Hello, Habr!

I've been putting off writing this article for a long time, but the time has come.

There are quite a few materials on the internet about how to run macOS on regular, IBM-compatible PCs. Their problem is exactly the same as with Wine, which I also wrote my own article about - they are too... vague on the details of how to create an installation media and what to do after installation.

In this article, I will be following the guide from Dortania. There is a Russian version, but it's always older than the most current one, so I will use the original. I will also be taking some screenshots and links from there.

Before we begin, I'd like to enlighten those who are not aware of what a Hackintosh is.

A Hackintosh is the process of installing macOS on regular PCs. What's the difficulty?

All MacBooks use their own hardware (at least now, in 2025). They used to use different processors - in classic Macintoshes they used processors from Motorola. Later models featured processors from IBM PowerPC (during this period they were called PowerMacs). And in the early 2000s, Apple switched to Intel processors. It was during this period that the system we are most interested in appeared - OSX, later renamed to macOS.

In general, there has always been an issue with the OS names for Macintoshes (and for all Apple products). Let me give you some examples.

The first Macintoshes, which were square "coffins," had no built-in OS at all. It was supplied on floppy disks and was simply called System Software.

Starting with version 7, it was updated and became known as Mac OS (yes, two words, yes, with a capital letter). This was the case until version 9.

After version 9, when Steve Jobs was bought back along with the company NEXT, the entire system was completely rewritten on the Darwin kernel (a Unix-like hybrid kernel that is now used in every Apple product*) and was again given a new name: Mac OS X or simply Mac OS Ten. For simplicity, I will call later versions OSX as well, as it's faster to type.

* you do know that iOS is, in essence, the same as macOS, right? If you "wander" through the system with a Jailbreak, you can find a ton of folders/architecture directly from/of the Mac.

After OSX 10.11 El Capitan, the system was renamed again. It is now called macOS, and a new version number is simply added to it, rather than just changing the number after 10.

Currently, the latest version of macOS is 15 Sequoia. I will be demonstrating its installation.

Before I start building the config for launch, I want to make a disclaimer.

There is another way to run macOS on regular PCs. At least through a regular virtual machine (VMWare or VirtualBox).

I initially wanted to show this method as well, but remembering my suffering with them, I decided to abandon the idea. If you really don't want to install the system on a real PC (I understand you, rolling it all back later can be quite an ordeal, especially if it's your only computer/laptop*), then this is an excellent, but extremely troublesome process of launching, waiting for 5-6 hours (at least that's how long it took for me to install), and very slow performance.

* if I'm not mistaken, after formatting a disk to APFS in a Mac, the Windows installer stops seeing the disk at all. After using the Mac, I had to format the disk from Linux using fdisk/gdisk; there was no other way to access it.

How justified is the virtual machine option at all? If you want, for example, to just look at the interface (yeah, I wanted to, and look where it got me...), without proper support for Apple applications (which will all be available with my method), sometimes with a buggy interface, and are willing to put up with it - go ahead. I'll pass.

For such masochists, I'll leave 2 videos here (both in English). For VirtualBox and for VMWare Workstation 17 Pro(yes, only Pro, it doesn't work with Player).

In short, it's initially impossible to install macOS on a virtual machine on Windows, so you'll have to tinker with configs, unlock hidden menu items, find an installation media in a normal format, not dmg, and deal with many other problems. Perhaps I'll write another article about this as a follow-up to the current one, but I won't make any promises.

That's it for the introduction, let's move on to the requirements for creating the installation media.

PC Requirements

This is a very important point, don't skip it.

First, and most importantly. Your system should not have a dedicated graphics card*. Mac is very picky about everything except integrated Intel UHD graphics (yes, Iris is a no-go). It is possible to get AMD and NVidia graphics cards to work, but it's a huge pain. There were people like that on the Hackintosh Discord server, but I have neither the card itself nor the desire to test it.

