The update to 10.6.8 for Hackintoshes is pretty painless. It doesn’t touch/remove anything terribly important if you have a standard build, but it may introduce some problems with your SleepEnabler.kext file.

To avoid any problems I suggest using my methods in the Maximizing Success article here:

http://andrewmajot.com/blog/2011/09/maximizing-hackintosh%E2%80%99s-success-protips/

That way you can experiment with what works, and have no consequences if you fail since you can just wipe your drive and start over again with a fresh Hackintosh install.

To begin:
·         Download the combo update from the apple site:  http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399
·         Start the installer to apply the update
·         Restart

Previous posts in my blog have show how to install Tiger, and then later Leopard onto your PC. Back in the days of Tiger, it was an extremely painful process that involved a considerable amount of terminal knowledge, hardware tinkering, and frustration. Then Apple switched to Intel chips and made 10.5 Leopard more compatible with standard PC’s. More compatible, but still requiring specialized ‘distro’ disks for the installation of the operating system. Depending on your hardware it might require trying out 1 of half a dozen distros before finding the right software bundle that worked for your system. Or, if you were a more advanced hackintosh user, you could create your own custom distro disk that had exactly what you needed. Needless to say, Leopard was an improvement – but still a hassle.

Then, in August of 2009 Apple released their latest operating system, Snow Leopard. This proved to be a huge improvement for the operating system, introducing native 64 bit computing and many other features. It also helped out hackintosh users who have newer hardware, but left many others behind. If your processor isn’t 64 bit compatible, stop reading now, Snow Leopard is not for you. Other hardware constraints apply, but those will be discussed a little later in this tutorial.

After much researching I have uncovered several relatively painless methods to install Snow Leopard on your PC. These methods were not created by me, but rather by some extremely clever individuals/teams of people devoted to the OSX86 community. I take absolutely no credit for these methods, I only wish to explain them in a manner that everyone can understand and take advantage of. It is my goal to educate my readers on not just the how, but the why of each step in the process of OSX86 conversion. I have always believed that knowledge is power.

Before we get any further, I need to lay down some disclaimers and ground rules:

This is a set of guidelines for installing OS X Snow Leopard onto a PC. What you choose to do with this information is up to you, and I am in no way responsible for whatever happens to your machine.

Now that that’s taken care of, here is the shopping list that you will need in order to follow through with this project:
The things you need for this project are as follows:

• High Speed Internet Connection (Useful if you want the needed software before the end of time)
• Blank CD’s
• 8 GB Thumbdrive
• Potentially a blank DL DVD (if you don’t have a 8 GB thumbdrive handy)
• ISO Recording software
• A copy of the retail Snow Leopard Installation Disk
• Access to a Macintosh (or hackintosh)*
• A computer with the following attributes:
  • Intel Core 2, Core i processor (or newer)
  • at least 2 GB RAM (4 is preferable)
  • at least 12 GB of free disk space
  • A DVD drive for installation
  • Motherboard with SATA configuration options that allow for AHCI mode**

* Depending on which method you choose, this may be unnecessary

**Some installation options claim to be able to get around this necessity. Personally I haven’t found one that works for my hardware, but maybe you will have better luck

Now, let me outline some of the steps that are taken by software in order to get Snow Leopard purring on your PC. It is impossible to just stick a retail SL disk into your PC and have it install. This is because of built-in chips on Macintosh mother boards that report the authenticity of the hardware the disk is supposed to install to. So it requires some software tom-foolery in order to get the disk to even boot on a PC, much less install its cargo onto your hard drive. The software running on the chips is part of a system called Extensible Firmware Interface, or EFI. As long as Apple insists on being a hardware company this will be a headache for many PC users.

Another roadblock is motherboard compatibility and Snow Leopard’s ability to interface with the heart of your machine. Before an OS can interface with hardware it needs to find the values in the Differentiated System Description Table, or DSDT. In Tiger and Leopard OSX installs you didn’t need to worry about this little detail and it was taken care of. In most of the methods for installing SL that I suggest you still don’t need to worry about it. But depending on your hardware and the route you choose to install, you may need to know about DSDT and how to patch/locate it. I could create an entire post about that, but instead I will leave it to you to research on your own. Here is a great starter page found on the OSX86 Wiki:

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/DSDT

Yet another possible roadblock that is new for Snow Leopard is the AHCI SATA setting requirement. Previous OSX86 versions could allow for SATA disk drive operations to be handled in IDE mode, but in SL this was disabled. So far I haven’t been able to locate a properly patched bootloader that has the needed kexts (drivers) to allow for the IDE drive setting. If anyone happens to know of a method for getting around this, please post a comment with a link.

If your motherboard is incompatible with AHCI mode SATA, you may be able to find a patched BIOS that allows it. I DO NOT suggest this route unless you don’t mind throwing the motherboard away in the instance of a bad flashing. This type of software hackery is very dangerous and subject to failure if done in the wrong way. Once again I have to re-iterate that I am not responsible if you end up bricking your machine.

