OSX86 hardware serial number?

[Dewdman42]

Ok, how is the osx86 serial number for our hackintosh derived. I have a piece of software that uses a proprietary copy protection scheme which is partially based on the serial number of the mac. And I can't run this software on my hack, its the only thing so far that won't run. I'm told by them that the serial number is a likely reason.

 

When I go to About this Mac, I do NOT see a serial number on the main page, but if I click on the more info button I see a serial number which I think is the same for all of us: CK034KMHK5B. I was looking online and I found this screen shot for real Macs:

 

 

Notice that the serial number is on the main page, but I don't see that in my vanilla OSX86 install.

 

So the question is, what is the difference? How do real macs get this serial number and display it here and why are we missing it in our osx86 install? Is there a way to emulate it?

 

 

Hmm, never mind the image above. I found that if you click on the version number of that dialog, it eventually shows up.

 

but do we all have the same serial number? Does anyone know how this serial number is derived on OSX86?

[perimbean]

To my knowledge, the serial number is actually in use when you purchase AppleCare protection from Apple. I've got 5 Apple iMacs and the serial number does not display in the "About Apple" image.

 

Cheers!

perimbean

[Superhai]

but do we all have the same serial number? Does anyone know how this serial number is derived on OSX86?

 

You can use my smbiosresolver.kext, change the serial to whatever suits you in the Info.plist file. Or remove the entire line to use your bios serial (if you have one set).

[Dewdman42]

Interesting. Could you tell me a little more about that? Since I am not using the vanilla SMBIOS kext, I'm not sure I can use yours. Or are you saying this should work as good or better than the customized AppleSMBIOS.text I am using now? I'm actually not entirely sure what was hacked in my AppleSMBIOS.kext

[Jedric]

You can use my smbiosresolver.kext, change the serial to whatever suits you in the Info.plist file. Or remove the entire line to use your bios serial (if you have one set).

 

What else can you do/Change on smbiosresolver.kext? Can you give us more info on it.

 

Thanks

[Dewdman42]

I'd also really like to know how the serial number is being derived for the rest of us. Do we all have the same serial number? is it hard coded into Chameleon or AppleSMBIOS.kext that we're using? Where is it coming from?

[Jedric]

I think its on the SMBIOS, so who ever compiled the one you are using it probably hardcoded it. Looks like everybody is showing up the same. I have a couple of machines and they both show up as the same serial using the same SMBIOS. If you just want to change the serial # you can follow the instruction on the link below. I was able to change my this way.

 

http://www.s155158671.websitehome.co.uk/sy...profilermo.html

 

The screenshot you showed in the beginning probably got edited. You can change the "About this Mac" to whatever you like.

 

Here's the link.

 

Just photoshop it and add your serial#

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=47915

[Dewdman42]

Hmm, I looked at that guide, but I don't see how the serial number can be changed. Looks to me like you can change some of the labels that show up in the profiler. But if some application, like Itunes or some copy protection needs to get a machine serial number, its probably not going through that layer. Need to figure out how to make sure anyone looking for the machine serial number, will get a unique one that fits the format of a mac serial number.

[Jedric]

Hmm, I looked at that guide, but I don't see how the serial number can be changed. Looks to me like you can change some of the labels that show up in the profiler. But if some application, like Itunes or some copy protection needs to get a machine serial number, its probably not going through that layer. Need to figure out how to make sure anyone looking for the machine serial number, will get a unique one that fits the format of a mac serial number.

 

 

Dont we all Another thing I want to change is in Geekbench my machine shows up as Hackintosh, but I've seen some detected as MACPRO. I've tried tons of SMBIOS and I always get hackintosh.

[Jedric]

Try this, it didn't work for me but it might for you. let me know.

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=98051

[Dewdman42]

Hmm. Interesting. I'll give that a whir. See what happens. I wonder if that default serial number is a valid one in terms of format?

[Dewdman42]

k, so I tried by the SMBIOSResolver. I didn't like it. I'm not really sure what it resolved, but the serial number showed up as "SECRETSERIAL" under About this Mac. Not exactly what I was hoping for. It got the memory speed and other things wrong as well and categorized my machine as a macbook.

 

I also tried the following AppleSMBIOS instead of the resolver

 

http://my.macdotnub.info/content/view/22/26/

 

That worked rather perfectly and I was able to configure my memory speed and a custom serial number in the com.apple.Boot.plist file. I am running that now and very satisified. That is what I would reccomend.

[Jedric]

k, so I tried by the SMBIOSResolver. I didn't like it. I'm not really sure what it resolved, but the serial number showed up as "SECRETSERIAL" under About this Mac. Not exactly what I was hoping for. It got the memory speed and other things wrong as well and categorized my machine as a macbook.

 

I also tried the following AppleSMBIOS instead of the resolver

 

http://my.macdotnub.info/content/view/22/26/

 

That worked rather perfectly and I was able to configure my memory speed and a custom serial number in the com.apple.Boot.plist file. I am running that now and very satisified. That is what I would reccomend.

 

Can you post a screenshot of your system profiler and the code in the com.apple.Boot.plist file? I tried that too but its showing as IMAC Instead of MacPro.

[Riley Freeman]

k, so I tried by the SMBIOSResolver. I didn't like it. I'm not really sure what it resolved, but the serial number showed up as "SECRETSERIAL" under About this Mac. Not exactly what I was hoping for. It got the memory speed and other things wrong as well and categorized my machine as a macbook.

