I have successfully installed the latest Mac OS X (Leopard) onto my MSI EX 400 laptop. For me, I had to spend many days for various testing to get final working Mac OS X onto my laptop.
Actually, Mac OS X is not meant to be installed on PC. It is only designed for Apple computers but the good thing for that Mac OS X is that it can be installed on Intel processor based computers. However, the hardware architecture and design of the Apple computers are different from Intel based PCs. Apple computers even do not use BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) like PCs. They use different method and way to load the operating system.
Apple uses Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) as a boot loader. It is different from BIOS of our Windows PC. Therefore, we need special boot loader that can act as an emulator between our BIOS and Mac OS X operating system so that we can boot Mac OS X on our computers and Mac OS X will think that as it is running on Apple hardware.
The projects that make Mac OS X to be able to run on PC are known as OSX86 projects. There are some amounts of OSX86 projects at outside. The following is a list of the names of the some popular OSX86 projects. Those “hacked” Mac OS X to install onto PCs are also called “Hackintosh”s.
KalywayActually, Mac OS X is not meant to be installed on PC. It is only designed for Apple computers but the good thing for that Mac OS X is that it can be installed on Intel processor based computers. However, the hardware architecture and design of the Apple computers are different from Intel based PCs. Apple computers even do not use BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) like PCs. They use different method and way to load the operating system.
Apple uses Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) as a boot loader. It is different from BIOS of our Windows PC. Therefore, we need special boot loader that can act as an emulator between our BIOS and Mac OS X operating system so that we can boot Mac OS X on our computers and Mac OS X will think that as it is running on Apple hardware.
The projects that make Mac OS X to be able to run on PC are known as OSX86 projects. There are some amounts of OSX86 projects at outside. The following is a list of the names of the some popular OSX86 projects. Those “hacked” Mac OS X to install onto PCs are also called “Hackintosh”s.
iAtok
IPC
iDeneb
The latest version of Mac OS X (Leopard) that can be installed onto PC is 10.5.7. We should use at least 10.5.5 version on our PC. Mac OS X 10.4 is called Tiger.
Although the above Hackintosh projects can work with PCs, there are so many issues for potential problems and hardware compatibilities with various PC hardware.
My laptop does not work with most of the Hackintosh distributions. For my point of view, Intel based chipsets and most of the Nvidia/Intel graphic cards might properly with Mac OS X. Because my laptop has SIS chipset for motherboard, I got problems in installing it onto my laptop.
One thing to note is that even if your hard disk is a SATA hard disk in your PC. You should change your BIOS setting to IDE mode for SATA configuration. Also, the BIOS setting should be AHCI mode if you have option to change in BIOS. Otherwise, you might get problems in booting the boot loader.
I downloaded and tried many editions of Hackintosh for my laptop. Most of them could not even boot or some kept rebooting while loading the installer. The only distribution that can work with my laptop is iDeneb 1.3 (Mac OS X 10.5.5). For my point of view, that iDeneb distribution is the most compatible one for most of the PC hardware.
Don’t worry if you want the latest 10.5.6 or 10.5.7 version of Mac OS X. We can install the iDeneb upgrade kit for 10.5.6 and 10.5.7. Ok, I will share my experience about installing iDeneb onto my laptop to get the Mac OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard) working on my laptop.
I downloaded iDeneb v1.3 (OSX 10.5.5) from Internet. By the way, please note that I even cannot boot with iDeneb v1.4 (OSX 10.5.6) on my laptop. Therefore, we can’t assume that the new version will likely to work on our PC. It depends on the boot loader, preintalled Kext (Kernel extensions) or drivers and the pre settings of the boot loader and Kernel.
First, I installed iDeneb v1.3 onto my latptop. We need to prepare our hard disk before we can install Mac OS X onto it. (I will post separate article about how to prepare our hard disk for Mac OS X).
I can install that iDeneb v1.3 onto my MSI EX 400 laptop with its installer. However, it can’t detect my ATI graphic card (Radeon HD 3450) and my wireless network adaptor of my laptop. Therefore, I can only run with 1024x768 resolution with no hardware acceleration. After I had installed iDenebv1.3 which is Mac OS X 10.5.5, I downloaded the iDeneb upgrade kit for 10.5.6 and 10.5.7. I don’t want to recommend to upgrade to 10.5.7 directly from 10.5.5. It might crash your operating system and you might need to reinstall the iDeneb v1.3 from start.
Therefore, you should first install iDeneb v1.3 and then upgrade with iDeneb 10.5.6 upgrade kit and then upgrade to 10.5.7 with iDeneb 10.5.7 upgrade kit. Please do not use upgrade kits from other distributions or using Mac OS X built-in software upgrade. For your safety, you should remove some kext (drivers) for Intel CPU power management functions. (I will also post about it separately).
