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A History of OSx86 – Part I


Swad

Author's Note: This is the beginning of a 3 part series I'm writing that chronicles the origins of this site and the simultaneous rise of OSx86. In keeping with our community spirit, I'd love to read your early experiences with OSx86 as well... just jump right in this thread. Thanks, and enjoy. - Jason Swadley

 

A History of OSx86 - Part I

A New Hope.

 

I consider myself the quintessential 'switcher.' My journey to OS X began with an early frustration with Windows, a new iPod, and an infatuation with gorgeous Macs. I came to the Macintosh by way of a little thing that came to be known as OSx86, and its story is one of intrigue and hacking the likes of which hadn't been seen since the beginning of the PC age. This is the tale of how OS X came to the PC and, in doing so, changed computing history. I didn't sleep much in those days - and I've slept a lot since then - but I humbly present a chronicle of the story as I recall it.

 

For me, OSx86 began in June of 2005. Rolling out of bed on the 6th, I plopped down at my PC to get my morning tech news fix. The top story: Steve Jobs (a name I vaguely knew) had just announced that the entire line of Macintosh computers would be transitioning from PowerPC processors to those made by Intel. At first I was shocked. A year or so before, I had done some searching on installing OS X on PCs. I loved the Dock and couldn’t find a suitable replacement for Windows at the time. I quickly discovered that the main roadblock to running OS X on a generic PC was the different processor architecture, which wasn't changing anytime soon. I forgot the idea and filed it away under "Wishful Thinking."

 

But then came June. That morning I was reminded of my earlier question - why can't I install OS X on my PC? If the answer had been processor architecture, and that architecture was changing, surely we would soon be able to buy OS X for PCs! Wouldn’t that be great!

 

As the summer listlessly passed, however, it became clear that Apple had no intention of selling OS X for my Dell. Those long hot days of June also revealed a large interest among geeks in having Aqua on a generic PC. Blogs everywhere were wondering if a leaked version of the Intel developer build could be run on a PC. Several posted rumors about leaked developer disks from WWDC. This is where my story begins.

 

Although I consider myself quite competent with computers, I'm certainly not a hacker. I was curious about OS X since it offered the stability of Unix without having to learn command line. That June no one knew anything - whether a disk would be installable on any PC, whether it would be traceable to a specific developer who leaked it, or how Apple would manage the transition. All we knew was that we wanted to get our hands on it to try.

 

A random blog comment mentioned that a leaked x86 installation disk had been posted to Demonoid. Although the comments on Demonoid proved the first archive was a hoax, links in the comments sent me to a site linking to a site that linked me to the IRC channel of osbetaarchive.org.

 

By this time there were a number of nicknames floating around for the Intel version of OSx86, with none gaining universal usage. Some called it "mactel," others "macintel" or "OSx86," a combination of OS X and the x86 processors on which it would now run. The IRC gang began calling it OSx86, which didn't have the "hacking" connotation it does today. Since this was my only real interest on IRC, and since the folks in the main osbetaarchive channel had other things they wanted to talk about, I launched #osx86 for discussion solely about the new Intel OS X. I had no idea where "/join #osx86" would take me. This is where The OSx86 Project, and then InsanelyMac, began.

 

In July of 2005, an archive was posted onto Demonoid called "mactel.tar" that supposedly contained files smuggled off an Intel developer machine (DevKit or DTK in the lingo of those first few months) at WWDC. The excitement was palpable. The numbers in the IRC channel swelled as several developers and hackers began to dissect the "mactel" files. While incomplete for a pure installation, several folks began working on combining those files with files from a stock Darwin installation in order to get a working copy of OSx86.

 

It was becoming clear that IRC was not the best medium for the discussion of everything we were learning about OS X for Intel - there were no archives, communication had to be in real time, and longer-term conversations were very difficult. After discussing the matter with a friend named Shuddertrix, I realized that we needed a wiki for folks to post their knowledge and other interesting information. We set up the wiki at osx86.classicbeta.com and it quickly became the central repository for all information relating to OSx86.

 

About this time, the devs working on the mactel.tar files made an interesting discovery – the Intel version of OS X routed many important Rosetta system calls through a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip. It was the act of posting this news on our wiki that launched what can only be called the OSx86 revolution. What began with digg soon spread to Slashdot and others, bringing visitors by the thousands to our website, all curious about the possibilities of installing OS X on their PCs. Having just launched a tiny forum a few weeks earlier, we were amazed at the number of people who joined. OSx86 was truly becoming a phenomenon.

