Snow Leopard on Dell Inspiron 640m/e1405 UPDATED

By , 2010-01-18 09:38

Update 3: For anyone looking for it: 10.6.2-IONDRVSupport.kext

Update 2: My Inspiron worked great, but took FOREVER to boot because it was “Waiting for DSMOS”. Today I finally took the time to do a quick google and found the solution:

in terminal, type “sudo chown root:wheel /” and restart

It seems the owner of the root somehow gets messed up, probably after Chameleon install (just a wild guess).
Thanks to bertmannaustria @ InsanelyMac! (Original thread)

Update: For anyone who is having problems, I have a new kext package. This is a zip of my /Extra folder that I’m using right now on my Inspiron 640m. 640mExtra-Updated Also my system is 32-bit only, so I can’t guarantee this will work in 64-bit mode.

After much trial and error, I finally found the proper procedure for installing Snow Leopard onto my Inspiron 640m. For reasons that I cannot fathom, I was unable to perform the chameleon cdboot/swap to boot from the retail Snow DVD. It might be my DVD drive, or some other cause, but I didn’t bother finding out; I just took the hard drive out of my laptop and connected it via USB to my iMac.

Here’s the procedure that I followed yesterday to install Mac OS X 10.6.0 on my Inspiron 640m. It’s tested, working and stable, everything is great except that this laptop does NOT wake from sleep. It goes to sleep just fine, just won’t wake. Here goes:

  1. Remove hard drive from the Inspiron. Connect it using a hard drive dock or USB to SATA enclosure/adapter.
  2. Put Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD into existing Mac (Hackintosh or real mac, doesn’t matter).
  3. Using Disk Utility, partition your Inspiron’s drive as you like, using a GUID Parition table.
  4. With your Snow Leopard DVD mounted, in Finder, choose Go to folder. In the box that comes up type “/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages”.
  5. This will open a folder with a lot of install pkgs. Find OSInstall.mpkg and double-click it.
  6. Follow the steps to install Snow Leopard, making sure to pick the proper drive for installation.
  7. Once the installation is done, eject your USB drive and put the hard drive back in your Inspiron.
  8. Download the Inspiron6400.iso and burn it to a CD.
  9. Power up your Inspiron and boot from the CD
  10. From the Chameleon menu, use the arrow keys to select the hard drive.
  11. Type the following boot arguments: -v cpus=1
  12. Your Inspiron should boot into Snow Leopard. Congratulations!
  13. Download my 2 Inspiron kext packages: Inspiron640mExtensions Inspiron640mExtra
  14. In the Inspiron640mExtensions, you will find kext helper. Run it, and drag AppleBCM440XEthernet.kext, VoodooBattery.kext and VoodooHDA.kext onto it, enter password and install.
  15. You will also find the Chameleon RC4 installer. Run it, but DON’T reboot at the end.
  16. Extract the Inspiron640mExtra.zip. Copy the contents of the extracted Extra folder to /Extra.
  17. Remove the Inspiron6400 CD and reboot. hopefully your laptop should boot fine from the hard drive.

Just a few notes:

  • I cannot get the laptop to wake from sleep. As such, the SleepEnabler.kext is not included. I also included the InsomniaX app which you might choose to install to prevent your laptop from sleeping.
  • This method seems to be update-safe. I just updated to 10.6.2 using Software Update and all is ok.
  • When the clamshell display is closed, the Dell BIOS or something blanks the screen. Mac OS cannot re-enable the screen and you’ll be stuck staring at a black LCD. To circumvent this, set one of your screen corners in Expose prefs to put the display to sleep. If ever you find yourself with a black screen, move the cursor to that corner to force the display to sleep, then wake it up again.
  • The Intel PRO 3945 ABG wireless card that came with my Inspiron (and all Inspirons that are branded “Centrino”) does NOT work with Mac OS X. I swapped mine for a Dell 1505 Draft-N card (cheap on eBay) that works perfectly out-of-the-box.
  • The Broadcom 440x ethernet card seems to work fine, I tested it briefly with some light web browsing. However, the original thread says that the driver occasionally drops connections, so YMMV.
  • Finally, a quick thanks to all the OSX86 devs. None of the kexts found here are made by me, all credit goes to the original authors. I found all the necessary info over at the InsanelyMac forum.

