Be Mobile. Be Free.

Snow Leopard on Acer Aspire 1420p

Given the rage of everything Apple these days, I bet you are wondering how you can develop for iPhone and iPad. Being a long time Windows user, naturally a Mac is not available. If you are not yet ready to take a plunge before trying out the Mac, then this procedure might be for you. The steps below will make a dual boot of Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, with all you need to develop iPhone and iPad applications.

Please note that this procedure and the files attached are from the internet. I take no credit for any of the tools and driver kexts. The credit should go to the authors of those tools and drivers, though I did spents days and hours of trial and error to get it to a reasonably workable form, for mobile development purpose.

If you like what you see after trial, I strongly encourage you to buy an official Snow Leopard DVD for $30.00. Or, like me, buy a Mac for your next computer.

What does not works:

• Though native video resolution works via bootloader configuration, QE/CI doesn't work. As a result, many programs that require QE/CI functions don't work, such as Screen Capture. I will provide a workaround for some apps below.
• Intel Wifi 1000. No resolution at the moment. Bought a Dell 1500 half height wifi card that has native Airport bcm43xx support out-of-the-box.
• Sleep does not work. To be accurate, sleep does work but it can't wake up the display. The workaround is not to sleep at all :)
• Touch screen

What works:

• 32-bit native video resolution 1366x768
• Built-in webcam
• Built-in Atheros network card
• Wifi Dell 1505 wifi BCM43xx out of the box
• Bluetooth
• Audio
• Video - Youtub, Flash, QuickTime 7
• Keyboard and mouse
• Battery indicator
• Mult-card reader
• 3G Modem - Driver and apps are provided by Huawei and are supported natively

What you need:

• Assume that you already installed a Dell 1510 Wireless-N Mini-card.
• The standard Snow Leopard retail DVD build 10A432.
• An external hard disk with existing OSX installation. If you don't have this, you will need to get a custom distribution such as Universal Snow Leopard. Then you will need to burn the iso to a DVD, or use an USB stick with at least 8GB capacity. I will provide some steps at the end of it as well.
• This zip file containing all tools and driver kexts.

Let's get started!

1. Prepare your hard disks
2. Run Snow Leopard installation
3. DO NOT REBOOT!
4. Install bootloader
5. Patch DSDT
6. Install drivers Kext
7. Change video and kernel configurations
8. Reboot
9. Install 3G Modem
10. Workarounds
11. Code away!
12. Appendix - Acer Aspire 1420p Specifications

1. Prepare your hard disks

First, go into Applications/Utilities/Disk Utilities. Select the disk you would like to install Snow Leopard. Create a GUID partition with the default Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Now select Erase and name the partition OSX. Please note that [OSX] notation will be used throughout this procedure to indicate this partition.

2. Run Snow Leopard installation

Insert retail DVD, or click on DMG file to mount the installation image. Open a terminal, run the following command:

open "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/"

Run OSInstall.mpkg. Select the disk [OSX], go through the normal Snow Leopard installation process.

3. DO NOT REBOOT!

After installation finishes, don't reboot yet. At this point, you are most likely not able to boot into the newly installed Snow Leopard.

4. Install bootloader

Run Chameleon 2.0 RC4 bootloader installation. Select the disk [OSX] and complete the installation.




After installation is done, we will need to patch the bootloader to allow native video resolution of 1366x768. Unzip Chameleon2RC4-MR2.zip to ChameleonMR2 folder.


Assume your installation is on /dev/disk0s2, run the following command from terminal:


• Install boot0 to the MBR: sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0
• Install boot1h to the partition's bootsector: sudo dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s2
• Install boot to the partition's root directory: sudo cp boot /


5. Patch DSDT

Run DSDT Patcher GUI application, select [OSX] as the destination, then click on Run DSDT Patcher button.



