Home automation may sound like a science-fiction dream, but in reality it is not only commonplace, but relatively simple to get started, especially with Linux.

Smart control of household appliances and utilities begins at the low end with plug-and-play radio frequency (RF) and powerline modules and relays that can easily interface with a small home server in charge of scheduling and monitoring. At the high end, a home automation setup may include environmental controls, home security systems, and many other add-ons, which–despite the name–are important concerns for businesses as well as residential customers.

Lighting and environmental controls (such as heating and air conditioning) are the most common home automation targets. Both can be activated according to a fixed schedule, or respond to sensor data such as ambient light or temperature, and can be programmed to behave differently according to the time of day, day of the week, or season. Security systems, such as lighting that responds to motion sensors, door/window triggers, and video surveillance cameras, can also be tied in to home automation systems, making it possible to activate lights if a window break is detected, in addition to calling the police or other standard security responses.

Increasingly, home theater aficionados use lighting and environmental automation to control “scenes” for their entertainment rooms. Most AV receivers, home theater projectors, and motorized projection screens include serial port control, making it easy to tie in to a single system with other home automation devices. In addition, almost any appliance or electrical device can be remote controlled, and thus managed by a home automation computer–from sprinkler systems to window shades. The only impediments are finding the hardware modules to connect the device to the network of automated services and the software to control it.

Standards

Underlying any home automation system is the communication standard with which messages are relayed between components. The home automation industry has several, some proprietary and some open, some controlled by a single equipment vendor and some implemented by multiple manufacturers. The oldest standards tended to use powerline signal transmission, but newer systems use RF exclusively or a combination of both.

X10 is easily the most widely-known standard; it is an open standard using powerline transmission. Although it has a maximum signal rate of just 20 bits per second, the low cost of components makes it popular, particular for newcomers to the field. X10 was created in 1975, but a newer standard called INSTEON exists that is backwards compatible with it, but includes a much higher signaling rate, built-in error detection and retransmission, and hybrid RF-and-powerline communication. Unlike X10, however, the INSTEON specification is patent-protected and available only from its creator, Smarthome Technology.

C-Bus, Bus SCS, HomePNA, and Z-Wave are other standards growing in popularity, but which are controlled by either a single company or a trade group. In contrast, the LonWorks and KNX standards have been approved by the ISO, IEC, ANSI, or other standards bodies, and can be implemented without paying royalties. KNX is distinct in that it is the unification of three prior standards, the European Installation Bus (EIB), European Home Systems Protocol (EHS), and BatiBUS. ONE-NET is an interesting new standard engineered to be vendor-neutral and open from the ground up.

In addition to these home automation-focused standards, there are several other protocols that are often used to integrate devices into smart home systems, including the ZigBee wireless communication protocol and (increasingly) USB and Bluetooth.

Basic Linux Applications

Support for home automation starts with sending and receiving messages using the appropriate standard. X10 support is broad, and there are multiple X10 control devices that you can connect to a Linux computer over a standard RS-232 serial port. One of the most actively-maintained X10 package for Linux is Heyu, which supports multiple generations of X10 serial port devices. Heyu is a command-line driven tool that can run as a daemon or a cron job to automate commands, but there are several third-party front ends available as well.

Other X10 utilities include Bottlerocket for the popular X10 “Firecracker” model controller, and X10d which is not Linux-native but is easily patched for Linux support. Both are bare-bones communication packages focusing on sending and receiving signals directly to the attached X10 serial device, but have a healthy ecosystem of higher-level tools designed to run on top of them. In addition to the projects’ pages, Neil Cherry’s Linux Home Automation site has lists of these user-friendly applications.

INSTEON is not as widespread as X10, but there are several independent Linux projects that support it as well. Cherry supplies several INSTEON utilities, some of which are ports of X10 code. There is also iLink, which can communicate with both serial and USB INSTEON controllers. The more ambitious may prefer the Efundies site, which caters to electronics tinkerers, and has both hardware and software hacking guides, including code samples and documentation.

The proprietary protocols–understandably–have little to no support in free software, although a handful of free utilities for Bus SCS are linked to from the My Open Bticino site, and at least one Z-Wave vendor has released source code to a Linux driver for its products.

LonWorks and KNX each have several independent driver projects, most of which support only specific hardware–in some cases not off-the-shelf components. Cherry’s site maintains the best list. ONE-NET has code and documentation available on its site, but thus far the only compatible hardware options are evaluation kits.

Whole-House Systems

For the do-it-yourselfer and hardware hacker, rolling your own solution from the device drivers and low-level tools listed above is not only adequate, it is more fun than a plug-and-play home automation environment. However, for the less adventurous, there are projects that abstract away the need to worry about bit rates and device codes, so that you can simply plug in the components you have and focus on drawing up your lighting plan and AC schedule.

MisterHouse is the oldest still-maintained whole-house system for Linux. It is written primarily in Perl, and focuses on X10 devices, supporting a wide array of X10-to-computer interface devices including serial port, infrared (IR), and network-attached. MisterHouse can schedule appliance and light behavior by time, but also accepts voice input, file monitoring, and remote network triggering. It has a standard web interface, but also supports writing to LCD panels and speech output.

MisterHouse is easily extensible via Perl, and add-ons are available that extend coverage to other standards, including INSTEON. In addition to lighting and appliance control, MisterHouse integrates iButton weather station monitoring, certain alarm, pool, and sprinkler systems, entertainment systems, and standard email, Web, and instant messaging features.

Priscilla is a newer whole-house system that implements X10 and EIB/KNX device control, can use serial or IR connections, and supports 1-Wire programmable devices in addition to off-the-shelf components. The Priscilla development team is based in France, and consequently can incorporate electricity usage monitoring, a feature not possible in all countries. Priscilla is written in PHP and runs on top of Apache and MySQL.

Pluto is a commercial offering that runs on top of Linux, marketed mainly at builders and equipment manufacturers. But homeowners can use an open source version of the same code for free with LinuxMCE. Pluto and LinuxMCE support X10, INSTEON, EIB/KNX, and Z-Wave, plus the PLCBUS and EnOcean protocols. In addition to basic home automation, Pluto and LinuxMCE are built to serve several other roles, such as security system, telephony server, and multimedia DVR and entertainment server. This functionality is built on top of existing open source code such as MythTV.

OpenRemote is relatively new, but boasts an ambitious array of planned technology support: X10, INSTEON, KNX, ZigBee, and IR. OpenRemote is a Java-based Tomcat application, which runs on top of Apache. The current release does not yet support much beyond IR, but it is a project to watch. Again, Cherry maintains the definitive list, so if none of the projects mentioned above precisely fit the bill, it is worth checking. New projects are always in development, such as Domogik or the Ruby-based R-House.

Like any large-scale project, home automation demands a time investment, whether you take the do-it-yourself approach or use a whole-house system. Setting up the modules, designing lighting scenarios, and planning then testing the schedules takes time. There is also a hardware investment–even the simplest and cheapest standard, X10, begins to add up once you purchase a dozen or more modules and controllers; INSTEON and the other standards can be an order of magnitude more expensive. Still, the open source device drivers and Linux-based whole-house management systems are vastly less expensive than proprietary options, and like all open source code, offer the user unlimited freedom to customize.

Comments:

smart sprinkler control…
written by j, October 20, 2009
Here’s a sprinkler control application for LInux: OptiRain Open is a smart sprinkler control application that runs on your Linux server. It provides local control for EtherRain ethernet sprinkler controllers. OptiRain Open is a web application requiring Apache, PHP 5.29+ and SQLite 3.

For more information search keywords: OptiRain EtherRain sprinkler control.
cheers,

From: http://gizmodo.com/5389166/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-10v-into-the-ultimate-snow-leopard-netbook

Here’s the pitch: a 10-inch, almost-pocketable computer running Snow Leopard, the latest, greatest version of OS X. It costs just $300. Sound good? Here’s how to make your own.

Why You Should Do This

Last time we threw together a guide like this, things were different. Snow Leopard was but a glint in Steve Jobs’ eye, and in terms of hardware, the Mini 9 was the best thing going—it was pretty much the only netbook you could guarantee would work perfectly. Not to mention the hackintosh process was much, much more complicated. And riskier! And yet, despite all this, it was easy to recommend loading a Mini up with OS X, because to put it bluntly, the results were fantastic.

But the Mini 9 was a bit too small for regular use, and even if it’s still pretty easy to buy one, it’s not officially part of Dell’s product line anymore. Fast forward to now: the Mini 10v is a (quite similar) replacement for the 9, with a slightly larger screen, 160GB HDD standard, and 1GB or RAM. Most importantly, the keyboard is a bit larger, and the price is wonderfully low: $300 for a netbook that’s completely ready for hackintoshing. Or to put it another way, the 10v is a $300 Apple netbook.