 

On July 30, 2005, the first OSx86 installation disk was leaked. Here's what I posted on the wiki (which was our news page) at the time:

We can now confirm that the DVD that was included with the Developer Transition Kits has leaked and has been placed on a major torrent site with the name of "Apple.OS.X.x86.Developer.Kit.Install.DVD-pheNIX." According to sources, the DVD image is in .dmg format and an NFO was included. Of course, we can only assume that this DVD will not immediately be ready to install on x86 machines, as it still incorporates SSE3 and the TPM. More news as it happens...

 

UPDATE: Sources indicate that the torrent has now spread to many of the most popular Bit Torrent sites. However, there seems to be an issue with the tracker reporting few or no seeders, although there are many. Also, news of this leak has now spread to many other popular computing websites, including that of our friends over at pearpc.net. Of course, as you all know, the news broke here first. :-)

As pursuant to our warez policy, we do not encourage the theft of copyrighted material. We report - you decide.

The intimate details of that leak weren't known to many. Rampant speculation was that Apple leaked it intentionally, and while that would make for a much better story, it wasn't the case. An IRC chap who we’ll call ColdKill had contacted someone from a random forum who mentioned that his corporation (a large Silicon Valley firm we've all heard of) had purchased a DevKit. ColdKill asked for a copy of the install disk and the developer agreed. The developer called the disk image "Marklar" after the codename of Apple's Intel project from previous years. After agonizing days of slowly downloading the image via FTP, ColdKill brought together a handful of IRC friends to help release a torrent; the idea being that the more people who could eventually access the files, the quicker it would be cracked.

 

One of the funny things about that initial leak was the format - the developer who leaked it, being a Mac user, ripped the disk into a .dmg file. Since all the would-be hackers weren’t using a Mac yet, this presented a problem. Hours were spent trying to convert the file using a Windows program until someone finally discovered one that worked. The hackers were ecstatic and immediately began dissecting the contents.

 

The files for a complete OS X installation were now available to anyone - the trick would be creating a working copy. A community was beginning to form, and it would only be a matter of days until the beauty of Aqua first graced the monitor of a PC.

 

Stay tuned for A History of OSx86, Part II later this week...

 


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Awesome stuff, Swad, read it over and over again, and yet want to read more. How much longer for the second part? Please write about maxxuss, and the incessant driver requests he would be flooded with :lol:

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Hi guys :)

 

I think it is ok now to publish it.

 

Years ago, I met one of the persons on IRC, that brought OSX86 to life for the first time. I met a member of the very small crew of hackers that started the whole OSX thing. Like the people I met before, like JaS, Semthex, Munky, (and some of them I also met in real life) he was also a very kind, smart and nice enthusiastic person. It was somewhere in the middle of the night when my IRC popped up and he introduced himself as cmfyls. His real name blexor was crypted (just take every letter that comes before and you will have a caesar encryption that says blexor).

 

These were the screenshots he published first, and I think you get the idea, that there was still much work to do.

 

post-5400-1309824526_thumb.jpg post-5400-1309824536_thumb.jpg

 

Now here are some interesting facts from the person, that first hacked OSX for a PC. I think it is good to get a rough picture of how it all started.

 

As a part of the crew, Blexor published the screenshots of the first OSX 86 ever in a VMWare running on Ubuntu Linux. The links are still alive. Most things didn't work propertly or at all at this early stage of development. But as genious as they were, they just did the hack to x86 for curiosity - like "why? because we can!".

 

Well I don't want to talk too much, you can read it for yourself. :) These are the essentials of the protocol, and no hackers will be harmed :)

 

...

cmfy1s http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/04/os-x-ru...pm-free-x86-pc/

xtraa thats why I never written a program after commodore basic lol

cmfy1s i think that was the first OSx86 GUI shot

xtraa yes... I had the intention that you are a little more skilled then I am hehe

xtraa blex0r's Computer :D

cmfy1s or maybe this one: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/macinte...sion-115790.php

xtraa that was the first one I remember... with all the questionmarks

cmfy1s the mactelbase was missing a lot of apps

xtraa yes... at that time I had to read twice because I couldn't believe it was not pearPC

xtraa really gold...

cmfy1s i didn't even feature System Profiler, that's why the "More Info..." button is disabled in that shot

cmfy1s it was VMware on Ubuntu Linux :P

cmfy1s and a Northwood CPU (SSE2 only)

xtraa oh yea now I see the gnome style window

xtraa so you used to be blex0r?

cmfy1s hmm

cmfy1s maybe :P

cmfy1s shift my nick one letter down :

cmfy1s :P

xtraa naj you're kidding

xtraa really?

