Question about my new used Macbook Air

[iGrant]

Hey Guys,

I got my new used Macbook Air today and I got a question about the boot, it does a black screen with white lettering like linux does except its for 10.6 Here is a screen shot. Is this a bootleg or Hackintosh version of 10.6?? I have the family pack of 10.6 at the house so I have a legal copy I can install when I get home today. Here is the screen shot that I have attached.

Curious to see what you think. I don't think its a legit install of 10.6 because I can't get the back-lit keyboard to work either . . .

Sorry for the low quality, its from my cell phone . . .

Thanks
iGrant

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

That's just the verbose startup. You can force it on any mac by holding down Command-v on boot. There are ways to make it come up every time though. If I were you, I'd just reinstall though. It's what I do with any new/used machine I get just for peace of mind that things are set up the way I want them.

Edit, you can disable it coming up automatically by opening up a terminal window and doing the following:

sudo nvram boot-args=

To re-enable it you can use:

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

 

[iGrant]

That's just the verbose startup. You can force it on any mac by holding down Command-v on boot. There are ways to make it come up every time though. If I were you, I'd just reinstall though. It's what I do with any new/used machine I get just for peace of mind that things are set up the way I want them.

Yeah I was thinking about doing it anyway because I can't get the backlit shortcut keys to work, it just comes up with a x in the symbol. Other than that I'm loving this Macbook Air!!!

-Disjaukifa

 

[Gadgetman99]

Hey Guys,

I got my new used Macbook Air today and I got a question about the boot, it does a black screen with white lettering like linux does except its for 10.6 Here is a screen shot. Is this a bootleg or Hackintosh version of 10.6?? I have the family pack of 10.6 at the house so I have a legal copy I can install when I get home today. Here is the screen shot that I have attached.

Curious to see what you think. I don't think its a legit install of 10.6 because I can't get the back-lit keyboard to work either . . .

Sorry for the low quality, its from my cell phone . . .

Thanks
iGrant

When I got mine, I must have closed it and marveled at the thinness, sleek lines and almost weightlessness over and over. Have you gotten past that yet, or still cooing over it?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Yeah I was thinking about doing it anyway because I can't get the backlit shortcut keys to work, it just comes up with a x in the symbol. Other than that I'm loving this Macbook Air!!!

-Disjaukifa

Do a Software Update. When I got a Rev A MBA a few weeks ago I didn't have my Snow Leopard disks to hand and so used my Leopard disks. It all installed fine but afterwards things like the backlight on the keyboard didn't work as well as some other things. It worried me for a bit until I did a software update.

Although I would still do a reinstall.

 

[iGrant]

When I got mine, I must have closed it and marveled at the thinness, sleek lines and almost weightlessness over and over. Have you gotten past that yet, or still cooing over it?

Nope still cooing . . . I can't believe how thin it is!!! I have never seen a Macbook Air in person before so to me its like WOW!!! Pictures do not does this laptop any justice !

-iGrant

 

[iGrant]

Do a Software Update. When I got a Rev A MBA a few weeks ago I didn't have my Snow Leopard disks to hand and so used my Leopard disks. It all installed fine but afterwards things like the backlight on the keyboard didn't work as well as some other things. It worried me for a bit until I did a software update.

Although I would still do a reinstall.

Yeah I am going to do a re-install anyway because I don't want to install the print drivers and everything . . . I like a bare OS when I start

-iGrant

 

[Mactagonist]

Yeah I am going to do a re-install anyway because I don't want to install the print drivers and everything . . . I like a bare OS when I start

-iGrant

This is a holdover from my windows days but I always format and reinstall when I get a used machine. I just dont trust the previous owner that much.

 

[iGrant]

This is a holdover from my windows days but I always format and reinstall when I get a used machine. I just dont trust the previous owner that much.

Yeah I'm the same way . . . the only thing that sucks is I'm going to have to install 10.6 over my wireless . . . wireless G . . . . its going to take hours . . .

-iGrant

 

[Mactagonist]

Yeah I'm the same way . . . the only thing that sucks is I'm going to have to install 10.6 over my wireless . . . wireless G . . . . its going to take hours . . .

-iGrant

Remote disk isnt that bad, it will take time but it is surprisingly fast.

 

[iGrant]

Remote disk isnt that bad, it will take time but it is surprisingly fast.

I hope so, I'm donig a bare install of 10.6, I don't want the language packs or the print drivers of the exact software . . . I don't use any of it . . . hopefully it won't take too long . . .

-iGrant

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I hope so, I'm donig a bare install of 10.6, I don't want the language packs or the print drivers of the exact software . . . I don't use any of it . . . hopefully it won't take too long . . .

-iGrant

Dou have a USB hard drive? You can clone your Snow Leopard disk onto an external hard drive and then boot from that on the MBA. Create DMGs of iLife/iWork etc and you can install everything from the USB drive in very little time at all.

