Contribute
Register

Guide: Dell XPS 8500

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
20
Motherboard
Dell XPS 8500
CPU
i7 3770
Graphics
HD 4000
Hi,

I thought I would write this guide since I got my XPS 8500 working with Mountain Lion. Here is what I did/used:

First, the hardware:

- Dell XPS 8500
- ATI Radeon 7770 (doesn't work, but I can leave it in my system and not worry about it. I keep it in my system to boot into Windows for games)
- Core i7 3770
- Intel HD Graphics 4000 (this does work and I use it for Mac OS X).
- Samsung SSD 830 Series

Steps:

1 - Plug your display into the HDMI port of the XPS 8500 (so you use the Intel HD Graphics 4000)

2- Make a Unibeast USB drive to install Mountain Lion. Use F12 to choose your USB boot device during POST. Use these boot options:

GraphicsEnabler=no -v

3 - After it boots, partition your drive with HFS+.

4 - Install Mountain Lion.

5 - After it reboots, boot AGAIN with the USB device using F12. Boot again with the flags GraphicsEnabler=no and 0 -v. When prompted for the actual boot drive, choose your new Mountain Lion installation. At this point, you can also use boot flags like "GraphicsMode"="1920x1200" (if you got that cool 24 inch monitor with the deal from Dell). That way, you can at least boot to full resolution.

6 - After it boots up, Ethernet works. So, you can download other things. Get Multibeast and install it. Install easybeast for now along with the lnx2mac realtek LAN kext.

7 - In the /Extra folder, we can add support for the HD 4000 easily by adding this device to the org.chameleon.Boot.plist file:

<key>device-properties</key>
<string>8800000001000000010000007c0000000200000002010c00d041030a000000000101060000027fff0400100000006d006f00640065006c0000001a000000496e74656c20484420477261706869637320343030302c0000004100410050004c002c00690067002d0070006c006100740066006f0072006d002d006900640000000800000005006201</string>

You must also set GraphicsEnabler to No in the file!

At this point, you are working fine with NullCPUPowerManagement. If you want to use AICPUPM, here is a link to the patched version from this forum:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...appleintelcpupowermanagement-kext-10-8-a.html

If you load that kext, make sure you disable NullCPUPowerManagment.kext in /S/L/E. I just rename mine so I can use it again if I need to. With the patched kext, sleep works. However, there is a weird bug where if I shutdown after I sleep once, the machine beeps and does not shutdown properly. I suggest using the patched AICPUPM kext because it seems to make my machine really fast. My machine seems a bit slower with NullCPUPowerManagement.

Oh - forgot to mention audio. i use VoodooHDA with the kext altered with this device/vendor id:

<key>IOPCIPrimaryMatch</key>
<string>0x1e208086</string>

I have to also use the front headphone ports for audio. I can't seem to get the back ports to work. I haven't really investigated this as deep as I would like, but I'm satisfied with the front audio working.
 
Leonowski,

I have the XPS 8500 with ATI 7570 and have it booting from the USB drive, with GraphicsEnabler=No, but not booting from the SSD yet.

Ethernet works with mine as well - so why is the Realtek kext needed?

I see that Intel HDA audio is detected by System Profiler, but I have yet to try it.

Where do I find the org.chameleon.Boot.plist file, and what tool is used to edit it?

Appreciate it.

J
 
Hi JHM,

- Ethernet works when you boot from Unibeast as Unibeast contains almost everything needed to boot almost any Intel based system. It also includes the lnx2mac realtek drivers. However, the eventual goal is to be able to boot without Unibeast and use only what you need for your particular system. So, at some point you will need to install the lnx2mac realtek drivers. You can use the installer from Multibeast or direct from here http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/realtekrtl81xx-osx-driver.html

- Intel HDA audio did not work from me out of the box. Were you able to get sound while booting with Unibeast?

- org.chameleon.Boot.plist is installed with the Chimera or Chameleon bootloader. It's used to define a lot of startup parameters. It is found in /Extra

The Chimera bootloader is installed by Multibeast when you choose the easybeast set. This installs basic stuff like Chimera, nullcpupowermanagement.kext, etc.

