View Full Version : Feek's adventures with OS X
It's a strange coincidence but a couple of days after Will posted this (http://www.boat-drinks.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7511) thread I was building a spare Dell Latitude D620 at work and the boss happened to mention that particular laptop is quite hot for the Hackintosh install of OS X. We've talked about this before, he knows I played around with OS X in a VM (http://www.boat-drinks.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6229) a while ago. He has a couple of Macs and so does another guy in our department. Unlike the other guy who is a clear Mac fanboy, the boss isn't like that, he likes and uses Apples but doesn't ram it down peoples throats.
He found a good instruction guide for getting OS X onto the Dell and we started the downloads going - Sadly they didn't progress very quickly at work so that evening I started them going at home and burned them onto disk for the next day.
It's been quite a busy week at work, I've been the only techy in so my OS X building time has been regularly interrupted by 'proper' work, but no matter, I persevered and although it really wasn't as simple as suggested by the guides after three days I ended up with this:
http://img.skitch.com/20080328-xi31qs166hmwy6nkju9afcdjea.jpg
A fully working, fully patched OS X installation on a Dell laptop. A Macindell ;)
I got to that stage on Friday afternoon, but it wasn't enough. Sitting and playing with a clean installation of any OS is boring, one needs to use it properly to experience what it's like. The boss said I could bring it home for the weekend but that's not what I wanted to do, I knew he wanted to dump some OS X applications on it, and besides I'd done some research and found out that the motherboard in my home PC is very compatible with OS X, it only needs a few bios tweaks to ensure everything works.
So onto Friday evening.
I unplugged my hard drives, leaving only a spare one connected and booted from the OS X disk I have.
An hour or so later I had this.
http://img.skitch.com/20080330-g42ibq4hkrdsqn1kbhcqtce36p.jpg
And when I click on More Info... I get this.
http://img.skitch.com/20080330-dybjm2b7r7qbbj62r312uq2edd.jpg
It went on like a dream and patched to the current version with no problems at all. I did a Software Update and it's all updated, no issues.
So that was Friday evening. I've been using it all day yesterday and what do I think?
I like it. I'm not sure how much I like it, but it seems very smooth and very simple, perhaps too simple. It's difficult to explain but I like to know what's going on in the background and I feel as though I don't know. I've not learned anything from the installation at home but I learned a lot when I was building the Dell at work. We worked out that over those three days I've probably installed OS X more times than our two Mac users combined!
But everything works and it works well. Installing applications is a breeze.
1) Drag icon from here to here.
OK, done that, where's step 2) ?
There isn't one. That's it.
Working out some of the keyboard shortcuts is proving interesting. I've just about got used to using windows-c and windows-v for copying and pasting (the windows key is the equivalent of the apple key) although with it being in the wrong place on the keyboard I'm sure that when I'm back at work tomorrow I'll be messing things up!
I've got NeoOffice installed instead of MS Office, that works, I've got Firefox in and running just like I'm used to it, I've got an installation of Eve working using CrossOver Games and I've got a messenger program running (Adium). Time Machine is working and doing backups and both my printers work.
I'm not really sure why I'm doing it except for "because I can"! I shall continue to report.
I'm yet to try NeoOffice on the Macbook, I was about to download it when I realised I had Office 2008 for the Mac in my monthly MS Select Agreement update pack so I shoved that on instead.
I find that I switch between cmd+c and ctrl+v without a problem. Tomorrow I'm going to try the Time Machine out and see if it will restore OS X as well as Apple say it will. I've got a bigger hard drive for the Macbook so will see if I can restore from the Time Capsule after booting from the insallation DVD. I bought myself a 500Gb Time Capsule as I needed an access point that didn't give mahoosive packet loss when using the Macbook.
Oh cool! I tried to install the Kalway 10.5.1 version of osx on my laptop, it worked fine, but I have no wireless, not ethernet and no sound - so whilst it works, it's not that useful yet!
Any instructions on how you did it?
I installed Office 2008 yesterday but it was a hookey copy that didn't require any registration and whenever I tried to maximise Excel, it crashed the OS so I took it off and installed NeoOffice instead. That's great except when I loaded a .xlsx file it lost all the formulas which is a bit awkward so I resaved the file from Excel as an Office 2003 file and NeoOffice has loaded it OK.
Will, they were the problems I had with my Dell build - I found a utility called D620_sound which sorted the sound and ended up using an external Belkin USB wireless card to get a network connection.