Ok, now that some of the tedious, painful background information has been established, I can get down to the nitty gritty. There are several methods you can use to get the SL disk bootable and installed on your system. The two easiest options are to use a customized boot disk or a thumbdrive. Let me explain:

Boot Disk:

This method involves using one of several boot disks to enable a temporary bridge of software between the SL disk and your PC. You insert the disk (usually a CD because the iso image is so small) into your computer, boot, and watch it come up to a selection screen. Then you eject the disk (The software it loaded will still be running) and load in your Snow Leopard disk. Since it already bridged the gap, it now loads the appropriate kexts (drivers) from the disk and allows you to boot into the install disk

Thumb Drive:

This method is a bit harder to get started, but once you have the finished ‘hacked’ thumbdrive I kinda prefer this method for its elegance. It involves  having access to a macintosh system to begin with, and a bit of knowledge with the Disk Utility that comes with OSX. Here are the basic steps needed for thumbdrive preparation:

1. Insert Snow Leopard disk into your mac, and open up Disk Utility
2. Go to the top of the menu and hit New Image (while the SL disk is selected), save it to an easily accessible spot
3. Insert your 8 GB thumbdrive and format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Case Sensitive). You can name it whatever you like, but to be super classy you should make it SnowLeopard
4. Now hit the Restore tab button and drag the thumbdrive into the Destination option text box and locate the snow leopard image that was created in step number 2. Place this into the Source text box.
5. Hit Restore (you may need to enter admin credentials)

There you go, you now have translated your SL DVD into a thumbdrive! Now you will need to use one of several patching applications to install the necessary kexts and scripts onto the drive before you can boot it. This process is extremely easy and just involves a few clicks.

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the two easiest and most popular methods, here is a list of sources where the needed disks/software can be found:

Boot Disks:

iBoot: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/iBoot

I like to call this one a random boot disk: http://www.mediafire.com/?ngznyzmayiv

Empire EFI (My favorite due to Darth Vader graphics): (your local torrent site)

Thumbdrive Patchers:

An EP45UD3P specific installer package can be found here

The AMAZING MyHack installer can be found on its homepage at:

http://osx86.sojugarden.com/installer/

My preferred method is the MyHack installer on a thumbdrive. I chose this method because it was the only available method that worked with the hardware I had available. You may prefer another method, and thats ok, whatever works best for you is what you should go with.

If you know of any more loaders, please leave a comment and I’ll edit this post to include them. This list is by no means comprehensive, I am only listing what I have experience with.

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Lets get down to the install process!

If you have a boot CD:

(Using iBoot as an example, but all other ones will work in almost exactly the same way)

If you see this error you have some hardware incompatibilities. Check to make sure that your AHCI mode is turned on. Or it might just be time to look elsewhere for a way to boot the SL disk:

Pretty much all boot CD’s behave in the same way as the iBoot disk. One thing you might want to do is enable a couple of boot flags. The most useful is the -v flag. This stands for verbose, and will start up the boot in text mode. This way if something goes wrong you know exactly how far the kernel got before it crapped out on you. For reference, here is a partial list of the most useful kernel flags:

• -v = verbose (text mode)
• -x = safe mode
• -s = single user mode
• -f = force reload of kexts and kextcache. EXTREMELY important if you edit kexts and then restart. This is a lifesaver
• CPUS=x – change x for 1 and it will only use 1 core of your processor. Useful for less supported processors.
• -legacy – boots in 32 bit mode if its a 64 bit OS

Those are the basic toolkit of flags, the ones i find the most useful. Here is a more complete list for the curious:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=99891

If your using the Thumbdrive Method:

My favorite thumbdrive software is the myHack installer. The drawback for some users is that it requires a mac in order to install to the thumbdrive. But, if you have access to a mac (or a hackintosh, perhaps one that you are trying to upgrade?) then this is probably the best bet for you. The developer behind myHack has included kexts for a wide variety of hardware, and in my experience it is the most compatible with various hardware.

Initial MyHack screen:

Your going to want to use the -v boot flag, just hit any button while it is loading and type in -v:

At this stage myHack is loading all of the kexts (drivers) needed to interface with your machine:

As you can see you get quite the wall of text. This is a good thing and lets you know whats going on with your machine. If it fails at a point or hangs up, you can search online for a fix using the last line it outputted:

And now the fun part! After the text flies by you should have booted into the actual Snow Leopard installation! Congradulations! If you encountered an error, please check out the InsanelyMac forums at:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

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The following are screen images of the standard Apple install. I’m including them for those of you who are completely new to this process. I always believed that more pictures = more understanding.

Language Selection Screen:

Loading Screen:

Install Welcome Screen (hit continue):

Agree to the conditions:

Now, we get to a potential roadblock. Notice in the next pic how there isn’t a hard drive to install to? There should only be your thumb drive. If you are upgrading an existing Leopard installation then you should be able to see that drive. You should erase it and then install over it using the steps I’m about to outline.

Hit the Utilities button and go to Disk Utility:

Hopefully off to the left you see the hard drive you want to install to. If you do not, you have a serious problem. Your BIOS might not support AHCI mode, or you may have other hardware issues. If your needed hard drive is not available you cannot go any farther. You may be able to bypass this issue with a different boot method (if you used thumbdrive, try a CD for instance)

Select your drive and select the Erase option. Then under Format choose Mac OSX Extended (Journaled)

Name it something classy. Then hit the Erase button:

Are you sure? (Yep, you are)

Erasing Screen:

Your newly formatted drive should now be available off to the left:

Exit out of the Disk Utility and return to the Install screen. Select your newly formated drive and hit Install:

WOOOOO ITS INSTALLING!

This next step isn’t necessary, but it might be handy if you have any install errors. If you navigate to Window -> Installer log you can view what the installer is doing step-by-step:

Lots of info:

Hopefully at the end of your Installation you see this success message. If not, you’ll have to try installing again:

Your machine will now restart. Because you do not have a boot loader installed yet, you will have to insert the boot CD or leave the thumbdrive in your machine. You will need to use it to kick-start the booting into your freshly installed system. Make sure to select the fresh install instead of the install disk when you do this.

