NetBook Pro
The Dell Mini 9 that I ordered a few weeks ago came today. I have been looking for a nebook for a while. I was considering several vendors, and the Mini 9 wasn’t in the top 3, but then I read this article from gizmodo and saw the OS X netbook compatibility chart from Boing Boing. What could be better than a Mac powered netbook?
The custom version of Ubuntu that ships with the Mini 9 is pretty cool. The application launcher bar that Dell provides seems quite handy. I think the general Idea is to provide similar functionality to the Asus Xandros offering. The Dell Ubuntu is quite a bit nicer than Asus’ Xandros though, with really fluid animations and a full gnome desktop just a mouse click away.
But I digress… My true intentions were to install Mac OS X on this tiny beast and save some right shoulder ache from lugging around that 17″ MacBook Pro.
The first thing I did was purchase a retail copy of the Mac OS X Leopard install DVD from my local Apple Store. The one I got installed 10.5.6. I put the DVD in my MBP and opened Disk Utility.
Next I plugged in my 8GB USB flash drive. I selected this flash drive in disc utility and formated it into two partitions as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). The first was about 50MB for the DellEFI Bootloader. For the rest, I selected the “Restore” tab and chose the Mac OS X install DVD as the source, and the bigger partition on the flash drive as the destination.
After the restore finished, I used DellEFIBootMaker to make the first partition bootable with the DellEFI bootloader. I also put a copy of DellEFI 1.2 alpha in the extras folder that was created on the first partition.
With this USB flash drive plugged into the mini, I powered it on and pressed “0″ at the BIOS splash to select the boot device and chose the USB flash drive. The DellEFIBootMaker has a semi-polished GUI. I chose the Mac OS X Install partition on the flash drive and it started an OS X install session just like it were a real Mac.
The install took about 30 or 40 Minutes. At the end, It said that the installation failed, but everything I read said that this was normal and expected. The installation actually succeeded in spite of what the message said.
The last step was to reboot, choose the USB drive again, select the SSD from the DellEFIBootMaker menu, and when OS X loads, run the DellEFI 1.2 application from the extras folder on the flash drive. after this, the Mini will boot straight into OS X like any other Mac.
Since this is not a Hackintosh modified install disc, I can use software update without any issues.
Here are some action shots of OS X on the Mini 9:
BTW, I am posting this from the NetBook Pro (my new name for the Mini 9).
Tags: Dell Mini 9, Hackintosh
Posted in: DFPA, Linux, Mac ✯ 4 Comments
FileDownloadPE
For those of you looking for information on my MODx snippet FileDownloadPE, the page has been lost in transition from my site being powered by MODx to this new Wordpress site. It is available at the archive site until (if/when) I get it reposted in this new blog. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Tags: FileDownloadPE, MODx
Posted in: Web Development ✯ 2 Comments
Anniversary in Chicago
Tuesday, June 3rd was Andria’s and my two year anniversary. We decided to take a trip to Chicago to get away and have some fun. Andria booked a hotel room at Hotel Allegro In the theater district (Randlolph & LaSalle). It was pretty swank. They just dropped a bunch of cash redesigning all the rooms. It’s an old building, and it has this real classic charm (and smell, unfortunately). Also, it is within a few blocks of the museums and the aquarium, so that was convenient.
The weather was really nice all three days we were there so we walked everywhere. I don’t know how many miles we put on, but my dogs were barking for a few days. We got in on to town on the 3rd, around 3:30pm and spent the first afternoon rushing through exhibits at the Art Institute (they close at 5pm), but we managed to take in quite a bit.
Day 2 we hiked up to the Field Museum. We spent most of the day there. The “Evolving Planet” exhibit and “Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids” were really, really cool.
In the afternoon, we walked up to the Shedd Aquarium. It was ok, but not as cool as I remember it when I was a kid. That eveneing we grabbed some dinner at the hotel restaurant and hoofed it down to the Sears Towerobservation deck to check out the fireworks they shoot off from Navy Pier every Wednesday during the summer. It was an incredible perspective to say the least. Andria tried to snap some pics with the Nikon D40, but the backlighting caused too many reflections, and the focal area was too dark so even with a high ISO, the shutter speed was too slow to get any clear images.
Tags: Anniversary, Chicago
Posted in: DFPA, Daily, Photography ✯ No Comments Yet
Nautical Star Tattoos
Andria and I had our 1 year anniversary on June 3rd this year. She got me one of the coolest things ever… Two new tattoos! A nautical star on the back of each arm. I love them!
Tags: Nautical Star, Star, Tattoo
Posted in: DFPA ✯ 2 Comments
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