My very first OS X experience

[firerules16]

Hey guys,

I took the plunge and set up my first Hackintosh install this weekend. There was a TON of trial and error involved in getting it working right, but I now have a 100% stable 10.5.6 iPC distro upgraded to 10.5.8 via iDeneb combo update pack. I installed this on my main PC, an Athlon 64 X2 3400+, overclocked to 2.4 GHZ. I'm using the Voodoo 9.5 Kernel, since it's an AMD system. I'm setup for dual boot with Chameleon v2, since you can dual boot through it when OSX and Windows Vista are installed on separate harddrives.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the OS so far... it is extremely foreign to me, but I can see why so many people prefer it over Windows. If I can just get SPD/IF output working for my Realtek ALC850 integrated sound, I could see myself making a permanent switch, with the exception of some gaming here and there.

[michaelf]

welcome to the team!!! I'm a fan of the apple hardware so hackintoshes are not for me. after a week of solid mac use your habits will change (for the better) just remember control = command

[BoBzeBuilder]

I tried an iMac at university today. I was impressed by how responsive and practical the UI was.
I hated the mouse, it was hard to use and no right click , but overall, it left a positive impression on me. I "might" consider them in the future.

[just brew it!]

Have you futzed around with Linux, FreeBSD, et al, or is this your first real experience with a non-Windows OS? OS X is based on BSD UNIX, so it is Linux's sibling. Or maybe more like an older cousin...

[dolemitecomputers]

I tried an iMac at university today. I was impressed by how responsive and practical the UI was.
I hated the mouse, it was hard to use and no right click , but overall, it left a positive impression on me. I "might" consider them in the future.

You can use other mice with OSX. I use a Microsoft mouse on my macbook pro at work and the right click works fine.

[SNM]

Have you futzed around with Linux, FreeBSD, et al, or is this your first real experience with a non-Windows OS? OS X is based on BSD UNIX, so it is Linux's sibling. Or maybe more like an older cousin...

Try: Linux is the huge geek with pimples in high school. OS X is his hot older sister who's smarter, too!

[cheesyking]

Have you futzed around with Linux, FreeBSD, et al, or is this your first real experience with a non-Windows OS? OS X is based on BSD UNIX, so it is Linux's sibling. Or maybe more like an older cousin...

Try: Linux is the huge geek with pimples in high school. OS X is his hot older sister who's smarter, too!

don't know about "smarter", but she'll cost you a pretty penny to take out on a date

[Da_Boss]

Glad you're enjoying it!

Lately, I've been toying with Snow Leopard more and more, and I can't get enough of Expose. Windows needs to copy this ASAP. Anyways, I'm glad you got your Hackintosh working.

I've been looking to set one up. Was it hard?

[firerules16]

I wouldn't say it was hard, there was just a lot of futzing around to get the drivers, etc right. The iPC build was immensely helpful and made things considerably easier. the insanelymac forums were quite helpful as well.

The only thing that's frustrating is that I can't get the SPD/IF output working on my integrated audio. I want to use it for my home theater stereo and can't... The audio output settings show SPD/IF output, but I get no sound at all when I try to use it. Does anyone know of a good USB sound card that's compatible with Mac OS X and has working SPD/IF?

[derFunkenstein]

you're going to need to talk to us about your motherboard, first.

Did you try dumping a text file of your codec in Linux and use the AppleHDA Patcher?

[End User]

I tried an iMac at university today. I was impressed by how responsive and practical the UI was.
I hated the mouse, it was hard to use and no right click , but overall, it left a positive impression on me. I "might" consider them in the future.

You can use other mice with OSX. I use a Microsoft mouse on my macbook pro at work and the right click works fine.

The bundled Apple mouse can right click. It is a software setting.

[End User]

It is a great time to be a Mac OS X user. My office is transitioning away from Exchange/Windows/Office to Mac OS X/Linux and other standards based open source software/back ends.

[firerules16]

derFunkenstein - I have an old S939 nForce 4 SLI Foxconn board. It does not have realtek HD audio, it uses a Realtek ALC850 codec. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the AppleHDA kext would work for my integrated audio.

I see that there are patched M-Audio Revolution 7.1 drivers out for OSX86 builds... that could be an option, and I hear that the sound quality on these cards are still pretty excellent. They can be found for pretty cheap in the wild as well.

[derFunkenstein]

ALC850 works with AppleHDA patcher. All Realtek ALC800-series codecs are compatible.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... opic=32859

Boot a Linux live CD and get a codec dump onto a flash drive or something, and then feed that text file to this. It SHOULD (assuming you have stock - unpatched - audio kexts) give you digital out.

I booted an Ubuntu 8.10 CD on the machine in my sig and got a dump, and AppleHDA Patcher worked great for me. I don't have much need for OS X now that I've dumped Logic, though. Great OS, but I'm (ironically) stuck in Windows land because the best software for my needs is there.

[firerules16]

That's very good news, I'll have to try that! Do you know where I can find a how to on how to do a codec dump in Linux? I ran some google searches but couldn't find anything... I'm totally braindead when it comes to Linux.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just didn't search hard enough - http://www.neonkoala.co.uk/?p=503

I will give it a try and see if it works!

[firerules16]

Well, I got the codec dump of my sound device and tried to patch AppleHDA.kext, but AppleHDA Patcher is giving me a *Codec not supported error. The codec dump I generated through the latest Knoppix distro does not look like a bunch of codec dump txts I've found online:

Code: Select all

0-0/0: Realtek ALC850 rev 0

PCI Subsys Vendor: 0x105b
PCI Subsys Device: 0x0cac

Revision         : 0x00
Compat. Class    : 0x00
Subsys. Vendor ID: 0xffff
Subsys. ID       : 0xffff

Capabilities     :
DAC resolution   : 16-bit
ADC resolution   : 16-bit
3D enhancement   : No 3D Stereo Enhancement

Current setup
Mic gain         : +0dB [+0dB]
POP path         : pre 3D
Sim. stereo      : off
3D enhancement   : off
Loudness         : off
Mono output      : MIX
Mic select       : Mic1
ADC/DAC loopback : off
Double rate slots: 7/8
Extended ID      : codec=0 rev=2 LDAC SDAC CDAC DSA=0 SPDIF DRA
Extended status  : SPCV LDAC SDAC CDAC SPDIF=10/11
SPDIF Control    : Consumer PCM Copyright Category=0x22 Generation=1 Rate=48kHz


Any ideas?

[derFunkenstein]

welllllllll poop.

Does your BIOS have a control for HDA/AC97? I've seen it on some boards. Mine is set to HDA. Might just be for front panels and doesn't affect the actual controller, not sure. Maybe it really isn't supported, that would be for suck. At that point you'd need an external sound card.

If there's a USB device with Mac support and S/PDIF output you might want to look at something like that.

[firerules16]

It does not... looking at the ALC850 page on Realtek's website is interesting as well:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/prod ... &ProdID=59

It lists it as an AC97 codec, so I think I'm out of luck on that front. What's frustrating is that the sound settings list the SPD/IF output device, and the optical out at the back of my pc is illuminated... just no sound. Oh well.

I thought about this, but I have no idea if this will work with a Mac: http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-USB-SND8- ... B001D1PWGM