Now for the hopefully last of the steps to a happy HTPC Mac. So far all has gone well and nothing terrible happened.
As I said in post 1 I got my first inspiration from here:
http://www.osnews.com/story/21564/Building_a_Hackintosh_Apple_Can_t_Sue_You_
Basically the interesting part being able to use the standard OS install. I pretty much followed the instructions on that page. But here I’ll also give some additional hints that might make your life a little easier.
So with a USB stick, a freshly burnt boot-132 CD and the Mac OS X Leopard DVD (10.5.0) I ventured to my new Atom powered sleek SilverStone Mac (or do I call it a PC?). Before I started though I had deleted all partitions off the hard drive so that the Mac OS X installer would not have any issues trying to delete Linux or Windows partitions. This I did with a Live boot CD running Ubuntu 9.04. The Partition Editor under the System menu did the trick.
That done I inserted the boot-132 disk and started the HTPC. As promised it came up with a prompt and after exchanging the DVD the new OS was happily installing. Note to partition the drive correctly before installing though.
The install took about an hour. Create your user & stuff and you’re ready to reboot. You will still need the boot-132 CD to start into your partition until you have installed the bootloader Chameleon.So reboot now and see what happens.
*TaDa*
You have your first OS X start! Probably you’ll only see a 1024×768 resolution but that’s 100% OK.First install the 10.5.7 combo installer from Apple. You might run into a system crash when you reboot. This is due to problems with hyperthreading (HT) on the Atom CPUs. This is probably due to the processor not being interpreted correctly but I did not yet figure a way of fixing that. Maybe someone out there has a clue. To get it running you therefore have to turn off hyperthreading in the BIOS.
Now start executing all those steps in the link above. You’ll need to install Chameleon, Kexts and the other goodies. One thing the documentation sort of misses is the fact that you manually have to set the Mac OS partition to be active if none of the tools has done that for you. Details for this can be read-up here.
Should you have more than one partition the boot manager will also come up every time to ask you where to boot from. If you don’t want that read up here how you can change on the boot loader. For me it were the entries…
<key>Kernel Flags</key> <string>rd=disk0s2</string> <key>Timeout</key> <string>4</string>
…in the com.apple.Boot.plist file.
One thing to note with the Intel D945GCLF2 board is, that the Realtek NIC is not fully 100% supported and the above description does not mention that. Get the Kext from here and install it with the OSx86 tool. All networking now works like a charm.
Finally repair disk permissions and install
If you have done all of the above you should be able to recreate this screen:
The important detail being…
If you do have the good fortune of having a SilverStone case with a display you will now need to get the display to work. the easiest way I found is by using the linked installer for LCDproc from here:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t83598.html
I also recommend Plex for the movie experience (or just stick to FrontRow for now). Perian is also a valuable asset to have for those video codecs. XSlimmer (see below) can also help with cutting down the space used by applications a bit.
The set-up has now been running a couple of days and I’m very happy. Two things remain to be done:
- I need to get 5.1 audio to work. So far no luck (or figure out a way for the on-board digital out to work)
- Find a way to activate the buttons and volume controller from the SilverStone case.
Although the latter is not that important to me. I’m content and am totally amazed at how well this has worked. The Atom is also a lot faster than I would have expected. It probably isn’t as fast as a Mac Mini but then I wouldn’t have expected that but it is a heck of a lot faster than my 1.42Ghz Mac Mini I had before (even with a 250GB 5400RPM drive upgrade!).
So the experiment was a success and I can now attack the final little nigglies.
Tags: Apple, Atom 330, Hackintosh, HTPC, Intel, SilverStone LC16-M, Ubuntu
Appleinsider reports that the new iPhone 3G [S] is equipped with a PowerVR SGX on die 2D/3D accelerator chip.
From what I read this chip still holds a lot of reserves at this point in time. So the iPhone 3G [S] will certainly be equipped with more functionality as time goes by. Now the only thing left to find out is the actual CPU speed and confirmed internal memory amount. All other new features are of course cool as but for me the speed is the critical thing. I found the “old” iPhone 3G just that tiny bit too slow with its 400Mhz core. I so hope they have fixed that. From the Keynote it looks like they did but I need to wait for an official confirmation.
I think this is finally the iPhone for me.
Sorry for the delay. Got lots of work on at the moment. now for the putting it all together part….
First we need to put all the hardware together. Well…actually we first need to take it apart. The case that is. And that then looks something like this:
The case has lots of space and the mainboard can be easily accommodated. You really start to wonder if you can put two Atom boards in here….
