Dell Precision M6600 and MacOS Lion - driver/howto

[RockoDesvan]

Hey guys,

A fellow m6600 owner here, the first thing I did with my machine was install snow leopard followed shortly by lion. It's been "running" for almost 2 months now. However one huge issue has plagued the entire time, and I was wondering if any of you had any input or different experiences.

I've gotten all of the major components of my machine to work, however I have never been able to get the expected Geekbench results to show that the hardware is being fully utilized. I score around 7,000 to 8,000 points. Which is very low for a Core i7 machine and the same as my 4 year old core 2 duo powered laptop.

Now I know that these benchmarks are not THE measure by which I should rate my machine, however, I can see the lack of performance in everyday tasks. Flash videos are just unwatchable due to extreme choppiness, many transitions inherit to OSX have bouts of noticeable lag, even scrolling in Firefox and Safari isnt nearly as smooth as in Windows. So clearly, I'm missing something.

Anybody else seeing this?

How did you manage to get the scrolling working? I have both touchpad and stick pointer to work, but no luck with the scrolling. The was a kext that kinda worked, but the pointer get crazy with it.

 

[Aaron J]

I actually didn't get it working. From what I understand scrolling doesn't work with the ALPS touchpads used in our Dells. Only the synaptics touchpads have scrolling in OSX. My touchpad and pointer work the same as yours.

 

[Oreon]

Can anyone tell me which guide to use ?
I've tried different guides but doesn't work too good!

And the link in the Startpost doesn't work,
can anyone maybe write a guide on this?

Thanks!

 

[Oreon]

I used the USB guide form Madl0n.
And everytime i try to boot from the harddrive i get a kernelpanic!

I used MacBook Pro 8,1 Extra folder and the dsdt.aml from Madl0n but at no avail, it boots fine from the usb bootloader but not from the harddrive bootloader which is the same!

Can somebody help?

Thanks!

 

[RockoDesvan]

I used the USB guide form Madl0n.
And everytime i try to boot from the harddrive i get a kernelpanic!

I used MacBook Pro 8,1 Extra folder and the dsdt.aml from Madl0n but at no avail, it boots fine from the usb bootloader but not from the harddrive bootloader which is the same!

Can somebody help?

Thanks!

Try using "MacPro3,1", is the one working for me.

Now, you need to install the proper kexts to make this work, and Chimera.
The ones I'm using are going to be attached here.

I recommend you to follow the next guide:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185097

It was made specifically for a desktop hackintosh, but putting the kexts I'm attaching here, the installer works for our laptops.

I'm also attaching a DSDT I customized for my m6600 (with Quadro 3000m), if it helps.

The latest version of chimera now recognize the quadro 3000m properly, by the way.

One last thing: even with the proper kexts and the customized DSDT, the m6600 does not work completely well; from time to time, I get freezes, or kernel panics related to graphics issues. Still, a lot better than when I started!

 

[inheavens]

I failded install lion 10.7.2 on my laptop m6600(m8900, i5 2540m). halted on "still waiting for root device"

Could you tell me your chameleon edition and send me the "dsdt" and "extra fold".

my email is [email protected] or [email protected]

 

[IvanPistoff]

Try using "MacPro3,1", is the one working for me.

Now, you need to install the proper kexts to make this work, and Chimera.
The ones I'm using are going to be attached here.

I recommend you to follow the next guide:
http://www.insanelymac_.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=185097

It was made specifically for a desktop hackintosh, but putting the kexts I'm attaching here, the installer works for our laptops.

I'm also attaching a DSDT I customized for my m6600 (with Quadro 3000m), if it helps.

The latest version of chimera now recognize the quadro 3000m properly, by the way.

One last thing: even with the proper kexts and the customized DSDT, the m6600 does not work completely well; from time to time, I get freezes, or kernel panics related to graphics issues. Still, a lot better than when I started!

Dude! Thanks for the files. I got mine working. The link to the guide wasn't working but adding your files to the unibeast USB boot installer worked like a charm... But not lucky charms thats just silly.

 

[inheavens]

I put voodoohda(2.7.2) in extra folder ,and the audio is ok.

2.7.3 was unstable

 

[thompagr]

Guys,
Can I ask on where to start my effort to install MacOsX on my laptop which is a Dell precision m 6600 with an ATi firegl pro v8900, one sdd two hdd, In one of the hdd I would like to install the MacOsX. which and how do I put the DSDT and the rest on fresh copy of MACOSX LION 10.7.3.

Thank you and please notice that I am new in the process.

 

[IvanPistoff]

Guys,
Can I ask on where to start my effort to install MacOsX on my laptop which is a Dell precision m 6600 with an ATi firegl pro v8900, one sdd two hdd, In one of the hdd I would like to install the MacOsX. which and how do I put the DSDT and the rest on fresh copy of MACOSX LION 10.7.3.

Thank you and please notice that I am new in the process.

I'm not sure about the ATi card, sorry. Mine's got the nVidea Quadro 3000M

As for the install follow the Unibeast guide. You will need to copy the .kext files from here or use the list as an example of what to select in Multibeast. I had to skip the AppleIntelE1000e and the VoodooHDA.prefPane files because of panics.

Copy the DSDT.aml file to your desktop. When you run Multibeast and select the DSDT install it will find it and install it.

Good Luck!