Hackintosh

I already knew that the Dell GX620 machine could work with the Hackintosh but ti was not perfect last time. I swapped the 250 GIG SATA Drive out for the Original 80GIG SATA Drive and popped in the DVD+RW I had written of the Leo4All V3 and started to build. Now I had picked what i thought might work and off it went, it rebooted and I was half expecting it to fail “Waiting for Root device” but nope – up come the Mac Animation and I filled in all the boxes.

I noticed I had no sound, so my first task was to google to find the right thing to install, soon found the right file and with a reboot – the sound finally came out. The network worked but shares were a problem across to a real Mac – this I would solve later. The Screen was set as 1024×768, not really workable and I knew that with the Graphics Update on 10.5.2 – this brok the GMA 950 fitted inside the dell. As the machine is Micro – there is no way to install another card – so once more went off to find a fix and surely enough I found a file – ran it and rebooted. Now my Resolution was at 1280×1024 – much better to work with. I searched later and found the problem with the sharing – one file fix (to put a /system instead of just system) and turned on SMB and I could at least connect via SMB now. All the apps I have installed worked just fine.

I am left with getting iLife now – this is a big file and might take a while to basically complete my transition from a Windows machine to a fully working iMac clone. My Advice is it can be done but I would do your research, find as much info as you can before you even download one – such as Motherboard model, graphics card type and all the other variable.

I had in my collection the following DVD’s – all written at 2x Speed:

1. iAktos 1.0 / 1.02
2. Kalyway 10.5.1
3. Leo4All V3 (Final).

While I may have a few machines at home – at work I have a good collection of desktops which are in need of rebuilding, these range from AMD, P4 (various range’s), Core 2 Duo. The motherboards cover all sorts of different ones with various types of connectors, for example some have SATA and so forth. My plan was simple enough, over a long period of time, I would in the background go through each machine until one worked with OS X. This is a two part test:

1. Does the DVD get to the pat of letting your Install the OS etc..
2. If it does install, does it reboot afterwards and work.

Half of the machines failed at the first hurdle – Kernel Panic or various other errors – this is fine as at least we have not wasted much time. The next lot would boot, let me format the drive and pick what to install – this part took ages and upon finishing, it would reboot. It would start to load and I would get stuck at the “Waiting for Root Device” over and over. I checked and set the HD as Master and disabled as much as I could (SATA for example) – but to this day – nothing worked.

As Proven by the Dell GX620 machine, while that worked 3 times in a row – further times failed big style, with the very same DVD. I still feel that OS X has a long way to go to just working for most or even just working every single time.

I had in my Collection by now the Kalyway 10.5.1 DVD which *used* to work but I noticed from last time that not each Boot of the DVD would work and Kalyway would not work at all on any other Machine. I had grabbed as a test the Leo4All V3 DVD and wrote this to a DVD+RW – I wrote this at 2x Speed and tried it out, this failed half way through so I guessed the DVD itself was at fault. I wrote another DVD+R at 2x Speed with the same thing and Spent Friday trying to get this working.

I left it installing on the Dell GX620 Machine and when I got back, it was still trying to install but the DVD was not spinning – no amount of leaving it would let it finish that Install. I tried the Kalyway and either of them struggled to get to the installer, remember the Dell was the only one which at least installed last time. My Guess was the Drive was heating up and thus a problem. I now got a new Error – “Waiting for Root Drive”.

I tried across a few machines and once again could not even get to the installer without a APIC Error, only the Athlon 64 3700 had some chance to install. Upon Installing and rebooting, it started loading up then I got the “Waiting for Root Drive”, tried disabling the SATA and still the same problem, even went as far as removing as much hardware as possible in the form of PCI Cards and still got nowhere fast. I had about enough of this whole process by now, I had wasted some of Friday and some of Saturday and ended off with 2 Machines which were now blank.

I pulled out my Windows XP Pro CD and got to work putting an OS that works on these machines – I feel that my time trying to get a 2nd OS X machine for Free were over. I have a real Mac anyhow so I am not that bothered, I would have liked to have a Laptop running OS X but this also is failing all the time on the install, so it was not meant to be.

If you Followed the many posts – the poor little Dell GX620 machine has had each OS on there and I thought I would write a summary of what did what and how well it all worked.

Windows XP
This is a no-brainier Answer, it ran fast enough (it has 2 GIG ram), everything worked out of the box such as Webcam (Logitech Communicate STX) along with Mic which is built in – I could use the machine to stream with if required. If you install Virtual Desktop (Freeware), you can have 4 x Desktop to Quickly switch around. Webcammax, ManyCam etc will allow me to add things but not as well as say Camtwist on the Mac. No BSOD, No Crashes and worked pretty well – boot time was not too bad.

Vista Ultimate 32 Bit
This worked as above had the odd error on various programs – all since adding Sp1 actually. Lot slower on booting and coping then XP by a big margin but Intel 945 with a mere 8 MB ram cold support Glass Interface.

Kalyway OS X 10.5.2
As for the general OS, I had this updated to 10.5.2 with most of the updates installed and working, the screen was running at 1280×1024 as long as I never installed the graphics update. There was screen tearing that noticed with graphical break up – nothing major though. Boot time was very quick, probably the quickest out of all the OS I have tried out there. The first lot of Apps I tried were Soundflower and Camtwist along with Webcam so it could pick up my Logitech and I could stream no problem at all with full video and Audio. Many apps I tried refused to run and iLife was missing – this is not major but means it cannot really be used as a full blown OS.

