For the Nth Time

I've just finished reading all 11 Cours of my D5O26 Analyse des interactions material  - just about time, I'd say - before my precious few neurons were machine gun blasted to oblivion. I earned this breather which I decided to use to check on this blog.

Oh those new comments! I do love reading them and it excites me that people actually drop by.

I noticed that there's still this running confusion about what Mini models we're talking about here:

1. HP Mini 311
2. HP Mini 1000 (1001TU)

Actually the HP Mini 1000 (1001TU) has moved on to better hands and am as clueless as the next non-hackintosher about how stuff can work beyond what has been written here. Concerning all other models, the answer is very very simple: "I've no idea, but you're welcome to try what's written here - it's up to you."

Early Christmas Present

Aside from my new iPod touch 4th gen, that is.

Last Friday, I just got my results for the DALF C1 and C2 exams I took last October 14 and 15 this year.

I passed both exams! :-)

But there's something weird though....my DALF C2 scores are higher than my DALF C1 when C2 is supposed to be the more difficult of the two.

DALF C1: 71.50 / 100

> Production écrite: 19 / 25

> Production orale: 21.50 / 25

DALF C2: 76.00 / 100

> Examen oral (no longer sub-divided in C2): 39 / 50

I took DELF B1 five years ago, when I was still an undergrad, taking up European Languages (Major French, Minor Italian) at the University of the Philipines, Diliman and my score was better:

DELF B1: 87.50 / 100

With my Production écrite: 24 / 25

and my Production orale: 24 / 25

I guess I slacked off between those "wonder years" and now? I think so...

AirPort Utility 5.5.2 and a Few Others

Ran Software Update and here's what I found:

I'm particularly interested in the AirPort Utility update. Any improvement is welcome.

Discovery

I have been very busy lately and that's most probably how I'll be describing myself as for at least the next 2 months.

With loads of papers to write (all four of them due on the 4th of January next year, and if you must know, they're subjects from the Université de Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, and the curriculum is in French) and PDF's to read - apparently that's how "high tech" the distance learning program is for DU ECDF (mp3's of actual class lectures, please?).

But anyway, it's no secret that I'd migrated to the "Root Installation" several days ago and then I've been doing what testing I could for a friend from the forums. Things weren't exactly what one would distinguish as components of a "controlled environment" for experiments. In short, my system could possibly be already a mess.

And it was acting up - hangs at "SMC not found" line. I should've taken a picture of my screen but it's something to that effect when I boot verbose. It's worse in graphical mode because all I could see was that grey Apple logo on a lighter grey backdrop and the spinning wheel continued to "spin", fooling me to think the system was still busy loading when in reality, it already went comatose on me. Frustrating in short.

The only way I could gain my Desktop again was to boot with -v -f flags. Which is not acceptable.

But I need this Mini MacBook Pro for school - to write those tons of papers in French. So in a desperate move to solve my predicament the fastest way I knew, I deleted the Extra folder from "/" and then fired up HF7c. I was back to EFI boot method.

When HF7c was created, I was still on 10.6.4 and I had to install PCEFI 10.6 in replacement of Chameleon RC4 in order to solve that ever annoying "blank screen on wake issue".

Guess what? I no longer had that problem after I re-installed HF7c. Puzzling.

Not really. I had upgraded to 10.6.5 several days ago and now I think that's got a lot to do with sleep/resume working fine on my system now. Am I just dreaming or has 10.6.5 + HF7c done the trick?

Thank You!

To all of you who gave me some donuts to chew on, I express my sincerest gratitude. You know who you are :D

I now have hosting fees for my new domain savingforamac.com covered.

Thanks again, you make writing for this blog an even more rewarding experience than it already is.

Growing Pains

Hi all,

Right now, the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project is going under a major overhaul, in terms of "project releases" at least - all those HFx installers you get to download and test every once in a while.

Here are the changes:
1. Beta (Retail Pack 1.1x) - Chameleon RC5; LegacyAGPM for graphics chip power management carried over from Retail Pack 1.0. There still are issues of course; i.g. sleep/resume, restart and other stuff.
2. Real trackpad - Alps Trackpad can be recognized as a real trackpad now with a kext and a hacked prefPane but this solution is still NOT perfect; i.e. it's without real sidescrolling. And some people actually prefer PS2 mouse with sidescrolling.
3. Root boot method - it has been decided that EFI be removed as main boot method. As of now, a semi-manual configuration can be done via Lizard, Kext Utility. But a .pkg auto installer is brewing which we're hesitant to release since it still needs lots of polishing - after all, we don't want to mess up your precious little Mini MacBook Pro.

