MacBuild Intel Checklist
OS X Triage
Getting Started
Attach keyboard/mouse, monitor, network cable, and power cord (as necessary)
Install components for triage
- If working on a standard desktop system:
- Install a tested/wiped HDD
- Install tested RAM in each available memory slot
- Install a tested battery
- If working on a system with a built-in display:
- Install tested RAM in each available memory slot
- NOTE: certain models (iMac G4s in particular) use SODIMMs (laptop memory) instead of/in addition to standard desktop memory. Go ahead and use untested memory for the SODIMM slot, as we'll test that memory later in the process
- Install a tested battery if it is easily accessible (if the system uses a 3.6v battery, it can be done while installing RAM)
- Install an AirPort/AirPort Extreme wireless card
- Install tested RAM in each available memory slot
- If working on an oddball system (e.g. Mac mini):
- Ask an instructor for further direction
You may need to install more parts than specifications require in order to test the system (e.g. you may need to install more RAM in a system than we'd actually need for building because we want to test all the RAM slots at once). If that's the case, remember to remove any excess components after the triage is complete.
Hardware Testing
Boot into OS X
There are a few different ways to boot into OS X in MacBuild. Pick the appropriate option from the following, or ask an instructor for help.
From an external FireWire HDD (for PPC systems)
- Connect the OS X 10.4 FireWire HDD to the system
- Connect the FireWire HDD to a power source
- Make sure the FireWire HDD is turned on (there's a power switch on the back of the drive)
- Hold the Option key on the keyboard while system starts up to enter the Startup Manager
- Select the FireWire drive from the Startup Manager to boot into OS X 10.4
From an external USB HDD (for Intel systems)
- Connect the OS X 10.5 USB HDD to the system
- Connect the USB HDD to a power source
- Make sure the USB HDD is turned on (there's a power switch on the back of the drive)
- Hold the Option key on the keyboard while system starts up to enter the Startup Manager
- Select the USB drive from the Startup Manager to boot into OS X 10.5
From the network (for PPC systems)
- Hold the n key as the system starts up
- Release the n key once a globe starts flashing on the screen
- Press the m key at the bootloader to boot into OS X 10.5
- Wait a few minutes while the OS loads
Regardless of which method you use, here are a few things to remember:
- Depending on the system's specifications, it may take a few minutes to boot into the OS
- If a system shows a black rectangle in the middle of the screen, complains about a kernel panic, asks for a restart, or does something other than load the OS, notify an instructor and set the system aside for troubleshooting
Log into OS X
- The username is oem, and the password is freegeek.
Confirm hardware
- Click on the apple icon in the upper-left corner of the screen
- Select the About This Mac option from the menu
- Click the More Info button to launch the System Profiler
- Check the ATA and Memory sections of System Profiler to confirm that it matches what you've added to the system so far
- If it fails to see the HDD or reports the amount of memory incorrectly, the system may have a bad logic board and end up getting recycled. Ask an instructor for troubleshooting assistance
- Check the Disc Burning section of System Profiler to see what the optical drive in the system can do
Test CD writing
If you determined that the optical drive in the system can write CD-RWs, do the following:
- To erase a rewritable disk
- Insert a CD-RW disk
- Open up Disk Utility (Click on the icon of the HDD you booted from that is on the desktop, and navigate to Applications -> Utilities. Disk Utility will be in that folder.)
- Click on the optical drive on the left sidebar of the Disk Utility window
- Click on the Erase tab that comes up on the right side of the window
- Confirm that it will perform a quick erase, and click on the Erase button
- When the erasing is complete you'll get a dialog box. Choose Open Finder from the drop down menu and click OK. This will mount the disk on the desktop. Quit the disk Utility application.
- To write to a blank rewritable disc
- Click on the icon of the HDD you booted from that is on the desktop, and navigate to Applications
- Drag and drop the Dashboard application onto the icon on the desktop
- Double-click the CD icon on the desktop
- Click on the Burn button near the upper-right corner of the window
Check if WiFi works
- Click on the AirPort icon near the upper-right corner of the screen
- Check to see if the Freegeek wireless network shows up on the list
- If you are netbooted, do NOT select a wireless network out of the list. If you are booted from an external HDD, disconnect the wired network, select Freegeek from the list, open up a browser, and navigate to any web page. If you see the Free Geek click-through page, it works.
