Hi,
I haven't really been active on the scene for a few years now but I recently had to install OSx86 on my computer again because I needed it for recording/music production. Looking through the forums I still found tons of reference to using OSx86Tools, which has long been outdated, and basically the only functions on it that are still usable are the kext installation and the EFI string generation.
I've been thinking of writing a preference pane (written in native Objective-C/Cocoa) that would be easily accessible through System Preferences. Some ideas I've been throwing around for it:
Basics:
- Kext/kernel manager (support for both S/L/E and Extra, drag and drop UI)
- Basic "maintenance" tasks (regenerating kext caches, permissions, etc.)
- Creating and patching DSDT <-- I might need help with this one from all you folks that have written DSDT patchers/tutorials/etc.
- Generating and applying EFI strings
- Configuring various settings (32/64bit modes, boot timeout, kernel flags, etc.)
- SMBIOS confiugration
Extras (crazy ideas)
- Chameleon theme manager (easy theme selection/installation, maybe even a central theme repo?)
- "Suggestions" system
--> This one is one of my favorite ideas. Basically, its like a solutions center, where you select your problem (e.g. sleep doesn't work, PS/2 mouse/keyboard doesn't work) and it offers downloads for drivers, or guides/resources that may be of use. I think, that for users that have managed to successfully install OS X, it would reduce the "noob clutter" where people are asking for solutions to common problems.
Another possibility is to have it be able to scan hardware using lspci and offer driver downloads. I have learnt from past experience using OSx86Tools that this doesn't work as well as I'd like, but I think I've come across a reasonable compromise. Instead of it auto downloading kexts and installing them, instead I would link to the actual pages from which they come from, so that the user is more aware of what is being installed.
Those are all my ideas for now, does anyone else have any other suggestions? Also note
, I'm not promising I'm gonna be doing this anytime soon, its just one of those "free time" projects (even though my free time at the moment is severely limited).