Dec 16
Well, good news and bad here…
The good news is that, with the DSDT fix (although in all honesty I’ve not tried without) the 10.5.6 upgrade does the right thing and reboots correctly. Even better, a modified SystemConfiguration is no longer needed in /System/Library. May be due to this, the screen is also no longer stuck at full brightness… although due to the following issue, I don’t know whether it can be modified.
The bad news is that neither of the ApplePS2 replacement kexts I have load correctly, and so I’m stuck using a USB mouse and keyboard 
More as I discover it…
December 16th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Additionally, IntelCPUPMDisabler.kext is no longer needed – previously, darwin would segfault on boot due to an unknown CPU type.
(Evidence that Apple has an Atom-based machine in the works, or just that they’ve updated their model lists from Intel? Time will undoubtedly tell…)
December 16th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Sorry to hear that you have to use USB keyboard + mouse at the moment. I’m sure sooner or later someone will come up with a fix for that issue. Maybe the Dell Mini forums are a good place to monitor I’d guess since they had the working kexts in the first place.
Meanwhile I’ve written a little script to interface to the somewhat raw “reggie_se” utility when setting the LCD brightness. I don’t know if it would be of any use to you since you’re saying that 10.5.6 does allow for the brightness to be changed?
December 17th, 2008 at 9:58 am
It seems that whereas 10.5.5 and below were happy with AppleACPIPS2Nub or ApplePS2Controller, 10.5.6 needs both.
I found a working set of kexts here, but these turn out to be identical to what I already have… but together they work.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:00 am
The great news about 10.5.6 is that, since it no longer requires a modified SystemConfiguration bundle in order to get working power management, it is now possible to run Mac OS on a PC without modifying the install at all!
Everything can now be done from the EFI partition
December 18th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Stuart, did you get the new GMA950 drivers to work that came with the 10.5.6 update? Also my NC10 seems not to be able to wake up from sleep properly anymore. If you’re not experiencing those issues it would be greatly appreciated if you could share your kext collection and/or any EFI strings you use. Since I’ve also done an install from retail DVD I feel that any solutions from your side would be more helpful than Mysticus’ ideas since he’s using a patched up OS.
Thanks,
Timo
December 19th, 2008 at 1:46 am
The existing 10.5.5 GMA950 drivers still work just fine for me (save for the occasional bit of corruption) – but when using modifying 10.5.6 drivers, I get a blank screen on boot. I’m sticking with the older drivers for now, but will continue to try to find a way to get the updated ones working.
My NC10 doesn’t hasn’t had any problem waking from sleep ever so far (although from day one, it’s seemed to have needed two presses of the power button to wake…)
I’ve had no luck getting Mysticus’ AppleHDA kext to work – I always get no sound and ‘AppleHDA.kext failed to load: unable to locate ‘layout-id’ property.’ in my system log (which doesn’t sound to me like an issue with the EFI partition method of running Mac OS).
I’ve had a quick browse of the concepts behind EFI strings, but have not yet devised any myself. Unless I’m missing something (which is, admittedly, highly likely
) it seems to be another of those cases where someone posts ‘use these numbers’ without saying how they came about them…
December 26th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I’ve identified that the problems with failing to awake form sleep are due to a bad AppleACPIPlatform or AppleACPIBatteryManager extension – and that in fact, with 10.5.6, the former is not needed at all!
The extensions I’m currently using under 10.5.6 are:
… and the three modified extensions are simple edits to the default System extensions.
In addition to this, the UK keyboard layout from here gives a usage UK layout with no missing keys.
The only real problem I have now, save for brightness changing being a bit kludgy and headphone output still not working, is that the Trackpad preference pane has disappeared since the 10.5.6 upgrade, and plist edits haven’t brought it back. This makes me thing that an (ACPI?) extension which is no longer required somehow remaps the input device sufficiently to fool the Trackpad utility, explaining the wide degree of reported success of this method.
