[OSx86] My first working OSX86 build!

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I may look into Hackintoshing again if ML is easier than SL. See if my hardware supports it first though ;)

[sdyaris]

Could someone pm me a good hardware list? This sounds like an interesting project to try.

[TheLegendOfMart]

http://www.tonymacx86.com/home.php is the best place to find out what is most compatible.

[RottGutt]

Also have this dual booting perfectly, off the same 128GB SSD, as my Windows 7 installation. I took a bit of time reading through various guides which involved getting stuck into some truely horrid partition editing, etc but in the end it was as simple as:

* Load Unibeast based MountainLion installer - make disk a GPT type disk rather than MBR, and split into two partitions - partition one was an HFS+ OSX partition and the other (as a placeholder) a FAT partition. Install MountainLion.

* Reboot and install Windows 7 - when choosing the partition select the FAT, which it'll moan about, and format it as NTFS instead. Finish the install and setup all the drivers if necessary.

* Reboot back into OSX and run through the Multibeast installer, including installing the Chameleon bootloader.

* Reboot again and marvel as your Chameleon bootloader gives you the choice of Windows os OSX disks to boot off.

I think I've reached home computing nirvana.. I now have the choice of fully functional OSX and Windows 7 on the hardware that I've chosen. Now I just have to decide if I want to cut up my Powermac G5 (2.5GHz Quad) case as an experiment in trying to put a PC in it... though I'm not quite sure I can bring myself to do that- so don't worry !! :)

Cool! From reading forums, it's looking like Boot Camp is NOT supported with a hackintosh. That would have killed the whole plan for me, since I definitely need Windows too. Looks like most folks just add a second hard drive to install Windows on, instead of going the partition route. Thanks for the info!

I have 3 of those Mac Pro cases sitting around that I, too, would love to build the hackintosh/Windows machine in. I checked out more than a few guides to modding it for regular PC gear, but they are all very extensive, and I don't really have the tools or the modding skills to do one right without likely messing it up. I will probably end up putting the cases on eBay or something to help fund my hackintosh project. Depending on the model of the Mac Pro, some of the cases are going for over $200!

Tim

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Could someone pm me a good hardware list? This sounds like an interesting project to try.

Really the most important thing is a good, compatible motherboard like the one I got (Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H) - everything else is kind of by the by. Use the onboard sound, don't buy a bleeding edge video card (so perhaps something like an Nvidia 5xx like I've got) and then your standard HDD and optical drives and away you go.

Cool! From reading forums, it's looking like Boot Camp is NOT supported with a hackintosh. That would have killed the whole plan for me, since I definitely need Windows too. Looks like most folks just add a second hard drive to install Windows on, instead of going the partition route. Thanks for the info!

I have 3 of those Mac Pro cases sitting around that I, too, would love to build the hackintosh/Windows machine in. I checked out more than a few guides to modding it for regular PC gear, but they are all very extensive, and I don't really have the tools or the modding skills to do one right without likely messing it up. I will probably end up putting the cases on eBay or something to help fund my hackintosh project. Depending on the model of the Mac Pro, some of the cases are going for over $200!

Tim

I've just been inspired by reading this thread - think the guy did a really awesome job on it!

http://www.tonymacx86.com/powermac-g5/78636-hackintosh-pro-powermac-g5-2004-model.html

As I say though the Powermac I have at home (2.5GHz G5 Quad) just seems too nice to trash just for a case modding exercise so I think I just need to keep an eye out for some more G5's being scrapped at work, or a cheap one coming up locally on eBay.

[threetonesun]

Really the most important thing is a good, compatible motherboard like the one I got (Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H) - everything else is kind of by the by. Use the onboard sound, don't buy a bleeding edge video card (so perhaps something like an Nvidia 5xx like I've got) and then your standard HDD and optical drives and away you go.

This, especially if you want sound / ethernet / sleep to work.

It's also much easier to get an Intel processor working, and an ATi card that Apple has used in one of their desktop computers.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Cool! From reading forums, it's looking like Boot Camp is NOT supported with a hackintosh. That would have killed the whole plan for me, since I definitely need Windows too. Looks like most folks just add a second hard drive to install Windows on, instead of going the partition route. Thanks for the info!

