4 ms·

What's the state of hackintoshes currently? Maybe that would be a good compromise?

atonse 7y ago
They keep getting better, but you always have the fear of one software update bricking your device because some engineer at Apple woke up on the wrong side of the bed one day and put in something in the bootloader that only works on Apple hardware. It would work if I kept this laptop as my backup (can't stop working for a day or two while I fix all that stuff).
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  I said this repeatedly in a Hackintosh thread on HN last week: I have never had a point release break Hackintosh. Especially these days with bootloader kext injection, it’s really quite rare. Whole version upgrades are another story, but you shouldn’t just install those on a whim anyway. Also, if you’re on Hackintosh, Apple isn’t touching your bootloader!
throwaway888abc 7y ago
Apart from very useful, also very easy to setup https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM
- StavrosK 7y ago
  Hmm, what's performance like on that? It feels like running under QEMU would be pretty slow.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    It’a a type 1 hypervisor so not bad. But, I wouldn’t do it on a laptop. You need to pass through a gpu for it to work acceptably.
    - StavrosK 7y ago
      I'm going to try this on my Linux desktop right now. It might prove to be a good way to run Photoshop on Linux, though I'm not too hopeful... Thanks for the tip!
      - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        If you just want to run Photoshop etc, you’ll have a much easier time with a Windows VM! If you need to run, say, Sketch or Omnigraffle, then it would make more sense!
        StavrosK 7y ago
        I tried a Windows VM but it was unworkably slow :/ I've been dual-booting.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        Are you using KVM, and are you using GPU passthrough? Those two things together are what's able to provide close-to-native performance.
        StavrosK 7y ago
        I'm using VMware, I'm not sure if that uses KVM. It should have GPU passthrough though, yes.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        Nope, VMWare is a type-2 hypervisor, not a type-1 like KVM. (Unless you're using ESXI, but you would know if you were.) Mind, VMWare + GPU passthrough really should have more than acceptable performance, so I'm surprised.
        StavrosK 7y ago
- unicornfinder 7y ago
  Genuinely really tempted to try this. Should fix any of the issues with AMD compatibilities as well...
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    I'm currently installing it and it really was as easy as running the two scripts. I haven't gotten to GPU passthrough yet, though.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
They’re fantastic on desktop and have been for more than a decade, once you get past a setup process which can be quite painful (although isn’t always). But laptops are a lot trickier. You need drivers (or patches) for a lot of extra hardware (your trackpad, your battery-level-reader, the screen brightness controller, etc); you need sleep and cpu power management to work; you usually can’t just swap out the wifi card with a Mac-compatible one, etc. It can absolutely be done, but you need to do a lot of research on compatibility beforehand. And as a result, you may discover your options aren’t really all that much better than they were in Real Mac land. I would go for it (ie start doing research) only if there’s something specific you really want in a laptop that Apple simply doesn’t offer. A touch screen, for instance.
- mmm_grayons 7y ago
  It's not necessarily finding drivers that's the problem so much as correctly patching the ACPI tables so drivers can find stuff, especially on laptops, excluding some stuff like wireless cards which often have sketchy to no driver support. Options are certainly better than in real mac land, but be prepared to spend at least a week working through every device one-by-one. Once it's working, though, it's stable.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    It's not just finding compatible wireless that's a problem! You can also mostly eliminate: • Any laptop with an nVidia GPU • Any laptop that uses switchable graphics (unless you're okay with terrible battery life from the GPU being always on) • Any AMD laptop (because even with custom cpu patches, the integrated graphics won't work). That's a lot of laptops, particularly in the type of segments people would likely be most interested in, since Apple doesn't make them. Combined with the aforementioned wifi compatibility problems, you really need to do your research first!

They keep getting better, but you always have the fear of one software update bricking your device because some engineer at Apple woke up on the wrong side of the bed one day and put in something in the bootloader that only works on Apple hardware. It would work if I kept this laptop as my backup (can't stop working for a day or two while I fix all that stuff).

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
I said this repeatedly in a Hackintosh thread on HN last week: I have never had a point release break Hackintosh. Especially these days with bootloader kext injection, it’s really quite rare. Whole version upgrades are another story, but you shouldn’t just install those on a whim anyway. Also, if you’re on Hackintosh, Apple isn’t touching your bootloader!

throwaway888abc 7y ago

Apart from very useful, also very easy to setup https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM

StavrosK 7y ago
Hmm, what's performance like on that? It feels like running under QEMU would be pretty slow.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  It’a a type 1 hypervisor so not bad. But, I wouldn’t do it on a laptop. You need to pass through a gpu for it to work acceptably.
  - StavrosK 7y ago
    I'm going to try this on my Linux desktop right now. It might prove to be a good way to run Photoshop on Linux, though I'm not too hopeful... Thanks for the tip!
    - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
      If you just want to run Photoshop etc, you’ll have a much easier time with a Windows VM! If you need to run, say, Sketch or Omnigraffle, then it would make more sense!
      - StavrosK 7y ago
        I tried a Windows VM but it was unworkably slow :/ I've been dual-booting.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        Are you using KVM, and are you using GPU passthrough? Those two things together are what's able to provide close-to-native performance.
        StavrosK 7y ago
        I'm using VMware, I'm not sure if that uses KVM. It should have GPU passthrough though, yes.
        Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        Nope, VMWare is a type-2 hypervisor, not a type-1 like KVM. (Unless you're using ESXI, but you would know if you were.) Mind, VMWare + GPU passthrough really should have more than acceptable performance, so I'm surprised.
        StavrosK 7y ago
unicornfinder 7y ago
Genuinely really tempted to try this. Should fix any of the issues with AMD compatibilities as well...
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I'm currently installing it and it really was as easy as running the two scripts. I haven't gotten to GPU passthrough yet, though.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

They’re fantastic on desktop and have been for more than a decade, once you get past a setup process which can be quite painful (although isn’t always). But laptops are a lot trickier. You need drivers (or patches) for a lot of extra hardware (your trackpad, your battery-level-reader, the screen brightness controller, etc); you need sleep and cpu power management to work; you usually can’t just swap out the wifi card with a Mac-compatible one, etc. It can absolutely be done, but you need to do a lot of research on compatibility beforehand. And as a result, you may discover your options aren’t really all that much better than they were in Real Mac land. I would go for it (ie start doing research) only if there’s something specific you really want in a laptop that Apple simply doesn’t offer. A touch screen, for instance.

mmm_grayons 7y ago
It's not necessarily finding drivers that's the problem so much as correctly patching the ACPI tables so drivers can find stuff, especially on laptops, excluding some stuff like wireless cards which often have sketchy to no driver support. Options are certainly better than in real mac land, but be prepared to spend at least a week working through every device one-by-one. Once it's working, though, it's stable.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  It's not just finding compatible wireless that's a problem! You can also mostly eliminate: • Any laptop with an nVidia GPU • Any laptop that uses switchable graphics (unless you're okay with terrible battery life from the GPU being always on) • Any AMD laptop (because even with custom cpu patches, the integrated graphics won't work). That's a lot of laptops, particularly in the type of segments people would likely be most interested in, since Apple doesn't make them. Combined with the aforementioned wifi compatibility problems, you really need to do your research first!