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XPS 15 9560 MacOS Catalina 15.1 Full Install Guide

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Apr 19, 2014
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Motherboard
XPS 15 9560
CPU
i5 7300HQ
Graphics
GTX 1050, Intel HD630, 1080p
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Welcome to my XPS 15 9560 guide. This guide should work for most hardware configurations, but here is my configuration:

  • CPU: i5-7300HQ @ 2.5GHz
  • 8GB RAM
  • Nvidia GTX 1050 / Intel HD 630
  • 1080p IPS display (See edit in pre-install for 4k display)
  • 1TB Samsung NVMe SSD
  • Broadcom BCM94352Z Dell DW1560 Wifi + BT card


What should work:
  • Audio
  • Brightness + volume controls
  • HDMI + Thunderbolt 3 (TB3 at least works as a display output, not sure about other functionality)
  • Wi-Fi/Bluetooth assuming you swapped your Wi-Fi card.
What doesn't work:
  • SD card reader
  • Fingerprint reader
  • dGPU (Nvidia Optimus not supported on MacOS)

Let's get started!



Pre-install:



First make sure your BIOS settings are in good shape. There are guides all over on correct BIOS settings to use.



Next, you will need the latest Download of MacOS Catalina. If you can’t download the full Catalina installer from the Mac App Store, download it with the Catalina Patcher tool here. It should be about 8gb in size.



You will also need a minimum 8gb flash drive formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on GPT format. 

You can use this command to format your drive:

Code:
diskutil partitionDisk /dev/*YOUR DISK* GPT JHFS+ MojaveInstallUSB 0b

Next you will need to install the Catalina Installer to the drive. The command is:

Code:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/ MojaveInstallUSB

Next, download and install the latest version of clover from Github.
  • Make sure you choose to install it to the USB!
  • Install for UEFI booting only
  • Install Clover to the ESP
If it fails, make sure your USB is properly formatted.

Next, download my CLOVER folder below. Before you replace the CLOVER folder in the /EFI/efi, copy out the /EFI/efi/CLOVER/CLOVERX64.efi file onto your desktop. Then replace the CLOVER folder with the one you downloaded and then copy back the CLOVERX64.efi into the CLOVER folder.

Now you will need to download the kexts. A problem with a lot of guides (including my own) future-proof wise is that having old kexts/Clover builds in their downloads makes the chances of compatibility with future versions of MacOS very small.

Download Clover Configurator Here (https://mackie100projects.altervista.org/download-clover-configurator/) and click on the kext installer at the bottom left. Make sure it is installing kexts to the EFI partition on the USB drive, and also that it is placing them in the kexts/other folder and not 10.6. The installer will scan your kexts to see if an update is available. If an update is available, update them! Sometimes in my experience I have found that some kexts may not want to install through this installer. If this is the case just google the kext and install it manually.


Next place the Clover installer and Clover Configurator your downloaded onto your non-EFI partition on your USB. You will use this to make your laptop bootable without the USB drive.



Now you are ready to install! Boot into the drive by pressing f12 while booting. Select the UEFI version of the USB if available.



Installation:



Select the MacOS Install partition at the clover boot panel.

At the installer screen, open disk utility through the top right menu bar. This is where you will format your drive as APFS



WARNING: If you intend to dual/triple/whatever boot your system, I would create the partitions in Windows FIRST, and then use Disk Utility to format the partition you want to install on. This is how I successfully Dual-booted with my existing Win10 install. If you don't have windows installed already or want to wipe it you can format and partition from DU.



Once your partition is formatted as APFS, go back to the installer screen and install to the drive.

After that is done, reboot (to your USB again!) and select "Boot *drive name* from USB" or whatever your equivalent is. Complete installation as normal.



Post-installation:



Now that you are on the desktop, open the USB and drag the Clover Installer and Clover Configurator onto the Desktop.

 Move Clover Configurator to your Applications folder.



Launch Clover installer and install Clover to your main drive.



Next, open Clover Configurator and use it to mount your main drive's & USB drive's EFI partitions. Drag your CLOVER folder from within the EFI folder on your USB installer to the EFI folder on your main drive.



At this point, you should have a fully functioning hackintosh! If there is an issue with this guide or the configs I attached HMU and I'll do my best to fix them.
  • 

If the Dell dock does not work, try changing the SMBIOS to Macbook 9,1.
  • 

If your graphics aren't working properly, try changing your intelGFX deviceID to 0x59120000.


  • For Wifi/BT issues, try disabling Power Nap,`System Preferences` -> `Energy Saver` disable all `Power Nap` options, and disabling `Wake for Wi-Fi network access` option and also try disabling Wake for Bluetooth, `System Preferences` -> `Bluetooth` -> `Advanced` disable all options.
Edit 1: Cleaned up the Clover folder.
 

