Re: [Moderator] Re: Checking for Hackintosh
are you familiar with the term conflict of interest? On Jul 30, 2008, at 11:18 PM, CocoaDev Admins wrote: this type of comment isn't productive or appropriate for the list. scott [moderator] On 30-Jul-08, at 8:06 PM, Matt Burnett wrote: The OP needs to get off his high horse and come to the realization that some people are a bit more clever than him (or Apple). But anyways you guys all forgot something big, virtualization. Can't OS X Server 10.5 be (legally) virtualized? Any hardware checks will either break in a virtualized environment, or a hackintosh will pretend to be virtualized, either way you lose. I bet the OP is the type of guy who thinks fighting piracy makes business sense too. ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Jul 30, 2008, at 10:20 PM, Andrew Merenbach wrote: On Jul 30, 2008, at 8:24 PM, Chris Suter wrote: On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 1:00 PM, Matt Burnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Then shouldn't you be able to determine if they are using a hackintosh by the descriptions of support requests they are submitting? Sure, if customers are willing to disclose that they're running on a Hackintosh which isn't usually the case. If not are you sure your code checks return values and is designed to fail gracefully? Of course, but we don't support Hackintosh's so we don't test on them and they are different (especially where disk utilities are concerned). I was just making the point that it would be useful to be able to detect whether you're running on a Hackintosh *if* there was a reliable way of doing it. -- Chris This thread, albeit only marginally-related to Cocoa, is an interesting one. One solution (not saying that it'd work for everyone) would be to abandon Hackintosh-*checking* code, but install a menu item to send a system profile to you, via an online PHP form or some such, along with a support request message. Thus one need not program in potentially-fragile code, but one does get to decide, per-support-request, whether a computer is legitimately a supported machine. On the other hand, it might be possible for a clever user to hack your program and to send bogus information to your web form. This would be Bad. But such a system might at least be a deterrent to Hackintoshers. Cheers, Andrew While it may be poor form to reply to myself, I realize now my need to clarify: this is a *menu item* that I am suggesting -- a voluntary option. They'd still have access to one's support e-mail address. It's simply that, if one has doubts, one can ask the customer, Would you be able to actually send me a system profile? I made it easy for you with this menu item. And, lo and behold, your words come true -- they send you a system profile, you figure out whether they're using a Hackintosh or not. It's still completely voluntary on their part. But the functionality behind a Support menu item with an optional system profile attachment seems to me like an ingenious idea with which a third party might develop a framework. Just a thought. Just a thought. Cheers, Andrew smime.p7s Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
back in the old days of the Apple ][, apps used to be able to check the ROMS, specifically the bit that displayed Apple ][ on startup as the clones would normally have something different there to avoid copyright theft being added to their list of crimes. I believe Nintendo still do something similar in running a check vs their logo on carts. If you copy the logo to make your clone cart work, you're in direct breach of copyright. Maybe it's worth a feature request to Apple to add something similar? Aaron On Jul 31, 2008, at 3:27 AM, Chris Suter wrote: On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 12:00 PM, Michael Ash [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 10:22 PM, John Joyce [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. I really strongly advise against this. Your code will have bugs, simply because it is code. It is quite likely that one of these bugs will one day prevent a legitimate user who owns a real, legitimate Macintosh from using your software. At that point, I would argue, the harm to that one user far outweighs any minor, undetectable gain you could possibly get from such a scheme. One issue that we have is that we get a lot of support for our products from people who are running our software on Hackintosh's and they aren't usually up front about that fact. They end up wasting our time when it turns out the problem they've got is because they're running on a Hackintosh. So there would be some benefit if we could detect when we're running from a Hackintosh. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, there is no future proof way of doing that at the moment (that I know of). -- Chris ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/zwilnik%40mac.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Jul 29, 2008, at 9:22 PM, John Joyce wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. What's a hackintosh? ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Jul 30, 2008, at 8:55 AM, Tim McGaughy wrote: On Jul 29, 2008, at 9:22 PM, John Joyce wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. What's a hackintosh? A Windows PC that has been hacked to some extent so as to be able to install OS X. I didn't actually know myself, but Google is your friend. It looks like you first muck with the BIOS to make the PC friendlier to the OS installer and the OS itself, then away you go. ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
Someone hacks the OS X kernel to bypass Apple's checks for a legitimate Macintosh and usually posts it to some p2p site where people steal(copyright infringe) it and run it on their home build PCs. Devon Tim McGaughy wrote: On Jul 29, 2008, at 9:22 PM, John Joyce wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. What's a hackintosh? ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/dferns%40devonferns.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Checking for hackintosh
Seeing as how the OS itself thinks it's running on Apple hardware, I have no idea how you, running on the OS, would detect otherwise. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ] On Behalf Of Devon Ferns Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:42 PM To: Tim McGaughy Cc: cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com Subject: Re: Checking for hackintosh Someone hacks the OS X kernel to bypass Apple's checks for a legitimate Macintosh and usually posts it to some p2p site where people steal(copyright infringe) it and run it on their home build PCs. Devon Tim McGaughy wrote: On Jul 29, 2008, at 9:22 PM, John Joyce wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. What's a hackintosh? ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/dferns%40devonferns.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/jabernathy%40burrislogi stics.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for Hackintosh
Hi,
There are a couple of ways to definitively test for a hackintosh. You
could look at the IO Registry for unusual hardware configurations. But
as it happens, the latest Hackintosh kernels all use custom Machine
Type strings. So you can test to see if it's one of the known Mac
models, and if it isn't you can assume it's probably a Hackintosh.
