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Guide: Dell XPS 8500

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msooriarachchi said:
Leonowski,

Thanks for the help. I managed to get to the installer. Had to remake my USB drive, then used the on board HDMI port instead of the AMD Graphics card. Also used one of the USB ports on the back of the PC instead of the front blue ports.

Its doing the OSX install now :) Will see how the rest goes.

Thanks
Again
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Radeon HD 7000 series will not work in Mac OS X at all. You will have to resort to switching inputs. I have a DVI cable to the Dell 24 inch monitor with an HDMI connector on the other end. If I want to boot into Windows for games, I use the Radeon's HDMI port. If I want to use Mac OS X, I have to switch to the HD 4000 HDMI port. The cool thing is that in Windows, I can do a hot swap of the cable. Unfortunately, that doesn't work in Mac OS X so I have to boot up with the right port plugged in.

I also have another problem where I get a garbled screen from Chimera if I attempt to boot while the Radeon is plugged in. I don't get the garbled screen while plugged into the HD 4000. I also don't get a garbled screen from the bootloader on the USB stick. Weird stuff.

The best solution is to probably buy a 2-way HDMI switcher so I can hit a button to switch cards. That way, I don't have to keep reaching around the computer.

I've been running this Mountain Lion setup for over a week now and it's pretty awesome. I may just bite the bullet and buy an Nvidia card so I can skip dual-booting. All I need Windows for is Counter-Strike: Go anyway. :) If I can get a decent vid card for Mac OS X, I'll just play Counter-Strike in Mountain Lion.

Oh - I forgot to mention: SpeedStep is working. I used the Chameleon/Chimera boot options for generating C and P states. Then, I used fakesmc plus the Intel plugins installer from Multibeast. Also in Multibeast is the HW monitor app to monitor the CPU changes. I can see it changing between 1600mhz and 3400mhz. However, I don't see Turbo kicking in (3900mhz).
 
My system boots up now, but needs to start with GraphicsEnabled=No -x otherwise I get the Kernel Panic and message that I need to hold down the power button and reboot. Do you think this will go away if I get a supported vid card? The cheapest one I see in the hardware list ( http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac ) is the EVGA 02G-P4-2645-KR GeForce GT 640 2GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card at around $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130796&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=4902415&SID=

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac

I was trying to figure out what DSDT to use when running the MultiBeast, but its not very clear to me. Also the audio wasnt working even after installing the real tek audio thru MultiBeast.

Thanks
 
Hi Msoorachi,

You definitely can't use graphicsenabler=yes with this system. Use the gfx string I posted in my first post in org.chameleon.Boot.plist. That will let give you full graphics.

As for audio, I use VoodooHDA http://code.google.com/p/voodoohda/downloads/list. Download the latest version. I use a different kext than the one installed by the intsaller. I'll post that as an attachment after this post.

The beauty of this setup is that you don't need a DSDT. In fact, I had tried my own fixed DSDT and it seemed to be more unstable. It's best to just not use one.
 
here is my org.chameleon.Boot.plist and voodoohda.kext

The org.chameleon.Boot.plist has my theme entry in there. Just remove that.
 

Attachments

  • xps_8500.zip
    161.2 KB · Views: 439
Thanks for the great guide leonowski. It proved invaluable in my first hackintosh attempt!

Had a few problems following your suggestions, but probably due to my inexperience.

I used the easybeast method & Lnx2mac kext without difficulty.

The <key>device-properties</key><string>8800000001000000010000007c0000000200000002 you provided never worked for me. Just resulted in corrupt display after re-booting. But not an issue as just used the GraphicsEnabler set to NO. Then later installed a GTX550 Ti graphics card. Added the driver from MultiBeast and now I have full resolution support and dual-monitor capability.

I can't get the VoodooHDA kext file to work no matter what I do, so no audio yet on either the headphone port of rear ports on the Dell. I don't know how to insert the<key>IOPCIPrimaryMatch</key> <string>0x1e208086</string> into a kext file for one thing. And I attempted the other VoodooHDA file you supplied later in you thread to no avail.

So besides not having any audio capability, pretty happy at this point. Am now going to add the Motherboard Plugin, NVIDIA GeForce Plugin & HWMonitor Application from the FakeSMC Plugins on MultiBeast and see what they do.

if your willing, do you have any further advice/directions on adding audio? And how did you add the SpeedStep feature?

