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1. Chris said, on May 14, 2011 at 11:16 pm

   Hello again,

   Thanks for the pointer to the wiki – I think I saw what you were talking about (working 10.6.7 with AMD) but unfortunately most of what I see there deals with a native install, which isn’t an option right now.

   That’s good to hear that I might be able to restore back to 10.6.3…that’s probably what I will do, and then see if I can get USB working there first.

   I wish I was able to comment / contact nawcom for some guidance with the modcd, but I’m sure I’m not the only one!

   You really put a lot of work into helping me – glad to hear your 10.6.7 update went well. I’ll be sure to report back if/when I get things working.

   Cheers,
   Chris

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   • commorancy said, on May 15, 2011 at 12:19 am

     Chris,

     Even if it’s for creating a hackintosh native, the kernel issues may still apply because of the AMD processor. So, you may be able to get a working Virtualbox by at least attempting to use the kernel they suggest.

     Before you muck about with that, I’d suggest you make a copy of your virtual machine. Then, you can mess around with the copy without fear of losing your data. This gives you the ability to try rolling back to an earlier version or playing around with kernel settings and seeing if you can get 10.6.7 working. Having multiple copies lets you work through the problem.

     Also, I’d recommend that you snapshot your machine before you start doing something that could keep it from booting at all. So, you can revert back should anything happen.

     I’m attempting a reinstall over the top of my 10.6.7 test machine to see what happens. As soon as it’s done, I’ll update here and let you know. Hopefully, it will keep all my settings and just revert to 10.6.3.

     Since I don’t have the same hardware as you have, it’s hard for me to run through the several different scenarios that I might try to get 10.6.7 working. Although, I might suggest you try using Tonymac’s iBoot + Multibeast as an alternative during a reinstall. You might even just try creating a test machine with iBoot to see if it will work, then try to upgrade that test to 10.6.7. That will at least tell you if it works any better.

     Note, if you do manage to roll back to 10.6.3, you can at least get to 10.6.5 from the link I gave. That site has a 10.6.5 dmg that lets you update to that version. You might even be able to find a dmg for 10.6.6, but I haven’t specifically looked for one.

     Good luck.

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   • commorancy said, on May 15, 2011 at 1:01 am

     I just finished the repair install from the 10.6.3 media and it appears to have kept all my settings and files intact. In fact, the ‘App Store’ icon that had been added as a result of 10.6.7 had a placeholder in the dock, but the app wasn’t there. So, it must have cleaned it off during the repair install. So, it looks like you can downgrade to 10.6.3 and work your way back up again to 10.6.7. Before starting this, I’d suggest making a copy of your virtual machine or take a snapshot. I might even do both if you have enough disk space.

     Hope this helps.

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     • Chris said, on May 15, 2011 at 2:11 am

       Glad to hear it worked! Definitely above and beyond providing/testing all of this out — many, many thanks!

       I will do the repair install to 10.6.3, and then check specifically to see what I need for Xcode 3.2.6 (and 4). If I only need 10.6.5, then I’ll try that .dmg and stick with it.

       I’ll probably try with the modcd again only because he does have quite a bit of AMD specific help built in — I’ll also take care to install all the kexts after the update but prior to the reboot. I’ll probably try adding what I can one-by-one while still under 10.6.3 to see if any of those affect my ability to boot straight w/o the modcd.

       I’ll also try a few of the empire bootoaders, there’s an empire4amd that another site suggests.

       And I’ll snapshot everything – luckily most of my important data is still accessible in a leopard (non-sl) VMware install with the old iPhone 3.1.3 SDK.

       Last few questions — will a repair install be possible with an .iso? I bought the 10.6.3 disc and a friend imaged it for me because the DVD drive was having trouble reading it…and I can’t seem to get past 17% burning my .iso onto a DVD-DL…this fact and lack of an 8GB flash drive are the main things holding me back from trying a native install, and therefore one of the reasons VBox and your guide has been so helpful.

       If it’s not possible with an .iso, though, I’ll have to start from scratch.

       Thanks!
       Chris

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       • commorancy said, on May 15, 2011 at 2:25 am

         Hi Chris,
         I’m doing all of my tests with ISO images. I am not using physical media at all. So, I’m using the latest Nawcom ModCD ISO and SL ISO. It’s much faster when installing from ISO images. One thing, though, you should probably try to test install from your SL ISO to make sure it’s working properly. You can abort the install once it begins, you just need to make sure the media works. Or, you can wait through the full install to make sure it works fully. Note that if you want to use ISO images, both the EFI CD and SL must be ISOs.

         As far as the kexts, I won’t be able to help you that much there other than as the article suggests, drop them in place and rebuild the kext database cache. Hopefully they will work properly.

         Thanks and good luck.

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         • Chris said, on May 16, 2011 at 7:06 pm

           Success!

           At least, with 10.6.3. I was able to re-install over my existing 10.6.7, as you did, and now am able to boot straight in without the modcd.

           I was also able to get USB working (!!), but think that my issues with this may have been mostly VBox related.

           For what it’s worth, using a Windows Vista host, and downloading the extension packs to enable USB 2.0 — making sure both checkboxes are checked (USB 2.0 and enable EHCI controller) — and then, here’s the important part.

           Had to set up a filter in VBox for the iPhone – I plugged it in and selected “use settings from devices plugged into host” – found the iPhone no problem.

           In 10.6.3, though, a little more work was required – had to update iTunes — AND — install an apple update called “iPhone SDK Compatibility”. Apparently if you have ios 4 or greater, 10.6.3 won’t recognize the phone!

           After all that, iTunes FINALLY sees the iPhone in virtualbox!!

           Now, the quest to see if I can downgrade Xcode and/or reupgrade to 10.6.x and get everything working.

           Won’t be able to do any of this for about a week plus – I’ll report back, though.