* It's not impossible, even the official guide has sections on fixing Nvidia and Vega cards, but... I don't know how well it works.

Second, also very important. It is PREFERABLE to have an Intel processor. Yes, the site has a section about AMD. But. 1. Mac is very picky about the processor. You might need a whole lot of shamanism and rituals to even get to the installation screen. 2. Mac doesn't recognize AMD integrated graphics at all*.

* this is where you'll need to do the most tinkering with dedicated graphics cards.

My advice. Do you have an AMD? Don't even try to run it, unless you have an iron will to see it through to the end.

That's not all. Even if you have an Intel processor, that's just the beginning of the requirements. Your processor must be no newer than the 10th generation* and must not have an integrated Intel Iris graphics card. I used ChatGPT to create a table of processors, their codenames, and generations, along with the first and last supported OS. This table will come in very handy soon.

* no newer than the 10th generation, as drivers for the 11th and 12th generations simply do not exist. I have a laptop with an Intel 1215U processor. I originally bought it with the intention of building a Mac on it, but it was a bust. I should have checked earlier if it was even possible to build what I wanted on it. Be careful if you're building a computer specifically for a Hackintosh, you'll need to think hard. I was lucky to get a computer that already met all the requirements (for which I am very grateful).

Moving on. It's desirable to have 8GB of RAM or more. Less will result in freezes.

If you have an NVME drive, check it for compatibility.

Here's a screenshot and a link from the site

Ironically, my test PC originally had a Samsung PM981...

I spent 2 weeks trying to figure out why my installation was freezing during disk formatting... I had to replace it with another one (first a regular SSD, then an NVME when I bought a larger one for my main computer).

Another important requirement - want to run something newer than macOS 10.13 High Sierra? You need mandatory UEFI support, with advanced settings, as you'll need to disable some motherboard features, otherwise nothing will boot. This action is highly individual for everyone. In my case, I need certain options, in yours - others.

I should mention here that this article will not show how to disable the necessary items in the BIOS; this is all highly individual and can be found somewhere in the guide. Since everything is already configured on my end, I don't need to do this. If you have any questions, you can visit the Hackintosh Discord channel.

That's all for the requirements.

Why OpenCore?

Perhaps those who have been interested in Hackintoshes before now have a question. Why OC specifically, and not, for example, Clover?

The answer is simple - OC's configuration is completely manual. You configure every single item yourself in a JSON-like file (config.plist), which results in compatibility that is on par with original hardware. It's faster and better, but yes, it's more of a hassle and takes longer to set up, but you'll never have to touch it again.

You will need to create 2 files: the first to start the installation "somehow," and the second for normal operation under the system*.

* this is advisable if you have problems launching the installer. I didn't have any problems in this article, so I made one universal file.

Why is that?

The answer is simple. The fewer drivers that load during the initial startup, the better. On laptops, it's even recommended to exclude keyboard and touchpad drivers, as yes, they also have a tendency to "mess things up" during startup and installation.

The bare minimum is:

  1. Network driver (required)

  2. Video system driver (also required, you don't want to stare at a black screen, do you?)

  3. Driver for the NVME drive, if you have one.

  4. Lilu - a driver for launching other drivers (kexts)

  5. VirtualSMC

And then, in the system, the following are added:

  1. Audio driver

  2. Driver for USB port mapping (that's quite a quest, I'll show you how to do it too)

And there's a catch to all of this. They must be launched in a strictly defined sequence. One step out of line, and it won't even get to the launch and will stall at the bootloader start stage.

Starting to Gather PC Information

First, we need detailed information about the PC. Everything from the processor to the sound card on the motherboard. How to get it? You can do it the old-fashioned way. Manually search the system. Dortania even has a separate article on this for Windows/Linux and macOS.

We'll take a simpler route. In the last section, there's a program - OCSysInfo. We'll use that. Download it from here the version for your system.

I will show an example from my main system, where I will NOT be installing Mac, and then I'll share the config from the test PC.

Download, open.