Label the system
- Check off what worked and what didn't on a label, and attach the label to the system
Shut down and remove excess components
- Ask an instructor to confirm what, if anything, should be removed from the system
Build
Getting Started
Attach keyboard/mouse, monitor, network cable, and power cord (as necessary)
Clear the PRAM
The parameter RAM, or PRAM for short, is used by Apple systems to store all sorts of settings. Sometimes certain settings will prevent us from being able to successfully work on a system, so we should always reset the PRAM on systems we will be working on.
To reset the PRAM, hold the Option+Apple+p+r keys while the system is starting up. Continue holding the keys until the system chimes three times. Release the keys after the third chime is heard and shift quickly to the Option+Apple+o+f keys. If you don't hear any chimes at all, just hold the keys for a minute, and then shift to the Option+Apple+o+f keys.
Set the system clock and NVRAM in Open Firmware
While starting up, hold the Option+Apple+o+f keys. Release the keys when the Open Firmware prompt comes up. In order to set the system clock in open firmware, you need to run a set of commands Open Firmware understands. The command you will be running uses the following syntax:
decimal dev rtc [seconds minutes hour day month year] set-time
All values aside from the year should be two-digit numbers in 24-hour format. The year should be a four-digit number. Additionally, the clock needs to be set to UTC, so remember to add 7 hours to the current time if on regular time or 8 hours during Daylight Saving Time. For example, to set the clock to 1:58 PM on September 18th, 2009, the command would be
decimal dev rtc 00 58 20 18 09 2009 set-time
To reset the NVRAM type the following commands in the specified order:
reset-nvramset-defaultsreset-all
The system will reboot after the reset-all command is entered.
Installation
Start the network installation and run badblocks if necessary
To access this install, hold down the n key (for network) while the computer starts. As soon as the network icon starts blinking on the screen you may release the n key.
- At the first boot prompt enter an l (for linux). At the second boot prompt:
- If the system has a G4 processor, press return to default to installing the PPC version of Ubuntu 9.04.
- If the system has a G5 processor, you must install the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 9.04. To do so, type jaunty64 at the second boot prompt and press return.
- The installation will stop at the keyboard selection. Accept the defaults (No or USA) for the next 3 screens and the installation will continue automatically.
- If prompted to choose between wired and wireless network choose eth0 (wired)
- When prompted for a hostname, delete the current entry and enter macbox in its place
- When prompted for HD partitioning we need to make a decision.
- If this is a computer that has had a wiped and tested hard drive installed, or if it successfully completed badblocks, we can accept the default and let the installation proceed.
- If this is a computer that came straight from Mac Eval or TARDIS, it needs to have the hard drive tested with badblocks. To do this we choose "Go Back" and then select "Execute a shell" from the menu. At the prompt, run the following:
badblocks -wvvf -c1024 -e1 /dev/hda
- If that command fails, try
badblocks -wvvf -c1024 -e1 /dev/sda
- It will take anywhere from 3 to 8 hours to run badblocks.
- If there are any bad blocks we must replace the hard drive.
- If there are no bad blocks, you can proceed with the installation. To do this type "exit" to leave the shell, select "Partition drives" from the list, choose "Guided Partitioning" when the partitioner starts and then accept the defaults and the rest of the installation will proceed automatically.
The remainder of the installation will take approximately 30 minutes and the computer will automatically reboot following the installation.
Hardware/Software Testing
Start up Ubuntu
- Log into the system using the username oem and password freegeek.
- If the system has problems starting up, refer to the Special Configurations list
Set up the environment and verify hardware in the system
- Add the Terminal to the panel so it can be launched quickly. You can do this by either dragging and dropping the terminal icon to the top panel, or, if you have a two-button mouse, by right-clicking on the terminal icon in the dropdown applications context menu and selecting Add this launcher to panel.
- Check to see if the splash screen has been enabled. To do this, run the following in a terminal:
sudo nano /etc/usplash.conf- If the splash screen has been configured to work already, you should see an entry that looks like this (the numbers may be different, but the syntax will be the same):
xres=1024 yres=768
- If no entry is found, one must be added. To do so, do the following:
- If you are working on a system with a built-in display, use the display's native resolution.
- To determine a display's native resolution, click on System -> Preferences -> Display in the context menu (or System -> Preferences -> Monitors, in some cases) and use the resolution provided there. The resolution is usually correct, but ask an instructor if you have any doubts.
