[GUIDE] Dell XPS 15 (9550) Mojave 10.14 / 10.15 Quick Installation

[justanotherhackintoshguy]

On 5/14/2019 at 8:07 AM, golimpio said:

I've updated it to 10.14.5 and everything seems to work fine so far.ar.

 

I updated to 10.14.5 and the whole thing broken. I have to do a clean install again, everything is working now except for SLEEP

 

My machine won't go to sleep after I close the lid or hit Sleep manually, it will just turn off the screen and when I touch anything, the states will resume without me even have to type the password in.

 

Do you guys encounter anything like this before ? How can I fix this ? Thanks a lot

 

Note: I opened an issue on the Github repo for more convenient communication: https://github.com/wmchris/DellXPS15-9550-OSX/issues/108

Edited June 21, 2019 by lamhoangtung

[golimpio]

3 hours ago, lamhoangtung said:

 

I updated to 10.14.5 and the whole thing broken. I have to do a clean install again, everything is working now except for SLEEP

 

My machine won't go to sleep after I close the lid or hit Sleep manually, it will just turn off the screen and when I touch anything, the states will resume without me even have to type the password in.

 

Do you guys encounter anything like this before ? How can I fix this ? Thanks a lot

 

Note: I opened an issue on the Github repo for more convenient communication: https://github.com/wmchris/DellXPS15-9550-OSX/issues/108

 

I haven't found any issue related to upgrading from 10.14.4 to 10.14.5.

Before doing the upgrade, I've also updated clover to the latest version at the time. Kexts were the last ones from the project github repository.

[reece394]

7 hours ago, lamhoangtung said:

 

I updated to 10.14.5 and the whole thing broken. I have to do a clean install again, everything is working now except for SLEEP

 

My machine won't go to sleep after I close the lid or hit Sleep manually, it will just turn off the screen and when I touch anything, the states will resume without me even have to type the password in.

 

Do you guys encounter anything like this before ? How can I fix this ? Thanks a lot

 

Note: I opened an issue on the Github repo for more convenient communication: https://github.com/wmchris/DellXPS15-9550-OSX/issues/108

I did have an issue when installing an update before 10.14.5 I think to add support for syncing devices to iTunes and the drive disappeared after the it restarted. Clover did not see it or anything. Had to boot into my recovery memory stick and go to select bootup disk and the drive was there restarted and it was all good again. Haven't a clue what happened I was just glad my data didn't corrupt. This is why you make backups! Maybe the nvram corrupted or something not sure but glad I tried that or I would have wiped my drive and started from scratch.

[Otto Katz]

Sorry for newbie question... I'm first time owner of Dell laptop. It is Precision 5510. Can I use this guide to install hackintosh on it ? As I understand XPS and 5510 are almost the same models.

 

Thank you!

[reece394]

16 hours ago, Otto Katz said:

Sorry for newbie question... I'm first time owner of Dell laptop. It is Precision 5510. Can I use this guide to install hackintosh on it ? As I understand XPS and 5510 are almost the same models.

 

Thank you!

You might get it to work using the guides for the XPS 15 but I would try and actively seek out guides for your specific laptop model. Most of the parts are the same minus processor and graphics cards differences. You may have issues with the processor since Xeon mobile processors are not used natively in MacBook Pros so you may need to spoof the CPU ID to make it look like an i7. Good luck!

[golimpio]

Testing 10.15 Public Beta on XPS 15 9550 and so far it's usable:

• Latest Clover
• No changes to my config.plist (but I already had -lilubetaall on it)
• Built VirtualSMC from source (trunk) in order to have it working (internal battery wasn't being recognised)
• Updated to latest Lilu and WhateverGreen
• Needed to restore it from time machine - I had an issue with my display, it turned off while installing and I couldn't turn it on to see the progress of the installation, so at some point I turned the laptop off, probably interrupting the install process (I can't tell if it's possible to just upgrade it from 10.14 and have the data migrated automatically to 10.15) - I had a second 10.15 install ready on a pendrive, so the second time, I install 10.15 from the pendrive instead.
• Everything seems to be working as before, but bluetooth and external monitor (haven't look at it yet)
• First 3 or 4 boots I didn't have touchpad at all, have to use an external mouse
• Touchpad seems to be better (more smooth/responsive), but only after several boots I could setup it on System Preferences/Trackpad. Initially it wasn't being recognised as a trackpad (so I guess it's a bit unstable)
• External monitor worked initially, but now it's not working (probably something I've forgotten/missed) 

