Dell Inspirion 1525 Snow Leopard Guide

Here's an how to guide by Genaro Bonilla at macyoupc.com. (i take absouletly no credit from this). But this works perfectly fine on my Dell 1525 so i am sharing this with you all.

first of all you need to download one of the bootCD that Genaro Bonilla have created:
BootSLv3.iso: Contains all of the Extra’s you need to make a quick install
Download BootSLv3-wifi.iso

BootSLv3-nowifi.iso: This is for those of you with the “Still Waiting for Root Device” problem.
Download BootSLv3-nowifi.iso

BootSLv3-NoExtra.iso: Doesn’t have any Extras and will only be able to boot you into the install disk.
Download BootSLv3-noextra.iso


Heres the install guide.

Step 1: Make sure you have your copy of Snow Leopard (I would highly suggest purchasing it, it’s a great price for what it offers!)

Step 2: Download BootSL.iso and burn it to a CD.

Step 3: Put the burned boot cd into your cd-drive and on startup at the “DELL” splash screen press “F12″ now you will be at the boot selection menu, from here wait till your activity light on your cd-drive stops blinking and boot from the disk.

Step 4: Eject the boot-132 disk and replace it with your Snow Leopard Disk and again, wait till the activity light stops blinking. Once it’s stopped press “F5″ and the Install Disk will appear. Boot the disk with the boot flags “-v -x” you do this by simply typing -v -x. If you see it at the bottom left corner then you did it right, just hit enter. The disk will take about 5-10 min to load.

Step 5: Once in the install disk go to “Tools” from the menu bar and choose “Disk Utility.” Once you’ve gotten into the Disk Utility you have to select your hard drive and click on the partition tab and under the Volume Scheme choose 1 Partition and click “Options” and choose GPT. From this tab choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and name it Macintosh HD and click apply.

Step 6: Close Disk Utility and go through the Installer. After it is done restart and again press “F12″ and boot from the Boot-132 disk, this time select the Macintosh HD partition and again boot with the “-v -x” boot flags.

Step 7: Now that you’ve booted into your partition open your disk and open the “Post-Install” folder and install “Chameleon 2 RC3″ After this go back to the Post-Install folder and open the Extra folder now highlight and copy everything in the Extra folder. After you have copied all the files open up your “Macintosh HD” and go to the “Extra” folder and paste everything you copied.

Step 8: Now Open up the Applications folder from the Post-Install folder and open “Kext Helper” now go to “Local Extensions” and Kext Helper all the files in there.

Step 9: Go to the PrefPanes Folder and look below for the Terminal Commands that you need to run to install the trackpad preference pane. After that just double click the VoodooHDA prefpane. (Terminal is located inside the Utilities folder that is in the Applications folder.)

Step 10: Open up the Sleep folder and double click the SleepWatcher.dmg and install both packages. After this open the “Install rc.wakeup” and run the commands in terminal. Now quit terminal and open it again and run
“sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0“
“sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage”

Step 11: Restart and you will have everything running. You should go to the VoodooHDA prefpane in system preferences and adjust the “Speaker” volume and the #5 Microphone for the mic. After this you can go to the sound prefpane and select the speaker as your output.

Step 12: Go to Software update and update to 10.6.1 and you’re good to go all updated. Please post a comment if this guide worked for you.

Installation goes smoothly, but then two problems, one minor, one MAJOR ARGHJ@#$*@

1. When trying to install VoodoHDA pref pane i get the error (“Can’t get registry – entry path.”). I have seen other inspiron users getting this problem but no solution as of yet. If i assume correctly it means my sound isn't working, i can live with that for now.

2. All post-install patching done, so i reboot, chameleon loads on the snow partition and all is looking great, i load it, get the shiny apple logo on grey background with loading spinner for a while then all of a sudden the screen goes black, and it never loads

i have no idea of how to proceed from here.

If i put the boot 132 cd in to the drive and use that version of chameleon to boot my partition i can get a little further, to a safe mode login screen, but the keyboard is disabled and i cant log in.

any tips on how to begin troubleshooting this and moving forward would be very much appreciated.

I have same problems.Please help!!!!

solconnection wrote:Installation goes smoothly, but then two problems, one minor, one MAJOR ARGHJ@#$*@

1. When trying to install VoodoHDA pref pane i get the error (“Can’t get registry – entry path.”). I have seen other inspiron users getting this problem but no solution as of yet. If i assume correctly it means my sound isn't working, i can live with that for now.

