[skydawg]

First, Thanks to all who have made this possible. You've done some awesome work.

Just bought my 10v (used). I plan to put a 2GB stick of memory in it but may do the OSX install first. I've read quite a bit of information here and think I understand it well enough to give it a try. Great instructions at the top of this thread. Here's my questions:

1. It would be simple for me to use an external HD that I have laying around. Is there anything I need to change to do this? I know the drive will be reformatted and that's not a problem. There won't be anything I need on it.

2. Did the fix for the problem with having to change the active partition get incorporated in the instructions? Or is it a different program I have to use instead of one there? Or one I have to run afterwords?

Not in a big hurry for this as it will probably be a week before I have time to sit down and do it, but I'm going to get started by doing the partition and getting the programs loaded (or in one file ready to transfer) on a drive, whether it's a flash or HD.

Thanks again to all.

SkyDawg

Edited to add questions:

3. Would it work if I made a third partition that was FAT32 format and used it to store documents (openoffice, PDFs, JPGs etc) and would both OSs be able to access that partition?

4. What are the specs on the memory? Does anyone have a good source?

Probably more to come as I think of them.

[devedander]

Originally Posted by curbilly

I am having the same exact problem

I got the same thing so used a slightly older version, worked a charm.

[fast83]

Hi, no news about the installation, as everything works like a charm, but I just wanted to show my exterior "mod" to my 10v.
Yeah, it could have been better, a lot sharper on the edges, but you know, I like it anyway!
Just put the sticker on it and went on with a cutter (yeah I'm a little bit crazy ). Probably I could have measured the circle inside and cut it before applying the sticker, but I didn't have time, plus I'm a lazy bast**d...

What do you guys think?

[haildamage]

thanks for the help with my previous problem. hopefully my 10v will be arriving in the next week, so i am trying to get ready and educated on the install process.

maybe this is a stupid question but here it goes: what is the difference between 'netbookmaker' and 'netbookinstaller'. i see the link to netbookmaker and have used it to make my OSX USB install stick. however, i am not seeing where to get netbookinstaller?

sorry if i am being silly but i would appreciate your patient help with this...

[gadgetlover]

Originally Posted by fast83

Hi, no news about the installation, as everything works like a charm, but I just wanted to show my exterior "mod" to my 10v.
Yeah, it could have been better, a lot sharper on the edges, but you know, I like it anyway!
Just put the sticker on it and went on with a cutter (yeah I'm a little bit crazy ). Probably I could have measured the circle inside and cut it before applying the sticker, but I didn't have time, plus I'm a lazy bast**d...

What do you guys think?

I like it fast83 - looks cool. I still haven't done mine yet or figured out exactly how I want to do it. I don't trust myself to be good enough with the cutter to do a very decent job on this though - straight lines I could handle, but a circle. . . I don't know.

[skydawg]

After several missteps I finally got OSX installed in a dual boot configuration.

I'll post a list of problems I had and the solutions to them in another post.

The OS seems to work OK, but the boot up doesn't work right. I'll try to be as specific as my knowledge allows and explain all variables as the problem isn't always the same. Any help would be appreciated.

1. If the install USB device that I used to install OSX isn't plugged in, the computer will only start in Windows.

2. When the USB is plugged in with the device having the OSX install CD on it, the computer USUALLY starts in windows. If I use F2 and confirm that boot order starts with USB devise, then save and exit, it will start with the timer BUT the disk it defaults to is the USB INSTALL disk, not the MacOS Hard drive. If I hit "shift" before the timer ends, I can select the HD with MacOS and it boots to OSX. When I restart from this condition, it usually goes to the optional boot screen again but sometimes it just goes to Windows. Also, if I hit F2 again during reboot, the boot sequence is USUALLY as I previously set it, but sometimes it has changed to boot first from the HD. I haven't been able to figure out anything that happens that may cause that. Most of the time I have to hit F2 during startup and Usually the boot sequence is USB first but I still have to save the settings to get it to actually do that.

3. When I do boot into MacOS, instead of the usual internal HD that it booted into being shown on the desktop, it is the USB device that shows up. I think this is significant to the other problems, but not sure how.

Initially, after getting it set up, I ran NetbookInstaller 0.8.3, then updated OSX, restarted (after many failed attempts), ran NBI again, and restarted. Then I rechecked updates for OSX. After all updates were installed, I played with trying to get it to start correctly. I reran NBI, no help. So finally I tried NBI 0.8.4 RC1. No real help there. In all cases I had checks in the boxes for Install Cameleon 2 NBI, Install Dell Mini 10v Extensions, Regenerate a system specific DSDT .ami file, and Toggle Remote CD.

