a DIY Apple intel DTK Developer transition kit

[LightBulbFun]

figured you lot here would be interested in seeing what I have been futzing with over the past day or 2

which is me putting together a DIY intel DTK of sorts (something I have been wanting to do for many years ago, I actually technically started this project many years ago when I spotted the same make/model of "Orion" ADD2 DVI card as used in the DTK on ebay so I jumped on it even tho I had nothing to use it in at the time)

it was mentioned many years ago in this thread on the 68kMLA https://68kmla.org/forums/topic/25304-apple-development-transition-kit/

which family of intel boards the semi-custom Apple intel DTK board was based off (which you can see in that all the boards inc the DTK share the same EV91510A string in the boot rom version)

so I figured recently id finally track down and buy one of those retail intel boards and have a play with the idea of putting together my own DTK, since id love a real one but they are very hard to find today sadly

so I found and bought nice cheap intel D915GEV motherboard, (complete with Pentium 4 540J, heatsink and RAM) and indeed I was successful in booting a stock Apple DTK 10.4.3 build of tiger on it this is a completely stock install, all I did was manually patch out the TPM related checks since I obviously dont have that, but otherwise completely untouched

DIY Apple DTK Pentium 4 540J - Geekbench

Benchmark results for a Hackintosh with an Intel Pentium 4 540/541 processor.

browser.geekbench.com

in the next day or 2 I hope to play with 10.4.1 and see if I can get that to boot with the stock DTK install DVD/ISO's and minimal amount of patching

it is interesting to note that the CPU reporting in 10.4.3 as "ADP2,1" happens on a real DTK too, I do wonder why exactly that is,

another interesting thing to note is how OS X miss reports the DDR2 RAM as DDR1 again a bug on the real DTK, but interestingly when I updated this motherboards BIOS from version 401 to its latest, version 482 OS X correctly reported the RAM as DDR2 as seen in the GB2 result above, so it will be interesting to see what 10.4.1 reports since, 10.4.1 technically predates any DDR2 mac (the DTK looks to be based around BIOS version 450)

I would also love to get my hands on a BIOS dump of a real DTK to play with, as its also reported in the 68kMLA post you can flash the DTK BIOS onto the family of intel motherboards the DTK Board is based off of


BTW as a side note I can confirm you can get intel GMA 900 working in 10.6.8 Snow Leopard LOL (this is booting with the stock kernel thanks to CPUID spoofing with the OpenCore Boot loader, pretty nifty)

 

[Amethyst1]

Awesome. Now load it up with a 3.8 GHz P4, 4 GB RAM and an SSD

 

[LightBulbFun]

Awesome. Now load it up with a 3.8 GHz P4 670, 4 GB RAM and an SSD

Thanks

sadly those higher clocked P4's are surprisingly expensive! even a 3.6Ghz Pentium 4 660 which is what the DTK used is like £15 on ebay, bit more then im willing to spend on an old P4!

but yeah I would like to get a Pentium 4 660 (or at least a Prescott 2M) CPU some day to make it more authentic

I did try 4GB in it briefly but the i915 chipset is like the i945 chipset in that only 3GB was usable so I just installed 2x1GB and 2x512MB as my other 1GB/2GB sticks are needed elsewhere

if I end up with more 1GB sticks that work with this mobo I will max out it just for the sake of it tho

I am however booting from a fast 16GB sandisk CF card if that counts as an SSD LOL, OS X boots very quickly from it

speaking of pleased to report 10.4.1 also works perfectly with only the TPM patches needed

it does detect the RAM as DDR2 no problem interestingly, but its worth noting the Pentium 4 CPU string in about this mac, is just the CPUID string from the CPU, not the formatted "Pentium 4" string you see on a real DTK

I wonder what I need to do to get that formatted string, is it an SMBIOS flag in the DTK's BIOS (like how the CPU type in about this mac is set on a real intel mac) or is it down to the CPU itself, (do I need a pentium 4 660 or other such presscot-2M CPU for it)

(for those who dont know the 10.4.1, to I think 10.4.5 About this Mac will just display the CPUID string of whatever CPU its running on, if its not told to display a specific string like "Core Duo")

 

[Amethyst1]

I did try 4GB in it briefly but the i915 chipset is like the i945 chipset in that only 3GB was usable so I just installed 2x1GB and 2x512MB as my other 1GB/2GB sticks are needed elsewhere

Ah, I see.

