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Basic knowledge
It’s always good to know how the things are working. It’s even better to know why the things are working the way they are.
You may know or not that the idea of running Apple OS on non Apple hardware it’s quite old (old in the computer time terms).It’s an OSx86 Project and it started in 2005.
If you are completely new to hackintosh I would strongly recommend visiting OSx86 Project site.
The subject is huge and the possibilities are endless. I’m not going to write a book about that here. If you feel like browsing some hackintosh dedicated forums you can check useful links. More you know, it’s always better.
Anyway I’m going to give here some small, very limited and selected explanation.
Basically they are two ways of getting the things done, so in the simple words you can have the Apple OS on your PC following these two methods:
- using the pre-hacked already patched distro
- using the original installation disc from Apple
In both cases the effect will be similar=you will have Apple OS on non Apple computer. I can not say which way is easier because it all depends on your knowledge and experience.
Let’s have a closer look at the first method.
First of all, what is distro you may ask ? Distro = software distribution. It’s already configured software. In our case it would be already configured operating system. There is quite a few distros floating around like: iAtkos, iDeneb, Kalyway or iPC. Probably you’ve heard these names somewhere. The whole idea behind the distros is that they are all based on original OS but modified and bundled with different patches to make them more compatible with most people PCs. I started my adventure with hackintosh with iPC distro (based on Leopard 10.5.6). The installation was successful and I was running Leopard OS X 10.5.6 on my Toshiba before. So why decided to use original retail disc? Let’s move to second method.
There is one limitation while using distros. You can not use Apple official OS and security updates. Majority of them will completely break your installation as they are overwriting patched distro files. In the result your computer will be not bootable. The only solution is reinstalling. Using original Apple installation disc to get OS X working on your PC allows you to update your system in the future with the official Apple updates. They are some hackintosh users reporting system crash after official updates, but it’s difficult to define if the update process was done correctly or not. This is not going to happen with our Toshiba laptop. After successful installtion of Snow Leopard 10.6 we are going to update to 10.6.6 using Apple combo update.
Few more terms you need to know:
Kernel – the basic part of your operation system, the heart of your computer, responsible for communication between different components of your hardware and your applications.
the central component of most computer operating systems; it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level *
Kext – kernel extension, as the name itself says kext adds extra features and support to kernel, extending kernel’s functionality. Great article here.
Bootloader – small program that loads the OS after turning on your computer.
EFI – Extensible Firmware Interface
a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware *
Empire EFI we are using to install Snow Leopard on our Toshiba emulates the EFI environment. In simple words it allows to use original retail Apple installation disc because OS see our computer as original Apple computer. That gives us an ability to use unmodified Apple kernel. That’s the reason why we can update it later on with the official updates.
* after Wikipedia
Read more (from Wikipedia):
Before you start
There are few obvious things you need to remember about, before you’ll start to experiment with your computer.
- First of all it’s a back up.
Simple task, but remember that during the installation you will format the computer’s drive.
Formatting=erasing, so back up your important files, documents, music, movies, pictures… etc. Whatever you wanna keep. But wait… You are doing it regularly, don’t you?
Anyway, even if you do check again to be sure you have everything. If you are running hackintosh right now maybe you have some custom presets in Photoshop folder? Codecs for QuickTime? Your favorite archive utility? That’s just a few suggestions, so double check.
If you are on Windows right now, maybe there are some programs you want to keep just in case? You can install them on another PC or give to someone else.
- Second thing is to prepare an external drive (pen drive would be perfect) with files you will need after installation.
It’s always good to be prepared.
I now you don’t want to wait anymore and have your hackintosh ready as soon as possible, but not everything will be working perfectly after installation. Use the time you’re connected to internet. I will update you with the files you need soon.
- Third is an empty CD or DVD disc for burning iso file with our bootloader.
You can not move further without it.
If you are on hackintosh scene for a while, then you know why and there is nothing to explain about it.
If you are totally new, then you need to know that inserting the Snow Leopard installation disc into your drive will not work.
Why? Simply because Apple OS X is not designed to be install on any other computer but only made by Apple.
You can try if you want, but trust me it won’t work.
We will come back to this topic.
- Fourth and the last is an retail disc with Snow Leopard.
Now, let’s move into this topic a little bit.
There are two ways you can get it. First one it’s the one that probably most of you (unfortunately) will go for. You can simply download iso file of the installation disc from torrents, rapidshare, hotfile and many other sharing sites. I can understand that you want to try the software before buying it, but there is absolutely no reason why you don’t buy your own copy from Apple once you’ve tried it and decided to stick with it.
Hopefully you will go for that second option. Come on guys, it costs 29 $, there absolutely no excuse for not buying it. Simple as that.
And just to clarify I have my own original retail disc with Snow Leopard. I paid for it 40 $ as I’m not living in US, but in one of these more expensive countries, where everything costs more. I don’t regret spending that money and I will do same again if I have to. It’s a bargain ! If you don’t want to buy it then you have another option: just stay with Windows. But just to let you know Windows 7 Home Premium starts with 120 $ for single PC (full Ultimate version is 320 $), so ???
What’s gonna be ?
Technical faq
Toshiba Satellite A100-784
- Processor 1.73 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T2250
- Memory 4GB 533 MHz DDR2 SDRAM *
- Graphics Intel 945GM Express Chipset (128 Mb shared memory)
- Display 15,4″ widescreen 1280 x 800
- Hard disk 400GB Toshiba SATA 5400 rpm *
- Matshita Super Multi drive (Double Layer)
- BroadCom Card BCM94321MC a/b/g/n *
- Built-in Toshiba Bluetooth 802.11
- Ethernet LAN Intel PRO 100/VE
- Synaptics Touchpad
- 5-in-1 Bridge Media slot for SD cards
* Notice that I upgraded few things here. Original laptop came with 1 GB RAM memory (it’s enough to run Snow Leopard, but it’s always better to have some more) and 100 GB hard drive capacity. I also changed wireless card and replaced original Intel Pro Wireless 3945 a/b/g with BroadCom Card (to connect with my lovely Airport Extreme station 😎 ). BroadCom Card is the card used in original Apple’s Macbook Pro. I got it from ebay for 20 $, it’s used but works great!
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