Turn Your PC into a Mac…

February 8, 2008 · 149 comments

in Hackintosh,Software,Tutorials

I mean, Hackintosh!

Note: If you are building your Hackintosh for the first time, I recommend that you follow my latest tutorial here: http://menoob.com/hackintosh/hackintosh-install-a-mac-leopard-os-x-retail-dvd-on-a-pc/

Hackintosh – A Personal Computer that is running a patched Intel Mac OS X operating system; also called OSx86; or an ugly PC trying to look and behave like a Mac.

So I have a Hackintosh…one that I created almost a year ago. It runs an OSx86 version created by a guy who uses the name “Uphuck” in hacker forums. It is a hack of the Mac OS X Tiger version 10.4.9. Is this legal? If it is, then we wouldn’t be calling it a “hackintosh”. According to Apple Inc’s licensing, you can only legally run OS X on a “Single Apple-labeled computer” (in short, a Mac). So it is best to buy a real Mac if you want to use OS X for your everyday tasks. The problem is, there are a lot of people stuck with ugly beige boxes running MS Windows either by choice or by force. It becomes an issue by choice when they can’t afford a Mac, or if their employers give them no other choice, then it is by force. Ever since Apple ported their OS to the Intel platform, hacker communities have been all abuzz in making it run on PCs. If only Apple Inc. will allow OS X to run on ugly computer boxes…

Ok, enough of the intro. I am now going to document the process I followed in building a hackintosh running on Apples’ latest and greatest OS… Leopard version 10.5.1. I am doing this because  I regretted not doing it when I built my first hacked Tiger box. It would have saved me a lot of time and effort to run Leopard on basically the same hardware that I used previously. With this, I also hope you won’t need to scour and read many hackintosh forums and blogs (I suggest you do however to learn more) to get you up and running.

So here goes…

Hardware issues

If you have a Jmicron controller and an IDE DVD-RW drive, it is advisable to get an IDE to SATA converter to connect your drive as otherwise, you may have a hard time detecting your drives during the installation process. Also, you need to have your SATA Mode setting in the BIOS set to AHCI instead of IDE. If you are going to dual-boot Leopard with XP or Vista, I would recommend that you install them in separate hard drives. Although you can technically do it on a single drive with multiple partitions, I prefer the former because you won’t be affecting the installation of the other OS when you try making changes to one of the installations. Hard disks are cheap.

Here is the hardware specification of my hackintosh:

Foxconn G965 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz Processor
ICH8R and Jmicron 361 Controller
2 GB RAM
NVidia 7200GS (same ID as 7300 SE)
Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet
250 GB Hitachi SATA (Vista)
160 GB Seagate SATA (Tiger)
160 GB Samsung SATA (Leopard)
DVD-RW Drive (with IDE to SATA Converter)
19″ Samsung LCD

Creating the iATKOS v1.0r2 installation dvd

There are many OSx86 Leopard Install DVDs out there, BrazilMac, ToH, Kalyway, to name a few, but I just managed to select iATKOS because it was created by the same guy, Uphuck. So search the Web to download the iATKOS v1.0 installation files. Once done, head to the Uphuck Forum, http://uphuck.ggrn.de, and download the iATKOS PPF Patch r2 (make sure the files you are downloading have the same MD5 hash as the ones displayed in the forum). Extract the files and read the instructions on how to patch v1.0 with r2 to create the iATKOS v1.0r2 installation dvd. Many unnecessary files in the original Leopard installation discs have been removed. You only need to burn the iATKOS files in a single layer dvd.

iATKOS Leopard installation

1.    Boot your PC with the iATKOS installation dvd.
2.    Just press Enter during or after the Darwin/x86 bootloader countdown.
3.    Gray Apple Logo will appear. Wait for the next screen.
4.    On the first screen that comes up, press the arrow button to continue.
5.    On the Welcome Screen, select Utilities ->Disk Utility.
6.    Select the volume where you want to install Leopard (makes sure it is formatted with MBR instead of GUID) and then go to the Erase tab.
7.    In the Volume Format, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and set the volume name to “Leopard” (no quotes).
8.    Click Erase.
9.    Quit Disk Utility.
10.    Back to the Welcome Screen, click Continue.
11.    Select the Destination to install Leopard.
12.    Click Customize.
13.    Select the following:

