lenovo 3000 c100: adventures in installing osx86

[guyin916]

i originally posted this topic:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=17743

 

i knew i did not burn a {censored} dvd. i burned quite a few believing what everyone told me. then just by luck, i slipped the dvd into my dad's centrino thinkpad (855 chipset, i believe). it booted right up, no questions asked. i even tried the older dvd's i burned. lo and behold, they all booted. it just irritates me when everyone automatically assumes a bad burn. anyways.... so i put my laptop into my dad's laptop. it uses a simlar caddy that my lenovo uses. booted the jas 10.4.6 dvd. i already had a convenient 12 gig partition available with ntfs format. it was an official beta of windows vista. i happened to be one of the beta testers. a bit too unstable for my taste. anyways, so with a 12 gig partition ready to go, i used disk utility to erase that partition and set it to the osx journaled format. i then did a custom install. removed printer drivers (cuz i knew i was going to use gimp) and a few other things. install went fine then i got an HFS+ partition error on the reboot. i got scared! i was about to {censored} :censored2: in my pants and do a reformat. luckily i just got done doing a boot sector restore via the vista dvd to get rid of the vista boot menu. i used the same method and restored the boot partition to the ntfs partition. then i took the chain0 from the osx dvd and set it to the NTFS root drive and modded the boot.ini. reboot, chain0 boot, then it still booted to windows xp. i was getting scared, intimidated, etc etc. then i rebooted and noticed it was a secondary boot loader. i peeped a second time and the default boot was "NTFS Partition".. i selected osx86. booted into the blue screen. i was getting scared, intimidated, etc etc again. then i thought "gma900" drivers. i did a search. i modified the files, still no go! well, i then starting reading the tread and :censored2: {censored} :censored2: it was for 10.4.1... then i read another thread and followed the directions. :censored2: {censored} :censored2: it was for 10.4.3!!! then i read, i did not need to change anything! i did not back up my files!! but i remembered that pacifist comes in handy =) i was a beige g3 owner and am a mac mini g4 owner. i know about pacifist. i restored the drivers. still, blue screen. then i read about the dual monitor mod. well, the external monitor would not come online. pissing me off! so i did the pin mod 6 and 12 and the other 2. good ol' staples from the electric stapler!

 

reboot, bam! a familiar desktop! score! then i wanted sound working. well, i did a bunch of modding to the files again and the whole time, it worked till i modded it. pacifist to the rescue! restore! bam! the volume was fairly low. it actually worked straight out of the box.

 

tackling airport was a different story. i have a broadcom 4230 i think. it did not work out of the box. i went through the same hassle of 10.4.1, 10.4.3, and 10.4.5 tutorial hassles again. this was not cool. pacifist to the rescue! finally got the corrent file loaded, repaired permissions, and didn't even have to mod the networkinterface file.

 

so what's next?

 

wine install, etc

 

after that? well, i currently have a celeron m 1.5 ghz, 1.25gb ram, 40gb hd 4500 rpm, cd/dvd combo drive, no bluetooth. i plan to upgrade with a pentium m 1.5ghz 2 meg cache (celeron m only has 512k i think) and over clock to to around 2.1ghz with the pin mod, 1.5gb of ram, 80gb hd 5400 rpms (7200+ is too loud for my tastes), lg internal dvd burner (it's from a gateway, but i'M hoping all LG internal drives have the same faceplate mounting, otherwise it's the glue gun mounting!!), and possibly bluetooth (i have the lenovo/ibm part numbers for it... i prefer internal bluetooth).

 

the cpu is costing me 26 bucks shipped via ebay! it's a system pull. the dvd burner i'm getting for 35 bucks! i'm trying to score on a 80 gig hd 5400 rpm and 8 meg cache. almost got one new for 50 bucks ebay.. but got outbid for 56 bucks.

 

so 61 bucks for the cpu and burner... another 80 for the hd (worse case scenario)... 141 bucks.. i originally got this laptop for 150 bucks brand new (i know how to get good deals). not bad, eh?

