Thx kaido.. shall stick to the USB method.. I sure have lotsa learning to do I think.. if I am to manage and keep up with the updates and not let my hackintosh go to waste. Mosslack puts me to shame, cos I remember we joined here as newbies almost around the same time. Look at him now.. helping others with their hack and building hack after hack for himself and his family. Post offices in the US sure pay well i guess? heh mosslack? got any opening there for me chief, mosslack?
(juz kidding buddy
It helps to have a basic understanding of how Hackintosh works...the scene is a mess of information, so it's hard to get a clear idea of how it all runs together. Here's the basic idea:
Background:
1. Apple switched to Intel processors in 2006
2. Now there are Mac drivers available for PC hardware
3. But Macs use EFI, not BIOS, on their motherboards
4. So David Elliot (dfe) created Boot-132 bootloader to allow OS X to boot on PC motherboards
5. The community then created Chameleon (an installer containing Boot-132 and other goodies to make it easier)
6. In addition to the bootloader, to get other pieces of hardware to work (like Ethernet or Sound Cards), hackers have created aftermarket drivers for OS X on PC
Requirements:
1. Hackintosh requires a
bootloader (Chameleon) and
kexts (drivers) to operate
2. Kexts are usually stored in /System/Library/Extensions ("SLE")
3. Chameleon allows non-system kexts to be stored in /Extras/Extensions (leaves SLE stock or "vanilla")
4. To get your Hackintosh fully-working, you must have drivers (kexts) for every piece of hardware
5. Just like you can't install an ATI driver to make an NVIDIA card work, not all kexts work on all hardware
6. Thus you need kexts for your specific hardware
7. Not all drivers are kexts (there's also DSDT edits, SMBIOS flags, Boot Plist flags, EFI strings, etc.)
8. The current version of Chameleon is V2 RC5 REV699
link
So then...
1. Some hackers decided to create install discs that contained a variety of drivers to choose from ("bundle" discs)
2. Some include: JaS, Kalyway, iATKOS, iPC, iDeneb, Leo4All, Multibeast)
3. Some people also released USB/partition-based installers (Kakewalk, etc.)
4. This is convenient, but also creates a bit of a mess because people think they are "universal" installers for any board or system
5. Then they don't know what is making their system work, which makes upgrading a big pain because software gets overwritten or obsoleted and their system stops working properly (or never works right in the first place)
To increase your chances of success...
1. The best way is to create your own install kit, or at least keep track of what is being installed via a custom disc (so you know what is being broken when you update)
2. You can also follow a guide for a specific board if you don't want to make it a personal research project (assuming the guide curator keeps it up-to-date)
3. The OSx86 scene is a huge mess so it's really hard to stay on top of things unless you do it on a regular basis
4. You'll always have bugs no matter what you do lol
Workflow:
1. You need to get three things on your hard drive: (1) OS X, (2) bootloader, (3) system-specific drivers
2. You can use a USB stick (or hard drive partition) or a bootable CD to get OS X installed
3. After the hard drive is prepped, then you can load up the updates
I used to write guides and keep them up-to-date, but due to time constraints in my schedule I haven't been able to do that for the last 15 months or so. It's pretty time-consuming and there's always bugs to squash, plus Apple releases updates on a regular basis and that creates more problems, so it kind of boils down to how you want to run your system: you can follow a guide and stick with a particular point release (my wife's rig is still on Leopard 10.5.6 and she's perfectly happy there), you can follow a guide and update on a regular basis if the author does or if you want to do the research, or you can make it a personal research project and spend a fair amount of time tinkering & learning.
Mostly it boils down to whether you want to make it a hobby or not. I find it a lot of fun to mess around with, I like the community, and I enjoy writing, but for some people that's a huge pain and hassle, so it's easier to follow a guide to get good results or use a bundle disc and hope for the best. One of the biggest problems is that there isn't a single, clear source of information so you have to spend a lot of time reading existing guides, browsing forums, talking on IRC, etc. to get a clear picture, and since updates comes out all the time and there are new patches and modifications and whatnot, it can get to be a very time-consuming hobby. Which is fine if that's what you want to do! Haha.
The OSx86 Wiki is a good idea, but it's not updated enough to be totally relevant and it tries to be all things to all people, which is difficult when you don't have all of the information readily available. For example, I used to get a lot of requests for making guides and kits for various boards and systems, but since I only own a few computers myself, I can't realistically help everybody because I don't have the resources on-hand or the time to do it, so in the past I've just released board-specific guides that are setup for particular systems, which worked out pretty well. So keep in mind that getting accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information isn't always the easiest thing in the OSx86 scene, and sometimes there just isn't an answer for your problem
So, bottom line: decide how much time and effort you want to invest in this hobby. It can be a lot of fun -
if that's what you want. You can save money, customize your system, and get a real nice rig running. mosslack is the man when it comes to this stuff - he has more awesome rigs than anyone I know, but like he said, it's tiring to keep everything up to date (especially sleep! grr!). Just keep in mind your options and decide on a path and hopefully that will save you some frustration, haha. HTH
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