- iATKOS v1.0i Main System

Bootloader (Darwin EFI)
- Darwin EFI bootloader
- Stock AppleACPIPlatform.kext
- Stock Kernel

Patches
- SSE2 SSE3 kernel
- Remove CPUPowerManagement driver
- Remove Thermal kexts

System
- SATA
- AppleSMBIOS.kext nektas

Drivers (Depends on your video card)
- VGA -> NVidia -> NVinject -> 128MB

Network (Depends on your network card)
-    Marvell Yukon 88E8001

14.    Click Done and Install.
15.    Reboot.

If your system boots into Leopard, then you’re all done. However, if you get a blinking cursor, rebooting, kernel panic, or other boot errors, proceed with the bootfix patch below.

The Bootfix Patch

1.    Download the patch here.
2.    Extract the files to an external USB (flash or hard) drive preferably formatted with HFS (FAT or FAT32 may also work). Rename the label to 123.
3.    With the USB drive inserted, reboot your computer with the iATKOS installation dvd. Let the Darwin/x86 bootloader do the countdown and then press Enter. Once you are back on the Welcome Screen, go to Utilities -> Terminal.
4.    Find out what disk your Leopard is installed on. It will be something like rdiskXsY, where X is the disk number and Y is the partition number (ex. rdisk1s1). In the commands below, substitute X and Y accordingly.

Type the following:

diskutil list

5.    Make the partition Active

fdisk -e /dev/rdiskX
fdisk: 0>update
fdisk:*0> f Y
“Partition 2 marked active”
fdisk:*0> w
Device could not be accessed exclusively.
A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n] y
Writing MBR at offset 0.
fdisk: 0> q

6.    Access the bootfix directory in the USB drive.

cd /Volumes/123/files/bootfix

7.    Then type the following:

./dd if=/usr/standalone/i386/boot1h of=/dev/rdiskXsY bs=512 count=1
umount /Volumes/Leopard
./startupfiletool -v /dev/rdiskXsY /usr/standalone/i386/boot
./bless -device /dev/diskXsY -setBoot –verbose

8.    Reboot.

Initially, except for the network card, Leopard works perfectly on my hackintosh. Fortunately I posted my solution for the network card at the insanelymac forum when building my Tiger box. I just did the same for Leopard and voila! So if you have the same Marvell Yukon network card and you are having problems making it work, then don’t be shy to send me a comment. Once done, I just used the Migration Assistant to transfer my accounts and files from the Tiger installation on the other drive and made sure all applications are working just fine. Another few tweaks and my PC can dual-boot into Windows Vista or OS X Leopard.

The best thing about this iATKOS release i
s that it finally supports EFI booting. What this means is that regular PCs that meet the minimum hardware requirements can now be seen as real Macintoshes by the OS, allowing the use of unmodified “stock” Apple kernels, providing a more transparent and reliable operation. With this, it allows you to use OS X’s “Software Update” to install legit Apple updates without downloading any patches or 3rd party software. Indeed, except for the PC look, you now practically have a Mac!

One last thing, I noticed that my Leopard Hackintosh is as stable and even faster than my 2.2Ghz, 2Gb RAM Leopard MacBook Pro!


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  • Smith

    Hi, i installed iATKOS and it working great but Leopard doesn’t know my “Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet”. how can i make it work? Thanks for ur giude.

  • Smith

    Hi, i installed iATKOS and it working great but Leopard doesn’t know my “Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet”. how can i make it work? Thanks for ur giude.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Congratulations Smith!

    To make your network card work, you need to add the device ID to your AppleYukon2.kext. My Yukon ID is 88E8056 so if you have a different ID just make the adjustment.

    Ok, first browse through your directory and make sure you have the same path as this:

    /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleYukon2.kext/Contents/Info.plist

    There may be some slight difference so check first and make the necessary change if needed.

