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Since audio output is not currently working on my Windows XP install on my Mac mini, I have been shopping around for an optical or USB-based audio solution. Google doesn’t really yield very much, as I guess that USB-based audio is fairly unnecessary for most people, especially since most computers have perfectly good audio already built-in.

Digital audio (optical or USB) is useful when you want to play or record as near to the original signal as possible, since the external hardware can be isolated from the various hums and clicks of the PC circuits.

The front runner so far is the Griffin iMic which I have suggested as a great solution for the Apple iBooks, which do not have a microphone or line input.

The iMic is a great example of the ‘Apple style’, being simple to use, with no fuss or configuration required, beyond selecting it in the sound preferences of the OS X configuration page.

In contrast, Google also shows these examples of the contrasting, ‘put it in an ugly box and get it out the door’ philosophy. I’m boycotting anything ugly. Hopefully the manufacturers will start to notice that good design sells.

I used the drivers from the wiki. Labeled win2k_xp14182.exe. Make sure you go back to the old xom.efi file dated at 4:39am.

Now install the driver file. It should install smoothly with no problems, and ask to restart the computer. Restart.

After booting, need to hit ‘g’ enter ‘g’ enter and the system will come up in 640×480. ;-)

It really works. This is the flowerbox screensaver running cranked at full settings, which I dunno even if it works on the framebuffer. It’s pretty smooth.

Ok, it took a couple of tries to get it all nailed down, but here’s the main points:

• Internal drive partitioned for OS X and XP




• xom.efi bootloader installed and blessed
• Windows XP SP2 (Orange and White) patched with OEM xom screen driver
• Windows XP installed ok
  
• Chipset driver installed
• Yukon drivers (gig ethernet running)
• Wireless drivers (running - IBM driver)
• Airlink 101 USB wrireless also running
• Sound installed (but not tested)
• Video is unaccelerated, but good enough for serious work, not gaming.
• Shutdown/Restart hangs (though disc sounds like it parks)

Ok, if anyone was hanging around waiting for someone to confirm that this works on a Mac Mini, then here’s the news, it works! And it works pretty good.

I’ll update with links to the various resources, but the main resource I used was:

Windows XP on a Mac [onmac.net]

Mac Mini-Specific Problems and Solutions

- Not seeing the boot-prompt:
Did you copy the xom.efi file onto your OS X partition, and correctly bless it? See the text instructions in the patch.

- Seeing only the crystal Apple logo:
Hit down arrow and return to boot the Windows partition.

- Windows starts to boot, then looks like it hangs:
Give the enter key a stab. There may be a prompt in there we’re not seeing.

- My partitions got messed up:
Following the instructions about partitioning in OS X. You may need to repartition in OS X if you mess it up.

- Windows XP installer hangs at copying files on 0% progress:
Reboot back to OS X and set the screen resolution to higher than 800×600. This resolution is adopted and ‘fixed’ by the xom framebuffer, and can’t (yet) be changed in Windows. I set mine to 1400×1050@85 which is working great in both Mac OS and Windows XP. Files will start copying now. Just reboot to the XP disc, no need to go through the OS X reinstall again.

- Many missing drivers:
Driver Wiki is here.
Support forum is here.

- Screen redraw is very slow:
Turn *off* hardware acceleration in the troubleshooting tab of the Windows XP display properties dialog. Go figure! You can also look at how the xom.efi stuff presents itself as a driver. Hint: it’s the silent type.

Well this sucks, but I think the RAM I got from OWC was probably bad. I switched it oot for the original chips and my mac has been running for several hours with a bunch of software running, without (yet) a kernel panic.

Seeing OS X crash was a new experience as *literally*, I have not seen my Powerbook crash. Ever.

Hopefully, OWC won’t fuss too much on a return, and will hopefully send my some better RAM. I was on the point of doing a reinstall, but I figured I’d try the RAM switch first, and I have been running iMovieHD, iTunes, Safari, Dashboard widgets etc.

It’s worth noting that contrary to the first impressions, the mini is doing great with only 512 Megs. What gives !!! It really did suck initially, lots of spinning beachball, not like my powerbook at all. I suspect, maybe groundless that the Spotlight indexer sucks up a lot of cpu initially, before the machine settles down to how it should behave.