cmfy1s lol

xtraa isn't this encription called red 1?

cmfy1s ahm, the shift

cmfy1s it's also called cesar :P

cmfy1s http://www.cs.usask.ca/resources/tutorials...Encryption.html

cmfy1s the Shifter

cmfy1s type blex0r then click encode :P

xtraa anyway... always nice to meet a person that made some history :)

cmfy1s nah i didn't do very much

xtraa hmm, "not very much" is relative....

xtraa I mean you have to see what you started

cmfy1s hmm

cmfy1s i didn't start the OSx86 project

cmfy1s it was in there when i arrived

cmfy1s and i left very soon

xtraa ok, woz left apple, too :D

xtraa how many people have you been at the project?

cmfy1s i don't know

xtraa just a rough number 5 to 50

cmfy1s 5

xtraa wow...

cmfy1s there were about 4 or 5 people knowing people around when i left

cmfy1s i don't know what happened later

cmfy1s but i think most of the work was done by maxxuss

cmfy1s maybe semjaza (decrypts)

cmfy1s and i don't know

xtraa now you see... everyone of you made about 10.000 users just on osxproject

cmfy1s more recently semthex with the kernel

cmfy1s omni, np

cmfy1s i think it's definitely closer to 5 than 50 :P

cmfy1s but well i think that if u need OS X u should get a MAc

cmfy1s *Mac

cmfy1s OSx86 will never work 100%

xtraa it is good to see that they all are still around :)

cmfy1s updates will always break your systems...

cmfy1s maxxuss isn't afaik

xtraa yes, sadly...

xtraa but maybe a wise decision

cmfy1s maybe he changed nick

cmfy1s who knos

cmfy1s *knows

xtraa I think so...

cmfy1s he wasn't maxxuss when i met him :P

xtraa what was his nick before?

cmfy1s hmm

cmfy1s i don't know if i should disclose that

cmfy1s so better not

xtraa hm, ok

cmfy1s but it wasn't maxxuss

cmfy1s :P

xtraa lol

xtraa I bet it was non-maxxuss

cmfy1s no it wasn't :P

xtraa de-max? :D

xtraa whatever :)

cmfy1s he used maxxuss for releases and another nick at irc

cmfy1s semthex or mifki could be maxxuss... but i don't think so

 

xtraa not semthex, I met him in real life. Maxxus is from russia, I guess. But his name was getting too risky anyway

cmfy1s maxxuss worked directly on mactel binaries with the guidance of 8.1 sources

xtraa yes, unbelievable what he did... I will never understand how some people can deal that way with assembler etc.

cmfy1s well i think that having Darwin sources was of much help

cmfy1s he could add some things then compile then try to integrate them in mactel binary

cmfy1s Darwin and mactel kernels were almost equal apart from Rosetta

cmfy1s DevKits were almost PCs

cmfy1s they featured a stock BIOS

xtraa thats why some things worked better in the earlier releases than today

cmfy1s yeah

cmfy1s and there was no cpuid/encryption protection

xtraa lol yes

cmfy1s first Intel Tiger only checked for TPM presence

xtraa and ou told them not to ask

cmfy1s somewhat

cmfy1s :P

xtraa hehe :)

cmfy1s actually adilson did

xtraa ^^ or to accept all answers

cmfy1s he replaced some calls with "mov %eax, 1" as if they returned true

cmfy1s i think if Apple begins to use self-modifying code in the prots we'll have a problem :P

cmfy1s maybe it's not that easy for them tho

cmfy1s but that would be a bit more difficult to patch

xtraa when we were testing 10.4.3 kernels for maxxuss, we already thought about on-the-fly code

cmfy1s and well they could begin usign TPM too :P

cmfy1s *using

cmfy1s yeah u can copy some code into memory then jump into it

cmfy1s like... some cpuid checks :P

xtraa hmm

xtraa ok, but what if the memory is encrypted, too

cmfy1s that's already done

xtraa infineon

cmfy1s memory pages are decrypted at load time

xtraa ah ok

cmfy1s that's what r2d2 is supposed to emulate

cmfy1s isn't it ?

xtraa hm, yes its live

cmfy1s but afaik the TPM isn't used for that purpose

xtraa you mean it is software sided

cmfy1s yup

xtraa yes, afaik it is aes128

xtraa same {censored} they use for filevault

cmfy1s latest mbp don't feature tpm i think

cmfy1s or maybe mac pro

cmfy1s mbp i think

cmfy1s "At the time of this writing (October 2006), the newest Apple computer models, such as the MacPro and the revised MacBook Pro, do not contain an onboard TPM."