Aside from that, if you've been following the HPM311DP thread at InsanelyMac, you've heard that TheKing is onboard and he's been doing some investigations on the current state of things and poking around the DSDT, discovering things. Also, there's this new AppleUSBCardReader.kext by iLeopod that makes the card reader slot recognized as,well, a card reader and not as just some generic drive.

Anyway, you can just visit the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project Thread and read up on the progress personally.

What this means is that yes, it's true that things are blurry and a bit chaotic at the present but that's because a lot of things, good ones, are also coming our way. Possibly - I hope those brilliant people do get the results they're expecting of their hackintosh experiments.

Mac OS X 10.6.5 Update Released

Apple has finally released 10.6.5 update for Snow Leopard yesterday, 10th of November. Fixes reliabilty with Microsoft Exchange servers and image processing in iPhoto and Aperture among other things.

As for HPM311DP, I am unfortunately unable to test the update hot off the grill; I'll be able to gain access to it this weekend, Friday night at the soonest.
UPDATE: Updated 10.6.5 smoothly. Retail Pack 1.0 (even EFI, HF7c) didn't pose any problem. 311 restarted and rebooted back to desktop without a kernel panic. Booting with install to root method (via Lizard) should work as flawlessly. I used the combo updater (1GB in size).

Per usual procedure, back up before you try out the update. However, I believe Retail Pack 1.0 is resilient to this new system update anyway.

The dmg file, for the delta version (for incremental update; 10.6.4 -> 10.6.5) is around 650 MB but the combo update (10.6.3 and earlier -> 10.6.5) is a hefty download of around 980 MB (1 GB almost).

Download Links:

Mac OS X 10.6.5 Update (Combo)

Mac OS X 10.6.5 Update

The Final Frontier

I guess not a lot of people are happy with the semi-manual installation (hey, you didn't have to fire up Terminal - if you take aside deleting the EFI partition, that is) that we're now pushing for the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project. For me personally, I find it no problem working with Lizard and dragging and dropping files to specified folders. I take that as a privilege even; not dependent on .pkg's that heaven knows what they do to your precious Mac OS X system, I know exactly what gets digested by my Mini MacBook Pro 11".

However, it is an undeniable reality that there are those who are just too lazy. They're not dimwits, no, not ever. I believe that it's laziness that's to be blamed 100% of the time when someone gets lost even with that oh so carefully written guide; too lazy to re-read, too lazy to delete a file that was specified to be deleted, too lazy to stay alert and watch out for that crucial moment in between the cold BIOS boot and the second Chameleon kicks in fully revved up, in order to get to that Chameleon boot menu. The list goes on and on and on. I know them well, because I'm the Queen of the Lazy bones.

So, inevitably there will always be a clamoring for automated .pkg's and for fear of EFI boot method coming back to haunt us all (I personally still boot EFI btw although I don't think you should, unless you want to provide tech support for your own self), there's gotta be another way to install to root...

And here comes Kappy to save the day. Apparently my brain cells are no match for the challenge of scripting - alright, I concede; I've been actually too lazy recently to really figure things out. Good thing Kappy is the exact opposite; both in terms of motivation and brain cell quality. :D

This is what I'll be testing out over the week. If this works out then this is a very wonderful news indeed.

And in light of this post's title, I was wondering how I should manage my blogs. I'm clearly excited to get my own domain and I do have a clear visual of how the content of savingforamac.com should be distinct from what's available here. But then my original plan was to restrict mymacbookmini.blogspot.com to official news on releases of HP Mini 311 Darwin Project and delegate everything else on to savingforamac.com. That said, this blog would contain only How-To guides and notifications - pretty much like your generic news edition - and so the writings will be devoid of my personal musings and opinions.

I've pondered about moving completely over to savingforamac.com and keeping this mymacbookmini.blogspot.com "open" as an archive/reference only. But then I didn't want savingforamac.com be flooded with tech support questions on HP Mini 311 Darwin Project because it's got less to do with that; it's gonna be my tech journal of sorts - using a hackintosh while waiting till I save enough to get a real MacBook, and my iPod touch (I'm psyched to finally get to hold it this December when my other aunt comes home for a vacay). In short savingforamac.com is my gadget lifestyle diary and mymacbookmini.blogspot.com  is sort of the "official" blog for HP Mini 311 Darwin Project.

Does that even make any sense at all?

Root Installation via Lizard

As promised, here is a guide on how to install the bootloader (Chameleon) and the needed files (Extra folder) to make your main volume installation capable of booting on its own.You've heard this before, you say. Isn't this what those HPM31DP release HFx .pkg installers do?

