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  • Swad

    Install OSx86 on your iPod

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    I'm not sure how useful this is, but it's got all the geek-ness we’re a fan of here. Check out this guide at Mac OS X Hints on booting your Intel Mac with your iPod. From the article…
     
    Curious about how to booting your Intel iMac from either a USB2.0 iPod or an external Firewire drive? It is possible, and here's how. This has been tested with a 5G 30GB USB2.0 iPod with Video and an external FW400 60GB hard disk enclosure.
     
    The key issue is the disk partioning scheme that Intel Macs expect to see. GPT (or GUID), remember? Well it appears that the EFI in an Intel iMac also supports booting from Apple Partition Map (APM) partitioned disks as well. The Intel iMac's Install DVD Disk One, for instance, uses an APM and NOT a GPT scheme.
     
    I vote that the new Slashdot joke be “Yeah, but does it run OSx86?” Linux is SO 1990’s…
  • Swad

    Geeks and Greed: A Cautionary Tale

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Someday I may publish a history of how OSx86 was originally hacked to run on PCs. I was privy to many of the conversations between those working on the hacks, and it makes for a fascinating story – one of teamwork, secrecy, and intrigue. There are obviously some serious moral (and legal, as we all know…) issues with the x86 hacks, but the way it happened deserves its place in the annals of computing history.
     
    Those events last summer remind me of the effort to get XP booting on the new Macintels. In theory, running XP should be significantly easier than surpassing the TPM restrictions on the Developers Transition Kits. This is the case for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s legal! There should be no secrecy regarding the attempts at getting XP to run – there’s no need for it.
     
    Yet why aren’t we dual booting already? Money. Most of you are undoubtedly aware of “The Contest,” a 12,000 dollar pot that will be going to the first person to provide a viable dual booting method to the site’s owner Also note the “onmac” network - and advertisements - that the contest has bequeathed to the once minimalist site as well… another interesting commentary on money.
     
    Now I have no problem with the idea of a contest, nor the site owner (Colin… who is also a member in our forum) wanting to capitalize on some great site traffic and press.
     
    The problem with the contest is that it encourages poor geeks (like me) who could use the extra cash (like me) to try their hand at fixing the problem. In theory this would speed up progress. But in fact it’s had the opposite, somewhat paradoxical effect – it’s slowed things down.
     
    This has occurred because said poor geeks (like me) who are working on it know that if they post on a forum with some ideas, those ideas could be taken and used by someone else to earn the money.
     
    It’s happened in our forum already – accusations of “don’t expect me to help you - you’re only doing this to win the prize!” have flown with all the certainty of someone who is secretly jealous they didn’t come up with it first. The technical barriers, while substantial, are not the thing that's keeping us from dual booting.
     
    It’s all quite predictable – nothing is getting done because the sharing of information has stopped. Were there no contest, IRC channels would be full of dedicated developers sharing what they’d learned through trial and error, swapping ideas and encouraging each other. I've talked with some people who are very close to success... but their efforts are not public. As it stands, sharing what you’ve learned could cost you $12,000.
     
    The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a wonderful Humphrey Bogart film from 1948 – it’s one of the best in cinema history. It tells the story of 3 gold prospectors and the ways in which greed can destroy common goals. When it comes time to share with the others his spoils, the character realizes it's much more advantageous to keep his knowledge to himself. I see this situation as much the same.
     
    Money makes it anything but a team effort.
     
    Digg this Article
  • Swad

    MacBook Pro Dissected

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Although Ars usually does a full tear down and review, this dissection of the new MacBook Pro should be enough for awhile.
     
    Why is it that we geeks enjoy seeing things all strewn out and exposed? We were the same kids who would rather take apart the toy than play with it...
     

  • Swad

    Linux & iMac II: Knoppix

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Yesterday we reported on some success in booting Linux on an iMac. Today brings news of Knoppix 4 booting on a Macintel - the first time of which we're aware that someone has gotten X to work.
     
    According to the site, "we have been looking at Linux on this hardware some more, and we are glad to report that we now have a full-fledged Knoppix distribution working, complete with the X Window system.
     