xtraa but I really don't believe it

cmfy1s so the TPM is definitely not neccesary for OS X to function

xtraa ok, so infineon is out of game... great I hate them

cmfy1s it's not involved in the protection at the time

cmfy1s this guy is providing a TPM driver so u can use the TPM for your stuff

cmfy1s "Regardless of what the media has been harping on for a long time, and regardless of what system attackers have been saying about the "evil TPM protection" Apple uses, Apple is doing no TPM-related evil thing. In fact, Apple is doing no TPM-related cryptographic thing at all in Mac OS X. Yes, I know, there has been much talk of "TPM keys" and such, but there are no TPM keys that Apple is hiding somewhere."

xtraa hmm, good to hear it clearly like that

cmfy1s maybe it was used a little at the beginning with the devkits then left apart

cmfy1s have u tried this ? :

cmfy1s stardust:~ root# cat > poem.c

cmfy1s main() { puts(-16 * 4096 + 0x1600); }

cmfy1s stardust:~ root# cc -o poem poem.c

cmfy1s stardust:~ root# ./poem

cmfy1s (u have to press Ctrl+D after the main... line)

xtraa lol

cmfy1s u can also type echo "main() { puts(-16 * 4096 + 0x1600); }" > poem.c

cmfy1s it's from the OS X book, it prints the poem from memory

cmfy1s -16 * 4096 + 0x1600 is the memory addr where it's located

cmfy1s and puts is a function that outputs a string

xtraa ah ok the mem address

cmfy1s (prints every character until zero is found)

cmfy1s maybe that could be used to make a legal build script for the semthex's kernel

cmfy1s so people could legally build a poem-enabled kernel

cmfy1s it should be running on an Intel Mac)

cmfy1s well i don't know if that would be legal anyway

cmfy1s but maybe

cmfy1s :P

xtraa but what I don't understand...

xtraa how does it know? I mean, is the poem.c in the memory all the time?

cmfy1s the poem is in memory all the time

cmfy1s poem.c simply reads it

xtraa ok

xtraa hmm but I get no output

cmfy1s stardust:~ e26oo$ echo "main(){puts(0xFFFF1600);}" > poem.c

cmfy1s stardust:~ e26oo$ cc poem.c -o poem

cmfy1s stardust:~ e26oo$ ./poem

cmfy1s yup

cmfy1s maybe it's easier this way

xtraa yes that worked

cmfy1s u could place something like ${POEM} in commpage.c

xtraa and then there would be just one line left, saying something like "make all"

xtraa yes

cmfy1s then replace it with the poem in the right form using sed

cmfy1s however i don't know if that would make it legal

xtraa sed?

cmfy1s so maybe it's no use

cmfy1s yeah try this:

cmfy1s uname -a|sed -e s/Darwin/Windows/g

cmfy1s xD

xtraa It says: computer.local 9.0.0 Windows Kernel Version 9.0.0: Tue Jan 3 18:23:53 PST 2007; root:xnu-992.7.90.obj~1/RELEASE_I386 i386 i386

cmfy1s yeah it replaces Darwin with Windows in the output :P

xtraa hehe :D

cmfy1s 9.0.0 ?

cmfy1s Leopard ?

xtraa hey I was just kidding :D

cmfy1s ahm

xtraa lol, thought maybe youll see it :D

cmfy1s yeah compile time was the same except for the year

cmfy1s 18:23:53

cmfy1s :D

cmfy1s i'm connecting here for the first time since Aug 2005 :P

...

 

Well, I hope you enjoyed a peek from the good old OS X days :)

 

Cheers,

 

xtraa

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I always like reading about how the whole OSX86 scene came to be what it is today. Makes me feel a lot more appreciative of the above mentioned people who helped bring it where it is today.

 

Definitely a great read indeed.

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Awesome stuff, Swad, read it over and over again, and yet want to read more. How much longer for the second part? Please write about maxxuss, and the incessant driver requests he would be flooded with :D

 

Maxxuss should definately be mentioned yes ! :)

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I've been playing with Mac OS on a PC since the first version of Basilisk II (68k Emulator) came out. The holy grail was to get PPC support...that happened long after...but not very well.

 

When it was rumored that Apple was moving to Intel processors....I started hearing of the chance that OSX would be able to run on ordinary PC's. Major thrillage occurred when this whole OSx86 community started forming.

 

As a matter of fact...about 3 yrs ago I had a computer built for me for this very purpose. I started out with a distro of Tiger...then moved to a distro of Leopard....then got brave with a retail version of Leopard....then retail Snow leopard....and now retail Lion.

 

I love this stuff!

