Audio Fix
I got the audio working on my dualboot Eee PC, so that completes all of the compatible components. All it took was a program called Audieee, which can be downloaded here.
Software
Most of my standard programs work and at decent speeds. So far, I installed:
- OpenOffice.org
- Firefox
- Filezilla
- Eclipse IDE
- iPhone SDK / iPhone Simulator
- Google SketchUp
- Adobe Reader
- DivX Player
Accessories
All of my accessories work as well:
- Mimo 7" monitor (via DisplayLink driver)
- Ext. hard drive for Time Machine (Essential when experimenting with kexts because you'll come across kernel panics)
- Gigaware wireless laser mouse
- The trackpad works just like a Macbook Pro one except the hardware doesn't physically depress
I'm pretty happy with the system right now even without wireless. I installed EasyTether so I can tether with my HTC Incredible, but haven't tested it yet. I'll stick with my current setup unless I get an urge to do a hardware swap with the internal WLAN!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
OS X on Eee PC 1000HE
Intro.
Back when I bought the Eee PC 1000HE, one of the things I had in mind was setting up a dual boot with Mac OS X. I already read that it was one of the more compatible netbooks, so that weighed in on my decision. Naturally, I didn't want to do it right away in case it destroyed the netbook. Now, it's about 2 years later and I could risk factory resetting the netbook as a worst case scenario. I decided to document this project because the whole process is very sensitive to your exact system and all of its components. Not even 2 Eee PC 1000HE's are alike. This guide is generally for those who bought this model when it first came out. I read a lot of documentation and didn't end up using any of them 100%, so this post just outlines my path.
General Info.
There are 2 main methods to getting OS X on to a PC. The first is to do the full install from a real Apple system and target an external drive. Then you modify files on that drive and image the entire thing to your PC. The second method is to make a copy of the Mac OS X installer DVD and modify files on the copy. For this project, I went with method #2, using the iDeneb built installer.
Materials
- iDeneb 10.5.7 burned to a DVD
- External DVD drive
- External keyboard & mouse (just in case)
- 10.5.8 Fixes (click here)
- VoodooPS2Controller (click here)
- Kext Helper (click here)
Setting Up the Eee PC
The Eee PC 1000HE came with a 160 GB HDD. The main partition for Windows is ~85 GB. Then there's a 5 GB one for the system restore and a 45 MB one for ASUS's fast boot. Those 3 should not be touched. The data drive, is ~65 GB, so that's the one we'll wipe. You must use the full capacity of this drive because you can only have 4 primary partitions and 3 are already used up. I originally wanted to have OS X take up 25 GB, but then I'd lose the 30 GB to limbo.
1) Boot up Windows like you normally would.
2) Go into Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management
3) Select Disk Management. Delete the data drive and create a Primary Partition. Don't format it or give it a drive letter.
Installing OS X 10.5.7
4) Connect your external DVD drive and pop in the iDeneb 10.5.7 disc.
5) If your system is not already set to boot from DVD, keep hitting F2 as the system starts so you can get into the BIOS.
6) Change the boot order to boot from DVD first, save and exit.
7) The installer will take a long time to load. Remember, we're trying to put this into a 1.6 Atom netbook when it's normally getting installed on a Core 2 Duo or higher!
8) Once the installer starts up, go to Utilities -> Disk Utility
9) Select the partition you just created in Windows. Format it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This should take less than a minute.
10) Quit Disk Utility and go ahead with the installation. Read the terms and agree. Then be sure to click on the "Customize" button. If you don't do this, it WILL NOT work!
11) In the custom menu, choose:
- Chipset -> ICHx Fixed
- Fix -> ACPI Fix (there are 2 items), Cpus=1 Fix, FireWire Remove and PowerOff Fix
- Video -> Intel -> Intel GMA950
12) Now you can go ahead with the installation. It's going to look slow in the beginning as it estimates 3 hours. Later on, it will quickly reduce to 1 hour and then get stuck on 1 minute for like 10 minutes, but the whole thing takes less than an hour.
13) You system will reboot when done and go right into OS X. You'll see the Leopard intro. video. I've done this many times and it has about a 50% chance of detecting the keyboard. Have your external keyboard and mouse ready just in case.
14) Now you should have a working OS X, possibly without keyboard and mouse. It didn't seem like anyone else ran into this problem, but I got it fairly consistently.
Update to 10.5.8
15) By default, the root account is disabled. You need to enable this in order to install kexts. In Finder, go to Go -> Utilities.
16) Open Directory Utility. Unlock the padlock icon.
17) Go to Edit -> Enable Root User and create a password.
18) Lock the padlock icon.
19) Install Kext Helper. This will be useful for the future as well.
20) Doing the next Apple Update to 10.5.8 is safe. Go ahead and install all 6 of the updates.
21) After rebooting, your resolution will get downgraded to 800x600 stretched. Open up Kext Helper.
22) Drag all of the .kext items (they're in various folders) from Thireus' 10.5.8 Fixes to Kext Helper. Type in the root password and install.
23) Reboot and your resolution will be back to 1024x600.
24) If your keyboard and trackpad still don't work, go into System/Library/Extensions and delete anything that looks like "ApplePS2" or "PS2Nub" as well as "ACPI4ASUS"
25) Install VoodooPS2Controller and reboot.
Fin
I'm still figuring out the sound issue, but my model cannot have wi-fi working because the first release of the 1000HE uses Atheros/Azurewave, which is not supported at all. A later release of the same laptop uses Ralink, which will work. So at the end, I have a pretty functional OS X netbook. It works a lot faster than I thought it would too.
