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

[InsaneCultist]

Hi @InsaneCultist how are you?

No I have the Samsung EVO970, not 4K which now works by default since Mojave (I don't use prior Mac OS versions on this hack).

Doing well today, thanks. Good to know - I've been reviewing these odd shutdowns during lid close sleep since I upgraded to Mojave. Power management shows it's actually a reboot, but my Console doesn't log a KP. Last night was the first time I saw a KP related to IONVMeFamily and found the linked thread. Seems likely they are unrelated. I will keep reviewing on my end. Thanks for the assistance.

 

[williamctstaton]

Slight update here, i've generated my own CPUFriendDataProvider.kext for the i5-7300HQ to see if it was my CPU causing the high battery draw. It appears to have saved me about a watt or so. I am sitting at around 9.7~ watts while doing no tasks at all, and about 12 to 14 while I type this on the laptop itself. The power draw does seem awfully high still at first glance. The CPU idles at about 840MHz with no programs running at all. Attached below is the kext I generated, hopefully another 7300HQ owner can give it a try and report back what they get.

Edit: After charging the laptop up to 100% and doing some normal work between VSC and Brave, my usage seems to be down to nearly 7 Watts ! I've been without a charger for about 3 hours now and I am at 36%. My new battery comes in on Monday and i'm excited to see how long it will last with this new kext.

 

[dmitry_matora]

@auguzanellato @mazakiss @dmitry_matora and anyone else, I need TB3 and USB-C testers!

Currently traveling, don't have access to any TB3 devices

 

[blazinsmokey]

blazinsmokey reported a fix HERE using THIS package - is this included in the latest 3.2 zip?

Yes, I am that user that reported and found the fix, lol. It is included although we are now using R25 versus the older R24 at the time.

Attached below is the kext I generated, hopefully another 7300HQ owner can give it a try and report back what they get.

Awesome, I mentioned that as a fix before but no one tried it out. Finally someone did for the i5 users. THANKS! I can make a note in the guide to link to your post later this week.

@mazakiss Thanks for testing and updating. I will try to sort out the configs and test some more. Currently thinking sticking with Kaby Lake and dealing with a small graphics glitch is the better way overall.

I'm not sure about the random reboots, I haven't had that issue. It may very well be USB-C not ejecting drives properly during sleep and I believe that is an easy fix. I'm a bit busy this week but will try to squeeze in time to work on a new Clover folder for us. I'm excited with the USB-C progress and hope to improve our setups soon.

 

[mazakiss]

HDMI 4K @60Hz works as before on both usb-c adapters (Dell D6000 dock & cheap one with connected USB devices mounting). When disconnect HDMI, the laptop screen grabbles/glitches (only cosmetic).

This time, I've plugged in the Dell 6000 Dock instead of my cheap adapter, USB devices only mount when all is plugged in at cold boot. Replugging works in this configuration, BUT ONLY works replugged twice, then after replugging USB devices doesn't mount any volume.

On the other hand, now when I plug back my cheap adapter after using the Dell Dock, nothing mounts now only HDMI 4K works, whether cold or hotplugged.

What is really weird is like even after resetting NVRAM like 30 times as described before, I still saw one of the Dell 6000 USB3.1 port still sticking in System Info Device Tree, acting like a "ghost" port without even plugging anything after cold booting. It was showing the last device used before I rebooted. Strange indeed. I don't know if it's NVRAM related.

I saw that behaviour only once.

The same occurs when I remove the new TB SSDT and leave only USB-C.

 

[mazakiss]

Yes, I am that user that reported and found the fix, lol. It is included although we are now using R25 versus the older R24 at the time.



Awesome, I mentioned that as a fix before but no one tried it out. Finally someone did for the i5 users. THANKS! I can make a note in the guide to link to your post later this week.

@mazakiss Thanks for testing and updating. I will try to sort out the configs and test some more. Currently thinking sticking with Kaby Lake and dealing with a small graphics glitch is the better way overall.