           Hope this helps others who face this same problem.

           Thanks!
           Chris

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           • commorancy said, on May 16, 2011 at 7:45 pm

             Good to hear you could at least get back to 10.6.3. Glad that your iPhone is now working as well. I haven’t tried this myself with USB, but it’s good to know that it works. Write and let us know how it goes with your updates.

             Thanks.

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2. Chris said, on May 14, 2011 at 12:33 am

   Hi there,

   Great guide! Have you tried this with updating to 10.6.7? The latest version of Xcode (that’s not Xcode 4 but with the iOS 4.3 SDK) needs 10.6…5? Anyway, I used a 10.6.3 retail disc to install with modcd, worked great — able to boot straight in without using modcd after that.

   I grabbed the legacy kernel for 10.6.7 (also from Nawcom) and followed the directions for the combo update (install update, DO NOT REBOOT and install pkg for legacy kernel). I have an AMD system (reason for the legacy kernel).

   Now, the only way I can boot is with the modcd. Chameleon/straight Hard drive boot no longer works.

   I’m also having USB issues, but I think that’s due to the IO378 rollback deal – I’ll tackle that hopefully soon.

   I don’t mind booting with the modcd, but I’m wondering if I make changes (kexts, etc) — will they load booting from the modcd? Is there any real disadvantage to booting from the modcd?

   Curious – would appreciate any input. Thanks again for the great guide!

   Chris

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   • commorancy said, on May 14, 2011 at 3:05 am

     I haven’t tried updating to 10.6.7 yet. I will try that and see how it works. It is possible that when Apple updated to 10.6.7 that the Chameleon boot loader no longer works. If this is the case, then yes, you will need to boot from a CD in the drive. This is the same problem as running MacOS X from VMWare player 3. Anyway, there is no harm in booting from a CD. If you want to make it simpler, just add two virtual CD drives to your system and leave one set up for the boot CD on a permanent basis.

     When the Chameleon boot loader team updates Chameleon to work with 10.6.7, you should be able to install that package and get your system booting as standalone again. I’ll update to 10.6.7 on my test system and see how it goes.

     One additional thing I’ll say (and I’ll update the article above with this information). If you want to install a new update to your system, I’d suggest you have Virtualbox take a snapshot just before you do it. This way, if it doesn’t work right, doesn’t boot or simply fails, you can restore from the snapshot and roll back to your previous working version. This is a helpful process when you want to test an update without having to commit to it. Note, though, that it’s a point-in-time snapshot. So, if you roll back, you roll back to the machine exactly as it was when you took the snapshot. This means any files created after the snapshot was taken (including user files, downloaded apps, music ripped, emails, etc) will be lost if you roll back to a snapshot. So, if you do make a snapshot, upgrade and intend to stay on the upgraded system, you should delete the snapshot so that it doesn’t consume lots of extra disk space and also so you aren’t tempted to roll back and then lose a bunch of work you’ve created.

     Thanks.

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     • Chris said, on May 14, 2011 at 9:44 am

       Thanks for the quick response, and I look forward to your future comments on 10.6.7.

       One thing to note, when Chameleon ceased to work, I didn’t get a kernel panic per se, but I didn’t get past the “initial” bootloader screen. It got down to “Not an intel product, startup fix not applied!!”.– typically, this is where I could press any key to continue and then I’d get the verbose screenful of normal nawcom or chameleon kext loading information.

       Again, booting from the modcd is okay, hopefully I can tackle the USB issue next. Luckily, I didn’t suffer from the vast number of keyboard and mouse problems that people seemed to have – I have a PS2 keyboard and USB mouse, but any USB device that I connect does not seem to work.

       This was one of the reasons I switched from VMware products – as I could never get my iPhone to be recognized in Snow Leopard. I’m facing the same problem here, and I did install the latest extension pack, and VBox does recognize the iPhone via the USB icon in the lower right, but so far, no luck getting it into Snow Leopard.

       Looks like some folks have rolled back the USB kext(s) to a prior version (10.6.4 I believe), and the suggestions are to do that via multibeast.

       Is that your preferred method? I think nawcom has a script on the modcd called fixkext though I’m not familiar with that.

       I’m comfortable editing plists if necessary though I haven’t made any com.apple.boot changes thus far, and I’m also a little skeptical that any changes I make to the USB or boot.plist will actually take — when booting in verbose mode with modcd, I do see “not installing v6.6.6, v9.9.9 already installed” in reference to IOUSB…

       Apologies for the lengthy comment – thanks again for all of your work, no doubt your guide and comments have helped quite a few people along the way!

       Best regards,
       Chris

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       • commorancy said, on May 14, 2011 at 5:35 pm

         It may be hard to fully test what you’re seeing. You said you’re using an AMD system. My system is Intel, so I likely won’t receive the ‘Not Intel’ error you were seeing. Although, that error message may not actually be the issue. The booting issue may be related to the .kexts and likely is. If Apple has updated the kernel, then the old kexts probably won’t work which would explain the lack of USB and keyboard support as these all require kexts that are probably failing.

         I’m in the process of working through a test of updating to 10.6.7, so I’ll see just how it breaks shortly and if there are any quick fixes.

         Thanks.

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         • Chris said, on May 14, 2011 at 6:45 pm

           As I said before, bravo on the ultra-quick response here!

           I tried some more things today too — but no luck with either the screen resolution or USB support.

           I was able to edit the “setextradata” string and the boot.plist – and I figured I’d use this as a test for seeing if I could make actual changes to my VBox/OSX still utilizing the modcd, and it doesn’t appear that I can, or certainly I’m doing something wrong.

           Booting with modcd, I’m still locked into 1024×768, which, really in the long run is fine, but I think it illuminates my larger problem — reliance on the modcd.

