The Hackintosh 101 Thread

[mshan]

How difficult would it be to turn this Shuttle SG31G2 into a Hackintosh?: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2192835&enterthread=y

 

[dclive]

What chipset is in it? Is that supported by the Hackintosh setup?
What audio is in it? Is that supported by ...?
What video is in it? Is that supported by ...?
What HDD controller is in it? Is that supported by ... ?

That's what you've got to do for all hardware you want to evaluate. You'll need to refer to the OSx86 forums for the full scoop, but the Wiki, if you're lucky, will have that hardware (perhaps even that specific motherboard) listed.

 

[Kaido]

Picked up a Compaq Presario A909US 17" laptop for cheap, works like a charm! I'm trying to get wireless working, but if not its less than $20 shipped for a compatible card from eBay. 17" MacBook ftw, haha!

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Picked up a Compaq Presario A909US 17" laptop for cheap, works like a charm! I'm trying to get wireless working, but if not its less than $20 shipped for a compatible card from eBay. 17" MacBook ftw, haha!

Got the wireless working. The speakers work but not headphones, there's only a partial Mac driver for audio. No Mac driver for the webcam. I'll just use a USB sound card and USB webcam if I need those features. Everything else works. Awesome!

 

[umrigar]

Let us know how the battery time is on that 17" compaq, will ya?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: umrigar
Let us know how the battery time is on that 17" compaq, will ya?

I'll have to test that under Windows, the Hackintosh stuff doesn't give me a percentage, just a visual icon indicator.

The new MSI Wind has a lot of promise as the ultimate Mac ultraportable:

http://www.msimobile.com/nblist.aspx?series=u

Features:
-$500 for XP version
-10" LED monitor (yes, you read that right - LED)
-2.6 pounds
-Atom 1.6ghz single-core CPU
-Max 2gb ram (single stick)
-2.5" SATA hard drive (comes with 80gb)
-Wifi B/G
-Bluetooth

If this works with OSx86, it will be the laptop to get

 

[jalaram]

OEM ASRock 775Dual-VSTA - $33 shipped

OSX86 wiki link

 

[umrigar]

nice links, jalaram.

 

[Kaido]

Doing a new build based on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. This motherboard is supposed to be even better than the DFI Lanparty because it has full audio support (the DFI loses audio when woken from Sleep). Will report back in a couple weeks.

 

[Tyranicus]

After the fun and joy of a whole bunch of Terminal work to get my graphics working correctly, I am now running 10.5.3

 

[rikadik]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Doing a new build based on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. This motherboard is supposed to be even better than the DFI Lanparty because it has full audio support (the DFI loses audio when woken from Sleep). Will report back in a couple weeks.

That's the board I was thinking of using for my build later this summer, so it'll be great to hear how it goes!

Just seems like a much more economically viable choice than the DFI Lanparty.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Tyranicus
After the fun and joy of a whole bunch of Terminal work to get my graphics working correctly, I am now running 10.5.3

What did you need to do to get it up? I have a DFI/8800GTS combo as well, but I haven't gone to 10.5.3 yet.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: rikadik

Originally posted by: Kaido
Doing a new build based on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. This motherboard is supposed to be even better than the DFI Lanparty because it has full audio support (the DFI loses audio when woken from Sleep). Will report back in a couple weeks.

That's the board I was thinking of using for my build later this summer, so it'll be great to hear how it goes!

Just seems like a much more economically viable choice than the DFI Lanparty.

Yeah when I first saw it, it was so cheap I couldn't believe, plus the Lanparty had just been found out to be an excellent board. I've heard more and more about the DS3L and finally picked one up...it's hit or miss with Gigabyte, since they have so many similar models. But this one supposedly works 100%, so it may be the "golden ticket" board we've been looking for!

 

[Tyranicus]

Originally posted by: Kaido
What did you need to do to get it up? I have a DFI/8800GTS combo as well, but I haven't gone to 10.5.3 yet.

