Windows XP Booting on Mac Contest Over

[Peace]

My question is has anyone REVERSED the process? Meaning removing this dual boot setup and installing just Mac OS X back on again.

Also...is there ANYTHING going on here that if done improperly could render your mac unuseable? This whole taking over of the boot process kind of worries me a little. My first impression is that if you did do anything wrong you could just pop your Mac OS X install disc and start over again. However, with this being experimental I worry about "bricking" my mac.

exodar

This is exactly why people wanting to do this should wait for the brave of heart to confirm it doesn't harm the EFI when trying to reinstall OS X..

 

[DTphonehome]

Put up a PayPal donation box - seemed to work for dual booting, selling pixels, and getting fake boobs.

Edit:Seriously, register http://www.iwantapony.com, put up a 72p text stating that you want a pony, and include a tip jar. I'll take 10% of what you make for the idea.

Edit 2: Damn, someone already thought of it. No tip jar though.

LOL....anything that can be thought of already has been. On the internet, anyway
Besides, a pony would probably be more trouble than it's worth in a Manhattan apartment. Although it would be the coolest transportation method in town!

 

[unigolyn]

My question is has anyone REVERSED the process? Meaning removing this dual boot setup and installing just Mac OS X back on again.

Also...is there ANYTHING going on here that if done improperly could render your mac unuseable? This whole taking over of the boot process kind of worries me a little. My first impression is that if you did do anything wrong you could just pop your Mac OS X install disc and start over again. However, with this being experimental I worry about "bricking" my mac.

I don't see why you just couldn't boot off the OS X disc again and reformat. It's still just a hard drive.

 

[thechris69]

so if u have a intel mac with windows xp on it, can you run pc games on it smoothly?

 

[ImAlex]

so if u have a intel mac with windows xp on it, can you run pc games on it smoothly?

Probably. It is meant to work as a PC with Windows.

 

[FoxyKaye]

It's gonna need some video drivers to make it perform.

Without reading the entire 11 previous pages, I agree with this. And, the entire installation is essentially an unsupported hack, so I'm not sure of the implications for OS stability with either OS X or WinXP.

Is this also going to be something the everyday consumer will benefit from? Installing open source code and finessing an Intel iMac into a dual-boot configuration doesn't exactly strike me as something the everyday user can do. I'm certain this will come natural to geeks and gamers, but given the types of questions I witnessed from folks at the local "Genius Bar" the other day, it still seems leagues above the everyday user's knowledge, comfort and experience.

I suppose it's a Good Thing, though... I know a few years down the line when I buy an Intel Mac, it something I'll do - though mostly for the fun of it.

I wonder if this could eventually lead to some sort of "fast OS switching" - that would be pretty keen.

 

[balamw]

The install disk has to be copied and altered. Does Microsoft allow Windows install disks to be duplicated?

They designed the 2K and XP install disks with the ability to slipstream service packs and patches and OEM drivers. They only way to implement this in practice is to copy the disk. Definitely OEMs have this right, and need. Since many windows users build their own machines and are in effect their own OEMs (system integrators), they should also have this capability.

IMHO (although IANAL) this falls into the same general category as BartPE, a wonderful Windows live CD creation tool. It modifies an XP install disk to create a live CD. ASs I recall they use mkisofs instead of Nero to build that, which might help free this of the requirement for a machine already running XP.

So any PC with Nero Burning ROM (which is free)?

Will there be an easy installer? So you just put ur CD into the drive and install it? I didn't thought you needed a PC for this. Sounds good anyway. Anyone tried this yet?

Nit pick. Nero's not free, though there is a free trial which can be used for this purpose.

Check out BartPE (linked above), for something similar that has been packaged quite well.

B

 

[varmatheone]

so if u have a intel mac with windows xp on it, can you run pc games on it smoothly?

Not yet. They have not yet gotten graphics drivers to work.

 

[Abulia]

My question is has anyone REVERSED the process? Meaning removing this dual boot setup and installing just Mac OS X back on again.

Also...is there ANYTHING going on here that if done improperly could render your mac unuseable? This whole taking over of the boot process kind of worries me a little. My first impression is that if you did do anything wrong you could just pop your Mac OS X install disc and start over again. However, with this being experimental I worry about "bricking" my mac.

The install requires you to load into the OS X disk utility and create two partitions, formatting your drive. Thus, to reverse the process, one would assume you could do the reverse. This is becuase once you install OS X, you replace the EFI bootloader (xom.efi) with their own and "bless" it. This is the magic of the dual boot, apparently.

So, based on reading the instructions, reversing wouldn't be a big deal. (Unless you consider reinstalling OS X a big deal.)

 

[balamw]

Not yet. They have not yet gotten graphics drivers to work.

Surely this wouldn't affect games like Minesweeper and FreeCell.

OK these probably already work on Darwine, but for lots of Windows users these are games they miss on a Mac.

B

 

[macrants]

I just don't have time to format my HD to make room for it. How do I back up my data to make sure that it's safe before formatting? Does Carbon Copy Cloner work under Rosetta?

 

[exodar]

The install requires you to load into the OS X disk utility and create two partitions, formatting your drive. Thus, to reverse the process, one would assume you could do the reverse. This is becuase once you install OS X, you replace the EFI bootloader (xom.efi) with their own and "bless" it. This is the magic of the dual boot, apparently.

So, based on reading the instructions, reversing wouldn't be a big deal. (Unless you consider reinstalling OS X a big deal.)

This is my thought too, but I will wait and see if someone can prove that it is indeed this simple. Plus I can't find a reason to run a crappy OS on my Mac other than to possibly play Battlefield 2

There is a good question...has anyone tried a PC game like Battlefield 2 to see what happens? Lots of PC games (Mac games included) do some funky direct-hardware calls to video cards and such for performance reasons. Be interesting to see how well something like that runs.