And it isn’t just the hardware that’s changed, it’s the software. Snow Leopard is fast—faster than 10.5—and its new interface features, like Dock Expose, make using OS X on a netbook even easier. Finder is faster, Quicktime has a new interface. It’s a pretty big upgrade from Leopard, is what I’m trying to say.

And installation tools have grown up too. Netbook hackintoshing used to be an all-day process, with external optical drives, Terminal commands, and numerous terrifying driver tweaks. Today, there are simple software utilities to take care of all this for you. So let’s recap: Since 2008, the hardware has gotten cheaper and better, OS X more mature, and the installation process much simpler. Oh yeah, and Snow Leopard retail costs $30. (Though strict moralists should note that this is intended to be an upgrade.) There’s never been a better time to hackintosh—not by a long shot.

That said, one thing hasn’t changed. TERMINAL > SUDO REWRITE DISCLAIMER:

Even though we’re using a standard retail-purchased copy of OS X, the disclaimer: Apple does not like Hackintoshing. It violates the OS X EULA, and probably won’t make the Dell folks too happy either, should you need to return your hacked Mini 9 for service. So, as always, proceed at your own risk.

And of course, this tutorial messes with some pretty core components of your netbook, which means there’s a real, if small, risk of brickage. Proceed at your own risk, again. Anyway.

What You’ll Need

• Dell Mini 10v. The stock version, at $300, works perfectly.

• BIOS version lower than A06 (A05, A04, A03 all work fine)

Downgrade instructions are available here, though they require a Windows PC for creating a bootable DOS flash drive. There are a lot of scary acronyms here, but don’t worry—it’s no more than a few minutes of work.

• Retail copy of OS X 10.6 (NOT an OEM copy that comes with a new Mac). An ISO will do fine here too, but discs are just $30, you cheapskate. Upgrades to 10.6.1 should be applied after the fact.

• An 8GB (or larger) USB flash drive, the faster the better. External HDDs will work too.

• A Mac with a working optical drive, for preparing your flash drive

• Netbook BootMaker (a free Mac application)

Preparing Your Flash Drive

The 10v doesn’t have an optical drive, and it’s a pain in the ass to have to go find one, burn a new disc, and do things the old-fashioned way. Installing from a USB flash drive is much, much easier. So that’s the method we’ll be running with.

1. Insert your flash drive and OS X Retail install disk into your computer

2. Open Disk Utility (searching in Spotlight is the easiest way to find this)

3. Select your flash drive from the list on the left. Make sure to select the drive itself, not any partitions you may have written to it before.

4. In the right panel, select the “Partition” screen.

5. From the dropdown menu, select “1 Partition,” then click “Options” below the partition map.

6. Select “Master Boot Record.” This will ensure that your Mini 10v can boot from your flash drive. Select a name for your partition—doesn’t really matter what—and apply your changes. Keep in mind this will delete anything you have on your flash drive right now, so back it up if need be.

7. Once this is done, move from the “Partition” screen to the “Restore” screen in Disk Utility

8. For your Restore Source, select (by dragging) the OS X install disk from the left panel. Make sure this is the item called something to the effect of “Mac OS Install DVD,” not “Optiarc DVD” or some other hardware title. For the destination, drag your newly-prepared partition over. Click restore.

This will take at least an hour, so go have sandwich or something. Or even better, skip ahead make sure your Mini 10v is ready for the install, as outlined in the next section.

Ok, once that slog is done, it’s time to let Netbook BootMaker do its magic. And let me be clear: it is magic. What this utility will do is install a special bootloader on your flash drive, which allows your netbook to begin an OS X install. It also throws in a few driver tweaks, to make sure your 10v, y’know, work.

9. Running BootMaker is easy—just open the app, select your OS X partition on your newly-minted flash drive, and tell it to GO GO GO.

Aaaaand that’s it! You’re ready to start hackintoshing.

Installing OS X

First, you’re going to need to do some light prep on your 10v.

10. Jump into the BIOS, since we’re going to need to check on a few things. You can do this by restarting the 10v, and hitting F2 as the Dell logo first shows up.

11. Double-check to see if you have the right BIOS. As long as it’s lower than A06, you’re fine. If not, refer back to the “What You’ll Need” section.

12. With the arrow keys, cycle over to the “Advanced” screen, where you’ll see a list of options. USB BIOS Legacy support should be enabled, as should Bluetooth.

13. Now cycle over to the Boot screen. This is where you tell your 10v which drive to start from. During normal use, this will the hard drive where your OS is installed. Since we’re installing an OS today, though, you’re going to want to select “USB Storage,” and move it to the top by pressing the F6 key.

14. Once you’re done, press F10 to save and exit. If you’re ready to dive straight into the install, make sure you have your prepped USB drive plugged in and ready to go.

15. Plug your computer in, if it’s not already. You don’t want your netbook to die halfway though—this will only lead to sadness.

Next time you boot with your flash drive plugged in, you should see this screen. Don’t be alarmed by the spinning pinwheel; just leave it for a few minutes. Your computer is thinking.

16. HAHA, BEHOLD! This screen here, it’s awfully Apple-y! But you’re not done yet. Let the install complete, following the regular prompts as you go. When it asks you where to install OS X, select and clear the entire HDD of your device. This will delete everything, so make sure you have your stuff backed up.

After about an hour, you’re done. Seriously—that’s it. Your first boot will take longer than normal, and your desktop may freeze for minutes at a time. Give it some time to figure everything out. Within about 10 minutes, your desktop should be ready to go.

Odds and Ends

By and large, your install should work out of the box. Sleep, shutdown/startup, sound, keyboard shortcuts, battery indicators, and anything else you can think of should be present and at attention, barring one glaring flaw: the trackpad. It’s kinda shitty, and makes dragging-and-dropping nearly impossible. Here’s what you need to do:

17. Go here, and download the attached trackpad driver.

18. Open Finder on your 10v, and press CMD+Shift+G (on this keyboard, that’s Alt+Shift+G.) In the box that comes up, typed “/Extra” and press enter.
This will bring you to a hidden folder. Copy the .kext file you’ve download into the Mini10vExt folder, making sure to back up the one you’re replacing.

19. Run the app in the “Extra” directory called UpdateExtra, which will alert OS X to the new drivers. Restart your computer.

Now you should be able to click and drag—the cursor should jump when your second finger makes contact. You should see, as you could before, a panel in the OS X preferences where you can adjust trackpad settings. Play with them as you like—two finger scrolling is great, and makes the 10v feel more like a genuine Apple netbook.

The only other issue you’re likely to run into is the occasional too-tall settings screen. Here‘s an obscenely clever virtual screen resolution workaround for that.

So There You Go

You’ve got yourself a fully-functioning, beautifully small Snow Leopard netbook, which’ll do 90% of what a 13-inch MacBook can, at 70% the size and about 25% of the cost. Mine’s close to perfect: With an extended battery, I’m pushing 7 hours of battery life with Wi-Fi, which makes my MacBook pro look like a LOSER. And tiny extra bit of size over the Mini 9 means the keyboard is just large enough to work on, meaning this thing isn’t just a toy—it’s a decent investment. This from a guy with banana fingers.

Performance is acceptable, meaning you can run regular apps like iTunes, Firefox—and even Photoshop in a bind. It’s not noticeably slow during normal use, though it’ll choke on higher-res Flash video (no YouTube HD, but SD works fine). As with any notebook, this pretty much can’t be your main machine. But it’s a brilliant extra portable machine, for toilet browsing, travel, class notes and the like.

Anyway, buckets of thanks to the MyDellMini forums, especially users MechDrew (site here) and Bmcclure937. Without their guides, I wouldn’t have been able to write this one. And of course, a hat tip to Adam Pash, who was already elbow-deep in Snow Leopard hackintoshing when we were all still too afraid. See his fantastic guide to building the build your own desktop hackintosh here. UPDATE: And I’d be remiss not to mention Meklort, the main developer of the NetbookInstaller suite, which does most of the heavy lifting here. —Thanks, Brian!

So that’s about it! Please add in your experiences in the comments-your feedback is a huge benefit to our Saturday guides. Good luck with your own Hackintoshing, and have a great weekend

From: http://gizmodo.com/5383982/how-to-virtualize-any-os-for-free

Syncing your Zune in Mac OS X, running Word in Linux, giving Linux a go within Windows 7: just a few of the things you can do with virtual machines. And setting one up isn’t just easy—it’s free.

The word virtualization conjures images of the dank nerd lairs, populated by lonely network admins, scattered with miles of gray wire, grimy PC towers, processed food packaging and tiny tumbleweeds woven from human hair. It sounds like the domain of the software nerd, the Gentoo jockey, and most importantly, not you. Today, though, virtualization has become mainstream: modern software makes running virtualized operating systems amazingly easy, and undeniably useful.

