mountain lion

Windows 8 Pro running on VirtualBox on iMac OSX 10.8.2 – Success!!!

Start screen on Windows 8 Pro

As Windows 8 and IE10 have recently been released, I thought I’d better get myself a working Windows 8 system, asap. Will be very useful to be able to see how Windows 8 operates, plus also test IE10 websites as thats already either a requirement (or likely to become a requirement) in some projects I’m working on.

I’m actually writing this blog post on my Windows 8 Pro system, in IE10 – so it has been successful, but after many false starts and problems here and there.

MSN News on Windows 8

So, Windows 8 Pro is running on my iMac OSX 10.8.2, on VirtualBox 4.2.4, having upgraded a previous Windows XP SP3 virtual.

It took me many tries to get this working and the main things learnt were:

  • I tried to upgrade an existing XP virtual on VirtualBox but it would not work, however many ways I tried to change the virtual’s settings. It didn’t matter even when I had the latest copy of VirtualBox – it just wouldn’t work – the Windows-8-Setup and Windows-8-Upgrade-Assistent just wouldn’t run.
  • I then canned my existing XP virtual, which was only for test runs anyway.
  • I then got the very latest VirtualBox – v4.2.4
  • I created a new XP Virtual machine, with the settings as follows:
  •    2 CPUs
  •    Enabled PAE/NX (Important setting to avoid related errors / bootup errors)
  •    Hardware Virtualization – both options left checked
  •    Memory 2048Mb (my iMac has 12 Gb so plenty to spare)
  •    Hard Disk Space 30 GB (THIS WAS VITAL – FIRST TIME I HAD 20 GB – TOO SMALL!)
  • I then created the Windows XP virtual – from a genuine Windows XP SP2 DVD
  • I then had to 1) upgrade the browser to IE8 and 2) update Windows XP to SP3
  • I then downloaded Windows 8 Setup from the email where I’d purchased the Windows 8 Pro upgrade (for £24.99)
  • This time it ran perfectly, unlike on previous attempts, where it started but immediately exited
  • Then entered the Product Key
  • It then downloads Windows 8, which took a while but not that long really for a whole O/S download
  • Then the messages ‘Installing Windows 8′ then ‘Getting a few things ready…’ which continued for a while…
  • Then it was time to accept the License Terms
  • Then clicked Install and off it went.
  • Note: First time I got this far, it went wrong, as the iMac went into Power Saving mode and this screwed up the install process - at this point, it regressed back to Windows XP!  In readiness for the next time, I turned off all Power Saving.
  • Eventually, on the next try, it all worked.
  • I then started up Windows 8 Pro on my VirtualBox and – it started ok.
  • First problem though was that there was no network connection/adapter.
  • I Googled this and found an answer – so shut down the Windows 8 Pro virtual and changed the Network settings for it in VirtualBox. This was to to ensure in the Network settings screen that ‘Attached to:’ said NAT and Adapter Type said ‘Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM)
  • I then started up the Windows 8 Pro virtual and bang – it all worked fine, network and all (having changed a network setting on the main Start screen)

So now I have a fully functioning Windows 8 Pro setup for the price of a £24.99 upgrade - not bad! Now I just need to work out how the hell Windows 8 works!

First thoughts of Windows 8 are that its a bit unusual, but I actually like it – and thats using a mouse to get around it and not touch screens etc.

Below are screenshots of the various settings screens in VirtualBox for the successful Windows 8 Pro virtual machine.

 

 

 

By |November 14th, 2012|featured-posts, IE10, iMac, New Tech, OSX, Upgrades, Windows 8|0 Comments
Read More

OSX Mountain Lion/wifi issue – finally a solution?

Update – 4 October 2012 – Solution finally found… 

Wifi has been working for over a week now – without a drop out – so I can say the wifi issue has been fixed – at least for my situation. Read below for full details, but it was a change to my broadband router’s settings which did it – changing security to WPA/WPA2.

Original Post… 

Having tried many different possible solutions, things finally seem to have stabilised with this pesky Mountain Lion wifi issue.

I could be tempting fate – but – it does seem to have stabilised now for a whole day and a half – from the change I made at 1500 yesterday (25/09) until now 22:50 on 26/09 and thats while using my iMac a lot and mostly internet related stuff.

So, if you’ve been suffering with this problem yourself, you probably want to know what I changed? Well, I went back to basics and accessed my broadband router to check its settings. I changed the security settings to WPA+WPA2 in the drop down list and then applied that as the setting. I then deleted the existing network setting manually and set it up to use WPA+WPA2. Ever since then, I’ve not had a wifi drop out.

Also note: As I mentioned in previous post, I initially tried changing the channel the router used from 11 to 6 but this had zero effect.

I’m hoping this WPA/WPA change to router proves to be the fix. But if it is, puzzled why Apple didnt mention about WPA/WPA2 being needed / necessary on the broadband router?

