How rugged are the eeePC’s Dan? I’ve read the reviews, but after reading this, the only thing holding me back is that fear of cheap plastic.

how about drivers? is everything working, like wifi, bt, trackpad, and so forth…

thx d

Adam says he still needs the osx patched dvd in the optical drive to boot, is it also the case with the eeepc? while i’m very excited with this, I surely don’t want to carry my dvd drive everywhere to boot :-)

Nice stuff. But it’s true that OS X without core image & quartz and wifi (on a laptop) is really useless.

Greets.

As soon as I read that wifi works fine. I’m buying a “Galaxy Black” one at Newegg http://urltea.com/2456. If it doesn’t .. well .. probably getting one too.

Does the onboard camera work with Photoboot?

does wifi work?

“So, don’t you feel at all bothered by the fact that you are recommending people go out and *steal* OSX?”

Jim D, don’t you feel like slime yourself for suggesting that Dan is saying that? The way I read it, he used OS X from a Bittorrent download because it was easier than creating a disk image from his own copy of the OS. Or should he perhaps pretend that file sharing doesn’t exist?

By the way, it’s not called theft but infringement. The difference exists for a reason.

Dan,
What is currently not working? Our number one question is if wifi is working.

Thanks,
kornel

Just curious, what was the final verdict on wi-fi?

Can we get a rundown of the driver “support”?

Full resolution of monitor supported?

3D Acceleration supported?

Core Image supported?

All keys supported?

Trackpad moves the mouse?

Trackpad buttons do left and right-click?

Webcam works?
*No, not by default; still in testing

Built-in speakers work?

Exterior ports work? (USB, VGA, Audio in/out)

Card Reader works?

Built in Ethernet works?

Wifi works? (B? G?)

Thanks for forcing this through just to see if it works :)

To “the Right Reverend” Jim D:
So, don’t you feel at all bothered by the fact that you come across as sanctimonious and holier-than-thou? Your pious preaching from your pulpit is just kinda slimey.

Whoa, just got today my eeepc, Dan could you tell me how the eeepc work with 10.4.8 ? is it quick enough ? does 1 or 2 gb of ram would help ?
I just wanna use it for web/email on the go but need to be not too sloooow.

So i got the patched version of 10.4.8 that you mentioned in the article and i am confused on what my next course of action is. You say to skip to the part where it says “leopard is now installed” but if i skip to that part then nothing has been accomplished. Do i still need to download the SSE2 kernel or can i just skip to the part of installing it with an external DVD drive?

The “dvd-required-to-boot” problem is fixed by setting the osX partition to “active.” You can use the terminal or even a boot disk with the appropriate utilities installed. Eg acronis

Quick note - on a flash-based storage medium, using a Journalled filesystem is almost certainly a very bad idea: the use of a journal at least doubles the number of writes performed as data is written to the journal then flushed to its final location. Even with flash’ built-in wear-levelling technology, this will drastically reduce the lifetime of the part.

(I don’t know if MacOS supports an option similar to ‘noatime’ on Linux to prevent constant metadata updates, but this would also be beneficial. Additionally, disabling the new FSEvents system by touching a file named ‘/.fseventsd/no_log’ (see http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/7 ) will be another big in for longevity. Finally, some method of disabling swap or moving swap to a different location would help immeasurably - but probably isn’t possible. Constant use of swap files is probably what will, in the end, kill the flash drive. See http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/14/218235 for further discussion.)

Way to go Dan!
I’ve been refreshing all night to hear that, but got impatient and ordered a black one based on your write up here. Keep the updates coming, i know a lot of people are really interested.

SO Wifi works and Sound Works. Thats awesome

Does QE/CI work?

Does VGA out work?

Also whats the speed of Tiger? I am guessing, it must be pretty slow.

Thanx for the guide/review.

I Think I will go buy a EEE PC soon enough

Many people want Apple to sell OS X for pc’s, but in, the meantime, the idea of trying to hack your way in is just too much trouble and downright illegal for me. Interesting to know it can be done, but actually doing it is another matter.

Of course, for some, just being able to do it is most of the fun. Not for me; I would fear the wrath of Apple’s multi-billion dollar legal department, which, in my case, would be too much for this wimp!

I especially wouldn’t advertise or publish the fact if I did. You are obviously braver than I!

@SAM: My pious preaching is less pathetic than your piss-poor alliteration.

All I said is that it’s slimey to jack a copy of OSX. If you want to pay for OSX, fine. Download linux. Otherwise just buy friggin disc. Jeez.

