Beginner hoping to learn post tweaking of OSX Install

[kbtarl]

I am truely a beginner at this. I have installed OSX 10.6 on a Dell Mini 10v but that was almost plug and play. Everything (or so it seems) worked out of the box. I now am trying to do a SL 10.6 install for a mini mac desktop using

ZOTAC IONITX-G-E Intel Atom 330 (1.6GHz, dual-core) NVIDIA ION Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo . I have it installed but really don't know what I need to do now to check everything and make it all work "right". Windows you have hardware manager to look for yellow exclamation marks but not with OSX. I know everything is not right as sleep will not work. Well it will but you can not get out of it. The sound is not really right. You can hear it but it sounds bad. where does a beginner learn about Kexts, DSDT, plists and ect, ect. I feel comfortable to an extent in the windows/dos environment but seem to be missing some of the basics to tweaking OSX correctly.

 

Where does one start. I have been browsing many of the boards and get some information but sometimes it is like my golf game....feel like I am fixing something to find I only broke something else.

 

I am having problems with fixing the HDD so it is bootable. I am still using the boot CD to load the OS because everytime I have tried to install some boot program it makes it so I can not load OSX again. When that happens I don't know how to put it back and end up re installing Snow again. This gets so old. I want to lean, willing to put in the time, just need some basics. Need to know more about extra folders, extensions, editing boot lists, dsdt, ect.

 

Help....any appreciated.

[oldtopman]

You can learn about this kind of stuff by reading things like this forum. There is no definitive "guide" and wikipedia can contain only so much info.

 

Install chameleon after you boot your computer. If that doesn't work, we'll need to see the guide you followed.

 

--oldtopman--

[kbtarl]

You can learn about this kind of stuff by reading things like this forum. There is no definitive "guide" and wikipedia can contain only so much info.

 

Install chameleon after you boot your computer. If that doesn't work, we'll need to see the guide you followed.

 

--oldtopman--

 

Thanks,

 

I will keep reading and searching for new sites googling topics that will hopefully help me understand the process. I really did not follow any quide. I set some of the bios as some similar set ups said such as disable HT and set sata drives to ACHI. I then tried different bootloaders till I found one that would let me get into Snow Leopard 10.6 upgrade DVD and did an install. Most everything I have tried so far worked out of the box. How well it is working I really am not sure. I am still playing around with it but every time I've installed a boot loader something has messed up and I either loose something such as graphic resolution options were not avaiable when I used MyHack Installer although I have not tried going back and unchecking all the boxes to see if it will just make the HDD bootable. I installed Cameleon and started getting KP. When that happens how do you fix it so you can get back in to the OS GUI? I did not know how so I just started all over :-( . I am at that point again. I have sound but it is not the best so something is not right. I have graphics but do not know if I have everything. They talk about CE/QI with graphics but I do not know what that is. How do I tell what I need to tweak. Is there something in OSX like Hardware manager (Device Manager) in windows?

 

What is the Extra Folder and does it go in the root directory?

 

Extensions go where and they are what?

 

I don't mean to be such a noob and yes I guess I was looking for a guide almost step by step but now I know I will have to learn it a step at a time and surely after awhile it will make sense. I really appreciate all the great people on this board and others that are willing to help such a hopeless case as myself. I will get better and I promise to pay it forward to those I run across once I learn more.

 

Any directions, links, or suggestions always welcome. I think one of the things I am going to do is partition more OSX partitions to have backup so I can restore instead of reinstall every time I get stuck.

[3.14r2]

They talk about CE/QI with graphics but I do not know what that is.

QI=quartzextreme

CE=coreimage

In plane language if CE/QI is enabled you get hardware accelerated video&graphics (VGA card does the job), if it is not enabled you get software accelerated video&graphics (OS X and CPU does the job instead of VGA card). No CE/QI = no games, video and so on...

Is there something in OSX like Hardware manager (Device Manager) in windows?

AFAIK no. At least the way it is implemented in Windows. OS X has a different approach to hardware management.

What is the Extra Folder and does it go in the root directory?

It is a part of Chameleon boot loader. The idea behind it was to store each and every additional or modified original extension in one place (Extra) instead of storing them in the place where all extensions are stored by default. Therefore no modified original extension would be overwritten by a system update.

 

The location of Extra folder could be different depending on where the chameleon is installed. It could be:

EFI partition (Chameleon is installed to an EFI partition)

root of the disk OS X is installed to (Chameleon is installed to the same partition where OS X is installed).

Extensions go where and they are what?

Extensions~drivers. Originally all extensions (*.kext) are stored in /System/Library/Extensions. You can place all additional and modified extensions to the same place or to Extra (see the above).

 

You can learn about this kind of stuff by reading things like this forum.

And Google....

[kbtarl]

QI=quartzextreme

CE=coreimage

In plane language if CE/QI is enabled you get hardware accelerated video&graphics (VGA card does the job), if it is not enabled you get software accelerated video&graphics (OS X and CPU does the job instead of VGA card). No CE/QI = no games, video and so on...

AFAIK no. At least the way it is implemented in Windows. OS X has a different approach to hardware management.

It is a part of Chameleon boot loader. The idea behind it was to store each and every additional or modified original extension in one place (Extra) instead of storing them in the place where all extensions are stored by default. Therefore no modified original extension would be overwritten by a system update.

 

The location of Extra folder could be different depending on where the chameleon is installed. It could be:

EFI partition (Chameleon is installed to an EFI partition)

root of the disk OS X is installed to (Chameleon is installed to the same partition where OS X is installed).

Extensions~drivers. Originally all extensions (*.kext) are stored in /System/Library/Extensions. You can place all additional and modified extensions to the same place or to Extra (see the above).

 

And Google....

 

Thanks for the information. Certainly different than DOS days but then DOS days started out mighty confusing as well. Just have to get a different mind set. I really appreciate all the help.