Mau777 Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 Hi there, I am an absolute Mac newbie (never had one, never used one) but now I am forced to get into this topic since I have to convert some of my software to iPod / iPhone. To do so, I need to compile the software on a Mac OS. My system: AMD Athlon64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ NVidia nForce Chipset Motherboard ATI Radeon X1950 Pro Windows XP Professional SP 3 Now there are two choices: either buying a Mac Mini or to install the OS on my Windows XP (AMD) PC. I am not happy about buying a Mac (it's not only about the money, there is simply no space available on my desk anymore). I could get a Mac Mini for a reasonable price, but would have to make a decision until tomorrow, that's why I urgently need some info regarding the installation of Mac OS 10.6 on an AMD PC. - Is this possible at all? - Are there any drawbacks? - Will I be able to do so as a completely Mac noob? - Are there any guides available about installing OS 10.6 on an AMD PC that are also understandable by absolute Mac beginners? Which guide would suit best for me? Using Google, I found dozens, but most of them require advanced Mac knowledge, unfortunately. - Or should I go without the hassle and simply buy a Mac? Thanks for answering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3ofakind Posted September 11, 2010 Share Posted September 11, 2010 Option 3 Virtualbox (free) http://www.virtualbox.org Look for this iso: Snow_Leopard_10.6.1-10.6.2_SSE2_SSE3_Intel_AMD_by_Hazard.iso There is a more recent 10.6.3 combined version but that iso is corrupt so don't bother wasting your download. Virtualbox is very easy to use. Lifehacker has a guide using this distro. 3D graphics and sound won't work out of the box but I doubt you need that for compiling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mau777 Posted September 12, 2010 Author Share Posted September 12, 2010 Thanks for the hint, I'll downloading it right now and will give it a try. Unfortunately, I'll probably need 3d graphics and sounds since the application I need to compile is a 3d viewer. Is there any way to enable these features by applying drivers or patches? If so, where could I find them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3ofakind Posted September 12, 2010 Share Posted September 12, 2010 3D graphics in OS X VM won't be supported for a long time. For sound there is a patch in the Virtualbox forums, very flaky. Without 3D graphics looks like you are back to option 1 or 2. This way (using VB) now you have a bit of an idea of what you are heading for. Hackintosh is a huge learning curve so it will depend on if you have the time (let's say approx 1 day for each device that is not working). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mau777 Posted September 12, 2010 Author Share Posted September 12, 2010 Thanks for helping 3ofakind. I'll try it with the VB, perhaps I don't need 3D graphics etc. since all I basically need is to install the iPhone SDK (hope it will run on a VB Mac OS) and compile my software with it, then send it to the iPhone. I hope this will work within the VB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mau777 Posted September 13, 2010 Author Share Posted September 13, 2010 I found a Guide on how to install Snow Leopard on an AMD machine -however, it says: Snow Leopard needs a Leopard Install so we need to two hard disk one with Leopard already installed and second hard disk for Snow Leopard. Is this also true for VirtualBox using the Snow_Leopard_10.6.1-10.6.2_SSE2_SSE3_Intel_AMD_by_Hazard.iso ? And are there any other preparations I should consider before installing the iso (f.e. will I need some special config file etc.)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3ofakind Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Everything I've seen says any Snow Leopard distro, even the retail UPGRADE version will install on a clean hard drive. All I can say is go for it. Playing around with VM's takes no time. If you get something wrong, it only takes a couple of seconds to change the settings and fire up the VM again. Seriously the amount of time you've spent typing here, you would of had the VM working long ago. Just make sure your CPU has hardware virtualization (AMD-x) and it's enabled in BIOS. You don't need any special config because they've designed the VM to present real MAC hardware to the OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mau777 Posted September 14, 2010 Author Share Posted September 14, 2010 I am currently in the installation procedure of Snow Leopard by Hazard. A setup message says "AMD users need to patch cupid's with Marvin's AMD utility". What is this tool for? EDIT: After installation and reboot of the virtual OS, the OS freezes during load. The (DOS) screen says "Loading drivers............. ........................... ..........................." then it freezes. Rebooted again, same result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3ofakind Posted September 14, 2010 Share Posted September 14, 2010 I use Intel and I just did the install as per Lifehacker's guide. According to the guide you need to use legacy kernel and "AMD" option only. Other than that I don't know much more about AMD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mau777 Posted September 14, 2010 Author Share Posted September 14, 2010 I switched to VMWare now, and using the legacy Kernel and AMD option it works However, VMWare is quite slow compared to VirtualBox, so I'll try to get it to run on VB tomorrow. Thanks for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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