First off, a big thank you to everyone on these forums, with the help of everyone's posts, I've gotten OSX86 up and running cleanly on my workhorse Dell Latitude C640 laptop, a box known more for what doesn't work than what does.
Having run through most of the builds I've found out there, I've come up with the following successful setup that's forced me to apologize to a co-worker who I've busted on for several years for being a "Mac-boy". My goal wasn't to replace my Win setup, too comfortable with it, but wanted to demo it for my (much) better half since she absolutely detests Windows as being too confusing, stubborn and flaky. I think Santa's going to bring her a "real" Mac rig for Christmas, she has yet to be able to break this build and likes stuff that "just works".
This has been a real "brain candy" project for me to do this, several co-workers still think its just a shell on 'doz but the "Mac-boy" has checked it out and though astounded it would work, has pronounced it the real deal.
Again, thank you to everybody who's posted a problem, solution or question here, every answer I needed has been available.
Here's my specs, sorry for being long-winded!
DELL C640
CPU: Intel P4-M 2.0GHz (reports in sysprefs as 2.4)
RAM: 1GB
VIDEO: ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 -reports in sysprefs as 128mb but is 32mb
SOUND: Crystal (Built in)
WIRELESS: Dell Truemobile 1450 mini pci
ETHERNET: built in 10/100
DVD: Dell CDRW/DVD-R
Build: 10.4.6
Installed from bootable dvd to clean partition, MAC-journalled
Options-
SSE2 Intel kernel and patches- kernel reports (via uname) as 8.4.1
Wireless package
No special sound packages selected
No special ATI packages selected
No extra fonts or languages- keeping it simple
Wireless worked "out of the box", Airport sparked right up and asked for a target
Ethernet worked "out of the box"
Sound worked "out of the box" (amazed ME, this was very problematic in Linux)
Video sorta worked- fixed all w/10.4.1 repairs, details later
flurry screensaver- crashed
chess- crashed, works somewhat after the fix but doesn't matter to me
Quicktime- green/pink, area surrounding popups looked right
Divx Player- crashed on load of anything
VLC- crashed on load of avi's
Safari- crashed on certain sites, couldn't figure out what triggered it
Build notes:
doing "clean" installs-
10.4.5- could not get wireless to work, Mobility 7500 trick did not work.
Jas 10.4.8- got wireless to work every other reboot, 7th or 8th reboot got boot errors. Suspect it may be the laptop getting too warm as the fan control seems flaky. May try this one again on the spare "test" hd as I want to be able to run newer iTunes.
Uphuck 10.4.9 - Could not get this one to install correctly, 3rd try worked but most apps crashed, couldn't get wireless to work. Tried a wipe and reinstall, no joy.
Leopard- choked and puked on my shoes
upgrade install: Interesting note, was trying an upgrade install from 10.4.6 to 10.4.8 and it came up as 10.4.7. That one had wireless but AirPort wouldn't start up noway-nohow. I may have selected a different kernal inadvertently, can't read my own handwriting...
From sysprefs-
Apple80211:
Version: 4.2.7
Last Modified: 11/23/07 11:45 AM
Get Info String: Apple AirPort Framework, Copyright 2000 - 2006 Apple Computer, Inc.
Location: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework
Private: Yes
OpenGL:
Version: 1.4.1
Last Modified: 5/27/05 5:25 PM
Get Info String: OpenGL 1.4.1.7.0
Location: /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework
Private: No
To get the Radeon Mobility 7500 working:
Removed:
OPENGL.framework
ATIRadeon.kext
Extensions.mkext
ATIRadeonGA.plugin
Installed from 10.4.1 (using Pacifist)
OPENGL.framework
ATIRadeon.kext
Extensions.mkext
ATIRadeonGA.plgin
chown'd and chmod'd the frameworks and extensions
deleted and rebuilt Extensions.kextcache
repaired perms w/DiskUtility
crossed fingers and rebooted- Eureka!
Software Notes-
Working:
Quicktime (no longer green/pink after doing the Mobility 7500 fix)
Safari 2.0.3 (no longer crashes after doing the Mobility 7500 fix)
Azureus 3.0.1.6
Pacifist 2.5.1
Divx Player 2.0 (no longer crashes after doing the Mobility 7500 fix)
Gimp 2.4.0-RC3
iPhoto 5.0.2 (from 10.4.1)
iWork 6.0 - Pages and Keynote
iTunes 6.0.2 (can burn cd's in cd and .mp3 format)
NeoOffice 2.2.2
TinkerTool 3.8
VisualHub 1.27
VLC 0.8.6c (no longer crashes after doing the Mobility 7500 fix)
Epson Printer Utility2 - works w/network print server
Stuffit 12.0.1
Rosetta Stone 2.0.7
Non-working:
iTunes 7.5 (wasn't looking at it, somehow updated itself... had to roll back)
MS-Office 8 beta- wouldn't install, wants 10.4.8+
iLife 08- needs 10.4.9
Toast 8.0- main app crashed
Toast 7.1.2 - crashed on the setup screen
Sorta working:
System Preferences- gets some things right, others ain't even close
Startup disk- half the time it only shows network boot, not the disk01s1 partition.
It does boot up correctly though.
Time- seems to be about 2 hours off after swapping the hd
w/Windows hd, am going to try the local time fix.
TBD:
Office 04
Toast 7.xx
Other browsers