Information AboutOsx86 |
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OSx86, a Portmanteau of '''OS X''' and '''x86''', is a collaborative Hacking project to run Apple 's Mac OS X Operating System on non-Apple personal computers with X86 Architecture processors. The effort started soon after the June 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference announcement that Apple would be Transitioning their personal computers from PowerPC to Intel microprocessors. Computers that run this type of Mac OS X are sometimes nicknamed "Hackintoshes". THE DEVELOPER TRANSITION KIT Initial efforts revolved around leaked copies of the Development DVD that was released by Apple as part of the Developer Transition Kit that Apple made available to developers for $999. The first patches centered around circumventing the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) that was included on the motherboard of the Developer Transition Kits. The TPM was required by the Rosetta technology that allowed software compiled for the PowerPC architecture to run on Intel-based architecture. Removing this requirement allowed Mac OS X to be installed on non-Apple computers. Rosetta also required microprocessors that included SSE3 instructions. Patches were released to the community that emulated these instructions with SSE2 equivalents and allowed the installation on machines without SSE3 support (with a performance penalty). In October 2005 Apple released a 10.4.3 update to developers that required NX Bit microprocessor support.1 Patches were released to circumvent this. 2 OS X 10.4.4 RELEASED ON INTEL MACS On January 10 2006 , Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.4 with the first Intel-based Macintoshes. These machines used Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) platform firmware instead of legacy BIOS found in most x86 platforms. On February 14 , 2006 an initial "crack" of OS X 10.4.4 was released on the Internet by someone using the name ''Maxxuss''. 3 Within hours, however, Apple released the 10.4.5 update4, which was patched again by Maxxuss in less than two weeks. 5 On April 3 2006 Apple released their 10.4.6 update6 and again patches were released within two weeks that allowed users to install most of this update on non-Apple computers, although this did not include the updated kernel in 10.4.6. These patches were released by a person using the name ''SemjaZa'' and compiled by a person using the name ''JaS''. In June, once again JaS released the 10.4.7 Mac OS X update for non-Apple computers, again, using the 10.4.4 kernel. Up to the release of the 10.4.8 update, all OSx86 patches used the 10.4.4 kernel with the rest of the operating system at version 10.4.8. However, the newer frameworks relied on the newer kernels and this led to users of 10.4.8 encountering many problems. Apple also started making more use of SSE3 instructions on their hardware making it even more difficult for users on SSE2 platforms to get a full system running. OS X 10.4.8 XNU KERNEL PATCHED Two programmers, calling themselves ''Mifki''/''Vitaliy'' and ''Semthex'', released new kernels by taking with open source XNU tree and applying necessary patches to run the kernel on non-apple hardware. Mifki's goal was to release the kernel with as few patches as possible, that will be able to run on close-to-Apple hardware. Semthex's goal was making his kernel more compatible with legacy hardware, missing some of the crucial features. Both kernels allowed most of the updated Kexts /frameworks to work, making properly configured white-box PCs operate more like genuine Apple computers. While Mifki has only updated his kernel once, Semthex updates it regularly and has added AMD , VMWare and SSE2-support in his newest version. Semthex released his hacked kernel source code on his webpage. On December 24 he also released the latest patches for the SSE3 kernel as a diff file for his original source tree as a Christmas present to the community. Special attention should be given to the SSE2 emulation which Semthex developed together with Rufus. This emulation is the first really complete emulation of all SSE3 instructions in the OSx86 history. The old SSE2 emulation was incomplete - only emulating 3 of the available SSE3 instructions - and slow compared to the new Emulator . This effort enabled even SSE2 OSx86 users to run ITunes 7 or high-end 3D applications on their computers. In the early days of 10.4.8, an Intel-SSE3 only install DVD was released by JaS, which includes Vitaliy's and Semthex's kernel. A few weeks later, someone calling herself ''tubgirl'' released an AMD-SSE3 install DVD. With Semthex's successful completion of the SSE2 Kernel, JaS released a SSE2-SSE3 universal DVD and announced his retirement from the scene after seven successful DVD releases. In March 2007 the OSX86 community made some significant progress with the development of a Live DVD . The Live DVD allows booting to a working system with MacOSX 10.4.8. Several movies appeared on the web demonstrating this.7 A the end of March 2007, the InsanelyMac websites were sold to a UK based company called Fubra Limited .8 Some people objected to the "commercialization" of the website, including kernel hacker Semthex and other developers, which was followed by a major split of the community.9 OSX 10.4.9 UPHUCK INSTALL DVD In early May 2007, a new install DVD released by OSx86 helper ''uphuck'' allowed users of this software to deploy on their systems a version of OS X that included various extra software applications, drivers, and kernel fixes.10 There is even an official thread dedicated to this build on the OSx86 Project Forum as noted. There are two major releases: version 1.2 and version 1.3 as of June 2007, which have both gained popularity over previous OSx86 hackers' attempts to create their own OSx86 distributions. According to recent rumors on the OSx86 Project forum, it is still unknown as to whether ''uphuck'' will release 10.4.10 kernel package with the upcoming 1.4 release. As of 21st August 2007 1.4i r3 has been released which caters only for Intel CPU's and is a fraction of the size of a normal OSx86 DVD release, however it still remains on a base version of OS X 10.4.9. Update patches have been released as Post-Installation files. OSX 10.5 The Leopard 10.5 betas (9A466 and 9A499) have already been successfully installed onto PCs. There currently is no installation DVD out, like you would find with 10.4.8, however do-it-yourself patches are available on torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay . Apparently these patches were created by a hacker by the name "The Mad Hatter," but the kernels were made by Lorem (9a466) and SynthetiX (9a499). At the end of August, a new kernel for build 9a527 began circulating on the IRC networks that also was made by SynthetiX. There are even guides already on the internet for how to use these patches. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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