[GUIDE] Retail Snow Leopard 10.6.1 Install on Asus Eee PC 1000HE

[Little MacEEE]

This guide explains how I installed Mac OS X 10.6.1 onto my Asus Eee PC 1000HE

 

UPDATE: Wireless now working flawlessly, see note at end.

 

Just three weeks ago my 1000he arrived, bought with every intention of putting mac os x onto it. I have been successful! The only thing that is failing is sleep—it works (usually) if I quit all applications and wait patiently for the hard drive light to stop flickering. Sometimes it even works if I have applications running, but it's far from reliable and is prone to kernel panic. HOWEVER, restart, shut down, bluetooth, ethernet, AND wireless are all working flawlessly, with the exception of wireless which sometimes fails (I'll click a link and it will say "loading" but no new page will load) and all I have to do is switch the connection in Ralink Wireless Utility off and on quickly and it pops right back.

 

I'm far from experienced in computing. So for the sake of others like myself, I'd like to list the steps I took to get to where I am right now for those who might be less than savvy with computers, and I may be able to solve some problems with the process. I don't mean to steal the hard work of others who solved most of my issues for me. For a separate guide that uses a flashdrive rather than the DriveDock, go to MoonDogg's thread here.

 

So, I used an Asus EeePC 1000he with 1gb of ram (what it came with) and I'd like to quickly postulate that my sleep issue comes from a potential lack of memory.

 

Here's a list of everything I used. Unlike the actual guide, I did not use a flash drive.

-Asus EeePc 1000he

-Native iMac with Snow Leopard (any native mac will do)

-Western Digital Scorpio Black 250GB 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

-Wiebetech DriveDock V4 Series (which connects the above HD directly to your native mac via USB)

-Retail Snow Leopard DVD

 

1) Connect the blank HD via DriveDock to the native Mac.

 

2) Open Disk Utility:

- Select the blank drive

- Go to the "Partition" tab and select "1 Partition"

- Click "Options..." and make sure you have GUID selected

- (optional) I named the disk something that I would easily be able to tell apart from my Native Mac disk, "Mac EEE"

- Click "Apply" and wait for the process to be completed

- Close Disk Utility

 

3) Install OS X onto the drive:

- Insert your retail Snow Leopard DVD

- In Finder, click the "Go" menu and select "Go to folder..."

- Copy and paste "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages" without the quotes into the box and click "Go"

- Open "OSInstall.mpkg"

- Do a regular install; make sure to select the recently partitioned drive. For me, this took about 30 minutes to completely install. Go watch an episode of Venture Bros. Do NOT dismount the drive once the install completes.

 

4) Now for some other installs:

- Download NetbookInstaller 0.8.3, NOT 0.8.4 or beyond from this link: NetbookInstaller

- Unzip the download if it hasn't been unzipped for you and open the application NetbookInstaller 0.8.3

- Ignore the message that tells you you're on an unsupported device and select the hard drive onto which you just installed OS X

- Uncheck EVERYTHING except Chameleon and General Extensions, double check you've selected the right drive, and then hit install.

- Once the install is completed, download this file: extensions.mkext

- Go to Finder and then the "Go" menu, select "Go to Folder..."

- Enter the following without quotes: "/Volumes/NAME OF YOUR DRIVE/Extra"

Just to clarify, when I partitioned my drive, I named it "Mac EEE". So this paste for me would be "/Volumes/Mac EEE/Extra" without the quotes. This folder is hidden and therefore you cannot navigate to it normally.

- In the folder, you'll see a file named "extensions.mkext". Take the file you just downloaded, named exactly the same thing, and drag it into this window to overwrite this file.

 

5) And now for some downloads:

- Download the following files:

voodoohda.prefpane

10.6.1 Combo Update

IOBluetoothFamily.kext

AttansicL1eEthernet.kext

Kext Helper and Kext Utility

Ralink WiFi Driver (select "PCI/mPCI/CB(RT2860/RT2790/RT309x) V1.2.2.0", enter Bob and Bobmarley@yahoo.com if you don't want to give them your name)

IOATAfamily.kext

- Navigate to the Applications folder on the drive where you just installed OS X.

- Create a folder called "Temporary"

- Drag everything you just downloaded in this step to the new folder "Temporary"

 

6) Great! You're most of the way there. Now dismount the new Mac OS X drive!

 

7) Using a screw driver of the right size, open the large panel in the back of your Asus EeePC 1000he. It may resist, but don't worry, gently pull it out.

- Remove the casing that holds the original hard drive with XP down and pull horizontally the hard drive out of its spot. You need to remove the extra casing surrounding the drive. These screws can be troublesome.

