Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Creating a hackintosh from a Dell Inspiron E1505/6400

I had an old Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop so I decided to try my hand at making a hackintosh out of it. Apparently, the motherboard Dell used in these was the same as the first MacBook (2006-era), and many of the components were compatible, so this is one of the easier laptops to convert to the Mac OS.

We're going to install a flavor of Snow Leopard (10.6.3) and make some changes to kexts (like drivers for a Mac) to get everything working nice.

Through quite a bit of trial and error I was able to get it working nearly flawlessly, so I figured I would detail the exact steps it took. If your configuration is different, you're likely to get somewhat different results, but the process is basically the same.

I have also put together a video that takes you through these steps in about ten minutes. You might want to use both the video and the directions below as you work on your computer.


Installing Snow Leopard 10.6.3

Before starting: on your Laptop, go into your Hardware Configuration and write down the make and model of all of your hardware. You may need this later and it's easy to retrieve now. For instance, my machine is:
  • Processor: Core Duo T2350 @ 1.86 GHz (32-bit)
  • Memory: 2MB RAM
  • Display: Mobile Intel 945GM
  • Ethernet: Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
  • Wireless: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
  • Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 355 Module (Broadcom)
1. Download the iATKOS S3 v2 torrent (google "iatkos S3 v2 torrent"). This is the tweaked Snow Leopard 10.6.3 that is the core of the installation.

2. Burn the ISO to a DVD. Be sure to burn it as an ISO disk image, don't just burn the file as a data disc.

3. Edit the BIOS on your computer so that it will boot from DVD first. Do this by hitting F2 when the Dell logo appears. Find the entry that deals with boot order, and change it so that the DVD boots before the hard drive.

4. Put that DVD in your Hackintosh and boot it up. It will take a long time to load from the DVD. When it's finished, select your language and click "continue." You'll see a "Preparing Installation" status bar for a couple of minutes.

5. We need to prepare our hard drive for the installation, so at the "Install Mac OS X" screen, before    we proceed, click on Utilities in the menu at the top of the screen, then select Disk Utility.

6. Select your hard drive from the column on the left, then click on "Erase." Under Format you want to select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)."

7. Click on Partition and select One Partition. Change the name to "Hackintosh" or "HackBook Pro" or "Snow Leopard" or something more creative. Click on Options and select "GUID Partition Table." Then click "Apply." When it's done, close out of Disk Utility, click "Continue" at the Install Mac OS X screen, and the forward arrow at the "Read Me Please" screen.

8. Select the partition you just created and click "Customize." It will bring up a large menu of drivers and ways to customize your installation. I probably had to install 5-10 times with various configurations to get the one that worked for my machine. If your laptop has a different set of hardware, don't get too frustrated if you have to do the same thing. My technique was to stick with mostly the defaults, and just select a couple things at a time until I found a combination that would allow me to boot. We can always install more drivers later (and indeed we will), but it's easiest if we have the key ones selected now. So, for my installation, here's what I had checked:
  • Under Bootloader: AsereBLN v1.1.9
  • Under Bootloader Options: 32-bit boot, Graphics Enabler, Legacy Logo
  • Under Patches: Extra Directory, fakesmc, Disabler, EVO Reboot
  • Under Drivers/Main Hardware: Sound, Apple PS/2, Laptop Hardware
  • Under Drivers/Network/Wired/Broadcom: BCM440x
Click OK to return to the Install screen, and then click Install. It's going to take a while - don't necessarily believe the "About 18 minutes" or whatever the estimate says. It will jump around a little bit. Also, it seems like if you don't move your mouse around a little, the progress bar doesn't move along, so I like to do that from time to time. I'm a big fan of progress and change I can see.

9. When the installation is all done, you'll see a screen that says "Installation Succeeded" with a big green checkmark, and it'll start counting down from 30 seconds until it reboots your computer. When that happens, you'll need to eject the iATKOS DVD (do it during the bios check), or else it will boot from the DVD drive, and you'll be back at the iATKOS screen. Not a big deal if that happens - just eject the DVD and reboot your computer so that it will reboot from the hard drive. By the way, if you're able to successfully install then it means for certain that your hardware will support a Hackintosh, so at worst, it'll mean some tweaking but at the end of it all, you'll have a working Hackintosh.

