Perfect MacBook Air : WiFi

This could become deprecated once I Leopardize (install Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) my HP Mini 311 because its stock WiFi card works in Leopard and not in Snow. But while I'm still on Snow Leo; this is one of the changes that make my new netbook a perfect MacBook Air for me.

Since the HP Mini 100TU's WiFi card worked flawlessly in Snow Leopard (when the said Mini was still well and alive - I think I fried it when I stupidly let it run all night to do some torrent downloading), I decided to test drive it on my new favorite, the Mini 311. The 1000's card, a Broadcom4312HMG, wasn't a combo WLAN/BT so I transferred the 311' stock combo card,a  Broadcom4312HMGB in the extra pci slot so I still have bluetooth. Now this extra pci slot only has mounts for full height cards so I used tape to secure the module. See pic below:

Note though that I've already *flashed my unit with the hacked bios F.04 that unblocks or "de-whitelists" the 311's half-height pci slot- because I originally planned to get another Snow Leo compatible WLAN/Bluetooth combo card.


What You Need

1. Download hacked F14 HP Mini 311 BIOS courtesy of icelord.
2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool SP27213.exe
3. USB flashdrive - preferrably 2 GB or less (you may experience issues with higher capacities such as 4GB or more)

What To Do - This set of instructions are based from the "hpmini311" google code page. Proceed at your own risk. 

1. Unzip 3651F14hack.zip. You'll get a folder named "3651F14" inside of which you see a "3651F140.fd" file. Rename this file to "3651.BIN"
2. Use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to format your USB flashdrive to FAT16 or FAT32 and copy "3651.BIN" onto the USB flashdrive.
3. Plug in your USB flashdrive contating "3651.BIN" file to your Mini 311
4. Disconnect power supply and remove the battery.
5. Press and hold simultaneously the "Windows" (the one with the Windows logo on it) and "B" keys.
6. Still pressing on the Win and B keys (do not let go), connect the power supply and press the Power button.
7. Count 5 seconds before releasing Wind and B keys. You'll hear beeps and the fan will whir up to faster (if not fastest) speed than usual. DO NOT shutdown your Mini 311 and make sure electricity supply is constant. The machine will shut itself down automatically. I repeat, your HP Mini 311 will turn off on its own when the BIOS flashing process is done. Patience is a virtue or you'll brick your precious 11.6" nVidia ION netbook you paid equally precious dough for.

And since it's already de-whitelisted (and the Mini 1000 is busted) I decided to rebrand the WiFi card with Apple vendor and product ID's so Mac OS X will see it as AirPort Extreme.

For what practical ends might you ask?

Update: Personally, I now think that rebranding should only be done when you experience performance issues with your 3rd party Mac OS X Snow Leo compatible WiFi cards. Among which, wireless N ones are almost definitely subject to performance issues because of the reason stated below. Other cards, b/g, in my experience are not subject to this discrimination by OS X so I don't particularly recommend you to sweat it out if all you want is a functioning b/g WiFi card. If you've O.C.D like me however, or if you're willing to take on the adventure, then by all means rebrand away! - at your own risk of course :D

Well, Mac OS X is a pretty snobbish operating system or it's actually Apple who designed it to be that way. Aside from closing its support only to specific models and brands of hardware devices it also discriminates between vendor and product ID's. If it's non Apple branded or certified as reflected in it being labelled as "Third-Party Wireless" in System Profier, Mac OS X uses another set of instructions to drive that piece of hardware but there may be limitations. If it's Apple certified/branded, it loads full set of instructions to get the most functionality possible and ergo richest user experience. What OS X uses to identify which is which turns out to be the vendor and product ID's in the device's sprom.
See chrand's post regarding this about wireless N and connection speeds at insanelymac.

In my current setup, I didn't have to get antenna extensions since the working WiFi card is placed in the half-height pci slot. The wireless button doesn't work and remains orange - I can't use it to turn of bluetooth which is comes from the stock wifi/bt combo card that has been transferred to the extra full-height pci slot.

Also the Dell 1510 (which is a Broadcom432B) will work brilliantly and can be rebranded the same way. You can use these ID's: SUBV:106b / SUBP:008d.

Oh, well so much for being "perfect" huh? ;)

I'm excited to install Leopard - which is up next on my to-do list for the HP Mini 311. I've already tried Leopard via EFI Vanilla but the machine just reboots all the time. A fellow forumer, mosslack, has pointed out that this is common phenomenon with the EFI booting method but that NetbookBootMaker/NetbooInstaller approach worked fine in his experience.

EDIT : I installed an Apple AirPort Broadcom 4328 wireless N card.

