The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to install Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 on an EP121 tablet! I accomplished this by having a Mac computer as well as a legit copy of Lion from the Mac App Store. I'm sure there are other ways you can get around this tutorial without a Mac or copy of Lion that's from the App store, but for the purposes of this tutorial I'm going by this method. Hopefully this tutorial will open the door for other EP121 owners to attempt/explore ways of fixing the currently problems that haven't been addressed/fixed with the EP121 on OS X. If you find any fixes or have any suggestions please feel free to post them in the comment section at the bottom of this article.
Current State
Working
- Audio
- Battery Indicator
- Buttons: Power/Sleep
- SD & MMC Card Reader
- Touch UI
- USB Ports
- Webcam
- Wi-FI
Not Working
- Bluetooth
- Buttons: Home, Keyboard, Orientation, Volume)
- Display Drivers (currently stuck at 1024x768x32, no QE/CI)
- Microphone
- Mini HDMI (untested, assuming it doesn't work)
Pre-requisites
- EP121
- Mac Computer
- USB Keyboard
- 8 GB Thumb/USB Drive
- Mac OS X Lion installation from the Mac App Store
- Bundles of files for this tutorial.
Tutorial
Step #1 -- Show hidden files on your computer.
- Open the Terminal application (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
- In the terminal window type the following:
- defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
- killall Finder
Step #2 -- Extract "BaseSystem.dmg"
- Open /Applications
- Right-click on "Install Mac OS X Lion" and click "Show Package Contents"
- In the new folder window that has opened navigate to: Contents > Shared Support
- There will be a file named "InstallESD.dmg", mount this file by double-clicking it.
- Now open up Mac's terminal application (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
- In the new folder window that has opened "BaseSystem.dmg" will reside.
- Drag the file to your desktop and mount it by double-clicking it.
Step #3 -- Restoring "BaseSystem.dmg" to USB Drive
- Open the Disk Utility application (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility)
- Select "Mac OS X Base System" on the left hand side of the window.
- Next select the "Restore" tab.
- Drag your USB Drive on the left hand side over to the Destination textbox. (Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the Master Boot Record)
- Click "Restore"
Step #4 -- Preparing USB Drive
- After the restore has completed navigate on the USB drive to /System/Library/Extensions
- In this folder delete all kext files starting with AppleIntelHD
- Also while in this folder copy "drivers/FakeSMC.kext" from the included archived into this folder.
- Switch back over the Terminal application.
In the terminal type the following (remember to use your USB volume's location):
- sudo chmod -R 755 /Volumes/USB_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions/FakeSMC.kext
- sudo chmod root:wheel /Volumes/USB_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions/FakeSMC.kext
- sudo touch /Volumes/USB_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions
- Now navigate back to the root of the USB drive and goto /System/Installation
- There should be a shortcut file here named "Packages", delete it.
- Now keep the USB finder window open, and open a new finder window.
- Back on Step #2 we mounted the "InstallESD.dmg" file.
- The name of this mount should be called "Mac OS X Install ESD"
- In the new finder window navigate to this mount, and copy the "Packages" folder over to /System/Installation on the USB drive.
- After "Packages" has finished copying navigate to back to the root of "Mac OS X Install ESD"
- In this folder will be a file named "mach_kernel"
- Drag/copy "mach_kernel" to the root of your USB drive.
- Launch "apps/Chameleon RC5" from the archive included in this tutorial and install Chameleon to your USB drive.
- After this has completed drag all files in the "apps/Chameleon RC5 r755" folder into the root of your USB drive. (Yes, overwrite any existing files)
Step #5 -- Boot Into Mac OS X Lion's Installation
- Plug your USB drive into your EP121 tablet, and power your tablet on.
- You should be prompted to select your startup volume.
- Make sure "Mac OS X Base System" is selected, and hit enter.
If you get stuck try the following parameters when booting: -v GraphicsEnabler=No
- You should now be booting into the Mac OS X Lion installation screen.
- At the top of the screen should be a "Utilities" menu, click it and launch "Disk Utility"
- Format you drive to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and set the options for the partition to be "GUID Partition Table".
- The default partition named for Mac OS is "Macintosh HD", so let's assume that you're going to name it that.
- After the process of formatting has completed quit/close out "Disk Utility"
- You now be back at the Mac OS X Installation screen.
- Following through the steps and let the installation Complete.
If it appears that the installation has frozen, it hasn't. Simply flick the power button and the screen will update. It looks like the screen falls asleep and stops updating the UI.
Step #6 -- Post-installation, not quite done yet...
- After the installation has completed your computer will automatically reboot and you will be prompted to select your startup volume again.
- For the second time, choose "Mac OS X Base System", we want to get back to the installation process again.
- When the installation loads up goto the "Utilities" menu and select "Terminal".
- At the Terminal window we now need to copy FakeSMC.kext from our USB drive over to our hard drive.
- In the terminal type the following (remember to use your USB volume's location):
- cp -R /Volumes/USB_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions/FakeSMC.kext /Volumes/HARD_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions/FakeSMC.kext
- chmod -R 755 /Volumes/HARD_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions/FakeSMC.kext
- chmod root:wheel /Volumes/HARD_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions/FakeSMC.kext
- touch /Volumes/HARD_DRIVE/System/Library/Extensions
Step #7 -- Booting Mac OS X Lion for the first time!
- When your computer boots up you will be prompted to select your startup volume again.
- Your hard drive should show up in this list (you can use your keyboard or volume buttons on the tablet to navigate).
- Select your hard drive and hit enter.
If you get stuck at the Apple boot screen try these parameters: -v GraphicsEnabler=No
- Mac OS X should prompt you to setup your computer, go ahead and finish the setup.
- After you've completed the setup launch "apps/Kext Helper b7" and add "IO80211Family.kext" enter your password then click "EASY INSTALL". After installing reboot.
- After booting back into your desktop launch "apps/MultiBeast 4.3.1" and checkoff "Bootloaders" and complete the installation.
- Open "apps/Kext Helper b7" and add "VoodooHDA.kext", "VoodooBattery.kext" and "AppleACPIPlatform.kext", enter your password and click "EASY INSTALL".
- Next launch "VoodooHDA.prefPane". (You will see a couple of errors, simply dismiss them.)
- Next launch "VoodooHDA SSE2 Enabler" and dismiss the message it leaves.
- Next launch "VoodooLoader Installer" and enter your password.
- Delete /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext
- You can now remove your USB drive and reboot!
As stated before this tutorial is a work in progress. There are still things that need to be fixed and worked on this get this tablet fully working and compatible with Mac OS X. Hopefully this tutorial will open the doors to other users attempting to fix the current issues that need to be addresses. If you found this tutorial helpful please drop a comment, like this on facebook, +1 it on google, or tweet it on twitter to help spread the word.