 

current configuration i get about 45.78 xbench. w/ qe2x and w/o beamsync, i get 60.36. my mac mini g4 1.2ghz@1.42ghz got 41.0x..... just for comparison. i can't wait for the cpu, ram, and hard drive upgrade. this {censored} is going to be screaming!

 

-p

[guyin916]

hope my insults and vulgarity didn't hurt anyones' feelings. :-/

[Katch]

Just gonna add a few word here for the sake of clarity. I have just picked up a Lenovo C100 ( nice lappy btw ) and looked to get OSx86 up and running on it. I hit some serious difficulties straight away, and this thread did little to help.

 

 

So lets clear things up a bit.

 

For whatever reason this laptop doesn't like booting off the JaS install DVDs. I could get an installation running in VMWare but it would not go native. So here's what I did.

 

 

I made the initial installation by putting my hard drive into a friends Toshiba laptop which booted the DVD and installed no problems. I imagine you could get similar results using a 2.5 - 3.5 hdd ide converter and putting the drive into a desktop.

 

When installing make sure to select the SSE2 patch - Intel base system decrypts and GMA 900 support.

 

After the installation completes power off the computer you are using before the first reboot. Put the drive back in your c100.

 

Next I installed XP in another partition and set aside a small 1.5gb partition in fat32 for Boot Magic and swap files. Completed the XP installation and set up boot magic to have XP and OSx86 options.

 

Reboot and choose OSx86...

 

 

As with many GMA 900 based laptops you'll need to connect an external monitor - or make a small short between pins 2 and 12 on the external vga dsub to allow it to boot to the desktop.

 

 

To get my WiFi working i needed to edit my

 

/system/library/extentions/IO80112Family.kext/contents/plugins/appleairportbrcm4311.kext/contents/info.plist

 

I checked my WiFi's Dev id in XP and found it to be a 4319 chipset, I changed one of the device strings to match this.

 

<string>pci14e4,4319</string>

 

Repair permissions using the disk utility and reboot.

 

Next I had to edit /library/preferences/systemconfiguration/networkinterfaces.plist

 

I needed to change the first block so that en0 became en1 and interger 0 became 1;

 

I also needed to change the second block from en1 and interger 1 to en2 and interger 2.

 

Another repair and reboot. WiFi now works.

 

Everthing else seems to work out of the box. Audio, blue tooth - touchpad etc.

 

 

I will write out a more comprehensive guide soon and add it to the Wiki, but for now, I hope this helps a little.

[guyin916]

not that i use the modem, but it fails to load ;-) what is your lenovo product id number? mine is a 0761-22u.... i'm upgrading the cpu to a pentium m 715 1.5ghz overclocked to be a pentium m 760 2.0 ghz. i already installed a dvd-burner.. i went with a Hitachi/LG GWA-4082N.. i was able to swap faceplates. it looks stock. it was a system pull from a gateway notebook.... got it for 25+shipping off ebay. also got the pentium m 715 for 20+ shipping off ebay. it too was a system pull. glad to hear you having great luck in getting your lenovo c100 up and running with osx86.

[GBK.Xscape]

dont feel special that you are one of the beta testers of vista. you and thousands more are. me included.

[Katch]

not that i use the modem, but it fails to load ;-) what is your lenovo product id number? mine is a 0761-22u.... i'm upgrading the cpu to a pentium m 715 1.5ghz overclocked to be a pentium m 760 2.0 ghz. i already installed a dvd-burner.. i went with a Hitachi/LG GWA-4082N.. i was able to swap faceplates. it looks stock. it was a system pull from a gateway notebook.... got it for 25+shipping off ebay. also got the pentium m 715 for 20+ shipping off ebay. it too was a system pull. glad to hear you having great luck in getting your lenovo c100 up and running with osx86.

 

I have the modem disabled in my BIOS so haven't checked it out, but I imagine it is a Winmodem and therefore unlikely to ever work under OSx86.