Well, yes but this one's different in that it installs to root that is  - "/" - instead of the hidden EFI partition. Plus this one's more of DIY. But it's very very simple and you'll be up and running in no time. Also, it is this method that the creator of those beloved little "Retail Packs" (MowgliBook) uses on his own setup. The Retail Packs are in fact tested by him and if we use the same method as the one used in testing, then perhaps we can lessen the issues encountered or simplify troubleshooting at the least by having a uniform install method.

What You Need:
1. Latest Retail Pack - MowgliBook's mediafire folder for HP Mini 311
2. Lizard application - original website source is http://www.darwinx86.net/applications/utilitaires-osx86/176-lizard-application-pour-chameleon
3. Kext Utility - created by cVad

Assuming that you have already installed Mac OS Snow Leopard;
What To Do:
1. Unzip the Retail Pack and copy the entire folder named "Extra" to your main volume. You can simply do a drag and drop.

2. Launch Lizard app by double clicking on it. In the tab called "Install and Update", in the "Select Device", choose your main installation volume by clicking it once to highlight it. Then click in "Select Chameleon (bin) folder", click on the "Select folder" button.

3. A dialogue sheet will roll out where you can navigate to point to the correct folder. Choose Mini 311 Retail Pack 1.0 > Bootloader. Click on "Open"

IMPORTANT! It is crucial that you do NOT go deeper within the Bootloader folder

4. You'll know you did the right thing when you have checks and green radio buttons in a new section under "Bootloader files". Click on "Install Chameleon" button.

5. Follow the on screen prompts, clicking on "Install" and then "OK" to finish installing the bootloader.

6. Now to install system kexts; open Mini 311 Retail Pack 1.0 > kexts folder. Open a new Finder window (Command + Shift + G) to /System/Library/Extensions/. Drag and drop VodooHDA.kext and FakeSMC.kext to /Ssystem/Library/Extensions.

7. Launch Kext Utility to fix the permissions and rebuild the caches. The app will first ask for your password and once you've typed it in and pressed OK, it will automatically carry out the tasks.

EDIT: You can also just drag and drop the two kexts to the Kext Utility icon - if you have it sitting on your Dock.

8. Now for the preference panes (.prefPanes) files that are needed. Mini 311 Retail Pack 1.0 > PrefPane:

For VoodooHDA.prefPane, just click on the file twice to install. If it asks you an option, choose "Install for this current user only"

For Trackpad.prefPane, things are a bit more complicated. So here's a separate, more detailed set of instructions:

• Go to /Users/(your user)/Library/Caches and delete the following 2 files: com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache and com.apple.preferencepanes.cache
• Now back in Mini 311 Retail Pack 1.0 > PrefPane; copy Trackpad.prefPane to /System/Library/PreferencePanes. Replace the existing Trackpad.prefPane

9. Restart your computer. During the first restart, I suggest using -v -f just to be sure that everything gets loaded nice and smooth.

Actually, if you really want to be sure, why not run Disk Permissions after step 9. :D

Voilà, you're done. Enjoy!

Note: With this setup, you can delete stuff in EFI partition already (if you originally began with HP311DP using that boot method). Also notice that when you check your root directory, you'll see that the boot file now resides there together with  the Extra folder and the usual Mac OS X system files :D

Moving Forward

apple.com

Lately, with all those HF7 iterations that have been made available for your testing, Steve and I - nope, it's not the Steve Jobs but another Steve who's become a good cyber friend of mine these past few months - have been exploring the possibilities for the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project.

So, we've been dissecting package installers here and there, thinking of ways on how to deliver those Retail Pack versions ready for use by the masses. And after hours and hours of hitting that "Build and Install" option and even a number of wipe-out-reinstalls all in the name of testing, this is the main point we've agreed upon:

• The HP Mini 311 Darwin Project will no longer use EFI boot method as official/default configuration

Kernel Panics (Related to Sleep) on the New Fall 2010 MacBook Airs

Indeed for HP/Compaq Mini 311(c) owners who've hackintoshed their "little big netbooks" (little on CPU performance because of the Atom but big on the graphics with the NVidia Ion chip), it feels as if they've been using prototypes for the 11.6" MacBook Air all along.

Same 11.6" screen dimension.

Same 1366 x 768 pixel density.

Same WiFi 802.11n - ok, I did get a better mini PCI wireless card than the stock one of the Mini 311 :-p

Same Bluetooth 2.1+EDR - comes with the stock combo BT/WiFI card.

And when I say "same" I do not mean "exactly the same" hardware so before any rabid Apple apple fanboy or fangirl (I'm admittedly included in that demographic) flame me, I'm only saying the experience is similar with the word "same" and not that it's exactly it, 100% photocopy of the MacBook Air. Prototype hello??

