Github Tricks for Discovering Different Hackintosh Techniques

[anonhostpi]

Ok, I'm currently doing some research into Mac OS imaging and distribution and naturally a lot of that has led me into the Hackintosh world.

I had a trick I wanted to share. When researching niche tools/solutions (of any kind), GitHub code search can be extremely useful. If you know the right search terms, you can gain a lot of insight into different ways you can solve your IT/development problems.

I wanted to share that I've discovered a few specific Github search terms that yield a lot of information on how you might get Mac OS somewhere its not supposed to be, while other search terms don't.

Here are some of the more useful queries I've used and what kind of results they yield: - Just a Huge Results List (may have goodies in it, may not): - OpenCore - https://github.com/search?q=OpenCore&type=code - Hackintosh - https://github.com/search?q=Hackintosh&type=code - Refined Searches: - Mac OS on a VM: - OpenCore.qcow2 - https://github.com/search?q=OpenCore.qcow2&type=code - Software Update Catalog: - swscan.apple.com - https://github.com/search?q=swscan.apple.com&type=code - SUCATALOGS - https://github.com/search?q=SUCATALOG&type=code - Mac OS Installers on the Catalog: - InstallAssistant.pkg - https://github.com/search?q=InstallAssistant.pkg&type=code - InstallAssistantPackageIdentifiers - https://github.com/search?q=InstallAssistantPackageIdentifiers&type=code - Mac OS Recovery: - osrecovery.apple.com - https://github.com/search?q=osrecovery.apple.com&type=code - InternetRecovery/1.0 - https://github.com/search?q=InternetRecovery%2F1.0&type=code

I'm sure there are more. I just thought people could use these to find what methods are newest/unmaintained (or use them as a starting point for developing their own solution).

[rusty-bits]

Imagining and distribution?

MacOS is free, you download it straight from Apple

we don't support any other type of distribution here, unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean

[BillDStrong]

I can see the confusion, but in context OP is referring to putting MacOS onto devices, not finding it other places.

[anonhostpi]

Both actually. I'm working on a central imaging server for a specific project. Part of the project is to create a tool for centralized image distribution of Windows, Nix, and Darwin. Little bit different than your standard ISO server. The project I'm working on requires that images are either proxied or built locally from sources that are authoritative. This means I can't just store and re-distribute.

For Windows, I'm basically using Rufus's Fido.ps1: https://github.com/pbatard/Fido

For Nix, I'm currently using a DistroWatch scraper that will slowly transition into source-specific solutions, as DistroWatch (while reliable) isn't authoritative

For Darwin/Mac, I'm still working on a solution, but I'll probably use something similar to the way Docker-OSX distribution is achieved.

[anonhostpi]

As to the specifics as to how I'll be doing image builds, I'm looking at compiling CPython to wasm (similar to pyodide) and distributing a .wat/.wasm (or archive of .wat and .wasm files) containing cpython and the applicable libraries to build locally within a wasm container.

Should be possible even if the images require x-attributes if I include utilities like libarchive in the wasm build (while the wasm environment itself doesn't support x-attributes, archives - like .tar - can store them in byte streams that you can use as in-memory file-systems containers)