 

Haven't got round to picking up a DVD burner yet, so thanks for the compatibility heads up on the 4082N.

 

Out of curiosity how do you go about modding the 715 to get it up to 2GHz?

 

- - Oh yeah and at the poster above, what purpose does your post serve... none. If you have nothing constructive to add to this discussion, troll somewhere else.

[guyin916]

my point with having vista installed was that i was able to wipe out that partition and installed OSX86.. anyways.....

 

to get the 715 up to 2.0ghz, it's a simple pinmod. Pin Modding and Overclocking a Pentium M Guide

 

the author of that thread used a 725 cpu. i went with 715 to maximize my chances of success.

 

and with the dvd burner, i had to remove the gateway notebook interface. i slipped on the lenovo faceplate and backing, and everything bolted in place. i am able to burn under osx86 with patchburn 3.0 =)

 

so which lenovo do you have? i'm a bit curious =)

[Katch]

Mine is an 0761-3EG - Basic cheapo 1.5 Celeron - 256mb 40gb affair.

 

Popped in a 1gb sodimm and have a Pentium M 740 1.73GHz waiting to go in.

 

 

I've been modding and hacking Thinkpads for years now and this is my first Lenovo own brand. Have to admit, for the cost, I'm very impressed. Only complaint is the LCD isn't that great (but what do you expect for less than $600)

[guyin916]

also, sometimes you can get lucky on ebay with the gwa-4082n ;-)

 

if you're daring, get this 1.7ghz cpu 400fsb: http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Pentium-M-CPU-1-...1QQcmdZViewItem

[guyin916]

Mine is an 0761-3EG - Basic cheapo 1.5 Celeron - 256mb 40gb affair.

 

Popped in a 1gb sodimm and have a Pentium M 740 1.73GHz waiting to go in.

I've been modding and hacking Thinkpads for years now and this is my first Lenovo own brand. Have to admit, for the cost, I'm very impressed. Only complaint is the LCD isn't that great (but what do you expect for less than $600)

 

i agree with you with the lcd. i hooked up my lenovo to a 56" samsung hdtv dlp the other day. xp home wouldn't let me do widescreen. osx86 did widescreen no prob.. *shrugs*.. so you have like the same model as mine. your HD should be 5400 rpms though. it's standard on the lenovos. you can get the service manual on how to r&r your cpu. both of us are lucky that our laptops are sonoma chipsets. there is actually a centrino c100 3000 out there. only difference is the cpu (pentium m) and wireless minipci (intel). it's a great laptop. glad i scored on a 100 gig hard drive for 70 bucks on ebay (with 4 years left on the warranty. =)

[Katch]

Yeah hdd is 5400 Seagate momentus 8mb cache. Makes the OS really snappy, its the same drive I was using in my last Thinkpad.

 

First thing I did when I took delivery of my Laptop was take it to pieces. What I always loved about Thinkpads was how easy to take apart and service they were. This Lenovo hasn't disappointed in that respect. I'm really tempted to try that Pin Mod on this Celeron and see if it goes up to 2GHz...

 

My upgrade list consists of a new Hdd (5400 rpm not 7200) 120gb or 160gb dependant on how cheap i can find one.

 

Another piece of 1gb sodimm to max that out and a DVD/RW drive.

 

I guess I'll also look into what the fastest processor I can squeeze in reliably. Looking at the pin mod, looks like 735 or 745 may be in order.

 

After replacing the DVD drive will your laptop now boot the JaS OSx86 DVD, I'm hoping the problems are related to the drive rather than the ide controller.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

With it being a new laptop there is very little info up online at the moment. Seems like you're a like minded guy, maybe we can put some stuff together for the Wiki and maybe some things in the C100 forum over at thinkpads.com.

 

I have linux up and running no problems as well as OSx86 - XP and Vista. All seem to run surprisingly well.

