How do I start hackintoshing?

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

I feel like everyone is trying to get me to use their favorite bootloader, and I'd like to say that I'm taking the chameleon bootloader idea seriously (old software usually runs better on this computer, for some reason), now where can I find chameleon tutorials that don't have dead links?
edit: and also preferably make sense?

Edited April 11, 2025 by SevenTheAppleKitty

[Slice]

On 3/20/2025 at 8:31 PM, Slice said:

My computer #4 in the signature is still useful no matter what dortania may say.

4. GA 965P-S1, E6300 Conroe, Radeon HD5570, ALC888, OS⌘ 10.11.6 (15G22010), Clover 4928.

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

is anyone going to actually help me with chameleon or are they just going to ask me to use clover/opencore/whatever complicated modern bootloader they want me to use

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

11 minutes ago, verdazil said:

With Chameleon you will not be able to install and use systems newer than macOS Yosemite (10.10). This is a very old system that does not support modern hardware and software.

...So, exactly what I was hoping for? This is old hardware (and I'm insistent on trying to run (Mountain) lion) so the bootloader should be perfect in this case?

[deeveedee]

9 hours ago, SevenTheAppleKitty said:

I feel like everyone is trying to get me to use their favorite bootloader...

 

No.  You're asking questions of people who created their hackintosh solutions before there were manuals. There is more information about hacking available now than at any other time in history - it's all there for you to find.  You started this thread with the title "How do I start hackintoshing?" but it doesn't seem to me that you want advice or are open to other opinions.

[STLVNUB]

I've NOT Read Thru The Thread Just Skimmed It, 

 

I'd Be Inclined to use one of the distro's As

That Is Usually Guaranteed To Install

here try this

https://archive.org/details/iatkosv2

Install Snow Leopard ( I love The Spotted Cat )

it's a starting point, never used that distro

it should give you a bootable system ( I Think )

After You Install It.

 

If You Don't Have A DVD Writer, No Problem

Use Disk Utility To Transfer The Iso Image To USB

 

Good Luck

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

12 hours ago, STLVNUB said:

I've NOT Read Thru The Thread Just Skimmed It, 

 

I'd Be Inclined to use one of the distro's As

That Is Usually Guaranteed To Install

here try this

https://archive.org/details/iatkosv2

Install Snow Leopard ( I love The Spotted Cat )

it's a starting point, never used that distro

it should give you a bootable system ( I Think )

After You Install It.

 

If You Don't Have A DVD Writer, No Problem

Use Disk Utility To Transfer The Iso Image To USB

 

Good Luck

The info about the distros not working are in a different thread, so you wouldn't have seen this anyway, but I HAVE tried iATkOS before, and it froze on startup, like every other distro... won't hurt trying again though!
 

 

18 hours ago, deeveedee said:

 

No.  You're asking questions of people who created their hackintosh solutions before there were manuals. There is more information about hacking available now than at any other time in history - it's all there for you to find.  You started this thread with the title "How do I start hackintoshing?" but it doesn't seem to me that you want advice or are open to other opinions.

Eh, fair enough. it still felt like everyone was ignoring me entirely though :v

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

14 hours ago, STLVNUB said:

I'd Be Inclined to use one of the distro's As

Tried to use the distros again (My laptop doesn't see distro's boot disks as bootable, so I boot them with ventoy), and both iDeneb 1.3 and the iATKOS version you suggested simply "Still waiting for root device"d

 

10 minutes ago, eSaF said:

Not to appear dismissive or flippant to your requests but personally I have forgotten how to install old MacOS on Legacy machines although my first successful install was with S/Leopard with Chameleon.

Lel. I can sort of relate on just outright forgetting how to do something tech related.
 

 

12 minutes ago, eSaF said:

BTW my first attempts of installing and running S/L all those years ago were fraught with more reinstalls and more crashes than Ayrton Senna, it was a steep learning curve.

Basically how all tech misadventures work with this laptop! (I'm still internally wondering how i could install windows 10, despite it being basically impossible and pretty useless to do so :‌P)

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

15 minutes ago, eSaF said:

I don't think anyone here is aiming to discourage you but trying to offer valid info so that you will make a viable decision the best way forward.

At the end of the day all I wish is good luck and hope a good ending. 

once again, fair enough. I'd still prefer to use chameleon, just for making this laptop truly era accurate, but if it runs OS X, it's still a hackintosh regardless of the bootloader!

[Mac Hosehead]

6 hours ago, SevenTheAppleKitty said:

wondering how i could install windows 10

I recently put Windows 10 on an old laptop that had Windows 7 by using an install DVD. It makes me appreciate MacOS but if you want games, well....

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

32 minutes ago, Mac Hosehead said:

I recently put Windows 10 on an old laptop that had Windows 7 by using an install DVD. It makes me appreciate MacOS but if you want games, well....

