[Guide] Dell XPS 9560 Mojave VirtualSMC, I2C Trackpad, Clover UEFI Hotpatch

[nikoel]

Ok, Clover has lost OSX again, which I assume is either from a Window's update somehow or OSX got corrupted, again, despite me never being on it today. The **** part is I always end up having to reinstall windows and configure it again to get OSX reinstalled.

Can someone please help point me in the right direction here? I am losing my mind. More than happy to contribute to someone's beer fund.

Okay, these can be the likely culprits

1 Check your hard drive health - Drives that corrupt like this can be not long of this earth
2 Are you doing 4k sectoring (You can convert your drive using a USB boot of Ubuntu) - Can be done with some models
3 Are you running some weird RAID config
4 Have you disabled hybernation
5 Are you running or somehow enabling filevault

 

[Slacker101]

Okay, these can be the likely culprits

1 Check your hard drive health - Drives that corrupt like this can be not long of this earth
2 Are you doing 4k sectoring (You can convert your drive using a USB boot of Ubuntu) - Can be done with some models
3 Are you running some weird RAID config
4 Have you disabled hybernation
5 Are you running or somehow enabling filevault

1 According to the dell checks, it is supposedly good. Do you recommend another check? Edit: Crystal Disk Info says the drive is in good health, 100%.
2 I used the kext for non 4k drive from OP, though I did not check in a linux distro if it was 4k capable and Pike's fix for LiteOn. Should I have checked my drive is not on 4k? I honestly never thought dell would have it in 4k mode.
3 Nope, no raid. Only my NVME.
4 Yep, with his built in ktext as a backup and the .sh ran multiple times. Plus I never booted it today and it disappeared today.
5 I am not running it, I doubt it got enabled by accident 5/6 times.

Thank you so much nikoel, I am losing it. I don't mind challenges but I cant find anything on how to diagnose this with google/my usual methods.

Second Edit: Verified it is currently in 512, not sure if it supports 4k or not. I am using the kext from OP for 512.

 

[nikoel]

1 According to the dell checks, it is supposedly good. Do you recommend another check? Edit: Crystal Disk Info says the drive is in good health, 100%.
2 I used the kext for non 4k drive from OP, though I did not check in a linux distro if it was 4k capable and Pike's fix for LiteOn. Should I have checked my drive is not on 4k? I honestly never thought dell would have it in 4k mode.
3 Nope, no raid. Only my NVME.
4 Yep, with his built in ktext as a backup and the .sh ran multiple times. Plus I never booted it today and it disappeared today.
5 I am not running it, I doubt it got enabled by accident 5/6 times.

Thank you so much nikoel, I am losing it. I don't mind challenges but I cant find anything on how to diagnose this with google/my usual methods.

Second Edit: Verified it is currently in 512, not sure if it supports 4k or not. I am using the kext from OP for 512.

Well 4K is the way to go. But you need to make sure your HD supports it obviously. 512 could explain your experience, as you are not altering anything inside MacOS and windows has no way of even touching AFPS

I'm also running AHCI in BIOS. I can not remember if it's possible to run anything else as I never have run anything else. But if you are not, its worth a shot as well

With how many resources you're spending on this consider getting a new NVMe, the new ones are ridiculously powerful and present one of the best upgrades you can do to a laptop

**If you change to ANCI then your windows installation will no longer work from memory. You will have to reinstall. Again can't quite remember so check first

 

[Slacker101]

Well 4K is the way to go. But you need to make sure your HD supports it obviously. 512 could explain your experience, as you are not altering anything inside MacOS and windows has no way of even touching AFPS

I'm also running AHCI in BIOS. I can not remember if it's possible to run anything else as I never have run anything else. But if you are not, its worth a shot as well

With how many resources you're spending on this consider getting a new NVMe, the new ones are ridiculously powerful and present one of the best upgrades you can do to a laptop

**If you change to ANCI then your windows installation will no longer work from memory. You will have to reinstall. Again can't quite remember so check first

I might pop in a spare NVME, it being lite on for one is pissing me off and for two I believe the spare ADATA supports 4k.

Plus then I can revert to this drive if Monday comes and I need a setup version of Windows back to do work. Annoying thing is this drive benchmarks very well.

I'm on ACHI, have been the whole time since recommended BIOS are ACHI (not sure if anything else works, as you said).

 

[mazakiss]

I might pop in a spare NVME, it being lite on for one is pissing me off and for two I believe the spare ADATA supports 4k.

Plus then I can revert to this drive if Monday comes and I need a setup version of Windows back to do work. Annoying thing is this drive benchmarks very well.

I'm on ACHI, have been the whole time since recommended BIOS are ACHI (not sure if anything else works, as you said).

Hey. Was it the stock drive you had? Did you tried to update the LiteOn firmware from Dell?

If your disk is 512 it should be working without any modification on Mojave.

Last, how did you installed your multiboot?

Maybe try a last clean install, begin by installing OSX first. Use disk utility to partition your drive, install MacOS then Windows. Use the last Clover 3.3 folder here and report. Search for user @Going Bald tutorial on how to do this.

If you want to switch for a new drive, the samsung evo 70 works very well here and many other users. No issue so far using a dual Win/OSX multiboot system, no data corruption disabling hibernation.

Hope you’ll sort that out.

 

[mazakiss]

Ok, Clover has lost OSX again, which I assume is either from a Window's update somehow or OSX got corrupted, again, despite me never being on it today. The **** part is I always end up having to reinstall windows and configure it again to get OSX reinstalled.

