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

[bozma88]

@bozma88 I find it pretty difficult to keep my 9360 working consistently. The problems stem from audio drivers I think. Sometimes they cause the kernel to shoot up %400 CPU usage. Other times the audio stops working on reboot and I usually invalidate and rebuild the kext files and reboot again.

Got any advice for me? I'm trying to figure it out on my own but, I haven't yet.

I never, ever encountered issues with audio with CloverHDA.
Works beautifully before-after sleep and at every reboot. Audio never disappears.
It was an issue I had with other drivers I tried before settling with CloverHDA.
Are you sure you are using my exact config and nothing else?

 

[idotel]

I never, ever encountered issues with audio with CloverHDA.
Works beautifully before-after sleep and at every reboot. Audio never disappears.
It was an issue I had with other drivers I tried before settling with CloverHDA.
Are you sure you are using my exact config and nothing else?

I will go back over my config or possibly copy your config over in it's entirety. Not sure where the instability is coming from but it's possibly a hotpatch I didn't get quite right. I plugged in my headphones last night and after a few minutes the port just started playing noise and the Kernel_task was back at %200. In any case, thanks for making this thread and helping us all out. From reading the thread I have so much confidence that it will work that I just bought a 1TB SSD to replace my 128GB drive.

 

[pspracers]

finally ordered a i7, 16gb,512Gb,QHD model i found for less (and a broadcom card from china) but, i am not sure about the QHD display, does someone know if it is possible to change the display to a full hd one?

 

[the-braveknight]

Seems like a great hack laptop, I may consider buying one...
Nicely-written guide as well although I would use ACPI hotpatching instead, it's easier for users to apply, as well as it's somewhat resistant to BIOS updates/changes.

 

[jkbuha]

Right, following my post on what BIOS options to set for performance tuning, here is the dual booting bit.

I tend to find that, whilst I spend most of my time in OSX, having a ready formatted Windows partition is handy on a Dell machine. It's easier to apply most of the hardware-based upgrades and hacks, and also the games (and MS Office, surprisingly...) work much better in Windows. Also if things go wrong there is the win recovery partition to restore everything back to the day it was bought (keeping your warranty fresh, so to speak). So I use a method that's less intrusive to the default installation and is still easy to configure for dual booting. Here goes...

1) With the vanilla Dell/Win installation, boot into Windows 10
2) Load up Computer Management -> Disk Management
3) Select the largest partition (normally titled 'OS') and choose resize.
4) Now this is the strategic bit. It really depends on what sort of balance you want. I tend to split the partition 50/50 but it really depends on (i) what's installed (ii) how much you run in Win vs OSX.
5) In any case, whatever size you've chosen (or allowed to choose), format the new drive as NTFS and give it any name.
6) Download Clover EFI pkg to the macOS USB you intend to install SIERRA with.
7) Using the macOS USB install in the first post (or any vanilla USB) boot into the installer, and format the new drive as MacOS journaled. Install Sierra to this drive, make the necessary changes kext- and config- wise.
8) Don't reboot yet. Drop to terminal, and run clover setup. If this is not possible, reboot (or use another mac installation) and create a vanilla USB boot with clover, and boot into the new installation.
9) Install Clover to the ESP partition.
10) Boot into the UEFI Bios, and create a new UEFI entry, pointing to Clover this time (in my case its <guid>/EFI/BOOT/CLOVER/CLOVERX64.EFI

And that's it. If this is followed properly you should now have a fully working Windows + OSX installation.

 

[RaymondXie]

Right, following my post on what BIOS options to set for performance tuning, here is the dual booting bit.



And that's it. If this is followed properly you should now have a fully working Windows + OSX installation.

One can also use win10 PE system to install windows on the NTFS partition after the installation of Sierra.
It's necessary and very useful to understand the function of esp partition of GUID.

 

[bozma88]

I went for a more drastic solution: I installed a Windows-To-Go system on a USB3 stick.
Can boot off any machine that supports UEFI boot and it's very fast (Sandisk USB Extreme is basically a SATA Sandisk U100 SSD).

 

[cnekol]

Oh @bozma88 , Windows-to-go system, such a dam drastic solution.

Guys,Windows PE would be a good solution for dual-boot to install windows.
Must say, that some Windows PE versions which moded by users are deleted some driver necessary for EFI won't work properly to read SSD for mini size.
So, choose those which with necessary driver or original version. It would work or you won't find your hard driver.
I've tested Win8 PE which won't work, so, version should be 8.1 or 10 I guess.

 

[RaymondXie]

Oh @bozma88 , Windows-to-go system, such a dam drastic solution.

Guys,Windows PE would be a good solution for dual-boot to install windows.
Must say, that some Windows PE versions which moded by users are deleted some driver necessary for EFI won't work properly to read SSD for mini size.
So, choose those which with necessary driver or original version. It would work or you won't find your hard driver.
I've tested Win8 PE which won't work, so, version should be 8.1 or 10 I guess.

Win10 PE would work and TOSHIBA SSD can be recognized. Here's a copy of Win10 PE：https://pan.baidu.com/s/1kVfWzCr

 

[RaymondXie]

Hey guys,
I've got a problem about bluetooth.
It seems a bug of sierra. My bluetooth become "not available" after sleep when I left.
Energy Saver setting "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" on. I don't know if it related.

If you guys meet same problem, try this.
[Solution]:
1.Open Finder and go to /Library/Preferences/
2.Find "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist" and remove it.( ! IMPORTANT: empty trash or it won't work.)
3.then shutdown( ! IMPORTANT not reboot)
4.open your XPS and enjoy

I'll test if it's about the Energy Saver setting "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" .

I tried your solution just now, but the "not available" came up just after I put my lid down and opened it again. With the original Bluetooth plist my bluetooth had been available for 3 and a half days. Maybe you can research for more information about this problem. Thank you for your effort anyway.