The power supply (PSU) that came with the case has a whopping 450W which is about 4-5x what I’ll probably need. And although it is a high quality-low noise dual fan PSU it still contributes quite substantially to the noise level. I will definitely be looking for a fan-less supply in the sub 200W class. If someone has any ideas where to get these please let me know. At the bottom of the case you can also see two additional fans that can be connected up to a mainboard. They are nice and quiet and turn at about 1700RPM. For this PC though they are just not necessary.
So next step is to get the mainboard in…
Now that definitely looks like a waste of space! And if I can redo that PSU I can really fit two. 
The board fits nicely and is no problem getting in but as you can see above I have a hydra problem. LOTS and LOTS of cables to connect. Since I haven’t built a PC for years now (at least nothing later than a Pentium III) I was surprised how much more cabling there is. So here’s the shot with all cabling and drives in:
I know this isn’t the cleanest of cabling but this is kinda a first attempt.So maybe I’ll visit this again at some latter point.
One thing to mention though is the Intel mainboard fan. It’s there to cool the chip-set and not the CPU! This is THE most commented on feature of this board. Why pair a 4W processor with a 20W+ chip-set?! And the fan is annoying. It is loud and should be replaced. I’ll have a look if I can tunnel one of the back fans to it. They’d be perfect and do a quieter job of it.
Up top you can see the installed DVD drive and the HDD on the right. There’s still lots of space left for more goodies. And the final product….
Looks good and is just what I wanted. A lot bigger than the Mini but hey, this is something totally different. The next challenge is installation and getting all the fancy stuff to work. The old DVD player will also lose it’s place once I get 5.1 sound to work. On the lower left corner you can already see the blue power light. I tested the whole hardware installation with a Ubuntu Linux Live CD.
Noise levels are low but perceptible when the room is quiet. Running are the mainboard fan and the two fans from the PSU. When anything is playing the noise level gets easily drowned out. If I can re-jig the mainboard CPU and install a fan-less PSU the noise level should be less than that of the Mac Mini.
My HTPC hardware is now all working and ready for the next phase. See Part 3 in the next days.
Tags: Apple, Atom 330, Hackintosh, Intel, Mac OS X, SilverStone LC16-M
Last week I started with a new project. Our 1.42Ghz G4 Mac Mini was getting somewhat old in the tooth. So I thought it’s about time to replace the good old thing. Problem is that the exchange rate at the moment is making it impossible to buy a new Mac Mini. I’d have to shell out nearly $2000 for a Mac Mini! That is definitely too much. So what to do? I did contemplate going Windows Media Center (well….not really!) or Linux media center of some sort but I really do like my Macs. That’s when I discovered THIS article.
Since I have a Mac OS X Leopard family license with two licenses left unused I thought this might really be a good idea. If it is legal I’m not sure (am no lawyer). I do know though that Apple earns on average $2000-$3500 from us every year in software and hardware. I think that warrants me going a little astray for the fun of it.
In the end I just love the tinkering. I think it’s the same genes that are responsible for grown men to play with toy trains.
So what did I do…. firstly I had to get all the components.
- Intel Atom 330 Motherboard D945GCLF2 (from Paradigm PCs in Wellington – not the cheapest but reliable & quick)
- 1GB Ram DDR2-5300 (had that already)
- WD 250GB 7200RPM HDD (had that already)
- Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-110D (had that already)
- SilverStone LC16M HTPC case with a Task 450W low noise PSU
The SilverStone case was a stroke of luck. I got it cheap off TradeMe and it was exactly the thing I was looking for. Eventually the hard drive will be exchanged for a 1-2TB drive(s) but I am waiting for the big drives to come down in price a little and for this experiment to work before spending more money. So far I have now spent just over NZ$400 for the set-up.
The Intel D945GCLF2 mainboard with its dual core 1.6Ghz Atom 330 processor is a sweet little thing. It definitely has its drawbacks. It only has Intel GMA950 integrated graphics, 2GB ram max, only 2 SATA ports, only one PCI expansion slot, no Firewire and the chipset could be more efficient. But it is very compatible with Mac OS X, has a plethora of USB ports (4 x front & 4 x back), is available and is dirt cheap. My research on the Internet said that it definitely wouldn’t do 1080p. Since our TV is 720p/1080i only I wasn’t too worried.
I would have liked to get one of the new Atom + Nvidia ION chipset mainboards but there’s none to have in NZ for a while and their compatibility with Mac OS X isn’t proven yet. I also anticipate them costing NZ$350 and more.
So by last Friday I had all the parts sitting right in-front of me.