48 Responses to “Snow Leopard on Dell Inspiron 640m/e1405 UPDATED”

  1. Joe Sacco says:
    Internet Explorer 8.0 Internet Explorer 8.0 Windows XP Windows XP
    Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; InfoPath.2)

    Well after trying everything else i’m glad i found your post! I am excited to try it out on my dell inspiron 640m same as yours. Any advice? I will post my results..

    thanks
    Joe

  2. Matthieu says:
    Firefox 3.5.7 Firefox 3.5.7 Ubuntu 9.10 x64 Ubuntu 9.10 x64
    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

    Not really related, but

    I found a nice bootable ISO made specifically for some dell models
    http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=2dc3bb9f101ac696d97a81e3b20f20d5&showtopic=83039&view=findpost&p=1251812

    It works for my M1330 when EMpire EFI and the Inspiron 6400.iso did not work.

  3. WordPress 2.8.5 WordPress 2.8.5
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    […] 2. Snow Leopard on Dell Inspiron 640m/e1405 […]

  4. Domin says:
    Safari 4.0.3 Safari 4.0.3 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9

    Hi Matthieu,
    Thanks for your updater tutorial. I followed it and got some improvements. Everything seems to be working except card reader and graphics. Card reader isn’t very important, but the screen resolution is essential. I’m stuck at 1024×768 :-/ Are you able to get native 1440×900 pixels? I’m sure I didn’t miss anything, but the video driver doesn’t work for me. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for feedback. Greetings!

    • Matthieu says:
      Firefox 3.6 Firefox 3.6 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
      Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6

      Strange… mine is running at 1440×900 with QE+CI. For the card reader maybe try VoodooSDHC: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php?topic=972.0

      Are you using all the kexts from the package?

      • Kr0d1K says:
        Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Mac OS X  10.6.3 Mac OS X 10.6.3
        Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.342.9 Safari/533.2

        Hey Matthieu,

        How did you get QE+CI working?

        I’m getting the right resolution 1440×900 but for some reason I can’t play DVDs…

        I’m getting the following error:
        “A valid video device could not be found for playback. [-70017]”

        I’ve been searching and supposedly is not working cause QE+CI is not enabled.

        any idea what might it be?

        Thanks,

  5. Domin says:
    Firefox 3.6 Firefox 3.6 Mac OS X  10.5 Mac OS X 10.5
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6

    I’ve done everything step by step following your tutorial, also copied all the indicated files. the only exception is i didn’t boot from dell6400.iso, because my computer don’t want to boot from it. i’ve tried to burn it on cd and also restore it on pendrive, but nothing worked. i launched the installer from leopard installation on the other partition. you think it might be that what causes the problem with graphics?

    does your system run in 32 or 64 bit mode? mine by default starts in 64 bit mode and i’ve heard that there isn’t any 64 bit kexts for gma950… when i put arch=i386 into com.apple.boot.plist i have black screem after reboot, but the system seems to be working. unfortunatley i don’t have any external display to deal with it.

    • Domin says:
      Firefox 3.6 Firefox 3.6 Mac OS X  10.5 Mac OS X 10.5
      Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6

      my previous post needs some clarification, i mixed up a little bit.

      i have leopard 10.5 on my 2nd partition. after booting from it, i’ve installed snow and chameleon 2 rc4 on first partition, copied “extra” directory onto snow partition and restarted computer. after logging in into snow, i used kexthelper to install kexts from Inspiron640mExtensions.zip and that’s basicly it. except graphics and card reader it works fine.

      but! during reading your post above i’ve missed two information that may be important…

      1. i didn’t realize that you’ve uploaded 640mExtra-Updated.zip. pls let me know what is the difference between it and the Inspiron640mExtra.zip, because frankly speaking i don’t see any! i compared files sizes and seems to be the same for me :-/

      2. you say your system is running in 32 bit mode. is it by default? or you changed sth? as i already wrote mine is 64 bit by default and don’t know how to force it to work in 32 bit.

      thanks in advance for help, Matthieu

      • Matthieu says:
        Firefox 3.6 Firefox 3.6 Ubuntu 9.10 x64 Ubuntu 9.10 x64
        Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.1pre) Gecko/20100126 Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic) Firefox/3.6

        Hi,
        The Inspiron640mExtra-Updated.zip may be the same thing as the old one… I just zipped up the /Extra from my fully working machine, just in case I missed anything.

