OS X on an MSI Wind
For kicks, this Christmas I decided to give myself something “hackish” to do, and noticed that the local Staples was selling the MSI Wind with SUSE on it for $299CAD. This little beast (the U90, model number MS-N811) is nice… a little bit bigger than my Eeepc, so the keys are bigger which is nice. Comes with a 120GB HDD, only 512MB RAM ($40CAD later I’m at 1.5GB RAM). I decided to give installing OS X a go on it (tried on the Eeepc last year when I got it and more or less failed miserably).
The choice of the MSI Wind was prompted by some discussion on the Mac Ministry mailing list, and it seems like one of the best netbooks to use to install OS X on. And for the price point, it seemed like a reasonable thing to try. If all else failed, I could restore SUSE or stick Mandriva on it and give it to my daughter.
I found this blog entry on Wired that gave me a good starting point. I won’t post the links to the MSIwindosx.iso (which is hacked copy of Leopard updated to 10.5.4). The blog entry does pretty good on covering that and the initial basics, and where to download the OSX86Tools program you’ll need. This is more of a supplement to that, which is where I got most of what I needed. I did do things a wee bit differently, and the end result is that now I have the latest 10.5.6 running on my Wind, with my various applications working. The only things that don’t work, as of this point (and I only did this on the 23rd), is the wired ethernet (which, by all accounts, should work). I haven’t tried the built-in mic, the headphones, or bluetooth. Wireless works tho, so I’m good to go.
The Wired thing got me going, so I’m going to reiterate some of it here. What you need is the MSIwindosx.iso, which you’ll get from the Pirate Bay’s torrents, and OSX86Tools. Links to both are from the Wired blog. You’ll also want a 4GB USB key (much easier to work with than a DVD).
The first thing you want to do is put your USB key into an existing mac and launch Disk Utility. Partition it to make a single MBR partition, and format it as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. When it’s done, select the USB parition, click on the Restore tab, and drag MSIWindosx.iso to the Source field and select the USB partition as the Destination. Click the Restore button.
When that is done, unzip and launch OSX86Tools. Click the “Install EFI/Run FDISK” button, then select “Run Script”. A Terminal window will pop up; type in your administrator password. Type “4″ to run Chameleon EFI, select the drive number, and then the partition to install. It will look something like this:
% sudo '/Users/vdanen/Downloads/Applications/MSI Hackintosh/OSX86Tools.app/Contents/Resources/fdiskutils.sh' Password: Pick an option to carry out 1) Fdisk_Partition 3) Install_EFI_V8 2) Install_NON_EFI_Bootloader 4) Install_Chameleon_EFI #? 4 /dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *931.5 Gi disk0 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS Storage 931.2 Gi disk0s2 /dev/disk1 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *931.5 Gi disk1 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk1s1 2: Apple_HFS Virtual Machines 931.2 Gi disk1s2 /dev/disk2 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *298.1 Gi disk2 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk2s1 2: Apple_HFS odin 297.8 Gi disk2s2 /dev/disk3 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *465.8 Gi disk3 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk3s1 2: Apple_HFS Backup 465.4 Gi disk3s2 /dev/disk7 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: FDisk_partition_scheme *14.9 Gi disk7 1: Apple_HFS Untitled 1 14.9 Gi disk7s1 Please enter only the number of the disk you wish to install EFI on. (e.g. for /dev/disk1, enter 1) 7 Please enter only the number of the partition. WARNING: Do not choose the partition_scheme or 200MB EFI partition! 1 Variables... Volume../Volumes/Untitled 1/ INFO..disk7s1 rdisks../dev/rdisk7s1 rdisk../dev/rdisk7 disks../dev/disk7s1 disk../dev/disk7 DD to install Chameleon... 2+0 records in 2+0 records out 1024 bytes (1.0 kB) copied, 0.006656 s, 154 kB/s Fdisk to fix partition.. Enter 'help' for information fdisk: 1> Partition 1 marked active. fdisk:*1> Machine code updated. fdisk:*1> Device could not be accessed exclusively. A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n] Writing MBR at offset 0. fdisk: 1> Chameleon installed!
Now, eject the USB drive, put it into the MSI Wind, turn it on and hold down F11 and select the USB device to boot from. Now this is where I differed slightly from the Wired article… before doing anything, launch Disk Utility (from the menu bar at the top), select the HDD in the MSI Wind, and repartition the drive. Make sure you use the GUID partition scheme, not MBR which should be what it is currently using. Once you’ve done that and formatted the partition, exit Disk Utility and you’ll be back at the installer. Continue on to the Installation Summary screen, click the “Customize” button, select “Patches”, and uncheck “Kernel”. Leave everything else. Continue the install and when it’s done, reboot.
