Hackintosh

[Kaido]

Those are pretty much the same question. There are a number of different websites that outline the process and they all have different instructions, different tools to use, and different compatibility lists.

I've encountered numerous issues from installation to creating the boot disk. It isn't straightforward at all.

I'm getting confused now; you said earlier that you tried Tonymac's software and that it did not work. Tonymac's procedure is to prepare a USB install stick (using the Unibeast app) and then install it on compatible hardware. What kind of hardware do you have, and what kind of issues did you run into? (assuming you still want to give it a go, if not, that's understandable too!)

 

[Zaap]

^ In other words, No and No.

 

[Rakehellion]

I'm getting confused now; you said earlier that you tried Tonymac's software and that it did not work. Tonymac's procedure is to prepare a USB install stick (using the Unibeast app) and then install it on compatible hardware. What kind of hardware do you have, and what kind of issues did you run into? (assuming you still want to give it a go, if not, that's understandable too!)

I said I tried "the software." I couldn't get Unibeast to boot. I tried another, same problem. I tried a different one and it would boot to some kind of menu but I never got it to work again. Is Unibeast the only game in town now?

I've got an i5-3570K, Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H, and a GTX 750.

 

[Kaido]

I said I tried "the software." I couldn't get Unibeast to boot. I tried another, same problem. I tried a different one and it would boot to some kind of menu but I never got it to work again. Is Unibeast the only game in town now?

I've got an i5-3570K, Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H, and a GTX 750.

No, just the best one. You can build it manually, if you're into that, or use something like Clover, but if your goal is to get a system up & running easily, it's the top game in town.

Sounds like you may have had a non-boot-friendly USB stick. Do you have any other USB sticks you can try? Also, did you format the stick with MBR + Journaled? That's usually the first main hiccup:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/61-unibeast-install-os-x-mountain-lion-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

The BIOS also needs to be set to AHCI, otherwise you'll have issues. The DS3H is a pretty solid board, so it should be pretty straightforward if (1) the stick is bootable, (2) the stick is formatted correctly with the partition setup, and (3) the BIOS is set to AHCI.

 

[Rakehellion]

Okay, I just used Unibeast and the system is stuck at the grey boot screen.

 

[Kaido]

Okay, I just used Unibeast and the system is stuck at the grey boot screen.

Sounds like it's booting properly, so it might be your graphics card. At the boot screen, try typing in:

GraphicsEnabler=No

If that doesn't work, reboot and type this at the boot screen:

-x

 

[Rakehellion]

Sounds like it's booting properly, so it might be your graphics card. At the boot screen, try typing in:

GraphicsEnabler=No

If that doesn't work, reboot and type this at the boot screen:

-x

I tried both of those and it did the same thing.

 

[vailr]

Has the onboard Intel GPU been disabled in bios?
Try that, or else try without a video card installed, and see if using the Intel GPU works.

 

[Kaido]

I've got an i5-3570K, Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H, and a GTX 750.

I did a bit of digging for you. It appears that the GTX 750 chipset is not supported:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/125458-new-gtx-750s-750-tis.html

Will the new GTX 750 and 750 Ti graphics cards be compatible with CustoMacs/Hackintoshes? Looking in to buying one for a CustoMac build.

...

No, is the short answer.
You can fudge them to work as a display, but without any of the functionality.. there's just no driver support.

I can't say that's a definitive answer, but that's just from a quick search online. There is some further discussion here:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-h...-geforce-gtx-750-750-ti-graphics-cards-4.html

And not to be mean, but per the "disorganized & useless" stickied Hackintosh thread you mentioned, the very first post mentions GPU's explicitly:

Number two: Some equipment is more compatible than others. I would recommend avoiding AMD processors - it's possible to get them working, but patching can be a headache. If you're really determined, then go for it, but you'll have a much easier time with Intel chips. I'd have to say that video cards are probably the most annoying area in Hackintosh hardware. Do your research and make sure that you get one that is supported - the exact make, model, and memory size, in fact. I've even had issues between video card revisions (although that's gotten a lot better with the newer software).

