Eee PC 1018p. Working Triple Boot! kinda...

[Princess_Bubblegum]

Alright, first post time Let's Hope I write something good enough to attract some responses from people who know what they're doing, lol.

 

I'm working on an Asus Eee PC 1018p Netbook, it's really pretty, it's that brushed aluminum case one.

 

Tbh, I'm mostly worried about fixing some boot issues first, but if you just so happen to be awesome, maybe make some suggestions for my hardware. Soooo here's the basics on hardware/functionality. (sorry for wall of text, ask and I can give more details)

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-Computer Model: Asus Eee PC 1018p. (Best Buy retail)(ddr2 version)

-OSX version: 10.6.3 retail (patched with NBI 0.8.5 pre)

-Display Adapter: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 (Unsupported, probably won't ever get hardware acceleration, apparently it's used by the dell mini 12xx whatever, and that has people looking at it now that the dell mini 10v is discontinued. QE/CI looks like "maybe never")

-Processor: Intel Atom N455 (1.66 GHz) (Single core 32 bit)

-Internal Bluetooth: None. (If you know of a good/compatible/small USB adapter, tell me )

-Internal Wireless Hardware: Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (Doesn't work automatically on fresh OSX install) (Haven't gotten around to researching this yet. If you just so happen to know of a kext, or even a compatible replacement card, that would be super awesome)

-Internal Ethernet Hardware: Atheros AR132 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20) (haven't tested, don't have physical access to router, share internet with landlord [which sucks])

-USB controller: Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) (works great, probably won't mess with it)

-Sound: Not sure of internal hardware, very lowest priority for now.

-Trackpad: Basic functionality. Low priority.

-Sleep mode: Actually haven't tested it. Not that important for now.

-Power management: Not sure how to tell... It knows the difference between plugged in and not plugged in.

-Card Reader: Uses internal USB. Works perfectly. Can/did boot from SD card for installation of all three operating systems.

-Internal HDD: Had a 500GB 7200 rpm Seagate Momentus laying around. It's working great. Internal SATA connection seems to be working without any problem.

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Lol, so none of that's really what I want to talk about. But lurking this form reveals that people get constantly peeved about not knowing the intimate details of your hardware.

 

I'm having boot issues, and this might be easy to fix, but I thought I'd at least ask for advice. My active partition loads up Chameleon just fine, and lets me chose which of the three operating systems I want to use. It works just fine for Win 7 and kubuntu, but fails to load OSX, details to follow. The SD card OSX boot media I prepared from my retail copy of OSX 10.6.3 is patched with a boot loader (using Netbook Installer 0.8.5 pre). I can boot from that media and select OSX instead of the boot media, and I get into OSX just fine, and can remove the SD and go from there. I think my OS is fine as it is for now because I can get to it using that particular boot loader.

If I try to boot OSX from the boot loader on the internal drive however, I can get a variety of hangs or other problems:

-I just let it try to boot OSX -> Hangs at grey apple logo screen, no spinny progress wheel.

-Boot using "-x" -> Same problem

-Boot using "arch=i386" -> Grey screen of death

-Boot using "arch=x86_32" ->Grey screen of death

-Boot using "-f -v" or "-x -f -v" -> Hangs at grey background with the following text

Starting Darwin x86_64
Setting Legacy USB Off on controller [8086:27cc] at 00:1d.7
Legacy USB Off Done
EHCI controller [8086:27cc] at 00:1d.7 DMA @f9bf7c00

-Boot using just "-v" -> Hangs with same message as "-f -v" just gets there much faster.

 

It's worth mentioning that the boot loader I installed was from running Netbook Installer 0.8.4 RC1 from inside OSX (didn't use 0.8.5 pre because it hangs and doesn't give a "bootloader only" option) It installs "Chameleon 2 NBI"

In the meantime I can just continue booting from the SD card when i need OSX. I'm not sure what's so special/different about the boot loader on the external storage... Any help would be veeery greatly appreciated.

 

UPDATE:

Woo, got my wifi working. Also got updated to 10.6.6

[jbechard]

I am trying to install osx on this machine... I tried many things and i am about to give up.. how did you do it? i bought a retail osx 10.6.3 and tried to boot with various method.. I installed with ideneb but on reboot it doesn't load!!! HELP!!! thanks

[Princess_Bubblegum]

Have you already tried Netbook Installer 0.8.5 pre?

[Princess_Bubblegum]

Thought I'd mention that 1.6.7 combo update seems to be working natively when you use the netbook installer way of getting osx running

[senortendercuts]

Princess_Bubblegum I am getting ready to start my second attempt to install osx 10.6 on a 1018p what tools should i use, basic outline of a procedure, and how can i get it updated to 10.6.7? Things i have to work with External DVD Drive,8GB USB Key, iMac, and Retail copies of 10.6 and 10.5.

 

Thanks For any assistance.

[synkronizer77]

Hi Princess Bubblegum, how did you manage to get the wifi running? did you replace the card or install a special kext? I would appreciate your expert advice. ;-) Have a nice day.

 

Regards, Synkronizer

[Dmitry-e]

 

Hi.

Can you share your 1018p patched distributive to some torrent tracker (demonoid, rutracker.org)?

 

I have no posibility to pach retail image, cause in VmWare netbook work very!!! slowly

[Avery Kucan]

Actually the N455 and the n450 are 64 bit CPUs... I was surprised too. the n series 1.66 (not 1.6) 1.66 and above are 64 bit, but they come with 32 bit by default. Try running 64 bit live linux...!