So, it's a bit unstable as expected for a first public beta, it's weird that things started to work after a few boots, but I think it will be an easy upgrade at the time we have the first 10.15 official release and most of kexts upgraded.

[golimpio]

On 6/30/2019 at 12:31 PM, golimpio said:

Testing 10.15 Public Beta on XPS 15 9550 and so far it's usable:

• Latest Clover
• No changes to my config.plist (but I already had -lilubetaall on it)
• Built VirtualSMC from source (trunk) in order to have it working (internal battery wasn't being recognised)
• Updated to latest Lilu and WhateverGreen
• Needed to restore it from time machine - I had an issue with my display, it turned off while installing and I couldn't turn it on to see the progress of the installation, so at some point I turned the laptop off, probably interrupting the install process (I can't tell if it's possible to just upgrade it from 10.14 and have the data migrated automatically to 10.15) - I had a second 10.15 install ready on a pendrive, so the second time, I install 10.15 from the pendrive instead.
• Everything seems to be working as before, but bluetooth and external monitor (haven't look at it yet)
• First 3 or 4 boots I didn't have touchpad at all, have to use an external mouse
• Touchpad seems to be better (more smooth/responsive), but only after several boots I could setup it on System Preferences/Trackpad. Initially it wasn't being recognised as a trackpad (so I guess it's a bit unstable)
• External monitor worked initially, but now it's not working (probably something I've forgotten/missed) 

So, it's a bit unstable as expected for a first public beta, it's weird that things started to work after a few boots, but I think it will be an easy upgrade at the time we have the first 10.15 official release and most of kexts upgraded.

Bluetooth is working after using a more updated kext (with support for Catalina) from this fork:

• https://github.com/headkaze/OS-X-BrcmPatchRAM

But it wasn't enough to just update the current kexts, I had to use BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext in order to have bluetooth back.

•  

 

[golimpio]

Just an update about the bluetooth fix on Catalina, I have tested playing music on a bluetooth speaker and also accessing the iPhone personal hotspot via bluetooth. Both worked fine, but I just tested it for a couple of hours.

I have 3 kexts installed in order to have bluetooth working properly:

- BrcmPatchRAM2.kext

- BrcmFirmwareData.kext

- BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext

 

The last kext (BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext) shouldn't be installed with the first 2 in my list (as per instruction in the project page). But if I don't install them all, bluetooth won't fully work.

About the wifi on Catalina, it works full speed, but I noticed that after it wakes up from sleep, the speed drops a lot. I've seen this issue reported before (not sure if it was for this laptop), but I didn't find a solution for it yet.

[reece394]

On 7/2/2019 at 11:15 PM, golimpio said:

Just an update about the bluetooth fix on Catalina, I have tested playing music on a bluetooth speaker and also accessing the iPhone personal hotspot via bluetooth. Both worked fine, but I just tested it for a couple of hours.

I have 3 kexts installed in order to have bluetooth working properly:

- BrcmPatchRAM2.kext

- BrcmFirmwareData.kext

- BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext

 

The last kext (BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext) shouldn't be installed with the first 2 in my list (as per instruction in the project page). But if I don't install them all, bluetooth won't fully work.

About the wifi on Catalina, it works full speed, but I noticed that after it wakes up from sleep, the speed drops a lot. I've seen this issue reported before (not sure if it was for this laptop), but I didn't find a solution for it yet.

