Jump to content

PC EFI Enables Vanilla OS X Kernel Boot on White Box PCs


After almost 2 years of waiting, the dream is finally becoming a reality! Last week, Netkas released his modified Apple Darwin bootloader to successfully boot an UNMODIFIED EFI kernel with NO hacked patches/workarounds on Intel Core/Core 2 architecture PCs.

 

EFI booting has been one of the ultimate goals of the OSx86 scene since the beginning with the hacking of Marklar. Mark this day in OSx86 history, it has been a long time coming!

 

appleefigo8.th.png

 

PC EFI is currently at V4, and includes FSB autodetect, as well as multiboot support.

 

You can find more info here at Netkas' site, including guides and more.

 

Thanks to Joe Cargo for breaking the news in our very own Reader News forum! [i don't know why this wasn't posted, but it definitely belongs on the Front Page.]


User Feedback

Recommended Comments



helob

Posted

Try

 

./startupfiletool /dev/diskMsN ./boot_v5

diskMsN instead of rdisk

I will give it a try.

What is the different between rdiskMsN & diskMsN withot the r?

TIA

helob

Posted

I will give it a try.

What is the different between rdiskMsN & diskMsN withot the r?

TIA

 

Edit: No joy. There is a prompt that says

startupfiletool: opendev (/dev/diskMsN):resource busy.

Any advise?

TIA

Cohen The Barbarian

Posted

You need to unmount the disk first.

 

diskutil unmount diskMsN

 

It worked for me...I booted from the DVD and ran the startupfiletool from a USB disk within Terminal.

I am now running stock Apple kernel on my Gigabyte GA-965-DS3 board. Used Software Update to install 10.5.1 with no problems. The only issue I have still is the Restart/Shutdown hangup.

Sunchea

Posted

How can i uninstall EFI (v52)?

 

(i've endless reboot on my mobo Acer Aspire 5920G and there no 'ex bit' settings in bios)

tivimac

Posted

My second machine....has the same config like yours...I had made some tests and until now is not posible to use it...WITH LEOPARD....but you can use it with Tiger.

The article mentioned that it required a CPU capable of SSE3 and Intel Chipset 915 equal or better.However I have a P4 3.0G SSE3 with 865PE chipset only.Would this work? Anyone has tried pls share your experience.Thanks
Geekbench has been updated to versions 2.0.8a & b ... the motherboard appears as MAC PRO , but the model appears as HACKINTOSHIF you use geekbench 2.0.8 you will see your HACK as original MAC PRO
Thanks for above guide.Very useful.I tried installing PC_EFI on my P4 with Toh's patched universal kernel from Toh's 9A581 RC2 DVD Install.When I used the startuptool with the latest versions of efi loader i.e../startupfiletool /dev/rdiskMsN ./boot_v5 where rdiskMsN is where Toh 9A581 is installedI get the following lines of promptHFS+ filesystem detected Looking for 1 words freereading 4096,4096Marking word 885writing back 4096, 4096allocated blocks 32 at start 28320However on checking with GeekBench, it still show that Model is Hackintosh.This means that EFI is not installed.What should the above prompt lines be when EFI is installed correctly with startuptool?Would appreciate sharing with us what the prompt lines are in your case.Thanks.
Eric.C

Posted

I'm a bit confused about what to d oright now...I have 10.4.10 running, but I want a 10.4.11 upgrade, but possibly a 10.5 upgrade in the near future. I used the JaS 10.4.8 disk, then updated to 10.4.10 using koolkal update. I couldn't figure our how to use IRC, so I decided to look for it on LimeWire, and found a zip (version 5.1), when I unzipped the thin, I found setup.exe (which I can't run on a Mac). Any ideas on whether I should continue using hacked kernels (including future upgrades), or switch to PC EFI the next time I upgrade to 10.5? If I should use PC EFI, is there something I can download? I don't know how to use an IRC client...

helob

Posted

My second machine....has the same config like yours...I had made some tests and until now is not posible to use it...WITH LEOPARD....but you can use it with Tiger.Geekbench has been updated to versions 2.0.8a & b ... the motherboard appears as MAC PRO , but the model appears as HACKINTOSHIF you use geekbench 2.0.8 you will see your HACK as original MAC PRO

Thanks

Try looking for geekbench v2.0.8 but no joy.

Could u advise where I can get v2.0.8?

If not, could you mail a copy to me at wonghy@pc.jaring.my.

Thanks

Sabr

Posted

You and I and the founding fathers/mothers of InsanelyMac will never forget those days of Rosettaless Hackintoshes running on on Frankenstein installs. :D

 

I still remember my Win2OSX account, what happened to them anyway?

 

I remember Win2OSX. That was back in the 10.4.1 deadmoo vmware disk image days! How far we have come since those days (and I wonder how long we will continue)...