At this point, you’ll have a hacked 10.5.4 install on your MSI Wind and it should boot without problems. You’ll want to transfer the Realtek wireless LAN driver using the USB key from your mac to the Wind. I downloaded Realtek_RTL8187SE_MacOS10.5_Driver_073_UI_1.6.2.zip and transferred it via the USB key and installed it. You’ll have to reboot again to get it active. Now, this driver is a little strange… you can’t use it like a regular airport card; it creates a “bridge” type connection so OS X thinks it’s a wired connection, and the tool that comes with it manages the wireless settings. It’s definitely non-mac, the UI is a little bad, but it works which is the important part. You can opt to get a new wireless card and install it, but this works well enough for me. Make sure you press “Fn-F11″ to turn the wireless on or you may end up looking at the tool for a few minutes wondering why the heck it isn’t working. Anyways, now you can connect to your wireless network.
Download the 10.5.6 combo update. I chose the combo update rather than the incremental update largely because that’s all I ever use. It’s a bigger download, but since I keep these things around, I just threw it on a USB key and installed from there.
Once you reboot into 10.5.6, you’ll find a whole bunch of stuff doesn’t work. The keyboard and trackpad don’t work, the screen resolution is off, etc. Make sure you have a USB mouse and keyboard plugged in! So what you need to do is pop in the USB key that still contains the MSIWindosx.iso contents and look for the /Volumes/USB/System/Installer/Patches/ directory (it may be a different root depending on what you’ve named the key). Anyways, copy the Patches/ directory to somewhere convenient; I copied it to ~/Desktop/Patches/.
Go into the directory and remove the update and kernel pkg files. Delete them. You don’t want them at all. What you do want to do is reinstall all of the other pkg files. You could do them one at a time, which is a pain, or fire up Terminal and do the following:
$ cd ~/Desktop/Patches/ $ for i in *.pkg; do sudo installer -pkg $i -target "/"; done
Once this is done, and it’ll take a few minutes, reboot and voila! You’ll have a fully functional 10.5.6 install.
I still have more monkeying around to do, but so far the wired Ethernet is still not working. Sound works, the wireless works with the third-party driver, and everything else seems to work. I haven’t tried Bluetooth yet, or the headphones or mic. The webcam is pretty crappy… not nearly as nice as the iSight built into my macbook. The trackpad is also extremely irritating. It’s very jumpy and erratic. I ended up hopping into System Preferences to put the Tracking Speed down to as slow as it would go (under Keyboard & Mouse, then the Mouse tab). This makes it moderately manageable. I do need to find a way to disable the tap-is-a-click feature (I hate that at the best of times), and it doesn’t do gestures or two-finger scrolling, etc. It works moderately ok, but takes some getting used to. I also haven’t tried hooking it up to an external monitor yet.
Other than that, this baby works quite well. You have to get used to the small screen size, but that’s part of the experience and if you can’t work with small text and small resolutions, don’t even bother. But, to me, the fact that I can get OS X running on a small machine that cost me, all told, $350CAD… well, that’s pretty sweet.
If anyone has figured out how to fix the trackpad, please leave a comment and let me know! There might be a kernel extension out there or preference setting somehow that could be used to configure it, but so far I haven’t found it. Another good resource, if you have the patience to poke around in it, is the MSI Wind Forums. I’m sure some solutions for my issues may exist there, but there are so many posts that refer to methods (but without linking to them), it’s moderately painful to wade through.
A few people on MacMin have asked how I got this going, so here you go! Hope this helps!
Vox
Hey, Vincent
Just when I was looking at computer parts to put a hackintosh together to play with, I see this…and I’m sorely tempted to get a MSIWind for this…but…what I actually *need* is a desktop puter or a desktop-substitute laptop…and I rather get a desktop puter.
Dec 29, 2008 @ 14:35:00vdanen
Yeah, I don’t know how many of the “big” laptops will work with this. I’ve also not tried on the desktop front because, quite honestly, the macs themselves work well enough (i.e. my main desktop is a mac pro and I wouldn’t trade it for anything “pc”). If you do manage to build something that works, let me know… it would be interesting to see how you put it together. =)
Dec 29, 2008 @ 18:27:48Jay Rosen
Very well done tutorial except this… Once you reboot into 10.5.6, you’ll find a whole bunch of stuff doesn’t work. The keyboard and trackpad don’t work, the screen resolution is off, etc. Make sure you have a USB mouse and keyboard plugged in! So what you need to do is pop in the USB key that still contains the MSIWindosx.iso contents and look for the /Volumes/USB/System/Installer/Patches/ directory…. How in the heck do you view the contents of an .iso file on a Mac? and.. are you saying that after you remove the update and kernel packg. files and do your Terminal magic, you then re-boot from the USB again using the now modified MSIwindosx.iso? Thanks for the clarification
Dec 29, 2008 @ 21:49:11vdanen
No, when you initially create the USB key, you’re copying the contents of the iso onto the keychain, so when you stick it in later, it’s the same as if you would have burnt the iso to DVD and put the DVD in.