Attachments

  • CLOVER.zip
    9.8 MB · Views: 2,379
Last edited:
Hey acdop100, thanks for this! I recently acquired a Dell 9560 (i5 7300hq). I moved over the stuff from my previous Hackbook (Samsung 970 M.2, 8gb 2400mhz RAM and a Dell 1820A WiFi + BT card). I followed your guide and was able to get everything running, aside from WiFi of course. If you or anyone can help me in getting this working, I've spent the last 2 days trying everything and anything possible to enable it on Catalina and Mojave. At one point, I had it working but after 5 minutes of browsing the machine would slow down greatly and wifi would go out and the machine would be unusably slow. I'm currently using a wifi dongle on it, without issue for long periods of time. Any and all help is appreciated, I'm still definitely a novice at this. The card works 100% in Windows and worked great on my previous hackbook. Thank you, once again.
 
Hi, I installed Catalina successfully. However, the system has to be booted in Safe Mode (-x) in order to get the system to complete the startup. Here is my configuration:
Dell XPS 15 9560
i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
32GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 1050 / Intel HD 630
1080p IPS display
2TB WD NvMe SSD
Killer Wireless 1535 BT+wifi (a BCM DW1830 has been ordered)

Until the new wifi card arrives I am using the wired RT USB hub to connect to the internet
Any idea what I need to change in the clover.plist to correct this?
Thanks.
 
Hi, I installed Catalina successfully. However, the system has to be booted in Safe Mode (-x) in order to get the system to complete the startup. Here is my configuration:
Dell XPS 15 9560
i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
32GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 1050 / Intel HD 630
1080p IPS display
2TB WD NvMe SSD
Killer Wireless 1535 BT+wifi (a BCM DW1830 has been ordered)

Until the new wifi card arrives I am using the wired RT USB hub to connect to the internet
Any idea what I need to change in the clover.plist to correct this?
Thanks.

You still have the original Killer WiFi card installed, that's likely the cause. I had to uninstall the card to get the installation to go through properly. Since you said you're using a USB WiFi card till your new one comes in, you should be good to remove the Killer card.
 
You still have the original Killer WiFi card installed, that's likely the cause. I had to uninstall the card to get the installation to go through properly. Since you said you're using a USB WiFi card till your new one comes in, you should be good to remove the Killer card.

That's good to know. However, I need to leave the Killer wifi-BT card in for now since I have a quad boot system (windows 10, Ubuntu, Mojave, and Catalina) and need the Wifi for work outside the home. If I boot without the -x, then Mojave, W10, and Ubuntu all start up fine, its only Catalina with the problem. The new wifi card will be here in a few days. So I can live without Catalina in the mean time. Once the new wifi card comes, I can complete the assessment of Mojave vs Catalina and remove one of the Mac OSX's.
 
That's good to know. However, I need to leave the Killer wifi-BT card in for now since I have a quad boot system (windows 10, Ubuntu, Mojave, and Catalina) and need the Wifi for work outside the home. If I boot without the -x, then Mojave, W10, and Ubuntu all start up fine, its only Catalina with the problem. The new wifi card will be here in a few days. So I can live without Catalina in the mean time. Once the new wifi card comes, I can complete the assessment of Mojave vs Catalina and remove one of the Mac OSX's.

Opps, I misread your original message. I was under the impression you had a USB WiFi dongle but now I get its a USB Ethernet adapter. I'm in a similar boat, I have the 1820A which worked in my last machine but I must be using conflicting wireless drivers between this tutorial and what I see online to get the 1820A working. If I can't figure it out, I'll eventually take the plunge and buy a DW1560 or DW1830.
 
Hi, I installed Catalina successfully. However, the system has to be booted in Safe Mode (-x) in order to get the system to complete the startup. Here is my configuration:
Dell XPS 15 9560
i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
32GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 1050 / Intel HD 630
1080p IPS display
2TB WD NvMe SSD
Killer Wireless 1535 BT+wifi (a BCM DW1830 has been ordered)

Until the new wifi card arrives I am using the wired RT USB hub to connect to the internet
Any idea what I need to change in the clover.plist to correct this?
Thanks.

Problem solved. Using Clover Configurator, I updated the kexts, then rebooted without -x and Catalina started just fine, even though the Killer wifi is still installed (but not functional in any MacOS).
 
Problem solved. Using Clover Configurator, I updated the kexts, then rebooted without -x and Catalina started just fine, even though the Killer wifi is still installed (but not functional in any MacOS).
Glad to hear it! Wish I could say the same lol. :thumbdown
 
Hi. I got the DW1560 installed. However, it takes 3 min after logging into Catalina for the WIFI to finally startup and connect to the WIFI network. Also, there is no Bluetooth device visible in the System Preferences/Network list of potential connections.
 
Hi. I got the DW1560 installed. However, it takes 3 min after logging into Catalina for the WIFI to finally startup and connect to the WIFI network. Also, there is no Bluetooth device visible in the System Preferences/Network list of potential connections.
I have the same issue. Apparently, same mode works fine.
 
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