[Guide & Boot CD] D-Series Latitude/w NVIDIA or GMA950 and Intel Dual Core Retail Installs

[kingrl2]

I successfully installed 10.6.1 on my Dell Precision M90 using your instructions. Before I ran post_install.command, everything seemed to work except my graphics card, it reported as...

 

nVidia Graphics Card:

Chipset Model: nVidia Graphics Card

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 128 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x029a

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: Silent Natit x86_64 v1.0.2

Displays:

Display:

Resolution: 1920 x 1200

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Display Connector:

Status: No Display Connected

 

I actually have an nVidia Quadro Pro 2500M 512MB installed. I ran post_install.command and chose nVidia just to give it a try. Once I rebooted, Chameleon worked correctly but when I got past the apple logo, my screen turned blue and started flashing. It appeared that the computer continued to boot and completed successfully, but I couldn't tell for sure. I rebooted using -x to boot into safe mode and everything came back up. When I took a look at System Profiler, my graphics card showed up correctly as nVidia Quadro Pro 2500M. I looked through kexts.zip, but I don't know which one could be causing the problem.

 

I usd NVinject 0.2.1, but that didn't help either. I tried flashing the bios, but that resulted in a black screen after post, so I reverted back to the original rom. Before I go through removing the kexts and reinstalling each one to find the problem, do you have an idea which one could be the culprit?

 

Excellent job by the way! It worked perfect on my D620.

[leppy700m]

I successfully installed 10.6.1 on my Dell Precision M90 using your instructions. Before I ran post_install.command, everything seemed to work except my graphics card, it reported as...

 

nVidia Graphics Card:

Chipset Model: nVidia Graphics Card

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 128 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x029a

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: Silent Natit x86_64 v1.0.2

Displays:

Display:

Resolution: 1920 x 1200

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Display Connector:

Status: No Display Connected

 

I actually have an nVidia Quadro Pro 2500M 512MB installed. I ran post_install.command and chose nVidia just to give it a try. Once I rebooted, Chameleon worked correctly but when I got past the apple logo, my screen turned blue and started flashing. It appeared that the computer continued to boot and completed successfully, but I couldn't tell for sure. I rebooted using -x to boot into safe mode and everything came back up. When I took a look at System Profiler, my graphics card showed up correctly as nVidia Quadro Pro 2500M. I looked through kexts.zip, but I don't know which one could be causing the problem.

 

I usd NVinject 0.2.1, but that didn't help either. I tried flashing the bios, but that resulted in a black screen after post, so I reverted back to the original rom. Before I go through removing the kexts and reinstalling each one to find the problem, do you have an idea which one could be the culprit?

 

Excellent job by the way! It worked perfect on my D620.

 

 

Probably natit.kext. I removed that from the base kexts because it was having an undesired effect on D620/D820 with Nvidia. Add it back in - but you may not get hardware acceleration with it. You'll find it in the kexts.zip file.

 

I also didn't install all of the appleintel* kexts, but that should make no difference. Oh, and the voodooTSCscync.kext gets added post install to enable both CPU cores. You might try pulling that one out.

[kingrl2]

Thanks, I'll give that a try tomorrow evenning after work. I'll be sure to report back with my results.

[jh49]

Hi Leppy,

 

Have you visited the following website?

http://www.infinitemac.com/f57/dell-d620-6...ext-pack-t3840/

It is said that "wake from sleep" is working and the kext pack comes with dsdt file.

I just thought that you can validate their claim.

[leppy700m]

Hi Leppy,

 

Have you visited the following website?

http://www.infinitemac.com/f57/dell-d620-6...ext-pack-t3840/

It is said that "wake from sleep" is working and the kext pack comes with dsdt file.

I just thought that you can validate their claim.

 

 

I did check that thread out.

 

He doesn't provide a solution for IntelGMA950 at all. I tried his kext pack and dsdt.aml on a D630 with Intel and got a blue screen after the grey apple screen, so the dsdt.aml wasn't working for me. However - I have learned a little about patching dsdt.aml and maybe there is something I can use there.

 

I also tried his kext pack for Nvidia, and QE and sleep were not working on my D620 with Nvidia.

 

I also have an Atom 330 board that I patched a dsdt.aml for that I have hardware enabled QE with full resolution and sleep working. That gives me some hope for the D620 GMA machines.

