Chameleon RC3 - new bootloader

Release Candidate 3 seems to me to be the last before the "Golden Master". The new support for Snow Leopard is working (even with RC1 and RC2 with the right boot file), everything else seems to work as it should. RC3 has a small flaw though, you can get the binaries at the moment. There is no installer for it, and no proper instructions too. It's definitely a "download", but installing would be risky if you don't exactly know what you are doing. In RC3 you will find support for Leopard and Snow Leopard. In your Extra folder you'll find three new: 10.5 and 10.6 and Common, for extensions for leopard and snow leopard and common kexts.

New bootloader - xpc 0.50 (early beta)

Chameleon just went from RC2 to RC3 to help people adopt snow leopard. Netkas updated PC-EFI 10.3 for more Snow Leopard goodness... But there is new player on the scene: XPC bootloader. You can find screenshots on Taruga's blog. I have to say, it doesn't looks better than Chameleon, apparently it has better groundwork though. People report that the booting process is more mac alike. There is no resolution switching and the transition from loading screen to desktop is very smooth - just like in real macs.

iGenius - next iPortable

ProtocolX made another USB bootable rescue/backup/restore distro. iGenius is based on 10.5.6 and is works for Hackintoshes as well for original Macs. Users report that this version is a way faster than iPortable. ProtocolX points out that SanDisk Crusier isn't the best choice for iGenius because of low throughput. Installation process and size after install is the same as for iPortable, only this time you have lots of rescue/restore tools included. So if you have 8GB of free space on your USB-stick, don't hesitate to install it, because you never know when you gonna need it. Here is some more info on included tools:

Hackintosh Tools:
AMD Patcher  About This Mac Modifier  AppleHDAPatcherv1.20  CPU-X  Chameleon 2.0  Custom DVD SlimbuildGUI-1  DPCIManager  DSDT Patcher GUI  EFIStudio  EFIStudio_ATI  EFIgfx tools  EFiXUpdater  Extensions-Repair  INSTAHackintosh (beta)  IORegistryExplorer  Kext Helper b7  KeyViewer  MKextTool 1.0  MSR Tools  Marvin's AMD Utility v.25  NVCAP Maker 1.4  OSx86 AMD Update  OSx86tools  PlistEdit Pro  Pref Setter  QuartzSimple  Repair & Set Permissions scripts  SwitchResX Control  USB Prober  Universal Checker  Universal OSx86 Installer  0xED  Hex Fiend

Applications:

ACL Fix AllSecure AppleScript Automator BatChmod Bean 2.0 Calculator Changes CheckUp DMG2ISO DaisyDisk Dashboard Dictionary DrawIt Eject Disc Expose Filelight FolderLister Font Book Front Row Geekbench 64bit Mainmenu GrandPerspective HighLoad Hotspot Shield Image Capture JollysFastVNC KCNScrew (15-04-’09) Little Snitcher 2.0.5 MySQL Number Machine Overflow Pacifist PackageMaker Path Finder Permanent Eraser Photo Booth Pick'n'Burn Pixelmator Preferential Treatment Preview Property List Editor 2.2 RarMachine OmniObjectMeter QuickTime Player RealVNC Enterprise Safari Screen Sharing Secure Remote Disk SimplyBurns Smultron Spaces Stainless Stickies System Preferences TextEdit Time Machine TimeMachineEditor UnRARx 2.2 VLC Player What Keeps Me? Yummy FTP iPatch iRepair iSync TeamViewer Login Launcher Activity Monitor AirPort Utility Audio MIDI Setup Bluetooth File Exchange Boomerang Data Recovery 1.1.5 BootChamp ColorSync Utility Console Data Rescue II DigitalColor Meter Directory Utility Directory Disk Utility DiskWarrior 4.1.1 Drive Genius 2.1.2 Exif Untrasher FileSalvage 6.1.5 Firmware Password Utility 1.4.3 Grab Grapher IPObserver Java Keychain Access KisMAC trunk r319 Klix MacForensicsLab 2.5.3 Man Viewer Migration Assistant Network Diagnostics Network Utility Network Diagnostics Network Utility ODBC Administrator OfficeSalvage 6.1.5 OpenGL Extensions Viewer PodSalvage Podcast Capture RAID Utility Remote Install Mac OS X RescuePRO 3.3 SpeedTools Utilities StellarPhoenix System Profiler TechTool Pro 5 TelnetMac Terminal Testdisk 6.9 VoiceOver Utility VolumeWorks 1.5 X11 iBored iDefrag iPartition 3.0.1 iSSH Battery Health Monitor.app OpenGL Driver Monitor SystemLoad TemperaturMonitorLite TemperatureMonitor S.M.A.R.T Utility Carbon Copy Cloner 3.2.1 Clone X 3 Clonetools_H1 CopyCatX 4 Disk Utility Drive Genius 2 Instant Backup MacTuneUp BackUp NetRestore 3.4.6 QuickBack SuperDuper! Time Machine Tri-BACKUP 5 YourBackup iBackup Backuplist+ Email Backup AppZapper IceClean Leopard Cache Cleaner MacTuneUp OmniDiskSweeper Monolingual OnyX PKG DesInstaller3 StripPPC TinkerTool Trimmit Xslimmer Youpi Optimizer Slimtool iTool PreferenceCleaner Macdust

In case you have problems booting of USB-Stick on your Hackintosh make sure your partition map scheme is Master Boot Record (MBR). If this doesn't help try installing Chameleon bootloader.

10.5.7 update - more snapiness

So the new update has landed. I can say the update is safe for hacks, only thing you have to worry about are some kexts... If you follow netkas guide for this update you will have no problems at all.

Short guide from netkas: update guide

Start as super user (sudo...)

while sleep update 1 ; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext ; done

Install and reboot

Old issue:

If you have problem mounting .dmg then you have to switch your seatbelt.kext to one matching your kernel version. There are planty of places where you can find those kexts for 9.5 and 9.6 kernels.

The system seems to be a lot snappier! Safari is of the charts in performance (still memory hungry but the performance is amazing...) Definitely recommended to all! In case you experience some problems with Radeon 4850 or 4830 try netkas workaround.

Using Apple Remote on Hackintosh

After hours spent on fine tuning and getting everything to work just like on a real Mac (or even better), many of us started to miss some of Windows functionality and compatibility. I'm not talking about games and other applications but about hardware. You can't just go to the computer store and grab a DVB-T stick and be sure it will be recognized on your hackintosh. Choosing new hardware involves hours spend on forums asking questions, reading reviews to find the 100% compatible piece of hardware - PC hardware. The ultimate goal having a hackintosh is to get it as close as possible to the real thing without spending thousand of dollars on it.

iSight and Apple Remote are included with many apple computers, Apple Remote is the toughest to get to work properly.

iSight - use this plugin and hope your webcam is supported: macam3.4mb

(After adding macam.component your webcam should work just like iSight)

Apple Remote: needs IR receiver, the cheapest solution is Windows MCE (eHome) 2005 Receiver, you can read more on compatibility here:

- Remote Buddy - 19.99 €

- Twisted Melon - $15.95

As you see you will have to use some software to get it to work but it works very well.