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Install Mavericks (+ server) on HP Mediasmart EX490

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Jan 8, 2012
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Motherboard
Mavericks
CPU
intel pentium e6500 core 2 duo
Graphics
intel
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Classic Mac
  1. 0
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
I succeeded to install Mavericks on my HP MediaSmart EX490 and wanted to share my experience so that others can use it. I tried 2 times before I got it to work.
I have an EX490 which I have changed the processor to an Intel Pentium E6500 core 2 duo, 2,93 Mghz + 2Go RAM , and 4 drives (2*1T and 2*2T). One main point seemed to make my installation attempt fail I did not reboot before to install the HD in the EX 490 (step 7 below)

I therefore recommend to follow these steps to overcome that:

1. Remove HD from Server and connected it to a Mac via a USB to SATA adapter. Format server HD with at least two partitions. One smaller than 1TB like for instance 250GB and another (or more) for the rest like 1.26TB2.
2. Create a bootable USB (8GB) with Mavericks on it,
3. boot the Mac with the USB and install Mavericks on the smaller partition on the Server HD attached via SATA adapter
3. Went through initial setup of Mavericks, enabled screen sharing and remote login
4. Checked remote access from another computer, shutdown and started up again from the Server HD to check everything works,
5. Upload MultiBeast Mavericks on the HD server
6. ran MultiBeast with EasyBeast, Drivers for Realtek Network (did not select Lnx2Mac Realtek RTL81xx Driver) and changed installation Destination to the server HD attached via SATA adapter; (I did not select anything else in MultiBeast)
7. reboot from server HD after successful install of MultiBeast and cheek again to check boot is ok and assign a fixed IP address to the the new machine
8 shutdown and unplug the Server HD
9. Install server HD in EX490, started up and it worked

I hope this will help others.

PS I have subsequently installed Mavericks server on the EX490 - by remote access simply purchasing and downloading Mavericks Server from App Store, directly to the EX490 with Mavericks running and run the Installation prg.
 
1st, thank you for the excellent guide. I have an out of the box HP EX490 and have not been able to install Mavericks successfully. Do you know if a stock unit will work? Or do I have to upgrade my CPU?

Thanks!
 
Hello,

I am a big EX490 fan. I have a few of them. I've not tried mavericks but I run SL under ESX. Running ESX on a headless box is a lot easier. Granted you might not get the performance you want but for my needs SL is fine.

Apologies to go off topic but for the EX490 you might be more interested in something that is more easily manageable for tinkering. You can install ESX for free.

You will need to hide the CPU ID from the guest OS for compatibility.

Cheers,
Al
 
Thank you for your excellent guide PHDUREN! Please help with a clarification on your step 6 "6. ran MultiBeast with EasyBeast, Drivers for Realtek Network (did not select Lnx2Mac Realtek RTL81xx Driver) and changed installation Destination to the server HD attached via SATA adapter; (I did not select anything else in MultiBeast)"

I selected EasyBeast, but when I go todrivers, I am given three choices: 1) Atheros - Shailua's ALXthernet; 2) Intel - hnak's AppleIntel; and 3) Realtek - Lnx2Mac's Realtek. Should I be selecting 1, 2, 3 or all of the above. On none?

Thanks!
 
Anyone else have issues with 10.9.2? 10.9.1 worked flawlessly, but since I've upgraded my Mediasmart won't boot anymore. Even when I connect the hard drive via usb to my iMac it won't boot, unless I force it into safe mode. But even after running multibeast it won't boot normally.
 
Can I ask how did you format the drive that was returned to the MSS server? When I try and run the install USB drive, is get a warning that the drive in the USB cradle needs to be formatted as GUID, not the third choice as windows hardware compatible. It won't start the installer otherwise. Should I just format it as GUID and run with that? Will it boot up in the HP EX 495?

thanks for the guide, btw.
 
Can I ask how did you format the drive that was returned to the MSS server? When I try and run the install USB drive, is get a warning that the drive in the USB cradle needs to be formatted as GUID, not the third choice as windows hardware compatible. It won't start the installer otherwise. Should I just format it as GUID and run with that? Will it boot up in the HP EX 495?

thanks for the guide, btw.

Yes, you definitely need to format as GUID.
I dont foresee a problem booting up in a EX495. It worked in my EX480 even with a hacked BIOS and the CPU upgraded to an E8400.
 
Curious if anyone has successfully upgraded to Yosemite.
Anyone? :thumbup: :thumbdown:
 
Would like to know if someone upgraded to Yosemite as well. If not, I think I will try it once I find a spare HD somewhere.
 
Yep, it worked. I took out the hard drive and connected it to another Mac. Booted in and just used the app store update to Yosemite. Used MultiBeast afterwards with the normal drivers and voila: a working Yosemite installation on an HP Mediasmart EX490.
 
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