Blog | OSX | mechdrew

The current guide will now lead you through the installation process from scratch to a fully-functional 10.6.4 installation. There are a few subtle differences throughout the guide. An important note is that there currently isn’t a 10.6.4 friendly version of NetbookBootMaker, so I had to include the newer NetbookInstaller app that meklort released in the package. Just follow the guide, it will help tell you what needs to happen.

You may notice there is a slight naming and style change with the this guide. I’m trying to trim out all of the useless fluff, especially since I can’t write a one-size-fits-all-netbooks guide without going into too much detail. I’m also preparing to convert the guide over to a wiki format so that other users can pitch in with corrections and handy articles without my intervention. That part is still in the works, but for now this will do.

The donation page has been updated, I’m not taking PayPal donations anymore but I do have some other ways to payback, check the page for details. I decided that with the neglect this site has been under I shouldn’t accept money donations until there is substantial work done here again.

And for anyone wondering how the 1012 handles OS X: it works, but… meh. I still prefer the 10v experience. The 1012 could get better soon with meklort’s further development, but for now the 10v is better.

Just so everyone is aware, the Mini 10v that many of us have come to know and love is officially discontinued. Unfortunately Dell did not release a newer system with as Mac-friendly hardware to replace it.

That leaves two options if you still want to obtain one from Dell: 1) The Nickelodeon edition for your kid or the kid at heart, or 2) Dell Outlet. I recommend option number 2, primarily because every Dell system I have purchased has been a refurbished model from the outlet and all have been outstanding. Plus, if there is a problem (I had sound issues on one netbook) the support team can usually rectify it quickly.

From my own experience you can “lurk” or “stalk” the the Home laptops page sorted by price and every once in a while a real steal will come up. I’ve seen some lately for as low as $209, although I have purchased a 10v in the past for $199 plus a discount coupon. Oh, and there is a 20% off coupon running right now until the 30th, so this is an excellent time to get a 10v.

UPDATE: For clarification, the Dell Mini 10v is also known as the 1011. This is will probably be the most helpful for the Dell Outlet to find the correct model. Also, the Dell Mini 9 is still available if you like cramped keyboards, but there aren’t as many of those floating around.

A few months ago I upgraded from my Mini 9 to a Mini 10v. The Mini 9 is a great machine, but I don’t use it anymore and could use the money. As such I’ve posted the Mini 9 up on eBay for sale. You can find all of the details on the listing.

I held on to it for so long because it actually has a little sentimental value to me. It was my first netbook, and my first real “hackintosh” (I hate that word). It served me so well up until I upgraded, otherwise I would still be using it today. I wrote many of my beginning guides on its somewhat cramped keyboard, and without it I wouldn’t be in the glorious world of Mac OS X so heavily as I am today.

Feel free to bid on it. And as a bonus for those reading on this blog, I still have the Apple logo pasted over the Dell Logo on the lid, I can keep it there if you want and you are the winning bidder.

I bit the bullet today: 10.6.0 is currently running on my Mini 10v, with 10.6.2 downloading as I type. One major reason for my hesitancy is the fact that I am running a rather touchy triple boot setup. I could get either Windows XP or Windows 7 installed with Mac OS X, but not both. I need XP for some legacy software (okay, it’s just Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, LAN multiplayer requires IPX) and of course I’m going to have the latest Windows OS if I’m going to multi-boot. Since they don’t play friendly together with the usual hybrid GUID/MBR partition scheme that NetbookInstaller helps set up, I needed a MBR-only solution to fix it.

Granted, this was two months ago. It’s been working fine, but it took a lot of trial and error to get there. You can see why I would hesitate to mess around with it anymore. When I got Snow Leopard, I fully intended to install it, but I needed it to install on MBR, and Apple had changed the OSInstall.mpkg structure so that the Leopard MBR mode wouldn’t work.

Well, after two months I am still no closer to actually figuring out what is needed for the mod. I had to download two different pre-hacked files before it would actually work. Before I started the install process, I made a bit-for-bit backup of my harddrive using the dd command line tool just in case it screwed up everything.

I was actually very surprised that I didn’t run into more problems. The only real gripes were a very inaccurate progress bar during the install and slow performance on the first boot after that. A little help from NetbookInstaller and all is well again.

Like most others, I’m not impressed immediately by any of the upgrades, but perhaps over the next few days things will become more apparent.

Update: I just finished the 10.6.2 update. I’m impressed again by how easy it was. Instead of the normal Combo Update route, I was able to just run NetbookInstaller and then use the Software Update app. Of course, now it says the CPU is a Core Solo, and I did have a minor hiccup with sound (I had also installed some additional kexts that were conflicting with it) but overal it was really easy.

So far, I’ve managed to transfer over all of the important material from dellefi.mechdrew.com. Some things, like the outdated Intro files, were left behind because they simply aren’t as accurate anymore.

As for my own Dell Mini, I just barely got audio working again on the 10v. My next step is to backup the entire thing, then I’m going to try and replicate what caused my issue in the first place. I have a fairly good idea what it was, a combination of the dsdt.aml file and some faulty methods in NetbookInstaller.