Cheap Mac with no “Apple Tax” = Dell mini 9 OSX
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 | Author: admin
Update! Laptop for sale Now Click here!
So you want the smallest possible Netbook running OSX but dont want to buy a crippled MacBook Air… buy a Dell Mini 9 and install OSX on it.
So whats it good for? its tiny it has no moving parts it can serve as a memory card backup for photographs or to surf the web, watch movies, etc
Want to try it? get a Dell mini 9 with at least a 16GB Solid State Drive and head over to:
http://mydellmini.com/forum/how-to-install-mac-os-x-dellefi-method-t3925.html
I got mine working in two hours, and I’m using it right now to type this up. I tether it to my iPhone for surfing the web anywhere and “free”. I did the two memory stick approach if you have any question leave a me a comment.
Here’s a video of mine running, shot with my iPhone
This is the list of software used to make this happen:
Syslinux; This is used to make your USB drive bootable
DellMiniBoot123v8.01 ; This is the boot drive image to install OSX version 10.5.5 and below
DellMiniBoot123v8.02b1 ; This is the boot drive image to install OSX version 10.5.6 and above
DellEFI 1.07.1 ; This is the app that modifies OSX and includes/modifies system drivers so the Dell Mini 9 devices are recognized. Just copy this file to the bootable USB drive you will run it once OSX has booted.
After installing OSX the mini will not boot automatically, you will have to use the boot via USB drive and press “escape” and type 81 and force the boot with -x -f.
You might have to do this a few times until it actually boots OSX for the first time. Once OSX boots run the DellEFI to update the drivers, next boot will be done normally without the aid of USB drive.
Thanks to mechdrew from http://mydellmini.com for the great guide.
dell mini 9 OSX
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Hi,
I just got my Dell mini 9 with Ubuntu on it last and I’ve been following the guide that you link to but seem to be having issues. I was just wondering if you dell cam with XP or linux.
Hi Alberto,
I’m stuck at this part:
7) Boot into the USB drive. This may not work initially, since it can be hard for it to detect which one to boot from. If this is the case, simply unplug the larger USB drive, try again, power off when it gets done booting to the DellEFI menu, reset and start again with both USB drives inserted.
If you get an error that says something about com.apple.boot plist not found, don’t worry, it happens nearly everytime. This is NOT a problem with your install.
At the DellEFI boot prompt, press “Esc” (Escape) and then type either “81” or “82” to bring up the USB drive with the DVD files on it. Press enter. You are now in the Mac OS X Leopard Installer.
I can’t seem to get past the boot plist error message.
Mine was loaded with Ubuntu, where are you getting stuck?
I would recreate the boot USB drive from scratch and make bootable again.