Bakc to the basics...

[arnaud.mar]

Folks,
I am looking for an explanation on "what is a hackintosh" on a technical point of view.

I made my own Hack several years ago by following step by step the "iBoot + MultiBeast" procedure (like a recipe) but I still don't have a clear understanding of what is a Hackintosh and what are the differences from a normal Mac.

Is there an article somewhere that explains it step by step (what is done with the Bios, why do additional kexts and needed, what are bootloader, DSDT, chimera, etc...)

Thanks for your help,
Arnaud

 

[Going Bald]

Folks,
I am looking for an explanation on "what is a hackintosh" on a technical point of view.

I made my own Hack several years ago by following step by step the "iBoot + MultiBeast" procedure (like a recipe) but I still don't have a clear understanding of what is a Hackintosh and what are the differences from a normal Mac.

Is there an article somewhere that explains it step by step (what is done with the Bios, why do additional kexts and needed, what are bootloader, DSDT, chimera, etc...)

Thanks for your help,
Arnaud

The technical difference between a Mac and a PC resides in the hardware. A Mac Logic Board (mother board or main board in the PC world) has a System Management Controller chip on the board that PC's do not. In order for a PC to run OS X you must have a kext or driver to inject the system management control functions into the operating software on boot up because a PC board does not have the SMC chip. This is the function of FakeSMC.kext.
Apple uses a slightly different audio chip on their Logic board than PCs, so you need a driver for the audio chip on a PC.
Apple uses a different networking chip than PCs, so you need a driver for the NIC on a PC board.

Other than that, there is really no technical difference between a PC board and a Mac board that is anything major. Small differences in layout and arrangement due to the way Apple puts everything together, but PC OEMs have differences even between their different models.

 

[trs96]

Folks,
I am looking for an explanation on "what is a hackintosh" on a technical point of view.

I made my own Hack several years ago by following step by step the "iBoot + MultiBeast" procedure (like a recipe) but I still don't have a clear understanding of what is a Hackintosh and what are the differences from a normal Mac.

Is there an article somewhere that explains it step by step (what is done with the Bios, why do additional kexts and needed, what are bootloader, DSDT, chimera, etc...)

Thanks for your help,
Arnaud

Have you looked at the CustoMac Glossary yet ? Check it out if you haven't.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/customac-glossary-explanations-of-common-terms.177012/

 

[arnaud.mar]

Going Bald, trs96 : thank you very much for your answers.

So, this is what my hackintosh does when it starts (correct me if I am wrong) :

1- BIOS run the POST (Power-On Self Test) and other necessary checks.
2- BIOS jumps to MBR (Master Boot Record).
3- Primary Bootloader (is it Chimera?) runs from MBR (this emulates the SMC chip via FakeSMC.kext)
4- Secondary Bootloaders simply loads the Mac Operating System. (some drivers are added to make the audio and internet working)

Thanks again,
Arnaud

 

[Going Bald]

Going Bald, trs96 : thank you very much for your answers.

So, this is what my hackintosh does when it starts (correct me if I am wrong) :

1- BIOS run the POST (Power-On Self Test) and other necessary checks.
2- BIOS jumps to MBR (Master Boot Record).
3- Primary Bootloader (is it Chimera?) runs from MBR (this emulates the SMC chip via FakeSMC.kext)
4- Secondary Bootloaders simply loads the Mac Operating System. (some drivers are added to make the audio and internet working)

Thanks again,
Arnaud

In a very basic, simplistic way, yes, that is correct.
BIOS POST runs, hands off the Boot0 in the MBR, Boot0 hands off to Bootaf or BootSS in the PBR, BootSS hands off to boot in the OS X root to boot OS X. OS X drivers and kernel load. You get to desktop with, hopefully, everything working.

 

[arnaud.mar]

Going Bald : thanks a lot for your help.

I will need to do some "google search" to fully understand but things are getting more and more clear.

Don't you have an article or a reference of a webpage where all this is explained in a "step by step" manner? (this might be on the forum but I could not find it)

Thanks again,
Arnaud

 

[Going Bald]

Going Bald : thanks a lot for your help.

I will need to do some "google search" to fully understand but things are getting more and more clear.

Don't you have an article or a reference of a webpage where all this is explained in a "step by step" manner? (this might be on the forum but I could not find it)

Thanks again,
Arnaud

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of how Chameleon based boot loaders work post in the general discussion forum for Chameleon at http://forum.voodooprojects.org/