considering osx86

[pwnage101]

hello everybody, this is my first post here.

 

i've been considering osx86, but so far it seems as though the process is a tad more complicated than i would have thought it to be. whether or not it actually is, everyone that i have read still seems to know more than i do on this subject, and i feel that i do not know enough to make the decision to attempt.

 

i couldn't find anything like a "compatibility list" so i would very much appreciate it if someone could indulge me on the common knowledge of osx86 hardware compatibility.

 

as for my own hardware:

CPU: intel Q6600

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P

RAM: 4gb (4x 1gb) Crucial Ballistix

GPU: Nvidia 8800GTX

 

also, i've looked around but i couldn't find a website that expressed the disadvantages of osx86.

i access the internet through an ethernet cable and i would like to be able to access internet without problems. fortunately, i mostly hear horror stories about wireless internet problems.

 

 

thanks.

[Zaap]

The Hardware Compatiblity List (albiet, outdated) is here.

 

Is that the hardware you already have, or are planning to buy? If you already have it, your system will defintely work- check the HCL. That setup should work perfectly for OSX. You should be able to do a full retail DVD install (retail works beautifully on the DS3L board, no idea about the DS3P, but I'd wager it would work). Certainly to try things out, I'd download iDeneb 10.5.4 (you can find it floating around the web) and give it a try. The older Kalyway and/or Leo4All will work too, but you'll find you're just starting at an earlier point in order to update to 10.5.5 without jumping through a few hoops along the way. With any of these, find out what chipset and component drivers you need to check in the setup of any of these (usually by studying the HCL for your exact mobo, and reading threads from others with the same board).

 

The logic is exactly similar to installing Windows- if (for example) the board has an Intel ICH9 chipset and ALC 889A sound etc. etc, then they need drivers.

 

The graphic card and everything else should work great- use a GFX string tool (like EFI Studio) to enable it fully.

 

If that's hardware you're planning to buy, I'd say everything is great except I'd go for a newer Gigabyte EP45 based board that's retail compatible, rather than the 'older' P35 board. Although there's not a thing wrong with the performance of the P35 boards and they're only 'old' in the PC-world sense where new hardware comes on scene every other week.

 

As for complicated- you may be surprised to find that OSX is just as easy, even easier to install on that hardware than Windows. (Provided you follow a guide and download all the needed tools and any patches for system components.)

[pwnage101]

wow thanks very much! this computer i actually purchased and built some time last year and it has been working great with vista & linux ubuntu ever since.

 

"iDeneb is a Mac OSX Leopard relase modified by Layne and insanelymac Team, to run on non-Apple computers."

 

does that mean it's the full operating system? is this required with the retail install?

[Zaap]

wow thanks very much! this computer i actually purchased and built some time last year and it has been working great with vista & linux ubuntu ever since.

 

"iDeneb is a Mac OSX Leopard relase modified by Layne and insanelymac Team, to run on non-Apple computers."

 

does that mean it's the full operating system? is this required with the retail install?

 

iDeneb (use latest, currently v 1.3) Kalyway, Leo4All and others are the full OSX- repackaged and made to boot and install on a whole slew of hardware, even some AMD based machines. All of the 'Hack' distro versions of OSX like this have added patches and different kernels to select from so that it's pretty easy to install on PC hardware. (You defintely want to stay with the 'vanilla' kernel, IE: unmodified' since you have Intel) They'll each be about a 3 to 4GB disc image download you need to burn to a DVD. I'd certainly go with trying this method first just to see for yourself that your hardware works. I've used a Leo4All and the iDeneb based system for most of the past year before recently switching out to the retail.

 

That's pretty much phase two of the Hackintosh way- going that much more 'legit' and installing the retail OSX from Apple. (Which I recommend buying anyway, to support Apple, and be as legit as possible, all things considered). I'm pretty certain your setup will install and work with the retail- but it's a little more involved than the 'distro' way. There's tons of info on all of this around this forum- search is using Google [subject site:insanelymac.com] not the built in search.