Note: For future Apple Updates, it's safe to install software updates like iTunes, Safari and Quicktime, but DO NOT select the security updates. You'll risk kernel panic and have to start over from Step #1!
Back when I bought the Eee PC 1000HE, one of the things I had in mind was setting up a dual boot with Mac OS X. I already read that it was one of the more compatible netbooks, so that weighed in on my decision. Naturally, I didn't want to do it right away in case it destroyed the netbook. Now, it's about 2 years later and I could risk factory resetting the netbook as a worst case scenario. I decided to document this project because the whole process is very sensitive to your exact system and all of its components. Not even 2 Eee PC 1000HE's are alike. This guide is generally for those who bought this model when it first came out. I read a lot of documentation and didn't end up using any of them 100%, so this post just outlines my path.
General Info.
There are 2 main methods to getting OS X on to a PC. The first is to do the full install from a real Apple system and target an external drive. Then you modify files on that drive and image the entire thing to your PC. The second method is to make a copy of the Mac OS X installer DVD and modify files on the copy. For this project, I went with method #2, using the iDeneb built installer.
Materials
- iDeneb 10.5.7 burned to a DVD
- External DVD drive
- External keyboard & mouse (just in case)
- 10.5.8 Fixes (click here)
- VoodooPS2Controller (click here)
- Kext Helper (click here)
Setting Up the Eee PC
The Eee PC 1000HE came with a 160 GB HDD. The main partition for Windows is ~85 GB. Then there's a 5 GB one for the system restore and a 45 MB one for ASUS's fast boot. Those 3 should not be touched. The data drive, is ~65 GB, so that's the one we'll wipe. You must use the full capacity of this drive because you can only have 4 primary partitions and 3 are already used up. I originally wanted to have OS X take up 25 GB, but then I'd lose the 30 GB to limbo.
1) Boot up Windows like you normally would.
2) Go into Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management
3) Select Disk Management. Delete the data drive and create a Primary Partition. Don't format it or give it a drive letter.
Installing OS X 10.5.7
4) Connect your external DVD drive and pop in the iDeneb 10.5.7 disc.
5) If your system is not already set to boot from DVD, keep hitting F2 as the system starts so you can get into the BIOS.
6) Change the boot order to boot from DVD first, save and exit.
7) The installer will take a long time to load. Remember, we're trying to put this into a 1.6 Atom netbook when it's normally getting installed on a Core 2 Duo or higher!
8) Once the installer starts up, go to Utilities -> Disk Utility
9) Select the partition you just created in Windows. Format it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This should take less than a minute.
10) Quit Disk Utility and go ahead with the installation. Read the terms and agree. Then be sure to click on the "Customize" button. If you don't do this, it WILL NOT work!
11) In the custom menu, choose:
- Chipset -> ICHx Fixed
- Fix -> ACPI Fix (there are 2 items), Cpus=1 Fix, FireWire Remove and PowerOff Fix
- Video -> Intel -> Intel GMA950
12) Now you can go ahead with the installation. It's going to look slow in the beginning as it estimates 3 hours. Later on, it will quickly reduce to 1 hour and then get stuck on 1 minute for like 10 minutes, but the whole thing takes less than an hour.
13) You system will reboot when done and go right into OS X. You'll see the Leopard intro. video. I've done this many times and it has about a 50% chance of detecting the keyboard. Have your external keyboard and mouse ready just in case.
14) Now you should have a working OS X, possibly without keyboard and mouse. It didn't seem like anyone else ran into this problem, but I got it fairly consistently.
Update to 10.5.8
15) By default, the root account is disabled. You need to enable this in order to install kexts. In Finder, go to Go -> Utilities.
16) Open Directory Utility. Unlock the padlock icon.
17) Go to Edit -> Enable Root User and create a password.
18) Lock the padlock icon.
19) Install Kext Helper. This will be useful for the future as well.
20) Doing the next Apple Update to 10.5.8 is safe. Go ahead and install all 6 of the updates.
21) After rebooting, your resolution will get downgraded to 800x600 stretched. Open up Kext Helper.
22) Drag all of the .kext items (they're in various folders) from Thireus' 10.5.8 Fixes to Kext Helper. Type in the root password and install.
23) Reboot and your resolution will be back to 1024x600.
24) If your keyboard and trackpad still don't work, go into System/Library/Extensions and delete anything that looks like "ApplePS2" or "PS2Nub" as well as "ACPI4ASUS"
25) Install VoodooPS2Controller and reboot.
Fin
I'm still figuring out the sound issue, but my model cannot have wi-fi working because the first release of the 1000HE uses Atheros/Azurewave, which is not supported at all. A later release of the same laptop uses Ralink, which will work. So at the end, I have a pretty functional OS X netbook. It works a lot faster than I thought it would too.
Note: For future Apple Updates, it's safe to install software updates like iTunes, Safari and Quicktime, but DO NOT select the security updates. You'll risk kernel panic and have to start over from Step #1!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
CNY Parade in Flushing
The Chinese New Year celebrations got stretched out this year because the holiday fell in the middle of the week. So people went out to eat the weekend before as well as the weekend after. Last weekend, Manhattan's Chinatown had their parade. Today was the Flushing parade to make the 3rd weekend of celebration. The weather cooperated, so I went to check it out. Please visit the Picasa album below for more details:
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Glazed Snow
New York has been covered by snow since Christmas. There were piles varying from 2-5ft from 2 large snowstorms. Earlier this week, the piles were glazed over by an icestorm, leaving a nice transparent layer over the white snow. It looks especially nice on the untouched, natural piles. I took some pictures by the park on the way to work yesterday and then some more today around the house:
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
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