 

Win2OSX got shut down as far as I can remember. Don't know the exact details.

flibblesan

Posted

How can i uninstall EFI (v52)?

 

(i've endless reboot on my mobo Acer Aspire 5920G and there no 'ex bit' settings in bios)

 

What DVD did you install from? If you used the ToH you made need to replace some of the kexts with original ones from a retail Leopard DVD.

fryke

Posted

Installed PC_EFI v6 according to its ReadMe. Now the computer is in an endless boot-loop. I can only boot from the original Kalyway 10.4.10 DVD I've used to install Tiger on this disk. Either the ReadMe is totally incomplete or I chose the wrong boot_v?-file. Either way: I can't get into safe-mode anymore. All I can do is have the CD in (so its bootloader is loaded) and wait 10 seconds for it to not install but boot the installed system. :/ Any ideas?

ninetto

Posted

Installed PC_EFI v6 according to its ReadMe. Now the computer is in an endless boot-loop. I can only boot from the original Kalyway 10.4.10 DVD I've used to install Tiger on this disk. Either the ReadMe is totally incomplete or I chose the wrong boot_v?-file. Either way: I can't get into safe-mode anymore. All I can do is have the CD in (so its bootloader is loaded) and wait 10 seconds for it to not install but boot the installed system. :/ Any ideas?

 

They say you have to use your old AppleSMBios.kext to solve this problemo.

I haven't experimented with this yet tho'

 

good luck,

ninetto

netkas

Posted

I made darwin bootloader to work fine with guid, Imho that's another huge step.

gotoh

Posted

about the guid able bootloader, does it require another HD with MBR to install, or one single disk in GUID is enough (the real question is, where are installed first and second stage bootloader ?)

netkas

Posted

yeah, u need smth which will load bootloader, e.g. grub

and grun can be installed only yo mbr, but i heard grub2 can be installed to guid.

 

but imho, boot1/boot0 can be modified for guid too, jsut requires a lot of time.

gotoh

Posted

wasn't it already possible to boot from GUID disk with bootable CD/DVD (just like when people forget to format with MBR and don't understand why they can only boot when CD is inserted)

netkas

Posted

using rd= key ? then it's not a bootloader job, it's kernel job to mount guid then, and kernel works fine with it.

enb14

Posted

Netkas grub can be installed not just on MBR, it can also be installed on any partition just set that partition to active and that's all, by the way if I'm not wrong EasyBCD can alo load grub.

i_am...me

Posted

Would this work. Installing leo. on a GUID then using my tiger on an external hd that is on an MBR and writing the EFI as we usually would, with cd /efi ./startupfiletool /dev/rdisk0s1 ./boot_v7??

glitch44

Posted

anyone know if PC EFI will ever work for SSE2? or will it always be SSE3 only?

i_am...me

Posted

Would this work. Installing leo. on a GUID then using my tiger on an external hd that is on an MBR and writing the EFI as we usually would, with cd /efi ./startupfiletool /dev/rdisk0s1 ./boot_v7??

i tried it and it semi works. i cant tell since 10.4.10 isnt bootable from an external HD as it is so i will re try with 10.4.9 Which is.

 

It gets stuck at... sumthing sumthing abnormally unmounted going in to single user mode...

 

Heres what happens when i install 10.4.10 on external HD with MBR:

-Boot from External HD by BIOS boot menu after install get blinking "_"

-use "rd=disk1s2" from my leopard boot option get flickering \_/-

 

After install of 10.4.10 on GUID + ./startupfiletool /dev/rdisk1s2 ./boot_v7_guid_only.

-Still get blinking "_" but always got that. when trying to boot from BIOS boot menu.

-used "rd=disk1s2 -v" flag while booting leopard, attempted to boot but got stuck at " /usr/sbin being unmounted abnormally going in to single user mode" line. Which is farther then i have ever gotten with 10.4.10

 

This leads me to believe that you dont need GRUB to have a GUID partition. You just need a means of getting the bootloader to that partition e.g. an external HD.

 

I will try this tomorrow morning with 10.4.9 which i can get to boot from an external HD and report back. netkas if you would pm me i would gladly appreciate it :(

 

its bed time now

netkas

Posted

I said , as very first worning, v7 doesn't work with startupfiletool!it works only with grub.

Netkas grub can be installed not just on MBR, it can also be installed on any partition just set that partition to active and that's all, by the way if I'm not wrong EasyBCD can alo load grub.
Active partition is a term of mbr only..
i_am...me

Posted

Ok thanks for clearing that up, and thanks for making v7.1!

 

 

 

EDIT: Works on my external HD!

Now going to do it on my main HD

 

Trying v7.2 now



×
×
  • Create New...