 

I tried to use someone else's dsdt.aml for the exact same board, and it didn't work. So this is what I am thinking - that even if I can't provide a working dsdt.aml or script a custom built dsdt.aml in post-install, then maybe at least I'll be able to provide specific instructions about how to do it yourself.

 

I like looking at someone else's dsdt.aml far less than I like knowing how it was patched. If I know that, then I can gen one myself and patch that - and have a far better chance of success. In order to get info I need, I have to disassemble it and compare it to what I have. It's hard to know if differences I am looking at will be better or worse if I can't even get it working on my system before I disassemble.

[Edijs]

I was away from my Dell and this topic, bought used Macbook Air and was playing with it for some weeks. But now I'm back, reading what's new with leopard (and snow leopard) on d620. Tried your latest d620 Post Install CD - Airport still broken on my 10.5.8. But Nvidia card is working great, touchpad/pointstick too. Tried to set system password in BIOS - yeah, now sleep is working! I don't care, that I have to write password each time after waking back from sleep. But it works!!! Great! Now I'm thinking.. maybe problem with Airport is because I have two wifi cards installed - i installed new breadcom wifi card, but did't remove original dell card. When I try to do lspci, it shows me both cards. But when I turn of internal wifi in BIOS setup, lspci don't show intell wifi card, only broadcom card. I'll try to remove that Intell card and will report about results.

 

I download SL boot disk too. Tried to boot from it - everythink is ok. Then I put in snow leopard retail disk, after few seconds pressing F5, and it shows me some interesting characters on screen instead of "Install OSX". Ok, maybe there is problem with this SL disk I downloaded, will try to buy original. Just wanted to try install it at first, and, if everythink went fine, buy it. Ehh.\

 

 

Update. Heh, just tried to remove system password from BIOS - and sleep & waking up from sleep is still working. It seems, that your latest post installer disk for d620/d820 removed that problem. Tnx!

[leppy700m]

I download SL boot disk too. Tried to boot from it - everythink is ok. Then I put in snow leopard retail disk, after few seconds pressing F5, and it shows me some interesting characters on screen instead of "Install OSX". Ok, maybe there is problem with this SL disk I downloaded, will try to buy original. Just wanted to try install it at first, and, if everythink went fine, buy it. Ehh.\

 

I don't think that the problem is the image you have, though you should buy one. I think some of the dvd players are having a problem reading it for whatever reason. I had the same problem with one myself. I switched with another - and I could load it.

 

You have a macbook - here's another way. Put your D620 hard drive in that and install Snow. Then swap the drive back to the D620, boot with my CD image, then do the post install.

[Edijs]

Hmm. I will try to boot from external DVD-drive. Idea of opening my Macbook Air sounds not so good for me. But ok, if this is one of the possible variants, i'l think about it.

 

Update. Damn, I can't find a way to boot from my external DVD. My d620 doesn't see it.. :S

[leppy700m]

Hmm. I will try to boot from external DVD-drive. Idea of opening my Macbook Air sounds not so good for me. But ok, if this is one of the possible variants, i'l think about it.

 

Update. Damn, I can't find a way to boot from my external DVD. My d620 doesn't see it.. :S

 

 

Did you try pressing F12 during the post?

[leppy700m]

BTW the only kexts I added were AppleACPIThermal.kext and VoodooPower.kext - they give me a cooler laptop with speedstepping. I am attaching them for your convenience. Just put in /Extra/Extensions and run the nice rebuild mkext script provided. PM_Kexts.zip

 

I am adding those two kexts to the next version. Good call.

[larryo108]

I am watching this thread with great interest. I have a D820 for work right now that is running XP. I have 50GB of unallocated space on the hard drive and would like to load snow leopard on it. I have rear, re-read, rere-read, and then read again the first two posts to the thread. My machine has an NVIDIA graphics card and an intel wifi card. I know OSX does not support the intel wifi, but I am hoping the crew working on that can figure it out. Or i will purchase a broadcom card. I plan on purchasing a used D620 as soon as I can find a deal on one. Anyone got one they want to let go of cheap?

 

I do have some questions though.

 

1. Does snow leopard and your Boot132 work with a D820? I really can't be the first to try this because it is a work computer and I do not want to hose it?
   
2. Has anyone gotten the D-dock working with OSX? I am not looking for dual monitors, but planning to use the laptop and dock to connect to my TV as a media station?
   