Yes this is a very annoying common problem. Look here for ideas you may need to add more kexts such as FakePCIID_Broadcom_WiFi.kext or other fixup kexts since you need the bluetooth injector stuff. I recommend as the guide states just remove all the WiFi related patches and see if it can run with just AirportBrcmFixup first before doing the other stuff. All about experimentation. Good Luck!

[reece394]

Also @golimpio if you are up for it you could try OpenCore bootloader as well it got updated to 0.0.3 with fixes for our laptop such as the SMBIOS patch .Since you are on a beta of Catalina why not? It is far more lightweight than Clover and fixes a lot of issues that are caused by Clover itself. Something to consider anyway. When Catalina comes out fully I would recommend the switch to OpenCore from what I have observed it seems a far better fit for our modern computers vs Clover. 

[golimpio]

5 hours ago, reece394 said:

Also @golimpio if you are up for it you could try OpenCore bootloader as well it got updated to 0.0.3 with fixes for our laptop such as the SMBIOS patch .Since you are on a beta of Catalina why not? It is far more lightweight than Clover and fixes a lot of issues that are caused by Clover itself. Something to consider anyway. When Catalina comes out fully I would recommend the switch to OpenCore from what I have observed it seems a far better fit for our modern computers vs Clover. 

 

Thanks for the recommendations, I'm testing the second public beta now, and it won't boot with SMCBatteryManager.kext (even the latest one, with Catalina fixes), I'm trying to find out what I've done wrong. OpenCore seems to be promising, I'll have a look at it.

[golimpio]

Last VirtualSMC kexts are working again for the latest Catalina public beta (battery indicator is back).
Upgrading from beta 1 to the second public beta required the latest kexts, but other than that it was fine, just a normal upgrade process. The setup was done pretty much on the new Catalina system partition, so all the user's data were intact, no need to restore my data from the time machine.
Everything is working as before, my system feels more responsive though (trackpad gestures are great, time to launch applications seems to have improved, faster boot), but this might be in part because I've installed Catalina Beta 1 from scratch (I've restored my backup to a different user, so I just copied the stuff that I needed).

[fxfrontside]

Hello, does anyone have problem with blurry fonts? My spec: 

Dell Precision 5510 i7-6820HQ HD530 16GB FHD screen and external monitor Dell P2211h FHD. Mojave 10.14.5. 

Especially visible on OneNote program. Problem occurs on built-in and external monitor. 

This method help a little bit:

defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO

But my eyes are still bleeding. 

Edited July 8, 2019 by fxfrontside

[golimpio]

On 7/8/2019 at 5:39 PM, fxfrontside said:

Hello, does anyone have problem with blurry fonts? My spec: 

Dell Precision 5510 i7-6820HQ HD530 16GB FHD screen and external monitor Dell P2211h FHD. Mojave 10.14.5. 

Especially visible on OneNote program. Problem occurs on built-in and external monitor. 

This method help a little bit:

defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO

But my eyes are still bleeding. 

I haven't experienced any issues with the XPS 15 4k internal display font rendering, fonts are still very good.

 

I've noticed some difference with an old monitor though (connected via HDMI cable), the font rendering on that monitor (HP LP2475w) was really bad. I've tried to change CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled, but it didn't help much. And then, today I've turned on my laptop and connected it to that monitor again for testing, and magically the fonts are a lot better now.
 

I don't know what happened, I can't tell you if it's a bad HDMI cable, also I'm running 10.15 beta, which is not stable yet, but it shouldn't make a huge difference on font rendering.

 

When you change the 'Use font smoothing when available'  settings (in System Preferences > General), does it make any difference?

[Krim404]

Short update regarding the WD15 USB-C Docking station

 

Working:

• USB Ports (all of them)
• HDMI and VGA out
• Headphone out
• Charging
• Power Button

Needs work

• Network - requires installation of the realtek drivers. See Tutorial at the bottom

Doesn't work

• Hotplug - needs to be plugged in on boot
• Display Port - display gets in a detection loop - no out
• Breaking sleep - requires replugging or hangs completly - disable sleep!

