The “Hackintosh”
Being a long time PC user (since uh 1986), I never was really interested in Apple’s offerings. Now that Vista’s been released, and being severely disappointed in the product, my eyes started drifting to the land of the Mac 
Being Intel based now, it opened the door for hackers to work on it and make it independent from Apple hardware.
I’m a total newbie at this, so this is what I’ve done, what worked and what didn’t.
First of all, the best ressource I found for information so far is http://www.InsanelyMac.com
Hardware Configuration
Intel BOXD945GCLF MINI-ITX 945GC Atom 230 1.6GHZ
Kingston ValueRAM KVR667D2N5/2G PC2-5300 2GB 1X2GB
500GB SATA Hard Disk
Pioneer SATA DVD Writer DVR-2120BK
Antec NSK3480 Mini Tower case & PSU
Logitech Cordless Desktop S530 Laser Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for Mac
Software
Well, since the retail version would not work on non Apple hardware, I had to use the “hacked” version of the OS. There are several versions available, I chose to use the Kalyway edition.
I do not intend to use this as a production box, but simply to experiment, at a reasonable cost, with an alternative operating system. I’ll probably convert this box to a Linux router or something when I’m done.
Ok, so as of this writing, the current Kalyway release is 10.5.2, so I burned it to DVD and booted it up on the new system.
The first thing I noticed was when I got to install the OS, there was no destination drives available. Unlike Windows, OSX doesn’t bring up the partition creation menu during installation. You need to go to Utilities, Disk Utility and create your volumes from there. Once done, the rest of the installation is fairly easy.
Installation took about 30 minutes.
Problems
a) Booting from hard disk
Well, the first problem I have is that the system won’t boot without the DVD in the drive. Here’s the fix:
- Reboot using the Kalyway DVD
- Start the terminal once the disk is loaded
- Using the following command, identify which partition your Leopard installation is on.
diskutil list
- Once you’ve identified which disk (disk0, disk1, etc…) use the following commands to mark the partition active.
fdisk -e /dev/rdisk# --> where # is the number of the disk.
p --> will show you the partitions list, to confirm you're on the right disk.
f # --> where # is the number of the partition to mark active
w --> write changes
q --> quit
reboot
b) Video resolution
Second problem, resolution is fixed, no options to change it. This will fix this:
Download the GMA 950 Kext package below and install the two included .Kext files.
You can use Kexthelper if you are not comfortable installing manually.
Link to GMA 950 Kext Package
Link to KextHelper
- After a quick restart you should now have full resolution and graphic support.
c) Time Machine doesn’t work.
During installation, select “Time Machine Fix”… I’ll try to find a post-install fix.
Performance
Well, I was not expecting much to begin with, as this board was fairly cheap. The OS itself runs just fine, as well as most productivity tools. iTunes and cover flow worked fine!
This is not a system for video/audio editing though. But for the price!!
UPDATE: Well, the experiment worked. I sold the box, and bought and iMac for my son. I also converted my own desktop to OSX (I had all the proper hardware on hand). So long Vista! See you Microsoft! I will revisit your offering when you wake up and give us a solid, stable OS.
