After over a decade of being a 100% hardcore Windows fan, 4 months ago I picked up my very first Macbook on a whim. Being the Windows fan that I was, I never gave Mac and OSX an honest chance, so for about 2 weeks following my purchase, I decided I’ve give it a try and see what OSX was all about. Now, 4 months later, I’m surprised to admit, that I’ve converted 99% to Mac. Because I’m a web/software developer, I’ve come to realize the HUGE benefits of using a Mac over a PC. Thus, over the last week or so, I was on a mission to convert my Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F to a Hackbook Pro.
Although this wasn’t my first Hackbook, after countless hours scouring for info on how to do this the easiest way, information was not available or scattered all over the place. Thanks to Insanely Mac, Hackintosh.org, Infinite Mac, Tony Mac and a few blogs, I was able to put together enough information on how to successfully convert my Sony VAIO to a Hackbook Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.6.
Because it was such a huge pain in the a$$ gathering all the required info, hacks and (working) kexts for the VGN-NW270F, I figured I’d share my experience and provide a guide for others that wish to convert their VAIO VGN-270F.
First off, everything works on Snow Leopard 10.6.6, except the following:
1) Ethernet – I rarely use it, so I have not bothered to completely figure out a solution yet.
2) Sleep
3) Full CI/QE support for the onboard Intel GMA 4500MHD video card
4) SD Card reader – I don’t use it, period. So I haven’t bothered to find a solution either.
Update 3/23/11: I’ve updated to 10.6.7 using Software Update with no problems at all. No mods/changes required!
To convert your Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F to a Hackbook Pro:
1) You will need a copy of Snow Leopard 10.6 Retail. I do not condone software piracy, so how you attain a copy is on you.
If you got a dmg of Snow Leopard 10.6, then you will need to expand it using Transmac and burn the new file to a dual layer DVD.
2) Download iBoot from Tony Mac’s website:
Download
Burn iBoot to a blank CD as a bootable CD. ImgBurn works great for this.
3) Insert the iBoot CD and boot up. Make sure you selected the boot sequence to boot from CD/DVD first.
Once iBoot is loaded – you’ll see a red apple at the top of the screen, eject the iBoot CD and insert your Snow Leopard 10.6 DVD. Wait for the CD drive to finish reading the disc, then press F5. You will now see the Mac OSX Install option. Select it and follow the onscreen instructions.
4) When you get to the installation screen, open Utilities -> Disk Utility from the Menu Bar. Partition your hard drive to GUID Partition Table and format the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). For the purpose of this guide, name the new partition “Macintosh HD”, you can rename it later. Close Disk Utility and continue with the installation. When the installer asks you where to install, choose your “Macintosh HD” partition. Then choose “Customize” and uncheck all the additional options, you can install these later.
Let the installation continue, sit back and grab a cup of coffee. When the installation completes, it will reboot.
5) When the installation has completed, remove the Snow Leopard install DVD and insert the iBoot CD again. Let it reboot and when iBoot has completed loading, select “Macintosh HD”.
You now have Snow Leopard 10.6 installed on your Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F!
*Note: Your wifi most likely isn’t working at this point, so you will need to perform steps 6 and 7 on another computer and transfer the files to your Sony Hackbook via USB drive or burned CD.
6) Download 10.6.6 Combo Update from Apple:
Download
7) Download Multi-Beast from Tony Mac:
Download
8) Install the 10.6.6 Combo Update. When the installation completes, it will prompt you to reboot. DO NOT REBOOT yet!
9) Run Multi-Beast. Check mark (select) EasyBeast and System Utilities.
Under Drivers and Bootloaders -> Kexts & Enablers -> Audio, select Universal
Under Miscellaneous, select Voodoo PS/2 Controller
Under OSx86 Software, select Kext Helper b7 and Kext Utility
Continue with the installation. If Multi-Beast crashes, simply restart it and reselect the options. If you get an Installer error, simply select Ignore.
