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

[Guest bingggo]

On my MBP, the Keyboard prefs have an option to 'use f1 etc as function keys'.

On my Wind after installing MSIWindOSx86, it doesn't have that option, and the FN keys already behave as standard function keys.

Is it possible somehow to get them to behave as their special function by default, ie. so they only behave as f1 etc if I hold down the fn key?

[Guest 0428ne]

i cant find the kalyway 10.5.2 or 10.5.3 torrents anywhere. is there anyway that you can help me?

[Guest gadgeteer]

I'm trying to get Coolbook to work on my MSI Wind and am not having much luck. When I install it, I just get a dialog box with empty values that I can't change... I've uninstalled and reinstalled 2 times with the same results. Any ideas?

Regards,

Julie Strietelmeier

http://the-gadgeteer.com

http://ukulelereview.com

[Guest Colonel Panic]

The kalyway torrents are available via The Pirate Bay (I'm not linking to it but the URL is obvious), and to answer another question, the main 10.5.2 installer file is 3.66GB in size which would take weeks to download using a dial up connection; indeed it takes several hours to download everything that's required using a fairly fast broadband connection. One idea could be to borrow someone's wi-fi connection (by legitimate means I might add) for a few hours in order to download them, although that connection has to support BitTorrent downloading which is probably not the case with the free wi-fi that's sometimes available in the vicinity of pubs and restaurants.

I haven't got round to trying out the install yet because I still haven't bought an Advent 4211; PC World Business (which still appears to be the cheapest although the price has recently gone up) are unsurprisingly out of stock and are presumably waiting for new stock that may also feature a 120GB hard drive upgrade. Will Currys/Dixons/PC World pricematch their PC World Business division?

Edited September 7, 2008 by Colonel Panic

[Guest the_accidental]

I haven't got round to trying out the install yet because I still haven't bought an Advent 4211; PC World Business (which still appears to be the cheapest although the price has recently gone up) are unsurprisingly out of stock and are presumably waiting for new stock that may also feature a 120GB hard drive upgrade. Will Currys/Dixons/PC World pricematch their PC World Business division?

PCWB will be £276 delivered (remember the VAT). I got mine from PC world retail on saturday, they priced matched the link so I got it for £270. Or you can just order from the link, it's £280 there, but you can use the code "LINK10" to get a tenner off.

EDIT:

A question for those running a new wifi card, what are you running, and does WPA work ok? Trying to decide between a 1490 (cheap) a 1500, or an apple one (may not work right in windows? need to look into that)

Edited September 8, 2008 by the_accidental

[Guest elalitte]

I find that my Advent crashes EVERY time I plug in my Dell 17" display... ;)

However, I've found that if the machine is put to sleep, then plug the monitor in, wake up, then the Advent works 100% every time. It's a slight pain, but it works well.

When I've got the second monitor plugged in, finder auto reconfigures my desktop and the Dell becomes my main screen with little one becoming the secondary display. :(

My hero !

Your solution works fine and I'm able to use my medion on a projector. Thanks a lot !

For the screen mess, you can use SwitchRes which has a "remember the desktop" option so that you can get all clean in a click.

I'm just waiting for my wifi card and my medion will be the perfect machine :wacko:

[Guest stefanomainardi]

I've got every boot the strange problem of Battery not recognised, i must reinstall every time the BatteryKext. There's a solution? I've searched and the tip of reconstruct the kextcache is not a fix.

Anyone has resolved this?

[Guest stefanomainardi]

I've got every boot the strange problem of Battery not recognised, i must reinstall every time the BatteryKext. There's a solution? I've searched and the tip of reconstruct the kextcache is not a fix.

Anyone has resolved this?

[Guest the_accidental]

I've got every boot the strange problem of Battery not recognised, i must reinstall every time the BatteryKext. There's a solution? I've searched and the tip of reconstruct the kextcache is not a fix.

Anyone has resolved this?

This:

http://www.hutsby.net/2008/08/osx-screen-r...n-msi-wind.html

Seemed to fix the issue for me. Of course the other option would be to change the scripts to reinstall the battery kext on reboot/shutdown instead of just forcing the cache to rebuild.

[Guest Sen87]

I've officially been converted to mac! Thanks paul for this great guide. I only have one issue. I can't seem to play any dvd's or play any avi files under osx. things like you tube work fine but i cant play video files. i have vlc installed so i know its not a codec issue. any ideas?

[Guest bingggo]

I'm trying to get Coolbook to work on my MSI Wind and am not having much luck. When I install it, I just get a dialog box with empty values that I can't change... I've uninstalled and reinstalled 2 times with the same results. Any ideas?

You need to register it to get it to work.

[Guest garethj7]

Hey guys,

Just a quick question ive seen this page on the realtek website for the factory wifi card in the advent.

Just wondered if this driver at the very bottom of the page under "other" for mac 10.5.4 would work instead of changing the wifi card over??

any help with this would be great.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads/downlo...GetDown=false#7

[Guest Myjazz]

Hi,

Has anyone tried upgrading to iTunes 8 on the wind ?

[Guest stefanomainardi]

Please, anyone has resolved the problem of the battery kext?

I have try all...but nothing. At every boot the kext is not loaded.

I'm the only with this problem?

[Guest the_accidental]

Please, anyone has resolved the problem of the battery kext?

I have try all...but nothing. At every boot the kext is not loaded.

I'm the only with this problem?

I solved it, but it's a bit of a hack.