2. All post-install patching done, so i reboot, chameleon loads on the snow partition and all is looking great, i load it, get the shiny apple logo on grey background with loading spinner for a while then all of a sudden the screen goes black, and it never loads

i have no idea of how to proceed from here.

If i put the boot 132 cd in to the drive and use that version of chameleon to boot my partition i can get a little further, to a safe mode login screen, but the keyboard is disabled and i cant log in.

any tips on how to begin troubleshooting this and moving forward would be very much appreciated.

after installing chameleon and kexts reboot before installing VoodooHDA and boot without typing -v -x, then install VoodooHDA. Hope this helps!

guide is great, but need to add step 8a: Reboot without flags
Step 10 should be Sound Fix folder, not Sleep folder (at least in the boot132.iso I downloaded) Make sure to use the correct path in your termial work here.
and step 12 is outdated as 10.6.2 is out now and an update to that does not work.
you must first go to 10.6.1 as per this article

my dell inspiron n5010
getting restarted when i hit enter after putting "-v-x"
please help me thanx
also tell me which iso image i should use
i have tried
BootSLv3-noextra.iso
and
Download BootSLv3-wifi.iso
but same problem both time please tell me

REVISED GUIDE to get to 10.6.5 successfully with Dual-Boot option:

Step 1: Make sure you have your copy of Snow Leopard (I would highly suggest purchasing it, it’s a great price for what it offers!) Also a copy of Windows 7 x64 for dual-boot option, and a copy of 10.6.5 combo update (download and save to flash drive for later use)

Step 2: Download BootSLv3-wifi.iso and burn it to a CD.

Step 3: Put the burned boot-132 cd into your cd-drive and on startup at the “DELL” splash screen press “F12″ for the boot selection menu, then wait till your activity light on your cd-drive stops blinking and boot from the disk.

Step 4: Eject the boot-132 disk and replace it with your Snow Leopard Disk and again, wait till the activity light stops blinking. Once it’s stopped press “F5″ and the Install Disk will appear. Boot the disk with the boot flags “-v -x” you do this by simply typing -v -x. If you see it at the bottom left corner then you did it right, just hit enter. The disk will take about 5-10 min to load
.
Step 5: Once in the install disk go to “Tools” from the menu bar and choose “Disk Utility.” Once you’ve gotten into the Disk Utility you have to select your hard drive and click on the partition tab and under the Volume Scheme choose 1 Partition and click “Options” and choose GPT. From this tab choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and name it “Macintosh HD” and click apply.

Step 6: Close Disk Utility and go through the Installer. After it is done restart and again press “F12″, remove the Snow Leopard disk and insert the boot-132 disk and wait for the activity light to stop again and select CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive from the boot selection menu to boot from the boot-132 disk. This time select the Macintosh HD partition and again boot with the “-v -x” boot flags.

Step 7: Now that you’ve booted into your partition open your disk and open the “Post-Install” folder and install “Chameleon 2 RC3″ After this go back to the Post-Install folder and open the Extra folder now highlight and copy everything in the Extra folder. After you have copied all the files open up your “Macintosh HD” and go to the “Extra” folder and paste everything you copied.

Step 8: Now Open up the Applications folder from the Post-Install folder and open “Kext Helper” now go to “Local Extensions” and Kext Helper VoodooPower.kext and VoodooSDHC.kext. Reboot. Now that you’ve installed chameleon to the HD, you won’t need to boot from the boot-132 disk anymore, nor should you need to enter any flags. OS X should boot normally now.

Step 8a: Update to 10.6.5 via the combo update file that you previously downloaded. Reboot. Now go back to the Applications folder inside the Post-Install folder of the boot-132 disk and open “Kext Helper” now go to “Local Extensions” and Kext Helper VoodooHDA.kext. Reboot.

Step 9: Go to the PrefPanes Folder inside the Post-Install folder of the boot-132 disk and open “Install Trackpad.rtf” for the Terminal Commands that you need to run to install the trackpad preference pane. After that just double click the VoodooHDA prefpane. (Terminal is located inside the Utilities folder that is in the Applications folder.)

Step 10: Open up the Sound Fix folder inside the Post-Install folder of the boot-132 disk and double click the SleepWatcher.dmg and install both packages. After this open Terminal and run the following 3 commands:

sudo -s
rm -rf /etc/rc.wakeup
cp -R /Volumes/SL\ boot132/Post-Install/Sound\ Fix/rc.wakeup /etc

That will install rc.wakeup (ignore the “Install rc.wakeup.rtf” instructions in the Sound Fix folder as they contain the wrong path to the file on the disk. Now quit terminal and open it again and run the following 2 commands:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

Step 11: Restart and you will have everything running save for sleep. You should go to the VoodooHDA prefpane in system preferences and adjust the “Speaker” volume and the #5 Microphone for the mic. After this you can go to the sound prefpane and select the speaker as your output.

