Ms. International

Nope, not joining and the nerve of me to think myself qualified. I'd long accepted the fact that I'm better off being a geek. Why then the title to this new post?

Je suis francophone; French is the language with which I earn my daily bread. Once upon a time, I also spoke Italian with my batchmates in college to gossip about those Filipina version of the "Plastics" in Lindsay Lohan's Mean Girls. And before you click on that red orb (if you're on a Mac or hackintosh) or red x (if you're on, may the forces of mother nature forbid, Windoze), I'm now reluctantly learning Mandarin. Reluctant because I'd never intended to learn that language because of the complexity of Chinese characters and the tone system they use - I'm tone deaf so good luck to me. But because of a certain Taiwanovela, I got the fever and now I'm officially crazed addicted to everything Taiwanese so watching fresh video uploads on youtube.com which are neither subbed nor dubbed in the lingua franca, I'm forced to learn some Chinese and as good fortune could have it (oh my, is that feng shui/Chinese idiom related there?), my brain has actually absorbed the language.

I now recognize a number of Chinese characters and I need a tool to be able to write in Chinese in forums. At work, where we're all on black IBM boxes, I use NJStar text editor which is a pretty neat app in that it functions as a dictionary as well. At home, I'm a Mac girl - make that a Hackintosh girl - and as literate as I might seem on Mac OS X with all my blabbing about kexts and kernels and bootloaders and HFS Journaled Extended partition what-not, I'm still in awe at the discovery that Mac OS X actually supports Chinese input natively! No need to hunt down a Mac version of that NJStar text editor cause TextEdit does it brilliantly!

All I need to do is go to System Preferences > International > Input Method tab, and select Traditional Chinese (cause it's what they use in Taiwan instead of Mainland's simplified), Pinyin.

Then in the Menulet that will appear, after I'd opened up TextEdit, I just select Chinese from the dropdown menu. . .

And voilà!

A toast with my mugfull of Apple fangirl Kool-Aid: Isn't Mac OS X just totally awesome? :D

And the Never Ending Saga Continues. . .

Edit: Sleep/Resume has been resolved. Read it here.

First off, you can call me Hermione Granger-ish all you want, before taking the 10.5.8 plunge, I did some research, or to be more honest, some googling around ;) and found this interesting website.

NOTE: This is assuming you've already a working iDeneb install updated upto 10.5.7 - dsdt patched, OSx86_Essentials kexts applied, and Chameleon RC02. (I haven't checked how things would go on PCI_EFI Chameleon 1.0.12).

And like any bookworm out there who easily believes what she reads, (1) I obediently backed up my Extensions via Terminal:

$ sudo -rf /System/Library/Extensions /System/Library/Extensions_1057

Afterward, (2) I installed Disabler and dsmos kexts referenced by the aforementioned website via good ol' Kext Helper b7 but color-coded them first cause I was too lazy to check whether I had these kexts already or not in my current setup, there's no way I'd miss those red kexts now if ever I'd need to check later :D

(3) That done, I didn't reboot yet but ran the Mac OS X Delta 10.5.8 Updater (Delta because I was running 10.5.7 already, 10.5.6 and lower should get the Combo Updater) I'd downloaded just minutes before from the Apple website which, quite surprisingly, took fairly little time to install at around just 5 minutes or less.

I originally intended to reinstall VoodooPS2Controller just in case but decided at the last minute not to and (4) just hit Restart as Installer completed the update. As expected the first reboot didn't complete and the Mini restarted and once again I was face to face with Chameleon RC02 (I've updated my bootloader to the latest Chameleon, by the way, and am enjoying my OS X Boot Theme which I got from here). Then Darwin said "hi" again. The screen flickered, giving me goosebumps as I thought I'd never get into my beloved Leopard desktop. And the spinning wheel finally sprung into action and after what seemed to be a substantially longer boot time than usual, I first saw nothing but a blue screen. . .and my cursor - whew! Another 5 seconds or so, I was back into my desktop!