I'm not sure about the random reboots, I haven't had that issue. It may very well be USB-C not ejecting drives properly during sleep and I believe that is an easy fix. I'm a bit busy this week but will try to squeeze in time to work on a new Clover folder for us. I'm excited with the USB-C progress and hope to improve our setups soon.

Hey @blazinsmokey , no prob take your time.

So I have clearly understood the Kabylake config.plist is only for those like us who have 7700HQ CPU?

Did you experienced ver slow boot time using it even without anything plugged in? That's why I reverted to the old one?

Should I mention that all the testing was done using the standard config.plist not the Kaby Lake one.

Will give it a try and retest again after clearing NVRAM.

Have a nice week.

 

[blazinsmokey]

Hey @blazinsmokey , no prob take your time.

So I have clearly understood the Kabylake config.plist is only for those like us who have 7700HQ CPU?

Did you experienced ver slow boot time using it even without anything plugged in? That's why I reverted to the old one?

Will give it a try.

Have a nice week.

The two configs in Clover 3.2 should work for any cpu. They "should be" identical minus the frame buffer spoof and lilucpu=8. I'l have to confirm since I may have messed up, my mind is not cooperating with me this Monday, lol. lilucpu=8 is only needed when spoofing to Skylake so it shouldn't be needed in the KB config. When using the kb config, I didn't have slow downs during boot. If you are not using one of these newer configs, that's gonna be an issue b/c there are changes made to them to specifically work with this new USB-C/TB method. I'm starting to think maybe the sticking/clearing nvram thing is an issue and a possibly solution is to try a diff version of aptiomemfix, I'm not sure tho. Will be brainstorming solutions in the meantime.

 

[blazinsmokey]

So I have clearly understood the Kabylake config.plist is only for those like us who have 7700HQ CPU?

I just looked at both configs and I screwed up the KB one. I forgot to fix one of the ACPI/DSDT fixes so that could be causing issues and loading issues. Here it is fixed.

 

[mazakiss]

Hi @blazinsmokey

I tried again with your last config-kb.plist, it works better, more stable overall.

Boot is faster than before and doesn't lags anymore. Cold & Hot plugging and repluging works. At least the first replugging attempt.

The USB-C adapter is always detected in device tree when hotplugged.

USB devices on the other hand is still acting unstable, replug only works after waiting one or two minutes. Everytime I disconnect the whole adapter + USB key on it, when I replug the adapter, that "ghost" USB device is still sticking in device tree. Then after waiting time, I can reconnect the whole and USB devices mounts again.

So every USB-C adapter repluging is instant and work everytime.

It seems the issue lies with USB devices on it. Did you tried plugging USB 3 key instead of your external HDD? Noticed any differences?

Also I noticed this occurs most of the time after the second hotplugging. The first one is always snappy and mounts USB devices in seconds. After second attempt, enters this strange behaviour with wait time after replug USB.

If anyone reading this thread has TB devices at hand to test, you are more than welcome.

 

[mazakiss]

So after 200+ more NVRAM clearing the story goes lol

Since you pointed out using another version of Aptiomemoryfix, I used this one extracted from @RehabMan repo https://bitbucket.org/RehabMan/clover/downloads/?tab=downloads and it worked much better.

finally hotplugging works on each replugs. I have still this small delay to wait before each adapter replugs for the USB devices to mount again, now USB device connected to the adapter mounts systematically, no more stucked after 2nd replug.

Same, no more "ghost" USB port sticking in device tree, after each USB unplugs, the USB device unmounts correctly.

Also I confirm no more boot screen glitch with config-kb.plist.

So you only have the USB devices cold disconnected from sleep to sort out and it will be near perfect.

Edit: using Jettinson did the trick.

Edit: after installing the last AptioMemoryFix driver from acidanthera/vit9696 also leads to same results.