SA Hackintoshers?

[Mo Facta]

Some questions...

Any of you guys routinely building hackintoshes?

What is the consensus on charging people to build them? Retail parts (no markup) and a build fee (labour)?

What is the policy for discussion of it in this forum? Is it considered illegal?

It seems to be quite openly accepted online and not an issue for Apple. No one has been sued or anything.

Just curious.

Cheers

 

[nster101]

Some questions...

Any of you guys routinely building hackintoshes?

What is the consensus on charging people to build them? Retail parts (no markup) and a build fee (labour)?

What is the policy for discussion of it in this forum? Is it considered illegal?

It seems to be quite openly accepted online and not an issue for Apple. No one has been sued or anything.

Just curious.

Cheers

As far as I know, while it violates apples EULA, it's not illegal to build a hackintosh, as long as you obtained the software legally, from say an old Mac that you actually own.

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[nster101]

In other news, I've spent a week trying to install the thing with zero luck. Crashes halfway through [emoji58]

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[nagapie]

In other news, I've spent a week trying to install the thing with zero luck. Crashes halfway through [emoji58]

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Thats why you use an apple instead of a potatoe [emoji14]

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[Mo Facta]

In other news, I've spent a week trying to install the thing with zero luck. Crashes halfway through [emoji58]

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Post your hardware specs and maybe I can help...

 

[nster101]

Post your hardware specs and maybe I can help...

Dell precision 5530
i7 8850H
16 GB ram
512GB NVMe ssd


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[Mo Facta]

Dell precision 5530
i7 8850H
16 GB ram
512GB NVMe ssd


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Ah, a laptop. Notoriously difficult as the chipsets differ wildly from those used by Apple. Have you read Rehabman's laptop compatibility guide?

Laptop Compatibility

What version of macOS are you installing?

Cheers

 

[nster101]

Ah, a laptop. Notoriously difficult as the chipsets differ wildly from those used by Apple. Have you read Rehabman's laptop compatibility guide?

Laptop Compatibility

What version of macOS are you installing?

Cheers

Yeah I have. I think I need to build clover properly instead of just using Unibeast. Will take me a while and I don't have the patience atm

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[JollyJamma]

What chipset is on the motherboard?

The problem with a lot of prebuilds is that they are largely non OSX compatible. It's one of the reasons why I purchased a Gigabyte board - I knew it would work 100% with OSX.

I now have a fully operational OSX that I occasionally use.

 

[ScuBaLlama]

I'm also running a Hackintosh setup for occasional Final Cut Pro 7/X work. It was such a mission to get it running and some features still don't work, but it's way cheaper than buying dedicated Mac to do the work.

 

[Mo Facta]

What chipset is on the motherboard?

The problem with a lot of prebuilds is that they are largely non OSX compatible. It's one of the reasons why I purchased a Gigabyte board - I knew it would work 100% with OSX.

I now have a fully operational OSX that I occasionally use.

It's a mobile chipset, hence the headaches.

 

[JollyJamma]

It's a mobile chipset, hence the headaches.

Yes but if we know the exact chipset, we may be able to customise an installer using Unibeast or Multibeast.

There are options for PS/2 keyboards, RAID, SATA and legacy hardware that may enable the installation.

 

[Mo Facta]

Yes but if we know the exact chipset, we may be able to customise an installer using Unibeast or Multibeast.

There are options for PS/2 keyboards, RAID, SATA and legacy hardware that may enable the installation.

Unibeast and Multibeast kexts and patches are mostly for desktop hardware. There are very few laptop-oriented options.

He will most likely be better off injecting kexts appropriate for his chipset into the EFI volume of the clover install USB. This can be done after you make a vanilla installer USB with Unibeast but finding them, I agree, is dependent on what his mobile chipset actually is.

Cheers

 

[Mo Facta]

FWIW the Precision 5530 uses an Intel CM246 chipset.

 

[el3venth]

Unibeast and Multibeast kexts and patches are mostly for desktop hardware.

Please dont support tonymac. He is basically just making money on the hard work of the rest of the osx86 community.

TonyMacx86 and Mac Man Steal Again

 

[JollyJamma]

FWIW the Precision 5530 uses an Intel CM246 chipset.

It took me 15 seconds to find this thread that Apple have used that chipset in their Mac mini so the likelyhood of it working is high then.

Mac mini Ende 2018 Teardown

 

[Mo Facta]

It took me 15 seconds to find this thread that Apple have used that chipset in their Mac mini so the likelyhood of it working is high then.