Intimidating erminology aside, here’s what desktop virtualization means today: You can run just about any OS, Mac OS X excluded, inside any other OS. Ubuntu in Mac OS? Sure. Windows 7 within Windows XP? Why not? Windows ME within Snow Leopard? Nobody’s going to stop you, I guess! And these aren’t patchy, half-assed experiments we’re talking about here—these are fully-functioning installations that’ll connect to USB peripherals, access the internet, share files with your host OS, and run almost any software, short of 3D games. You can set up as many of these things as you want, and delete them in a matter of seconds. It’s pretty great, is what I’m trying to say.

Best of all, virtualization is now something you can try—and stick with—for free, thanks to software like Sun’s VirtualBox. It’s a free download on any platform, and it does its job spectacularly. Here’s how to get started.

What You’ll Need

Free hard drive space: VirtualBox is going to create a simulated hard drive (a hard drive image, to be specific) inside your current OS’s file system. In other words, you’ll need to have space handy to hold a standard OS install, plus whatever apps you’re planning on using on the host system. 10GB is enough to play around with in most cases.

Lots-o-RAM: As efficient as modern virtualization is, running one OS inside another isn’t going to be easy on your hardware. The easiest way to ensure good VM performance is to have plenty of RAM, such that both OSes—your host and your guest—can have more than their minimum recommended amount of RAM.

VirtualBox: This is the virtual machine software, or the program in which all of your virtual OSes will run. You may’ve heard of clients like VMWare or Parallels, but these are either paid or have limited platform support. VirtualBox is a free, cross-platform alternative. Getting it is just a matter of downloading the correct version—there are Windows, Mac and Linux editions—and running an installation wizard.

A guest OS: Installing an OS as a virtual machine is almost exactly like installing an OS natively, albeit slightly easier. In other words, you’ll need a full, licensed version of your OS, in whatever form you can get it. Downloaded ISO images will work right out of the box—this is how most Linux distributions will come packaged—while OSes on a CD will work too, including your Windows install discs. If applicable, you’ll still need to enter license keys—as far as Microsoft is concerned, this is a fresh installation of an OS.

Installing Your Virtual Machine

I’ve chosen to install Windows 7 within OS X Snow Leopard for this guide, because this will be a common usage scenario, and because the processing of installing an OS in VirtualBox is nearly the same no matter what host/guest combo you’re. If you’re installing Ubuntu 9.04 within Windows XP, for example, you can still follow along. Anyway, here you go:

Installing Guest Additions

VirtualBox supports so-called “Guest Additions” in some OSes, which are essentially sets of tools and drivers that make the virtualization more seamless. If they’re available, you’ll want to install them: the guest OS will adjust to your screen resolution properly, your video performance will be smoother (and in Windows XP and Vista, possibly accelerated), filesharing will be simplified, copy and paste will work between OSes, and in some cases, you’ll even be able to run individual programs as native windows in your host OS

That’s called “Seamless Mode,” and if you’re running Windows inside Mac OS or Linux, you may as well try it out. It’s not quite perfect—the Start Menu stacked atop the Dock is a little awkward—but this way you don’t have to switch between entire desktops just to switch from one app to another. It’s a cool effect, at the very least.

To install Guest Additions, click “Install Guest Additions” under the “Machine” menu while running your virtual machine. Guest Additions should appear in your guest OS as an optical disc, which should contain an installer. Run it, then restart your virtual machine. Once Guest Additions are installed, you can access Seamless Mode from the VirtualBox menu, under “Machine.”

Shared Directories

Copy and paste will often work between the host and guest OS, but if you’re planning on using your guest OS for productivity or downloading any kind of media, a shared folder is the only real solution. In the bottom right corner of a running virtual machine, you should see a small folder icon. Clicking it will bring up a shared folder creation dialog. Select where on your host OS your shared folder should be—it can be an existing directory, like your “Music” folder—and check the box to make it “Permanent.” On your guest machine, the shared folder will show up as a VirtualBox shared directory in your local network.

(Note: I’m getting reports that some people running Windows 7 guest machines have trouble finding the network share. You may have to map a network drive manually—just right-click “Computer” anywhere in Windows—the Start Menu works fine—and select “Map Network Drive.” Choose whatever drive letter you’d like to give your directory, then enter “\\vboxsvr\myshare” as the folder path, where “myshare” is the name you’ve given your shared folder in virtualbox.)

Connecting USB Devices

One of the most common reasons for installing a virtual machine is to circumvent some kind of driver incompatibility. VirtualBox recognized most of your computer’s inbuilt components, like sound cards, extra storage or webcams, and can use them automatically. For most USB devices, though, you’ll need to tell it when to take control.

In most cases, this just means making sure your device isn’t in use by your host OS (a flash drive will need to be unmounted, for example), and clicking the small USB plug icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. This will bring up a list of available connected devices; simply click the one you want, and you’re good to go.

Odds and Ends

Virtualizing isn’t just a good way to get around some kind of nagging compatibility problem, it’s a fun way to wile away a few hours experimenting with weird new OSes. Setup is just about the same no matter what you’re installing, so there’s really no reason not to try some of the more esoteric software out there—anything with an ISO available for download will do. For a taste, try the Haiku Project—a revival of the long-dead BeOS, or see what the hell FreeBSD is.

If you have more tips and tools to share, please drop some links in the comments-your feedback is hugely important to our Saturday How To guides. And if you have any topics you’d like to see covered here, please let me know. Happy virtualizing, folks.

Early toolmakers were ‘engineers’

The heat treatment makes the stones more brittle

Early modern humans in South Africa
were using “heat treatment” to improve their stone tools about 72,000
years ago, according to new research.

This technique may
bridge a gap between the use of fire to cook food 800,000 years ago and
the production of ceramics 10,000 years ago.

Evidence for this innovation was found at Pinnacle Point, a Middle Stone Age site on the South African coast.

The researchers have published details in the journal Science.

“We
found that as early as 165,000 years ago, but definitely 72,000 years
ago, people are doing more than just using fires for cooking, heat,
light or protection,” lead researcher Kyle Brown, from Arizona State
University, US, told BBC News.

Use Dropbox for More Than Just File Syncing

By The How-To Geek, 11:00 AM on Mon Sep 14 2009, 42,384 views

Ever since Lifehacker turned me on to Dropbox, it’s become one of the most essential pieces in my daily workflow. Sure it syncs files extremely well, but Dropbox is an excellent tool for so much more.

Dropbox, at its core, is a simple file synchronization utility that stores your data in the cloud and makes it accessible across Windows, Mac, and Linux machines—or via the web interface from any browser. What sets Dropbox apart from other file syncing tools is that changes are nearly instantaneous, uploads are blazing fast, and it just works.

Dropbox doesn’t have to be limited to simply syncing your documents, photos, and music, however—with the proper setup you can completely synchronize your digital life across any PC.

Sync Your Passwords Across PCs

If you’re really serious about security, you’ve already learned how to choose secure and memorable passwords and probably started securely tracking your passwords with a password manager like KeePass–an ideal candidate for using Dropbox as the ultimate password syncer. Since both Dropbox and KeePass are cross-platform applications, you can access your passwords from Mac, Linux, or Windows. (Though if you’re on a Mac, Dropbox is also great at syncing with password management tool 1Password.) You can also synchronize your web passwords with Dropbox and Roboform, and since the Dropbox web interface is available from any computer, you can even store the portable version of KeePass there and just download the files onto any computer to access your passwords.

Sync Your Pidgin Profile

The Pidgin multi-protocol IM client not only works on both Windows and Linux, but the profile directory can be synchronized across both operating systems with Dropbox and a little symlink trickery. The basic idea is that we’ll move the profile folder into our Dropbox folder, and then create a symlink from where the original used to be so Pidgin won’t even know you moved it.

To accomplish this, you’ll want to exit out of Pidgin, move the Pidgin profile folder from your %appdata% folder (hit Win+R, then paste %appdata% and hit Enter) into your Dropbox folder, open up a command prompt (in administrator mode for Vista/Win7), and then use the mklink command to create a symbolic link between the folder in Dropbox and your AppData folder like so: mklink /D %appdata%\.purple C:\Path\To\Dropbox\PidginProfile. This will make Pidgin see the folder in the same location as it’s always been, even though the files actually reside in your synced Dropbox folder. For more detailed information and doing this on XP, check out our guide to syncing files and folders outside your Dropbox folder. Linux users can use the ln command to accomplish the same thing.