    Once we have tested the system a bit more, we will try to release a full Knoppix distribution through Bit Torrent. We also have to trawl through the kernel source and the umpteen kernel "config" files so that we can release a coherent set of patches."
     
    The pictures show that while they're close to having it work perfectly... they’re not quite there yet. Nevertheless, great work guys.
     
    EDIT: Here is a page where they go into great depth as to how they've progressed. Interesting reading.
  • Swad

    MacBooks Ship, Plus Package Porn

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    The MacBooks have begun shipping (for some people), inciting shouts of joy and triumph from (a few) new and old Mac users alike (in a couple of lucky places around the globe).
     
    While many soon-to-be-MacBook-owners have had their notebooks delayed by a week or so, a few people – such as Jason O’Grady – are busy freeing their new toys from their origami packaging and taking them for a drive.
     
    If you aren’t getting a MacBook, or if the one you’ve ordered is delayed, check out O’Grady’s pictures of the MacBook’s packaging in the meantime. Apple does a lot of things right, and one of those is packaging.
     
    Are you getting a MacBook? When you do, tell us what you think!
  • Swad

    Linux and the iMac

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Our friends over at the “Mactel-Linux Project” (well, ok, we don’t actually know them – but with the commonalities in our name, how can we not love them?!) have revealed their success with booting linux on one of the new iMacs. From their wiki:
     
    Using elilo and a modified Linux kernel, we can boot from a USB hard disk on the 17" iMac Core Duo. We are using the hacked vesafb driver to inherit the bootloader's framebuffer. Gentoo runs and can compile the Linux kernel.
     
    They also have an FAQ and HOWTO on their site, so check out their progress and see what you think!
     
    EDIT: Haha - I actually did know the guy who runs that site and didn't know it!
  • Swad
    As most of you know, two days ago we were contacted by an Apple representative concerning links, posted by our members, to the newest patches by Maxxuss on his site. Since the beginning, we have made it known that we would be very willing to work with Apple regarding any concerns they had with their intellectual property and this site (I actually wrote Steve about it a few months ago… but that's another story...). After speaking with the lawyer representing Apple, we've removed the handful of links to Maxxuss' website from the Forum.
     
    Apple is certainly well within their rights to protect their OS and we have always supported them in this effort. Our first-class moderating staff has helped ensure that direct links to any patches are not allowed. We have in the past linked to the homepage of Maxxuss - but not to the offending 10.4.4 patches - in the interest of news, but we've removed those links just in case.
     
    News of Apple's DMCA concerns with the links on our site have traveled far and wide over the past 24 hours. Most major tech news site have covered it in one way or another, some accurately, some not. I'd like to be clear regarding the history of this site. Back in the summer, after Steve announced the Intel transition and the Net was filled with rumors of faked leaks, it became apparent to a few of us that the transition was one that many people would want to discuss. We first started the wiki, then the forum, then the full-fleged news portion of the site. Since that time, we've been recognized as the leader in discussion of all things "OS X on x86" related.
     
    This site was not founded to be a "watercooler for hackers" as CNet posited. Instead, it was simply meant to be welcoming Mac community for switchers and experts alike. We think that we've accomplished that goal - a large portion of our forum membership is comprised of new iMac users who have commented on the accepting ethos of our forum. We welcome everyone. Of course the hackers came (as we knew they would) but as long as they accepted the rules, they were welcomed as well. It's also important to note that situations like this, in which members post questionable material and the site is served with legal notices, are not uncommon; a similar situation occured in the early days with Neowin and Microsoft.
     
    So that's the story. Apple doesn't "have it in" for our site; they were simply concerned with a few links posted by our members. Those links have been removed and we're back.
     
    Thanks for your patience with this matter, and to those who are new... welcome to the most talked-about forum on Earth right now.
  • Swad

    Apple Seeks (Poetic) Justice

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Oh, Apple, how do we love thee? Let me count the ways...
     
