Hackint0sh (Part 1?)

I’m attempting to create a Hackint0sh. I’ve got kick-ass hardware:

• P5B Deluxe Mobo
• 2×300GB SATA Drives
• 2GB 800MHz RAM
• 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo (E6600)
• 256MB GeForce 7600GT PCI-E
• Plenty of I/O ports in front and back (kick ass Antec case)

I don’t use my old Ubuntu config anymore, sadly. I’ve still got Windows running on the secondary drive, but I can convert that to a Boot Camp or Parallels machine, if need be.

I prepped by reading this article on Lifehacker, which really simplified this thread on OSX86Scene. While it all looked daunting, it was really quite simple (simplified from the Lifehacker entry):

• Make an image of my Leopard DVD (using Disk Utility, simple)
• Download any one of the files at the top of this thread. (Some links don’t seem to always work, but there’s four possibilities)
• Unzip the files from the download to your desktop.
• Edit the indicated files (see the Lifehacker thread)
• HIt F8, use -x -v when beginning Leopard install
• Use Disk Utility to create a MacOS partition.
• Install!
• Follow post installation instructions.

My pitfalls/warnings:

• My P5B Deluxe uses a JMicron IDE Controller. Both my DVD-ROM/RW drives were connected to this controller, and it was not allowing me to boot to the patched DVD. I tried a $27 E-IDE to SATA adapter, but that didn’t solve my problem. I had to buy a SATA DVD Drive ($45 for a DVD-/+ RW) for the disc to boot.
• I couldn’t keep my USB Drive inserted when rebooting for the PostPatch. I had to insert it after I had booted back via the DVD. Also, my front USB ports wouldn’t work for the USB Drive, I had to use the rear ports.
• I had to go through the Post-Installation (PostPatch) twice.
• I rebooted a zillion times, but after I did a power off/on and left the disc in the drive I was finally able to boot to Leopard. Let the timer run out on the Darwin Bootloader screen. Hitting buttons put me into the setup loop.
• I don’t have network connectivity for some reason

Now I am tired. I will have to figure out the network piece another time.

Edit: Updated 10.5.1 using the same Lifehacker instructions. Basically, update and re-do the post installation patch.

As an aside, I also installed VMWare Fusion. Awesomely (if that’s a word) enough, it found my “old” Windows partition and immediately let me start that up as a VM.