Unfortunately, this breaks if future Macs introduce new Machine Type
strings, which is almost certain. You'll notice I'm not testing for
AppleTV, for example, because I don't happen to know its string.
The following is what I use in TabletMagic to detect a TabletPC :
- (BOOL)detectHackintosh
{
SInt32 gestaltReturnValue;
BOOL is_known_mac = NO;
if (!Gestalt(gestaltUserVisibleMachineName, gestaltReturnValue))
{
char *known_machines[] =
{AAPL,iMac,PowerBook,PowerMac,RackMac,
Macmini,MacPro,MacBookPro,MacBook};
StringPtr pmach = (StringPtr)gestaltReturnValue;
int i, len = pmach[0];
char *machine_string = (char*)malloc(len+2);
strncpy(machine_string, (char*)pmach[1], len+1);
for (i=sizeof(known_machines)/sizeof(known_machines[0]); i--;)
if (!strncmp(machine_string, known_machines[i],
strlen(known_machines[i]))) { is_known_mac = YES; break; }
free(machine_string);
}
if (is_known_mac)
{
// delete the tab having identifier 6
[ tabview removeTabViewItem: [ tabview tabViewItemAtIndex:
[ tabview indexOfTabViewItemWithIdentifier: @6 ] ] ];
}
return !is_known_mac;
}
--
Scott Lahteine Thinkyhead Software
[EMAIL PROTECTED]http://www.thinkyhead.com/
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Re: Checking for hackintosh
On 7/30/08 2:06 PM, Abernathy, Joshua said: Seeing as how the OS itself thinks it's running on Apple hardware, I have no idea how you, running on the OS, would detect otherwise. And any solution one comes up with is likely to be fragile and possibly fail with new genuine hardware. IMNSHO, you shouldn't try to detect such things. -- Sean McBride, B. Eng [EMAIL PROTECTED] Rogue Researchwww.rogue-research.com Mac Software Developer Montréal, Québec, Canada ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
--- On Tue, 7/29/08, John Joyce [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. I really don't think that's a good idea. Hackintosh builders will just hack around it if they care, and you're just asking for the test to get tripped up and start accusing legitimate Mac users. Cheers, Chuck ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 10:22 PM, John Joyce [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. So what if you don't care for such things. You are setting yourself up for a major liability when (not if) your code incorrectly detects a valid machine as a Hackintosh, or you sell your software in a jurisdiction which does not believe click-through EULAs to be enforceable. You are not Apple Legal, don't burden yourself with their responsibilities. --Kyle Sluder ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:54 PM, Sean McBride wrote: On 7/30/08 2:06 PM, Abernathy, Joshua said: Seeing as how the OS itself thinks it's running on Apple hardware, I have no idea how you, running on the OS, would detect otherwise. And any solution one comes up with is likely to be fragile and possibly fail with new genuine hardware. IMNSHO, you shouldn't try to detect such things. Agreed. Any effective solution will come in an update from Apple that prevents OS X itself from running. If Apple can't detect it when they control all the hardware, firmware, kernel and user-land software, and also have some financial incentive to solve it, it seems unlikely that a third-party user-land app is going to be more effective. Any approach posted publicly in this forum will be defeated before the bits have dried. -Rob ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
There are also a handful of companies out there that are selling prebuilt generic PCs with Leopard preinstalled onto them (ie Prystar). In terms of fighting it with your software it might be best to let Apple worry about it, but you can most likely pull the system profiler information and compare it against known Apple branded information to see if the machine fits into a valid model. Kyle On Jul 30, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Abernathy, Joshua wrote: Seeing as how the OS itself thinks it's running on Apple hardware, I have no idea how you, running on the OS, would detect otherwise. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ] On Behalf Of Devon Ferns Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:42 PM To: Tim McGaughy Cc: cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com Subject: Re: Checking for hackintosh Someone hacks the OS X kernel to bypass Apple's checks for a legitimate Macintosh and usually posts it to some p2p site where people steal(copyright infringe) it and run it on their home build PCs. Devon Tim McGaughy wrote: On Jul 29, 2008, at 9:22 PM, John Joyce wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. What's a hackintosh? ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/dferns%40devonferns.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/jabernathy%40burrislogi stics.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/kyle.maillist%40gmail.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for Hackintosh
