[Guide] Dell XPS 13 9360 on MacOS Sierra 10.12.x - LTS (Long-Term Support) Guide

[xxcesarioxx]

@RehabMan Hi!

thanks for your support all along, my desktop hackintosh is working fine since i last seek your help.

I need your honest suggestions.

my macbook pro battery cycle life has come to an end. I was thinking of getting the XPS 13 or 15, do you think its worth it o r should i just get a macbook pro 2017 , 15 inch?

 

[RehabMan]

@RehabMan Hi!

thanks for your support all along, my desktop hackintosh is working fine since i last seek your help.

I need your honest suggestions.

my macbook pro battery cycle life has come to an end. I was thinking of getting the XPS 13 or 15, do you think its worth it o r should i just get a macbook pro 2017 , 15 inch?

If you want trouble free operation, buy a Mac.
If you want a project to tinker with (and to eat up all your time), buy a hackbook.

 

[jkbuha]

With latest ACPIBatteryManager.kext it always shows low battery popup and red icon on my laptop (even it's 66% remaining).

That's most definitely residual battery values stored in EC. Shutdown properly, unplug battery and CMOS battery, CTRL+ESC and reset to factory settings. If symptoms persist run coconutbattery and check condition & state of health.

Actually try the latest update from @RehabMan's repo - there's a fix for intermittent red battery...

 

[Zarkstar]

Thank you @RehabMan I had completely missed out the part in which I had to patch the DVMT to 96 or 128MB. However, I can't really understand how to properly change it. I tried to extract the BIOS using Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0 (as suggested in first post) but then the ROM file that I obtain (attached to this post) seems unusable. As I try put it in Universal-IFR-Extractor the result is a txt file that contains almost no info at all (attached as well, named variable exctract).I'm referring to Kinutsk's guide as it's the only one I could find. What am I missing? Should I use that file in another way?

 

[RehabMan]

Thank you @RehabMan I had completely missed out the part in which I had to patch the DVMT to 96 or 128MB. However, I can't really understand how to properly change it. I tried to extract the BIOS using Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0 (as suggested in first post) but then the ROM file that I obtain (attached to this post) seems unusable. As I try put it in Universal-IFR-Extractor the result is a txt file that contains almost no info at all (attached as well, named variable exctract).I'm referring to Kinutsk's guide as it's the only one I could find. What am I missing? Should I use that file in another way?

It is unfortunate that post #1 does not contain complete instructions for extracting IFR, etc.
You might read the rest of the thread to get further details.
I don't have this laptop...

 

[Zarkstar]

Ok thank you anyway! While I was trying to sort something up I managed to find the DXE Core file by putting the ROM in Phoenixtool. I've the DUMP folder filled with different files, but no one has a name which start as "FE3542FE". I wonder if the name depends on the machine... If anyone who has done this procedure is able to enlight me it would be awesome. I think that part of the guide can be improved, as it's probabily an easy task but it's kinda tricky (and I don't want to mess up the BIOS, so that's why I'm so unconfident trying...)

 

[jkbuha]

This is what I did to get to the setup file. Note that this is not a comprehensive guide but should get you part or all of the way, for the rest GIYF

1) Use UBE to dump the 16MB file as you have done
2) Load up Phoenix and select this dump file.
3) Go to the dump folder and sort by size, descending order
4) For my specific platform the setup file was named "899...ROM", size 864kb. If this file exists, goto 6.
5) If such a file does not exist, start working your way from the largest file downwards.
6) Load up UEFI IFR extractor and select the file.
7) If it has IFR strings the program will indicate so. Save the corresponding text file.
8) Find the variable which controls DVMT pre-alloc (in most cases for the 9360 its 0x785, this differs for all laptops).
9) Create a boot USB which has the shell efi containing the setup_var functionality (bozma's latest archive has this in the tools folder).
10) Boot using this USB and once you get to the shell enter 'setup_var 0x<variable> 0x02 (or any number up to 0x06)
11) Reboot, cross fingers and check.

As always - use with caution and always double check your work.

Good luck!

 

[tamerlan4572]

Wow thanks for your amazing work guys - Is there a plan for a high sierra migration?

 

[Zarkstar]

Thank you SO MUCH @jkbuha !
My only concern:

10) Boot using this USB and once you get to the shell enter 'setup_var 0x<variable> 0x02 (or any number up to 0x06)

The file I've extracted contain the following options:

Setting: DVMT Pre-Allocated, Variable: 0x785 {05 91 0A 05 1D 05 35 27 01 00 85 07 14 10 00 FE 00}
0x402A9 Option: 0M, Value: 0x0 {09 07 0B 05 00 00 00}
0x402B0 Option: 32M, Value: 0x1 {09 07 0C 05 30 00 01}
0x402B7 Option: 64M, Value: 0x2 {09 07 0D 05 00 00 02}
0x402BE Option: 4M, Value: 0xF0 {09 07 0E 05 00 00 F0}
0x402C5 Option: 8M, Value: 0xF1 {09 07 0F 05 00 00 F1}
0x402CC Option: 12M, Value: 0xF2 {09 07 10 05 00 00 F2}
0x402D3 Option: 16M, Value: 0xF3 {09 07 11 05 00 00 F3}
0x402DA Option: 20M, Value: 0xF4 {09 07 12 05 00 00 F4}
0x402E1 Option: 24M, Value: 0xF5 {09 07 13 05 00 00 F5}
0x402E8 Option: 28M, Value: 0xF6 {09 07 14 05 00 00 F6}
0x402EF Option: 32M/F7, Value: 0xF7 {09 07 15 05 00 00 F7}
0x402F6 Option: 36M, Value: 0xF8 {09 07 16 05 00 00 F8}
0x402FD Option: 40M, Value: 0xF9 {09 07 17 05 00 00 F9}
0x40304 Option: 44M, Value: 0xFA {09 07 18 05 00 00 FA}
0x4030B Option: 48M, Value: 0xFB {09 07 19 05 00 00 FB}
0x40312 Option: 52M, Value: 0xFC {09 07 1A 05 00 00 FC}
0x40319 Option: 56M, Value: 0xFD {09 07 1B 05 00 00 FD}
0x40320 Option: 60M, Value: 0xFE {09 07 1C 05 00 00 FE}
0x40327 End of Options {29 02}

so it appears that the option should be 0x2 (or more, in my case 0x4 as i need 128MB I suppose) but I've seen that you suggested to put 0x02 (or more, but always with two zeros). Could you confirm that it has to be 0x0n as 0<=n<=6?

Apologies for being so pedantic

-edit. I took my risks. The correct format is 0x0n but, if 0xn is typed the shell takes it anyway and convert it, so no risks in the end. Thanks again for the support, I hope everything goes smoothly now...

 

[jkbuha]

Any format works - 2/02/0x2/0x02 so don't worry