Ramblings, Observations, & Not Much Else

May

Stokke Desk Care Kit Won’t Fit Desk… The Solution

by Dave on May 2, 2013 · 0 comments

Here is a way to “correct” the Stokke Desk Care Conversion Kit that modifies the Stokke Changing Table into a desk, the Stokke Desk Care Kit, which depending on the years and make or your changing table vs. the year of manufacture of the desk kit, you’ll more than likely find upon receiving it that the desktop does not fit the frame (the frame is hard enough to get together; the horizontal supports take a lot of play with to get fit and screwed in!)

But, rather than return it, which would, I imagine, take about as long as this project does, not to mention the costs involved, there is an easy way to modify it to make it fit, have it look beautiful and have it function as intended.

All that is needed is:

1) A jigsaw (borrow one if you don’t have one)
2) Sandpaper (a power sander helps with the elbow grease needed, but is not necessary since the desk-top is made of soft MDF; and, you can borrow this as well)
3) 1 Can of flat white spray paint
4) 2 Cans of flat white enamel spray paint to create a tough, durable desk-top surface and to cover the modifications that you’ll be making to the corners of the desk-top
5) About 2-3 hours of your time, mostly for painting, to allow the multiple coats to dry

Here’s a brief description of how to do it:

Hope this helps you! It’s a great way to actually “obtain the desk,” and, again, takes about as much time and money as it would to return the non-fitting item, which would leave you without the desk you wanted in the first place! So, dive in, and get the desk you wanted!

Again, I hope this helps you out. Enjoy!

{ 0 comments }

Jul

Update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 on Dell 1525

by Dave on July 13, 2011 · 17 comments

I have been away from the Hackintosh community (and the 1525 community) for some time now, as updates have been easy and I haven’t had to do any DSDT modding or replacing of a larger number of kexts on an update to update basis, but I knew 10.6.8 in preparation for Lion was not going to be just your normal update. So, I went out and did my reading… Hackintoshin’ is all about “community” and it’s this community and the many sites together that all compliment one another and create the community as it is. I suggest EVERYONE visit them all and READ, READ, READ!

I want to thank and give FULL CREDIT to Slice (for all his offerings to the Dell 1525 community, especially for the modded DSDTs), the Voodoo/Chameleon crew for the massive number of updates between RC3 and RC5!, Nozyczek for all of his super hard work supporting the 1525 and the various updates for Snow, and lastly Jomijoy. Between visiting InsanelyMac, nozyczek’s site, and reading the comments from Jomijoy at MacYourPC, I was able to gain enough information about what had taken place in my “down time,” and what was expected and needed for the 10.6.8 update.

When you get to 10.6.8 and realize how much of the OS and what is needed is now vanilla, it will blow you’re mind. The 1525 is getting closer and closer to a “real” Mac everyday with all of these peoples’ hard work and experimentation.

I’m providing here the steps needed to get to 10.6.8 and have your HackBook Pro 1525 running better, booting faster, appearing generally more snappy, and being more “native” than it ever has been before!

Step 1:

MAKE SURE YOU ARE UPDATED AND RUNNING IN-FULL ON Snow Leopard 10.6.7 *AND* that your Dell 1525′s BIOS is at A17 (not A16 or A15, etc.) The BIOS must be at A17 as that’s what Slice’s modded DSDT was created for, and it’s the only way to guarantee that things will work as they should. And, of course, you should have performed a FULL SYSTEM BACKUP prior to any of this! I am not responsible for you killing you machine, you solid install, etc., etc.

Now, you might say you have a problem as you can’t update the BIOS (EXE) in SL, and you’re right. But, if you have access to a Windows machine, here:

Download ‘Bootable USB Drive Creator Tool 1.0′:

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Bootable-USB-Drive-Creator-Tool-Download-179880.html

This will allow you to image FreeDOS or MS-DOS to a USB stick and have it be bootable right into that OS.

Dell’s A17 BIOS Update, while appearing as a Windows app, will also run in DOS, so let’s download that at:

ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/1525_A17.EXEs

This is the latest A17 BIOS image for the 1525. Copy this to your newly formatted DOS-based USB stick. Put the stick into the Dell, power on, and hit F12 to select the Boot Menu. Boot from the USB stick. After getting into DOS, type ‘dir’ to ensure you see ’1525_A17.exe’. If you do, you’re ready to update the BIOS. If you don’t, then you did something wrong. Repeat the above steps.

At the DOS prompt, type (don’t type the ‘A:>’ or whatever drive letter, just what comes after the ‘>’ sign):

A:>1525_A17.EXE (and hit Enter)

The BIOS should be flashed to A17 within a minute or so. When done, continue on. If you have issues where the app reports that you must be on AC power or have the battery plugged in, and you already do, then at the DOS prompt, type:

A:>1525_A17.EXE /forceit (and hit Enter)

This will bypass the warnings and flash the BIOS anyway.

So, let’s carry on… Now, you should VISIT:

http://sites.google.com/site/nozyczek/home/hackintosh/how-to-install-snow-leopard-10-6-8-on-dell-inspiron-1525

… and READ — and, READ AGAIN! Since we’re not doing a complete reinstall, you will need to utilize only a portion of nozyczek’s instructions and tools.