I call BS until you show something other than a boot screen that may or may not be real.

Could you post some more pictures/screenshots of mac os runnnig plz? I really would like to know what it looks like on such a small resolution and if it’s enough to really work with it.

So how did you get Wifi going? Inquiring minds want to know :)

Awesome! can you post more screenshots?

I don’t know what’s real anymore; is this real, or am I lost in a schizoid waking nightmare?

Good work Dan, You’ve definitely got me tempted to do the same. Keep us as updated as possible, btw - would you recommend the eee pc even if you couldn’t get os x to work? it seems that even with windows or xandros it’d still be usable as a torrent box and/or porn box.

Great work,

how are those step-by-step instructions coming along for WiFi?

Is there any way to do this install without an external DVD-rom?

Cheers,
/Trev

@The Rev Jim D

“piss poor alliteration” ?!?!?

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. (with apologies to the Bard.)

As for WiFi it looks like the chipset (Atheros ar5bxb63) is flagged as a AR5006 or 5007) check the following:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=58154
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=60652
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=61260

went looking for an Eee today, but had to put my name on a list for Wed, seems they fly out the door the moment they come in, they’ve ordered 100, reckon they may get 50 and I’m 20 something. Here’s hoping.

Hi Dan,

I have followed your instructions to install Os X Tiger on my eee, it boots after several trys, however I could not get the built in ethernet or the wifi to work. Would you be kind enough to give me some pointers.

Thanks

I am waiting for the sse3 Merom version of eee in April 08. Leopard tells me it needs 7.5gb to install. How are you able to install with 4gb? I think the QC/CE does not work?

Will I be okay to try this install with an SD card as the boot option?

I’m looking at external dvd drives, but don’t want to waste the money on something I probably won’t ever use again.

Dan, are you still going to do a followup with more details on how to install Tiger? I tried using the DVD image you recommended (JaS) however after installation it boots up onto a blue screen and hangs, or it comes up with an all-screwed-up dark blue one with a spinning beachball.

Could you tell me which packages you selected from the installation DVD? I couldn’t fit them all in due to disk size and I might have left the wrong ones out.

Strange enough, the installer seems to work perfectly. It even accurately shows the battery charge status.

will osx’s journaling system make the lifespan of the eee’s SSD shorter?

Any chance you could show us some XBench results?

Ok, I am at a complete loss for WiFi, the monitor not being at the full resolution is driving me wild, and I haven’t even had time to let the other non-working stuff bother me. I am running OS X, though, which is fun for novelty. But other than that, it’s crippled.

You made it sound SO MUCH FUN! And I’m completely serious when I say that.
(Don’t ask.)
I’ll probably get a MBP on Fri, anyways, but a slimmed-down, ultra-portable OS X wohld be really freaking awesome, you’ve got to admit.

Also, thanks for the boot.plist tip, I’ll give it a try.

Ok. Got the boot dvd created. Eee loads the dvd but goes to a blue screen and never comes back. Tried the dvd on a “regular” laptop and it worked fine, OSX loaded. Any ideas?

Thanks

Jim,
I found that I had to run the whole process twice. After the install, boot from the DVD again and run the installer again, but uncheck everything. The install button will say upgrade, but it seems to install some more items. I still have verying success actually booting the laptop, but it works when the boot finally happens.

The monitor works in full res (800×480) if you use the JaS installer as described in the article, and enable the extra GMA900 and GMA950 drivers. Unfortunately that version booted very erratically (sometimes it would take me 10 tries to boot successfully) so I gave up and put the default Linux image back on my EEE.

Also Ethernet, Wifi, Sound and Cam weren’t working so it was pretty useless anyway. But it was kind of cool to see OS X on my EEE just once :)

To the guys calling bullshit because the only photos so far are of the boot screen, I sympathise. The Eee hangs at the boot screen with the normal install.

However I’ve done some work and got the first stage - booting to the desktop - so it’s not bullshit at all, just needs some fine tuning.

Check out here

http://eeepc-osx.wikispaces.com/Screenshots+of+first+successful+effort

I wrote a more detailed guide for installing Tiger on the EEE, by the way.

http://eeepc-osx.wikispaces.com/Tiger_Install

(NOT MY SITE, just my page)

Are you guys serious? If I could get Leopard working I’d certainly give it a go, the thing is this hack is difficult enough on a desktop let alone a highly portable eeePC! I’d also have reservations about installing it given the mention above of:

“Quick note - on a flash-based storage medium, using a Journalled filesystem is almost certainly a very bad idea: the use of a journal at least doubles the number of writes performed as data is written to the journal then flushed to its final location. Even with flash’ built-in wear-levelling technology, this will drastically reduce the lifetime of the part.”