           I tried all of the things I referenced in my last post – multibeast for the USB rollback – no go. The kext gets rejected during the modcd boot because it says there is a more current version already installed.

           Now, perhaps that’s my fault for going out of order and not installing that prior to my update to 10.6.7, but there must be some way to rectify that without doing a full reinstall? Or maybe not…

           I also have some question about which kernel is being used – during modcd boot and my now broken Chameleon / straight boot. As I mentioned (and I know AMD isn’t your thing) I did grab the Darwin 10.7.0 legacy kernel for use with OSX 10.6.7, but the first thing I see in the modcd boot is “Using kernel Darwin 10.4.0”

           I’m guessing that’s what is bundled in the modcd – and, again, if it works, no problem, but here, wondering if there’s a way to tell modcd to accept/use the newer kernel -and- my rolled back USB kext.

           One thing of note, I DID see the screen resolution change to what I selected (1440×900) when I tried Chameleon again, but I get that same (Starting Darwin x86…) and then when I click the mouse, screen goes black (black screen was in the correct res., though!)

           Thanks so much,
           Chris

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         • commorancy said, on May 14, 2011 at 7:34 pm

           Hi Chris,

           I updated to 10.6.7 without any issues on my Core i7. So, I’m beginning to think the issue may be related to your AMD processor or system hardware. Since you booted up from a Legacy CD initially, it may be that Chameleon has limited support for your processor type.

           I have found http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.6.7 <- this page. You might want to check it out. You may be able to reinstall 10.6.3 in place over what you have and not lose your data on the drive. I don't think MacOS X requires a format during installation. And, it should be able to do a repair install. This will at least get you back to 10.6.3.

           Of course, that doesn't help you get back to 10.6.7, but it does help you get back to a working system. The page above does show someone with an AMD system that has steps to get up to 10.6.7 that might help you get a working 10.6.7 on your AMD processor. Let me know if that helps you out. Note: Search for ‘AMD CPU’ on the osx86project page from the link just above.

           Thanks.

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3. Guys said, on May 7, 2011 at 12:07 am

   Hey,
   First of all – Thank you for your well-explained and straightforward tutorial !
   I’m trying to install OS X on top of my Win7 64 bit OS via VB.
   I’ve followed every step in the tutorial and used the Nawcom iso file.
   I swapped the iso to the bootcamp one and it started the installation. I’ve reached the OS X splash screen in which I was asked to choose the language. After I chose English it said “Preparing Installation” and right after that it showed a message “Mac OS X can’t be installed on this computer”.
   I have a Snow Leopard 10.6.3 retail disk and I’ve created an iso bootcamp file via imgBurn.
   My computer’s info :
   HP Envy Intel i7 Q740 1.73Ghz
   64-bit Win7

   Thanks !!

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   • commorancy said, on May 7, 2011 at 3:41 am

     Hi,

     It sounds like your system is more than capable of handling MacOS X and Virtualbox. So, this sounds like there might be a setting missing somewhere. I’m not sure exactly where, but I would suggest that you check the VT-x setting in your BIOS. If this isn’t turned on, 64 bit virtualization won’t work properly. There might also be setting missing the MacOS X virtualbox setup. So, I’d also suggest looking through these settings again. Also, if VT-x wasn’t enabled in your BIOS, you must enable it. Once enabled, you will also need to change the settings in your MacOS X Virtualbox settings and enable it there too. Note that not all 64 bit systems come shipped with VT-x or AMD-v enabled. So, you may have to enable this in the BIOS.

     The next suggestion is to check how you have formatted the drive in MacOS X Disk Utility. It needs to be partitioned as GUID and then format your volume as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) under that partition type.

     The final suggestion is verify that the Snow Leopard disk is an actual retail disk. If the disk is, in fact, an OEM disk that was bundled with a specific Mac, these disks are tied to that specific hardware and will not install on any hardware other than that specific Apple hardware. Only true retail disks purchased at an Apple Store in a retail box are not locked to specific hardwares.

     Good Luck.

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     • Guys said, on May 7, 2011 at 8:15 am

       Hey commorancy !
       Thanks for your prompt reply !

       I think I know what’s the problem – I used my McMini install DVD…. I guess it’s not a retail disk and it’s suited only for McMini hardware … ?
       (All other settings are double checked – including virtualization in the BIOS)

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       • commorancy said, on May 7, 2011 at 8:00 pm

         Hi,

         Using a bundled disk will present that installation error. So, you’ll need to obtain a retail disk package to proceed with the install. Good luck.

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         • Guys said, on May 9, 2011 at 5:55 am

           Got one and installed successfully !
           Thanks a lot ! You’ve made this process so smooth and easy !

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4. jan said, on April 23, 2011 at 4:56 pm

   I successfully installed Mac OS X from .iso (created from DVD Decrypter). My only interest in installing Mac OSX on my Virtual Box system was to be able to play a few Mac OS X games, however the Apeiron game keeps crashing and I cannot play it. When people are installing the guest Mac OSX guest systems, what is the reason for it?

   Thanks!

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   • commorancy said, on April 23, 2011 at 7:58 pm

     Hi Jan,

     I can’t speak for the reasons other people want Mac OS X installed, but I can say the reason I installed it wasn’t for graphics or sound. I’m using it primarily for writing code (not sound or graphics related). If you’re looking to play games, I would recommend buying an actual Mac. The reason is that the real hardware has a much faster (and more compatible) graphics and sound subsystem to run games, not to mention it is much more compatible. Remember that this installation method is mostly to see if it can be done. Since this installation isn’t ‘officially’ supported by anyone, the compatibility level isn’t where it could be if it were actually supported. So, for advanced gaming, it’s really not there. If you’re looking to play 2d games like Solitaire, it may work. For any current 3D games like F.E.A.R., it probably won’t work. As far as Apeiron, I haven’t played this specific game, but if it’s crashing it’s likely due to the graphics subsystem not being fully compatible when virtualized.

