Saturday, February 28, 2009

Installed iPC OSx86 10.5.6 on Dell Dimension 1100

Updated on 8-May-09:
After a few re-try, I finally figure out a few things which is not done correctly in my previous post. Please refer to the end of this post.


After a few hours trying and searching on the Internet (Most information are came from http://www.osx86project.org/), although my Dell Dimension 1100 is not listed in the HCL of any version of iPC OSx86 which included v10.5.6, but I still managed to install iPC OSx86 v10.5.6 (Leopard) on my Dell Dimension 1100 Desktop PC which with the following configuration:

  • Intel® Celeron P4 2.6GHz

  • 1 GB SDRAM (At least 512MB)

  • 80GB IDE Hard Disk Drive

  • EMPREX DVD Writer (IDE)

  • Video: Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2

  • Audio: Integrated 2.1 Channel Audio

  • Network Interface Card: Integrated Broadcom440x 10/100 Ethernet



Here are the steps to install from DVD:


  1. Boot from DVD, Select English as Default Language.

  2. Use Disk Utility to configure the partition,


    • Select the hard drive on the left sidebar

    • Click on partition

    • Select a "1 partition volume scheme" and choose Mac OS Extended (journaled) as format.

    • Finally click the option button and choose GUID as the partition scheme.

  3. Now you are in the home stretch, and at the easiest part. It's all downhill from here. Install Leopard following the on screen instructions, the only thing to remember before clicking the Installation button, is to click Customize and un-select "Additional Fonts".

  4. And also in order to make iPC work on your Dimension 1100, you need to manual select the following package:
    (Note: The red ones are removed, and the blue ones are newly added.)


    • iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Base System

    • Kernels: 9.5.0 Voodoo Kernel

    • Video Drivers -> AGPGart 2.7.1 Intel GMA950 (No QE/CI) (Will figure it out later)

    • Audio Drivers -> AC97 Audio AD1980

    • Ethernet Drivers -> AppleBCM440XEthernet Drivers Intel 82566MM/DC

    • Chipset Drivers -> LegacyAppleIntelPIIXATA drivers

    • USB Drivers -> PCGenUSBEHCL Drivers Patched USB Drivers

    • Power Management

    • Fixes and patched:
      Seatbelt.kext 10.5.5

      PS/2 Keyboard fix

      ApleSMBIOS ToH

      ACPI Fix

      CPUS=1 One Core Fix

      IOUSBMassStorage Fix

      Finder 10.5.5 + Keyboard.prefPane

      USB Mount Fix

      IntelCPUPMDisabler

      Patch DSDT


    That's the bare minimum for system so that it boots up fine and all devices have drivers.

  5. Just wait around 20 minutes, the system will prompt restart or says will restart after 30 seconds.

  6. The most important thing here, you should "On the first boot make sure to boot with the -f boot flag! Do this to make sure that all installed kexts are loaded properly." And it's only required once. You can find the same note on the license agreement page before you install iPC OSx86 Software.

  7. Ok! After reboot, you should go into the welcome screen and continue your 1st time configuration for Your MAC!!!



























Tips:

  1. Here is work around for Audio:

    First make sure by the clock you have the sound icon and you can move the slider. If you can do both please follow these steps to enable audio.

    Goto Applications...Utilities and select Audio Midi Setup. Now in the Audio Devices section you should see a checkbox with Properties For to the left. Select that dropdown list and select the second option which will have the same name. Once you do this the left side input will be removed and the right side output will now have options.

    Under the Audio output section look for the drop down box with 2CH-16bit. Select the drop down and change it to 6CH-16bit. Now click on configure speakers button. Now change the left front drop down to "3" and click on the button right above that has the text Left Front and if you hear sound your set. Also make sure to change right front to "6" and click on the botton to make sure sound is heard. Once sound is heard from both speakers your sound is now working and itunes and anything else can have stereo playback from the onboard audio of the Dell Dimension 1100.




  2. Manually Change the Screen Resolutions:

    Edit the following file by using VI tool or other editor in Application Terminal.


    # sudo -s
    password: xxxxxxxx

    # vi /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist


    To automatically use a certain graphics mode


    For VESA 2, Add:


    <key>Graphics Mode</key>

    <string>1280x1024x32</string>


    For VESA 3 (Dell Dimension 1100 & IBM NetVista 8307), Add:


    <key>Graphics Mode</key>

    <string>1280x1024x32@85</string>


    Then save the file and reboot the PC, Enjoy!


  3. Don't give up! Even your PC is not listed in the HCL (http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) of iPC OSx86, but you always can find the similar configurations for your PC. And if you have questions, I am willing to answer any question that I know, please leave your comments.



Added on 3-Apr-09:

  1. The USB mouse which connected to KVM via PS2 adapter is not working on OSx86. And after I switched to PS2 Mouse, it's working fine with KVM.


  2. Some of my Friend tried on IBm ThinkPad T41, it's working fine but except Wireless LAN and Network Interface Card. My next step, I will try to buy a second hand T41 and give a try.


Added on 6-Apr-09

  1. The package selection of customize installation was not quite fit the original drivers on Dell Dimension 1100 Desktop, so I made a few changes, please refer to the red and blue changes in the above section.

  2. On the 1st reboot, you should do it with the -f options, this is in order to load installed kexts correctly. I didn't notice this at all, since I didn't really go through whole license agreement page. I suggest everyone who would like to install OSx86 should go through it.

  3. The QE(Quartz Extreme)/CI(Core Image) is not working for my video correctly. I will try to figure out this part.

  4. And I pretty happy with my current setup, and it's working more smoothly than before. Specially when it's booting up.


Added on 8-May-09

I found some problem with my Network Card, sometimes it couldn't get the IP address from DHCP server, since the network card driver is not load properly. So I just add the following boot flags into com.apple.Boot.plist:

# vi /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist


And add:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-f -v</string>


And reboot your PC, then the problem is gone.

7 comments :

  1. Thank you so much for your post, I'm gonna try to do the same today.
    Just wondering if you were running SATA DVD drive and HDD or are they both IDE? Did you have have to change anything in your BIOS prior the install?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am using IDE for both DVD and HDD.

    For the BIOS settings, I only did changes for Video, remember to set 8MB in display section. And leave others by default.

    Good Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello. I just did this on my dell 1100. Your help was invaluable. Thanks so much for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How fast does this setup run? Do you have a video of it running?

    Any more information that we should know?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you very much...work flawlessly on my Dell Dimension 1100...I was wondering can I update the OS X to the newest version or do I need another hack to update it?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Having trouble getting IPC to install. Can anyone help?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks it works great. i finally have mac os 10. How can i update to 10.5.8?

    ReplyDelete

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