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Dell XPS 410 Resource Extravaganza

slave-zeo

By slave-zeo,
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Rob G
Rob G
Posted
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Yes but it takes some work and may stop working with future updates. The nvidia 9400 gt is the way to go all it needs is an efi string. It does not need any modded kext. And it's update safe.

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iMoshi
iMoshi
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Yes but it takes some work and may stop working with future updates. The nvidia 9400 gt is the way to go all it needs is an efi string. It does not need any modded kext. And it's update safe.

So there are Software Update SAFE ones and Not Safe ones? Thanks for telling me. Okay, I'll get that 9400GT and end this Graphic thing drives me nuts thing :P

 

Thanks again :(

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browndogfred
browndogfred
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So there are Software Update SAFE ones and Not Safe ones? Thanks for telling me. Okay, I'll get that 9400GT and end this Graphic thing drives me nuts thing :D

 

Thanks again :)

 

 

Yeah man.....thats what this good old forum is for. I mean, a clean install is a start so that "most" updates won't give you any issues, but there are always chances. Thats why is a good idea to always check around before running system updates....at least the actual OS updates for sure.

 

Get the card, get good graphics, and enjoy your OSX experience.

 

:D

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Rob G
Rob G
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Yeah man.....thats what this good old forum is for. I mean, a clean install is a start so that "most" updates won't give you any issues, but there are always chances. Thats why is a good idea to always check around before running system updates....at least the actual OS updates for sure.

 

Get the card, get good graphics, and enjoy your OSX experience.

 

;)

 

Word Up brother!

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scottyd33
scottyd33
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First off - thank you for this thread. It has been a HUGE help!

 

Here's where I am in the process of getting SL installed:

 

I have osx 10.5 running perfectly. I used the chameleon installer found a few pages back and installed it to my 8 gig usb drive that had the SL disc restored to it.

 

I boot the SL installer just fine, select my other hard drive as the installation destination. The installer runs and after about 30 minutes it fails and I get the error "cannot boot to drive labeled snow leopard"

 

I read that the install will sometimes fail, but to reboot and try to continue anyway. When I reboot (and try to boot from my USB drive that I just installed SL to) my computer gives me an error that it can't find a startup disc, and my only option is to boot into the installer, Vista, or OSX 10.5. Chameleon doesn't even show my 2nd hard drive in the list of boot options. It's like SL never made it to the drive or something.

 

Any ideas how to fix this? I've tried reinstalling and got the same problem. THANK YOU!

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scottyd33
scottyd33
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Thank you for the replies. I'm still stuck though. Here's where I am now.

 

Installed SL from a USB flash drive to an external USB hard drive. The installer said it fails after about 20 minutes because "the bless device could not set your drive as the startup disk" (I forget the exact wording but its something like that.)

 

When I try rebooting into the new installation in verbose mode, some of the text that appears is gold, and there's a lot of new wording on the screen that I never saw when booting into 10.5.6, which makes me believe that it's trying to boot SL properly.

 

However, now I get the waiting for root device error. I've tried different RAID settings and tried -f -x -x32, etc.. and I get the error every time.

 

I was told i Need to run the EFI finisher, but don't you have to do that aftetr successfully booting into SL? I can't get that far.

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iMoshi
iMoshi
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Thank you for the replies. I'm still stuck though. Here's where I am now.

 

Installed SL from a USB flash drive to an external USB hard drive. The installer said it fails after about 20 minutes because "the bless device could not set your drive as the startup disk" (I forget the exact wording but its something like that.)

 

When I try rebooting into the new installation in verbose mode, some of the text that appears is gold, and there's a lot of new wording on the screen that I never saw when booting into 10.5.6, which makes me believe that it's trying to boot SL properly.

 

However, now I get the waiting for root device error. I've tried different RAID settings and tried -f -x -x32, etc.. and I get the error every time.

 

I was told i Need to run the EFI finisher, but don't you have to do that aftetr successfully booting into SL? I can't get that far.

did you use any distro? I was having issues with my hard drive also, and buying a Snow Leopard DVD from Apple store and cloning it into a thumb drive fixed it somehow.

