Installing Mac OS X (Kalyway) in the Acer Aspire One, aka the MacBook nano

por Javier Cañadillas, el 22 de November de 2008

Or how to turn your Intel based Netbook into a Macbook nano and not spend 1600 euro trying1.

A couple of months ago both crews of Venera7 and El Geek Errante, driven by the geeky rush of the moment, decided to buy the quite sexy netbook from Acer, the Aspire One. The idea was to have something extremely light and portable that could be carried in a small bag with a book and some other small stuff.

The Acer Aspire One has a nice set of features: a 9″ LED backlit glossy screen, 120Gb HD, a really small factor, 2 USB ports, 1Gb RAM (expandable to 1.5Gb), an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor and an integrated Intel GMA 950 video card. And all for 350 Euro (taxes included). It’s quite easy to find in Spain and I guess in general around the world. We bought our white ones at PC City in Madrid; I guess after that they ran out of stock for the weekend in the white model :-)

We thoroughly evaluated the MSI Wind, the Dell Inspiron Mini, the HP whatevermodelitisthatisverysmall, and the Asus Eee PC. Turns out in terms of features/usability/size the Acer is the best option. Basically, MSI Wind and Dell are too big, HP is too slow, and Asus Eee PC is too crappy and too small (keyboard is for children). Anyway, go to Youtube and see the reviews, comparisons and tour de forces by yourself.

Surprise, I´m not only installing Mac OS X!

Yep buddies, that´s right. I´ll also explain how to repartition the internal disk to have Mac OS X as the main OS and a small Ubuntu partition for Linux stuff (like wireless hacking), install both operating systems, and configure GNU´s Grub to be able to dual boot them.

The plan will be to partition the Aspire One internal disk into three different physical partitions: first one for Mac OS X (110Gb), second one for Ubuntu Desktop (9Gb) and the third one for Linux swap space (1Gb).

I´ll explain all the details in the upcoming sections.

What will work and what won’t

Everything will work charmingly (including the official Apple Mac OS X updates and the integrated webcam) except for the following things (that we´ll try to minimize with different software toys):

  • Sleep: will not work at all. Actually, closing the lid will cause the computer to shut down inmediately, but we´ll workaround it using InsomniaX.
  • Automatic switch between internal speakers and the audio output jack. This one is solvable installing some additional Kernel Extensions, but SoundSource does the trick pretty well anyway.
  • The integrated SD readers. Personally I don´t give a damn about this one, especially when I have more USB slots available than in my MacBook Pro to connect all kinds of external storage.

If you have already googled about the Acer Aspire One and Mac OS X, yes, everything else is working. Amazing, huh? Just wait to see the steps to tune up your little creature!

Hardware you’ll need

  • A working Apple Macintosh Intel2 Machine running Mac OS X or a PC running any version of Linux or Windows (this post will assume you have a Macintosh computer as described. If not, I’ll give some pointers on how to perform the operations described for Mac OS X in other platforms)
  • An Acer Aspire One A120. For a more Apple-ish style, get the white one ;-) As I already said, 350 euro is pretty much the standard price after taxes in almost any store.
  • An Apple sticker. You can get one from one or your Apple products (notebooks, iPods, iPhones…). It’s required to stick it on your Acer Aspire One and in doing so agreeing to the Mac OS X licensing terms.
  • [OPTIONAL] A Dell Broadcom based 1490 PCI Express Wireless Card. US$15 if you get a refurbished one from a Taiwanese dealer at eBay.
    This item is not required unless you want working wireless in your computer with Mac OS X, which I wanted.
  • [OPTIONAL] A 1Gb SIMM module, if you want to take advantage of the wireless upgrade operation to also upgrade your Acer’s memory to 1.5Gb. That I also did. 16 euro in any decent on-line computer store.
  • A >256Mb USB stick, for updating the Acer Aspire ONE BIOS.
  • An external USB DVD drive or a 8Gb USB Stick or an >8Gb empty external USB Hard Disk. Actually, if you have the 8Gb USB Stick or the external USB hard disk, you won’t need the >256Mb USB stick because it’s possible to reuse them for the BIOS update.

