Getting Started with Black Apple

Getting Started with Black Apple

On the Origin of Black Apple

On New Year's Day in 2006, Apple announced that Apple Mac computers use Intel processors. Since Apple uses Intel processors, OS X can be installed on Intel CPU and some AMD CPU machines after being cracked by hackers. As a result, a large number of machines that use Apple's operating system for non-Apple devices appeared, called Hackintosh. Hackintosh is the act of installing Mac OS on a normal x86 architecture PC that is not produced by Apple or authorized by Apple.
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is a software interface between the operating system and platform firmware. It is an upgrade program introduced by Intel to replace BIOS in future PC-like computer systems. Because this method does not require modification of Mac OS X source files, it is considered the best legal way to install Mac OS X on non-Apple computers.

On the Mirror Format of Black Apple

1. The official version of Black Apple (original Apple system installer + boot tool) The
   file format of this version is dmg. It is different from the applications downloaded and installed on the Mac end with dmg. The former can be compressed with a compression tool, while the latter cannot. Because the former is made by the third-party software Mac OS X Lion DMG, the original Apple system installer (for example: macOS Sierra.app) and the boot tool. The latter may be the Mac version of the application or only the original Apple system installer made.
   The current mainstream boot tools are Clover and OpenCore.
2. 
   The principle of the Black Apple Recovery Edition (backed up MacOS system) is to make a system backup of the newly installed MacOS, and then restore this backup to other computers. The installation threshold is low. If you choose this method to install MacOS, you must find the EFI file for the version of MacOS installed on your model. Note: The EFI file suitable for installing a certain version of MacOS on a certain model is only available for installation on the actual machine. To achieve a perfect black apple, it is necessary to debug each driver after successful installation. If you find the perfect EFI file for installing a certain version of macOS, you can install it with any image.
   I also call this method hard disk installation, and use third-party software to convert the disk format to Apple HFS in Windows. Then write the image of Apple into the hard disk, the software involved is Paragon Hard Disk Manager. 90% of the process is completed under Windows. This version does not have a U disk installation statement. This version is composed of files ending with .prf, .pfi, and .pfm in a folder under a compressed package.
3. Virtual machine image (Lazy version CDR format)
   can be installed in other systems in the same format that related virtual machine software is installed. We generally use VMware workstations on Windows, and VMware Fusion for Mac on Mac. But under Windows, we will find that there is no MacOS model choice when creating a virtual machine. This is why we need to use the Unlock plug-in. Unlock can be found on GitHub, or in the MacOS column of Software Installation Manager.
4. The official original version (original Apple system installer) The
   file format of this version is dmg. The original Apple system installer (for example: macOS Sierra.app) is made by the third-party software Mac OS X Lion DMG. Note: There is no boot.
   This version of the dmg file cannot be burned with the burning tool, and you will be prompted that this is not a bootable image because it does not contain a partition table.

On Black Apple's Choice of Disk Installation Method

1. Partition installation
   If there is an ESP/EFI partition on the disk where you choose to install MacOS, you don't need to create it. Just copy the EFI file that suits your model to install MacOS to the ESP/EFI partition of the disk. Use the boot item boot tool to add boot items to the MacOS to be installed, tools such as EasyEFI.
   If there is no ESP/EFI partition on the disk you choose to install MacOS on, you must first create an ESP/EFI partition. Since the disk cannot have a partition smaller than 200M, the EFI partition must be larger than 200M. The tools used to create ESP/EFI partitions are DiskGenius.
2. Full
   disk installation Delete all partitions of the disk and turn it into a new unallocated disk.

Note: If you choose a full-disk installation for the recovery version, you must also create an ESP/EFI partition first.
Note: The format of the disk is best to convert mbr to gpt (GUID). Although there are black apples booted by mbr disks.