But everything was humongous; resolution got bricked as expected.
Perhaps this screenshot could better illustrate what happened after the update:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="461" caption="No Bluetooth, WiFi, Resolution 640x480, Color not 32-bit | Has audio, default battery monitor working (right click and open in new tab/window for screenshot's actual size)"][/caption]

It was a comfort to know that screen brightness controls weren't bricked. As it was nearing midnight already I dimmed the screen to the lowest possible before (5.1) I trudged on, reinstalling my usual kexts via OSx86 Tools and not Kext Helper since unlike the latter (Kext Helper b7 it turns out, also backs up your kexts), OSx86 Tools would create a backup folder of the 10.5.8 kexts it replaced which I wanted to look at after. I started with the system kexts which seems to have restored WiFi and Bluetooth. I had no problems with sound as VoodooHDA still worked after the update.

(5.2) Now for the video kexts. You can opt to reinstall all of the kexts in one go; I just decided to separately install them because (a) they're already sorted into two different folders in my drive and OSx86 only allows installing 1 folder of kexts at a time and (b) I'm just weird that way. Restarted and bingo!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Bluetooth, WiFi (Airport), Audio, Battery, 1024 x 600 32-bit (right click and open in new tab/window screenshot in actual size)"][/caption]

There was that nasty "You are running on reserve power" battery warning again and in wanting to screenshot it, I tried to make it pop again by putting MacBook Mini to sleep so I closed the lid and it was late when it dawned upon me that the usual flickering of the white power led and switching off of the fan didn't happen. I reopened the lid and there were the tell-tale signs of a broken Sleep/Resume that were all too familiar to me by then. I knew I had no choice but to force shutdown the Mini and turn it back on so I plugged in my broadband cable to check if ethernet worked. It did. It does.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="482" caption="No need for Yukon2.kext, just be sure to plug in cable before booting up"][/caption]

Now for a summary. At first I thought I was gonna end up listing down the few stuff that still worked but, as it turned out, I'm now writing what doesn't work which means the general outcome of this experiment isn't so bad after all:

1) Sleep/Resume - once you put the Mini to sleep either by closing the lid or pressing fn+f1 combo keys, the screen does switch off but so do the trackpad and, I assume, the keyboard as well, never to be woken up again but by forcing the machine to shutdown and just turn it back on again.

2) Fan - it's gotten hyperactive I guess as it now whirls away with fervent gusto at maximum right from the start and it's noisy.

I would've also listed the battery warning nuissance pop-up alert but that's easily ignored or resolved by turning off battery warning in System Preferences, taking out the default OS X battery meter from the Menubar (enjoy seeing it vanish in a poof of smoke) and using Slim Battery Monitor instead.

What happened to my 10.5.7's Extension folder's back up now? I'm keeping it safe for the meantime as I try to figure out how to resolve the issues mentioned above; the kexts can come quite handy, who knows.

For issue # 1, I'll have to try the old SleepEnabler kext and/or review VoodooUSBEHCI again for some hints. For issue #2, I'm gonna see how posta74's fan solution works out on this one.

All of this is actually reminiscent of struggles with previous updates 10.5.6 and 10.5.7, still fresh in my mind - 10.5.8 is déjà vu. Creepy, I know.

And now I've turned another fork in the road - Harry Potter's lightning scar no longer burns; the King has returned to rule the whole of Middle Earth and even Gollum has found his peace and so has Frodo (though I still doubt he's come out of the closet yet ;) ) and Luke Skywalker has swung his last light saber - sagas have come to their own grand close yet this hackintoshing journey of mine seems to never end. T_T

August 5, 2009

While the whole Philippine nation will remember yesterday as one of the most touching events in their history (me included in the "their" there) as they bade farewell to a great woman whose unfailing faith in freedom had fueled minds, fed souls of today who are now enjoying the democracy she helped bring forth, the rest of Apple-dom and Apple fanboys and girls alike will perhaps remember August 5, 2009 as the day that 10.5.8, what may be the last OS X Leopard update before Snow Leopard will be official, was released.

Delta Updater | Combo Updater

While I and my family remained glued to the TV set in the living to pay our respect to this great leader in the only way we could then, my fellow hackintoshers had already downloaded 10.5.8 from Apple's website and were trying it on their own iterations of MacBook Mini's each. Thus, when I visited myhpmini.com this morning fresh from grieving my country's loss of its valuable pillar of society, this was the conversation thread that welcomed me:

> Intel9295
Now, to any HP mini Hackintosh users: DO NOT UPGRADE! This update could break your install. Wait until someone more qualified does it (LeMaurien, we are looking at you) and see's what it does. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Don't be stupid.

