make-mb41-osx

OS X 10.10/10.11 installer creator for MacBook4,1 (Mac-F22788A9)

What doesn't work?

• Brightness control — I found the PCI register that controls brightness, but I haven't been able to actually set the brightness yet. Still looking into it.
• X3100 QECI acceleration — OS X is still very usable without this, because the X3100 framebuffer still works. So you will still be able to use change resolutions, external displays, and use all 144MB of VRAM, etc.
• Display wake from sleep — Sleeping and waking works, but graphics completely fail to re-initialise. Probably something to do with missing QECI acceleration.
• [10.11 only] USB support is completely broken on OS X 10.11. Unfortunately, Apple removed support for the UHCI controller used in the ICH7 chipset (found in the MacBook4,1) entirely from OS X 10.11. Another developer seems to have gotten USB working on ICH7 by replacing the 10.11 USB stack with 10.10's, but I'm not too comfortable with this idea. tl;dr: Things don't look good for 10.11 on the MacBook4,1 (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾

Okay, what works?

• Well... everything else. :P This includes FaceTime/iMessage/parts of Continuity (SMS Forwarding, iPhone phone call forwarding), too!

To-do list

• Bundle some sort of Beam Sync disabler tool (or write my own to be included)
• Write a script that allows the user to disable Mission Control animations without using the defaults command in the Terminal.
• Integrate postinst.sh into the installation process itself.
• Write an rc.shutdown script that deletes /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist if found. (And if found, replace AppleHDA again.)
• Get HDA working without just outright replacing AppleHDA (difficult, because I believe the AppleHDA binary needs to be modified)
• Fix brightness control
• Add feature to make Recovery HD usable for MacBook4,1 (very important for 10.11 due to SIP)
• [10.11 only] Find some way to fix USB support on OS X 10.11.

How does it perform?

I actually am currently running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 as a daily driver on my MacBook4,1. Performance is actually very good. I do recommend that you perform the "Post-installation steps" at the end of my tutorial below for best results.

But anyway, I'm rather satisfied with the performance. Video playback is fine with MPlayerX (or VLC... -shudders-), and web videos (such as YouTube) also decode fine (on both Chrome 46.0.2490.80 and Safari 9.0.1).

Simpler OpenGL games like VVVVVV and Super Hexagon run at full speed (60 FPS), but really, don't expect too much. (I mean, even if it did have QECI acceleration, it is still a GMA X3100...)

On a slightly entertaining note, Parallels Desktop 11 (running Windows 10) performs decently, too. I actually did not expect this :P

Okay, so how do I use this?

Preparing the installer USB

1. Find a USB flash drive or other storage medium that has at least 7.5 GB of free space.
2. Make sure you have your desired OS X installer downloaded from the App Store and preferably placed in /Applications/.
3. Open Terminal
4. git clone https://github.com/angelXwind/make-mb41-osx.git
5. cd make-mb41-osx
6. sudo ./make-mb41-osx 10.10 (or 10.11, but because USB is broken, there is no point in creating a 10.11 installer with this tool, for now)
   1. If your OS X installer is not placed in /Applications/, you may specify the path to it after the OS X version. For example, sudo ./make-mb41-osx 10.10 "/Volumes/iODD-2531/macOS Installers/Install OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite.app"
7. Enter in the disk number of your USB in the prompt that appears. WARNING: ALL DATA WILL BE LOST ON THE DISK NUMBER YOU ENTER!
8. Sit back, and wait. Note: During the process, Finder may open the installer USB — this does NOT mean it is complete.
9. After it completes, eject the USB and plug into your MacBook4,1.

Installing OS X on your MacBook4,1

1. Turn on your MacBook4,1 holding down Option (Alt)
2. Boot from "OS X Base System" (orange icon)
3. Install OS X.
4. Wait for a bit.
5. When the process is nearly complete, start paying attention.
6. When the installer starts counting down until a reboot, quickly go to the menubar and go to Utilities -> Terminal
7. cd "/Volumes/Install OS X Yosemite/" (or El Capitan)
8. sh postinst.sh
9. Enter in the disk name of the disk in which you installed OS X to.
10. Quit Terminal, and allow your MacBook4,1 to reboot into your freshly-installed OS X.

Post-installation steps (recommended, but optional)

1. Set up OS X as you would normally.
2. To improve performance, I recommend that you disable Beam Sync. A tool written by JasF called BeamOff ([precompiled binary download], [source on GitHub]) can do this for you — just add it as a Login Item and you're golden.
3. To make Mission Control actually usable (and to prevent it from potentially crashing WindowServer), I recommend that you disable its animations. You can do that by pasting this into Terminal: defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -float 0; killall Dock
4. Enable "Reduce Transparency" in Settings -> Accessibility.

Troubleshooting/FAQs

• What's a MacBook4,1?
  • All of these polycarbonate White/Black MacBooks: http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=MacBook4,1
• I didn't make it in time to run postinst.sh and my MacBook4,1 rebooted into a gray screen with a cross on it! D;
  • That's okay, just boot from the USB installer again, and perform those steps again. Your OS X install has not been harmed :P
• I updated OS X and now all I see is a gray screen with a cross!
  • Boot from the USB installer again, and perform the steps pertaining to postinst.sh again.
• Booting from Recovery HD only results in a gray screen with a cross!
  • make-mb41-osx does not yet make Recovery HD work. I'm working on that.
• My 10.11 El Capitan installer isn't booting! All I see is a gray screen with a cross!
  • USB support is currently broken for the MacBook4,1 under 10.11 at this time. Therefore, the installer cannot boot from the USB, as it doesn't even detect the USB to begin with. I'm working on this, the issue lies in AppleUSBEHCIPCI.kext.
• I updated to 10.11 El Capitan and now my USB ports don't work!
  • USB doesn't work under 10.11 yet. Reinstall 10.10 for now.