Hackintosh

A hackintosh ( , a portmanteau of "hack" and "Macintosh"), sometimes referred to as OSx86, is a computer that runs Apple's operating system macOS on computer hardware that is not authorized for the purpose by Apple. This is due to the software license for macOS only permitting its use on in-house hardware built by Apple itself, in this case the Mac line. Although the practice of "Hackintoshing" has existed since the 1980s, a new wave of "Hackintoshing" began as a result of Apple's 2005 transition to Intel processors, away from PowerPC. From that transition to the early 2020s transition to Apple silicon, Mac computers used the same x86 computer architecture as many other desktop PCs, laptops, and servers, meaning that in principle, the code making up macOS systems and software can be run on alternative platforms with minimal compatibility issues. Commercial circumvention of the methods Apple uses to prevent macOS from being installed on non-Apple hardware is restricted in the United States under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but specific changes to the law regarding the concept of jailbreaking have placed circumvention methods like these into a legal grey area.

A hackintosh ( , a portmanteau of "hack" and "Macintosh"), sometimes referred to as OSx86, is a computer that runs Apple's operating system macOS on computer hardware that is not authorized for the purpose by Apple. This is due to the software license for macOS only permitting its use on in-house hardware built by Apple itself, in this case the Mac line. Although the practice of "Hackintoshing" has existed since the 1980s, a new wave of "Hackintoshing" began as a result of Apple's 2005 transition to Intel processors, away from PowerPC. From that transition to the early 2020s transition to Apple silicon, Mac computers used the same x86 computer architecture as many other desktop PCs, laptops, and servers, meaning that in principle, the code making up macOS systems and software can be run on alternative platforms with minimal compatibility issues. Commercial circumvention of the methods Apple uses to prevent macOS from being installed on non-Apple hardware is restricted in the United States under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but specific changes to the law regarding the concept of jailbreaking have placed circumvention methods like these into a legal grey area. ==Hacking approaches== ===Kernel hacks=== When copies of Mac OS X Tiger started running on non-Apple hardware, it was found that some processors were unable to run the OS. Rosetta, a binary translator that made it possible to run PowerPC programs on Intel processors (and later the kernel itself), required the support of the SSE3 instruction set. To circumvent this, programmers in the community released patched kernels, which included support for emulating SSE3 instructions using SSE2 equivalents. In October 2005, Apple released update 10.4.3 to developers that required NX bit microprocessor support; however, patches were released to circumvent this as well. Patched kernels were also later released that supported AMD processors. When Mac OS X Leopard released on October 26, 2007, patches were created to remove the HPET requirement from the kernel. Efforts were also made to emulate the SSSE3 instruction set for processors that did not support it. The kernel used by OS X Mavericks made use of SSSE3 instructions, requiring those patches. ===Boot loaders and emulators=== ====Clover==== Clover is a GUI bootloader for multiple operating systems that supports either UEFI or the legacy BIOS mode. To support booting EFI code, one of the two methods are conventionally taken: either Elliot's FakeEFI was used, or an actual open-source EFI system based on Intel's TianoCore called DUET (Developer's UEFI Emulation) was flashed into the motherboard. However, modern, non-Apple EFI firmware as well as Duet cannot directly load macOS due to various incompatibilities, mainly around the HFS+ file system but also due to the quirks of individual vendors. One more step was needed to load macOS systems: an EFI application to rectify these problems and bridge the gap. Beginning in March 2011, Slice discussed his idea with other community members, resulting in the development of a bootloader that can do both: emulate an EFI firmware of one's choice or use a Real UEFI firmware to boot Mac OS X. It contains EFI applications and drivers for correctly reading an HFS+ disk and patching EFI tables to prepare the system for starting macOS. As of 2020, it is actively maintained. ===Live DVD=== 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 Mac OS X v10.4.8. On January 2, 2009, InsanelyMac's live DVD team published a new method by which a Mac OS X v10.5.x live DVD could be produced, allowing users to boot a fully working macOS desktop from a DVD or USB flash drive. The method was more reliable than previous methods because it manipulated Apple's existing Netboot and Imageboot functionalities and behaved as if the system were running from a network disk. It was easier to produce; requiring only a single script to be added to an existing installation. Distributions of the live DVD have been made since its inception. Since then, it is notable that this method has been shown to work on normal Apple Mac hardware. ==See also== OpenDarwin Macintosh clone – About clones and emulators of various Macintosh models List of computer system emulators – a list of Macintosh and other computer system emulators Mac transition to Intel processors Star Trek project

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