Maxxuss Releases SS3 Emulator and AMD Enabler for OS X 10.4.4 (Intel)

Note: Some of this information may be out of date. Although I try to provide updates to posts as postscript, many times an entirely new post may be necessary. Click one of the tags above to find the latest entries by the subject matter you are interested in.

There is a great deal of activity in the Apple OS X for white-box Intel PC world right now. In a follow-up to my previous posting regarding Maxxuss cracking Apple OSX 10.4.4, SSE2 and AMD machines are now supported. Also, Base-Patches have been updated to version 0.3 (See 2.19.2006 Update below).

Here is a snippet from Maxxuss’ site:

The v0.3 patches require an Intel CPU and SSE3. NX/XD support is not required, and Mac OS X works native and under VMWare.

However, AMD CPUs are supported by the AMD Enabler, and SSE2 CPUs are supported by the SSE3 Emulator…

In other developments, the OSx86 Project Forums were taken down after they were served with a DMCA violation notice. As of February 17, 2006 @ 21:05 ET, the site reads:

We’re sorry to report that despite our best efforts, the OSx86 Project has been served with a DMCA violation notice. The forum will be unavailable while we evaluate its contents to remove any violations present. We thank you for your patience in this matter.

There is no word yet if they’ll be brought back at all. Unfortunately, Apple does not realize that these sorts of tactics don’t work in the x86 world. If Apple pushes harder, then this community will go underground as so many have before. Quite frankly, Apple is wasting its time and should focus on releasing more Intel-equipped hardware than chasing a tiny community concerned with breaking through the TPM puzzle. However, the effect of the OSx86 Project Forum shut down did not go unnoticed and led to speculation of an Apple crackdown when Win2OSX was taken offline. At this time, the IRC channel topic reads:

Site is/was down because it took excessive traffic – IT IS NOT DMCA-RELATED.’ Set by Kal on Fri Feb 17 13:00:08

So it is probably safe to say that there is a chance that Win2OSX may be back whenever they get to paying their hosting bills.

UPDATE (2.18.2006): The OSx86 Project posted an announcement about the forums being brought back online. Apparently they’ve removed the offending posts/links but that doesn’t mean they won’t be hit again. I’m going to suggest people head over to the 360 Insider Forums for searching through old issues. Any new posts should be posted to the Non-Chinese Discussion forum at OSX86China Forum for, ironically, uncensored discussion.

UPDATE (2.19.2006): Maxxuss has released his latest patch set: Patch Solution v1.0 (Search terms on Google Germany: maxxuss patch solution 09.55). This integrates and supercedes all earlier patches. Native or VMWare guest install instructions are on his site. The easiest install instructions are at Radiotux.

UPDATE (2.20.2006): Although it is against my ideology of Free Speech, I have voluntarily removed some links to The Pirate Bay Bittorrent site. I think Google should remove this informtion as well because it tells users where to get OS X 10.4.4 Restore Disc necessary for the install.

UPDATE (2.21.2006): I’ve posted a full entry on Maxxuss’ site being unavailable. All updates on this topic from today will be in that post. Thanks to Zeth for the heads up. Also a review of someone installing a hacked copy of OS X 10.4.4 is posted at Cavemonkey50.

UPDATE (2.23.2006): Apparently Win2osx was sent a DMCA notice at the same time as OSx86 Project. Their provider took down the site while Win2osx removed links to Maxxuss’ site and other infringing material. Although the Apple lawyer later said they were in compliance, the hosting site still hasn’t restored Win2osx. The story is up on Digg (#win2osx ops have asked that people digg the story) and exchange of emails between Win2osx and the Apple lawyer have been made public.

If there are any other new developments, don’t hesitate to shoot me an e-mail or dropping a comment below.

As always, I don’t condone piracy so please don’t do anything illegal.

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February 17, 2006 | Filed Under Tech/Gadgets | 8 Comments

Apple OS X 10.4.4 for Intel Cracked (Again)

I’ve written about running Apple’s beautiful OS X on Intel hardware many times in the past. Another one of my past posts on this topic even gave a list of links on where to find information on how to accomplish this feat on regular white box computers. The scene has been relatively quiet for a long time as Apple was gearing up to release their official Intel-based machines. The main problem was that many pieces of hardware couldn’t run under the OS X because drivers were not available much like Linux machines of yesteryear. Unlike Linux, the OS X for Intel community didn’t have the programmers necessary to start writing drivers so things began to stagnate. Many hoped that the official release of Apple machines would coincide with more drivers. Then a few new developments occurred:

Pirates released Mac OS X 10.4.4 into cyberspace on both BitTorrent and Usenet. This disc was only to restore 10.4.4 onto Apple hardware and was useless to anyone else.
Maxxuss (of prior OSX86 hacking fame) released version 0.1 of his base patches which allows OS X 10.4.4 to run on non-Intel machines that supported SSE3 and NX/XD. Ultimately this shut out a lot of Centrino and older Pentium owners but it did break the Apple-only hardware restriction. Note: Some are saying that it will work on SSE2 and non-NX/XD hardware, but I can’t confirm this either way.

Instructions are available on Maxxus’ page which show how to install the new version under VMWare so I’m sure people are very excited about this development. One of the biggest things holding back extended use of the operating system in the OSX86 hacker community was the lack of accelerated drivers for nVidia and ATI cards. At the moment, I haven’t bothered to check the message boards but something tells me that problem should (hopefully) be a thing of the past.

Both Slashdot and OSx86 Project are running stories on this as we speak and it seems like everyone is in agreement on one thing: mainly, this isn’t going to affect Apple in any big way. Most of the people taking the time to install the software are enthusiasts who have the time and extra computers to play with this operating system. The general public won’t be using this at all because it involves far too much time and energy for any of this to work. Even then, how can most people even begin to sacrifice their productivity in Windows or Linux to play around with an operating system that probably won’t support their hardware? Not many I assume. On the other hand, it will give some people a great conversation piece and maybe even give Apple a few extra machine sales.

As always, I don’t condone piracy so please don’t do anything illegal.

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February 14, 2006 | Filed Under Tech/Gadgets | Comments Off

Running Apple OS X on an Intel CPU

First of all, if you are lost after reading that Apple OS X runs on Intel-based computers (i.e. Dell, HP, IBM, etc. branded machines) then go to my earlier post to get some background.

I just wanted to post some links to places to get more info with some blurbs on recent updates.

OSx86 Project is the main website right now which contains a news items from the OSX86 community. The forums on the site are very active and amongst the best out there.
OSx86 Project Wiki deserves its own line because this online “encyclopedia” has just about all the information you could ever want. Start with the Installation Guides but make sure to browse around for lots of other info.
Bar none the best installation guide is by xplOde. There are other install guides out there: link #1, link #2.
Once installed patches may be needed for non-SSE3 processors (i.e. Pentium M) which can be found at the OSX86 File Center.
If you are still having problems then check out the 360Hacker.net forums or the OSX86 Project forums listed above.
Some trailblazers have gotten WINE working on OSX86. This is significant because it means that Windows applications can now run under Apple’s OS X. The announcement is here. Forum post and screenshots here and here.
Still not brave enough to try it yourself? You can read about The Unofficial Apple Weblogs attempt at installing OSX86.