Anyway, here’s hoping it’ll carry on working…

Wifi issue history

 

By |October 4th, 2012|Apple, iMac, OSX, Problems|0 Comments
Read More

Mountain Lion/wifi issue… Ongoing saga continues…

This issue is still occurring even after having reported it to Apple support and being in contact with someone from Apple support. (I provided them a Wifi Diagnostics report after issue occurred and with wifi debug/diagnostics setup)

The problem is strangely sporadic – some days it doesnt happen at all, other days it happens all the time and some days it’ll just occur once. Strangely enough, the higher the importance of the work I’m doing on the iMac, the more it occurs – well, the more I notice it – this leads to lots of ‘#!£%ing Apple!’ exclamations.

My latest attempt to try and get round this issue is by changing the Network Channel its using – it was on 11, now I’ve set it to 6. Lets see what happens…

Wifi issue history

 

By |September 25th, 2012|Apple, iMac, OSX, Problems|0 Comments
Read More

(Yet) Another attempt to fix wifi issue in OSX Mountain Lion… fail

As Apple haven’t yet supplied a fix for this wifi issue in OSX Mountain Lion, I tried another suggestion from a user on Apple Support Forums.

The main gist of this is to clear out all the networking plists from your /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ directory. Then restart Mac and setup your Network Prefs again.

I tried this and, at first, it did look promising – almost a whole day without any wifi connection issues. But then the next day, the wifi issues returned. Even as I type this blog entry, the wifi connection has dropped out!!!

Wifi issue history

By |August 30th, 2012|Apple, iMac, OSX, Problems|0 Comments
Read More

Hopes of Mountain Lion wifi fix in OSX 10.8.1 update?

Apple has released the OSX 10.8.1 update to Mountain Lion.

It was hoped this would feature a fix to the wifi issue being suffered by lots of Mountain Lion users. However, a check through the issues list and there was no mention of a wifi fix.

I updated (manually) anyway to see if they’d sneaked a fix in.

Initial signs were good – after install and restart, the wifi connection was still there and proceeded to work ok until I finished my use of the iMac, for around 30 minutes.

I knew the real test would be when come back to iMac later, after its been in sleep and then wake it. Initially, the wifi did work and I was able to check a Dropbox document and browsed to BBC site on Safari. However, when I then created a new tab and typed a new URL, the wifi dropped out. This has happened again since, so its definitely still a problem.

I’ve updated the Apple forums with this info.

So, we await a specific ‘OSX wifi fix’ update like happened last time.

Come on Apple!!! Sort it out!!!

Wifi issue history

 

By |August 24th, 2012|iMac, OSX, Problems, Upgrades|0 Comments
Read More

Another potential fix to wifi issue on OSX Mountain Lion

Update 14 August 2012: The wifi problem is still ongoing, with the wifi connection being lost erratically – sometimes when haven’t used browser/net for a while and sometimes when still using it (which is even more annoying!)
I’ve tried all the different suggestions so far, so looks like it will be a similar situation to last time – the wifi connection problem wasn’t fixed until Apple released an update, that time to Lion, and it was specifically ‘iMac WiFi Update’. Come on Apple, sort it out!

The list of other users with the same problem is mounting too – see Apple Support/Forum https://discussions.apple.com/message/19135664#19135664

Update: After 90 minutes of use, the wifi connection still hanging in. I’ve been using browser, then using a totally different non-internet application, then back to browser.
I did have an initial problem where it dropped out straight away, but this was fixed when I  pressed ‘Turn Wi-Fi Off’ and then On again in Network Preferences, to ensure I was using the new wifi settings – with MTU change.

Original: After previous attempts (WEP to WPA2, DHCP clear) at fixing the wifi issue experienced since Mountain Lion upgrade, I’ll now try another fix – Changing the MTU size to 1453.

I’ve now made the change to my system, so will report back after using the system for a while.

 

By |August 4th, 2012|iMac, OSX, Problems, Upgrades|0 Comments
Read More

Possible Fix to Mountain Lion wifi issue…

Update: Friday 3rd August – wifi still dropping out, even after WPA2 move. Next thing to try, deleting the WEP Network setting and seeing what happens. Also found this page on osxdaily.com site, which reports the wifi problem and some solutions, including renewing DHCP – which I’ll try and see if it solves the problem.

Original Post: The other day I reported that there was again a problem with wifi connections dropping after an OSX upgrade – this time to Mountain Lion.

Handily, one of the users on the Apple support forums suggested a fix for this issue.

The suggested fix is to change your wifi connection setups to use WPA2 encryption instead of WEP.

After a bit of fiddling around to get this setup, it does work for me and has worked the past hour or so.

To change the connection setups from WEP to WPA2:-

  • In Network Preferences, on Wifi, press Turn Wi-Fi Off button
  • Click Advanced button
  • Delete your existing Network with – button (if it shows WEP security, as mine did)
  • Click + button to add new Network
  • Enter the details for you wifi router/broadband setup. I found you have to enter this manually for it to allow you to select WPA2. Enter your SSIS, select WPA2 and enter your wifi password. Click OK to save settings. May need to supply Admin password.
  • I then found I had to switch wifi on and off a couple of times before I could get reliable connection.
  • Also note that there are now 2 Networks shown  under ‘Preferred Networks’ in Network Preferences/Wifi – one for WPA2 and one for WEP. It seems to work like this, so I’ve left it as is.
By |August 2nd, 2012|iMac, OSX, Upgrades|0 Comments
Read More