    Now open Terminal and type the following (texts after the arrow are comments):

    cd /System/Library/Extensions <– changes directory

    sudo nano IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleYukon2.kext/Contents/Info.plist <– edits file

    (find and change: Yukon-88E8053)
    (to: Yukon-88E8056) <– change “53″ to “56″

    (find and change: Yukon Gigabit Adapter 88E8053)
    (to: Yukon Gigabit Adapter 88E8056) <– change “53″ to “56″

    (find and change: 0x436211AB)
    (to: 0x436411AB) <– change “62″ to “64″

    (press Control-O) <– saves changes
    (press Enter) <– accepts saving to existing file
    (press Control-X) <– exits nano

    sudo chown -R root:wheel IONetworkingFamily.kext <– repairs permissions
    cd /System/Library <– changes directories
    sudo rm -rf Extensions.mkext Extensions.kextcache <– rebuilds kextcache on reboot

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Congratulations Smith!

    To make your network card work, you need to add the device ID to your AppleYukon2.kext. My Yukon ID is 88E8056 so if you have a different ID just make the adjustment.

    Ok, first browse through your directory and make sure you have the same path as this:

    /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleYukon2.kext/Contents/Info.plist

    There may be some slight difference so check first and make the necessary change if needed.

    Now open Terminal and type the following (texts after the arrow are comments):

    cd /System/Library/Extensions <– changes directory

    sudo nano IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleYukon2.kext/Contents/Info.plist <– edits file

    (find and change: Yukon-88E8053)
    (to: Yukon-88E8056) <– change “53″ to “56″

    (find and change: Yukon Gigabit Adapter 88E8053)
    (to: Yukon Gigabit Adapter 88E8056) <– change “53″ to “56″

    (find and change: 0x436211AB)
    (to: 0x436411AB) <– change “62″ to “64″

    (press Control-O) <– saves changes
    (press Enter) <– accepts saving to existing file
    (press Control-X) <– exits nano

    sudo chown -R root:wheel IONetworkingFamily.kext <– repairs permissions
    cd /System/Library <– changes directories
    sudo rm -rf Extensions.mkext Extensions.kextcache <– rebuilds kextcache on reboot

  • AulonAlbania

    Hey! Thanks man! Great job! :-)

    Need your help. I’m having kinda problem here, my system is not recognizing the keyboard. It’s PS2, no Caps Lock neither Num Lock Led switching. :-(

    Can you help me?

  • AulonAlbania

    Hey! Thanks man! Great job! :-)

    Need your help. I’m having kinda problem here, my system is not recognizing the keyboard. It’s PS2, no Caps Lock neither Num Lock Led switching. :-(

    Can you help me?

  • AulonAlbania

    I found it! I put an adapter, ps2 to usb and everything solved! Thanks anyway!

  • AulonAlbania

    I found it! I put an adapter, ps2 to usb and everything solved! Thanks anyway!

  • Ben

    Good stuff,
    I haven’t done it yet but it looks great, my friend wants to turn his new sony vaio into a mac so this should be the trick

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Thanks AulonAlbania. I’m glad everything is now working for you. Enjoy your hackintosh!

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Thanks Ben. Please tell me how it turns out.

  • Ben

    Good stuff,
    I haven’t done it yet but it looks great, my friend wants to turn his new sony vaio into a mac so this should be the trick

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Thanks AulonAlbania. I’m glad everything is now working for you. Enjoy your hackintosh!

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Thanks Ben. Please tell me how it turns out.

  • Smith

    Hi ,
    i checked , Info.plist file is empty. there is nothing inside it. another thing is my Ethernet card is same as you. what do u suggest me.

  • Smith

    what about if u give me the Info.plist file. what do u think?

  • Smith

    Hi ,
    i checked , Info.plist file is empty. there is nothing inside it. another thing is my Ethernet card is same as you. what do u suggest me.

  • Smith

    what about if u give me the Info.plist file. what do u think?

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Hi Smith,

    Please check again your directory and filename. Try “AppleYukon2.kext” instead of “AppleYukon.kext”.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    Hi Smith,

    Please check again your directory and filename. Try “AppleYukon2.kext” instead of “AppleYukon.kext”.

