Vacations... and back!

Having overworked myself for the last too-many months (which also explains the lack of posts here), it was finally time to get some vacations from paid work...

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Image credit: Jonathan Mak http://jmak.tumblr.com/post/9377189056

The moment I touched the Apple ][ in 1982, my life changed forever !!!

Since then, you changed the world and almost everything around our lives...
Not just how we look at and interact with computers, but how we listen to music, watch movies and communicate with others.

Thank you Steve Jobs !

You'll be missed... But your vision will live forever...
R.I.P. Steve Jobs

Lnx2Mac

Lnx2Mac Releases new RTL81xx Beta

After several months of development (and regrettable delays due to work obligations and health issues), 203 packaged builds, 71 Alpha testers, and 4 test iterations, a new beta version of the Realtek RTL81xx driver is finally ready to be released.

Mac OS X Lion Available for Download

Just a quick post to let you know (that is, in case you missed it) that Mac OS X Lion is NOW available for download from the Mac App Store !

Be patient, as Apple's servers seem quite overloaded...

Oh, and don't forget to backup before starting the upgrade...

Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update

Long hiatus... Too long...

Anyway, Apple's release of the 10.6.8 Mac OS X Snow Leopard update yesterday are news big enough to free some time, get over my writer's block and write this post.

As usual, “this update is recommended for all Mac OS X Snow Leopard users...” Is it? Really? And what about Hackintosh users?

Reviving Dead Ethernet Ports

Does your OnBoard Realtek Ethernet port seem dead ?
Can't you get it working on any Operating System ?
Are you getting the dreaded "Self-Assigned IP" ?

If so, this post is for you...

Lnx2Mac's RTL81xx gets installer !

While the development of a new beta driver is taking longer than I would like, I decided to create an OS X Installer Package for a slightly modified version of the current Beta 0.0.67

This should help in getting a smooth installation of the driver in no-time (while requiring less Hackintosh expertise).

Lnx2Mac's Realtek RTL81xx Driver goes Beta

Mac OS X Realtek 8111E/8168E support is here !

Hi !

Due to the shortcomings of the current Realtek 81xx Hackintosh drivers (such as lack of or limited support of 8111E, 32/64-bit, sleep issues), I endeavored to port the Linux RTL81xx driver to OS X.

RealtekRTL81xx.kext is the result of this work, and it fully supports the RTL8168/RTL8111 family of NICs.

After weeks of coding, compiling, rebooting and debugging this, I can proudly say that it's now ready for prime time !

Moving OS X /Users to a separate partition

After considering the Alternatives for separating the OS X users' home directories, I decided to use a separate partition.

In this post, I'll explain in detail how to use a separate partition ("Volume" in Mac OS X parlance) for /Users.

Alternatives for separating the OS X users' home directories

Most OS X installations you'll find, probably use just one partition per disk. This may be convenient, but coming from years on Unix/Linux, that's a no-go for me... We can do better...

So, let's see how we can get the users' home directories on a separate partition ("Volume" in Mac OS X parlance) or disk.

Lnx2Mac's Realtek RTL81xx Driver about to go Beta

OSX Realtek 8111E/8168E support coming soon

Hi !

Due to the shortcomings of the current Realtek 81xx Hackintosh drivers (such as lack of or limited support of 8111E, 32/64-bit, sleep issues), I endeavored to port the Linux RTL81xx driver to OSX.

Multiple Partitions on OS X - Pros and Cons

Whether to have multiple partitions or not has been a topic of debate for ages... You might think it even predates the invention of storage.

Here, I'll give a rundown of the many reasons why you might want (or not) to have multiple partitions on your OS X hard disk drives.

Fixing the Orange HardDisk Icons

Upon upgrading to OS X 10.6.3, the P55 chipset was supported OutOfTheBox.
But there's a downside...
Apparently due to a Gigabyte BIOS bug, all SATA hard drives appear as External (Orange Icons).

While it's just a cosmetic issue, it affects the familiar feeling of the OS X desktop.

Several methods were developed to overcome this.
I'll briefly describe the options here, and present my own 'Vanilla' Solution.

Installing OS X Snow Leopard - Part Three

In Part One of this article, we gathered all required components for a smooth installation, and in Part Two we did the actual OS X install...

But we need to keep booting off a CD with iBoot... It's time to fix that !
...and while we are at it, we'll pick the optimal MultiBeast options for the GA-P55M-UD4.

Installing OS X Snow Leopard - Part Two

In Part One of this article, we gathered all required components for a smooth installation, it's time to install OS X...

Installing OS X Snow Leopard - Part One

In the past, installing OS X on non-Apple hardware used to be a long journey, which involved gathering a lot of kexts (kernel extensions or drivers), and manually tweaking and installing lots of files...

Those days are over !

Optimal BIOS Configuration

Configuring the BIOS is something that almost every PC user had to deal with.

However, it's usually full of terms than even some tech-savvy users don't understand.
This lead vendors to provide a way of choosing "Optimal" settings.

I found out that, even after using Gigabyte "Optimized settings", there's a lot to improve !

With the settings here, we'll tune the PC to optimal settings.

Updating the Gigabyte BIOS

Updating the BIOS of a Gigabyte motherboard is very easy (and safe, thanks to the Dual-BIOS).

There are several alternatives for this:

• The Q-Flash Utility (embedded in the BIOS),
• The @BIOS Windows utility
• The FLASHSPI.EXE MS-DOS utility (included with the BIOS update)

Unpacking the Gigabyte BIOS without Windows

Before moving on to installing the OS, let's take care of updating the BIOS.
Gigabyte publishes (quite often) updated BIOS with new features and fixes.
So let's download and unpack the new BIOS.

Finalizing the build

OK, we are almost there...

It's time to start cabling the components.

No special surprises here, just follow the instructions on the motherboard's manual.

A couple of tips though:

• OS X supports the SATA controller included in the P55 chipset, so we'll use the Blue SATA connectors.
  Connect the HDD to SATA2_0, and the DVD to SATA2_1.
• When connecting the Front Panel Audio, use the HD-Audio connector, not the AC'97 one.

Now for the fun part...