Also, it may be a good idea to use a couple boot flags when booting into the OS. I recommend -v and -f. -v in case something goes wrong and you need to diagnose, and -f to refresh your drivers.

After you kick-start your boot, you should be greeted with this screen (after the boot sequence completes). Select your country:

Select your keyboard:

Import from another mac (probably would be a good idea to skip this step):

Enter your Apple ID. If your ethernet is connected and working properly then this will contact apple to get your contact info:

The following screen would be auto-filled if your ethernet was working. If not, you will need to fill it out manually

A few more questions:

Create your user account:

OH CRAP A BLUE SCREEN! But this is mac right?

Phew, glad that loaded!

Congrats! You now have Snow Leopard running on your PC! But your not quite done yet. Chances are you will need to identify your keyboard:

Your not out of the woods yet though. Some (including myself) think that the most frustrating part is yet to come. Hardware drivers.

Before we get to that though, lets fix the boot loader issue. What issue? You don’t have one. To fix this, either use what came on your CD, or thumbdrive. I used myHack, so that is what I will show you here. On your thumbdrive there should be a myHack installer. Remember using it to format your thumbdrive? And how you had to select the thumbdrive instead of using the default, which was your hard drive? Well this time you will want to let it install on your thumbdrive:

There! Now you should have a fully bootable, (hopefully) somewhat stable Snow Leopard installation! Depending on your hardware you may be fully good-to-go at this point. But if your like me you may need to install some additional kexts in order to get fully compatible hardware.

Here are some common packages that you may find useful:

VooDooPS2 (useful for laptops):

http://chameleon.osx86.hu/articles/voodoo-team-proudly-presents-voodoops2controller

VooDooHDA Audo (a lot of audio devices use this):

http://code.google.com/p/voodoohda/

OSX86Tools (AMAZING tool. I recommend it for all osx86 users!)

http://code.google.com/p/osx86tools/

If these don’t help you then you will need to check out the Insanely Mac forum. Or Google, that works well too.

http://www.insanelymac.com/

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By the way, I am only writing a tutorial for how to do this. I take absolutely no credit for the spectacular job the people at iPC have done in making this distro of Leopard. You can visit their site here:

http://pcwizcomputer.com/ipcosx86/

So a little background of OSX86 in general is needed:

In previous posts I showed you how to install Tiger and Leopard on your boring PC and cut its chains of slavery to Windows operating systems. Installing Tiger involved quite a bit of work, and may have taken someone with advanced knowledge of computer software an entire weekend to perfect. Drivers were hard to come by, and it was largely luck of the draw if you were able to get your particular hardware to work with Tiger. Leopard was an evolutionary step forward, automating much of the process and having great compatibility with PC architecture. More modern devices are supported automatically, both through default Leopard software, and from the lovely folks who compiled these hacks in order to liberate OSX for the masses.

OS X Leopard was cracked for PC consumption the day of its release. This was mostly accomplished because Leopard was meant from the beginning to be used on computers with the x86 Intel architecture. The roadblock keeping OS X from naturally running on any pc is something called EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface. The EFI that Leopard uses is only tooled to work with Apple hardware, which means that it needs to be patched. The original method of patching was to use a thumbdrive attached to the computer and utilize the terminal to transfer files from the thumbdrive to the operating system files of Leopard. Compared to installing Tiger onto a PC, this method was ridiculously easy and was all that was required to have a successful boot of Leopard. But a better solution is now available, one where no thumbdrive is required and installation is streamlined and so easy that nearly anyone can do it.

This is a set of guidelines for installing OS X Leopard onto a PC. What you choose to do with this information is up to you, and I am in no way responsible for whatever happens to your machine.

The things you need for this project are as follows:

• High Speed Internet Connection (Useful if you want the disk image before the end of time)
• Blank DVD-R
• ISO Recorder (Free software, can be found here: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm)
• A BitTorrent program such as BitComet, Vuze, or Transmission
• A computer with the following attributes:
  • Processor with either SSE2, SSE3, or SSE2/3 capabilities.
  • at least 512 MB RAM
  • at least 9 GB of free disk space
  • A DVD drive for installation

Now that all of the essentials are taken care of, we can get to the nitty gritty. In my personal opinion, this is one of the easiest installations of any operating system that I have ever had experience with. If all of your devices are supported, and your system has reasonable specs, you may expect to be cruising on your new Leopard in under and hour and a half. If you have just the bare minimum system requirements, it may take considerably longer.

Preparations:

In order to install Leopard, you first need to get the Leopard OSX86 installation disk. Now, the legality of this is somewhat questionable. The general consensus is that there are three ways to go about this, and I will order them in the most painful to least painful:

• Become an Apple developer. After several years or decades of convincing Apple Corp. that it would be a great idea to open up their kick ass operating system to the public for use on PC’s, you can probably install the now defunct and outdated leopard onto your PC free of legal worries.
• Buy a Leopard License, and then go and download Leopard from one of a plethora of Torrent websites. So that way at least your giving your money for a Leopard license and choosing to use it on a computer. Even though the license agreement specifically states that you cannot use OS X on anything but apple hardware. Oh well, it happens.
• Who cares, just download it. This is the most common method, and also the least legal.

For the two practical options, you need to download the latest and greatest OSX86 distro. At the time of this articles conception, the latest and greatest would be a release from the lovely people at iPC and it would be version 10.5.6. Now, it is important to note that there are several versions of iPC 10.5.6 floating around on the less than legal side of the internet. You need to look for one that says “final” and/or “PPF5″ with the newest upload date and is more than 3 GB in size. If you find one thats less than that, it is probably a patch of some kind meant for eariler versions of iPC’s distro. Unless you have a crazy good connection, expect to wait upwards of 2-3 days for the whole thing to download. It is a large file and will take a considerable time to acquire.

