OSX on Thinkpad X1

[kikendo]

Hello everyone,

After literally months of pulling my hair out trying to install OSX on my machine I am still pretty much at the same spot and I come here in the hope someone can help me.

I tried to install both Snow Leopard and Lion on my machine, both times to a certain degree of success but ultimately failing.

Snow Leopard installed up to 10.6.8, however, the video card is still not recognized: resolution is garbage and many software is unable to install (example: FCP, which is the only reason i need to install osx in my machine).

Lion got installed and in this case the video is taken in all right (The Sandy Bridge supported) however, on the installation process, screen powering off and dimming, the autonavi and teh trackpad and keybaord all work fine. However as soon as the install finishes none of these things work, not even the keyboard. Tried to run Multibeast's EasyBeast and I ended up with a broken OSX disk again.

In none of these cases I have managed to get the thing to boot without iBoot or the modified Lion USB thingy. I have this set up in a USB disk external to my thinkpad (is this a problem?)

Any help would be apreciated. I am surprised I could find NO help fr Thinkpad X1 users, am I the only one trying to install OSX on one?

[sanjuro]

Your problem is that there is no drivers for Intel HD graphics in X1. Thinkpads with discrete graphics - often NVIDIA's NVS graphics - have a better luck with installation of Mac Os X with fully accelerated graphics, i.e. working QE/CI at full resolution.

Try googling Tonymac and insanelymac sites for Thinkpad T410 & NVIDIA graphics for successful installation of Mac Os X. You can see from hardware compatibility list at osx86project.org site that often notebooks with NVIDIA NVS 3100m or 4200 are able to install 10.6.x and even 10.7.x.

If you really want to run mac os x, you may be better off getting a used or refurbished macbook pro and ditch the x1 since mbp can run windows through bootcamp or vm solutions.

[kikendo]

Your problem is that there is no drivers for Intel HD graphics in X1.

That's a fallacy! Lion supports the Sandy Bridge chipset, Intel HD video included, and my latest retry last night PROVES it.
Also how would selling a fantastic computer like the X1 and replacing it with a crappy MBP would solve any of this?

Anybody that can actually help would be greatly appreciated. The "state of affairs" after my retry last night is this:

Running Lion with
- full resolution video support, acceleration etc., even external display on HDMI works great at full HD resolution
- Keyboard, pad and navi all work fine. Pad lacks gestures though.
- No on board sound (but I have an external card which works great after I installed the driver)
- Cannot change screen brightness.
- Wifi is not working
- USB 3.0 is not working
- SD Card reader is not working
- Fingerprint reader is not working
- The most annoying thing: the hard drive doesn't boot on its own unless I use the Unibeast boot USB or iBoot. I read somewhere else of a person having problems with a WD 500GB external, perhaps it has to do with the drive?


I think the screen brightness needs a DSDT patch, from what I read in these very forums, however, what to do with the other things? As I said, this is a completely standard install, I have not applied any patches or custom or downloaded kexts or anything. Everything that is running was right out of the box with vanilla Lion install.

Any progress done here will surely help other X1 users in the fuiture so your input is greatly apreciated.

[iYassin]

- Regarding the touchpad, I couldn't get gestures (except two-finger-scrolling) working on a T410, too. If somebody knows how to get that functionality, it would be great to share that.
- For the sound chip - did you try installing VoodooHDA?
- For screen brightness adjustments, you'll need a DSDT hack. There's a great tutorial for creating a DSDT on a W520 - you can use the parts which are not W520-hardware-specific for your X1, too.
- Regarding WiFi, you'll need a wireless card with an Atheros chipset. If there is no Lenovo-branded card for the X1, you'll have to apply a mod BIOS (if there is one) without the whitelist and replace your Intel wireless card e.g. with an Atheros 9280 from eBay.
- USB 3.0 - I think there is a Kext for that in MultiBeast, did you try that?
- SD-card reader - sorry, no idea regarding that.
- Fingerprint reader - try using the TrueSuite software from Authentec, it should work for the X1's Upek fingerprint reader.
- Regarding your boot issue - did you install the Chameleon bootloader to that external hard disk?