10. As the computer is restarting, you'll want to see what's going on in the background, in case there's an unforeseen problem. You can do this by hitting any key when the message "Press any key to enter startup options" appears and typing "-v -x -cpus=1" without the quotes and hitting return. The -v will start the computer in verbose mode, -x starts it in safe mode and -cpus=1 tricks the OS into thinking you have a single core CPU, even though you have a dual core. We'll be using these boot flags a few times going forward.

As the computer boots, you'll see all sorts of text scrolling past. This is the OS loading drivers and checking on your hardware. It may appear to hang at times, but you need to be patient. Sometimes it takes 3-5 minutes to get past a certain line. Eventually the screen will turn black and you'll hear "Staying Alive" playing. Enjoy that for a while, and then hold down the power button to shut off the computer.

11. Put the iATKOS DVD in and boot from it. The reason the screen turned black is because of a problem with the video drivers. When the iATKOS DVD is finished loading, choose Terminal from the Utilities menu.  Enter the commands below to remove the offending kexts (substitute the name of your hard drive for "HackBook Pro").

cd "/Volumes/HackBook Pro/System/Library/Extensions"
rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950.kext
rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950GA.plugin
rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver.bundle
rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950VADriver.bundle
rm -rf AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext
rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext
rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext
rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100GA.plugin
rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100GLDriver.bundle
rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100VADriver.bundle
diskutil repairPermissions /dev/disk0s2
reboot


12. As the system reboots, eject the DVD, and use flag "-cpus=1." If all goes well, you'll eventually see the Welcome screen.

13. Go through setup and configure your wireless internet connection, set up user accounts, etc. You might even be treated to "Staying Alive" again.

14. We need to install the correct drivers for our display to eliminate the black bars on either side of the screen. Open Safari and download the GMA950 Driver from this address: http://uppit.com/v/FUX45OLJ. Launch the installer and let it run.

15. When it's done (like everything else, it will take longer than the estimate) click "Restart." As the machine reboots, remember to type in "-cpus=1." It may take an abnormally long time to reboot but don't worry - that's OK. When the OS finishes loading, take a moment to enjoy the full-screen resolution.

16. To set up your system so you don't have to manually type -cpus=1 each time, on your working Hackintosh, open Terminal and type the following:

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

Enter your password and you'll see a primitive text editor. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, navigate to the line underneath "Kernel Flags," between the "" brackets, and type -cpus=1. Hit Ctrl-O and Return to save, and Ctrl-X to exit. Going forward, every time you reboot, it will automatically load that boot flag. Reboot and you're done!

Congratulations! At this point you have a nearly-perfect installation of Mac OS 10.6.3 on your Hackintosh. You have working video, sound, wireless and wired ethernet. Once I had the iATKOS DVD in hand, the whole process took me just over an hour, with 24 minutes of that waiting for the initial installation from the iATKOS DVD.

Final Thoughts

Having used this Hackintosh (or HackBook Pro as I call it) for a little while, I really like it. In fact, I like this laptop running Snow Leopard a lot more than I liked it running Windows 7. I have found performance using heavier applications such as Office for Mac to be at least as good as when this computer ran Windows, and I'm also finding that the (noisy) fan seems to run a lot less frequently.

There are still some quirks, and I would never buy a new laptop with the idea of Hackintoshing it.  But it has made this 2006-era laptop (which you could probably find on Craigslist or eBay for less than $100) usable and useful again.

I was tempted to install Lion on this computer, but given its age, and the fact that the Core Duo processor is only just barely supported by the iATKOS Lion install, I decided it would take too much of a performance hit.

81 comments:

  1. Hello chris, great post. I was able to do everything here except video driver (I have a xps m1330) and for some reason every time I try to update to 10.6.8 it updates but when it reboots it freezes at the apple screen and I am forced to reinstall. :-/ any thoughts? Please email me at maymoon1987@yahoo.com thank you!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Glad it was helpful. I'm afraid I don't have a great answer for you. Part of the reason I stopped at 10.6.6 was that I had heard there were problems with drivers on 10.6.7 and 10.6.8.

