We also discovered some neat software by the name of MacDrive 8 that allows a PC to read and write Mac disks, CDs and DVDs. Don't need to fire up OS X just to check out a drive or backup data from a drive that is going bad.

The next logical step was to see if we could get OS X to run on one of our PC systems. First we purchased a retail version of OS X 10.5.4 to see what it would do right out of the box. It did not do anything because our PC system could not find a boot block on the DVD.

Our next starting point was a web site called http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

This site contains a wealth of information and links for anyone wanting to build a Hackintosh. We did find however, that there are no clear cut step by step instructions that work for everybody. The main reason is differing hardware and a misunderstanding of how the process actually works.

We are using 6 USB ports for a combination of modems, a Smart UPS, a Joystick, two hi-def video cameras and a MIDI system. There is also a 1394 flatbed scanner attached and a voice modem on a serial port.

We are also using the Primary onboard IDE controller for CD-RW and DVD-RW drives and there are three SATA II hard disks, one of which OS X is installed on (actually four SATA II drives counting the external one).

It is not pretty but our cracked apple (crapple?) is running OS X 10.5.8 just fine on a reclaimed Apple hard drive sitting on the desk

Boot-132 - There are many flavors of this software, we used BOOT-DFE-146-BUM
Kalyway OS X 10.5.2 - There is only one flavor of this
Kalyway OS X 10.5.3 combined update There is only one flavor of this
Apple OS X 10.5.4 update - Do not use the combo version
Apple OS X 10.5.5 update - Do not use the combo version
Apple OS X 10.5.6 update - Do not use the combo version
Apple OS X 10.5.7 update - Do not use the combo version
Apple OS X 10.5.8 update - Do not use the combo version

On our backup Pentium 4 3.2ghz system it took over 4 hours for the Kalyway OS X 10.5.2 and OS X 10.5.3 downloads. The downloads from Apple took only a couple of minutes.

Note that we used Nero to do all of the CD and DVD burning.

2 - Download Kalyway OS X 10.5.2
After you download this file you will need to burn it to a Dual Layer DVD as an ISO image file.

3 -  Download Kalyway OS X 10.5.3 combined Update
After you download this file you will need to burn it to a CD as an ISO image file.

4 - Hackintosh System BIOS Settings
We do not have to change any BIOS settings from the way we run Windows XP or Windows 7. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the CD-DVD drive that you are going to use to load the software is the PRIMARY BOOT CD-DVD drive. We used an IDE drive without a problem. You can compare our BIOS settings to yours but note that we are not using the onboard audio and that our system is over-clocked.

Here we do have AHCI enabled for drive 'Hot Swap' support.
The drive on SATA Port 0 is a NTFS work drive for Windows XP.
The drive on SATA Port 1 is the OS X drive.
The drive on SATA Port 2 is a NTFS drive for Windows 7
The drive on SATA Port 3 is the external OS X drive.
The CD-DVD drive we use to boot OS X is the one labeled Primary Master. It is the only one that would work.
We also tried a SATA DVD drive connected to SATA Port 2, it did not work.
 

The hard drive order does not make any difference to OS X because you must tell it which drive to boot from during the boot-strap sequence. In this list it is the second drive. Windows would not boot if we set the 29320A SCSI controller to anything other than the first thing in the list. 

5 - Initial Boot
Insert the Boot-132 disk into your Primary Boot CD-DVD drive - No other drive will work.

Restart your system. If you burned a good boot CD you should see the Darwin system bootstrap.

At the BOOT prompt, remove the BOOT-132 CD and insert the Kalyway OS X 10.5.2 Installation DVD.

Wait until the drive access light goes out  and then press the Enter key.

Notice that there is a number in  brackets after the 'boot device', ours was [90]. This is the primary boot CD-DVD drive.
Enter that number and press the Enter key.

Sometimes the system would start installing after we hit the Enter Key. Other times we had to hit the Enter key again and then got the message "booting from default devuce". We may not have waited for the activity light to go out.
 

Press the Enter key and the system should start reading the DVD and posting a log to the screen.

Patience, this may take a while.

The next thing you should see is a screen asking you to select the system language, click on your choice.

Then click on the Arrow Buttom at the bottom right side.

Finally the installation startup screen.

STOP - Do NOT click on Continue!
You have to set up the hard drive that you are going to install OS X 10.5.2 on.

6 - Create a OS X 10.5.2 Partition
At the top left side of the screen you should have a menu bar.

 

Select Utilities.

 

Clicking on the Utilities menu presents you with this menu.

 

Select and click on Disk Utility...

 

On the left side highlight the disk drive that you are going to install OS X 10.5.2 on. (we took these pictures after the fact that is why our drive shows it is already partitioned and named)

 

On the right side select Partition

Select the number of partitions you want and confirm that you want to complete the partitioning of the drive. (again these pictures were taken after the fact)

Click on APPLY and Exit out of the Disk Utilities (either click on the red X or click on Disk Utilities on the menu bar and select Quit Disk Utilities)
 

Now you can click on Continue.