The only change I have seen so far with 8.4 is that sometimes the top bar on a window doesn't show up unless I run the mouse pointer over it or maybe tap on it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

FYI, I did the install with XP in the first partition, and made a small second partition formatted as FAT32, and the third partition for OSX. I used an external HD with USB for the install. The second partition has so far worked to access data using either OS. I have downloaded files using windows and saving in the second partition, then accessed them using OSX.

Thanks in advance,

SkyDawg

[minimalpc]

Sounds like your Windows partition is set active. You need to set the OS X partition active. Then it should boot to Chameleon and allow you to choose which OS you want to boot.

[skydawg]

First let me say thanks to gadgetlover for his guide. Without it I may not have even tried this. I am fairly experienced with Windows but new to Mac (recent iMac owner and new Dell mini) and his guide is clear and detailed enough for me to give it a try. Many of the other guides were overwhelming because I didn't understand half of what they were trying to tell you to do. Also, I did a lot of reading here on the forum and found it to be overwhelming, rather disjointed for someone new to this and contains more out-of-date information than current info. It would have been impossible to sort it all out without a concise guide. I hope you consider my following comments as constructive and not criticism. Some of the problems may have been self-induced or system difference induced, so no blame, only trying to offer similar help to those who follow.

The guide is split up into these sections:


What You’ll Need (besides your stock 10v with XP preinstalled):
Creating the Modified Snow Leopard USB Install/Boot Drive:
Performing the OS X Install on your 10V:
Running NetBookInstaller and Software Update:
What You’ll See When You Boot Up and How to Get to Each OS:


I'll list each with comments.


What You’ll Need (besides your stock 10v with XP preinstalled):


Step 5. I downloaded from the link given and the file I got didn't work when I ran it later. I think the file was an old one but I'm not sure. Eventually I downloaded NetbookBootMaker 0.8.3.app.zip from: netbook-installer - Project Hosting on Google Code


This version seemed to solve the problem I had with the other one. (more about this later). I would advise anyone trying this to look at what versions are current and getting the latest ALPHA version.


Creating the Modified Snow Leopard USB Install/Boot Drive:


Step 9. Not a real problem but it caught me off guard when restoring the Mac OS X Install DVD to my external HD it renamed the partition from MyInstaller (that I had named it) to Mac OS X Install DVD. I was trying to be careful what I named everything so I wouldn't get confused or load the wrong thing.


Step 12. When I ran the NetbookBootMaker, it failed. Don't remember the error message I got, but I tried it several times and finally went back and downloaded the newer version of it as shown above. It seemed to work ok.


Steps 17-20 Great instructions


Performing the OS X Install on your 10V:


I've used EASEUS partitioning program several times and it's great and easy to use. Unfortunately, it didn't do the job for me for reasons unknown. Everything seemed to work fine until:


Step 12. When I tried to erase the partition and format it for MAC OS, it failed, gave an error message and actually deleted the partition. When I went back to windows and looked at the partition it was “unalocated”. After several attempts and some research I found this method to make the partition using windows CMD window: Format HFS+ Partition In Windows XP - InsanelyMac Forum#
After doing that and going back to step 12, it worked fine. Can't explain why but if you have the same problem, try that.


The rest of the installation worked fine except for booting problems I pointed out in a previous post and the fact that OSX was a mess the first time I got this far because I used a beta version of NetbookBootMaker after the first one failed. Finally I went back and found the most current ALPHA version of it and redid the whole process (I was getting pretty good at it by now) and the result was a good clean installation.


Running NetBookInstaller and Software Update:
Other than my boot up problems, this was fine.


What You’ll See When You Boot Up and How to Get to Each OS:
This part didn't work at first. Thanks to minimalpc for the answer. For anyone else who has this happen, boot into windows, use the EASEUS program, right click on the partition holding macOS, select advanced, set active and OK.

Hope this helps anyone else using this type of install. Again, thanks to gadetlover for the guide. If any of this can be used to update or improve the guide, help yourself. Also, thanks to everyone who writes the software to make this possible, those who spend the time figuring out how to make it work and debugging it and for others who post their experiences to make it easier for the rest of us.


SkyDawg

[steve19137]

hey thanks for the tips on the osx-on-mbr install hack. that helped me complete this guide! i now have a really cool triple boot machine! now if my ram would ship faster...

[dhyaan]

Thanks to all you guys for your input and ofcourse without the help of the guide I would have NEVER been able get osX loaded on my Dell 10v.

Anyway everything went well till I tried the combo update through the official Mac menu in osX. As soon as it updated to 10.6.3 and restarted.. BOOOM! got the following error " You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button until it turns off , then press the Power Button again". And that's it.. Can't boot into osX again !

Any idea's or suggestions as to what I did wrong , or is there a way to keep 10.6.3 working on a dell mini 10v?

Thanks in advance.