Hi,

This is my first posting here:

I intend to buy Lenovo W510 with the following specs:

Processor: Intel Core i7-720QM Processor (6M Cache, 1.60 GHz)
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
Operating system language: Genuine Windows 7 Professional 32 US English
Display Panel: 15.6" HD+ Anti-Glare Display with LED Backlight and WWAN Antenna
System Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 memory
Color Sensor: Color Sensor
Total memory: 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
Keyboard: Keyboard US English
Finger Print Reader: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
Camera: Camera, 2.0 MP
Hard Drive: 128 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA
Optical device: Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm)
System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & 5 in 1 Card Reader & Smart Card Slot
Battery: 9 cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery - Dual Mode
Power cord: Country Pack North America with Line cord & 135W AC adapter
Bluetooth: Bluetooth w/ antenna
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Integrated mobile broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
Language Pack: Language Pack US English

Is this is a excellent candidate for a hackintosh? I can change the wireless card to a Dell 1520. Also, my intention is not playing games but do lot of photo editing and HD video (1080/60p) editing tasks.

Please let me know.

Thanks.

Same here ,I want to know too.

I'm not too sure, I assume if a macbook has it then it should run fine (I suppose I was mainly referring to the video card here). I've heard that i5/i7's are compatible but I think that was the desktop versions.

Hmmm, do the newer Thinkpads still have a BIOS lockout for non-IBM/Lenovo wireless cards?

I'd love to know as well.

The machine is certainly a little monster. As for OSX, here's some food for though:
- CPU should be fine. Newest MacBooks have i7, so it won't be a problem to have full and proper power management there (p-states, c-states, etc.)
- Video might be a problem. I did a quick check, and there's no report about anyone running 880M on OSX, which is usually a bad sign. Latest MacBooks have 330M, which should be similar to 880M, but there's no guarantee. With NVIDIA drivers situation is usually better than with ATI, but you might need to wait and there's a chance you never get full video support for your adapter.
- Everything else is irrelevant. Any audio now works with VoodooHDA; Trackpoint and Trackpad have great custom kext; camera might work OOB or might not work ever (50/50 chance), fingerprint scanner works fine (it's a simple USB device, has drivers).
- Wi-Fi you need to change to Atheros, that's a given.


Doesn't really matter what is your goal. If you manage to make full GPU acceleration work with all other stuff - this will be perfect machine for anything, and my personal practice shows that ThinkPad hardware runs faster than original Mac hardware. At least in my case (T60p vs. MacBookPro2,1). So, you should be fine with video editing. CPU frequency looks limiting there, but it's i7, so I don't know, I'm still living in previous era

P.S.: And you can certainly do lots of video editing in old boring Windows

camera works for sure ,i installed mac os x on it ,it works

Have you? What is your machine exactly / specs and what all works ?

Silencer - Dont these Thinkpads have Switchable Graphics i.e. for Mac OSX we could use the Intel Video? Thoughts?

They do have switchable graphics, but you don't want to use that beast with Intel video, what's the point? Of course, even Intel video will give very good results in OSX (interface will be super-fast). But although Apple have released drivers for newest Intel GPU, I'm not sure hackintosh community managed already to make it work. But that is for sure a matter of weeks.

Also, I only have theoretical view on the subject, it's better to ask someone who has tried already.

True, but atleast one has the benefit of trying 1 of 2 video cards or get stuck with one (e.g. NVidia NVS 140M on my T61).

I know you're estimating but given the amount of hands on work you've done on the DSDT stuff, you're the expert per se. I guess & hope hackintosh community will get to all of it

Yong,

Thats good news. To begin with, the webcam is working. Which install did you use?

Vanilla Snow Leopard usaing tonyosx86 MultiBeast or something else? Can you elaborate on your install please?

Thanks.

the famous for MSI U100 , Mac OS X86.

Hi Yong:

I would like to get more info from you. You mentioned that you followed MSI U100 SL instructions (if I understand you correctly). Is this is the one?

http://insanelywind.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=2733

Please let us know. Lot of folks are waiting for your detailed reply.

Thanks.

I would strongly recommend against using pre-packaged solutions. They tend to be not upgradeable, and in case of any problems you won't be able to understand what is the source.