Bit offtopic, but I have tried that, but it just bluescreens on boot. (my hypothesis is from driver issues?) windows 8 (not even 8.1!) is the newest that this system can take without causing the installer to immediately BSOD. when I said "wondering how", I was more saying wondering how I can force it to install

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

How do I check what version of the install media do I have? I'm trying to apply patches but there are different versions for the updates that the OS got

 

Might just try the 10.8.0 version :v

for the sake of thread continuity, I asked about an issue causing a crash from "Still waiting for root device" here.

Edited April 14, 2025 by SevenTheAppleKitty

[Shaneee]

If you're booting an installer via USB then "still waiting for root device" is the USB... If it's USB3 this can generally be fixed with GenericUSBXHCI.kext

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

Just now, Shaneee said:

If you're booting an installer via USB then "still waiting for root device" is the USB... If it's USB3 this can generally be fixed with GenericUSBXHCI.kext

Seems like iATKOS doesn't have this preincluded, but i managed to get past the issue by just actually following the guide. ....it now kernel panics instead 

 

additional note: I just booted it for another time to write down the KP... and it booted to the installer correctly? what the scallop?
So... er... Does anybody happen to know where the iATKOS welcome music is stored? I don't want to get jumpscared by turkish jazz if the audio kexts are working correctly

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

Update: Turns out the problem didn't magically fix itself, the installer is just unpredictably unstable. I'm able to randomly get kernel panics during startup, or while the computer is already running, and it's never the same
Yeah, I'd rather something that KPs predictably, not when It just feels like it

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

I made a iATKOS Lion USB and it hasn't kernel paniced, currently installing, will check which components are working (Hopefully the Nvidia driver support so i can plug in another monitor)

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

Update: It kernel panics on startup, but loads just fine in safe mode (aka -v -f -x), assuming safe mode didn't disable the related drivers, audio and the external display ports don't work. Haven't tested ethernet but i doubt it works

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

While it boots just fine with -x alone, I'd still like to see if the drivers I selected during install (If I didn't know which one would be the best fit, I'd just guess)

[larsane]

"Hey Mac, I get what you mean about the challenges of running macOS on older hardware. It's a tricky process! I’ve heard good things about Sierra and High Sierra, too. They seem to have better compatibility with older systems. If you have any tips for getting installed DVDs to work smoothly, I’d love to hear them! Good luck with your Hackintosh journey!"

[Shaneee]

What is the kernel panic? We can't help diagnose it without knowing what's causing it.

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

3 hours ago, Shaneee said:

What is the kernel panic? We can't help diagnose it without knowing what's causing it.

the panic itself has way too much registers for me to type (I have to type it all since the screen is way too dim for my camera to pick up), so I'll just go from when the debugger gets called ("error: failed to open PCI device" happens before the kernel panic, but I doubt it's related)

Spoiler

Debugger called: <panic>
Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff807fecbb00 : 0xffffff8000220702
0xffffff807fecbb80 : 0xffffff80002c266d
0xffffff807fecbd20 : 0xffffff80002d7a1d
0xffffff807fecbd40 : 0xffffff80002b3777
0xffffff807fecbe40 : 0xffffff7f81258baa
0xffffff807fecbe60 : 0xffffff7f8125a807
0xffffff807fecbeb0 : 0xffffff8000627068
0xffffff807fecbf30 : 0xffffff8000627389
0xffffff807fecbf70 : 0xffffff8000625f6f
0xffffff807fecbfb0 : 0xffffff8000820057
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
     org.voodoo.driver.VoodooHDA(2.7.3)[E5C6E3AE-FEC6-33D5-B526-5706F1C442CB]@0xffffff7f81257000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily(1.8.3fc11)[1CDD779E-DB25-3983-83EE-37357B7EFB78]@0xffffff7f8122d000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.7)[6D54F06A-46B7-37FC-AF22-DE68DC18A1A3]@0xffffff7f80735000

 

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Boot args: boot-uuid=1BBEFE63-BE63-35B5-9A51-05AE3881147C rd=*uuid

 

Mac OS version:
11C74

 

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 11.2.0: Tue Aug  9 20:54:00 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1699.24.8-1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 59275DFA-10C0-30B3-9E26-F7B5DFB1A432
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)

 

System uptime in nanoseconds: 27115673411

I'm no mac scientist, but it looks like OS X doesn't like one of the audio drivers.

Edited April 15, 2025 by SevenTheAppleKitty

[Shaneee]

The issue is VoodooHDA. Remove that for now.

 

Also you don't need to report your post for it to get approved. It'll be approved when a moderator sees it.

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

6 minutes ago, Shaneee said:

Also you don't need to report your post for it to get approved. It'll be approved when a moderator sees it.

Sorry, I'm quite impatient. 

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

on another note, how would i remove the unruly kext? I can't find the extensions folder on the hard drive
edit: disregard, didn't look far enough

Edited April 15, 2025 by SevenTheAppleKitty

[SevenTheAppleKitty]

I removed the voodoo audio KExt, and it happily boots now! granted the only additional functionality is it recognising my USB headphones and playing audio through it, it still doesn't detect my external display and it still doesn't connect to the internet