Joseph Miller's Blog

So you’ve bought an MSI Wind u100 from Newegg and you want to get up and running, but now you’re having a hard time figuring out what the most updated information is and how to get started. You keep reading that you’ll need an external DVD drive, a USB keyboard and mouse or at least two USB key drives.

Fear not! As of May 10th, 2009, you can be up and running in about two hours. Here’s what you need:

(1) MSI Wind u100
(1) Another Mac. I used my white MacBook.
(1) USB Key Drive. I used the 16GB OCZ Diesel drive that’s crazy cheap

Step 0 – Download MSIWindosx86.iso and everything else you’ll need

This file is a special version of OSX 10.5 that enterprising hackers have built just for the Wind and other variants. Obviously, it’s not kosher with Apple so you are going to have to find it by less proper channels. Google should lead you in the right direction.

The download is going to take a while, at least a few hours and probably more like 12, so do it ahead of time for your own sake.

While you are at it, download the following:

10.5.6 combo update from Apple
OSx86Tools
MSi Driver Pack v1.1
RealTek WiFi Drivers
WindTrackpadBundle_v6.0.2

Step 1 – Update the BIOS

Follow the instructions borrowed from Bay-Wolf.com for making bootable USB key in Windows.  Next, download the updated BIOS files from MSI and copy them to the root of the USB key. I used version 1.0B, but many people recommend 1.09.  I couldn’t find 1.09 on MSI’s website and using a hacked BIOS is just too hardcore and risky for me.   Before you get going you need to shut down the Wind, remove the battery, and plug in the power and USB drive.

Now start it up, press F11,  select the USB drive, and you should get the DOS prompt. Then type ‘runflash.bat’ and wait.  After that’s finished you can shutdown and hook up the battery again.

Start up and press Delete to enter the BIOS. Restore the optimized defaults, save, and restart. You can shut it down again after it restarts and BIOS posts without beeping or anything scary like that.

Step 2 – Get OSX on the USB Key

Plug your USB into your other Mac and open up Disk Utility. Click the partition tab and format the USB key with Disk Utlity, selecting the format Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the option ‘Master Boot Record’.  When that’s done, click the Restore tab and drag MSIWindosx86.iso to the source field (browsing won’t work), the USB key to the destination field, and click restore.  This process may take 5 – 10 minutes depending on how clunky your USB key is.  After that’s done you should also copy all the other files you downloaded over to the USB key.

Next, fire up OSx86Tools and click the Install EFI / Run FDisk button.  Select your USB key in the Disk to Use menu and select No EFI (Darwin Uploader) in the EFI to Install menu.  Then click Run FDisk and, once complete, Install EFI.  If both complete without any errors, you should be good to go.

Step 3 – Format and Install

Plug your USB key back into the Wind and start it up again.  Press F11 and boot from the USB key.  You should get the Mac installer within a minute or two.  Once the first screen is up, click the Installer menu at the top and choose Disk Utility.  Format your drive in the exact same manner as the USB drive, apply the changes, and proceed with installing OSX.

Step 4 – Installing Drivers

Assuming you have no problems with the installation, unzip the driver pack, install MSiWindBaseDriverPack_v1.0 and restart.

Once you’re back, mount the 10.5.6 combo update and run the Installer, but DO NOT restart once it finishes.  You need to install ‘MSi10.5.6UpgradeDriverPack_v1.0′ or else you are screwed if you don’t have a USB keyboard or mouse.  After both are installed, restart again.  Next, install Trackpad drivers from WindTrackpadBundle_v6.0.2 to get a preference pane in System Preferences that will enable two finger scolling.

If you don’t yet have WiFi working, install the RealTek WiFi driver and restart yet again.  I haven’t tested Bluetooth yet.

Now you should have everything working, up to date, and be done!  So simple, right ?

Credits and Sources

There is an incredible amount of knowledge about this on the MSIWind.net Forums.  I relied on information from threads including these to get up and running: MSi Wind OSX86 Install [Driver Pack], Triple Boot setup [GPT+MBR] [Retail Mac OS X, XP & Ubuntu], Sentelic/Synaptics 10.5.6 Driver Bundle. Cybergreg is a genius.

Let me know if this works for you.  I think you’ll be happy with the end result, an amazingly snappy and competent little OS X netbook that’s gotta be a precursor for something Apple is working on.