Acer C720 i3 Chromebook Continued Work (SUCESS-ish)

Hey guys! Ive had Some success getting Mavericks Running on my new Chromebook. I read a lot of stuff about this laptop, as well as its Celeron Brother, in a few other theads, and I thought I would lay out what I have working:


Installer:
Latest Uni-Beast --> Laptop Support --> "-x -v" (safe mode) --> Installed (Trackpad not working, KB working)

(NOTE: I installed to an external USB Hard Drive for testing purposes)

First Boot:
"-x -v"

MultiBeast:
Bare Bones: FakeSMC, Default boot options

Reboot with flags:
"-x -v IGPEnabler=No"


Final Boot Flags:
"-v"

Graphics:
Odd, The HD4400 is identified in System Profiler, and system boots without "-x" or "IGPEnabler=No"

Battery:
VoodooBattery.kext works fine....

Audio:
No Progress Yet, Tried VooDooHDA.kext but have not tried any patching etc.

Keyboard:
Works under VoodooPS2Controller.kext

Trackpad:
No Progress Yet

SD Card Reader:
Works OOB

Camera:
Works OOB

PowerManagement:
Stepping works OOB, tested with AICPMI.kext and HWMonitor.
Sleep not tested/configured

WIFI: AR9462 SOLDERED TO BOARD
however there may be a spare M.2 connector for a WWAN Card, that could be used with wifi

Backlight: No Progress Yet. Always on high.

I will work on updating this as I proceed.
Any suggestions on things to try??

timvrakas said:

...

Backlight: No Progress Yet. Always on high.

I will work on updating this as I proceed.
Any suggestions on things to try??

Click to expand...

Post ioreg: http://www.tonymacx86.com/audio/58368-guide-how-make-copy-ioreg.html. Please, use the IORegistryExplorer v2.1 attached to the post! DO NOT reply to an ioreg from any other version of IORegistryExplorer.app.

Ok, Here is the IOReg

I have reinstalled a few times and i'm getting some weird behavior I cannot explain...

I install (boot installer with "-x -v", format usb hard drive, install)

Then reboot into OS with "-x -v"

Run MultiBeast:
--FakeSMC
--HWMon + Plugins
--PS/2 Keyboard/Mice Trackpad...
--Chimera v3.0.1
--Basic Boot Options
--Instant Menu
--Verbose Boot
--Black Theme

Then Run Chameleon Wizard:
--Graphics Mode: 1366x786x32
--SMBIOS: MacBookAir6,2

Then the weird stuff..
Boot up with "-v"; Wont Boot; Hangs after message about DRM...
Boot up with "-v"; Same thing
A Few more times.....
SUDDENLY! IT WORKS!
Right after DRM Message, The login Menu Appears!!

WHY?? Why does it take multiple boots? What has changed? GRRRR..

From that point on, It works! Boots every time (so far).

And this is not in safe mode, and with IGPEnabler=Yes (well, not =No)
Any Thoughts On this?

While IGP is Enabled, It is not functional. The Dock, Safari, Notifications Panel are all Glitchy. I assume this means no QE/CI. However, in System Information, The HD4400 is identified. (see picture)

Another Interesting Thing to Note; I cannot access "About this Mac" from the Apple Menu. The GUI crashes, I see a console, then get logged out and end up at the Login Window. I can however access "System Information" In the Utilities Folder.

Thanks for the Help!

View attachment Tim’s MacBook Pro.ioreg
View attachment Graphcs.tiff
View attachment Config.mb
View attachment org.chameleon.Boot.plist
View attachment SMBios.plist

timvrakas said:

Ok, Here is the IOReg

I have reinstalled a few times and i'm getting some weird behavior I cannot explain...

I install (boot installer with "-x -v", format usb hard drive, install)

Then reboot into OS with "-x -v"

Run MultiBeast:
--FakeSMC
--HWMon + Plugins
--PS/2 Keyboard/Mice Trackpad...
--Chimera v3.0.1
--Basic Boot Options
--Instant Menu
--Verbose Boot
--Black Theme

Then Run Chameleon Wizard:
--Graphics Mode: 1366x786x32
--SMBIOS: MacBookAir6,2

Then the weird stuff..
Boot up with "-v"; Wont Boot; Hangs after message about DRM...
Boot up with "-v"; Same thing
A Few more times.....
SUDDENLY! IT WORKS!
Right after DRM Message, The login Menu Appears!!

