When the Psystar Rebel EFI software launched yesterday, the Internet collectively gasped at the wild claims but a few people in the Hackintosh community probably knew better. Sites were claiming that the Rebel EFI software would allow OS X to be installed on any computer, but that simply isn’t true as I’ve found out over the last 12 hours. In fact, it doesn’t seem to offer any more hardware support than the open source Chameleon bootloader.
Now, I found the Psystar software easier to use than Chameleon, but the same systems that previously rejected OS X using Chameleon, did the same with Psystar. One is an Core 2 Solo U3500 1.4GHz with a ATI Radeon HD 4330 GPU. This computer will not get past the gray screen with a spinning beach ball in the top left, which means the graphics card probably isn’t compatable according to the updated Rebel EFI FAQ page. The other is an Z520 Atom 1.33GHz netbook with an Intel GMA950 GPU. This guy won’t get past the Apple logo. I had the same results using Chameleon a few weeks ago.
John managed to install OS X using the Rebel EFI bootloader on an HP Touchsmart computer yesterday. I’ve not had any luck so far though. In fact, we got an email a few minutes ago stating that while someone managed to install OS X and purchase the software, the activation key will not work, rendering the machine almost useless. Psystar’s phone tech support just told him to email the company but so far nothing has been resolved.
The Psystar Rebel EFI might be a terrific piece of software, but it doesn’t seem ready for retail consumption yet. In the mean time, let me point you towards the rich development community behind the OSX86 project and Chameleon. Chances are that if they say your hardware isn’t compatible and their solutions won’t work, Psystar’s Rebel EFI installer probably won’t either.
Is it just me, or is this article in itslef stupid because it talks about how it doesn’t work on rigs with unsupported processors? What sorta geniuses are these guys?
I would not say the article is stupid .
Just that the peeps reading and writing these articles are ignorant to the (requirements) of osx . (the joys of it just works ideology )
At least they point to the Chameleon project so those who are interested can get educated and understand why this will not work with their amd sempron :).
Also it probably would have been trivial for psystar to implement a simple check to test for base compatibility .
Thus halting these kinds of artiles in the first place.
Agreed. The two computer configuration’s processors that he mentioned are not supported for this installer as reported by endgadget and gizmodo. It looks as if most support is with core 2 duo, quad core, and i7 intel processors.
um i thought this was mentioned in one of yoru posts yesterday, i know i read some where that it only worked on certain intel processors, not all.
but still SOME is better then none… also they give you trial period with the rebel software so you know if it works on your hardware before you need to purchase the software.. thats nice.
What a moron. At least research OSX86 before you write an article.
You need hardware that is, at least, close to Mac hardware.
However, Psystar could have avoided this bad press by actually having a FAQ [that has good information] that makes sense.
They should have delayed release by a few weeks. This is still no excuse for an un-researched article.
Really? Is an AMD processor “close to Mac hardware”? Be careful when throwing around names like “moron” … you could just be labeling yourself.
Now we all know that the OS x86 community were right when they said that Psystar’s bootloader was a repackaged version of Chameleon.
He’s right about one thing though. I tried this on various Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, i7, Centrino, and others and it never booted once. Several “supported” processors just wouldn’t load. I was severely disappointed.
I did get it up on 2 different machines…..and the OS 10.6.2 update killed one of them. Had to reload with a different video card (GT260-216 will not load) a old GT8800 and update with their drivers…reinstall gt260…works again…I’ll see if they update custom drivers to allow the 10.6.2 update…the 10.6.1x ran fine. Basic gt8800 w/E5200 O/c’ed to 3.6 runs fine.
it actually sucks – so does their support
i bought it for an p5w asus board when they claimed “on any machine”
off course it only works on VERY VERY few machines
check their HCL
but they wont let me use my license on supported hardware now – it locked onto the p5w board.
so 50 dollars for nothing
psystar really does suck
they violate apples eula
they steal open source software – violating the gpl license – and sell it as their own
you cant expect anything from a company like that
I don’t own a Mac. I use Windows. But everything I have read on this subject suggests: If you want a Mac, buy a Mac, period.
Looks like Fred is mad cause he feels he got ripped off while he was trying to rip Apple off.
AHahahaa!
By the way Chameleon and Netkas’ efforts work just fine if you follow the HCL and ensure you have supported hardware.