SL 10.6.8 on Dell XPS 17 (L702x) with Win 7 and Ubuntu

[StarbucksSteve]

I have been trying to follow your guide to install Snow Leopard, but I can't get it to work satisfactory.
As far as I understand, my system is the same as yours, except that I have the GT 555M card with 3D display and my second hard drive is 1 TB and I use a netgear usb dongle for wireless.
One problem seems to be that I can't find the same files that you refer to in your guide, i.e. Tonymacx86 nVidia 2.0 installer and multibeast has a different Chimera version.
Would someone please link to the right files needed to follow this guide?
I have looked trough the pages of this tread, but can't find anything regarding the right files.
Thank you for your support.

The downloads page has the correct nVidia installer, the 2.0 installer is history. As far as Chimera, I have not been able to update my install so I am running a back-dated version; I'll get the number for you although it may not be an issue. I have not run Snow Leopard for 6 months so we'll be relying on others for some help. Your hardware should be fine. I would suggest LION as soon as you have a stable install, no matter what version, as LION is much better on my machine. I never did a LION guide because it never had to go back once I was there BUT I don't know how much of that was luck vs. knowledge after having struggled for 5 months to get there ... RANDOM COMMENTS UNIMPORTANT TO INITIAL INSTALL FOLLOW: Whenever given an option, you should pick the macbook8,2 as the 2630 is the closet in specifications to the 8,2's 2635 option. This means you're serial number should end in DF8V and the system will report an early 2011 15" MacbookPro, eventually. As I use my machine as my everyday computer, the serial number is very important - you do not want to make changes to it once you've settled on it and loaded iTunes, for example. Random video freezes are still present with the nVidia, I suspect these will never go away. I've gone weeks without them but since 10.7.3, I'm down to just a couple of days again. And do not worry about cosmetics - your video card will say unknown ... so what? It works, has the right memory, drives multiple monitors ... those are far more important. I kept my Win 7 install but shrank it down to just 100GB and I boot it once a month to install updates - you'll need it if you intend to watch 3D Blurays as the Mac will not - no drivers for that and you'll need it for bios updates, maybe.

Good luck and I'll look aroudn for other things,
Steve

 

[sleipnir]

Thank you for your quick reply, and sorry for my late answer. Broke my install again, and had to start all over. Just installed Windows again, so a bit to go.
I tried to install the official nVidia drivers, and it gave me native 1080p resolution, so that problem seems to be resolved. But i did not manage to get sound working as I was not able to boot from hard drive. Grub just kept giving me error messages.
boot0: testing
.
.
boot0: error
I have searched the forum and other forums for solution but still did not manage to get this resolved.
I don't have a Lion disk yet, as I wanted to get Snow Leopard up and running before getting Lion. Don't want to waste more money for something that might or might not work.
I was also wondering if installing and booting from the 2nd hard drive is possible using i.e. Chimera or Chameleon and avoid installing Ubuntu and grub? Our machines have the possibility to boot from 2nd hard drive and my 2nd drive is 1 TB so there is plenty of space.

 

[StarbucksSteve]

Thank you for your quick reply, and sorry for my late answer. Broke my install again, and had to start all over. Just installed Windows again, so a bit to go.
I tried to install the official nVidia drivers, and it gave me native 1080p resolution, so that problem seems to be resolved. But i did not manage to get sound working as I was not able to boot from hard drive. Grub just kept giving me error messages.
boot0: testing
.
.
boot0: error
I have searched the forum and other forums for solution but still did not manage to get this resolved.
I don't have a Lion disk yet, as I wanted to get Snow Leopard up and running before getting Lion. Don't want to waste more money for something that might or might not work.
I was also wondering if installing and booting from the 2nd hard drive is possible using i.e. Chimera or Chameleon and avoid installing Ubuntu and grub? Our machines have the possibility to boot from 2nd hard drive and my 2nd drive is 1 TB so there is plenty of space.

Nope - the machine is broken from the manufacturer; it will not boot a non-MBR format drive no matter where it is located ... I've installed Snow Leopard on several Dells (Inspiron 1525, E1501, E1701, Mini 9 and Mini 10) and I have NEVER had this problem. The Ubuntu install is a way around the broken boot code. You may certainly put Snow Leopard on a second drive, more than one, if you'd like but at least one and it must be the FIRST install on the second drive - the Ubuntu install, or something similar, on the first drive is a requirement for these machines.

