Terc Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 !WARNING! to all potential EFI-X Customers Since the EFI-X team has yet to bother documenting any of this, I have compiled the issues for everyone myself. Currently, fully "supported" hardware WILL have the following issues: - Jittery scrolling in Firefox - NO Bonjour support, this means that all of the following are NOT WORKING: __- Screen sharing __- File shares __- iTunes shares __- Apple TV __- Time Machine __- Airport Extreme - Broken networking in VMware Fusion - No support for Boot Camp (work around - Use F12 to boot your Windows disk manually) - RAM will not be reported as actual speed (cosmetic only) - No support for OSX built in Software RAID - Absolutely no documentation, not even correct bios settings to get EFI-X to start (you must scour the forums for this information) Anything I'm missing? Let me know, and I'll add it to the list. Also, word of advice, save your posts someplace else too, their moderators (EFI-X's) have no problem deleting entire threads, and editing your posts without any indication it happened. The EFI-X team claims they're going to release an update in October (we've all seen how well that went, today is Nov 13) to fix several of these issues. No new timeline, or any indication if it will actually happen. So, on with my experience thus far: EFI-X: Buy supported hardware, and our dongle and we'll make sure it works Me: Buys "supported" hardware, dongle, scours website for correct settings just to get OSX to install. EFI-X: Yeah, we're working on that documentation, it'll be out with the [phantom] October update Me: [disappointed, frustrated] Well, ok then... [waits] EFI-X: ......., November, ......... Me: Yup, my EFI-X is about to get ditched. October update my ass. What a waste of money. EFI-X team: Don't worry, we've got a phantom update that'll fix everything... Me: Ok, so I've got a fix for software RAID EFI-X team: ........ Me: Ok then, here's how to do it guys EFI-X team: [deletes post] Me: Yup... glad I wasted my time trying to help out your customers EFI-X: Fine, if you're not happy with our unsupported dongle, then we'll ban you! "You have been permanently banned from this board. Please contact the Board Administrator for more information. Reason given for ban: If you don't like EFi-X™ all do the pleasure for you A ban has been issued on your username." I think it's time to admit to myself that I've been scammed. EFI-X, where all the stuff that's broken, well, it's not supported. We only support the things that are working for you, didn't you know that?! Back to the boot-132 method. It's much more stable, and I might as well call it supported since the support you'll get from me is infinitely better than anything you'll ever hear from the EFI-X team. You can find me and a fully functioning home made mac over on InsanelyMac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wileyc Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 I'm going to second Terc's post. The technical issues with the EFiX are serious, and I have serious doubts about the maturity/technical competance of ArtStudios themselves. ArtStudios appears to consist of only three individuals: Davide Rutigliano (TorqueX86), Wilhelm Von Vnukov (WhiteDragon), and Aman Fahimullah (amantheboy). References have been made to a team of developers that are being pushed night and day to get the next firmware revision out the door. All problem reports receive the canned "wait for the October update" from the development team. The October update is very much overdue, and they refuse to answer queries about issues addressed and/or new functionality. Further, the October update has been described as a complete rewrite. I've been in the industry fifteen years, and I've never seen the first rev of a complete firmware rewrite have fewer issues than the legacy code that it replaces. They would be better served by placating their customers by issuing a bugfix release that addresses the known issues, but unfortunately ... ... ArtStudios, particularly WhiteDragon and TorqueX86, are very antagonistic towards their paying customers. Posts on the forum are regularly deleted on the grounds that they are "offensive". This criteria is applied not only to messages asking for information or help, but also messages providing workarounds for defects in the EFiX. I find this to be intolerable, and I deeply regret having purchased their product. I will convert my EFiX machine to a boot-132 configuration this weekend, and am considering disassembling the EFiX to determine if it is, in fact, a turnkey boot-132 dongle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geiman Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 I was seriously considering EFIX for a while, but then luckily I found the boot-132/chameleon projects. With projects like these, there really is no need to buy such expensive hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Dman Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 Why would anyone spend his money in a thing there's a free alternative of it? Well I'm using boot-132 with EFI partition and all working good without any problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nano2nd Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 I think this post is in the wrong sub-forum isn't it? Secondly, I think that most people will probably think this is a case of overreaction. The list of issues/bugs does not look very different to the typical assorted problems faced by any OSX86 install (that can usually be worked through and solved). Thats the great thing about OSX86 - it is a community effort with sharing of knowledge and sharing of problems. However... once you put a commercial spin on this and (a) charge for a product, and ( cloak the details in secrecy (aka protection of intellectual property), the community dynamic goes away. What you have instead is a contract or at least an understanding between the seller and the customer that the product is fit for purpose and that the seller is responsible. But I don't think EFI-X can clearly see this distinction (but then I don't know if they ever commit to providing any support anyway). The great thing here though (from EFI-X's perspective) is that, if they fail to live up to the hype and fail to provide you with the required support, there is very little you can do. The legality of the product is, at best, sketchy. What are you going to do? Take the matter up with the local Chamber of Commerce? Write a strongly worded email? Pay them a visit? (no, they're in Russia, no they're in Austria, no they're in Germany WTF!). The best you can do, if you feel you've been wronged by EFI-X, is damage their reputation by speaking out about it. I'm kind of curious to see if threads like this remain. I saw even Netkas had a beef with WhiteDragon but that post was later removed from his site. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wileyc Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 ... and that is what we are doing: speaking out. Based on my observations of ArtStudio behavior over the past two months, I have concluded that one or more of the following will be true: * the EFiX is a boot-132 repackaging with a custom splash screen and a bit of obfuscation to hide that it is a simple USB pendrive from the host OS, * the rewrite is an effort to remove the GPL'd syslinux bits from their code base, * the ArtStudio development team did not write (and do not understand) any significant portion of the EFiX code and therefore cannot issue bugfix updates. If this isn't the right forum for this, please point us in the right direction ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mifki Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 its times like these i just cant help saying i told you so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
typewriter Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 I agree that the efi-x guys don't behave very professionally. But this "I am a paying customer - kiss my feet" attitude seems also quite strange to me. This is device costs less than 100 euro. So what do people expect for this money? 24-hour-on-site-service? A perfect replacement for a 3000 $ mac pro? Please... Even if efi-x is just a nicely designed usb-stick with boot 123, who cares? It still would save time to set up a system. I use Boot 123 and it took me days to collect drivers and experiments to get everything working. Of course I could set up an usb-stick with Boot 123, too. I would take hours if not days to do it. So this is a simple calculation: Paying less than 100 euros for efi-x - or investing a bunch hours or days of installation efforts with boot 123. It's your choice - and time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrupted Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 Of course EFI-X is a scam. You can do the exact same thing, though a bit more involved with Boot-132 and friends here on the forum, for absolutely no monetary costs[excepting burnt CDs/purchased USB devices/whatever you need]. Edit: Moved to OSX86\Hardware, since this has to do with OSX86, not Apple [World]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SticMAC™ Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 I'm still waiting for the Swiss "Branch" to contact me, so that we can set up an experiment in order to test EFI-x with 4 Mainbrand Systems, Now all of a sudden they ONLY speak German and don't understand my English! I think in years to come we will remember this as one of the biggest NON-EVENTS in MacOSX's history SticMAC ps, at least my NEW Alu MacBook doesn't need it any more!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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