OSX 10.5.6 on T60p: Basic questions and personal experience

[Silencer]

I'm actively contemplating OSX on my T60p, and I've read numerous posts on this forum and huge load of information elsewhere, but there's now so much of everything, I can't really get a clear picture of the installation process. And I can't find a place where I can get answers for some really basic questions, so I hope I can get some help here.

I have T60p which I've slightly customized over the years. It has 14.1" 1400x1050 screen, Core2Duo 2.3GHz, 4GB of RAM, FireGL V5200 video, Atheros ABGN Wi-Fi. From what I read this should be a godd enough configuratation to get most of it working. I have Vista installed on it, and I've cleared a separate 15GB partition to install OSX on.

I would like to install the latest 10.5.6 to avoid potentially painful upgrade in the future. I've only seen two pre-packaged DVDs with 10.5.6: iPC and iDeneb. iATKOS is only at 10.5.5, although it looks like it's the most compatible package for Thinkpads. Can someone please advice which to choose? Is it possible to install iATKOS and then upgrade to 10.5.6 without too much hassle?

As I've seen there are numerous patches included in every package. Which should I include to ensure maximum compatibility? Or is it better to install everything manually by getting some info from this forum, for example?

I haven't seen proper kexts for V5200 for 10.5.6. Is there a process to create a new set yourself? Where can I get some info on this? Or maybe someone can point to a place where I can download them? I suppose the same goes for other hardware (Wireless, Bluetooth, Audio, etc.)

There are some pretty good step-by-step instructions here, but they are only for 10.5.4 or lower. Can I still use these instructions when installing 10.5.6? Also, if they cover iATKOS and I install iDeneb, are they still applicable or not?

Will I be able to install OSX and bootloader without breaking Vista installation? Should I backup everything just in case?

Thanks in advance.

[Silencer]

Just as follow-up. As far as I understood, there can be problems with:
- Video. Mouse tearing, not working QE/CI, etc. Will this be automatically fixed with proper kexts? Any general advice about this part?
- CPU. Will all extensions work out of the box, like SSE3, etc, or should I select specific patches during installation? What about SpeedStep? I've seen some posts about problems with SpeedStep not working properly and CPUs overheating. Is this something out of the past problem or they are still current?
- Audio and mic. Apparently, there can be some problems with line-in and mic, but the rest should work out of the box, is this the case?
- Power management. Is Anything should be about this part, or it works as it should OOB?

I will try to keep all my findings in this post, so that the future OSX-explorers might find them useful.

[teladoy]

silencer also look at wireless now what your intention for using OS X have a lot to do with what you install kaliway 10.5.2 install very easy no need to upgrade for normal use but no wireless I hope this help you

[Silencer]

Quick update. I've just tried iDeneb 1.4 10.5.6 with the following results:
- Atheros ABGN Wireless worked OOB with selected "Atheros WiFi" driver during installation.
- Audio worked out of the box with generic "driver". I suppose using Analog Devices AD1981 should give better results. Can someone confirm AD1981 is the one in T60p?
- Bluetooth worked OOB.
- QE/CI didn't work no matter how much I fiddled with kexts. This could be because I've deleted a bunch of ATI* kexts. Will try reinstall tomorrow. I've also seen that people here have custom kexts for different OSX versions (10.5.4, 10.5.5, etc). Can someone let me know why and how should these custom kexts be prepared? 1400x1050x32 edit worked like a charm though.
- Battery meter worked OOB.
- Sleep didn't work. Not sure what to do there. Also not sure if I missed any "drivers" during installation. Can someone advise?
- System Profiler shows that I have only one core active. Any advice here?
- Not sure about Speedstep. I didn't install any kexts for it, so don't know how to check if it works or not.

[upgarde]

Quick update. I've just tried iDeneb 1.4 10.5.6 with the following results:
- Atheros ABGN Wireless worked OOB with selected "Atheros WiFi" driver during installation.
- Audio worked out of the box with generic "driver". I suppose using Analog Devices AD1981 should give better results. Can someone confirm AD1981 is the one in T60p?
- Bluetooth worked OOB.
- QE/CI didn't work no matter how much I fiddled with kexts. This could be because I've deleted a bunch of ATI* kexts. Will try reinstall tomorrow. I've also seen that people here have custom kexts for different OSX versions (10.5.4, 10.5.5, etc). Can someone let me know why and how should these custom kexts be prepared? 1400x1050x32 edit worked like a charm though.
- Battery meter worked OOB.
- Sleep didn't work. Not sure what to do there. Also not sure if I missed any "drivers" during installation. Can someone advise?
- System Profiler shows that I have only one core active. Any advice here?
- Not sure about Speedstep. I didn't install any kexts for it, so don't know how to check if it works or not.