Why would you need bootcamp, just split the drive into two partitions and install Windows, you can boot Windows from the bootloader of OSX.

[tim_s]

I know this will sound negative: IF something is mission critical - it probably does not make sense to use a tool that is not designed to do the job and more importantly your use is not recognized / accounted for within the interest of the developing party.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

If you're referring to using a Hackintosh in a production / business scenario then yes, I agree with you - you'd have to be crazy to do that. But this is just for home use.

[abysal]

Very cool, congrats. Gigabyte EFI z77/b75 boards are the way to go as you don't need a DSDT file. I also went with a Gigabyte board (B75M-D3H) and everything works including sleep.

[tim_s]

If you're referring to using a Hackintosh in a production / business scenario then yes, I agree with you - you'd have to be crazy to do that. But this is just for home use.

My comment was worded a little strongly in a "I am judging or being condescending" manner - I just noticed people discussing their "must have" requirements and I just wanted to throw the comment out to everyone, IF the machine is mission critical - A hackintosh is not the preferred solution.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Just thought I'd throw in a little update on this for those that are interested.

I've only run into two weird problems now despite using OSX as my primary OS for the last couple of weeks now..

* Watched a DVD the other day. Paused it and went to go make some dinner. Came back and the DVD drive was basically dead.. couldn't get it to wake up, had to force quit the Apple DVD player app. Had to actually power off / power on the system to get it to come back to life as a reboot didn't work! Never experienced this in Windows so do think this is some kind of incompatibility with the drive / storage controller / OSX..

* Dock magnification doesn't work. Even if I enable the option in the Dock Preferences applet, just doesn't work. Not sure what that's about!

Otherwise working perfectly and boots like lightning off my SSD!

[tim_s]

nice updates, I would update the ticket within a month of use. See if anything else creeps in.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Will do!

[Aaron Olive]

I went through the whole Hackintosh phase and it began to be too much of a hassle to stay up to date, i just went ahead and got a iMac instead. The money people spend just to get compatible parts adds up to the real deal anyway and i can play BF3 on this thing hooked up to my TV.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

To each his own. I find the iMac to be outrageously expensive. I'm not doubting the quality - I'm a former iMac owner and I know these things are beautifully made, but I just got fed up of the complete lack of upgrade options (basically having to sell / swap the ENTIRE unit). They simply are not designed for someone who likes to do any tinkering themselves, and that's fine - they probably work for a lot of people, but not for me.

Not to mention the lack of options on things like the display - for me, a 21.5" display is too small, whereas a 27" display is too big.

Even the entry level iMac here at ?1,099 - I could buy an absolute powerhouse of a PC for that money.

We're going to have to agree to disagree here but that's my reasoning for having a go at hackintoshing. I love the OS, but I dislike the restrictions imposed by the hardware and the sheer cost of buying it.

[TheLegendOfMart]

I am mulling over running Hackintosh, I have Gigabyte Z68 board that has UEFI that lets OSX run without DSDT with just basic Audio, Network drivers. Should mean that it is relatively pain free to upgrade software wise. Means having to take my 7850 out though :(

[Aaron Olive]

To each his own. I find the iMac to be outrageously expensive. I'm not doubting the quality - I'm a former iMac owner and I know these things are beautifully made, but I just got fed up of the complete lack of upgrade options (basically having to sell / swap the ENTIRE unit). They simply are not designed for someone who likes to do any tinkering themselves, and that's fine - they probably work for a lot of people, but not for me.

Not to mention the lack of options on things like the display - for me, a 21.5" display is too small, whereas a 27" display is too big.

Even the entry level iMac here at ?1,099 - I could buy an absolute powerhouse of a PC for that money.

We're going to have to agree to disagree here but that's my reasoning for having a go at hackintoshing. I love the OS, but I dislike the restrictions imposed by the hardware and the sheer cost of buying it.

I can agree on most of your points also. i love the OS too and when you need (more power Jeremy Clarkson style) the iMac is not customizable in those means.

[tim_s]

For sure, the lack of upgrade-ability, is a pain.

