My OSx86 experiences

Background, results and some thoughts

I built a PC last summer (2008) from cheap parts but parts which I had figured out to be relatively reliable. The main cause for this was that my one year old iMac 20" had quite slow GPU for some of the games I wanted to play and it had crashing problems probably due to overheating. I ran Windows XP and Linux on the new PC as I always had - then I came across to the OSx86 project and thought of giving it a try. It was supprising as I found out that it actually worked on the PC using pre-hacked iDeneb 1.3. However the ethernet and audio chips integrated to Asus M2N68-CM were not supported so I used a Realtek 8139 ethernet card and A-link USB Sound Card. The graphics card (Geforce 9600GT 512MB) had just gotten support thanks for Apple moving to 9600M chips which are based on the same design. The support was buggy though - some 3D apps especially during full screen mode switch hanged.

Now with iDeneb 1.4 I found out the 3D wasn't bugged anymore and the integrated ethernet was supported by default. I managed to get the Azalia audio chip to work with recently updated HDAVoodoo driver so now I can use fully integrated hardware and everything works. This is why I wrote the page, because it seemed like this is actually useful. It's actually more stable than my original iMac was. I can run 3D apps continuously and leave the computer on overnights and it hasn't crashed. I think it's supprising taking in account that the OS was never supported and tested on the hardware which is also quite different of what Apple uses. It's also nice to find out that you don't need specific Intel hardware anymore - a random AMD setup can work 100% just as well. The OS is very easy to install - it's as fast and alike as on a real Mac except you have to use checkboxes to choose a few hacks and afterwards install the audio driver and enable Quartz (easy few clicks with OSx86Tools.app). You can't use Apple Software Update for other than application updates (iTunes, QuickTime, iPhoto and such are OK) - instead you use iDeneb updates which are released afterwards.

About noise levels - this PC requires only the PSU and CPU fans. The PSU is a quiet model and the CPU fan+heat sink are a quiet Zalman model. Geforce 9600GT is a passive model. Hard disk is intentionally a 2.5" disk because they make less noise and heat while giving good throughput in the larger sizes (500GB.) These make the PC about as quiet in practice as the iMac was. It's actually more quiet than the Mac book in full load.

I think it's fun to have another OS choice for PC's among the others even though it's not suitable for important and official uses and requires some effort and skill to install, likely more than Windows and Ubuntu need these days. I don't take part in the legal issues however I own a legal original DVD of Leopard and I believe projects and hacks like these can encourage people to spend money on Apple products at later time. I still multi boot XP and Linux when needed but it's nice to have more choices on the same box.

Hardware used

Hacks and settings

Hacks that came with iDeneb 1.4 used: Voodoo kernel (SSE2/3), FireWire remove, NVInject, Seatbelt fix, nforcedeth

Other hacks/drivers used: HDAVoodoo for audio, SteerMouse for more control over mouse behaviour

It was important to set some BIOS settings in the following way:

• SATA type: AHCI (AHCI is the most advanced setting and PCI IDE mode wasn't properly supported by OS X)
• USB Legacy support: Disabled (For some reason OS X can't get USB 2.0 to work if enabled) (OS X must be the default boot entry with a time out as the boot menu would require this enabled to receive key presses)

Some photos