  • vitasg

    I am trying to change the SATA settings on my harddrive to AHCI. In most computers this is no problem: simply go into the bios page at startup and alter the drive’s settings. However, on lower-end laptops such as mine, the Gateway ML3109, their BIOS pages frequently do not allow, or even display, an option to tweak this setting.

    What to do? The ML3109 has a Phoenix BIOS and I downloaded the Phoenix Bios Editor 4.2, which allows, I think, editing the BIOS page to make certain functions like modifying the SATA mode appear as an option. But I don’t know how to do this. Are there any other work arounds? Does the boot patch resolve this issue. As it is, I can’t get past the Darwin boot sequence. Thank you!

  • vitasg

    I am trying to change the SATA settings on my harddrive to AHCI. In most computers this is no problem: simply go into the bios page at startup and alter the drive’s settings. However, on lower-end laptops such as mine, the Gateway ML3109, their BIOS pages frequently do not allow, or even display, an option to tweak this setting.

    What to do? The ML3109 has a Phoenix BIOS and I downloaded the Phoenix Bios Editor 4.2, which allows, I think, editing the BIOS page to make certain functions like modifying the SATA mode appear as an option. But I don’t know how to do this. Are there any other work arounds? Does the boot patch resolve this issue. As it is, I can’t get past the Darwin boot sequence. Thank you!

  • Smith

    Yea, u are right it’s on AppleYukon2.kext. but i did every step that you told, me but still not working.

  • Smith

    Yea, u are right it’s on AppleYukon2.kext. but i did every step that you told, me but still not working.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @ vitasg

    Why don’t you try the boot patch first. You probably do not need to assign AHCI.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @ Smith

    Perhaps you missed something? It works for me. :-)

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @ vitasg

    Why don’t you try the boot patch first. You probably do not need to assign AHCI.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @ Smith

    Perhaps you missed something? It works for me. :-)

  • vitasg

    @blacksocks. Thanks I’ll try the bootpatch, but I thought that could only be done once leopard had already installed. I mean cant get into Terminal until that it has already installed.

  • vitasg

    @blacksocks. Thanks I’ll try the bootpatch, but I thought that could only be done once leopard had already installed. I mean cant get into Terminal until that it has already installed.

  • Smith

    Thank u very much blacksocks. i hope i will find it in other site.

  • Smith

    Thank u very much blacksocks. i hope i will find it in other site.

  • dock

    System Profiler or Disk Utility does not recognise my Sata Drives (no volume found). I am running a Dell Dimension 9150. Anybody know how to fix this?

  • dock

    System Profiler or Disk Utility does not recognise my Sata Drives (no volume found). I am running a Dell Dimension 9150. Anybody know how to fix this?

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @ dock

    Check your BIOS and see if you have SATA set to AHCI.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @ dock

    Check your BIOS and see if you have SATA set to AHCI.

  • raine

    hey, i was really amazed by your work.
    but can i install it with my laptop?
    here’s the specs:
    Pentium 4 1.8
    504MB System Memory
    14.1″ Screen
    1400×1280 SCRN Resolution
    with DVD/CD-R combo drive

    also if it’ll work on my PC:
    Pentium D 2.66
    512MB System memory
    18x LG DVD-RW
    17″ Monitor

  • raine

    hey, i was really amazed by your work.
    but can i install it with my laptop?
    here’s the specs:
    Pentium 4 1.8
    504MB System Memory
    14.1″ Screen
    1400×1280 SCRN Resolution
    with DVD/CD-R combo drive

    also if it’ll work on my PC:
    Pentium D 2.66
    512MB System memory
    18x LG DVD-RW
    17″ Monitor

  • Vellos

    I can’t get the installation to work. It won’t get past the gray apple logo with the spinning thing, nothing happens, it just keeps spinning. If i try rd=disk0s1 in that pre boot thing (as suggested by another website) when it reaches the apple logo it tells me to restart. Anyone know what’s wrong?
    My hardware:
    Asus p5k-e-wifi AP
    intel core 2 duo 2.4ghz
    8800gts 512mb Asus
    Asus sata dvd drive
    Maxtor IDE HDD
    2G kinston ram

    By the way, nice tutorial. Much better than others.

