Paul's complete guide to installing OSX Leopard on your MSI Wind / Advent 4211

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I recently got an Advent 4211 variant of the MSI Wind (identical hardware, different colour) from PC World at a bargainous £279.99 (considerably cheaper than the MSI version!). Of course, the first thing I did was upgrade the 80GB hard drive to a 160GB one (same vendor, same model!) that I had lying around, chucked in an extra 1GB DDR2 667MHz SODIMM (bringing the total to 2GB), and then my thoughts turned to which OS to run on it!

Altho it ships with the perfectly likable Windows XP SP3, I really wanted to know if the machine, with it's respected Intel Atom processor, was up to the job of running OSX Leopard, my operating system of choice. As it turns out, it's running really well.... and this is my guide to getting your Wind running it too.

Enjoy

:(

P

P.S. A number of people have asked how they can make donations, you can do so my clicking here (choose any amount that suits you!). All donations will go ONLY towards buying the next Netbook to OSX! :o Step by step for Aspire One next perhaps?

What is and isn't going to work

Before we start, I want to make clear that although I am using my device every day and it works great, not everything is 100% compared to a a regular XP build, or a real mac. VERY close, but not quite. The details...

WORKING GREAT!

- Graphics card running accelerated at 1024x600 native resolution

- Ethernet

- Webcam

- Internal speakers

- USB

- SD card slot

- Sleep

- Bluetooth

- Hotkeys for display, volume etc.

- Touchpad

WORKING OK (i.e. with caveats!)

- VGA out (working as a secondary display, but not in mirrored mode!)

- Keyboard layout (for some reason the backslash on the UK keyboard between shift and Z is not detected, remapped to key to left of '1')

NOT WORKING

- WiFi (see below!)

- Headphone port

- Mic port

- Internal mic

- Hibernate - native macs hibernate using EFI signals, which doesn't work on 'hackintoshes'. Still pursuing a fix for this!

Of course, of this list, the non working WiFi is the real killer. The mini PCI express card inside is a Realtek RTL8187SE part, and at the time of writing, no drivers have been found for OSX. I am optimistic this might change, but in the interim I splashed £12.99 on a Dell 1490 broadcom based card on eBay. A like for like easy fit, this card is picked up natively by OSX.

Think you can live with these caveats? I definitely can for the benefits I get! :lol: If so, then proceed on to the post below! :D

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Last update: 14/07/08 - video and images online!

What you need to install OSX on your Wind

Here's a list of what you MUST have to install OSX on your Wind...

- An external DVD drive

- A DVD containing Kalyway 10.5.2 install (you can find this on the usual 'torrent sites')

- The Kalyway 10.5.3 upgrader (as above) on a USB stick or CD/DVD

- The official 10.5.4 DELTA update from here on a USB stick or CD/DVD. Do NOT use the Combo updater.

- My Wind driver and utility pack (download here) on a USB stick or CD / DVD

And here's an item you really SHOULD have to install OSX on your Wind...

- A proper licenced copy of Leopard

Now, of course you could install without the above item, but i'm in favour of being fair to Apple. Regardless of the intricacies and enforcability (or otherwise) of the EULA, it's playing fair to buy a licence for Leopard if you plan to use it on a machine. IMHO anyway. It's up to you of course, but it makes me feel better! I look at it as 'Apple won't build me a 10" notebook so I have to do it myself' :o

I also have upgraded my RAM to 2GB... very cheap indeed at Play.com!

Disclaimer

Of course, installing OSX on your Wind is gonna wipe whatever is on there already. I'm sure you know that already :lol: Also, if anything goes horribly wrong, you're following my guide at your own risk m'kay? :lol:

Before you start - ensure you have BIOS version of at least 1.05 installed! You can view the BIOS version by entering the BIOS setup (press 'del' at startup).

- MSI machines: download your BIOS update here

- Advent machines: download your BIOS update here

After updating your BIOS, enter BIOS setup and press F9 to 'restore best performance defaults'. This step is VITAL!

Step by Step - installing OSX on your Wind

1. Insert the Kalyway 10.5.2 disk into your external DVD drive, and plug it into your Wind

2. Start your Wind, and press F11 when prompted to choose a boot device. When the blue list pops up, select your DVD drive

3. When prompted to hit a key to boot from CD/DVD, hit a key.... you'll see a ton of text scroll up the screen - just sit tight :lol:

4. You'll next be presented with your language select screen. I imagine you want English, so just hit enter! It'll then sit doing 'Preparing Installation' for a while.