The messages you are receiving seem to indicate that Ubuntu reached your boot drive but either you installed it incorrectly OR you have since reinstalled a copy of Snow Leopard without re-installing the boot loader - it must be reinstalled whenever you copy over the SL install. Please copy your Ubuntu SL boot parameters into a message and post it ...

Steve

 

[sleipnir]

Alright, completely installed everything fresh. Windows, Ubuntu and Snow Leopard, but still keep getting same error message.
This is my Boot entry from grub, it's a copy of yours.

menuentry "Mac OS X Snow Leopard (on /dev/sda3)" --class osx --class darwin --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod hfsplus
set root='(hd0,3)'
chainloader (hd0,1)/chameleon/boot0
}

I have tried with different "set root" i.e. (hd0,2) , (hd0,4) , (hd0,msdos3) , (hd1,1) , (hd1,2) and more but to no prevail...
A bit info about my setup:
Bios A12
Removed 12 BG RAM from the maching, leaving only 4 GB in.
Using the smbios and dsdt.aml from your "StevesUpdate".
1st hard drive partitions:
1. System Reserved - 100 MB
2. Windows 7 - 100 GB
3. Snow Leopard 588 GB
4. Ubuntu - 10 GB
No Ubuntu swap drive, but i have tried with also, and no leftover space from the original recovery partition, as I lost it somehow and did a format of the hard drive and installed Windows 7 Home Premium from a DVD I had lying around.

I also tried to install Chimera on a USB stick. Booting it and booting into the Snow Leopard partition that way. Works fine, except I have no sound. Gusee that I could live with booting from USB, but no use with no sound working.
Another thing is that the MultiBeast installes Chimera 1.7 and not 1.4.1 as in your guide. Could that be a problem? I have not managed to find a copy of 1.4.1 yet, but maybe should try that option also.

 

[StarbucksSteve]

Alright, completely installed everything fresh. Windows, Ubuntu and Snow Leopard, but still keep getting same error message.
This is my Boot entry from grub, it's a copy of yours.

menuentry "Mac OS X Snow Leopard (on /dev/sda3)" --class osx --class darwin --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod hfsplus
set root='(hd0,3)'
chainloader (hd0,1)/chameleon/boot0
}

I have tried with different "set root" i.e. (hd0,2) , (hd0,4) , (hd0,msdos3) , (hd1,1) , (hd1,2) and more but to no prevail...
A bit info about my setup:
Bios A12
Removed 12 BG RAM from the maching, leaving only 4 GB in.
Using the smbios and dsdt.aml from your "StevesUpdate".
1st hard drive partitions:
1. System Reserved - 100 MB
2. Windows 7 - 100 GB
3. Snow Leopard 588 GB
4. Ubuntu - 10 GB
No Ubuntu swap drive, but i have tried with also, and no leftover space from the original recovery partition, as I lost it somehow and did a format of the hard drive and installed Windows 7 Home Premium from a DVD I had lying around.

I also tried to install Chimera on a USB stick. Booting it and booting into the Snow Leopard partition that way. Works fine, except I have no sound. Gusee that I could live with booting from USB, but no use with no sound working.
Another thing is that the MultiBeast installes Chimera 1.7 and not 1.4.1 as in your guide. Could that be a problem? I have not managed to find a copy of 1.4.1 yet, but maybe should try that option also.

First things first - did you put a copy of the boot0 file into a directory named chameleon off of the root of the System Reserved partition? No need to answer me but I assume yes - please double-check you spelling which i assume you have also done but just in case ... generally the issue would be different if these things were wrong but we are talking about computers so ...

Do you have a second SL partition on hd1,2? If so, can you boot that one? It would look just like the menu entry above except it would be set root='(hd1,2)' - I've never been able to boot a second hard drive partition beyond 1,2 with Ubuntu ... and you must install Chimera from that partition, also, if you intend to try to boot it.

Yes, you're stuck until we can get the hard drive boot working - I do not think your issue is version of Chimera as, in this case, you haven't reached it yet ... different versions can cause issues but that would normally arise during or after boot of the actual SL OS.

I also assume that the SL partition on your first drive is a Primary partition, not extended - SL will not boot from an extended/logical partition. And the Ubuntu does not need a swap partition - 10 GB is more than enough for Ubuntu the way we are using it.

Also, Chimera, in its later than 1.4.1 versions renames the com.apple.boot.plist so anything I tell you to put there needs to happen in the replacement whose name I forget as I have not made that move yet; I, too, have issues with this stuff - my LION video goes nuts when I try to upgrade my Chimera.