And now looks like there's also one more thing and this one, I'd say could've been directly imbued from the HP Mini 311 hackintosh:

Update for iPhoto '11 (and Java too)

There have been reports that iPhoto '11 has gobbled up a number of users' photo collections around the world. And so Apple has released a new update to address that issue:

I personally don't care. I'm not affected by the bug with my almost non-existent "iPhoto collection" - I only use the app when I wanna upload images to my facebook account. These are images that I don't need to retain the original high-def versions of. I'm not a photographer.

Yep, it's because being me, I'd like to be always up to date :D

Download the latest iPhoto '11 9.0.1 Update from Apple's site. Or just run "Software Update".

And while you're at it, be sure to install Java for Mac OS X Update 3 too.

Some Things Don't Make Sense

I forgot to mention that, in fact, I did order a keyboard protector for my Mini MacBook Pro a few months back.

Actually I forgot about the whole thing until yesterday when my dad told me I owed him Php 40. It turned out that he received a parcel from the local post office some time during the week. I paused a bit to chew on that bit of info he had just thrown at me - not because I thought he was trying to pull off an extortion trick on me but because I simply was not expecting any delivery.

But there it was, that familiar little yellow, bubble-wrap padded envelope, sitting on our computer desk at home. It was a silicone skin for the Mini 311 keyboard!

Yeah, I remember ordering that stuff for only Php 145 - free delivery too. But I don't remember exactly what my motivations were to get one.

I'm not gonna lie and justify my purchase; I bought it because it was cheap. I remember paying Php 300 for a silicone keyboard protecter fro my EeePC 701 from a local seller I met at the forums. And perhaps I was suffering from an attack of OCD that time I was surfing ebay and I thought bring the "clinical clean" to my netbook grooming habits? Maybe.

But one thing's for sure - it's not exactly ergonomic to install a keyboard protector on the HP Mini 311. Or maybe it's just this specific cheapo keyboard protector - I thought I was getting one of those ultra thin stuff but the keyboard skin I received wasn't one. Right now, I'm typing this post with the skin on.

I did notice that dust would begin accumulating on the top side which although satisifies my OCD requirements - get that, Dust, you can't get in  between my keyboard keys!!! harharhar - they feel weird under my fingertips, dust bits, that is.

For the meantime, I'm keeping the skin on - I do drink a lot of coffee when I'm working, this skin might just ensure against probable (not just possible, I am clumsy as that) spills.

Wow, I think I'm liking the feel of typing on this thing! Setting aside all the typo errors I'm now more probe to making, I'm getting the hang of this mushy feel :D

This does not make any sense at all...

Do you use a keyboard protector / skin on your Mini 311?

Glad I Got a Wireless N Card After All

Before I got my Atheros 9280 card a.k.a Atheros AR5BHB92, I was struggling between it and a cheaper (then) b/g broadcom card. I thought it was just caprice - my constant appetite for everything top of the line - wireless N was fastest and so I just gotta have it even though I didn't have the equivalent wireless N router at home.

But I got it still and from the time I clicked on "check out" and fed my PayPal account to an ebay seller based in Hong Kong up until now, I thought I'd never have real use of that N part of the "b/g/n" indication on card's label.

I thought wrong. Because I thought coffeeshops here in the Philippines cannot afford a wireless N router.

I thought wrong. Of course they can afford that. It's me who can't. Harharhar.

And so that was why those MacBook Air 11" unboxing videos on youtube were loading so fast!

Oh and here's an interesting observation:

Before HF7/HF7c or AGPM (in layman's term "power management for that Ion chip under OS X"), once the Mini 311's fan kicks in - and it's bound to kick in because I'm practically burdening its Atom N280 chip (non-overclocked) to play me the part of a main computer - there's no stopping it but to shut the 311 down, let it cool down a bit before starting it again.

But a while ago, I was just streaming youtube vids (yep, MBA 11" unboxing vids) and the fan was whirring away like mad. It was normal occurrence for me - not that my netbook's going bonkers but we all know the fan is anything but discreet. And so I let it whir away as my eyes remained glued on that battery icon, gauging that battery life. And then I got bored of youtube and just closed the window. Poof went the video and so did the fan! No, not a "poof" as in something combusts ending with a poofing sound complete with smoke like when you eliminate an icon from your Dock.

No. What I meant was that the fan suddenly became quiet. It wasn't whirring like a paranoid. It hushed down.

Could it be that since the GPU, i.e. the Ion chip no longer was being stressed out with streaming that 720p vid and the system got wind of it and thus calmed down the fan?? Or is that just wishful thinking?

