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.
In preparation for updating the NBI 2 and NBI 3 guides, I am currently uploading NetbookCD and a flat image of the Chameleon bootloader from the NetbookInstaller 0.8.3 Final release. For some reason my server is exceptionally slow at uploading (it certainly isn’t my connection) so it’s going to take a while. But I figured I would at least inform everyone that I do have those working and am updating the guides as well to correspond to the new information. The new guides should be up by tomorrow somewhere around 12 PM MST.
A few questions were raised concerning NetbookCD 0.8.3 RC4 in my post about NetbookInstaller 0.8.3 RC4, so here’s some explaination. (And now I’ve updated the guide to resolve a bunch of incorrect steps.)
This is only concerning NetbookCD. If you want to know more about NBI, check out the old post.
NetbookCD 0.8.3 RC4 has the capability to boot into (i.e. recover) a bad 10.6.2 install thanks to it’s kernel-modifying bootloader. This is great for those that need a rescue disc. However, lost from the RC3 version is the auto-installing NetbookInstaller script at the end of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard installation process. (10.5 Leopard has never had this feature in NetbookCD, so nothing has changed for Leopard users.) This is more of a convenience loss than a functional loss. Essentially, you can still use the disc to install, you’ll just need to use it again to boot into your hard drive after the install is complete. You will need to run NetbookInstaller after the first boot so that the CD is no longer required. The short version of this paragraph: Use NetbookCD 0.8.3 RC4. Don’t worry about the technical stuff.
Now, once you have used NetbookCD to boot into the Mac OS and setup your account, you need to take a few more steps. (You would have to do this no matter what version of NetbookCD you had used.) There is one huge problem that has come to my attention lately (and the guide HAS NOT been updated to reflect this information) (the guide has now been updated with the proper steps) and that problem is that NetbookInstaller 0.8.3 RC4 does *not* generate a dsdt.aml file like it is supposed to; it doesn’t actually generate a working file if there isn’t one already there. So when you use the NetbookCD guide, you should do the following: Use NetbookInstaller 0.8.3 RC3 first to create a dsdt.aml file. Once that is done, load 0.8.3 RC4 to install the bootloader, extensions, and to generate the dsdt.aml file. (You are checking it again because once the file is there, RC4 is able to update without any problem.) You must install the RC4′s bootloader in order to install the 10.6.2 update correctly. Once you are done with NetbookInstaller, install the combo update either using Software Update or the downloadable version, restart, and reinstall the extensions using RC4. (Sometimes the hardware extensions, such as sound, are affect by the 10.6.2 update so you should reinstall them, even if no problems appear at first.) After another restart, you should be fine.
While this post may be helpful to other guides for educational purposes, it is meant to only apply to the NetbookInstaller 3 guide, which uses NetbookCD. It is in this context that it can only be truly understood.
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.)
I’ve uploaded the newest NCD ISO, version 0.8.3 RC4 (based on the same version of NetbookBootMaker which was recently released) which fixes 10.6.2 support. The guide has been updated to reflect his, as well as some changes to the guide to help out those who are going to 10.6.2.
So two megabytes from finishing the NetbookCD upload, Cyberduck (a fantastic FTP client for Mac OS X) didn’t show any more progress. Indeed, the whole site wasn’t responding, as maybe a few of you noticed. The sad part was that it was nearly two hours out of commission! I didn’t know what to do, I checked with Dreamhost (my service provider) and nothing showed up wrong. So how did it get fixed? I installed one of the software packages! Ridiculous fix, but at least it’s back up. Sorry about he outage, here’s hoping it doesn’t happen again as I try the upload….
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.
Since the 1.1 version, a few changes have been made overall to the NetbookCD project. First of all, it has officially become a part of the NetbookInstaller suite, so the version number is going to be the same as NetbookInstaller, 0.8.3. I know this is slightly confusing, especially to those who are new to the scene, but overall meklort and I think it will help keep things consistent.
Thanks to some work meklort has done, NetbookCD now behaves similar to a flash drive that has been prepped with NetbookBootMaker without modifying the Install DVD, meaning that it will automatically install the extensions and bootloader when the Mac OS X installation is finished. Currently it only works on Snow Leopard, but the final release should have this feature on Leopard as well.
Finally, meklort has modified the Chameleon cdboot code so that only one ISO is needed for both 10.5 and 10.6, no need for dual versions like it is with 1.1 and before.
Since it still needs a few tweaks, the 0.8.3 is branded as a Test version. You can try the new and improved NetbookCD by downloading it from the following links:
ISO (54.4 MB)
Compressed ZIP (30.9 MB)
Thanks to the feedback from viewers here and some forum members over MyDellMini, NetbookCD 1.1 has been released today. This release primarily consists of a fix for the Snow Leopard verison, which for all intents and purposes just didn’t work for the 1.0 Final release. Also included on both versions is a CD edition of the NetbookInstaller 3 guide, providing easier access and a reference tool for users without requiring Internet access. You can find the new releases on the NetbookInstaller 3 Guide page or on the Downloads page.
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