[Official Thread] MacOSX on Vaio UX

[sev7en]

Note: Before you delve into this project, please read through the guide so you know what you are in for. Sev7en will not be responsible for any malfunctions your UX may have. He will however, attempt to help and support people having issues, but will not be held accountable for any accidental damage that someone may cause as a result of following this guide. Please make sure you have the knowledge to understand what you are asked to do within this guide. Also, please check this post to see which pieces of proprietary hardware are working as a result of the current guide, or being worked on to hopefully be usable at a later time.

-Benz145

P.S - At this time of writing, Sev7en has made more then 450 edits to this thread in an effort to write the best guide possible for everyone to use, please be sure to thank him on the following thread -

Comments Questions and Thanks for Sev7en

P.P.S - Sorry for the wait

Mac OSUX

Well, finally the long awaited guide has been started!

I would say a big thanks to all people daily testing and looking for improved solution to make the OSX porting on non-Apple systems better and more reliable. Don't say thanks to me, I have no credits. I just collected the huge repository of information Internet pops us up!

The goal of that guide is to port into the wonderful world of Sony's Vaio UX series the best OS ever made: Mac OSX Tiger. Of course the guide will be updated (it's a mission now ) frequently, because any day is a good day for minor/major updates, but you will be always informed about these changes. Some peripherals are not supported yet for that don't worry... I'll take care to look for solutions when they will come available.
We will speak also about tips, tricks, applications and everything you need to put OSX on your primary partition (Windows will be the alternative in case you miss your games : P).


There are only two ways to install OSX 10.4.8 legal on your NON-APPLE Computer:

• Become an Apple developer
• Buy an Apple Intel Mac, install a second licensed operating system (Windows XP or Vista) using Apple’s Boot Camp then remove OSX completely, so that you have a legally bought osx86 license.

This method is not confirmed or trusted and some people say it is illegal because the EULA says that you are not allowed to install OSX on non-Apple hardware.
This means that for most people it is ILLEGAL to install osx on their computer. If you aren’t an Apple developer, leave this guide now.

This site, the author of this guide, is in no way liable or responsible for the actions of its visitors or its readers.

Last but not least... Downloading OSX86 (a pre-patched OSX 10.4.8 install image) IS ILLEGAL.


Table of Contents

1. General Overview
2. The OSx86 Project
3. Pre-Requirements
4. Setting Up the UX
5. Installing OSX
6. Preparing Device For Next Phases...
7. Setting Up Hardware
8. Setting Up Software
9. Update To Latest OS and Kernel version (future updates)
10. FAQ, Tips And Tricks
11. Applications and Useful Tools
12. Resources
13. Credits!

1.General Overview

Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005 as the successor to Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther", which was released 18 months earlier. Some of the new features include a fast searching system called Spotlight, a new version of the Safari web browser, Dashboard, a new 'Unified' theme, and improved support for 64-bit addressing on Power Mac G5s. Tiger is also the first version of any released Apple operating system to work on Intel's x86 platform, though it is only intended to operate on Apple-Intel architecture machines such as the iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook, Intel Mac Mini and Mac Pro.

Mac OS X x10.4 "Tiger" was originally previewed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in his keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 28, 2004. Later in December 2004, several non-commercial developer releases of Tiger were leaked onto the Internet. As a result Apple sued the file sharers who were distributing Tiger for free by using BitTorrent. On April 12, 2005, it was announced that Tiger would be officially released worldwide on April 29. All Apple Stores around the world held Tiger seminars, presentations and demos.

On June 6, 2005, at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Jobs announced that almost two million copies had been sold in the six weeks since Tiger's release, making it the most successful operating system release in Apple's history. It was also revealed that Mac OS X had been engineered from its inception to work with Intel's x86 line of processors in addition to the PowerPC, the CPU that the operating system had always been publicly marketed for. Apple announced plans to release the first x86-based computers in June 2006, transitioning the rest of their computers to x86 by June 2007. On January 10, 2006, Apple released their first iMac and MacBook Pro featuring an Intel Core Duo processor, and announced that the entire Apple product line would be transitioned to Intel processors by the end of 2006. Apple then released the Mac Pro and announced the new Xserve on August 8, 2006, completing the Intel transition in 210 days, rather than the full year that they had planned, and roughly ten months ahead of the original schedule.

Before you can proceed, you need an Original version of MacOS X Tiger. You can buy it from here (it's just $129.00).




2.The OSx86 Project

As the OSx86 Project's FAQs write: The OSx86 Project is a site dedicated to running Mac OS X 10.4 (as well as other versions, ie. 10.3) on your beigebox Intel or AMD PC. Projects such as OSx86 have succeeded in allowing the Intel-based version of Mac OS X to run on non-Apple hardware largely by bypassing the TPM in software.