After upgrading to 10.5.7, my laptop is working well but I still cannot find the driver for my Mobility Radeon HD 3450 graphic card. No one has created the driver for that one. ATI Radeon HD 2400/2600/2900 and Radeon HD 3650/3700/3800 series might work with Mac OS X. Some of the drivers can be selected while installing Mac OS X with installer or you can download and install the drivers separately after installing. Most of the Nvidia Geforce graphic cards and Intel GMA 950/X3100 should also work if you have proper drivers installed.
In Mac OS X, most people called CI/QE for hardware accelerated graphic performances. CI means Core Image. If your graphic is supported by Mac OS X with correct drivers, you can see “Core Image = Hardware Accelerated” in system configuration utility. QE means Quartz Extreme which can be though as special functionality of OpenGL hardware acceleration.
Installing Mac OS X onto PC and using it on PC is quite interesting. You can install some SDKs onto it and develop Mac OSX applications or even iPhone games on them. To develop iPhone games, you have to install iPhone SDK. The latest iPhone SDK needs OS X 10.5.7 to install it. Mac OS X uses XCode as primary development IDE and tool. The primary programming language is Objective-C.
I am now using iDeneb Mac OS X 10.5.7 and Windows Vista on my laptop as dual boot.
Although the above Hackintosh projects can work with PCs, there are so many issues for potential problems and hardware compatibilities with various PC hardware.
My laptop does not work with most of the Hackintosh distributions. For my point of view, Intel based chipsets and most of the Nvidia/Intel graphic cards might properly with Mac OS X. Because my laptop has SIS chipset for motherboard, I got problems in installing it onto my laptop.
One thing to note is that even if your hard disk is a SATA hard disk in your PC. You should change your BIOS setting to IDE mode for SATA configuration. Also, the BIOS setting should be AHCI mode if you have option to change in BIOS. Otherwise, you might get problems in booting the boot loader.
I downloaded and tried many editions of Hackintosh for my laptop. Most of them could not even boot or some kept rebooting while loading the installer. The only distribution that can work with my laptop is iDeneb 1.3 (Mac OS X 10.5.5). For my point of view, that iDeneb distribution is the most compatible one for most of the PC hardware.
Don’t worry if you want the latest 10.5.6 or 10.5.7 version of Mac OS X. We can install the iDeneb upgrade kit for 10.5.6 and 10.5.7. Ok, I will share my experience about installing iDeneb onto my laptop to get the Mac OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard) working on my laptop.
I downloaded iDeneb v1.3 (OSX 10.5.5) from Internet. By the way, please note that I even cannot boot with iDeneb v1.4 (OSX 10.5.6) on my laptop. Therefore, we can’t assume that the new version will likely to work on our PC. It depends on the boot loader, preintalled Kext (Kernel extensions) or drivers and the pre settings of the boot loader and Kernel.
First, I installed iDeneb v1.3 onto my latptop. We need to prepare our hard disk before we can install Mac OS X onto it. (I will post separate article about how to prepare our hard disk for Mac OS X).
I can install that iDeneb v1.3 onto my MSI EX 400 laptop with its installer. However, it can’t detect my ATI graphic card (Radeon HD 3450) and my wireless network adaptor of my laptop. Therefore, I can only run with 1024x768 resolution with no hardware acceleration. After I had installed iDenebv1.3 which is Mac OS X 10.5.5, I downloaded the iDeneb upgrade kit for 10.5.6 and 10.5.7. I don’t want to recommend to upgrade to 10.5.7 directly from 10.5.5. It might crash your operating system and you might need to reinstall the iDeneb v1.3 from start.
Therefore, you should first install iDeneb v1.3 and then upgrade with iDeneb 10.5.6 upgrade kit and then upgrade to 10.5.7 with iDeneb 10.5.7 upgrade kit. Please do not use upgrade kits from other distributions or using Mac OS X built-in software upgrade. For your safety, you should remove some kext (drivers) for Intel CPU power management functions. (I will also post about it separately).
After upgrading to 10.5.7, my laptop is working well but I still cannot find the driver for my Mobility Radeon HD 3450 graphic card. No one has created the driver for that one. ATI Radeon HD 2400/2600/2900 and Radeon HD 3650/3700/3800 series might work with Mac OS X. Some of the drivers can be selected while installing Mac OS X with installer or you can download and install the drivers separately after installing. Most of the Nvidia Geforce graphic cards and Intel GMA 950/X3100 should also work if you have proper drivers installed.
In Mac OS X, most people called CI/QE for hardware accelerated graphic performances. CI means Core Image. If your graphic is supported by Mac OS X with correct drivers, you can see “Core Image = Hardware Accelerated” in system configuration utility. QE means Quartz Extreme which can be though as special functionality of OpenGL hardware acceleration.
Installing Mac OS X onto PC and using it on PC is quite interesting. You can install some SDKs onto it and develop Mac OSX applications or even iPhone games on them. To develop iPhone games, you have to install iPhone SDK. The latest iPhone SDK needs OS X 10.5.7 to install it. Mac OS X uses XCode as primary development IDE and tool. The primary programming language is Objective-C.
I am now using iDeneb Mac OS X 10.5.7 and Windows Vista on my laptop as dual boot.
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