Install OS X on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Two months ago I walked through how to build a Hackintosh Mac on the cheap using PC parts. Since that post, the OSx86 scene has changed rapidly, and now you can install Leopard on your computer about as easily as installing Leopard on a Mac—no command line hacking required. In addition, the resulting installation is—theoretically, at least—can be upgraded without fear of breaking. As if the simplicity of the installation weren't already enough, the new installation tools fix any problems I've had in the past (for example, I no longer need to keep my install DVD in the drive to boot into OS X), and support the Wi-Fi card on my motherboard out-of-the-box. In short, it's a winner.

NOTE: I can only vouch for this method on the build I detailed in the original post, but others have had a lot of luck with other boards, as well. If you're thinking of starting from scratch and want to follow exactly how I did it, check out the Build section of my original guide. If you've got your system together, here's how it works.

Set Your BIOS

The most difficult part of getting this installation to work with my board was getting the right BIOS settings in place. In the course of figuring it out, I made a lot of different small tweaks, so to ensure I didn't miss any, I've taken pictures of every relevant BIOS screen. If you're using the same board as me (an Asus P5W DH Deluxe), just go through screen by screen and make sure that your BIOS settings match mine. If you're using a different board, these settings could still serve as a good guide, but they may not perfectly match up to yours. (I'm having a tough time remembering every BIOS setting I tweaked, so if you're using a P5W DH Deluxe, your BIOS settings match mine, but you're having trouble, let me know and I'll try updating the gallery with more BIOS screens.)

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Now that you're BIOS are set, it's time to install.

Install OS X with the Kalyway Install Disc

Floating around the BitTorrents, you'll find a disc image called something like Kalyway Leopard 10.5.1 SSE2 SSE3. Download it and burn it to a DVD—it's what you'll use to install Leopard. If you're going to pursue this I'd still recommend purchasing an actual copy of Leopard, but you won't need it here.

Basically this DVD contains the Leopard install disc along with the EFI software that lets your hardware work with OS X using the vanilla kernels—which is a big part of why you don't have to do any of the command line hacking this time around. You just install the disc and voilà—everything boots up and upgrades normally (or at least that's been my experience so far). So assuming you've built your computer using the original instructions, you've got the Kalyway disc, and you've already prepared your BIOS, you're ready to install.

First, boot with the disc. The disc boot up can take a few minutes, so you'll need to be patient.

Before you go ahead with the installation you need to format your hard drive, so once the disc boots, go to Utilities -> Disk Utility in the menu bar. Find the hard drive in the sidebar you want to install Leopard to, select it, then go to the Partition tab, and select a 1 partition volume scheme, name it whatever you want (I called mine Leopard), and choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Now click the Options button to set the partition scheme. You can choose the partition scheme as either Master Boot Record or GUID (in my previous instructions you needed to set it as MBR). I used GUID.

Click Apply, let it complete the partitioning, and then quit Disk Utility and head back to the Installer. Hit Continue at the Welcome screen, agree to the terms, and then be sure to hit the Customize button before proceeding with your installation. Here's where the point-and-click magic of this installer comes in.

This install package comes with individual settings that match specific motherboards, and one very well supported board is the P5W DH Deluxe I used in the original build. Rather than telling you which checkboxes to tick, just click the screenshot above for a look at all the settings you'll want to use if you're installing OS X on that board.

When you're all set, click Done and then go ahead and Install. When the installation is complete (it'll take a little while), let your computer restart, pop out the install disc, and sit back in wonder as Leopard runs on your PC in full 10.5.1 glory.

If you've been living the Hackintosh life since our first guide, let's hear how it's worked out for you so far in the comments.