DUAL BOOT OPTION:

Step 12: Start Disk Utility. Select the hard drive (not the partition) then click the Partition tab. Click to highlight the Macintosh HD partition then you will be able to click the plus sign to add a partition. click to highlight the new partition, name it anything, then change the format to “MS DOS (FAT). Adjust to whatever size you want and apply.

Step 13: Reboot and press F12 for boot menu. Insert your Win 7 install disk and boot it. Select the partition you just created and format it (now it will be NTFS (required for win 7) instead of FAT). Install windows. Now windows will boot automatically and you won’t be able to boot to Mac (no worries, we are going to fix that right now).

Step 14: Download EasyBCD and install. Run EasyBCD. Click “Add New Entry”, select the Mac tab, name it whatever, then change the Mode from EFI to MBR. Click “Add Entry”. Reboot and you will be brought to the classic OS selection screen. If you choose Windows, it will simply boot. If you choose Mac, chameleon will load and you can boot to mac the way you had been.

Step 15: If this guide helped feel free to return the favor and donate anything you can.

THAT’S IT! This method has worked flawlessly for me several times. Only thing that won’t be working at this point should be sleep. you’re on your own for that. (HDMI will probably never be made to work when in mac).
For those of you with Celeron processors…UPGRADE! its well worth the $50 for a t7300 on ebay that will crush the celeron’s performance and avoid any kernel problems with OS X.

me_great1 wrote:my dell inspiron n5010
getting restarted when i hit enter after putting "-v-x"

method is for 1525
There needs to be a space between your flags. -v -x

This work on Mac os 10.6.5 with SLEEP and with x3110 (1440x900) ???

I'm on 10.6.5, but I can't get my dell to boot using a usb drive I'm restored the SL disk image onto. Nothing works, I've tried disk utility, I've tried Carbon Copy Cloner, all it does is get to a black screen with a prompt and then will sit there forever, goes no further, I'm using a mac os x extended GUID partition and restored the 10.6 disk image onto it since my DVD drive is bad. But I can't get the damn thing to boot to usb! I'm not even getting a no bootable device error, just a black screen with a white prompt that flashes at me. HELP!

Thank you very much. Set all the instructions worked perfectly.
There is one problem when the laptop goes to sleep, I can `t wake him up
as off the keyboard and mouse and the keyboard and mouse started working again have the laptop power off and remove the battery. Help what can I do?

elanskiy wrote:There is one problem when the laptop goes to sleep, I can `t wake him up

did you complete step 10 in its entirety? especially the hibernate and sleepimage commands at the end of step 10?
sounds like you skipped something along the way. I know that happens to me when I first install OS X before I start Step 7. I always thought it was Step 10 that stopped it from happening but I could be wrong. All I know is that when I finish all the steps, OS X doesn't even try to sleep. The display dims, but a touch of the mouse brings up the desktop even after sitting an entire day

Hello,

Hi, I have followed the steps and I am a proud OS X 10.6.6 owner on my DELL Inspiron 1525n. I have one problem though, If close the lid of the laptop or wait 15 minutes and it goes to sleep, on lid open the computer wakes because I can hear the fan turning on but the lid stays off. Any solution is welcome.

Hi everyone,


i have followed this guide step by step.
after installation and after i boot with iboot132 and type the commands i always get this error message

so actually never got to boot up the system completely

anyone has got experience on how to work this around ?

thanks in advance

Genaro Bonilla has released his new updated guide for 10.6.6 including a new boot disc.

See the New 1525 guide here!

Will this guide work if my install disc is 10.6.7?

anonomys209 wrote:Will this guide work if my install disc is 10.6.7?

The last Snow Leopard retail install disc is 10.6.3. You have to use either it or 10.6.0 to install. Anything other than a real mac install disc will not work

sooke2 wrote:

anonomys209 wrote:Will this guide work if my install disc is 10.6.7?

The last Snow Leopard retail install disc is 10.6.3. You have to use either it or 10.6.0 to install. Anything other than a real mac install disc will not work

How will the steps differ if I start with a 10.6.3 disk? I've gotten the OS installed but I can't seem to boot without using the -x flag. Don't wanna be stuck in safe mode forever lol