7 - OS X 10.5.2 Installation
Depending on your system configuration this may take over an hour. It took about 45 minutes on ours.
Once the installation is done you will see a screen that says the system is going to reboot.
The tricky part here is that you may not be able to eject the DVD that is in the drive.
Wait until the OS X installer has shut down.
Press the eject button on your DVD drive and remove the Kalyway 10.5.2 DVD
Re-insert the BOOT-132 CD

8 - OS X 10.5.2 Startup and Configuration
When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.

You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X 10.5.2 in.

Press the Enter key.
You should be presented with two screens asking for your personal information.
Your screen may turn light blue with a spinning beach ball - wait, this may take some time.
If all has gone well you will be greeted by a multi language welcome message.
 

After the welcome message you should see the OS X 10.5.2 desktop.

Don't stop to celebrate just yet.

9 - OS X 10.5.3 Update
Remove the BOOT-132 CD from the drive. You can use the Eject Button or the F12 key now.

Insert the Kalyway OS X 10.5.3 Combo Upgrade CD into the Primary Boot CD-DVD drive.
The DVD should show up on your desktop where the BOOT-DFE-146-BUM was

Click on the Drive Icon to open it.

You should see three folders.

Click on the Kalyway_UpdCombo10.5.3.pkg

The OS X 10.5.3 installer should start and guide you through the install.

 

VERY IMPORTANT - DO NOT CLICK ON 'RESTART' WHEN IT FINISHES!

 

Go back to the window with the three folders.

Click on the Kalyway_10.5.3_Kernel.pkg

You should see two folders.

Click on the Vanilla Kennel 9.3

The Installer should start and guide you through the install.

 

When the Installer finishes, click on CLOSE in that window.

 

You are going to have to do the same CD shuffle you did in the step 7.
Click on the Eject Buttom or press the F12 key to eject and remove the Kalyway 10.5.3 Combo Upgrade CD.
Insert the BOOT-132 CD.
(I know the picture shows the BOOT disk being ejected - remember this is a low budget project)

 

NOW CLICK ON THE 'RESTART' BUTTON IN THE Kalyway 10.5.3 Combo.pkg WINDOW.

10 - Applying the OS X 10.5.3 upgrade

Note that while you installed the OS X 10.5.3 upgrade in the step above it has not been totally applied.

When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
 

You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X 10.5.3 in.

Very Important - At the BOOT prompt enter "update -v" without the quotes.

If this is not done your system will reboot to a blue screen with a spinning beach ball and will just hang there. All is not lost however. Just reboot and repeat the above step.
 

After you press the Enter key you will see a screen with a black background and a bunch of stuff zipping by. You will also see some error statements highlighted in yellow go by. Do not worry about these.

Although it looks like the system stopped posting stuff to the screen, WAIT. It may take 10-15 minutes but the system should automatically reboot. If it does not you can reboot the system again and all may be OK.

When the system reboots and you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X in.

This time at the BOOT prompt just press the Enter key and the system should start and display the OS X Desktop.
 

Checking the Hackintosh system information shows the following:

11 - OS X 10.5.4 Update

We tried various ways to install the OS X 10.5.4 updates and found that the only way that worked for us was to connect to the Apple site, download and install the update.

Just start Safari and enter the address as shown below.
Then click on Download. The update will download and install.
When it is done you will need to restart the computer.

When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X 10.5.4 in.
 

VERY IMPORTANT - At the BOOT prompt enter "update -v" without the quotes.

If this is not done your Hackintosh will reboot to a blue screen with a spinning beach ball and just hang there. All is not lost however. Just reboot and repeat the above step.

After you press the Enter key you will see a screen with a black background and a bunch of stuff zipping by. You will also see some error statements highlighted in yellow go by. Do not worry about these.

When the system stops posting stuff to the screen, reboot the system again.

When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X 10.5.4 in.

This time at the BOOT prompt just press the Enter key and the system should display the OS X 10.5.4 Desktop.

12 - OS X 10.5.5 Update

As with the OS X 10.5.4 update we tried various ways to install the OS X 10.5.5 updates and found that the only way that worked for us was to connect to the Apple site, download and install the update.

Just start Safari and enter the address as shown below.
Then click on Download. The update will download and install.
When it is done you will need to restart the computer.

 

When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X in.

VERY IMPORTANT - At the BOOT prompt enter "update -v" without the quotes.

If this is not done your Hackintosh will reboot to a blue screen with a spinning beach ball and just hang there. All is not lost however. Just reboot and repeat the above step.

After you press the Enter key you will see a screen with a black background and a bunch of stuff zipping by. You will also see some error statements highlighted in yellow go by. Do not worry about these.

When the system stops posting stuff to the screen, reboot the system again.

When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X 10.5.5 in.

This time at the BOOT prompt just press the Enter key and the system should display the OS X 10.5.5 Desktop.

Checking the Hackintosh system information shows the following:

 

13 - OS X 10.5.6 Update

Important Notice - If you are using a PS-2 Keyboard and / or a PS-2 Mouse, after you install the OS X 10.5.6 update  they will not work until you apply a patch. 