Then you need to burn the .iso file to the blank DVD. Recently I have lost my love of Nero, that is why I have linked above a free utility that burns .iso files to disks. Free software is nice.

If you’ve never booted from a CD or DVD on your system, then follow the outlined steps. If you already know how then just skip the next paragraph.

Insert the dvd into your dvd drive and shutdown the computer. Then whenever the computer boots up, pay attention to if it says anything about boot sequence or BIOS setup in the first few seconds of booting. For most Dell systems that I’ve come across the Boot Sequence option can be reached by hitting F12 at startup. For HP it is usually F2. Other BIOS’s might be Del or any of the F keys. Then select your CD/DVD drive, and the computer will boot from it after hitting enter.

Here is what a Dell Dimension 3000 BIOS boot selection screen looks like:
(The CD/DVD drive is highlighted)

And now the possible difficulties begin. If you wait a while and let the DVD boot up, it will eventually say something like “Press any key to begin or F8 fo
r options . . .” (I know it isn’t exactly that, but it is similar), if you press any key the next screen pops up:

Now, if your CD/DVD drive is still spinning at this point and the light is working, than chances are you are perfectly fine, nothing to worry about. If however it becomes stuck then you obviously have a problem. It is almost guaranteed that this problem stems from a hardware compatibility of some kind. I myself have seen this problem with newer hardware. I solved my problem by using Verbose mode at the F8 startup screen. This gives a diagnostic of each and every single step the OSX86 bootloader is going through in order to start the installation. You can then Google the last thing that happens in this diagnostic and hopefully find out what your problem is and solve it.

My problem was with a Dell Studio 540. I found that if i booted with the flags “-v cpus=1″ then I would not have any problems. With some quad core machines this “cpus=1″ may be a vital missing component.

Dell Studio 540 Booting up:

Here is a screen that might tip you off that you have a problem with your hardware:

And this is what -v does (otherwise known as diagnostic mode)

If you are having trouble booting, please visit the InsanelyMac forums:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

I cannot help you, they can.

Now, lets get back to the happy case where there are no boot problems.

After all the thinking, your computer will actually furnish you with a cursor and screen:

Followed quickly by the same pinwheel cursor and the Leopard background:

Then the Language Selection screen comes up. Needless to say, choose your language and continue:

Installation Preparation:

Welcome Screen with the Macintosh toolbar at the top. Pay attention to the options you have at the top, you will be using some of them shortly. Hit continue.

You are presented with the “Software License Agreement” for this particular distro of Leopard. Instead of simply skipping through it like you would normally do with every single other software license agreement you have ever met, it might be good to actually read this one. Its not an agreement, rather it is the features that this distro has. It has useful information if you find you cannot get your install to work.

For instance it says to use the boot flag -f to load all the kexts on your first boot. This is important, we will get to it later.

After “agreeing” you will come to the Select Destination screen. Unless you already have a Macintosh hard drive partitioned correctly, your screen should look like this:

Well, that doesn’t really give you many options does it? Don’t worry, now is when you use the menu bar at the top. Go to Utilities -> Disk Utility and click it:

Now you will find the Disk Utility application:

If you are doing a fresh install with a blank hard drive, click on the hard drive (NOT any partitions) and then click on the Erase tab. Where it says Volume Format choose “Mac OS Extended Journaled”. You may be able to use another type, but I know for a fact that that does indeed work. Then name the partition whatever you would like, I’m partial to something plain like Leopard.

Once that is accomplished (It may take some time depending on your hard drive size and system configuration) click the red x button to exit the Disk Utility and return to the Select Destination screen. Only this time it will not be blank, it will have a volume you can choose:

Click Continue and the Install Summary Page will show up:

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!

You MUST Click Customize!! If you do not, your install will not work. The Customize screen will show you several options that you will need to select or de-select based on your own hardware configuration. If your first install does not work correctly, chances are you need to choose different options in the Customize screen:

Click on the arrows to see all of the lovely options you can choose from:

Notice how that list continues? It continues for a long long time. Remember that thumbnail I had at the top of this article? Click it for detailed info. Yup, thats a lot of stuff isn’t it? The folks at iPC have really outdone themselves.

The number one reason for failed installs is that you do not have proper hardware support. This is hopefully fixed by choosing the correct settings at the above screen. If you cannot find the correct settings, PLEASE VISIT THE INSANELYMAC FORUMS! The threads there are priceless and will lead you in the right direction.

After choosing the correct options, accept and return to the previous Install Summary screen and hit Install:

The disk will now check itself for errors. You may want to let this run for the very first time. At this point you will find out if your disk is too scratched, burned incorrectly, or downloaded incorrectly. But if your install failed and you are forced to install again, you probably don’t need to check your disk again, you can hit cancel.

After the disk check the Installation will begin. Cross your fingers:

Once that is done hopefully you are greeted with the encouraging green checkmark:

If not, well you tried. Install again, if that doesn’t work then check the InsanelyMac forums. Notice how I say to check those forums a lot? You really should.

Now your machine will restart. When it gets to the Darwin bootloader hit any key and type in the following boot flags:

-v -f

This will put it in verbose and force a consolidation of Kexts. Kexts in OSX86 are sort of like drivers.

