Quick and dirty, this is not going to cover everything, but if you have an hour to kill, you will get OS X working on your Samsung N120 netbook, but don’t expect every last thing to work. Ready to get started? Grab your Samsung N120 netbook, iDeneb 1.4, and get these video kexts and let’s go to work.
This is still a work in progress, but it should be slightly more helpful to those who wanted something a little more detailed than my super fast initial post.
Preparing to install OS X on the Samsung N120 netbook
If you don’t have iDeneb 1.4 yet, get it.
Before you get going, you need to go into your BIOS (F2) and go to the Advanced tab and look for EDB (Execute Disable Bit). Enable it. If, after you have OS X iDeneb 1.4 installed on your Samsung N120 netbook you find you get stuck at a blue screen, this is why. Be sure you enable this.
Also in BIOS, go to the Boot tab and change Brightness Mode Control to User Control. Now, manually set your screen brightness using the FN key and the arrows. Set it to whatever you feel comfortable with (half is usually fine) because this is how you have to set brightness in OS X until a proper DSDT.aml is created.
Also, in case you missed it at the top of the screen, you need some video kexts. Have these handy. Everything else will more or less work with what comes pre-packaged with iDeneb 1.4.
Partition however you like, but I whacked XP entirely because I hated it so much (Samsung really made it awful). For sake of disclosure, I used a single journaled partition. You can use the disk utility to set this up, or else you can use the Windows disk manager to make partitions and then modify them in the OS X disk utility. If you’d like a little more, check the OS X installation guide for the Asus Eee PC 1000HE where I cover it a little more than I can right now.
Installing OS X on the Samsung N120 netbook
OS X will slowly, very slowly, boot. You do not need to specify any boot flags, just hit Enter to boot.
Choose your language and click the blue right arrow button (or hit Enter). Now wait several seconds.
If you’ve opted to use multiple partitions, then use the Disk Utility (found under the Utilities menu at the top) to erase and format your OS X partition as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Proceed forward when you’re satisfied with your partition settings.
Here’s where you’ll need to select a few things to help make stuff work. Be sure you choose the Customize option when you’re at the screen that’s ready to install OS X.
iDeneb Essential System (it should already be checked)
Under Patches 10.5.6 Ready and then Audio, choose AppleAzaliaAudio.
Under Patches 10.5.6 Ready and thenChipset, choose ICHx Fixed.
Under Patches 10.5.6 Ready and then Fix, select: FireWire Remove, Battery Manager.
Under Patches 10.5.6 Ready and then System Utilities: GenericCPPMCControl.
Under Patches 10.5.6 Ready and then Video and then Intel choose Intel GMA950.
Under Applications, be sure you install Kext Helper and OSx86Tools. Pacifist may also be a good idea, but I haven’t needed it thus far. (Or just install everything.)
Once you’ve selected all of these things, hit Done and then Install and wait. Once it’s all done, with some luck, it’ll reboot itself and you’ll be at the usual OS X user registration screen.
Post install of OS X on the Samsung N120 netbook
Now open up that video kexts file I said you’d need for post installation.
Now open your Applications folder (OS X’s application folder, to be more precise: Shift-Alt-A will open it if Finder has your focus). In the iDeneb App folder, open Kext Helper b7.
Now open the folder with those video kexts and drag all of the .kext files to the open Kext Helper b7 window. Type in your password at the bottom, click the Easy install button, hit OK, and wait. You’ll have to reboot when done, but when OS X comes back up, you should find your video resolution is now fixed.
Power management will be installed but not functional, so…
Copy the GenericCPUPowerManagement application to your Applications directory and then open up System Preferences, then Accounts, and then select your account on the left and click the Login Items tab. Click the + sign, choose your Applications folder, and select GenericCPUPowerManagement. You may also want to click the Hide button.
Reboot to verify everything is loading properly and you should have a new icon in your dock and a lot more battery time.
Upgrade to 10.5.7
I’m going to shamelessly steal from the forums for the 10.5.7 update. Aside from formatting, this is entirely pwm8′s work. See the iDeneb 10.5.7 update guide thread for more information. However, just a side note, the Samsung N120 netbook can be upgraded using the official Apple delta upgrade. I can’t say for certain that it won’t break anything, but it does, in fact, work. If you’re worried, stick to the community upgrade.
Ok, I have spent most of the morning struggling with the 10.5.7 iDeneb update, but I finally have it mostly working. I was running iDeneb 1.3 updated with the iDeneb 10.5.6 updater.I spent most of the morning in safe mode trying to figure out how to get back to working condition. Needless to say, this update was a bit of a struggle, so here’s some tips to help others.
Main points:
1. Backup to a flash drive or SD card ALL of your AppleIntelGMA950 files. This includes AppleIntelGMA950.kext, the two bundle files containing “950″ in the file name, the plugin file with “950″ in its file name, and the AppleIntegratedFrameBuffer.kext from your 10.5.6 install before you do anything. All of these files are located in your System/Library/Extensions file. The AppleIntel950 files are next to each other in that file so are easy to find.
