Last week, we explained
how to install Mac OS X Lion with the standard Unibeast method.
However, to follow the Unibeast method, you have to install Mac OS X
Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh before installing Lion. If you're
installing Mac OS X on your PC for the first time, and you just want to
jump straight to Lion without the inconvenience of installing Snow
Leopard, you could use a distro instead. Distros are pirated copies of
Mac OS X that have been modified to work with a PC. If you don't have
any qualms with the legal issues regarding distros, they're actually a
very convenient way to set up a Hackintosh.
NOTE: This guide is essentially a combination of my guides on
installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard,
installing Mac OS X Lion, and
installing Lion in a virtual machine. The process of installing a distro is
very similar to the standard methods of installing Mac OS X.
Requirements:
- A compatible computer: Not every computer will work with Mac OS X, even with modified versions of OS X. Be sure to read the Hackintosh compatibility guide very
carefully, to check whether or not your computer qualifies. Mac OS X
Lion has several new hardware requirements, compared to Snow Leopard.
For instance, Lion is a 64-bit operating system, meaning that old 32-bit
processors like Intel Pentium no longer work. Additionally, AMD processors do no work with Lion because there is no legacy kernel.
- iAtkos L2: This is a popular distro of Mac OS X Lion. I
won't go into details, but you can download it from just about any
bittorrent website by using a bittorrent client (it's about 4 GB in size). The standard method for installing Mac OS X Lion
requires you to modify a retail copy of Mac OS X Lion with Unibeast,
but iAtkos already does all of this for you. You will need to burn
iAtkos onto a DVD, and boot your computer from that DVD to install Mac
OS X. To burn DVDs, you need an empty DVD disc and a DVD/Bluray burner
(just about every DVD/Bluray drive nowadays can act as a burner, too).
- Multibeast Lion Edition (Free): Multibeast is a collection of kext files that
your Hackintosh will need to run properly, after the initial
installation. Download it onto a USB drive, along with the combo update.
You need to register an account on tonymacx86.com to download
Multibeast. Be sure to download the Lion edition, not the Snow Leopard
edition.
- A DSDT file for your motherboard (Free): DSDT
files are configuration files that customize Mac OS X to work with your
specific motherboard. If your motherboard has a DSDT file available in
the DSDT section of
tonymacx86.com, download it onto a USB drive along with the Combo
Update and Multibeast. Make sure that your motherboard has the right
BIOS version, or the DSDT file won't work. For example, a DSDT file for
version F4 won't work if your motherboard has version F1.
You can check your motherboard's BIOS version straight from the BIOS itself, or you can check with CPU-Z (if you already have Windows installed). Read this to learn how to update your BIOS version.
1. Settings up the parts of your computer
Open up your Hackintosh, and make sure that the SATA cables for your
hard drive and your DVD/Bluray drive are plugged into the 3GB/s SATA
ports on your motherboard, not the 6GB/s SATA ports (these should be
labeled on the motherboard). On Gigabyte motherboards, the 3GB/s ports
are blue while the 6 GB/s ports are white. The 6 GB/s SATA ports simply
don't work well with OS X.
NOTE: If your computer is more than 2 years old, it probably won't have any 6GB/s SATA ports.
Unplug all USB-connected devices from your computer before you begin the
setup (except your keyboard and mouse). A faulty external USB hard
drive can cause your Hackintosh bootloader to give you EBIOS errors on
startup.
Also, unplug any extra internal hard drives that your computer has,
besides the hard drive that you're installing OS X on. (Just unplug the
hard drive SATA cables from your motherboard.)
P.S. If you already have Windows installed on another internal hard drive in your computer, you will have to
enable AHCI for Windows before installing Mac OS X. Otherwise, Windows won't boot afterwards. Also, after installing Mac OS X, you should also
sync your clock on Windows with Mac OS X.
2. Setting up your motherboard's BIOS
The BIOS is basically a settings page for your motherboard. To enter the
BIOS on my own computer's Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3 motherboard, I have to
press the delete key when it boots (before the operating system starts).
Different manufacturers set different keys for opening the BIOS.
There are really only three things that you have to change in the BIOS.
However, installing OSX is incredibly prone to error, so it's best just
to reset all of your BIOS settings to their factory defaults before
doing anything. On Gigabyte motherboards, you can reset your BIOS
settings to their default by selecting "Load Optimized Defaults" on the
main page of the BIOS. Once your BIOS is running on its defaults, you
need to change these three settings:
Boot Device - Change the boot device of your computer so that "CDROM" is first. You need to do this for the iAtkos DVD to work.
HPET - Change this to 64-bit.
SATA Control Mode (your BIOS might call this a different name) -
This will probably already be set to "SATA", "IDE", or "RAID". Change it
to "AHCI". Mac OS X only works with AHCI.
Keep in mind that the BIOS on most motherboards do not support using a
mouse, so you'll probably have to navigate through the BIOS with the
arrow keys on your keyboard. Press "Enter" to change a selected option
in the BIOS. On my Gigabyte motherboard, I have to press F10 to save my
changes.
3. Burn iAtkos onto a DVD disc
Burn iAtkos onto a DVD disc. You will be booting your Hackintosh from this iAtkos DVD, in order to install Mac OS X Lion.
On Windows 7, burning capabilities are built-in to the operating
system-- just insert an empty DVD into your DVD/Bluray drive,
right-click on the downloaded iAtkos file (it should either be an ISO
file), and burn it. If you're using Windows XP or Vista, you will need
to use a program such as
ImgBurn.
Depending on the speed of your DVD burner, this can take up to few
hours. Personally, I recommend that everybody use ImgBurn, instead of
the default Windows 7 burner; in the past, I've found ImgBurn to be far
more reliable.