Mac mini Ende 2018 Teardown

That's good news. I see there are also successful High Sierra installations on Dell XPS laptops that use the same chipset.

Cheers

 

[JollyJamma]

That's good news. I see there are also successful High Sierra installations on Dell XPS laptops that use the same chipset.

Cheers

Follow those installer guides and you'll be 100%.

 

[SauRoN]

I just stick to the real deal.

Far less hassle and better overall.

 

[JollyJamma]

I just stick to the real deal.

Far less hassle and better overall.

Some of us aren’t millionaires.

The real deal does work better as a whole but unless you actually use it for work, it’s hard to justify the cost.

I much prefer the Unix base of OSX and I will get a Mac when I’m a wealthy person. For now, I’m just a poor boy, from a poor family.


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[SauRoN]

Some of us aren’t millionaires.

The real deal does work better as a whole but unless you actually use it for work, it’s hard to justify the cost.

I much prefer the Unix base of OSX and I will get a Mac when I’m a wealthy person. For now, I’m just a poor boy, from a poor family.


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I actually don't have a single Mac in the house for this very reason...unless you count the old iMac G3 in the garage. My last Macbook went back to my company when I left 3 years ago.

But would like to pick up an iMac 21.5-inch next year if I can.

Still my statement holds, I would then rather fake it out with Linux variant or settle on Windows both of which are less hassle than a Hackintosh.

 

[JollyJamma]

I actually don't have a single Mac in the house for this very reason...unless you count the old iMac G3 in the garage. My last Macbook went back to my company when I left 3 years ago.

But would like to pick up an iMac 21.5-inch next year if I can.

Still my statement holds, I would then rather fake it out with Linux variant or settle on Windows both of which are less hassle than a Hackintosh.

Agreed. I don’t rely on my Havkintosh. It’s too unreliable.

I run 4 operating systems natively - Win10, ParrotOS, OSX and Fedora.

I’ve had more trouble with ParrotOS of late than any of the others and upgrading to the latest version causes my laptop to freak out.

My Hackintosh is fun but you just can’t beat the real deal for sheer all round composure and design, even if Apple are dicks about it.



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[SauRoN]

Agreed. I don’t rely on my Havkintosh. It’s too unreliable.

I run 4 operating systems natively - Win10, ParrotOS, OSX and Fedora.

I’ve had more trouble with ParrotOS of late than any of the others and upgrading to the latest version causes my laptop to freak out.

My Hackintosh is fun but you just can’t beat the real deal for sheer all round composure and design, even if Apple are dicks about it.



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Yeah in my days gone by of wanting to fiddle I used to do similar running multiple OS's but then you end up realising you only really use one and you don't do much more than fiddle with the others.

I would probably settle on a hybrid with something like Elementary OS if I wasn't forced to use Windows on my work machine.

Being a certified Apple specialist in days gone by the "fake" versions have never lived up to expectation of the real deal every so often when I've tried it. There is always some compromise too big to look past. I pretty much just install the new versions in a VM as they come out to fiddle a little and remember what's potting.

Actually giving a Macbook a bit of an oil change this week for the first time in ages for one of my old clients, so will be nice to play "natively" again.

 

[Mo Facta]

I have to totally disagree on reliability.

Currently I have numerous friends who do very serious audio work using hacks that I have built them and they are beasts that handle the workload just as stably as real macs. In fact some of them are far more powerful.

The myth that hackintoshes are unstable is simply not true.

Cheers


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[pXius]

My wife's desktop is a Hackintosh. Her daily is a Macbook and thus she prefers OSX.

i7 4790k (Dropped H80i due to lack of Corsair software for some bigass air cooler from Wootware, can't remember the brand).
Biostar Z97 Gaming something board.
16GB generic ram
GTX1060 6GB
SSD as only drive in the machine. (We keep our data on a local server)

The only 2 challenges I faced was;
Multiple USB 3 ports. There are patches you can apply that activates them all, but behavior can be weird. Sometimes she needs to re-plug a peripheral (KB/mouse etc) to get it to work. Sometimes a reboot is required.

Apple Messenger. There's no sugar coating it, getting messenger to work can be an absolute b*tch. It in some cases, (mine included) involves you phoning Apple with your "fake/real" serial number for your apparent Apple machine along with the error code you get when you try to log into messenger and of course your iCloud details. They then work some magic server side and messenger starts working, this process can be hit and miss. There are a few guides on the net on how to do all this, including what you should tell the person on the other side of the line.

One of the biggest downsides is when an OSX update launches. It tends to break many things (in my case with Mojave, it FUBARed messenger) and requires some tinkering to get it all working again.

