Mac OS Notes
The officially primary file system used in Mac OS is hfs+ (Hierarchical File System Plus). The wiki page is almost correct, except that it says,
As with NTFS on Linux, there has been some success in porting HFS+ to Linux, at least in non-journaled read/write and journal read-only mode.[9][10]
Actually, the HFS+ support in Linux works well now.
This driver now supports full read and write access and has a better perfomance. It also supports hard links and the resource fork is accessible via /rsrc.
The document of HFS+ format could be found in Apple Tech Note TN1150.
Meanwhile, we all know Apple would never be willing to support those popular file systems in the Linux world. These *unsupported* file systems include ext3/4, reiserfs, jfs, etc. And I notice their ext2 support is not so well also.
They support, hfs, hfs+, fat, ntfs, and zfs in the next version
As I gonna take 15412 and would like to do some work on Mac OS, I need a Mac box. I spent some time doing research on how to install Mac OS in a PC. I dont think it reasonable to go and buy a Macbook for a 12-unit course which actually does not require Mac OS. Hackintosh.com is a pretty good resource for those who need to get Mac OS X running on a PC. And then I found this interesting link that says hacking Mac OS X to let it run my own pc is against the law.
The most well-known way of setting up a Hackintosh is to download a hacked Mac OS X Leopard image, burn it to a disk, and go from there. This method, while easy, has several disadvantages. First of all, if you’re in the United States, or another country with DMCA-like laws, this hacking can actually be against the law, and as such, it might not be a wise thing to do.
Here is a “wise” way to do things.
However, ever since September last year, we have a new method, using a small boot CD called boot-132. If I understand it all correctly, it uses a modified Darwin kernel to bootstrap a regular, unaltered Mac OS X Leopard retail disc. Since Darwin is open source, this is completely legal, and doesn’t break the DMCA since you’re not actually hacking any protection measures. As soon as the regular retail disc is “running”, the installer pops up, allowing you to install Mac OS X as if you’re using any regular Macintosh. Once the installation is completed, you use the boot-132 CD to boot into the newly installed Leopard, and from there you install a bootloader (Chameleon) which enables you to boot without the CD.
Interesting, uh?