patched 10.6.2 kernel for Snow Leopard is out

I just saw this over on Prasys' blog

http://prasys.co.cc/2009/11/patched-10-6-2-kernel-is-out/

Nawcom has patched the new 10.6.2 “qoopz” kernel for legacy processors and as well as for AMD processors. on top of that he has made an installer to get it all up and working. Before you install the Snow Leopard 10.6.2 update , be sure to run this . There is nothing much changes which have been done to XNU. The package includes the 10.6.2 kernel for AMD processors and Intel SSE2/SSE3 such as Pentium 4 and patched SleepEnabler.kext
Thanks nawcom !


UPDATE: 11-26-09 9:33 PM


I have successfully upgraded my D945GCLF to 10.6.2


I used the Nawcom kernel patch software package installer, then ran the apple updater and updated to 10.6.2


system rebooted with no issues. I noticed that the software package edited the /extra/com.apple.boot file and changed the kernel option to use the new kernel called legacy_kernel


first boot I did have to tell chameleon to ignore caches and I'm using onyx to rebuilt all of my cached kexts,etc.

Warning: Snow Leopard update 10.6.2 disables Intel Atom based Hackintosh systems

 

saw this one today over on the wired website.

Mac OS X Leopard 10.6.2 will break your hackintosh. The forthcoming OS update will not run on the Intel Atom processor, a rather petty move from Apple which, if true, will break many netbooks which have been hacked to run as more than passable Macs.

This news comes from Stellarola, the hacker who helped us out extensively with the original (and still the best) Gadget Lab hackintosh. Here’s what he has to say:

In the current developer build of 10.6.2, Apple appears to have changed around a lot of CPU related information. One of the effects of this is Apple killing off Intel’s Atom chip.

The important word there is “current”. The latest seed could change before being released as an actual update. But Stella knows what he’s talking about (he’s one of the guys behind the OSx86 method for easily installing the Mac OS on non-Apple machines), and recommends keeping your frankenmacs loaded with 10.6.1 for now.

This wouldn’t surprise us, especially as Apple seems to have gotten a taste for locking out unauthorized hardware with the Palm Pre cat and mouse game.

UPDATE: It’s official the Snow Leopard 10.6.2 update has been released and this update drops support for Intel Atom Processors. Do not install the 10.6.2 update directly from the Apple on your Intel Atom Hackintosh, keep an eye on insanelymac and other hackintosh sites for a modifed version of the 10.6.2 update.

Link to the updated Blog entry for Stell’s Blog where I saw this info here

method for using USB Flash Drive or USB hard drive to install Snow Leopard on a D945GCLF 100% working

EDIT: I've finally been able to find a boot cd that works for installing Snow Leopard on my D945GCLF the new article can be found here

OK I’ve gotten Snow Leopard to install successfully on my D945GCLF Intel Atom hackintosh.
This method requires the following things.
1. A working Leopard install that you can use to prepare the USB device
2. a Retail Snow Leopard DVD
(yes you should actually buy Snow Leopard, dude it’s only $29 dollars unless you buy the family pack or the version that comes bundled with all the other software), and yes the $29 dollar disk is a honest to god full version install, not a upgrade or cpu drop-in disk)
3. a USB Flash drive that is at least 8 GB in size, or a USB Hard drive that you can dedicate to using as a installer
4. You’ll need the SL Macloader 0.4 software from here and the kext_4_D945GCLF_USB_install.zip file from here
follow the instructions found in this insanelymac forum post by MACinized
replace the kexts in the SL macboot kext folder with the ones from the kext_4_D945GCLF_USB_install.zip file from the first link.
use the DSDT.AML file that I have a link to in this post to get full video resolution and ability to have system go into full sleep mode.

using these instructions and files I was able to get snow leopard installed on my D945GCLF.
you will need these kexts to get the network card and sound working in Snow Leopard on the D945GCLF motherboard

The psystar Realtek R1000 kext file,The voodoohda sound driver kexts are in the kext_4_D945GCLF_USB_install.zip file these need to be installed using the included kext utility

you’ll need to copy any kexts that I have referenced to use after you have installed into /system/library/extensions then run kext utility which can be downloaded from here
After you have updated your kext files follow the instructions in the SL macboot folder for installing the boot loader but before you reboot replace the com.apple.boot.plist file in the /extras folder on your hard drive with the one from the /extras folder that is on your usb boot device that you used to install snow leopard. the file that the sl_macboot software creates is missing the kernel flag arch=i386 and this will cause a kernel panic for you when you reboot if you haven't done this.