- If you can't figure out your display's native resolution, just stick to the numbers used below
- Add the appropriate resolution to the file in the following syntax:
xres=1024 yres=768
- Save the file and exit the editor
- To save in nano, press Ctrl+o. nano will then ask you to confirm the file's name (it should stay as usplash.conf). Press the Enter or Return key to confirm. If nano asks you for permission to overwrite the old file, say yes.
- To exit nano, press Ctrl+x. If you have already saved the file, nano will close. If you have any unsaved changes, nano will ask you if you'd like to save your changes. This dialog is essentially the same one you get when you press Ctrl+o. nano will close once it receives your input.
- Run the following in a terminal:
sudo update-initramfs -u
- If you are working on a system with a built-in display, use the display's native resolution.
- Verify the hardware in a system
- Run the following in a terminal:
sudo lshw- This runs a command called lshw (which stands for "list hardware") The items to pay attention to are:
- Read through the output of the command and find:
- Amount of system memory
- You should be able to find this under the memory heading in lshw. If you installed the memory yourself, this readout should display the same amount of memory as what you installed.
- Systems we build should have, at minimum, 512 MB of RAM. Ask your instructor to confirm that your system has the correct amount of memory installed.
- Type of optical drive
- This can be found under the cdrom heading in lshw.
- Systems we build should have, at minimum, a combo DVD reader/CD writer. Refer to the minimum specification chart on the Desktop Build section of the MacBuild wiki page for more detail.
- Presence of wireless card
- This should be under one of the network headings. You should look for an entry that mentions something about "Wireless interface" or "Broadcom". If that exists, the system has a wireless card.
- Amount of system memory
- Run the following in a terminal:
- This is a good time to shut down the system and install additional memory or a wireless card if they are missing. Ubuntu will not run well with 256MB of memory and will sometimes generate errors that don't occur when 512MB or more memory is installed.
- If you have a dual processor machine you may notice that the second processor (cpu1) has "DISABLED" listed after it in lshw. In order to enable the second processor run the following command:
sudo apt-get install linux-powerpc-smp
Test CD/DVD data and sound
- Insert, play, and eject a music CD
- If machine has a CD-RW or DVD-RW, use Brasero or K3b to erase a CD-RW disk, and create/burn a new data project.
- In Brasero
- To erase a disc, go to Tools -> Blank in Brasero's context menu
- To burn a disc, click on the Data Project button, drag and drop a bunch of files from the Examples folder in the default user's home directory (you can pull up the current user's home directory by going to Places -> Home Folder via the context menu in the upper-left corner of the screen)
- In K3b
- To erase a disc, go to Tools -> Format/Erase rewritable disk in K3b's context menu
- To burn a disc, go to File -> New Project -> New Data Project in K3b's context menu, drag and drop a bunch of files from the Examples folder in the default user's home directory (you can pull up the current user's home directory by going to Places -> Home Folder via the context menu in the upper-left corner of the screen)
- In Brasero
- If machine has a DVD drive:
- Insert a data DVD and inspect directory contents. If you can see the files on a disc, it probably works.
Check if WiFi works (if the system has a wireless card)
- Unplug the network cable
- Use Network Manager to find, and switch to, Free Geek's wireless network
- Open up a web browser and navigate to any page
- If the browser takes you to either the intended page or the Free Geek Wireless page, the wireless card works
- REMEMBER: Plug the network cable back in once you're done testing the wireless, as you'll need to be on the wired network for the printme process
Generate "printme" report for system
- Set up the printer by selecting System - Administration - Printing. When the printers window opens, select server and then settings and click on the top box (access printers shared by other computers). Close the printing window.
- In a terminal, type printme
- Enter your volunteer ID in the Volunteer ID field
- Job should be changed to Builder
- Type should be changed to Apple
- Choose whether the computer is covered or not (if it has an Uncovered Electronic Device sticker on it somewhere, it's NOT covered. If it does NOT have a Uncovered Electronic Device sticker, it's covered)
- Choose whether the computer is an FG-PDX system or not (if it has a FG-PDX sticker, it's covered. If it does NOT have a FG-PDX sticker, it's NOT covered)
- Notes should include the following information:
- Any components that show up in lshw (modems, certain wireless cards) that aren't supported by Ubuntu should be listed
- Any special issues the machine has
- If WiFi or disc burning work in OS X but not in Ubuntu, note it here
- When asked where to print the report, select the printer Double.