      If you boot in verbose mode (-v) you'll be able to see what's causing the crashing.

      If you do try to upgrade, make sure you download the Apple Combo Update for 10.6.8, and don't use the Software Update utility. You might also have better luck going from 10.6.6 to 10.6.7 first, and if that works, then go to 10.7.8.

      Good Luck!

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  2. Ok I will give it a try! I'll let you know how it goes

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  3. Keep having problems with the comments, not sure why. But I'm running the exact same hardware setup as you (except 1 gig ram) and this post really saved me! I couldn't figure out what to do about the video drivers. Didnt know how to remove the ones that were causing problems so i must say thank you! Also, I was wondering if you had tried to get the second core working. Supposidley by using TSCSync or VooDooTSCSync or something like that there's a way to get that second core working. How did you upgrade to 10.6.6 also? Just though Software Update? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I don't think you can get both cores working, but I might be wrong. It's running at 1.86 GHz (or whatever) but only using one core.

      To upgrade to 10.6.6 you need to download the Apple Combo Update for 10.6.6, run it, but before rebooting, run MultiBeast. Then reboot. You'll have to go through the process of deleting video drivers and re-installing the correct video drivers for the GMA950, but you should have 10.6.6 working OK. Somehow my 10.6.6 got messed up, and although it still works, iWork no longer works for me (can't see the text when I type) and there's problems with flash video causing browser issues. I would roll back to 10.6.3 but that would be a complete re-install and I'm too lazy right now. :)

      The only think you really gain with 10.6.6, as far as I understand, is the App Store, but a lot of the apps require 10.6.8 which can cause problems.

      Good Luck!

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  4. Just got it all up and running on 10.6.3! and it works great! don't even have to boot with -cpus=1 anymore after installing the VooDooTSCSync kext.

    QUESTION- Do you have two finger scrolling working???? i can't seem to figure that one out.

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    1. Awesome, congrats. I don't think two finger scrolling is supported. I might be wrong but I think it's a hardware limitation.

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    2. Makes sense. Going to try to update it at some point, but frankly I'm not sure if there's much of a reason to. I don't think it's possible to get it up to 10.6.8, which is the next and was the last big milestone for Snow Leopard, and since I don't need the app store, I guess there's not much of a point of wasting the time and sanity.

      All in all, THANK YOU! Your guide REALLY saved my ass for this computer!

      Delete
  5. Hey! one last question. When updating from .3 to .6, did you go directly or do all the updates in between? (.4, .5)

    I kinda want to get at least .6 working so I can have Safari 5 running, for HTML5, but i'm afraid to break the system and have to go through the painstaking process of re-installing....

    If ya look here http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.6.7/Portables#Dell_Inspiron_E1505 it says that 10.6.7 can be done with MultiBeast. Any ideas? You seem to be the only updated page on this entire installation haha. The other two tutorials out there are vague and confusing and haven't been touched in years.

    Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought I replied to this - strange...

      Anyway, I went straight to the 10.6.7 combo update. That's actually what I'm running now. But like I said, I have some problems with flash content in every browser, so I kind of wish I had stayed at 10.6.3.

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  6. Also, does sleep work for you? Every time I close the computer, I have to re start the thing. it won't wake from sleep.

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    1. Sleep doesn't work. There's a kext (called sleepenabler.kext I think) that supposedly gets it to work, but when I installed it, all it did was prevent the computer from entering sleep mode when I closed the lid. That's fine with me though, since it means I can close the lid without the thing crapping out on me.

      I believe there's a different version of sleepenabler.kext for each version of 10.6.x, and there are some other parameters you'll need to change in the load settings. I wasn't very confident in that whole procedure, that's why I left it out.

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  7. Hi, I followed your guide (really good) but when I reboot after the installation I get the please reset screen and when I run -v -x - cpus=1 I get a kernel panic on something to do with ACHI. I read on another forum that this should be enabled in BIOS but it appears that the Dell Inspiron 6400 does not have this feature in the bios, found a forum on this too....
    Any help would be very much appreciated....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. got it working, I deselected RTC in the custom selection and it worked fine after that, upgraded to 10.6.7 and its all sweet! Thanks for a great guide, best I came across

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    2. installed 10.7.2 using iAtkos L2... took a long time to get it running but for anybody thats trying it make sure you select no graphics enabler and no VGA drivers or else it will not work... legacy issues. Thought Id share....

