Take Mini Outta the Dark

At long last! My Mini's officialy unconfused now. It's no longer mistaking itself as a Compaq Mini at boot up, thanks to afudos.

It's the Effing Effort That Counts

Right now, I'm installing Windows XP on the HP Mini 1000. I've partitioned the measley 60 GB 1.8" PATA hard drive of the netbook, giving 4 GB to Bill Gates' most ubiquitous OS as of the moment -- ok, the most ubiquitous OS ever in the world. My external DVD drive has been wheering away for almost an hour now -- oh, it's stopped and I'm being asked to click on Next and then enter my product key whose all 25 characters I've practically memorized by heart -- and gone over 1 reboot already.

Why am I doing this anyway? Didn't I vow to love and cherish MacBook Mini forever? And that means with only Leopard as our main OS? Well, I'd been dumb enough to screw up the HP Mini's bios with DMI edit - it's now a Compaq and not an HP. I'm thinking reflashing the bios will restore the HP logo; I'd still have to find out once I get into Win XP and run the WinFlash utility from HP.

R.I.P.

My MacBook Mini's SD/MMC card reader is dead and yours truly is the culprit. The crime transpired just a little after one o'clock when I plugged in my Sony Ericsson's M2 Memory Stick Adapter into the SD/MMC card slot on my precious and innocent MacBook Mini.



I thought that since I could do this on the MacBook Wind, there shouldn't be any problem but, based on that grounds, I still cannot plead innocent; I should've known there was something amiss when I noticed that plugging in the M2 adapter on the Mini met some resistance (it obviously didn't with the Wind) and just stopped right there and then. But, as if possessed by some dimwitted ogre-like psyche, I forced the card into the slot anyway.

Stupidity. Denseness. Imbecility. Folly.

And now, when I plug in a normal MMC card on the Mini, OS X doesn't mount it anymore - it's as if it hasn't sensed something has been plugged in.

I'm in grief and right now, I think I'm still in the latter parts of the In Denial Stage; I still believe there's hope still since when I go to the BIOS settings, I can still see that "USB: Single Flash" entry under the Boot Options - I'd have to resort to trickery to get to the BIOS with the MMC card in the reader slot though because the Mini would get hung up on the boot splash screen, which, by the way, sports a "Compaq" logo now instead of the stock "HP" one.

But I may be trudging forward to acceptance as I'd already reinstalled the dummy SD/MMC card that came with the Mini.

I still think it was a retarded thing for me to do - does that mean I'm still in the Anger stage then?

Ok, scrap that. But come to think of it; even the MacBook Air in all it's tech-chic glory doesn't even have an SD/MMC slot and, as it is now, my MacBook Mini still trumps it with 2 USB ports vs. 1. :)

HP = Compaq ??

You know you've caught on the real hackintoshing fever when you already have a working OS X installation in your previously just a mere lowly PC; tweaked and modified the system until you've got all the hardware components running - sleep/resume, battery, power management - and, yes, you've even purged your innocent Extensions folder of unnecessary kexts, breaking your system a couple or more times as consequence, just to improve your boot time which you're keeping an eye on (now you need to scroll down when viewing your iPod's stopwatch log list; it's that long already).

Yet you still want more.

And then, one lazy, boring afternoon at the office (because of the recession, clients don't buy your company's product, thereby reducing the projects assigned to employees like you), as you read stuff about - yep, you got it right - hackintoshing, you come across a post in a forum or a webpage containing information on further custom tailor fitting your hackintosh. What happens is, you wind up doing what that post was saying.

Cut the chase and let's just say I got my MacBook Mini as an HP Mini 1000, but because I followed what a certain post on the net said; it now thinks it was a Compaq Mini 700 in its past life before it was reborn to become a MacBook Mini. How come you say? Look at the pic below:

Throwing Out Garbage

Starting hibernating
Sleepimage has garbage
Hibernating failed

After installing PC-EFIv9/Chameleon 10.1.12 over the iDeneb v1.3 default in preparation for updating my MacBook Mini, I started getting these weird messages which show up after Darwin loads and OS X is about to boot. Although it didn't have impact on the performance whatsoever of my hackintosh setup, it would nice to be able to eliminate it just the same. Here's how you do it:

Take Root

Coming from a Linux background, I've long wondered if the root user concept also exists in Mac OS X - it's Unix after all and Linux is Unix like. There's gotta be some common ground between the two, right?