 

[iGrant]

Dou have a USB hard drive? You can clone your Snow Leopard disk onto an external hard drive and then boot from that on the MBA. Create DMGs of iLife/iWork etc and you can install everything from the USB drive in very little time at all.

I have a mac mini and I have external drives . . . how exactly would that work?

Thanks
iGrant

 

[Encolpius]

I installed Snow Leopard over wireless G last week and it took a little over an hour.

 

[iGrant]

I installed Snow Leopard over wireless G last week and it took a little over an hour.

Ahh then I'm doing that, thats not bad at all . . . give me time to make dinner for the family and eat

-iGrant

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I have a mac mini and I have external drives . . . how exactly would that work?

Thanks
iGrant

The easiest way is to wipe the external drive. Use disk utility to format the external drive and then use the Restore tab to select the source as the SL disk and the destination as the USB drive. You can create DMGs by using the "New Image" function and then I think use the same restore function.

Ahh then I'm doing that, thats not bad at all . . . give me time to make dinner for the family and eat

-iGrant

If you go that route make sure both the MBA and the Mini have got full wireless reception. If I use my laptops on the top floor of our house my wifi reception goes down to one bar out of four and any transfers I make take far far longer.

 

[iGrant]

The easiest way is to wipe the external drive. Use disk utility to format the external drive and then use the Restore tab to select the source as the SL disk and the destination as the USB drive. You can create DMGs by using the "New Image" function and then I think use the same restore function.



If you go that route make sure both the MBA and the Mini have got full wireless reception. If I use my laptops on the top floor of our house my wifi reception goes down to one bar out of four and any transfers I make take far far longer.

I actually have my Mini connected to the ethernet port of my wireless router . . . should I make a wireless network for my Mac Mini and my Macbook Air, so just the two of them talk? I have a small house with just 1 floor and they are both in the same room.

-iGrant

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I actually have my Mini connected to the ethernet port of my wireless router . . . should I make a wireless network for my Mac Mini and my Macbook Air, so just the two of them talk? I have a small house with just 1 floor and they are both in the same room.

-iGrant

If your mini is an older one with only 802.11g then it doesn't matter, have the MBA near the router and you'll be fine. If your mini is a newer one and has 802.11n then you could get a fair boost in speed by doing a mac-to-mac wifi network since I'm pretty sure all MBAs have 802.11n.

Edit: It looks like 1.6GHz Core Duo Mac Minis like you have listed in your sig don't have 802.11n so just go ahead and do it through the router. Just have the MBA close to the router to ensure you get the maximum speed.

 

[iGrant]

If your mini is an older one with only 802.11g then it doesn't matter, have the MBA near the router and you'll be fine. If your mini is a newer one and has 802.11n then you could get a fair boost in speed by doing a mac-to-mac wifi network since I'm pretty sure all MBAs have 802.11n.

Edit: It looks like 1.6GHz Core Duo Mac Minis like you have listed in your sig don't have 802.11n so just go ahead and do it through the router. Just have the MBA close to the router to ensure you get the maximum speed.

The only reason I am still considering going through the Mini is that I have read that you need to disable the wep on the router (I have a linksys with dd-wrt), so it might just be easier to open the Mac Mini's wireless and do it Mac-to-Mac . . .

-iGrant

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

The only reason I am still considering going through the Mini is that I have read that you need to disable the wep on the router (I have a linksys with dd-wrt), so it might just be easier to open the Mac Mini's wireless and do it Mac-to-Mac . . .

-iGrant

Ah fair enough. I guess I'd trust a direct mac-to-mac connection too since I don't really trust the stability of my (non Apple) router.

 

[iGrant]

Ah fair enough. I guess I'd trust a direct mac-to-mac connection too since I don't really trust the stability of my (non Apple) router.

Well what I ended up doing was making a disc image of my 10.6 disc, then I open the image up and disabled my wep on my linksys router and I was able to install 10.6 fresh install in about 25 minutes . . . doing system updates now.

I love this laptop

-iGrant

 

[coast1ja]

congrats on your new MBA! I hope you love it as much as the rest of us do!

 

[iGrant]

congrats on your new MBA! I hope you love it as much as the rest of us do!

I'm stilling cooing at it!!! I showed it to my wife and she was like "OMG where is it??? How is that a laptop?". Hahahah I love this laptop. I did a clean install 10.6 and its been running great ever since!!!

-iGrant

 

[Gadgetman99]

I'm stilling cooing at it!!! I showed it to my wife and she was like "OMG where is it??? How is that a laptop?". Hahahah I love this laptop. I did a clean install 10.6 and its been running great ever since!!!

-iGrant

I am about 2 months into this love affair and still cooing...

 

[coast1ja]

I am about 2 months into this love affair and still cooing...

same here, but for 6 months!... I upgraded to this from a HP 2133 mini-note, which was the king of netbooks at the time... and the MBA is so much better than that... it makes me furious when people call the MBA a netbook!