> MrFairladyz » Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:40 pm
My wifi wasnt working so i just updated to see what changes. So far, the display resolution issue is back (it only shows 640x480 instead of 1024x576... i think this is only a problem on the 110's, though.)

I'm re-installing all the kexts now.

edit: okay, i've re-installed the kexts. wifi is still not working (i don't know if it will mess up your wifi, but mine wasn't working to begin with.) Display and everything else is back to normal. No noticable changes, what was this update for?

> ravic » Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:56 am
I was having lot of trouble with Bluetooth PAN, I wonder if this would fix it?
I will wait for some time before attempting to upgrade.

> ConfuzedOne » Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:29 am

Don't be a chicken.. upgrade you fools! :P what's the worse thing that can happen? :P

> lukehale » Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:32 am

Only post-upgrade issue I have is my sleep fails to function, and I have to restart if I shut the lid :(. That also means bluetooth doesn't work because to get it working you have to close and reopen the lid. . . which causes it to sleep. . . which fails. Other than that it is working wonderfully. I will get back to you all if I find a solution to the sleep issue :)

Based from these results, it's basically the same conundrum of issues with hardware rendered non-functional by the update; not unlike what's happened with the other previous updates, 10.5.6 and 10.5.7. Among the issues, it's Sleep/Resume that's bothering me the most but I'm not losing hope - if people found solutions for this and a lot more others in 10.5.6 and 10.5.7, why not in 10.5.8? I haven't tried for myself the update yet so I find no reason to just dismiss this hurdle as unsurvivable ;)

I can't wait to get acquainted with 10.5.8. Now if only I hadn't a regular day job. . .

LABAN!

DVDPlayer

So I've already posted this over at the other blog, macbookwind, but I thought I'd put it as well here.

For those uncomfortable with editing the DVDPlayback file with a hex editor, just download this file , unzip it and then navigate to

/System/Library/Frameworks/DVDPlayback.framework/Versions/A

to copy paste the file in that folder. Authenticate as you are prompted.

Note: as always, as safety precaution, you may want to first make a back up copy of your original DVDPlayback file before doing this. Also, DVDPlayer won't work when an external DVD drive is not plugged in via USB.

SMBIOS Dilemma

I guess I'm OC; that's just the way I am. That's why I tend to nitpick through every single detail with MacBook Mini. As I'd just finished with dabbling with Snow Leopard - for which experiment MacBook Mini has fallen docilely as prey - I said I'd restart anew. Yep, new install. That's what people with absolutely no life do.

As you see, I've always been wondering why MacBook Wind happily assumes MacBook Air's identity, embracing it as its own while MacBook Mini is a bit confused - ok, make that totally confused. In the past, whenever I checked Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info . . . and System Profiler launches, it gave me a nonchalant "There was an error while gathering this information" as it highlighted by default the Contents > Hardware main header.

So when I reinstalled iDeneb 1.3 (10.5.5), I made sure I checked the SMBIOS option for a MacBook and true enough, when I checked just before updating to 10.5.7 as per my usual routine, here's what I discovered:

10.5.5 as it is, delivered by iDeneb v1.3 actually can recognize MacBook Mini for what it really is. Even details pertaining to the Processer and Memory are correct. Although when I checked just the "About This Mac", I still got this:

Upon further investigation; I found other tiny details that attest to my MacBook Mini being recognized as a MacBook by OS X:

That's clearly a lappie depicted by the icon there. Now compare it to this (udpated to 10.5.7):

A Mac Pro, so it seems.

Actually, this shouldn't be a problem. But for OC'ness sake, if ever such a word was, I find myself irritated with this. I tried extracting the MacBook SMBIOS from the iDeneb installer and apply it to MacBook Mini again but nothing happens.

I don't know until when I can endure this and continue to just ignore stuff. Honestly, I'm reconsidering editing the DMI/BIOS again; I just have to figure out how to make the Mini be a MacBook without borking out the original HP logo in the boot splash nor getting a painfully slow boot up time.

Decisions, decisions...

Welcome!

I guess the Obsessive Compulsive in me still hasn't been eradicated - not entirely...yet. So I reset my MacBook Mini via OSx86 Tools

And I finally got a glimpse of the OS X Welcome vid!


I didn't expect to see any effects of this performance-wise on my MacBook Mini but I was well surprised that my previous not so bad anymore 44 second boot time was even reduced to 35.

