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Running Mac OS X on standard PCs

Kai Schmerer ZDNet Germany

Published: 14 May 2008

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Go to section: Introduction Motherboard, CPU & chipset Network, sound and graphics cards Installing Leopard on a standard PC Tips and tricks Performance Conclusion

Installing Leopard on a standard PC

For our test installation of Leopard on a standard PC, we used the Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6 for the Intel platform, and the GA-MA790FX-DQ6 for the AMD platform. The hard disk was a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 with a SATA interface and 750GB capacity, while the DVD drive was an ASUS DRW1814BLT, also with a SATA interface. Both systems used the Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card and both were fitted with 4GB of memory from Aeneon.

We installed Mac OS X Leopard from the Leo4All image, which provides excellent hardware support and works with both Intel and AMD processors. Leo4all also integrates many updates, including Leopard 10.5.2. The Kalyway image also works well for Intel systems.

Setup DVD
About five minutes after starting the installation, a graphical setup mode appears where you choose, among other things, the partition into which Mac OS is to be installed. Mac OS initially finds no partition in a new drive, and Disk Utility must be used to create one or more partitions. Thanks to EFI emulation, hard disks can be partitioned using the GUID scheme; GUID is the successor to the MBR (Master Boot Record), supporting more partitions and providing greater flexibility. However, most Windows operating systems do not support the GUID partition scheme: you'll need to install the GRUB bootloader and jump through some hoops to get both Windows and Mac OS onto a GUID-partitioned hard disk — something that's beyond the scope of this article. With an MBR-partitioned drive, it's relatively straightforward to install Mac OS alongside Windows.

The setup process takes a good 30 minutes. Thanks to Leo4all's good hardware support, network and audio devices are immediately available after the installation. However, you'll need to install a graphics driver later. After completing the installation, Mac OS plays a short video and asks for a user name and password.

It's worth noting that, using the Netkas EFI emulation, you can install the original 'vanilla' Mac OS kernel. However, this is not advisable, as you're likely to encounter shutdown/reboot problems. Instead, it's better to use the modified Netkas kernel 9.2.0.

 

You should only make one driver choice per section.

 

Go to section: Introduction Motherboard, CPU & chipset Network, sound and graphics cards Installing Leopard on a standard PC Tips and tricks Performance Conclusion

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