HP Mini 311 Review

This is probably the first true blue netbook review to be ever posted on My MacBook Mini. True, I've written tons about all the other netbooks I owned (five up to this day: EeePC 701, EeePC 900, MSI Wind U100, HP Mini 1001TU, HP Mini 311), it would be the HP Mini 311 that I'd attempt creating decent review for - à la LaptopMag? Not really. But it does come with a hackintosh twist for sure.

So my beloved HP Mini 311 has won netbook of the year at LaptopMag, I wonder how it would fare as a "hackintosh netbook". :D

Specs Sheeet:
Intel Atom N280 1.66 MHz
2 GB DDR3 SDRAM (Max up to 3 GB)
nVidia Ion LE
250 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
11.6" Wide Screen glossy LCD (1366 x 768)
Here is the HP Mini 311-1002TU's Product Specifications direct from HP's site.


The following comes from a conversation with a friend who was asking about the 311 (he's thinking of getting one as well and is also a hackintosher hence the prevailing consideration of Snow Leopard compatibility)
First Impressions

The  Mini 311... is a rather good machine. I don't feel like it's a netbook - more like an ultraportable, a laptop even. When I got back home and picked up again my 1000, I was surprised at how light it was, being used to using only the 311 for an entire week. Build quality is decent. I'm loving the feel of the upper deck of the chassis which seems to be metal-like or treated with some metal finish. The screen is amazing - that's from the point of view of someone who's fed up dealing with a 1024x600 screen for hours on end.

Input Devices

The keyboard is the same as in the older 1000's - except for the different finish which is the same as the upper chassis deck. The trackpad is another story though, it's mediocre but usable it performs in OS X as good or as bad as it did in Windows 7.

It was already a pity that HP didn't equip the Mini 311 with a multi-touch capable pad but it's more deplorable that they've decided to skip Synaptics. The Alps GlidePoint does not only not have proper support in Mac OS X - it's recognized as a PS2 Mouse not a real trackpad - but it's also a pain the arse to use. It's surface is sensitive in ways you don't expect it to be; that is its tap-to-click functionality feels very awkward (I still can't get hang of it - sometimes it clicks sometimes not) but I also find my cursor jumping to lines where it shouldn't cause the pad picks up input when the base of palms accidentally brush on it. Before, I was questioning if the 1000 really needed an On/Off switch for the trackpad because I thought it was unnecessary since the pad was almost microscopic. Now I'm seriously asking "where is the trackpad switch on this HP Mini 311????!!!??" to save my sanity.

nVidia Ion LE
People have actually figured out how to unleash the full functionality of the graphics chipset in the Mini 311. But then that's for Windows cause the whole premise relies on installing hacked drivers so the OS sees the chip as full Ion - not LE.
I'm not sure what the exact situation on hackintoshes is but all I know is that importing a video clip in iMovie takes noticeably faster than it did on my IntelGMA950 equipped Mini 1001TU running Snow Leopard. Though I've a hunch the faster DDR3 memory also has a contribution to the over all smooth experience.

OS X Comptability (Snow Leopard 10.6.2)

. . .you'd be amazed at how compatible it is - even the internal mic is working! Installation has never been easy and that's owing to the great work done by the HP Mini 311 Darwin Project team at InsanelyMac. You just go over the thread page, download the CD .iso which you use with a Snow Leo retail DVD for installation and which also contains the .pkg that you run after installation. The installer conveniently sets up EFI in the internal hard drive and you're good to go - Quartz Extreme, bluetooth (good thing it's a Broadcom, it's classified by System Profiler under Macintosh portable category of device), webcam, toggle keys for brightness and volume (needless to say, audio works - via dsdt assertion so it's seen as built-in). The speakers are Altec Lansing which offers really good base and is better than in any netbooks I've owned or had my hands on.

I got my unit with stock 2 GB ram and right now, it's sleeping fine. They've even done a good job with getting the high-speed USB devices right in the dsdt cause I don't get that horrid "Device Removal Error message" when I put the machine to sleep and a drive is left plugged into the usb port.

What does not work in Mac OS X Snow Leopard 
Battery life is a terrible 2 hours maximum. It does last longer - 4.5 hrs average - in Windows 7 and even longer in Windows XP, well, allegedly - 5-6 hrs.

WiFi - it's the same (almost) dead end case as in the Mini 110. I tried extracting its firmware via Linux using the b43-fwcutter tool and it just won't let me do that - the card is recognized as Broadcom 4312 802.11 b/g card all right but when I try to pry its firmware it causes the machine to freeze. Even my trusty all-hack-purpose MSI Wind can't stand that card. So I'm currently using my 1000's WiFi card on my 311, the 311's stock card which is a WiFi+BT combo card, I transferred to the extra full-height pci slot so I still have BT.