Step 2:

Backup your old trackpad.prefpane in /System/Library/Preference Panes. Copy it to your Desktop or somewhere so you have a backup.

Step 3:

Download:

10.6.8 Combo Update from Apple’s Site:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399

nozyczek’s Dell 1525 10.6.8 Autoinstaller (Note, if you have a 1440 display on your 1525, download the other Autoinstaller!):

http://cl.ly/7wpJ

Step 4:

Run the Apple 10.6.8 Combo Update Installer (DO NOT RESTART when the Installer completes)… You do and YOU’RE TOAST! Leave the finish dialog up and ‘Restart’ button pulsating! Then, leave this alone until directed…

Step 5:

Rename the /Extra folder on the / (Root) of your Snow Leopard volume. Do NOT delete it. You will need to pick pieces and parts from this copy to place and/or edit into a new /Extra folder that will be created in the following step.

Step 6:

Place nozyczek’s Dell 1525 10.6.8 Autoinstaller folder on the desktop and run it. (Again FULL CREDIT goes to nozyczek for such a KILLER script! And, for taking into account all that is handled in Slice’s new DSDT vs. what kexts are now needed in the /Extra directory! All of you will be amazed by what few kexts are now required!)

Here are the steps as to how (… if you’re no good with the cmd line):

Start Terminal (located in ~/Applications->Utilities->Terminal)

Type:

sudo -s <enter your password when prompted>
cd ~/Desktop/hackintosh*
./installer

Select the drive you wish to install to, i.e. your Snow Leopard volume
Select the “i” option and hit Enter to start the Autoinstaller
Then, just sit back and wait for the installer to finish
Hit ‘q’ to Quit at the end and terminate the Terminal session

When done, run ‘Disk Utility’ and ‘Repair Permissions’ on the SL volume you installed to.

Step 7:

Now return to the 10.6.8 Combo Update dialog and click the pulsating ‘Restart’ button.

Step 8:

Your 1525 should boot into the OS without issue. But, you will not (maybe) have Wireless support and the Trackpad prefPane will need updated.

Step 9:

Install your former IO80211family.kext from your old /Extra folder (Remember, the one you made the backup of?!) using KextUtility or KextHelper. This will replace any version that might exist in S/L/E. (Note, I did not need to do this as Apple brought back the driver for Broadcom chip in the Dell 1505N WLAN mini-PCI card in this version. It was there in 10.6.5, and disappeared for 10.6.6 and 10.6.7, only to reappear in 10.6.8. Nice! Here’s to hoping it’s in Lion as well!)

Step 10:

Copy the trackpad.prefpane you made a backup of to in /System/Library/Preference Panes. Replace the one already existing.

Step 11:

Again, run ‘Disk Utility’ and ‘Repair Permissions’ on the SL volume.

You’re done! You should now have a fully operational 1525 at 10.6.8! And, You will notice that amount of custom kexts required is down to just a few! Amazing work from the community! Sleep now appears to be native!? Slice’s DSDT has limited the amount of required kexts even more. Refer to nozyczek’s site (link provided) and go to the bottom to see only what kexts were applied on top of Apple’s. Things just keep getting better and better! I have A LOT more research to do to see exactly what has been done in the past year or so, but progress has no doubt been made!

Past these steps, (and you don’t need to do as I did, but…) I updated Chameleon from nozyczek’s r1088 to r1095, added the Chameleon RC5 PrefPane which makes customizing your com.apple.Boot.plist a dream (me, I use it just for reference; I still edit mine via TextMate), and corrected my Yukon2.kext binary to reflect the correct MAC address of my internal NIC (instead of the default 00:11:22:33:44:55 — a couple of these defaults on the network and things are likely to get a little confusing depending on your network set up). I also brought back my custom theme and a few other simple and cosmetic com.apple.Boot.plist items to “make things as they were,” so to speak.

Note, I only posted this here so that everyone that enjoys OS X on a 1525 could benefit. The more consolidated information for the 1525, the better. Although, you all should be visiting all of the sites mentioned to do your OWN homework and give your own thanks. It’s only fair to all of people that helped provide you all of this good stuff. I you wish to share this, feel free to do so, but just give credit for the compilation.

This said, I hope this guide helps some of you out! Good luck!

With all the fun I had on this one, I’m diving in again and will be attempting to get Lion going within the next couple of weeks. With the progress I’ve seen and being that at 10.6.8, we’re prepared for Lion, I can’t expect that we all won’t be able to be enjoying Lion on the 1525 in the near term. I will post anything eventful to the other sites as I find and figure things out.

{ 17 comments }

May

Popular Science Goes (Went) iPad

by Dave on May 18, 2011 · 0 comments

… but sadly doesn’t care about your “paper” subscription or your years of loyalty. Or, do they? Could it be that Apple’s Magazine Subscription Model is strangling publishers into having to set prices so that Apple can get their 30% (if readers purchase the subscription via the device itself, from the magazine’s app), thereby eliminating any discount that the publisher might have offered the loyal, paper reading subscribers when they switched up mediums?