Aside from all that, she can use OSX on her desktop and play her games. Mostly Diablo.

TLDR; It works if you are willing to tinker. Like a lot.
If you have the $$$, get the real thing and an eGPU.

 

[Yaqoob]

My wife's desktop is a Hackintosh. Her daily is a Macbook and thus she prefers OSX.

i7 4790k (Dropped H80i due to lack of Corsair software for some bigass air cooler from Wootware, can't remember the brand).
Biostar Z97 Gaming something board.
16GB generic ram
GTX1060 6GB
SSD as only drive in the machine. (We keep our data on a local server)

The only 2 challenges I faced was;
Multiple USB 3 ports. There are patches you can apply that activates them all, but behavior can be weird. Sometimes she needs to re-plug a peripheral (KB/mouse etc) to get it to work. Sometimes a reboot is required.

Apple Messenger. There's no sugar coating it, getting messenger to work can be an absolute b*tch. It in some cases, (mine included) involves you phoning Apple with your "fake/real" serial number for your apparent Apple machine along with the error code you get when you try to log into messenger and of course your iCloud details. They then work some magic server side and messenger starts working, this process can be hit and miss. There are a few guides on the net on how to do all this, including what you should tell the person on the other side of the line.

One of the biggest downsides is when an OSX update launches. It tends to break many things (in my case with Mojave, it FUBARed messenger) and requires some tinkering to get it all working again.

Aside from all that, she can use OSX on her desktop and play her games. Mostly Diablo.

TLDR; It works if you are willing to tinker. Like a lot.
If you have the $$$, get the real thing and an eGPU.

How'd you manage to get the Nvidia 1060 working in Mojave?

I don't think Nvidia released the web drivers yet...

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[pXius]

How'd you manage to get the Nvidia 1060 working in Mojave?

I don't think Nvidia released the web drivers yet...

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They haven't.

There are workarounds to get it recognized but you wont have HW acceleration until the web drivers come along. So if you wanna game you'll have to stick to HS or use your on-board graphics.
My misses is dual booting until the driver gets released.

 

[JollyJamma]

They haven't.

There are workarounds to get it recognized but you wont have HW acceleration until the web drivers come along. So if you wanna game you'll have to stick to HS or use your on-board graphics.
My misses is dual booting until the driver gets released.

This was a recent episode of Linus that everyone should watch because he highlights that it violates the EULA with Apple.

It’s also waaaaaay too much work for a VM and I’d rather just stick to Linux.

 

[pXius]

This was a recent episode of Linus that everyone should watch because he highlights that it violates the EULA with Apple.

It’s also waaaaaay too much work for a VM and I’d rather just stick to Linux.

Thats actually very cool.

I'm doing something similar now with Unraid, booting a OSX VM for the misses. Works much better than a Hackintosh. Also much easier to setups than that video. All that said. I couldnt get messenger working this time round.

 

[Mo Facta]

This was a recent episode of Linus that everyone should watch because he highlights that it violates the EULA with Apple.

It’s also waaaaaay too much work for a VM and I’d rather just stick to Linux.

Honestly, that looks far more complicated and time consuming than just building a hackintosh using Clover. I do agree that if you want to run macOS on a far wider variety of hardware without worry, then it is a good option. But as far as his argument he puts forward in the beginning about later macOS versions not supporting the hardware goes, that is yet to happen and might not happen at all with Intel unless they change to ARM or their own proprietary chips, which isn't in the foreseeable future, despite the rumours. Apple would still have to support older Macs for OS X upgrades (kind of like they did with Tiger back when they transitioned to Intel) and I firmly believe hackintoshers would continue to adapt. Even as we speak it is possible to install macOS on a Ryzen system using a different bootloader (not Clover, can't remember the name) and most if not all of the latest chipsets are supported and work just fine.

Currently NVIDIA isn't a problem anymore on Mojave as NVIDIA released web drivers to support the latest RTX cards and others recently. So PCIe passthrough for the GPU (which I admit is very cool) is a redundant exercise and a non-selling point for me. Newer AMD cards are supported natively so there is no hacking required there either. His method also requires two GPUs, which is an added cost and hassle. Not for me, thanks.

The other thing is that you're going to have to share resources and IO, which might be fine if you dedicate the whole machine to macOS and set up all the passthroughs correctly. I will concede that it's nice to not have to worry about supported hardware but I would rather just buy the right ones that are supported and forgo the hassle.

I will be giving this a try, though. I found the video very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

My 2c (ZAR)

Cheers