Hacking Tosh March 23, 2008

I gave in. I am now trying to install the OSX86. Hackintosh. SteveOS.

I’m now trying “Kalway” 10.5.1. My best bet is the Acer 4710Z Gemstone, which is an Intel T2080, a Yonah like the original MacBook, with an Intel 943GML chipset. I was able to reach the installer application. The hard drive needs to be backed up before continuing, since OSX86 wants a dedicated drive to install on. I have a spare mobile hard drive which I could swap in, but, I don’t want to break the Acer warranty sticker since it’s still good til July 2008.

On the NForce 7050 Pro + AMD X2 3600, it doesn’t go far. But, on my newest box, based on Asus P5K-SE (P35 chipset) + Intel E8200, it also reaches the installer. But I read that the Attansic LAN card is not supported, and I don’t want to stick in a PCI card. I’d rather get it to work with virtualization, which did not work out.

I want to learn about the innards of OSX86. The tutorials, wiki pages and forums of installing Steve’s OS sure show the grungy depths of it. Stuff that the shiny Mac user doesn’t see – well, shouldn’t see. I also want to try some software development on the Mac platform.

I’m also being cheap and won’t buy a real Apple box (yet). I don’t need another computer. I won’t be able to take a MacBook on my trips, anyway

But even with the new Penryn Macs, MacBook Air, and other stuff now available, I’m over my old Mac envy.

My First Failure for 2007 January 1, 2007

My first failure for 2007 is about Mac Envy.

I tried to install osx86 – Mac OS X for generic Intel hardware. I wanted away to satisfy my desire to learn Mac OS, without spending. I did it under VMWare hosted by Ubuntu, since I didn’t want to risk breaking my hard drive. (I have a spare partition with my now-idle Solaris installation, but GRUB is based there.)

Attempt 1. VMware virtual DVD (ISO image) doesn’t work. Forgot the particular error but the cause is the DVD image is not a real ISO, but HFS+.

Attempt 2. Burned the ISO to a real DVD. VMWare’s default is to turn on legacy emulation. Which doesn’t work, an error pops up.

Attempt 3. Installation completes. After 3-4 hours. This is on a Celeron D 320 (2.4 Ghz/256 KB L2 cache, no SSE3), 512 MBx2 DDR400. Slow speed is probably due to the single hard drive.

Attempt 4. b0 error. I had to boot an Ubuntu LiveCD (Ubuntu inside Ubuntu!) to set the Mac OS X partition as Active.

Attempt 5. Lack of SSE3 bit me. I got the “Please power off or reset” message in 4 languages. At this point I found out I needed the SSE3 patch. I’m not sure if the ISO image I have has it. In any case I need to reinstall.

I ran out of time for the day.