If you needed to put in “cpus=1″ in order to get your install disk to boot, you may notice infinite restarting at this point. In the Customize Installation screen a few pics ago there was a cpus=1 fix that would have been nice to check. You can still type it every time your computer boots, but that will get annoying fast. You may want to either re-install or customize your installation when you are finished to include that automatically.

If you didn’t need the cpus=1 fix and it is rebooting itself anyway, well you have a hardware problem. You know how to fix hardware problems? InsanelyMac. Nuff said.

If you don’t have any problems, it will look like you do have a problem. When you type in -f the kextloading causes the screen to look very much like one of the Matrix movies:

But don’t worry, this is supposed to happen.

After the kext loading, you will come to the normal diagnostic page:

And then a nice video will play:

After the video plays you will be greeted with a Welcome Screen. Pick your country:

Then select your keyboard:

The Do You Already Own A Mac? Screen. Chances are you just want to say No to this one:

The next screen prompts you to enter your Apple ID. You may or may not have one, so don’t worry if you don’t.

Then the Registration screen. You may or may not want to enter false info here:

Create your local account. This will be your user count when you use Leopard:

Try Mobile Me? Probably not:

And Finally the Thank You Screen:

You are now done, congratulations!

That is if all of your hardware is supported. If it is not, I suggest checking out these sources:

http://www.insanelymac.com/
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

When the patch is downloaded there are three folders, Linux, OSX, and Windows. I have tried installing the patch in OSX and have run into errors that I could not solve, so that is the reason why this tutorial is Windows oriented.

Materials Needed:

1. A Windows Operating System
2. the original .iso file you downloaded from a torrent site
3. the patch folder you downloaded from the link below

Some basic knowledge of the windows command line is needed. For those of you who don’t know what the Windows command line is, it looks similar to this:

This is the old style of computing before windows. The screenshot above is from Vista, but the same basic look goes back to Windows 95.

You can get to it by pressing and holding the button between the Ctrl and Alt buttons on the bottom left hand side of your keyboard – the one that looks like the windows symbol – and pressing the r key. This will bring up the run command menu. Type in cmd and hit enter.

Now to get started! Let the fun times begin.

First travel to iDeneb’s website for some basic info:

http://ideneb.ihackintosh.net/index.php/lang-en/homepage/58-ideneb-v13-1055-nforce-patch.html

If you want to get right down to business, you can download the patch here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ce22f281381ab62ed2db6fb9a8902bda

Once the .zip file has finished downloading, right click on it and hit extract all or extract here. The resulting folder should have the three main folders and some miscellaneous files.

find the folder that was unzipped with the name: iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch

It will have this stuff in it:

Now I’m going to tell you a few things that will save you hastle when you are in the command prompt. Move this folder to the very root of your C:/ drive. Go into My Computer and open the C: drive and place it there.

Inside the folder is a file called iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf. Move this file to the Windows folder.

Find your .iso file that you downloaded, and place it in the Windows folder. Notice how it has a rather large and crappy name? Rename it to something simple like iDeneb.iso (once again this is for ease of use in the command line).

Ok, so now the fun really begins. Open up the command line prompt. (You can get to it by pressing and holding the button between the Ctrl and Alt buttons on the bottom left hand side of your keyboard – the one that looks like the windows symbol – andpressing the r key. This will bring up the run command menu. Type in cmd and hit enter.)

Type in cd.. twice (this is the change directory command, and the .. is the symbol used for the folder above the current folder)

Now type cd iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch

then cd Windows

and then type ApplyPPF3:

Nothing has happened yet, but you have just accessed the file that will patch the .iso image. When you execute the program it shows you the instructions. Press the up arrow on your keyboard, this will place the most recently used command in the command prompt, saving you the trouble of typing it again. You will need to type in a space followed by “a iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf iDeneb.iso”. (You don’t need the “”). This command will apply the patch to the .iso file.

It should look like this:

You should take special care and make sure you have the correct iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf file in the Windows Folder. There is a file that is just labeled iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch, but it DOES NOT have the .ppf extension. This is not the correct file! you need iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf! You will be staring at a screen that says something to the effect that the file does not exist – which is extremely frustrating.

After a while it will finish patching the .iso file. Hopefully you will get this message somewhere in the command prompt:

Congratulations! You now have a patched .iso file. Use burning software to burn the .iso file to a DVD and try installing Leopard again.

Please note:

You have just patched the .iso file. For some people this will fix their problem and let them install OSX86 onto their PC. But for some people this will still not fix their problems. This is most likely due to other hardware compatibility, not just an nVidia related issue. For those people I suggest visiting the InsanelyMac forums. The website is an incredible resource with a community of people who know their stuff and will hopefully have an answer to your problem.

InsanelyMac: http://www.insanelymac.com/

I hope this post helped all of the people struggling to install the patch.

Hacker’s Database

A BOOK! I am proud to present the publication of a new book, written by the founder/developer of leetupload.com. The book, as seen below, is entitled “No Root for You: A Series of Tutorials, Rants and Raves, and Other Random Nuances Therein. It is about network auditing, a step by step tutorial guide explaining how one would go about auditing, securing, and learning why certain exploits work, etc. Purchase your copy now, by clicking HERE.To read more (view table of contents and the like) click here.

In previous posts I showed you how to install Tiger and Leopard on your boring PC and cut its chains of slavery to Windows operating systems. Installing Tiger involved quite a bit of work, and may have taken someone with advanced knowledge of computer software an entire weekend to perfect. Drivers were hard to come by, and it was largely luck of the draw if you were able to get your particular hardware to work with Tiger. Leopard was an evolutionary step forward, automating much of the process and having great compatibility with PC architecture. More modern devices are supported automatically, both through default Leopard software, and from the lovely folks who compiled these hacks in order to liberate OSX for the masses.

