Mac mini to Vista Cookbook

Here is my cookbook for getting Vista onto a Mini mac. I loved the mac mini design and really like Media Center (or at least the concept) so this was an opportunity to learn and convince my wife it was bringing together all the "stuff" we have.

Note: watching movies and pictures in the lounge while listening to your favourite
tunes, whilst cheesy, was in fact very rewarding. The next step in my journery is DVB-T, which I will document later.

Here is my braindump of steps and links I used

- get windows Vista
This proved a challenge over the long weekend. I ended up going to work to pickup a copy. Fortunately working for Microsoft there were plenty to access, but there was plenty of warnings around its
use. Armed with the DVD (single sided) and product key I went forth into mac land.

- update apple firmware AND SMC firmware
bit confusing here but I did get it to work in the end
http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=32442&highlight=

- do the bootcamp dance
Download bootcamp, sign your life away to beta, and create a CD driver disk (requires blank CDR)

- connect to monitor ideally with a dvi or HDMI cable
I found that a composite connection, whilst terrible to read had the side effect of not displaying anything at all.
See here for worrying examples (I thought at this point my project was dead)
I learned that the MAC option key was important in getting my disk to eject. The mac mini has no eject button.
option F12 did the trick.

- delete the 200mb EFI partition
This apparently lets the Vista install actually happen (apparently the EFI partition gets in the way)

- install vista
This tends not to work first time. I rebooted into safe mode with network support (pressing F8). Do not reinstall, just choose the reboot option and alls well.

- getting sound to work
I read about this before installing and I reckoned it would be easy. Nothing ever is. YOu have to install the XP drivers
from the disk and then copy them before the install fails. Yes it fails. I then pointed to the directory based on the
advice and ran the sigmatel exe. Sound now worked. I later read about an easier way of dealing with this:

http://blogs.msdn.com/hans_vb/archive/2006/06/06/619262.aspx

Note: using the command below results in more files and folders being created. Suprisingly this works
"D:\Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe” /V /a

- Switch off the internal speaker

As I use the output to goto the monitor/sound system it was freaky getting the tinny output from the mac mini.
Actually, I'm being a bit harsh, the speaker did ok for the size. It boggles the mind that people hack the registry
until they find a solution. Brave heart or foolish - who knows - I'm thankful he did look

http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=1239
nb. mine was 0000

- Setting up bluetooth
http://blogs.msdn.com/hans_vb/archive/2006/06/06/619262.aspx

- seting up wireless

This was a pain in the butt. And I still working on it. WPA it didnt like, WEP it didn't like, even 802.1 authentication it didn't like. SO unsecured for a day or so. Not good. In the end it was to do with my wireless or ethernet drivers. Note: I am using RDP to get to the machine so it boots me off. I recommend fulling installing the mac supplied drivers.

My (current) two pet dislikes about Vista in beta2:

1) USer Account Control - Understand the rationale, dislike it because when administrator I generally trust myself
2) Start - Program Files - Accessories - Run , I like run, its now hard to get hold of


Links

Mac Mini – Is It The Best Media Center….PC?
Here is where I was convinced it was possible in Australia (the DVB-T mac mini vista pipe dream)
Love the developer evangelists who try it all out. Hans does great commentary