Access Portable Applications from Any PC

These days, almost every application has a portable version for use on a thumb drive, but what you may not have known is that your portable applications work perfectly when you add them to your Dropbox folder and synchronize them across all of your machines. You’ve already shared your favorite portable applications, from Portable Firefox to VLC player, but you can add almost any tiny and awesome Windows utility to your Dropbox folder, and as long as they don’t require installation, they should work perfectly across all your Windows PCs—complete with all your custom preferences. As if that wasn’t enough, you can even sync your thumb drive with Dropbox.

Control Your Computer Remotely

Dropbox is designed to simply sync files and folders, but you can use it to trigger other tasks by simply adding files to Dropbox in a particular folder and monitoring that folder on another computer. For instance, most popular BitTorrent applications include a folder-monitoring feature that checks for and automatically opens new torrent files in a user-specified folder, meaning you can easily trigger a BitTorrent download from any computer by telling your home computer to watch a folder inside your Dropbox folder for new torrents.

If you are running Linux, you can remote control your PC using Bash scripts, and a similar method can be enabled on Windows by creating a scheduled task to run a batch file in a folder within your Dropbox. On my home computer, I have a scheduled task that runs an AutoHotkey script inside my Dropbox\bin\control\home\ folder. Once the script is executed once, it renames itself so it won’t be run again. It’s definitely not a substitute for setting up a VPN with Hamachi and controlling your PC from anywhere, but it does work in a pinch.

For folks eager to try a Mac but never wanted to plunk down the high price tag to get it, the Hackintosh—that is, a regular PC tweaked to run OS X—has always been an attractive option. That said, it’s not something you should take on lightly unless you’re willing—even enthusiastic—to build and maintain a PC entirely from scratch. I can’t guarantee it’ll be easy, but if you follow this guide step-for-step (it’s exhaustive) and stick with the same (or at least roughly the same) hardware as I am, I can vouch for a rock solid system that also happens to cost a good deal less than you’d pay for a comparable Mac.

Price Comparisons

Most Hackintosh enthusiasts will say you shouldn’t build a Hackintosh primarily to save money, as it’s more than just an insert-disc-and-click install. Still, I always enjoy looking at the price differences between my Hackintosh and Apple’s current offerings. At the moment, the cheapest Mac in the Apple store is a Mac mini sporting a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. For $300 more, I’m running a 3.0GHz Quad-Core processor, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and a damn saucy video card. I could have made this build much cheaper by skimping on hardware and still ended up with a great little machine, but I liked aiming for around the $800 price point from my last build—plus I really wanted to make it fly.

The most expensive iMac, by comparison, has only a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of memory for $2,200 ($1,300 more than my build, but it is built into a monitor), while the cheapest Mac Pro has a single 2.66GHz Quad-Core processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 640GB hard drive—and it costs $2,500 ($1,600 more than mine, though it’s a different and better processor and DDR3 rather than DDR2 RAM). In short, my $900 “Hack Pro” sports nearly as good or better hardware than any Mac that Apple sells short of the $3,300 8-Core Mac Pro (which can, incidentally, get more expensive, but it won’t get much better).

The Hardware

You can find plenty of hardware capable of supporting OS X on a Hackintosh—there’s no definitive build—but we’re not going to go into that here. I’ve put together a list of hardware that I’m using and that I can guarantee will (or at least has) run Snow Leopard like a dream.

Here’s a link to everything I bought over at Newegg:

• Antec Sonata III 500 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Quad 3.0GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
• GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
• Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
• Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive
• Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model
• 10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter (The motherboard has onboard Ethernet, naturally, but this particular board has some problems with onboard in the Hackintosh world. Luckily, Ethernet cards are extremely cheap.)

The Build

Rather than detail every step necessary to put the actual pieces of your new computer together (this guide already reads like the Bible as is), I’m just going to point you to our first-timer’s guide to building a PC from scratch. Do your building, make sure everything’s booting up as it should be (i.e., you can boot the computer to the point where it does nothing, because you have nothing installed on it), then let’s move on.

What Else You’ll Need

Assuming you’ve purchased all the necessary parts for your build (linked above), you’ll still need a few other things before you get started:

• A USB thumb drive that’s at least 8GB in size (I’m using this 16GB Corsair drive, but obviously any sufficiently sized thumb drive should do just fine.)
• A copy of the Snow Leopard Install DVD. You can use the $29 “Upgrade” disc to install, even though this is a fresh installation. Note: If you feel like being completely honest, go ahead and buy the Mac Box Set—though, honestly, Apple’s practically made it hard *not* to buy the fully functional install disc.
• Another Mac to do some Terminal work on. (You’ll only need this other Mac for a few steps. I used my MacBook Pro, but you could also borrow a friends for an hour or so, too.)

Step One: Prepare Your Thumb Drive

We’re going to be installing Snow Leopard to your Hackintosh from your thumb drive rather than from the Snow Leopard install DVD, since in order to run the installer on your PC to begin with, you’ll need to slightly customize the way the installer is loaded. (More specifically, we’ll be loading a custom bootloader onto the thumb drive that will make booting into the install work like a charm.*)

So first things first: You need to format your thumb drive and then turn your Snow Leopard install disc into a disk image on your desktop. Here’s how to do it:

1. Launch the Disk Utility application on your borrowed Mac (located at /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility)
2. Format and partition your thumb drive: Insert your thumb drive; after a second, it should show up in the Disk Utility Sidebar. When it does, (1) click on it, then (2) click on Partition. (3) Choose 1 Partition from the Volume Scheme, (4) give it a name (I called my HackintoshInstall) and select Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) from the Format drop-down. Now—and this is important—(5) hit the Options button and make sure GUID Partition Table is selected as the partition scheme. Once you’ve made sure to set all the appropriate settings, just (6) click Apply and Disk Utility will get to partitioning your thumb drive.
3. Copy the Snow Leopard Install DVD image to your hard drive: In the following step we’ll be turning your thumb drive into a Snow Leopard Install drive, but before we do that, we need to get the installer off your DVD and onto your hard drive. To achieve this, insert the Snow Leopard DVD. When it shows up in the Disk Utility sidebar, (1) click on it, then (2) click New Image in the Disk Utility toolbar. Choose where you want to save it (for the sake of convenience, I put it on my Desktop), then click the Save button. Now go grab yourself a cold drink. This will take some time. When it finishes, move on to the next step.
4. Restore the Snow Leopard Install disk image to your thumb drive: Now, in Disk Utility, (1) click on HackintoshInstall (or whatever you called your partitioned thumb drive) and (2) click on Restore. (3) Drag and drop Mac OS X Install DVD.dmg from the sidebar to the Source field, then (4) drag and drop your thumb drive from the sidebar to the Destination field. Now simply (5) click on Restore and enter your password when prompted. Disk Utility will take everything on the Snow Leopard Install DVD and restore that image to your thumb drive—since, like I said above, we’ll be installing Snow Leopard from our thumb drive instead of the DVD. Again, go grab yourself another drink; this will take a few minutes. When it finishes, your thumb drive has basically been turned into a Snow Leopard installation drive.

As I said earlier, the thumb drive needs a little finesse before you can boot the Snow Leopard installer on your PC hardware; let’s apply that finesse now.

Warning: Semi-heavy Terminal work ahead. It’s not that difficult, and I’ve gone into a lot of detail to make it as easy to follow along as possible, but if you’re not at least a little comfortable with the command line, it may make you pretty uncomfortable. Beg or borrow a command line geek for an afternoon, if needed.

1. Make sure your thumb drive is still plugged in, open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type in:
   diskutil list

   
   We’re interested in two pieces of information here. The first is the root identifier for your thumb drive (mine looks like disk2, as you can see in the screenshot). The second is the specific identifier for the portion of the thumb drive that contains the Snow Leopard installer. (Again, see the screenshot.) In my case, the first is disk2 and the second is disk2s2. Yours may vary depending on how many disks are on your system. Copy your identifiers down somewhere. We’ll need them later.

2. Head to the Chameleon homepage, find the Latest Releases section of the site’s sidebar, and download the latest version of Chameleon. (As of this writing, it’s Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640.) Uncompress the download and move the Chameleon folder to someplace that’s easy to access. I’m putting it on my Desktop.
3. Now, in Terminal, cd to the i386 folder of the Chameleon folder. On my Mac, the command looks like this:

   
   (1)

   cd /Users/adam/Desktop/Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640-bin/i386/

   Yours should look similar if the Chameleon folder is on your Desktop, except your username should replace mine. (Quick shortcut: In Terminal, type cd , then drag and drop i386 folder inside Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640 to Terminal.) Hit Enter.

4. You’re going to be running a couple of Terminal commands that will use Chameleon to make your thumb drive friendly to booting up the OS X installer. They are, as follows:

   (2)

   sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk2

   IMPORTANT: On your computer, replace rdisk2 with whatever you copied down above. In my case, the thumb drive’s root identifier was disk2, so /dev/rdisk2 is as it should be.