Once Multi-Beast has completed, remove the iBoot CD (you don’t need it anymore), and reboot the computer. Snow Leopard should now load automatically!
Congrats! You now have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 running on your VIAO!
10) Download the Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F Hackbook Pro files package I put together, it includes all the packages and kexts you’ll need to get the non-functioning hardware working:
Download
11) At this point, you’ve probably noticed that your wi-fi, battery status and “About This Mac” aren’t working. To fix this, you’ll need to install the following kexts from the package you downloaded:
AppleSMBIOSEFI.kext
IO80211Family.kext
VoodooBattery.kext
To install the kexts, open Kext Helper (use Spot Light to find it if you don’t know where it is), drag the 3 kext files to Kext Helper, type in your password and click Easy Install. Once done, reboot and you should have working wi-fi, battery status and About This Mac.
12) To get the trackpad fully functional with 2-finger scroll, open Kext Helper again and select VoodooPS2Controller.kext, enter your password and click Easy Install. When complete, do not reboot just yet. Open up Terminal and perform the following steps:
a) Type: cd /System/Library/PreferencePanes
Press enter
b) Type: sudo rm -rf Trackpad.prefPane
Press enter
c) Type: sudo cp -r
Click and drag the file Trackpad.prefPane from your desktop to the terminal window
Type: ./
Press enter
*note: the above command should look similar to:
cp -r /Users/YourUsername/Desktop/Trackpad.prefPane ./
d) Reboot and you should have a fully functional trackpad with 2-finger scroll. You can change the settings in System Preferences -> Trackpad
13) You may have noticed that the back tick/tilde key doesn’t work as it should. To fix this, open Finder and do the following steps:
a) Navigate to “Your username” -> Library -> Keyboard Layouts
b) Drag VGNNW270.keylayout from your Desktop to the Finder window
c) Open System Preferences -> Language and Text -> Input Sources
d) Select (check mark) VAIO-VGN-NW270
That’s it! You now have a functional back tick and tilde key
14) To get native 1366×768, you’ll need to follow these directions to install the custom Chameleon 2 RC4 v2 bootloader made specifically for the GMA 4500MHD graphics card:
a) If you haven’t already, expand the Sony VAIO files packaged you downloaded in step 10. Inside you’ll find a compressed file called “ChameleonMR2.zip”. Expand it to your desktop.
b) Open Terminal and type: diskutil list
This will list all your hard drives and partitions. Locate your OSX partition (if you followed this guide, it will be called “Macintosh HD”) and note down the Identifier, which should be “disk0s2″.
c) Next, in Terminal type “cd” and drag your Chameleon folder from the desktop into the Terminal window and hit enter.
d) Next, type: sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0
e) Next, type: sudo dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s2 (or whatever your identifier is)
f) Next, type: sudo cp boot /
Now, the Chameleon Bootloader is installed. To complete the process, you’ll need to modify a few files.
g) In Terminal, type: sudo nano /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist
Add the following to the end of the file right above “</dict>”:
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1366x768x32</string>
Hit Control-X and “Y” to save and exit.
h) Type: sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
Then also add the same text to the bottom of the file as in the previous step. Save and exit.
Now reboot, and you should have 1366×768 native resolution!
Please note, that the onboard Intel GMA 4500MHD isn’t supported at all, thus you can not enable CI/QE, you can only get the native resolution. If a working driver is eventually made, please let me know.
Congrats! If everything went smoothly, you should now have a 99% fully functional Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F Hackbook Pro!
If anyone is able to get the ethernet and/or SD card reader working, please let me know!
Questions?
Comments?
Suggestions?
Please leave them below!
So, I never ran in to this issue with my Macbook, but recently I converted my Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F into a Hackbook running Snow Leopard 10.6.6 and suddenly every browser I used was crashing whenever Flash content was on the page. And because I’m an avid viewer for flash content (thanks to