    We reported a few weeks ago about Apple’s hidden message to hackers within the hardware restrictions of OS X. It wasn’t much, but “Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext” was a shot across the bow of would-be hackers. (Perhaps it should have had the extension .kthnks?)
     
    Today, maxxuss sends word that a few pieces of OS X look for a secret message in “commpage” that gets decrypted via the TPM… basically a decoder ring for geeks. It seems that Apple wasn’t just content with sending an obvious message – they wanted one that sounded pretty too.
     
    Your karma check for today:
    There once was a user that whined
    his existing OS was so blind,
    he'd do better to pirate
    an OS that ran great
    but found his hardware declined.
    Please don't steal Mac OS!
    Really, that's way uncool.
    © Apple Computer, Inc.
     
    While this is obviously not the work of Milton or Wordsworth, you’ve got to give mad props to the Apple designers for taking the time to put their warning in verse.
     
    In this spirit, we would like to humbly offer up our own poem to the developers of the “OS that ran great.”
     
    Rime of the Ancient Hacker
    There once was a hacker named Maxxuss
    who Steve did not think was a genius.
    But Steve pondered awhile,
    grabbed the phone with a smile,
    and said “Bill, there’s a thing to discuss…”
     
    [Digg this article]
     
    Write your own poem here!
  • Swad

    Apple Releases 10.4.5

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Wow, what a crazy day. Just a few hours after learning that OSx86 10.4.4 had been hacked by maxxuss, Apple released 10.4.5 updates for both the PPC and Intel versions of OS X.
     
    There are a ton of fixes that come with this update, especially for OSx86. According to Apple, the update “is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies: iChat video conferencing, Safari rendering of web pages, usability of Dashboard and widgets, viewing of QuickTime streaming media behind a firewall, printing to some Epson printer models, iDisk and Portable Home Directory syncing, time zone and daylight savings for 2006 and 2007, VPN connections to Cisco servers when using NAT, compatibility with third party applications and devices.”
     
    And as per this TUAW post, the Intel version is substantially larger than the PPC version, leaving the impression that there was much more to fix. We’ll have to give it some time to hear all the improvements and their effects before we know much more.
     
    One thing we do know – the update includes a new mach_kernel and a few other goodies that are almost certainly not compatible with the maxxuss hacks of the day.
     
    Coincidence? We’ll report, you decide.
  • Swad

    10.4.4 Security Broken

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Happy Valentines Day... from Maxxuss.
     
    The hacking guru has announced preliminary patches for Apple's latest release of OS X for Intel, version 10.4.4. According to his website,
     
    This is a preliminary release of my Patch Solution for the official Mac OS X on the Intel platform. Ultimately, it would allow you to run this Mac OS X release on a generic x86 computer (SSE2 required).
     
    There's still a lot of work and documentation to do, like support for SSE2-only CPUs, a proper installation procedure and a PPF patch. However, if you like to play around, this will get you started.
     
    The significance of this event can’t be overstated. While many users were able to run OSx86 on their PCs last summer, the general feeling was that Apple hadn’t implemented their final security solution. That much was true.
     
    Onlookers have told us that the 10.4.4 is a serious step forward in security, utilizing many of the same technologies as the 10.4.1 and 10.4.3, as well as the obfuscated code that Apple filed a patent for a few months ago.Few expected this final version – or at least the version that shipped with the first Macintels – to be easy to hack.
     
    What this means is that Apple’s best attempts to secure their OS have, ultimately, failed. For its best efforts, the company is unable to lock OS X to their hardware. Without doubt, this will have profound impacts on the company’s future as running OSx86 on a PC becomes less a hacker’s trick and more mainstream. When all it requires is the downloading of a DVD, that’s certainly the future we’re looking at.
     
    This also opens a host of new questions for Apple, OS X, and the PC users who love it. Will this mark the beginning of Apple’s legal endeavors to keep OS X locked down? Will it persuade Steve Jobs that releasing his OS is an insanely great idea?
     
    Time will tell. Things keep getting more exciting. Stay Tuned.
     
    [Digg this Article]
     
    Edit: The technical discussion thread is here!
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