We see a terminal window

And then this

Here, press T and go to downloads.

This is what the config looks like

And here is the configuration for the test system.

─ CPU

  └── Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz

      ├── Cores: 6

      ├── Threads: 12

      ├── SSE: SSE4.2

      ├── SSSE3: Supported

      └── Codename: Coffee Lake

─ Motherboard

  ├── Model: 83EE

  └── Manufacturer: HP

─ GPU

  └── Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630

      ├── Device ID: 0x3E92

      ├── Vendor: 0x8086

      ├── PCI Path: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)

      └── ACPI Path: \_SB.PCI0.GFX0

─ Memory

  ├── M378A1K43CB2-CTD (Part-Number)

  │   ├── Type: DDR4

  │   ├── Slot

  │   │   ├── Bank: ChannelB

  │   │   └── Channel: DIMM1

  │   ├── Frequency (MHz): 2667 MHz

  │   ├── Manufacturer: Samsung

  │   └── Capacity: 8192MB

  ├── M378A1K43CB2-CTD (Part-Number)

  │   ├── Type: DDR4

  │   ├── Slot

  │   │   ├── Bank: ChannelB

  │   │   └── Channel: DIMM2

  │   ├── Frequency (MHz): 2667 MHz

  │   ├── Manufacturer: Samsung

  │   └── Capacity: 8192MB

  ├── M378A1K43CB2-CTD (Part-Number)

  │   ├── Type: DDR4

  │   ├── Slot

  │   │   ├── Bank: ChannelA

  │   │   └── Channel: DIMM3

  │   ├── Frequency (MHz): 2667 MHz

  │   ├── Manufacturer: Samsung

  │   └── Capacity: 8192MB

  └── M378A1K43CB2-CTD (Part-Number)

      ├── Type: DDR4

      ├── Slot

      │   ├── Bank: ChannelA

      │   └── Channel: DIMM4

      ├── Frequency (MHz): 2667 MHz

      ├── Manufacturer: Samsung

      └── Capacity: 8192MB

─ Network

  ├── Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM

  │   ├── Device ID: 0x15BB

  │   ├── Vendor: 0x8086

  │   ├── PCI Path: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x6)

  │   └── ACPI Path: \_SB.PCI0.GLAN

  └── Unknown Network Controller

      ├── Device ID: 0xFF88

      └── Vendor: 0x2717

─ Audio

  ├── Unknown Sound Device

  │   ├── Device ID: 0x5098

  │   └── Vendor: 0x14F1

  └── Intel(R) Display Audio

      ├── Device ID: 0x280B

      └── Vendor: 0x8086

─ Input

  ├── USB Input Device (USB)

  │   ├── Product ID: 0x07F8

  │   └── Vendor ID: 0x045E

  ├── USB Input Device (USB)

  │   ├── Product ID: 0xC534

  │   └── Vendor ID: 0x046D

  └── HID-compliant mouse

      ├── Product ID: 0xC534

      └── Vendor ID: 0x046D

─ Storage

  ├── ST3500413AS

  │   ├── Type: Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

  │   ├── Connector: Serial ATA (SATA)

  │   └── Location: Internal

  └── SAMSUNG MZVLB256HAHQ-000H1

      ├── Type: NVMe

      ├── Connector: PCI Express

      └── Location: Internal


From here, we need the following items:

  1. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz

  2. Codename: Coffee Lake

  3. Motherboard Model: 83EE; Manufacturer: HP

  4. Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630

  5. Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM

  6. Intel(R) Display Audio

  7. SAMSUNG MZVLB256HAHQ-000H1; Type: NVMe (this is the problematic one, I have a different one now)

Why do we need them? To download the necessary kexts, but we'll get to that. First, we need to download OC itself.

Creating a Bootable Flash Drive and Gathering Files

On the guide website, we go to the section on creating a bootable flash drive in <insert your system>. I'm doing it in Windows, so I'll go there.

There are animated gifs here showing what to do.