Software you’ll need

Upgrading your Aspire One hardware

First of all, as I’ve already said, you don’t need to do this if you don’t want to either upgrade your memory or change your wireless card, although the latter is strongly recommended because it doesn’t make much sense to have a netbook that isn’t able to surf wirelessly, doesn’t it?

So, let’s assume you’re convinced and you’ve already purchased and received all your gear (typically for Spain the Dell WiFi card delivery takes 2-3 weeks).

Now breath deeply: you’ll have to open your Acer Aspire One. Fear not, my friend, because the operation is quite easy. What I’ll do here is point you to the best Aspire One hacking tutorial out there and just make some comments and remarks about what we’re interested in.

The Aspire One hardware hacking tutorial is a video made by TnkGrl that explains in very detail how to open it. Go there, watch it a couple of times, get the necessary gear to open it and follow her instructions while you´re opening your Aspire One.

So go watch it now!: Tnkgrl awesome Acer Aspire One hacking tutorial

My comments to the video:

  • Get an A4 blank paper sheet and using it as a blueprint of your laptop put all the screws there in the same position they were back in the Acer Aspire One. This way you’ll remember were to screw them back. Also, you may write down your notes in this paper, like marking an screw and saying “remember to not screw this one too much” or stuff like that.
  • Get the right screwdriver. For me it means a precision star-shaped screwdriver with enough handle to apply some force. How tightly some screws are screwed is not seen in the video, but because I wasn’t using the best screwdriver out there from the beginning, I was about to totally erode a couple of internal screws before unscrewing them. That’s bad quality prime materials, Asus.
  • You don’t need a credit car for opening the keyboard. Believe me. Despite what’s shown in the tnkgrl video, putting off the keyboard is very easy. Just press gently the tabs noted in the video with a flat headed screwdriver and do some lifting with it and voilá, the keyboard will gently fly into your hands.
  • Pay attention to cable connectors. It´s very easy to unplug and plug them if you follow Tnkgrl´s detailed instructions. Also, don´t forget to re-plug the keyboard flat cable or you will end up opening the keyboard again (as it happened to me).
  • Finally, the model Tnkgrl is opening is the SSD disk one (no regular hard disk) so the internals are a bit different. If you are just upgrading your wireless card you don´t care about what I´m going to point out, but if you’re planning to upgrade your memory this is important: to remove the main board as instructed in the video you´ll have also to remove the small circuit board located right to the main one. This only implies removing the wifi switch and three screws. That´s it.

If the process went OK and the original Linpus that came with the Aspire One is still installed, you should be able to see the upgrades from the OS. Don´t worry now, because we´ll see them as soon as Ubuntu Desktop and Mac OS X are installed.

Updating the Aspire One BIOS

To smoothly install Mac OS X in our computer, we´ll have to update the BIOS firmware with the official Acer BIOS update release 3304 you just downloaded. Here´s the detail of what´s inside the download from Acer:

  • The BIOS update itself: ZG5_3304.FD
  • The MSDOS executable upgrade program: FLASHIT.EXE

The Aspire One is able to boot from external USB devices. Thanks to this, we´ll be able to upgrade our software without having to waste a DVD: we´ll just boot an MS-DOS compatible operating system from an external USB drive that has inside the proper upgrade image files and programs.

Now, for doing a bootable USB drive you have mainly two options: do it with Mac OS X or do it with Linux or Windows. The latter is pretty well documented in the Internet, so I won´t go with this one. Alternatively, I chose to make my life a bit more complicated and fight with the method to create bootable USB drives from Mac OS X. Once again, it´s not difficult, it was just poorly documented until now.

