OSX86: Installing OSX Mavericks on HP Probook 4540s

Installing OSX Mavericks on HP Probook 4540s

This article is a walkthrough on how installing OSX Mavericks on HP Probook 4540s. The process is similar however for other notebooks from the HP Probook (and Elitebook) range as well as some others. For a great guide see MacBreaker’s article on hackintosh-able laptops (last update June 2014).

Firstly, I take NO credit for the great work that others have done – I’m just collating here what worked for me. Credit where credit is due is linked at the bottom of the page. RehabMan et al on TonyMacx86.com have provided incredibly good information and it’s from here I have taken the information with small additions from my own experience.

Installation

Installing Mavericks on the HP Probook 4540s laptops is actually pretty easy (compared to other hacks you may attempt). This is mostly thanks to the fact that the hardware is very generic and well supported by current versions of Mac OS and to all who have contributed to the process including tonymac, MacMan, blueking, tegezee, Mieze, Zenith432, kozlek, bcc9, BigDonkey, philip_petev, Mac4Mat, RehabMan and others who spend many hours messing with the technical details to make things run smoothly.

This version of the guide is updated to use ProBook Installer v6.1.13r3 which has support for Mavericks 10.9.

Here is what you will need:

• A genuine download “Install OS X Mavericks.app” from the Mac App Store – this is free.
• Philip Petev’s HP ProBook Installer from here: Probook Installer Download
  
• The latest Unibeast from here: Unibeast Download
  
• Access to an OS X computer, where the “Install Mac OS X Mavericks.app” is. Whether this is Lion or Snow Leopard, or Leopard, hackintosh or Mac, it doesn’t matter.
• A flash drive that can be formatted, anything 8 GB or bigger is fine.

1. Go to the Mac where “Install Mac OS X Mavericks.app” downloaded from the Mac App Store is. Your “Install Mac OS X Mavericks.app” must be present in the Applications folder before running Unibeast. Make sure you download the Unibeast intended for Mavericks. Unibeast requires your language is set to English as no support for other language settings is provided.

2. Insert your flash drive, and open disk utility. Format it as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) with a MBR partition map. Name it something like “Installer.”

3. Exit Disk Utility, and run Unibeast, installing to that flash drive. Select “Laptop Support” and “Mavericks.” Then select your flash drive (“Installer”)to install it to. Leave it to finish creating your Unibeast USB flash drive – it will take about 20 minutes regardless of what it reports on-screen!

4. Copy the latest HP Probook Installer to the flash drive. You will need it later.

5. Now on to the lapto:

• If your laptop has an i5 or i7 processor, be sure to disable “Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O” in BIOS, if available. If you can’t boot for some reason, set all BIOS settings to default, and then try again, again making sure any other graphics cards are disabled, and “Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O” is disabled.
• For 4x40s series, be sure to turn off “Wake on LAN/Wake on USB.”
• Also for 4x40s series, be sure legacy boot is enabled. There are 2 places to look for Legacy: Enable legacy boot in “Device Configurations” AND in “Boot Options” set “Legacy” or “UEFI Hybrid (With CSM)”. Different versions of the BIOS may have slightly differently named options.
• Finally, be sure that “Fast Boot” is disabled as it will keep the bootloader from seeing a second hard drive connected to the DVD SATA port and can cause issues for internal USB devices (camera, bluetooth, etc.).

6. Insert the flash drive in one of the USB ports on the right (you want a USB2 port, not USB3). The “right front” USB2 port seems to work best on most ProBooks.

7. Upon boot-up, hit Esc, and F9. Then, select the USB hard drive. Select the Flash Drive, called Installer, and hit enter. Let it load.

• If you hang on either the grey apple screen with the little circle going round and round or just a black screen:* reboot and at the Chimera bootloader screen type: “PCIRootUID=0 IGPlatformID=01660003 IGPEnabler=Yes GraphicsEnabler=no” and hit enter. You should now make it through to the installer screen.

8. Now you should be at the Installer screen. Hit continue to select your language.

9. Along the top, click Utilities. Then select Disk Utility.

10. Select your hard drive, and format it in however many partitions you want, with a GUID partition map. At least one “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” (HFS+J) is required, as that is where you’ll install OS X.