Create (or append to) /etc/rc.shutdown.local and /etc/rc.reboot.local (make sure they're executable) with this:

cp -R /System/Library/Extensions/ACPIBattery.kext /Backup\ Extensions

rm -R /System/Library/Extensions/ACPIBattery.kext

cp -R /WHEREVER THIS IS STORED/ACPIBattery.kext /System/Library/Extensions/

chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/ACPIBattery.kext

chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/ACPIBattery.kext

touch /System/Library/Extensions


[/codebox]

Which will ensure the kext is re-installed whenever you shutdown or reboot. You can probably leave out the backup line at the start.

[Guest the_accidental]

OK, I thought that fix above worked, and it seemed fine after a fair few reboots, but the battery icon's just gone again. It might have been other fiddling I was doing though, or the fix might not work as i'd hope. I'll investigate more and post back if I come up with something better.

[Guest machead]

Installed both iTunes 8 and QT without any problems. ;)

Edited September 12, 2008 by machead

[Guest Velnor]

OK, I thought that fix above worked, and it seemed fine after a fair few reboots, but the battery icon's just gone again. It might have been other fiddling I was doing though, or the fix might not work as i'd hope. I'll investigate more and post back if I come up with something better.

When that happens to me, I reboot with the power unplugged - kind of forces it to acknowledge the battery. Ideally reboots would not be required. Reboot always fixes the graphics too, sometimes takes 2 reboots. Quite bizarre. I do my best to keep the machine on all the time. Sleep is not too bad at all, so I close the lid whenever the indicator goes red and that normally survives until I can plug in.

Hibernate would be a great boon...

[Guest xxcooldudexx]

Awesome guide, I'll buying a advent/msi soon. I hope someone can correct me if I'm in wrong... but as far as I understand the Advent and the MSI are hardware wise 100% identical, and the only differences are the cases and the batteries.

I want to get an advent for the fact that it is cheaper and there is no warranty label, but, I really want a 6-cell battery... does anyone know if a 6-cell battery is coming out for the advent? (official or 3rd party... doesn't matter)

But yeah, I have downloaded all the files I need and now just waiting for my birthday to be able to get one of these machines ;)

Thanks,

-xx

EDIT: One more thing, does imovie '08 work with the advent or wind?

EDIT2: Can the MSI BIOS be used on the advent and vice versa? MSI>Advent so it would e cool to have their logo when turning on, and one of the companies might release a more stable release..

Edited September 13, 2008 by xxcooldudexx

[Guest steve_j]

Thank you Paul for this wonderful guide!! I bought a MSI wind because of this and made it into a Macbook WIND!

There are a few quirks though. When I followed your guide in verbatim, I encountered a problem during the first start up wizard. The wizard will loop in the part wherein the user is asked about transferring data from an old mac. I solved this problem by enabling the ethernet driver and others (i dont remember them all) in the customize installation. Additionally, I can't enable the battery icon in the menu bar, there is no "show details" button in energy saver. (clue: it says imac in the system profiler)

and about the wifi...

I found out that the MSI wind's wifi card model is realtek 8187SE. With a bit of fiddling around the net I found out that there is a MAC driver available for the wifi card realtek 8187L. Will this driver work? I dont want to screw up my mac installation (I REALLY LOVE MY MAC BOOK WIND!! ;) ) thats why I haven't tried this myself.

driver page link: (scroll down)

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downlo...;Downloads=true

Thanks!! :wacko:

[Guest alienmeatsack]

I'd love to see a guide for the Acer Aspire One.

I tried the install here on my AO this weekend, knowing I'd have to make some adjustments and drivers would be different in spots, etc. I ended up problem after problem.

It teased me by letting me see and use it in raw form for a bit then all heck broke loose. I was up till after 4am on Friday messing with it and spent a good part of Saturday on it as well. I finally gave up and reinstalled Windows.

Maybe I should have bought the Wind instead :D

r

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

After using my Advent 4211 for quite some time, and needing to rebuild my other half's laptop, I stuck in a 350GB hard disk and installed pretty much from the instructions above. Everything worked fine. Im well chuffed!

[Guest midireebs]

I have done up two Macbook Wind's now using the MSIWINDOSX86.iso and Ive found something screwy with the .106 bios revision... .106 revision and the MSIWINDOSX86.iso specifically... every once in a while the machine boots to 800 x 600 and forgets the 1024 x 600 resolution altogether but only if you boot with 100% charged battery and no AC... booting with AC comes up at 1024 x 600 every time. Looks like disabling Speedstep in the bios fixes the issue as well. Im gonna try switchresX and see what happens.

I also noticed that the screensaver on both winds does not kick in at the appointed time despite the fact CI and QE are working and Wallsaver works... if you assign Hot Corners to screensaver that works fine... and if you set the screensaver to "Never" it does kick in at the 10 minute mark... ?!? weird.

I also confirmed the Dell 1510 wireless N mini pci-e card (Dell PN#430-2547) works like a champ... no special software mods... works fine post MSIWINDOSX86.iso install. I used a broadcom G mini pci-e torn out of an HP NX6325 on the first one which also works post install with no mods (Ill post the exact HP PN as soon as I have it open again for all you part number hungry people).

[Guest dtizzle]

10.5.5 is out from apple.

paul, any word on upgrade stability?

thanks

[Guest JohnDFellRunner]

10.5.5 is out from apple.

paul, any word on upgrade stability?

thanks

Just run 10.5.5 updater and getting kernel panics at boot on Advent 4211 (BIOS 1.08), was running well before the update.

Edited September 16, 2008 by JohnDFellRunner