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Successful install of Snow Leopard OSX on Dell 11z with OSX, Win 7 and Ubuntu (triple/quad boot or more)


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Finally I got my Dell 11z to boot Snow leapord successfully with full resolution 1366x768, wireless, touchpad.

I had been trying to find somewhere some doc to do this and never was able to find any which moved beyond a basic install with a lot of problems after that as well.

So here it is for pple who have been frustrated with 11z and not being able to run OSX on it.

 

The following worked

1. Proper resolution 1366x768

2. Wireless

3. Touchpad.

4. Webcam

and maybe other stuff as well.

 

Preliminary partitions and setup

 

Convert the drive to GPT and create partitions

  • boot off the Win7 media
  • once in the install, get a command prompt by hitting Shift-Fn-F10
  • run diskpart.exe to convert the drive to GPT and partition the drive - 3 partitions, with empty space at end for Ubuntu

  • list disk

  • select disk (your hard drive, should be 0)

  • clean

  • convert GPT

  • create partition EFI size=200

  • create partition primary size=(size in mb for OSX - mine was 50000 MB, of a 160 GB
    )

  • create partition primary size=(size in mb for Win7 - mine was 50000 MB, of a 160 GB HD)

  • create partition primary size=(size in mb for Ubuntu)

  • select partition 3

  • active

  • (a * should appear on the third partition, that's where you will install Win7 later)

  • format fs=ntfs quick

  • exit

Install OSX

 

  • Rebootgrey_loader.gif off the patched OSX USB
  • Use Disk Utility (from the tools menu) to "Erase" the OSX partition to HFS+ (Mac OS Journaled File System), name it OSX
  • Install OSX to this partition as follows

Please use the following guidelines which I tried. This is a process for installing netbook though it worked for me fine on 11z.

 

Main Steps:

1. You will need a machine with OSX working partially to patch.

2. Using the partially working OSX on the machine, you have to patch a USB which has the restored image of the SL DVD with the netbookmaker patch.

3. Finally install OSX using the USB.

 

This is what I did to get Snow leopard working on my Dell 11z.

 

1. You need a retail Snow Leopard DVD. Just buy it, it's only $29.

2. Use ISO image to create your boot cd at osx86svboot.iso.zip . Create an ISO image onto a DVD/CD and use it to boot the OSX install DVD so you can install from it. The OSX DVD doesnt boot directly off the DVD drive. We need to use the boot DVD and then select install and insert the OSX install DVD.

3. Once your in, do the partitioning in your hard drive and install OSX. It will terminate with an Install failure. This is what happened for me.

4. Just restart the machine. You should use the PsyStar ISO which you downloaded(osx86svboot) to initially boot and then select the newly installed snow leopard on your machine.

5. Sometimes it might not load proper. Restart and try.

 

 

6. Once your logged in. You should see that the resolution is 1024x768 or something. Wide and not very impressive. This is just going to help us to patch the USB with SL later.

7. Once your logged in you can use the Disk Utility and then click on restore and select the SL DVD for source and the USB for destination. This will create a installer USB with the ISO image of the DVD.

8. Download NetBootMaker from here: Downloads - netbook-installer - Project Hosting on Google Code Get the latest version

9. Run NetBootMaker on your current Leopard install (or any working Mac). It will ask you for a volume to patch, pick the USB device you restored the SL DVD to. It will create a patched install you can use to install SL.

 

 

10. Boot from your patched USB volume. Don't boot it from Chameleon, it will panic. Hit ESC at boot and pick the USB drive from the list.

11. I completely wiped my drive (EFI partition too) by running Disk Utility and re-partitioning the drive (still as single partition GUID). I just wanted to do this to make sure nothing was left over from Leopard. You probably should too. You made backups, right?

12. Install Snow Leopard removing the older one which you installed temporarily for patching the OSX on the USB.

14. SL installs and should show successful install and restart.

15. At this point you should be able to boot from your machine with the new install which has proper display, wifi, mouse etc . At times it hangs. Oops. Restart and try. Will need to find out why?

