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Dream finally becomes reality: use vanilla OS X kernel on normal PCs.

This might not be sth. new to some readers as the patch was initially released few days ago. The newest version as of today is v5.1, which includes various bug fixes and multiboot support.  Again, as the previous installation guide, this is also based my very own experience and not a simple duplication of the readme.

All credits go to netkas(who made this patch), def(for multiboot), Turbo and everyone works on the osx86 scene.

Update 1: Fixed a mistake in the tutorial  which will cause “endless reboot loop”. Sorry for everyone who encounter this issue!

Update 2: The EFI patch has been confirmed to work with current 10.4.11/10.5.1 update. Many hackintosh users have enjoyed the same update experience as genuine MAC users.

Update 3: Download in this guide updates to the latest pc_efi version, which is v5.1 as of today(11/17). Link to ToH kernel is also updated.

What is EFI and why is this “patch”?

The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware.

EFI is intended as a significantly improved replacement of the old legacy BIOS firmware interface historically used by all IBM PC compatible PCs. But as of today, most PCs running Microsoft Windows still rely on BIOS, while Intel based Macs, since the day one, are using EFI. Despite the technical advantage, this is more like an artificial barrier to prevent normal PCs running OS X.

Ironically, Microsoft Windows support BIOS only, and Apple makes Boot camp to fill the gap. The EFI patch works in a similar approach: it emulates EFI data for normal BIOS-based PCs and let OS X treat them as genuine EFI-based Macs.

The EFI emulation is a long dream in OSX86 community, but prior to this, thanks the Apple’s open source Darwin Project and those Hackintosh gurus, we can still enjoy OS X on normal PCs, with patched kernels/kernel modules which just bypass EFI. Now with the EFI patch, the hackintosh can boot off VANILLA UNMODIFIED OS X kernel and use  vanilla kexts, which gives a more clean room and great peace of mind for future system updates.

Click for more on HowTo: Install EFI patch and Use Unmodified OS X Kernel in Hackintosh »

Backup over NAS

Although we’ve been mostly happy with Leopard, one of the features we were most looking forward to was the ability to set Time Machine to use a NAS volume like Airport Disk, thus making laptop backups wireless and sexy (well, sort of sexy) instead of wired and cumbersome. Sadly, Apple cut the feature at the last minute, but as with all things OS X, nirvana is usually just a defaults write command away, so just pop open a terminal window and enter:



defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

and you should be able to select NAS volumes in the Time Machine prefs. Of course, you should only re-enable this for giggles — we don’t know why Apple turned it off to begin with, and it could very well be full of bugs and hose your data. Considering some of the other glitches that have cropped up in Time Machine, we’d actually recommend staying well away from this one.

Has been seeded to developer, build 9B13.

With the number of bugs that’ve already been reported for Leopard — most of which are fairly inherent in any .0 release, but are no less annoying — it doesn’t take much of a rumor-enthusiast to figure out that Apple is hard at work on a 10.5.1 update. The first fruit of that effort just hit ADC developers today, in the form of build 9B13. The update is pretty broad, and since this is just the first seed of 10.5.1, there’s no telling how long it’ll take for Apple to get this all tightened up for public consumption. Issues that are being addressed include:

• Mail Sync
• Spotlight Index
• Disk Management
• DesktopServices and moving files across partitions
• Text Drawing
• iCal and CalDAV syncing
• Keychain login
• Read-Only Issue with SMB
• AirPort 802.1X
• Application Firewall
• To-Do Notes
• and Smart Mailboxes.

Click for more on MAC OS X 10.5.1 Almost Here »

This update addresses issues with Media Center for Microsoft Vista.

In addition to the fixes that are contained in the updates that are listed in the “Hotfix replacement information” section, the October 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista resolves the following issues:

• Several issues that are related to the Media Center Extensibility Platform
• An issue that affects digital cable card components when you use Scientific Atlanta cable cards
• Interaction issues that occur between Media Center PC and Microsoft Xbox 360 when Xbox 360 is used as a Media Center Extender.
• Autolaunch issues that occur with video CD (VCD) media

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Ultimate.

Download x86(link, WGA free), X64(link, no WGA required)

Features that make Vista a better experience that aren’t marketed much.

