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.

Yesterday Apple unleashed the 10.6.3 OS update to everyone. While there are a lot of bug fixes (the download is huge) there are a fair number that don’t apply to netbooks. There is no pressing need to upgrade immediately, so don’t panic about the guides being updated yet.

Meklort has updated NBI with a new release candidate for 0.8.4. The primary benefits are support and fixes for 10.6.3 and a new auto-reinstall feature should any updates be applied in the future.

In case you can’t wait, you need to install this new NBI and then the 10.6.3 update afterward. I’m scattered between finals, a bad battery and corrupted applications right now but I should have the guides updated shortly.

Oh, NetbookCD will be getting tested during my reinstall trials. I’ll post more about that later too.

While nothing is necessary quite yet, meklort has released an updated NetbookInstaller to fix issues with the upcoming 10.6.3 update. You should install this newer version before installing 10.6.3 on your netbook.

View more information and release notes over at Meklort’s Blog.

I’ll update the guide once 10.6.3 is released (since I can’t test out a guide if I don’t have the software) and also any further updates to NBI that may happen before then.

At long last, I’m done updating the main guides. This is the quickest I have been able to update all of the guides, but that’s because I spent most of my time this evening focused solely on completing them.

The big update for the NBI 2 is a flat image based on NetbookInstaller 0.8.3 Final. I’ve also changed the Windows instructions so that all three major versions (XP, Vista, 7) use the same instructions. I found a bunch of errors throughout as well during the process. I had to remove the Windows screenshots because they were horribly inaccurate with the new instructions, I will try to upload new ones in the next few days.

So that should be it, besides adapting the updates for the MyDellMini Guides section.

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.

Sorry about that folks, it’s all better now! Use the same links as before, I’m reuploading the mirror files as I type. Everything should be fine now, I had to repair my own install with the updated file.

‘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!

Ever since I upgraded from 10.5.8 to 10.6.2 nearly a month ago, I have noticed a few “issues” that just don’t add up. (Please people, I don’t think these are widespread problems, so only comment if you experienced the same thing.)

First was Cyberduck, my favorite FTP client and what I use to modify the site on a regular basis. Strangely it always asks for a donation when I try to close it, even though I keep checking the box not to display it until the next version. It behaved normally until the upgrade.

I’ve also had issues with Disk Utility. Oh, it will do all the usual stuff fine, like copying a disk to an image, burning DVDs, etc. Since I reimage my flash drives for reinstall purposes on a regular basis (how else do you think I update those guides?) I keep disc images for both Leopard and Snow Leopard DVDs on an external hard drive; they’re faster to read from a hard drive since my Leopard disc is slightly scuffed and I don’t always have the DVDs with me during testing.

So here’s the issue: I haven’t had a need to reimage since I upgraded because NetbookInstaller hadn’t been updated. That changed a few days ago, and I tried to wipe the flash drives and copy the DVD images to them. No luck, they have to be scan for restore it tells me. When I try to scan them, it pops up an error. I even copied the DVDs again and no luck. Turns out my system isn’t playing very friendly with restoring read/write images, it only likes the compressed kind right now, and only after a scan. Not sure what happened there, but I’m on my way to reinstalling finally so I can update the guides.

If you’ve had any other little quirks, please comment about them and any fixes you may have found. (This is not a troubleshooting post, so if I see “halp me!1!” comments they will be deleted.)

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!!!