Can someone please help point me in the right direction here? I am losing my mind. More than happy to contribute to someone's beer fund.

Silly thing: have you tried to go into bios —-> boot option and reselect boot.efi in clover folder?

 

[Slacker101]

Hey. Was it the stock drive you had? Did you tried to update the LiteOn firmware from Dell?

If your disk is 512 it should be working without any modification on Mojave.

Last, how did you installed your multiboot?

Maybe try a last clean install, begin by installing OSX first. Use disk utility to partition your drive, install MacOS then Windows. Use the last Clover 3.3 folder here and report. Search for user @Going Bald tutorial on how to do this.

If you want to switch for a new drive, the samsung evo 70 works very well here and many other users. No issue so far using a dual Win/OSX multiboot system, no data corruption disabling hibernation.

Hope you’ll sort that out.

Yep, the stock CX2-GB1024-Q11 from LiteOn for Dell.

It should be in 512 for sure.

I installed OSX clean after repartitioning he whole drive in APFS and then once in Mojave I slimmed it down to install windows.

I just popped in a HP EX920 1TB that I had sitting on my desk. I could swap back to try your suggestion of reselecting the boot.efi, though the installer USB won't see OSX when I boot to the external clover either. So I doubt it would work. What do you think?

 

[mazakiss]

So you can boot with your clover boot usb key and enter Mac OSX install screen but you can't see your laptop OSX partition, right?

From your first OSX install you never upgraded from an older version (High Sierra, etc...)? Always Mojave?

Any memory of anything you did installed before this happened?

If you intent to only use Mojave, no need for 4K sectoring, now apple has the drivers for such drives. So whether 4K or 512 doesn't matter here.

If you have the time, try a last clean install with the LiteOn after updating the driver provided by Dell.

Try to backup your boot usb clover folder somewhere and replace it by the last 3.3 revision here to be sure you don't see that OSX partition (I don't know maybe a missing driver or whatever) and also reselect bootX64.efi (from internal disk or usb boot key).

Be sure the sectoring is ok (If you did any prior modification, 4K sectoring etc...)

If you are on a hurry and need your laptop to work or whatever test with the HP disk to compare stability in the long run.

Also have a look here: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ing-when-installing-windows-and-linux.272807/

EDIT: you won't have to do the above here because on our laptop bios we can directly select bootX64.efi in order to alway boot from clover and not directly from windows after each update. Usually I delete all boot options and only select this.

and here for reference:

[Solved] After Installation, Clover Boot Screen Doesn't Show Mojave Disk

Hi! I downloaded and created the USB as directed in the guide. Installed my test HDD. Installation complete and boot through pendrive but this time there is no Mojave installed disk shows in Clover menu ..But when I booted through High Sierra disk there shows Mojave Disk but shows graphic error...

www.tonymacx86.com

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi.197352/

Be sure to only install Clover AFTER having done your Windows partition in OSX.

Sorry for these noob answers, I'm just trying to understand your issue and help.

 

[Slacker101]

So you can boot with your clover boot usb key and enter Mac OSX install screen but you can't see your laptop OSX partition, right?

From your first OSX install you never upgraded from an older version (High Sierra, etc...)? Always Mojave?

Any memory of anything you did installed before this happened?

Correct. Always Mojave, tried in January and gave up. I've been trying again lately. I have probably over 100 hours in this at this point.

If you intent to only use Mojave, no need for 4K sectoring, now apple has the drivers for such drives. So whether 4K or 512 doesn't matter here.

If you have the time, try a last clean install with the LiteOn after updating the driver provided by Dell.

Try to backup your boot usb clover folder somewhere and replace it by the last 3.3 revision here to be sure you don't see that OSX partition (I don't know maybe a missing driver or whatever) and also reselect bootX64.efi (from internal disk or usb boot key).

Be sure the sectoring is ok (If you did any prior modification, 4K sectoring etc...)

If you are on a hurry and need your laptop to work or whatever test with the HP disk to compare stability in the long run.

Also have a look here: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ing-when-installing-windows-and-linux.272807/

EDIT: you won't have to do the above here because on our laptop bios we can directly select bootX64.efi in order to alway boot from clover and not directly from windows after each update. Usually I delete all boot options and only select this.

and here for reference:

[Solved] After Installation, Clover Boot Screen Doesn't Show Mojave Disk

Hi! I downloaded and created the USB as directed in the guide. Installed my test HDD. Installation complete and boot through pendrive but this time there is no Mojave installed disk shows in Clover menu ..But when I booted through High Sierra disk there shows Mojave Disk but shows graphic error...

www.tonymacx86.com

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi.197352/

Be sure to only install Clover AFTER having done your Windows partition in OSX.

Sorry for these noob answers, I'm just trying to understand your issue and help.

Yeah, I have gone the HP route for now since I need the option to rollback to the LiteOn Windows. So far so good, though it lasted around 3 days last time.

Oh wait, why do I only install Clover AFTER having done my Windows partition in OSX? I normally copy over my EFI from the USB to the internal EFI after OSX so I can remove the drive.

 

[mazakiss]

Oh wait, why do I only install Clover AFTER having done my Windows partition in OSX? I normally copy over my EFI from the USB to the internal EFI after OSX so I can remove the drive.

yes I would in that order, do your partition first, then install clover to osx ESP, then copy your usb key clover folder to ESP, then install windows, then delete all bios boot entry and manually add bootX64.efi not to bother about windows update anymore and reboot directly from Clover. Does it make sense?