3. What is meant by Snow Leopard has to be on the first partition of the hard drive? How do I determine if my unallocated space is the first partition? And if it is not, is there anyway to make it so without harming the other partitions? Is this just something to do with the bootloader? I would like to utilize the XP Chain0 bootloader on the work machine, is that possible?
   

That is all I have right now, but I know I will have more in the future as I proceed with this. Please forgive my laziness. I do hope that someone can help me. I appreciate any input greatly. Thank you in advance.

[leppy700m]

I am watching this thread with great interest. I have a D820 for work right now that is running XP. I have 50GB of unallocated space on the hard drive and would like to load snow leopard on it. I have rear, re-read, rere-read, and then read again the first two posts to the thread. My machine has an NVIDIA graphics card and an intel wifi card. I know OSX does not support the intel wifi, but I am hoping the crew working on that can figure it out. Or i will purchase a broadcom card. I plan on purchasing a used D620 as soon as I can find a deal on one. Anyone got one they want to let go of cheap?

 

I do have some questions though.

 

1. Does snow leopard and your Boot132 work with a D820? I really can't be the first to try this because it is a work computer and I do not want to hose it?
   
2. Has anyone gotten the D-dock working with OSX? I am not looking for dual monitors, but planning to use the laptop and dock to connect to my TV as a media station?
   
3. What is meant by Snow Leopard has to be on the first partition of the hard drive? How do I determine if my unallocated space is the first partition? And if it is not, is there anyway to make it so without harming the other partitions? Is this just something to do with the bootloader? I would like to utilize the XP Chain0 bootloader on the work machine, is that possible?
   

That is all I have right now, but I know I will have more in the future as I proceed with this. Please forgive my laziness. I do hope that someone can help me. I appreciate any input greatly. Thank you in advance.

1. The boot 132 CD is for 10.5.6, or Leopard and does not work with Snow Leopard. D620SLV1.iso is for Snow Leopard - 10.6.0
   
2. The D/Port works here - VGA output only. I haven't tested a D/Dock, but it should work.
   
3. Snow does not HAVE to be on the first partition, but it does to use my scripted install for Chameleon. I think you'll need to back up your XP installation with something like Ghost, because you'll probably have to create a whole new partition table to install OS X anyway. I don't think it will install on anything other than GUID. You can use Ghost to back up your Win install, then repartition with OS X, install OS X on the second partition, then install Chameleon. You'll just have to install Chameleon differently. Once that's done, you can use Ghost to restore your Windows install. It would be a lot better to use a different hard drive to play with than to mess with a work machine's drive. You can go into Windows disk manager and it will show you how your hard drive is partitioned.
   
4. You can find lots of D620s on Ebay. I now have two of them and a spare motherboard. I paid under $300 for each of them, and they both sport Core 2 duo processors at 2ghz or better.
   
5. If you are going to use OS X, get a Broadcom wifi card - they're cheap. Intel wifi support has been in the works for a long time, and it's not ready for prime time. I am not so sure it ever will be.
   
6. If you scroll back a page or so, you'll see a successful Snow Leopard installation on a D820 using this method.
   

[Dan Shane]

PM Sent, but you didn't say if you had Nvidia or Intel graphics. If you get a kernel panic on the first reboot, try a couple more times before giving up. At least that's what I did back when I ran IPC.

 

I have Nvidia graphics, and I'm at BIOS A07. I tried your boot CD but I get a panic as the installer tries to load every time. I tried with dual core both off and on.

 

Dan

[leppy700m]

I have Nvidia graphics, and I'm at BIOS A07. I tried your boot CD but I get a panic as the installer tries to load every time. I tried with dual core both off and on.

 

Dan

 

Which boot CD are you using? D620SLV1 is for Snow Leopard.

[Dan Shane]

Which boot CD are you using? D620SLV1 is for Snow Leopard.

 

 

Leppy,

 

I used the beta ISO you PM'd me last week (I was out with swine flu until today), but I was a boob. I thought the boot disc included the SL files, and I was trying to access the installer from that disc instead of switching out my SL retail DVD. I can be an idiot sometimes. Once I came to my senses the install went flawlessly, even allowing me to transfer my settings from the LEO partition.

 

Congrats and thanks immensely!

