Dell Inspiron 8200 owner need help.

[Ratteler]

After 2 days and 3 Distros (OSX86 10.4.3, 10.4.4, 10.4.6) I'm hitting my limit of getting no love.

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200

 

1.7Gh Processor

1GB RAM

64MB Geforce4go

UGXA 1600 x 1200 screen (Gotta love it!)

8X DVD-R/W

2 New Hard Drives

120GB (internal), and 80GB (Media Bay)

 

My plan WAS to use the 80GB media drive as my OSX86 Boot drive, and the 120 for Windows {censored}. (I hate Windows, but until Apple Mac's Mac Book Pros with PCMCIA port I need a PC to back up Panasonic P2 Memory card used in the AG HVX200.)

 

Instead of dual booting in the traditional way, I thought it would be cool to use the BIOS drive boot selection tool to choose between the internal Windowz drive, and the Media Bay OS X drive.

 

I started with the brand new 80 GB drive.

 

I booted the OSX86DVD and couldn't see the drive at all.

 

I had partitioned it in Windows, but that was all. I wanter to split it between a FAT storgae and 20GB OS partition, but decided at this point to just make it one big drive.

 

Still no drive listed under the Installer.

 

I looked around and found the Disk Utilities Tools Menu under OS X. Figured "Cool! That'll do it."

 

I repartitioned the drive there. Made my 20GB HFS and made the rest of it MS-DOS.

 

The install seemed to go smooth.

 

I was asked to restart...

 

B0 Error.

 

After several hours of research I finally ran into the intructions by RAMjet to get around that.

 

I go into the Terminal window. All goes well.

 

I reboot.

 

Now I get Darwin message and then............

 

 

a seemingly endless scroll of commands that end with my computer rebooting and doing the same thing over and over again.

 

I'm pretty sure it's not my patched DVD because I actually got it to install first time under VMWARE.

 

There have been several reports of others using the same machine as mine. So I don't think it's hardware incompatibility problem.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Sorry if this duplicates other info in the forum. But I've been at this 2 days straight with about 4 hours sleep out of those 48.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Rammjet]

When you did the install, what packages did you choose under Customize?

 

Also, partitioning with Disk Utility is potentially problematic because it is designed to setup partitions in the GUID method for a Macintosh, rather than the Master Boot Record method needed by a Hackintosh - unless you go into the Options and select Master Boot Record during formatting. The fact that it tried to boot at all says you might have escaped that bullet.

 

But if you end up reinstalling so you can select the proper packages under Customize, then I would repartition the drive in Windows and then during installation, you must format the partition to HFS+ using Disk Utility.

[Ratteler]

I've only been here for about a day, but I can already say with absolute confidance....

 

RAMMJET!!! YOU DA MAN!!!!

 

When you did the install, what packages did you choose under Customize?

 

 

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

 

Ok... like a COMPLETE moron... I was just letting the whole folder ride.

 

I had read another message just after I posted this about the Customize feature... and sure as {censored}! It worked!!!!

 

Also, partitioning with Disk Utility is potentially problematic because it is designed to setup partitions in the GUID method for a Macintosh, rather than the Master Boot Record method needed by a Hackintosh - unless you go into the Options and select Master Boot Record during formatting. The fact that it tried to boot at all says you might have escaped that bullet.

 

But if you end up reinstalling so you can select the proper packages under Customize, then I would repartition the drive in Windows and then during installation, you must format the partition to HFS+ using Disk Utility.

 

Hmmm... Well, I did do a reinstall, and came back here to do a happy dance.

 

But once again I fixed things up in the OS X Disk utility. Seems to work fine though.

 

Now I'm on to level 2 problems. My screen is restricted to 1024 x 768 even though my GeForce card can handle the native res of my LCD's 1600 x 1200.

 

I suspect I need to figure out how install those beta Nvidia drivers I skipped over reading about couse I couldn't get the system running at all.

 

Also, my WiFi card isn't recognized. I would like to get that one working since it's my major link to the net.

 

It's a Dell TrueMobile 1150 Mini-PCI.

 

I suppose getting my PCMCIA cards working is too much to ask.

[Rammjet]

Video - http://macvidia.starchaser.org

 

WiFi - the 1150 has a Hermes chipset. There is no driver. Get a 1350 with a Broadcom chipset from Dell or possibly even cheaper on eBay.

 

PCMCIA - doubtful

[leo2k]

hi,

 

i'm also new to all this. i've also got an inspiron 8200, but with an ati mobility 9000 graphics card. i installed the JaS 10.4.6 without any problems, sound works, onboard lan works.

now i want to make this install perfect. i want the higher resolution, scrolling with my touchpad and all possible accelerations like openGL through the ati. the problem is, that i have no idea how to do that. i've never used a mac. although this forum provides much input, it is difficult for me to find out how to do these things. maybe someone can help me through?

 

thanks alot,

leo

[starodub]

I have an inspiron 8200 with a Gf4go either. My previous install attempts gave no success. I've tried 10.4.6 HOTiSO - reboot message and 10.4.6 HOTiSO with ppf1 (endless command line scrolling during boot). Then I knew nothing about kext replacement and boot options. Now I have jas 10.4.8 sse2 sse3 ppf1 ppf2 installed on my desktop with the same chipset (i845) - but on my Dell laptop I have reboot message again (with 10.4.8). As I understand according to boot log my problem is GeForce4go 440 auto configuration by titan (it detects the card correctly, but fails to configure it). Currently I'm reading the forum to find out how to remove the Titan kexts (I unselected it but it was installed anyway).

Update: jas 10.4.8 sse2 sse3 ppf1 ppf2 appears to contain Titan and AGPGart drivers. My first step with the Dell was deleting of the Titan.kext. After reboot I didn't have reboot message at that time system hanged with gray apple on the screen. The same result was later, when I removed the NVDANV* kexts. Nothing changed then I aslo removed the Geforce.kext . My last action was deleting the AGPGart.kext and when I did it - the reboot message appeared again.

Update: I've installed on the Dell the "10.4.8 HOTiSO" and it works! Later I installed 10.4.7 update and at the moment I'm downloading update to 10.4.8 (people sad I can't update tirectly to 10.4.9 - so I'm doing step by step update).