How to set extra boot flags/options/arguments for Clover bootloader

Starting up Mac OS X for the first time on your Hackintosh can be a very tricky process, which often requires you to set special boot options through the use of boot flags. For those of you who don't know, boot flags are "arguments" (pieces of data that you enter) to change the way that your bootloader runs. The bootloader is the program that boots Mac OS X.

While we've already previously discussed how to use boot flags on the Chameleon and Chimera bootloaders, which were formally the two most popular bootloaders for PCs running Mac OS X, the release of OS X El Capitan has now shifted attention onto the new and upcoming Clover bootloader. All Hackintosh installation methods for El Capitan, including tonymacx86's ever-popular Unibeast method, now use Clover. Unfortunately, using boot flags on Clover requires a slightly different technique than on Chameleon/Chimera (although most of the boot flags themselves remain the same). That's what this guide is here for.

How to install OS X El Capitan on your PC with Unibeast

If you're interested in running Mac OS X, but you don't want to pay ridiculous prices for a normal Mac, then a Hackintosh just might be for you. Right now, the newest iteration of OS X is 10.11, known as El Capitan. Installing El Capitan on a PC is slightly different from installing Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), due to new developments in Hackintoshing tools. This guide will follow tonymacx86's standard Unibeast method, except that we try to cover the process with more detail (and pictures!).

How to install OS X Yosemite in Virtualbox with Yosemite Zone

We've previously shown you how to install OS X Mavericks on a virtual machine by using Niresh, which is great practice for installing Mac OS X on your actual computer. And now that Apple has released OS X Yosemite, it's only fitting that we show you how to install Yosemite in a virtual machine as well. For this guide, we'll be using the "Yosemite Zone" distro, which is really just a rebranded version of the old Niresh distro that we used in our Mavericks guide. While we've already shown you how to install Yosemite on your actual computer with Yosemite Zone, it also works great with virtual machines.

Hackintosh won't boot? How to use verbose mode to fix it

Setting up Mac OS X on a PC can be an extremely tricky process-- since Apple never intended for the operating system to run on any third-party hardware, Mac OS X can suffer from all sorts of bugs and hangups when you try to start it on your own PC for the first time. If your Hackintosh can't properly boot for some reason, then you'll probably have to turn on OS X's "verbose mode" to diagnose the problem. Verbose mode transforms the standard gray Apple boot screen into a text-based interface, from which Mac OS X will print out every single process that it runs in the background as it starts up. This way, you can tell exactly which process is messing up the startup process as a whole.

However, using verbose mode itself can be very tricky. After all, Mac OS X has to run hundreds of different processes at once to start up properly, so interpreting your results from verbose mode is often extremely complicated. This guide is here to help.

How to install OS X Yosemite on your PC with "Yosemite Zone"

If you're interested in running Mac OS X, but you don't want to pay ridiculous prices for a normal Mac, then a Hackintosh just might be for you. Right now, the newest iteration of OS X is 10.10, known as Yosemite. In this guide, we'll show you how to install Yosemite on your PC with the newly released "Yosemite Zone" distro, from Niresh.

How to use Multibeast 7: a comprehensive guide for Yosemite

Recently, tonymacx86 released Multibeast 7, a version of Multibeast customized specifically for OS X Yosemite, Apple's newest version of Mac OS X. While this new version is mostly identical to its Mavericks-era predecessor, it does include a few key changes to improve compatibility. Read on for more details!

How to set up the BIOS of your Hackintosh's Gigabyte motherboard

If you own an old computer that you want to turn into a Hackintosh, you'll probably have to fiddle with its BIOS, which is basically a traditional-style settings page for your motherboard. Since 2012, the BIOS standard has largely been replaced by UEFI, a newer (and better-looking) interface for managing motherboard settings. However, we believe that enough Hackintoshes these days still use BIOS to warrant a guide for it. Gigabyte motherboards have traditionally been the most widely recommended brand for Hackintoshes, so that's what we'll be covering in this tutorial.

How to install OS X Yosemite on your PC with Unibeast

If you're interested in running Mac OS X, but you don't want to pay ridiculous prices for a normal Mac, then a Hackintosh just might be for you. Right now, the newest iteration of OS X is 10.10, known as Yosemite. Installing Yosemite on a PC is pretty much the exact same as installing Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). This guide will follow tonymacx86's standard Unibeast method, except that we try to cover the process with more detail (and pictures!).

Enable writing to NTFS hard drives for free in Mac OS X (including El Capitan!)

Windows uses the NTFS file system for its hard drives. Mac OS X can read files on NTFS hard drives, but it can't write files to them, which is a glaring omission. Attempting to drag a file into an NTFS drive in Mac OS X will only result in your mouse cursor turning into an error sign. Since many Hackintoshes dual-boot Windows and Mac OS X, being unable to share files between hard drives can lead to a lot of problems with file management. Fortunately, you can enable NTFS writing on OS X with relatively little trouble-- all it takes is a few drivers and 10 minutes of your time.

How to install OS X Mavericks in Virtualbox with Niresh

We've previously shown you how to install OS X Mountain Lion on a virtual machine by using iAtkos ML2, which is great practice for installing Mac OS X on your actual computer. And now that Apple has released OS X Mavericks, it's only fitting that we show you how to install Mavericks in a virtual machine as well. Unlike in previous versions of this guide, we'll be using the newly-popular "Niresh" distro of Mavericks instead the old iAtkos distro (which is no longer publicly available for free). While we've already shown you how to install Mavericks on your actual computer with Niresh, it also works great with virtual machines.