     Thanks.

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5. Doug said, on April 22, 2011 at 11:38 pm

   I have a Mac .dmg image I made with Carbon Copy Cloner. Has anybody tried to recover a CCC cloned HD back to a Virtualbox OS X desktop installation? I suppose I could just import my home directory using migration assistant but that does not completely recover the full environment (some software keys go missing)

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   • commorancy said, on April 23, 2011 at 7:44 pm

     Hi Doug,

     I haven’t tried bringing up an instance of Mac OS X from a virtual image with with cloning software. So, I’d have to attempt this before I could give you any advice on how to get this working. If anyone else has attempted this with success, please feel free to comment. One thing I’d say, though, is you should evaluate exactly what you are needing to recover. If you can live without certain things or they can be easily recovered later, you might want to look into just reinstalling and recovering those things you need. It might be faster than trying to use CCC to recover a full instance.

     Thanks.

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6. Farid Bangabashi said, on March 20, 2011 at 9:17 pm

   I HAVE A DELL INSPIRON 1464 CORE I3.RAM 2GB, HD250, IM INTERSTED INSTALL OSX S3. IM CONFUSED FOR GRAPHICS SUPORTED FOR LOGIC PRO. PLZ GIVE ME SETUP GUIDE FOR CUSTOMIZE OPTION.

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   • commorancy said, on March 24, 2011 at 3:34 am

     Sorry for the delay in replying. I’ve looked over the specs for the Dell 1464 and it apparently uses Intel graphics for the GPU. I’m not sure which disk will work with the Intel Graphics on this notebook. As long as it’s running 64 bit windows, which I think that it is, you should be able run Mac OS X. It’s just that you need a boot CD with the right drivers for your hardware. So, I would suggest you try the Nawcom ModCD first as that one seems to have a lot of different drivers. If that CD doesn’t work to launch the boot process, then you should try one of the Legacy CDs like iBoot Legacy. The Legacy disks are designed to help support non-officially-supported chipsets, CPUs and GPUs.

     You shouldn’t need to specifically customize things when booting up with the CD. Just follow the instructions as above using the proper boot CD. After that, everything should work as described in the installation article above. So basically, either the CD will work on your Dell 1464 or it won’t.

     Note that these boot CDs are constantly being updated by their respective authors. So, if you can’t find a CD that works today, when the next release arrives it might support your hardware. You might also contact the authors of the CDs in question and ask them if they will support your notebook.

     Good Luck.

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7. Justun said, on February 26, 2011 at 3:37 am

   I followed your directions, and have Mac OSx running fine. My only question is I don’t know what com.apple.boot we are suppose to alter to enable higher res. I do not have an /extra forlder on my root directory for my Mac side.

   Any help in getting native 1920x1200x32 would be greatly appreciated.

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   • commorancy said, on February 26, 2011 at 10:13 am

     Hi Justun,

     If you used the Nawcom ModCD, then they may have where this file is located. Let me find the file and update the tutorial. I’ll update this article shortly. Thanks for the heads up.

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   • commorancy said, on February 26, 2011 at 11:06 am

     Hi again Justun,

     I just installed using the Nawcom ModCD. There is an /Extra folder there. Inside it, you will find com.apple.boot.plist file. You will need to copy this file to your desktop to edit it. The difficulty you experienced may be that the Hard Disk is not visible on the desktop. To make the hard disk visible, select ‘Finder->Preferences…’ in the top menu. In the panel that appears, put a check mark next to ‘Hard Disks’. Once the hard drive icon is on your desktop, open it. Once open, make sure that your ‘Hard Disk’ volume name is selected. From here, you should see the ‘Applications’ folder as well as ‘Extra’ folder. Open Extra and copy com.apple.boot.plist to your Desktop and the follow the instructions in the tutorial. The /Extra folder is on the root of the hard drive volume.

     If you didn’t use the Nawcom CD and you haven’t installed the MyHack boot loader, the Extra folder may not be there. In this case, you will still need to download MyHack and follow the instructions in the tutorial above to install MyHack. Once MyHack is installed, you should see an /Extra folder. The Extra folder is part of the MyHack boot loader installation.

     Thanks.

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   • Justun said, on February 26, 2011 at 6:40 pm

     Ok I see the folder now, on the second install using the latest ModCD I can now see the extra folder. I didn’t have permisions to see the folder contents, nor replace the com.apple.boot.plist. I have also tried gaining permissions but still no luck to drah it to teh desktop and change the settings.

     Again sorry to be such a bother. I have also tried pathfinder to view the files, this allow me access to teh folder but still nothing visible inside. I have also tried viewing invisibles. Still no luck.

     Thanks for any help you could provide.

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     • commorancy said, on February 26, 2011 at 7:06 pm

       You know, I’m wondering if it installed correctly.

       What kind of PC do you have?
       Which version of VirtualBox are you using?
       Which version of OSX Media did you use to install (i.e., retail version and number?)

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     • Justun said, on February 26, 2011 at 7:07 pm

       OK once I intsalled your MyHack everything went silky smooth. Thank you very much. 1920 x 1200 is perfect. Although the Machine seems to be a bit sluggish it is stilll quite workable.

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       • commorancy said, on February 26, 2011 at 7:09 pm

         It may be sluggish from your memory usage. Check to see how much memory your system is using. Normally, it’s very snappy. So, sluggish sounds like your system may be running out of memory. If so, I’d suggest adding more ram or reducing the amount of RAM you are giving to OS X.

         I’m glad that MyHack worked to fix the problem. I’m also glad you were able to get the resolution to work as well.

         Thanks.

