EeePC 901 + Snow Leopard

I found this article earlier explaining the quickest way to install Snow Leopard (10A432) on a PC box, so I decided to install onto my EeePC netbook to test the theory. It works! Alright it isn't as simple as that. Here's the status right now with just my simple mods: As you can imagine, the trackpad issue is bothering me just a little… You'll have to do a bit of hacking to get to the state above, however. I cannot, and will not, provide copies of any of the hacks performed below; I have given a reasonable amount of information so that others can do that for you. Please don't ask as I won't respond. Keyboard Support You will need to compile yourself a Snow Leopard version of the VoodooPS2 drivers from http://chameleon.osx86.hu/. This is relatively straightforward, but means you need a working Snow Leopard machine with a working 10.6 SDK. You will need to switch compiler to GCC4.0 for one of the drivers to prevent a compile error, and you will also need to edit a line ('private' to 'public') in an OS header to convince something else to compile. Theoretically, this driver should enable the trackpad too but it hasn't for me, but someone with more experience may fix this (please do! and send me the working one!). Graphics Driver You will need an Eee-compatible copy of Natit.kext (I used the one from the EeeMac driver set) and you will also need to hex-edit the AppleIntelGMA950 and AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer kexts to accept your graphics card (find and replace all instances of 8680A227 with 8680AE27 in both). You will need to edit the Info.plist of both kexts too to add your card's ID (0xae278086). Bluetooth You will need to add your Bluetooth device/vendor IDs to IOBluetoothFamily.kext's BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController.kext. Audio You will need to install CHUD from the Developer Tools included on the Snow Leopard disc. You will also need Audeee. Follow instructions on the EeeMac blog for Leopard to see how it works. Other Follow the rest of the instructions on the EeeMac blog that don't involve replacing extensions. A lot of the hacked extensions that worked on Leopard will fail to load on Snow Leopard and may render your machine unbootable. If you want to experiment, at least know what you're doing.
After doing all that, you'll have a mostly-working Snow Leopard install on the Eee. :) I haven't done any performance testing, as it's a pain using an external mouse for the moment. Everything feels snappy, and I played a 720p trailer (of Bolt) from the Apple website and it was watchable. Happy hacking! I cannot, and will not, provide copies of any of the hacks performed above; I have given a reasonable amount of information so that others can do that for you. Please don't ask as I won't respond.

24 comments:

  2. Great write-up, but...

    "I cannot, and will not, provide copies of any of the hacks performed above" vs. "...but someone with more experience may fix this (please do! and send me the working one!)"

    Does as I say not as I do, hey? :)
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  3. @John they contain copyrighted Apple code, dunno about your country, but mine says that would be bad to distribute. :-)

    Luckily not everyone lives in a country with strict copyright laws.
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  4. How was the performance? I've got the flash hard drive version of this eeepc. I guess it only possible to this if you have the disk drive version.
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  5. @phildude I swapped out the original SSD with a 64GB RunCore SSD; it's really fast. It also has a usb port on it so I can hook it up to another machine to play with (which is how I installed).
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  6. Not getting it to work -.- I am always getting fucking Kernel Panic by Unkown process name...

    Anyway you don't need that CHUD Developer tool and all that stuff. Just using VoodooHDA.kext should do, as you're om 32-Bit on eee anyway.
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  7. so is it worth the effort? I mean, could it be used for normal tasks or is it too slow when you start opening programs? I've not that netbook model, I've an Asus one but I read Leopard can be installed so I was wondering if Snow Leopard (that I just ordered) is much faster compared to Leopard.
    I don't use that netbook much, bought it for holidays so I can download digital camera photos at the end of day and have a safe backup. that's why I've kept XP Home so far. but if Snow Leo could provide a good speed (similar to XP one) then I could dare to make the switch and use it a bit more often. :]
    thanks.
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  8. I run Win XP and Leo 10.5.7 on EEEPC 900HA, from my experience - Leopard is faster than XP. What's more you can use cover flow and preview to browse through your photos, Apple OS is designed for graphics!

    Beware - after getting used to OSX, booting into XP can be a traumatic experience. The multi-touch trackpad actually works better on Leopard than winxp also the smooth OSX interface makes XP looks amateurish. You don't know how ugly XP is until you installed Leo on the same machine.

    However...

    I don't see any point upgrading a netbook to Snow Leo - the single core 32 bit processor can't take advantage of 64bit or Grand Central Dispatch. The crappy Intel gfx chip can't do OpenCL or h264 acceleration. Who needs QT X? VLC can play HD video on my 10.5 just fine. The only worthwhile feature is the changes in Stacks, but thats not enough.

    10.6 is optimized for top-end machines - multi-cores 64 bit CPU with 4gb+ of ram and Nvidia 9400 and above gfx card.