- Place the Mac OS X drive into the casing, ensuring that the SATA connector will be able to connect properly to the computer; orient it right in the casing.

- Replace your new HD back into its little hole and gently slide it into its SATA port (probably improper terminology, sorry guys). Screw it back into place, replace the metal cover just as you found it, and snap the large black cover back on. Don't forget to screw that in too!

 

8) Press the power button.

- Be patient, it's got a lot to load

- The Mac intro screen should pop up. Select your country and whatnot. Fill out what you want, just make sure you'll remember the password you choose.

- Once mac has booted, you need to install some kexts. Everything you need is located in the folder "Temporary" that you created in the Applications folder. In "Temporary", open the Kext_Uti_Helper folder and double click on "Kext Helper". Drag "IOBluetoothfamily.kext" and "AttansicL1eEthernet.kext" into the bigger box in the Kext Helper window. Enter your password in the little box and then click "Easy Install".

- When that's done, quit Kext Helper and open the "Kext Utility" application (which may take a while to open), enter your password, and run it. This process took over five minutes for me, so don't fret if it takes a while.

- Restart your computer.

 

9) Update to 10.6.1

- Open the "MacOSXUpd10.6.1.dmg" in the "Temporary Folder" once your computer is booted and has a moment to breathe (wait until the hard drive light is off).

- Open the update .pkg when it's mounted. Run the combo update. It's fairly straightforward.

- I can't remember if it asks you to reboot. Never-the-less, reboot.

- Now you'll have to install a new kext and REinstall some old. If you plan to upgrade your new mac past 10.6.1, you will need to reinstall these 3 kexts every time you upgrade. My guide only takes you to 10.6.1.

 

10) Nearly there; some final touches to make everything work:

- Open Kext Helper in the "Kext_Uti_Helper" folder in your "Temporary" folder and drag the following kexts into the window:

"IOBluetoothfamily.kext"

"AttansicL1eEthernet.kext"

"IOATAfamily.kext"

- Enter your password, and press "Easy Install".

- When it's done, quit Kext Helper and open "Kext Utility" again. Enter your password and run it.

- Now you need to reboot again, but this time, as soon as the screen turns black after you've hit the reboot button, start tapping F2. Keep tapping until the very blue BIOS screen comes up.

- Use the right arrow key to move to the "Boot" tab

- Use the down arrow to navigate to "Boot Settings Configuration" and hit Enter.

- Hit Enter over "Quick Boot" and change it to disabled via the down arrow and Enter. Do the same for "Quiet Boot".

- Hit escape. Arrow down to "Boot Booster", hit enter, and change it to disabled as well. Now hit F10 and select "Ok".

 

11) Final Step: Wireless

- Once your computer is completely booted, Navigate to the "Temporary" folder in Applications and double click on "STA_RT2860 D-1.2.2.0 UI-3.0.0.0_2010_05_18.dmg"

- Once the image has mounted, open the "10.5" folder and double click the "Install" pkg (as opposed to the Uninstall).

- It will warn you that you "may" need to configure some things in the Network section of System Preferences, and that's fine. Continue through and install the drive. This did not work the first time for me. A message that said the installer was unable to use a particular kext file came up near the end of the install, which prevented my wireless from working. What I did, which seemed to work, was I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it twice more, and the third time, though the install took long, it didn't complain about the kext file.

- Reboot, even if a message comes up saying that a new wireless interface was detected.

 

Open System Preferences and go to Network. There should be two interfaces there. If the Wireless Utility application now located in your Applications folder didn't automatically open up at start up, go to your applications folder and open it now. It should open to the "Site Survey" screen, and the thin box way at the bottom should change from "No Device!!" to "Disconnected." If it says "No Device!!" after a minute, then try rebooting and hitting F2 to go to the BIOS and change Boot Booster from disabled to Enabled. If -that- doesn't work, turn Boot Booster back off and try again.

 

And there you have it! I haven't had a single Kernel Panic, save when I try to sleep. I've done some experimenting and decided that, at least the way I've done things, there's a tradeoff. I either get sleep working reliably, or wireless working reliably.

 

Note: To get wireless working without it failing every ten minutes or so, simply QUIT the Ralink Wireless Utility application. I was worried that quitting the application would cause it to fail anyway, but turns out the application seems to time itself out if left open and you'll have to restart the connection. Quitting the application gives you constant wireless access until shutdown, restart, or sleep. Speaking of sleep, whether or not it works seems completely random. Please let me know if you've found a way to make this work.

 

Thanks and most credit goes to MoonDogg and those who posted on his thread for making the basis of this guide! I'd be interested in any light someone might be able to shed on my sleep issue, but I'm mostly content because shut down takes all of 2 seconds.