You can only apply the patch AFTER you do the update. There is an easy fix if you have a spare USB KB and Mouse to use. See the Operational Notes section below.

As with the OS X 10.5.5 update we tried various ways to install the OS X 10.5.6 updates and found that the only way that worked for us was to connect to the Apple site, download and install the update.

Just start Safari and enter the address as shown below.
Then click on Download. The update will download and install.
When it is done you will need to restart the computer.

 

When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X 10.5.6 in.

VERY IMPORTANT - This is different than before.  At the BOOT prompt enter "-v -x" without the quotes.

This will boot the system into Safe Mode. If you get to the login screen all is OK. Reboot the system.
 

When you see the BOOT prompt press the Enter key.
You should see that same screen with a number in brackets.
This time you need to enter the ID of the hard drive which will be 80, 81, 82 etc for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd hard drive.
If you only have one drive the number should be 80, enter it and press the Enter key.
You should see a screen with a highlighted box with the name of the partition you created and installed OS X 10.5.6 in.

VERY IMPORTANT - This is different than before.  At the BOOT prompt enter "-v -f" without the quotes.

 

If all has gone well you should see the OS X 10.5.6 desktop. As noted above if you have a PS-2 KB or Mouse it will not work.

 

To fix the PS-2 KB and Mouse problem with OS X 10.5.6, plug in your spare or borrowed USB Keyboard and Mouse, then do a search on PS2FixKeyboard.zip. Install it and your problem should be solved.

 

If you check the third line you will see that we are running the current vanilla Darwin 9.6 Kernel from Nov-24-2008

The Intel AHCI SATA controller is working.

The USB Controller is working (even our joystick is recognized)

And our IDE CD - DVD drives are working with burn support.

14 - OS X 10.5.7 and OS X 10.5.8 Update

Just to see if it would work correctly we used the Software Update function in OS X to update our Hackintosh to version 10.5.7. and 10.5.8

All went well except for one glitch, our special Intel AHCI disk controller driver was overwritten and thus the default 'Generic' driver was used resulting in the incorrect disk icons being displayed on the desktop.

We used the same fix that corrected the problem with version 10.5.3 and is explained in the Operational Notes section below.

15 - OS X Application Software Upgrade

The first time you run the Software Update application you will find that there are 8 to 10 application updates available. We did them one at a time and backed up in between.

None of the application updates caused any problems with our system.

Make a DVD  image of your system disk drive at this point because any problems will result in having to do the whole process all over again. Starting from step 1 including re-partitioning the drive. Don't ask me how I know......

That being said, to make sure our hardware worked, we have loaded and successfully tested:

Adobe PhotoShop Elements 3
Carbon Copy Cloaner - updated online
Ilife 09 - updated online
Open Office - 
OSX86 Tools
Scan Wizard Pro 7
StuffIt
TinkerTool
Toast 8 Titanium
Toast 10 Titanium
VideoLanPlayer

You may have to continue to use the BOOT-132 CD to bootstrap your system and then enter your disk number to boot up OS X 10.5.8. There are ways around this using a program called OSX86Tools which can be found on the web.

We found three glitches with our Hackintosh:
When we upgraded from OS X 10.5.2 to OS X 10.5.3 and from OS X 10.5.6 to OS X 10.5.7 and OS X 10.5.8 we noticed that our Intel AHCI disk controller was no longer recognized. Because of that the disk controller type was changed to 'unknown' and all of the drives connected to it were changed to 'removable' and the icons were changed from the metal finish to the orange enclosure. This did not seem to cause any problems while we were doing the rest of the upgrades required to bring the system up to the current OS X 10.5.8 version. We applied the fix after we had updated to OS X 10.5.6 and OS X 10.5.7 and OS X 10.5.8

The fix involves installing System\Library\Extensions\AppleAHCIport.kext and IOACHIFamily.kext files from version OSX 10.5.2 into the current version. This adds support for the Intel AHCI Raid Controller which the system once again recognizes and restores the disk icons back to thier correct metal finish for an internal drive. You can do this using OSX86Tools which can be found on the web or you can manually copy the files to the correct directory.
 

Another glitch was that when we updated from version OS X 10.5.5 to version OS X 10.5.6 our PS-2 keyboard and mouse quit working. Seems that OS X 10.5.6 no longer supports PS-2 devices. Plugging in a USB mouse and keyboard temporarily solved the problem. The real fix is in a package named PS2FixKeyboard.zip.

The problem is that you need a running system to install it, that is why we used a temporary USB keyboard and mouse. Once the installation was done our PS-2 mouse and KB worked fine.
 

The last  little grinch we have found is that the system clock gets set to whatever hour is relative in UTC time when booting back to Windows XP and must be reset before booting back up. For instance if the local time is 6:00 PM and UTC is 11:00 PM, when the system is booted the local time will be set to 11:00 PM.

With that in mind please note that we made no effort to get the SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Music sound card working or the BlueTooth working. The on board sound card may in fact work, we just did not tested it. Everything else seems to work correctly.

MacDrive 8 has proven very handy when it came to doing file for file comparisons on our MAC drives.