MacBook Air Spoof - Part 2

Here's the next part of that features page:

MacBook Air Spoof - Part 1

Or because I haven't got better things to do.

Disclaimer: I still adore the HP Mini 311 as a Mini MacBook Pro, just merely stating the facts :D No offense to the "Mini MacBook 311" fanboys and fangirls out there. This is meant just for us to have some fun.

*Sorry, my dear MSI Wind U100.

I'll try to spoof the rest of the MacBook Air features page :D

On HF7 and Trackpads. Again

It seems that I'm not the only one who's missing sidescrolling - and I mean the readily available variant - on the HP Mini 311. Although getting the Alps Glidepoint recognized as a real trackpad is still the ultimate goal for HPM311DP (HP Mini 311 Darwin Project), we are still at the crude stages - yes, the Alps Glidepoint is or can be seen as a trackpad under Snow Leopard but that's about it and in fact, as it turns out through the various feedbacks both at My MacBook Mini and InsanelyMac HPM311DP threads, this so-called progress turns out to be more of a step backward as of the moment.

That is, we'd have to resort to coerce people to acquire some strange haduken technique to just use sidescrolling on their machines. In the several weeks I've played with the "new" ApplePS2Trackpad + Trackpad.prefPane, I'd say it's not even real sidescrolling we're getting with this farflung method. It's just locking the cursor to the scrollbar and even if you choose any part of the vertical spread that makes up your Mini 311's trackpad surface to slide your finger up and down will do the trick. Once locked, that vertical strip is no longer relevant. Or better yet, since the advent of the "new" ApplePS2Trackpad + Trackpad.prefPane, it ceased to be relevant.

So I think you will agree that, for now and until a better solution is found, we'd be better off letting the Alps trackpad of the Mini 311 to continue with its identity crisis.

Here's an installer based off on Retail Pack 1.0, the HPM311DP's current stable release:

HF7c

• It reverts to the old Alps Glidepoint as PS2Mouse which enables sidescrolling - real sidescrolling.
• Same GPU Power Management capabilities - supposedly can help improve battery life.
• Temperature monitoring - new FakeSMC.kext now installed in /S/L/E
• Audio - update from VoodooHDA 2.6.2 to VoodooHDA 2.7.1
• Matching newly revamped DSDT
• HF7c is basically the previous released HF7 BUT this time, we revert to the old
  "Alps as PS2 Mouse" paradigm.

A note on how to install HF7c:

• Please go to : /Users/<your username>/Library/PreferencePanes/ to delete any existing VoodooHDA.prefPane BEFORE running the HF7c installer or you'd have audio issues upon reboot - It's a sloppy measure, but for the life of me, I did all the scripting haduken that I'm capable of and I still have this little bug. Please excuse me.
• I have 3 GB RAM and I have problems with HF7(c) so I use PC EFI 10.6. - Installer available here. PC EFI should be run AFTER running HF7c installer.

Your comments/feedbacks are much appreciated. I'm thinking of taking HF7c as the official HF7 release.

Also, MowgliBook has put up a new Beta Retail Pack 1.1a and if you want to try it, I've made an installer for you:

HF7b

• New Chameleon RC5 with modules. - Although this installer does not include the Chameleon.prefPane (look for it inside Retail Pack 1.1a) because this installer is for EFI boot method and thus the prefPane is irrelevant. The Cham prefPane can access settings only when the Extra folder is in the "/" root directory - remember that in EFI boot method, the Extra folder is in, well, the hidden EFI partition, where the prefPane designed as it is, cannot reach it.
• Same features as introduced in HF7 and HF7c - DSDT.aml is different though as I've observed.

Note on installation of HF7b:

• Please go to : /Users/<your username>/Library/PreferencePanes/ to delete any existing VoodooHDA.prefPane BEFORE running the HF7b installer or you won't get audio working.

Issues I noticed with Chameleon RC5/HF7b:

• Once I've put the 311 to sleep, wake it up again, and then restart it, the machine just won't properly execute restart - it hangs. I've 3 GB RAM though, so maybe that's where the problem is...

Sleep/resume works well with RC5/HF7b even on 3 GB RAM.

HF7 for the HP Mini 311

As I've discussed before, there've been some progress with the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project. Since my hellish week has long been over and hopefully it'll never come back to haunt me again - I should check CRS online for my MA classes final grades and the DALF results won't be here till January 2011. So I'm back to living in bliss (bliss of ignorance).