   After you type in that command and hit Enter, you’ll need to enter your user password to execute it. Do so, then execute the following command, again paying special attention to the disk identifier we took note of above:

   (3)

   sudo dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk2s2

   IMPORTANT: As I noted, my Snow Leopard partition was disk2s2, so that command is right for me. You should replace the disk2s2 portion of the command with whatever you noted as the portion of your thumb drive that contains the Snow Leopard installer.

5. Now we’re going to place an awesome, custom EFI bootloader on your thumb drive that lets us load into the installer (and into Snow Leopard in general). So first, head over to netkas.org and download the bootloader from the bootloader link. Make sure you download it somewhere convenient. (Again, I’ve just downloaded it to my Desktop.)

   Now head back into Terminal, where we’re going to copy the boot file to your thumb drive. (One might think that you could just do this using Finder via drag-and-drop, but in this case, doing it via Terminal is necessary.) So, in Terminal, your command should look similar to this:

   sudo cp /Users/adam/Desktop/boot /Volumes/HackintoshInstall

   

6. The easiest way to do this is simply type in sudo cp , (1) drag and drop the boot file into Terminal, then (2) drag and drop your mounted thumb drive from the desktop into Terminal. (The drag-and-drop method is a quick Terminal trick that pastes the full path to each file or directory.) After that, simply hit Enter. (Enter your password if necessary.)

7. I know it seems like we’ve already run a marathon, but you’ve got one last step and then it’s relatively smooth sailing from here on. Download Extra.zip, unzip the file, and then drag and drop the Extra folder into your thumb drive. Nothing fancy, a simple drag and drop with your trusty old mouse will do. Once you’ve done that, open up your thumb drive and verify that it looks something like the screenshot below. (Notice the Extra folder, the boot file, and the OS X installer.)

Take a deep breath. By this time, you’ve completed all the hard work. Now it’s time to boot up your machine, tweak your BIOS settings so they’re ready for your OS X install, and then it’s smooth sailing.

Step 2: Set Your BIOS

Before you can boot into or install OS X on your Hackintosh, you’ve got to make some small adjustments to your BIOS. Rather than taking you step by step through every change you need to make, I’ve simply snapped a picture of the relevant BIOS screens and added some notes. Just click through these images and make sure your BIOS settings match up.

Step 3: Install Snow Leopard

If you’ve made it this far, the hard part is over. Now it’s time to install Snow Leopard, which—unlike what we’ve done so far—is extremely easy.

Make sure you’ve set the boot priority in your BIOS to boot from your thumb drive (you can see how in this pic), then simply plug your prepared thumb drive into your Hackintosh and power it up. Since screenshots aren’t really an option—and since it’s a fairly easy process—my install instructions come in video format:

The quick version goes like this: Boot into the Snow Leopard installer, format the hard drive you want to install Snow Leopard to (go to Utilities -> Disk Utility, then click on the drive, select 1 Partition, Mac OS X Journaled (Case-Sensitive Update: Several readers have suggested that case-sensitive formatting can cause problems with some applications, like Adobe’s Creative Suite, so you may be better off sticking with plain old Mac OS X Journaled.), give it a name, and make sure GUID Partition Table is set in the Options. After you Apply the new partition, go back to the installer and install like normal to that drive. When you reboot after the install completes, press the arrow keys at the graphical boot menu and select the drive you just installed Snow Leopard to.

A Few Final Tweaks

You’ll notice that, the first time Snow Leopard boots up, you’re not enjoying any sound along with that snazzy intro video. We’ve got one small, but very simple tweak to make to get sound up and running. Here’s how it works:

1. 
2. Download the Kext Utility, then download this audio kext (a kext is kind of the Mac equivalent of a driver) and unzip it to your Desktop. Once you’ve got both in front of you, drag and drop the ALC889.Fix.kext file onto the Kext Utility. You’ll be prompted to enter your password, so go ahead and do that when you’re prompted.
3. Once the Kext Utility finishes running, open up Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app). Once it loads up, (1) click on your Snow Leopard drive (mine’s called Hack Leopard), then (2) click Repair Disk Permissions.
4. Once Disk Utility finishes repairing your disk permissions, just restart. After your computer reboots, your audio should be working like a charm. (If not, open up Sound in your System Preferences and try changing the Output device.)

As things stand on your system right now, you need to have your thumb drive plugged in every time you reboot in order to load the bootloader that allows your Hackintosh to load OS X. There are certain benefits to this (for example, right now you could quite likely unplug this hard drive from your Hackintosh, plug it into a Mac Pro, and it would work just fine), but it can also be a bit of a hassle. At this point, though, you can load the bootloader and other necessary components onto the Snow Leopard hard drive and change that drive to your primary boot drive in your BIOS. All you’ve got to do is head back to the step-by-step bootloader guide above and repeat every step, except this time you’re applying each step to your hard drive rather than your thumb drive.

Congratulations! You’ve Got a Fully Functional Hackintosh

“But for realz,” you ask, “does it actually work well?”

I’ve been using one or another Hackintosh as my main computer for two years now, and while I’ve run into the occasional bump in the road, they’ve generally run extremely well. In fact, things just seem to keep on getting better and better, and the current build I’m running (the one I walked you through above) feels like the fastest, most stable build to date.

That’s not to say that you won’t experience an occasional kernel panic—you may very well. But I get crashes on my MacBook Pro, too, and I’ve never felt that my current Hack Pro has any more problems than any other proper Mac I’ve used on a regular basis. That may seem a bit crazy, but it’s true.

As for upgrading—often, you’ll be able to upgrade your Hack Pro without any problems. That said, it’s something you normally need to check on beforehand, and you should take all of the upgrade precautions before giving it a go.

I’m planning on letting readers know how my Hack Pro handles various 10.6.x updates shortly after they happen, though, and if it requires a little extra work, I’ll show you how to handle it.

Let’s hear your thoughts—whether you’ve dabbled in the world of Hackintosh, are interested in doing so, or just think it’s plain crazy—in the comments.

Adam Pash is the editor of Lifehacker; he loves a good hack, cherishes his Macintosh, and craves a Mac Pro, so building a Hack Pro was a perfect fit. His special feature Hack Attack appears on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

* OS X boots in a different way than, say, Windows, using a boot tool called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface). On store-bought Macs, EFI is loaded on the hardware by default (in fact, in place of the standard BIOS most of us are used to). In order to boot OS X on our non-factory Macs, we need to create our own custom path to EFI.

Huge thanks to stellarola, Onetrack, and weaksauce12 for all their help in getting me up to speed on installing Snow Leopard on a Hackintosh PC. The Hackintosh community is large and active, and they are awesome.

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Langlais
05:06 AM

I like the Earth nights wallpaper.

 Reply

Identity≈Spontaneity promoted this comment Langlais was starred Langlais was unstarred

ludwigk
09/06/09

Anyone up on which netbook/laptop hackintoshes run Snow Leopard?

 Reply

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kustoo
09/06/09

How does this work for audio and video programs i.e., Logic and Final Cut?

 Reply

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powel212
09/06/09

Works great thanks.

still no audio though. Tried the ALC889.Fix.kext but no go.

Where can i find a generic AC97.fix.kext?

Thanks

 Reply

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Sam Jayawardane
09/06/09

I built a hackintosh about 6 months ago. It was great as the first mac and really enjoyed the project. But if I had to do it again, I would just spend the money and buy a mac. Just for the fact that the price is darn close to a real one and when it’s time update it’s a pain. I’m all about freebees but this one is not worth it.
(E5200 CPU + P5GC-MX/1333 = $99 at frys, XFX 8800 512MB video = $99 on ebay )

 Reply

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aural
09/06/09

Okay, so I went through this whole guide and got everything working… I have slightly different hardware, but it went pretty well. Here is what I used:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz
Gigabyte GV-NX86T256H GeForce 8600 GT
4 1GB Sticks of G.SKILL DDR2 800Mhz RAM

Sleep, restart, and shutdown all work OOTB
onboard network works OOTB
Audio worked with your ACL889A Fix

The only issue I’m currently having is getting the computer to boot into OS X without the thumb drive. I re-did all of the steps I used to make the thumb drive bootable on the hard drive itself and it won’t boot. It get’s to a Chameleon boot screen where i have to hit enter for it to go on, then it halts on me and says I need to reboot the computer.

Any ideas?

 Reply

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izym
09/06/09

This worked great on a GIGABYTE EP45-DS3P with E6600 processor, 8800 GTS 640MB graphics card and 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM. I’ve been trying to get it working since forever, and it turns out the only thing stopping me was my DVD drive, because it’s ATA. I can’t thank you enough.

