After building hackintosh machines using different modified OS X installers, the hackintosh community has come a long way and is within grasp of achieving the holy grail of running Mac OS X on PCs—installing the original, unmodified OS X DVDs created by Apple for Macs on ordinary IBM compatible personal computers. Well, almost.

While we can now use a retail Mac OS X DVD to turn our PC into a hackintosh, we still need a bootloader to get it to recognize and install OS X the first time. The good news is, after a successful installation, we can now install any updates from Apple without breaking our system or reinstall the operating system without having to add the same kexts (drivers) that we already have that makes our non-Mac standard hardware peripherals work.

Pre-requisites

• A PC with Intel Core Processors and Chipset (AMD is not yet supported).
• A Blank CD (for Boot-132).
• A retail Mac OS X DVD Installer (not an Upgrade OS X DVD).
• Download the Leopard 10.5.4 ComboUpdate here.
• Download the Chameleon for Hard Disk here.
• Download the Boot-132 Generic ISO here (generic.iso).
• Download EFIStudio here.

Step 1. Before You Begin

Burn the Boot-132 Generic ISO on a CD. This BootCD should work fine for most hardware configurations; after which, it should be able to install the retail OS X DVD. If this doesn’t work for you, you may need to modify the contents and add the necessary kexts for your hardware. More info here.

Step 2. Install Leopard.

1. Insert your BootCD and boot/start your PC.
2. On the boot prompt, press Enter. You will be asked to enter a two-digit hexadecimal boot device (do not enter anything yet).
3. Remove the BootCD and replace it with the Mac OS X Retail DVD. Wait for the blinking light on your DVD drive to stop and then hit Enter (this will read your DVD drive and not your HD).

Hint: If you keep going back to the bootloader, it only means you don’t have the correct Retail Mac OS X DVD Installer. The best solution is to buy one.

4. Perform the Mac OS X Leopard installation. You may need to use Disk Utility (under the Utilities Menu) to partition and format your HD if you haven’t already. Make sure to select GUID (under Options).
5. Restart after the installation and replace the Retail Mac OS X DVD with the BootCD.
6. On the boot prompt, press Enter. This time, enter the two-digit hexadecimal of the drive where you installed OS X. Enter 80; if it doesn’t show the startup volume of your OS X, hit Esc. Try 81, and so on until you see your OS X volume. Select it and hit Enter.
7. You should now be in Leopard.

Step 3. Update Leopard to 10.5.4

1. Install the 10.5.4 ComboUpdate.
2. Reboot with the BootCD and enter the same two-digit hex you entered before. Select your startup volume and type -v -f (you don’t have to enter these the next time), and press Enter.
3. At this point, you still won’t be able to boot your hackintosh without the BootCD.

Step 4. Install Chameleon

The Chameleon for Hard Disk you downloaded above has the following files:

• Chameleon_DFE_for_Hard_Disk.dmg
• OSX86Tools
• EFIStudio

1. Open Chameleon.
2. Copy the contents of the Extra directory from the Generic.iso CD by dragging it to the Extra Contents folder in Chameleon.

Hint: To do this, you need to perform the following:

• Open the Generic.iso CD from your desktop.
• Double-click on the INITRD.IMG file.
• Double-click on the Extra folder.
• Drag the Extensions folder to the Extra Contents folder in Chameleon

3. Double-click the Chameleon_DFE_for_Hard_Disk.pkg file and install to your hard disk.
4. Remove the BootCD and reboot.
5. You should now be able to boot into Leopard without the BootCD.

Step 5. Fix Your Hardware Peripherals

After upgrading to 10.5.4, some of your hardware peripherals (i.e. video, network card, audio, etc.) may no longer work. Even the kexts that worked for my previous modified OS X installations don’t work with the latest version so I had to scour the net for a fix. Depending on what you have installed on your PC, you may need different solutions. Below are the fixes I applied for my own peripherals.

Network Fix:

Taken from the IONetworkingFamily.kext included in the GA-965P-DS3_ISO bootcd.

Audio Fix:

Taken from the AppleAzaliaAudio.kext included in the Generic.iso BootCD.

Restart/Reboot Fix:

Replace your AppleACPIPlatform.kext with this.

Shutdown Fix:

Download and install this.

Hint: To easily install kexts, you may want to use the OSX86 Tools. Read more about the OSX86 Tool here. You can also use the EFI Studio to try adding EFI Strings to your Boot.plist in case you have problems with video or audio kexts. Read more about EFI here.

Video (Nvidia 7200GS) Fix (QE/CI):

This one gave me the biggest headache. The video kexts or injectors (Nvinject, NvInstaller) that worked for me in the past, no longer works after upgrading to 10.5.4. I tried many versions and none worked. I tried adding device strings to com.apple.Boot.plist using EFIStudio and deleting all video injectors in Extensions and still a no go. I tried to manually edit the kexts by entering my device ID, etc., and still no QE/CI support. Finally, I found out that the Generic.iso BootCD has Nvkush.kext in it and by installing Chameleon, it aslo installed it to my hard drive. So I just deleted it from the /Extra/Extensions folder and made sure I had my video device string in the com.apple.Boot.plist using EFIStudio, reboot and voila!

Now you have a Hackintosh that is as close to a real Mac in terms of the underlying software program. You can safely use Software Update to install updates directly from Apple to your PC.

