Is it Possible to Create Mac OS X installer from scratch ?

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+2 Q:

Is it Possible to Create Mac OS X installer from scratch ?

I saw page when I was Searching with the key word "Open source"

http://www.opensource.apple.com/release/mac-os-x-1064/
I just want to ask whether it is possible to build a entire OS using the source code ? and if yes then what exactly needs to be done.

No, you can't. The OS kernel is closed-source and you can't make a working OS without a kernel.

teukkam 2010-09-21 15:52:41

Not quite. The kernel, called XNU, is exactly the part open-sourced! http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-1504.7.4/ The problem is the GUI part.

Yuji 2010-09-21 15:55:23

Well, technically the answer is YES, but you have to have the source code. Right? Go get it :-)

Vlad Lazarenko 2010-09-21 15:55:58

Ok thanks, I just learned something myself. Main thing is not everything required is open sourced.

teukkam 2010-09-21 15:59:45

+6 A:

Not quite. OS X consists of many parts:

Kernel
UNIX commands
GUI server and frameworks
Standard apps

Only the kernel and a part of UNIX layer is open-sourced. If you need to have a working GUI, you need to put X server and Gnome or KDE or whatever. There used to be such a distribution, but it's no longer actively maintained.

Yuji 2010-09-21 15:53:14

:( humm . All this stuff seems so Intresting.If I'm using windows 7 or Ubuntu 10.04 what needs to be done in order to build this Open sourced part

charanraj 2010-09-21 15:55:29

Google "Darwin build" or "compile xnu" or whatever. You would find many instructions. It's more difficult if you don't have a Mac, though.

Yuji 2010-09-21 21:10:12

+1 A:

Yes it is possible. That is exactly what Apple does to build its Mac OS X. However, Mac OS X is not open source so you can not get its source code in order to build it. Apple releases only some parts of their OS and what you can build from it is called Darwin.

Vlad Lazarenko 2010-09-21 15:55:04

thanks Mr Vlad Lazarenko for the answer :) .Any more Information that you can give me about the same

charanraj 2010-09-21 16:02:01

@charanraj: All the information regarding how to make an operating system from scratch, compile bootable code etc you can find on OS Dev wiki - http://wiki.osdev.org/Main_Page

Vlad Lazarenko 2010-09-22 13:02:09

thnx 4 the resource.at least I'll learn something new :)

charanraj 2010-09-23 15:34:40

ansaurus

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Is it Possible to Create Mac OS X installer from scratch ?

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