OT: Hackintosh

Don Y · 2014-09-23T06:34:53+00:00

Hi, Neighbor was "taking delight" in showing me his new Mac, tonight. Having not used one since '040 days, I am relatively clueless as to its abilities, etc. Nor am I eager to "become expert" (or even "mildly familiar"!) with them. Least of all, let him (or other neighbors) *think* I may be! (I have no desire to assume more "IT" functions!) OTOH, it sparked a curiosity on my part. Enough to want to play with one -- without investing in one! I've poked at hackintosh info in the past just to get a feel for what Apple has done in the underpinnings of the OS to tie it to "specific" hardware. But, again, never looked at that info as more than an intellectual curiosity. Now, I'm considering going that route -- but, just for a "play toy"! Something that I can play with and then discard (i.e., no long term exposure or commitment). FOR THOSE FOLKS WHO HAVE PERSONALLY BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD, ======================================================== any advice on how much of a hassle this is likely to be? GIVEN THAT I AM JUST LOOKING TO PLAY? I.e., I won't care if the wireless works, or perhaps if the sound works *well* (unless, of course, there is something FANTASTIC in apple-land that exploits sound that I really SHOULDN'T MISS!!). Am I better off trying to build a portable -- or a desktop? Recall, no investment so it would have to be some bit of kit I have lying around already (assuming that is possible and the set of potential "hackable" machines isn't too small to exclude the bits I might have). I won't be using any "reasonably current" hardware as that is already spoken for (recall: this is a toy!). [OTOH, I don't need to run Yosemite -- unless doing so is the ONLY way to "truly experience" a Mac!] I'm pretty sure I know of the highly visible sites for this information. What I'm looking for is EXPERIENCED comments along the lines of: "Getting a basic system up and running is easy; getting these particular I/O's might be problematic. Favor machines. Avoid . ...

Sep 23, 2014 29 Replies

Rate this thread:

Don Y 11 years ago

Yeah, this seems to be a more effective way of approaching the problem (feasability). The other sites I've seen seem to be more along the line of "I got it to work on a __________". Far too many potential "___________" for me to hope for a "hit"!

The video on my Atom SBC is, AFAICT, SiS-based. So, no joy there.

I've received another offer from another (out-of-state) friend. But, that gets more tedious to exploit (shipping, risk of damage in transit, etc.)

I can also put this on my list of things to watch for at the various "surplus" outlets that I frequent: borrow one and return it... no "loss" there!

Vote

josephkk 11 years ago

I dispute that. PC keyboards report key down and key up to the mainboard for all keys. That intrinsically gives them n-key rollover. Whether or not it is processed that way is another matter, that is not done on the keyboard.

?-)

Vote

glen herrmannsfeldt 11 years ago

(snip)

That means that they have the ability to report such keys, not that they actually do it.

The do have to report shift, control, alt, and such, in addition to other keys that are pressed while some combination of those is down.

To do a proper N-key rollover, you need a diode in series with each key switch. Without the diodes, you can get a large combination of more than 2 keys, but not all of them.

-- glen

Vote

Vladimir Ivanov 11 years ago

Indeed. For a matrix keyboard relying on electrical contact, the lack of diodes leads to 2-KRO. Optimized layouts, like placing modifiers on carefully selected rows/columns, might somewhat hide this.

Heck, even the classic IBM M keyboards, being membrane, are 2-KRO.

Joseph, if you're still unsure, just try pressing various combinations. Or open the thing.

Vote

krw 11 years ago

No, Model-Ms are not membrane keyboards. They are "buckling spring".

Vote

Vladimir Ivanov 11 years ago

And the buckling spring moves a pivot (hammer), which presses on ... membranes.

formatting link

Vote

Robert Wessel 11 years ago

Well I will be dipped...

Sure enough, most are not, but they've done a pretty good job of hiding that from most users.

Here's a test I came across that seems to work well. Hold down both shift keys, then type "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog". The results were surprising on pretty much every keyboard I tried.

OTOH doing something like typing and holding down asdf, then pressing

7878... works fine on all they keyboards I tried. There are clearly several separate scan matrices, enough so that I'm wondering how much they actually saved over doing real n-key.

Vote

Robert Wessel 11 years ago

Sure a camera, ignoring the visibility problems, would work, but most simple touch devices are more along the lines of sensing a resistance or capacitance caused by your finger one the two axis. Or they do a simply number of rows and columns "sensors", where your touch causes a connect (again, not unlike a scanable keyboard matrix). None of those lend themselves to multi-touch.

Vote

josephkk 11 years ago

mainboard

the

Guys, to report what is being reported to the mainboard n-key rollover in its full glory is necessary. It has little or nothing to do with some lower level circuit or switch properties. Think it through.

?-)

Vote