The bootloader was properly installed and was able to boot into the installed OSX volume without any problems. If you have any issues, you might need to try to do this.

 

You might need to try out the following as well, but it was working fine for me. This helps you to have a bootloader in place. Will update as I do it and test it out.

1. Now you have a full SL install on your boot volume, but no bootloader. Reboot from your USB device again. In the Utilities menu of the installer, you'll see "NetBookInstaller". Run it. Ignore the "unsupported" warning.

2. Uncheck everything but "Install Chameleon" and "Install General extensions". The "General Extensions" are the graphics, bluetooth, trackpad etc. drivers, so you needn't worry about installing them.

3. Boot into SL. Everything should work except sound, speed-stepping and Ethernet. You can install the drivers for those (the same ones we've been using: VoodooHDA, VoodooPower, AttansicL1, etc.) using Kext Helper (I was not able to get installing them to /Extra to work).

 

When I checked what the display has been recognized or used, its GMA950 instead of GMA4500. As you know we patched, so I think the GMA950 driver used there also works on GMA4500 as well. Dont know what problems it has on the hardware if there is. So we have proper resolution anyway.

Please note that this is the process I used and it worked for me. Use this at your own risk.

 

NOTE: At times OSX didnt boot off and the gray screen to shutdown and restart turned up. Usually when you have a proper boot loader in place I think it should work perfectly. If your trying out with the installation only, then when you try to use -v at the boot prompt it boots proper. Oops I dont know why? Maybe the fix should be setting up a proper boot loader.

 

Once OSX is in place.

 

Install Windows.

 

  • Boot from win 7 media
  • Install on the NTFS drive

This will over write the MBR. Just keep going

 

Install Ubuntu

  • Boot from the Ubuntu media
  • Choose the option to install on the unused portion of the disk on sda4 with ext4 and also create the swap partition. Usually I have swap set to twice the physical memory. In my case I set it to 8 GB.
  • While selecting the installation, select Advance and select the partition where linux is installed to be the location where GRUB will be installed. In my case /dev/sda4

Create the hybrid mbrgrey_loader.gif

 

  • sudo apt-get install gptsync [it's not on the install image]
  • sudo gptsync [recreates the hybrid mbr]
  • At this point it will reorganize the partition and partitions beyond 4 will not show up. Just go for it. Things will be handled by grub to boot into the partition.

Reboot to win7 media to fix the windows install

  • boot from your win7 install stick
  • enter CMD by hitting SHIFT-FN-F10
  • use diskpart to set the active partition back to windows partition (3)
    • diskpart.exe
    • select disk 0
    • select partition 3
    • active
    • exit

    [*] in win7 install program, choose the repair option -- with the MBR restored (when we used gptsync) and windows as the active partition, it should find the install and repair it

    [*] it wants to reboot, so i let it, and verified that windows was working

    [*] reboot again from win7 install stick

    [*] use diskpart to set active partition back to the osx partition

    • diskpart.exe
    • select disk 0
    • select partition 2
    • active
    • exit and close windows installer and restart

You should be able to boot from chameleon into OSX, Win and Linux

For me when I tried to directly boot into OSX, it turned out with the gray screen to put the machine off and restart again. But when you give the -v at the boot prompt for your osx boot, it works fine in all cases. I dont know why. Need to figure it out.

 

NOTE: You can also install more than 3 OS's with the above procedure. I installed two different versions of linux which had 4 different OS and was able to boot off into each. The only issue is you cannot boot beyond the 4th partition from chameleon. But GRUB comes to rescue and its cool that you can boot from that to the 5th Partition. Also I installed Ubuntu 10.04 and I was able to boot into OSX from grub itself. So this means you can install grub on the first disk and boot into all the OS's from grub itself. I did not try this practically thou. One hunch for me is, that the boot loader which OSX installs out of the patched USB helps to setup the display, wireless etc proper I think. I am just experimenting now. Please post your findings as well.

