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Note

This README.md documents the process of creating a Virtual Hackintosh system.

Note: All blobs and resources included in this repository are re-derivable (all instructions are included!).

:green_heart: Looking for commercial support with this stuff? I am available over email for a chat for commercial support options only. Note: Project sponsors get access to the Private OSX-KVM repository, and direct support.

Struggling with Content Caching stuff? We can help.

Working with Proxmox and macOS? See Nick's blog for sure.

Yes, we support offline macOS installations now - see this document 🎉

Contributing Back

This project can always use your help, time and attention. I am looking for help (pull-requests!) with the following work items:

Requirements

Note: Older AMD CPU(s) are known to be problematic but modern AMD Ryzen processors work just fine (even for macOS Sonoma).

Installation Preparation

Installation

Headless macOS

Setting Expectations Right

Nice job on setting up a Virtual Hackintosh system! Such a system can be used for a variety of purposes (e.g. software builds, testing, reversing work), and it may be all you need, along with some tweaks documented in this repository.

However, such a system lacks graphical acceleration, a reliable sound sub-system, USB 3 functionality and other similar things. To enable these things, take a look at our notes. We would like to resume our testing and documentation work around this area. Please reach out to us if you are able to fund this area of work.

It is possible to have 'beyond-native-apple-hw' performance but it does require work, patience, and a bit of luck (perhaps?).

Post-Installation

Is This Legal?

The "secret" Apple OSK string is widely available on the Internet. It is also included in a public court document available here. I am not a lawyer but it seems that Apple's attempt(s) to get the OSK string treated as a trade secret did not work out. Due to these reasons, the OSK string is freely included in this repository.

Please review the 'Legality of Hackintoshing' documentation bits from Dortania's OpenCore Install Guide.

Gabriel Somlo also has some thoughts on the legal aspects involved in running macOS under QEMU/KVM.

You may also find this 'Announcing Amazon EC2 Mac instances for macOS' article interesting.

Note: It is your responsibility to understand, and accept (or not accept) the Apple EULA.

Note: This is not legal advice, so please make the proper assessments yourself and discuss with your lawyers if you have any concerns (Text credit: Dortania)

Motivation

My aim is to enable macOS based educational tasks, builds + testing, kernel debugging, reversing, and macOS security research in an easy, reproducible manner without getting 'invested' in Apple's closed ecosystem (too heavily).

These Virtual Hackintosh systems are not intended to replace the genuine physical macOS systems.

Personally speaking, this repository has been a way for me to 'exit' the Apple ecosystem. It has helped me to test and compare the interoperability of Canon CanoScan LiDE 120 scanner, and Brother HL-2250DN laser printer. And these devices now work decently enough on modern versions of Ubuntu (Yay for free software). Also, a long time back, I had to completely wipe my (then) brand new MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) and install Xubuntu on it - as the OS X kernel kept crashing on it!

Backstory: I was a (poor) student in Canada in a previous life and Apple made my work on cracking Apple Keychains a lot harder than it needed to be. This is how I got interested in Hackintosh systems.