 Reply

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amgupt01
09/05/09

I’m looking for a guide like this for a notebook… I know they’re considerably harder to put together, but I’d like to have a powerful notebook that’s relatively inexpensive and runs Snow Leopard almost 100%.

 Reply

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Matt Donaldson
09/05/09

If you were to redesign this rig for HD streaming, energy efficiency, and form factor, what changes would you make?

 Reply

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Crackpothead
09/04/09

Looks great and a nice article. I have a few questions based on comments people have made.
Is there a restriction on video resolution?
What about wifi?
How do pro apps such as FCP, Motion and Aperture work on the machine?

Thanks Adam

 Reply

Edited by Crackpothead at 09/05/09 12:01 AM Crackpothead was starred Crackpothead was unstarred

Wolverine4444
09/04/09

:O

Those specs for $900?! Apparently I need to get out more. Last time I tried to do something like this, it would’ve cost $1500 for the machine alone. Maybe it’s because I used Amazon. Newegg is awesome!

 Reply

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HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.
09/04/09

@Wolverine4444: *looks over at computer with newly-installed Phenom II x4 940 + Biostar mobo + 4 GB RAM + GTX 260 Core 216 which only set me back $350*

Yes. Yes they are.

 Reply

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nolabar10der
09/05/09

@HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.: I love when the Egg runs those mobo/HDD/chip/RAM package deals. If you already have some cables and a monitor lying around, one click can net you a pretty decent deal should you not be too picky about each component (say, when building a rig for a family member).

As for the article, wow. I didn’t realize that Mac pros were still that ridiculously expensive. I’m sorry, folks, but you’re getting ripped off. And don’t retort with “total cost of ownership…My mac ‘just works!’” because only idiots screw up their Windows machines on any regular basis. I want to be clear, here – I’m not insulting OSX. I am insulting that price. I’m sorry, but you’re being royally shafted here, and some of you even go to forums to brag about how loyal you are to your captors. Strange.

 Reply

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wilson_c
09/05/09

@nolabar10der: Since they are geared toward higher-end users, the market for Mac Pros is largely people whose time is worth more than whatever they would save by buying components.

When I was a kid with technical skill but limited financial resources, I was crazy about always building my own. After a decade of that, I was earning much more money and the novelty of rolling my own had all but disappeared. I realized it was simpler to just buy whole computers. I’d rather spend my free time doing other things.

Once you get to the point in your life when money is easier to get than free time, you’ll realize that computer assembly is best left to Chinese factory workers.

 Reply

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ludwigk
09/06/09

@nolabar10der: I’ve been using Macs exclusively for over 20 years now, and I’ve just gotta say that the low end Mac Pro tower is just ridiculously priced as-is. The higher-end 8-core model is using the dually processors, which cost about 3x as much as the proc in the 4-core model. As for the 4-core, they’re just charging WAY more for that proc then they should just for shits. The low end system should have been $500 less since launch.

Of course, I haven’t purchased a mac tower in 13 years, but I’m starting to miss the utility of a full tower. The way Apple prices them, tho’, they just keep pushing me further and further away from a tower purchase.

 Reply

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Catatonic
09/04/09

If you get an imagescanning error when restoring the image to the flash drive, see this thread: [discussions.apple.com]

 Reply

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critiquer
09/04/09

Hey Adam,

why didn’t you chose a graphics card with 1gb? and/or with hdmi ports?

Also, I’m assuming you got Quartz Extreme enabled right?(have you tried Final Cut Studio?)

Did audio work ok?

Thanks for your work!

 Reply

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Paul
09/04/09

One question guys. If I get the snow leopard upgrade dvd for $29 I cannot expect iLife to be bundled with it, can I? I am an ubuntu user and for the longest time have been wanting to move to a mac. What do you guys think ?

 Reply

Paul was starred Paul was unstarred

Paul
09/04/09

One question guys. If I buy the upgrade dvd for $29 I cannot expect iLife/iWork to be bundled with it, can I? This is my first attempt to moving towards a mac and the hackintosh method intrigues me.

 Reply

Paul was starred Paul was unstarred

SeB_or_Sam
09/06/09

@Paul: Sorry, it only comes on new macs

 Reply

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BishopBlaize
09/04/09

I have to say, in terms of a weekend project, great.

however my own opinion is that the sole advantage of macs is that all the effing around is done for you. If you enjoy piddling around on computers getting things to work in the most circuitous way possible (like I do) go for linux, where you can piddle around with every tiny bit of the system.

If you want to go for the system that just acts like a butler, quietly doing things for you so you dont have to worry about them, buy a proper mac.

This seems the worst of both worlds.

Its like having a choice between a sexy husband/wife with a shallow personality and an ugly one with a great personality – and going for the ugly one with the shallow personality.

 Reply

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Bmorse
09/04/09

Great article! I was about to buy a new Mac Mini, but now I’m intrigued with the idea of building a Hackintosh instead.

One question: You mentioned that once you’re done, the hard drive could be dropped right into a Mac Pro. Could you reverse this to simplify the process? That is, put the unformatted hard drive into an existing Mac, format it and install OS X onto it, then put the drive into the Hackintosh with just the bootloader on the thumb drive?

 Reply

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Real Cheese Flavor
09/04/09

Adam: I’ve noticed that Newegg public wishlists don’t immediately show up once you make them public and can take almost a day before they show up.

If you checked again it might be there

 Reply

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Amethysaurus
09/03/09

i built a 2.66ghz(oc to 4ghz), 1600w psu, 3×285 geforce, 3x 1tb hdd, 12gb ddr3, bluray burner, silverstone ft01 (all aluminum mind you), w/ 47in 120hz monitor Snow Hack for 3k.

the closest comparible Mac Pro, according to their website, w/ 8gb ddr3, ‘superdrive’, 24in mon and 3xgeforce 120s is 4700.

(my spending so far is actually 4800 but everything is dual loop watercooled and im almost done fabricating a custom case though i dont see it going over 5k)

so… you know…macs…pfft…

 Reply

Edited by Amethysaurus at 09/04/09 12:10 AM Amethysaurus was starred Amethysaurus was unstarred

toastr
09/03/09

Grrr… Doesn’t work on my Asus P5KPL-VM – all I get is a good ol’ Panic Error. And I can’t find anything on insanelymac or google.

Seems I’ll have to stick with Leopard on my desktop for just a bit longer (while my Macbook can have all the fancy new stuff) :/

 Reply

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Alicemagic
09/03/09

Cool guide haha. Pretty fast.

Is there a reason why you don’t install Chameleon directly on the hard drive? You don’t need to keep your key in if you do so. Also RC2 is available as a installer so you can bypass the terminal work.

I’ve got the exact same Motherboard as you (just bought it to replace my old hackintosh), and I’ve gotten network and audio working with a DSDT patch. Been on it for a week or so and I’ve never had a problem with Kernel Panics.

If anyone else has this or any of its sibling mobo’s, check out this guy’s installer package:

[www.insanelymac.com]

SL PACK v4 is rock solid. Chameleon, and all the /Extra kexts needed for booting smoothly are included in this package, along with the custom DSDT to enable Audio and Ethernet natively.

I just hope this Vanilla install will be just as stable as when it was with Leopard for future updates…

Oh and as jeffk said… Your SATA mode needs to be on AHCI or it simply won’t boot. =D

 Reply

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Alicemagic
09/03/09

@Alicemagic: Whoops. You already mentioned why you kept Chameleon on a USB key.

My apologies. I usually read through everything, I guess I missed that part the first I went through it =(

 Reply

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SDDave
09/03/09

Adam: I just finished my first PC build; thank you for using the same mobo and CPU that I used! And thank you for this report; it is the clearest, most methodical, and complete description of the hackintosh installation that I have seen. I’ve been collecting info, but really, it looks like all I need is this guide.
One question: you have a TRENDnet ethernet card. What advice might you have for wireless? I have the TRENDnet TEW-623PI wireless Wifi card–will that work in the hackintosh? (my router is in a different room from my computer).
Can’t wait to get this going, next to my MacBook Pro.

 Reply

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shazaam42
09/04/09

@SDDave: I’ve done a few hackintosh builds (from 10.3-10.5) and I’ve never gotten a single wireless card working flawlessly, no matter what cards or what kexts (at current count, I’ve tried 5 different cards with different chipsets). The best I got was one that would work really well for 15 minutes to an hour and then lose all signals until reboot. Others have had moderate success, but my point is that (from what I can tell) wireless remains the most difficult part of the package. If it’s a deal breaker (as it was with me – No way to get my router in the same part of the house as my computer), you could be out of luck.

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SDDave
09/05/09

@shazaam42: Thanks for that info. I’m thinking maybe I’ll try a WiFi adapter on a USB stick. Such as TRENDnet TEW-644UB or equivalent from other vendors.