And because I've got time, I've created an installer for you guys to try out:

HPM311DP_HF7 (link fixed)

Features (based on Retail Pack 1.0 by MowgliBook)

• DSDT - closer to MacBookPro5,1; added GPU states (for graphics power management below)
• Trackpad - Alps trackpad is no longer seen as a PS2 mouse; Disadvantage: side-scrolling is no longer readily available - see "poor man's sidescroll" in a previous post for a workaround to sidescroll.
• Audio - VoodooHDA 2.7.1
• SMC - new FakeSMC.kext with temperature monitoring feature.
• Graphics power management - LegacyAGPM kext included
• Other cosmetic changes

If you have 3GB RAM and are experiencing sleep issues (i.e. blank screen on wake) AFTER installing HF7, please run this PC EFI 10.6 installer:

PC EFI 10.6

So far, it's been stable on my HP Mini 311. It's up for you to try this beta release.

uTorrent says 90.1% for iLife '11.

Object Of My Affection: 11" MacBook Air

If anyone would look at my netbook history (or maybe just gadget history in general) to deduce from thence the kind of partner in life I'd make I'd probably be pronounced terrible; an adulteress of a wife even. Somehow, with the exception perhaps of the MSI Wind, no netbook has lasted me more than a year. Not that I adore the MSI Wind, but it's no longer the mobile computer that I take with my person wherever I go - you all know it's long been made to renounce its true nature as a netbook to assume nettop-hood.

Though the people in the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project team are as incredibly brilliant as they come, a netbook can only be hacked so much and yet it never is and never will be quite same as the real thing. In my opinion, no other 11" netbook has reached the heights that the HP/Compaq Mini 311 has in terms of OSx86 hackability (if ever such a word existed) but a lot still remains wanting.

Or more accurately, I am still wanting.

Lion King

It's Wednesday here in the beautiful archipelago of the Philippines - and in case you're wondering, no, I didn't get hired into the Department of Tourism, nah-uh, nope. Because, and this is entirely irrelevant to this blog, I'd rather not be an employee of the government of the Philippines and be underpaid and consequently risk being gulped up by the corrupt system that's always been there since before I was born.

At any rate, my being here in East Asia or Southeast Asia to be exact is relevant; for as it is, I wake up earlier than Steve Jobs and so my waiting agony for Wednesday to come and for Stevie J. to deliver his keynote is prolonged.

It's good that after a long, long, long time spent making love with everything iOS - iPad, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th gen - it's gonna be "Back To The Mac" at last!

from cultofmac.com

And is that Simba, the Lion King, I see peeking out inconspicuously from behind that swiveling Apple logo?

Needless to say, I'm excited for this Apple event. Although I'm still in the denial stage - I can't seem to enunciate "Mac OS Ten Lion" just yet, hard as I try to use self-inflicted coercion.

Oh man! Ceiling Cat was really good...it sounds friendlier and really feels like home - or even your bedroom (we used to have cats at home and they somehow found a way to hang out in that space between my bedroom's plywood ceiling and our roof.)

Just kidding! :)

Lynx could've sounded better though...

And of course the one thing that we all are wondering about: Will the king of the jungle make friends with our Mini 311's?

Rainbow After the Rain

Last week was just so busy: I took my DALF C1 and C2 exams last Thursday and Friday respectively. And yesterday, I had to print our class project for my MA class (Français 240 - Traduction des oeuvres littéraires) which was actually due last Friday, same day as my DALF C2 exam, but since we couldn't find last week a decent printing service that could churn out our Journal Littéraire into something remotely resembling a real newspaper, the printing could happen only yesterday. And in case you're wondering - the translation is from French to Filipino (or Tagalog which is my native tongue) of Guillaume Apollinaire's Bestiaire or Cortège d'Orphée.

I sure did miss the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project Team but although I was practically tormented while going through the Compréhension écrite et orale + Production écrite et orale of the DALF exams (I was nervous and my heart palpitating inside my ribcage the director at Alliance Française Manille, a French, took pity and even told me, with sincerity felt through his expression and timber of his voice, before starting the exam: "bon courage" to which I replied "Merci, monsieur; j'en ai tellement besoin), I'd say the time away from the hackintosh world was worth it. Come Friday night, I was greeted with a delightful surprise.

Yes, new progress!

Well, we all know that the 311's battery life just sucks, to say the least, under OS X. And now we know why - Ion is always running at full throttle thereby causing precious battery juice to evaporate without much legitimate warrant. However, that's just one reason projected which appears valid and there are possibly a ton more out there that we haven't discovered yet.

Enter: Legacy AGPM

Retail Pack 1.0d is no longer available for download. I'll have to defer the how-to after getting further updates from the great guys aboard the HPM311DP ship or until I can get to my own copy of 1.0d which is in my HP Mini 311 which is at home where I cannot reach it.