The "Trusted Platform Module," or TPM, is a computer chip embedded inside Intel-based Macs to prevent the Intel-based version of Mac OS X from running on non-Apple hardware. (during installation of Mac OS X, Mac OS X interfaces with the TPM. If Mac OS X finds that the TPM doesn't exist, Mac OS X refuses to install or run.)

Apple has repeatedly stated that OS X for Intel will only run on Apple hardware.

There could be many good reasons for Apple to not let OSx86 spread on non proprietary computers. It could boost Apple's Hardware sales via a halo effect similar to the iPod one or simply allow them to up their OS market share. We'll see...
Of course, this is a big debate within the Mac community, because the release of Mac OS X for normal PCs could lead to many problems. Apple's primary reason for selling their computers is the huge profit margins on the hardware. If their operating system was available on any regular PC, they wouldn't make nearly as much profit from hardware sales. Lastly, there is also a problem of drivers. Apple would need to incorporate massive amounts of drivers which would lower the priority for developing better and newer features.

Well, now that you have a good background, it's time to get started!

[sev7en]

3.Pre-Requirements

How to achieve our goal? We'll start with the pre-requirements. Before you continue, check if you have the following:

• Licensed copy of MacOS Tiger 10.4.
• Vaio UX, of course!
• Docking station of your UX (it's optional but highly suggested for its USB ports)
• Jas' hacked OSX Tiger image file: 10.4.8 JaS AMD-Intel-SSE2-SSE3 with pp1 and ppf2 (don't ask me for this...)
• USB 2.0 Optical DVD Drive (as mine Lite-On SSM-85H5SX)
• External keyboard and mouse (just to make the tweaking sessions less hard to "digit")
• The files I will bring-up inside the guide (please don't use a Download Manager to download them, otherwise you kill my host!)
• Patience and... coffee!
• USB Flash Drive, useful to store the working setup files (optional)

4.Setting Up the UX

Well, basically you can install OSX to the internal UX hard disk drive or to an external drive. For both cases you can also choose if use you want to use the entire hard disk drive or if you prefer, to use a smaller partition, as second operating system.

Users usually prefer to have a native Windows installation and we'll follow this way too: we will create (reserve) a second partition to put OSX on. At boot we will be able to select which one of these OSs run, simply and easily with no pain.

When you get the UX, the default installation assigns the primary partition to the Windows OS. Windows (Vista) comes with NTFS file system but we need to split that into two parts: the first for Windows, the second one for OSX Tiger.

We can proceed in two ways:

• Using the Windows' utility Diskpart (from Windows or Recovery Console)
• External partitioning tool as Acronis' Disk Director 10 or Symantec's (ie: Powerquest's) Partition Magic 8. Of course you can also use a boot disk to host these utilities (e.g. UltimateBoot CD, Hiren's Boot CD).

We will start using a tool such as Disk Director (I suggest this) or Partition Magic to resize the partition. So, boot into it and select the Windows Vista partition. Click to Resize and set a value at least of 16Gb. Now you will have a smaller partition for Vista and a new one, of free unpartitioned space (my setup is: Windows Vista 12Gb, Tiger 20Gb). Click on Commit and wait for the process to complete (the machine will reboot itself, don't worry it's okay). When done, you will be back on Windows.

Let's start with Diskpart.

DiskPart.exe is a text-mode command interpreter that enables you to manage objects (disks, partitions, or volumes) by using scripts or direct input from a command prompt. Before you can use DiskPart.exe commands on a disk, partition, or volume, you must first list and then select the object to give it focus. When an object has focus, any DiskPart.exe commands that you type act on that object.

Launch a command line shell (from "Run..." menu type cmd.com) then execute diskpart (simply type diskpart and confirm via ENTER).

Do these steps:

• DISKPART> select disk 0 (this will select the first (and only) hard disk drive)
• DISKPART> list partition (you should see 1 partition)
• DISKPART> create partition primary size=16000 id=af (size is the space to allocate to Tiger's partition, you can use the whole free space; id=af is the HFS+ compatible Mac partition format)
• DISKPART> list partition (you should see 2 partitions now)
• DISKPART> select partition 2 (2 should be the Tiger partition create above)
• DISKPART> active (now this partition will be the first-boot active partition)
• DISKPART> exit (quit from Diskpart)

Reboot Windows and go to the UX's (press F2 [Fn+R] as the UX boots).


Within the BIOS: check that you have enabled the LCD Stretch option as well as the External Optical USB DVD Drive as first primary device for boot. Before you save and quit, insert the disk with the Jas' image into the drive and... move to the next step!