[threetonesun]

* Watched a DVD the other day. Paused it and went to go make some dinner. Came back and the DVD drive was basically dead.. couldn't get it to wake up, had to force quit the Apple DVD player app. Had to actually power off / power on the system to get it to come back to life as a reboot didn't work! Never experienced this in Windows so do think this is some kind of incompatibility with the drive / storage controller / OSX..

Not surprising. Apple only makes one DVD drive for their entire lineup of computers, so support for any old DVD drive is spotty at best. Have you tested burning a disc yet using the drive?

[tim_s]

I am surprised the DVD would be the main issue - humm!

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Not surprising. Apple only makes one DVD drive for their entire lineup of computers, so support for any old DVD drive is spotty at best. Have you tested burning a disc yet using the drive?

Not tried this yet - no blanks spare! :)

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Quick bump for this for a couple of reasons.

Firstly did a clean build the other night and it reminded me how fussy and difficult it can be to make a Hackintosh work even on 'known good' hardware. Booting mine off the USB ports on the front with '-x PCIRootUID=0' is enough to get me into the installer and on my way. But for whatever reason I put the USB drive in the back of the machine yesterday and it simply would not boot even with the normal options. It wasn't until I put the USB drive in the front that it righted itself.

I went through several installations as I could not seem to get my MultiBeast options right - sometimes resulting in sleep function not working, or graphics failing to initialise on boot (leaving me on a black screen). Total minefield!

In the end got a nice clean install, with all the correct options and just updated to 10.8.4 using the combo update. All worked great, and had to rerun MultiBeast to reinstall the audio driver.

Main reason for the post though is that I was experiencing really irritating / odd behaviour with the mouse. The mouse pointer worked just fine however 'hover over' just didn't seem to work - like if I enabled Dock Magnification, it wouldn't work (as if the dock didn't realise I'd put my mouse over the dock) or for like menu's in web browsers which automatically pop up when the mouse goes over them didn't work either. I couldn't work it out and thought it was just some weird quirk - and surprisingly there doesn't seem to be that much information out there about it. One random thread though lead me to believe it was because I needed a driver for my mouse (Cyborg RAT5). Downloaded and installed the official drivers off the Cyborg site (thank god they actually make some for OSX!). If you go to the Cyborg site and then to the downloads page (http://www.cyborggaming.com/download.htm) and go to Latest Software and select OSX, you get not only the Cyborg programming tool but evidently a driver too and it finally fixed the problem.

As far as I can tell now my Hackintosh works 100% - video & graphics effects are totally smooth, LAN & audio work fine, sleep functions seem to work correctly again and the mouse now behaves as I'd expect after months of putting up with what I just thought was a quirk I'd have to live with.

However despite all that - I will be keeping my eye open for announcements for the Mac Pro at WWDC (and beyond) as now I've rediscovered OSX again, I'd love to get a Mac Pro having always wanted one!

[0nyX]

Just stating my own experience:

Used to have OSX86 from the 10.4 Tiger era up and running to all of my PC's.That includes 3 laptops and one desktop.I have to admit it was a real hassle installing it,configuring it and keeping it up to date most of the time, especially on the AMD desktop (with 10.5) .With more compatible hardware the whole process was a lot easier and certain incompatibilities wouldn't exist (had a very good experience with 10.6 and 10.7 but only for experimenting) but no matter how compatible the hardware is,it just not gonna work 100% fluid and bug free.

Now due to requiring a lot of effort and just not having the energy to do it anymore i have left this phase behind me.

I have to say that at some point i was thinking of buying a Mac (not beacuse of the "magical experience using OSX on a real Mac" crap you can hear) but due to versions of Windows that simply sucked for me.

Thank MS, Windows 7 was released and now 8, so OSX and Macs are just a memory for me now.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

It's sort of the opposite for me. I owned an iMac a few years ago (back in the 10.5 sort of era), got frustrated at how quickly it went out of date in terms of spec and hated not being able to update it. Windows 7 came out (which I loved) and decided I was done with OSX and the Macintosh in general and I came back to Windows.

However Windows 8 has just irked the hell out of me - I've tried to like it, and I absolutely despise it. Going to OSX 10.8 felt like a breath of crisp fresh air - in the time I've been running my Hackintosh at home I've barely booted to Windows at all.

Funny how our opinions change over time :)