Hackintosh!!

So my fellow geek son (Jeremy, 15 YO) and I got bored on Sunday and decided
to resurrect an ancient (2005) eMachines XP box to a new life as a Mac "clone"
(Hackintosh). After much geek effort, we installed OSX Leopard - 10.5.6

Came out GREAT! With a Celeron-D processor (2.93 GHz) and only 512 MB of RAM
(soon to upgrade to 2 gigs), it actually works almost identically to my MacBook 13.3
despite the age of the hardware and the low power of the machine as a whole.

Lots of tweaks and frustrations along the way, but in the end total success! Everything
in the box works - we were able to get the drivers for the network cards, sound, and
the all-important motherboard / video and chipset drivers.

It actually works MUCH better now as a Mac than it ever did as an XP or Linux box.

Fun geeking weekend!
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Right on! Glad to know eMachines are good for something

 

So, are you saying that it's possible to take my Acer 64-bit 2.19 gHZ machine with 2 GB of RAM and CONVERT it to work like a Mac?

Mike in Kuwait

 

Certainly should be able to... the 64-bit could cause some issues. But I warn you
it's NOT easy in the slightest to make it work (VERY easy to brick it over and over
and over until you get just the right settings and drivers in place).

And I doubt it's all that legal

But our little eMachines is running fantastically as a Mac (thanks to my son!!)
and runs way better than it ever did on XP or on Ubuntu 9.04 Linux.

Jedi

 

Funny you should post this.... I was working on a Hackintosh setup myself with an old PC Not complete, but aiming for the same level of success as you.

 

Jedi: As some are better than others, what website do you recommend for how-to?

 

It's not legal....the Apple OSX EULA spcifically states that OSX may only be installed on Apple hardware.....

THat being said I say have at it! This is something I've had a passing interest in doing myself!

 

I made a hackintosh out of a MSI netbook a couple of months ago. You have to be careful running updates as Apple has started bricking the hacked computers. There are work arounds though. For more info: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?act=idx

 

+1 - Furthermore, I suggest changing this threads title to something less likely to attract the "turtleneck police" .

Also +1 - I bought the "family pack" upgrade to Snow Leopard - Allows me to install it on up to 5 'puters at "my address" - Paid extra for that - Why shouldn't I then be allowed to install their ("insanely great"!) OS on H/W I have lying around?......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Good point... you're very like to brick it on updates. That's why we stopped
with Leopard 10.5.6 instead of trying to go Snow - bricked every attempt.

Caveat emptor....

I'm actually typing this on the new Hackintosh - really runs GREAT!! Easily as
well as my 'real' MacBook.

Jedi

 

That's where I really shouldn't jump in.... Yes, it can be done. No, it's not all
THAT hard (hard but not like doing a headless UNIX server!). All I'll say is that
Google gave us EVERYTHING we needed (along with a small stack of blank
DVDs and a working computer that can burn ISO files, etc.)

Also do note MY 15YO KID did most of this - I had to hack the internet to life, but
he did the rest with all the KEXT files for drivers, hit and miss, for hours until
it came to life.

Jedi

 

For anyone that wants to build a new Hackintosh from scratch, you MIGHT want to check out this site about how to build a version that will work with Snow Leopard.

http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-with-snow-leopard-start-to-finish

 

Heres my hackintosh, I never use it I did it and put it into an enclosure for when I need it. I usally use it when someone I know running a mac needs help doing someing that way were looking at the same thing.

As far as being easy, well I guess thats hit or miss and extremely dependent on how many things you want to work. It took me countless tries and multiple driver combination to get EVERYTHING working. Graphics, wireless, keyboard (for some reason that was a though one), Usb.

In all a good way to spend the weekend.

I believe mine is 10.5.7
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Hi Wax - PM sent...

Jedi

 

All you need to know.
http://www.osx86project.org/

 

Interesting, I should saved my old windows machine rather than giving it away.

 

It really puzzles me that OSX distribution from version to version contains more and more kernel extensions for a hardware, that is NEVER used in "real" mac.

 

It doesn't. The software itself contains only the kernel extensions (kexts) required for the mac hardware. Others are written by volunteers of the OSX86 project for use on non-mac hardware.

 

How To: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v Into the Ultimate Snow Leopard Netbook

 

It's probably socket 478 in which case you could upgrade to a much faster Pentium 4 over 3GHz for under a hundred bucks. I did the same upgrade to a 3.6 GHz P4 with Hyperthreading and there was QUITE a difference.

 

+1

This leads me to "suspect" the same situation wrt "drivers/kext's" exists between this and Linux? - In my experience, the "latest & greatest" is not the way to go?..... Or am I just out of touch?

Cheers,
Ian

 

Not the way to go. Cheap box with Intel dual core, G31 or 41 chipset and a low end Nvidia turns out best results.

Go newer if you really like to tinker.

 

Thanks again - That's what I thought.

I'm about to roll-out the shelf with the old tower and see what I've got.... I'll report back

Cheers,
Ian

 

Update on my machine - it's been up and running continuously (and getting a LOT
of use, which it never saw with XP cuz it was so danged slow) since January 1,
with nary a hitch - not a single "beachball of doom" or restart required.

"It just works" as the Mac zealots like to say

Jedi

 

My Hack box is an EMACHINES!!! Probably one of the lamest XP boxes ever
built - and runs Leopard every bit as well as my MacBook (which granted has
Snow Leopard - so not sure if that's a proper comparison). This has actually
become a USABLE computer now. Single core, 512MB RAM no less! I'm
really quite impressed. I'm sure video rendering would suffer, but who cares -
I'd use my real Mac for that (or my quad core 64-bit Linux box).

By the way, thanks again Jeremy for setting this thing up over your vacation here...
we make a great hacker team

Dad um, I mean Jedi