Going on with compatibility, motherboards are probably the next biggest hassle after video cards. Most of the time, you'll want to stay pretty close to what Apple offers, such as getting an LGA 1155 Sandy/Ivy Bridge system. Make sure that the onboard audio & Ethernet ports are supported (unless you're using third-party cards or USB adapters, which usually makes running updates easier!). Tonymacx86 is one of the best sources of informaton on this. Also, laptops are typically huge headaches and have a lot of unsupported features. There are a few exceptions, such as the HP ProBook 4530s, and I've had some success with stuff like Sager laptops that lean more towards using desktop parts.

The key with Hackintosh is using supported hardware, otherwise you're going to have a bad time. And it's kind of a gray area across the board - some things work better than others, some things work not at all. Can you get an AMD CPU or an Intel NUC to work? Sure, with some extra effort. Can you get a GTX 750 to work? Based on the discussions regarding the Maxwell architecture the 750 series uses, no. However, if you're willing to try another card, there are plenty of options that are very close to what you have:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/420-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-april-2014.html#gfx_cards

You'd have to decide if it's worth swapping video cards just to try a different operating system, but it looks like GPU support is the primary issue you've been running into. The Hackintosh game is all about compatibility...

 

[vailr]

Re: GTX 750 driver support: There may/could be improved driver support via OSX (beta build) 10.9.3:

blog(dot)shade.sh/index.php/os-x-beta

Copy & paste; replacing (dot) with .

Note: you'd need to first get OSX installed and running, before updating with a beta build of 10.9.3.

 

[Rakehellion]

Okay, I got it working, but Multibeast just made everything worse. I don't guess it comes with an uninstall feature or something like a list of what extensions it added to the system?

 

[Kaido]

Okay, I got it working, but Multibeast just made everything worse. I don't guess it comes with an uninstall feature or something like a list of what extensions it added to the system?

It usually dumps everything into the "Extras" folder on the root drive, so if you remove that, that clears most of it out (there's sometimes some lingering stuff in the Extensions folder too, if checked custom installation options). If you boot using the USB stick (select boot order in BIOS or using F12 or whatever), that contains the generic boot-up drivers that work on the majority of systems & will override what is on the hard drive (since it loads first).

The important thing that you want with graphics is to have QE/CI support (Quartz Extreme & Core Image - this handles the stuff for games & video & whatnot). Reading through the GTX 750 thread, people were able to get the graphics card detected using the "nv_disable=1" flag, but weren't able to get QE/CI, so the card is still basically useless. An easy way to test is to open up the Dashboard & drop a widget onto the screen...if it does the ripple effect (like water) then it's working. If QE/CI is not supported, you're basically screwed for doing anything useful with the computer. Based on the two threads I glanced through, QE/CI is unsupported on the 750 GPU's (at least at the present time), so be aware of that - not having QE/CI support will severely hamper your OSX experience.

 

[Rakehellion]

Some website told me I can use the No DSDT setting for my motherboard, but I installed Multibeast and ethernet stopped working. Audio still doesn't work, but everything else seems fine.

So pretty much every card works but the GTX 750? I'm seeing some people say that even the Radeon R9's work. It's nice that they have drivers built-in for every model GPU out there, but on Windows, you have to download the Nvidia driver for your exact model card or it simply won't install.

I kind of want to install the 10.9.3 beta, but I'm an iOS developer and those betas can be kind of sketchy sometimes. I might just swap it out for a GTX 670.

 

[Kaido]

Some website told me I can use the No DSDT setting for my motherboard, but I installed Multibeast and ethernet stopped working. Audio still doesn't work, but everything else seems fine.

So pretty much every card works but the GTX 750? I'm seeing some people say that even the Radeon R9's work. It's nice that they have drivers built-in for every model GPU out there, but on Windows, you have to download the Nvidia driver for your exact model card or it simply won't install.

I kind of want to install the 10.9.3 beta, but I'm an iOS developer and those betas can be kind of sketchy sometimes. I might just swap it out for a GTX 670.