(LtR: DVD, HDD, Mainboard, RAM and USB stick)
and the case…
And I must say the case is absolutely divine. It is just the right size. Has space for (at least) 6 hard drives and can be fitted with fans left-right and center. It is solidly built and the front is really nice aluminum. So I set about setting it all up. It would be a challenge to get all the switches, display and other gadgets to work under OS X.
More tomorrow….
Tags: Apple, Atom 330, D945GCLF2, Hackintosh, HTPC, Intel, Mac OS X, SilverStone LC16-M
In one of the Mac bundles we bought a while ago one of the included programs was Xslimmer. It is a fantastic utility, that takes Universal Binaries (the Mac OS X application files) and strips out the PowerPC components and languages you won’t need. This saves quite a few gigabytes on your drive even if you only have a stock standard Mac OS X with iLife. It also makes load times faster. So if your HDD’s getting full or you’re a neat-freak give it a go. I think the US$12.95 are well invested.
For my vehicular A-to-B machine I needed some LED lights for slight modding.
After a lot of searching and reading I stumbled across Carl and his ledstuff.co.nz website. He really helped me select what LED lights I needed and has been very helpful. After sales service was also excellent and no-fuss-quick. So if you have any LED lights drop by his website and see what he’s got. Even if you haven’t thought about using LEDs before have a look. I think you’ll be amazed at what can be done today.
Also a good address for LED torches for that earthquake bin.
Tags: green, LED, lighting, sustainability
I’ve blogged about quite a few electric whatevers. But this one’s really cool. Have a look….
Inventors from Stuttgart in Germany have crossed a mountain bike with an electric scooter. Looks great and should be the ideal thing for Kiwis. Goes 45km/h and has a radius of over 60km. Costs about a $1 per 100km. This is something I could see myself on. Probably even good for off the road. Have a look at the pictures and videos on the site. The concept is sound by the looks of it. Currently still a bit pricey at $8500+ but that’s bound to drop.
The constructors seem to have really splurged on good quality parts and got the design right. Remains to be seen what kind of vehicle class this would be in NZ. Could be all you need is a cycle helmet…
Tags: car less, energy, Environment, green, sustainability
Ok, so here we have what I said would come in the last election. National cannot promise tax cuts like they are proposing.
Bill English said today something like “the downturn is worse than even the worst prognosis and therefore the tax cuts cannot be upheld”. Basically either he is lying and National has pulled the election coup of the century by buying the election and then not paying up with full intent or he is admitting that the oh so financially competent National Party has no clue what’s happening on the world markets. Please Mr. Key take a pick! I do feel sorry for the 45% (minus the few super-rich) that have voted for National. You’ve just proven that you’re politically gullible. Hope this will teach you a lesson in believing in what politicians say.
As for cutting investments into superannuation, the second idiotic thing in the budget, it’s just typical behaviour. Pray on the future which someone else will have to deal with. They made it look as if there were only two options: no investment or an unsound investment. I really can’t believe that a “financially highly capable” National Party cannot find an investment that cannot return a good return. I’d even say that money could have been invested into NZ and have directly created jobs! How shortsighted.
There seem to be only two good things that came out of the budget.
- Insulation for homes. Thanks Greens and Maori Party!
- Luckily not even more headless damage. Thanks National Party for being a bit lazy or afraid of the backlash.
Point to note is the absence of Labour in this post. I think they have to step up to the game a bit if they want to have a chance in the near future.
Sorry for the political rant but it’s hard not commenting when given such an invitation. I do hope the feeling is mutual.
Sky’s put together a nice piece/musings on why we need help if we have good UI design. It should give a lot of developers something to think about. It stresses the importance of design and designers in the IT trade. A developer is NOT a designer. Anyway have a read and think for yourself.
I’ve often (and for years now) complained about working in IT and how the product we create is to virtual to make us realise it is our creation. There’s nothing to be proud of because there’s nothing to touch. It seems as if our human nature yearns for creating something substantial. Without it we are at a loss of self-worth.
Usually this feeling is not really strong and doesn’t really affect us or what we do. It does explain though that there’s more of a leniency to cut corners or to ignore the obvious. If the product is virtual maybe nobody will notice (and nobody really does). If you do that as a builder it is blatantly obvious that the house has no doors.
Have a read http://tinyurl.com/o2t9ox (thanks Yee for the link! And Matthew for the insight). This article pretty much hits the nail on the head of what I’ve always felt and seen.
I don’t really know what to do about it. Not for me and not for the industry. How do we mak the virtual workplace, the cubicle monster give us what we need? Or are we doomed to a happy existence as motor cycle repairist? Is this growing up or becoming wise or when does knowing set in? Is this where the common midlife crisis sets in? Maybe you’ll know…