[sonicjuice]

Just wanted to send my thanks and respect to all who have worked to get OS X as stable as it is on the Mini 9, especially bmaltais, meklort and mechdrew. An incredible job!

I've now got my Mini 9 running OS X quite happily after more than a few teething troubles during setup (I think I hit every issue described in these forums!) - but it was definitely worth the effort. I would say to all who are having issues, persevere and you will get there in the end!

Respect!

TALA: I too experienced the issue of being unable to boot into safe mode (or any mode for that matter) after installing the 10.5.7 Combo update (whilst following mechdrews guide). No matter what I did it would always hang with a blue screen.

My solution was to upgrade DellMiniBoot, on the smaller USB stick I was using to boot the Mini, to the latest version (v8.0.2b1 - see mechdrews download page) and it all sprung into life. Seems like it can sometimes be a bit touchy about the versions of OS X, DellEFI and DellMiniBoot that are being used together.

I'll also re-iterate what I read on another thread - give it a couple of minutes on the blue screen as it does sometimes seem like it's hanging there when it's not.

All the best!!

[TALA]

Thanks Sonic juice.

The Dellminiboot 802 does improve things. It actually boots from it then when I get to the boot prompt to have the machine read the OSX DVD to reload it goes to the apple logo and crashes. I could not get to that point before using the 802. I will keep trying--I am desperate.

TALA

[TALA]

MECHDREW,

What I meant to ask: Is there a way I can wipe the 32 G SSD so I can start over.

The DMB-802b1 takes me to prompt screen where I can load the OSX DVD, but then the machine crashes after the apple logo appears--and says you need to restart !

Restart then takes me to a blue screen and it is hung there. So I thought there is something on the SSD that is causing this. I cannot even use DelEFI as I never get to see my desk top--does not even boot to a safe mode.
Appreciate you interest and thoughts.

TALA

[mechdrew]

TALA, I just want to make sure on this. When you try to load the Mac OS X Installer, whether via DellEFIBootMaker or DellMiniBoot, it crashes? I would redo the DellEFIBootMaker drive for starters.

I think there is an incompatibility between DellMiniBoot and DellEFIBootMaker, so if you try the DellMiniBoot route again do it only after you have reformatted the OSXDVD drive, and only copy the DVD files, do not run DellEFIBootMaker.

[cariboulio]

Originally Posted by mechdrew

You haven't tried installing meklort's trackpad driver, have you? If you have, that's an issue for that topic. If not, go install it and see what happens. It is supposed to work very well at this stage (still a few hiccups here and there) but it has a custom pref pane along with it.

I finally found out what was wrong: the installation procedure introduced the french version (since I'm french...) of the "keyboard and mouse" prefs. I just exchanged with the US one in the system/library/preferencepanes folder, everything is working now, I have again trackpad and mouse (when connected) tabs in the prefs pane. Hope it can help others!

[usurpator]

I’m new here, but I’ve gotten my mini9 to accept leopard - thanks you all for sharing all these wonderful apps and tips.
One thing: the key to reinstall or updates (to 1.5.7 etc) is to be able to “hack bless� the sdd again. I’m going crazy each time I need to do that, as I don’t understand how to get to dellefi:
if I use the dvd image there is no way for me to get to dellefi, same thing from the type 11 partition (at least I can’t! =-D I’m sure you wizards could do that while reading the morning paper!). And if I’ve just updated the system for example.... Well, the update asked for a restart - then and only then - actually install, making me unable to get to dellefi as.... The system wont boot!

This is actually making me dizzy!
Could someone explain in 4 years old terms, or even better: could someone create a script or something, so that we could plug the type 11 in, boot on it, type “blessthisdiskOHdellefi“ and boom, it would be done!

Again many thanks for all the hard work!!!

[mechdrew]

Originally Posted by usurpator

I’m new here, but I’ve gotten my mini9 to accept leopard - thanks you all for sharing all these wonderful apps and tips.
One thing: the key to reinstall or updates (to 1.5.7 etc) is to be able to “hack bless� the sdd again.
...
This is actually making me dizzy!
Could someone explain in 4 years old terms, or even better: could someone create a script or something, so that we could plug the type 11 in, boot on it, type “blessthisdiskOHdellefi“ and boom, it would be done!

I thought about investigating this, but then I reread it and realized that your post makes no sense. If you are referring to some archaic Type11 technique that I've never heard of, there is probably a good reason for that. I know there is a console command for "blessing" files on an installation, but I have never seen it used in this forum before, and I have no clue why it would even be used in the installation process. What on earth are you talking about here?

I suggest reading the guide and then coming back to ask questions.

[zarkon]

first thanks for making the guide how to make customs OSX installer, with that I manage to squeeze 10.5.6 on my 8gb SSD, and install was successfull. but have some few issue.

EDIT: sound issues fixed after upgrade to 10.5.7!

My mini 9 8gb SSD, 1GB RAM running OSX 10.5.7 with 1.3GB space left

Thanks for providing a great guide!

[TALA]

Originally Posted by mechdrew

TALA, I just want to make sure on this. When you try to load the Mac OS X Installer, whether via DellEFIBootMaker or DellMiniBoot, it crashes? I would redo the DellEFIBootMaker drive for starters.

I think there is an incompatibility between DellMiniBoot and DellEFIBootMaker, so if you try the DellMiniBoot route again do it only after you have reformatted the OSXDVD drive, and only copy the DVD files, do not run DellEFIBootMaker.

mechdrew,
As the ancient greeks use to say " may the gods be praised" I did as you suggested and now I have a machine that is fully functional--I just redid evrEything as you suggested-only hang up was step 10 of your guide, but I kept repeating it and now Mt. OLYMPUS is happy--you guys out there follow mechdrew's guide to the letter--Thanks !!!!

[EricsVostro]

Originally Posted by mechdrew

Yes, for upgrading RAM when Mac OS X is already installed, you use DellEFI 1.2a5. (the BootMaker probably should be renamed, or maybe I should refer to it as simply BootMaker from now on...)

Okay, my 2GB memory stick has finally arrived.

I may be over thinking this, but I want to clarify the step-by-step as I find myself gun shy and concerned about screwing up the upgrade and not being able to access my system.

1- While booted into OS X, I run DellEFI 1.2a5 under which I delete the dsdt.aml (Following some process from the original install instructions?)
2 - Shut down the system
3 - Remove the 1GB memory stick and replace it with the new 2GB memory stick
4 - Reboot the system into OS X
5 - Rerun DellEFI and it regenerates a new dsdt.aml file (Following some process from the original install instructions?)

Thanks and sorry for being so thick