 

-- Dan --

[leppy700m]

Leppy,

 

I used the beta ISO you PM'd me last week (I was out with swine flu until today), but I was a boob. I thought the boot disc included the SL files, and I was trying to access the installer from that disc instead of switching out my SL retail DVD. I can be an idiot sometimes. Once I came to my senses the install went flawlessly, even allowing me to transfer my settings from the LEO partition.

 

Congrats and thanks immensely!

 

-- Dan --

 

Ah well I just poured a bowl of milk and left no room for my breakfast cereal. At least my mutt is happy.

 

Yeah, it's just a cd with a working boot loader - not the OS. I am glad it's worked out for you, and you're welcome. Hope you're feeling better.

 

If you used the beta, you probably need to remove natit.kext from /Extra/Extensions and run the utiltiy to rebuild mkext located in /Extra. It was interfering with Nvidia QE even though it was meant for Nvidia. Go figure.

[Edijs]

Of course, I tried to press F12. I also removed my internal dvd drive to be sure that it boots from external dvd. And... there is black screen, when I select dvd/cd from boot menu. I also tried to put your iso file on usb flash stick - same result, screen goes black, when i select usb external memory from boot menu.

[larryo108]

1. The boot 132 CD is for 10.5.6, or Leopard and does not work with Snow Leopard. D620SLV1.iso is for Snow Leopard - 10.6.0
   
2. The D/Port works here - VGA output only. I haven't tested a D/Dock, but it should work.
   
3. Snow does not HAVE to be on the first partition, but it does to use my scripted install for Chameleon. I think you'll need to back up your XP installation with something like Ghost, because you'll probably have to create a whole new partition table to install OS X anyway. I don't think it will install on anything other than GUID. You can use Ghost to back up your Win install, then repartition with OS X, install OS X on the second partition, then install Chameleon. You'll just have to install Chameleon differently. Once that's done, you can use Ghost to restore your Windows install. It would be a lot better to use a different hard drive to play with than to mess with a work machine's drive. You can go into Windows disk manager and it will show you how your hard drive is partitioned.
   
4. You can find lots of D620s on Ebay. I now have two of them and a spare motherboard. I paid under $300 for each of them, and they both sport Core 2 duo processors at 2ghz or better.
   
5. If you are going to use OS X, get a Broadcom wifi card - they're cheap. Intel wifi support has been in the works for a long time, and it's not ready for prime time. I am not so sure it ever will be.
   
6. If you scroll back a page or so, you'll see a successful Snow Leopard installation on a D820 using this method.
   

 

1. Sorry, I thought the SL image was just another Boot 132 disc. I did plan to use the SL disc.
   
2. What is the difference between the D/Port and the D/Dock? I have a crappy TV with no VGA or HDMI inputs, so I planned to use the S-Video connection from the D-Dock. Do you think that will work?
   
3. My current setup has 3 partitions on the Hard drive. It is a 250 GB hard drive (which actually shows up as 233GB). I have 50GB for WinXP, 50GB unallocated (for SL in theory) and 130 GB for My Documents. So what you are saying is I need to start from scratch and create a 3-Partition drive. Like I have now, but I need to do it through OSX. I am assuming the SL drive would need to be Mac OS Extended Journaled and the other two would be NTFS partitions. Is this right? Omce I have created the partitions using Disk Utility, I would load SL on the first partition and run your installer when it boots back up. Then restore my XP install with a Ghost Image? Do I have this process right? Finally, I do have a second hard drive that I can use for testing and once it is perfected, then I can move to the work drive.
   
4. I know about them on Ebay. I have found tons of them, but I am cheap and am looking for a steal. I found the dock for 15 bucks on CL. Just needs a power cord. I have an HP laptop that I am using at the moment, so I am not in an enourmous hurry.
   
5. Again, I am cheap. Although in this case you are right. Is the only place to find those Broadcom cards on Ebay, or can they be bought in a brick-and-mortar store somewhere? Would Fry's have them?
   
6. I will look back a page or so. Good looking out.
   

Thanks for all of the help thus far and I will report back with what I find. Hopefully, tonight. Although wifi will obviously still be broken.

[leppy700m]

Of course, I tried to press F12. I also removed my internal dvd drive to be sure that it boots from external dvd. And... there is black screen, when I select dvd/cd from boot menu. I also tried to put your iso file on usb flash stick - same result, screen goes black, when i select usb external memory from boot menu.

 

When trying the external DVD player, when you push F12, don't select CD/DVD - select USB device.