        For 32-bit mode, boot with arch=i386 in your boot arguments.

        • Dominik says:
          Opera 9.63 Opera 9.63 Windows Vista Windows Vista
          Opera/9.63 (Windows NT 6.0; U; pl) Presto/2.1.1

          Hi,
          Finally everything works perfectly! I just installed everything again. Arch=i386 now works without any problems while previously it caused black screen :-/ Regarding the graphics I figured out that the video in fact was accelerated last time, but because of unknown for me reason it was veeeery slow and it just looked like software rendering. For the card reader I used different kext than you mentioned about but it works great.

          Finally I’m happy with my fully working SL on Dell 640m (excluding sleep obviously) and I must say it’s hell faster than Leopard!

          Greetings

          • Kr0d1K says:
            Safari 4.0.5 Safari 4.0.5 Mac OS X  10.6.1 Mac OS X 10.6.1
            Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_1; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7

            Hey Dominik,

            How did you get your display to 1440×900? Im stuck at 1024..

            Thanks in advance

  6. accel says:
    Safari 4.0.4 Safari 4.0.4 Mac OS X  10.6.2 Mac OS X 10.6.2
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_2; nl-nl) AppleWebKit/531.21.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Safari/531.21.10

    Thanks for this great tutorial.

    To avoid this boot argument “cpus=1” you can go into the BIOS and
    disable 1 core.

  7. rob says:
    Safari 4.0.4 Safari 4.0.4 Mac OS X  10.6.2 Mac OS X 10.6.2
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_2; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Safari/531.21.10

    I have a problem my 640m only boots on ext monitor my card is a gma950 …..

    Any ideas why?????

  8. Jumo31 says:
    Safari 4.0.3 Safari 4.0.3 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6; fr-fr) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9

    Hello Matthieu,

    I have the same config as you: inspiron 640m, graphic card 945 GM (kext GMA 950). With Leopard my native resolution of 1440×900 was working perfectly but since Snow Leopard i just have 1024×768. I’m not able to change it !! If you don’t know why it doesn’t work can you simply send me your Extension directory of /Volumes/System//Library or an iso file of your system saved with carbon copy cloner.
    I searched all solutions to make it work but no results actually. I’m asking myself if the chameleon RC4 can be the reason why it doesn’t work.
    Regards,

  9. Corey says:
    Firefox 3.5 Firefox 3.5 GNU/Linux GNU/Linux
    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090624 Firefox/3.5

    Used your method (well kinda, I copied the install DVD to a separate partition and booted from that). Was wondering if you’ve tried updating to 10.6.3? Think it should be fine judging by the kext people are having issues with, but wanted to check if anyone else tried on this lappy?

    • Corey says:
      Google Chrome 4.1.249.1042 Google Chrome 4.1.249.1042 Windows 7 Windows 7
      Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/4.1.249.1042 Safari/532.5

      Well I tried. All worked but you loose graphic acceleration, which is a complete deal breaker for me. Tried using 1.0.6.2 kext but still no go. Guess it’s back to 10.6.2 🙁 Some times I question if osx86 is worth this annoyance every few months…

      • Matthieu says:
        Namoroka 3.6.3pre Namoroka 3.6.3pre Ubuntu 9.10 x64 Ubuntu 9.10 x64
        Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3pre) Gecko/20100328 Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic) Namoroka/3.6.3pre

        I know what you mean… When it works it works great, but when it breaks… it becomes a full-time job :p. I actually gave up and got a used iMac and an old PowerBook G4 for OSX and my Inspiron triple-boots Ubuntu, Win7 and Mac OS, so that I always have one working OS. I think I’m going to try 10.6.3 just for the challenge sometime soon and If I get QE+CI working I’ll post it here.