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Don't forget to explain why semthex left insanelymac !!!

 

If you know, why don't you tell us? Semthex left around April 2007, so I doubt there are many people who remember. All members of staff active now came after that time, including myself (I mean, I was a member then, but I wasn't staff).

 

Will parts 2 & 3 ever be released?

 

Obviously not! (short of a miracle). This topic was started Mar 21 2007, and Swad promised he would publish Part 2 within a week.

 

Many of us, including myself, would like to know more about OSx86 history. All we have left now, 6 years later, is our personal memories.

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+1 for more about Maxxuss.

 

+1 for him ... Yes indeed !

 

Well, the year 2006 was to Hackintoshing what 1999 was to Trance music. I couldn't afford a Mac those days, so I started to build a Hackintosh.

 

When I start thinking about those early days, it makes my eyes go moist, Apple has changed my life so much !!! It's a love affair now .

 

 

P.S. Sorry for being such an "emo" ! :)

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Good old days :( Great memories.......... the Maxxuss patch, the Borisbadenov hack to have the Radeon X1600 fully working all running with a P4 SSE3 cpu

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If you know, why don't you tell us? Semthex left around April 2007, so I doubt there are many people who remember. All members of staff active now came after that time, including myself (I mean, I was a member then, but I wasn't staff).

 

 

 

Obviously not! (short of a miracle). This topic was started Mar 21 2007, and Swad promised he would publish Part 2 within a week.

 

Many of us, including myself, would like to know more about OSx86 history. All we have left now, 6 years later, is our personal memories.

Wow!

 

This is stuff for the first page!

Never read anything more fascinating stories for OSX86!

 

...must be on Front Page of InsanelyMac Forum really!!!!!

 

Micky

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Hi Micky

 

I wish we had something more complete than this to put on the front page. A full history of OSx86.

Hi Alessandro17,

 

the beginning of this story already speaks very long!

I did not even the birth of OSX86 scene, InsanelyMac deserves to know the real story at all, because this is fascinating, poetic and intriguing!

 

I came here reading your posts, but I've made ​​this:

 

Insanely OSX86.png really :)

 

and then ... all good stories have an uncertain end

 

Micky

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Funny, I must have that DVD somewhere still, I had bought a used PC as a gift for my sister and wanted to set it up, but for some reasons nobody ever understood, windows wouldn't install, linux did so I was trying to make linux aesthetically pleasant looking and usable for her, no easy task, when the Os/x hack came out, I tried it and it worked, but it was too much fun, so I bought a used B&W for my sister and kept that PC for myself. Later the processor melted during experiments LOL.

Legality? whatever said, you can buy it or not, running Os/X on non-apple hardware isn't legal, so the "buy your copy" is only hypocrisy, sorry guys, it is so. I can patch my

conscience with the fact that I bought many real Macs and, teaching basic informatics at UNI, I always told my students "buy a Mac", so I must have given hundreds new customers to Apple.

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Funny, I must have that DVD somewhere still, I had bought a used PC as a gift for my sister and wanted to set it up, but for some reasons nobody ever understood, windows wouldn't install, linux did so I was trying to make linux aesthetically pleasant looking and usable for her, no easy task, when the Os/x hack came out, I tried it and it worked, but it was too much fun, so I bought a used B&W for my sister and kept that PC for myself. Later the processor melted during experiments LOL.

 

Legality? whatever said, you can buy it or not, running Os/X on non-apple hardware isn't legal, so the "buy your copy" is only hypocrisy, sorry guys, it is so. I can patch my

conscience with the fact that I bought many real Macs and, teaching basic informatics at UNI, I always told my students "buy a Mac", so I must have given hundreds new customers to Apple.

 

 

Yes, I know, in my house, my dad has a real MacBook Air 2011,

OSx86 is for me just a great pastime and a game, maybe even a test for myself.

What happens here, just talk with the community, and I find it very interesting!

 

This is not tonymacx86, here we only puts to the test the ability of users ......to find that in the end.....we all know a little better the PC and Mac!

...and for you all?

 

Micky

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...and for you all?

 

Micky

 

I want to stress for the nth time that installing OS X on a PC if you own a legal copy of OS X is not piracy, thus it is not a criminal offence.

At most it is a breach of EULA, and that is a matter between Apple and you.

Also, the purpose of InsanelyMac has never been to give you a free Mac, especially if you are going to use it professionally.

As to me, about 18 months ago I bought a MacBook Pro, which has become my main computer. I almost forgot my hackintosh partition.

More recently my PC hard disk where I had installed OS X died, thus I don't have a hackintosh at all ATM.

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