[sev7en]

5.Installing OSX

The installation is easy, just follow the wizard Apple as I did. I grabbed a few of pictures of the most important steps:

Select your language:

Select the target partition for installing it:

Select the options following (Ad-Hoc Installation, don't use the default setting):

Start the Installation (now you can relax! Coffee time!)

When done, restart the system but keep the disk in the drive. Process will show us the well-know boot manager: don't touch... it will boot by itself!


The first reboot (almost done!).

[sev7en]

Set-up the required info and... (don't worry about the network cable, by default it doesn't work (we will fix it later)).

Congra...

... tulations!

[sev7en]

Okay, did you recover from this wonderful graphic interface? Think... it's just the first boot! OSX will keep you in good health and lighten your mood as well (I am not working for Apple, just taking care of any reader!).
Maybe you already looked at bottom of this paragraph, because the bold is bold but get back quickly because we have to set the International settings.

Click on the Apple then on System Preferences otherwise directly on the icon onto the Dock (the large bar). The window below will pop-up:

... A quick tour ...

International Settings:

Dashboard & Expose:

Desktop & Screen Saver:

[sev7en]

Display:

Software Update:

Energy Saver:

Accounts:

Time to get serious, we have a lot of work now: OSX works but it needs to be tweaked for the many (and very important) un-recognized hardware peripherals.

[sev7en]

6.Preparing Device For Next Phases...

To make these tasks easy, we will use Darwin's Boot menu, which can be recalled simply pressing the F8 key before the Apple boot logo with a variant: a timer.

Launch the Terminal (Applications -> Utilities) then type:

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

Edit the time-out flag as this (7 is a value in seconds):

<key>Timeout</key>
<string>7</string>

Save the changes: CTRL+O -> Enter to save the file, and CTRL+X to quit from nano.

Keep in your mind that:
any change to system/library/extensions files needs to check and repair the privileges as well as to remove the checked extensions
otherwise the system could not boot at next restart or apply the last changes.

How to verify and repair privileges (we will look at checked extension files later in the guide... forget about that for now)

We can use the following three ways:

• Apple's graphical Disk Utility tool (Application -> Utility -> Disk Utility)
• Terminal (it will be your second home)
• By using a great tool made by InsanelyMac's BB member: Repair & Set Permissions 1.0.

Disk Utility

Just a bit of theory...

Disk Utility is the name of a utility created by Apple for performing disk-related tasks in Mac OS X.

These tasks include:

* the creation, conversion, compression and encryption of disk images from a wide range of formats read by Disk Utility to .dmg or .cdr, which is identical to the .iso format;
* mounting, unmounting, and ejecting disks (including both hard disks, removable media and disk images);
* enabling or disabling journaling;
* verifying a disk's integrity, and repairing it if the disk is damaged;
* verifying and repairing permissions;
* disk erasing, formatting and partitioning;
* secure deletion of free space or disk using a 35-pass Gutmann algorithm
* adding or changing partition table between Apple Partition Table and GUID Partition Table;
* creating, destroying, and repairing RAID sets;
* restoring volumes from scanned for ASR images;
* burning disk images to CD or DVD in HFS+ format;
* erasing CD-RWs and DVD-RWs;
* checking the S.M.A.R.T status of a hard disk.

On the road... (I grabbed this image from my MBP to show you how simple it is to change the aspect of any object (e.g. icons) with OSX):

The Darwin's Terminal...

Before you can run these commands, you must be logged on as Administrator/root or you have to get these rights. You can do that with OSX using the sudo (super userdo) before any command or su (substitute use).

Here's what you have to type (if you already logged as Admin/root via Account Manager or by the su command, you can skip sudo before):

• MBPv7:~ sev7en$ > sudo diskutil repairPermissions /

Last but not least... Repair & Set Permissions 1.0 (Sign up Required - Download from HERE).
This script has been developed by BB, a great member of InsanelyMac community (the most important resource of the OSX86 Project, where I get daily information). I like it so much because does many tasks, also for kext maintenance jobs, automatically!.

Launch it --> Authenticate yourself using the Admin/root password and... wait! When done a reboot is required.

[sev7en]

I wrote about the kext... what is it? kext are the Kernel Extensions. To make it clear, think of kext as some plug-ins the OS loads at each boot. Kernel Extensions are very important because they manage the hardware of your system and the way the hardware works.
We will work frequently on these extensions and for any change, as said, we need to:

• Remove the kext cached files (look at the picture below)
  -
  
  
  -
• Verify and repair privileges
• Restart OSX

As usual there is more than a way to do that:

• Using the BB' Script (look above)
• Terminal.
• I suggest you to use the Terminal: I know it isn't so great looking but it will give you a lot of satisfaction as well as let you know a bit more about the shell). Here's, step by step, what you have to type:
  • chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/*.kext
  • rm /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
  • rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
  • kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions/
  • diskutil repairpermissions /

TIPS: You can boost your digit typing by pressing the TAB key on your keyboard for commands and paths (it's the auto-complete feature)... try that now!