        • Corey says:
          Safari 4.0.4 Safari 4.0.4 Mac OS X  10.6.3 Mac OS X 10.6.3
          Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.11 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Safari/531.21.10

          Fixed it 🙂
          Looking in Console, turns out the new IONDRVSupport.kext isn’t compatible with the framebuffer kext in the extra folder. Install the the IONDRVSupport.kext from 10.6.2 after updating to 10.6.3 and everything is back to normal. Yippy.

          • Kr0d1K says:
            Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Mac OS X  10.6.3 Mac OS X 10.6.3
            Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.342.9 Safari/533.2

            Hey Corey,

            I’m having the same issue with no Acceleration… I tried your suggestion but still doesn’t work… do you have any other idea of what might be the problem?

            thanks,

          • Kr0d1K says:
            Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Mac OS X  10.6.3 Mac OS X 10.6.3
            Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.342.9 Safari/533.2

            Or if you can send me your IONDRVSupport.kext…

          • erik says:
            Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Google Chrome 5.0.342.9 Mac OS X  10.6.3 Mac OS X 10.6.3
            Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.342.9 Safari/533.2

            Thanks for posting this, I tried to play a dvd last night, no go.. found this post and swapped back the old kext, good as new.

  10. single says:
    Safari 4.0.3 Safari 4.0.3 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9

    follow your great tutorial, my 640m is a macbook pro now:)
    thank you very much.

    • single says:
      Safari 4.0.3 Safari 4.0.3 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
      Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9

      I have a problem, the system can not read any ntfs partition, any way can solve this?

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    […] 根据教程一步一步操作,dell 640m很容易就能装上黑苹果,之前需要准备好一台苹果电脑或能运行的hackintosh系统。已知问题包括无法正常睡眠和3945abg无法驱动(换成bcm4311)。相比在tiger时代的很多硬件无法驱动,现的hackintosh在已经接近完美了。 分类: 个人随笔 标签: hackintosh 随便看看:如果让百度来设计google的logoGood Design is…Growing Up With ShanghaiiPhone即将到来数学验证码注册了DesignLandscape.cn佳能500d套机价格江湾体育场考察 评论 (0) 发表评论 […]

  12. Roger says:
    Safari 4.0.5 Safari 4.0.5 Mac OS X  10.6.3 Mac OS X 10.6.3
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7

    I came upon your tutorial after many failed attempts to put Snow Leopard on my Dell D620. After only 40 minutes I had a fully working MacBook Pro. Impressive and kudos to you as well as those who created the kexts etc for producing a clear, simple to follow tutorial for those of us not necessarily deeply familiar with Mac OSX, bootloaders and kexts. Incidentally kr0d1k, you may have already dealt with your graphics being stuck on 1024 X 768, but just in case… I got this too, because I had not inserted the arch=i386 into my apple boot plist. It was booting into the 64 bit kernel and the driver is only 32 bit, hence only a fixed resolution and poor accelerstion. Make sure it comes up in 32 bit and wow, does it fly. My dellD620 cost me £100 as an office cast off – Not bad really, £100 plus a Snow Leopard DVD for a MacBook Pro. Now to build an X58, 8GB memory monster!

    Regards

  13. mg says:
    Internet Explorer 8.0 Internet Explorer 8.0 Windows 7 x64 Edition Windows 7 x64 Edition
    Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; OfficeLiveConnector.1.4; OfficeLivePatch.1.3)

    Thanks for the steps and kexts Matthieu. I’m just running into trouble when applying the apple update to get to 10.6.2. Can you elaborate on what steps/order you did them in? I’ve tried:
    Install 10.6 ->
    apply your kexts and chameleon (good at this point running 10.6 on my e1405) ->
    apply 10.6.2 combo update ->
    restart ->
    black screen which arch/cpus kernal flags doesn’t help.

    Do I need to run the updates incrementally (10.6.1 – > 10.6.2), or is it a matter of reapplying the kexts in your extras folders before restarting?

    Thanks in advance for your help.