That’s pretty serious ppl, why would you install that instead of something like PCLinuxOS which has Beryl? Hell would Beryl even run on the eeePC? If that would work it’d certainly be damn cool IMO. It’s much more sophisticated and cooler.

So what will you do?

Sorry, this is very interesting and I’d like to know more, but no blogs seem to go back linking to this post. COULD WE HAVE SOME KIND OF UPDATE POST, PREFERABLY WITH VIDEO SHOWING SPEED OF APPS???

One thing I don’t understand is how in the world you are supposed to use the OS X terminal if you don’t have OS X….isn’t that kind of defeating the purpose? I mean, I’m installing OS X because I don’t already have it. So how am I supposed to access the terminal to apply the patch?

Okay, I am trying to put 10.4.8 on EEE but it’s not working. I downloaded the pre-hacked disc out there and got it to install by booting from the DVD-R, formatting my drive and installing. All went well, EXCEPT there bit about, click the disk name then Partitions, then the Options tab to select Master Boot Record. The Options button DOES NOT exist in the 10.4.x installer, even hitting the green resize button to make sure I’m viewing everything I should be seeing in the small screen.

So, I’ve moved ahead with installation. When I reboot though, I get a kernal panic every time. I have not been able to do any “post install tweaking” as was done in the original Hackintosh article, as the patches aren’t on the 10.4.8 disk image. I don’t know why it’s crashing although is the Master Boot Record a possibility? Not sure if it were a total requirement.

So to recap, I’ve got a pristine EEE PC with 10.4.8 (the hacked version) installed properly on it. But no “post-install” patching done (the stuff that some said weren’t needed in Leopard at least). I cannot see any way to set the internal disk to, say, GUID as it required most of the time, there’s no option button showing at all just Split, Delete, Revert and Parition along the bottom of the screen, above the disk information (SILICONMOTION SM223AC, ATA, Internal, etc.) I appear to be seeing everything on the screen, as I’ve resized it all properly.

So can anyone help me out?

Reading this and other sites it seems that part of the problem is that the 900Mhz CPU is clocked down to 600Mhz. This apparently causes a lot of problems for OSX because it believes the system when it reports a 900Mhz CPU.

There are various fixes including an old Bios (8804) for the machine that allows a 100Mhz FSB/900MHZ CPU clock

See here.

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=3

If wifi doesn’t work, forget about Mac installation then…

I have an external 160 gig USB2 drive that I backed up my Intel iMac to, any way to boot eeePC from this? Running 10.4.11 when I backed up to this drive. Used Super Duper! and this makes the image bootable even tho macs usually won’t boot from external usb.

Thanks

Hi, I installed it on a notebook Vaio but the OS doesn’t recognises my keyboard. How can I solve it? thanks

@Dan: Gratz.

Only thing I will say is that I think by and large, you may find you’re better off with the pre-installed xandros. Any other OS (especially the way one shoehorns Mac OS X into machines at present) is a bit too fiddly plus if you don’t have SSE3 and/or recent intel chipset, my understanding is the EFI hacks at the moment do not allow you to run an unpatched kernel (hence no updates).

Apple is definitely FTL for tying down their OS to machines. And having us pay a premium for crap desktop hardware. I mean… do the math.

But due respect - their laptops are pretty cool - when they are not having heat or battery problems.

@Jim D: sigh… It’s people like you that make Apple and M$ the monsters they are. You are definitely FTL.

It’s illegal to install OSX on hardware other than mac hardware, so even if you buy OSX it’s still illegal. But they are doing it for a reason, if evereybody was able to install OSX on their PC’s, there would be load of driver issues, and then people would say that macs are no different from PC’s.

:(

OK, to all those claiming this is not legal, go find a better case. If you own the software, you own the software. Apple cannot write laws, only a licensing agreement. Their licensing agreement says you cannot install OS X on any non-Mac, but this threat is not supported by law and is therefore irrelevant. ALL that Apple can do is say that they will not support certain hardware (which by the way, they don’t). If you feel like going through this for the sake of installing software you own on hardware you own, go for it. You can’t expect Apple or anyone to have answers or adequate support for the problems you encounter.

