Triple Boot OSX 10.5.7 on MSI Wind for OSX Newbies – OSX On Extended Partition (XP, Ubuntu, OSX) using GRUB

This installation process includes working wireless and sound on OSX running on MSI Wind (without replacing any hardware), and OSX installed on an extended partition.  Yes… really…

The Break Down

1. Background – how I got to OSX on the MSI Wind U-100

2. Experience with running OSX on a VM

3. What you need to do to get OSX on your MSI Wind

4. Disclosures and Expectations

5. Installing and Configuring 10.5.4

6. Upgrading OSX to 10.5.7

7. Thanks, Credit, and Additional Links

Background

A few months ago I did a little research on what netbook I wanted to purchase.  There were many reasons for my selection, but one of the top 10 was the possibility of running OSX on it.  I had not had a reason when I bought my netbook to really dive into OSX, but I also knew that I definitely would like the option if a reason did come along.  I have been working on computers to know that the best choice for me would be the one with the most options to experiment.

Fast forward a few months, I had purchased my MSI Wind and really fell in love with it.  It was at this time that my three year old LG 9900 (Envy) Cell Phone had start to complain that it needed a battery replacement.  I really loved my Envy, it had allowed me to email using my hotmail account from anywhere, and most importantly without a data plan.  The little keyboard was nice for those longer emails.  My needs were simple.  The LG soothed my frugal side, while keeping me connected.  It was also a cheap phone to use till the one I had been thinking about appeared on the market.   Then the IPhone happened.

i decided to make the leap, change carriers, and pay the monthly charge for the IPhone.  After Jail Breaking the phone, my fears of not getting my money’s worth slipped away.  I think I have used much more than my share of data plan… but that is another story.

Pop back into mind the OSX on my Wind idea and with it the idea of learning what it would take to develop an application for the IPhone.

Experience with running OSX on a VM

After scanning the internet for instructions for how to get OSX on my MSI Wind, I thought it might be more trouble than it was worth.  In my research I also learned that you could run OSX on a virtual machine.  Some people seemed happy doing just that.  I thought, “well, this would be much safer than risking my dual-boot Wind configuration (XP, Ubuntu), especially after I had spent time getting it the way I wanted.  I certainly didn’t want to reinstall my other operating systems to make this work.

My first attempt was on Sun’s VirtualBox. Supposedly it was better suited to run specific drivers.  No workie.

My second attempt was on VMware.  Here I hit pay dirt.  I got the OS running, dog slow, but running.  The killer was trying to run XCode on the VM.  Xcode just wouldn’t comply.

The operating system installed this way was so slow that it was not useful to me.  Unless you have a monster box that you plan to run a VM on, I would skip this part of the experience completely.

What you will need to get OSX on your MSI Wind

There is a lot of conflicting information out there on how to install OSX on a netbook.  Much of what is on the net is trial and error, and some random “hope this will work” stuff.  Much of it points to other pages and can get tiring and confusing.  I’m writing this post because it is what I wish I could have found.  It would have minimized my time and worry.  To give you an idea of the reduction, it took me 8 hours to get my first MSI Wind configured, it took me an hour, two at most to get my second done (including installation time).  I will also explain the “why” where appropriate.

Please don’t ask me where to find the stuff I listed below.  Do leave comments of success or problems with the process.  They will help the next person…

What you will need:

I am going to assume you have a working MSI Wind, with XP and Ubuntu already running dual boot with GRUB.  If you have gotten your MSI Wind to this point, you will have what it takes to get to the next part.  I also assume that you don’t have a running Mac OSX operating system available.  I didn’t.  We will overcome it.

1. Backup your current system configuration.  Use your favorite method of “ghosting.”  If all else fails, this will get you back to a working system.  I used Acronis True Image.

2. Get a copy of MSIWindosx86.iso – this is the OSX installation media that has been configured for the MSI Wind, it is for OSX version 10.5.4.

3. One USB Stick with a bootable version of Ubuntu on it.  – This will allow you to partition your drive using gparted and edit GRUB menu file.

4. One 4GB “blank” bootable USB Stick (this will hold the OSX installation media) (FAT32)

5. Get a copy of the “Leopard hd install helper v0.3” – a Chinese application that runs on XP only (will only look like it is working on Vista).  This application places the OSX installation on the second USB drive.

6. Get a copy of boot_v9 – this will allow you to boot to the extended OSX partition by placing a shim in GRUB to call the OSX partition. A copy of boot_V8 comes with the Leopard HD Install Helper, but I used the most up-to-date version.

7. Download the correct wireless drivers.  Depending on the version of the MSI Wind that you have you will need one of two Realtek drivers.

http://rapidshare.com/files/171809218/Realtek_RTL8187SE_MacOS10.5_Driver_073_UI_1.6.2.zip

or

http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/STA_RT2860%20D-1.1.1.0%20UI-1.6.8.0_2008_12_04.dmg .

The MSI Wind currently ships with two versions of the Realtek wireless card.  If your sticker on the lower left hand side of the keyboard has the text “802.11b/g/n” then you will want the second driver.  You could also boot into Windows XP and and check the wireless driver in control panel if it is labeled “RT2860” you will need the second driver (thanks cbtree!).

Disclosures and Expectations

I am describing this process as help to those who need it.  I was able to do this without fail (meaning no need to restore from backup).  There is of course risk involved.  If you follow the process do so at your own risk.

Also, if you have gotten this far, you have already made up your mind of how you feel about purchasing software.  Apple requires a license for OSX.  Nuff said.  We are all big boy and girl geeks here.  My philosophy on the issue does not change the installation process… Shall we begin?