So, we´ll create our FreeDOS bootable USB drive and we´ll transfer the two necessary files for flashing our BIOS. The FreeDOS image will have to have enough room to host the extra BIOS flashing files. That´s the reason I´ve chosen to download a 11.52Mb image instead of the traditional floppy images. Anyway, here are the the steps to follow to create the flashing USB drive and update your Acer BIOS:

  • Go to your Intel Mac computer, open a Terminal and type the following to identify the device assigned to your USB stick: 
    $ ls /dev/disk*
  • Now insert your USB drive and type the command again 
    $ ls /dev/disk*

    You should see a new /dev/disk device that corresponds to your USB drive. In my case, it was /dev/disk1 so from now on I´ll assume this is yours too.

    Be careful because we´re going to completely erase the USB drive. If you have data inside it you want to keep, do a backup now.

  • Umount (do no physically extract it) the USB drive: 
    $ sudo umount -f /dev/disk1
  • Now we´ll copy the FreeDOS image we just downloaded. I´ll assume here the image file is in your Downloads folder inside your home directory. Your mileage may vary, so just remember to change the commands accordingly: 
    $ sudo dd if=/Users/javier/Downloads/fd011520.ima of=/dev/rdisk1

    The dd command copies bit by bit the FreeDOS image to your USB drive, so now you have a DOS bootable USB drive.

  • It´s time to copy the BIOS update files to the USB drive. Physically unplug it, plug it in again and with the Finder, copy the two files (ZG5_3304.FD and FLASHIT.EXE) to the USB drive root directory. If for some reason the USB drive is not showing up in the Finder, just go to the command line and copy the files with the cp command. Assuming the new Acer BIOS update files are in ~/Downloads/ZG5_3304: 
    $ cd /Volumes/Untitled
$ cp /Users/javier/Downloads/ZGS_3304/* .
  • Eject and unplug your USB drive.
  • Shut down your Acer Aspire One and plug the USB drive in it.
  • Boot the Aspire One and press F12 to go to the boot menu. Select the USB drive you just plugged and hit enter. FreeDOS should be starting by now.
  • Now you have a DOS prompt. First thing to do is to backup the current Aspire One BIOS: 
    A:\> FLASHIT ZG5_3114.FD /G

    This creates a new file in the USB drive root called ZG5_3114.FD containing the actual BIOS. If anything goes south, we´ll always be able to recover our previous BIOS with this file following the instructions you have in Aspire One User Forums

  • It´s time now to reflash the BIOS with the version we downloaded from the Acer website. This is done executing the FLASHIT.EXE program as follows: 
    A:\> FLASHIT ZG5_3304.FD /ALL

    Wait until the process is over. The Aspire One should restart automatically. When done, hit F2 to go to the BIOS setup utility and check that System BIOS information now points to v0.3304

  • Inside the BIOS setup program, hit F9 to recover factory settings. This step is important so do not miss it.

That´s all.

Installing Ubuntu Desktop and configuring multiboot with Grub

Why install Ubuntu in the Aspire One?

Several reasons: it rocks, it’s perfect for wireless hacking if you’re on the go, and it gives you more control over what’s going on with your laptop. Ubuntu Desktop is a supported operating system for the Aspire One, so it’s only a good idea to have it. Besides, it’ll help us partition the Aspire One internal disk and boot Mac OS X properly.

I won’t go with a lot of detail for the Ubuntu installation in your Aspire One because the process is quite standard and well documented. The only three important steps for me were getting the Ubuntu Installation disk in an USB image, the disk partitioning and, of course, Grub configuration that’s far from obvious.

As I’ve already told you, I don’t have an external USB DVD drive, so what I did to install Ubuntu in my Aspire One was to burn and Ubuntu Live cd with the image you just downloaded from the download lists provided before, boot it in an Intel-based computer (your Mac, for example), and follow the instructions in Ubuntu community forums to create a bootable Ubuntu USB distribution. If it has enough space, use the USB drive you just used for upgrading your bios, or the one you’re going to use for Mac OS X Kalyway installation. It really doesn’t matter because you’ll use the Ubuntu bootable USB drive just once.