The OP needs to get off his high horse and come to the realization
that some people are a bit more clever than him (or Apple). But
anyways you guys all forgot something big, virtualization. Can't OS X
Server 10.5 be (legally) virtualized? Any hardware checks will either
break in a virtualized environment, or a hackintosh will pretend to be
virtualized, either way you lose. I bet the OP is the type of guy who
thinks fighting piracy makes business sense too.
On Jul 30, 2008, at 1:34 PM, Scott Lahteine wrote:
Hi,
There are a couple of ways to definitively test for a hackintosh.
You could look at the IO Registry for unusual hardware
configurations. But as it happens, the latest Hackintosh kernels all
use custom Machine Type strings. So you can test to see if it's one
of the known Mac models, and if it isn't you can assume it's
probably a Hackintosh.
Unfortunately, this breaks if future Macs introduce new Machine Type
strings, which is almost certain. You'll notice I'm not testing for
AppleTV, for example, because I don't happen to know its string.
The following is what I use in TabletMagic to detect a TabletPC :
- (BOOL)detectHackintosh
{
SInt32 gestaltReturnValue;
BOOL is_known_mac = NO;
if (!Gestalt(gestaltUserVisibleMachineName, gestaltReturnValue))
{
char *known_machines[] =
{AAPL,iMac,PowerBook,PowerMac,RackMac,
Macmini,MacPro,MacBookPro,MacBook};
StringPtr pmach = (StringPtr)gestaltReturnValue;
int i, len = pmach[0];
char *machine_string = (char*)malloc(len+2);
strncpy(machine_string, (char*)pmach[1], len+1);
for (i=sizeof(known_machines)/sizeof(known_machines[0]); i--;)
if (!strncmp(machine_string, known_machines[i],
strlen(known_machines[i]))) { is_known_mac = YES; break; }
free(machine_string);
}
if (is_known_mac)
{
// delete the tab having identifier 6
[ tabview removeTabViewItem: [ tabview tabViewItemAtIndex:
[ tabview indexOfTabViewItemWithIdentifier: @6 ] ] ];
}
return !is_known_mac;
}
--
Scott Lahteine Thinkyhead Software
[EMAIL PROTECTED]http://www.thinkyhead.com/
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Re: Checking for Hackintosh
On Jul 30, 2008, at 8:06 PM, Matt Burnett wrote: The OP needs to get off his high horse and come to the realization that some people are a bit more clever than him (or Apple). ... unnecessary and unproductive. -- I.S. ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 10:22 PM, John Joyce [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. I really strongly advise against this. Your code will have bugs, simply because it is code. It is quite likely that one of these bugs will one day prevent a legitimate user who owns a real, legitimate Macintosh from using your software. At that point, I would argue, the harm to that one user far outweighs any minor, undetectable gain you could possibly get from such a scheme. Mike ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
Then shouldn't you be able to determine if they are using a hackintosh by the descriptions of support requests they are submitting? If not are you sure your code checks return values and is designed to fail gracefully? On Jul 30, 2008, at 9:27 PM, Chris Suter wrote: On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 12:00 PM, Michael Ash [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 10:22 PM, John Joyce [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. I really strongly advise against this. Your code will have bugs, simply because it is code. It is quite likely that one of these bugs will one day prevent a legitimate user who owns a real, legitimate Macintosh from using your software. At that point, I would argue, the harm to that one user far outweighs any minor, undetectable gain you could possibly get from such a scheme. One issue that we have is that we get a lot of support for our products from people who are running our software on Hackintosh's and they aren't usually up front about that fact. They end up wasting our time when it turns out the problem they've got is because they're running on a Hackintosh. So there would be some benefit if we could detect when we're running from a Hackintosh. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, there is no future proof way of doing that at the moment (that I know of). -- Chris ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/matt.w.burnett%40gmail.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 1:00 PM, Matt Burnett [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Then shouldn't you be able to determine if they are using a hackintosh by the descriptions of support requests they are submitting? Sure, if customers are willing to disclose that they're running on a Hackintosh which isn't usually the case. If not are you sure your code checks return values and is designed to fail gracefully? Of course, but we don't support Hackintosh's so we don't test on them and they are different (especially where disk utilities are concerned). I was just making the point that it would be useful to be able to detect whether you're running on a Hackintosh *if* there was a reliable way of doing it. -- Chris ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