I am however booting from a fast 16GB sandisk CF card if that counts as an SSD LOL, OS X boots very quickly from it

It does in my book

(for those who dont know the 10.4.1, to I think 10.4.5

I think 10.4.7 8K1079 (Mac Pro/Server) might have been the first build to show a nice name for a C2D and unknown/ placeholder if it doesn't know the CPU. Gotta check this on my Celeron-ified Mac mini

 

[LightBulbFun]

Gotta check this on my Celeron-ified Mac mini

that will most likely return Core Solo, because thats the CPU type the Mac's EFI will most likely for report a single core Yonah CPU regardless of what brand (Celeron, Pentium or Core Solo etc) it is etc


the one im really curious about on that front, is the Celeron 445, I managed to get my mits on one recently, its a strange single core intel Core 2 based Celeron with an LGA 771 socket!

Intel Core 2 @ 1864.23 MHz - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

[ms3kgy] Validated Dump by LightBulbFun (2020-12-28 22:26:40) - MB: ASRock 775i65G.. - RAM: 2048 MB

valid.x86.fr

(its quite amusing how none of the usual utilities have any idea what the CPU is and it is a very obscure CPU im only the 2nd person to ever validate one on CPU-Zs online validation service)

Intel Core 2 @ 1864.73 MHz - CPU-Z VALIDATOR

[68ymku] Validated Dump by LightBulbFun (2020-12-29 17:43:48) - MB: Intel DQ965GF - RAM: 8192 MB

valid.x86.fr

and so I do very much plan to install it into my MacPro1,1 to see what happens

and im really curious what the Mac will report its CPU type as to OS X, will it be Core 2 Solo or Single Core intel Xeon

neither of which was used in any shipping Mac but that About this Mac does have SMBIOS codes for most curiously...

 

[Amethyst1]

that will most likely return Core Solo,

It does on 10.4.11 and 10.6.8 but I'm curious to see what 10.4.5/6/7 do.

the one im really curious about on that front, is the Celeron 445, I managed to get my mits on one recently,

Awesome. Can't wait to see this in a Mac Pro

and im really curious what the Mac will report its CPU type as to OS X, will it be Core 2 Solo or Single Core intel Xeon

That's what I'm wondering with regards to my Celeron M 520 too - hoping I'll get Core 2 Solo. Then I'll try to slap my eGPU and Yosemite on it for the lols.

 

[LightBulbFun]

It does on 10.4.11 and 10.6.8 but I'm curious to see what 10.4.5/6/7 do.


Awesome. Can't wait to see this in a Mac Pro


That's what I'm wondering with regards to my Celeron M 520 too - hoping I'll get Core 2 Solo. Then I'll try to slap my eGPU and Yosemite on it for the lols.

yeah that will be quite interesting to see what that CPU does

im also curious if with these 533Mhz FSB CPU's if you will have any TSC issues as reported here when a U7700 was tested in a Mac Mini https://www.journaldulapin.com/2017/01/11/mac-mini-core-2-duo/


speaking of about this mac and what it displays it is worth noting that 10.4.1 does have some interesting built in ones for when a CPU has no CPUID name string

for example it has one for Pentium III (and there are others going back to Pentium II Pentium and 486 LOL)

if I change my Vendor from GenuineIntel to AuthenticAMD I get OS X reporting an AMD Duron LOL

no other Vendor ID's work (I just get a very early Kernel panic) except for most interestingly "Geode by NSC" works which gives me

I have to wonder if this is a left over from the OLPC since I know Steve Jobs offered OS X for that project

 

[Amethyst1]

I have to wonder if this is a left over from the OLPC since I know Steve Jobs offered OS X for that project

I once had a thin client that used the same SoC as the OLPC XO-1 but it never occurred to me to try OS X on it - very probably wouldn't have worked due to missing instructions anyway.