So, now you’ve got an Ubuntu bootable USB drive. Boot it in your Aspire One by hitting F12 and selecting the external USB drive to boot and start the installation. In my case, using the Ubuntu installer, I chose manual partitioning of the Aspire One disk. I made three partitions: the first one for Mac OS X, was about 110Mb. Second one was for Ubuntu, 8Gb, and the third one took the remaining disk space for Linux swap. Of course, I proceeded to install Ubuntu in the second partition using the third one as swap. When assigning mounting points to the partition, I told Ubuntu installer to locate boot information in /boot under the root directory in the second partition (the one prepared for Ubuntu). It’s there where we will be installing the PC_EFI boot necessary to boot Mac OS X.

Once Ubuntu is installed, boot it in your Aspire One, and prepare to do some administration to configure Grub as the multiboot program. These are the steps I followed to be able to boot Mac OS X after its installation:

  • Log in into Ubuntu with your regular user and open a terminal. Then go to the /boot directory, create a pc_efi directory and copy there the boot_v8 you got when you downloaded PC EFI v8.0. I’ll be assuming you already have the file in your home directory. If not, copy it from wherever you downloaded it there now.

    $ sudo mkdir /boot/pc_efi
$ sudo cp ~/boot_v8 /boot/pc_efi
  • Now edit the Grub configuration files to tell it to use PC EFI to boot the Mac OS X partition. Edit the /etc/grub/menu.lst and add the following at the end of the file. If you want Mac OS X to boot first, just make sure to put the following lines before the other similar that are there.

    title Mac OS X
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/pc_efi/boot_v8

Now you should be able to boot Mac OS X once it’s installed. I also tried this procedure with Chameleon EFI and for some reason it didn’t work, so PCI EFI is the one I’m recommending here.

Preparing Mac OS X installation

The Aspire One is now prepared for the Mac OS X Kalyway installation. Next steps will describe how to set up your USB drive to get a bootable Mac OS X image. You don’t need that if you have a working external USB DVD to use Kalyway DVD.

  • Go to your Intel Macintosh computer and insert the USB drive you chose (the 8Gb stick or an external hard disk). Just keep in mind you’ll need enough space to copy a DVD image in it.
  • Fire up Disk Utility and select the USB drive. Go to the partition tab for this this drive, select “1 partition” from the drop-down menu and name the device “Kalyway”.
  • Make sure the selected partition format is Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), then click in the “Options” button that’s located below the partition map picture. Make sure MBR (Master Boot Record) is selected and click OK to apply your changes. Disk Utility will create the partition with the specified format and including a MBR.
  • Now we’re going to restore the image of the Kalyway DVD installer you downloaded onto the USB drive. Select the USB drive, go to restore tab, and drag the Kalyway ISO image from the finder to the field that says “Source”. Inside destination field, just drag the USB drive. Now click “Restore” and go to grab a coffee.
  • Eject the USB drive using the Finder and plug it back in.
  • Remember you downloaded OSX86 tools? It’s time now to launch them to make our USB drive bootable. Just be sure you downloaded build 149 (I’m pretty sure the link I posted is the right one, but who nows) because the last versions won’t work for you (I also tried and failed miserably).
    Click the button “Install EFI/Run FDISK”
  • Select “Run Script” when the next window appears and it’ll fire up a terminal window. Enter your administrator password, and then you’ll be presented with the text menu. I used here Chameleon EFI - so I entered “4.” After that it shows you the available disks and partitions. Find your USB drive (mine was /dev/disk3) and enter its number (so in my case it was “3″). At the next prompt, do what it says - do not select “0″ for the partition scheme, most likely select “1″ for the name of the drive you selected (if you followed my instructions step by step it should be “Kalyway”). Now just hit Enter, watch it work, and you’re all set.
  • Eject your USB drive and plug it in your Aspire One. Boot it up and right after it press F11. You should be able to boot right off your USB drive.