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  8. Thanks! My dell 640m/E1405 works great! Upgraded to 10.6.8 and everything still works.

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    1. Hi, How did you run the Upgrade to 10.6.8? I ran that from software update and now I'm back to square 1. Blank screen issue

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    2. after upgrade, but before reboot you have to change back some kexts. Otherwise, before upgrade copy your /s/l/e, and reboot -s to go single user mode and copy them back at the terminal.

      Google is your friend.

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  9. Im using a dell dimension 3100/Dv051 and I get frozen at the apple loading screen during step 12 after i type in -cpus=1

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I'm not sure how these instructions work (or don't) on different hardware. Sorry!

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    2. Dell Dimension 3100 is a single-core processor machine. -cpus=1 should not be necessary

      Delete
  10. Everything worked great but later on I couldn't connection to the internet. It's reading my wireless network fine but not able to make the connection. reggiecadet@gmail

    ReplyDelete
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    1. If it was working at first, but then stopped working, maybe reset your router? Doesn't sound like a problem with the hackintosh installation.

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  11. Anyone that has had any experience successfully installing this on a Dell Dimension 3100, I'd love to talk to you about how you did it.

    I can successfully install, but it hangs at startup when I try to boot from HD.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi and thank u for ur guide. Everything working as it should on the surface however I use Native instruments Traktor DJ software and there is very high CPU usage to the point where audio breaks when 2 decks are running simultaneously. The only change from ur guide is that I used the GMA950 kext from http://www.osx86.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=2141&page=2 as the link u provided is censored in my country. I also added voodooTSCSync so that I could have both cores working. Do u think that this issue could be something to do with either Speedstep not working or Voodoohda using up too much processor time? any help is appreciated.
    System:
    Dell Inspiron 6400
    1.73 T5300 Intel Processor
    2 GB Ram
    GMA 950
    Broadcom Wireless and LAN
    Sgmatel 9200 Audio

    Thanks in advance

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    Replies
    1. I'm not sure what the resolution would be but it clearly soundsrelated to your software. I wouldn't expect your machine to be a work horse - it's 5 year old hardware after all.

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    2. Oh well looks like I'll go back to 10.5.8. Everything was working perfect including ableton. Thanks again for the guide.

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  13. Hi friends, thanks for ur guide. i tried installing in dell inspiron n5110 intel i5 processor.I am getting black screen after installing and i cant boot from my hard disk.any help plssss....
    Thanks in advance friends.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry - I am not familiar with your hardware. This guide is only for a very specific set of hardware. Good luck!

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  14. Hi all
    I need Help. I have Inspiron 6400 same spec as yours, but i cant get past maybe 2% of installation. It crash with double panic error and some text is written on screen. Anyone have same issue?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm, if you followed the instructions exactly then I'm not sure what else to tell you. I'm not really an expert in the matter - I just happened to get the thing working so I documented how I did it.

      Delete
    2. Thanks man. It was a long shot but i try. I usually go with chameleon RC4, but get stuck after reboot. I guess video issue or sleep enabler. This solution was a new try but failed also. Will see to get some time and play customization and will post here also. Thanks anyway

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  15. I installed it alright but the mouse is very laggy. Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Sorry - I haven't heard of that with this hardware set up. I assume you get the same lag whether you're using the trackpad or a USB mouse? Have you tried a PS/2 mouse?

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  16. hi there, my cd-rom was spoiled. is it possible to use external cd-rom or virtual clone to do it?
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I'm not sure, but I was able to load it off USB. You just have to change your BIOS to allow booting from USB. It's way faster with USB.

      Delete
    2. hi there, I used unetbootin but it wasn't booting at all, keep showing automatic boot in XX seconds and keep repeating by itself

      if i used other programs it will say something like read failure...

      any ideas?

      thank you

      Delete
    3. Sorry, I have no idea what that means. I made a bootable USB stick and then changed BIOS settings to allow booting from USB and it worked fine for me.