11. Hit Alt+Q to return to the installer after you have finished. Finish the install process like normal, selecting the partition you just made.

12. After it restarts, you will need to once again hit Esc then F9. Then select the USB hard drive again. This time, select the partition you just installed Mavericks on, and hit enter (if you have a 4x40s and you needed to use boot flags in step 7, use the same boot flags here). Make sure you leave the flash drive plugged in.

• If you get an indication for “no keyboard,” use a USB keyboard to get past the message. Plug it in on the other USB port on the right, and after the stupid prompt goes away, you can unplug it.

13. Finish the setup process as normal. After you get to the desktop, open the flash drive (it’s called Installer in Finder) and copy the HP Probook installer to your desktop. If you need the “combo update” to upgrade your system to the latest version, copy it as well.

• In order to run the installer, you must allow applications downloaded from the Internet to be run (this is a new default in Mavericks). Go into System Preferences, then Security & Privacy. Click the lock (lower left) to make changes. Then select “Anywhere” from the “Allow applications downloaded from:” section. You can then close System Preferences.

14. Run the installer, and select:

• From “OS X support kexts,” select only the version that matches your laptop – 4x40s.
• From “DSDT generator/patcher” select your “4x40s model,” “Readings Only” from the “Fan Behaviour” and “Low Resolution” from “Display type.”
• If you have an Atheros 9285 WiFi mini PCIe card installed, choose the 9285 patch under “Optional patches.” Note: you must select one option from each of the first three groups to generate a patched DSDT. In addition, you must have no DSDT present in /Extra/dsdt.aml at the time you run this option. If you wish to regenerate a DSDT later, you must remove /Extra/dsdt.aml, reboot, and then run the ProBook Installer using your desired DSDT options.
• Check the option for “SSDT” generator.
• From “System definitions,” select ONE system definition which matches closest your laptop.
• Chameleon: This allows you to boot from your main HDD/SSD
• From “Optional hardware-specific fixes”:
• “AHCI 3rd party kext,” You can apply this option later if it turns out your DVD drive is not recognized by the system. It is not needed on every laptop.
• “EDID generator” Recommended.
• “FanReset.dylib mod” Select only if you have a laptop with a WiFi whitelist implemented in BIOS and have a WiFi card that is not present on the whitelist.
• From “Misc OS X fixes”:
• “Color profiles,” Recommended.
• “Sleep fix,” If you have SSD, “Sleep image fix” is recommended. This disables OS X version of “hybrid sleep” where upon entering sleep, a “hibernation image” is written to the boot drive. For SSD, you don’t really want to write this file every time your laptop goes to sleep.
• “Extra tools” All optional. Select the ones you want.

After making, your selections, click ‘Continue’ and allow the ProBook Installer to work.

15. Shutdown the computer, unplug the USB flash drive and attempt to boot from the hard drive.

• If it does not work (you don’t see the Chimera boot loader), it is very likely you have a 4k/AF (advanced format) HDD. If that is the case, see this link for more information (start at solution 1 step 4, or solution 2 step 2): http://www.tonymacx86.com/25-boot0-e…ial-guide.html.
• If you see the Chimera boot loader, but booting OS X times out after a long time (and you didn’t install the AHCI patch in step 14), you will need to boot “Ignore Caches” (either type “-f” at the Chimera boot loader screen, or use down-arrow to choose it from the menu). After booting with ignore caches, you can run the installer again to select and install the AHCI patch from “Optional hardware-specific fixes”

16. Generate SSDT once again. The latest SSDT generator requires a proper smbios to be active when it is run. Run the ProBook Installer, and select the option for “SSDT” generator.

Let the installer do its work, then reboot.

17. At this point everything should be working (WiFi, Audio, keyboard, trackpad, ethernet, etc.). Note for WiFi: You must have Atheros, or for 4x40s a compatible card (Atheros 9485 is not compatible), for it to work. If you don’t, you should consider replacing the mini-PCI card that provides WiFi.

 

http://www.tonymacx86.com/hp-probook-mavericks/112380-guide-installing-mavericks-hp-probook.html