The Vision

This guide will help you do a full install of Mac OS X (10.4.5) on a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop. This is the second revision (1.1.1) of this document and I am sure there are errors and omissions. I have taken a lot of care to make sure it is accurate but I cannot be held responsible for any damage this can cause to either your laptop or the data contained on it. It is always advisable to have a current backup.

Download

Download the Myzar created release here (Magnet URI). Burn this image to a DVD.

Pre-Installation

You will need to create some free space on your drive before you can install Mac OS X. I have found that the minimum partition size is 4GB but I would recommend at least 6GB. Using a tools such as Partition Magic (commerial) or NTFS Resize (free) this can be done easily without data loss.

You now need to create a partition before you can install OS X. This process is destructive if you use the OS X Disk Utility so this needs to be done an alternative way. The prefered method is to use the Windows XP diskpart command (however other methods such as using Linux work just as well as long as you set the partition type to AF). At the command prompt type the following:

diskpart
select disk 0
create partition primary id=af
exit

You need to reboot for the changes to be activated.

Installation

Boot off the OS X installation CD. At the BIOS boot screen press F12 and select the CD drive.

Once the Darwin bootloader appears press any key to start the installation process. Loading the installation tool will take a few minutes. Choose the installation language and press the arrow button.

You should now see the main installer tool. Go to the utilities menu and select Disk Utility. This will allow us to format the partition we created earlier. On the left side you will see the drive installed. Underneath that you will see 2 partitions. The first one will be labeled disk0s1 and will be your Windows installation. The one below it labeled disk0s2 is your new partition you will be installing OS X to. Confirm that it is the correct partition by checking the capacity. If you have the Dell recovery partition on the drive there may be differences in the layout, just be careful which partition you select. Click the Erase tab on the right panel and enter a volume name (I recommend Macintosh HD which is the default for a new Apple computer). Then click the erase button. A confirmation dialog will appear warning you that all data on the partition will be destroyed. Click erase once you are ready to create the volume. Once that is complete go to the Disk Utility menu and Quit Disk Utility.

You will now be back at the original installer. Press the continue button. Click continue at the license agreement and press agree. You new volume should now be visible and should have a green arrow showing it is selected for the install. Press continue. You will now be able to configure the options (this allows you to reduce the install size). Press customize. For my installation I removed everything I felt was unnecessary. Deselect the following:

• Printer Drivers
• Additional Fonts
• Language Translations

I also expanded the OSX86 Hack Group and removed the AmdEnabler. This allows AMD based systems to work and since the Dell Inspiron 9300 uses a Pentium M chip, this is not needed.

Press Install to begin the file copying.This should take approximately 20 minutes so be prepared to wait. At the end of the instllation the system will reboot.

You should see the Darwin bootloader and shortly after OS X will start booting. With a bit of luck you should see the Welcome screen. Hopefully you will also hear the startup music (helps confirm that sound is working).

Configuration

Select the country you are in and press continue. This helps preselect other regional preferences.

At the Mac migration screen press continue to not transfer any information from an older Mac.

Choose your correct keyboard layout and press continue.

It is not necessary to create an Apple ID so press continue to skip this part.

At the Apple registration window, press “Alt Q” to exit the registration application. Press the skip button.

[Not certain if the following part is displayed. Can someone let me know what appears as the next step.]

You will now be prompted to create the first user account. You can accept the defaults for Name and Shortname or customise it to your preference. Please note that the Short Name will become the home directory name so having something shorter is going to make it easier later when you need to copy files from this directory. Enter your password too. Press continue when you are sure of your settings.

Select “I don’t want to purchase .Mac right now” and press continue.

Select “I don’t want to try .Mac right now” and press continue.

You should now see the completition window. Press Go to start OS X!

Security Update

If you keep waiting once the system has started you will eventually see a Software Update window otherwise you can select Software Update from the Apple menu. At this time, Mac OS X 10.4.6 update has not been fully patched to work and should not be installed.

Using Software Update, install all the items except the Mac OS X 10.4.6 update (currently 2). You will be prompted for your password to allow it to write to the system files. Agree to the license agreement. Approximate 50 meg will be downloaded so how long this process takes depends on the speed of your Internet connection. Once these updates have been installed you will be prompted to reboot.

There is a Security Update 002 that can downloaded from Apple’s site that does work. This update can be downloaded from this link. Since you have networking you can actually do this from within OS X using Safari otherwise you will need to transfer the file using another method such as USB or CD.

You will need the Maxxuss security update patch before you can install the patch otherwise the system will not boot. You can download this file from Maxxuss’s home page. Download this file to the desktop and double click the icon to unzip it. This will create a directory on the desktop called Maxxuss_SecUpd2006-001.

Open Macintosh HD and go to Applications and then Utilities. Find the Terminal icon and drag it into the system dock at the bottom. You will be using terminal a fair bit and this makes things easier having it in the dock.

Go back to the desktop and double click the Security Update icon that you previously downloaded from Apple’s site. This will create a drive on the desktop called Security Update 2006-002. It will also open a window in Finder with a package file. Double click the package file to start the installation wizard. Press continue to begin the installation. You will be prompted for your password to allow it to write to the system files. Agree to the license agreement. Once these updates have been installed you will be prompted to reboot.

Press Restart to complete the patching process. The system may hang so powering off the computer may be necessary. At the Darwin bootloader press the down arrow key and enter at the boot prompt: -s (this boots the system into single user mode).

We now need to apply the Maxxuss patch we previously extracted. Type the following commands:

fsck -fy
mount -uw /
cd /Users/(your short username)/Desktop/Maxxuss_SecUpd2006-001/Decrypted_Files
./replace.sh
update_prebinding -root / -force (this might take a few minutes)
shutdown -r now

Your OS X installation should now be at the most current update.

