Rebel EFI: Who's the Mac?

By: JP Smith | Published: October 29, 2009

Categories: Software, Apple

I've read a lot of reviews lately about Rebel EFI, Psystar's new bootloader that allows you install Mac OS X to a standard Intel PC. However, while a lot of them talk about what it might be, I wanted to share my experience after having used it for a couple of days.

First of all, let me say that, as I understand it, there are several other projects that accomplish what Rebel EFI is doing (there are even allegations that Psystar may have used some of these projects' code without releasing their changes to the code (an open source no-no).  

However, undeterred by this, I downloaded the trial .iso and gave it a whirl.

Install

First, let me say that my setup is pretty run-of-the mill stuff:

Intel Q6600 Quad-core
GA-73PVM-S2H Mobo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 9800 GT Graphics Card 

Needless to say, I am not running the latest or most expensive rig but, I am not a gamer or a video/music creator. So, I am not in need of a great deal.  Also, note, this setup is for Intel CPU's only.  If you have an AMD processor, you can't use Rebel EFI...yet.

(First of all, I must say, I have a purchased copy of OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard").  $30 for an OS is not exactly going to break the bank.  However, if they are selling it at that price, Apple must be trying to make their money of the hardware/devices they sell.)

So, I was ready to go but, first, I had to visit Psystar to check out the Rebel EFI FAQ for instructions on how which BIOS settings I needed to change and my installation instructions.  I won't bore you with the details but, let's just say that they are geared to folks who may have installed OS X before. From my Linux experience, I was used to installing to pretty much any partition on the drive.  However, the Mac Installer was looking to be on the first partition of the drive. Fortunately, I have two hard drives in my computer.  Unfortunately, it took me hours to get everything saved to external drives so that I could completely blow away the data and repartition under Mac's installer (otherwise, I couldn't select the GUID partition table, which was another requirement I didn't know about). So, my first day (Saturday) consisted of my moving files and repartitioning drives before I was able to even get my setup correctly just so that I could do the the install.  This was not Psystar's fault, this is how the Mac installer told me things had be.  Nonetheless, a little warning might have helped.

The next day, I was ready to go. I booted up again using the Rebel EFI boot image. I was able to repartition my 1 terabyte drive to give 250GB to my Mac install and the remaining space back to use to store all my other stuff that I had moved off my computer.  I was kind of glad to have gone through this because it allowed me to allocate 100GB more to my Mac install that I originally intended.  I figured that, if I liked it, it would make my life easier in the future.

After I selected the drive I wanted to use, I clicked install and off it went.  It was kind of surprising that it went so well after all the hassle I went through.  But, there were a couple of head-scratching moments.  The first was when the progress meter seemed frozen.  I can't remember what I did (moved my mouse or tapped the space bar on my keyboard) but, the progress meter moved.  I figured it was doing its thing so, I let it go.  A few minutes later, I saw a big yellow triangle with an exclamation point in the middle saying "Installation Failed".  However, I remembered the Psystar site saying that this message might appear even when the install was successful so, I said "whatever" and rebooted.  

First experience

I had to reboot again using the cd image because, until you pay, you don't get the boot loader installed to your hard drive. Psystar lets you check things out for 2 hours, with limited hardware functionality, until you activate your product.  Now, I am very much a do-it-yourself type of person but, in this case, I'd rather pay $50 than go through the frustration of trying to use other tools to accomplish this.  Anyway, this would be a lot less than buying a Mac.  

The OS X install started up just fine but, I quickly figured out that three things just weren't right.  First, my icons were HUGE.  I have a 24" monitor and I could tell the resolution was off.  Sure enough, I could only run at a 1024x768 resolution (I am used to a 1920x1200 resolution).  The second thing I noticed is that, after about 15 minutes, my network connection would stop working.  I can't tell you the number of times I rebooting testing this out. Finally, I had no sound.  At this point, I am wondering if, because I don't have Mac hardware, these things were going to be incompatible.

But, soon after, I brushed these concerns aside, assuming that these were part of the "hardware limitations" Psystar's site mentioned.  So, I ponied up the $50 for the full product.  About an hour later, I got my activation email.

What the hell?!!

Okay, things really get screwy when I try to activate.  I am able to authenticate in the installed Rebel EFI program but, when I enter my profile information and click save, my network connection immediately stops.  I thought it was the 15-minute issue I referred to earlier but, even when doing this a minute after booting, I still can't authenticate.  I email Psystar and call it a night.

So, Monday comes and goes with no word from Psystar.  At this point, I am wondering if I've been ripped off.  I try to boot in and repeat the registration process with the same results.  Wait...isn't this the definition of insanity? Another day down and I am not closer to having my "hackintosh".

Success!

Tuesday morning, I get an idea.  I have a USB network adapter that is Mac compatible.  When I got home from work, I install the drivers for the adapter and get my wireless configured (like in Linux and Windows, this was a snap).  This time, I am able to finish creating and upload my profile.  The Rebel EFI tool installs the bootloader (no more booting from CD!).  It apparently must have installed a video driver too because, after a reboot, my monitor is displaying at 1920x1200, again.

Sadly, I found out that my two other issues weren't related to Psystar's limitation on hardware but, because, by default, these devices weren't working or, a least not correctly, under OS X.  First, my sound card has a Realtek chipset.  However, a search on the internet pointed me to a kernel extension (.kext) file called "VoodooHDA", as well as a utility that allowed me to easily install it called "Kext Utililty".  It was as simple as dragging and dropping the .kext file over the utility and waiting for it to finish.  One reboot later, I actually had sound.  Thinking I was finished, I stepped away for a while and tried surfing in Safari only to find out my network connection was not working again.  I rebooted and hit the web again. I found out that the Apple-delivered nvenet.kext delivers less-than-spectacular results.  I also found out about the nForceLan kernel extension.  So, I deleted the nvenet kernel extension (saved a copy first) and used the Kext utility to install the nForceLan extension.  Again, after a reboot, I was back on line with a connection that has not gone down after being up for over 24 hours straight.

Final thoughts

I am writing this on my new OS X install.  I am still quite Mac-ignorant but, I like it so far.  The great thing is that, on this PC, I have the latest Ubuntu 9.10 release client and a Windows 7 install so, I am getting the most out of my computer.  

However, I do have a couple of gripes.  The first is with Psystar.  If you are running a business, you need to respond to customer support emails.  It has been over three days since I sent my support question and have not heard back.  I got it going in spite of this but, it's still bad form not to respond to paying customers.  This time, I bought a bootloader but, whose to say that I wouldn't be in the market for a new PC soon and might have considered purchasing from them?

My second gripe is with Apple?  Do you know how many people want to run OS X on their PC's.  Apple's components are readily available in a host of other PCs and Apple intentionally cripples the ability to run OS X out-of-the-box on non Apple-branded computers.  Just think if an OS X for PCs had been available when customers were griping about Vista.  They could have wiped the floor with Microsoft.  To me, this was shortsighted on Apple's part.

Gripes aside, I'll be keeping this "Mac" for a while.