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

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Just updated to Mojave 14.2 (fresh install) using darkvoid's latest base config. Taking the config as is, without any modification managed to install the OS properly. The only catch at this stage was that the trackpad wasn't functional, and keyboard fn keys weren't working as expected. However, after i ran the shell script to patch the audio, all of the issues were resolved.

Then I realised that Wifi was working, but Bluetooth hardware wasn't detected at all. I added BrcmFirmwareData.kext as well as BrcmPatchRAM2.kext, and voila, Bluetooth hardware was detected (I'm using DW1560).

Hope this one is as stable as my current Sierra installation

Thanks to darkvoid, Rehabman, bozma88, and everyone who has made this possible!
Hey, I noticed you have the i5 version like mine. Are you using CPUFriend.kext? Have you rebuilt it or used the one provided by darkvoid?
 
Hey, I noticed you have the i5 version like mine. Are you using CPUFriend.kext? Have you rebuilt it or used the one provided by darkvoid?

You must customize it for your own CPU, the darkvoid's CPU is an i7. Every piece of Silicon is different, so YMMV.
 
You must customize it for your own CPU, the darkvoid's CPU is an i7. Every piece of Silicon is different, so YMMV.
Ok so I tried understanding something about CPUFriend but I'm unable to understand how to generate an useful data provider. From CPUFriend GitHub:
file should be a complete plist from /System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext/Contents/Resources or /System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/X86PlatformPlugin.kext/Contents/Resources with certain modifications (Otherwise why do you even need CPUFriend?) instead of something like a raw FrequencyVectors entry.
So if certain modidications are needed, what should I do? Avoid using CPUFriend? I already have smbios 14.1, I am unsure on how CPUFriend could be useful
 
Hey, I noticed you have the i5 version like mine. Are you using CPUFriend.kext? Have you rebuilt it or used the one provided by darkvoid?

Hi Coletz, yes I did build it for my own CPU.

HOWEVER, I'm not sure if i did it correctly, since i didn't see any differences in terms of my CPU PM (idle statys at 1.3GHz before and after). Gotta do more readings in achieving proper PM.

So if certain modidications are needed, what should I do? Avoid using CPUFriend? I already have smbios 14.1, I am unsure on how CPUFriend could be useful

Yeah I'm a bit confused about that too. I assumed that we need to modify the frequency vectors entry, at the very least, to match our CPU model. So what i did was:
1. Made a backup of my IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext,
2. Used the freqvectorsedit.sh to edit the frequencies
3. Used that edited IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext to generate CPUFriendProvider.kext
4. Placed the edited IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext, CPUFriendProvider.kext, CPUFriend.kext inside my Clover/Kexts

It would be great if anyone who has previously generated their own CPUFriend properly to confirm this :) Thankyou
 
Hello everyone, this is my first post on tonymacx86

I created a video walkthrough on configuring macOS Mojave on the laptop:

I am having only one issue: How to I make sleep functionality work?

When I configure the Library Kexts from darkvoid's folder, it makes the laptop
unable to sleep and wake up. Without those kexts, the laptop can sleep (but I prefer having Bluetooth enabled).

Thanks for providing that walkthrough video Mark, it was definitely helpful in a few steps that I had not gotten correct in my build.

I have managed to get Mojave 14.0 (not 14.0.2) installed on my XPS 9360 using your video, Darkvoid's setup, and the many comments/suggestions on this thread and others.

I am dual-booting with Windows (which I had to reinstall from scratch after reformatting to 4k sectors) and am using Clover as my boot loader for both OSX and Windows 10.

I am using the VoodooHDA for Audio, as I have not had luck with the AppleHDA or AppleALC Kext, but I have not added additional Layouts as per the Mojave guide, which may be required. My issue with the audio (so far) is that the microphone gain is set way too high, and doesn't appear to be adjustable making video conferencing not possible with the onboard mic. I'm also not using the ACPIBattery kext in Darkvoid's GitHub as per Mark's suggestion. On preliminary studying of it, it shouldn't be affecting the issue I am seeing below. I'm injecting the majority of the main kexts in CLOVER, rather than installing them in /Library/Extensions, so I'm not sure if that's an issue or not.

The biggest issue I am getting though, is consistent full-machine freezes where the screen blanks out, as is from sleep, but cannot be woken up, and the machine needs to be hard-booted by pressing the power button down for several seconds. This only seems to happen when the machine is going into some sleep/C-State mode. (I have C-states enabled in BIOS), and have specified all of the other recommended BIOS settings as per the original guide.

Any idea why I'd be getting these hard-crash/freezes? I've attached my CLOVER directory from EFI, my output from IOReg, console output from the various kext commands, and the DSTD files.

Any help with fixing the frequent (I think) sleep related freezes, and possibly the microphone gain issue would be greatly appreciated. I haven't tried upgrading to Mojave 14.0.2 as when I tried initially, the lack of trackpad support in the installer prevented me from selecting my OSX APFS drive, even with keyboard shortcuts. From the release notes on Apple, it doesn't appear that this is that important of an update, but if it's recommended to stability, I can give it a try.

Many thanks,
-Nate
 

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Ok so I tried understanding something about CPUFriend but I'm unable to understand how to generate an useful data provider. From CPUFriend GitHub:

So if certain modidications are needed, what should I do? Avoid using CPUFriend? I already have smbios 14.1, I am unsure on how CPUFriend could be useful

The original author PMheart said (in a GitHub issue) that the CPU frequency does not immediately affect the battery consumption, so having a lower frequency would not alter the battery consumption. Personally I wouldn't even bother.
 
The original author PMheart said (in a GitHub issue) that the CPU frequency does not immediately affect the battery consumption, so having a lower frequency would not alter the battery consumption. Personally I wouldn't even bother.
well if my pc is idle and the cpu freq is high, probably something is wrong. And I can clearly see that battery life is not comparable to any macbook with this setup (I can get max 4h using only a browser, while on my macbook I can get even 10h). With archlinux I used to get about 8h with this xps (2 months ago) so something is wrong (and I think is cpu since even in idle I can't get low freq). Maybe I'm totally wrong, that's just my experience
 
well if my pc is idle and the cpu freq is high, probably something is wrong. And I can clearly see that battery life is not comparable to any macbook with this setup (I can get max 4h using only a browser, while on my macbook I can get even 10h). With archlinux I used to get about 8h with this xps (2 months ago) so something is wrong (and I think is cpu since even in idle I can't get low freq). Maybe I'm totally wrong, that's just my experience

How high is ur freq on idle, Coletz? Yeah pretty much the same. I have about 3-4 hours too on this XPS on general use. But then again maybe it's due to the health of my battery (Coconut Battery reported that my battery health is at 65%). Will try to see how it behaves under Antergos.
 
How high is ur freq on idle, Coletz? Yeah pretty much the same. I have about 3-4 hours too on this XPS on general use. But then again maybe it's due to the health of my battery (Coconut Battery reported that my battery health is at 65%). Will try to see how it behaves under Antergos.
It's around 1.3ghz (i5 7200u)
 
@the-darkvoid I need your help with optimising the i7-8550U vectors.

I upgraded my motherboard into a i7-8550U w/ 16GB @ 2133Mhz. Surprisingly I can boot without CPUFriend, and it appears that I have most of the P-states as well, which means that XNU power management is working to some extent on 10.14.2.

I'm trying to optimise the CPU power profile now to maximise the performance under the 15W TDP. Not sure if I should use CPUFriend or not, or even Speed-Shift. Have you ever benchmarked the performance using Geekbench or any other tool? Any advice here would be appreciated.
 
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