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8. dashrendar2507 said, on February 7, 2011 at 11:00 pm

   I can’t install it! I used empire EFI for AMD but I get a Black-with-white-writing-screen, saying something about kernels and stuff. has anyone encountered that before? please help…!

   my specs:

   AMD phenom iix6 black edition
   4g RAM
   ATI radeon HD 5770

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   • commorancy said, on February 8, 2011 at 2:09 am

     Let me start by saying that I don’t own a machine with an AMD Phenom II chip. So, it’s hard for me to test out what you have. That said, there are two EFI disks listed in the article above that can be used on an AMD Phenom. I would suggest that you try both disks to see if one of them gives you a better result than the other. If neither EFI disk works and you still get black screen with white writing (sounds like a kernel panic screen), then you might try downloading the Nawcom ModCD (http://blog.nawcom.com/?p=306). This one might allow you to install MacOS X easier on your Phenom chip.

     Note, if you are trying to install Mac OS X on a 32 bit host operating system, you will need to upgrade to a 64 bit host operating system before you can install Mac OS X. Mac OS X requires 64 bit passthrough to the virtual machine (i.e. AMD-v / VT-x).

     Good Luck.

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9. moooody said, on December 22, 2010 at 9:17 am

   VMWARE RULES. PERIOD.

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   • commorancy said, on January 4, 2011 at 10:14 pm

     You are entitled to your opinion and I respect that. However, I am not partial to any specific software in this avid way. Software is software. It’s a tool to get the job done. There are several top end virtualization products on the market and these include VMWare, Virtual Box, Xen, Virtual PC and Microsoft’s Hyper V. The question of which one to use is based on a lot of factors including the hardware and software platforms involved. Not all products work on all platforms. Some are faster than others based on the host operating system and underlying hardware. So, you pick the tool that works best for the job and the budget.

     In the instance of VMWare, they offer a range of virtualization products from the Free VM Player to rather costly, but easy-to-manage vSphere server. Again, it’s all dependent on what you are looking to run.

     As far as Mac OS X Desktop, this operating system has been designed to not be friendly to virtualization software. Apple has tried to specifically preclude Mac OS X desktop edition from being virtualized. Mac OS X server, on the other hand, can be virtualized. However, OS X server software costs $500 vs the desktop edition which is now priced at $30. Even virtualizing Mac OS X Desktop under VMWare will not necessarily be easy, but I am about to release a new article on how to do it. Stay tuned.

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10. Gerald Potter said, on October 9, 2010 at 12:17 am

    installed successfully but after installing myHack, the vdi boot stops at “..iSuck out of iHack”
    i’ve tried several myHacks.

    AMD phenom ,4GB, Ubuntu 10.04, virtual box (latest ver)

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    • commorancy said, on October 9, 2010 at 2:07 am

      You did make sure to enable PS2keyboard and disable SleepEnabler? If you can boot with the EFI boot disk, but not with myHack installed, it’s likely a mkext problem preventing it from booting. The myHack loader is on the EFI and is bare bones stripped down (basically no extra mkexts loaded). I would suggest reinstalling myHack again and uncheck all mkexts when installing except PS2Keyboard (you need that for the mouse and keyboard). You will need to click the customize button during myHack installation.

      Let me know if this works.

      Thanks.

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11. Lee said, on September 15, 2010 at 8:07 am

    something is missing here…

    you can not create copy (ISO) of Mac installer just like that using ImgBurn.
    Because Windows by default doesnt recognize HFS file system.
    Because i’ve tried it using MacDrive and ImgBurn.
    It only producing an ISO with 3,6 GB capacity, not 6+ GB

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    • commorancy said, on September 15, 2010 at 10:00 am

      Lee,

      ImgBurn will copy this disk so long as you copy the whole disk. That said, there could be two reasons why it’s doing what you’re seeing. 1) You’re trying to create the ISO on a FAT filesystem. FAT is limited to 4GB file size. 2) ImgBurn has been changed to be ‘smarter’ than it should. If it’s #1, then you should create the image on NTFS where the file size limit is much larger. If it’s #2, then you will need to go find a copy of DVD Decrypter. ImgBurn is partially based on what’s in DVD Decrypter, except without the decryption part. However, DVD Decrypter has a slightly more ‘advanced’ whole disk copy function. Advanced means that it has a lot more settings and will always do what you want. I can’t tell you exactly where to go get it, but a Google Search will turn up DVD Decrypter pretty fast. Note, you don’t need the decryption functionality to copy this disk, it just needs a whole byte-for-byte copy function which I know DVD Decrypter supports.

      Now that the stance on the DMCA has been reversed regarding DeCSS on DVDs in the US, DVD Decrypter should become more readily available and easier to find on the net again.

      Good luck.

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    • commorancy said, on September 22, 2010 at 2:48 am

      As an update and FYI to my comment. I have tested the latest version of ImgBurn (2.5.2.0 is current as of this comment) and this version creates the ISO image of the MacOS X Snow Leopard retail disk (10.6.3) without issue. You will need to select the icon that says ‘Create image file from disc’. I have also tried this same experiment on the MacOS X 10.5 disk with no issues here as well. The only things I can assume about your situation… 1) You’re trying to create the 7GB image on a FAT filesystem. FAT formatted disks support a max file size of 4GB, 2) You’ve chosen another option to copy (such as copy files from the disk instead of creating an image) or 3) Your DVD drive isn’t fully compatible with ImgBurn and is having difficulties reading from the DVD (it is a dual layer disk).

      From my tests, though, creating an ISO image of the Snow Leopard disk with ImgBurn seems to work just fine.

      Thanks.

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12. Edwin said, on August 29, 2010 at 7:47 pm

    Hi,

    I got it working perfectly but had a problem that took me ages to solve until I found a simple fix below.