WHY?? Why does it take multiple boots? What has changed? GRRRR..

...

Click to expand...

The problem is your laptop has no MEI device which causes issues for AppleIntelHD5000Graphics.kext. Sometimes it will stop boot, other times not. In all cases it disables QE as the kext can't load without AppleIntelMEIDriver also loaded.

Note: You have CI, but no QE.

OK, that's interesting.

Would that explain random KPs a few minutes after boot? I assumed it was my USB Hard drive flaking out. I just reinstalled to the SDD. Is there a way to disable the system from trying to load whatever it is that's preventing boot? Make is more usable for the time being? On the other hand, is this MEI issue something that can be fixed with a patched bios? Chrome bios is compatible with coreboot, so that might help.

How about the other stuff?
--Backlight
--Battery (apparently voodoobattery is bad for PM/sleep?)
--Sound?
--WIFI (is using this card totally out of the question? It may not be replaceable)
--Trackpad

Thanks! This thing would be a MacBook Air killer at 250$

I crash out WindowServer (to console) when I click "About This Mac" too. But because I have a bleeding edge SeaBIOS, I have working brightness and I think QE/CI.

I've attached IOReg if you're curious, although the biggest problems I have are Yosemite and trackpad. I'm using USB wifi.

This is indeed correct. I have patched the coreboot BIOS on my Acer C720P (Core i3 + 4 GB) to enable the ME device. With FakePCIID I got QE/CI working.



I have used AppleHDA_ALC283 from https://github.com/RehabMan/Lenovo-U430-Touch-DSDT-Patch as well as the Clover AppleHDA patches which got the internal speakers working correctly. However, with headphones the sound quality is terrible. Any ideas?

This isn't the headphones or the audio card as they both work fine in Windows and Linux.

[video]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59964215/Video%20Dec%2012%2C%207%2008%2035%20PM.mov[/video]

Current Status:

Graphics: Working with QE/CI using custom BIOS + Clover + FakePCIID
HDMI: Video working with QE/CI, no audio. (Haven't tried patching for HDMI audio yet)
Audio: Speakers working, headphones glitchy with AppleHDA_ALC283. haven't tried VoodooHDA.
Keyboard: Working with VoodooPS2Controller
Trackpad: Not working (expected; needed a custom written driver even on Windows)
Touch Screen: Not working (expected; needed a custom written driver even on Windows)
WiFi: Using external Edimax EW-7811un
Battery: Working with VoodooBattery
Brightness: Not working yet, but possible as my custom BIOS adds ACPI brightness controls for Windows

If there's a fix for the audio issue on headphones I can look at porting the trackpad driver I wrote (https://github.com/coolstar/crostrackpad3) for Windows to OS X.

coolstarorg said:

...
I have used AppleHDA_ALC283 from https://github.com/RehabMan/Lenovo-U430-Touch-DSDT-Patch as well as the Clover AppleHDA patches which got the internal speakers working correctly. However, with headphones the sound quality is terrible. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

CodecCommander: https://github.com/RehabMan/EAPD-Codec-Commander

coolstarorg said:

This is indeed correct. I have patched the coreboot BIOS on my Acer C720P (Core i3 + 4 GB) to enable the ME device.

Graphics: Working with QE/CI using custom BIOS + Clover + FakePCIID

Click to expand...

The current johnlewis BIOS can boot Chameleon but does not seem to work with Clover. (I have not yet tried the full variety of USB drives on Clover...)

ETA: You've been very busy today, I see.

coolstarorg said:

This is indeed correct. I have patched the coreboot BIOS on my Acer C720P (Core i3 + 4 GB) to enable the ME device. With FakePCIID I got QE/CI working.

Click to expand...

Do you mind helping us out by explaining how to enable the MEI or if you don't have a lot of time, pointing us in the right direction to learn how?
This is the key to making this all work but I kept hitting a dead end when researching how to do it.
Intermittent kernel panics, buggy graphics, and boot issues are caused by the Intel Management Engine Interface being hidden. The machine HAS the device inside, it is just hidden. We need to enable it but since there is no GUI that a typical AMI or similar BIOS has, I just don't know how to get in and make any changes.

Thanks!