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.

The title says it all… almost. Since NBI 0.8.4 RC1 no longer provides support for 10.5 Leopard, I decided to break the guide in two. The new guide features instructions only for Snow Leopard, so the list is much shorter and there should be less confusion. The Leopard instructions are still preserved (sans 10.6.x instructions) in the Guides sections should you still desire to install the older OS.

I’m working on an update guide next for those of you who already have a working Snow Leopard system.

As I mentioned earlier, a new NetbookCD is finally ready for use. It is based on NetbookInstaller 0.8.3 Final and will work wonderfully with 10.6.2. The guide has been exhaustively revised to remove a bunch of redundant steps and to make it more coherent.

I’m still working on the other guides, and making more corrections in NBI 1, so please check back for more updates.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, ‘cept a guy and his mouse;
The guides were outdated and could use some care,
And installs we done so that changes would be there;

I sprang to the site to like a heat-seeking missile,
And my fingers flew like the down of a thistle.
And ere I exclaimed, when the update was in sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

Semi-lame hack of a poem? Maybe. But the main guide (NBI 1) has been updated for Mac OS X 10.6.2 and NetbookInstaller 0.8.3 Final RC5 (potentially Final) (it’s gone Final! A Christmas miracle! Actually, I was expecting this…) so I get to post silly poems variants. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

If there is one major flaw with my guides is a lack of explaination. They contain a lot of dos and don’ts, but nothing that really tells you why you can or can’t do something. It’s kind of like going through a ritual without understanding what is going on.

I’ve started writing commentaries for the guides, starting with the most-used one, NetbookInstaller 1. (Find the commentary here.) It’s only a start, and could use some improvement, but it’s the best I’ve got right now. Over time it will improve. I hope it can help people become better educated about their Mac netbooks.

Previously I had mentioned that I was waiting to update the NetbookInstaller 1 guide because NetbookBootMaker 0.8.3 RC4 had a glitch that caused it not to work properly on Leopard. Since that time I updated the NBI 3 guide with a new NetbookCD, and it turns out it has a problem as well (although not major). Recently it came to light that there is a second issue with NBBM/NBI: if a dsdt.aml file is not present, it will not create one. It will update a preexisting dsdt.aml, but not create it. So feel free to use the software as an update tool, but for now the main guide will stick with 0.8.3 RC3 for fresh installs.

(The dsdt.aml file allows the netbook to properly communicate with the power management and BIOS features of the motherboard. Without it, startup is slow and function keys will not work.)

Good news! meklort has released another release candidate for 0.8.3 which fixes the 10.6.2 kernel issue. Use only if you need to update to 10.6.2, since I won’t be updating the guide to reflect the update just yet. You can get it from the Google Code download page.

Why am I not updating the main guide? Because there is a bug in NetbookBootMaker currently for regular Leopard users, and I prefer to use only one NetbookBootMaker file for the entire guide. You’ll know it has been addressed when I update the guide. I will in the meantime be working on updating the NBI3 guide since I have a new NetbookCD ISO ready to go for it. It should be up later tonight.

Big news folks: NetbookInstaller 2 has been written and uploaded! This guide allows those who do not have a Mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard to install Mac OS X via USB disk drives. This includes steps for Windows, Linux, and Tiger! After weighing all the options I finally found a solution for Windows that didn’t require a bunch of bloated software, and it also makes the techniques similar for all three operating systems.

I’ve also made a few adjustments to the NetbookInstaller 1 guide, and guide 3 has been updated to reflect the newer NetbookCD 0.8.3 RC3 ISO that has just been uploaded. Go check it out, have fun, and of course leave your comments or e-mails about your experience with these new updates.

Great news. Finally I have a guide for External DVD installation, find it in guides under NetbookInstaller 3. Also, NetbookInstaller Guide 1 has been updated to reflect the NetbookInstaller/BootMaker 0.8.3 RC2 changes. Snow Leopard is still iffy since I don’t have a copy, but it has been determined that those instructions will help guide the user, even if not exact.