[jimmymac_4]

bmcclure937 ... not sure what happened to my truncated post, but I can see why the confusion with most of it gone missing. I regenerated it with some minor changes.

I've never used KextHelper myself. I prefer to, either put third-party kexts in (I think you meant to say) the Extra/machinenameExt folder (e.g. Extra/Min10vEXT) and then run UpdateExtra or insert the kexts into the NetBookInstaller package, like mechdrew suggested, and I reiterated my restored post. For additional clarification, see the following Meklort post...

UpdateExtra - netbook-installer - Explains what UpdateExtra is for. - Project Hosting on Google Code.

[bmcclure937]

Yes. I do mean the directory within /Extra... I just figured that was understood haha

You would obviously not just drop the kext into /Extra and hope it works, but I can see how that came across and confusing. My bad!

[bsoplinger1]

Nice job of summarizing everything so far in the first post. This would be useful to add, but I'm not sure if there's a good thread to point at and right now I don't feel like writing out a nice long explanation…

The Photoshop installer (and its cheaper sibling Photoshop LE installer) and iSale among other programs won't be happy with the screen scaling workaround mentioned in the summary. They explicitly check the screen resolution and that is reported as 1024x600 (or 576 for early 10v) even when scaling is enabled. You can enable 1024x768 with SwitchResX. There is no scrolling which means the top 600 of 768 vertical part of the screen is visible and the rest is unreachable. It isn't needed for the Photoshop installers. Once installed Photoshop or LE will happily run with a screen res of 1024x600. iSale OTOH must be started with the res set to 1024x768. Once the program is running you can set the screen res to 1024x600 and use the Maximize command (Command-M or the '+' button upper left corner of the screen) to resize the window to fit and work in 1024x600. Or you can set the scaling at 75% and run as is.

I've attached 2 convenient automator scripts that will set the screen res. One sets to 75% and the other sets to 100%, which is how you undo the 75% setting. They aren't mine, I grabbed them from an old screen scaling thread here.

[underwhelmed]

Originally Posted by bmcclure937

I think meklort is referring to best practices dealing with thing such as kexts because many people advise to use KextHelper and additional utilities, which is not the best method to take.

It is a better approach to have your third-party kexts in the /Extra directory (rather than the normal system kext location). You can achieve this a couple of different ways... mechdrew mentioned how to do this earlier. You can splice the kexts into your NetbookInstaller package so that they are installed when you run NetbookInstaller.

You can alternatively drop them in /Extra and run UpdateExtra.app

Hmm, Mechdrew indicated something different here. Post # 20-
SpeedStep in Snow Leopard with NBI 0.83 RC3 possible?

Not trying to pick nits, or start an argument, just looking for clarification.

I am still a relative noob as far as OS X is concerned.

[Bear Hunter]

Original post updated:

Added Quicktime X plugins (Perian and Flip4Mac)

Added bsoplinger's screen res fix as a second method to the existing one.

Added "adding 3rd party or modified kext files to NBI" written by Jimmy

[bsoplinger1]

Originally Posted by underwhelmed

Hmm, Mechdrew indicated something different here. Post # 20-
SpeedStep in Snow Leopard with NBI 0.83 RC3 possible?

Hint for you. Its pretty easy with this forum software to post a link directly to a post within a thread, just click the word permalink after the posting number in the upper right hand corner of the post.

Perian and Flip4Mac also work with Quicktime 7 and 10.5.8 (Leopard)

As far as where to put extensions like VoodooPowerMini for speed step, "it all depends" is the answer.

1) You can try to keep S/L/E 'vanilla' and untouched by putting the kext in /Extra/machineExt/. This has the drawback that when you update versions of NBI or just re-run it for any reason you'll loose the copy of any kexts you added. You can work around this by adding those kexts to the copy of NBI on your machine. Then anytime you re-run it NBI will install your extra kexts. You have to remember to also add them to any new versions of NBI you get.

2) Use KextHelper (or do it manually) and stick them in S/L/E. Has the advantage that NBI won't effect the extensions you add. Can be argued anything you add should be put in S/L/E because /Extra is just for NBI. Disadvantage is that S/L/E is no longer just what the Apple installer put there.

[meklort]

The best way to install a kext is to put it in /Extra/MachinExt.

I'll probablt make a folder, say /Extra/AdditionalExtensions (or another), that NetbookInstaller will preserve when you run it each time.

If you do use kext helper (which isn't recommended), you still *must* run UpdateExtra or NetbookInstaller after to rebuild the extension caches. If you don't weird things may happen.

[bmcclure937]

Originally Posted by underwhelmed

Hmm, Mechdrew indicated something different here. Post # 20-
SpeedStep in Snow Leopard with NBI 0.83 RC3 possible?

Not trying to pick nits, or start an argument, just looking for clarification.

I am still a relative noob as far as OS X is concerned.

I know you are not trying to start anything but his post basically backs up what I was saying. Check out what he says, I have quoted his post below :

Originally Posted by mechdrew

Kext Helper puts the kexts in the System/Library/Extensions folder, where it will probably not be disturbed, even with a OS update. That's where all normal kexts (like drivers for external devices) are stored, so it would make sense for them to persist as well. I can't confirm that though. I just put them in the Extra folder and ran UpdateExtra and it works just as well.

The kexts in the Extra folder are isolated from the kexts in System/Library/Extensions (S/L/E from here on out.) There are two different sets of kexts and kext caches, one in each location. The extensions/cache in Extra are combined with those of S/L/E during boot. So technically it doesn't matter which directory they are put in, but putting them in Extra make them easier to find, and if added to NetbookInstaller this is where you would find them anyway.

I just did this today, with great results. ["doing this" -- meaning the UpdateExtra method]

Keeping the kexts in /Extra helps keep the third party and custom kexts separate and organized... so they are all not in with your system kexts. This is why I like doing it this way and why it is recommended as best practice.

Alternatively, you can modify the NBI package to do the same thing and install your custom kexts during the NBI installation. This will put your kexts in /Extra along with the other custom kexts that meklort bundles with NBI to make our Minis work as well as they do

[underwhelmed]

OK, I get it now. Still learning as I go.

---------- Post added at 11:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 PM ----------

Originally Posted by bsoplinger1

Hint for you. Its pretty easy with this forum software to post a link directly to a post within a thread, just click the word permalink after the posting number in the upper right hand corner of the post.

Thanks, I didn't know how to do that.

This is the first forum I have ever gotten anything useful out of, so I am still learning how to do all of this.

I was always just a lurker before.

[bsoplinger1]

Originally Posted by meklort

The best way to install a kext is to put it in /Extra/MachinExt.

I'll probablt make a folder, say /Extra/AdditionalExtensions (or another), that NetbookInstaller will preserve when you run it each time.

I think this would be the ideal solution, a special magic folder that NBI will let persist between invocations. I assume that when you do this UpdateExtra.app would be update to build the /Extra cache out of the files in both /Extra/machinExt and /Extra/MagicFolder?

I know I've been bitten a couple of times by forgetting that I'd added something unique for my machine, did an update of NBI and then wondered why something suddenly wasn't working as I'd expected it to only to remember I needed to put a kext or two back into /Extra/MachinExt.