Noob questions about updating Kalyway, EFI, etc.

[doctor-frog]

Hi, guys. Hope y'all will grant me the indulgence of asking a couple of noob questions. I'm still finding my way 'round the OSX86 boards & wikis, and I'm finding the software/hardware talking-to-one-another issues a distinct learning curve, but not too daunting. Which is to say: if I've missed some obvious background reading, please point me in the right direction, as I'm still getting my sea legs. (I was a lifetime Mac guy, who switched to Linux shortly after the release of OSX ... money issues ... so, in addition to being glad to 'come home', I'm also competent with a Linux command line ... although I do find Darwin a rather different beastie.)

 

Anyway ... the questions. I want to get iLife & iWork installed on my box, and for that I need 10.5.6 (so Apple's system requirements say), so I want to see what I've done under-the-hood, so I can know where to go for my ComboUpdate.

 

I've installed Kalyway 10.5.2 on an HP g3001.uk (full spec here), basically an off-the-shelf box, though I've given it a bigger HD and max RAM. I used all of Kalyway's default settings, barring the video (which required me to customise the installation using the GMA 950 chipset drivers). Happily, I've come across no problems whatsoever; everything "just worked", no hacking required. Kalyway installed kernel_9.2_sleep by default.

 

What I'm not sure about is what the relationship of Kalyway and pc_EFI is, and none of my googling has turned up the info, not as such. Essentially I'm trying to find out if kernel_9.2_sleep is a hacked or a vanilla kernel, and if I can install Apple updates and patches directly, or if I need to jump through a lot of hoops to make it happen. Can anyone advise or point me to info I could look up fairly easily?

 

Many thanks.

 

PS -- entire side note -- just out of curiosity, for when Snow Leopard arrives -- back in the Olden Days, when a new Mac OS came out, you could install directly over the last one. My experience with Linux is that installing a major OS upgrade without wiping the relevant partition gives you about 50-50 chance of Things Breaking. (My custom was therefore to install /home on a separate partition and do clean installs every time I wanted an upgrade.) Is it safe to assume that, when Snow Leopard comes out, I can happily bung in the Kalyway and install over Leopard as in Mac's days of yore?

 

Cheers.