You'll need to edit the com.apple.boot.plist file to set your screen resolution, as it will be stuck at 1024x768 otherwise.

You can fix the graphics issue by editing the com.apple.boot.plist file and adding the following into the file

key>Graphics Mode</key>

<string>widthxheightxdepth</string>
replace width, and height, and depth with your preferred settings, just make sure your screen supports these settings.
for my system I’m running 1280x1024x32
I added these setting just before the timeout settings.
You’ll probably need to copy the file out of the extras folder to another location like your desktop, edit it with textedit then save the file then copy it back into the extras folder, the system will prompt you for your password as it needs root authentication to replace the file.
UPDATE:
using the DSDT.aml file that ugokind had uploaded in the file found in this post that is for a D945GCLF2 (has same bios as a D945GCLF board) I am now able to change my resolution under display settings in Snow Leopard. I didn’t need any of the other files so I am uploading just the DSDT.aml file here
just replace the DSDT.aml file in your Extras folder with this file after you have installed your boot loader from the SL macboot software before you reboot. After you reboot you should no longer be stuck at 1024x768 resolution and you should be able to change your resolution to higher settings. I am currently running my system at 1920x1080 which is the native resolution for my 24” LCD monitor
Thanks for the comments and feedback Tester, you helped steer me towards the missing pieces for the puzzle and I appreciate your feedback.
Sorry it took me so long to finally get these instructions up. I am finally finished up with my College Algebra Class (and I am proud of myself for passing and making a 83 in this class as I suck at math) so now I should have more time to devote to my hackintosh and getting Snow Leopard working 100 percent.
I hope these instructions help you with your quest to get Snow Leopard up and running. Good luck and most importantly have fun.
until my next post,
I remain your obedient servant,
Dr. Evil

Success! I've made a working usb boot device that I can install snow leopard from

I'll post the necessary files and instructions tomorrow.

one final step remains to be finished though so be advised.

I need to find a snow leopard compatible R1000 Kext file.

I'm holding off on actually doing my install on my hackintosh until I locate this last file.

if you know where I can get a Snow Leopard compatible (32 bit and 64 bit) version of the R1000.kext Psystar Realtek network driver or another specific kext that works with the onboard network card in a D945GCLF please leave a comment for me and I'll add it to the files and instructions that I am working on. I'll be sure to give credit where credit is due. I'm a rank amateur compared to all the other guys in the osx86 hackintosh scene, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes.

Update on progress on getting Snow Leopard installation method working for D945GCLF motherboard

Guys I wanted to apologize for my lengthy silence on this subject. I have been swamped with work related tasks after being off from work for over a week on an unpaid furlough. I also got behind on my College Algebra Homework and I’ve been struggling to get caught up. (God I hate Parabola, Ellipse, and Hyperbola algebra problems!!!!!).

I am close to having a working method for installation of Snow Leopard on a D945GCLF intel atom motherboard. I haven’t been able to come up with a working Boot-132 CD method, none of my Boot-132 disks will work. I keep getting the ISOLINUX Image is corrupt error, even though I followed the instructions of others who have made good working snow leopard boot-132 disks for other motherboards. The method I am working on involves backing up your snow leopard install dvd to a disk image then restoring it onto an 8 GB removable flash drive. After following instructions from the insanelymac website (credit to those who posted these instructions, I don’t have the post handy or I would give you credit) I was able to get my flash drive to boot my system. However I need to work on which kext files I am using to boot, because as soon as it begins to boot I get the graphical error message that instructs me to to reboot my system…..

So I’m headed back to the drawing board for a little more research and development. As soon as I get it figured out I’ll post links to the needed files and the instructions on how to do it.

 

Until then, I remain your obedient servant.

Dr. Evil

Booting Snow Leopard Retail in 3 easy steps!, Snow leopard retail DVD boot

 

Credit goes out to kdetech over on the insanelymac forum for his post Booting Snow Leopard Retail in 3 easy steps!, Snow leopard retail DVD boot which details steps for installing snow leopard and had links for a modified boot-132 disk that will boot the snow leopard retail DVD.