      Delete
    4. oh ok, never mind... i'll figure it out myself and see what i can do about it... thanks

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    6. How do you make a bootable usb stick without access to a working mac? Use Win32diskimager to write the dmg to the raw usb drive?

      Also will your method work with the AMD cpu model e1505 (with an onboard nvidia graphics card)?

      Delete
  17. Thanks for the help, I would never have gotten past that black screen without your help, Thank you so much.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I appreciate the positive feedback - glad it was helpful!

      Delete
  18. Thanks for the help. I've followed all the steps and have gotten all the way to "choose Terminal from the Utilities menu" and then I see -bash-3.2# So any help from here would be appreciated. I don't know what that means or how to enter cd "/Volumes/ etc.
    I'm trying this hackintosh on a Dell 1520 Inspiron laptop
    Intel Core 2 Duo T8300
    4GB
    GMA X3100

    So, if I get past this point, with your help, I don't know which "offending kexts" to remove. I look forward to any assistance. thanks.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. This is UNIX command-line, similar to DOS command-prompt on PCs. Type the following letters on your keyboard:

      cd "/Volumes/HackBook Pro/System/Library/Extensions"
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950.kext
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950GA.plugin
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver.bundle
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMA950VADriver.bundle
      rm -rf AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100GA.plugin
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100GLDriver.bundle
      rm -rf AppleIntelGMAX3100VADriver.bundle
      diskutil repairPermissions /dev/disk0s2
      reboot

      hit [enter] at the end of each line.
      Substitute "HackBook Pro" with the name you gave your system on the 1st install.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for your reply.
      I have different specs than the author, which includes GMA X3100.
      But I should still remove the kext with GMAX3100 in it? as you've suggested?

      Delete
    3. Ah, don't remove the kexts with GMAX3100 in the name. Also look up other differences between yours and the author's system. You may need to download and manually install kext drivers that are not part of the OSX install. NIC and audio drivers typically require some customization.

      Delete
    4. Thanks. It works. Much thanks.
      Next I tried to upgrade from 10.6.3 to 10.6.7 via 10.6.7 combo pkg. Install showed successful, but upon restart it hangs at the Apple logo and spinning image. In verbose -v the last line shows SATA WARNING: Enable auto-activate failed. Any guidance will be appreciated.

      Delete
    5. dannoxyz, the intel gmax3100 works natively, you can even try iatkos l2 with that integrated graphics, sorry if i´m writting wrong, i do my best with my english

      Delete
  19. y trid everyting, even from original mac disk ans many, many`s diferent hack, evereting work exep ati1400, the pointer is a green bars ans no sound,

    since my original mistake boot from usb dvd disk, whit my original
    mac 10.4 disk, whitour hack the system install on the new 120 gig y juste
    replace, wow, strange mystake to seen its instal itsel.

    since y trid every other version of original or hack disk, and the same
    y ave to get back to my 10.4 disk to av a minimum of working hackingtosh on my inspiron 6400, no kext y ever trid work whit my in board sound card,
    nor my video card, that a 3 years experience now, whit this same laptop.

    inspiron 6400, ati 1400(256meg) and simtel sound cart.

    everiting els work burn cd , dvd run any program y got for my agin
    mac book, but no sount and 1024 by 768 ,

    every time y instale any kind of hack for ati, y loste te laptop screen
    the mouse cursor, work only whit external screen.

    a this time y trid what 100 time reformat the disk reinstall everiting.

    whit more than 50 dvd, 13 apple original the reste copy from any source
    y got, (probably from the net) y am whit comuted phone line for the net
    y can not danwlod anyting, gosh a 4ig danwload wil take a what a month.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Can you publish one for an update. I have the same laptop insperon e1505. I got the 10.6.3 running smoothly but then I updated and it runs but the screen blacks out after the apple logo. I know it works because I can hear the pop when I adjust the volume I just need to get the video drivers running. Can you help with this problem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you have the same hardware (video card, etc.) then the kexts (video drivers) should work. Sounds like maybe you have a different video card?