When getting a new iPad 2, one of the first things I wanted to do with it was put my favorite magazine on it; I wanted to experience this new concept of tablet-based magazine reading and subscription. I assumed that being subscribed to Popular Science for a couple of decades would count for something and I would get a discount when moving over to the “digital version” and maybe even the possibility of stopping delivery of my paper version to save a few trees. I assumed wrong. I had to pay the same price for an annual subscription as I would have should I had never picked up and purchased a Popular Science magazine in my entire life. Paper subscribers are required to buy a whole new digital subscription. It would seem logical to assume that a publisher would want to reward their current, long-term subs by allowing them to purchase the subscription at discount. Apple’s model likely precludes this. There is probably not even a feature that allows it and the publishers can’t offer one as Apple is taking 30% of the cut because I bought the subscription via the magazine’s “free app.”

Having first-time readers and decade long subscribers have to pay the same price when originally purchasing or when switching over to the digital subscription, respectively, is a bitter pill for those of us that have had subscriptions for generations, my family for example. Again, I am aware that dealing with Apple’s subscription model was probably hard enough — for now. But, both Apple and PopSci have hurdled that first milestone. And, while I respect both companies, it just seems like there is work yet to be done. One, don’t make PopSci’s long-term subs feel like they’ve been forgotten about, especially knowing that technology like the iPad would be adopted by most of them. Subscriptions, both digital and paper, should be bound to each other; or, the subscriber should at least be able to tie both paper and digital subscriptions to any one reader that might be taking advantage of both. Currently, it does not appear that this is being done — by Apple or Pop Sci. Or, if it is, it is not apparent. Two, why continue sending subs a paper subscription when it’s possibly no longer desired? For the sake of the environment, the option should at least be provided.

With how far things have come technically, at times, huge advances seem to be mired by features that seem contradictory to the advancement. Subscriptions can’t be known and linked? Paper can’t be replaced for bits and touch-screens, exclusively? I know they can be:

“Next Issue Media is looking to expand its tablet-based readership to Android users, as well. Beginning tomorrow, people who bought a wireless-enabled Samsung Galaxy Tab from Verizon will be able to purchase single copies of, or monthly subscriptions to seven magazines from the so-called “Hulu of Magazines,” which includes Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Time Inc., and News Corp. Users already subscribing to print editions will receive free digital subscriptions, though they won’t be able to purchase both print and digital combo packages (that’s on the way). Publishers, meanwhile, will be able to set their own prices and, according to Next Issue CEO Morgan Guenther, will receive “at least” 70-percent of all transactions — the same percentage that Apple offers. Under this new Android deal, however, all of Next Issue’s members will be able to freely access their subscribers’ credit card information and other personal data — something that Apple has steadfastly denied them.”. — Engadget, May 2011

So, at present, it’s obvious that some publishers are thinking a bit more forward when it comes to their digital models and what to do with their current readers and paper subscriptions once the reader has transitioned, digitally. It’s just amazing to me that both Apple and Popular Science seemed to ignore or not make known these important aspects when creating what is a fantastic, beautiful, and immersive “digital magazine.”

I hope PopSci can appreciate this. I don’t mean to be critical of them, but I know I can’t be the only long-term reader who’s a bit puzzled by the current digital subscription model.

Let Popular Science know what you think at: letters (at) PopSci.com

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Windows 7 (x64) Updates Failure – April 2011

May 2, 2011

During the last week of April, Microsoft released four updates for Windows 7 x64. They rolled in like normal. I selected all of them and let them do their thing when I was planning a reboot, assuming they would want one. They did. They performed some “configuration” prior to shutdown displaying some text prompting me [...]

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AppleTV and XBMC – Dream to Stream

March 22, 2011

So… I was getting sick and tired of having to convert my videos (and RAW photos when I had to pull an impromptu slideshow for the family) on the PC/Mac and copy them to a USB stick, just so I could shove the drive into my 47″ LED Vizio to play them back. Now while [...]

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Remove Chameleon Debug Message

May 20, 2010

Remove or hide ‘efi_inject_get_devprop_string NULL trying stringdata’ on boot when using Chameleon 2 RC3 or RC4 — if you aren’t doing any device-properties injection.

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74.55.39.45 & Firefox – Connection of Death

May 6, 2010

Last week at some point, when using Firefox, a XP machine I’ve got developed an issue when hitting slashdot.org, theregister.co.uk, and other sites I commonly check out and read on a day to day basis. When hitting the sites, the browser would load the header and then attempt to hit 74.55.39.45, and then just sit [...]

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Fixing PartMgr.sys – PartMgr Failing to Start

February 17, 2010

After initially installing XP and transitioning it across multiple platforms over the years (not to mention all the SP updates on top of that), I found the other day a few low level, boot time devices that were failing to load or ‘Start’ correctly (i.e. Code 24 marked with an exclamation point when viewing Hidden [...]

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Ramblings, Observations, & Not Much Else

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Stokke Desk Care Kit Won’t Fit Desk… The Solution

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