Hackintoshing involves lots of googling and following how-to's and such; one time I encountered reading "log in as root and copy the file in your root folder".

Okay, so there's this root user after all in Mac OS X. I already know that logging in as root is possible, I'll just have to type in "root" as my username and then type in my root password - wait a second; "my root password"?

I did configure my account, designating a custom username and password, during Mac OS X Setup Assistant after initial install but I don't reckon being prompted to specify a password for the root.

Thinking maybe I could look it up in System Preferences > Accounts, I was confused big time when I didn't find anything there that said "root". What am I supposed to do now? Turns out, this is what I should do:

New Look

Yesterday was pretty much a boring day with nothing much left to do - the myhpmini.com site was down and I couldn't access my beloved Mac OS X part of the forums so for the time being, I blogged here. Yeah, that's the reason why this site has had more than one post written in one day.

This morning, I checked again on the forums and much to my delight, it's up and running again! Yay! And sporting a new look too. Spunky! I never liked the old look anyway - kind of a little too awkward for my taste; ugly fonts and all.

Addendum to Lessons Learned

Stuff that are most often taken for granted but are important nonetheless to survive hackintoshing:

1) Know how to interrupt Darwin, the bootloader (as if you didn't know it's a bootloader, hey? Just wanted to clear out that that's not my boyfriend's name or something ;))

> by default, you've got  a five second countdown before OS X actually starts booting up. During that time, hit any key on your keyboard and you'll get to the boot prompt.

2) Know your flags! United Nations member countries not included - haha, so not funny and a desperate attempt at humor.

"-v" : verbose mode - OS X normally uses graphical boot mode, so you get that screen with a grey apple and a spinning wheel at the bottom. But with verbose mode, you only get text flashing across your screen - especially useful when you want to see what's going on as OS X boots up for problem diagnosis.

"-f" : not exactly sure that this mode's officially called but I use it to force OS X to load kexts. Sometimes it happens that you've installed a kext alright but it isn't recognized by the system, you just gotta make OS X to load it against its will.

"-x": safe boot mode - when the system refuses to boot properly and you wanna go in fix stuff but want to do so in GUI, this would be the way to go.

"-s" : single user mode - when all else fails, use this. It'll boot up the system in command line mode and this is the time when you need to...

3) Know your Terminal commands - I'm a total noob when it comes to Mac OS X but I've been dabbling with Linux for quite sometime now, being weened on Mandrake Linux run computer labs in college (I studied in a state university, which, for a third world country, means no sufficient funds coming in from the government, hence the need to go open source), I've a fairly good amount of basic bash knowledge. And OS X being Unix essentially underneath the glossy Aqua exteriors, that knowledge has proven to be indispensible.

Here are some basic commands I find myself using time and again:

Tech Specs, Anyone?

Finally after three months of not knowing for sure; I now have verified what my MacBook Mini's display resolution is. And contrary to reviews all over the internet (or did I just imagine that?), saying that the HP Mini 1000's resolution is 1024 x 567 - less vertical real estate than the rest of 'em netbookies, they're all wrong. And I'm happy or just simply stupid since I spent useless effort in googling  "HP Mini 1000 resolution", "HP Mini 1000 tech specs official" when I could just have done this:

take a screenshot and then

check the image's properties

Dang. And I even discovered this in Windows, on my work PC.

Snoopy me. 

PS. Hmm, it says 24 for Bit Depth...I'm pretty sure it should be 32...Something to tinker with again! ;)

iLife 09

Enjoy iLife 09 without shelling out precious bucks. Fix iPhoto first though. If you find iWeb useful (I don't but I still have it installed anyway), it's also yours.

And to get everything all spiffy, get and install the following updates from Apple:

iLife 09

iPhoto 8.0.2

iMovie 8.0.2

iDVD 7.0.3

iWeb 3.0.1

GarageBand

Lessons Learned

MacBook Wind.

MacBook Mini.

That makes two netbooks that I've successfully hackintoshed. After countless rounds of installation, reinstallation, tweaking, applying kexts, updating and then some more tweaking, have I truly understood the game?

Perhaps I'd just try to summarize what wisdom I've gained from this story and journey into these few guiding rules:

Initial OS X installation:

What's Happened to the MacBook Wind?

