Have you also managed to install iLife 08 on your Advent netbook hackintosh? How much HDD and RAM do both need on this machine?

Thanks for the public service - bringing Apple's wonderful OS X to those who can't afford their over priced macbooks.

Cheers,
Paul

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! 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! If so, then proceed on to the post below!

What is the difference between the Kalyway and the MSIWindowsx86 installation ?

Has anyone gone 10.5.6 yet?

Also interested to hear who's applied the new chameleon version to get full hibernate support...

P

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'

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 Also, if anything goes horribly wrong, you're following my guide at your own risk m'kay?

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
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!
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!

have you any idea how i could get hte msiwindosx86.iso to boot from a 8gb memorystick?
any software i could use?

i dont have a external optical drive to boot from, but i do have several exernal harddrives.
step by step please, if you dont mind.

Thanks in advance, yours truly Krister The Norseman

We did this although I'll need to try any remember the exact method!

Here's what we followed, you need to scroll down a bit to find the method for installing kalyway from a USB stick. You specifically need osx86 toold build 149 not a more recent build which effectively makes the image you've burnt on the usb stick bootable.

http://www.venera7.com/22-11-2008/installi...e-macbook-nano/