And no, I only booted from the USB key once, for the install. After that I haven’t had to boot from it again. When you boot into 10.5.6, you need the USB mouse and keyboard in order to, well, type and move the mouse. Copy the .pkg files, re-install them, reboot, unplug the USB keyboard and mouse. Everything will work fine.
As an aside, you can view an iso on the mac simply by double-clicking it. It will mount, just as if you had put in a CD or DVD. You can access it via the Finder or Terminal or whatever.
Dec 29, 2008 @ 23:22:28Gary
Hmmm for what it’s worth, I made a USB Key, from the MSIWindosx86.iso. I test booted my Apple MacBook with it. It worked flawlessly. I installed Leopard onto an external HD. The HD would not boot my “all Mac” hardware. But, proof of concept leaves me happy. My MSI WindBook will be here on or before the 7th of Jan. 09. Sense I don’t intend to run Windows, I’ll pull the original HD, and try the one I’ve already installed the patched Leopard. I’ll also install a 2 GIG (800 MHz) RAM chip. Deactivate the 1 GIG internal RAM …AND see how this puppy runs. I may need to upgrade the bios too. With no floppy I’m not sure how I’d do that. … Any thoughts or suggestions? Anyone? (C:
Dec 31, 2008 @ 21:41:59gary
Okay. The Wind Notebook has arrived.
Here is what I’ve done. (Unit arrived with v9 BIOS)
1) Preinstalled Leopard X.5.4 onto an external SATA HD using my MacBook. See my prior post for details on that.
2) Upclocked speed X24, as other posts information.
3) Upgraded to a faster 2 GIG RAM chip, disabling the built-in RAM.
4) Replaced the stock WIFI card with a used Apple branded module. It appears here in the Hacintosh like it does in my MacBook.
5) Installed the HD with Leopard preinstalled. Closed it all up, and powered up the computer.
6) Booted to initial screens with out difficulty. Logged into setup etc. Again no difficulty.
7) Installed my favorite software and in the process of testing.
Initial conclusion … If Apple were to release a Netbook, it would probably be something like this.
The people who wrote the work-arounds to make this installable on non-apple hardware did a GREAT job.
Wish list: Built in web cam (Bison v3) does not work.
Ethernet port doesn’t appear to work.
Bluetooth: this unit didn’t have Bluetooth. I suspect it’s there, but needs to be either plugged in or … something I haven’t figured out yet.
I found a small (about a half inch in length) wire with a plug/connector on each end, taped to the inside of the machine. Neither end was plugged into anything. One end had a recepticle near by … but haven’t determined where the other end goes. Possible bluetooth connector? Anyone have any suggestions?
The machine is surprisingly fast for what it is. Where I once thought of my MacBook as small .. it now feels large next to my WindBook. lol
The mini card reader on the R/H side works great, as do all the USB ports. I have built-in sound, thought the sound port and Mic ports don’t appear to be working.
Thats it for now.
Gary
Jan 10, 2009 @ 14:50:17JonGl
You know, Wired just got hit by Apple’s lawyers re: a video they posted. You might be expecting something from Apple too, now.
I wonder if Lifehacker, and other sites will also get “the call” now that Apple has sicced (sic) its lawyers on Wired? How far will they go?
-Jon
Jan 15, 2009 @ 02:08:30stbeeman
Is there a way to get Chameleon installed and the USB stick to boot without OSX86Tools? I can get mine booting in my MacBook, but not on my Wind. Any advice or tips would be really appreciated.
-steve
Jan 17, 2009 @ 10:08:22vdanen
Why don’t you want to use OSX86Tools? The procedure I used is outlined in the post and worked perfectly. If you duplicate it, you should find it works for you as well.
Jan 17, 2009 @ 10:26:38stbeeman
I’ve got a copy of leopard on the way, but am currently running tiger…so OSX86Tools is not an option.
Jan 17, 2009 @ 10:30:36vdanen
Ahhh. No idea then. I’ve not tried this with anything other than Leopard. Sorry. =(
Jan 17, 2009 @ 10:42:45stbeeman
if i find a way to get it done, i’ll drop you an email. thanks for the help anyway!