 

My big issue at the moment is the BIOS restricted MiniPCI wireless adapter. For most Linux functionality (especially pentesting) you need either an Atheros, Hermes II, Prism or Ralink chipset card (with Atheros or Ralink being at the top of the list).

 

I have MiniPCI variants of all these chipsets but Lenovo has locked down the BIOS so the laptop will not power up if it detects an unsupported card. The one supplied with my Laptop is based on a Broadcom chipset, which is the absolute worst card for Linux with no native support ( have to use ndiswrapper and windows drivers ).

 

I should be able to fiddle the bios, but at the moment I can't even get an extracted version out of the 512 ROM.

[guyin916]

just a quick note. i installed dapper on the laptop when i wiped the ibm partition =) i followed the directions on their website and worked natively like a charm!! =) i plan to order the bluetooth option from lenovo.. it used to be ~60 bucks.. now it's 36 bucks! that's interesting that you found out the minipci adapter is locked down. their centrino adapter should work, but big bucks i'm sure! i should try booting the osx86 dvd sometime on the new drive. i assume you have the cdr/dvd hitachi/lg drive.

 

oh, and i can say firewire works on osx86 also! =)

[JaS]

I am glad to see its working for you , Even if you had to do some tweeks .

[Katch]

My Bluetooth worked 'out of the box'

[guyin916]

My Bluetooth worked 'out of the box'

 

my model didn't come with bluetooth =[

[Katch]

So, the Pin Mod definitely doesn't work on 400MHz bus Celeron chips, put the mod in 3 times with three different guage wires from copper to gold lab.

 

Another question, have you found any application in OSX or XP (or Linux) that will report the CPU diode temperature? Speedfan and mobile monitor only find the Hdd SMART diode and report nothing for CPU core temps.

[guyin916]

i have had no luck whatsoever. tomorrow will be the day when i replace my cpu. i hope the pinmod will work. i will be taping the project for my silent film project. how long did it take you to do the cpu mods?

 

-p

[Katch]

matter of minutes - its so easy taking these laptops apart. Still haven't got a replacement CPU for mine - the SL7SA 1.73 I got sent was faulty and returned. The Cel 1.5 does for the mo but i have my eye on a 1.6GHz 400MHz bus SL7EG that I may play with.

 

Very interested to hear how you pin mod goes. Let me know as soon as you have any results.

[guyin916]

it was unsuccessful. the pentium m 1.5 dothan only turned on for a few mil'seconds. it didn't boot with or without the pin mod. ugh. is lenovo locking cpus now?

[Katch]

Hmmm, interesting. Have you been able to test the CPU in another system to ensure its not damaged...?

[guyin916]

Hmmm, interesting. Have you been able to test the CPU in another system to ensure its not damaged...?

 

no. i am going to write the ebay seller who sold it to me. it's passed the DOA refund, but i'll let him know it's a {censored} cpu =)

[guyin916]

I hit some serious difficulties straight away, and this thread did little to help.

 

wow. i just noticed that comment. that burns deep down. but it's my bad in doing more bashing than being technical in my post. at least i narrowed down the initial problem.

 

-p

[Katch]

Its not really a dig at you, just the post is very dense and leaves out some details. It certainly put me on the right track, but could have made things more clear.

[Katch]

Hmmm only turning on for a second.. the fan spins up then nothing? Thats what my C100 did with an unsupported WiFi Card installed...

 

Possibly only the supported CPUs will work, 740 - 750 -760 etc

 

I'm trying to get the BIOS taken to pieces at the moment to find out what Mini PCI cards are on the whitelist - it may be possible to add CPU microcodes to the BIOS image.

 

I have a 1.6 400MHz P-M turning up tomorrow, if it does the same as your 1.5 we'll have our answer.

[Katch]

My 1.6GHz SL7EG works fine. Will try the Pin mod later.

 

EDIT -

 

Pin mod unsucessful. Reboots before bootloader at default voltage. BSODs during XP is loading at VID0 and VID1. Didn't want to try it any higher... but may get bored and try VID2 at some point.