Hackintosh

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This is a quick write up on my Hackintosh experiences. [SUCCESS]

My computing choices and views have started to change recently. Since having the Macbook pro, I’ve become increasingly dis-satisfied with my Windows & Linux desktop operating systems. (Don’t get me wrong, Debian still is my main server choice!)

I was fed up with slowness, poor hardware support & broken updates. What I needed was  desktop OS that is tested with specific hardware to make sure that everything is compatible, fast and works with minimum fuss.

Apple computers fit that bracket, but they have one major downfall – the cost! I simply cannot afford an Apple system (preferably an Apple Pro – they start at £2041 without a monitor!!)

There is another option to gain an Apple system for lower cost – a Hackintosh. This is the method of installing Apples operating system on standard PC hardware.

I chose to go the hackintosh route, to see if my hardware would work and I could get OSX (Lion) booted and working.

I followed an excellent guide here to create a bootable USB Lion install disk. In fact that www.tonymacx86.com site has a wealth of resources that any hackintosh fan should digest!

So after a lot of learning I have created an OSX Lion hackintosh system on the following hardware:

  • Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L motherboard (Socket 775) Link
  • Intel Core 2 Duo (2.0 Ghz)
  • Gigabyte GT220 1GB NVIDIA graphics card. Link

The motherboard and chip are not that new, and need to be upgraded, but it works fine.

Things you need to have:

BUY OSX Lion from the App Store (on another MAC) or get the retail USB key. 
Tonymac Uniboot USB bootable drive/disk.
Multibeast – Tonymac post install utility. 

TIP: It would be really handy for this process if you know what chipsets your hardware has. If you’re a Linux geek, use lspci to get a nice hardware capture.

TIP: As soon as you have a working OSX system, back it up!! (Use Apples built-in Time Machine to another partition or harddisk) You WILL break you system trying to  get everything working!

The first working install (There were many more after this! Remember to backup!)

Upgrades coming soon:

i7 chip & board, 16GB RAM :)

This is a video of the actual system below:

Building a KVM host on Debian

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As a continuing project I always love playing with virtulisation. This is some notes for installing and configuring KVM on Debian. Its mainly for my own reference, but if you find it useful please leave a comment!

1. Create a Debian ‘base system’ and fully update it. I use Debian stable, and a minimal install.

Hardware Requirements for KVM

KVM works best if your processor supports virtulisation extensions. It WILL still work if you dont, but dont expect any decent performance! Installations of virtual hosts are sometimes painfully slow without this!

I like my virtualmachines to get their own proper IP address from my LAN or be configured with a static. For this to work and get past the default NAT setup, you will need to setup a network bridge. Follow the link here: http://wiki.debian.org/BridgeNetworkConnections#Setting_up_your_Bridge on how to set that up.

2. Now you should have a fully patched and updated Debian system, we’re now going to install KVM:
apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-bin

Why I chose a Macbook Pro

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Recently I got myself an early Christmas present – a 15″ Apple Macbook Pro. It is 2nd hand, I can’t afford a new one!

My new Apple Macbook Pro

My new Apple Macbook Pro

Many people have asked me why I chose to buy an apple product when I am usually such a Google advocate. Well, the answer is simple; im a power user, I’m ALWAYS multitasking. I needed a solid workhorse that I can use as a secondary workstation, a portable device to code, show presentations, all this (and probably more) with a superb battery life.

The windows laptops Ive had in the past few years have been ok. But ive put up with a few  crashes, software incompatibility, poor construction & very poor battery life.

This. Just. Works.

Revisiting Virtulization

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Its time to revisit virtulization. My home server homer is in dire need of some more diskspace, RAM and general cleaning up. It would probably help if the roles were split across a couple of VM’s. A bit of my development work requires a windows server or 2 and the rest, which is mainly web development is fine with running on Debian.

However, these days homer is showing his age. He is an old Dell, running only a P4 2.8 GHz chip. Hardware vitulization is not supported and previous attempts at running Vmware hasnt worked that well. I think its time to build a new server:

Requirements
1. Its got to be as quiet as possible (currently its in the bedroom, between our desks)
2. Low power consumption
3. Loads of diskspace (main house fileserver for movies) preferably in an LVM or maybe even some kind of RAID.
4. Enough RAM to run a few VM’s for various roles.
5. Low cost – its almost Xmas man!

 

 

Back to Fluxbox

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Today I switched back to using Fluxbox on my main linux system at work. I was having major performance issues and boy has it worked! I had forgotten just how fast it was! Dual monitors were a breeze to setup using xrandr and grandr. A few apps added to the start up file and I was in business. Loving Fluxbox yet again!

New Motherboard?

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Last night I was having PC problems. It seems it’s either my GFX card or (more probably) my motherboard. The GFX card is brand new, but luckily I have one here at work which I will try in it tonight. The motherboard was nothing special, just a cheap available Intel one at the time I built it about 3 years ago. If money wasnt an issue, right now I’d just upgrade to a nice shiny Imac. However, in todays climate money IS an issue, so I HAVE to find another cheaper way. The graphics card, PSU and hardrives are all brand new. So either its a faulty graphics card (nothing appears on the monitors when turned on) or the motherboard is goosed and not providing power to the card or another type of failure.

Either way it’s pissing me off!!

So, any suggestions on a cheapish, good Intel based motherboard?

Facebook API

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In recent weeks at ID we’ve been doing a lot of work with the Facebook API to create more social interaction on some new upcoming projects. The API is HUGE and very versatile. Once you have created an app you can access the API and use it for what ever functions you wish. Ive created some sample apps that do the following recently:

  • Track fans on Facebook pages, allow page admins to see who has joined and left their pages recently by name with daily email updates. Fantracker
  • Tie in events and checkins to make events more social. This is an exciting one, and could mean great social interaction for event organisers. Flocc
  • Share links from a browser based toolbar to specific Facebook pages. Great for page admins to easily manage their content.
  • Tag facebook friends in pictures on external sites. A great idea in project development with my good friend Dan.

Watch this space!