5. When you get the 'Welcome' screen, don't hit continue straight away! Move your point to the 'Utilities' menu, and select 'Disk Utility'.

6. When the Disk Utility application has loaded, click your main drive in the left hand pane (probably the very top entry, 'WDC WD800 or similar')

7. Click 'Partition' on the right hand pane.

8. Under 'Volume Scheme', click '1 partition'.

9. Give your disk a nice name. I chose 'Leopard'. Original, I know!

10. Click 'Apply'

11. Wait for it to do it's thing, then select 'Quit Disk Utility' from the 'Disk Utility' menu.

12. You'll now be taken back to the installer welcome page. Click 'Continue'.

13. Click 'Agree' when the legalese blurb pops up.

14. Choose a destination drive - obviously the one you just partitioned! Click 'Continue'.

15. Click 'Customize'.

16. Completely uncheck 'Language Translations'.

17. Expand 'Kernels' and select ONLY 'kernel_vanilla_92'

18. Expand 'Graphics_Drivers', expand 'Intel_GMA' and select ONLY 'GMA950'

19. Completely uncheck 'Audio_Drivers'.

20. Expand 'Networks_Drivers'. and select ONLY 'RTL1000'.

21. Completely uncheck 'Mobo_Chipsets'.

22. Completely uncheck 'Thirds_Applications'.

23. Expand 'Patches' and select 'TimeMachineFix' and 'PowerManagement_bundle'.

24. Click 'Done'

25. Click 'Install' and go and make yourself a cup of tea! :D

26. The install will now take place, if you want to speed it up, you can 'Skip' the installation DVD check.

27. re: the Time Remaining calculation, it's not really that accurate. In particular, the 'Time Remaining: About a minute' is pretty optimistic :(

28. When the 'Install Succeeded' screen appears, eject the install DVD and hit 'Restart'.

29. OS will now start up for the first time, and take you through the setup wizard.

30. When you have booted into OSX for the first time, insert the disk containing the Kalyway 10.5.3 update.

31. Run '1_Kalyway_UpdCombo10.5.3.pkg' and step through the installation process. Do NOT hit restart when prompted!

32. After the above install has completed, run '2_kalyway_10.5.3_kernel.pkg' and step through the installation process. Select the 'vallina_kernel_9.3' kernel.

33. Restart your Wind.

34. When prompted to do so, press F8 to interrupt the Darwin startup.

35. Type 'update -v' (without the quotes obviously), and press enter. Your Wind may reboot a couple of times during this update process. Don't panic!

36. When you have booted back into OSX, insert the disk containing the 10.5.4 delta update.

37. Double click the 'MacOSXUpd10.5.4.dmg' to mount the image.

38. After the image has mounted, run 'MacOSXUpd10.5.4.pkg' and step through the installation process. Restart when prompted.

39. When you have booted into OSX, insert the disk containing my Wind driver and utility pack.

40. Select the 'utilities' directory in my pack.

41. Drag 'kext helper b7' somewhere helpful. Your 'Applications' folder for example.

42. MAKING CPU SHOW U CORRECTLY IN ABOUT THIS MAC: Double click 'AboutThisMac' in the 'utilities' directory and step through the installation process.

44. ENABLING SOUND: Change to the 'sound' directory and double click 'AzaliaAudio.pkg' and step through the installation process. Do NOT hit restart when prompted!

45. GRAPHICS, BATTERY ICON, ABOUT THIS MAC FIXES / MACHINE TYPE COMPATABILITY, ETHERNET AND SLEEP ON LID CLOSED: Change to the 'kexts' directory. Run kexthelper, and drag all of the .kext files in this directory to it's window. Switch to the kexthelper window, input your password, then click 'Easy Install'.

46. Reboot!

47. Run 'System Preferences' -> 'Energy Saver' and select 'Show Details'. Select 'Options' and then 'Show battery status in menu bar'.

47. FIXING KEYBOARD MAP (UK keyboard layouts only): Change to the 'kaylayout' directory on my Wind driver and utility pack, and copy 'Advent 4211.keylayout' to '\Library\Keyboard Layouts'. Run 'System Preferences' -> 'International', and click 'Input Menu'. SCroll down the list until you see 'Advent 4211'. Click the checkbox, and you will see a flag appear in your menu bar. Click this to select the Advent layout.

48. Almost done! All you need to do now is to get a network connection (either by Ethernet or Wireless if you are using a non-standard card), and run 'Software Update' from the 'Apple' menu to get the latest software updates.