Downloading the main files

But first, we need to download the archive with the files itself. Here's the link to it. Download the latest stable release (I have 1.0.2, which is the one written on the button when you enter the guide).

There's a point here. For the first launch, it's recommended to use the DEBUG version, as we'll need any information about what went wrong, but debug has its own "quirks" that sometimes broke the boot for me (plus, it's very slow to load from a flash drive...). I'll take the debug version, then switch to release*.

* spoiler - I won't switch. It's not very difficult to do, just replace the file on the flash drive/in the Mac itself in the EFI/Boot folder with the release version from X64.

Once downloaded, create a separate folder where you will do everything for the Hackintosh. I have one, but I'll create a new one to do everything from scratch (I just sort everything into places right away so I don't get lost, which is easy to do).

This is what it all looks like. I'll explain what the folders are for a little later. First, we need a flash drive with a capacity of ^8GB. I have one just like that. It's 2.0, but it'll do for me.

Formatting the flash drive

Format this flash drive to FAT32 (a full format is preferable).

There are 3 options:

I'll use the Rufus option, even though my flash drive is only 8 gigs. There won't be much of a difference (well, we'll find that out later...*).

*spoiler - everything is fine. I'm writing this after the installation

Set everything as in the screenshot, and press start.

The flash drive is formatted and ready to be filled.

Populating the flash drive

First, let's create 2 folders on it.

  1. com.apple.recovery.boot

  2. EFI

The first will contain the system recovery image, the second - the config and the bootloader.

Note:

You can create 2 partitions on the flash drive, one for EFI and the other for the image. This works, but I won't do it that way*.

* this is described in the Linux and macOS sections of the guide. Read it there.

Downloading the recovery mode image

First, let's fill the first folder. We need a system image. Where to get it? Download it!

Go to the folder D:\MAKINTOSH\Utilities\macrecovery, where we run the file macrecovery.py with the necessary parameter.

There are many.

I'll download the latest version, so I need the last line.

py macrecovery.py -b Mac-937A206F2EE63C01 -m 00000000000000000 download

The download process begins. Don't touch anything.

Here they are in a separate folder

I recommend creating a folder where you will store the complete state of the flash drive by folders. Essentially, create a full backup of its files, and start forming it before you put the first data on the flash drive. I will do just that. It will be located in D:\MAKINTOSH

Copying the bootloader files to the flash drive

Next, copy from the folder D:\MAKINTOSH\X64\EFI everything to the flash drive E:\EFI\.

Here's what I got

At this point, we should have the following flash drive structure

What's what:

Our system:

Bootloader for a 64-bit processor

And now we're going to mess with everything in here

Populating the Drivers folder

Drivers - well, drivers for launching OpenCore itself. You only need to keep a few of them. Look at the system config and this table.

Does my system have UEFI? Yes. The first one is out.

Do I have macOS 10.7-10.9? No. Also out (I'll add it too, but a bit later, I was advised to do this on the Discord channel a long time ago).

Keep Nvram and OpenRuntime. Delete everything else.

We won't need to come back here at all. Well, almost. I'll add a few more things here.

Moving on.

Populating the Tools folder

Go to the Tools folder and delete everything except OpenShell

This is what everything looks like for me now (yes, I moved to another folder for convenience)

Next, go here and read everything that applies to our system.

Download this and put it in Drivers, it's mandatory

We'll skip everything related to Kexts for now. We'll come back to it later.

Populating the ACPI folder

SSDT - goes into the ACPI folder.

From this table, I need these files

In each of the links, select Prebuilt

I don't need anything here, I have an 8th gen.

In the end, I got this content, specifically for my platform

Kexts

Now we've come to the most time-consuming part - kexts. What are they?

Kext - Kernel Extension (kernel extensions), think of them as local drivers, but not for the bootloader, but for the system itself.

USB port mapping

First, let's do the most tedious part - mapping the USB ports.

To do this, we need Windows (mandatory) and a program.