 

IMPORTANT NOTES:

0. Partition 1 with be the EFI partition.

1. You should install Ubuntu in the 4th partition which will help you to boot other OS's beyond partition 5. The sequence of installs will be as follows

a. Install OSX on partition 2

b. Install Windows on partition 3

c. Install 4th OS maybe linux 9.04 on partition 5

d. Install ubuntu on partition 4 which will install grub and allow for booting into the OS on the 4th partition.

e. Keep this in sync with ref to the process outlined above.

 

Enjoy

 

Hope this helps everyone.

 

Parts of the process above has been tried out and taken from other resources on the web and then changed according to my installation process which finally worked.

 

Once OSX is in place.

 

Install Windows.

 

  • Boot from win 7 media
  • Install on the NTFS drive

This will over write the MBR. Just keep going

 

Install Ubuntu

  • Boot from the Ubuntu media
  • Choose the option to install on the unused portion of the disk on sda4 with ext4 and also create the swap partition. Usually I have swap set to twice the physical memory. In my case I set it to 8 GB.
  • While selecting the installation, select Advance and select the partition where linux is installed to be the location where GRUB will be installed. In my case /dev/sda4

Create the hybrid mbrgrey_loader.gif

 

  • sudo apt-get install gptsync [it's not on the install image]
  • sudo gptsync [recreates the hybrid mbr]
  • At this point it will reorganize the partition and partitions beyond 4 will not show up. Just go for it. Things will be handled by grub to boot into the partition.

Reboot to win7 media to fix the windows install

  • boot from your win7 install DVD
  • enter CMD by hitting SHIFT-FN-F10
  • use diskpart to set the active partition back to windows partition (3)
    • diskpart.exe
    • select disk 0
    • select partition 3
    • active
    • exit

    [*] in win7 install program, choose the repair option -- with the MBR restored (when we used gptsync) and windows as the active partition, it should find the install and repair it

    [*] it wants to reboot, so i let it, and verified that windows was working

    [*] reboot again from win7 install DVD

    [*] use diskpart to set active partition back to the osx partition

    • diskpart.exe
    • select disk 0
    • select partition 2
    • active
    • exit and close windows installer and restart

You should be able to boot from chameleon into OSX, Win and Linux

For me when I tried to directly boot into OSX, it turned out with the gray screen to put the machine off and restart again. But when you give the -v at the boot prompt for your osx boot, it works fine in all cases. I dont know why. Need to figure it out.

 

NOTE: You can also install more than 3 OS's with the above procedure. I installed two different versions of linux which had 4 different OS and was able to boot off into each. The only issue is you cannot boot beyond the 4th partition from chameleon. But GRUB comes to rescue and its cool that you can boot from that to the 5th Partition. Also I installed Ubuntu 10.04 and I was able to boot into OSX from grub itself. So this means you can install grub on the first disk and boot into all the OS's from grub itself. I did not try this practically thou. One hunch for me is, that the boot loader which OSX installs out of the patched USB helps to setup the display, wireless etc proper I think. I am just experimenting now. Please post your findings as well.

 

IMPORTANT NOTES:

0. Partition 1 with be the EFI partition.

1. You should install Ubuntu in the 4th partition which will help you to boot other OS's beyond partition 5. The sequence of installs will be as follows

a. Install OSX on partition 2

b. Install Windows on partition 3

c. Install 4th OS maybe linux 9.04 on partition 5

d. Install ubuntu on partition 4 which will install grub and allow for booting into the OS on the 4th partition.

e. Keep this in sync with ref to the process outlined above.

 

Enjoy

 

Hope this helps everyone.

 

Parts of the process above has been tried out and taken from other resources on the web and then changed according to my installation process which finally worked.

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