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Rob G
Rob G
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Installing an Anti-virus in windows gives windows an auto immune decease. The anti-virus is like white blood cells and windows 7 is a body. The while blood cells start attacking the body because they realize that the body (windows 7) its self is a virus. I am done with windows.

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iMoshi
iMoshi
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Installing an Anti-virus in windows gives windows an auto immune decease. The anti-virus is like white blood cells and windows 7 is a body. The while blood cells start attacking the body because they realize that the body (windows 7) its self is a virus. I am done with windows.

LMAO! I just got an eMail from Apple, visited their website and looked at the new Macbook Pros :( I think I'm gonna go buy one. I really think we all should go for the real macs :D

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scottyd33
scottyd33
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I was using the 10.6.2 retail disk to install. Last night I tried using just the update disk and amazingly the install succeeded! I was so excited as I rebooted. Then - still waiting for root device. AGAIN!

 

I've messed with my RAID settings, tried a bunch of different boot flags, but I can't get around the waiting for root device error after installing Snow. Help!

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browndogfred
browndogfred
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LMAO! I just got an eMail from Apple, visited their website and looked at the new Macbook Pros ;) I think I'm gonna go buy one. I really think we all should go for the real macs :D

 

 

haha. Sounds like a plan......why do you go ahead and get us the new Macbook Pro's? In a perfect world, I'd dish out the loot for a real Mac, but then I wouldn't have the opportunity to turn my PC into one. That wouldn't be any fun now would it?

 

Its disturbingly fun to break/fix/break/fix a PC to make it run like a well oiled Mac. -_-

 

 

Anyhow, I'll take the 17 inch Macbook Pro.......thanks.

 

 

;)

 

 

I was using the 10.6.2 retail disk to install. Last night I tried using just the update disk and amazingly the install succeeded! I was so excited as I rebooted. Then - still waiting for root device. AGAIN!

 

I've messed with my RAID settings, tried a bunch of different boot flags, but I can't get around the waiting for root device error after installing Snow. Help!

 

 

Assuming you're following the install steps on posted on post #1043, you could try swapping your hard drive to different ports. For example, make sure your hard drive is on slot 0, should be the blue slot. Might try unplugging all your disk drives and any USB drives too.

 

I had read one of your posts about installing Snow Leopard to an external drive, I would recommend NOT doing that but I think iMoshi might have done it that way, double check with him. Again, if you're using your stock hard drive, whether it be the 320gb one or the 500gb one.....just make another partition for Snow Leopard below your Leopard partition that already exists. Run your install and install to that new partition on the internal hard drive. Once you actually get the install completed, you can get rid of the Leopard partition and make the Snow Leopard partition the main and only partition.

 

Keep in mind that after you complete the install, you'll be editing the com.apple.Boot.plist and the PlatformUID.kext to specify the boot uuid of your actual Snow Leopard partition of the hard drive, that way your computer knows what to boot off of.

 

That method I posted is assuming you're using an internal HD, not an external.........if you have an external, just keep it aside and use it to offload stuff like files/music/movies/backups/etc. Your call ofcourse.

 

iMoshi, did you end up installing on the internal drive or external? Can't remember.

 

 

RobG can throw some insight on this too......

 

 

Cheers fellas.

 

 

Mac OSX 10.6.3 Supplemental Update 1.0 came out. Ran it. Safe.

 

 

Haven't seen that one yet.......no new updates showing when I check. Cool that its safe though, thanks for the heads up.

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iMoshi
iMoshi
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haha. Sounds like a plan......why do you go ahead and get us the new Macbook Pro's? In a perfect world, I'd dish out the loot for a real Mac, but then I wouldn't have the opportunity to turn my PC into one. That wouldn't be any fun now would it?

 

Its disturbingly fun to break/fix/break/fix a PC to make it run like a well oiled Mac. :D

 

 

Anyhow, I'll take the 17 inch Macbook Pro.......thanks.

 

 

:)

 

 

 

 

 

Assuming you're following the install steps on posted on post #1043, you could try swapping your hard drive to different ports. For example, make sure your hard drive is on slot 0, should be the blue slot. Might try unplugging all your disk drives and any USB drives too.

