Hackintosh from Start to Finish (Part 4): Installing Mac OS X

Now that you've watched my last video, you know some of the key terminology used in the hackintosh world. With that under your belt, let's move on to what you've all been waiting for; installing Mac OS X!

First thing's first; Snow Leopard is needed to get to Lion. This is because you need to purchase Lion from the App Store, which can only be accessed on Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or higher. Lion can't be installed right from Windows, even if you order Apple's Lion USB installer. Therefore, you need to get Snow Leopard running first. Note that this can be done from someone else's Mac, such as a friend or family member. If you have a Mac and the Lion app from the App Store, then you can skip to the step where we'll be installing Lion. Don't pirate Lion or Snow Leopard from the internet! Both Snow Leopard and Lion combined comes to $60. There's no reason you can't afford this if you just bought a bunch of expensive hardware!

As stated, we'll be installing Snow Leopard first. Here's what you need:

•         Snow Leopard installation DVD ($30)
•         iBoot (The appropriate version for your system)
•         Blank CD for iBoot
• UpdateHelper (If on Sandy Bridge system)
•         Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later combo update 
•         MultiBeast (Snow Leopard version)

Installing Snow Leopard

Once you have the correct version of iBoot burned to a CD and your Snow Leopard DVD, it's time to install Mac OS X! Insert the iBoot CD into your computer and boot from it. At the bootloader menu, eject the iBoot CD and insert the Snow Leopard DVD. Once a few seconds have passed, refresh the list by hitting the F5 key. You'll notice that the Snow Leopard DVD is now on the list. Select the DVD to boot into the installer.

Click through the installer until you're at the disk selection screen. Select Utilities in the menubar, and click Disk Utility. Once in Disk Utility, partition your drive so that the partition you will be installing OS X to is formatted as Mac OS (Journaled). You also want to click the options button below the volume scheme and make sure that it's GUID. If you install OS X when it's set to MBR, you won't be able to modify your drive's partitions without completely restoring. Once you have your drive set up appropriately, apply the settings and leave Disk Utility. When you're back at the disk selection screen, select the partition you just made and click customize. I recommend removing the language translations, as that saves you 1.2 GB. Once that's done, go ahead and install Mac OS X! When the installation finishes, reboot your computer, making sure that the iBoot CD is in your computer. Boot from the iBoot CD as before, and this time select the volume that you installed Mac OS X to. You will now boot into Snow Leopard!

Before continuing on, take a second and think of what kind of system you have. If you're running a Sandy Bridge system, this next step is crucial. If you're running a first generation core i'X' or any other system, then you can skip over this next step. If on a Sandy Bridge system, download the program from above called UpdateHelper. Simply run the application, click through it, and restart your computer once it's completed. While this seems like a petty step, it's required for Sandy Bridge Systems since Snow Leopard doesn't play very nicely with Sandy Bridge systems.

Once at the Snow Leopard desktop, the next thing you need to do is to open MultiBeast. Once it's open, simply select all of the kexts that your system needs, including a system definition and a DSDT (if applicable). Once you have everything selected, don't install anything just yet! Leave MultiBeast as it is and open up the combo update. Once the update is finished installing, do not restart your computer. Bring back the MultiBeast window and install those kexts that you previously selected. Once MultiBeast has finished, you can then go back to the combo update and restart your system.

When you're on 10.6.6 or above, you'll notice that you now have the Mac App Store. This is where you'll be getting Lion from. The Lion installer is about 3.5GB in size, so grab a cup of coffee while it downloads. Before we continue, you'll need a few things to get to Lion:

•         Lion image downloaded from the Mac App Store
•         USB drive of at least 8GB (Only if using UniBeast)
•         UniBeast (click to download)
•         MultiBeast (Lion Version)

Installing Lion
       
Once Lion finishes downloading, make sure that it's in your Applications folder. This is where we'll be using UniBeast. What this will do is create a bootable Lion USB drive for us. This will allow us to boot into the Lion installer from the USB drive and install Lion to our computer! UniBeast also makes a great backup solution since it has its own bootloader. Make sure that your 8GB or higher flash drive is in your computer and formatted as a Mac OS Journaled partition, as seen in my video. Launch UniBeast, select the Mac App Store option, and install to your flash drive. This will take some time, so go ahead and refill your coffee mug. Before moving on, it's worth mentioning that there are other ways to install Lion. I have other methods on my YouTube channel if you're interested. I recommend using UniBeast, as it's the easiest and most plug-and-play solution there is.

Once UniBeast has finished, you're all set to install Lion to your computer! With your UniBeast USB drive still plugged in, go ahead and restart your computer, making sure to boot from your flash drive. Once the Chimera bootloader comes up, select the flash drive and wait for it to boot. At the Lion installer, follow the same steps as when setting up the Snow Leopard partition. I recommend installing Lion over Snow Leopard, but you are free to install Lion to another partition if you want to have both on your system.

After Lion has been installed to your system, simply reboot using the UniBeast flash drive and Launch the Lion version of MultiBeast, making sure to include all required kexts, as well as the Chimera bootloader. After completing the MultiBeast installation, reboot and let the computer do the rest! You should now have a fully functional copy of Lion running on PC hardware!

For future reference, keep the UniBeast flash drive handy. If you keep it handy, you will be able to install fresh copies from this flash drive, which means that you won't have to go to Snow Leopard first. Snow Leopard was just a "stepping stone" to get the UniBeast flash drive. As long as you keep that drive handy, you won't ever need to install Snow Leopard again.

I hope this guide helped you! If you have any questions, be sure to check me out on YouTube and Twitter! Thanks for watching and reading this part in my "Hackintosh From Start to Finish" series! Stay tuned for the next part of this series, which will cover some post-installation tips.

Comments

[Liam Green]

What about building it?

Thanks.