The must distro for t60p its a IPC 10.5.6

[Silencer]

Ok, another try, now using iPC 10.5.6. I've found this guide, which is relatively brief, but helps with some basic problems one might find. During the first install of iPC I didn't check PS/2 keyboard fix and ended without keyboard. Strangely enough, iDeneb didn't need this.

iPC 10.5.6 results:
- Wireless and Bluetooth worked OOB without any specific drivers selected during installation.
- Audio worked OOB with AD1981 driver selected.
- Video worked just fine after editing default X1000 kext and adding ATIinject.kext from this guide. QE/CI worked after couple reboots, and I didn't see ANY mouse tearing which is awesome.
- SpeedStep worked using kexts from the same guide. It behaved weird though, CPU was very cool, but the fan was very loud anyway, so I don't see a point in SpeedStep there.
- Sleep didn't work properly after I've followed instructions from the guide above. Sleep activated just fine, but machine was never recovering from it properly, rebooting and then looping boot with "Wake Kernel!" message. Weird, not sure what can be done there.
- The problem I'm concerned the most about is the only single core is active. I messed with DSDT loader mindlessly, but with no result. Any help here would be very appreciated.

I will try another install and post results here.

[teladoy]

silencer:
I do appreciate your reports
I am also start thinking that my problem with wireless may be result doing this new installation I am getting iDenue right now but have problem locating iPC can point me to were to get it.

[Silencer]

silencer:
I do appreciate your reports
I am also start thinking that my problem with wireless may be result doing this new installation I am getting iDenue right now but have problem locating iPC can point me to were to get it.

Try searching on Mininova.

Also, what is the part number of the wireless adapter you have in your Thinkpad?

[teladoy]

Thanks for asking it is ARB5BXB6 in eBay
the Atheros people say say it is AR5006EXS/AR5424
I found the iPC in mininova thank you
Question :
They are two of them
Live DVD and Universal Final which one you use? and what is the different?

[Silencer]

Live DVD and Universal Final which one you use? and what is the different?

You need Universal Final.

[Silencer]

Thanks for asking it is ARB5BXB6 in eBay
the Atheros people say say it is AR5006EXS/AR5424

Not sure if this is the original ThinkPad part, but you can try selecting "Atheros AR5007EG driver" in iPC drivers list.

[teladoy]

Yes I read that it is a concern i will try or else use iDenue

[Silencer]

Ok, here's another checkpoint after a couple more of iPC 10.5.6 installations. I decided not to go for the upgradable system, 'cause it's too much hassle, not worth it IMO. It is easier to install fresh system using future prepackaged release.

• Video: Perfect. Works flawlessly, QE/CI enabled, no tearing, resolution switching, etc. The recipe for success is a well known edit of ATIRadeonX1000.kext (0x71C41002) + ATIinject.kext from this pack.
• Audio: Good. Works just fine out of the box with AD1981 driver selected form iPC package. The only problem is that is occassionally disappears after a failed resume from Sleep. Not yet sure what to do for there, but it doesn't bother me that much, work fine after normal reboot. Mic and line-in are not working, don't see them in the Input Devices.
• Wireless: Perfect. Works out of the box with iPC package which installs IO80211Family.kext by default.
• Battery gauge: Perfect. Works out of the box with iPC, but might disappear. It will work flawlessly with AppleACPIPlatform.kext from this guide.
• Sleep: Average. Worked alright with the same AppleACPIPlatform.kext and with the removal of AppleLPC.kext, but yesterday it broke to the point where I can't wake it up after it goes to sleep, and when it goes to sleep it doesn't stop the fan. Weird. It might be related to the fact that I had an iPod connected while going to sleep, because I didn't make any other hardware changes. Will test more there.
• SpeedStep: Good. Works just fine with a couple kexts from this pack, but I've decided not to go with it, XBench gives mixed results when using it.
• Misc: Very good. Bluetooth works OBB, Ethernet works with proper driver from iPC, Time Machine works with patched IONetworkingFamily.kext, two finger scrolling works using this guide, fingerprint scanner works with installation of the tool from this pack.
• Overall experience: Very good. In the end it is absolutely usable machine and OSx86 can be easily used as the main OS. Of course it takes some time to polish everything, but in the end it is well worth it.

There are a couple of outstanding weird problems. Screen backlit brightness control works differently in OSx86 than in Windows. It completely shuts down a half of the screen, dimming the other half. I thought it was OS-independent, but apparently it's not. Another problem is that system occasionally boots to a black screen. There are a number of posts on this topic in forums, but I'm not too bothered about it, since it works fine after I reboot.

[Silencer]

Forgot to add that I've managed to get both cores working on my Core2Duo with vanilla kernel by simply enabling execution protection in BIOS. No need in "cpus=1" anymore.

[ccrazy88]

Ok, here's another checkpoint after a couple more of iPC 10.5.6 installations. I decided not to go for the upgradable system, 'cause it's too much hassle, not worth it IMO. It is easier to install fresh system using future prepackaged release.