  14. malbin says:
    Safari 5.0 Safari 5.0 Windows 7 Windows 7
    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0 Safari/533.16

    Hi guys here is my deal I followed the instructions except i used iatkos v7 to install onto my external harddrive. i customized in order to get my graphics card and such working. i also had to install drivers for keyboard and trackpad. now when i go through the install all works well. then when i boot form inspiron6400.iso everything works well too. however after i reboot my built in keyboard and trackpad no longer work. they did before but then stop. I have tried everything and it seems that if i dont boot from the 6400 iso that the boot process is never going to finish it just sits on the apple forever. but with the disk it goes really quick. my main problem is the keyboard and trackpad. any help would be very apreciated. oh and i have a dell inspiron 640m as well. feel free to ask any needed questions.

    • MG says:
      Google Chrome 5.0.375.55 Google Chrome 5.0.375.55 Mac OS X  10.6.4 Mac OS X 10.6.4
      Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_4; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.375.55 Safari/533.4

      Quick update for anyone else trying to get 10.6.3 or 10.6.4 working on the e1405 and struggling. I should have caught on the IONDRVSupport.kext issue mentioned previously before, but it looks like that was what was needed to get everything running near perfectly. Now up to 10.6.4 with QE/CI behaving itself.

      Steps to set up 10.6.0:
      Use Mathieu’s guide above… boot from the 6400 boot cd and install retail 10.6.0 from there, or alternatively use another working Hack/Mac and an sata or usb connection to format and install the base OSX.
      Here’s where the fun starts… what has worked well for me in trial install is get the 10.6.2 combo update and install it before you install any kexts to S/L/E using Kext Helper (supplied by Matthieu in his extensions), and before installing Chameleon and the Extras (also supplied). After that installer runs DO NOT RESTART… run the chameleon installer Matthieu provided and the install his S/L/E extensions and use his Extras folder. Note that I kept VoodooTSCSync.kext in Extra/Extensions rather than using Kext helper to add it to S/L/E. Seems to work there.

      After you’ve updated to 10.6.2 find IONDRVSupport.kext and make a copy of it to your desktop. Also download the latest 10.6.4 combo update from apples site so you can use that vs the software update. Once you’ve done that run the 10.6.4 update and again when it’s done don’t restart,,, make sure you delete the S/L/E IONDRVSuport.kext installed by 10.6.4 and use kext helper to restore the 2.0 version we backed up from the 10.6.2 version.

      After that you can restart and if your e1405 works like mine you’ll have 10.6.4 with full QE/CI and you can continue setting up your Mac as you need to. BTW I’m currently typing this from said laptop under 10.6.4 with Plex playing a DVD in Plex in the background… awesomely happy now!!! 😉

      Hopefully this helps some other folks who may have gotten a bit thrown off by the post 10.6.2 updates and the GMA950 issues. Thanks again to Matthieu and the folks at Insanelymac for the tips, tweaks, and tools to get this working.

      • Matthieu says:
        Firefox 3.6.3 Firefox 3.6.3 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
        Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3

        Hi MG,
        Thanks for the clear updated instructions for 10.6.4. I’ve actually been putting off the update myself, but since you have it working I’ll try it soon.

        • mg says:
          Internet Explorer 8.0 Internet Explorer 8.0 Windows 7 x64 Edition Windows 7 x64 Edition
          Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; OfficeLiveConnector.1.4; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; InfoPath.3)

          Not a problem Matthieu. Just trying to give back a bit of help after receiving so much 😉

          Check out http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=178411&pid=1493015&st=1100&#entry1493015 as well for a slightly different method for dell’s. I like using your kexts, but it’s interesting to see other approaches for similar models. Looks like folks are starting to have 10.6.4 success with both approaches.

          @Malbin – I recommend you jump to the 10.6.x version installs Matthieu is describing. Distros, kexts, etc change between versions a lot and the nice thing about this is you’re basically starting with a retail version of OSX and should have basics like keyboard, mouse, trackpad, display, etc working ootb. The only necessary hardward mod I recommend is swapping out an intel wireless card for a supported one like the dell 1397, 1395, 1390, 1505 models. I have a 1397 I got on ebay for $9 dollars and the few dollars will dave you lots of heartburn down the road.

