Eight Months with a Hackintosh Netbook | Hacker News Reader

Eight Months with a Hackintosh Netbook

wired.com

52 pointsthomas21 comments

I have a Dell Mini 9 I've hacked to run OS X. It's not going to replace my MacBook Pro anytime soon, but it's the perfect kick-around town/living room computer.

The install, while not yet one-click, is fairly simple to do and works with a standard Leopard DVD. I've certainly gone through worse Linux installs. And when you're done, it might as well be a Mac - Airport, webcam, Quartz Extreme/Core Image, scrolling touchpad, even the special function keys work. Hell, the thing wakes faster than my MBP, too, and does the same creepy pulsating-sleep-light as well.

The only downside with the Mini 9 specifically is the bizarre keyboard - there's a really thick border around the edges , which cramps the keyboard and forces it to use odd-sized keys, pack them too close together, and arrange them with apparently little thought - keys like the apostrophe/quotation mark are down by the left arrow key. You can get used to it, but if you want to run a Terminal session you're going to swear a lot.

Some of the other netbooks do have better keyboards, but none of them have the near-100% compatibility with OS X the Dell has - there's always at least one piece of hardware that's non-functional.

Overall, I'm really impressed. I'd heard OS X was easy to install and runs well, but it was still fairly mind-blowing to actually see it run as well as it does. If the netbook concept intrigues, a Dell Mini 9 running OS X seems to be as good a choice as any. (Excepting that damn keyboard.)

one thing confuses me about this hackintosh phenomenon. macs always made a pretty big deal out of their pram, which is where they store which partition to boot off of and a lot of other stuff. how is that emulated on garden-variety pcs?

That stuff dissapeared with PowerPC.

They're EFI-based now.

But PC laptops still don't have EFI I thought.

The hackintosh mods add EFI emulation, I think.

Although they're EFI based, this has nothing to do with the PRAM of older PPC macs, which has become less and less used since the advent of OS X which stores 99% of it's settings in .plist files on the HD. the PRAM used to store all sorts of information but now I think it's probably only used to store the startup disk preference and other minor things.

Can you update it without it breaking? One of the biggest problems I had with Hackintoshes (albeit over 2 years ago) was the fact that pretty much any update that required a restart (including, but not limited to OSX point releases) would completely brick the machine and require a complete reinstall. How much has this changed?

I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I think most of the newer install methods will put the extra (non-Apple) drivers on an EFI support partition that isn't touched during system upgrades, to keep the install as pristine as possible. This also allows you to install from a real OS X disc.

In my personal experience, the Mini 9 didn't have any trouble with the 10.5.7 upgrade. I had to boot into safe mode and run the driver installer again, because the new update apparently affected the video card driver, but that was it.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm on 10.5.6 and haven't updated to .7 yet.

I have the same configuration and love it. But will second the strange keyboard layout. I had lunch with a Mac user and the first thing he said when he saw the keyboard was "that keyboard frightens me". I couldn't have said it any better.

As I use the Mini9 for mostly web browsing and chatting I simply bypass using apostrophes and inform my friends that if I'm missing them I'm obviously on my Mini9 ;)

From performance perspective, for most mundane UMPC tasks it works flawlessly and I can't tell much of a difference between my Macbook (black) and the Mini, but for some things like video streaming it seems to hiccup a bit. All in all though I can't complain, it's a perfect machine for going to the coffee shop or going on a trip with.

If I was to do it all over again I would definitely go for the 1.3MP camera, a slightly larger HD (you need at least 16GB for OSX) and possibly the wireless broadband option.

Check out this thread: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-9-hardware-upgrade...

There's a replacement keyboard (~$20) that alleviates most of your problems. It's still a bit cramped, but at least the key positions make sense.

Ooh, that's awesome. Yeah, it's still hard to touch-type on, but not having to hit the FN key for brackets would be a lifesaver.

My last Mac laptop was a 17" Powerbook from the G4 days. I sold it years ago. Recently at work, I needed to do some testing on OS X (I usually use Windows at work), and so I borrowed a Macbook with 10.4 and a Macbook Pro with 10.5. I was startled at how cheap the Macbook felt, while the Macbook Pro felt just like my old Powerbook (which I'd really liked). So if this thing feels even cheaper, I'm not sure I'd be able to stand it. :)

Was the MacBook one of the newer ones with the aluminum unibody frame? (Probably not if it only had 10.4) apparently they feel more solid now. I could tell the difference between my old 17" MBP and a newer unibody 17" MBP.

pre-unibody macbooks were more akin to ibooks of olde. they've always felt a little cheap and stained easily.

I have one of the new Unibody MacBooks and it's as well built, sturdy and polished as any laptop I've ever seen. Particularly what strikes me is it's strength and structural rigidity. You can hold it by the corner and there is no flex whatsoever. The same cannot be said for previous gen MacBook Pro's and Powerbook's etc.

As another poster mentioned though, the white MacBook is a replacement for the iBook and built to a lower quality therefore.

+1 - I've got a month old aluminum unibody MacBook here as well, and it's a really solid machine.

Ditto, I've never typed on a more solid, flex-free laptop keyboard. It's really a joy to use - the whole thing feels sturdy, solid, and durable.

A far cry from the flimsy sheet metal feeling of the PowerBooks and MacBook Pros of old.

No, white with wobbly keys.

Is it possible to install OS X on say, my Dell desktop? How can I find out?

I believe it would be, though it will involve some work. The reason why so many people install OS X on netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9 is that people have gone to the trouble of ensuring there are working drivers etc. You will be alone most likely with your desktop. Look here:

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page http://www.hackint0sh.org/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com