Installing and Configuring 10.5.4

1. Create a FAT32 partition on your MSI Wind with Gparted using your bootable Ubuntu USB key.

They say you can use OSX on 5 or 6 GB partition, if you are serious about using OSX especially for development, I would cut out at least a 20GB chunk.  Growing the partition later is a bit of a trick that I won’t be covering here.  Best do it right now.

Here is what my current partition space looks like:

That last partition (/dev/sda8) is my HPS (OSX) directory.  Notice my Linux partition is also on an extended partition.  Later we will point our boot_v9 shim at our Linux partition.

2. Create Bootable OSX Installation USB Stick

- Log into Windows XP (remember the program will not work on Vista)

- Plug in bootable USB “blank” USB stick

- Run “Leopard hd install helper v0.3”, it will look something like this if you don’t have the proper font:

Scary but no worries.  Perform the following (order matters or you won’t be able to perform the installation):

1. In the first box select the MSIWindosx86.iso

2. Unselect the check box to the right of the pull down (the one in the picture above that has the text “C: [OS]).

3. Select the USB stick that you will be adding the installation to

4. Reselect the check box that unselected in step 2.

5. Unselect the check box next to ?boot.ini?

6. Click the button to the  right of the check box from step 2.

This will take a few minutes (about 15 minutes?). Relax this was the trickiest part.

Finding a way to create a bootable USB stick without a OSX machine really took me some time and research.  If there was a better way, I was unable to find it.

3. Install OSX to the new partition

1. Boot the MSI Wind off of the USB Stick created in Step 2.

2) Quickly, as the process starts it will say “Starting Mac OS X Installer”, press F8.  (This will allow for a custom installation)

3) Type -v and press enter.

4) A GUI will appear. Select the primary language.

5) The welcome GUI will appear, do not click Continue. Select “Utilities” from  the menu bar pull down menu, then select “Disk Utility”.

6) Select the Mac partition you created in step 1. Click the “erase” tab.

7) Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the pull down menu.
Enter a name for the partition (I called mine “OSX”)

9) Click “Erase” and then “Erase” again.

10) Exit Disk Utility by clicking the red button in the corner. You’re now back at the Welcome screen.

11) Click Continue and then click agree.

12) In the Installation Destination screen, click “OSX” partition. Then click continue.

13) On the next screen, click “Customize”.

14) Once the process completes click “Done”. Then click “install”.

15) Reboot into your Unbuntu partition.

3. Changing GRUB to boot your new OSX operating system.

At this point in the process there should be three working operating systems on the MSI Wind.  Now we need to add our boot shim in place and configure GRUB to call OSX.

1. Boot into your Ubuntu partition.

2. Copy boot_v9 to the /boot directory.

3. Open the file “menu.lst” in the /boot/grub directory with your favorite editor using root permissions.  (I used gedit.  You can bring it up from a terminal window by typing “sudo gedit.”)

4. Add the following to the end of the file:

title Leopard OSX

root (hd0,4)

kernel /boot/boot_v9

boot

Note: The second line above is pointing to my linux partition, the third is pointing at the file boot_v9 that you placed in your /boot folder in an earlier step.  This is how the MSI Wind will boot your OSX partition.

(Check the GRUB documentation for partition numbering information)

4. Install and Configure Wireless Drivers

The system should now boot into OSX.  Yay!

1. Boot into OSX.

2. Make sure that the wireless is enabled before testing (Function-F11 Key).

3. Install the correct wireless driver.

I am new to Mac so the configuration of the wireless driver is a little new to me.  I suspect the driver is a little clunky compared other drivers typically installed on the MAC.  I’ll try my best here, but you may need to search around for something more concise.

- Open up the Wireless Utility (depending on the driver installed you will find it in the “Applications” or the “Utilities” folder.

- Check the “Site Survey” Tab.  There should be a list of networks that your card sees.  Connect to one to make sure the driver is working.

- Select the “Profiles” tab

- “Add” a profile, name it.  Set the “SSID” to the network the card will connect to.

- Select the “CAM” option (this will keep the wireless running)

- Select the “Authentication and Security” Tab and configure for the network the card will connect to.

- Click “OK”

- Activate the profile.  When it shows “green” you should have a working setup.

Upgrading OSX to 10.5.7

Now is probably a good time to take a break if you have not done so already.  I spent a day or so fiddling with my 10.5.4 till I moved forward with this upgrade.  Technically the hard part is complete.

Since the instructions are much more clear online for the upgrade path, and there is no real conflicting information about how to do it, I will leave you with a link. http://forums.msiwind.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=11352

Notes:

When I upgraded, I only upgraded using the default settings and drivers.  Worked fine.

I will add that I chose to upgrade to 10.5.7 and not 10.5.8  or Snow Leopard for the simple reason that I have not found the documentation of the releases to be as complete as 10.5.7.  Besides the new Iphone SDK version only requires 10.5.7   Enjoy!

Thanks, Credit, and Additional Links

I couldn’t have gotten this process completed without the help of many people on the internet, especially the work on the MSIWindosx86 distribution.  Many thanks… More thanks should go to all of the posts written that said booting from an extended partition could not be done, and all of the conflicting information out there, without them I wouldn’t have pushed so hard to see if it could be done, and I would have not written this post.

Here are just a sampling of some of the posts I was able to glean information from.  If I listed them all, there would be in fact a list of over a hundred.  Thanks to all those I didn’t get listed.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=110388

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_Guides/Kalyway_DualBoot_10.5.2

Grub documentation

http://forums.msiwind.net/osx-software/realtek-t6649.html

Good luck!