    What an irony, it is the slower Mac that needs the speed boost and Apple stop supporting them.
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  9. @Christopher there's an awful lot in Snow Leopard asides from the features you mention; it's a must-have upgrade for any Intel machine and also to ensure that future software continues to work (as everything is migrated to 10.6 as a baseline) it's important to have.

    Apple lists 300 improvements in Snow Leopard; a lot of them effect what I do daily. I can't imagine trying to run Leopard at this point
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  10. I think 10.5 will remain for a very long time because it is the last version that supports PPC Mac.

    There's still a lot of those around, think of the Macs sold between 2001 - 2006, they are all PPC not Intel.

    I believe Apple is aware of the situation, thats why they didn't make any drastic changes to the interface and they named the new OS Snow Leopard instead of another feline species - as a higher end Leopard.

    I won't be surprise that both Leopard and Snow Leopard will continue to be supported as the standard for at least the next 2 years - as a transitional phase for PPC users to upgrade their machine before launching a totally new OS.

    Btw, if you use a netbook with SSD Snow Leo is definately the way to go, it uses 6gb less than Leopard.
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  11. very useless guide thanks what we need is a step-by-step guide and not some muddling hints is it so difficult to do that? could not find any on the web.. bah
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  12. already spent a couple of days installing SL again and again and can not get rid of that fucking generic CPU kernel panic immediately at boot....
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  13. @Roby you don't know what you're doing; Chameleon needs a dsdt.aml file for the Eee901 in the root of the hard disk to stop the kernel panic on boot. There's plenty of info about this in the page I linked at the very top of the post where the _actual_ guide is.
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  14. @Steven
    I am having a self created DSDT.AML - I am still getting an imnmediatly Kernel Panic. What now, hug?
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  15. Thanks much for this writeup. Any luck with the trackpad yet? I'm enjoying Snow Leopard on my 901, but am just hoping to find a way to use the trackpad eventually :-)
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  16. Hi
    I have a 901, too.
    I'm trying to install SL on it
    and still can't get GMA950 work

    Can I just put all of the kexts in USB disk?
    I'm using a USB disk which installed Chameleon RC2 on it.
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  17. Good news; I got trackpad working. I removed all of the kexts with "PS2" in the name and instead installed VoodooPS2Controller.kext right into /S/L/E. This worked! For some reason it doesn't work in /E/E. Also, for the modified GMA950 stuff; I had to put it into /S/L/E directly; as it also wouldn't work in /E/E. I used the AppleIntelGMA950, AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer from Imperiopolis and Natit.kext also. Google "snow leopard eepc 1008" for those.
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  18. 洪爺 : I recommend you use Chameleon 2.0 RC3. For my setup I installed everything to a USB hard drive first for testing (because so fast). I booted off the USB drive by hitting Esc on the eeepc 901. Once I had the system the way I like I installed Chameleon 2.0 RC3 onto the SSD and used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my test system onto the SSD. It's working VERY fast. Love Snow Leopard. I'll probably post detailed instructions when I get them written up on the usual forums.
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  19. MK500:Thanks, I have a bit different to your situation.
    My touchpad and keyboard all good. And I just only put their kexts in /E/E!! But I still no luck with GMA950 Orz. No 1024*600 whether I put the kext in /E/E or /S/L/E. Here's my kext list inside /E/E:
    ACPIPS2Nub.kext
    AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext
    ApplePS2Controller.kext
    Disabler.kext
    fakesmc.kext
    IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext
    OpenHaltRestart.kext
    PlatformUUID.kext
    SleepEnabler.kext

    And I'm working in dsdt.aml...now just fixed a lot of things like power buttom.

    And I can't get sleep?? After I push the sleep or close the lid, it will just hang...
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  20. BTW, the touchpad have two finger scroll and three finger right menu!
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  21. 洪爺 : For your video, put AppleIntelGMA950, AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer, and Natit.kext into your /S/L/E. Google "Snow Leopard 1008HA" and get the files from Imperiopolis post. The files in his zip already are modified for the same video chip our 901 uses and work great for me as long as Natit.kext is also in there. Also use his SleepEnabler.kext and find ClamshellDisplay.kext as well.
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  22. MK500：Thanks for your info.I'll try it later.. I'm so tired about it...
    And I found that newest of 901's BIOS added the multi touch
    Because I can use multitouch without driver on a clean XP!!
    I remember it must install the driver(Elantech one) to get multitouch...
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  23. I posted a guide for the 901 with the files I'm using up on Insanelymac in the Snow Leopard installer section.
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  24. Hello, I have the EeePC 900HD, and I would REALLY love to have snow leopard as the only OS. Right now I'm running XP, and EeeBuntu. Also have an 8 core MacPro with 32 GB of Mem. So any access to Mac will not be any problem! I have all Hard/Software I could ever need plus more, and would be willing to trade for detailed help on getting snow leopard on my Eee. New to PC, always been Mac, hate XP, but luv my 900HD: Please Help!! Thanks to all, kingsrsossing1
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