How to enable sleep on your HP Mini hackintosh netbook

October 12, 2009

This is a postscript to my series on why & how to Mac-ify a PC netbook.

After following the initial (relatively easy) version of the Mac OS install using NetbookBootMaker, I saw that My HP Mac Mini had solved the (brutal!) sleep problem that made my mini freeze whenever I shut the lid, and forced me to shut it down each and every time. But the sleep solution seemed to involve a complete re-install, which was a daunting prospect, especially after all the work I’d gone through to migrate my existing Mac’s settings.

Happyily, Mike (drfyzziks) came to the rescue once again. He came up with a relatively easy method for fixing my existing install (as documented here) so that…my HP Mini now sleeps!! Sleep works both by selecting “sleep” from the Apple menu, and just by shutting the lid on the netbook.

Here’s what it took to get sleep working on the HP Mini 1000 (instructions are specific to the Mini):

Note: you’ll need to be logged in to a user account on your computer that has admin permissions, and you’ll need to know your password, to do this process.

  1. Download SnowLeo_EFIboot package (http://www.mediafire.com/?crwqzmnmnnn) and unzip.
  2. Create a folder in your root directory (i.e. the top-level folder on your hard drive, NOT your user directory) called TEMPKEXTS.
  3. Go into SnowLeo_EFIboot folder (the one you unzipped in step 1) and copy or move the following files into your TEMPKEXTS  folder.
    Note: you may be prompted for your password to authenticate the copy or move process at various points…just enter it whenever prompted during this process.
    • from the DSDT folder: dsdt.aml
    • from the ClamShellDisplay folder: ClamshellDisplay.kext (this is what lets the computer sleep just by closing the lid)
    • from the HPMiniKexts folder, ALL files that end in “.kext” (try sorting the folder by file type)
    • from the OtherKexts folder, all files that begin in “Voodoo” and end in “.kext”

Next you need to open Terminal, and use the (brace for it) command line to get all those new extensions in the right place.

  1. Launch Terminal (in your Applications folder).
  2. In terminal, navigate to the root directory by typing “cd ..” at the prompt, and hitting return.
    Note: You’ll probably have to do this twice until you get to the root directory. My root directory is MacMini, so I know I’m in the root directory when the prompt says MacMini:/ alex$  [alex is my account name on the system]
  3. Type “ls” at the prompt. You’ll get a list of files and folders in your root directory; you should see TEMPKEXTS in there and also the Extra folder created by your Mac OS NetbookBookMaker process.
  4. Change to the TEMPKEXTS directory by typing “cd TEMPKEXTS”.
  5. Type the following at the command line: sudo cp -R dsdt.aml /Extra (this copies the dsdt file to the /Extra folder)
  6. You’ll be prompted for your password; just enter it (the password for the admin-level user account you’re using) and press return.
  7. Type the following at the command line:   sudo cp -R *.kext /Extra/GeneralExtensions  (this copies all the kext files in your TEMPKEXTS folder to the /Extra/GeneralExtensions folder)
  8. You’ll be prompted for your password; just enter it (the password for the admin-level user account you’re using) and press return.

Now you need to deactivate a couple of extensions that won’t like the kexts you just moved into the General Extensions folder. So, still in Terminal, type the following:

  1. cd .. (this gets you back to your root directory)
  2. cd /Extra (this changes you to the Extra directory)
  3. sudo mkdir disabled (this creates a new directory [aka folder] by the name of “disabled”)
  4. cd GeneralExtensions (this changes you to the General Extensions directory)
  5. sudo mv ApplePS2Controller.kext ../disabled (this moves this particular kext file to the disabled folder)
  6. sudo mv AppleACPIPS2Nub.kext ../disabled (ditto)

Finally, you need to update your extensions with kext (settings) files you just installed. So…

  1. Switch to the Extra folder by typing “cd ..” and then “cd Extra”.
  2. Type “ls” at the prompt. You should see a file listed called UpdateExtra.app.
  3. Type “sudo open UpdateExtra.app”. You’ll be prompted for your password again, so enter it and press return.
  4. The Update Extensions application will launch, and you’ll see a single window with a button that says “Update Extensions”. Click the button.
  5. Now wait…a while! Probably about five or ten minutes. You may see a spinning beachball (or not) but you will see that the Update Extenions button is shaded a darker grey. You’ll know the process is complete once the Update Extensions button de-shaded and becomes the same grey as the rest of the window.
  6. Reboot.

Once you reboot, you’ll want to check that everything works right by trying to make your computer go to sleep. Choose “sleep” from the Apple menu: your computer should obviously and definitively go to sleep. Give it a few seconds, then try waking it by hitting any key. Once you’ve confirmed that sleep works fine, and that your computer wakes without freezing, try making it sleep by simply closing the lid. Again, give it a few seconds to truly fall asleep, then reopen to confirm that it wakes without freezing.

In my case it’s now sleeping and waking flawlessly. Yay, Mike! Yay, Maurien! Yay, hackintosh!

A few notes:

  1. The “sudo” part of the Terminal commands above is a way of overriding your computer’s current rules about what you do and don’t have permission to do. Those rules are there for a good reason: to keep you from doing anything that could bust your computer or compromise your security. So parroting a sudo command that someone else (like me) is telling you to type is the electronic equivalent of saying, “hey Alex, I really trust you and your awesome guide to hackintoshing my netbook!”. Wouldn’t this be a lovely moment to just tweet that message to me directly?
  2. This whole operation may or may not work on your particular netbook. Even if you have my exact netbook (HP Mini 1000, model 1035NR) the world of hackintoshes, to say nothing of computer manufacturing, is kinda quirky, so who the heck knows what might be different about your setup. Follow these instructions at your own risk, and only if you’ve got the kind of leeway and troubleshooting capacity I outlined in my when to hackintosh post.
  3. If it all works out for you the way it worked for me, you’ll still have a couple of quirks. For one, you won’t have any hardware-based volume control: yes, you’ll have sound, but the only way to turn it up or down will be in an individual application (e.g. iTunes) that you’re using to listen to something. For another, if you try to type a tilde (like this: ~) it’ll come out very funky-looking. The tilde thing is probably only an issue for people who make regular use of Terminal, so if that’s you, let me know and I’ll ask the lovely Mike for his fix.

And btw, anyone who gets this post’s title reference gets my honorary “OMG you’re a massive geek!” tweet of the day.