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! ;-)

Not So Random Kernel Panics On Snow Leopard

The kernel panics are not random - cause they happen for a reason and a very disturbing reason at that: memory leaks in the kernel.

I found this issue discussed at a thread in InsanelyWind. Though you may not own an MSI Wind and thus, assume, that this is something entirely unrelated to you and your MacBook Mini, you may well be dead wrong.

Being the noob that I was and continue to be, I've consigned kernel panics I'd experience before on my HP Mini 1001TU running Snow Leopard as "random" and "expected" given the hacked nature of the entire setup.

*the screencap isn't Snow Leopard (Leopard 10.5.7 actually) - but I've experienced the same on Snow Leo on my Mini 1001TU when it was still alive and well. Screencap is Snow Leopard (kernel version 10.0.0)

Though the last part of the above statement - it being hacked and all - is validly true, the "random" part isn't. It's no random phenomenon that the kernel would panic. It's an event that's bound to happen because of at least one thing we're certain about: an ever growing "kernel task" figure.

According to the InsanelyWind thread, if you let your hackintosh running on Snow Leopard 10.6.2 even on idle for let's say 8 - 12 hours, you'd observe that the kernel_task figure blows up alarmingly fast. And then when it reaches beyond what your physical memory can contain - BOOM! Kernel Panic!

I haven't been checking my "kernel task" so I'll start and see if I'm affected on my Mini 311 as well (which I think is probably the case).
Via Activity Monitor > kernel_task, I see that my Mini 311 starts with around 74 MB and then steadily raises to upto about 135 MB but after a while, goes back down to 80 - 90 MB.

What To Do When You Got Kernel Panics

Chances are you've seen this a lot of times in your hackintoshing journey:

Chances are, you've raked the hair on your head a dozen or more painful times in frustration and with the key to the enigma remainin unbeknownst to you; you resort to wiping out your hard drive and reinstall OSx86 - you start from scratch; back to square one.
No, this post does not promise to put an end to all your hackintoshing woes caused by kernel panics but suggests what can constitute a logical way to start troubleshooting your OSx86 system gone berserk.

1) Boot in verbose mode - as if this bit hasn't been the subject of many a noob inquiry, let's explain how does one "boot in verbose mode" exactly?

 You have a bootloader with which you boot into your hackintosh Leopard/Snow Leopard. It can be PC EFI or Chameleon, or Boot Think, or whatever other bootloader iteration you've got. Even if you installed using a custom distro like iDeneb or iAtkos or iPC, etc. and hence cannot remember "installing or configuring any d@mn bootloader" on your machine, you still have a bootloader.

The main point? Know that you can interrupt the bootloader before it, well, loads Mac OS X, by pressing any key on your keyboard before the countdown (set by default to 5) is over. And then, depending on whether you have graphical bootloader enabled or just plain text, (a) you use left and right arrow keys to choose which partition to boot (in case of multiple bootable partitions) and up and down keys to choose "verbose mode"  or (b) you type "-v" at the "boot:" prompt. And press Enter. 

2) Take note of what it says - of course you're not supposed to do an impromptu deciphering of cryptic lines like "MAC Framework successfully initialized using 10485 buffer". This is when the most important hackintosh technique comes in: Patient and intelligent researching. Alright, that was admittedly, putting uncalled for fanfare so "Patient and intelligent googling" then - we didn't drop the word "intelligent"; if you hardly think what you're googling is logical in relation to the issue you're trying to solve, endeavor to be intelligent by being open to bits and pieces of information that fall you way as you research, or google, rather. They're bound to be relevant in your OSx86 life at some point or another.

If things are still awry, try booting with "ignore caches" option or "-x" flag.

Actually, most of the times, a kernel panic is caused by unruly and incompatible kexts that wreak havoc on your system. In which case, you'd intelligently surmise that you need to uninstall those pain in the arse kexts and also, you'd intelligently surmise that you can boot up your vanilla system with an alternative way in form of a USB flashdrive booter which, because it implements a different set of kexts and other configuration files that you've proven to work on your OS X version + machine model, will enable you to get inside your Mac OS X account again.

Finally, you'd intelligently surmise again that you will be taking care of those problematic kexts or config files, like an incomptable dsdt.aml file (whoever promised that an HP Mini 311 dsdt.aml will play 100% well with your 1000 anyway?) while you're logged into your user account. The goal is make your machine able to boot into OSx86 by itself like it used to in the golden days. And for the love of goodness, you'd take at least a mental note of those kexts which cause your OSx86 installation to misbehave. Responsible hackintoshing.

In my case, I still get kernel panics from time to time, even when I didn't do any tinkering with my boot files or kexts. 95% percent of the time, booting in verbose mode sufficed - I am transported to my OSx86 desktop without any problem and the origin of that random "kink" is forever chucked out into obscurity; that is until, perhaps, I dig inside Console.

I find myself unable to complain about kernel panics. Eeven real Macs experience them once in a while.