Go to the link and look for this section.

For now, we only need the tool. Download windows.exe here

To run it, you logically need Windows. But what if you don't have it? For example, we're doing this from Linux. What then?

There is a way. It's called Windows PE or Preinstallation (Portable) Environment - the system used in the Windows installer. I was just reinstalling Windows and I have such a flash drive. We put this exe file on it and boot into it. (If you have it installed, logically, you can do without this).

Next, you need to launch the installation environment itself

And then the magic begins. We get to the disk partitioning stage, and press Right Shift + F10, which activates the terminal (I couldn't open windows.exe directly, although it's there*)

* I just noticed I was in the sources folder... Well... it happens

There, we type notepad and press enter.

In it, we click open

There we go to the root of the flash drive, we see our program

Right-click => open with admin rights

In the program itself, enter D

And here the magic begins.

You need to (!) simply take any USB device (a second flash drive, a mouse radio module, anything) and start plugging it into all the ports you need in the system. But the main thing is not to overdo it, there shouldn't be more than, I think, 8 or 12 (spoiler, I ended up with about 14, and everything works).

When you're done, press b and go back to the main menu. It should be green here. Then enter S

A window like this opened. The idea is to write all the port numbers that are green, separated by commas (I made a mistake here, just write them separated by commas). Then type K to save

Final window

When you're done, you should have a file like this at the root of the flash drive.

This is the one we'll need. But first, download another file(the release version), unzip it and put them both in Kexts

This is how it should look in the end (one doesn't work without the other)

Addition.

Why did we map the ports at all? A Mac can only read a limited number of ports. If I'm not mistaken, about 8 at a time. This limitation is hardcoded into the Mac itself. They've never had more than 8 connectors.

On modern motherboards, there are actually about 32 ports. How so? Half of them are simply not wired to ports. Usually there are about 3-16, the rest just exist.

Mapping is needed precisely so that the Mac doesn't lose its mind when it tries to scan all of them.

If you don't do the mapping, it will only see the connectors that were active when the system started.

For example - I have 3 ports in use - a flash drive, a mouse + a keyboard. So only these 3 ports will be available in the system. And all of them in 1.1 or 2.0 mode. But if you map everything, there will be as many as you mapped, plus they will differ by type - 2.0, 3.0, etc.

The hardest part of the kexts is over. Next, we'll go through this whole page in search of what we need.

This is mandatory

P.S. News... VirtualSMC was flagged as a virus. Great. Chrome is surprising.

P.P.S. How is that possible... Why did the debug version download normally, but the release version didn't?!

Alright, I'll stick with the debug version.

From VirtualSMC, at this stage, we only need the VirtualSMC.kext kext

Here's a description of what each of them does

We need this too. These are the drivers for the video card.

We need this too, it's for sound.

With the internet, the search begins. Remember I made a list of what to look for in the PC configuration? We need this line: Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM. We're looking for I219-LM there.

Found it - download it.

I'm skipping this. I have neither. (P.S. As far as I know, third-party dongles don't work on a Mac)

From the extras, I'm only downloading this.

This completes the Kext assembly. Here's what I ended up with.

You have to understand that I did everything from scratch. Here's an example of what I built 2 years ago, also from scratch.

They are identical. This means it will definitely work for me.

Building config.plist

Now we move on to the most complex and time-consuming part - building the config.

To edit the config, we will need the program ProperTree. Download the whole branch. There are no releases here.

These 2 things are already in our unpacked archive with the bootloader, in Utils

GenSMBIOS creates a "fake" BIOS, like a Mac's, so that when the system starts, it allows you to use Apple software (App Store, Photos, connect to iCloud, etc.). The second one is just a pre-created test config.

Copy it from Docs/Sample.plist to !FlashDrive\EFI\OC\Sample.plist

Rename it to config.plist

Open it in ProperTree and we see the following.

Right-click -> Collapse All

We will only open what we are currently editing. It's more convenient this way.