OS X Leopard was cracked for PC consumption the day of its release. This was mostly accomplished because Leopard was meant from the beginning to be used on computers with the x86 Intel architecture. The roadblock keeping OS X from naturally running on any pc is something called EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface. The EFI that Leopard uses is only tooled to work with Apple hardware, which means that it needs to be patched. The original method of patching was to use a thumbdrive attached to the computer and utilize the terminal to transfer files from the thumbdrive to the operating system files of Leopard. Compared to installing Tiger onto a PC, this method was ridiculously easy and was all that was required to have a successful boot of Leopard. But a better solution is now available, one where no thumbdrive is required and installation is streamlined and so easy that nearly anyone can do it.

This is a set of guidelines for installing OS X Leopard onto a PC. What you choose to do with this information is up to you, and I am in no way responsible for whatever happens to your machine.

The things you need for this project are as follows:

• High Speed Internet Connection (Useful if you want the disk image before the end of time)
• Blank DVD-R (or two, I’ll get to that later)
• Nero, or some other program that allows the burning of disk images to blank media
• A BitTorrent program such as BitComet or Transmission
• A computer with the following attributes:
  • Processor with either SSE2, SSE3, or SSE2/3 capabilities.
  • at least 512 MB RAM
  • at least 9 GB of free disk space
  • A DVD drive for installation

Now that all of the essentials are taken care of, we can get to the nitty gritty. In my personal opinion, this is one of the easiest installations of any operating system that I have ever had experience with. If all of your devices are supported, and your system has reasonable specs, you may expect to be cruising on your new Leopard in under and hour and a half. If you have just the bare minimum system requirements, it may take considerably longer.

Preparations:

In order to install Leopard, you first need to get the Leopard OSX86 installation disk. Now, the legality of this is somewhat questionable. The general consensus is that there are three ways to go about this, and I will order them in the most painful to least painful:

• Become an Apple developer. After several years or decades of convincing Apple Corp. that it would be a great idea to open up their kick ass operating system to the public for use on PC’s, you can probably install the now defunct and outdated leopard onto your PC free of legal worries.
• Buy a Leopard License, and then go and download Leopard from one of a plethora of Torrent websites. So that way at least your giving your money for a Leopard license and choosing to use it on a computer. Even though the license agreement specifically states that you cannot use OS X on anything but apple hardware. Oh well, it happens.
• Who cares, just download it. This is the most common method, and also the least legal.

Now, for the two practical options you need to download the Leopard distribution. The latest one out on the internet is from a development team named iDeneb. They have the latest Leopard release – 10.5.5, so go to a popular torrent site (I cannot link or suggest one for legal reasons) and if you happen to type in something similar to “iDeneb 10.5.5″ you might happen to find what you need. Unless you have a crazy good connection, expect to wait upwards of 2-3 days for the whole thing to download. It is a large file and will take a considerable time to acquire.

Then you need to burn the .iso file to the blank DVD. I prefer using Nero to do the burning, but you may have another program that does a similar job.

If you’ve never booted from a CD or DVD on your system, then follow the outlined steps. If you already know how then just skip the next paragraph.

Insert the dvd into your dvd drive and shutdown the computer. Then whenever the computer boots up, pay attention to if it says anything about boot sequence or BIOS setup in the first few seconds of booting. For most Dell systems that I’ve come across the Boot Sequence option can be reached by hitting F12 at startup. For HP it is usually F2. Other BIOS’s might be Del or any of the F keys. Then select your CD/DVD drive, and the computer will boot from it after hitting enter.

Here is what a Dell Dimension 3000 BIOS boot selection screen looks like:
(The CD/DVD drive is highlighted)

And now the possible difficulties begin. If you wait a while and let the DVD boot up, it will eventually say something like “Press any key to begin or F8 for options . . .” (I know it isn’t exactly that, but it is similar), if you press any key the next screen pops up:

Now, if your CD/DVD drive is still spinning at this point and the light is working, than chances are you are perfectly fine, nothing to worry about. But unfortunately with this particular distribution of OSX86, there are some issues with older hardware. You will need to go through a lengthy process in order to get back on the right track to install Leopard. From what I’ve seen the problem mostly involves NVidia chipsets, but it could be other hardware that causes its malfunction as well. Here is the website that has the patch, you may be able to find instructions as to how it is used as well. (It involves messing with the .iso file that you downloaded earlier, and you will need some basic knowledge of the Windows command line or Linux Terminal)

The Patch website:
http://ideneb.ihackintosh.net/index.php/lang-en/homepage/58-ideneb-v13-1055-nforce-patch.html

Remember when i said in the materials needed section that you may need 2 blank DVD-R’s? It’s because if you have this problem you will need to burn the patched .iso to a new disk in order to use it.

Here is a screen that might tip you off that you have a problem:

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The link shown above is part of the iDeneb website. If you have further problems with this particular distro, consult that website and the forums at InsanelyMac.

(Also, when first booting the DVD at the part where it prompts with “press any key . . .” press F8 and then -v in order to boot in diagnostic mode. This may be useful for troubleshooting)

This is the screen (in diagnostic mode) where the failure usually occurs:

Back to the ideal installation case, these failures are depressing!

A gray screen will load with a cursor or colorful pinwheel in the upper left corner. Then a Blue iDeneb screen will appear:

Then the language selection screen will appear (English for this tutorial):

Loading Screen:

Welcome Screen:

Now it gets more complicated. You need to format the hard drive at this point in the installation. To do this, go to the Utilities button on the upper OS X bar as pictured below. Then go to Disk Utilities.