 

I had read one of your posts about installing Snow Leopard to an external drive, I would recommend NOT doing that but I think iMoshi might have done it that way, double check with him. Again, if you're using your stock hard drive, whether it be the 320gb one or the 500gb one.....just make another partition for Snow Leopard below your Leopard partition that already exists. Run your install and install to that new partition on the internal hard drive. Once you actually get the install completed, you can get rid of the Leopard partition and make the Snow Leopard partition the main and only partition.

 

Keep in mind that after you complete the install, you'll be editing the com.apple.Boot.plist and the PlatformUID.kext to specify the boot uuid of your actual Snow Leopard partition of the hard drive, that way your computer knows what to boot off of.

 

That method I posted is assuming you're using an internal HD, not an external.........if you have an external, just keep it aside and use it to offload stuff like files/music/movies/backups/etc. Your call ofcourse.

 

iMoshi, did you end up installing on the internal drive or external? Can't remember.

 

 

RobG can throw some insight on this too......

 

 

Cheers fellas.

 

 

 

 

 

Haven't seen that one yet.......no new updates showing when I check. Cool that its safe though, thanks for the heads up.

 

Yeah a weird update. I've Googled, and only some had it too. I installed it in my internal drive. First I had the stock one, then I upgraded it to a bigger one.

 

Like RobG said, try unplugging all your CD/DVD reader, and all other drivers. Install it on your Internal Drive. You have internal hard drive right? If you have Windows on it, GIVE THAT UP! Say F Windows, I trust the cool guys from InsanelyMac and I'm going for the Mac :D use your external drive as a backup device, back up all your important stuff (you want to format it to Fat-32 first so Mac can read it) and try to install from your Thumb drive again.

 

oh by the way, I was thinking to get one of the 15" MacbookPro if they approve my friend's credit card :P

 

Security-Update 2010 003 came, Safe also :D

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scottyd33
scottyd33
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Alright - unforunately I can't get rid of windows (wife is anti-mac) but I have decided to start from scratch and do a dual boot of Windows 7 and Snow on my internal drive. Anything I should know before I attempt this?

 

Well maybe not Windows 7 since it sucks hairy balls lol.

 

But Vista at least. My question is which do I install first?

 

Snow needs a GUID partition, correct? So should I format and partition my drive to GUID with the Snow installer then install Windows after?

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browndogfred
browndogfred
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Well maybe not Windows 7 since it sucks hairy balls lol.

 

But Vista at least. My question is which do I install first?

 

Snow needs a GUID partition, correct? So should I format and partition my drive to GUID with the Snow installer then install Windows after?

 

 

Windows 7 is better than Vista.........I will say that much. I run it on VMware just in case I need it for random work stuff and its a lot better and faster than Vista.

 

 

Anyhow, YES, format your HD to GUID and install Snow Leopard. Then after you get your install all nice and running smooth, you can just add another partition which would be MS-DOS [fat] and then you'll be able to install Windows 7/Vista.

 

OR

 

You could do what I was just mentioning and install VMware. That way you can have Snow Leopard running and be able to access Windows at the same time. I use VMware Fusion....I "found" it online.

 

I think the whole "dual" boot thing can be a pain in the arse when using a single hard drive but thats just my opinion. I've built a machine for my brother that was dual boot but he had 2 HD's so it was simple to just install each OS on each drive, and then just select whatever drive at boot up.

 

I'm sure others will chime in with their opinions too.

 

Good luck.

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iMoshi
iMoshi
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Well maybe not Windows 7 since it sucks hairy balls lol.

 

But Vista at least. My question is which do I install first?

 

Snow needs a GUID partition, correct? So should I format and partition my drive to GUID with the Snow installer then install Windows after?

I have tried Dual Booting, which I highly not recommend. What will be best for you to do is to buy another Internal Hard Drive, unplug your Windows hd, plug your new one, install OSX. Well, Vista sucks double time. Windows 7 is lot better than Vista. I will never ever go back to Windows!!! Never!

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