The other, possibly related problem is that none of the SMBIOS overrides currently work with 10.5.6… but these are also planned to be integrated into the next versions of the standard bootloaders.
Finally, this is my com.apple.Boot.plist, with the correct EFI string to prevent the GMA950 drivers from requiring natit.kext in order to work:
(Please remove any line-breaks in the string above – it should all appear on a single line. The boot-uuid value is system-specific, and can be found in the ‘dmesg‘ output)
December 28th, 2008 at 11:07 am
all I want to know – being someone that is frothing at the mouth at the thought of running OSX on a small form factor machine like the NC10 – is “does the WiFi out-of-the-box now work with the current/latest” methods available to get OSX on … I have read numerous threads and its getting more confusing as there is no ‘updated’ list of working/not-working things.
December 28th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Nope – I’m afraid that the stock WiFi card isn’t (currently) supported. Any Dell TrueMobile card should work as an alternative, and it’s relatively easy to open the machine. The 802.11b/g (1390) and 802.11a/b/g (1490) cards are apparently best supported.
What still doesn’t work
The TrackPad Preference Pane under 10.5.6.– Update: Fixed!December 30th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I have placed an order for the NC10 (finally!) and am going to be looking into “dual-booting” the included operating system with OSX at some stage. I presume this is possible?
Also (and more importantly!) what I have at my disposal for getting files onto the unit will be ‘network sharing’ (from my main desktop PC) and external USB Hard Disk Drive. I presume with either one of these combinations I will be able to install a variation of OSX without having to have to use some USB-Memory stick or external DVD drive (that I do not have) that often gets mentioned?
December 30th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I haven’t tried dual-booting myself, due to the space limitations of using an SSD. It’s definitely possible, although you may need a primary bootloader such as GRUB to chainload Windows XP or the EFI bootloader.
Whilst Mac Book Airs can install OSX from a remote DVD drive, you won’t be able to do this with an NC10, so you’ll need a USB DVD drive or a USB Hard disc with the Leopard DVD image written on to it (the easiest way to do this is with another Mac: plug in the Hard disc and insert the Leopard installation DVD, and then use Disk Utility to “Restore” the DVD onto the Hard disc. Beware – this will wipe the hard disc in the process). You’ll then need a small USB key (less than 64Mb, IIRC) to boot from in order to load the overlay kexts which allow a vanilla Leopard to boot and operate correctly.
The full instructions for this are here.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hi,
i’m consulting this pages for days and i’ve got OSX 10.5.6 on NC10 working, this thank your efforts. My problem is that i can boot only with the flag cpus=1 on vanilla kernel 9.6, so no hyperthread at all. I’m trying for days, with different kext, but no luck. Has anybody my problem and find a way to resolve it?
Thanks in advance,
December 31st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Have you checked your BIOS settings? I believe that at least EDB (Execute-Disable Bit) must be enabled. and potentially others. If in doubt, turn it on!
I installed from an original Leopard boot DVD and then upgraded first to 10.5.5 then 10.5.6, and have not needed boot flags. Both logical CPUs are recognised by Xcode, Automake scripts, and Apple’s Activity Monitor.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Hi Stuart,
thank you for replaying.
I have EDB in disable mode (isn’t it only to protect from the malicious software?).
I’am playing around with the BIOS with other settings (like hyperthreading ecc), but no difference.
Today i will tray your suggestion and give a feedback on it.
My bios version is 03CA. I sow on the samsung page the newer (ver.04CA), and i will do the upgrade too.
Till now I was trying with different versions of kext for ACPI, SMBIOS and others, no luck.
January 7th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Thank You very much.
It was EDB. Now is booting propely.
I have another “problem”. At about this mac, the CPU is not recognize and is shown as unknown. For the frequenze and CPU cache, no probem.
Have you got the same issue?
Just for information, if anybody else need it, first of all i’ve installed manually the 10.5.5 retail DVD in a USB disc from the OSX installed on samsung NC10 with Wind dvd, just launching the install package osxinstall.mpkg.
