Snow Leopard on Dell Inspiron 640m/e1405
Update 4: Please see updated post.
Update 3: I recently tried to format and re-install snow leopard, and now I can’t get the laptop to boot from the Chameleon cdboot. I’m working on it and will post when I find a solution.
Update 2: The Broadcom 440x kext found here makes the card detected in Snow Leopard, however, it works intermittently. Most of the time you will fail to get an IP.
Update: You can run updates from Software Update, however remember to DELETE SleepEnabler.kext before upgrading to 10.6.2 (check /Extra and /System/Library/Extensions). Otherwise you’ll get a nice kernel panic.
Just installed Mac OS X 10.6 on my trusty old Dell Inspiron 640m.
Intel Core Duo T2050 processor @ 1.60GHz
2GB DDR2 SDRAM
Intel GMA950 integrated graphics (1440×900)
Intel 3945ABG Dell TrueMobile 1505 802.11n Mini PCIE WLAN card
It was quite easy; actually easier than Leopard.
I basically followed the steps found here:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182227
(ISO mirrored here: Inspiron6400.iso)
Make sure to always boot with cpus=1
Then, I installed a few additional kexts for the onboard Broadcom 440x (AppleBCM440XEthernet.kext), battery status display VoodooBattery.kext, and HD Audio VoodooHDA.kext.
To fix the cpus=1 problem, install VoodooTSCSync.kext
I have only one problem with this setup, the laptop does NOT wake from sleep.
Themocracy
Do you have Core centrino duo? Or do yo have Core 2 duo CPU?
I have a Core Duo T2050, not Core 2.
Oh cool! I’ve been reading that Core Duo doesn’t work without modifying the kernal in Snow leopard, only Core 2 Duo works.
Did you have to do anything? OR am I reading false information.
Thanks by the way, this seems to have been the only source specifically for the e1405
That is pretty much it. Everything works great. Remeber that the original 2006 Intel MacBook Pro used a Core Duo. If Apple were to cut support for those, I would imagine they would have some quite unhappy customers! I did however swap my original Intel 3945ABG for a Dell TrueMobile 1505 draft-n card that has a Broadcom chipset and therefore works out-of the box with Mac OS.
Also, note that since the wifi is detected and the wired isn’t (at first, before installing the 440x kext), your AirPort interface will end up being en0 and your wired will be en1. This can be fixed in the NetworkInterfaces.plist.
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; InfoPath.2)
Hi Matthieu, i came across your blog doing a web search as i have the same old dell laptop and want to install snow leopard on as well. First off great job glad everything is working fine. Question for you please the inspiron 640.iso not sure what to do with it? Also do i need to follow the entire “to do” from your link?
is there a complete image somewhere that i could just insert and install as i am really a newbie when it comes to mac!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Joe
Lucky you. I swear its not really working for me. I feel its chameleon. It’ll boot into osx when I press F5 which is supposed to allow me to rescan and boot from my snow leopard disc. Can’t even get to installation. Thanks anyway.
Actually strange thing happened. I bought a Core 2 T5600 from eBay and put it in my Inspiron. Now OSX doesn’t boot anymore, I get a black screen after the Apple splash/boot logo. However if i put the old T2050 back in, all is well.
Hi, i have the same notebook but i am so new to the hackintosh.
can you explain a little more how to do this, or what method did you use ?
This guide covers three methods that are able to cleanly install 10.6
-Chameleon + Hidden EFI Partition
-Boot-132 Disc w/ patched boot file
-Chameleon v2 RC1 USB Bootloader w/Netkas PCEFIv10.1 patched boot
All work, choose which one you are most comfortable with.
can you add me to msn ? estebanmartinaguilera[at] hotmail.com
thanks in advance !
Opera/9.63 (Windows NT 6.0; U; pl) Presto/2.1.1
Hi Matthieu,
Could you pls post here a list of kexts that you copied into Extra and Extra/Extension directories to be able to boot Snow Leo…? I followed some tutorials, copied indicated files, but the computer stops durung boot. After 10 second of boot the circle below the apple logo just stops rotating and the hdd stops working. I don’t know if I have wrong kexts or I’ve missed sth… Thanks in advance for help!
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matthieu, could you pls post here links to video and audio drivers you used during insatallation? I finally installed snow leo, but cannot install mentioned above drivers. I tried many of different and any of them worked for me :-/ My laptop also is dell 640m.
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20100106 Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic) Firefox/3.5.7
I have just written a new complete install procedure. You can find it here: https://matthieu.yiptong.ca/2010/01/18/snow-leopard-on-dell-inspiron-640me1405-updated/
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0)
hi…
Thank for your article
It’s work on my computer
again
Great Thanks