      • Mark says:
        Safari 5.0.2 Safari 5.0.2 Mac OS X  10.6.3 Mac OS X 10.6.3
        Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Safari/533.18.5

        I can confirm 10.6.4 works on a Dell Inspiron 640m (everything but sleep). I have installed OSX using the posted procedure, upgraded to 10.6.2, everything worked great.

        Recently I accidentally upgraded to 10.6.4 and noticed that video playback and Exposé became choppy, couldn’t open Plex or Front Row, all of which indicated an issue with QE/CI. I downloaded the earlier IONDRVSupport.kext version 2.0 (10.6.2) from https://matthieu.yiptong.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/10.6.2-IONDRVSupport.kext_.zip and installed it with Kext helper b7. All problems gone, video is smooth again. Thanks.

        Next: to get a working solution for 640m’s SHDC card reader.

  15. vince says:
    Firefox 3.6.4 Firefox 3.6.4 Windows 7 Windows 7
    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20100611 Firefox/3.6.4

    Hi Matthieu, can teach me which snow leopard i install on my Dell 640m? Saw alot of package like ideneb , ipc etc.

  16. pasgabriele says:
    Safari 4.0.3 Safari 4.0.3 Mac OS X  10.6.2 Mac OS X 10.6.2
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_2; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.3 Safari/531.9

    i followed the guide by MG for the update to 10.6.4. My SL work “perfectly”, but i noticed that there is any problem. I have installed on my SL eyetv 3.4, with 10.6.2 it worked fine, the cpu usage was around 27-30% for the SD stream and 70-80% with HD stream. Now with 10.6.4 my cpu usage is around 40-50% for SD stream and 120-140%!!!!! with HD stream!!!!!!!
    my question: are we sure that with the update to 10.6.4 all work same 10.6.2??????
    anyone has my same problem????

  17. Onire says:
    Google Chrome 5.0.375.125 Google Chrome 5.0.375.125 Mac OS X  10.6.4 Mac OS X 10.6.4
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_4; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.375.125 Safari/533.4

    Any one have tried this http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=201034&st=20 on 10.6.4?

  18. Glitz says:
    Firefox 3.6.12 Firefox 3.6.12 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; fr; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12

    Hi Matthieu,
    Thanks for your tutorial. It worked great on my dell 640m.
    However I still have a little problem which is kind of annoying. The system doesn’t detect an external display without a reboot. It seems to detect that a new display is connected (screen turns blue for a second) but nothing happens. I tried with different combination of AppleIntelGMA950, AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer, … kexts but no luck.
    Does anybody knows the solution?
    Thanks

  19. M.Y. says:
    Google Chrome 8.0.552.231 Google Chrome 8.0.552.231 Mac OS X  10.6.6 Mac OS X 10.6.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_6; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/8.0.552.231 Safari/534.10

    Hi,
    I’ve managed to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4 with only addition to mg’s instruction with replacing SleepEnabler Kext https://github.com/shao1555/xnu-sleep-enabler after installing combo update from 10.6.2 to 10.6.4 and before rebooting. For some other computers maybe helpful option arch=i386.

  20. M.Y. says:
    Firefox 3.6.3 Firefox 3.6.3 Windows 7 Windows 7
    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; ru; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 MRA 5.7 (build 03797) Firefox/3.6.3 sputnik 2.3.0.96

    Hope you are well, first I want to tell you big thanks for your posts about installing Mac on Dell inspiron!
    Now I run on Snow Leopard 10.6.6 with almost all running fine.
    Last one thing I want from it to have my conexant v92 built-in dial up modem to work=). Is it possible at all? Have any of you working this on Mac?

    • Matthieu says:
      Safari 5.0.2 Safari 5.0.2 iPad iOS 4.3.3 iPad iOS 4.3.3
      Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J3 Safari/6533.18.5

      No, as far as I know there’s no support for PCI/HDA modems in OSX Intel. The general consensus seems to be to purchase an Apple USB modem….