Installing Mac OS X

Did it work? Is your USB drive booting? Great, the following is where the rubber hits the road.

  • First of all, take that sticker you were saving for your next car and stick it somewhere in your Acer Aspire One. This is apparently necessary because Apple´s Mac OS X license agreement states that you can only install Mac OS X in an Apple Branded computer. Anyway, if you don´t do it I don´t think anybody will notice it, but still looks fine in the white model, specially the one that’s coming with iPod nanos :-)
  • I guess you did boot your USB drive in the previous section and you’re waiting for instructions. If not, do it now! A lot of text output will scroll in front of you. Just relax and wait for Mac OS X to boot.
  • You’ll be presented a language selection menu: select your preferred language and hit next. In my case, for consistency with other computers I have and also because the information you typically find in the Internet is in english, I chose English. After it, it’ll say “Preparing Installation” for a while.
  • When you get the ‘Welcome’ screen, don’t hit continue straight away! Move your point to the ‘Utilities’ menu, and select ‘Disk Utility’
  • When the Disk Utility application has loaded, click your main drive in the left hand pane (probably the very top entryis your HDD manufacturer’s name’)
  • Click ‘Partition’ on the right hand pane.
  • Select the partition you already prepared for Mac OS X (that would be partition 1) and choose ‘Erase partition’ with the option ‘Mac OS extended Journaled’ selected.
  • Name your partition ‘Macintosh HD’ and click ‘Apply’.
  • Wait for it to do it’s thing, then select ‘Quit Disk Utility’ from the ‘Disk Utility’ menu.
  • You’ll now be taken back to the installer welcome page. Click ‘Continue’.
  • Click ‘Agree’ when the legalese blurb pops up.
  • Choose a destination drive - obviously the one you just partitioned! Click ‘Continue’.
  • This is important! Do not click ‘Continue’ and click ‘Customize, because here’s where we’re going to start ‘hacking’ our installation.
  • Let the options you see in front of you as following:
    • Completely uncheck ‘Language Translations’.
    • Expand ‘Kernels’ and select ONLY ‘kernel_9.2speedstep’.
    • Expand ‘Graphics_Drivers’, expand ‘Intel_GMA’ and select ONLY ‘GMA950′.
    • Completely uncheck ‘Audio_Drivers’.
    • Expand ‘Networks_Drivers’. and select ONLY ‘RTL1000′.
    • Completely uncheck ‘Mobo_Chipsets’.
    • Completely uncheck ‘Thirds_Applications’.
    • completely uncheck ‘Patches’.
  • You done? OK, click ‘Done’.
  • Click ‘Install’ and go and make yourself a cup of hot Cocoa instead of tea! (hey, you’re about to enter the Mac Universe and ruling lands of Cocoa ;-)
  • The install will now take place. To speed it up, I recommend you to click ‘Skip’ the installation DVD check, that doesn’t make any sense either because we’re using a USB device.
  • When the ‘Install Succeeded’ screen appears, hit ‘Restart’.
  • If Grub was correctly configured, after some boot up screens, Mac OS X will now start up for the first time, and take you through the setup wizard.

OK, Mac OS X is now up & running in your Aspire One, but we’re far from finished. Let’s go through the steps necessary to get it ready to use in the following section.

Upgrading your Mac OS X and post-installation steps

Here’s is where we take our Mac OS X to its latest version (at the time of writing this post, it’s 10.5.5) and do some tweaks to have as much as possible working in our personal MacBook nano.

We’ll need to have most of the stuff we listed as software downloads available for the Aspire One so Primo) you have it in an external USB drive that you’ll be plug in into the Aspire One or Secondo) you have now Internet connection from your MacBook nano so you’re able to download it from the Internet.