You can now add the official Mac OS X bittorrent cient to the list of PPC-only apps that will reliably crash the Intel Mac OS X under Rosetta.

I experienced my first OS X crash in 9 months, and managed to narrow it down to running bittorrent client, and can reproduce the problem.

I’ve now switched and downloaded Transmission and it seems to be working fine. You can get it here.

I been busy. It literally took over 30 hours to install the image on my Powerbook, and it was completely unusable.

However … windows runs pretty good on the Mac Mini. Same setup as below, except that XP was installed using Q 5xx(?) on a Powerbook, then the disc image was copied over to a firewire drive and run from 788.

See below for all linkies. BTW, this is a straight Win XP SP2 install disc, with a proper license key.

I managed to get Ubuntu Linux running on the new mac, using Q version 0.8.788, which is a front-end to Fabrice Bellard’s QEMU software.

I used this topic (scroll down to Yak’s post) to give me some help, as the first few times the PC simply rebooted. However, it *does* work though it is very slow and not really practical for anybody but a very dedicated fan of Ubuntu.

The screenshot shows Firefox running in Ubuntu GNU/Linux and surfing to digg.com.

Well, somewhat earlier than we expected, Meredith saw her first hummingbird. We had a great time watching these little guys last year, especially when they would chase each other around the feeder, and in and out of the trees over the garden.

The photograph was taken with my Canon S30 point and shoot, which is why I couldn’t get zoomed in far enough to get a decent picture. Hopefully this year, with some better equipment, I should be able to get some better shots.

Here’s a great little hummingbird page, put up by Donald Berger. It has the expected dates for hummingbirds in Houston, suggested plants and flowers and feeding tips.

Other World Computing came through for me big-time, and my 2 x 1 Gig sticks of RAM were waiting for me when I got home tonight.

With 20 minutes til dinner, I shutdown the mac and unscrewed the drive frame, removed the fan cable and fitted the new RAM, replacing the somewhat sad 2 x 256 SODIMMS that were already present.

After reassembling the drive frame and plugging the fan back in (important!), I plugged in the cables and held my breath whilst pressing the power button. Pause, whirrrr, BONG! and the mac booted up perfectly first time. Excellent.

I rebooted and timed the bootup time at approximately 20 seconds which is very fast. I expect to not need to reboot, much like my powerbook, but it’s nice to know that it’s fast.

First impressions are the new upgraded mac mini is *very* fast. I imported an hour of DV from my Panasonic ZR25MC with nary a hiccup. Lightroom is also much better, with none of the ’spinning beachball of death’ pauses that mar the experience on the 512 Meg version.

I am kind of a veteran of building PCs, so I wasn’t too worried about opening my mac. However, it did prove to be moderately hard. Here’s how I did it:

- Drive to WalMart
- Buy 2x 4″ RubberMaid putty knives
- Buy some sandpaper (fine is good)
- Drive home

This being WalMart, you’ll need to file the putty knives so the somewhat ‘unfinished’ edges become smooth to the touch. Wipe them off and remove the labels.

Now shut the mac down and disconnect everything and lay it upside down on a towel, with the back facing you. Wiggle both knives down the side and bend back gently. They shouldn’t go in that far, and when they stop, back off a bit to avoid damaging the metal foam in the case. If you bent back enough (gently) there should be some quiet pops as the plastic latches of the base come of the ridge inside the case.

You should be able to lever the back of the base up a bit. Rinse and repeat for the front. I used a small metal spatula for the levering of the base part.

Once you have the knack of it, I’m sure it’s just a two minute job, though upgrading the RAM is probably going to be the only thing that needs me to get ‘under the hood’.

Once you have the top off, there are four screws at the corners, and a small power connector at the front for the fan. You don’t need to disconnect the optical drive cable if you are careful. The storage subframe will lift right off and can be pivoted back quite happily.

Be CAREFUL. The drive frame connects to the main board not only through the cable, but through a riser connector. Lift straight up about a centimetre, and the riser should be disconnected.

Some great pictures of this procedure are here [macworld.com].