There's a Kalyway 10.5.2 upgrade combo image kicking around, install that and have a look at InsanelyMac (http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?), they're very good for hackintosh stuff.
leowyatt
30-03-2008, 15:20
Glad to hear things are going well Feek, if anyone needs a USB wireless adapter that works with Leopard, let me know as I attached one to the iBook yesterday and it works a treat :)
I don't know if it is always the case, but the official version of Office 2008 that I'm using didn't need a product key, activation or registration when I installed it.
I'm yet to have it crash on me yet, let along take the OS down with it. When I first got out of hospital I was using the Macbook to do a bit of work because my D810 had flat batteries and the charger was at home. One of the things I had to do was manipulate a 45Mb xlsx file and I was very pleasantly surprised how well it worked in 2008.
I'm really struggling with keyboard mappings though with a standard keyboard plugged in.
windows-c and windows-v for example are the copy/paste combo, but does the windows key relate to the apple key, or command, or option, or what?
Does anyone know exactly what each of the keys relates to what?
Specifically ctrl, windows (start), Alt and possibly AltGr?
Another thing I'm having a hard time with and that's fonts - This was always an issue whenever I played with linux and I'm seeing the same thing.
http://img.skitch.com/20080330-mjnyghf62psn39qh1gyacyaubs.jpg
The bold text there seems far too strong for my liking, it's over bold and just looks chunky and horrible.
Pete - Loving skitch :D
The keyboard mapping thing is driving me nuts too, I've mapped Ctrl to the Apple key which seems to solve a lot of the problems but still isn't perfect.
There's a decent amount of info in here:
http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2005/11/20/using_a_british.php
There's some keyboard maps that might work for you, didn't have a lot of luck with them in Kalyway 10.5.2 unfortunately.
My biggest problem at the moment is hacking the AppleVIAATA.kext Info.plist so I can get my Silicon Image SATA controller working for boot, as I have to disable the RAID in the BIOS and switch to AHCI on the Intel SATA controller. Kicking myself for installing XP on a RAID set now...
All in all though, I'm very impressed with OSX. It's nice to be able to use it without shelling out monumental amounts of cash on Apple hardware. I'm pretty much using OSX for web, mail, photos/videos and downloads now and just gaming on XP. Shame it has to be done illegally, Steve Jobs and Co could so easily release a compatible version of OSX now it's all on Intel hardware. Hey ho.
I got one of those mapping working with my Mac some time ago. The only problem I found was that it tended to 'forget' the mapping every so often and I had to go reset it.
As for the whole Command/Option/Apple thing, this site seems to answer that one...
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/ultimate-switcher-guide-windows-pc-to-mac-keyboard-shortcuts
There's a decent amount of info in here:
http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2005/11/20/using_a_british.php
There's some keyboard maps that might work for you, didn't have a lot of luck with them in Kalyway 10.5.2 unfortunately.
I've seen that one already and it did a good job of swapping my " and @ around to the right place but didn't touch ` and \ though. Not that I use them too much anyway.
As for the whole Command/Option/Apple thing, this site seems to answer that one...
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/ultimate-switcher-guide-windows-pc-to-mac-keyboard-shortcuts
Good link :)
Bummer, sorry the link wasn't much cop. I might consider buying a Mac keyboard, as it looks like it's a darn sight easier to map keys in Windows using 3rd party apps.
I really do miss my "|" for piping stuff on the command line :(
I assume you did select the 'British - Windows - 2' profile. All the keys on my Microsoft Natural UK keyboard do what they're supposed to - including ` | \ ' @ " etc. You might have to select the profile more than once to get it to 'stick' (rebooting/switching apps can undo the change so adding the keyboard profile selection in the Apple menu is a good idea).
I am using a real Mac with Tiger installed, but I wouldn't expect those to make that much difference (I'm opening myself up to being proved wrong there).
Yep, tried 2 and it didn't work. I think it actually locked out the whole keyboard, so I'm wondering if the maps work slightly different between Tiger and Leopard...
When I first installed it and selected British 2 I found that none of the keys worked. I rebooted and it worked fine.
Ah nice one, I'll give that a crack in a minute. Well, when I can be arsed to get up off the couch.
Cheers!
OK, I've found something which is frustrating me.
If I'm in, say, NeoOffice working on something and I move my mouse over to Firefox, if I click on a link then all it does first of all is activate that window - I actually need to click somewhere in the window first to give the program focus and then click the link. On Windows I can move my mouse from Excel to Firefox, click a link and it works straight away. Or I'm in iCal and go to select a different tab from the active in FF and I have to click twice, once to give focus to FF and once to select the tab.