2. Also backup IOBluetoothFamily.kext from the same file [may not be necessary for Samsung N120 netbook]
3. Download the iDeneb 10.5.7 Combo update from Ihackintosh or from the link posted in the first page of the large thread on this forum titled: “OS X on Asus eeePC 1000HE – Updated 5/18/09”
4. Install the combo updater, reboot.
5. Reboot should work, but your machine will be in 800×600 stretched mode (much like the first time you installed). Also, bluetooth will be working, but will not be able to be turned off.
6. Using Kext Helper, reinstall AppleIntelGMA950.kext, AppleIntegratedFrameBuffer.kext and IOBluetoothFamily.kext. Don’t reboot yet.
7. From your backups, copy the 2 bundle files and the 1 plugin file that have “950″ in the file name into your hard drive System/Library/Extensions folder. You will have to tell it to replace existing versions of all those files.
8. Reboot. You should be back to normal, with correct resolution and bluetooth able to be turned on and off.
A couple of issues: I don’t see anything different regarding power with this update-a couple of posters have noticed better battery life, I haven’t seen that yet. Also, no difference in the power management stuff in GenericCPUPMControl-one side’s graphs jump up and down and the other side stays at 100% (this is showing VoodooPower.kext 1.2.3 for reference)
I haven’t noticed that anything else is broken. Yet.
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At this point, you should have most things working in OS X on your Samsung N120 netbook, but wireless and ethernet will not. Also, it may sleep when you close the lid, so find a clamshell.kext and that should resolve it. There’s a patch for ethernet I’ve not tried yet that I think will work, and wireless can be coerced into working infrequently, but it’s very ugly and unreliable and you’re better off replacing the wireless card if you want a seamless experience. Installing a Broadcom BCM4321 based card is highly suggested, and can be done in 10-15 minutes, even by novices.
Samsung N120 netbook internals
If you’ve looked at the breakdown involved for swapping cards in the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, this is nothing like that. There’s about 13 screws on the bottom, the case pops off, and the wireless card is in the bottom left. See the picture for more details (it’s from my iPhone, so yes, the quality is awful and I apologize).
Also, I am yet to try it, but there’s a new audio driver that’s being used in the 1000HE community, and considering most of the netbooks out use the exact same hardware, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched that it may work on the Samsung as well. When I find some time this week (I hope) I’ll give it a shot and see if it works: else, if anyone tries it, a quick comment or forum post would be appreciated since it’ll help anyone else out who happens to be looking for info on getting the N120 to play nicely with OS X.
Lastly, again, this guide is still a work in progress, so please bear with me while I figure out the best way to present everything to and to get functional links setup. This is something of a busy time for me, so I may not have an opportunity to anything more than very small updates between now and some time next week.
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Update 5/31/09: cleaned up guide a bit, added 10.5.7 update links: attempt at your own peril (but it should be fine and it’s worth it).
Update 5/6/09: initial guide.
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55 Responses to “Guide: Install OS X on Samsung N120 Netbook”
Ive successfully installed ideneb 1.6 on my samsung nc10 which is pretty much the same as the n120-130. The trick for me one you have installed the system to get past the “waiting for uuid..” error was to disable legacy usb support and hyperthreading in the bios (f2 on startup).
If you need to use the disk again to install more kexts or updates then just enable usb support again in the bios or your external dvd drive wont be recognized, then just disable it again to boot back into os x. It took me ages to work out this afetr trying many combinations of drivers and kernels.. turns out ideneb works great using drivers from this samsung guide in various combinations of kernels and boot loaders once usb legacy is disabled. Usb devices work fine in os x with legacy in bios disabled including DVD drives which is interesting.
I used the GMA950 desktop or netbook driver for video, still only getting 800×600, but with kext helper I should be able to get it working, bluetooth and ethernet seem to work with drivers that come with ideneb 1.6 and cameleon 2 is awesome. cheers all and good luck!
Ive successfully installed ideneb 1.6 on my samsung nc10 which is pretty much the same as the n120-130. The trick for me one you have installed the system to get past the “waiting for uuid..” error was to disable legacy usb support and hyperthreading in the bios (f2 on startup).
If you need to use the disk again to install more kexts or updates then just enable usb support again in the bios or your external dvd drive wont be recognized, then just disable it again to boot back into os x. It took me ages to work out this afetr trying many combinations of drivers and kernels.. turns out ideneb works great using drivers from this samsung guide in various combinations of kernels and boot loaders once usb legacy is disabled. Usb devices work fine in os x with legacy in bios disabled including DVD drives which is interesting.
I used the GMA950 desktop or netbook driver for video, still only getting 800×600, but with kext helper I should be able to get it working, bluetooth and ethernet seem to work with drivers that come with ideneb 1.6 and cameleon 2 is awesome. cheers all and good luck!