@Luke, keep us posted on that driver set.

@Naysayers, get over it.

Thanks all!

Great idea, i am waiting for your driver package.
Is there a way where i can help you?

Why don’t you just buy a second hand macbook off ebay, you’ll have roughly the same processor and ram. Bigger hd and osx will run better.

But well done anyway mate, sure it was fun to do

Dan - Is there any way you can give us a walk through for Tiger? Besides downloading it, of course. After all, you said you ended up going with Tiger because it is much faster, so how did you hack it?

I forgot to mention - the guy who posted above under the name “None” made an interesting point - you eventually would wear out a solid-state drive, what I’m wondering is would it really be that fast? The way I understand it, each time you overwrite the data, you basically etch off a layer of the storage unit, and the number of layers is finite. I had the impression, though, that you could overwrite the whole device several thousand times before wearing it out. Can anyone verify these details, and have there been any other cases of computers running for extended periods of time on an SSD? I’d like to not worry about reliability issues if I do buy one of these, which I probably will in the next few months.

The next question is for Dan, or anyone who already owns an Eee PC. When you open the BIOS, (F2 key?) can you set the boot priority of the card in the SD slot to be higher than the built-in SSD? If so, if/when you wear out the SSD you could just start booting from a 4GB or 8GB SD card instead. If you’re running Leopard, you could do Time Machine on a real hard drive, and if anything fails you will still have a backup.

My next question is for Mac users. I have used OS X Tiger for quite some time now, and I always owned a Mac before that. In the old Mac OS you could set the amount of ‘Virtual Memory’ used by the system, but X seems to just arbitrarily take as much as it needs (which is a good idea, it can be hard to guess how much extra memory is really needed). My question, prompted by None’s post, is CAN you disable file swapping in Tiger or Leopard? You would want a ton of RAM (like 2 GB) if you were going to do that, but it still would be useful to know how. I haven’t seen a way to do that in the System Preferences.

My final question is about Linux. Doe Linux write swap files like OS X does? Can you disable or reduce the amount of file swapping in Linux? Would the Xandros system that ships with the Eee have options for this? Does anyone know of a good Linux that LOOKS (and preferably acts) similar to OS X, or would it be better to just mod some existing distro? OK, I know it was a long post, sorry, but I do hope that it adds something good to the discussion. Thanks for your input.

I have been a mac user for 5 years and I really had no interest in the eee pc until i ran across your blog. my MacBook is starting to feel a little bloated and the idea of a mac i can practically stick in my back pocket for $300 is pretty nice. i have been trying to wade through the discussion here and i just wanted to clarify.

can you install 10.4 or 10.5 with full usb/wifi/webcam functionality?

it seems like there have been a lot of add-ons since the original instructions at the top of the page. can you repost the step-by-step with all of the updated tips and tricks?

ps i already own legit copies of 10.4 and 10.5 so i don’t have any problem downloading a tweaked copy online

I Try to Install Mac OSX Bye THO
After System Boot Into Setup The Setup Did Not Find My HDD
Now What Can I Do

Nice howto, but most of those steps are now superfluous if you get the kalyway 10.5.1 dvd which is prepatched. No need to do any script stuff or anything, and it runs pretty well, with *all* the usual caveats for osx86 (wifi, keyboard/mouse issues, gfx drivers, etc). And yes, the SSE2 emulator is included and works on my vaio laptop (vgn-tx1).

Floris,
Your boot problem can be solved using the external monitor/paperclip trick.

Please help. I have the eee 2g and want to connect via gotomypc or logmein to access work computer. I am able to download Java runtime
but not able to open. Any help would be appreciated.

iv read a lot of posts about if the wifi works and how fast osx 10.4 will work on it.
first off google the wifi problem and there are a few sites that know how to fix it.(not sure which one)
Second yes it will work fine on 900hz computer/ i have osx 10.4 on my 8 year old computer and its running at a slow 300hz and its working just fine!

Did Dan actually get wifi working or just replace the wifi card? And can anyone confirm whether leopard is still slow with 1gb ram

JIM, stfu - BUTTLICK

Is anyone working on webcam, wifi, and audio drivers? I would love to see a FULLY functional eeePC running apple

Hey Tyler, I speak all about the EeePC and the issues encountered.
I even play a little ELO while demonstrating!
You need to jump on a computer with sound to see the full power of the EeePC! :)

happycar, great video! i am a believer. i am getting my eee in about a week and i will definitely give os x a shot. i have to admit though that it looks like gOS (from the cloudbook) might be a more headache free choice, but i have 2 apples and i would love for my eee to be fully compatible.

you mentioned wireless. what are you using for wifi? is it the factory built-in or something else you modded in?