Although it seems inconsistent. If FF has focus and I have iCal on screen, if I click a different day in iCal it switches to that straight away but if I want to change from Day to Week view then I have to do the click for focus and then click again.
Not sure how this is working.
OS X focus activation thing is completely different from Windows anyway. I'm surprised iCal even partly works (though I agree it does).
Ahah, so it's not just my imagination! Is there a way to tweak it as it seems as though I'm needing a lot of unnecessary clicks.
OK, I've found something which is frustrating me.
If I'm in, say, NeoOffice working on something and I move my mouse over to Firefox, if I click on a link then all it does first of all is activate that window - I actually need to click somewhere in the window first to give the program focus and then click the link. On Windows I can move my mouse from Excel to Firefox, click a link and it works straight away. Or I'm in iCal and go to select a different tab from the active in FF and I have to click twice, once to give focus to FF and once to select the tab.
Although it seems inconsistent. If FF has focus and I have iCal on screen, if I click a different day in iCal it switches to that straight away but if I want to change from Day to Week view then I have to do the click for focus and then click again.
Not sure how this is working.
Eeeeehhhh? I've never noticed that. Now I have. Huh. How odd, its never bothered me.
http://idisk.mac.com/petermcarr/Public/Pictures/Skitch/Keyboard___Mouse-20080330-204944.jpg
Change that option too. It makes tabbing more windowsy.
Hmm, some searching seems to indicate that there's no easy way to change this, it's window focus and key focus and just the way OS X handles it.
*ponders the idea of learning keyboard shortcuts to switch between windows*
You've tried Exposé out yer? F9/F10/F11. Don't forget to install Quicksilver too.
The photographer has it - Exposé
Or you can use Windows(Command)+Tab like you would use Alt+Tab elsewhere.
hmmmm looks interesting. and i have a d620 in the house and i'm sure it would love an install of OSX....
you got the link to the stuff you used the first time? (can't access insanelyMac from work sadly)
Sadly this may be where my adventures come to an end. I've been using it for a week and it's great, I love it.
However (presses windows-shift-1)
http://www.ocukroguesgallery.com/feek/temp/trial-20080404-163933.jpg
I need this to play Eve properly and I'm really not wanting to spend cash on an application for a hookey version of OS X. I could buy a Mini Mac tomorrow but it won't give me the graphics or CPU power I need to run Eve, the only option to do that would be a Mac Pro and I can't justify that sort of cost.
I do like OS X a lot, it works and it works well but I'm afraid that I'll probably remove it over the weekend. I could reboot to Windows to play Eve but it's generally running in the background all the time so that would make OS X redundant. There is a native OS X client but it forces full-screen and stops the machine being used for anything else.
*shame*
Can you not "ahem" the CrossOver software? Must admit, I was looking to install this as well on Ubuntu in a VirtualBox. Just finished doing it with XP so thought I'd try something else :D
Nope, I've tried.
Although I just found out that VirtualBox is available for OS X. Guess what I'm downloading now!
I thought Eve was standalone? I downloaded it and it ran without me installing Crossover.
Yes Pete.
There is a native OS X client but it forces full-screen and stops the machine being used for anything else.
:(
You wont be able to Virtualise the game very well Feek. One thing virtualisation doesn't do well/at all right now is hardware 3D graphics. Though I think parallels did some good work there (remember seeing them running WoW on a Mac), and that does have an OSX version.
[edit] http://www.imgmagazine.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=15233
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/features/3d/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqTkouiT3lw
Yes Pete.
:(
Oooh. I found that too but I did alt+enter as you do on a Windows game and it went to windowed. Then I set it to a smaller res and was away. However when asked to login I thought "NOoooo. Don't resub. I'll have no life!" so I uninstalled :)
eek!
If I do windows-enter it does seem to resize to a window and it's working. Although it still thinks it's running fullscreen through the menu it is actually in a window.
I shall experiment further :)
Thanks Pete, and Daz for those links.
Like this (http://www.ukrm.org/feek/temp/eve_native-20080404-174054.jpg), in fact...
Driving to work today, myself and the boss talked further about this. I'm still using it, I still like it a lot. I've only rebooted into Windows when I needed to do anything particularly intensive in Eve (even using the native client isn't great) or grab documents from my "my documents" or access old emails or my existing iTunes library.
I mentioned that it'd be great to have £1,700 to spend on a Mac Pro and he laughed saying it's silly to spend that sort of money when one can do it with a hackintosh just as well but a lot cheaper. Remember he's got a pair of macs but is all in favour of OS X being run the way I'm doing it.