Video

The Dell Inspiron 9300 has 2 options for the LCD either 1920×1200 or 1440×900. It also has comes with either a Nvidia GeForce 6800 Go GPU or a ATI X300 GPU. Only the installation of the Nvidia drivers is going to be explained in my guide. If someone has an ATI X300 and can provide information on getting them to work, please provide me with that information and I will add it to this document.

The Nvidia drivers are very basic at this time and do not provide 2D acceleration or OpenGL. They only provide basic framebuffer support with resolution switching. To install them you will first need to download the drivers.

Extract this file to the desktop. Then open the Terminal and type the following commands:

sudo sh
(Enter your password)
cd /System/Library/Extensions
cp -R /users/(your short username)/Desktop/NVDriverBeta1Build4/N* .
cd /etc
nano -w rc

You are now in the editor and need to make some additions to the rc (boot) file. Add the following lines under the copyright notice:

kextload /System/Library/Extensions/NVidiaHAL.kext
kextload /System/Library/Extensions/NVDriver.kext

Press Control-X, Y and Enter to save the file.

We also need to add the Nvidia device id to the driver to allow it to be correctly matched. Type the following to find the device id:

ioreg -l grep 10de

You need to take note of the value after pci10de (it should be c8). We will need to add this to the HAL driver:

cd /System/Library/Extensions/NVidiaHAL.kext/Contents
nano -w Info.plist

Scroll down till you find the key IOPCIMatch. The line underneath will have the value 0×00f9 and this needs to be changed to 0×00c8 (this is the same value we found from the ioreg command).

Press Control-X, Y and Enter to save the file.

Restart the system to activate the driver. If the driver is working correctly, on restart you should have a small 800×600 windows with black borders. All we now need to do is change the resolution to the appropriate setting for the LCD.

Click on System Preferences in the dock and then select Displays. Select the correct resolution for the panel you own. The desktop should instantly fill the panel.

Please take note that if the LCD goes into to suspend mode, it will not wake up. These is a current driver limitation and should hopefully be fixed in future releases. For now, it is best to set the energy saving preferences to never.

Networking (Wired)

Working with extremely minor issues. If you boot into Windows and then restart into OS X there will be no networking cable detected. If you power off and start up from a cold boot, networking will work perfectly. Performance is excellent as well.

Networking (Wireless)

Wireless support does not work with the Intel based chipset (Intel Pro 2200 / 2915), it will only work with Broadcom (Dell Truemobile range) or Atheros based chipsets. I replaced my Intel wireless with the Broadcom 4306 Minipci adapter which I sourced from Ebay. The Dell Truemobile 1450 card is highly recommended and easy to acquire (as well as being cheap).
You can find out your device id by typing the following command:

ioreg -l | grep IOPCI | grep pci14e4

To configure the Broadcom adapter the following changes need to be made:

sudo sh
(Enter your password)
cd /System/Library/Extensions
cd IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext/Contents
nano -w Info.plist

Scroll down until you find a section called array. You will want to add a string line with the following details:

pci14e4,4320 (the value after the comma is the device id and will change depending on which Broadcom adapter you install)

Press Control-X, Y and Enter to save the file.

We must force an update to the kextache and the simplest way to do this is to type this command:

touch /System/Library/Extensions

Sound

Partial compatibility. Left and right speakers work. Subwoofer does not work. Microphone and headphone connectors also work.

DVD Drive

Full compatibility for both reading and writing.

Bluetooth

Works perfectly. No known issues.

Firewire

Works perfectly. No known issues.

Card Reader

No drivers at this time.

Power Management

Power management drivers are now available. You can download them from here. Extract the bundle to the desktop and then issue the follow commands in terminal.

sudo sh
(Enter your password)
cd /System/Library/SystemConfiguration
cp -R /users/(your short username)/Desktop/PowerManagement.bundle .

On the next reboot you will find a battery meter in the menu bar.

Trackpad

Advanced trackpad support is not working properly. Tapping can be configured using FFScroll (contains the ALPS GlidePad driver as well). Scrolling regions cannot be enabled at this time but it might be worth following the progress of an updated Side Tracker.

Post-Installation

You may have noticed that the Windows bootloader has been replaced by the Darwin bootloader. If you want to go back to your original setup, you need to change the active partition.

You firstly need to get a copy of the chain0 file. This is located in the directory /usr/standalone/i386. Copy the file to a USB flash disk or somewhere on the network.

Using the Darwin bootloader, select the Windows NTFS partition. Windows will start booting. Once Windows has loaded, right click on “My Computer” and select “Manage”. Click on “Disk Management” and right click the Windows XP partition. Select “Mark Partition as Active”.

Copy the chain0 file to the root level of the C: drive.

Right click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”. Go to the “Advanced” tab and in the “Startup and Recovery” section click “Settings”. Click the “Edit” button to make changes to the boot.ini. Add the following line at the bottom of the file:

C:\chain0=”Mac OS X”

When you reboot, you will have a boot menu that lets you select OS X.

Issues

There are some issues worth noting.

1. Safari sometimes crashes on sites that use Macromedia Flash. It is recommended that you disable flash or use an alternative browser such as Camino. This issue does not exist under Mac OS X 10.4.3.
2. Errors loading some kernel extensions. These errors are due to incompatible drivers. They can be ignored or removed (by deleteing the offending kext from the extensions folder).

Revisions

1.1.1 (9th April 2006)

• Added instructions for installing working power management drivers.

1.1 (8th April 2006)

• Updated Security Update section due to release of Mac OS X 10.4.6.
• Change process for creating the OS X partition such that the size parameter isn’t necessary.
• Updated Nvidia driver link to beta 1 build 5.
• Fixed Azuerues magnet link.

1.0 (1st April 2006)

• Initial Release.