Source
r/hackintosh•
atzero

Dell XPS 9570. Can't even get it installed, what am I doing wrong?

** Solved. The problem I was having was with the Evo 970 SSD in the laptop. Replacing that fixed the problem. **

I'm attempting to install Hackintosh Mojave 10.14.x on my XPS 9570. I just completed an install on a pc I built and it's running great! My laptop on the other hand can't get through the initial setup without KP's.

I've found every guide I could, read through every thread I could find on the model and no one else seems to be having this issue.

Specs:

  • Intel Core i7-8750H
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q (which I understand won't work on Mac) / Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 1080p Display

My procedure:

  1. Using "Install Disk Creator", make a Mojave install USB
  2. Use Clover customizer to mount install USB's EFI and copy over preconfigured "Install" EFI's I've found on numerous 9570 specific threads and GitHub pages. (I've also tried generic install EFI folders that are supposed to get you started too)
  3. Boot into clover, select "Boot macOS install from Install macOS Mojave"
  4. Wait for inevitable KP (usually after 30-45 seconds).

On one occasion this got me all the way into the installer, but it was especially glitchy looking and would KP anytime I tried to "Boot macOS install from Macintosh HD". I've since not been able to even replicate getting into the installer.

Am I missing something in my process?

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thanks.

Posted Apr 20, 2019, 4:01 AM UTC · edited

329
dracoflarHackintosh Slav•

Also should mention:

GitHub - Xigtun/xps-9570-mojave

Config.plist here is pretty good, can be cleaned up a bit

Dell-XPS-15-9570-macOS-Mojave - GitHub

Config.plist here is poorly done, mostly stitched together from other posts it seems but usable

macOS Mojave on Dell XPS 9570

Config.plist here is also well made, best one out of the bunch but some work can be done

XPS 15 9570 Mojave

Jesus Christ. I have never seen such a config.plist before, please burn immediately

4
butterisacorgi•

Erm. I put a lot of work into that config.plist (https://github.com/bavariancake/XPS9570-macOS). Mostly trying to remove unnecessary pieces so everything has a purpose. I spend a lot of time testing things to try to dial in improvements without just guessing, but I’ll admit there are many people who know more than I do. If you have suggestions for improvements, please let me know. I would love to end up with a perfect config we can share with everyone.

1
dracoflarHackintosh Slav•

best one out of the bunch

Don’t see the issue here, said it was the best config of them all. Don’t have access to a plist editor at the moment but I remember there were very few things I’d critique:

  • GFX0 to IGPU: WhateverGreen handles this automatically now
  • Forcing Kexts to load isn’t always a good idea, if MacOS can’t do that itself then there’s some serious underlying issues(likely with ACPI tables)
  • Too much data within SMBIOS, clover will fill in most of it with up to date values. You only need ProductName, BoardSerialNumber, SerialNumber and SmUUID.
  • CsrActiveConfig: Should be 0x3E7 for true disabling of SIP: Crutial for the new kernel extension notoriety(this is an issue with Clover’s poor implementation of injection, switching to OpenCore is viable alternative)
  • InjectKext should be YES: Clover has issues detecting FakeSMC and taking guess work out is always preferred
  • Extra .efi drivers: Don’t need FSInject or DataHubDxe

Overall it’s a great config.plist, don’t have many complaints and the ones I do are mostly nitpicks. Nice job

1
butterisacorgi•

Oh I though you meant "Config.plist here is poorly done" for mine, misread that.

I'm glad I asked though, because this is really helpful actually!