If I did it right, would I be able to have MAC OSX Leopard on the same hard drive as Windows on my PC? I’m planning on putting this on my main computer and then using Boot Camp to run any non-Mac programs with my already-on-hard-drive Windows install.

people like bill gates and steve jobs are the biggest thieves of all. am i in bizzaro world all of a suddden?

If we ever want this to be more than a limited hack for the “I just wanted to see if i could do it” folks, we are going to need a full set of drivers for all of the standard ASUS hardware. No more ‘bridge the pins on the vga’, or ‘no audio input/output support’, I mean everything working. So, it is time to put my money where my mouth is.

I WILL GIVE A $50 REWARD TO ANYONE WHO CAN PROVIDE A FULL SET OF DRIVERS.

This means drivers for all of the standard system hardware: Audio (input/output/speakers), Wireless, Video (including VGA output), Webcam, Ethernet. The person who provides the drivers also must provide step-by-step instructions on how to install them on an eee running 10.4.x

Of course all of this is dependent on testing them out. Whatever drivers I receive, of course I will make available to everyone else by posting them here or somewhere else online. I just want to see the project moved along, and selfishly I want a usable eee running os x

Let the games begin!

I will match the $50 reward. I want to use osx on my eee as well but can’t deal with the current limitations. I dont have the skill set to develop the drivers myself but I do have $50 for someone that does.

I have just about read the whole thread, but like others, I am still confused about what will and what will not work. Happycar has obviously done some great work, but his utube video shows the use of an outboard mouse. Does this mean that the built in track pad does not work? Also dem shows iTunes and web, but what about an app like Word, will it run that OK?
I am going to order an eeePC with 8Gig with 1Meg of RAM to give it the best chance of success, but to all of you very clever people out there i will need some help! Keep up the outstanding work.
And Luke, how is it going with the full driver set? Like others I am happy to pay for them.
PS Is the general view that OS X10.4 is the best bet, or should I go for OS X10.5?

Actualy the reward for making Tiger fully work on EeePC (and expecially fixing the kernel timing issue) reached the amount of 450 USD.

This amount of money will be provided to the person that will provide the drivers and an installation howto.

More details at http://tigeroneeepc.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/2888959

My friend told me to replace the Hard drive on his iBook G4, and i’m trying to install OS X from a torrent I downloaded and burned, but I cannot boot from them. =[ I tried all suggested key combos, but it cannot boot from the DVD.

I downloaded:

* Mac OS X 10.4.8 [JaS AMD-Intel-SSE2-SSE3 with PPF1 & PPF2]
* ToH_x86_9A581_RC2.iso

and another one that’s 7.2 gigs, which I have no idea how I’m supposed to burn.

Someone please help?

Hi ! I’ve been watching this thread for so long. I’ve burnt something like 15 DVD and today, I go it running !!!! The easiest way is to use the uphuck 10.4.9. It took me 6 days to download it and a couple of DVD burnt very slowly. I’ve installed it on a SDHC card (Lexar, 4Go, class6). I first boot with a screen pluged in my VGA port. It runs a little it slow, but it’s just amazing :) I tried to tweak the ifi kext but I just can’t make it work :( By the way I”m French so if some of you are french too and interested in, I can help.

pop on over to http://tigeroneeepc.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/2888959 The current reward they are offering is $550 to fix the issues. If you’d like also to pledge something to get this off the ground let us know in the forum. mert165

Its nice to see that this topic is still active, i was actually wondering. if it would be possible to use an External Harddrive.

to install leopard, i saw the person saying that they didnt want to purchase the dvd drive.. so does EEEpc have a boot from external command sort of like the macbook pro?

I tried making my own disk but it never even gets to the installer, any tips maybe i’m doing something wrong??

PS don’t use 10.4.9 ver1.4 it doesnt work on any sse2 despite saying so

Hello!

I was wondering if any progress had been made on this?

I won’t be buying my eeePC until I know for sure that I can run either; tiger or leopard.

Please reply with drivers and/or howto’s!

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy

If you want to use a USB webcam with mac, get macam. You can find it on apple’s download page.

Did it take several minutes (5+) to get past the very first screen (Select a language)? And several more minutes with a spinning beachball for each screen?