How to know what to edit and how?

Here we select our processor's codename and follow the instructions. I will give examples of what I'm editing, although they are also there.

ACPI

Add

Our SSDTs will be written here

In Path, just write the name. In the Enabled field, set it to True. You can write a comment. That's it. Here's my finished view

Does the order of addition matter here? As far as I know - no. In Kext, yes, very much so. When we get there, I'll tell you a story that ruined everything for me.

Leave the other items unchanged. We don't need them (unless your config on the site says otherwise).

Booter

Quirks

I only edited what's in my guide here

We don't touch the other sections.

DeviceProperties

Add

Here I had to create my own section completely, as the starting config simply doesn't have one.

I've never done this, and everything worked for me anyway. Maybe I should have. But it doesn't matter. Maybe I'll do it this time.

I didn't touch the rest.

Kernel

Add

All our kexts are added here. If you've done the mapping correctly, you can press Control + R

Here we select the OpenCore folder (yes, the whole thing)

And here's how neatly all my kexts were added, and in the correct order*

I won't disable anything unnecessary for now, I'll try to start with this. Maybe it will be fine. If not, I'll disable everything except the network, card, and nvme with lilu.

* The promised story. I once did everything manually (I didn't know about this magic button) and I placed the graphics driver higher than the network driver. During boot, the kernel had a "panic" and I couldn't figure out what I did wrong for a long time. I spent 2 days on it, trying to mix and recheck everything I could in different ways. Then, when I learned about this magic combination, everything started up on the first try...

Quirks

Here I need to do a couple of things. I have an HP system, specifically an HP Prodesk 4 <something or other>.

I need to set this

!This needs to be disabled

Since the system is newer than 11.3

Misc

Debug

Set this

DisplayLevel, Target will only work if the OC version is DEBUG! Enables more info in the log.

Security

I highly recommend you read all of this too. There's a lot of useful information here, so if something goes wrong, you'll at least be thinking in the right direction about where and what to change.

When I was doing a Hackintosh for the first time, I, of course, didn't read this at all (well, what Russian reads instructions before breaking something?). I ran into a bunch of errors, didn't know what to do, and went to figure it all out on the Discord server. As a result, I got a bunch of annoyed people who were irritated by it. I don't recommend doing that.

NVRAM

Add

Here, in 7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82, you will need to add boot arguments. Remember this place if you need to change them later.

This option, prev-lang:kbd:, is actually very funny. The default language here is Russian (the language the Mac starts with). We could not change anything at all, but I prefer the system to be in English, so I'm changing it.

This is what I got

PlatformInfo

This is where the most interesting part begins. Here we will specify a "real" Mac so that everything works for us. To do this, we first need to create one.

Download this program.

Open it.

Next, press 1.


Next, 3.

Here I can enter one of two things

Since my Mac is new, I will use the first one

You can either enter this yourself or let the program do it. I'll let the program do it.

Exit the config editor, press 2 in the main menu, and select your config.

Just drag your config into the window and that's it.

This is what it looks like in the config itself*

And here's what went where

If you want - do it yourself (I did), if not - don't.

* mistake. Nothing was filled in automatically for me ( I had to set it myself

UEFI

Drivers

We need to add our drivers here. It's not difficult, just like with SSDT. And I'll add a few here that I don't remember exactly where I got them from (most likely recommended on Discord).

These are OpenCanopy.efi and OpenPartitionDxe.efi. You can get them from the unpacked OC in the folder \X64\EFI\OC\Drivers.

By the way. They are also added automatically with that magic combination.