Then installed the combo update 10.5.5 from apple, the 10.5.6 combo update and at the end the chameleon.
In the extra folder created from chemeleon, i’ve put the OS2 driver (AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext, ApplePS2Controller.kext and AppleDecrypt.kext), so no problem in booting with mouse and keyboard fully functional.
After that i’ve made a copy of the USB disk, and with disk utility cloned it on a partition of samsung’s hard disk.
Make the EDB enable mode, installed the driver for the grafic and audio, and that’s it.
Thank You
January 9th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Andi, the full instructions as to how to cosmetically correct the “About This Mac” dialog are here:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=137314
… although I had used OSx86Tools previously to make the same change. The former is probably the better solution, though, as OSx86Tools is a little buggy in this respect and making the change can require setting and unsetting the option several times, with reboots.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Stuart, thanks for replaying.
The problem isn’t for the cosmetic side (how it appers on the about this mac), but i think on the fuctionally point of view.
System Profiler of the actually retail installation is as bellow:
Nome modello: Mac
Identificatore modello: NC10
Velocità processore: 1.6 GHz
Numero di processori: 1
Numero totale di nuclei: 1
Cache L2: 256 KB
Memoria: 1 GB
Velocità bus: 100 MHz
Versione Boot ROM: 04CA.20081211.KTW
Numero di serie: FE2993BQA00033
Before, when i’ve install iDeneb10.5.5 DVD i got the following (it was correct):
Nome modello: Mac
Identificatore modello: MacPro3,1
Nome processore: Intel® Atom(TM) CPU N270 @
Velocità processore: 1.6 GHz
Numero totale di nuclei: 1
Cache L2: 512 KB
Caratteristiche CPU: FPU VME DE PSE TSC MSR PAE MCE CX8 A APIC SEP MTRR PGE MCA CMOV PAT CLFSH DS ACPI MMX FXSR SSE SSE2 SS HTT TM SSE3 MON DSCPL EST TM2 SSSE3 TPR PDCM
Memoria: 1 GB
Velocità bus: 100 MHz
Versione Boot ROM: BOOT.88Z.EFI.V80.061193037 (Phoenix Technologies Ltd.)
Numero di serie: CK157KMHK5B
As you see, the L2 cache and characteristics are all right in that case.
Does it mean that i got problem with the actual retail installation with the CPU?
I got the same problem when i fire the Reggie SE application (Developer/Applicatio/Performance tools/CHUD/Hardware Tools/Reggie SE)
In that case i got:
WARNING
Unknown processor type (658)
I’ve trying with DSDT patcher, EFI ver.9 etc bootloder, but no luck to recognise correctly the CPU on retail installation.
I’ve installed the 04CA bios ver. on samsung NC10.
Can you post your System Profiler and a few step about your installation process, so i can try your way?
Thanks,
January 14th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Ah – I see what you mean. The System Profiler information is read from the system management structures in Apple’s EFI firmware… or, in this case, the BIOS of the NC10. This can be overridden with modified AppleSMBIOS.kext or AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext bundles.
Unfortunately, however, these do not yet work correctly with 10.5.6, although this is apparently being actively worked on. Even better, the next release of the Chameleon bootloader (which should integrate boot-from-EFI-partition functionality) should have SMBIOS override abilities, according to this.
I know that with 10.5.5 and SMBIOS overrides Reggie SE ran happily, whilst with 10.5.6 I get the same warning when the application is launched – but I don’t think that this actually breaks anything.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:55 am
As has been widely publicised, the NC10′s bluetooth adapter can be improved (in that it can now be successfully enabled and disabled, in order to save a little more battery life – which wasn’t previously possible).