You have to edit the info.plist in the smbiosresolver.kext to set those values. Some seem to work, while others don't. I set my bus speed to 400MHz but it shows up as 1.6GHz in System Profiler. My CPU is also wrongly listed as 3.6GHz. Although I set the model to MacPro1,1 it still lists my mobo model in "Model Identifier". It does show the serial number I added and the Boot ROM Version.

 

This is the third enabler I've tried and all gave incorrect readings in the System Profiler. However, this one does allow you to set some variables and it is also the only one that was able to run Apple DVD Player. The alternate AppleSMBIOS.kext you mentioned works better that any of the enablers so far. Although it too lists 1.6GHz as my bus speed.

[Dewdman42]

Can you post a screenshot of your system profiler and the code in the com.apple.Boot.plist file? I tried that too but its showing as IMAC Instead of MacPro.

 

I don't want to share my screenshot because at this point I want to keep my serial number secret, but trust me it shows correctly. However, iMac is the type of computer, not macPro, but is that really important? our machines are actually closer to being iMacs then they are to being xeon macpros. I think that parameter is hard coded in the AppleSMBIOS binary.

 

My bus speed also shows 1.6, but (shrug), that is what it has always shown with all the AppleSMBIOS I have tried and I don't think it really matters. Neither do some of these other things like memspeed and memtype or machine model. The serial number actually effects some software. Maybe there is some software effected by the other things too, I'm not aware of any.

 

Here is the plist text I used

 

	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-v MemSpeed=1000 MemType=DDR2 SerialNum=MYSECRETSERIAL</string>

Notice how there is a -v? that is because I already had a Kernel Flags parameter in my plist with "-v" ad the only flag, so I ADDED these new parameters to the list in the same place.

 

Also make sure you delete /System/Library/Extensions.mkext after you install the AppleSMBIOS.kext and before you reboot. That is a cache of the extensions. I found it wasn't working right until I remembered to do that, then it all started working right. If you boot with -v, you can see your serial number flash across the non-gui screen before it switches to gui mode.

 

Regarding the resolver, thanks for that info. Do you have any more information about the exact format of that configuration file for the resolver? I couldn't find any docs for it. Sounds like the AppleSMBIOS I mentioned is the best bet right now though.

[Jedric]

I don't want to share my screenshot because at this point I want to keep my serial number secret, but trust me it shows correctly. However, iMac is the type of computer, not macPro, but is that really important? our machines are actually closer to being iMacs then they are to being xeon macpros. I think that parameter is hard coded in the AppleSMBIOS binary.

 

My bus speed also shows 1.6, but (shrug), that is what it has always shown with all the AppleSMBIOS I have tried and I don't think it really matters. Neither do some of these other things like memspeed and memtype or machine model. The serial number actually effects some software. Maybe there is some software effected by the other things too, I'm not aware of any.

 

Here is the plist text I used

 

	<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-v MemSpeed=1000 MemType=DDR2 SerialNum=MYSECRETSERIAL</string>

Notice how there is a -v? that is because I already had a Kernel Flags parameter in my plist with "-v" ad the only flag, so I ADDED these new parameters to the list in the same place.

 

Also make sure you delete /System/Library/Extensions.mkext after you install the AppleSMBIOS.kext and before you reboot. That is a cache of the extensions. I found it wasn't working right until I remembered to do that, then it all started working right. If you boot with -v, you can see your serial number flash across the non-gui screen before it switches to gui mode.

 

Regarding the resolver, thanks for that info. Do you have any more information about the exact format of that configuration file for the resolver? I couldn't find any docs for it. Sounds like the AppleSMBIOS I mentioned is the best bet right now though.

 

Fair enough, actually our machines are more like the first gen MAC PRO's with 2 dual cores, probably even better overlocked so I prefer mine to say MACPRO, Primate Labs MAC PRO 4 core Xeon(early 2008) only scores 5317, which is way past yours, so im still in search for SMBIOS. The SMBIOS-27 rev 3 from macnubs used to worked good till 10.5.3 and 10.5.4 came out. I been using that IMAC smbios-27 rev 6 from macnubs for a few months now on my other machine running dual core 2.0Ghz which is closer to IMAC.

[Riley Freeman]

Regarding the resolver, thanks for that info. Do you have any more information about the exact format of that configuration file for the resolver? I couldn't find any docs for it. Sounds like the AppleSMBIOS I mentioned is the best bet right now though.

Yeah it probably is right now. Though this enabler does seem to work a little better than the other two I tried (as far as DVD Player is concerned). I guess the only way to get a fully accurate/complete hardware overview is with a custom kernel of some kind as none of the enablers or the alternate smbios can display my CPU features (SSE3, EMT64 etc).

 

As for the plist format, the overrides section is where you make the changes and it seems pretty straightforward:

 

<dict>

<key>UUID-key</key>

<string>00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016174EE065</string>

<key>board-id</key>

<string>Mac-Unknown</string> not sure what you can put here

<key>compatible</key>

<string>MacBookPro4,1</string> mac model

<key>dimm-speed</key>

<string></string> speed of ram in mhz e.g. 1000

<key>hardcode-bus</key>

<integer>200</integer> fsb speed

<key>manufacturer</key>

<string>Apple Inc.</string>

<key>model</key>

<string>MacBookPro4,1</string> mac model

<key>product-name</key>

<string>MacBookPro4,1</string> mac model

<key>rom-version</key>

<string>MBP41.88Z.00C1.B00.0802091544</string> bios rom version. initial letters denote model (IM, MP, MBP etc)

<key>serial-number</key>

<string>SECRETSERIAL</string> serial number

<key>version</key>

<string>1.0</string>

</dict>