APFS

I'll put -1 here in both cases

Quirks

Here only the last one, but this is my specific case

What the flash drive looks like at the end of the setup

E:\

+---com.apple.recovery.boot

|       BaseSystem.chunklist

|       BaseSystem.dmg

|

\---EFI

    +---BOOT

    |       BOOTx64.efi

    |

    \---OC

        |   config.plist

        |   OpenCore.efi

        |

        +---ACPI

        |       SSDT-AWAC.aml

        |       SSDT-EC-USBX-DESKTOP.aml

        |       SSDT-PLUG-DRTNIA.aml

        |       SSDT-PMC.aml

        |

        +---Drivers

        |       HfsPlus.efi

        |       OpenCanopy.efi

        |       OpenPartitionDxe.efi

        |       OpenRuntime.efi

        |       ResetNvramEntry.efi

        |

        +---Kexts

        |   +---AppleALC.kext

        |   |   \---Contents

        |   |       |   Info.plist

        |   |       |

        |   |       \---MacOS

        |   |               AppleALC

        |   |

        |   +---IntelMausi.kext

        |   |   \---Contents

        |   |       |   Info.plist

        |   |       |

        |   |       \---MacOS

        |   |               IntelMausi

        |   |

        |   +---Lilu.kext

        |   |   \---Contents

        |   |       |   Info.plist

        |   |       |

        |   |       \---MacOS

        |   |               Lilu

        |   |

        |   +---NVMeFix.kext

        |   |   \---Contents

        |   |       |   Info.plist

        |   |       |

        |   |       \---MacOS

        |   |               NVMeFix

        |   |

        |   +---USBToolBox.kext

        |   |   \---Contents

        |   |       |   Info.plist

        |   |       |

        |   |       \---MacOS

        |   |               USBToolBox

        |   |

        |   +---UTBMap.kext

        |   |   \---Contents

        |   |           Info.plist

        |   |

        |   +---VirtualSMC.kext

        |   |   \---Contents

        |   |       |   Info.plist

        |   |       |

        |   |       +---MacOS

        |   |       |       VirtualSMC

        |   |       |

        |   |       \---Resources

        |   |           \---VirtualSMCSDK

        |   |                   AppleSmc.h

        |   |                   AppleSmcBridge.hpp

        |   |                   kern_keyvalue.hpp

        |   |                   kern_smcinfo.hpp

        |   |                   kern_value.hpp

        |   |                   kern_vsmcapi.hpp

        |   |

        |   \---WhateverGreen.kext

        |       \---Contents

        |           |   Info.plist

        |           |

        |           \---MacOS

        |                   WhateverGreen

        |

        +---Resources

        |   +---Audio

        |   +---Font

        |   +---Image

        |   \---Label

        \---Tools

                OpenShell.efi

This concludes the suffering of creating the config. I'm copying everything to the flash drive and we're going to start macOS itself. I spent about 2 hours on the config*.

* that's not even very long, the main thing is not to overlook anything while you're doing it, otherwise it can be painful to look for an error later and reread everything several times.

Starting macOS

On startup, I encountered the following problems

What's this key delete, in the context of <Device Properties>?

I think I fixed it. I just deleted it by accident.

Let's try again.

One error is gone. That's good.

Still not moving forward. What's wrong...

I was launching the wrong thing... I remembered about this error, I was just confused by the boot speed (which is the problem with the debug version of the OS).

This is how the launch should be

Launch this. An additional menu is called up with the spacebar. Specifically the one with (dmg)

Next are the log lines, just like when starting, for example, Linux

Then the UI appeared (I apologize for the subsequent pictures, but I can't take them any other way)!

Next, we format the disk (the disk itself, not a partition. This is important) (if anything, it's enabled in the view menu - show devices)

After that, click on reinstalling the system

Accept the legal documents, just click next, next, select the disk and install

After that, we wait for about 30-50 minutes (the timer greatly overestimates the time), then there will be about 3-4 reboots and we will get into the system.

But, importantly. We can't get into the system right away, as it doesn't have a bootloader. We'll have to select our flash drive, boot to the bootloader, and select our disk. And do this 3 times. And the main thing is not to let it go into the system itself at the wrong time, otherwise it might just erase everything it downloaded. You need to be constantly nearby and monitor the situation.

