Retail installation
General overview retail install'sBefore I'm diving in the retail install on the acer aspire I'm gonna explain how this works in general.
I advice you to experiment and install with the normal hacked versions before starting this method.....in fact a working osx will be necessary. If you have an other pc with osx.....or a real apple then your fine too.
For using the original apple install dvd u need to load some kext (and a hacked kernel for platforms that don't support apple's vanilla kernel....like the acer) in the RAM before booting the dvd.
Without these kext you cannot boot the dvd (and the installation) at all.
Lets see it as loading a virtual apple bios...so the dvd finds genuine apple hardware.
All the kext (and kernel) to load are in initrd.img and can exist on a cd or bootable usb stick. (booted with linux)
The kext (kernel extensions) are the extra drivers for your specific hardware. But also some hacked kext are needed like the: disabler.kext, dsmos.kext.
These last two are needed for other pc's too with this method.
Since I experiment a lot with many pc's and retail-installation I use rewritable cd's....takes ten minutes to recreate with other sets of kext/kernel. And i burned lot's of them!
But an usb-stick can contain several initrd.img......using one specific each time....in the end a very nice tool.
Except the following:
The usb-method cannot boot the install-dvd!
If you have the install dvd imaged to an usb stick (6gb?) or an ipod then you will be fine with usb to install......infact it makes life easy.
With the boot cd and the boot usb you will be able to boot the installation later.
Consider this:
Before you start you should find out if you really need this method.
The positive part is that till a certain point you can use the updates at apple (which u can't with the normal hacked installations).
Install....10.5>update>10.5.1>update 10.5.5....
Up from 10.5.6...u need to develop some additional kext....I'm writing this article instead of doing that.
The downside is that this method only will install on a GPT partitioned HD (when formatting ... erases the HD too btw.).
So you loose your MBR....and the dual/triple boot option on one HD (and there is only one in the laptop)....
The bootproces of install dvd.
First you need to know the "Universal Unique Identifier " of the install medium.
This is where your working osx/apple is needed....
Go to the diskutility (applications>utilities>diskutility>click the dvd>the blue info button on top.
Write down the long code u see there.
Boot the cd in the dvd player.
Once the bootcd is ready.....you open the tray and swap the cd for the install dvd.
Press esc.
and this is the tricky part.....here you have to point to a certain medium.....80 and 81 are the usual HD in your pc (you use that once it is installed)......the dvd has a different type.
But at this point the code is already in between the [ ] ......so type that to go to the install dvd.
Press enter and you can see the dvd name.
While booting in the dvd you press F8.
Here is the moment to load the content you booted from the cd in the ram.
Type:
rd(0,1)/"kernel" -f -v boot-uuid="the Universal Unique Identifier of the dvd you wrote down"
On the acer aspire it is actualy:
rd(0,1)/mach_kernel.voodoo -f -v boot-uuid="my dvd id"
So on the acer u need mach_kernel.voodoo since it patches on the fly......needed for AMD!
I use the mach_kernel.voodoo also for pentium 4 etc.....if your pc can boot vanilla kernel u don't need to specify a kernel!!
If all ok the boot dvd starts and your ready to install.
Go to diskutility.....partition the disk to GPT...it erases all the content!
And install as on a real apple....
After install it gives an error about rebooting.....thats right.....u boot the installation with the cd.....so ignore that.
Booting the installation on the HD:
You need to know the Universal Unique Identifier of the installed HD too.....so after install u boot the install dvd again with the method discribed above.....use the diskutility to get the Universal Unique Identifier of the installed HD.
Reboot:
Boot cd.
80
rd(0,1)/mach_kernel.voodoo -f -v boot-uuid="Universal Unique Identifier of the installed HD"
The usb method works basically the same accept it cannot find the dvd player on your pc..it only can find usb-HD's and HD's.
Also when booting install media like usb or ipod's (install dvd imaged on it) you need to know the Universal Unique Identifier USB-install-image first
So usb-boot is nice for booting once you managed an installation this way.
Preparing the necessary kext for the acer aspire.
I used the kext (a minimal set) from the 10.5.4 installation on my HD (system/library/extensions)
To use them: copy a kext to a work folder >right click the kext >Show Package Content> and edit the info.plist (click it and text editor opens) make sure the end of the text is simular to way shown in the next picture.
All the kext are in the "Extra" folder in the initrd.img.....in the root of initrd.img needs to be an alternate kernel.....for the acer that will be the mach_kernel.voodoo.
For the acer I prepared the following kext:
The boot-(123)-cd for the Acer Aspire 5051 retail installation
download the following zip:
Howtoos.iso
MD5 (howtoos.iso) = b3caa5e3e1449a19604e91e605137869 after unzip.
Only sound will not work.......sound issues will be solved in a later stage.....by using strings.
Burn the iso at slowest speed on a cd (rw if u like) and boot your retail dvd as described above with this cd.
The boot-usb-stick
download the following zip:
syslinux-3.63.zip
Requirements: Windows, USB Flash Drive, howtoos CD
1. Connect you USB Drive and format it as FAT32.
2. Download syslinux from here. (Must be version 3.63)
3. Unpack zip somewhere. (Ex: c:\temp)
4. Open cmd and go to the unpacked folder\win32 directory. (Ex: c:\temp\win32)
5. Run syslinux.exe -ma <drive letter>: (Ex: syslinux.exe -ma f:)
6. Copy all files from CD to your USB Drive (mboot.c32, boot, initrd.img, isolinux.bin)
7. From folder isolinux copy isolinux.cfg to USB Drive root f:\.
8. Rename isolinux.bin to syslinux.sys and isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.
9. Enjoy you bootable USB Bootloader...