Ubuntu 8.04
3D Graphics worked right off the mark, the Webcam got picked up and I tested the Microphone (On the Webcam) via Skype and this work – so good so far. trying to Broadcast via Ustream was met with me not been able to select anything but Linux Microphone – so no go on the Audio. The only other way i could pull this off (for a Streaming machine) was to call myself via Skype and use the iMac to capture the image been broadcast or stick to Silent streaming from Linux.

Conclusion
As a general Purpose machine that did everything – I would have to say Windows XP, if we wanted a machine purely to stream me live then the Kalyway 10.5.2 was probably best as I could capture Colloquy for the chat windows and for this part it works well. I am not sure at all which to choose from – all depends I guess what I want the machine to do.

The previous Story showed me grabbing a kalyway 10.5.1 Image, installing it without many hitches onto a Dell GX620 and i thought to myself – lets move to a better system now, namely a Core 2 Duo Laptop. Before we explain how that all went, I would like to focus on the Dell GX620 machine and how it all worked out in regards OS X running on there.

The Initial Install left me with the basics of OS X 10.5.1, Update manager popped up and I was not stupid enough to just install any old thing. I grabbed a patched 10.5.2 updated and a few other patched files and slowly put one update on at a time that was left (such as Safari, Quicktime etc). Remember at this point that i had the graphics working at 1280×1024 (with some graphical tearing), sound and networking. I installed the graphics update and my graphics were set to max 1024×768. This meant a rebuild and the next time around a few other updates, each one breaking my OS in a reboot cycle. The moral of the story here is that you have to be careful then what you install via Updates and it’s not as easy to know what works even after much searching on the net, in comparison a real mac you just updates and it works.

I then started to look around the files installed and noticed already that there was Applications missing – as I had a real Mac i thought I could share a directory and move the files across but the networking part would not allow this with permission denied. I turned instead to a 60 GIG USB Drive to move the files around and even then it was a problem. I noticed that some applications just refused to run – crashing when started. The most I can say this can be used for would be to install Soundflower (for Audio Mixing), Camtwist, Colloquy and use it as a Streaming machine – as a fully fledged work machine for OS X – this is not an option.

Now we move onto trying to Install it on a range of Hardware:
Toshiba Satellite Pro A120, features Core 2 Duo 1.66Ghz, SATA Drives etc and this crashed at loading the DVD, the same happened when trying on my desktop machine along with 3 AMD Machines (not that I expected it to work with AMD). I searched the forums and all I found was people with the Sat pro had the same problems and searching for my Motherboard (ASUS P5N-E SLi) and also trouble getting to the install screen.

Now it is possible if you personally went out and bought the known good hardware that you can make it work 100% of the time – if you try the same thing, you might be lucky and it works or it just falls over at the start screen. Personally I would rather have XP/Vista or Linux that fully works 100% of the time then have a flaky OS that the programs you put on *might* work. If you really want a mac – I suggest buy the real thing – its a lot less of a headache but of course more expensive.

Although I own a iMac and can use OS X Properly – I had a need to get another machine running OS/X without spending money on one. Having tried without success the iAktkos series of Images – I then moved to the Kalyway to give this one last shot. I ghosted the GX620 from Dell – the Spec of this machine is P4 3.2Ghz (single CPU), 2 GIG ram, Intel Gfx card etc. Having made the HD GUID Boot and selected minimal options – the machine installed and rebooted and we had OS X 10.5.1 running fine.

The Sound worked first time, the network was up and running, the screen was running at 1280×1024 and so forth. I updated to 10.5.2 via the patched updater and everything was still fine. Not until I choose the 9 Updates and a reboot later did it all come crashing down. I rebuilt a second time picking the SSE2 part and once rebooted, nothing – just a constant reboot.

My Final go will repeat the first process and do the updates one at a time until it works best it can. Once I am happy with it as working – I will then move to the Laptop which is a Core 2 Duo and should work better.

Turning a PC into a mac
Even though I have a real imac with the latest OS X installed and it works very well indeed as nature intended, I have been looking at the ways to install OS X 10.5.1 on one of my many Computers around. The end gaol was really to have my Work laptop, a Dual Core Athlon Machine with 2 GIG ram as an alternative OS X machine. I looked around and found two DVD Images which I thought might work:

iATKOS v1.0ir2 (the i Stands for Intel)
Mac OS X for AMD.

the test begins
I started of with a collection of Laptops at work, as these where Ghosted, it mattered not if I screw them up as I can quickly get them back to a working OS. I had a few to choose from such as C2D 1.86Ghz machine and various other models. I went through the process and rebooted, this is when i was met with a flashing cursor. I read the forums, re-installed many times, tried different options on the install, Use GParted Live CD to set the boot flag and so forth and so on. At the end of the Day I had no working Mac OS X on any of these computers.

Trying the computers at Home.
I Ghosted my Dell GX620 machine and off I went, this has a Pentium 640 (3.2ghz) with 2 GIG ram etc. Thsi has SSE3 as required and I set off to see if this had any more luck. I tried so many times and did not get to the apple desktop at any stage.
Eventually I had to give up, re-ghosted XP back on there and promptly gave up for the day.

Another Go – lets waste some machines !!
Today I thought I would have one more go, so I gosted the Core 2 Duo Machine (2.4Ghz) Fitted with a GeForce 7600GT, this has much newer hardware all round and in theory but I failed to even get past the DVD boot, it just sat there doing nothing.

I then moved to my Athlon 64 3700 machine, would i have better luck with this? No Ghosting this time, just plain Wiped the thing, used the AMD Install and off I went. Standard OS X Install Screen, no extra Stuff on Install. Rebooted and guess what – a flashing cursor. I am missing something with this Boot part and for all I know its worked past some simple instructions.