• Video: Perfect. Works flawlessly, QE/CI enabled, no tearing, resolution switching, etc. The recipe for success is a well known edit of ATIRadeonX1000.kext (0x71C41002) + ATIinject.kext from this pack.
• Audio: Good. Works just fine out of the box with AD1981 driver selected form iPC package. The only problem is that is occassionally disappears after a failed resume from Sleep. Not yet sure what to do for there, but it doesn't bother me that much, work fine after normal reboot. Mic and line-in are not working, don't see them in the Input Devices.
• Wireless: Perfect. Works out of the box with iPC package which installs IO80211Family.kext by default.
• Battery gauge: Perfect. Works out of the box with iPC, but might disappear. It will work flawlessly with AppleACPIPlatform.kext from this guide.
• Sleep: Average. Worked alright with the same AppleACPIPlatform.kext and with the removal of AppleLPC.kext, but yesterday it broke to the point where I can't wake it up after it goes to sleep, and when it goes to sleep it doesn't stop the fan. Weird. It might be related to the fact that I had an iPod connected while going to sleep, because I didn't make any other hardware changes. Will test more there.
• SpeedStep: Good. Works just fine with a couple kexts from this pack, but I've decided not to go with it, XBench gives mixed results when using it.
• Misc: Very good. Bluetooth works OBB, Ethernet works with proper driver from iPC, Time Machine works with patched IONetworkingFamily.kext, two finger scrolling works using this guide, fingerprint scanner works with installation of the tool from this pack.
• Overall experience: Very good. In the end it is absolutely usable machine and OSx86 can be easily used as the main OS. Of course it takes some time to polish everything, but in the end it is well worth it.

There are a couple of outstanding weird problems. Screen backlit brightness control works differently in OSx86 than in Windows. It completely shuts down a half of the screen, dimming the other half. I thought it was OS-independent, but apparently it's not. Another problem is that system occasionally boots to a black screen. There are a number of posts on this topic in forums, but I'm not too bothered about it, since it works fine after I reboot.

Hi, I also have a T60p (a 2623-DDU, to be exact) and am trying to dual boot with Windows 7 but I'm running into some trouble. Although I have QE/CI without any tearing and I'm able to resolution switch, my VGA output detects the presence of another monitor but doesn't actually output anything and closing and opening the ThinkPad's lid causes the screen to go haywire. Did you select any other monitor/video-related options in iPC 10.5.6? Also, my Intel PRO/1000 LAN is super slow -- its max speed seems to be 300kb/sec one way, and 70kb/sec both ways simultaneously. That is probably because I didn't choose a driver at the iPC 10.5.6 setup screen... does the PRO/100 VE driver work?

[Silencer]

Hi, I also have a T60p (a 2623-DDU, to be exact) and am trying to dual boot with Windows 7 but I'm running into some trouble. Although I have QE/CI without any tearing and I'm able to resolution switch, my VGA output detects the presence of another monitor but doesn't actually output anything and closing and opening the ThinkPad's lid causes the screen to go haywire. Did you select any other monitor/video-related options in iPC 10.5.6? Also, my Intel PRO/1000 LAN is super slow -- its max speed seems to be 300kb/sec one way, and 70kb/sec both ways simultaneously. That is probably because I didn't choose a driver at the iPC 10.5.6 setup screen... does the PRO/100 VE driver work?

1. External monitor. I've only briefly tried to connect external monitor and it was not detected. I've seen some people on forum.insanelymac.com having it working just fine, so you might have a look / ask there.
2. The lid problem. Unfortunatelly it's ATIinject.kext problem that I haven't seen anyone to resolve. You can drop it and use regular ATIRadeonX1000.kext fix, but you will have mouse tearing. I've tried it myself, decided to stick with ATIinject. I've sorted out the problem with lid by using ClamshellDisplay.kext from iPC which causes laptop to go to sleep as soon as I close the lid. After I open it it wakes up just fine without any screen problems. Not the best solution, but works for me.
3. Intel LAN driver. I've never experienced any problems with ethernet by using driver from iPC package. Try it, you can install it separately without reinstalling full system.

[jnicolas]

ccrazy88 wrote:
Hi, I also have a T60p (a 2623-DDU, to be exact) and am trying to dual boot with Windows 7 but I'm running into some trouble. Although I have QE/CI without any tearing and I'm able to resolution switch, my VGA output detects the presence of another monitor but doesn't actually output anything and closing and opening the ThinkPad's lid causes the screen to go haywire. Did you select any other monitor/video-related options in iPC 10.5.6? Also, my Intel PRO/1000 LAN is super slow -- its max speed seems to be 300kb/sec one way, and 70kb/sec both ways simultaneously. That is probably because I didn't choose a driver at the iPC 10.5.6 setup screen... does the PRO/100 VE driver work?

I do also have a T60P 2623-D8U and nor the Video and WiFi works as I,ve love to. I installed the packg metioned in this post but the only thing I do get is the multiple resolution menu but not the QE/CI. My card is a ATI X1600 71c41002

[Sebinouse]

• Sleep: Average. Worked alright with the same AppleACPIPlatform.kext and with the removal of AppleLPC.kext, but yesterday it broke to the point where I can't wake it up after it goes to sleep, and when it goes to sleep it doesn't stop the

Any Improvement for the Sleep/Wake Issue ?
I have the same problem since i replaced my Intel 3945 with a AR5BXB6 on my X60 ...

Thanks