 

[LightBulbFun]

I once had a thin client that used the same SoC as the OLPC XO-1 but it never occurred to me to try OS X on it - very probably wouldn't have worked due to missing instructions anyway.

Yeah for the above shots I used QEMU, I specified the Pentium 3 CPU option then manually specified SSE2 and SSE3 so OS X would boot (and then changed the CPUID vendor string to the various different ones there are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID )

but you could probably run Darwin on it or such I have an old Athlon XP machine here I might try throw Darwin 8.01 at for giggles at some point

 

[LightBulbFun]

I once had a thin client that used the same SoC as the OLPC XO-1 but it never occurred to me to try OS X on it - very probably wouldn't have worked due to missing instructions anyway.

here we go! LOL

switched the base CPU emulation to a Pentium 1 (plus the base amount of extra instructions for OS X to boot) with the CPUID vendor string of as above "Geode by NSC" and bam

really curious that they included formatted names like this given OS X wont even remotely boot on actual hardware like this (keep in mind its OS X generating this name not QEMU or such since the base CPU im emulating has no such string)

I must find where they are kept and see if I can find them and see what others are there (I know "Unknown AMD Athlon" and "Unknown AMD" are 2 others)

it is interesting how OS X crashes on all other CPUID vendor strings except for GenuineIntel, AuthenticAMD and Geode By NSC, as the are mentioned in the source code otherwise https://opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-792.25.20/osfmk/i386/cpuid.h.auto.html
(and I think Darwin will boot on those other Cryix etc CPUs) so I really do wonder if this is something left over from the OLPC thing or not...

but going back around to the DTK this is what I mean by there is a Formatted "Pentium 4" string just not sure what I need to do to trigger it on an actual Pentium 4 LOL

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Excuse me for being dumb—why didn’t you have to do any of the normal Hackintosh things? How is it booting an EFI os? No fakeSMC?

 

[Amethyst1]

How is it booting an EFI os? No fakeSMC?

10.4.1 and 10.4.3 predate all that nonsense

 

[jamesyoung]

@LightBulbFun Congratulations on the success. Can you help me find it. Thank You!

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Funny side story - a friend of mine was the product maintenance lead for that motherboard at Intel. He didn't know it was for Apple until years later when I asked him if he could look up the product number and find inside information for me after seeing someone post close-up pictures of it online. (probably 2010-2012ish.)

"Huh, yeah, that was my product, what do you want to know?"

"Woah, you worked on the Apple Developer Transition Kit?"

"The what now? ... That board was for Apple? I always assumed it was for a custom form factor Dell or Gateway or something..."

 

[LightBulbFun]

Funny side story - a friend of mine was the product maintenance lead for that motherboard at Intel. He didn't know it was for Apple until years later when I asked him if he could look up the product number and find inside information for me after seeing someone post close-up pictures of it online. (probably 2010-2012ish.)

"Huh, yeah, that was my product, what do you want to know?"

"Woah, you worked on the Apple Developer Transition Kit?"

"The what now? ... That board was for Apple? I always assumed it was for a custom form factor Dell or Gateway or something..."

Yeah I remember you mentioning that somewhere else on the forum or the internet, always quite amusing

so did you managed to find anything extra out in the end?

im not surprised your friend knew nothing about the Apple connection, Apple is well known for how secretive they are and intel would NOT want to screw it up!


(I would love to get my mits on a real DTK, or just a DTK mobo or even just a BIOS dump to play with!)

 

[Dandu]

Hey, i have a DTK and a D915GEV with TPM. Do you know is there a way to migrate the key ? (i d'ont know the type of key).

 

[LightBulbFun]

Hey, i have a DTK and a D915GEV with TPM. Do you know is there a way to migrate the key ? (i d'ont know the type of key).