    I googled several articles including ones at the dedicated forums like InsanelyMac and this article was by far the clearest written and easiest to get working with the minimum amount of installation. The other methods I found required you to pre-install Leopard first or already own a Mac which is useless if like me you’ve just bought the Snow Leopard Retail DVD.

    So my one major obstacle was that I could not for the life of me get Chameleon to recognize my Snow Leopard Retail DVD at the press F5 key stage after booting from the Empire EFI CD. Initially I was trying with physical media for both OSX and Empire EFI. I tried all the three Empire EFI versions but got errors immediately on pressing F5.

    I decided to try virtual media so burnt my retail Snow Leopard DVD to an .iso. Initially I had no luck their either although I really recommend doing it that way as you can try out all the EFI releases without having to burn CDs.

    I was about to give up when I found the fix. At the F5 stage, when the Chameleon bootloader screen appears, go to the Virtualbox menu: Devices > CD/DVD Devices > More CD/DVD Images and load your OSX.iso which in my case, being retail, was called “Bootcamp.iso”.

    Now hit F5, behold, no more error messages, wait for the OSX icon to replace the EFI icon and the rest is as normal, hit the down arrow on the keyboard to make the Chameleon option menu appear and select “Boot”.

    Nothing else worked and I didn’t mix physical media with virtual .iso’s.

    I hope that helps someone else and thanks again for such a great article.

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    • commorancy said, on September 22, 2010 at 3:35 am

      Yes, in some cases, using the physical media may not work and the EFI loader may never recognize the physical media. I’m not sure why that’s the case, but it is. So, using the ISO images may be the only way to get it installed.

      Also note, once again, you can’t mix an EFI ISO with a physical Snow Leopard disk. You must choose to use all ISO images or all physical disks. Even still, physical media may not work so it might be simpler just to do it all with ISO images.

      When choosing to use ISO images, you will have to load the ISO image from VirtualBox’s Devices->CD/DVD Devices menu to change from the EFI Bootable ISO to the Snow Leopard ISO. If you don’t use this method to change the ISO, the EFI boot loader will never find the Snow Leopard media to continue the installation.

      Thanks for the tip.

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13. kolibri said, on July 16, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    Hello,
    i would like to install in a VMware on a Samsung NC10.
    I have boot empire efi and change the efi.iso and select SL.iso and click enter when i see
    the Snow L. icon.
    At booting come this failure:

    no dsdt replacement found .leaving the acpi as is

    What is here the problem,anyone can help me?

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    • commorancy said, on July 17, 2010 at 1:42 am

      Actually, the ‘No DSDT replacement…’ message may not be what’s causing the failure. It may be the last message you see before the failure, but the last message you see doesn’t always mean that’s the cause of the failure. I’ll need to ask some questions. You mention attempting installation using VMWare. Are you using VMWare or are you using VirtualBox? This tutorial is specific to VirtualBox. I may attempt to install Snow Leopard using VMWare Player, but I haven’t ventured into that setup yet.

      If you are using VMWare, you may want to go to get Oracle VirtualBox and try it instead using the tutorial above. Let me know which Virtualization software you are trying to use.

      Thanks.

      LikeLike

      Reply
      • kolibri said, on July 18, 2010 at 9:52 pm

        I use VMware.
        I think try virtualBox and give feedback .

        Thanks

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        • kolibri said, on July 26, 2010 at 6:28 pm

          I have try it with virtualbox,but my netbook bios have vt-x.What can i do?
          Why win xp work without vt-x and mac os x didnt work?

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          • commorancy said, on July 26, 2010 at 9:22 pm

            vt-x is only needed for running 64 bit operating systems. With XP, you were probably loading a 32 bit version that doesn’t need vt-x. Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) requires 64 bit because most of Snow Leopard is now 64 bit.

            What netbook do you have? Note, however, that most netbooks use an Atom processor. I can’t guarantee that Mac OS X will load in VirtualBox on a netbook running an Atom processor. Using VirtualBox may require a Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, i7, i5, i3 or 64 bit AMD processor. Note, however, you may be able to wipe your OS on your netbook and load Mac OS X natively on it, though. For example, the Dell Mini 9 is capable of loading and running Snow Leopard natively, but VirtualBox doesn’t work on the Mini 9.

            For slower processor systems such as netbooks, I recommend using VMWare Player anyway. For sheer performance, VMWare Player is much faster on notebooks than Virtualbox. I am working on creating a tutorial for loading Snow Leopard in VMWare Player, but it’s not yet done.

            Thanks.

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          • kolibri said, on July 28, 2010 at 3:24 pm

            i havent a 64bit system.
            I have the Samsung NC10 with intel Atom n270 cpu.
            This Cpu cant vt-x.

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14. Vitaly said, on July 15, 2010 at 10:39 am

    Thank you for your tips! I will try disabling those components.
    I tried with 10.6.0. But the VMWare image is 10.6.2.

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    • commorancy said, on July 15, 2010 at 10:50 am

      If disabling doesn’t work, trying looking for 10.6.3 (or later) install media and try your install from that. I’m reasonably confident that that will work for you. Hopefully disabling will work for 10.6.0. You can pick up 10.6.3 at an Apple Store for $29.

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15. ajith said, on July 7, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    Thank you for your valuable information!

    I tried EmpireEFI_V1085_AMD_Inteli3i5m, it worked .after installation I faced some problems
    1) I cannot test the video and audio, the mac shows “there was an initialization error – a valid video device could not be found for playback [-70017]” my graphic card is Intel GMA450HD, from where I get the mac driver for audio and video devices.
    2) The display shows 1024×768; my lap Screen Resolution is 1366×768; can I change screen resolution?

    thanks!

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    • commorancy said, on July 7, 2010 at 10:34 pm

      As I have recently come to find, the AC97 sound driver may not work with all hardware and may not work with the OS X update to 10.6.4. If you need sound, you should stay on 10.6.3 until an updated driver can be released.