Not all external DVD players will work this way.

 

You can't just put the contents of my iso on a flash drive - it won't work. That's a whole different process.

 

 

 

1. Sorry, I thought the SL image was just another Boot 132 disc. I did plan to use the SL disc.
   
2. What is the difference between the D/Port and the D/Dock? I have a crappy TV with no VGA or HDMI inputs, so I planned to use the S-Video connection from the D-Dock. Do you think that will work?
   
3. My current setup has 3 partitions on the Hard drive. It is a 250 GB hard drive (which actually shows up as 233GB). I have 50GB for WinXP, 50GB unallocated (for SL in theory) and 130 GB for My Documents. So what you are saying is I need to start from scratch and create a 3-Partition drive. Like I have now, but I need to do it through OSX. I am assuming the SL drive would need to be Mac OS Extended Journaled and the other two would be NTFS partitions. Is this right? Omce I have created the partitions using Disk Utility, I would load SL on the first partition and run your installer when it boots back up. Then restore my XP install with a Ghost Image? Do I have this process right? Finally, I do have a second hard drive that I can use for testing and once it is perfected, then I can move to the work drive.
   
4. I know about them on Ebay. I have found tons of them, but I am cheap and am looking for a steal. I found the dock for 15 bucks on CL. Just needs a power cord. I have an HP laptop that I am using at the moment, so I am not in an enourmous hurry.
   
5. Again, I am cheap. Although in this case you are right. Is the only place to find those Broadcom cards on Ebay, or can they be bought in a brick-and-mortar store somewhere? Would Fry's have them?
   
6. I will look back a page or so. Good looking out.
   

Thanks for all of the help thus far and I will report back with what I find. Hopefully, tonight. Although wifi will obviously still be broken.

 

• The SL CD used the Chameleon boot loader, Leo uses Boot-132.
  
• I seriously doubt the S video connection will work, but I don't know for certain.
  
• Yes, I think repartitioning is necessary. You will have to make a new GUID partition scheme. Make your OS X partition Mac OS Extended Journaled, and the other two FAT. Do NOT adjust partitions in Windows. When you get to Windows, reformat as NTFS for your windows partitions. You are going to have to modify the c:\boot.ini file in Windows XP to point windows to the right partition because it will no longer be first.
  
• You can buy new Broadcom cards elsewhere, but the cheapest I've found them is on Ebay.
  

[Edijs]

Already tried to press on USB device in boot menu, same result. About usb flash drive - I mounted your ISO to an image drive with MagicISO. And then xcopy D:\*.* E: /s/e/f (windows) where d: is that mounted iso and e: is my flash drive. Ouuu damn, I just found that it's not correct way to make bootable flash drive. Ok, will try another way...

 

That error what I get when inserting SL disc after booting from SL-123 disk looks like in this picture I just made - http://e.znet.lv/tmp/SL_boot123_error.jpg

[cotten]

This happened to me a few times.

 

I found that if I tried to load the bootcd a few times, then eject it and put in the SL disc it would boot right up.

 

 

Already tried to press on USB device in boot menu, same result. About usb flash drive - I mounted your ISO to an image drive with MagicISO. And then xcopy D:\*.* E: /s/e/f (windows) where d: is that mounted iso and e: is my flash drive. Ouuu damn, I just found that it's not correct way to make bootable flash drive. Ok, will try another way...

 

That error what I get when inserting SL disc after booting from SL-123 disk looks like in this picture I just made - http://e.znet.lv/tmp/SL_boot123_error.jpg

[larryo108]

When trying the external DVD player, when you push F12, don't select CD/DVD - select USB device.

Not all external DVD players will work this way.

 

You can't just put the contents of my iso on a flash drive - it won't work. That's a whole different process.

 

 

 

 

 

• The SL CD used the Chameleon boot loader, Leo uses Boot-132.
  
• I seriously doubt the S video connection will work, but I don't know for certain.
  
• Yes, I think repartitioning is necessary. You will have to make a new GUID partition scheme. Make your OS X partition Mac OS Extended Journaled, and the other two FAT. Do NOT adjust partitions in Windows. When you get to Windows, reformat as NTFS for your windows partitions. You are going to have to modify the c:\boot.ini file in Windows XP to point windows to the right partition because it will no longer be first.
  
• You can buy new Broadcom cards elsewhere, but the cheapest I've found them is on Ebay.
  

