Hackintoshing a CF-3110778CM

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thewanderlustking
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#11 Post by thewanderlustking »

The tonymacx86 instructions are pretty good, but they leave out some kinda important details. Super simple. The Vice article goes much more in depth, but parts of it are very hard to follow. Between them, I got the installer made!

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And partial success!

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A8B38024-EC53-4208-B55F-D879E78F7B10.jpeg (2.83 MiB) Viewed 2429 times
Unfortunately only partial as it then gives me the circle with a line through it and doesn’t fully load. I think it’s because the HDD isn’t properly prepped and needs a partition ready to take the installation. I think I will try again with a blank drive. I’ve actually had this same issue setting up the SSD for one of my Macs. OSX installers don't have any tools or means to prepare the drive. At least the Windows installers let you format the HDD.

I am not sure I am ready to tackle the whole dual boot. But then it is a simple matter of having a second drive/caddy and swapping it on these. I do have an issue with the UEFI boot on the Windows 7 drive though. I need to see if the Windows 10 fix will work on this drive too. But I am likely going to have to do this a few times, so risking a dual boot setup now really isn't worth the risk. The first install is probably not going to have working wifi or bluetooth.
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ADOR
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#12 Post by ADOR »

Even though I don't plan to do this, it's interesting to see what others come up with.
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Michael AU
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#13 Post by Michael AU »

I am finding this interesting, and one day I might do it myself, but then I boot my machines and it is quick and painless and I see Linux.

I really admire the effort you are putting in to it. Keep us posted.
CF-29 x 3 (Debian (Rugged) 11, FreeDOS 1.2, Windows 7)
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thewanderlustking
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#14 Post by thewanderlustking »

Yes for sure I will keep this updated!

I get you on the quick and painless boot up! I really hate a boot up that requires selecting an OS... I actually went through a LOT of trouble on my MK1 CF-19 to run Linux Mint AND and Windows 7, without a boot selection. If I enabled my WWAN card in Bios, it would boot off a USB thumb drive I had installed Linux Mint to, seamlessly. And fast. With the WWAN card disabled, it would boot off the main HDD with Windows installed. Sure, I had to go into bios to flip the hidden switch on/off. But from Windows that Linux drive was completely invisible. The machine didn't have a WWAN card in it, so why would you turn that on in BIOS? The only giveaway was I modified the WWAN bottom cover with a tiny hole and a clear window. With the card turned on, the USB drive active light was positioned right above the window. With a normal bottom cover, only a computer forensic investigator or a technician randomly disassembling the laptop would have found it. I don't think most would even notice the modified cover. It isn't obvious. And it is done cleanly enough that it looks OEM. Only a nut job like us Toughbook guru's here, would see it and question what it was for.

I like the option to quickly access a Linux OS, so I will probably try a similar mod on this CF-31. Unfortunately on this, the slot is a M.2 or something I don't have an adapter card and drive setup for. Fortunately, there are potentially better options for this slot. There are actual plug in SSD drives that work with no adapters. These might not be compatible with OSX installs though, but it would probably be used with the Linux option again. And I found a SD card drive adapter for it. But with the whole added UEFI layer, I am not sure if those will work without getting one to play with. And they are much more expensive. I think both the above would be about $50. The PCIE adapter cards are as cheap as $2-3. An easy loss to justify for experimentation. $50-60 though buys other shinier things like upgraded memory.

I am unclear on the boot up process with OSX and the Clover boot manager. I think it can be set to skip the boot selection and go right to the last booted OS option, unless you hit F12 or something during boot. I am also fairly certain it skips boot selection if you only have one option to boot, again unless you hit the F whatever key.

I am unsure, as I haven't gotten to the point where OSX actually installs permanently on the local hard drive.... I actually fired my MacBook up tonight to hunt down and sort out how I need to format the HDD. This is a rabbit hole for sure. I am going to hit post on this, then write that up as I dig through it.
Last edited by thewanderlustking on Sat Feb 19, 2022 12:30 am, edited 3 times in total.
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thewanderlustking
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#15 Post by thewanderlustking »

Righty-o! So as normal, I have to pick the most complicated way to do things. I wanted OSX El Capitan on this Hackintosh as it comes by default with iTunes 11. I also have an older data backup for El Capitan, I think. I also should still have my music library backed up for iTunes 11. This creates another issue. compatibility across OSX platforms and drives.

