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Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

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Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#31

Post by OJFord »

tyingq wrote: post #23
OJFord wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume the `tr` is to avoid detection, there's a tiny bit more info here: https://www.nicksherlock.com/2021/06/installing-macos-12-mon... (grep for 'OSK') Seems people really avoid saying the value, ('don't be surprised it doesn't look like a random string') maybe there's some history of Apple requesting people cease & desist wherever they find it, I don't know.

It's easy enough to search for "isa-applemsc": https://github.com/search?q=isa-applesmc&type=code I'm guessing it's more of a philosophical stance rather than avoiding detection. Like "Apple isn't going to make me put the string 'dontsteal' in my repo" .

Fair enough, I just had no idea to search for that. (I searched 'OSK' because that was the variable name and it seemed not specific to quickemu.)

Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#32

Post by skissane »

sodality2 wrote: post #12
sydthrowaway wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this?

It's a Rot13-encoded string: "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc". It seems to be the string that is supposed to make MacOS only run on certified systems, but it's obviously been reverse engineered and now it needs to be added to any Mac emulators to work.

VirtualBox supports two methods of operation:

(1) You supply this value in the "DeviceKey" config parameter

(2) Ensure the "GetKeyFromRealSMC" boolean config parameter is enabled (not sure if it is turned on by default or not). When enabled, VirtualBox retrieves the value from the SMC of your Mac.

Obviously method (2) only works if your host is a Mac. Apple doesn't supply a public API to retrieve this value, so VirtualBox has some code which runs inside a macOS kernel extension, and directly uses the SMC hardware registers to request it. [EDIT: Actually, turns out macOS does have an undocumented API for this – talk to AppleSMC using IOServiceGetMatchingService, IOConnectCallStructMethod, etc – and they use it, but they still fall back to direct hardware access if the API call fails, or if Windows/Linux/etc is the host OS and Apple hardware is detected.] VirtualBox already has a bunch of kexts needed to provide various features, and so this is just a bit more code in one of those kexts.

Option (2) is a lot of extra complexity compared to option (1), but has the advantage of being legally much cleaner. Option (2) only works on Apple hardware, and so by using option (2) Apple's license condition, of only virtualising macOS on Apple hardware, is automatically enforced.

Considering that VirtualBox is from Oracle, and as well as open source, they also sell it as a commercial product, you can understand why Oracle's lawyers want option (2).

Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#33

Post by andrewmackrodt »

ngcc_hk wrote: post #8

For legal argument and for macOS I wonder whether I can run this in bootcamp Ubuntu then … For windows alone I wonder as windows do allow no activation (other than …) and should it ok?

FWIW I use my Windows 10 Pro (VLK) license on my gaming PC, and as a virtual machine when using Linux. It's undergone 3 activations, initially for the desktop, once when I was using VirtualBox and the last when I converted my VDI to VMDK when I migrated to VMware. All activations were several months apart however.

Windows activation servers were happy enough with that, without any install becoming unactivated (other than the VirtualBox to VMware conversion which is the 3rd activation).

While you can use Windows unactivated but it restricts access to various settings, which may not be important to you depending on your use case.

Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#34

Post by acatton »

While I appreciate the effort, and the code is very readable. I just want to give a friendly warning that these shell scripts just download random stuff from the internet and run this random stuff without checking any integrity/signature.

Apart from that, I will definitely use that project as a documentation for "how to run MacOS/Windows in KVM". Cool project :) .

Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#35

Post by Mordisquitos »

amarshall wrote: post #25
hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered how is it stealing if you (1) own a copy and, (2) Apple effectively stopped charging money for macOS.

No one but Apple owns a copy of macOS. They own a license to use it according to the terms of that license.

Which is another argument against using the term "stealing". At no point does the user deprive Apple of the ownership of macOS.

Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#37

Post by JasonFruit »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #35
amarshall wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one but Apple owns a copy of macOS. They own a license to use it according to the terms of that license.

Which is another argument against using the term "stealing". At no point does the user deprive Apple of the ownership of macOS.

Control is a part of ownership. If you don't control how something is used and by whom, you don't really own it. So either using it in unauthorized ways is in a manner theft, or Apple's "ownership" is not real ownership. I'm not sure what the solution is, but IP is a tricky concept no matter your position.

Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#39

Post by londons_explore »

It's sad that Qemu is so hard to use that scripts like this are necessary.

All this autodetection of the OS to apply tweaks and workarounds to make the OS run properly should ideally be eliminated entirely, and if that really isn't possible, it should be part of Qemu itself rather than requiring a special wrapper script to apply the right flags to make things work.

Re: Quickemu: Quickly create and run optimised Win-10,11/macOS/Linux on Linux

#40

Post by Tomte »

amarshall wrote: post #25
hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered how is it stealing if you (1) own a copy and, (2) Apple effectively stopped charging money for macOS.

No one but Apple owns a copy of macOS. They own a license to use it according to the terms of that license.

Not according to German law.
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