This is my extensive guide on how to install Snow Leopard on the Dell Inspiron 530 with a "standard" configuration. By standard configuration, I mean the least expensive options you can select. My dad decided to be cheap and since we needed a desktop at home for server tasks and such, my dad opted for the cheapest option from Dell at the time. Surprisingly, I have had no problems with this computer. It has preformed wonderfully for what I've done with it so far. As for Snow Leopard, I have been running for a couple days perfectly! With a couple tweaks, it runs much better than Leopard did on my Inspiron 530.
- Before we get started, you are going to need a Dell Inspiron 530 with 3 to 4 Hard Drive Partitions on a GUID formatted partition table
- Boot the iAtkos DVD (see step 3)
- Click Utilities > Disk Utility
- Select your hard drive on the right and click "Partition"
- Create up to 3 partitions in the bellow order excluding the EFI partition because it will be created for you when you install Leopard
- EFI partition created when you install Leopard
- Partition for Snow Leopard
- Partition for Windows XP/Vista/7 (OPTIONAL)
- Partition for Leopard
- Click "Options"
- Select "GUID Partition Table"
- Click Apply in the bottom right
- Install Windows first (if you don't it messes up the bootloader)
- Install Leopard on last partition following this guide as close to possible
- In Leopard, make sure you have:
- Snow Leopard 10.6 Install DVD either on an actually DVD or saved as a .dmg
- My kext and file package (can be found in the attachments)
- Mount the Snow Leopard Install 10.6 Install DVD or .dmg (in Leopard)
- In Finder, Click "Apple-Shift-G" and go to the folder "/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/"
- A folder will open up
- Inside it there will be a file called "OSInstall.mpkg" so double click it
- In the installer make sure to select the Snow Leopard drive that you partitioned off to install Snow Leopard to
- Click "Customize" and deselect everything (don't worry you can install printers and such later) except for "Essential System Software"
- Click Install when it finishes DO NOT RESTART
- Unzip my "Snow Leopard.zip" (from the "Attachments" section of this page)
- Open Snow Leopard > Boot Loader and run "Chameleon-2.0-r431.pkg"
- Install this to the Snow Leopard drive
- Open Snow Leopard > Tools > ShowAllFiles and run "ShowAllFiles.app"
- Click "SHOW"
- This unhides all hidden files and folders so you can go into your Snow Leopard drive and replace "boot" with the "boot" file in the Snow Leopard > Boot Loader folder
- Take the "dsdt.aml" file in the Snow Leopard folder and move it to the root of the Snow Leopard drive
- The "dsdt.aml" alters what the computer does when it turns on.
- I have edited that one to enable the audio on the Dell Inspiron 530 and to stop the CMOS errors from appearing on boot.
- If you do not have a Dell Inspiron 530 you should probably compile your own "dsdt.aml" with the "DSDT Patcher GUI.app" that I left in the Snow Leopard > Tools > DSDTPatcherGUI_1.0 folder.
- Open Snow Leopard > Tools > ShowAllFiles and run "ShowAllFiles.app"
- This time, click "HIDE" to re-hide all the shown files
- Open the "Kexts" folder inside the "Snow Leopard" folder and copy all of the files to Snow Leopard Drive > System > Library > Extensions
- Drag that Extensions folder with the newly added files onto Snow Leopard > Tools > Kext Utility> Kext Utility.app
- At the prompt enter your password
- Wait for it to finish
- Drag that same Kext Utility.app into your Snow Leopard Drive > Applications folder
- Reboot
- You should be greeted by a nice bootloader that asks you what you want to boot into
- Select your Snow Leopard Drive with the arrow keys
- Click the down arrow and scroll down to "Boot Verbose"
- Click "Enter"
- Wait to boot into Snow Leopard
- Enter all of your information
- When Snow Leopard finally boots, the first thing you must do is go to System Preferences (on the dock by default) > Spotlight > Privacy
- Click the + sign and add your Snow Leopard Drive
- This will prevent Snow Leopard from indexing your Snow Leopard Drive because there is a bug where after you install Snow Leopard, Spotlight causes Kernel Panics
- Go to Snow Leopard Drive > Applications > Kext Utillity.app (you moved it there before) and double click it
- Enter your password at the prompt
- Reboot again
- Again scroll down to "Boot Verbose" and click "Enter"
- You should now be in Snow Leopard
- Go back to System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy and remove you Snow Leopard Drive from the list
- Search for anything in Spotlight (upper right corner) to get it to Index your files
- Run "Software Update" to get the newest version of everything then restart
- Your Mac should now be running smoothly and ready for use
- (Optional) You can now format your Leopard partition to use as extra space (Optional)
Expert Tip: You might notice when you click on the drive you installed Snow Leopard to that in the root of that drive, there are many files that are used for the system and unnecessary for you to see. If that is the case, open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app and run the following commands without quotes hitting "Enter" after each line: "cd /" "pico .hidden" Now type the name of every file and folder (each on a different line) except for "Applications," "Library," "System," and "Users" When done, type: "Ctrl-X" "Y" Then hit "Enter" This will clean up your root folder so it will only have the "Applications," "Library," "System," and "Users" folders in it.
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ď Mat Tiszenkel, Sep 23, 2009 6:09 PM
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