Lion Server on an HP Mediasmart EX485
- Thread starter neuroman
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2012
- Messages
- 17
- Motherboard
- HP Mediasmart EX490
- CPU
- E5600
- Graphics
- on board
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hi STH744,
I've also gotten round to installing Mavericks and it has been working like a charm. It's great to see that these little machines are still able to run the latest version of OS X and do their work without any problems. I've just been able to get another one (never used) on e-Bay for 100 euros to create another one. Great value!
I've also gotten round to installing Mavericks and it has been working like a charm. It's great to see that these little machines are still able to run the latest version of OS X and do their work without any problems. I've just been able to get another one (never used) on e-Bay for 100 euros to create another one. Great value!
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2011
- Messages
- 4
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
I've been running 10.6 on my HP EX490 for a couple of years now. I've been happy with the setup as a Plex and ut*****t server, but bothered by the 1024x768 display limitation.
Today, I just upgraded successfully upgraded the EX490 to 10.9, and went through Multibeast again. There is an option on the "Customize" tab of Multibeast called "1080p Display Mode". Checked this, reboot, and it came back with 1280 x 1024 as the only display option. Still not ideal, but better than 1024x768.
Today, I just upgraded successfully upgraded the EX490 to 10.9, and went through Multibeast again. There is an option on the "Customize" tab of Multibeast called "1080p Display Mode". Checked this, reboot, and it came back with 1280 x 1024 as the only display option. Still not ideal, but better than 1024x768.
Last edited by a moderator:
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 1
- Motherboard
- HP MSS EX490
- CPU
- Pentium
- Graphics
- nil
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
great directions. by reading this post plus many others I easily separated what had to be done vs. what folks decided to do. I upgraded a bone stock EX490 to Mavericks Server (Mavericks plus Server) last evening and it works great. I have sourced a processor (E8600) and 4GB of RAM to add at a future date.
thanks everyone. by repurposing my HP MSS I've saved money for new hardware at a later date.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2012
- Messages
- 17
- Motherboard
- HP Mediasmart EX490
- CPU
- E5600
- Graphics
- on board
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Does anyone else have problems with 10.9.2? Since I've upgraded, my Mediasmart won't boot anymore. I've tried to boot from the hard drive via my iMac and that also fails. I am able to boot via safe mode, but even after applying Multibeast I am unable to boot normally via the Mediasmart hard drive...
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2013
- Messages
- 8
- Motherboard
- Mediasmart EX490
- CPU
- Q9550S 2.83 GHz Quad Core Duo
- Graphics
- Not much!
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Ive updated to 10.9.2 with out any issues... I used the combo update method and it worked fine. I would try and boot from the Mediasmart system drive on a mac and see what happens from there... Good luck solving the issue...
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2013
- Messages
- 8
- Motherboard
- Mediasmart EX490
- CPU
- Q9550S 2.83 GHz Quad Core Duo
- Graphics
- Not much!
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Heinzyjr, Just use the basic multi beast settings and it should work fine... You will need to down load and install the drivers for the Realtek 8168 ethernet to get the LAN working... Try the link below...
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...d=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
The driver will have to be loaded onto the system drive of the media smart server by running OSX from the system drive of the MSS via a mac (SATA to USB cable works!). You will then be able to install the driver and your LAN should work!
If you have followed everything on this thread you can't go wrong whether you are running 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9. It works for the lot!
Good Luck and let us know how you get on.
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...d=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
The driver will have to be loaded onto the system drive of the media smart server by running OSX from the system drive of the MSS via a mac (SATA to USB cable works!). You will then be able to install the driver and your LAN should work!
If you have followed everything on this thread you can't go wrong whether you are running 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9. It works for the lot!
Good Luck and let us know how you get on.
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2013
- Messages
- 8
- Motherboard
- Mediasmart EX490
- CPU
- Q9550S 2.83 GHz Quad Core Duo
- Graphics
- Not much!
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
- Joined
- May 3, 2014
- Messages
- 1
- Motherboard
- ex485
- CPU
- ?
- Graphics
- ?
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
Hi,
Saw your post:
I finally cracked it!!!
Here is how I did it (using all the fine posts in this forum. And the suggestions in this thread. A big THANK YOU to everyone who ever shared their experiences here. They really help new ones like me!).
My setup:
ex490 (found out its not a ex485 which CAN be significant, I will explain why later).
modded with e8400 core 2 duo. I have also confirmed e4500 to work. And a lot of folks have great experiences with e5200. BUT if you are using anything but e5200 make sure you have a ex490 or ex495 as their never BIOS support a wider range of CPU's out of the box. If you have older Intel mediasmart server like ex485 you will probably have to tinker with your BIOS to get for example e8400 to work. This CAN be done, and is well documented in other forums. Google will be your friend here.