      • kindNinja says:
        Firefox 10.0.1 Firefox 10.0.1 Windows XP Windows XP
        Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:10.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.1

        OK… Matt, or anyone for that matter that wants a challenge. I got a dell like yours, 32bit insp.640m, but only 504MB mem and an 8GB USB. so i cant do it from DVD/CD. Can it be done?

        I would love to get mac up and running as the only OS on this machine. I have read the step by step, in fact all of them i could find posted, but still would love a little more explanation if one could give it.
        if you can help me please let em know…
        MSN or Email me @: [email protected]

        • kindNinja says:
          Firefox 10.0.1 Firefox 10.0.1 Windows XP Windows XP
          Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:10.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.1

          p.s….. I have another laptop, but its a dell too, and I do have the means to mount iso or get additional software if needed,

          thanks

  21. kindNinja says:
    Firefox 10.0.1 Firefox 10.0.1 Windows XP Windows XP
    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:10.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.1

    OK… Matt, or anyone for that matter that wants a challenge. I got a dell like yours, 32bit insp.640m, but only 504MB mem and an 8GB USB. so i cant do it from DVD/CD. Can it be done?

    I would love to get mac up and running as the only OS on this machine. I have read the step by step, in fact all of them i could find posted, but still would love a little more explanation if one could give it.

  22. Matthieu says:
    Galaxy Nexus Galaxy Nexus Galaxy Nexus Galaxy Nexus
    Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.4; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/IMM30B) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30

    You can install using a USB drive, but AFAIK you need Mac OS to create the bootable installer. The gist of it is, make a .dmg from the Mac OS X install disk. Restore that image to an 8GB USB drive. Install Chameleon/Chimera to the drive using one of the various .pkg installers available.

    512MB of RAM should be enough to run, but just barely. I’d strongly recommend picking up another 512 stick or 1GB stick.

  23. Souldark says:
    Opera 11.64 Opera 11.64 Windows 8 Windows 8
    Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.2; U; en) Presto/2.10.229 Version/11.64

    Hi Matt I also followed your tutorial but when I’m booting with chameleon I got “still waiting fr root device” error. Any ideas how to fix this?
    Thanks

  24. b.li says:
    Firefox 26.0 Firefox 26.0 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:26.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/26.0

    Merci beaucoup, thanks a lot for your tutorial. With further hints
    now I can caress my fresh SnowLeo 10.6.8 on Dell Inspiron 640M:
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MpIWjdN1Mb9xhcfvOVWkVkxc8eB9QvGBzQjCxxGmfTQ/edit
    libuznik / from your neighborhood – Happy New Year for you!

    • b.li says:
      Firefox 35.0 Firefox 35.0 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
      Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:35.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0

      If you cannot find my modified tutorial about SL-installation without any boot-CD, but complete update to 10.6.8, please look here: https://yadi.sk/d/_Qu-usmrdRZhq

  25. b.li says:
    Firefox 35.0 Firefox 35.0 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:35.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0

    Modified Tutorial about very easy installation without Boot-CD an complete updated Snow Leopard 10.6.8 recently
    has been actualized, and deposited here:
    https://yadi.sk/d/aQnfP-cleYowJ
    Success for later readers!

  26. ygnaz says:
    Firefox 39.0 Firefox 39.0 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:39.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/39.0

    Incroyable, mais vrai: after many trials with Matthieu’s description, I’ve just found an ultra-easy way to translocate a complete 10.6.8-system from mac onto externalized DELL 640m-HDD, simply customized thereon in a wink, i.e. all within 2.000 sec. – instead of sluggish installation, take the TGV, please:
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wp3CQxYQ0abqe_iB6G0fbRsoo8NkvovkKE4Fy1AJhoU/edit
    Et bien, MERÇI à Matthieu!

  27. helensson says:
    Firefox 48.0 Firefox 48.0 Mac OS X  10.6 Mac OS X 10.6
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:48.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0

    Transformation de Dell 640m à DellBook 10.6.8 avec T.G.V.: merçi pour la passe en avant, Matthieu!
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1alXYa3tEU9WsimaSq8exW5QH4JTt3RHK0ww-6NoL3ew/edit

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