September 18, 2008 at 10:53 AM · Filed under Apple / Mac, The Internet
Don’t get me wrong — I love Leopard, but after looking at the same “space,” I can only take so much. By popular demand and to give those people stuck on the “Blue Leopard” Server wallpaper, here is my version of the Leopard Wallpaper In Your Flavor in 8 different colors for your 1280×800 viewing pleasure. For anyone wanting a larger version of my wallpaper, go buy a smaller screen or make your own.
Feel free to post a screenshot of your new wallpaper in action! Got Photoshop? Make your own wallpaper with my source file. And remember, don’t hotlink my URL! I spend a lot of money on bandwidth to keep this blog fast and free of ads so please don’t screw it up.
Download Leopard Wallpaper In Your Flavor!
September 17, 2008 at 1:25 PM · Filed under Apple / Mac
Show your love for all things Apple with your own signature banner. Well, it’s mine but I’m nice enough to let you use it. If you look closely, you can even spot one of my previous Leopard screenshots inside the Dell Inspiron. This unique graphic coupled with the infamous Mac Button and Apple Wallpaper, who says I’m not giving back to the community?
Download yours today!
September 15, 2008 at 5:01 PM · Filed under Apple / Mac
Get ready to unleash the fury of your inner Leopard with one of Apple’s biggest updates, Mac OS X 10.5.5. Weighing in at 321MB (Cool, huh?), there are dozens of bug fixes and additions to make this a real “worth while” update for your fully licensed official Mac or your Hack. You may start the drooling process now.
It took me a day to get all of my stuff together and pull this update off. I use my HackBook Pro in a production environment, which means I cannot be too far away from my Time Machine drive. As the excitement mounted, viewers of this blog had already dove into it — head first, and pulled it off with mixed results (Read the comments below for more information). A lot of what you did getting to 10.5.4 will save you some time because from what I’ve gathered by updating from 10.5.4 to 10.5.5, it’s mainly just copying over a few key kexts that get replaced with the update, repairing permissions, etc. etc.
Let’s begin!
1) First, download the update directly from Apple’s website. I’m not sure if it matters where you get it but this is how I did it. I’m sure Software Update is safe but don’t take my word for it. You can grab 10.5.5 at http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1055update.html
2) Before you run the downloaded file, open up Terminal and type “sudo su -” without the quotes. Enter your user password and then type “while sleep 1 ; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext ; done” without the quotes. Keep this window open while you run the downloaded update and install it. It should complete in a few minutes and ask you to reboot. Before you reboot, exit the Terminal script by holding down Ctrl and pressing X (Ctrl + X). Close Terminal and hit the button on the Update to reboot your computer.
3) Once you reboot your screen may go blank or your system might auto reboot. Don’t panic yet. Reboot the system again, this time booting with “-v -f -x” and let it do it’s thing. Your screen will probably still be blank. Let it run until there’s no more CPU or HDD activity. Reboot again with normal flags (-v -f) and let it go to sleep. Wake it up and you should be seeing the login window. If you auto login you can swipe your mouse over your hot corner (You kept that hot corner, right?) and you should see your desktop although it may appear unstable. Log out and back in. Boom!
4) Your wireless is dead, your battery doesn’t display and your sound isn’t as groovy as it used to be. Time to step back in time. Dig through your Extensions.bkup on your desktop and locate a few key kexts. Grab the latest version of Kext Helper b7 and prepare to do battle with permissions. Rather than re-patching, re-applying, etc. the steps we did in 10.5.4, we’re just going to copy over the good stuff we know worked before.
5) Fire up Kext Helper b7 and start dragging kexts into the window. Enter your password and click Advanced. You’ll want to make sure the following are displaying in Kext Helper b7: AppleHDA.kext, AppleACPIPlatform.kext, AppleAHCIPort.kext. Hit the install button and then hit Kext Permissions and Tag Cache Rebuild. Hell, hit them a couple times! Now close out of Kext Helper b7 and do the Disk Utility dance by repairing disk permissions a couple times. I ran it 3 times just to make sure. Your milage may vary.
6) Reboot. You should have everything but the battery meter. Download PowerManagement.bundle again and do your thing. Make sure you completely remove the old one (”rm -fr PowerManagement.bundle” in Terminal). Repair and reboot again. Alternatively you can back up your original PowerManagement.bundle from /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/PowerManagement.bundle.
This should work for everyone who is running 10.5.4 and possibly those running earlier versions of Kalyway’s DVD. These are as clear of instructions I can give and I must admit, they’re a little less user friendly than my original tutorial. Hopefully you’ve been following me on this blog and know a few things by now. Be sure to run Time Machine, Super Duper or Carbon Copy before you dive into this if you care about your files. After you upgrade to 10.5.5, there are some minor software updates awaiting you. Nothing major, all risk- and error-free.
While your milage may vary, the chances of you “hosing” your system is very slim. Even with a kernel panic, blank screen or spinning beach ball, not all is lost. Remember, this isn’t Windows Vista. You aren’t required to re-install for every little hiccup. Play with it, have fun, and post your success/failures here with screenshots.
NOTE: 10.5.5 doesn’t wake from sleep for some reason. Even after trying the usual methods. We may have to wait for a kernel patch or additional kext to restore it. I’ll start looking into the issue this weekend if nobody posts something here first.
September 9, 2008 at 8:26 PM · Filed under Apple / Mac
Apple kicked off its “Let’s Rock” iTunes event this morning out on the west coast. For those of you looking to upgrade to the latest versions of iTunes and QuickTime released after the event — go right ahead! For anyone running Mac OS X using my tutorial, please be aware that once you reboot from the updates, your screen will remain blank.
Don’t panic!
Leave your computer running for a little while. Behind the scenes under that black LCD, your new applications are installing the rest of the files needed to run. Give it a few minutes to do its thing and then power the machine down manually by holding the power button. Fire it back up, log in, and enjoy your new software!
August 4, 2008 at 6:30 PM · Filed under Apple / Mac, The Internet
I’m somewhat of a minimalist. Heavy 3D eye-popping wallpaper that seems to have infected the Internet’s free desktop wallpaper sites aren’t my cup of tea. For the longest time, I was using a very minimal solid black wallpaper with a big, bright, white Apple Logo right in the center. While this is good stuff, I wanted to spice it up a bit because black and white is only so exciting. After being inspired by Dell’s multi-color lid option on these new Inspirons, I’ve decided to release 10 colorful Apple Logo wallpaper in 1280×800 format. Sorry for anyone who doesn’t conform to my screen resolution — you will be assimilated shortly.
Graphic guru? I got you covered because I’ve included the PSD source file of my wallpaper so you can make it your own! Grab all the wallpaper colors and the source in one click. Feel free to publish these files anywhere as long as you mention or link this page. Hotlink my shit and I’ll steal your Mac Pro.
Download Apple Logo Wallpaper Pack