On Black Apple's Choice to Install and Start

1. U Disk Booting
   Make a U disk boot disk, and use a burning tool to burn the black apple image into the U disk. Burning tools include TransMac, etcher. It is best to convert the partition format of the USB flash drive to gpt to make the USB boot disk of Black Apple.
2. Hard disk boot
   This boot method is only suitable for Black Apple Recovery Edition

On the partition format of the disk

1. MBR (Master Boot Record)
   was proposed by IBM in the early years. It is a special boot sector that exists at the beginning of the disk drive. This sector contains the system information of the installed operating system and uses a small piece of code to start the system. If you install Windows, its startup information is placed in this piece of code-if the MBR information is damaged or deleted by mistake, Windows cannot be started normally. At this time, you need to find a boot repair software tool to repair it. MBR in Linux systems is usually GRUB loader. MBR. When a computer starts, it will first start the BIOS system that comes with the motherboard, bios loads MBR, MBR then starts Windows, this is the startup process of mbr.
2. GPT (Globally Unique Identifier Disk Partition Table)
   is another more advanced and novel disk organization method, a disk organization method that uses UEFI to boot. At first, it was for better compatibility, and later it was widely used because of its larger memory support (mbr partition supports up to 2T disks) and more compatibility, especially Apple's MAC system all use gpt partitions. GTP no longer has the concept of partition, all CDEF disks are stored in a piece of information. It can be simply understood as a more advanced but not widely used technology. Because of compatibility issues, gpt actually has a mbr boot at the very beginning of the boot, also called "protected boot", in order to prevent the device from not supporting uefi.

Note: The partition format of the disk should first be considered when installing dual operating systems.

On installing the EFI file of Black Apple

1. Default EFI file The default EFI file of the
   official version of Black Apple supports most models to install Black Apple smoothly. It's just that some driver problems have not been resolved. This has to be solved slowly by yourself. At this time, the successfully installed black Apple model can only be said to be a shelf, and the operating system cannot be connected to your hardware. If the default EFI file of a certain version of the official version of Black Apple always fails when you choose to install it, you can try the latest version of the default EFI file of the official version of Black Apple.
2. The perfect EFI file
   can not only install a certain version of Black Apple smoothly, but also solve most of the driver problems. This EFI file is a welfare for Xiaobai. A master who successfully installs a certain version of Black Apple on his computer and debugs and solves most of the driver problems himself, then his EFI file at this time can be said to be perfect. If he is willing to share, share the EFI file of his model to the forum. Then Xiaobai with the same model computer as him can install a more perfect black apple (note the black apple version used).

On how to restore the original USB flash drive after making Black Apple's USB boot disk

Use a built-in Diskpart program in the Windows system to solve

1. Open cmd, enter diskpart
2. Enter list disk to view the disk
3. Enter the serial number of select disk, enter the serial number of the USB flash drive
4. Enter clean to clear the contents of the U disk

Then go back to the disk management information to view the USB flash drive, it shows that it is unallocated, click on the new volume USB flash drive to use it normally.
It is recommended that those who are not proficient in using DiskGenius tools be wary of using DiskGenius.

On installing the old version of Black Apple, the installation process appears "The copy of the application is damaged and cannot be used to install macOS"

This is not a problem with the image itself, but because the image's certificate expired and Apple did not update the date of the certificate.
Solution:
Step 1: Disconnect the network
Step 2: Open the terminal in the tool, modify the time and
enter the release time of the version. Example: date 0101010116. The revision time is 2016.

Domestic discussion communities: Vision Forum, Weifeng Forum. The Vision Forum is more mainstream, and there are many experts. But it is difficult to join, the invitation code asks for doubting life.

Baidu searches for black apples and there are many related websites. Forget the machine friends to choose carefully. The leading one is also the Vision Forum. There is a Heiguo Xiaobing in the forum. His own blog site "Heiguo Xiaobing's Tribe Pavilion" provides many black apple tutorials and mirror downloads, and there are many dry goods. Release the latest version of the Black Apple tutorial and mirror download earlier than other websites.