You can start with following any generic SL installation guide, or use myHack Installer solution. After that you can refer to my guide and ask any questions regarding proper polishing of your SL installation.

it's not snow ,it's leopard , Mac OS X 10.5.4, someting like this link http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/15/cool-hac ... wind-umpc/
Before it logon , I was taking a picture by the camera ,and I can't make a duo-boot with Win7 ,so i delete it ,no sound 800*600 screen ,because I didn't try to find the drivers.

Hi Silencer,

Do you think the tutorial that you're suggesting would work in the W510? I checked that the Quadro FX880 GPU is actually a GT330 one: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Qua ... 735.0.html. That is kind of reassuring. And another positive: as Yong mentioned, the webcam works OOB.

Please advice.

Thanks.

I got Snow Leopard Vanilla installed on my w510 by using an Empire EFI boot disc and then inserting a retail copy of SL. The install went fine and I was able to boot into Snow Leopard minus network (wireless and wired with the exception of Bluetooth) support and minus USB 3.0 support. I tried installing myHack to boot without the EFI disc, but it always restarts before actually booting. So I tried stealing the .plist, smbios, and Extensions from the Empire EFI disc and throwing them into the EFI partition with some success. However, if I boot from the EFI partition (not the Empire EFI disc), I get no USB support and no way to move the mouse (ie. the trackpad doesn't work).

Anyways, my main goal was to try triple boot my w510, but I didn't realize that it should be easier to install SL on mbr than to install Windows 7 on gpt (I originally made my drive gpt). So I removed my SL installation, reformatted as mbr, installed Windows 7 and will have to mess with SL later. I just figured I would post and let you guys know that I was able to get SL 10.6 retail on my w510 in limited form with almost no additional work, download Empire EFI, put Empire EFI in at boot, swap for retail disc and boot. Hope this helps and I will probably be checking back frequently to see if you guys found out how to wireless or wired networking working. I have finals coming up, so I probably won't be spending hours messing with a SL install on an mbr partition table.

I confirm ... you won't spend hour messing with MBR ! Here is the solution :
Use any installation guide with a retail DVD and a USB Key and just add these lines at the end of the preparation of the bootable USB Key:

- Launch "ShowAllFiles" and select "Show"
- Replace:

OSInstall.mpkg in /Volumes/"USB Key"/System/Installation/Packages

OSInstall in /Volumes/"USB

Key"/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Install.framework/Frameworks/OSInstall.framework/Versions/A/
- Launch once again "ShowAllFiles" and select "Hide"

Like I did on my guide for X60t (where you can find these files and apps)

Any generic guide will work on W510. Yes, you might need to do some kext-voodoo to get it going, but it's almost certain that you can run it one way or another. But to make it good - that's is the tricky part. It might take you a long time to make it right, and if you don't understand what you are doing, you might not make it at all.


As I said, that's pretty much irrelevant, webcam is not essential part of your OSX Besides, on HP, for example, on the same laptop model there are 3-4 different manufacturers for webcam. The same can be with Lenovo, so you'll never know until you try.

Thanks to Sebinouse and Silencer for your replies.

I'm a complete n00b here and I would like to know the link to the guide that you provided will work with W510. I wanted to make sure that it will be a successful vanilla SL install hoping the following work. Even, if it involves tweaks and many working hours, I'm perfectly fine with that. I would appreciate your help every step of the way. I have a copy of SL DVD that I bought from Best Buy.

1. Core i7-720 (all 4 cores work with 8 threads)
2. Nvidia Quadro FX880 GPU (this is the trickiest part). I read on other forums that Sony F11 series that comes with GT330M doesn't output to the built in LCD which is big bummer. People are still trying to figure it out. Do you have any idea whether the Quadro FX880 (identical to GT330M as per notebookcheck.net) will work with hardware accelerated QE/CI?. W510 has HD+ (1600x900) option.
3. Built in mic and webcam (webcam works OOB as per Yong)
4. DisplayPort (I think W510 also outputs audio)
5. keyboard, mouse
6. Battery
7. wireless (if it doesn't work, will I be able to swap it for Dell 1520)? On HP notebooks, it is really tough to swap wireless card.
8. I don't really care about Ethernet card.
9. Even if USB 3.0 doesn't work, atleast USB 2.0 speeds should be possible along with eSATA.
10. DVD drive

Sorry for the long post. But, I wanted to make sure all the major pieces work.