4. Boot into iAtkos
Insert the iAtkos DVD into the DVD drive of your PC, and reboot your PC.
If things go well, your computer will boot into the iAtkos boot
screen.
If you do not manage to reach the iAtkos boot screen, check your
motherboard's BIOS settings to make sure that the changes you made in
Step 2 were properly applied. If they were, try burning iAtkos onto a
different DVD (if you used the built-in Windows 7 burning tool to burn
the DVD the first time, try using
ImgBurn instead).
Normally, after you continue past the iAtkos boot screen, the
installation screen will be loaded within a few minutes (5-10 minutes
for me).
In the worst case scenarios, instead of loading the Mac OS X installer,
you may end up at a dark gray screen that tells you to restart your
computer (a kernel panic), or you may end up with a small crossed-out
sign (a loading error). If you get a kernel panic/loading error (or if
the Mac OS X installer simply won't start within 30 minutes), you'll
need to enter some boot flags.
To enter boot flags, manually restart your computer by pressing your
computer's power button. Then, once you've booted back into the iAtkos
menu, try
typing any necessary boot flags before pressing the enter/return key. Check out this list of
common boot flags for reference ( PCIRootUID=0 and -x are two popular boot flags).
5. Install Lion
Once you've entered the Mac OS X Lion installer, you will come up to a
page that asks you for a "destination" for your Mac install. Oh no, the
page is blank! We'll have to fix that. To do this, start up Disk Utility
(located under the Utilities menu in the top bar).
You need to use Disk Utility to erase your hard drive so that OS X can
install itself on it. In the sidebar of Disk Utility, choose your
computer's hard drive and erase it by using the "Erase" tab (the Format
should be set to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". If you want, you can
then partition the hard disk by using Disk Utility's Partition tab (OS X
cannot boot from a partition that's larger than 1 TB in size, so if you
have a 2 TB hard drive, you will have to partition it).
On the installation page for Mac OSX, the hard disk/disk partition
should now be showing up. Select it and continue to the Install Summary
page.
Click the "Customize" button on the bottom left. This is where using a
distro becomes really useful: iAtkos allows you to install extra
Hackintosh drivers and
kexts, straight from the Mac OS X Lion installer. The "Customize" page essentially does the same thing as
Multibeast, though the layout (and some of the names of the options) are different.
However, choosing the right options from this page can be really tricky,
so unless you're absolutely certain about which drivers and kexts you
need to install for your computer, I don't recommend installing too much
stuff from here. For most computers, the default selection should be
enough. You can figure out the rest in Step 6, where you'll actually set
up your Hackintosh with Multibeast.
The only extra option that you
'll probably have to choose from
the Customize page is "IOPCIFamily" (located under "Patches"). This
fixes a common boot issue with Lion; it's installed by default in iAtkos
L2, but you'll have to choose it yourself in iAtkos L1.
Once that's done with, install Mac OS X Lion. This will take at least 20 minutes.
Restart (you can eject your iAtkos DVD). At the boot screen, you'll see
an icon for the hard drive where you installed Lion. Select it (use the
arrow keys on your computer) and press "Enter". Lion will boot, and you
should eventually be led to the Mac OS X setup screen. Fill it out, then
mission accomplished!
If you get a kernel panic/loading error when you try to boot your new
Lion installation (or if the installation simply won't start within 5
minutes), reinsert your iAtkos DVD into the DVD drive, and restart your
computer. The iAtkos boot screen will come up again. From the iAtkos
boot screen, select the hard drive where you installed Lion, and press
"Enter".
Once again, if your Mac OS X won't even boot with the help of your
iAtkos DVD, you'll need to enter some boot flags. To enter boot flags,
manually restart your computer by pressing your computer's power button.
Then, once you've booted back into the iAtkos menu, try
type any necessary boot flags before pressing the enter/return key. Remember to check out this list of
common boot flags for reference.
6. Post-Installation: Multibeast
Multibeast is a collection of kext files that you'll need to install for
your Hackintoshes to have sound, internet, a high resolution screen,
and more. Different Hackintosh builds require different Multibeast
setups, though most setups are very similar. Find out
what Multibeast options you need to install. If you have a Gigabyte GA-P67A-D3-B3 motherboard like me, check out my own
Multibeast setup.
You probably won't have internet on your Hackintosh yet, so use another computer to download
Multibeast and copy it onto the USB drive. Then plug the drive into your Hackintosh.
If you have a DSDT file for your motherboard, rename it "DSDT.aml", copy
it onto the desktop of Mac OS X, and run "UserDSDT Install" in
Multibeast.
Finding the right options for Multibeast may take some trial and error.
Your best chance at finding the right setup is to Google your specific
motherboard or computer model. For example, if your computer has a
GA-P67A-D3-B3 motherboard like mine, Google "GA-P67A-D3-B3 hackintosh".
If you're lucky, somebody will have written a guide on installing OS X
for your computer, and you can just copy their Multibeast setup.
Enabling your graphics card so that it'll run at full resolution can be
even trickier. Some graphics cards work out of the box, without any
modifications necessary, while other graphics cards (especially newer
ones) can be a huge pain. If you happen to own a Galaxy GTX 460, you
can
enable it with a combination of the official NVIDIA drivers, NVEnabler, and 32-bit Apple Boot Screen.
And that's all there is to it. If your PC is built of nothing but
Hackintosh-compatible parts (known as "vanilla"), this entire process
might only take around 3-4 hours. Of course, for most of us, this
process will take much longer. Good luck Hackintoshing!