[kikendo]

Hi there, thank you for your reply.

- Regarding the touchpad, I couldn't get gestures (except two-finger-scrolling) working on a T410, too. If somebody knows how to get that functionality, it would be great to share that.

I doubt that would work :/ At least you got the scrolling going. How did you?

- For the sound chip - did you try installing VoodooHDA?

Nope, I did not. I gotta try that. I have to. Thanks for the reminder.

- For screen brightness adjustments, you'll need a DSDT hack. There's a great tutorial for creating a DSDT on a W520 - you can use the parts which are not W520-hardware-specific for your X1, too.

I'll try that. How do I know something is not W520 specific? I am really not understanding DSDT patching yet :/

- Regarding WiFi, you'll need a wireless card with an Atheros chipset. If there is no Lenovo-branded card for the X1, you'll have to apply a mod BIOS (if there is one) without the whitelist and replace your Intel wireless card e.g. with an Atheros 9280 from eBay.

[censored]. I don't think I want to change the wireless card. I can live without it for now, anyway. I am using wired ethernet.

- USB 3.0 - I think there is a Kext for that in MultiBeast, did you try that?

Multibeast is rendering my system useless. I don't know why, but I can't seem to use it :/

- SD-card reader - sorry, no idea regarding that.

Multibeast has a patch, but read above.

- Fingerprint reader - try using the TrueSuite software from Authentec, it should work for the X1's Upek fingerprint reader.

Excellent tip, thank you so much! I'll get that.

- Regarding your boot issue - did you install the Chameleon bootloader to that external hard disk?

I read in another forum that the X120 does not want to boot from GUID partition tables. Perhaps this is the issue with the X1 too? I have yet to try it, but this person managed to boot Lion from an MBR partition. The idea is to install to a GUID partition (Lion will only install to GUID partitions), after all is done make an image of your drive, then re-format to MBR and restore the image there. I will try this soon but if anybody tries it before, let me know.

[trussell3417]

What installation method did you use to install lion
i just got an x1 and currently stuck at trying to get the installer running
any special flags you used?

[kikendo]

When I get a little free time I will try to make up a guide.
I used Unibeast to install it: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2011/10/ ... using.html
As well as the official Lion OSX, App Store version.

[trussell3417]

I have finally got my X1 installed with lion 10.7.3
but the only problem I am having is with the trackpad.
I have tap to click, two finger right click, and two finger scrolling working
But I cant seem to get left and right click to work or ultranav to work.
If you have left and right click working I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me how you got it working. Thanks

[kikendo]

Is it really the only problem?
Can you control brightness and all that stuff? How did you manage that?
How about the wifi card and USB3?

The trackpad ran fine here, with right click too.

[n3xn3x]

Hey everyone,
i got the Thinkpad X1 NWK3QGE Model: 1294 / 3QG
i installed OSX Lion 1.7.3 with unibeast. Works so far fine BUT DRIVERS dont work..
I got problems with the following:

Audio: Conexant 20672 SmartAudio HD
Bluetooth: Generic Bluetooth Adapter
SIM-Modem: Ericsson F5521gw
Renesas Electronics USB 3.0
WLan: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Lan: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
Ricoh Multi Card Reader
Fingerprint
Integrated Camera
Also Touchpad & Keyboard are not recognized (but working). Brightness-controll over the keyboard would be nice too.

If someone knows how to solve one or more points i would be very happy if you could help me...

cheers

[pdwayne]

I think that the problem here, mainly, is that there are no drivers for some of your hardware that does not work well with your possible implementation of an OSX running on your thinkpad. You should consider all the hardware first just to be sure that everything will be running smoothly when the installation finishes or starts.

I am not quite sure if there are other available hacks for you to work with, here.