I allowed the Dell Mini OSX to update software...

Of course it wasn't without a tiny bit of difficulty. But not bad.

Before you do the update, make sure you have a version of DellEFI stored on the Mini before you do the upgrade...really, do it.

So you do the update, and it will reboot barely to a gray garbled screen (because it lost the drivers?)

I found the solution here on the 'sproke blog.

It is easy, so I will post it here.

1. Download the installer, don't use Software Update. Install 10.5.7.
2. Let it reboot.
3. At the boot screen press enter (or any key) to get the boot prompt. It should look like this:
boot:
type -x and hit enter
boot: -x
OS X will enter Safe Mode.
4. When in Safe Mode run DellEFI.
5. Reinstall the Mini 9 Extensions and remove custom dsdt.aml file. These are the default options for the DellEFI, take the default.
6. Reboot.
7. At the boot screen use the -x to enter Safe Mode again
8. After in Safe Mode run DellEFI. Install custom dsdt.aml file, which is the default option, take the default.
9. Reboot

Now of course I didn't exactly follow those directions (mine was already broke).

So I booted to safe mode, ran the DellEFI (I used the 1.2a5 found here).

Actually I ran it twice, the first time I selected Custom and checked the remove dsdt.aml.
When it finished, I did not allow it to reboot, and I ran it again. This time the 'create custom dsdt.aml' was already checked. When it finished, I allowed it to reboot and it came up just fine.

Some updates

First off...I am still having issues using VPN tunneling when out of town...I will next attempt to use port 80 as the VPN tunnel...and hopefully it won't wreck anything.

But on a positive note...the Dell Mini 9 triple boot works perfectly. And to be honest, as a non Mac user (ever) I just enjoy running OSX. It reminds me of a polished Ubuntu.

I use Ubuntu for a few things, XP for a number of things. But mostly I use OSX, it has the applications I use more often with a nice interface. It is still a pain to change things, but as is, it works beautifully.

Triple boot Dell Mini finale? (part 5)

Odds and ends.

It all works. It all works well, and OSX runs nicely on this little machine.

It took some command line editing to get it all to play nice.

First I had to put grub back on the Ubuntu partition.
-ubuntu$ sudo grub
-grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
-grub> (hd0,3)
-grub> root (hd0,3)
-grub> setup (hd0,3)
-grub> quit

I also took note of where the ubuntu partition was (hd0,3)
I booted a ubuntu live cd (on USB thumbdrive) and using terminal, drilled my way to the grub folder on the ubuntu install
-$ sudo gedit /media/ubuntu/boot/grub/menu.lst
I commented out all my windows links (#)
and copied the top ubuntu link (at the bottom of the list), I pasted the copy above the originals in the file (twice) and made some edits
- the original had (hd0,1) for boot drive...needed to be (hd0,3)
- the original pointed to /dev/sda2...according to gparted it needed to be /dev/sda4
The corrected menu entry with hd0,3 AND sda4 was the correct one...after it sucessfully booted, I commented out the others.

I also had to reedit the windows boot.ini (using msconfig). I previously had 3 setups depending on which drive the OSX bootloader would point to...it originally was part1...it is now part3. I made that one the default also.

The only thing left is to make a longer timeout in the OSX menu and perhaps make it visible, rather than having to hit a key first.

that file is on drive/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

So in all it took a 16gig flashdrive for the inital OSX install, a 8gig flashdrive to make the modified install DVD, an Ubuntu flash drive (gparted and grub etc) and time.

I didn't repeat all the instructions, I just tried to fill in some blanks, and clarify some things. There are some procedures listed that are simply no longer needed with OSX 10.5.6 and the new dellminiboot123 file...it is almost plug and play. (well easier than a linux install 1o years ago)