First things first: We’re fans of Apple. And littlecollie just wouldn’t run without our multiple Macs: A couple of MacBook Pros, A MacBook Air, a Mac Pro, Mac Minis, iPad, iPhones… well, we think you understand that we’re Mac fans.
And while there’s no substitute for a real Mac, sometimes we encounter folks who have real Macs but want to turn their older PCs into Macs too.
That’s the story behind this post. Turning an Asus VX2S Lamborghini Laptop from a Windows or Linux machine into a full-blown Apple Hackintosh.
A special-edition, and much sought-after laptop, the Asus Lamborghini VX2S laptop was designed in collbaoration with Lamborghini, and comes with Lamborghini-styled special touches like a leather palmrest and Lamborghini Yellow color scheme.
It isn’t just looks either. The Asus VX2S was a highly-specced machine in 2007 when it first debuted. With an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7400 running at 2.116 Ghz and a NVidia GeForce Go7700 VX with 512MB, it isn’t a slouch today.
So when a friend asked us to see if we could turn his Lamborghini special edition Asus into a Mac, we couldn’t say no.
Previous Form
Ever since Apple announced it had been working on a X86 versions of its software, Apple fans and hackers have sought to turn any kind of compatible PC into a Mac.
Back in 2008, Bryce Thomas wrote this comprehensive how-to guide after getting OS X 10.5.1 running on his own Asus VX2S. But why install 10.5.1 on a computer when the latest version of OS X is 10.7.2?
What You’ll Need
You’re going to need several things to make this installation work.
- A real Mac, running 10.6.x or greater (ideally 10.7.2 with App Store)
- A USB hard drive caddy
- A real, legal copy of 10.7 - (Please, buy a real copy of Lion, either downloaded from the Mac App Store, or on a USB installer from your local Apple Store)
- An 8GB USB pen drive
- Unibeast (From tonymacX86)
- Multibeast (From tonymacX86)
- A lot of time and patience
Step One And Two
Since this part of the process is the same as for any other laptop-based Unibeast installation, there’s no point rewriting it here.
So, head on over to TonyMacX86.blogspot.com and follow steps one and two there…
Step Three
At this point you’ve got a USB drive with a copy of Unibeast-prepared OS X 10.7 on it, but if you try and boot from this in the VX2S you’ll get the dreaded “Still Waiting For Root Device” error.
So, we’ve got to make the USB drive safe to use in our VX2S, by setting the UseKernelCache flag to YES. But we also have to add some additional support and drivers to enable our Unibeast drive to boot properly.
Rather than break out the terminal, we can do both with the fantastic Multibeast post-installation tool. And yes, while it is designed to be used post installation, in this case, we’ve got to use it before installation.
Open up Multibeast, and follow through the instructions, making sure you choose the USB drive as your install location and NOT your Mac hard drive!
Then make sure you add the appropriate installation options:
Step Four
Once it’s installed, go ahead, and safely eject your USB disk. Then put it into your ASUS VX2S and turn it on, holding down ESC to select the USB disk as the boot drive.
When you see the splash screen for Unibeast, type the following options before it times out:
-v -F
Step Five
If all goes to plan, you should see the VX2S boot into OS X 10.7.x, complete with graphics acceleration and full Ethernet support.
Go ahead, and install OS X 10.7.x on your computer hard drive (formatting the drive as a Mac Extended Volume with a GUID partition scheme if you need to first).
Wait for the installation to finish, then shut down your computer.
Step Six
We’re nearly there, but if we try to boot the newly installed OS on our VX2S, it won’t have any of the extra drivers installed yet.
To remedy that situation, pull the hard disk out of your VX2S, and pop it into your USB drive caddy. Then plug the drive into your real Mac.
You then need to re-run Multibeast from your Mac, ensuring that you choose the VX2S’ hard drive as the installation destination. You should use exactly the same choices as you did last time, but this time add the Chameleon bootloader to ensure the hard-drive is properly prepared for booting. If you don’t add this, the drive just won’t boot without an external bootloader.
Step Seven
Once Multibeast has installed everything it needs to, eject the drive, and put it back inside the VX2S.
Close up the drive bay, plug in an Ethernet cable, and turn on!
With any luck, you’ll then see the opening startup screen asking you to register Mac OSX. Proceed as normal, and enjoy your Lamorghini Hackintosh!
Note: In some situations, we’ve noticed that the computer complains about a lack of keyboard or mouse. If yours does, make sure you install the PS2 emulators from the installation package.
What doesn’t work (yet)
As with any Hackintosh, there are some things we haven’t got working officially yet:
- Sleep mode: in order to stop your computer going to sleep, ensure the energy savings preferences have the “never sleep” option set.
- Wifi: For some reason, no-one has created a WiFi driver for the VX2S’s native wifi card. The usual solution is to buy a compatible MiniPCIExpress card to replace the one that comes with the laptop – or use an external USB dongle.
- Multitouch: Isn’t working, but that’s hardly surprising.
- Built-in Camera: We’re sure this is fixable, but its owner is happy without a working webcam since he uses the laptop for development work.
If you’ve been working on a solution, or have suggestions for any of the parts we haven’t got round to fixing yet, please let us know and we’ll give it a go.
Oh, and finally, a disclaimer:
The above post is for educational purposes only. No support is implied or given. And please, don’t steal Mac OS X.
Finally, thanks to TonyMacX86.blogspot.com. Without this excellent site, we’d not have put together the pieces to make this installation possible.