  • Now that you have booted into OS X for the first time, goto drive name > applications > Utililities > Terminal.

    Currently we are using 9.2 Speedstep Kernel, but we want to use Vanilla Kernel from the original Mac OS X because it’ll allow us to get all the software updates from Apple. We will be installing it in the following steps, but we have to be ready for it. This means we’ll have to make some configuration changes in Mac OS X because for this system vanilla kernel will only support 1 cpu.

    With your favorite editor, edit the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist file to do the following modifications (you could open a Terminal and use vi or just use the Editor program located under ‘Applications’ > ‘Utilities’). Inside the file, look for “Kernel Flags”, put there “cpus=1″ and save the file.

  • Get your Kalyway Mac OS X 10.5.3 Combo Update and run the ‘1_Kalyway_UpdCombo10.5.3.pkg’. This wil upgrade the system from 10.5.2 to 10.5.3 and step through the installation process. Do NOT hit restart when prompted!
  • After the previous installation has completed, run 2_kalyway_10.5.3_kernel.pkg and step through the installation process. Select now the ‘vallina_kernel_9.3′ kernel.
  • When finished, click the ‘Restart’ button you didn’t hit before to restart your MacBook nano and get ready to press F8 in the boot process.
  • When prompted to do so, press F8 to interrupt the Darwin startup. Type ‘update -v’ (without the quotes obviously), and press enter. Your AA1 may reboot a couple of times during this update process.
  • When you have booted back into OS X, you can check the Version details by clicking on the Apple logo on the upper left hand corner> choose about this Mac. Since we are using Vanilla kernel now we can upgrade using Apple original update.
  • Insert now the disk containing the 10.5.4 update, that you should’ve downloaded by now with the rest of the software stuff. Before you run the file, open up Terminal and do the following: 
    $ sudo su -
$ while sleep 1 ; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext ; done

    Keep this window open while you run the downloaded update and install it.

  • Double click the MacOSXUpd10.5.4.dmg to mount the image and after the image has mounted, run MacOSXUpd10.5.4.pkg and step through the installation process.
  • Before you reboot, exit the Terminal script by holding down Ctrl and pressing C (Ctrl + C). Close Terminal and hit the button on the Update to reboot your computer.
  • When prompted press F8 and use “-v” to boot without quotes ( a lot of text msg comming out don’t worry system will boot it self soon )
  • When you have booted back into OS X, get the software you downloaded containing the Mac OS X 10.5.5 update. Again, before you run the file, open up Terminal and do the following: 
    $ sudo su -
$ while sleep 1 ; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext ; done

    Keep this window open while you run the downloaded update and install it.

  • Double click the MacOSXUpd10.5.5.dmg to mount the image, and after the image has mounted, run MacOSXUpd10.5.5.pkg and step through the installation process.
  • Before you reboot, exit the Terminal script by holding down Ctrl and pressing C (Ctrl + C). Close Terminal and hit the button on the Update to reboot your computer.

    System will take a long time to reboot let the system be until it will restart, so be patient and give it plenty of time. If in case you run out of patience or it will not reboot you have to do hard reboot on the system and use “update –v” steps on boot you’ve already seen here.

Now you’re Mac OS X is Leopard 10.5.5. You’ve got still some steps to perform to get some things running, so let’s go for them.