Hey! nice to see your still around here

im not sure on the TPM front sadly

if it is possible to clone copy or migrate the key

but there might be something, these 2 PDF's might be worth a read

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/motherboards/desktop/d915gev/d915gev_d915gux_tpm_quickrefguide02.pdf

https://www.infineon.com/dgdl/Infineon-TPM_Key_Backup_and_Recovery-AP-v01_00-EN.pdf?fileId=db3a304412b407950112b41656d7203a

esp as they do make mention of the recovery and restore of a TPM key


I wonder what the DTK's TPM key comprises of exactly,

I know the SMC key that OS X checks to see if its booting on an actual mac is ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)applecomputerinc

have to wonder if the DTK is the same or not

 

[Dandu]

If i find time, i try that.

If you want to have fun : the BIOS from the DTK http://down.dandu.be/BIOS.zip

 

[LightBulbFun]

If i find time, i try that.

If you want to have fun : the BIOS from the DTK http://down.dandu.be/BIOS.zip

ah awesome thanks ill defo have a play with that in the next few days

 

[RogerWilco6502]

My apologies if this has already been linked and for bringing back this rather old thread, but I am interested in trying out the Intel distro for 10.4.3 on my ThinkPad T42p and was wondering if someone could direct me to where to find it. Thank you!

 

[blablabla4042]

Hello, sorry for the big bump, I wanted to tell you that I absolutely love this topic, and I also wanted to ask you a thing or two: as of today, we only have a pre-patched .iso of 10.4.1 available; the same thing cannot be said about 10.4.3, afaik no pre-patched .iso or patch has survived.
My question now is: could you please share your patches for 10.4.1 and 10.4.3? I'm not going to lie, I'd absolutely love to learn about what you've patched exactly as well. And I also know for sure that many other people would love this.
Also, I realize that it might not be appropriate to discuss this here according to the forum rules, so if you want to, please PM me if possible. Thanks in advance.

 

[Slix]

I just saw this, but how cool!

I'm guessing that "ADP2,1" stands for Apple Developer Preview 2,1.

 

[Amethyst1]

I'm guessing that "ADP2,1" stands for Apple Developer Preview 2,1.

Apple Development Platform

 

[LightBulbFun]

Hello, sorry for the big bump, I wanted to tell you that I absolutely love this topic, and I also wanted to ask you a thing or two: as of today, we only have a pre-patched .iso of 10.4.1 available; the same thing cannot be said about 10.4.3, afaik no pre-patched .iso or patch has survived.
My question now is: could you please share your patches for 10.4.1 and 10.4.3? I'm not going to lie, I'd absolutely love to learn about what you've patched exactly as well. And I also know for sure that many other people would love this.
Also, I realize that it might not be appropriate to discuss this here according to the forum rules, so if you want to, please PM me if possible. Thanks in advance.

the patches in question is to Rosetta, that was apples DRM, the Font server was left PPC, and relied on Rosetta to work, the Rosetta binaries (oah750 and oah750d come to mind) required the TPM key to decrypt, without that, they would not load, so no rosetta, so no font server, no font server, no window server etc

some clever clogs back in Ye olde days managed to decrypt/patch the rosetta binaries to load without the TPM, and so if you have hardware thats close enough to the DTK, ya can just copy over those patched rosetta files/binaries from a hackintosh install, to a clean install of 10.4.1 or 10.4.3 and it will boot right up


this blog gives a fairly good insight into things

How Apple Created Hackintosh, Part II | OS/2 Museum

www.os2museum.com

sadly I dont know exactly *what* the patches are to the binaries in question, that would be interesting to know in its own right


one of these days ill try and flash the actual DTK BIOS to my board and see how things change, I am espically still curious on the SMBIOS front, to see what strings become properly formatted or not, like the CPU string in About this Mac

as explained above, on a real DTK It does just say "Pentium 4" in a proper formatted sense, not just reading out the CPU ID string like it does for my DIY kit

(but 10.4.3 does still say "ADP2,1" in about this mac even on a real DTK from what I have seen)

 

[Amethyst1]

as explained above, on a real DTK It does just say "Pentium 4" in a proper formatted sense, not just reading out the CPU ID string like it does for my DIY kit

You probably know about this already: 10.4.4 to 10.4.6 also default to reading out the brand string if they don’t recognise the CPU.