Snow Leopard on my 965P – File Server
As I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to relegate my main machine (Gigabyte 965P – DS4) to a file server. I decided to go the no-hassles route and installed Windows 7. After painstakingly converting all my drives back to NTFS, I found to my chagrin, the great amount of lag when opening a network share via Samba (SMB) on my Macs. The Finder would scan the remote directory for what seemed like minutes before it showed me the contents of the folders.
That in addition to the messed up permissions on the server machine made it nearly impossible to sync files to and from the iMac/Mac Mini/MacBook Pro. Each time I’d initiate a transfer/sync session, the permissions on the Windows server would cause the sync client to erroneously recognize the entire data set as new, and cause a full copy between machines. Not too serious, but it does get old when the entire network is choked up due to 100GB of data crossing over each night.
And this is when I decided to head back to Mac for my server needs. It is an old adage that if you don’t flex your muscles enough, you lose them. Apparently, the same goes for Hackintosh skills! For the life of me, I couldn’t remember which set of KEXTs I used in my /E/E folder, so I decided to go back to the easier Leopard route. I installed iPC, only to notice the slower network speeds of 32MBps (Gigabit Ethernet). I could get up to 60-70MBps on Snow Leopard – so indeed, I decided to reconvert all my drives to HFS and then start the process of installing Snow Leopard.
I had to refer back to my blog and to the relevant websites to pick up pointers. Luckily I had my DSDT handy and after a couple of trial and errors, I finally had Snow Kitty back up on my Hack. I used Chameleon RC4, and with no need for manual UUID injection, things just worked the way they should. I added a number of flags to my com.apple.boot.plist – mainly to cause a timeout at the boot selection screen, as well as to hide some extra drives that showed up. I also have a new set of KEXTs I am using. These are:-
fakesmc.kext (new one)
LegacyAppleYukon2.kext
LegacyHDA.kext
NullCPUPowerManagement.kext
OpenHaltRestart.kext
It has been a few weeks since then. I am running a 32Bit Kernel and Extensions, and I couldn’t be happier. Chronosync keeps all my Macs up-to-date and runs scheduled backups of all my home movies and iPhoto data.
Long time, no see
Indeed, it has been forever since my last update. How better to cap this year, than with a post about what I have been up to, the latter quarter of 2009. Things have been going rather smoothly over the past three months. I finally have fully converted to the Mac side. Our home is now rigged with Macs doling out, and playing back media and resources.
The biggest change so far? The Hackintosh that I worked so diligently upon, is now relegated to a Media/File server. Running 10.6.2, I have rigged my Hackintosh with around 8TB of storage, and run it in a cooled closet 24/7. It is forever on the up, doling out Series/Movies to my other machines.
Speaking of which, I am a proud owner of a brand new spanking iMac. 21.5″ 3.33GHz machine with discrete graphics, 4GB RAM as well as a 1TB HDD, this is one beautiful machine. It has become my main rig, my go-to machine for the day to day surfing. As pleased and satisfied as I am with this week 41 monster, it almost didn’t come to be. But that story is for another day.
In addition to the aforementioned machine, I now also own a Mac Mini which serves as our Media Center. The specs are – 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD of pure win. I installed Plex (an offshoot of XBMC) on this machine, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how seamlessly I can combine all my media to be accessible through one interface. And what a beautiful interface. Till date, I was a traditionalist, preferring to keep my series/movies in proper folders and clicking to view the same using Quicktime or MPlayer OSX Extended. But through Plex, I have it all under control using just the Apple Aluminium Remote. And the interface! Wow, it scrobbles all my series information and downloads Episode Information from various sites, as well as Fanart, Music etc.
I debated long and hard before making the switch to official Apple hardware. Hacks and community support, notwithstanding, it is more of a headache to keep a Hackintosh in perfect working condition. I just couldn’t take second guessing an update, or having my entire installation messed up, because I decided to take the claim of “Vanilla Installation” too seriously. I can’t count the number of hours I have wasted on my Hackintosh, and with an iMac and Mac Mini, as well as a MacBook Pro under my belt, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and get back to working.