 

What would I need to change the boot.ini file to? Any ideas? Thanks again for all of the info.

[sci85]

Leppy, fantastic resource. Man I wish this was available back when I did my first OSX install on my D620. I spent months making everything work perfectly.

I've been running Vista for quite a while now and just can't take that pos anymore so back to OS X. Couple of questions for you though:

 

1. I still have my OSX 10.5.4 hard drive install that I would like to use. Any chance I can get that version up to SL 10.6.1? I have a ton of software I'd like to preserve. Or, does this require a fresh install?

 

2. On my 10.5.4 install, I could never get an external monitor to work. Can you plug a projector or other monitor into the back of the D620 for preso's and such with this version?

 

3. Will the $29.00 SL upgrade DVD from the apple site work or do I have to go to the store and buy it?

 

Thanks again for all the work you and the other's have done to make the D620 install so simple. The D's are great machines. If you really want to blow your mind, buy one of the latest and greatest Intel SSD's for these. Can you say Holy fast boot Batman?

 

sci85

[leppy700m]

This happened to me a few times.

 

I found that if I tried to load the bootcd a few times, then eject it and put in the SL disc it would boot right up.

 

I hope that works for him - and others with the same problem. I didn't think of trying that.

 

What would I need to change the boot.ini file to? Any ideas? Thanks again for all of the info.

 

Well, this is what a default c:\boot.ini might look like when Windows is installed on the first partition:

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

I think if it's on another partition, then I think partition(1) has to be changed to reflect the new partition number in two places, so it might look like this if it resides on the second partition:

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

Leppy, fantastic resource. Man I wish this was available back when I did my first OSX install on my D620. I spent months making everything work perfectly.

I've been running Vista for quite a while now and just can't take that pos anymore so back to OS X. Couple of questions for you though:

 

1. I still have my OSX 10.5.4 hard drive install that I would like to use. Any chance I can get that version up to SL 10.6.1? I have a ton of software I'd like to preserve. Or, does this require a fresh install?

 

2. On my 10.5.4 install, I could never get an external monitor to work. Can you plug a projector or other monitor into the back of the D620 for preso's and such with this version?

 

3. Will the $29.00 SL upgrade DVD from the apple site work or do I have to go to the store and buy it?

 

Thanks again for all the work you and the other's have done to make the D620 install so simple. The D's are great machines. If you really want to blow your mind, buy one of the latest and greatest Intel SSD's for these. Can you say Holy fast boot Batman?

 

sci85

 

1. I really don't know - I never tried the upgrade option. Theoretically, you could pop the DVD in and load it right over an earlier version on a Mac. I have no idea what would happen with a hack. Even if the upgrade completed okay, would the boot CD allow you to boot into Snow? Would Chameleon overwrite your existing boot loader sucessfully? I really can't answer - I never opted to upgrade an OS in the past, so it hasn't piqued my interest to find out.
   
2. External monitors work. On the GMA950, it's one or the other, both are not recognized concurrently. On NVIDIA, you can have an extended desktop. If you choose the mirror option, It doesn't actually mirror - the external monitor gets the desktop and the laptop display gets a gray screen. At least that's what happens here - your mileage may vary.
   
3. Yup, the $29.00 upgrade DVD works. You're supposed to have Leopard already to qualify for that price. Actually, I bought that one since I already had Leopard. I've read that the $29.00 upgrade DVD is identical to the one currently sold in the retail box set.
   

[jh49]

Well, this is what a default c:\boot.ini might look like when Windows is installed on the first partition:

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

I think if it's on another partition, then I think partition(1) has to be changed to reflect the new partition number in two places, so it might look like this if it resides on the second partition:

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Thanks to Leppy's help, I could have the dual-booting of Windows XP and Snow Leopard work on my D620. In my case, Snow Leopard is on the first partition and XP is on the second.

Initially, I set the first partition as active using the following commands Leppy suggested:

 

• sudo –s
  
• fdisk –e /dev/rdisk0
  
• p
  
• f 1
  
• w
  
• q
  

I want XP to be the default OS, but, if I didn't hit the key before the timeout when Chameleon starts, Snow Leopard was started.

Therefore, I executed f 2 instead of f 1 in order to make XP partition active, put "chain0" file in C:\, and added c:\chain0="Mac Partition Name" to the end of "boot.ini" file.