For the meantime, I encourage you check out the latest from the project thread at InsanelyMac.

DALF C1 & C2

LeMaurien19 va se présenter aux examens DALF le 14 et 15 octobre. Elle est en train de se préparer et est actuellement incapable de se consacrer aux activités d'hackintosh (tant pis - pour elle)

La production orale l'effraye surtout.

Il faut qu'elle trouve quelqu'un qui peut causer volontiers avec elle. Au secours!

Progress

I'm so happy to announce that the HP Mini 311's ALPS GlidePoint trackpad has finally come out of its disillusion; it no longer thinks itself a PS2 mouse but a truet trackpad.

Meklort's ApplePS2Trackpad.kext along with the correct Trackpad.prefPane did the job.
*The link to the ApplePS2Trackpad.kext contains another Trackpad.prefPane, but don't use that prefPane, use instead the one linked at correct Trackpad.prefPane.

Update to the new ApplePS2Trackpad and Trackpad.prefPane:
1. Use Alter EFI 1.4 > Edit Extra to mount the EFI partition
2. Paste ApplePS2Trackpad.kext in /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions.
3. Launch Mkext Tool. Highlight all kexts in /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions and drag them to the Mkext Tool Pack window.
4. Point Mkext Tool to create the mkext in /Volumes/EFI/Extra. Click on Create button. Replace the old mkext and then exit Mkext Tool.
5. Go back to Alter EFI 1.4 and click on Finish to unmount EFI.
6. Go to /Users/<your username>/Library/Caches and delete the ff. files:

• com.apple.preferencepanes.cache
• com.apple.preferencepanes.searchindexcache

7. Copy the new Trackpad.prefPane to /System/Library/PreferencePanes. Authenticate to replace the existing prefPane.
8. Restart the machine.

*If you prefer to use a "super mkext" then:
1. Use Alter EFI 1.4 > Edit Kexts
2. Paste ApplePS2Trackpad into /Volumes/EFI/Extra/Extensions
3. Back to Alter EFI 1.4, click on "Rebuild Mkext" button and wait for the mkext to be rebuilt. Rebuilding the mkext like this will take quite a long time
4. Click on "Finish" to unmount EFI.
5. Proceed with installing the new Trackpad.prefPane (step 6 - 8 above).

No more über sensitive trackpad to drive you nuts when typing texts.

However, despite this, the ALPS GlidePoint is far from being perfect; in fact, you'll find that sidescrolling is disabled BUT there's a workaround. A fellow forumer calls it the "poor man's sidescrolling", so in effect, there's still sidescrolling - it just has to be consciously enabled each and everytime you wish to use it.

How To Enable "Poor Man's Sidescrolling"
1. After restarting the Mini 311, go to System Preferences > Trackpad.
2. Enable Dragging > Drag and lock

How To Use Poor Man's Sidescrolling:
1. Point the cursor first to a scrollbar in the GUI (Finder window, Safari window, etc.)
2. Making sure that the cursor rests on the scrollbar, tap twice on the vertical strip marked on the trackpad. This will activate the strip.
3. Slide your finger up and down the marked vertical strip.

You'll see that sidescrolling is working.

*Sometimes tapping twice on the vertical strip takes some getting used to. Use the "Double Click" settings to control how fast you need the do two taps one after the other to produce a double click/tap.

Convoluted, all this you may say? Yes. But the main point here, at least for me, is that the trackpad is less freakishly sensitive to the point that it hampers productivity with jumping cursors while typing texts for example.

My Mini MacBook at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

from ageage.multiply.com

I'm supposed to test the previous VoodooHDA 2.6 on Yahoo Messenger's voice conversation and see if the internal mic would work. I'm supposed to test it with my cousin but she apparently does not have the time to indulge my geeky caprice. And so I'm left with very little to do as I sat and sipped my iced café latte.

I have my Coffee Bean Swirl card and one of its perks, aside from amassing points each and every time I got my fix of caffeine at this particular café to get the discounts and freebies offered, is WiFi. Starbucks in the Philippines does not offer free as in speech and beer WiFi connection, I'm sad to report. And so I'm connected now. What to do with the decent WiFi bandwidth?

Hmm. I sip from my coffee (plastic) cup. Inspiration is fast turning into insipidity.

Then, perhaps through habit or muscle memory (yep, pointing the cursor using that nasty Alps trackpad to reach that smiling Mac Finder icon on the Dock can be likened to positioning my hands the violin's fret to produce D#), some diversion at long last!

my fellow Coffee Bean café-mates

And so it is true: the most pernicious that ever happened to computers are not viruses (virii? oh blame my college Latin and Italian in college for this) nor malware - it's the user.

