54 replies to this topic

[VirtualGuitarist]

Hello, happy hackers!

I'm deeply interested on the subject, because i have two unsupported hardware:
- nvidia 7600 gs
- attansic L1 ethernet (1969:1048 - i've tried several kexts, no way for now)

And of course i'm not alone in this case, there's lot of people with old or unsupported harware who have a lot of frustration with apple radical turn to 64 bits only. For exemple see here, this blog had beaten some records of frequentation since this tutorial was published!

So a strange idea comes to my mind: instead of using a 32 bits kernel, could it be possible to imagine a 64 bits wrapper (in the form of a generic 64 bits kext) capable of loading 32 bits kexts?

This could solve many problems, the first of course is the fact that all hacks that could be made on the kernel, or on the system kexts are not future-proof. As some have remarked, with the acceleration of updates (apple say they will release one major update per year!), we can't see a bright future for our actual hacks that will soon be rendered completely obsolete by future updates.

A 64 bits wrapper could be a long-term solution for those who want to keep their hardware as long as possible, because not everyone can afford to renew it every year or even every 3 years. As an exemple, i'm stuck with my obsolete graphic card and i don't see for now any possibility for me to buy a new one, and i'm certain to not being the only one in this case.

(sorry for my poor english)

[theconnactic]

VirtualGuitarist, on 24 August 2012 - 01:14 PM, said:

Hello, happy hackers!

I'm deeply interested on the subject, because i have two unsupported hardware:
- nvidia 7600 gs
- attansic L1 ethernet (1969:1048 - i've tried several kexts, no way for now)

And of course i'm not alone in this case, there's lot of people with old or unsupported harware who have a lot of frustration with apple radical turn to 64 bits only. For exemple see here, this blog had beaten some records of frequentation since this tutorial was published!

So a strange idea comes to my mind: instead of using a 32 bits kernel, could it be possible to imagine a 64 bits wrapper (in the form of a generic 64 bits kext) capable of loading 32 bits kexts?

This could solve many problems, the first of course is the fact that all hacks that could be made on the kernel, or on the system kexts are not future-proof. As some have remarked, with the acceleration of updates (apple say they will release one major update per year!), we can't see a bright future for our actual hacks that will soon be rendered completely obsolete by future updates.

A 64 bits wrapper could be a long-term solution for those who want to keep their hardware as long as possible, because not everyone can afford to renew it every year or even every 3 years. As an exemple, i'm stuck with my obsolete graphic card and i don't see for now any possibility for me to buy a new one, and i'm certain to not being the only one in this case.

(sorry for my poor english)

While this is an idea that worths to be tested, would it be above your possibilities to simply buy a low cost compatible card? Sure there are decent ones around $50 - i use a nVidia G210 with my Hack Pro. In fact is not a so good example, since that machine runs 10.7.4, because it has an AMD CPU and cannot be upgraded yet, but surely there should be ones with this price tag which runs fine on ML, maybe even the G210, but i just can't test it. Besides being a cheap card, it's a DDR3 PCI-e card with 1GB of memory and VGA, HDMI and DVI outputs which all work just fine.

About the ethernet kext you need, is it for an Atheros LAN? Because perhaps the 64-bit AtherosL1cEthernet that i have works for you. If it's the case, tell me and i'll attach the kext for you to test.

[VirtualGuitarist]

Hi and thanks for your kind answer, Theconnactic! Actually times are a little bit difficult, and children have always the priority, so for now...

But the problem is elsewhere: there is many, many users that can not install Mountain Lion, mainly for hardware reasons, so this could be a great opportunity for developpers of the community to think about a new way to handle this problem, and a ML-Compatible 64 bits wrapper kext capable of loading 32 bits (old) kexts could be a part (if not all) of the solution!

Unfortunately i don't have the knowledge to develop this idea myself, it's why i hope one of our hero members will read this message, this could be just great!

And for the Attansic/Atheros L1 chipset, a strange thing happened: i just tried the AttansicL1Ethernet.kext from SL (i already tried that, without success)... and now it worked! It works only with PCIRootUID=1 & npci=0x3000, iCloud don't work though... but for now i don't care so much,, because the graphics are horrible, so for now i will stay with SL for my day-to-day needs.

P.S. The iCloud problem is perhaps related to the fact that i deleted ApplePolicyControl.kext...

[theconnactic]

Why don't you try Lion? With Lion you can have iCloud and most of ML's features, and also use your 32-bit hardware.

[yellowviolent]

ML doesn't have that many new features to begin with, and the few it does are not available to Lion users. Notification Center, dictation, Facebook/Twitter integration, Messages, iCloud Tabs in Safari (Safari 6 on Lion has horrible performance issues. I've noticed in my testing that even with graphics only being partially accelerated, Safari 6 on ML is way faster). Running ML is the point of this whole thread.

[VirtualGuitarist]

theconnactic, on 24 August 2012 - 09:48 PM, said:

Why don't you try Lion? With Lion you can have iCloud and most of ML's features, and also use your 32-bit hardware.

Yes of course, but i'm always hungry to test the latest things, and lastly i discovered all these blogs, reviews and articles about genuine apple users being left behind by apple's choices... I found that this is a real problem for a LOT of people!

