Blog | OSX | mechdrew

Good news, folks! meklort has put together the 0.8.3 release candidate 5 for NetbookInstaller and NetbookBootMaker. Among the important changes in RC5 (compared to RC4) are a faster booting time, fixed dsdt.aml generator, temporary fixes for the Dell Mini 9 audio and 10v BIOS A06 issues, and rudimentary GMA 500 support for the Dell Mini 10 and similar netbooks. Remember, this is a release candidate, and not every bug has been squashed yet. But it is recommended that this be used in place of any reference to NetbookInstaller or NetbookBootMaker in any of the guides.

Learn more over at Meklort’s Blog

Since this will most likely be made into the final release for 0.8.3, I will be updating the guides this next week to reflect this change. I’m hoping to have them done by Christmas, but I can’t guarantee it so please be patient. Update: Please, please, please DO NOT contact me about bugs, feature requests or adding models to the software. I don’t do the programming!!!

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.

Update: Within 24 short hours, many people from both MyDellMini and other sites contributed enough money to the fund for meklort to buy a Mini 10v from the Dell Outlet! Amazing work guys, the donation link has been left open at the original MyDellMini forum thread so that if you would still like to make donations to further development in the future you may do so. On behalf of myself, bmcclure937, meklort, and others, a huge thanks to all of you!

Original post: As some of my more experienced readers will know, I don’t actually program any of the software used in my guides. Except for a tweak here or there, I have no idea how to do actual programming. Fortunately, people like meklory, bmaltis, lnxneo, jayk and other members of the MyDellMini forums help out with a lot of that dirty work. meklort in particular has been an indispensable asset to the community, being the lead programmer and driver developer.

Currently meklort only has a Dell Mini 9, which is well enough for most users, but since it has been discontinued and many users are opting for the Mini 10v (such as myself) there are a few driver snags, such as the trackpad, that are still needing to be worked out.

bmcclure937, a good friend and fellow moderator at MyDellMini, has started a PayPal donation line that will go towards the purchase of a Mini 10v for meklort. I absolutely love this idea. There is no set donation amount, but if you appreciate his work and can spare a few dollars it will help a lot. I personally already donated to this fund, and if enough people donate just a few dollars we’ll have meklort a new Mini 10v in no time!

To donate, please see this thread over at MyDellMini.

Note: I am not in charge of this donation fund, but bmcclure937 is. I in no way get any of this money, and neither does bmcclure937. All money donated goes towards the 10v for meklort.

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.