Look at this dear little "baghag" who's been exposing himself/herself (I've a hunch it's a her because of the "bag"?) unknowingly, I bet. And she's on a PC too.

I tried getting into Eric's MacBook but no such luck; I couldn't connect.

My point here is neither the superiority of the Mac nor the utter scum-hood of PC's but the difference in the implementation of security control.

But thanks to it, I got a couple of Grey's Anatomy episodes to watch tonight when I get home:

Tsk tsk tsk. Great pics though.

I've just updated to VoodooHDA 2.7 courtesy of aikidoka25 and so far it's good - volume's decent. I'll update once I find a free wall socket, my Mini MacBook Pro is running out of juice.

Updates on the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project

And the big guys are back!
MowgliBook:

Hi everybody,

I've been extremely busy lately, but still I come with some good news... (not too good though)

The new FakeSMC with plugin support (on projectOSX) is getting really good, I'll edit the DSDT when I have time so that it'll report the TZ0 (Thermal Zone) and the Fan if I can.

For now we have the GPU, which is a good start.

There is a new VoodooHDA, nothing tremendous, still no HDMI (because of this bloody IDT codec) but it keeps the settings of the volume when you reboot etc. Mute button doesn't work but I guess it could be fixed quite quickly.

Maybe a more stable ApplePS2 set from prasys still some random KP though.

I'll come to this later, if I manage to get in touch with him, when I have my internet connection back at home.

aikidoka25:

welcome back mowgli, 

sometime ago i tried the fakeSMC plugin only got GPU temp, apparently the chipset was not supported.

as for the DSDT, is it possible for you to document the changes (something like d00d's X58 guide, i saw you were active there too)

today, i compiled the new VoodooHDA but it doesn't work, according to Slice most probably the code in svn is not up to date.

i am still thinking VoodooHDA coudl work with HDMI in our unit, but need to play with the pin config. However I must admit this is beyond my current knowledge.

I tried to read the guide but still don't understand how those config are created.

cheers

Office:Mac 2011

Fresh from uTorrent, I immediately transferred the .dmg file from our family MacBook6,1 (MSI Wind U100) to my MacBookPro5,1 (HP Mini 311-1001TU and installed Microsoft's latest release of its ubiquitous productivity suite which has been the standard for as long as I was old enough to be aware and care for technology:

Microsoft Office:Mac 2011

Go ask Captain Jack Sparrow out yonder the famous bay of pirates for a copy of this installer.

Doing what I do for a living, the very first app I checked was Word.

All I'll say is that 2011 starts faster than 2008. As for the rest - interface and new functionalities, I'll leave the following screencaps to speak for themselves.

iWork Pages '09 screenies are also available for your perusal. Let your inner Apple fanboy/girl loose and give the verdict this time.

AppleJack

Of course we love everything that is Apple! Drumroll for AppleJack, please. :D

Download AppleJack

What is AppleJack? 
According to its Source Forge page, it is "a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use."


Now let's draw from that the most attractive parts for us OSx86 users:

1. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI
2. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

The 1st situation is what we all run into occasionally. Err, "But I can't even boot my HP Mini 311 up because it Kernel Panics!" you say. Remember the Golden Rule in troubleshooting? Ok, maybe I'm at fault for not stating that Golden Rule, but when you can't boot up your OSx86 machine, the first thing you do is:

• Boot in Single User mode

Yep, that's right. Moving on...

The logic behind booting in Single User mode is to access CLI (Command Line Interface) at least and from there, you can manually launch commands to hopefully sort out the issue. Most of the time, the root cause for Kernel Panics (at least for a stable hackintosh like the HP Mini 311) is permissions error. Try powering off your machine abruptly a few times in a row, sabotaging its natural shutdown mechanics and you're most likely to get a KP soon after.

But how does one launch Permissions Repair from CLI? Sure you can memorize or keep an index card with the command but why bother when there's a better way? 

That's exactly what AppleJack is all about. I don't think any "fsck blah blah blah" could ever beat simply typing "applejack" and then press Enter key.

Actually it does more than permissions repair.

Here's the menu you see when you launch:

And a better screenshot courtesy of AppleJack's page:

You can:

1. Repair disks
2. Repair permissions
3. cleanup cache files (clears system caches)
4. validate preference files (for errant applications)
5. remove swap files (which is now "cleanup virtual memory")

En somme, AppleJack is a utility that no Mini MacBooker should be without. :D

P.S. This isn't a paid advert. By now I assume you're used to reading non paid ad-like stuff on My MacBook Mini cause I just seem to love writing them! ;-)