Arrived Today

I got it and started the OS X install. Notes:

1. Booted and set-up XP. Trackpad really does suck
2. Rebooted and confirmed that BIOS is A06. Shows Bluetooth enabled but XP Device Manager doesn't know anything about it, assume it is not installed
   
3. Webcam works, speakers work, mic volume seems low
4. Booted with BIOS A04 install USB and typed R225278.exe /forceit /forcetype . As advertised. lots of beeping during install. Then it just shuts down! Scary but it did reboot and has A04 installed
5. XP is currently using 8.28 GB, assume a 32GB partition should be fine. Boot using gparted USB stick. Resized NTFS partion ot 31.82GB and partioned remaining space (107 GB) as HFS+. Reboot and see if it will boot to XP. Looks like it does but wants to do a CHKDSK
   
6. Reboot using OSX install USB. Takes a minute or two but seems OK.
7. Looks like Disk Utility won't do what I want it to do, i.e. use the partition I set aside. Plan B: blow the existing partitions away and create one Mac OS paritition GUID boot not MBR
8. Install starts, once it gets going it says it will take 30 minutes (at 13:22). At 13:32 it says 27 minutes but the progress bar shows about 40% done. At 14:11 it says 10 minutes and about 95% Done at 14:13, took ~40 minutes
9. Re-booted and then it seemed to re-boot on it's own, spinning wheel right now started around 14:15. Started, followed the instructions
10. Installed 10.6.1, re-booted OK. Ran NetBookInstallwer again, set all Guide recommended checkboxes + Enable hibernation. Took awhile but re-booted OK

The Beginning

This blog is going to follow my experience installing Mac OS X on a Dell Mini 10v. At this point I have:

1. Ordered a Dell 10v ( N270 processor, 1 GB RAM, 6 cell battery, 802.11n wireless and 160GB harddrive)
2. Ordered a bluetooth card from eBay
3. Created a bootable Snow Leopard 8GB USB stick using instructions at MechDrew's site
4. Created a BIOS downgrade to A04 bootable USB using instructions here.

My plan when I get Dell is the following:

1. Run it up using Dell's XP install and confirm hardware works (wireless, sound, webcam, etc.)
2. Use some partition re-sizer (gparted?) and resize the XP partition to somewhere around 40 GB
3. Install Snow Leopard per MechDrew's instructions for a dual boot unit in an attempt to preserve XP install
4. Try it out

Based on the mydellmini forum I am expecting the following challenges:

1. Waking unit on sleep
2. Keeping BIOS settings
3. Sound