Hackintosh help

So over the weekend I installed Snow Leopard on my PC (spec Intel Quad Core Q6600, Asus P5K premium board, 4Gb OCZ 1066 ram, Asus 8800gt TOP 512mb) using a retail disc and the installer ISO provided by the OSx86 project here burnt on to a CD.

I was keen to keep the installation as 'vanilla' (i.e. unmodified retail install) as possible and was rather pleased when OS X installed without any problems and internet and sound worked straight away. The resolution initially wouldn't go over 1024 x 768, but I installed the NVinject 512mb kext and now have it working on my monitor's native resolution. Did all the software updates so now running 10.6.2 without any problems, everything looks and works perfectly, with just one kext.

Only problem is I can't get the system to boot without the OSx86 project CD in the drive (which is based on Darwin Universal Boot Loader). I've tried Chameleon and a packaged PC EFI installation, but I can't find any clear instructions anywhere for a reasonably simple boot method that actually works straight from the hard drive.

Can anyone help?

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=168141

would this help?

Hmm, it might, that's the kind of thing I want, I just want it to boot with no extra kexts and stuff.

I'll try it tonight, thanks.

Hmm, no joy :(

Well I'm looking at building a hackintosh from couple of intel celeron 2.5. Done some googleing and it seems there are quite a few forums but none seem to mention my set up.

Is it too old to become a hackintosh? Can you recommend me a forum that may be able to help as the one mentioned up there seem to be for alot newer equipment and not my old stuff.

Cheers

When I looked into it you have to make sure your mother board has SSE3 if you don' t have this I think you need some sort of kernel patch.

Hmm, no joy :(

Is it a B0 error? Does the system keep rebooting?

You probably forgot to set the MacOSX partition "Active"

1. Boot your Mac OS X install dvd
   

2. Once the installer is running, go to the Utilities menu and open Terminal

3. Determine which disk your MacOSX partition is on
   [INDENT]
   Type diskutil list

Verify which disk number holds your partition (disk0, disk1, etc.)
[/INDENT]

1. Start using Fdisk
   [INDENT]
   Assuming the MacOSX disk is the first disk ("disk0"), then
   type fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0 <== use "rdisk" with your disk number here !!
   
   

Ignore the error "fdisk: could not open MBR file ..."
[/INDENT]

1. Determine which partition for MacOSX needs to be set "Active"
   [INDENT]
   Type p
   
   

Verify which partition is for MacOSX (1, 2, 3, etc.)
[/INDENT]

1. Set the partition "Active"
   [INDENT]Assuming it is partition 1, then
   type f 1 <== use your partition number here !!
   [/INDENT]

2. Save and exit
   [INDENT]
   Type write

Type y (yes you are sure)

Type exit (to quit)
[/INDENT]

1. Remove the install DVD and reboot
   

Sorry to dredge this up but I'm really tempted to try this out before long. Could anyone help me out and list a build that would cost me no more than £550? I think from what I've read I could have quite a good build for this.

part of the skill/fun is knowing what to use. Here's my 2p http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/06/building-customac-three-complete-pc.html .

This is probably your best bet

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

For £550 i would just buy Flickwgs mac on classifieds. No future update issues plus the ability to dual boot windows / linux etc without issues.

If you have that budget a hackintosh is too much hassle (IMO)

For £550 i would just buy Flickwgs mac on classifieds. No future update issues plus the ability to dual boot windows / linux etc without issues.

If you have that budget a hackintosh is too much hassle (IMO)

I thought that budget really wasn't that low. Also why would I have update issues in future? Once It's on the machine it should work fine after some tweaking right?

I thought that budget really wasn't that low. Also why would I have update issues in future? Once It's on the machine it should work fine after some tweaking right?

I think the budget you have is too big. If you have £550 to spend, why not spend it on something specifically designed to run the software.

From my (albiet limited) experience of building hackintoshes there are frequent driver issues and annoying niggles to sort out. Each major point upgrade to the system can also cause important parts of the machine to stop working. Also, the fact that OS X is designed specifically for a limited set of hardware, you are likely to see smoother performance on actual mac hardware.

I think the budget you have is too big. If you have £550 to spend, why not spend it on something specifically designed to run the software.

From my (albiet limited) experience of building hackintoshes there are frequent driver issues and annoying niggles to sort out. Each major point upgrade to the system can also cause important parts of the machine to stop working. Also, the fact that OS X is designed specifically for a limited set of hardware, you are likely to see smoother performance on actual mac hardware.

Because thats boring ;)

build the hackintosh!

Thanks Soul I think I understand what you mean.

It would mainly be used for office work, excel, surfing the internet, some photo editing (aperture so nothing to serious) I wouldn't use it for playing games. But I'd like it as a fast computer which doesn't really get bogged down when running multiple programs.

Probably going to run a 20 inch screen with it as well, if that makes any difference to the graphics card.

If I can do all this in a much smaller budget then please tell me how!

OK, so i'm not impartial but Soul has a point. I spent a grand on my hackintosh but it was for a specific purpose that a mac couldn't achieve within the budget. Also remember that an iMac is much nicer to look at and is all in built.

I've built a PC but I wouldn't bother building a Hack. If you want to run OS X, buy a fucking Mac.

I've built a PC but I wouldn't bother building a Hack. If you want to run OS X, buy a fucking Mac.

Cheers Steve Jobs.

OK, so i'm not impartial but Soul has a point. I spent a grand on my hackintosh but it was for a specific purpose that a mac couldn't achieve within the budget. Also remember that an iMac is much nicer to look at and is all in built.

Both Build and Ma3k have top spec Hackintosh - they got official apple cases/monitor/keyboard and mouse of ebay and it still only cost a third of what apple are charging - I have never heard them complain, the only thing they didnt get was all that fancy packaging.

Thanks Soul I think I understand what you mean.

It would mainly be used for office work, excel, surfing the internet, some photo editing (aperture so nothing to serious) I wouldn't use it for playing games. But I'd like it as a fast computer which doesn't really get bogged down when running multiple programs.

Probably going to run a 20 inch screen with it as well, if that makes any difference to the graphics card.

If I can do all this in a much smaller budget then please tell me how!

I used to run loads of programs at once, often 2 or 3 Adobe CS programs that are notoriously computationally intensive, its hard not to be biased but my imac was excellent.

the only thing they didnt get was all that fancy packaging.

But that's the best bit :p

lol :P

I got a Dell Mini 10v, a new copy of snow leopard, a memory stick and one download.
It's not powerful but it's the perfect netbook.

Both Build and Ma3k have top spec Hackintosh - they got official apple cases/monitor/keyboard and mouse of ebay and it still only cost a third of what apple are charging - I have never heard them complain, the only thing they didnt get was all that fancy packaging.

I'm not too fussed about the official case, I'll buy a small form one and probably hide it under the desk. Would quite like the official keyboard and mouse though.

Can anyone help me out with components?

ooh I'd forgotten about this

this was me briefly getting frustrated, before I:

• installed a custom dsdt.aml for my hardware set up

• perfected a dual boot using chameleon - it was actually quite easy once I used the right version

• got a perfectly working, perfectly stable 'mac' that has happily accepted all updates since and is now running 10.6.4

oh and I overclocked it to 3.4Ghz, so that's a 3.4Ghz quad core with 4gb of DDR2 at 1066Mhz

I've got the magic mouse and an aluminium keyboard, love it.

you're on the wrong forum spenceey, this place is good though