So I've done some quick pricing up. The current Mac Pros are dual quad-core Xeons. These bugs are nearly five hundred quid apiece. That's nearly a grand just for the processors. Add a good motherboard and that's almost two hundred pounds, with decent HSFs for the two chips then the CPU/mobo combination works out as £1,200.
Throw in memory, fancy case, big meaty PSU, video card etc etc and all in all the £1,700 doesn't sound quite so bad. OK, it's not a cheap system but it's eight xeon cores which will be a lot faster than my current pair of cores!
What's happened to me?
You've looked at it sensibly, tried the OS and came to a valid conclusion. Instead of going "OMG its all expensive pretty trendwhore nonsense!!!" :) There's probably a way to migrate your iTunes library too.
Please don't tempt me. Please. ;D
(though to be honest I'd likely schlep some other OS on it - my Mac Mini does fine for the Mac 'fix').
You've looked at it sensibly, tried the OS and came to a valid conclusion. Instead of going "OMG its all expensive pretty trendwhore nonsense!!!" :) There's probably a way to migrate your iTunes library too.
Which is exactly what I did. ;)
I didn't mean anyone here :p Its the general stereotype. "OMG Expensive fashion accessory!"
There's probably a way to migrate your iTunes library too.
There is, I've just done it - Copy the files over and then manually tweak an .xml file so that the paths are correct and import the library. It worked a treat, but I did have to sync everything back to the iPod afterwards which was a bit slow.
http://www.ocukroguesgallery.com/feek/temp/1053-20080530-171020.png
10.5.3 is mine :D
(and I appear to have a new avatar!)
Nice :) Installed before me, a geniune Apple user (fanboy) ;)
leowyatt
30-05-2008, 23:25
Nice :) Installed before me, a geniune Apple user (fanboy) ;)
Slouch! I installed the update yesterday after hearing about it on macbreak weekly :p
I just took the system out into the garden and gave it a good clean, it was very dusty, it's surprising how much dust a computer can accumulate but a few squirts of 300bar compressed air soon get rid of it all.
Now it looks like this.
http://www.ocukroguesgallery.com/feek/temp/pooter-20080622-124050.png
(the grubiness on the side panel isn't visible normally, the flash has made that more obvious. It's where ones fingers naturally pull on the case when putting the side back on).
Nice. In a pedantic sort of way the Apple logo should really be on the side, but if you can't normally see that then the top will do. :)
I've always wanted to try out a mac but no one I know has one and I can't justify buying more computer bits :(
I think when it comes time to get a new laptop, might look into the macbooks since I don't really do anything much with it at the moment.
leowyatt
23-06-2008, 16:03
why not just do what Mr Feekles has done and install it on a spare machine or partition if you have one :)
As a Mac Fanboy i think what youve done is really shocking...
What youve done is made me consider a HackPro as my next new computer, i miss the option/ability to overclock the CPU and tweak the ram and stuff.
As a Mac Fanboy i think what youve done is really shocking...
What youve done is made me consider a HackPro as my next new computer, i miss the option/ability to overclock the CPU and tweak the ram and stuff.
*thud*
That was me falling off my chair!
10.5.4 is out, get it while it's hot.
http://www.ocukroguesgallery.com/feek/temp/10.5.4-20080630-223610.png
Straight from software update, no tweaking needed :)
leowyatt
30-06-2008, 22:38
already??????
87.6mb on 1 system and 59mb on the other 3... how bizarre. :S
leowyatt
30-06-2008, 22:41
87.6 here on my iBook
already??????
Sorry, it took me an hour from when it was released!
87.6mb on 1 system and 59mb on the other 3... how bizarre. :S
It was 87.6 on mine. All the cool people had 87.6 (as you so rightly stated) :D
Well bugger me. Incredibly this was started over a year ago! If someone had suggested to me when I first tried this that I'd end up as a Mac user, owning a Mac Pro and a Macbook Pro, I'd have laughed.
leowyatt
24-04-2009, 22:31
you got bitten good ;D
Oooo look, it's been another year and in the last couple of months the family PC has been dumped in favour of a Mac Mini :D
leowyatt
24-03-2010, 21:58
mac minis are great :D especially for media machines ;)
Blighter
24-03-2010, 23:14
I'm loving my MBP - would never go back to a PC now!
I bought a nice big monitor for my desk to watch films on (watching Star Trek 09 on it now while typing this).
Plugged it in and the display preferences popped up asking me how the monitors want to be positioned, the resolution I wanted, and whether or not I wanted different backgrounds for each.
That simple.
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