpad driver working.

 

Edit2: two-finger scrolling works, pretty strange that it does, alongside edge scrolling.

[brainwash]

I meant it was strange that 2 and 3 finger gestures were working but not single tap. Solved using the el capitan prefpane file. Many thanks, I don't see any other major issues so far.

[Blaggah]

I too am facing some weird issues on my 6220 i5 version. Since i insatalled el captain, my battery management keeps glitching, keeps disappearing and reappearing. I too am facing the lack of 2 finger scrolling. When i tried to use the new kext, my keybaord in general doesnt work at all.