Advice for OSX on an X61

[deevin9]

Hey,

So I used to be pretty up-to-date with the osx86 scene, but that was back in tiger/leopard days. I played with a bunch of distributions on my dell desktop, but I've never played with osx on my thinkpad.

So heres the scoop, I'm really interested in using osx (mostly) full time on my laptop but I want it to be as new as possible (ie. snowleopard) but also stable enough to use full time. So my thinkpad is an X61 (7676) with T7300 processor, and 2GB ram (anyone selling a 4gb kit?). I have the intel wi-fi card, but I'm planning on getting an atheros card to make that work.

What I want to know is, which version/method will be easiest/newest/most stable for my system? What will work oob, and which kexts do I need to manually install (also whats the best way of doing this)? Is there anything that will never work?

Thanks a lot.

PS. I've done a bit of research and I know that I could probably find most of the answers, but I was hoping that someone with first hand experience would be able to share with me. Also, a lot of the osx86 stuff changes quite frequently so it's hard to tell if what you read is still accurate.

[Sebinouse]

What I want to know is, which version/method will be easiest/newest/most stable for my system? What will work oob, and which kexts do I need to manually install (also whats the best way of doing this)? Is there anything that will never work?

The easiest way will be a bootCD like "iBoot" or "NetBookCD", or a general installation method like "myHack" ... but you will have to figure out the fix for each one of your hardware ...

You can also try my method for the Core2Duo X60 but with this DSDT.aml in /Extra instead of mine (I just change Device(VID) to GMA3100 according to this page)

Can you post the exact specs of your thinkpad so we can see what will work and what will not work ...

[Sebinouse]

Can you post the exact specs of your thinkpad so we can what will work and what will not work ...

According to this CNet page, only your intel wifi card will not work with my package, if of course the DSDT edit works !

[deevin9]

I actually was reading Silencer's thread about DSDT and although it seems like a bit of work, I really like the idea of having and "almost" vanilla install.

My specs are:
Core 2 Duo 7300 @ 2.0Ghz
2 x 1GB DDR2 667Mhz Ram
160GB HDD
Intel X3100 graphics (144MB shared vram, i think)
Intel 3945 a/b/g wi-fi

I know my wireless card won't work, I'm looking into getting the Atheros Thinkpad card, not sure if I want to get the a/b/g card for $20 or the a/b/g/n for 50$...

I'm fairly confident about compatibility of the other stuff though because its actually IDENTICAL to the macbook (3,1) that came out around the same time
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... specs.html

How much of a PITA is doing the DSDT? I come from a strong computer background so low-level stuff or programming or anything isn't too much of a problem.

[Sebinouse]

Actually your don't have to mess with dsdt ! You just have yo do download the Core2duo Package HERE and replace the DSDT.aml with THIS ONE. Then you can my guide for the X60 HERE.

DSDT edition is not that hard : you have to use a good text/code editor (I use Smultron) to create a DSDT.dsl (which is only text) and then you drop this file on IASme to compile it in DSDT.aml. You can also use DSDTSE, but this program is buggy (for me). Then you place the DSDT.aml file in /Extra and reboot.

Don't forget to keep a working DSDT.aml file that you rename in DSDTstable.aml so you can boot with this one instead of the the one you are testing ... It will save you sometimes !

[deevin9]

So with an atheros wi-fi card and dsdt setup, is anything not working or not working well?

[Sebinouse]

Maybe Firewire (I have nothing to test it) ... and sleep is also thricky for each configuration

[deevin9]

Thanks, I actually forgot I had 1394 because I never use it...

Is it just sleep, or hibernate as well?

[Sebinouse]

With 2GB of RAM ... both will work !

The Sleepfix from my guide should be OK, but is not you will have to check the logs with the console to see which kext breaks sleep and unable it with SleepWatcher (very simple text edition of rc.sleep and rc.wakeup)