6. Install drivers Kext

We will need to install a couple of drivers, or kexts. There are a few ways to do. The simplest way is to use Kext Utility. Put all the kext files from Kext folder into [OSX]/Extra/Extensions, and drag and drop it on top of Kext Utility icon. Kext utility will repair your permission and generate a new Extension.mkext.

• However I prefer copying all kexts to [OSX]/System/Library/Extensions/ following the step after booting into single user mode.



7. Change video and kernel configurations

This step is to change com.apple.Boot.plist in folder [OSX]/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ to use native video resolution of 1366x768. Note that Quartz Extreme/Core Image (QE/CI) will not function. Once a better alternative is available, this step will be updated. The configuration will also change the kernel to 32-bit mode instead of the default 64-bit.

<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=i386</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1366x768x32</string>


8. Reboot

Reboot. You should be presented with a bootloader screen.

• Type the following options to boot verbosely into single user mode.

-v -x32 -s

• Rebuild the Extensions.mkext cache by running the following command if you add kexts to /System/Library/Extensions/ folder:

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mnt -uw /
kextcache -v 1 -t -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions/

• In case of the following problems:
• If the keyboard or mouse doesn't work at the first boot, attach a USB mouse.
• For the keyboard, you can select onscreen keyboard by going into System Preferences/Language & Text/Input Sources/, if you don't have a USB keyboard.
• Re-install those driver kexts using Kext Utility only if you experience problem.

9. Install 3G Modem

3G Modem support is provided by the manufacturer Huawei. I included three files but you only need two.

• Install Mobile Connect driver kext

Simply unzip and install MobileConnectDriver(4.16.00.00).pkg.

• Install Connection Manager

Unzip HUAWEI_UMTS_Dashboard zip file and install Mobile_Connect.iso

10. Workarounds

Due to the non-functional QE/CI, some graphics and video related applications might not work. The most notable ones are Preview (for viewing pictures) and Grab (for taking screenshots). The workaround is to copy these two applications from Leopard installation or DVD.

• Grab
Just simply use Grab from Leopard

• Preview
• After copying over Preview from Leopard, replace Preview.app/Contents/Info.plist with the one from Snow Leopard. Or it will complaint about the version mismatch.
• Make a symbolic link to PrivateFrameworks/QuickLookUI.framework by running the following command:

ln -s
/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/QuickLookUI.framework
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/QuickLookUI.framework


11. Code away!

What more can I say. Go grab the iPhone SDK 4 now and start coding for iPhone!

12. Appendix - Acer Aspire 1420p Specifications

Operating system	• Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Platform	• Intel® Core™2 Duo U2300 processor • Mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset
System memory	• Dual-Channel SDRAM support • 2GB of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, upgradeable to 8 GB using two soDIMM modules
Display	• 11.6" HD 1366 x 768 • Convertible multi-touch display
Graphics	• Mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset
Communication	• Integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam • WWAN: UMTS/HSPA at 850/900/1900/2100 MHz and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) • WLAN: Intel® WiFi Link 1000 • WPAN: Bluetooth® 2.1+Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) • LAN: Gigabit Ethernet; Wake-on-LAN ready
Audio	• Optimized 2nd Generation Dolby® Sound Room® audio enhancement • High-definition audio support • S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) support for digital speakers • MS-Sound compatible • Built-in microphone
Storage subsystem	• 2.5" 250GB hard disk drive • Multi-in-1 card reader
Dimensions and weight	• 285 (W) 208.9 (D) 28.5/34.5 (H) mm (11.22 x 8.22 x 1.12/1.36 inches) • 1.72 kg (3.79 lbs.) (non-3G SKU)
Power subsystem	• ACPI 3.0 • 62.16 W 5600 mAh • 3-pin 30 W AC adapter
Special keys and controls	• 84-/85-/88-key keyboard • Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device
I/O interface	• Multi-in-1 card reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD) • USB 2.0 port • HDMI™ port with HDCP support • External display (VGA) port • Headphones/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support • Microphone-in jack • Ethernet (RJ-45) port • DC-in jack for AC adapter