Seems like it was yesterday when I saw your face
You told me how proud you were, but I walked away
If only I knew what I know today
Ooh, ooh
I would hold you in my arms
I would take the pain away
Thank you for all you’ve done
Forgive all your mistakes
There’s nothing I wouldn’t do
To hear your voice again
Sometimes I wanna call ya
But I know you won’t be there

Ohh I’m sorry for blaming you
For everything I just couldn’t do
And I’ve hurt myself by hurting you

Some days I feel broke inside but I won’t admit
Sometimes I just wanna hide ’cause it’s you I miss
And it’s so hard to say goodbye
When it comes to this, oooh yeah

Would you tell me I was wrong?
Would you help me understand?
Are you looking down upon me?
Are you proud of who I am?

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do
To have just one more chance
To look into your eyes
And see you looking back

Ohh I’m sorry for blaming you
For everything I just couldn’t do
And I’ve hurt myself, ohh

If I had just one more day
I would tell you how much that I’ve missed you
Since you’ve been away
Ooh, it’s dangerous
It’s so out of line
To try and turn back time

I’m sorry for blaming you
For everything I just couldn’t do
And I’ve hurt myself by hurting you

Build Quality

Not bad at all for a mid-ranking handset. It’s very plasticky in it’s build but everything holds together well & creaks are kept to a minimum. Their is one build fault with light leaking in the top right hand corner. Like other Nokia mono blocks I have more confidence in it’s build than it’s slider cousins. Allowing for it’s market & price range it’s of decent standard. The score reflects this, if it had been a higher price item the build quality would not have got such a reasonable mark.

Score 7.5/10.

Display

Very good in this aspect, it’s slightly dull but I believe that comes from the use of a resistive screen technology. Sunlight legibility is also decent, better than the i8510, but perhaps a shade behind the N95 8Gb & C905. Other than that I rate the screen very well, it has excellent detail and displays pictures and the web very nicely. It has a tendency to pick up grease marks as do all TS devices but is easily cleaned & their is bo issue in it’s responsiveness. Best screen I have seen on a Nokia I have owned since the N80, which it obviously edges out on size.

Score 8.5/10.

GPS

Performance wise the GPS on the 5800XM is in-line with the other S60 devices I have used such as the N95 8Gb & i8510, it has an identical accuracy level, keeps it’s lock just as well as the other two and has the same functionality as the N95 8Gb. You don’t get any extra size of map display in spite of the larger display due to the large information borders at the top and bottom of the screen. You can zoom in/out using touch ‘+’ and ‘-’ controls on the right of the screen. All other options are controlled by the options tab on the bottom left of the screen. It is very much the standard Nokia maps application, the main obvious difference is because of the higher definition of the 5800XM display the actual map looks a lot better and is that bit easier to read. Start up and exit speeds are good on the application. The application only seems to work with the screen being vertical, it does not flip-over to the horizontal as far as I can see. Overall and mostly because of the screen this is the best implementation of GPS I have seen on an S60 device so far.

Score: 8/10.

Music Player/Radio

Well here we are the 5800XM’s main function and it doesn’t disappoint. The music quality be it through the headphones or the incredibly loud stereo speakers is of a good quality. The player may have a shade less detail in it’s music playback (tested using WMA files encoded at 192Kbps) than the i8510 but it dwarfs the i8510 in the power of it’s playback. It even out powers the N95 8Gb which is saying something something. The music software on the phone is easy to use and the phone syncs with the WMP on my PC with no issue (once I had fixed WMP). The on-board equalizer offers a number of pre-sets but not as many as I would have expected from a music dedicated phone. The only setback is like all other S60 devices I have owned it seems to have a real issue with importing album artwork. One feature that stands out is not only are the external speakers very loud but that they also put up a very good quality performance, they are far less tinny or distorting than other mobile speakers I have encountered. Taking the power and music quality together it’s the best music player I have encountered on a phone so far.

The radio again offers standard audio quality and comes with RDS something that SE and Samsung have offered on their handsets for a while but is newer to Nokia. The radio once it has asked you on it’s first start-up scans and stores 20 stations. The radio interface offers a pleasant graphical interface but lacks an ability to record from the radio as my Samsung G600 & i8510 did, a shame this has not been included.

Just to explain the score here I removed 0.5 from the score for the artwork issue still not being resolved and also the lack of radio recording.

Score: 8.5/10.

OS/Apps/Support

The immaturity of the S60 5th edition is unfortunately rather obvious on the 5800XM. Be it in the form of the multiple crashes of various applications, but especially the web browser & Opera Mini. But also in handset crashes, though unlike Karim mine doesn’t crash when making or receiving calls which it is fine at but when using the alarm to wake yourself the handset then has a tendency to crash afterwards, requiring the removal of the battery and for the handset to be re-set. Aside from this the S60 is very much it’s standard self, it does offer some evolution and improvement plus obviously TS bolted on. The speed of operation is reasonable, though sometimes in the gallery when dealing with a large picture it has to pause and think. Overall the handset is only marginally slower than my N95 8Gb. All this said, no doubt these issues will be resolved with firmware updates and the 5800XM very much offers you a standard S60 user experience.

Apps their are a plenty, their the usual Nokia fair found on any standard S60 FP2 device & don’t really need going into.

Support once the 5800XM is fully released will no doubt be up to normal Nokia standards, the phone itself offers the usual help screens.

Score: OS – 7.5/10, Apps – 8/10, Support – 8/10.

Battery Life

Not much to be said here it’s again very much in line with the i8510 & N95 8Gb. My average use finds it generally lasting a day and a half.

Score: 7.5/10.