Thanks.

Again, any guide will work, but you will not get complete package by just following a guide. There are no perfect guides for W510 yet, so you'll have to figure out smaller bits and pieces by yourself. Every configuration is different from another, so it's very rare that you can install OSX without applying some custom kexts later and achieve perfect result. But the link I provided is a good place to start. Here's another guide, also good.


1. Will work just fine. For perfection you need to make SpeedStep work. This is often tricky, because you need to adjust settings for your particular CPU.
2. Have no idea. You can try and see, but it will be difficult to solve, if you don't have knowledge about EFI injection and NVCAP strings.
3. Mic will work with VoodooHDA, webcam is 50/50.
4. Heavily depends on #2.
5. Yes, almost OOB with custom PS2 kexts.
6. Yes, almost OOB with custom kexts.
7. Nothing is tough, I've helped my friends with a HP laptop to patch his BIOS and swap the card. With ThinkPads it's easier, because there are official Lenovo Atheros cards for ThinkPads, you just need to check if it was available for W510. If not, you'll need to patch your BIOS to allow non-approved wi-fi cards.
8. Should work anyways.
9. Should work.
10. No problems here.

Thanks for the tip, but I am still having a lot of difficulty getting Snow Leopard installed on MBR. I assume there is no way to use the retail SL disc and copy the files over once the installer is booted? I was able to copy the disc to USB, but when I try to boot, I get a message stating that the IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device (ie. my SL Installer USB) and then it hangs at "Still waiting for root device"

Did you copy essential kexts to the USB as well? Such as FakeSMC.kext to /Extra/Extensions?

Yeah, I copied fakesmc.kext to /Extra/Extensions, and deleted my .mkext to make sure it would be recognized. I also have AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext, AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext, ApplePS2Controller.kext, EvOreboot.kext, fakesmc.kext, IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext, IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext, IOATAFamily.kext, IOATAPIProtocolTransport.kext, JMicronATA.kext, LegacyAppleRTC_32bit_Only.kext, LegacyATI4800Controller.kext, LegacyHDA_ALC888B.kext, NullCPUPowerManagement.kext, PlatformUUID.kext, VoodooBattery.kext, VoodooHDA.kext. I got these kexts from a combination of tonymac's P55 boot cd and the Empire EFI disc. I would try to boot from the Empire EFI disc like before, but it does not detect my USB drive at the bootloader. Even when I use Empire EFI and my retail disc, I cannot use my USB 3.0 ports, only the 1 USB 2.0 port. Does anyone know how to make the USB 3.0 ports work?

I already install sl on w510 , just what I said , webcam ,BT ,touchpad, keyboard ,dvd-rom work, sound card uses VoodooHDA.kext ,video card uses NVEnabler 64.kext support 1600*900, intel 82577 doen't work( who knows?) ,wifi not work for sure

by the way ,it's not stable ,always crush.

Yong:

That is excellent news.

Which install method did you use? Tony MultiBoot + iBeast or Empire EFI?
It is awesome you got HD+ (1600x900). Do you see Core Image and Quartz Extreme hardware accelerated? Can you also explain what do you mean about "crash" and "not stable"?

Can somebody throw some light on this please?

Thanks.

no accelerated .Crash I think it's wrong kexts' reason . I use Darwin boot think.

Yong:

Can you post a screenshot of the About Mac...Display here?

I'm curious.

Btw, Sebinouse and Silencer, do you know anything about the crash that Yong is experiencing? It would be of great help to n00bs like me.

By "Crashes" I guess Yong means "Kernel Panics" or KP.
Here is a good page which explain how to understand and debug a KP :
in this example the problem comes from com.apple.dts.driver.PanicDriver ...the next step is to understand why ... much difficult ... but Google and this thread are always your friends !

One piece of advice : ALWAYS repair permissions and rebuilt kextcaches after ANY change on kexts (use pfix or kext Utility)