MacBook Ghetto

After playing around with iDeneb 10.5.5 distro, I ended up messing around with iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Universal Ed. on my little Sony VGN-BX660P this Monday. It is working flawlessly so far! This version has the support for 1280x800 resolution display, which fixes my display issue with the white band under the dock.

Before going into the details, check out my Sony BX660P's specs so that we are on the same page. Also, Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG will not work but everything else will work including Verizon PC5750 Broadband Access card (as far as I have tested). I used Linksys WPC54GS (V.1.2) which has the Broadcom chip for my wireless, and Airport recognizes it as soon as you plug in.

DON'T rush to your laptop and boot into Mac OSX Installer yet. If you still have Windows XP/ Vista running on your system, type msinfo32.exe to open up the system information window first. Then do a save as of *.nfo file as well as exporting the system information to a text file. Keep it on a flash drive. It will become very useful when you install Marvell Yukon 88E8055 network adapter.

If you are a noob like me, see my previous post with step-by-step on booting from DVD all the way to partitioning the disk using Disk Utility. When you get to the Install Summary page, click customize and select the following drivers and patches ONLY.

1. iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Base System

Under iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3

2. Drivers> Video Drivers> Intel> Intel GMA950
3. Drivers> Chipset Drivers> Intel ICHx SATA Drivers
4. Drivers> Audio Drivers> Other Audio Drivers> Azalia Audio
5. Drivers> Ethernet Drivers> Marvell Yukon 88E8056
6. Drivers> Wireless Drivers> Broadcom Driver (for Linksys WPC54GS)
7. Drivers> Power Management> PowerManagement Package
8. Fixes and Patches> IOPCMCIAFamily
9. Fixes and Patches> PS/2 Device Support> PS/2 Keyboard Fix
10. All Applications except AMD related items.

That's it. Reboot the computer. Make sure to press F8 and boot with -F -v boot flags when you reboot. This is to ensure all the kexts are loaded for the first time.

At this point, everything should be working except wireless and Marvell Yukon ethernet adapter. Read this post of Sophitia on how to make Marvell Yukon 88E8055 work. You will be replacing the value of IOPCISecondaryMatch, which is the SubSys ID of your device. Remember that *.nfo or *.txt file created in Windows earlier? You can find that SubSys ID for your Marvell Yukon under Components> Network> Adapter.

I call mine "MacBook Ghetto". :P

Important note: This guide is intended only for testing and educational purpose. If you like to use Mac OS X Leopard, buy the real Mac. Nothing is better than original hardware and software.