The fix is to edit /System/Library/Extensions/IOBluetoothFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController.kext/Contents/Info.plist and change all two instances of ‘8448‘ to ‘8449‘. For efi_boot usage, only /System/Library/Extensions/IOBluetoothFamily.kext need be copied to the /Volumes/EFI partition, as it has no further runtime dependencies.
(It can be seen in System Profiler that the device ID of the Bluetooth adapter is 0x2101, or 8449 in decimal.)
January 18th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Thanks Stuart.
So we have to wait…
Maybe is for the same reason (SMBIOS override) that i can’t wake up the PC from the stop (to stop is working great the power button) and must force reboot. Ibernate work with widget from deepsleep.free.fr
January 19th, 2009 at 1:11 am
When I was trying out various different kernel extensions, I found that there was one (possibly one of the Power Management/SpeedStep/EIST extensions, but I think probably one of the ACPI ones) which caused this exact problem: I advise trying different extensions if you can.
I’ve just created an archive of my EFI partition, which you’ll now be able to find on the downloads page.
Note that the UUID value in Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist on the EFI partition will have to be commented out, removed, or corrected for the target system.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:48 am
A working graphical sound-switching application for the NC10:
http://blog.stuart.shelton.me/downloads#Audieee-NC10.dmg
February 6th, 2009 at 6:56 am
hello,
I’ve been following this thread, as well as the mysticus one in insanelymac for a while. here is what i did,
Installed a retail copy from an existing working installation of leopard on my desktop, updated to 10.5.6, installed chameleon bootloader, and from installed a bunch of kexts from “bike town” that were in a package for the NC10.
What I’ve been trying to do is getting the original video kext to work by modifying it and not having to use the natit.kext file. I read that you were able to do this. What advantages does this have? better video support? better VGA out support, more stable system? one less unneeded kext to load? I would like to try this.
What power management kext are u currently using? i’ve used the voodoo power kext, but as other have said, it can cause the system to crash, and in my case the system would freeze every once in a while, for about 2 seconds, and then it would be fine.
Another thing, what do you see for battery life with your current set up? with the unstable voodoo kext i get about 6 hours, on the lowest brightness with minimal internet browsing.
I’ve also noticed that my trackpad is not mapped in proportion to the size of the screen. for example, when moving my finger from top to botom causes the mouse to move vertically accross the whole screen, but moving it from sideways, causes the mouse to move only half way of the screen width, causing me to have to lift my finger and swipe again to complete one horizontal travel. It doesnt sound like much, but it leads to unpredictable mouse speed.
What other things have you discovered? at what point are you with your installation.
Any input would be awesome.
thanks
February 6th, 2009 at 8:32 am
The trackpad mapping is off, and I’ve not come up with a decent fix for this yet. I’ve read of people having luck with FFScroll (as I think it’s called) but I tried an older version this a while ago and it didn’t work – and I’ve not looked again since.
I’m not actually using any specific power management extension – and with the screen brightness set to 25 but browsing all day on Wifi and doing Xcode development gets me between 6 and 8 hours… but I have replaced the internal disc with an SSD. I haven’t had any problems with instability or sleep.
The main advantage of using EFI strings is that it requires one less hacked kernel extension. Since it uses the system driver, it won’t make any difference to VGA out (which I’ve not tried) or stability (which I’ve not actually had any problems with). The strings needed are documented in this post.
February 6th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Thank you for your reply,
I will look into using efi strings for video, that’s how i have it on my desktop (Nvidia 8800 GT)
I also changed my stock HDD for a 320 GB WD black edition, its the one that spins at 7200, I guess this impacts battery life on one way or another. But 8 hours without any power management sounds incredible!
I will try to get an SSD drive at some point in the future, when prices drop a little more.
I know there is a fix in the works from voodoo for the audio, but i haven’t seen any updates in over a month, have you been able to use ur internal mic? discovered any work arounds?
when firing up photobooth, i cant see the whole window, because of the limited vertical resilution, I know im only missing the bottome portion that shows the pictures taken, no big deal. But i was wondering is there was a way to change the resolution at which photobooth previews the webcam, so i can make it smaller and see the whole thing. This can be done in regular windows computer by changing the resolution of the camera. any ideas?
thanks.
