How I installed OS X on my MSI Wind.
I had so much trouble with this (honestly) and had to pick and chose from multiple different sources, that I figured I'd post this here, in case anybody had trouble like me.
I'm not a hacker. I'll say that straight out. I might be technical, but it takes me a very long time to understand things, and take direction. So hopefully this is the less-technically inclined version of those other tutorials.
The first thing I got, obviously, was this pink MSI Wind. Yours doesn't have to be pink, but it helps. Once receiving the Wind, the first thing I did was peel off those hideous stickers on the palmrest. I'm a Mac girl at heart, and stickers take away from the asthetics. Steven would be ashamed at the number of lights and buttons, but then again, he'd be ashamed that I even did this.
That aside, you'll need some materials.
1. A little .iso called MSIWindosx86.iso. It's actually not little. It's about 3.8 GB little. I like this one best because it didn't kernel panic on me, and pretty much is tailored to work with the Wind. Just don't update the way you would a normal mac. And you'll have to find out how to update on your own.
2. A flash drive. Seeing that you'll need to stick 3.8 GB on it, I recommend a flash drive at least twice that.
3. Chameleon-1.0.11-installer.dmg I originally downloaded some version of Chameleon that was just the source code, and obviously, no good for doing it simply.
4. Here's the tricky part. You might read on some older articles that MSI Wind needs you to replace its wireless card in order to work with Mac OS X. Then you'll read other articles that say no, you don't have to, and you can just use the leaked Realtek driver. Which is okay, *if* your Wind shipped with a Realtek card. Well, mine didn't. I'm assuming they switched cards or are switching them up, but mine looks like this:
That's the AzureWave AW-GE780 card. Now, you can try to use the Realtek driver if you want, here and here. Hang onto that just in case, for a later step.
5. This is only if the card that came with your Wind is incompatible, or you just want to get a different one. I'm purchasing this card on eBay. I've heard other places that it works, and I'll give it a try and update this when I know better.
So now that you've got all your .dmgs and .isos downloaded, you'll want to get your drive ready. These are mac-specific instructions, sorry Windows users.
Plug your flash drive into your Mac, and open Disk Utility. It's under Applications > Utilities. Find your drive on the left-hand side of Disk Utility, and click it. (See the blue below for what you need to click.)
Next, look to the right side of the pane, and select the Partition button. Click the drop-down menu that says "current" under "Volume Scheme" and change that to say "1 Partition." Make sure the format is set to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)." Then, click the "Options..." button below.
Select "Master Boot Record" and then click "Ok." This makes it so you can boot from your thumbdrive. (Almost.)
Click Apply. NOTE: It's probably already obvious to you, but this will erase your thumbdrive. After all, that's what formatting is, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that.
After the process is completed, you're ready to load the drive. Take your MSIWindosx86.iso file, and drop it onto the white space under all those drives listed in Disk Utility. You should be familiar with drag-and-drop if you are, and are going to remain, a Mac user. Ta-da! Now it will be listed like your thumbdrive and all. Now, double-click on the .iso. It will mount and look like another little drive under it.
Click on that little "Restore" tab at the top that I've highlighted in blue. Then go over and drag your mounted iso (the one also highlighed in blue) over to the "Source" part on the right. Drag the formatted thumb drive over to the "Destination" part. Make sure that "Erase destination" is still checked. Click "Restore" at the bottom right. Go make dinner, or start a TV show on Hulu.com. This is going to take a while.
When completed, leave the drive in, but open up the Chameleon .dmg file. Open the "Chameleon_V_1.0.11" file and it will run you through an installer. IMPORTANT: When it gets to the part where it asks you to select the disk you want to install it on, select your flash drive. Also, you will hear a strange music that you can't figure out where it's coming from. It's on the mounted drive, and will stop when you eject it. Turn off your volume, and relax.
When that part is ready, NOW you're ready to install OS X. Unplug the thumbdrive, and stick it into your Wind. Boot your Wind up, and hold down/press the F11 key which will bring you into a boot menu. Select your thumbdrive, and proceed.
The install process will go smoothly from here. You won't have internet yet, so you can't enter your MobileMe or any registration information. Your webcam also probably won't work, so when it asks you to select an icon to use with your profile, just pick an icon.
Once everything is started up, try installing those Realtek drivers from earlier. If they don't work, there is one other driver you can try. You might have a RALink card instead, in which case, you need the RALink driver here. Obviously that didn't work for me, but if that's what you have, then yay.
If you have the card I have, which again is the AzureWave AW-GE780 card, then as of now, there are no Mac drivers for it. So you'll have to order another card, such as the one suggested earlier.
I will update when I get it to let you know exactly how it works out.
The other thing, is that the audio jacks on the side don't work. The SD card reader WILL work. The camera works, but not with Photo Booth. Open iChat and try it out, and you'll see. It may work with other programs as well.
I haven't checked anything else, honestly, but as I do, I will be sure to update this.
The following links helped me accomplish this:
http://lifezero.squarespace.com/journal/2009/5/10/guide-to-os-x-on-msi-wind.html
http://www.ericsantiago.com/eric_santiago/2009/06/netbook-undergoes-a-osx-change.html
http://www.geardiary.com/2008/12/17/the-creation-of-a-hackintosh/
http://www37.atwiki.jp/msi_wind/?cmd=word&word=IntelGMA950GME-10.5.5.tar.bz2%20download&type=normal&page=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BA%2FMac%20OS%20X
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16806369/Msi-Wind-u100-Dual-Boot-Osx-1
My awesome gaming system. 1337!!!
So as you all know, I purchased the Sims 3 recently, and I was trying to run it on my Macbook. I really shouldn't say trying, because it worked, but not as well as I'd have liked it to. It was slow and choppy at times, I couldn't maximize the graphics settings, and fast-forwarding was a joke.
Brady had been offering to build me a gaming computer of my own, as long as I saved up the money, so I figured I'd now take him up on the offer. The only thing was that I didn't have the money saved up, but he had the Bill-Me-Later option with New Egg. So I'm using his account, and I'm the one paying the bills, but the computer has been worth it.
I don't really know the specs, except that it's Intel Dual Core, and the processor is like 2.69 gHz (technically 2.7, but it only sees 2.69.) It's got 4 gigs of ram, and sees all 4, since I'm running Windows 7 64-bit. (Gross, I know.) I also have a pretty good graphics card. I don't know the specifics, but Brady said it's slightly better than his. I have 600-something gigs of hard drive space, and I also installed a wireless card. Why - I have no idea, but it works.
Here's the awesome part. The case is pink!
It's small and compact, and has blue LEDs on the fan, and gives me a temperature reading on the CPU and hard drive. Mine's always hotter than the gauge in the picture, mostly because it's so darn packed in there. The graphics card takes up the whole left side.
So anyway, I'm pretty excited and I thought I'd share that with everybody. I also have a pink Logitech mouse with it, and a keyboard that glows purple! ^_^