Kdetech notes “This will only work on a vanilla capable PC, so no AMD. “

I’m still waiting on my Snow Leopard DVD to arrive from Macmall, it’ll probably arrive at my home while I am gone to dragon-con.

I’ve already downloaded the special boot-132 cd ISO image and I will be using kdetech’s guide to try to install Snow Leopard on my hackintosh

I promise to report my results and any needed software or steps to get snow leopard up and running on my D945gclf Atom Hackintosh.

I remain your obedient servant,

Doctor Eviil

Snow Leopard on a Intel Atom D945GCLF?

Well I bought a copy of Snow Leopard 10.6 online from MacMall.com for $24.99 after reading that the snow leopard “upgrade” disk is in fact a full copy that doesn’t check for the previous OS and will install on a Intel Mac system with a blank hard drive.

I’ve been researching and have found that for the most part most people can install Snow leopard on their hackintosh systems by using the boot-132 boot cd method and either the latest version of chameleon or the pc efi software from netkas.

I’m going to be switching my hackintosh over to using a serial ata 120 GB hard drive from my original 40 gig IDE so I’ll document the steps I had to take to get my hackintosh back up and running and I’ll post my results in a later article.

Next week I’ll be headed down to Atlanta, GA Thursday evening 7-3-2009 to attend the Dragon-Con Sci-Fi & Fantasy Convention and I won’t be back home until the sometime in the afternoon on Labor Day so it’ll be a little while before I have time to actually sit down and work on getting snow leopard installed on my hackintosh.

Until then, I remain your obedient Servant…

Doctor Evil

Well my D945GCLF Atom Hackintosh survived the new 10.5.8 update

 

I noticed after my system had rebooted it had reverted me again to 1024x768 resolution which doesn’t look nice when you are using a 24 inch monitor.

Possible solutions to fix this issue are to hard code the boot.plist file to use the proper resolution but I didn’t feel like messing with that so I just reinstalled the D945GCLF2 driver package found here and then I rebooted the system again, and Bamm I’m back to 1920x1080 on my Gorgeous Dell S2409W 24 Inch Monitor. God I love the picture on this monitor.

 

I may investigate an easier way to keep my monitor running at the native resolution, but for now I have to finish up the Internet College Algebra class I’m taking. the website doesn’t work too well on non windows computers so I’ve been having to spend all my time on my Windows Vista Ultimate system (soon to be Windows 7 Ultimate as soon as Technet releases the ISO images and serial numbers to technet suscribers)

Anyone have any experience with a Dell Vostro A100 Intel Atom system as a hackintosh?

 

 

I saw a listing on ebay for a barebone Dell Vostro A100 for $125 with free shipping, and it intrigued me.

When I used google to search for this model I got this page from Dell

Vostro A100 Mini Tower

apparently this model was sold only in Europe and it came with Ubuntu Linux installed.

From the Tech Description It sounds like it has a D945 Mini-ITX motherboard installed, but I’m not sure which model.

This sounds like it might be a good system to turn into a Hackintosh. It would be funny as hell to show this one to your friends and co-workers sitting there running OSX Leopard on a ……GASP! Dell computer system.

The only thing I didn’t like about this one it that it doesn’t appear to have a IDE Port so it would require a SATA Hard Drive, and a SATA DVD , CD-RW DVD Combo, or DVD Burner Optical Drive and a stick of DDR2 Memory.

If anyone has used this model from Dell can you leave comments about it and let me know how it works as a hackintosh system?

Installing a PCI Nvidia 8400 GS graphics card on a D945GCLF

Otherwise known as how to really screw up your OSX Leopard Installation

Because the onboard Intel GMA950 video card on my Intel D945GCLF isn’t able to decode Hulu video smoothly (jumps and jerks) I got the brilliant idea to purchase a Sparkle Nvidia 8400 GS 256 meg PCI video card for my Hackintosh, this should give it a nice little boost, and OSX Likes Nvidia graphics cards right?

WRONG!