February 7th, 2009 at 2:12 am
You can alter the scaling factor that OS X applies on a per-application basis – read more here.
The post below that links to an audio switcher which works with the NC10 – but this doesn’t affect the microphone, unfortunately. USB and Bluetooth microphones work correctly right now, but it looks as if the integrated one will have to wait until at least the Voodoo audio driver release.
February 7th, 2009 at 3:58 am
One last thing,
I cant get the video strings installation to work. Can you please describe how you did this? i see that you point at the com.apple.boot.plist and pasting the string you have above, i’ve tried this, but i couldnt get it to work.
Can you please tell me how to do the strings? or point me in the right direction, i too dont want to have the natit.kext there.
thanks!
May 25th, 2009 at 1:34 am
If anyone’s interested I have ended up with a partition running OSX.5.6 very nicely on a bog standard NC10 that still has the ‘factory’ settings (i.e. Recovery and Windows Partitions still intact). and I can boot freely between Windows and Mac using a USB bootloader ‘dongle’ to get into Mac. This was done on a FAT32 partition without reformatting the HD to accommodate GUID.
It was done using the various tools and advice that are floating around for Dell and Wind and a Leopard 10.5.4 Upgrade disk (not the recommended Retail disk that didn’t work for me). USB, onboard keyboard, trackpad and speaker as well as Bluetooth work and the usual suspects don’t (ethernet, wifi, headphone and microphone).
Being a total novice I have done nothing using command lines or console and I am deeply indebted to all the advice and gizmos that I have picked up from sites such as this one and the wonderful people who put all the knowledge and effort out there., particularly as they gave me the guts to give it a go…..
July 11th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Hi Stuart,
I am trying to run OSx86 10.5.6 and using all-in-one motherboard with built-in video chip G33 (GMA3100) running Intel D2C cpu 2.66GHz. I face the problem that I cannot boot up the desktop. I just got the pending greyscreen with bitten apple. Heard that from some websites they claim we can change GMA3100 (no driver provided) to GMA950 in order to bring it up. I tried to use the method you suggested above but it still fails. Could you kindly provide some more help please?
Kernel
mach_kernel
Kernel Flags
boot-uuid=xxxx
device-properties
6d00000001000000010000006100000002000000
02010c00d041030a000000000101060000027fff
0400100000006d006f00640065006c0000000b00
0000474d4120393530200000004100410050004c
002c00480061007300500061006e0065006c0000
000800000001000000
Many thanks.
Justme
July 28th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Hi,
I have question concerning my netbook. I am very proud to be the owner of a Samsung N310. But I am having problems getting OS X86 installed…The Hardware specs of the N310 are actually almost 100% identical with the NC10. Now I am trying to dual boot IDeneb 1.4 with the Windows on the Harddrive. During installation I choose the NC10 option in the Customise Window and start the install. The Leopard DVD check and the installation run through cleanly and it goes into reboot. Now i eject IDeneb from my external DVD Drive and the bootloader appears. I choose the Leopard installation and the Apple appears and the spinning circle and eventually gets stuck. Booting in -v mode showed that it got stuck at the AppleDecrypt file. What does that mean? I tried reinstall twice….same procedure….same result..mactually makes sense. Do I have to choose a certain driver during installation? Does anyone have a clue what Icould be doing wrong?
March 5th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Hi everyone.
I need help, I have the nc10 with iDeneb 1.6 10.5.8 installed and the wifi did not work. Atheros 5007 drivers installed but not working. Someone can help me, please?.
Thank you very much.
Email me to madeinxd@hotmail.com
July 17th, 2011 at 9:54 am
the best thing you can do is get a dell 1390 wifi card off ebay £5 $10 then the 10.5.8 will see it no probes thats what i done and now its working a treat.