  • Vellos

    I can’t get the installation to work. It won’t get past the gray apple logo with the spinning thing, nothing happens, it just keeps spinning. If i try rd=disk0s1 in that pre boot thing (as suggested by another website) when it reaches the apple logo it tells me to restart. Anyone know what’s wrong?
    My hardware:
    Asus p5k-e-wifi AP
    intel core 2 duo 2.4ghz
    8800gts 512mb Asus
    Asus sata dvd drive
    Maxtor IDE HDD
    2G kinston ram

    By the way, nice tutorial. Much better than others.

  • Ilyace

    Hey, I burned the iso, then i booted my pc into it, but i can’t get past the grey screen with the apple logo on it. The screen flashes really fast and then my pc reboots. Help?

  • Ilyace

    Hey, I burned the iso, then i booted my pc into it, but i can’t get past the grey screen with the apple logo on it. The screen flashes really fast and then my pc reboots. Help?

  • Jeff

    Everything is going fine except the bootfix step.

    When I run “diskutil list” I can see the USB drive and it is named appropriately:

    /dev/disk2
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
    0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.9 Gi disk2
    1: DOS_FAT_32 1.9 Gi disk2s1

    However, it is not showing up in Volumes nor can I browse to it:

    -bash-3.2# cd /Volumes/123/files/bootfix
    -bash: cd /Volumes/123/files/bootfix: No such file or directory

    -bash-3.2# cd /Volumes
    -bash-3.2# ls
    .Trashes ._.Trashes Leopard iATKOS v.1.0i

    Any ideas on what is going wrong here? I’v tried it with the USB drive formatted as both FAT and FAT32. Is there some Vista plugin or something I can get to format it HFS? Will that make any difference?

    TIA

  • Jeff

    I missed the 123 there in the output of the diskutil list. It was infact named correct however in the actual output.

    I was able to find all the files (dd/bless/startupfiletool) already in the system. Executing them seems to have been successful and without error. However it still will not boot. I get an apple screen with a frozen progress circle below it. A cursor appears for a bit, changes to a colorful spinning cursor then goes away. There is hard drive activity up till this point then it goes away.

  • Ilyace

    Never mind, I fixed the issue i had earlier by applying the r2 ppf patch to the iso. Now everything works great, except for the fact that when i get to disk utility, my hard drive is not recognized. I have a Seagate 250gb sata hdd. What can i do to fix this?

  • Jeff

    Everything is going fine except the bootfix step.

    When I run “diskutil list” I can see the USB drive and it is named appropriately:

    /dev/disk2
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
    0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.9 Gi disk2
    1: DOS_FAT_32 1.9 Gi disk2s1

    However, it is not showing up in Volumes nor can I browse to it:

    -bash-3.2# cd /Volumes/123/files/bootfix
    -bash: cd /Volumes/123/files/bootfix: No such file or directory

    -bash-3.2# cd /Volumes
    -bash-3.2# ls
    .Trashes ._.Trashes Leopard iATKOS v.1.0i

    Any ideas on what is going wrong here? I’v tried it with the USB drive formatted as both FAT and FAT32. Is there some Vista plugin or something I can get to format it HFS? Will that make any difference?

    TIA

  • Jeff

    I missed the 123 there in the output of the diskutil list. It was infact named correct however in the actual output.

    I was able to find all the files (dd/bless/startupfiletool) already in the system. Executing them seems to have been successful and without error. However it still will not boot. I get an apple screen with a frozen progress circle below it. A cursor appears for a bit, changes to a colorful spinning cursor then goes away. There is hard drive activity up till this point then it goes away.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @raine

    I’ve heard of people successfully installing Leopard on a Pentium 4 as long as it supports SSE2 or SSE3. EFI only supports Core2Duo though.

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @Vellos

    Did you exactly follow the steps in the Bootfix patch?

  • http://blacksocks.wordpress.com/ blacksocks

    @ilyace

    Make sure SATA is set to AHCI in BIOS.

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