Lastly, you have reinstalled just Chimera from the MultiBeast as the last step after maintenance, right? Under SL, you cannot copy a partition and then NOT install it again - under LION the reinstall is not necessary but SL destroys the install of Chameleon/Chimera when copied and you must install it again ...

I'll keep thinking ...
Steve

 

[StarbucksSteve]

I also tried to install Chimera on a USB stick. Booting it and booting into the Snow Leopard partition that way. Works fine, except I have no sound. Gusee that I could live with booting from USB, but no use with no sound working.

Sorry, I blew right past this ... and if this is true, then a number of things I raised seem to be answered ... so let's talk about sound. As i remember it, this is both simple and easy to screw up. Are you using my sound stuff? If so, you have installed my AppleHDA.kext, Dell_XPS_ALC665.kext and IOAudioFamily.kext and after boot, have assigned the proper device (it defaults incorrectly and you have no sound); you have also modifed your DSDT to look something like this:

Device (HDEF)
{
Name (_ADR, 0x001B0000)
Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
{
Store (Package (0x04)
{
"layout-id",
Buffer (0x04)
{
0x99, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00
},

"PinConfigurations",
Buffer (Zero) {}
}, Local0)
DTGP (Arg0, Arg1, Arg2, Arg3, RefOf (Local0))
Return (Local0)
}

If all of that is true, you may not have the same sound card - these things do change as motherboards are batched ... so, go into Windows and lets get the sound card description, manufacturer ID and other things ...

SoundDevice.png

Steve

 

[sleipnir]

Hey again, and thanks for your time.
To your questions...
Yes, I have placed the boot0 file into my system reserved partition. Names of file and folder are correct, as I just copied yours, but doubled checked anyway.
Yes, I have a second SL partition on my second drive, called Lion BU, but it containes a copy of Snow BU. Not working to boot any of them, except from the ubs stick containing Chimera then both work fine, except no sound.
My SL partition is a Primary partition, also set as active, but I dont know if that is important, and I did a install of Chimera on that partition as your guide says.

I'm using the kext you provide, but I have to admit that I don't really know what you are talknig about regarding assigning the proper device and I did no modification of the DSTD... For some reason I assumed that the DSDT in your StevesUpdates folder was for the A12 bios, but maybe it's for the A11? Should I compile a DSTD for the A12 Bios, or can I just use the one provided by you?
I will have a look at your DSTD guide tomorrow...
My sound card should be exactly the same as yours.
Attaching screens of the soundcard and partition layout...

 

[StarbucksSteve]

Well my DSDT should be OK; the System Preferences is what I mean when I say the right device. The output device defaults to Digital so you hear nothing. Can you verify whether the sound icon is black or grey?

Here's a pic:

Sound.png

And could you run the About this Mac and choose the Audio ... anything there? Here's a pic:

audio.png

Steve

 

[sleipnir]

Ah, ok, but that's the problem as Leopard does not find anything in output.
Attaching screens from booting with the Chimera USB Stick and iBoot CD.
Chimera gives me nothing and iBoot gives sound but not working properly, just some noice...
I tried to install the kexts again, just in case, but nothing still.

 

[StarbucksSteve]

Ah, ok, but that's the problem as Leopard does not find anything in output.
Attaching screens from booting with the Chimera USB Stick and iBoot CD.
Chimera gives me nothing and iBoot gives sound but not working properly, just some noice...
I tried to install the kexts again, just in case, but nothing still.

You will never get sound from the iboot CD because there are 'acceptable' kexts which are part of that boot procedure which interfere with what we want ... they are the reason you can only have 1 stick of memory installed as they are 32-bit only and cause the boot to fail when more is present.

What did you use when you built the USB? Make sure that nothing is being loaded as part of that boot - everything needs to come from your hard drive ... i.e.: if there is an /extra folder on that usb stick - make sure it is a copy of YOUR /extra folder; not something that was built for you from foreign kexts. If there are kexts on the USB stick, make sure they are YOUR kexts. Could you point me at the procedure you used? I'll try to help clear things up.

Under SL, where kexts are loaded can make a big difference so even though you've added the right ones, if the wrong ones exist in the /Extra folder or on your boot device, they'll get first dibs - offending kexts will have to be removed.

One more thing ... run /Developer/Applications/Utilities/IORegistryExplorer.app and compare to these pictures; when you're correct, it should look VERY similar - I have expanded the last of the four devices in the fourth picture just to give you an idea of what to expect - those tabs won't be available in your machine, I'll bet, because some other kext has grabbed the device ...

IOReg_Audio_1.png
IOReg_Audio_2.png
IOReg_Audio_3.png
IOReg_Audio_4.png

Steve