Alienware 17 R3

[RehabMan]

i jumped the gun slightly and found some guys who were making progress with very similar systems so i borrowed their EFI folder on a whim and managed to install 10.11.6.

Works great from USB in safe mode (but no wifi/sound or GTX980M...........expected)
but goes into a loop without safe mode (verbose => reaches apple logo =>then black screen and unreadable (fast) flash of text every 5secs and no progress.

in clover i choose verbose and nv_disable=1 (set by config.plist)

I've attached the efi folder here EFI.zip

in the meantime i will re read the info about 'if you've already installed OS X' in patching guide

Using patched ACPI files from another computer is always a very bad idea.

 

[Bozmantate]

i know, i read that in bold in your guide.

I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at with the DSDT/SSDT patching. (man my desktop system was effortless compared to this)

i understand that the files came from BIOS and we are bypassing them with clover in order to manipulate them for our system/installation (i assume the original set stay with the motherboard and are called when windows loads?).

I've managed to decompile them and look at them with MaciASL, but i have no idea wether something needs patching or not?

I'm currently using my desktop Yosemite Hack to view/create the USB/EFI (not for Clover F4 - extracting DSDT/SSDT's obviously)

should there still be files in the origin folder (or is this folder transparent during boot)

I've still got my original config.plist (the one i couldn't get to boot) so am i best reverting back to that stage?

 

[RehabMan]

I've managed to decompile them and look at them with MaciASL, but i have no idea wether something needs patching or not?

Read the guide: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-patching-laptop-dsdt-ssdts.152573/

Common patches are mentioned as well as situation specific patches.

should there still be files in the origin folder (or is this folder transparent during boot)

ACPI/origin files are created when you press F4 to extract native ACPI.
They are not used by the boot process.

I've still got my original config.plist (the one i couldn't get to boot) so am i best reverting back to that stage?

Suggest you follow the guide: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-booting-the-os-x-installer-on-laptops-with-clover.148093/

 

[Bozmantate]

so rebuild the installer USB? its this bit that confuses me......

2. Clover bootloader screen shows up, select "install_osx". This is the partition on the USB you created earlier. Note: You can press spacebar at this point to change how Clover boots OS X (verbose, without caches, etc). Verbose is a good idea when you're not certain if it is going to work.

3. Press spacebar (or plug in a USB keyboard) if a nagging screen about Mouse/keyboard appears. Install screen will appear, use Disk Utility to format your drive as GPT, create a Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) partition and install OS X to your formatted partition. If you used the "Unibeast method" or "BaseBinaries clone method", skip to step 7. If you used the 'createinstall media' method, please continue, the installer will extract necessary files to and verify them against the USB. This takes a lot of time at the end, though you only see "a minute remaining". This will end PHASE 1.

So if i can't reach Phase 1 i have to go into the dark art of patching DSDT/SSDT's? in order to get to the Install Screen or just manipulate the config.plist / kext and .efi files?

 

[RehabMan]

so rebuild the installer USB? its this bit that confuses me......



So if i can't reach Phase 1 i have to go into the dark art of patching DSDT/SSDT's? in order to get to the Install Screen or just manipulate the config.plist / kext and .efi files?

Boot verbose, show photo. Attach EFI/Clover folder as ZIP (omit 'themes' folder).

 

[Bozmantate]

I'm just in the middle of re-building the installer following your guide and using the HD530 config.plist (you have the clover folder from the 'cloned' EFI system and it booted/installed OS X using safe mode but without safe mode it ended on black screen after loading all drivers,etc. 1sec of apple logo=> Black!). i will start from scratch again but at least we have the Cloned EFI to refer to if it helps....
Will send you a screen shot and new Clover ZIP as soon as i get there.....

 

[RehabMan]

I'm just in the middle of re-building the installer following your guide and using the HD530 config.plist (you have the clover folder from the 'cloned' EFI system and it booted/installed OS X using safe mode but without safe mode it ended on black screen after loading all drivers,etc. 1sec of apple logo=> Black!). i will start from scratch again but at least we have the Cloned EFI to refer to if it helps....
Will send you a screen shot and new Clover ZIP as soon as i get there.....

HD530 often needs FakePCIID.kext+FakePCIID_Intel_HD_Graphics.kext. Not for the installer, but for booting the installed partition without safe mode.

 

[Bozmantate]

ok so first output. this should be as per guide : zip is here CLOVER build 1 17 r3.zip


this is where we were to start and we were going to add USB Inject All i think?

 

[RehabMan]

ok so first output. this should be as per guide : zip is here CLOVER build 1 17 r3.zip
View attachment 212794 View attachment 212793 View attachment 212795

this is where we were to start and we were going to add USB Inject All i think?

GenericUSBXHCI.kext has no applicability to your hardware. So, not sure why you have it in kexts/Other.

Is this booting the installer? Or something else?

It could be one of the OEM SSDTs causing that panic. Using USBInjectAll.kext may help, or you may need to drop the SSDT causing the problem.

 

[Bozmantate]

this is booting the freshly made installer. I've removed GenericUSBXHCI.kext. is it worth a rerun or was it 'ignored' before?