The disk utility will come up. Click on your hard drive (Not any partitions you may have, see below – its in the right hand column) and then click the erase tab:

Click on the Volume Format drop down menu. I always use Mac OS Extended Journaled. You may be able to use another type, but I know for a fact that that does indeed work. Then name the partition whatever you would like, I’m partial to something plain like Leopard.

Once that is accomplished (It may take some time depending on your hard drive size and system configuration) click the red x button to exit the Disk Utility and return to the installation Welcome screen.

NOTE: Make sure there is a partition on the left hand side that says “Leopard” (Or whatever you named it). If there is not then go to the Partition tab, select 1 partition, and partition the hard drive properly.

iDeneb’s changelog will appear, click Agree:

Then the following screen will appear telling you where you can install Leopard. It should show the partition and hard drive you just formated. If it does not then something went wrong in the formating process, but don’t worry, you can still go to the Disk Utility and try it again. (Please note that in this photo an external hard drive icon is used, unless you are installing on an external drive, a hard drive icon should appear)

Click continue and the Install Summary page comes up:

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!

You MUST Click Customize!! If you do not, your install probably will not work. The Customize screen will show you several options that you will need to select or de-select based on your own hardware configuration. If your first install does not work correctly, chances are you need to choose different options in the Customize screen:

Click Done and return to the Installation Summary Page:

The installer will now check the disk. If you are feeling particularly daring you can skip this process. However, I recommend going through the process at least once. There may have been an error in burning the disk, or the .iso file itself may have been slightly corrupted. As long as the disk hasn’t been scratched, you really only need to check the disk once if you need to install Leopard again.

WHOO HOO! Leopard is installing!

Once this is complete a green circle with a checkmark comes up saying that the Installation was successful. You will need to restart the computer (I think it may do it automatically if you are not around) and after it goes through the Darwin Bootloader, another Apple loading screen appears:

Now all you need to do is set up the Leopard Basics. I have noticed that the setup process is much less painful with the iDeneb distribution of Leopard 10.5.5. The other versions of OSX86 I have encountered have several more steps, which in my opinion can lead to extra problems.

Select your keyboard:

Do you already own a mac screen:

How do you connect to the internet screen:
(I said this computer will not connect to the internet)

Enter registration information (you may or may not want to put fake information here):

A few more questions:

Account Creation screen:

If you chose to not connect to the internet, this screen about not forgetting to register might appear:

The iDeneb loading screen:

You now have Leopard 10.5.5 loaded onto your personal computer. Congratulations!

Guess what. Your done – that is if all of your hardware is su
pported. If it is not, I suggest checking out these sources:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If you have any questions or comments, please post a comment at the bottom of this post. I have documented what experience I have had with OSX86 Leopard, I leave this open to you now. Please help one another.

IMPORTANT!

There are a few things that you should be aware of if you are doing this for the first time. The first one is that you should NEVER use the Apple updater to update your installation of Leopard. For instance, if the Apple updater pops up and says that you can update from 10.5.5 to 10.5.6 DO NOT UPGRADE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!! It will brick your machine and you will need to re-install Leopard again.

The second thing that may be of use is a program called SIW, or System Information for Windows. This is useful if you do not know if your Intel processor is SSE2 or SSE3. Of course you need to have an installation of Windows to run the software, but many people do so I am providing the link:

http://www.gtopala.com/

Enjoy!

UPDATE:
For everyone having worried about their hardware setup, there is a website that lists hardware components and whole computer systems:

For computer rigs:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL

For individual components:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.5.2

Granted the above lists are for 10.5.2 and now 10.5.5, but for the most part the same rules should apply with patches and compatibility.

For those of you receiving an apple loading screen with a crossed circle in it, this usually means that a patch needs to be applied to the .iso file in order for it to work. Applying the patch is somewhat complicated and I have decided to make a post about applying the patch. It can be found here:

http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-patch-ideneb-iso-file-in-windows.html

Normally I don’t delve into current events, or for that matter any event. I like to give information on technical problems and show people how to do projects on my blog. But while I was traveling through a Meijer store a week ago I found something so ironic it needed to be shared on the internet. (For those of you who are not familiar with Meijers, it is a shopping center like Wal-Mart only based in the mid-western United States.) While looking to see if there were any PC games on clearance I passed by an inactive Xbox 360 display. But it wasn’t turned off, the Xbox on display was just suffering a disturbingly common problem called the Red Ring of Death.

I think it is funny how a store expects you to buy a product that has obvious flaws. True, microsoft is addressing those problems, but that still didn’t stifle the chuckle I got walking by this.

Oh yea, I’ve heard from reliable sources that Meijers has let this go on since at least December. Great business practice.

And if you think that was photoshoped, here is the video:

Now why would you need to backup your DVD? Maybe your brother or sister is a complete jerk and likes to scratch your DVD’s and you want a backup just in case. Maybe you just like to backup stuff so much you feel the need to backup the movie. Or maybe you just like to copy everything in sight, whether or not you actually own it. I do not advise the last option, and this post/poster does not encourage the copying of copy-protected DVD’s. There, thats my legal notice for the day.