And one more thing. If the mouse freezes during installation (keep wiggling it a little), it means there's an error in your drivers/kexts, or with the disk. I had this happen with that damn Samsung disk.

After we've booted into the system, we go through the standard system startup process. I won't be filming much, as the pictures are of poor quality. After booting into the system, I'll provide screenshots.

First photos after the first boot

Это клава для воторого ПК. Она определяется как и должна - ISO(европейка)
This is the keyboard for the second PC. It's detected as it should be - ISO (European)

That's it. Screenshots will follow.

Actions after a successful macOS boot

Making macOS standalone

What I mean is. It needs to be untied from the flash drive. This is a crutch for the first 2-3 launches, after that it's a real crutch that only gets in the way.

To do this, you need to go to the guide and click on Post Install.

Next, we go to this point.

You need this program. Download it.

Next, open the terminal and go to it. Type sudo ./MountEFI.command

It will ask to install Python, agree.

Here, press 1.

It mounts the efi partition. You'll need to put everything that's in the efi folder on the flash drive there.

After that, a reboot without the flash drive will go smoothly, without problems. The program is no longer needed. Essentially, that's it, but we need to configure a couple more things that are in PostInstall.

Well, I'm off to reboot.

Looking for what else to fix

That's it, I've rebooted without the flash drive. Let's go solve other problems.

P.S. Forgive me, Mac users, but I swapped the command and control keys. I can't get used to its placement. But after that, everything became just perfect.

First problem solved. Next.

Essentially, all these problems are solved

Checking the sound

I can check the sound by simply connecting headphones via USB.

Yes, it's fully functional, the Mac sees and plays audio. So I don't need to do anything about it. Even if the codec is "messed up". I'm not going to use it as my main system anyway.

Checking DRM

Let's look further. I'll check the DRM. To do this, follow the link and download the application. I try to open it, but it's a bust. It doesn't work through the terminal either, damn it.

To open it, you need to go to settings, then to security. Click Open Anyway

Here, click Open Anyway at the bottom

Here, enter the password and only then will it deign to open. By the way, there are no problems with DRM.

Checking Apple services

Moving on. Do iServices work? Yes, they do. The App Store works perfectly.

How to enable hidden files in Finder

By the way. Do you know how to access hidden folders on a Mac? The root directory is a bit too empty.

Although, first a question. How do you even get to the root?

Through the back door, like everything on a Mac. From here we get to the computer.

From here we go to the root of the disk.

But there aren't many folders, don't you think? Let's enable hidden folders with cmd+shift+.

And here are our lost items.

I don't have much else to say about Hackintosh. We installed Mac on a regular system unit, it works perfectly. It flies. It performs its functions. Everything (I think) works, Apple services are also up and running.

Drawing conclusions

How relevant is this? I can't say. It's good for building an iPhone app, and it will also work as a workstation. You can't play games here (come on, games on Mac through Wine is not funny). You can work on it - yes, but not me. I can't stand Mac. Too many things about it annoy me for me to be willing to put up with it.

Besides, I initially installed Hackintosh just to see what a Mac would be like for me if I were to buy one. I only understood one thing here - I will NEVER buy a Mac. No, I can't stand its interface every day, the hotkeys, some system decisions, and everything else on top of that. Mac is not for me. And it's good that I understood this without paying a dime.

I don't know who might actually need a Hackintosh. For me, as with ChromeOS, I just wanted to play around and see what would happen. I've seen it, I don't want it anymore. I tried to use it, couldn't stand it for more than a week, and went back to Linux with Windows.

Honestly, no matter how much many people praise the Mac, it's just not for me. I'm not saying it's bad and yuck, you shouldn't buy it, etc., no. It's just not for me. Everyone should use what they like. I'm all for Linux and its development.

Have you ever used/installed a Hackintosh? What do you think of macOS in general? Would you, if you had the opportunity, use a computer with a Hackintosh? Write in the comments, I've already said my opinion - no, no, thanks, I'll pass.