1
dracoflarHackintosh Slav•

copy over preconfigured "Install" EFI's I've found

That's your issue, you should never use other people's EFIs. Same reason why we don't support Hackintosher on here, it teaches you nothing. We'd recommend going bare vanilla and then add onto it when needed. There's a good chance the kexts in that folder are no longer compatible due to the changes Apple performed with the Framebuffer in the 10.14.4 update. You'll need to grab the most up to date versions of those kexts(specifically Lilu, WhateverGreen and AppleALC) and you should build your EFI from scratch

3
atzeroOP•

So I get that's probably the ideal way of doing this but I'll be honest, that feels like the deep end of the pool when I'm barely treading water. Most of the documentation I'm seeing for these laptops have no advice for the plist configuration at all. So with almost nothing to go on, I can try this or that in clover configurator but I end up spinning wheels. So for my situation, would it be better to start with someone else's configuration, update the kexts and try again?

edit: I should also note that this is basically just trying to get the damned thing installed. I definitely have plans of configuring the plist once I've got SOME kind of foundation, but right now I don't have the foundation to make any real progress.

1
dracoflarHackintosh Slav•

I can understand where you're getting at, issue is that copying someone else EFI is going to give you a bigger headache as you won't know what's going on behind the scene. That's why I said build the EFI from the ground up and take parts from their EFIs and it into yours. I'll give you some tips on what you'll want in the EFI:

drivers64UEFI:

  • ApfsDriverLoader-64.efi: Needed for seeing APFS
  • AptioMemoryFix-64.efi: Memory and NVRAM management
  • HFSPlus.efi: Needed for seeing HFS drives

kexts:

  • VoodooPS2Controller.kext: Needed for internal keyboard
  • FakeSMC.kext: needed for all hacks
  • Lilu.kext: Needed to load WEG and AppleALC
  • WhateverGreen.kext: fixes video
  • AppleALC.kext: fixes audio

drivers64:

  • nothing, drivers64 is only for legacy systems

ACPI

  • nothing for now, you'll add this yourself Ince you know the patches you need to apply

You'll be adding other things like AppleBacklightFixup later but for now we want to run bare minimum to avoid any conflicts. I recommend using the config.plist from this guide you mentioned and don't forget to change the SMBIOS for proper serial number

2
atzeroOP•

I really appreciate the time and advice! Sadly, even bare minimum kexts + his config.plist still throws a KP.

1
dracoflarHackintosh Slav•

Interesting, does it say what caused the kernel panic? Specifically what was the last kext loaded?

1
atzeroOP•

"Guides"/Links I've tried:

1
themacmeisterMojave - 10.14•

Did you patch the framebuffer? I hear that these UEFI BIOS can be a pain with DVMT-PREALLOC setting...

​

I think most people do this from Linux, or EFI SHELL, but I have never had to do this myself.

​

Take a high quality video of the KP (in verbose mode) and paste it here... we may be able to see the culprit.

​

> Boot macOS install from Macintosh HD

​

You are NOT in the installer, you are only in the bootloader :-(

1
themacmeisterMojave - 10.14•

https://github.com/bavariancake/XPS9570-macOS looks like the most thorough guide, and it has all the settings for graphics sorted out I think? also, DVMT of 64MB (default?) looks OK for 1080p screen.

1
atzeroOP•

This is what I'm running into.

1
themacmeisterMojave - 10.14•

Says you are using 4K blocks instead of 512KB ??

Error is IONVME... did you format the drive as plain APFS in Disk Utility... and is the drive the dreaded Evo 970 PLUS, because the PLUS version is not supported under macOS :-(

I would go as far as to say that this is the reason, without any further info...

1
atzeroOP•

Says you are using 4K blocks instead of 512KB

I'll be totally honest, I have no idea what that means.

and is the drive the dreaded Evo 970 PLUS, because the PLUS version is not supported under macOS :-(

Interesting, I wouldn't think that would cause a KP, but if that's a known issue with the drive it might be time to go buy a new drive!

Thank you very much for taking the time to help me out!

1
rawrrence•

​

Yeah, like someone has mentioned, if you SSD is the PM981 model from Samsung, it definitely will not be able to boot into MacOS installer. You can look for this information under Device Manager.

1
atzeroOP•

Gotcha. And yeah, that was the problem all along. I swapped a different m.2 drive in and it booted/installed with zero problems.

1