The list of programs you need is quite impressive, but they are necessary if you want the ability to copy any DVD out on the market. You may be able to copy using only 2 of the programs, but you may end up wasting about a half hour when towards the end of copying Bee Movie you get the always dreaded “Cyclic redundancy Check” error. I hate that error, and so should you. The programs are as follows:

1. AnyDVD by Slysoft
2. Ripit4Me
3. DVD Decrypter
4. DVD Shrink
5. Nero

Number 1 and 5 are proprietary, meaning you have to pay money to use them. However, I know you can use AnyDVD for a 30 day free trial, and can do the same for Nero. But you may not care if you are one of those people who copies DVD’s they don’t own, because you’re probably downloading those programs for a torrent site. Movie pirate and software pirate, you people put the fear into ninjas.

So let me explain what some of this stuff does. They are ordered by what time you need to use them, AnyDVD being the first.

AnyDVD – http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html
Here is an excerpt from the makers webpage:

“AnyDVD works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it’s inserted into the drive, allowing you then to backup the movie using a DVD backup tool such as CloneDVD and CloneDVD mobile. You can also remove the RPC region code, thereby making the movie region free and viewable on any DVD player and with any DVD player software.”

This is one of the handiest pieces of software available. I absolutely love it. It runs in the background and you never even have to mess with it, beautiful.

RipIt4Me – http://www.videohelp.com/tools/RipIt4Me
From the webpage above:

“RipIt4Me is a freeware utility that helps you backup your copy protected DVDs. Recently released DVDs are now very often equipped with stronger copy protections – such as ARccOS and RipGuard DVD. Programs like DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter cannot handle these types of discs. RipIt4Me is fully automated and the wizard will guide you through all the necessary steps involved. If you prefer, there is also a true “1-Click” mode that will perform all the involved steps automatically for you. Development stopped April 1 2007. “

All I have to say is that 1-Click mode is amazing, and I love this program. Using the 1-Click mode, RipIt4Me automatically contacts DVD Decrypter for you, and then DVD Decrypter contacts DVD Shrink, which then contacts Nero to burn the DVD! Synergy is beautiful.

DVD Decrypter – http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DVD_Decrypter/1011845169/1
From above site:

“DVD Decrypter is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC’s hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX. Advanced functionality can be found in the DVD Decrypter context menus.”

Works like a charm

DVD Shrink – http://www.dvdshrink.org/
From above site:

“DVDShrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc.

DVDShrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. You can also download a demo version of Nero here. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVDShrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice.

DVDShrink is free software. You should never pay for DVDShrink.”

Great program, if you feel lucky you may be able to copy DVD’s using only this program and Nero, but I do not recommend it.

Nero 8 – http://www.nero.com/eng/index.html
From above site:

“Nero StartSmart, the project launcher for Nero 8, lets you directly access features and perform one-click functions. The intuitive interface makes creating and managing digital projects easy and enjoyable. Optimized for use with Windows Vista®, Nero StartSmart even has an integrated newsfeed system.”

Not only does nero burn DVD’s, but it can edit video, burn data CD’s/DVD’s, test your drive, and contains many other useful features. Its a multipurpose program with more features than I can list here.

I said earlier that any DVD out on the market can be cracked using this technique. That is true, but with one stipulation – the DVD you are trying to copy cannot be scratched beyond a certain point, otherwise the programs listed here cannot do their job properly. It’s an example of GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out.

There you have it, how to copy any DVD. Enjoy!

If you have not installed 10.5.1 Leopard, my tutorial can be found here:

http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/03/osx-leopard-1051-on-pc.html

Let me first explain that this update is not perfect. By that I mean that it may, in fact, do exactly what the Apple update will do to your system – brick it. It all depends on your system configuration.

For example, I encountered a serious problem during my experience of upgrading. The install went perfectly fine, but when it rebooted and the white apple loading screen came up for a few seconds, the monitor turned black and said it lost signal. I waited for about 2 min because the computer seemed to be still loading and eventually the Leopard desktop came up like nothing had happened. I later traced the problem to a graphics card issue. This is just one example of what may happen if your upgrade goes wrong.

With that in mind,

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PROBLEMS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE WHEN YOU INSTALL THIS UPDATE.

Materials Needed:

• Blank CD, DVD or thumbdrive*
• A Bittorent client
• High Speed Internet
• A computer with 10.5.1 Leopard OSX already installed
• CD

*These could be optional if you download the update files using Leopard and just run the installation from there.
Step 1.)

BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.

I cannot stress enough the importance of backing data up. If the upgrade goes badly and you need to re-install Leopard 10.5.1, then at least you have all your data.

Step 2.)
Go to the torrent hosting website of your choice and theoretically, if you input something like “Kalyway 10.5.2 update” you should find what you are looking for. It might come in the form of a zipped file containing the package file which automatically installs the needed updates. Download this and either burn it to a CD or DVD, or copy it to a thumbdrive. If you are using your Leopard machine to download the torrent you can just run the installer from there without the need for a storage device.

Step 3.)

Open up the storage medium you used to save the files, or just click the folder you downloaded, and double click on “KalywayUpdCombo10.5.2.pkg” to open up the automatic installer.

As seen above, the installer will guide you through the steps. However, I’m a fan of pictures, so here is what to expect:

The installer asks you for your admin password for security reasons.

The actual installation, cross your fingers!

Yay, you now have 10.5.2!

Like the installer says, you need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. After the restart is the telling time on whether or not your upgrade was successful. If you get a blank monitor after the white apple loading screen, just be patient for up to five minutes to see if Leopard will show up. Sometimes there are graphics issues that make for a slow boot.

If you have any problems, post them and see if other viewers can assist you. If you need a place to search for solutions, i suggest the two following websites:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

and

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If your installation went completely sour and you need to re-install Leopard, please check out my guide on how to install OSX86 Leopard 10.5.1:

http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/03/osx-leopard-1051-on-pc.html