I have reloaded my system twice now, and have tried adding EFI strings for my video card, and have tried Netkas’s ATY_Init Injector found here http://netkas.org/?p=107

without either of these methods I get a 1024x768 display with severe visual artifacts, smears,etc. on screen.

after I use either method to get my 8400 gs recognized by the system I lose system stability. My system randomly freezes for no apparent reason. After doing a little research I determined that OSX is recognizing my PCI video card as a PCI Express video card and this most likely is why OSX is flipping out.

Thank god for Carbon Copy Cloner, I cloned my hard drive on my hackintosh before I installed the new video card so this evening I will be removing this PCI video card and then restoring my hard drive to before the new card was installed, this will put me back to when my system ran great other than the hulu problem.

 

Anyone want to buy a used 8400 GS PCI video card???

DUBL: Darwin Universal Boot Loader

I got a interesting newsletter email from Psystar today that had an article about a new graphical boot loader that they will be using with all of their systems as of July 1st called DUBL: Darwin Universal Boot Loader

As of July 1st all new Psystar computers will feature our exclusive DUBL graphical bootloader technology. In the coming weeks existing Psystar customers will be able to upgrade thier current systems via the OpenRestore application provided your system is under warranty. Upon its availability to existing customers, you will be notified via email. Shortly after that we are planning an open source release for the general public.

New Features

• Graphical boot menu
• Advanced XNU option support
• Automatic detection of multiple OS's
• Legacy IDE ATAPI support

I fully believe that Psystar is using code from PC EFI and Chameleon’s EFI software, but I think it’s a good step in the right direction that they are taking in that they are going to release an open source version of the Darwin Universal Boot Loader software.
Since a large majority of their software was derived from Open Source OSX86 software and drivers, the least they can do is share their changes to the code.
Good for you Psystar, You may just have won me back as a future Customer if I ever get tired of tinkering with and building my own Hackintosh computers.

Intel D945GCLF ATOM Hackintosh

After reading the article over on OSNEWS Building a Hackintosh Apple Can't Sue You For I wanted to build myself a Legal Hackintosh system.

I’m not rich so I had to buy the stuff I needed one piece at a time. Some of the components in my New Hackintosh are used parts that I recycled from my spares drawer.

here are the new parts I used for my hackintosh.

COOLER MASTER Elite 360 RC-360-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mini Tower Computer Case $39 dollars at frys

Intel D945GCLF Mini-ITX motherboard $64 dollars at frys

HP DVD1140 22x Internal Double-Layer PATA DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive $37 at frys

The rest of the parts that I used to build my hackintosh were used.

Mac OS Leopard (Retail box copy Version 10.5.6) purchased from ebay for $60 dollars with free shipping

2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 memory stick (pulled from another project system)

Maxtor Fireball 3 ATA/133 40 GB PATA hard drive

Micro ATX 150 Watt Power Supply that was pulled from a Gateway desktop system that had a bad motherboard (bulging capacitors)

The Cooler Master Elite 360 case didn’t come with a power supply, but because CM built this case to stealth the power supply inside the case, I was able to scrounge through my spare parts bin and find a low wattage Micro ATX PSU that I couldn’t use in a ordinary case. I was able to bolt it to the side of the CM Elite 360 case as seen in this photo.

The Intel D945GCLF board mounted into the case very easily. I would have liked to had a smaller case but most of the ones I looked at required a laptop optical drive. I didn’t have any suitable spares, so that is what made me decide on just buying the HP DVD Recorder drive and using the CM Case. My goal was to be as cheap as possible but still build a hackintosh system that could boot using the Boot-132 boot CD and install from a vanilla (unaltered) Mac OSX Leopard retail install DVD

OK On to more pictures of my hackintosh.

Exterior shots. (please note the Apple Sticker that has been applied to the top of the case, so I’m complying with the EULA in that I’m installing OSX on a Apple Branded system)

Interior shots

Screen shot from OSX Leopard with my system info

Notes about installing OSX Leopard on the Intel D945GCLF Mini-ITX

You will need these software packages

Intel D945GCLF2_ISO boot-132 package

OSX86 Tools

The Realtek R1000 Kext driver from PsyStar as the driver installer in the Intel D945GCLF2 boot package link above doesn’t work with the ethernet card on the Intel D945GCLF motherboard. Use the install kext option in OSX86 Tools to install the R1000 kext

Notes for installing Leopard.