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aural
09/03/09

I just got to Step 4 and was told that the image filed because it needed to be imagescanned.

In disc utility i clicked on the image in the left hand bar then went to the top menu and chose Images -> Scan Image For Restore. It went through it’s thing and then I could perform the restore to the flash drive.

Not sure if this is relevant to all, but it wouldn’t let me go through the restore to the flash drive without this step.

Looking forward to getting though this and seeing if I can get this to work on my hardware. I don’t have exactly what you do, but I guess i could be persuaded to purchase some of it to get a virtual MacPro. Excellent job on this article and I hope you keep it updated. It could be a brilliant resource!

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ma5t3rw1tt
09/03/09

But if you have a friend who don’t have a Apple computer, your screwed

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sl1x
09/03/09

awesome article! i’ll try this out once i get my hands on a s’leopard disk.
seems more complicated than the downloaded patched leopard dmg before, but it’s handle-able. (:

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A Complete Guide to Playing Video Files On Your PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii

By John Mahoney, 4:30 PM on Fri Nov 21 2008, 141,944 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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If you’re here reading Gizmodo, there’s a good chance you have a hard drive full of video somewhere. And you also probably have a PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii. If those two things aren’t working together for you in beautiful symbiosis, allowing you to watch all of your downloaded or ripped video on your TV instead of hunched over a laptop screen, well, this is the guide for you.

Now there are two general strategies you can take: physically copying your files to a USB drive, memory card or CD/DVD, which is pretty straightforward, or streaming your video over the network, which is where things get more fun and interesting. So let’s dive in.

First things first, codecs. Now that you’re all learn-ed on the ways of video encoding thanks to Matt’s Giz Explains from this week, the issue of codecs will make a lot more sense. Thankfully, it’s not something you have to worry too much about here, because all three consoles can handle a large number of the codecs you will find commonly: AVI, MPEG (1, 2 and 4), H.264, DivX/XviD, and WMV—and if a particular format you want to play isn’t supported, it’s often possible to convert it to work on the fly. The PS3 also supports AVCHD, a format used by many HD camcorders. Not all formats are supported with every streaming method though, especially in the 360′s case, which we’ll get to in a second. Now, for getting all those files on the TV.

Note: if you need to re-encode a video in a different format because it won’t play, nothing beats VLC’s transcoding wizard. Here’s a guide.

Xbox 360: Streaming (PC)
In typical Microsoft fashion, there are tons of different ways to pull of streaming your video to the Xbox 360—and the only one that’s truly comprehensive, in our opinion, comes from a third party. TVersity is a free UPnP media server that can manage your video and music files anywhere on your PC and stream them out to your 360 over the network. It will also kindly transcode just about any video you can throw at it into a codec your console can definitely read. You might have to install some additional codec packs here and there for Windows but for the most part, you can forget about worrying about codecs with TVersity. This also allows TVersity to handle files not officially supported by the 360, like MKV containers.

1. Grab TVersity here and install it.
2. Click the giant plus sign in the top left corner to “Add Your Media Source” – namely, the folder on your PC with all of your videos.
3. Under advanced options, set your transcoding preferences: “When Needed” will make sure most all of your files play.
4. In the main TVersity menu, select “Start Sharing”
5. On the Xbox 360, TVersity will now appear as a source in the Media blade or under My Xbox -> Video Library in NXE.

The other three options via Microsoft’s own various software solutions all have their own drawbacks, which we’ll cover here briefly. Our advice? Use them only if you already use the Zune software, Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center to manage all of your video.

Windows Media Player 11: WMP 11 can stream out to the Xbox 360 pretty easily. Here is an in-depth guide. Drawbacks? Somewhat clunky format support. In our tests we could not stream Quicktime video at all, and had inconsistent experiences with MP4 files. MPEG-4 and H.264 support are technically supported via third-party WMP codec add-ons, but even with those, we still had trouble—MP4 files tended to play fine on the WMP 11 end, but not show up as browsable on the 360. Somewhat unbelievably, the Xbox 360 team actually recommends you manually rename your unsupported MPEG-4 and H.264 files, adding the “.avi” container extension to fool WMP into playing them. This worked occasionally, but not for every file and was generally inconsistent.

Zune Software 3.0: Zune offers a much nicer interface than WMP (Settings -> Sharing -> Add is the extent of the setup), and thankfully supports MPEG4 and H.264 much more consistently. Drawbacks? No DivX or Xvid support, which means a huge chunk of your Torrented video probably won’t work.

Windows Media Center Extender: If you already have a Media Center setup honking on your network, there’s a good chance you won’t need this guide, but the Xbox 360 can of course stream your MCE content to your TV seamlessly (a complete guide is here). The interface is really fantastic. Drawbacks? The gimpiest codec support of the bunch: only MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and WMV are supported. So unless you’re converting everything you have into those formats, you’ll still need something like TVersity to play most files you’ll find up for download.

So, in the end, TVersity wins hands down as the easiest and most elegant streaming setup for the 360. But do keep in mind—if you’re playing a format that your Xbox can’t handle (MKV being the most common of these you’ll find), TVersity will have to transcode, which means you will lose a bit of quality.

Xbox 360: Streaming (Mac): UPnP support—the networking standard used by both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in various flavors to play network-streamed video, music and photos—is not natively supported by OS X yet. And unfortunately, there isn’t a stellar all-in-one free package like Windows’ TVersity.

Nullriver, however, makes an incredibly slick piece of software called Connect360, which easily streams all of your iLife libraries or any folder full of video on your Mac to the 360. Unfortunately, it’ll cost you $20. There is a free trial version that supposedly shuts off after 30 minutes of sharing, but sometimes it seems to forget and lets you play longer. But even so, $20 isn’t bad for the convenience factor here. No transcoding, but it will handle every codec the console itself can play back.

1. Download and install the Connect360 preference pane.
2. In System Preferences, start up Connect360 sharing. Here you can also add folders for more sharing.
3. Access the Connect360 source on your Xbox in the usual way. Done.

Xbox 360: Physical Media
1. If streaming isn’t for you, and you don’t mind hauling a storage device back and forth between your computer and Xbox, then this is super easy: Insert Flash disk/USB/CD/DVD and browse it with the Media blade or the Video Library section of NXE (under “My Xbox”). Enjoy.

Playstation 3: Streaming (PC)
TVersity: Again, Tversity is your friend. It works just as well for the PS3 as it does for Xbox 360 (see above for setup).

1. With Tversity set up and sharing turned on, just browse to COMPUTERNAME: TVersity in the XMB and you’ll see a listing of all your shared files.

Windows Media Player 11: Just like for Xbox 360, you can use WMP11′s built-in DLNA/UPnP serving capabilities to stream to the PS3, too—but with the same codec funkiness as noted above.

1. In the Media Sharing preference box with your PS3 powered on and connected to the network, select “Unknown Device”—that’s your PS3.
2. Your library should now show up in XMB.

Playstation 3: Streaming (MAC)
Mac: Nullriver didn’t just hook up 360 owners—Media Link is the version especially for PS3. It costs 20 bucks, but will give you totally seamless and painless streaming of all of your iLife libraries (photos and music too) as well as files in any folder you can access with your Mac, whether it’s on a network or local.

1. Operation is just like Connect360—with sharing enabled in the Media Link preference pane, just browse through all your files under the “Media Link” source in XMB.

Playstation 3: Physical Media
1. Easy as pie. If you’re using a USB flash or hard disc or an SD or CF card, just dump all of your videos into a folder named VIDEO on the root of the drive and they’ll show up automatically in the XMB.
2. You can also browse the entire drive or disc by pressing triangle and choosing “Display All” to find videos that aren’t in the VIDEO folder.

Wii: Physical Media
For playing video on your Wii, physical media is the way to go, which is easy to pull off with some homebrew hacking. There are lots of services that will transcode your video and ouput it in a Flash player that you can view through the Wii’s Opera browser (like Orb), but you’ll take a hit quality-wise and it’s not as easy as just playing the source files directly with Mplayer.

1. Install the Homebrew Channel and Mplayer on your Wii. We’ve got you covered here with our complete Wii homebrew guide—but hopefully you haven’t installed the latest System Menu update. In that case, you’ll have to wait for a workaround, but it probably won’t be long.

2. Install Mplayer via the Homebrew Browser (also covered in our guide).

3. Now, you can use Mplayer to play files off or even an attached USB drive (as long as its formatted in FAT16 or FAT32, which most are). The interface is not nearly as nice, but it gets the job done.

4. Mplayer for the Wii covers a ton of codecs, but sadly, the Wii’s processor chokes on HD content. If you’ve got HD files, you’ll need to transcode them into a lower resolution with VLC.

