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

[jkbuha]

Try other ig-platform-ids. Suggest you extract all of them from the binary and try each.
For some of them, you may need to increase DVMT-prealloc.

Also, an ioreg from a retina KabyLake MacBookPro might be useful. Perhaps there is some property we should be injecting. And it would tell us which ig-platform-id is being used.

Will do.
Would you suggest a different SMBIOS to Macbook9,1?

 

[RehabMan]

Will do.
Would you suggest a different SMBIOS to Macbook9,1?

Macbook9,1 is Skylake...
So, there are potentially better choices for KabyLake hardware such as yours.
Refer to everymac.com.

I think it is likely this is DVMT-prealloc related and related to the framebuffer memory settings (framebuffer size/cursor bytes size). 128mb prealloc with larger memory buffers likely to be helpful.

 

[jkbuha]

After some testing, MacbookPro14,3 solves the issue on my i7-7500U with UHD. ig-platform-id is set to 591b0000, and the system works with HWP set on or off.

In so doing I've extracted a number of other ig-platform-id from the binary. Haven't tested them but here they are:

59120000
591B0000
591B0006
591D0000
591E0000
591E0001
59230000
59260000
59260002
59270000
59270004
59270009

 

[RehabMan]

After some testing, MacbookPro14,3 solves the issue on my i7-7500U with UHD. ig-platform-id is set to 591b0000, and the system works with HWP set on or off.

In so doing I've extracted a number of other ig-platform-id from the binary. Haven't tested them but here they are:

59120000
591B0000
591B0006
591D0000
591E0000
591E0001
59230000
59260000
59260002
59270000
59270004
59270009

MacBookPro14,3 might have issues as it has discrete graphics.
MacBookPro14,1 might be a better choice.

 

[jkbuha]

The MBP14,1 definitely looks better. It has the i7-7660U CPU which is on the latest XPS models.
Do you know if/where I can find the Mac- plist to test?
Scratch that. Found it. MBP14,1 is Mac-B4831CEBD52A0C4C.plist

 

[jkbuha]

Ok so the screen issues on battery power are solved with a combo of board id and dvmt patching.

The one final issue is that the screen issues still happen whilst the screen turns off and on when power is plugged in. What is the difference here?

 

[RehabMan]

Ok so the screen issues on battery power are solved with a combo of board id and dvmt patching.

The one final issue is that the screen issues still happen whilst the screen turns off and on when power is plugged in. What is the difference here?

Did you implement backlight control correctly?
I ask because plugging/unplugging from AC causes automatic brightness adjustments.

 

[jkbuha]

Yes I used your kext patches for AppleBacklightInjector. The issues happen when the laptop is already plugged in and screen is off, and a key is pressed or wake event happens.

 

[jkbuha]

All screen glitches are now fixed on Sierra 10.12.6 with native Kaby Lake drivers on the i7-7500U with UHD. Thanks @RehabMan for helping me find a solution.

The solution involves a number of fixes, namely:

1) BIOS DVMT pre-alloc patching from 32MB to 128MB (setup_var 0x785 0x04)
2) BIOS DVMT max-alloc patching from 256MB to MAX (setup_var 0x786 0x03)
3) DVMT Framebuffer kext patch for ig-platform-id 59160000 - increase to 80MB and Cursor buffer to 12MB Cursor
4) Change SMBIOS to MacBookPro14,1

I've attached my Clover file for anyone with the QHD screen experiencing the same issues (in theory you should all see this at some point if you're using the native KBL drivers on Dell's QHD display). Note that I've disabled HWP and PluginType as I'm seeing approx 10-15% higher scores on Geekbench. Also I've discovered you can tweak your GT overclocking settings using UEFI variables, yielding another 5-10% increase, but that's for another post.

 

[tamerlan4572]

All screen glitches are now fixed on Sierra 10.12.6 with native Kaby Lake drivers on the i7-7500U with UHD. Thanks @RehabMan for helping me find a solution.

The solution involves a number of fixes, namely:

1) BIOS DVMT pre-alloc patching from 32MB to 128MB (setup_var 0x785 0x04)
2) BIOS DVMT max-alloc patching from 256MB to MAX (setup_var 0x786 0x03)
3) DVMT Framebuffer kext patch for ig-platform-id 59160000 - increase to 80MB and Cursor buffer to 12MB Cursor
4) Change SMBIOS to MacBookPro14,1

I've attached my Clover file for anyone with the QHD screen experiencing the same issues (in theory you should see this at some point if you're using the native KBL drivers on the Dell's QHD display). Note that I've disabled HWP and PluginType as I'm seeing approx 10-15% higher scores on Geekbench. Also I've discovered you can tweak your GT overclocking settings using UEFI variables, yielding another 5-10% increase, but that's for another post.

Thank you kind sir I also have qhd+ version. I was keeping a close eye on this thread. Thanks for troubleshooting