Also - I just realized that the latest Multibeast can install the patched nullcpupowermanagement.kext file. You can choose that in the Wizard. Also, the great thing about all of this is that no DSDT is required for any of this. It all works great for me.
 
Leonowski,

I haven't had much time to play with this but I did see that the Intel HD Audio was detected but did not work without additional driver. I used the first of the Voodoo drivers (two state that they are unstable and add a prefpane; I avoided those) but the audio did not work with that driver either.

It does boot though, that's cool. I am new to this so even booting is cool.

Any chance that Audio is enabled via HDMI? That is, could you have both sound and video if you hooked up to an HDTV via HDMI?

I may get a GeForce 640 (or 650 when available) as I hear that they are very compatible. But I am thinking of hooking mine up to HDTV anyway.

How do you manually edit those plists? Just a text editor?

Thanks

JHM
 
Hi JHM,

Yes, any text editor will do. I use the GUI based editor "Text Wrangler" http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/textwrangler/id404010395?mt=12

Or, you can use any of the CLI ones like vi or nano. There's also another GUI one built into mac os x called "text editor".

I haven't explored HDMI audio - but you might still be able to use voodoohda for that. Or, look at this forum for those who use HDMI audio with HD3000/HD40000. A long time ago (on a different hackintosh), I got HDMI audio to work from a supported ATI card using voodoohda.

If you want to go the HDTV route, I definitely recommend one of the supported cards. But, if you can get the HD4000 HDMI audio working, that may be sufficient for your HDTV needs.
 
Still haven't gotten around to playing with this much. Soon. I see the EVGA GeForce GT 640 seems to be working well for some folks here, I may have to go with that.

Can you give me the full path to the plist files?

And do you recall which Voodoo driver you checked? I used the only one that did not say that it was unstable, but it also had the earliest version number; it didn't work.

Thanks

JHM
 
Dell XPS 8500 Desktop
3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz
Bluetooth
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0 +LE
1GB AMD Radeon HD 7570 Graphics
460W Power Supply
1GB AMD Radeon HD 7570 Graphics
Internal High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio with WAVES MAXX Audio

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11771402&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=78518&b=1&lang=en-US

I have removed 4Gigs as suggested and only have 4Gig in one slot.
also tried with a smaller SATA drive.

I am trying to install Mountain Lion on this Dell XPS 8500. This is my first time attempting this, out of curiosity.

I have created the USB Boot disk and was able to start the install process with the GraphicsEnabler=no -v options.

Installer runs for a while detecting hardware and gets hung at a point with the message
Still waiting for root device, and keeps retrying but doesnt go beyond that.

I get the message Framework successfully installed
Then get the [PCI configuration begin ] and end section
Can't load kext com.apple.com.driver.Apple.HDACController - failed to load (0xdc88888e)
Couldnt alloc class "Apple HDACController"

finnally USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): hex data here
Still waiting for root device (loops here)

booting.jpg

Any ideas?
TIA
 
Hi msooriarachchi,

I haven't tried the latest Unibeast, but I don't think anything changed that would cause this.

"Waiting for root device" is simply an error that means that it can't find the boot volume (which, in this case is just the USB flash drive itself). So, I would try plugging it into a different USB port. Did you happen to plug it into one of the blue ports on the back of the XPS 8500? You probably shouldn't use those because those are USB 3.0 ports. When I usb the Unibeast boot drive, I use one of the top 2 USB ports on the XPS 8500 (on top of the machine next to the top headphone/microphone jacks).

If you still have a problem, I will try the latest Unibeast when I get home and see if I can reproduce the problem.
 
Thanks for the reply. No, I had the usb drive plugged into the front port. Interestingly the front USB ports were blue, not the ones on the top panel. I'm trying non blue ports on back now.

I recreated the USB drive, and installed MultiBeast after installing UniBeast and managed to get further. Also installed the RealTek installer that popped up during the MultiBeast install.

Its now hanging up at
[en0:rtl8168_phy_power_up] returns

booting.jpg
 
Leonowski,

Thanks for the help. I managed to get to the installer. Had to remake my USB drive, then used the on board HDMI port instead of the AMD Graphics card. Also used one of the USB ports on the back of the PC instead of the front blue ports.

Its doing the OSX install now :) Will see how the rest goes.

Thanks
Again
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top