      Delete
  21. hi i have the same laptop the dell inspiron 6400 except i only had one core to start with not sure why??? but any way i am having a problem that goes as follows
    i followed all instuctions and got the OS fully work but, i can only acess the montor if an external is plugged in the laptop monitor its self will come on but only if i plug in a external when the apple loading screen is on and then press Fn + F8 twice so it switched back from the external to the laptop monitor its just not recognising the laptop monitor after the apple loading screen i have deleted the kexts and rebooted but no change i have done it over and over again now in several different ways but nothing ?
    any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you have the integrated Intel graphics? Or something else?

      Delete
  22. Hi, thanks for the great tutorial helped me allot but i have one problem,
    I've got the same exact laptop, dell 6400, everything works great expect wifi, after install I can't find the wifi, and I noticed that you didn't install its drives in the customize section, please help!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is the driver (kext) for my wireless card: Under Drivers/Network/Wired/Broadcom: BCM440x

      You may have a different wireless card.

      Delete
    2. Thanks, the guide is great.
      I have the same thing issue with the wireless.

      From your post:

      This is the driver (kext) for my wireless card: Under Drivers/Network/Wired/Broadcom: BCM440x

      I assume that is a wired (ethernet) card. My ethernet driver is working fine. There are options for wireless as well. I'm going to try the Broadcom wireless options next install attempt (#4) as I'm not sure how to install drivers after installation.

      Delete
  23. Thank you for the guide, Chris. I have a slightly different E1505, with a Core 2 Duo processor, and I found your suggestions very useful. Two finger scroll does work if you use voodoo ps/2, and there is a scroll inverter you can get to change the direction of that. I tried over and over to get everything working with the 10.6.8 update, but just can't get everything to work. I'm just sticking with 10.6.3 for now since it seems stable.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Oh yeah, also wanted to say that if you have an external monitor, when the staying alive music comes on that first time, you can just hook it up, perform the operations to get the video working, and reboot, and that is much quicker than booting from optical disk again.

      Delete
    2. That's a great tip! I didn't have an external monitor, and even if I did, I wouldn't have expected it to work. Thanks so much for posting!

      Delete
    3. Hi, it is me again. (Anonymous) I have the E1505 listed above, and somehow I was able to get it updated to 10.6.8 and it seems to be all working! I do believe that I may have a slightly different video card than you do. I did a lot of researching on this video card topic, because Preview was not working for me (it wouldn't even display .jpg pictures) and I read that it was a video problem. Anyway, for my particular E1505, I have the 945/950 GMA like you do, but I have a "27A2" revision "0x0003". For the 27A2, I read, I should NOT delete the AppleIntegratedFrameBuffer.kext. For the "27AE" version of the video card, you DO delete the FrameBuffer kext. So rm -rf AppleIntelGMA* worked for me. (you, the reader, can check YOUR video card version in About_This_Mac->More_info...->Hardware->Graphics/Displays.) What I finally ended up doing, and I don't know if it is what made the difference, is I used iBoot (Legacy version 2.7.2) and installed from the 10.6.3 retail DVD, and then went through the motions of tweaking the thing with various kexts until I got the right combination for my hardware. At more than one point I had to run MultiBeast from a bootable thumb drive that I made of the original working iATKOS 10.6.3 installation, because the iBoot/vanilla method I used made getting everything working a little harder, at first. These E1505/6400 laptops seem to have a LOT of different hardware configurations, so don't assume any one guide will work very well for you. After I installed iATKOS, I didn't have to do the cpu=1 flag at boot, but after i used iBoot, I did indeed have to use that flag, even though I have a dual core CPU, because I hadn't yet installed the "VoodooTSCSync.kext" which gets added according to your instructions above. I'd be curious to know if you unchecked the "VoodooTSCSync.kext" in your method above, or just deleted the kext, if that would help with the single core processor. So anyway, thanks again for your guide, and I just wanted to say that there is hope for this laptop... as of the writing of this message, I have all the apple software updates, Flash updated, and am able to view flash and youtube perfectly. The second monitor works for monitor spanning. It is interesting to note that I worked on this for more than a week, and if I had spent all that time on something else, like a paying job, then I could have paid for an old Macbook Pro by now. Oh well, at least I learned a few things.