Windows Vista has a lot going for it that most people don’t really hear about. It’s understandable because marketing some of these new features would essentially be tantamount to saying “Oops, XP had some problems”.

Moreover, it is often easy to forget just how big of a release Windows Vista really was. While Leopard claims “300 new features” most of those features are minor in nature (Let’s face it, MacOS X is so good that it’s in the enviable position of only needing to evolve, Windows Vista, by contrast, had to play a lot of catch-up). Windows Vista has closer to 10,000 new features when one adds both major and minor updates to the mix.

WinCustomize has an article outlining 10 examples of minor features that rarely get discussed and yet make a small but noticeable improvement to the Windows experience over Windows XP.

Click for more on Ten Cool Things about Vista you may not have heard of »

Microsoft is warning users to avoid suspicious websites and emails after attacks were reported on an unpatched flaw in Internet Explorer 7.

The company would not provide exact figures, but said that a “limited number ” of attacks had been reported.

The attacks target a vulnerability in IE7’s handling of the uniform resource indicator (URI) commands used by browsers to launch third-party applications.

Microsoft disclosed the vulnerability on 10 October, explaining that it arises when the browser fails to check malformed URI instructions in Windows XP and Server 2003. Windows Vista is not believed to be vulnerable.

Click for more on Attackers take aim at IE7 unpatched flaw »

Install OSX Leopard on your x86 PC, dual or triple boot OSX with Windows XP/Vista.

Credit goes to BraizlMac@osx86scene forum who made the original patch to make all these possible. This guide is a summing up with some  corrections.

If you’ve get your Leopard running, try to add EFI capability and enjoy the vanilla kernel.

This currently works on INTEL system with SSE3 support ONLY. An AMD/SSE2 patch should come  shortly. Use CPU-Z to check the system capability if you are not sure.

Warning: the patch is rather experimental atm, and even your processor supports SSE3, the installation might still fails due to various compatible issues. Also, the patched DVD seems to be problematic, missing the booting setup part, and most likely would render a system unbootable. Most guides online are based on the instruction comes with the patch file, they didn’t actually install it! I did manage to install the Leopard on my own PC and this guide is based on my very own, first-hand experience. I’ll try to make it as accurate and correct as possible.

Update: AMD/Intel SSE2 users try this. Need to patch the original Leopard DMG though, no pre-patched disk available atm.

What you’ll need:

• Optional: Original unpatched Leopard installation disk image, and patch file to enable x86 PC support and strip the image to 4.3G so it can fit on a single layer DVD. This requires access to an working OSX Tiger system, so might not feasible for everyone.
• Optional but highly recommended: Patched 10.4.10 Tiger installation disk(torrent download). Other Tiger disk will also work.
• the patched DVD image(torrent download), post install patch file.
• a DVD burner and empty DVD media
• a USB Flash Drive formatted as FAT or FAT32, flash memory+usb card reader will also work
• Computer with Windows installed, HDD with at least 10G free space.

Click for more on Howto: The Complete Mac Leopard Installation and Windows Multi-Boot Setup Guide »

Leopard vs. Vista: it’s on.

There no doubt, Vista and Leopard are both extremely advanced, feature rich consumer operating systems. But way back in January when Vista launched knew we had little choice but pit the two in a head to head chartngraph Thunderdome competition.

NOTE: This chart is only for out of box features, and does not take into account 3rd party software.

Click for more on Leopard vs. Vista: feature chart showdown »

Microsoft releases a new update for Windows Vista that improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of the OS.

Download for 32bit Windows Vista(link, WGA Free) and 64bit(link, WGA Free)

This update, detailed in KB941969, resolves the following issues in Windows Vista:

• A compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
• A reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.

Click for more on Windows Update: Vista performance pack and DX9c Nov patch »

Just hours after Adobe fixed a vulnerability in its PDF viewing applications, users became warned of a continuing security threat.

Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader became hot programs for spammers after a glitch was discovered to exploit the program’s “mailto” command.  Hackers used this in connection with a malicious PDF code to send out bulk e-mails with dangerous PDF attachments.

Click for more on Adobe PDF exploits continue after patch »