Guide for Installing Mountain Lion on a Dell Optiplex 745
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Gotcha Apple! It wasn’t a Mac Pro, it was a Dell Optiplex 745! I’ve got everything working- Sleep/Restart/Shutdown, FaceTime, App Store- Software Update found and installed 10.8.2 with no problems whatsoever. There has not been a single KP on this machine since I completed all the software and hardware upgrades.
The Dell Optiplex 745 line came in several
models with various options ranging from a tower to a mini, a Pentium-D to a
Core2Duo. They are about 6 years old and many are now being sold off lease, it
is easy to find them for under $100. Mine
started with the following specs:
Desktop model with Core2Duo 1.86 Ghz
2 GB Ram 533Mhz DDR2 non ECC
80 GB SATA, Optiarc SATA DVD drive
Mine came without an operating system so I first installed Windows 7 in order
to update the BIOS to version 2.6.6 (latest). I think you can also update the
BIOS from a DOS-bootable disk. There may
be a way to do it through Linux?
After updating the BIOS boot into Setup (hold F2 at boot) to set the SATA drives to “Legacy” and make sure SMART reporting is OFF. Install 10.6 Snow Leopard using iBoot Legacy, the process is well documented at tonymacx86.com. It is necessary to remove MultiBeast’s “3rd Party SATA driver” from the Extra folder and add IOATAFamily.kext and the latest BDC5277D.kext in order to start up and get working ethernet. I also had to leave the iBoot Legacy CD in the drive all the time, I could never get Snow Leopard to boot off the onboard hard drive (I’m sure there’s a way but I was going for 10.8 so I didn’t pursue it). Mountain Lion requires at least 10.6.8 and it is difficult to get that far. I finally managed by running the 10.6.7 combo updater, downloading the 10.6.8 update, using Pacifist (shareware) to install all but the extensions, then installed only the 10.6.8 system.kext. This got me a working 10.6.8 and allowed me to download the Mountain Lion installer from the App Store.
Next prepare a flash drive with the UniBeast Installer
for Mountain Lion; again, well documented at tonymac’s site. Finally it’s time to eject the iBoot legacy
CD and use the USB device to install 10.8.
You still need to make sure the BIOS is set to SATA = Legacy without
SMART reporting. After running
MultiBeast for Mountain Lion you will once again need to remove the “3rd
Party SATA driver” from the Extra folder and add the latest BDC5277D.kext, the
2509-VoodooHDA-2.7.3.kext and SleepEnabler.kext. Remember to use a kext utility to repair
permissions and rebuild caches every time you add or take away extensions. I
had to set Energy Saver preferences to never shut off hard disks until I got
Sleep working. I had to uninstall
SleepEnabler.kext and NullCPUPowerManagement.kext, restart, and reinstall
them/rebuild caches/repair permissions to make sleep work.
Finally it’s time to get the App Store fully working. The thing that does the trick was injecting
the EFI string of the onboard ethernet controller in com.apple.Boot.plist
Use EFI studio 1.1 (http://www.mediafire.com/?xz14ytrmddo), select
"Ethernet device", click on "Add Device" and ask it to
write the string it found to com.apple.boot.plist (located in Library/Preferences/System
Configuration). Then open the edited file with TextEdit and find:
< key>device-properties</key>
< string>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</string>
(where x is the ethernet device EFI string)
Copy the lines, open the com.apple.Boot.plist located in /Extra, and paste the copied
content along with these 2 lines:
< key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
< string>Yes</string>
and then close all open files. Delete
all network connections displayed in System Preferences/Network prefpane and
also trashthe NetworkInterfaces.plist
located in Library/Preferences/System Configuration.
Reboot and I manually add a new network service using the (+) button in System
Preferences/Network; the system should
auto-name it "Ethernet" (instead of "Ethernet adaptor en0")
which implies that the network card/interface is seen as an original built in Mac
connection.
You should now be able to use Software Update to check for updates to the OS and any Mac Apps. I was able to update from 10.8 to 10.8.1 and later to 10.8.2 without any trouble whatsoever.
If you want to upgrade any hardware the time to do it is after the OS is installed and working. I swapped the original 1.86 Core2Duo for a 2.66 Quad Core. It was one of the easiest upgrades I’ve ever done, directions are in the Dell online user manual at http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/op745/en/UG_en/dt_cpu.htm#wp1102481
I also put in 8 GB RAM (matched set of 4 x 2 GB), a PCI carrier card with a Broadcon-based wireless “Airport” mini-PCI-e card and a Gigabyte Radeon 6450 video card. For the system to boot and run with this particular video card installed it was necessary to trash the four ATI 3000.kexts from System\Library\Extensions.
Hardware upgrades ran me about $200. With everything installed this “Hack Pro”
runs as well as my 1st generation Mac Pro at about 1/5 the cost.
mosslack
Gotcha Apple! It wasn’t a Mac Pro, it was a Dell Optiplex 745! I’ve got everything working- Sleep/Restart/Shutdown, FaceTime, App Store- Software Update found and installed 10.8.2 with no problems whatsoever. There has not been a single KP on this machine since I completed all the software and hardware upgrades.
pete...@cruzio.com
> It's nice to see some of these older machines up on ML. These Dell and HP
> systems are usually available on Ebay and Geeks, as well as other sites
> which specialize in older off-lease systems. Just be sure of your specs
> prior to buying one so that you can be assured that it will run Mountain
> Lion.
If Q35/ICH9 (DC7800) or Q45/ICH10 (DC7900 or DC8000/Elite), then it is
almost a no-brainer.
If P35/ICH9 or P45/ICH10, then it is even better as there will be no
on-mobo video to deal with.
I am quite partial to the P35, but the P45 is great, too.
Certain Gigabyte P35 mobos could accommodate both DDR2 or DDR3, but not
both at the same time. Those are incredibly flexible mobos and
compatibility with 10.6 and beyond is assured.
For GMA950-type mobos, compatibility with 10.4.8 and beyond up to and
including 10.7.x is assured. 10.8.x if you are willing to give up CI/QE
and all resolutions, as in a server system.
David & Bernadette Culpepper
David Culpepper
Gotcha Apple! It wasn’t a Mac Pro, it was a Dell Optiplex 745! I’ve got everything working- Sleep/Restart/Shutdown, FaceTime, App Store- Software Update found and installed 10.8.2 with no problems whatsoever. There has not been a single KP on this machine since I completed all the software and hardware upgrades.
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mosslack
Thanks, I wasn't sure how to get it into the right place on the site. I tried to attach my "Extra" folder so everyone could see/use the extensions, plist, etc. but I couldn't attach the folder to my post. Maybe I will be able to attch it now that it's in the Guides section? If not I would be happy to send it to anyone who is interested.dc
David Culpepper