Why not have the error messages simply be error messages, and leave out the clever which I think is always a bad idea, anyway, in almost any domain? Have it report an error that has a number indicating a possible hackintosh, and double check if it is a hackintosh issue, or a bug in your software. Dustin KC9MEL On Jul 30, 2008, at 10:00 PM, Matt Burnett wrote: Then shouldn't you be able to determine if they are using a hackintosh by the descriptions of support requests they are submitting? If not are you sure your code checks return values and is designed to fail gracefully? On Jul 30, 2008, at 9:27 PM, Chris Suter wrote: On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 12:00 PM, Michael Ash [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 10:22 PM, John Joyce [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anybody have a means or a tool for checking for hackintoshes? I really don't approve of such things and would like to leave clever messages on my own software if it is run on a hackintosh. I really strongly advise against this. Your code will have bugs, simply because it is code. It is quite likely that one of these bugs will one day prevent a legitimate user who owns a real, legitimate Macintosh from using your software. At that point, I would argue, the harm to that one user far outweighs any minor, undetectable gain you could possibly get from such a scheme. One issue that we have is that we get a lot of support for our products from people who are running our software on Hackintosh's and they aren't usually up front about that fact. They end up wasting our time when it turns out the problem they've got is because they're running on a Hackintosh. So there would be some benefit if we could detect when we're running from a Hackintosh. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, there is no future proof way of doing that at the moment (that I know of). -- Chris ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/matt.w.burnett%40gmail.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/mac_vieuxnez %40mac.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] smime.p7s Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[Moderator] Re: Checking for Hackintosh
this type of comment isn't productive or appropriate for the list. scott [moderator] On 30-Jul-08, at 8:06 PM, Matt Burnett wrote: The OP needs to get off his high horse and come to the realization that some people are a bit more clever than him (or Apple). But anyways you guys all forgot something big, virtualization. Can't OS X Server 10.5 be (legally) virtualized? Any hardware checks will either break in a virtualized environment, or a hackintosh will pretend to be virtualized, either way you lose. I bet the OP is the type of guy who thinks fighting piracy makes business sense too. ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Checking for hackintosh
On Jul 30, 2008, at 8:24 PM, Chris Suter wrote: On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 1:00 PM, Matt Burnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Then shouldn't you be able to determine if they are using a hackintosh by the descriptions of support requests they are submitting? Sure, if customers are willing to disclose that they're running on a Hackintosh which isn't usually the case. If not are you sure your code checks return values and is designed to fail gracefully? Of course, but we don't support Hackintosh's so we don't test on them and they are different (especially where disk utilities are concerned). I was just making the point that it would be useful to be able to detect whether you're running on a Hackintosh *if* there was a reliable way of doing it. -- Chris This thread, albeit only marginally-related to Cocoa, is an interesting one. One solution (not saying that it'd work for everyone) would be to abandon Hackintosh-*checking* code, but install a menu item to send a system profile to you, via an online PHP form or some such, along with a support request message. Thus one need not program in potentially-fragile code, but one does get to decide, per- support-request, whether a computer is legitimately a supported machine. On the other hand, it might be possible for a clever user to hack your program and to send bogus information to your web form. This would be Bad. But such a system might at least be a deterrent to Hackintoshers. Cheers, Andrew smime.p7s Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