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    4. SleepEnabler 10.6.8 did not work. The machine still does not wake from Sleep. But that is the only thing that doesn't work! (besides the MediaDirect key) Just turn sleep off, and shut the machine off before closing the lid. However, the display will wake from display sleep. 64 bit extensions and programs work! I have a feeling it would have worked with the iATKOS install, if I had it to do over, but of course I don't want to do it all over. There is something kind of magical about installing a retail 10.6.3 disk. Saved a good copy of 10.6.8 with superduper! You can see (roughly) what I did on the HCL 10.6.8 portables page on osx 86 project. Also somewhere there are directions to get that mediadirect key to turn on a 2nd operating system. But who cares, this will be a standalone SL machine. The new iTunes version allows backing up of an iphone 5. That is about all. So verbose.

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  24. i did this fallowing you instructions and got a kernal panic

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  25. Part of the problem with these instructions is Dell in their infinite stupidity have two different computers with the exact same model numbers.

    One Inspiron 6400 (1505) has the Intel GMA950 graphics,

    The *other* 6400 series has a Intel Wireless and there is no way to make that work with Snow Leopard, and ATI Raedon Mobility X1400 graphics... which you cant get to work accelerated, either, as far as I can find.

    I bought the one on ebay not knowing it is not the one I read about, and I will probably end up getting so frustrated I just shot it for anger management problems.

    I have never had such a time hackintoshing ....
    I have a Lenovo V570 that works flawlessly. :D

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  26. Can you post a highly compressed iso/dmg file of mac os,please.I am using a very slower connection.I downloade some from net but they are not working.

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  27. Hackintoshing an AMD computer doesn't really work...

    http://www.macbreaker.com/2012/01/look-at-state-of-amd-hackintoshing.html

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  28. can i install this on my dell inspiron n5050 15r model ?? anyone

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  29. can i install this on my dell inspiron n5010 model??

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  30. For interested Owners of a Dell 640M/e1405 trying to install Snow Leopard and update it to 10.6.8, this fresh description of the successful procedures is recommended:

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FVJTT_e07fSPjGFYYg15QkgO2NFBYLUGSaiitfclfQI/edit?pli=1

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  31. I know this is an old thread, but i got a hold of a E1500 and followed this install. What fun! Initialy i did the SL install, but more recently i installed Iatkos L2 Lion Install. It works very well except finding these drivers you used for the GMA is pretty much impossible. I have googled my fingers off and the internet has so many versions with so many combinations of installation (or methods)!! If you could re-post the GMA 950 (27a2) here or email me them, i would be VERY thankful. --> Better yet!! zip your extensions directory! - Here is what have have gotten working : Using the built in iatkos GMA950 drivers, it works with full QE, but with an external monitor only. . So = no driver = laptop monitor, iatkos GMA950 = external only with full QE. i am hoping your GMA950 kexts are better than what i have found else ware. please respond! :-) capri2_77@yahoo.com

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    1. Sorry - I don't think I even have that machine anymore, and i have no idea where you'd get the drivers.

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  32. YAY! i did it by accident. FULL QE! Steps. 1) Install iAtkos L2 with your instructions. 2) copy all appleintel GMA kexts (back them up to a folder on the desktop) 3) install this (feels like a software accelerator, as its jerky. but works) http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leopard-laptop-support/48554-solution-dell-inspiron-e1505-wont-boot-lcd.html reboot. 4) reinstall the original GMA kexts you backed up (don't install framebuffer) .. reboot.. wala! -- > i will zip my ext directory and post it.

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  33. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/847082/e1505.zip Here is a zip file with 3 methods, all referencing your instructions URL. it included my extensions folder (only the ones related to the GMA, and the CPU=1 fix) A kext installer, and the GMA950.pkg

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  35. Hi there... Great tutorial... Would you say me something: should I use quotation in terminal commands and use reboot word?

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  36. Thanks for such a wonderful tutorial, I found it very informative for those who are looking to install Mac OS on their Dell Inspiron. Well, if you are looking to buy a new one then it is recommended to check this list of hackintosh laptops. I bet you will surely find the best one at an affordable cost.

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  37. Thank You for your guide. I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 with a different graphics card as yours - ATI Radeon X1400. Do know where can I get the driver for it?

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