But I think that'll eventually change as I continually use MacBook Mini on a daily basis, accumulating gunk as I go. However, I really like the feeling of this new start - it's like I've a brand new MacBook Mini! :D

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:

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:

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:

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)

Compromises and Making Time

Although this could have been easily made part of my 10.5.6 update post, I feel the need to dedicate one post entirely devoted to this matter.

My MacBook Mini lost the ability to sleep, or rather, its ability to wake up from sleep after I updated to 10.5.6.

Initially, on 10.5.5, the HP Mini would obediently sleep and be summoned from sleep but I couldn't adjust the brightness of the screen - it was perpetually set to max, thus causing my batt to drain quicker than I would've wanted it to. The "Fn" combo keys would work only for volume but not for screen brightness. Weird.

My original motive for updating was to finally be able to adjust brightness to save battery life. But now that my machine interprets sleeping as going comatose - it won't wake up and would require me to force power it off - I've been having doubts on whether doing the update and going through all those trouble only defeated my main purpose or were they worth it?

Remote Control For the Hackintosher

Who said only Macheads - I meant "real" Macheads have all the cool stuff? MacBooks, "real" MacBooks come with an Apple remote control which lets the user control his/her Mac instead of using the keyboard and mouse. Being a mere hackintosher (who doesn't have enough moolah to buy herself a nice genuine MacBook), I neither dreamed of getting the same feature on my MacBook Wind (MSI Wind notebook/netbook with OS X Leopard installed) and now, on my MacBook Mini (HP Mini 100TU with OS X Leopard as well) - nor even dared to dream.

Last year, I replaced my Moto Ming (Motorola A1200) with the Sony Ericsson w890i because I finally realized, or admitted to myself rather, that it wasn't easy texting with the touchscreen Ming - puny little itsy bitsy letter squares that make up an equally puny virtual keyboard is not exactly what I'd call convenient. I'm happy with the SE w890i and its loads of features; specifically the "Remote Control" feature wich has always intrigued me right from day 1.

Ungrateful Hackintosher

I want to replace the logo and text that show up whenever I click on "About this Mac" on my MacBook Mini; it's currently displaying a blue apple with "iDeneb" stuck underneath the logo.

After installing iDeneb OS X on the Mini 1000, instead of the starry outer space glow of Aurora, Leopard's default wallpaper, I was greeted with a blue screen with iDeneb on it. I know I should be grateful to the people who made iDeneb since if not for them, my MacBook Mini would still remain vaporware as it was some months ago. But I just can't stand the over all feel of the dark blue with some glowy effect I rather find spooky - just as if I were watching an episode of X Files and Scully's all too perfectly sculpted facial features would pop out behind that dark-almost-black-bitten-apple along with a bunch of loony big-eyed alien heads.

I simply prefer the no nonsense original Apple look like what I'd usually get from a fresh install using msiwindosx86 on my MacBook Wind; it was cleaner and more polished and chic looking all in all.

I just gotta find a way to revert things back the old Apple way and this is what I found:

Look Ma, It's A Mac Pro!

For some definitely weird reason, MacTracker thinks the HP Mini 1000 is a 2008 Mac Pro

It Started With A Huge Download and Patience

Given the netbook addict that I've become, it's no surprise that connecting my MSI Wind (currently running OS X Leopard) to an LCD monitor has become a pretext to justify purchasing the HP Mini 1000.

And given the really sexy and so scrumptuous looks of the Mini 1000, I knew I was gonna try OSX-ify it -- the little machine just oozed with chicness and class that my inner nerd-slash-geek was all aglee. There was no way I was gonna let it be defiled (continuously) by Win XP Home that it came with pre-installed; beautiful should mate only with equally beautiful. Simple as that.

But actually bagging the guy didn't seem as easy as eyeing it as a prospect, (read my futile attempts at my previous site).

In the end, like any solid relationship, one's gotta go under a bit of hardship to lay the foundation;

MacBook Mini

You may have already heard of my other blog, MacBook Wind, which chronicles my first attempt at hackintoshing - a quite successful hackintoshing experience at that. 

Now I'm starting a new one in line with that same "story and journey" stuff but not so much as a newbie as before.

Welcome to my new blog (I'm leaving WordPress alone for now - putting google ads requires paid subscription - oh well) where I'll be recording how I put OS X Leopard on my new netbook:

HP Mini 1000

Let the hackintoshing begin!