Another thing that makes the model very significant is the fact that every model before ex490 comes with a 256mb flash recovery partition. Whereas ex490 and ex495 utilizes a network boot for recovery (factory reset) purposes. This is significant BECAUS its a headless machine, and the ones with flash memory has different boot order options and therefore might need to have that changed before the will boot mac os x.
Mine is ex490 so I don't have that problem, but for a long time I thought that might be the problem, and I didn't want to spend 100 dollars on a KVM cable if I didn't have to. So I sought alternative ways to change the boot options. There are two alternatives to the cable.
1. Make a custum BIOS by extracting the existing and altering it. Its described here:http://www.mediasmarthome.com/articl...rs/?textpage=3
2. attach a USB keyboard and do it "blindfolded" by knowing what keys to press
I found several youtube vids and screenshots. google will be your friend here.
Finally the thing (apart from the guide itself) that cracked the nut in my case:
Apparently I was using hard disks with "advanced disk format" i.e. disks that use 4kB sector instead of the old 512Byte. Mostly disks of larger sizes use this. 2TB and 3TB, but also some smaller.
Anyway, I suspect this to be the reason.
What happened was that the chimera boot loader would not install properly on these when just doing it from multibeast so I used this fine guide to simple dd the boot loader to the disk:
viewtopic.php?t=61081
Thank you VERY much to the author!
Now starts all the fun of configuring the server. But that will be for the coming days.
One thing that irritates me a little is the I can only seem to get 1024x768 resolution when doing screen sharing to it. Anyone have a quick fix to this before I start scanning forums (once again)? I must admit that I have had my share of forum reading for the next couple of days.
I have a similar problem, server works fine attached to my imac, boots automatically but not in the EX490. Tried your linkviewtopic.php?t=61081 but it didn't work anymore.
Googled but found nothing. Can I continue with this drive or should I try another (older and smaller) one? The one I'm using now is the same one I used when WHS was running, it worked fine then.
Should I upgrade the cpu, now I have the Celeron.
Saw your post:
I finally cracked it!!!
Here is how I did it (using all the fine posts in this forum. And the suggestions in this thread. A big THANK YOU to everyone who ever shared their experiences here. They really help new ones like me!).
My setup:
ex490 (found out its not a ex485 which CAN be significant, I will explain why later).
modded with e8400 core 2 duo. I have also confirmed e4500 to work. And a lot of folks have great experiences with e5200. BUT if you are using anything but e5200 make sure you have a ex490 or ex495 as their never BIOS support a wider range of CPU's out of the box. If you have older Intel mediasmart server like ex485 you will probably have to tinker with your BIOS to get for example e8400 to work. This CAN be done, and is well documented in other forums. Google will be your friend here.
Another thing that makes the model very significant is the fact that every model before ex490 comes with a 256mb flash recovery partition. Whereas ex490 and ex495 utilizes a network boot for recovery (factory reset) purposes. This is significant BECAUS its a headless machine, and the ones with flash memory has different boot order options and therefore might need to have that changed before the will boot mac os x.
Mine is ex490 so I don't have that problem, but for a long time I thought that might be the problem, and I didn't want to spend 100 dollars on a KVM cable if I didn't have to. So I sought alternative ways to change the boot options. There are two alternatives to the cable.
1. Make a custum BIOS by extracting the existing and altering it. Its described here:http://www.mediasmarthome.com/articl...rs/?textpage=3
2. attach a USB keyboard and do it "blindfolded" by knowing what keys to press
I found several youtube vids and screenshots. google will be your friend here.
Finally the thing (apart from the guide itself) that cracked the nut in my case:
Apparently I was using hard disks with "advanced disk format" i.e. disks that use 4kB sector instead of the old 512Byte. Mostly disks of larger sizes use this. 2TB and 3TB, but also some smaller.
Anyway, I suspect this to be the reason.
What happened was that the chimera boot loader would not install properly on these when just doing it from multibeast so I used this fine guide to simple dd the boot loader to the disk:
viewtopic.php?t=61081
Thank you VERY much to the author!
Now starts all the fun of configuring the server. But that will be for the coming days.
One thing that irritates me a little is the I can only seem to get 1024x768 resolution when doing screen sharing to it. Anyone have a quick fix to this before I start scanning forums (once again)? I must admit that I have had my share of forum reading for the next couple of days.
I have a similar problem, server works fine attached to my imac, boots automatically but not in the EX490. Tried your linkviewtopic.php?t=61081 but it didn't work anymore.
Googled but found nothing. Can I continue with this drive or should I try another (older and smaller) one? The one I'm using now is the same one I used when WHS was running, it worked fine then.
Should I upgrade the cpu, now I have the Celeron.
- Status