So i try to push this idea, not only for osx86 fans, but also for apple regular users...

(sorry for the typo angry/hungry i always have problems with english lol )

[theconnactic]

Yellowviolent, i suggest him to try Lion instead of just give up and stay in Snow Leopard. It would be cool to get a workaround to get ML running 32-bit, but until the day we get it, if we get it, it's always recommendable to be as up-to-date as possible. There are my two cents at this.

[VirtualGuitarist]

theconnactic, on 24 August 2012 - 10:06 PM, said:

Yellowviolent, i suggest him to try Lion instead of just give up and stay in Snow Leopard. It would be cool to get a workaround to get ML running 32-bit, but until the day we get it, if we get it, it's always recommendable to be as up-to-date as possible. There are my two cents at this.

This is words of wisdom... of course i will try Lion, anyway i'm looking forward to see if a developer will catch my idea to create an ML 64 bits wrapper kext!

Perhaps It's not as crazy as it looks? Perhaps this idea is really feasible?

[theconnactic]

But remember: at the very moment you have Lion (or Mountain Lion, by the way) running in your PC, all your PowerPC apps will cease to function. So you'll better research for alternatives, if you use them.

[VirtualGuitarist]

theconnactic, on 25 August 2012 - 12:04 AM, said:

But remember: at the very moment you have Lion (or Mountain Lion, by the way) running in your PC, all your PowerPC apps will cease to function. So you'll better research for alternatives, if you use them.

Yes, the abandon of Rosetta is a very sad news for some users... Fortunately, the only PPC app i have really used on SL is a little game... So there's na harm for me, but for some others, this could be a real problem (no more support / updates).

[DarwinX]

VirtualGuitarist, on 24 August 2012 - 01:14 PM, said:

Hello, happy hackers! I'm deeply interested on the subject, because i have two unsupported hardware: - nvidia 7600 gs - attansic L1 ethernet (1969:1048 - i've tried several kexts, no way for now) And of course i'm not alone in this case, there's lot of people with old or unsupported harware who have a lot of frustration with apple radical turn to 64 bits only. For exemple see here, this blog had beaten some records of frequentation since this tutorial was published! So a strange idea comes to my mind: instead of using a 32 bits kernel, could it be possible to imagine a 64 bits wrapper (in the form of a generic 64 bits kext) capable of loading 32 bits kexts? This could solve many problems, the first of course is the fact that all hacks that could be made on the kernel, or on the system kexts are not future-proof. As some have remarked, with the acceleration of updates (apple say they will release one major update per year!), we can't see a bright future for our actual hacks that will soon be rendered completely obsolete by future updates. A 64 bits wrapper could be a long-term solution for those who want to keep their hardware as long as possible, because not everyone can afford to renew it every year or even every 3 years. As an exemple, i'm stuck with my obsolete graphic card and i don't see for now any possibility for me to buy a new one, and i'm certain to not being the only one in this case. (sorry for my poor english)

Slice is a very talented and capable OS X community developer. If anyone at all could achieve this, it is him.

Send Slice a message   

The X Labs - InsanelyMac Forum

[VirtualGuitarist]

DarwinX, on 25 August 2012 - 02:06 PM, said:

Slice is a very talented and capable OS X community developer. If anyone at all could achieve this, it is him.

Send Slice a message   

The X Labs - InsanelyMac Forum

Thanks a lot DarwinX! I will send him a message, i hope to not waste his time though...

I have a real admiration about the developers of the community... When i think about it, i was there when Maxxuss published his first blog articles, followed by Netkas and his amazing work on real time decryption, Melkhort, Anv, Slice of course, and some others (Superhai, Koolkal, Semjaza...) very smart and rare people that are really the origin and the heart of the osx86 project, or simply have helped, by revolutionnary methods or distros, noobs like me to enjoy osx on their cheap pcs!

I hope one day one or some of these remarkable personalities will tell the story behind all that (a future blog article?), seen from the inside, i think it worths a novel! A very technical sort of novel, but of course behind the technics there's also human stories that worth to be telled.

UPDATE: message sent, finger crossed, knocked some wood, etc...

[HeavyGamerXX94]

Yo , check this out ! http://shantonu.blog...ntain-lion.html

I tried netkas' mach_kernel & system.kext, I get the same KP as yours.

[VirtualGuitarist]

MacZombie, on 25 August 2012 - 09:39 PM, said:

Yo , check this out ! http://shantonu.blog...ntain-lion.html

Interesting and a good tutorial to compile our own kernel, anyway Netkas have already released a 32 bits kernel, but this is only a part of the problem, the other one is that you must have compatible kexts, and Netkas said that there's still uncompatibilities with ML and nvidias 7xxx, for exemple see this article, no QE/CI in ML for now ...

[VirtualGuitarist]

UPDATE: Good news! I received an answer from Slice! It seems that my idea is not as stupid as it looks, and this could be a real possibility!
I proposed to submit my idea in the "X-Lab", if he agree this could be the beginning of a new development, why not? This is just great!

UPDATE2: I submitted a new topic to the X-Lab, of course it needs to be approved by moderators first. "What will be, will be"... hrrmm... "Que sera, sera"? Or something like that...

UPDATE3: Thanks to the moderators, here is my post in the X-Lab!