This is a tricky thing to figure out... The compatibility list Apple actually posts, seem to be the least accurate. Like they say certain devices with specific versions can't do XYZ, but I have ones that can. Whatever, realizing their lists tend to encourage upgrades and possibly not reality, other lists aren't necessarily as well put together.

Here I am specifically interested in formatting compatibility. Apple's older Extended Journaled or HFS+ is better for mechanical or hybrid HDD. But Apples newer APFS+ is much better for SSD, and will considerably speed them up too over a HFS+ formate SSD. El Capitan though doesn't work on an APFS+ formatted drive. This might be the big difference between an iTunes 11 and iTunes 12 library too. When you install iTunes 12 is when I believe it does a long library conversion process.

The take away for now is to get iTunes 11, I need OSX El Capitan. For that I need an HFS+ formatted drive. I think I can actually mix drive types in an OSX system, but that's another rabbit hole... I know I want to upgrade to APFS+ for the SSD drive, but I think doing that also forces me to change to iTunes 12. Anyways the pain of trying to sort out what is what is putting me to sleep lol. I am going to format the CF-31 SSD drive here in a moment for the HFS+ and then probably just go to bed.

Okay my SSD is formatted for Mac OS Extended (journaled) with GUID Partition tables. I am going to go quickly stuff this in the CF-30 caddy and see if I get the installer to actually install...

Oh lets bitch about the CF-30 vs CF-31 caddy real quick... The CF-30 I personally think is a much nicer caddy. It is a bit heavier and the full metal all around is a better faraday cage than the plastic topped CF-31 caddy. Not 100% sure this even matters on a SSD drive, but I know it is more protection for magnetic/mechanical drives. EXTREME EMP shielding is actually a feature of Toughbooks, although unadvertised in normal circles. Supposedly these can survive an EMP pulse from a nuclear explosion. I am also fairly certain that nobody has tested actually tested one with a nuke induced EMP blast, but what do I know....

Oh, it is illegal to set off a nuclear detonator inside San Francisco city limits. I think it is a $250 fine. Something silly. (I can't find this stature/law to prove it, and am getting oddly uncomfortable after searching for it lol) That just makes me want to ask so so many pointless questions though... :stupid: :boing:

Moving on... I was complaining about the caddy differences. The CF-31 caddy though you can pop a drive in and out of the caddy itself in a very quick time without needing a screwdriver. This is ideal for playing with OS installations and needing quick access to the drive itself. I probably need to grab a CF-31 caddy just for this reason. But then mine won't match and that will add to me twitch factor. Grrrr.... I am trying to convince myself that the quick access and visually different caddy to help me identify them at a glance will offset the unlatching twitch factor and make it beneficial to do.

Anyways the more I write here, the less likely this goes into the CF-31 for testing before I fall asleep. So I am off to go do that. I will hopefully have some real progress to post up soon!
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#16 Post by OldGator »

thewanderlustking wrote: Sat Feb 19, 2022 12:20 am The take away for now is to get iTunes 11, I need OSX El Capitan. For that I need an HFS+ formatted drive. I think I can actually mix drive types in an OSX system, but that's another rabbit hole... I know I want to upgrade to APFS+ for the SSD drive, but I think doing that also forces me to change to iTunes 12.
What was the reason you object to iTunes 12? I am running El Capitan on an older MacPro5,1 and my iTunes version is 12.8.2.3. All of my drives (one HD and 3 SSDs) are formatted Mac OS Extended (journaled) with GUID Partition tables, same as yours.

I bought this computer used and it came with Snow Leopard, so right off the bat I had to download and install El Capitan. I don't remember if El Capitan installed iTunes 11 and it updated to 12 later or if it installed iTunes 12 to begin with. El Capitan was already out of date when I installed it, but the MacPro5,1 was the last Mac Pro to have a full 64 bit system with a 32 bit UEFI that makes Apple treat it as a 32 bit system. A shining example of forced obsolescence. I'm thinking seriously of converting it to Linux.