Making the sound work

  • Get the Paul’s Wind Drivers & Utilities pack you already downloaded into your MacBook nano and select the ‘Sound’ directory
  • Double click on AzaliaAudio.pkg, go through the installation wizard and restart the computer.
  • Now run the installer from the ALC268FIX you got with the software downloads you did, but DO NOT restart the system.
  • Before restarting, make sure you delete the /System/Library/Extensions/ALCInject.kext file.
  • From Paul’s Wind Drivers & Utilities, get the Kext Helper b7 application and drag it to your Applications folder. We’ll be using it a lot because it’s gonna be the tool used for installing Mac OS X Kernel Extensions.
  • Fire up Kext Helper (the application you just installed), locate the HDAEnabler.kext file in Paul’s Wind Drivers & Utilities directories, drag and drop it to he Kext Helper application, insert there your user password, and click on ‘Easy install’.
  • Fix Permissions with Disk Utility (launch Disk Utility, select your partition and then click on “Repair Disk Permissions” in the “First Aid” tab).
  • When repair permissions is done, restart your computer.
  • Goto System Preferences > Sound > make sure that Internal Speakers is selected in Play alerts and Sound effects through.
  • Now that your sound is working, to be able to switch between internal speakers and headphones at your will, install Rogue Amoeba’s SoundSource (the link is also at the beginning of this post).

Fixing the “About this Mac” message

  • Go to Paul’s Wind Drivers & Utilities Pack location in your Aspire One and under Utilities, double click on About this Mac.pkg.
  • Install it following the instructions. There’s no need to restart here.
  • Check that changes were made by going to the Apple logo in the top right corner > About this Mac and checking that it now says “Processor Intel Atom CPU N270@1.6Ghz”

Getting 1024×600 resolution

  • Run the Kext Helper application from your Aspire One.
  • Go to Paul’s Wind Drivers & Utilitis Pack location, and drag an drop the following files to the Kext Helper application: AppleIntelGMA950.kext, AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext, AppleSMBIOS.kext, ClamshellDisplay.kext and Natit.kext
  • As before, enter your password and click ‘Easy Install’.
  • Fix Permissions with Disk Utility (launch Disk Utility, select your partition and then click on “Repair Disk Permissions” in the “First Aid” tab) and when finished restart your computer.
  • You can now go to System Preferences > Display to choose a resolution that best fits your needs.

Getting the network plug & unplug to work

  • Install the Realtek RTL810E drivers you downloaded from Realtek if you followed my instructions at the beginning
  • Restart your MacBook nano and you’re all set.

Getting the battery indicator to work

  • Go to the software package you should’ve download by now and unzip it.
  • Inside it, go to the AppleACPIBatteryManager > Build > Release directory. There you should see a AppleACPIBatteryManager.kext file.
  • Fire up the Kext Helper application, drag and drop the AppleACPIBatteryManager.kext file, insert your user password and click on ‘Easy Install’.
  • For safety, restart your Aspire One. When done, you should have a working battery indicator.

Avoiding system shutdowns while closing the lid

This one is really easy. Just install InsomniaX (the link is also in the ‘Software you’ll need’ list) and configure it to fire up every time you start your Mac OS X. This can be done going to System Preferences > Accounts, clicking on your account and going to the ‘Login Items’ tab. There you can click on the ‘+’ button and add InsomniaX to the list.

And that’s all, my friends. You should be able to go to the Apple menu and click on ‘Software Updates’ to get the latest updates from Apple, and also download and install your favorite Mac OS X applications.

Enjoy the fruit!

Acknowledgements

Here’s the list of people that has been done possible this step by step tutorial:

  • Mario Camou, aka “The Doctor”, for beta testing quite everything I’ve documented here.
  • Tnkgrl, for the amazingly great blog she has about hardware hacking the Acer Aspire One.
  • Paul, for his Utilities and Drivers pack
  • Harbot, for the tutorial that helped as base to build this one.
  • Chun Nan, for writing the AppleACPIBatteryManager modifications.
  • The joint El Geek Errante and Venera7 crews, that made this possible thanks to our discussions in our weekly “Chicken Club Sandwich Social Club” geek meeting.
  • To everyone else that I left out of this list. There’s so much work and hacking involved it’s really difficult not to forget someone.
Notas
  1. Yeah, I’m talking about the gorgeous, feature-crippled and extremely expensive MacBook Air [↩]
  2. OSX86 Tools won’t work in a PowerPC based Apple computer; I already tried [↩]