Boot the boot-132 boot cd, when prompted hit enter, on the next screen remove the boot-132 cd and insert your retail OSX Leopard installation DVD, then hit enter after the disk is finished reading the leopard install DVD.

be sure to partition your hard drive as a GUID type partition

after you have finished installing osx reinsert the boot-132 cd and use it to boot the primary hard drive.

Run OSX86 Tools and use the FDISK and install EFI options to properly prepare your hard drive for the EFI boot loader, and then install the Chameleon boot loader.

After this you should be able to boot your hackintosh without having to use the boot-132 CD

If you experience problems with Leopard looping back to the welcome video after the transfer files wizard there are a few different solutions suggested on insanelymac, but this one worked for me straight away.
Press F8 during boot, and type -s
then enter the following commands:

/sbin/fsck -fy

/sbin/mount -uw /

touch /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

passwd root

I’ve been able to install all updates from Apple without any problems or issues.

Please Support Apple by buying a legitimate copy of OSX Leopard, the whole point of building your own hackintosh is that you are expressing your disappointment and disgust for the current way that Apple handles it’s company as a hardware company that just happens to sell a few pieces of software. The cost for a legal copy of Mac OSX Leopard is very reasonable. $129 isn’t that expensive.

The Reason I built my own Hackintosh is that the Mac Mini is a poor excuse for a entry level machine. My Hackintosh system was built for around $200 dollars (including the cost for my used copy of Leopard) and not counting the used hard drive and power supply that I scavenged from my parts bin.

This Intel Atom Mini-ITX System is a good entry level system, Apple needs to get their head out of their ass and make a mid level desktop system, something with upgradable video, memory, and the ability to install more than one optical drive or hard drive. Psystar and several other companies are trying to fill this niche because Apple doesn’t seem to care or even want to address the DIY market of users who would gladly buy Apple equipment if Apple sold a product that met their needs.

Microsoft TechNet Subscription Discount Codes

Saw this article over at Kristen Kenny's Digital Life blog

Late last month, I blogged about Microsoft Technet. I know there are a lot of you out there who want to subscribe to this amazing evaluation service, but at the same time you’re on a tight budget or you’re just trying to strech your dollar further. Well, today is your day.

Here are a few discount codes for Microsoft TechNet that will score you 15% off the purchase price (for new subscriptions, the price drops from $349 to $296):

* TMSAM09

* TMSAM10

* TMSAM13

* TMSAM12

* TMSAM15

* TMSAM16

And these discount code will score you 20% off the purchase price (for new subscriptions, the price drops from $349 to $279):

* TNCP210

* TNCP171

These coupons should work in both the United States and Canada, however I’m not sure if they work in other countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia. Also, if you’re a college student, be sure to check out  Microsoft DreamSpark!

What is DreamSpark, you ask? From the DreamSpark FAQ: Here’s how it works: if you’re a current university or high school student, you can download professional Microsoft developer, designer, and gaming software through DreamSpark at no charge. Yes, students get to download software at no charge. DreamSpark enables students, like you, to download and use Microsoft tools to unlock your creative potential and set you on the path to academic and career success by advancing your learning in the areas of technical design, technology, math, science, and engineering! It doesn’t matter what classes you’re taking right now, just as long as you’re a current student in a verified, accredited School and use the tools in pursuit of advancing your education in one of these areas.

Want something more comprehensive than Google Analytics to track traffic to your website?

I wanted something that was more real-time than Google analytics to help me track traffic to all of the websites that I am the webmaster for. Google Analytics is not bad, but I hated that you have to wait until the next day to see the traffic for the previous day. After searching for something else that would show me real-time traffic, I found goingup! and I must say I am very impressed.

One of the things I like best about it, is that it shows the alexa rank as well as the google page rank for your site. It also shows you how many inbound links your site(s) have from Google, Yahoo,MSN and Alexa. It also shows you how many pages from your site(s) are index on these same search engines. It also shows you what key words were used to find you if the traffic comes from a search engine. Another good feature is that it shows you the referring page that your traffic came from which helps to show you who is linking to your website.

I highly recommend goingup!