Anyway, I don't remember any heartburn over going to iTunes 12 other than more bloat. My previous MacPro1,1 (I think) had Snow Leopard I believe, and I moved that iTunes library over to the new(er) computer without undue stress. Although, it's been a few years and they say time dulls the memory of pain.

Wally

thewanderlustking
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#17 Post by thewanderlustking »

One of my favorite and most used metrics was song plays. iTunes 12 buries that and while it can be accessed if you go deep enough, the next time you open it, it goes away. There was a bunch of other little differences, like how it handled album covers, organization, and a handful of other things. 12 is a whole different beast from 11, and I never could get it comfortable. They changed a lot that hadn't been touched for years, to integrate other useless stuff into iTunes. I tunes should be about music. 12 was, well about everything but.

I LOVED synching my iPod up and seeing my favorite song counts go up, or even the opposite and finding barely listened to stuff in my music collection. I had/have something close to 5000 cd's and albums ripped. Almost all with correct information and a large amount even with lyrics.

Also the way 12 worked, it would search everywhere else but your personal library first. I don't care if the music is on the iTunes store when I know it is on my laptop. iTunes 12 was a platform to try to get you to buy music, not listen to what you already have. And when you have such a big collection, you want it easy to find stuff. Half the time you maybe remember perhaps what album it was on, or artist or well everything but the actual song name.

I get it, progress and change isn't horrible, but when the core of a program it to listen to your music collection and they change the program to the point it makes that collection almost unusable.... It was bad enough that since iTunes 12 came out, I have almost completely given up on my collection and went over to Pandora instead.

I think Apple deliberately broke iTunes with 12. They turned it into a selling platform, and not a music library organization one.
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thewanderlustking
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#18 Post by thewanderlustking »

Oh I didn't have any luck First time it gave me the progress bar for like 10 minutes, then the circle of nothing. I changed a setting in Clover, and it would give me the apple logo, then quickly go to the nothing circle. I lost the progress bar.

I got a weird thing in Bios/uefi where the only forced boot option is "clover EFI". I need to poke at it some more. I am also not sure if the tutorial applies to a laptop platform and desktop, or only the desktop...

I am probably at the point where I need to ask questions on the tonymacx86 forum...

Ooops, edited the thread title to reflect the model I am working on. Just realized I never posted the full model number!
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-31

#19 Post by OldGator »

thewanderlustking wrote: Sat Feb 19, 2022 5:21 pm I think Apple deliberately broke iTunes with 12. They turned it into a selling platform, and not a music library organization one.
Thanks for the comments, now that you mention it I vaguely remember being unhappy with the change from 11 to 12. You make very good points. I never really used the features as much as you did; we have a lot of ripped CDs but as I've gotten older my need for quiet has cut my music time way down from what it used to be. After a few albums I have to shut it down. I only fire up iTunes when the occasional mood strikes.

Thanks,
Wally

thewanderlustking
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Re: Hackintoshing a CF-3110778CM

#20 Post by thewanderlustking »

No problem, I am getting there myself... LOL! Still it is a problem that is worth solving while dealing with other things. Kinda like living with squeaky brakes. Annoying but if there is plenty of pad left, why bother? But if I have to pull them off to fix something else underneath, I am going to change them out.

I haven't gotten any further. I walked away from it temporarily as I was hitting walls and Google wasn't delivering anything useful. Now enough time/space has passed I will get a fresh approach and try again. In a few days or so... I have a newer style CF-31 caddy coming in the mail. I will put the Windows 10 drive back into the CF-30 caddy. The CF-31 caddy is much easier to get into. And at a glance I will know what caddy is what.

Why would anyone bother with dual boot setup on one of these machines when it only takes 5-10 seconds to swap the whole caddy out?!

It looks like I will need a computer at work soon. They supply one, but it will take up a LOT of room on my toolbox. A CF-31 or a CF-19 would be a much smaller footprint. I think everything I need to utilize is web based, so operating system shouldn't matter too much.

Anyways I may get the Windows drive back in there tonight and work on the drivers. There were a couple things not working correctly.
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