These past few weeks, I find myself more and more enamored with the HP Mini 1000 - or my MacBook Mini, spending less and less time with the MacBook Wind (see, I even dropped the possessive adjective "my" there) to devote it instead to my MacBook Mini. Heck I even endure sacrificing my own cells' well-being by not sleeping during the cell regeneration hours - 10pm - 1am - just to tinker with my (yes, "my") MacBook Mini.

If there's anything to prove how hooked I am and committed to my MacBook Mini, the screenshot below suffices:

Bleeding Edge (Love)

Warning: long post ahead

Before people accuse me of spouting sonnets - if they can even be considered sonnets, which I doubt very much that they are - from Leona Lewis' old hit song "Bleeding Love", this one's got nothing to do with that subject matter but is definitely similar in terms of the emotional state involved; I could've probably bled to death this past weekend after all the frustration from updating my MacBook Mini to 10.5.7.

And to what ends, might you ask? To stay on the bleeding edge of what's techie hot. Since Apple made both the delta and combo updaters for 10.5.7 available for download from their website, the hackintoshing community the world over (maybe even across the galaxy, or universe, since some guys are really geniuses they just gotta be aliens no less) became hyped with this latest update.

Trouble is, I'd just started celebrating my successful OS X install and 10.5.6 update + new 2 GB RAM on my HP Mini 1001TU, slapped an Apple sticker I custom made with tender lovin' care on the glossy-swirl-patterned lid when found myself face to face with yet another challenge. I'm a geek so instead of just sitting around in my cozy corner and preserve the current Nirvana state of my MacBook Mini (I just had sleep/resume resolved with the 2 GB RAM upgrade), armed with kexts I got from the OSX-how-to-guide over at myhpmini.com, I took a quick look at my files to check that my precious personals were somewhere else safe, I took the plunge, prepared for head on collision or even worse.

1st try:

I hate blogspot

I hate blogspot. I don't hate blogspot perse - I just hate how it looks. I really love how macbookwind.wordpress.com looks and feels and no matter how I tweak macbookmini.blogspot.com, tried different themes, layout and such, it still sucks in comparison to my wordpress page. 

CSS you say? There was only one time that I actually mulled over the thought of learning CSS but decided not to in the end - didn't have to learn a single CSS code to get my wordpress page organized and up and running to my taste.

Why did I go with blogspot anyway? Google Adsense...but now that I think of it, it's just been all bad logic.

Oh well, you be the judge:

Edit: I changed my theme to try lifting my down spirits

HP Mini 1000 - Hackintosh Resource

Update: I've posted a better, concise installation how-to with updating up to 10.5.7. 

Today, I find myself with nothing to do - again. Short of succumbing to playlist fanstasyland with iTunes on my work pc or getting absorbed in reading others' blogs till it's suddenly time again to trudge back home, I thought I'd go update this blog with a new post.

So what's up that's worth the time flexing my fingers for this post to be typed and read?

Well, the HP Mini 1001TU is getting more familiar, thereby making it easier to hackintosh - and by hackintoshing, I meant installing OS X and fine tuning stuff. So I feel the right time has come for me to create my own how-to guide which will serve as my own personal reference that everyone's welcome to use if they feel like it.

HP Mini 1000 - Hackintosh Resource

Minor Surgery

It's common knowledge that the HP Mini 1000's webcam is really bad if not just plain useless. I mean, I could practically see nothing on the cam if it wasn't day time. It's not that I had a pressing a need to have the webcam bend to my will - I wasn't fond of video conferencing anyhow. Maybe that's why it's only now that I finally took a step to fix the problem.
As with any problem or issue out there, there's a reason behind it all. Apparently, HP has "forgotten" to take off the protective film covering the bezel hole for the webcam enclosed inside. So following what pics hinted from engadget, I ventured on performing this minor surgery on my MacBook Mini.

Upping the Ante

Coming from a vacation for which I'd spent a crazy amount c/o my credit card, I'm currently broke. I shouldn't be spending anymore but guess what? The geek, or should I say, geekette in me prevailed causing me to get a stick of 2 GB DDR2 for my MacBook Mini which I paid for cash.

Bye bye Php 1,400! On with my new 2GB DDR2 PC-667 stick of RAM.

Upgrading the HP Mini 1000's RAM is a no brainer. Even if I were completely the girly frilly type of girl, I wouldn't have much problem actually installing RAM - the Mini has an access panel that's specifically for a task such as this. And absolutely no chance of losing those tiny screws! :)

(Credits to myhpmini.com)