Technorati Tags: Website Analytics,SEO,Optimization

Just discovered a major annoyance for using windows live writer with Joomla

Not really sure how to fix this so may have to quit using windows live writer to post to my joomla websites. I took two microsoft word documents my wife had written and inserted pictures into and copied and pasted them into windows live writer. the output looked great and I was quite happy with it. I uploaded the first document then uploaded the second document. then when I looked at both articles they both have the same pictures. I determined that windows live writer dumps the pictures from word in a strange format where the file names for the images are generated as the same thing. so if you copy two word documents into windows live writer and then publish both to joomla and both have 20 pictures the second articles pictures will overwrite the first articles pictures.
Not really sure how to compensate for this. I tried to setup ftp instead of letting WLW upload for me and it doesn’t work correctly gives an error after uploading most of the images then stops.

How to use Windows Live Writer to Edit Joomla

I’m not going to take the credit for this one, found this today while researching for a better editor to use with joomla.

here is the link to the article.

How to Setup Windows Live Writer with Joomla

 

This will enable my wife to be able to edit and create her own topics for her websites. I want her to feel comfortable with creating and editing her own articles and the Windows Live Writer is very easy to use. I’m using it to blog right now ;)

My Experience with Joomla a Open Source Content Management System (CMS)

I’ve been doing a major overhaul on my wife’s websites.

She had previously been using Web Studio 3.0 and after several years of changes the html code of her web pages things had gotten really messy.

I did some research and determined that the best thing to do to create a clean professional website that she could edit and change as needed with new information was to use a Content Management System (CMS)

I have some experience with MySQL and PhP due to the PhPBB3 web form I run Better Breeders Corner BBC Forum

I downloaded XAMPP which allowed me to setup a live in-house web server at my house on one of my spare computers. This way I could work on building the new site and then after I finished it and had it working like I wanted I could back up the mySQL database and the joomla files and then upload them, restore the mySQL database and then edit the configuration files so it recognized the new server.

Then I googled for CMS software and went through the list looking for popular Open Source CMS software and downloaded several different CMS software packages.

The software packages that I tried were.

WordPress - (not bad but a little limited for what I wanted to do)

Drupal - (didn’t have much luck with figuring this out, got it to run but couldn’t get it to do what I wanted, kinda complicated)

and then I tried out Joomla!

Joomla isn’t for beginners, but it was a lot easier for me to setup than Drupal. I had found the software I wanted to use to manage my content next came the configuration and design part.

I set down and looked over the page layouts for Web Studio (which looked horrible in Mozilla Firefox, the text was all jumbled up so badly I had to use Infernal Explorer aka Internet Explorer to view the pages) so I could copy and paste text as needed.

Next I accessed the ftp site for the old site and downloaded all of the images and html pages just to be on the safe side.

Then I sat down and started working on setting up the top menu with the menu entries and then linking those menu entries to place holder articles with plans on pasting in the text later.

Once I had all of the articles created with pictures I started working on coming up with a good web design template for the “look” of the site.

I highly recommend Artisteer for this, It allows you to design very nice templates, and has the ability to suggest designs if you are not sure how you want your site to look. If you don’t mind using a template that others may be using too for their site, there are plenty of free Joomla templates available if you google for this phrase in google or other search engines.

Here are two sites that I’ve setup using Joomla

Tsuwa Golden Retrievers and Snapdraggon Japanese Chins

The Japanese Chin Information Center

I had to do some manual hacking to create my own templates as I don’t have the money right now to buy Artisteer but It’s definately in my list of software to buy, as it’s worth every penny.

Technorati Tags: Japanese Chin,Golden Retriever,Joomla,free joomla templates,XAMPP,Drupal,WordPress,Info,Information,computer geek,geek,computer

Rest in Peace Duke Nukem Forever

I just found out that 3D Realms has shut down.

Duke Nukem Forever, in development for over 12 years has officially became Vaporware.

I only hope that Take-Two who has stated that they do retain the rights to Duke Nukem Forever will either finish developing the game or will make the code that they currently have Open Source so others can finish the game and release it.

I'll always remember Duke as being the Wise Cracking Smartass who I spent many hours with whipping up on Aliens and mutated monsters with.

RIP buddy, and save a table dance for me up in Video Game Character Heaven.