There's another way to work around these settings, always logged on as Administrator (root user).
The root account is disabled by default with OSX but you can quickly enable it with the following steps:

• Click to Go -> Utility
• Launch the application called NetInfo Manager
• Security -> Enable Root Account
• Type a password (leave the first field empty because there is no a default password for that account)
  -
  
  
  -
  
• Now you are able to login as Administrator or root (be careful, it's really dangerous).

[sev7en]

7.Setting Up Hardware

We worked with the device as the installation DVD set-it-up up to now but maybe you realized quickly how some peripherals are not working properly.

Next pages will cover the peripherals following:

• GMA950 Graphic Display Adapter
• High Definition Audio Support
• Advanced Power Management Support
• Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Controller Support
• Ethernet Controller (Wired)
• 3945 Network Adapter (Wireless)
• Bluetooth Built-In Adapter
• TouchScreen Support
• Fingerprint Support
• Memory Stick Built-In Slot
• Backlight Support
• i-Touch Quick Access Keys
• Camera (Motion Eye)

- Yellow Green: Fully Supported
- Dark Orange: Partially Supported (Working On...)
- Sandy Brown: Partially Supported (Stopped ATM)
- Red: Not Supported ATM

[sev7en]

GMA950 Graphic Display Adapter

Vaio UX models are powered by the new Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (Intel GMA 950) graphics core, an intelligent and responsive graphics engine built into the chipset that is on the motherboard. This integration provides incredible visual quality, faster graphics performance and flexible display options without the need for a separate graphics card.

|| Setup ||

If you followed the installation steps, you should have already have the GMA at work: you can quickly check if all is working properly using System Profiles ---> Graphic/Display and checking if these entries are set on Supported: Core Image And Quartz Extreme. You should also have the native display resolution of 1024x600 pixels.

Look at the image below:

If something goes wrong usually you don't get the full 1024x600 resolution. You can fix that just adding to com.apple.Boot.plist configuration file (did you remember the time-out for boot menu?) these new lines:

• <key>Graphics Mode</key>
• <string>1024x600x32</string>

You should have something like this:

<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>cpus=1</string>
<key>Quiet Boot</key>
<string>No</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>7</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1024x600x32</string>
<key>Boot Graphics</key>
<string>Yes</string>
</dict>
</plist>

NOTE: Before you reboot the system, remember to repair the privileges!

If you need to re-install the GMA950 driver supplied by Jas'release, put the installation disk into your drive, then go to this folder: /System/Installation/Packages and re-install the package. Of course, remove the cached extensions and rebuild them (use the tool you know for these tasks).


By that way, you will have also the dual-head support (multiscreen) just plugging the external VGA cable to UX' dock:

|| Tweaking ||

Well, we got it working but now let's time to gain some FPS!


Type (copy/paste) these commands into Terminal:

Disabling BeamSync to Speed Up LCD Displays (it's a VSync type forced delay between the ‘logical buffer’ that is rendered but not shown and the ‘physical buffer’ that is what you see as output on your screen):

• sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Compositor -dict deferredUpdates 0

If after disabling BeamSync you wish to re-enable for any reason (screen flickering, GUI tearing, slowdowns, etc) you may replace the zero in the above line with any of the following values:

• No BeamSync = 0
• Automatic BeamSync = 1
• Forced BeamSync = 2

Enabling Quartz 2D Extreme (it's a java property to off-load quite a bit of the graphics work to the GPU):

• sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled -boolean true
  

Someone reported issues after these changes... if you experience troubles (ie: corrupted chars, redraw issues or other) disable both just using these lines:

• sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Compositor -dict deferredUpdates 1
• sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled -boolean false

Now you know the shell way, I just remembered another way... by GUI: QuartzSimple (credits to crazypigeon) is a tool made to apply these settings via mouse. How to install: download, decompress and put the executable into your Application folder then launch it.

|| Optimizing ||

As you see, there is no way to manage the brightness as with Windows or other OSs (ie: Linux Ubuntu) but I found 2 free tools to patch that and save your eyes (and battery life): Splam Software's Brightness Control and the preference panel applet LightMe from Italian Daniele M. (Malcom).

It's time to introduce the first Widgets (Widgets are one of most exciting features of OSX, check it out here) of this guide is... Sleep Display!

Sleep Display allows you to immediately sleep just your display so that you can continue running your background jobs. It doesn’t permanently affect your energy settings, so when you start working again, your monitor will not sleep immediately. It’s a simple widget, but it solves an annoying problem.