Jan 17, 2009 @ 10:50:00vdanen
I would like that, thanks!
Jan 17, 2009 @ 12:03:45Mike Griggs
Hi, I have done all this but osxtools updated to 1.0.150, and there is no option 4 just a way of installing chameleon without terminal. So now when i stick my usb stick into my advent 4211 (msi wind clone) It just hangs on the flashing prompt. Anyone else experiencing this?
Jan 18, 2009 @ 05:25:02Christo
@Mike Griggs
I am having the same problem with a U100. I have BIOS 1.09, with USB set to Hard Drive and Legacy enabled. It just sits at the blinking cursor.
Anyone have any suggestions?
-Christo
Jan 20, 2009 @ 07:14:30Christo
@Mike Griggs
Ok, found a solution! Instead of using OSX8Tools, download the Chameleon installer from http :// chameleon [d] osx86 [d] hu
Use the Package Installer to install to the Boot Drive. I’m installing OSx86 right now!
-Christo
Jan 20, 2009 @ 07:38:24Gary
To create my bootable (8 GB) USB thumb drive .. I used the MSIWindosx86.iso disk image. Using Disk Utilities on my MacBook, I “restored” the image to the thumb drive (USB Key).
I had to torrent the MSIWindowsx86 image in order to get it.
This made the USB Thumb drive bootable on Apple Hardware. Thats the upside, and the downside. I’ll post more details as I get them. – Gary
Jan 23, 2009 @ 09:10:24Joakim Andersson » Blog Archive » OS X on a MSI Wind NetBook
[...] afternoon I installed OS X on my Wind by following the instructions from the linsec.ca blog. The first problem I got was that I had downloaded the latest version of OSX86Tools which was [...]
Jan 26, 2009 @ 07:05:05joesmo
hey guys, i followed this step by step and all that i get when i try and boot with the usb stick is a black screen with a blinking line…Can somebody help me??..I have a msi wind U120 straight out of the box.
Feb 05, 2009 @ 23:57:34vdanen
joesmo: did you install the Chameleon EFI stuff as noted? That’s the only thing I can think of that might be why you’re getting that blinking line. I’ve never experienced that. Also, are you using newer versions of these things? I’ll have to check the version of OSX86Tools that I used, but maybe a newer one has something broken? The version I used was 1.0.149; if you have something newer maybe see if you can find that particular version?
Feb 06, 2009 @ 07:46:19Peter
Many thanks! There are a lot of confusing guides out there. This one really works. I used MSIWindosx86.iso, OSX86Tools 1.0.149 (important NOT the new one 1.0.150). Just updated to 10.5.6 without problems.
Feb 08, 2009 @ 10:04:52nate
thanks for this! there are so many confusing tutorials that don’t seem to work. i did have to use the separate chameleon installer mentioned above (the latest osx86tools gave me that same black w/ blinking cursor as others) .. and also yr path is a little off for the patches, on mine it was /Volumes/USB/System/Installation/Packages/Patches/.
also the realtek drivers you linked to didn’t work for my U100, but the RT2860 drivers from ralink worked, and also i had to download and install the GMA950 drivers to get it to show the right resolutions. (found those both by googling and landing on this page.)
thanks again.
Feb 17, 2009 @ 19:56:26Nicolas
Hi, thanks for the post!
I´m having a little problem when installing Chamaleon..
I type: sudo ‘/Users/nicolassallustro/Desktop/OSX86Tools.app/Contents/Resources/fdiskutils.sh’
WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type “man sudo” for more information.
To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.
Password:
At that moment I cannot type my password, just Enter
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Nicolás.
Jul 09, 2009 @ 21:34:09vdanen
@Nicolas: how do you know sudo is not taking your password? Are you expecting it print something to the screen when you type? It won’t. Type your password and press enter — you won’t see anything echo to the screen when you type.
I’d point you to the sudo manpage, but I think it’s kind of assumed you’d figure that out and I doubt it mentions this.
Hopefully that helps.
Jul 10, 2009 @ 10:18:09Nicolas
vdanen, thanks for the tip! I was expecting some *** to appear while I tiped. Sory for the inconvinience
Excelent post, and support!
Jul 10, 2009 @ 16:53:00Iwer
How do you install chameleon to the usb drive, when running tiger?
Oct 25, 2009 @ 01:52:27vdanen
No idea, sorry. I don’t have any Tiger systems to try on. I’m presuming you tried the above and it didn’t work? You really should have 10.5; Tiger won’t even run on one of these things so you need a copy of 10.5 anyways.
Oct 25, 2009 @ 08:04:47