Thanks again:headbang:



 
Hi,

For audio, try this:

1) Install the latest VoodooHDA posted here:

http://code.google.com/p/voodoohda/downloads/list

2) After the installer finishes, don't reboot. Install the VoodooHDA kext from the zip attachment i posted earlier. I use a utility called "Kext Wizard" to help me http://www.osx86.net/view/1604-kext_wizard_3.7.10.html

3) Reboot.

4) After it comes back up, go to system preferences and open the voodooHDA pref panel near the bottom.

5) Turn up PCM all the way. You may need to adjust the rotating volume knob until you hear something. On my system, I have to move it slightly left.

6) if you can hear volume, awesome. You might now find that it resets on reboot. You can fix that by using voodoohdasettings loader. A download link is found at the bottom of this link: http://code.google.com/p/voodoohda/issues/detail?id=2

Just put that in your "login items" under users & groups in the preferences panel.
 
For SpeedStep, I use the chameleon bootloaders ability to generate P and C states automagically. To turn that on, add this to org.chamelon.boot.plist:

<key>GenerateCStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GeneratePStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>

Or, use a utility like "Chameleon Wizard" to help you make changes: http://www.osx86.net/view/2480-chameleon_wizard_4.1.0_[new].html

You also need to disable NullCPUPowerManagement.kext and install the patched version of AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext. To do this:

1) Open up a terminal window.
2) cd to /System/Library/Extensions
3) type:

sudo mv NullCPUPowerManagement.kext NullCPUPowerManagement.kext.renamed

4) Run Multibeast again
5) Check to install "AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext" under "Drivers and Bootloaders" > "Drivers" > "System"
6) Check to install "FakeSMC", "Motherboard Plugins" and "HWMonitor Application" under "Drivers adn Bootloaders" > "Drivers" > "Miscellaneous".

One last thing I forgot to mention that I have - I'm using a smbios.plist from a MacBookPro 9,1. You can use Chameleon Wizard to help you generate a smbios.plist for MacBookPro 9,1. I'm not sure if this is required, but it's working so I've left it in place.

After all that, reboot. After it comes back up, you can use the HWMonitor app (now in your applications folder) to monitor your current CPU speed. You should see it switch between 1.6ghz and 3.4ghz.

If you run into any problems, you can always boot back up with Unibeast and access the terminal. Then, rename NullCPUPowerManagement.kext back and that will disable Apple's CPU power management again.
 
Thanks leonowski. I get the full resolution now with the graphics string you posted. Have to get the sound working... havent had time, but will get to it soon.
 
You are a freakin' genius lenowski! I bow before your greatness!:clap:

Your VooDooHDA & HWMonitor instructions worked flawlessly.
Thought not sure if I got the HWMonitor working perfectly. As your said, as I check it, it flips between 3366MHz & 1584Mhz. I assume thats normal as the CPU ramps up depending on the load. So I guess that means that the SpeedStep is also working.

If I may, some final questions.

  1. Any ideas why I can seem to get my Bluetooth & WiFi working?
  2. And I'm not familiar with what the smbios.plist does. Everything (except Bluetooth & WiFi) seems to working very well. What is it & is it critical?

Again, thanks very much for allowing me to benefit from your knowledge & efforts.

JD
 
Yup - speedstep is working if you see the jumping of frequencies. During idle moments, you should see the frequency/multiplier/voltage drop for power saving. When it needs more horsepower, it should jump up.

I don't know why bluetooth isn't working for you. For me, it worked out of the box. Do you get the bluetooth icon at the top of screen?

Wi-fi will probably never work because it's the atheros ar9485. You can replace the mini-pcie wireless card though. You should be able to find one of the many other chipsets that do work and drop it right in.

SMBIOS.plist fakes the system management BIOS information that comes from real Macs. It contains info like serial numbers, model numbers, type of RAM etc. I chose a MacBookPro9,1 SMBIOS.plist because they are the latest hardware from Apple and they use ivy Bridge + HD 4000 graphics. I figured that would be the best to use for now. By default, Unibeast/Multibeast installs a MacPro3,1 SMBIOS.plist. If one day Apple releases something closer to the hardware found in the XPS 8500, we should switch to that one.

Chameleon Wizard has a great interface for choosing a pre-made SMBIOS. Check it out.
 
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