And that’s about it. Now, no more huddling around your laptop screen or fiddling with TV and audio-out cables. Welcome to the good life.

Giz Explains: Every Video Format You Need to Know

By matt buchanan, 2:15 PM on Thu Nov 20 2008, 96,892 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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Once upon time, video codecs and formats were really only the concern of AV nerds, anime freaks and hardcore not-so-legal movie downloaders. Now, even the most part-time of geeks has to deal with them, whether they’re trying to stream a flick across their house with an Apple TV, dump some video onto their phone or just trying to grab last night’s episode of Dexter because they, uh, forgot to renew their Showtime subscription. It’s messy and annoying, but we’re here to clean it up. Take a deep breath.

You might recall our discussion about video bitrates earlier, or how much data is packed into a file. As a general rule, more bits per second translates into more betterer quality audio and video. The variable in that—the other part of the equation—is how the content is compressed and de-compressed. Better compression techniques—the zen of knowing what bits of data to pull out to make big data chunks smaller—make for better quality video while taking up less space on your hard drive. Basically, the part you need to know is that codecs are the software that make that magic happen.

Standard Standards
• H.261 is not a term you have to worry about, but it’s the technology that most video standards and codecs were originally based on. Originating in 1990, it’s the first major digital video compression standard, and like other “H” standards, it was developed by the International Telecommunication Union. This one was primarily for teleconferencing over ISDN lines, and as such, it looks like ass.

• MPEG-1 Part 2 is another oldie, developed by the Movie Picture Experts Group and approved in 1991. (BTW, the whole “part” thing is because video is just one “part” of each MPEG standard.) Based quite a bit on H.261, MPEG-1 was designed to take VHS quality video and squeeze it down to a bit rate of about 1.5Mbps, optimized for CD transfers. No surprise, it’s the standard used for all VCDs (which can play in most DVD players), but not a standard you would see hanging around today.

• With MPEG-2 Part 2, approved in 1994, we’re finally talking decent vid. Also known as H.262, since it was developed jointly by the ITU-T and ISO, MPEG-2 is an extension of MPEG-1 that delivers better resolution and higher bit rates (3-15Mbps for standard def and 15-30Mbps for HD, though the spec allows for up to 100Mbps). It’s the video codec used by DVD and digital television, though now it’s slowly being replaced by the more efficient MPEG-4, except on DVDs, where it’ll ride out that disc format’s lifetime.

• H.263 is designed for sending video over crappy connections. So it’s used to encode most Flash video and to send video over mobile networks.

• MPEG-4 is where we really stand right now. It has a much broader scope than past MPEG standards, aiming to tackle both the low end (crappy cellphones on a crappy network) and the high end (Blu-ray). It’s still developing, so it’s not-so-coincidentally where this whole story gets messier. There are two relevant parts of the MPEG-4 standard for our myopic video purposes: There’s Part 2. And there’s Part 10—which is also known as H.264 or Advanced Video Coding (AVC). To be clear though, even though they’re both part of the MPEG-4 standard, they’re totally different formats. Nevertheless, both are more efficient at compression than past MPEG codecs, delivering better quality using less space.

• Okay, so if you’ve ever frequented a Torrent site, you’ve actually watched tons of videos that use MPEG-4 Part 2, though it’s not like they would’ve had a flashing sign telling you so. MPEG-4 Part 2 actually has different “profiles”—the two that matter being Simple Profile, for low bitrate, low-res stuff, and Advanced Simple Profile. The latter profile is what’s used by movies you would download in formats like DivX or XviD or 3ivx—which are all codecs that are essentially just differing implementations of the MPEG-4 Part 2 standard.

• MPEG-4 Part 10, the other part, was actually co-devopled by MPEG and the ITU-T, so it’s also known—in fact, more commonly known—as H.264. It’s more efficient than MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 Part 2, delivering the same quality video in as little as half the space, making it suitable for the low and high-end. Because of this, it’s quickly becoming the standardest standard. It’s part of the HD DVD and Blu-ray spec, replacing MPEG-2 in digital TV (like with satellite services and AT&T’s U-Verse IPTV) and supported by pretty much every portable video player on the planet from the iPod to the PSP. Apple has a decent, if Kool-Aid flavored, FAQ about H.264.

• VC-1 is essentially a Microsoft developed alternative video codec to H.264 released as a standard by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, though it descends from the same H.26X/MPEG family. (It essentially started life as WMV9, but then Microsoft shopped it to the SMPTE to make it an industry standard, and now it is.) It too, is part of the mandatory Blu-ray and HD DVD spec, and is the official video codec of the Xbox 360. It’s pitch is the same as H.264′s—trying to deliver better quality using less space, like HD video in 6-8Mbps.

Free-Floating Codecs
Okay, so all that stuff up there are industry-wide standard video codecs. On top of all of those, various entities love putting out their own spin on those standards. As we mentioned before, DivX (proprietary) and XviD (open source), for instance, use MPEG-4 Part 2 (more specifically, MPEG-4 ASP) compression, meaning stuff that’ll natively play back MPEG-4 ASP will also play back DivX. Like the Xbox 360, for instance. There are a ton of MPEG-4 ASP-based codecs, actually, like FFmpeg, 3ivx and others, but DivX and XviD are the most common. Same deal with H.264: Some well known codecs that use it are Apple’s Quicktime H.264, x264 and Nero Digital. You’ve also got Windows Media Video (WMV) codecs, which are Microsoft’s proprietary twists on industry standards.

Containers aka Wrappers
Alright, well you’ve probably noticed that none of your video files have the extension .h264 or .vc1 or the like. That’s because videos are packaged in containers or wrappers that stuff things like the audio, navigational info, etc. along with the video in a single pretty file. Naturally, there are about as many of them as there are codecs. To be clear, you would take a video encoded with, say, H.264, and wrap it up as a .mp4 or .avi file.

The majors ones are:
• AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is Windows’ standard multimedia container
• MPEG-4 Part 14 (known to you as .mp4) is the standardized container for MPEG-4
• FLV (Flash Video) is the format used to deliver MPEG video through Flash Player
• MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container format
• OGG, OGM and OGV are open-standard containers
• MKV (Mastroska) is another open-specification container that you’ve seen if you’ve ever downloaded anime
• VOB means DVD Video Object. Guess what? It’s DVD’s standard container, and what you get when you rip a DVD.
• ASF is a Microsoft format designed for WMV and WMA—files can end in .wmv or .asf

So, in order to play a video file, your setup has to be able to handle both the actual video codec and the container. It’s why you can try to play an AVI file and Windows Media Player laughs at you, even though it totally played one a minute ago— the container was no problem, but it didn’t have the right codec. Or conversely, even though an iPod could play back an H.264 encoded video, if it was wrapped up in MKV, it won’t be able to read it.

Okay, my brain hurts. Hopefully this will make yours hurt less when it comes to dealing with pesky videos. If you’d like to do even more homework, Wikipedia, as always, has a more in-depth discussion. And Doom9 is always an amazing resource for all things digital video.

Snow Leopard Problems

31 08 2009

The first system I tried Snow Leopard on was my 1st generation Macbook. I expected some problems installing onto a hackintosh but all the reports I have read so far say the Leopard to Snow Leopard upgrade works just fine. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the case with my Macbook.

Before starting the upgrade I made a full backup to an external hard drive. The Snow Leopard upgrade is fairly straightforward, there are few options you can change now so it’s just a case of insert the DVD and go through the installer steps. After installation there were immediate problems visible, starting with many missing items at the right side of the menu bar. No time, no iStat menu’s and other items missing. I’ve since found out that iStat menu’s has problems with Snow Leopard, but trying to go into System Preferences> Date & Time>Clock just caused System Preferences to hang and needing a Force Quit. It looked like there was a conflict somewhere, so I tried again.

The second attempt was started by erasing the Macbook’s internal hard drive then doing a fresh Snow Leopard install. During the setup wizard I selected to import my user account from the still connected USB backup drive, but de-selected the options to import applications, settings and other files. This should have just imported my data but again I had the same problems once setup finished, so it looks like files in the use accounts Library folder were the problem.

After two tries I decided to just do a fresh install and add any apps I needed, and this has worked fine. It’s also a lot simpler than uninstalling iStat menu’s and any other incompatible software, as well as providing a fresh start for Snow Leopard. I don’t use the Macbook for much beyond Web browsing, email and storing/viewing media while on holiday, so there’s not much to install. To be fair here the Macbook originally had a Leopard 10.5 install when that was released and has received every point update along the way. I never got a Windows upgrade to work so I don’t think this is an unreasonable problem.

UPDATE After Joel left a comment also reporting iStat Menu problems I had another go at importing my user account and applications from the 10.5.8 back