With economy not doing so hot, and people running low on funds, what is the next best thing for a Mac fan? Make your own Hackintosh netbook.
The MSI's U100 Wind and other netbooks have been turning heads since enterprising folks decided to install Leopard on them. Each passing month, new drivers and updates surface to make the transition from netbook to hackintoshbook seem easier.
A big win was the latest OSX driver from Realtek for the internal RTL8187SE wireless card in the MSI U100 Wind. Up until now, people suggested buying and installing a Dell 1490 wireless mini pci-e card that was compatible with OSX. This new "not quite authorized" driver makes use of the card already inside and makes the MSI Wind the netbook of choice for hacking.
The RTL8187SE doesn’t show up as an Airport card, but does provide full Wi-Fi functionality for OS X Wind users. It's still not an official driver, a curious user emailed the Realtek developers for help, and in return, got a driver for the card to work. Along with the driver came a WLAN Client Utility that makes the connection easier.
Hacking the MSI Wind probably voids something and installing OS X on anything other than Apple-branded hardware is still a big no-no, but this might be the push Apple needs to create their own netbook for Mac users.
jtnave23
December 16, 2008 at 2:33pm
Just did an MSI Wind hackintosh dual-boot last week and have loved it. I did have an extra wireless card from an older MacBook that I installed that worked right out of the box. There are a few issues, but for $300, it's turned out to be a great investment. Quick directions on how to install: 1. You'll need a hackintosh disk designed for the MSI Wind, which can be found on the tPb. Please, have a real copy of OSX for support of the best OS out there.
2. Partition the HD via Disk Utility if you want to install XP too.
3. Do the OSX install
4. My Wind didn't do the 1024x600, but go to the MSI Wind fourm and search for the graphics drivers needed. Pretty cut and dry once found (which didn't take long).