Congratulations, you have OSX on your Wind! :lol:

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

My recommended apps for use with the Wind:

CoolBook - restore speedstep functionality to your machine - $10

Dockless - lets you hide dock icons, useful for use with CoolBook

GeekBench - check out the score of your machine! It should be around 900.

Enjoy! :D

P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

A video of the install is below, enjoy! Unfortunately i've noticed that the somehow the end of the 10.5.3 patch install (doing the kernel install and the 'update -v') has gone AWOL, but i'll try and find this bit and chop it in.

:D

P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Some random screenshots for you :D

Hit me up in this thread if you have requests for shots of any particular part of the install.

P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Optionally cool to do, swapping the ALT and Windows physical keys to match the OSX (and real apple keyboard) layout. The keys come off easily if you're gentle... here's what your keyboard will look like after...

And here's my real Apple keyboard:

:D

P

[Guest man_bites_dog]

Quick question about the wi-fi card swap. Will any Broadcom based mini wi-fi card work with OSX?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Not sure i'm afraid!

I would check out the HCL for pointers: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.ph...10.5.2#Wireless

P

[Guest rameses]

Now if only I could find £280.

Paul, about those Expansys vouchers.................. :D

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

An eXpansys voucher won't help at PCWorld :D

P

[Guest wllwrk4sgr]

I know this is a kinda intense request.... but would there be any way you could do a full video walk through? If so that would be super awesome.

Its kind of annoying but its next to impossible to get a MSI Wind in the U.S. right now. Any suggestions?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

The full video walkthrough is uploading now, see a couple of posts above!

Aside from getting someone in the UK to ship you one, dunno!

P

[Guest rameses]

An eXpansys voucher won't help at PCWorld :(

P

Flogging it to a mate would though :D

[Guest nutmanuk]

Hi Paul, did you need to do anything special to get bluetooth working ?

My wind can see my bluetooth when it is switched on (blue light on) but when I click the menu bar to try and enable it within OS X there is not option to turn it on ???

Any ideas ?

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

BT just works for me when I have it switched on using the hotkey!

P

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

Video now online!

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

926 on Geekbench!

:D

http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/68542

P

[Guest M_Taylor40]

Lol, I wondered if these could run OSX but I keep getting wrong for taking them apart at work (Yes I work for PCW).

Just incase anyone is having issues with there wireless connection within Windows, don't update to the newest driver pushed out by Windows Update! I've had loads at work now that have intermittent issues with the wireless as Microsoft have managed to find a driver for the Realtek 8187 card that Realtek have not actually released, and it causes so many issues with the wireless!!!

Apart from that, its a shame that they cant take anymore than an extra 1GB RAM, tried 2GB but it doesnt POST, also, anyone going to be brave enough to try one of the 500GB hdds coming out next month in one? lol, again I'm not allowed to as I've taken them apart a few times now...

Anyways, enjoy your new netbook/reasonably priced mac! If I had a need for one I'd get one, but I'll stick with my shiny new Asus G1Sn, hmmmm....

M_Taylor40

[Guest M_Taylor40]

Just another quick note, always check the collect at store price before going into any PC World or Currys, the amount you can save by simply reserving one can be stupid! I don't think these will get any money knocked off but with anything, always check the website first!!!

I cant believe I'm actually trying to help ppl buy from PC World lol, but then those little Advents are so nice!

M_Taylor40

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

500GB HDD should work, any Sata 2.5" should be fine!

P

[Guest M_Taylor40]

Lol, yeah any 2.5" SATA drive will work in them, but we dont sell them in that capacity, so I cant see what its like, I've been jokin about puttin a SSD drive in one and seeing what its like, but again we don't sell them :D

They spoil all my fun! lol

M_Taylor40

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

SSD has been tried, doesn't really make a difference.

How much is an Advent with staff discount then? :D

P

[Guest cchance]

hey paul, how is the performance i know its a tiny machine and all but i mean, 720p HD videos capable? how about a vid of just some normal usage like using pages or something of that nature.

im seriously considering getting one of these for my girlfriend.

[Guest Turbo Buttwieners]

Hi quick question, why would you want to do this on a portable device, you have lost the ability of some of the hardware you have paid for by doing this, (and a wi-fi dongle sticking out to boot) as it stands you are not able to do anything you couldn't do on windows XP, surely native XP would work better and be more efficient than OS X on a machine like this.

good job though don't get me wrong!

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I've not tried any 720p video.

P