      Audio only works with the AC97 sound driver (See the ‘Items You’ll Need’ section) that you’ll download and install separately. I’m not sure about video playback on Mac OS X. I haven’t fully tested this. Which app are you using for video? iTunes? If you haven’t already done this, you should check to make sure ‘3D Acceleration’ is turned on in VirtualBox under Settings->Display.

      Also, make sure you have assigned 128MB to the video card in VirtualBox settings also under Display.

      And yes, the display resolution can also be changed. The tutorial on how to change the resolution is located under ‘Final Steps’ section towards the bottom of the article.

      Thanks.

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16. ajith said, on July 7, 2010 at 2:27 am

    my system configuration

    dell inspiron 1464, core i3, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD, 4 gb ddr3,500 hdd

    Thanks!

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    • commorancy said, on July 7, 2010 at 2:39 am

      ajith,

      Try this EFI disk first, try this EFI disk second. I’m thinking the first download (R2 version) will work for you. If not, the second one is supposed to fix white screens and/or kernel panics. Let me know if this resolves your issue. If not, there a couple of other EFI ISO images to try.

      I should point out that I didn’t create these EFI disks, so I’m just going by what’s on the notes supplied with each of the images. There are 6 different Empire EFI disk images that may work on your notebook. I’m not sure which one(s) you may have already tried. Have you tried them all or just one disk image?

      Thanks.

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17. ajith said, on July 6, 2010 at 4:26 pm

    I have aslo tried to use theEmpireEFI_V1085.iso to boot up the machine.
    The last few lines are:
    – Patched DMI Tabke,
    – ACPI Table not found: DSDT.aml
    – Starting Darwin x86
    – Press any key to continue

    … However, when I press a key, the screen simply blackened…..

    can u help me.which option i choose ?

    Thanks!
    Reply

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    • commorancy said, on July 7, 2010 at 12:20 am

      ajith,

      With everything correct, the EFI installer disk should ‘just work’. If the screen is going black, this sounds like a non-supported video driver or a flakey driver. The Empire EFI disks only support limited graphics card and CPU types. Some cards are considered ‘unstable’ and may not work with Empire EFI. You will need determine the type of video card in your system and the CPU(s) that your system has and then see if there is an EFI disk that matches this configuration. If you post your configuration here, I can see if there’s an EFI disk that might work with your specs.

      Thanks.

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      • mark cerbin said, on January 23, 2011 at 7:02 am

        hey i have this configuration and i get the black screen like this guy described and this is the computer tower i currently have
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147047

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        • commorancy said, on January 23, 2011 at 9:03 am

          Hi Mark,

          Where you are seeing a black screen? Note that each EFI boot disk supports limited CPUs and graphics card combinations. Note that there are several EFI boot disks that support Intel and AMD separately. Be sure you are downloading the correct EFI CD for your system type. Since your system has an AMD Phenom, you will want to download the EFI from the third link in the list above (the disk labeled with Phenom). If you use the disk for Intel, it will likely give you the black screen as you describe. Also, unless you upgraded the graphics card, it should still have the GeForce G210. I don’t personally own this specific Nvidia card, so I can’t tell you if it will work with EFI. I’m assuming, though, that it should.

          If you can provide me more information about which EFI you are trying and which version of VirtualBox you have installed, I can help you better. The more detail you can provide, the better I can help you.

          Thanks.

          –Brian

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18. George said, on July 4, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    Would someone please explain what I’m supposed to do with the empireEFI file? Previously I’ve had Virtual Box on this machine and run Ubuntu, but now I don’t see that it supports virtualization. Am I screwed to put Mac SL on it? Thanks.

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    • commorancy said, on July 4, 2010 at 9:38 pm

      Hi George,

      The Empire EFI .ISO file is a bootable CD that boots the Mac OS X installer disk. The reason this is necessary is that Macintosh computers support an EFI based BIOS. Windows based machines use the traditional PC BIOS that doesn’t support the EFI portions. So, in order to boot Mac OS X and the Mac OS X Install disk, you have to boot these from an EFI based boot system. Hence the need for the Empire EFI boot CD.

      As far as whether Mac OS X will work on your machine, you’ll need to create a blank virtual machine in VirtualBox. Then, click settings on that virtual machine and look under System->Acceleration Tab. If you see a ‘Enable VT-x / AMD-v’ and that checkbox is active (you can click it), then you can run Mac OS X on your system. If this setting is greyed out or not there, then you won’t be able to run Mac OS X. Note that this setting may be disabled or unavailable if it isn’t enabled in your PC’s BIOS or if your machine does not support virtualization pass through. Some older quad and dual core machines may not be capable of enabling this feature. This feature enables hardware level virtualization.

      However without VT-x / AMD-v, you can still run 32 bit operating systems like Ubuntu, Windows and UNIX. Software level virtualization doesn’t perform as well as hardware level virtualization, but it still works and lets you run most operating systems in 32 bit mode. Hardware level virtualization is necessary to allow 64 bit operating systems. Snow Leopard is mostly 64 bit at this point.

      Hope this helps.

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      • George said, on July 19, 2010 at 12:36 pm

        Thanks. Looks like I’m screwed; there isn’t even an Acceleration Tab to go to.

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        • commorancy said, on July 19, 2010 at 9:18 pm

          Not necessarily. Some 64 bit capable machines disable VT-x / AMD-v in BIOS by default. So, reboot and go into your BIOS. On in the BIOS screen, check to see if you can enable virtualization before you give up. It should be somewhere around the CPU settings of the BIOS. I had to enable it on my HP quad core before I could run 64 bit passthrough. Of course, if you know your machine is only 32 bit capable, then yes, it won’t work.

          Good luck.

