TragicM Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Alright, situation is that my Mom needs a new mac. She's not too excited about spending 2.5k + to get a new mac pro, but she needs some serious horsepower for image post processing and graphic design. I told her about hackintosh, and she is interested, yet cautious. As am I. I basically want to be able to setup a box that will run the Vanilla OS and will run System updates without a hitch. I can do the footwork on figuring out hardware configurations, that is usually easy enough to do, but my problem is that I've been out of the scene for a long time now, and I have no idea what the best bootloaders or installation processes are anymore. If anyone could provide a few suggestions to help get me back up to speed, that would be great! EDIT: Forgot to mention, I won't be able to work on the machine more than once every now and then when I go home on vacation. So, I suppose another part of my question is: How safe could this be without my Mom tanking her OS? Quote Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/234797-hackintosh-for-parents/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
westwaerts Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 if you set it up once, its stable. if you can tell mom not to do ANY update, it stays stable. Quote Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/234797-hackintosh-for-parents/#findComment-1567071 Share on other sites More sharing options...
3.14r2 Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 If your Mom has no problems with Windows OS (I mean she is not one of those users that left alone with a PC for 5 minutes can crash the system to dead state), then, if properly setup hackintosh can be quite stable and user-proof. Quote Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/234797-hackintosh-for-parents/#findComment-1567100 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TragicM Posted October 20, 2010 Author Share Posted October 20, 2010 Alright, so the stability thing is great, though I don't know how realistic it is to expect my mom to never run updates. She's usually pretty good with computers, but the moment updates come up I could see her tell it to go right ahead, and then she's got a system that's either not booting or isn't working like it should. I've read up on the capabilities of the stuff munky has done, and that the chameleon team has put out in their latest bootloaders. From what I've read, updates have become much more safe than they used to be. What's the status of this? I know there is no way to really guarantee that future updates won't hurt the hackintosh, but I'd like to go the route of making a rig that would be the most resistant to the problems updates might present. Quote Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/234797-hackintosh-for-parents/#findComment-1567223 Share on other sites More sharing options...
3.14r2 Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 My current system is based directly on munky's method. There are no modified (original apple-created) extensions in /S/L/E. All modified stuff is kept in EFI partition. So it is 100% updateable as /S/L/E is vanilla. Sure there are some additional kexts in /S/L/E for video and audio, but these are 3d party drivers. Unfortunately I'm forced to use a patched kernel (also kept in EFI partition) and there could be some difficulties then apple releases new kernel (no update should be done till a new patched kernel would be released). If a system can run the vanilla kernel then there is almost nothing to worry about. Updates can be done more or less safely. Currently I'm using OS X (10).8.5 which is the most up to date Leopard version. It will probably no longer be updated. Therefore the risk of killing system with some update is minimal. However this does not applies to the Snow Leopard install that I'm also playing with. Though I've done combo update from 10.6.0 to 10.6.4 without any side effects. You should chose carefully what kexts goes to /Extra. Preferably there should be so called Legacy*.kexts. These kexts are plain simple Info.plists and could not be anyhow override by any new kext version that Apple releases. Quote Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/234797-hackintosh-for-parents/#findComment-1567245 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TragicM Posted October 20, 2010 Author Share Posted October 20, 2010 So, if I'm understanding this correctly, there are two things that are critical to what I'm trying to accomplish: 1. Buy hardware that will allow for vanilla OS install. 2. Use the EFI partition to store modified and additional kexts. I have to say, utilizing the EFI partition for kexts is amazing. Such a good idea. Just wanting to make sure I prepare for all the pitfalls that may happen. Quote Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/234797-hackintosh-for-parents/#findComment-1567367 Share on other sites More sharing options...
3.14r2 Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 1. Buy hardware that will allow for vanilla OS install.2. Use the EFI partition to store modified and additional kexts. Exactly! Though not all additional kexts may work if placed to EFI. Some can only work when placed to /S/L/E. Usually (not always though) it is stated in the description (if any provided) for the posted kext... Also there are some arguments what is more "vanilla" approach - to store all extra stuff in EFI partition or to create a special partition for that purpose and let the EFI alone. I can not say which method is better. EFI works for me perfectly well. Quote Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/234797-hackintosh-for-parents/#findComment-1567391 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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