And I am scared to ask if World of Warcraft runs better on XP on a Mac than on Mac OS X on a Mac...

 

[DTphonehome]

Surely this wouldn't affect games like Minesweeper and FreeCell.

B

I would like to see framerates on Minesweeper and Freecell before I attempt this.

 

[SPUY767]

could be a problem for the Mac OS. Who would develop for OSX if users can just use Windows on the same machine?


I understand that only a small minority of computer users will actually do this but it's still a concern for Apple.

No it's not. People will still demand software for the mac because the mac is a more secure running environment. The reason OS/2 failed, is because it would run windows software natively. That being said, an awesome piece of virtualization software would be more of a threat to the macintosh than a dual booting system.

 

[Abulia]

There is a good question...has anyone tried a PC game like Battlefield 2 to see what happens? Lots of PC games (Mac games included) do some funky direct-hardware calls to video cards and such for performance reasons. Be interesting to see how well something like that runs.

This won't work because, to my knowledge, only VGA mode is supported; they're still trying to work out the video driver problem.

I was able to briefly get onto osx86project forums this morning and it looks like nearly all the driver issues have been worked out except video. It'll just be a matter of time, I suspect.

Until video drivers are running, no DirectX. (Compared to dual booting, hacking a video driver ought to be considerably easier to do.)

 

[Meemoo]

Not yet. They have not yet gotten graphics drivers to work.

Have they tried ATI.com and tried downloading the X1600 drivers?

 

[ImAlex]

They designed the 2K and XP install disks with the ability to slipstream service packs and patches and OEM drivers. They only way to implement this in practice is to copy the disk. Definitely OEMs have this right, and need. Since many windows users build their own machines and are in effect their own OEMs (system integrators), they should also have this capability.

IMHO (although IANAL) this falls into the same general category as BartPE, a wonderful Windows live CD creation tool. It modifies an XP install disk to create a live CD. ASs I recall they use mkisofs instead of Nero to build that, which might help free this of the requirement for a machine already running XP.


Nit pick. Nero's not free, though there is a free trial which can be used for this purpose.

Check out BartPE (linked above), for something similar that has been packaged quite well.

B

Ok.

Please people if you have installed XP Pro on your computer please show us! And please tell us how you did.

 

[Abulia]

Have they tried ATI.com and tried downloading the X1600 drivers?

Yup, no joy.

I suspect it'll be a good starting point, though.

 

[FoxyKaye]

Have they tried ATI.com and tried downloading the X1600 drivers?

As far as I know, the GFX cards included with the Intel Macs are "Mac Edition." Meaning that the standard Windows drivers won't work even in a Windows environment without flashing the GFX card's ROM.

 

[five04]

This is great. I've been a long time mac user, but miss the gaming available to the windows world; now I can have both. Instead of partitioning, I wonder if you could format an external hard drive and install only windows on it then boot via firewire. Does anyone know?

 

[exodar]

Have they tried ATI.com and tried downloading the X1600 drivers?

EXACTLY!! I mean the ATI X1600 is used in PC Laptops by various manufacturers and there ARE Windows XP Drivers for it. How is it any different at this point? Plus...looking at videos of this XP Installation, it appears to be running at full resolution and even taking advantage of the widescreen display on the iMac. Seems to me Windows XP is handling the video card just fine.

What am I missing here?

 

[AlbinoPigeon]

I just hope this is not officially supported by Apple...otherwise, NO developer will care about porting anything to OS X...and why? Because you WILL have the choice of buying a crappy copy of XP for 100 bucks and running everything PC-friendly on it...

I don't see any reason for celebration, apart from gamers that feel like playing the latest Star Wars blablabla on their white Macs...

A sad day for the Mac community indeed.

Personally I don't understand this kind of logic. So let's suppose then that companies like Adobe, Quark, EA, Intuit, Corel...etc all decide that because of some sort of hack (even one that may be easily implemented) they will cease development because Mac users will still be able to run the Windows versions. Do you really think that Mac owners that have gone through the trouble of installing a hacked bootloader will then go out and PURCHACE these windows-only software titles? Do you even think they'll purchace a legit copy of Windows in the first place?!

I can only speak for myself...but I suspect that I represent a whole wack of people...but I wouldn't pay for software that doesn't run native on my machine. I bought Office V.x, I bought the newest iLife, I bought Creative Suite, i'm not some sort of rampaging pirate.

But if I cannot obtain a piece of software written for the mac, why would I purchace a windows version and run it on a hacked set-up? I'm sorry, but if you choose to stop developing for OSX, well I choose to stop buying your software.

What this hack is going to do is simple: allow individuals who need to run a piece of software not available for OSX to do so. This includes the few specialized apps that haven't made their way to OSX (decent GPS Street Mapping software, i'm talking to you!) and games.

This isn't going to kill OSX development. It IS going to increase piracy. And maybe all that extra piracy will finally convince these few companies to develop for Mac. 'Cuz if they dont, me and people like me, are going to keep running copies of their software on hacked setups until we can find native solutions.

 

[berkleeboy210]

Can someone copy & paste the instructions or is that illegal? doesn't look like I'll be able to get to the site for while

 

[MacPPC]

The solution available for download right now talks about iMacs, normally I would asume that the same steps apply to any intel Apple hardware, but are these the same steps for a MacBook Pro?

 

[Shaddow825]

Can someone copy & paste the instructions or is that illegal? doesn't look like I'll be able to get to the site for while

It is not just instructions, there are files in a zip you need.