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19. eric said, on July 2, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    Installed ok but error at the end. still booted fine. It is rather slow though. i have a c2d e6600 @ 3ghz with 1gb of ram for the virtual machine and it stutters quite abit. It does function though which is nice.

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    • commorancy said, on July 2, 2010 at 11:22 pm

      Eric,

      Yes, VirtualBox usually runs best on at least 6GB of memory on Windows 7 (64 bit) using a more recent Core 2 Quad processor (i7 or similar). While it will work on a notebook, I don’t really recommend VirtualBox on that sized system, primarily because of the speed of the hard drive and the lesser speed CPUs. The fastest performance still comes from desktop systems unless you can afford an Alienware notebook. To devote 1GB RAM to a virtual machine, I also recommend no less than 4GB of RAM on the system because Windows 7 needs between 1-1.5 GB of memory alone. Once Windows starts to run out of memory, it gets dog slow.

      Glad to hear that it worked for you, though. If I have the time, I may try to figure out how to run it in VMWare Player. VMWare player is far less resource intensive than VirtualBox and works better on lesser equipped systems (like Notebooks).

      Thanks.

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      • eric said, on July 3, 2010 at 11:17 am

        I noticed in resource monitor i was ot of mem and was using mainly a page file. Which sucked hard. My pc is a little dated. I lowerd the virtual mem to 512 and it seems to run more or less the same as with 1gb but my actual system isnt being bogged down which is great. One cool thing was that i seem to have mouse integration. And virtual box does eat up resources like no other.

        I had 10.5.4 on my laptop in vmware and it was god slow like you say.

        The main point was that i needed osx on a working system and i dont have any mac’s laying around. I tried hackintosh but my system doesnt play nice. thanks for the reply

        System specs.
        c2d conroe e6600 @3GHz 333*9
        2GB OCZ reapers @ 667 1:1
        Abit IP35 Pro
        8800 GTS 640
        I know its old. 3 years on 7-26-2010.

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        • commorancy said, on July 3, 2010 at 11:02 pm

          Yes, I guess I should have pointed out that you can run Mac OS X with 512 mb mem after you have myHack bootloader loaded and Mac OS X is booting on its own. It’s just that Empire EFI needs 1024 or more to work.

          If you can double your mem to 4GB or add even just 1GB more to make 3GB, Windows and Mac OS X will run much more smoothly together.

          Good Luck and thanks for the tip.

          —
          Brian

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20. Vitaly said, on June 30, 2010 at 9:23 am

    Thank you for this detailed tutorial!

    But unfortunately, 2nd and 3rd links from the “Items you’ll need” are not working :(

    Could you post them here please? Or email maybe?

    Thanks!

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    • commorancy said, on June 30, 2010 at 7:19 pm

      I just tested the myHack link and it is presently working, at least for me. The Prasys blog appears to be offline. I have found a cached copy of the original Prasys download page and have copied the links for the EFI download images to this article. These are the exact links that existed on the Prasys blog. These download links are working as of 6/30/2010.

      If you are still having troubles with the myHack page, let me know.

      Thanks.

      —
      Brian

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      • Vitaly said, on July 15, 2010 at 7:32 am

        Thank you, Brian!

        Unfortunately, the installation fails for me.
        I get this message some 20 minutes after the installation starts:
        “The installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail.”
        Any idea why this happens?

        I have an Asus F8Va laptop with 4GB of RAM and Core 2 Duo processor. Looks like hardware is compatible.

        Thanks,
        Vitaly

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        • commorancy said, on July 15, 2010 at 9:07 am

          I’m assuming by ‘the installation fails for me’ you are referring to Mac OS X? Or, are you referring to the installation of VirtualBox itself?

          Let me ask a few more questions about your notebook. Are you running 64 bit or 32 bit Windows? I’d read that the Asus F8va may ship with 32 bit Windows by default. You won’t be able to install Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) on 32 bit Windows… and I guess I should have clarified this in the article. Snow Leopard is mostly 64 bit now and, thus, requires a 64 bit host system (Linux or Windows). If your notebook is loaded with 32 bit Windows, you will need to reinstall your notebook with 64 bit Windows before you can run Snow Leopard in VirtualBox. As far as I know, running 32 bit Windows as the host limits all guest operating systems to also being 32 bit. So, using a 32 bit Windows host would exclude running Mac OS X.

          If you are running 64 bit WIndows, then make sure you have enabled VT-x / AMD-v in your BIOS to allow 64 bit pass through to Mac OS X.

          Let me know if you are running 64 bit Windows and which edition of Windows.

          Thanks.

          —
          Brian

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          • Vitaly said, on July 15, 2010 at 10:03 am

            Yes, it shipped with 32-bit Windows Vista, but I changed that Vista 64-bit and then upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit eventually.
            VT-x/AMD-v are enabled in the BIOS.

            I have just tried a VMWare image of 10.6.2 and it worked. Sound, network, custom resolutions and even 3D acceleration work very well.

            Weird…

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          • Vitaly said, on July 15, 2010 at 10:06 am

            I mean, the VMWare image I tried worked in VMWare itself. In VirtualBox it failed to load with yellowish-grey menu showing up instead.

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          • commorancy said, on July 15, 2010 at 10:29 am

            Hmm.. that is weird if a VMware image works. If it gets to the point of installing Mac OS X, it should finish. So, it’s got to be some kind of VirtualBox issue. Although, I’m not sure what it would be. In Virtualbox, I would make sure you haven’t enabled anything that shouldn’t be enabled (additional network, SATA or other controllers). In fact, I might disable anything you don’t really need to get it installed (like sound, USB, or whatever other things you can successfully disable). Then, re-enable them after you have it installed.

            That panel is basically a kernel panic, I believe. So, there’s something it seems to be failing on. Are you installing from 10.6.3 media? I haven’t tried installing from anything earlier than 10.6.3.

            Thanks.

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