Edited July 15, 2019 by wmchris

[Krim404]

upgrade to 10.14.6 works without a problem. just upgrade clover to 5018 before.

[yugioh1412]

Do most XPS 9550s come with a dw1830? Does it work oob or if kexts are needed, which ones do i need? 

[alireza73uk]

8 hours ago, yugioh1412 said:

Do most XPS 9550s come with a dw1830? Does it work oob or if kexts are needed, which ones do i need? 

Hi, I have a DW1830 and successfully installed Hackintosh on my system by just following wmchris's amazing guide without any other modifications.

@wmchris Thank you so much.

[mr. baltazar]

A big thanks to @wmchris for all his amazing efforts on the 9550 over this past couple years!

I made a "no Mac needed" video tutorial on YouTube using this guide if anyone is interested. Also the Dell TB16 dock is hot-pluggable both plug and unplug. Works flawlessly, including charging since it has the 180w power supply:

 

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by mr. baltazar

[Krim404]

3 hours ago, mr. baltazar said:

A big thanks to @wmchris for all his amazing efforts on the 9550 over this past couple years!

I made a "no Mac needed" video tutorial on YouTube using this guide if anyone is interested. Also the Dell TB16 dock is hot-pluggable both plug and unplug. Works flawlessly, including charging since it has the 180w power supply:

if you promise not to monetize the video, i would love to include it inside the tutorial :-)

btw: the nvidia card works and there are drivers, but there is no connector to the outside. the switching between intel gma and nvidia is the one without driver support. maybe you want to add this as a note to your video

Edited August 2, 2019 by wmchris

[mr. baltazar]

6 hours ago, wmchris said:

if you promise not to monetize the video, i would love to include it inside the tutorial :-)

btw: the nvidia card works and there are drivers, but there is no connector to the outside. the switching between intel gma and nvidia is the one without driver support. maybe you want to add this as a note to your video

I see, I thought nv_disable needs to be entered on the 9550?

Also I'm not popular enough to monentize the video lol I created a couple videos prior using your guide.. they garnered a good amount of views. Just out here trying to help people out. I can create follow up videos if you have any specific things you'd like me to mention.

[nabeelmoeen]

On 8/2/2019 at 1:56 PM, mr. baltazar said:

A big thanks to @wmchris for all his amazing efforts on the 9550 over this past couple years!

I made a "no Mac needed" video tutorial on YouTube using this guide if anyone is interested. Also the Dell TB16 dock is hot-pluggable both plug and unplug. Works flawlessly, including charging since it has the 180w power supply:

 

 

hey, thats awesome news on the TB16.

on a road trip at the moment so haven’t had a chance to view the video but couldn’t resist asking.

 

any special handling/drivers to make it work?

i am on 10.14 using wmchris original guide and the tb16 doesn’t work hot pluggable

 

 

[golimpio]

Latest macOS 10.15 19A526h (Public Beta 4) is working without any new issue. Upgrading from Beta 3 was also very smooth and didn't require any change to what we already have on Github.

[mr. baltazar]

On 8/3/2019 at 12:06 AM, nabeelmoeen said:

hey, thats awesome news on the TB16.

on a road trip at the moment so haven’t had a chance to view the video but couldn’t resist asking.

 

any special handling/drivers to make it work?

i am on 10.14 using wmchris original guide and the tb16 doesn’t work hot pluggable

 

 

TB16 works out of the box. Nothing extra installed. Hot pluggable 100%

[tiger511]

On 7/4/2019 at 9:53 PM, reece394 said:

Also @golimpio if you are up for it you could try OpenCore bootloader as well it got updated to 0.0.3 with fixes for our laptop such as the SMBIOS patch .Since you are on a beta of Catalina why not? It is far more lightweight than Clover and fixes a lot of issues that are caused by Clover itself. Something to consider anyway. When Catalina comes out fully I would recommend the switch to OpenCore from what I have observed it seems a far better fit for our modern computers vs Clover. 

did you  try opencore in our laptop? had any success so far?