It's due to the Maxwell architecture, which apparently isn't currently supported under OSX. The 750 & 750 Ti are Maxwell, so yeah, those cards are basically no good at the present time.

What options did you select in Multibeast? Some audio needs patching, so you have to match it up with your chipset. Depends on the board tho, if you have a DSDT-free model it's usually a lot easier. The big three hassles are usually motherboard (Intel + Gigabyte is usually the best combo), the video card, and the audio. I got rid of the audio & network hassles by getting a driverless USB sound card ($10) and a driverless PCI Gigabit Ethernet network card (also $10). Then I just don't have to worry about them. Coupled with a modern board & "safe" GPU, installation was a cakewalk.

 

[ViRGE]

So pretty much every card works but the GTX 750?

Pretty much. The GTX 750 is a worst case scenario from the Hackintosh point of view. It's a video card based on a newly-launched GPU architecture, which means there simply hasn't been time for drivers to be created yet.

 

[Rakehellion]

It's due to the Maxwell architecture, which apparently isn't currently supported under OSX. The 750 & 750 Ti are Maxwell, so yeah, those cards are basically no good at the present time.

What options did you select in Multibeast? Some audio needs patching, so you have to match it up with your chipset. Depends on the board tho, if you have a DSDT-free model it's usually a lot easier. The big three hassles are usually motherboard (Intel + Gigabyte is usually the best combo), the video card, and the audio. I got rid of the audio & network hassles by getting a driverless USB sound card ($10) and a driverless PCI Gigabit Ethernet network card (also $10). Then I just don't have to worry about them. Coupled with a modern board & "safe" GPU, installation was a cakewalk.

I used the ALC 887/888b.

Ethernet works fine until Multibeast. After Multibeast, nothing works. I've been trying to use audio from HDMI and not the 1/8" jack, so that might be the problem. Still, I'd rather have internet than sound.

 

[Rakehellion]

10.9.3 doesn't enable my GTX 750, but my Intel HD 4000 is a full 50% faster in Cinebench! It's even faster than it is in Windows. Looks like they're working on it.

 

[Tyranicus]

I used the ALC 887/888b.

Ethernet works fine until Multibeast. After Multibeast, nothing works. I've been trying to use audio from HDMI and not the 1/8" jack, so that might be the problem. Still, I'd rather have internet than sound.

You cannot use HDMI audio without a DSDT and even then, not without editing that DSDT.

 

[vailr]

Is Unibeast the only game in town now?

I've got an i5-3570K, Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H, and a GTX 750.

An alternative to TonyMac's MultiBeast:
Slytherin ::The Extreme Post-Installation Utility
http://www.niresh12495.com/files/file/213-slytherin-the-extreme-post-installation-utility/

 

[Kaido]

I used the ALC 887/888b.

Ethernet works fine until Multibeast. After Multibeast, nothing works. I've been trying to use audio from HDMI and not the 1/8" jack, so that might be the problem. Still, I'd rather have internet than sound.

Sounds like a compatible driver wasn't selected in Multibeast; did you select an Ethernet driver when you ran Multibeast? If so, I'd just leave it unchecked if it's already working. And as Tyranicus mentioned, HDMI audio typically requires a DSDT edit (there are exceptions). There's actually an entire sub-forum dedicated to that topic:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/hdmi-audio/

That's assuming, of course, HDMI Audio is supported on your unsupported 750 video card. Again, I'd say that GPU's are probably the trickiest aspect of Hackintosh - I've even had issues between different revisions of video cards.

Personally I prefer plain-vanilla cards that work OOTB so that I don't have to mess with drivers (& edits). I pair that with a compatible motherboard (such as the newer DSDT-free ones), a driverless USB sound card, and a driverless PCI NIC. Makes installation SUPER easy. I also keep my bootloader on a USB stick so that my hard drive is 100% OS X (can be transplanted into a real Mac if needed; also makes backups a cinch since it's all native). That's just my personal preference though, everyone has different paths to getting their system working.