ENTERTAINMENT

“Rather pointless”: User hacked macOS Sequoia on Steam deck

09/10/2024

macOS still runs on Intel technology, and this also applies to the latest Sequoia operating system. That’s why the now very popular Hackintosh projects – that is, the use of the Apple OS on devices from other PC manufacturers – is still possible. Hobbyist Caitlin aka @whatdahopper has now performed a special kind of trick on X: together with other colleagues, she managed to install macOS 15 on Steam Deck.

No GPU acceleration, controller as modem

As is well known, it runs on x86_64 architecture based on AMD APU (Zen2). First he showed Only configuration screen in recovery mode, later also Finder. Caitlyn openly admits that this modding is “pointless” because, among other things, there is currently no GPU acceleration, which makes it unpleasant to use. Furthermore, the full Steam deck resolution is not used and there are many oddities. Includes macOS with Steam Deck Controller Identified as a “modem”.,

At least GPU acceleration can be retrofitted, as there is a suitable GPU kernel extension for AMD RDNA2 with NootRX (without any support of course). It is unclear whether it will be integrated soon or not. Until then, Catlin and company’s work remains just a proof of concept – albeit quite an entertaining one.

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really suitable hardware

Such efforts had been made earlier also. Several years ago, a user was able to run macOS Catalina via VirtualBox – here too, only with massive restrictions. So macOS doesn’t really make sense as a replacement for SteamOS. Whether this will ever be possible remains to be seen. However, hobbyists say that the Steam Deck’s hardware is suitable for the operating system.

Caitlyn says the reason you build a Hackintosh like this in the first place is because “you can do it.” In fact, it took a while for the option to become available again – macOS Catalina was released in 2019. Now modders know how to get Sequoia to boot. However, there are also some problems with working Hackintosh – for example, Apple blocks access to some apps and locks out elements like iCloud and Apple accounts.

(B.Sc.)