First off, I installed the Kalyway 10.5.3 ComboUpdate, which you can get from your favorite torrent tracker. It hung on reboot, but I did some research and found that I needed to press F8 at the Darwin screen and type "update -v" That will got my system up and running again, but I no longer had Quartz Extreme supported. This is where I did a lot of research. I had originally installed with nvinject from the Kalyway disc. Apparently nvinject does not work correctly with 10.5.3. I had to remove nvinject using the following commands in Terminal.

cd /System/Library/Extensions
sudo rm -r nvinject.kext

Then, I followed the instructions here under Create and Install GFX Strings for EFI. I then rebooted and everything works fine. The only issue is that OS X is reporting only 256MB of VRAM when I actually have 320MB, but that's quite minor, and I have not noticed any performance issues in games. This was like the 5th or 6 thing I tried too. I wish I had found that guide first.

 

[scootermaster]

I may need to get into this as a stopgap solution for some iPhone developing.

I can't imagine anything on my current Dell 4600 (P4 2.4, Intel Mobo, ATI AIW 9000) is supported, eh?

 

[Tyranicus]

I highly doubt the video card is compatible. The mobo might be, but I doubt that as well. If I were you, I would do some research to see if your hardware is or is not compatible.

 

[Yongsta]

I have some parts laying around (Q6600 G0 cpu, 2GB DDR2 ram, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard, two Seagate 320gb harddrives). I'm interested in installing Kalyway 10.5.2, my question is what would be the best video card for me to get so I can install without hassle (hopefully cheap as well). I was thinking an EVGA 8600GT or something but I don't want to spend too much time using terminal. Also, could I setup RAID (ICH9) or is it still having problems? Thanks.

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: fyleow
Is it possible to flash an 8800GT with the Apple firmware so that it works on a Hackintosh without using the EFI string or NVinject?

There's a post about flashing the PC versions of the 8800GT to work with the Mac Pro but I'm not sure if it will also work with the Hackintosh.

8800gt EFI64 ROM

Not that I'm aware of. But EFI Strings is an amazing way to install the 8800GT! Strings are great!

 

[Kaido]

My DS3L board arrives today, I'm pretty giddy

 

[alfa147x]

Originally posted by: Yongsta
I have some parts laying around (Q6600 G0 cpu, 2GB DDR2 ram, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard, two Seagate 320gb harddrives). I'm interested in installing Kalyway 10.5.2, my question is what would be the best video card for me to get so I can install without hassle (hopefully cheap as well). I was thinking an EVGA 8600GT or something but I don't want to spend too much time using terminal. Also, could I setup RAID (ICH9) or is it still having problems? Thanks.

check this out, I dunno about your raid question though

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=81&threadid=2153045

 

[alfa147x]

Originally posted by: Kaido
My DS3L board arrives today, I'm pretty giddy

its a great board, i love mine!1

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: alfa147x

Originally posted by: Kaido
My DS3L board arrives today, I'm pretty giddy

its a great board, i love mine!1

It's a beast dude! I ordered 3 more tonight using that 35% off coupon for eBay in Hot Deals!

 

[umrigar]

dang, that 35% off deal seems to be dead. can't even get a 10% off to come up.

 

[Zaap]

Originally posted by: scootermaster
I can't imagine anything on my current Dell 4600 (P4 2.4, Intel Mobo, ATI AIW 9000) is supported, eh?

People have run Leopard on the Dell 4600- try Leo4All. (I've yet to find the PC that L4A won't at least boot on).

The big question generally is what individual components will work or not-like you may not get out of box LAN or Audio, but with a desktop with slots, compatible components are easy to find. As long as the crucial components like drive controllers work, you can generally get the rest.

I don't think that graphic card supports CI or QE at all.

I just installed Leopard on my wife's Compaq C500 laptop that I initially didn't have any hope would work. Almost everything works- CI/QE graphics, audio (no headphone jack), LAN, power management, etc. There's no built in WiFi, but I could add a USB WiFi card..

Just try it, see if it boots. If it does, use a spare hard drive and install Leopard and just see what happens.