[The Raton]

Just a small advice... In case you decide for any distros and not for retail, you have to take in mind that updates from apple are a bit complicate. Careful not to update directly from software update bc this will end in a nonbootable system... Search the forum for methods to update.

[pwnage101]

if i wanted to dual boot vista and osx, can i just make two unallocated partitions and install osx first on one of the unallocated partitions? i dont have time to install vista, but i wish to eventually.

[Synaesthesia]

Yeah.

[Zaap]

Trust me, do yourself a huge favor and consider getting a second hard drive for your eventual Vista install, rather than mess with installing it on a partition of the same drive as OSX.

 

Yes- it can be done. Spend some decent study time in the Multi-Booting and Virtualisation forum for the myriad of dual and multi-booting methods.

 

The trouble with multiple OS's on the same drive is the bootloader method- each added OS tends to overwrite the boot sector and therefore needs to be made to boot the previous OS's, or they seem to get 'lost'. Occasionally, something goes wrong and the previously installed OS simply gets hosed- I'm no expert on how this happens, but I've had it happen once to me where an OSX install simply wouldn't boot once Vista got through mangling the drive.

 

Installing OS's on their own drives eliminates the problems of overwriting the boot sector, and is just so much more reliable. On Gigabyte boards, you can simply hold down F12 at boot, and a handy boot selector comes up, allowing you to choose which hard drive (and therefore which OS) to boot into. It's not elegant like a nice sleek bootloader, but it gets the job done and is very reliable. If you want to get fancy and use a bootloader that can boot all the OS's from a menu, it's still much perferable to have the OS's on their own drives, and edit the bootloader to load them. (For example, GRUB with Linux, or Vista's bootloader can be edited to boot all other OS's on the system including OSX).

[bing]

Check this thread if you haven't already.

 

[Guide & Software] A Recipe for Delicious Leopard Soup - Now with Vanilla Flavor!, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Rev 2.0 on 10.5.4 with Vanilla Kernel!

 

It's a really good primer (at least,) with a well written guide for specific hardware.

 

[pwnage101]

everything is fine so far. thanks everybody:)

 

just a quick question: is it safe to install "HP Printer driver update" from Software Update? i've searched everywhere but no cigar. i tried to "add printer" but it asked for the driver, which i could have installed from the HP disk as well....but same thing, are HP printer drivers safe?

 

by the way, i have an "HP Photosmart C5280 All-in-One"

[Synaesthesia]

It should do no harm.

[pwnage101]

just a couple more questions that i could not find the answers to:

 

when my computer tries to sleep, or if i initiate sleep in the apple menu, the screen goes negative, then black, then the hard drive shuts off....but the fans continue to spin! when i move the mouse the screen comes back on, but it stays in the negative screen. i hit ctrl+windowsButton+alt+8 but the screen doesn't change back! the only way i could get it back to normal was a reboot.

 

in terminal i checked the hibernation mode ($ pmset -g | grep hibernatemode) and it said i had hibernatemode 1

 

# 1 - Hibernation mode, with RAM contents written to disk, system totally shut down while “sleeping,” and slower wake up, due to reading the contents of RAM off the hard drive.

# 3 - The default mode on machines introduced since about fall 2005. RAM is powered on while sleeping, but RAM contents are also written to disk before sleeping. In the event of total power loss, the system enters hibernation mode automatically.

 

so, i typed "sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3" ...same thing, no difference. can anybody help? ("SATA RAID/AHCI Mode" in bios is set to AHCI ... and Parallell Port Mode is set to SPP in case that has any relevance)

[Zaap]

I don't think you can use the mouse or keyboard to wake from sleep with that mobo. I know this is the case with the P35-DS3L.

 

Depending on how you've set it up (if sleep is actually working correctly) then you wake it using the power button on the comp.

[pwnage101]

ah what was i thinking. i did not save my bios after changing it from S3 to S1.

 

but new question: is there a way to get a dual boot working so that you choose which operating system to boot BEFORE you hit restart? perfect example: Boot Camp > in each operating system you can open up boot camp and choose an OS and hit the restart button.