Developer and Miguel C has released the source code for Snapintosh OS. Basically, the program is an experimental project that brings the macOS 27 Golden Gate to Qualcomm Snapdragon hardware and more specifically, the Snapdragon X2 Series laptops.
As per the Readme on its GitHub page: “Snapintosh boots Apple’s macOS 27 (build 26A428) on an ASUS Zenbook A16 laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-96-100). It is an EL2 monitor (hypervisor) and the toolchain around it. The monitor runs Apple’s stock kernelcache (the J700/T8140 kernel) unmodified by default. It supplies the platform contracts that the kernel expects from Apple silicon: the SPTM and TXM monitor calls, translation of the kernel’s 16 KiB page tables, and the Apple devices the kernel looks for.”
Dual-booting or running macOS on a non-Apple system isn’t new, not by any stretch of the imagination. One reason Miguel C may have been able to get Snapintosh to run on a Snapdragon X2 laptop may be due to the chipset: unlike and Intel-based Hackintosh, the Snapdragon is an ARM CPU, which is also the bedrock of Apple’s M-Series silicon.
Snapintosh itself uses and ARM64 compatibility layer, built around an EL2 hypervisor as explained. Additional details include a custom Metal drivers for the Adreno X2-90 GPU, essentially allowing it to render the desktop using hardware acceleration, rather than CPU-based graphics.
Far From Perfect
While this may surely sound exciting to some modders, it is important to point out that there are limitations to the Snapintosh build. Firstly, it only supports one laptop model, and that is the Asus Zenbook A16, and more specifically, the model running on the Snapdragon X2E-96-100 chipset. Second, the current version of it only uses six virtual CPU cores, while the laptop’s native 3K (2,880 x 1,800) display only runs at 60Hz. Third, while Wi-Fi connectivity works through a Mac-controlled test setup, everything else – Audio, Bluetooth, camera, sleep and wake, external displays, and the native display’s 120Hz mode – are all unsupported, as of this report’s publication.
Fourth, in order to install Snapintosh, you will need to do so with a separate Mac machine running macOS 27, connected to the Snapdragon laptop via USB-C. To be absolutely clear: the OS in its currently stands, cannot boot independently.
Miguel C’s endeavours couldn’t come at a more opportune moment. Earlier this September at its annual Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm announced that it would be bringing Linux support to the X2 Series processors, with developers set to receive support for Ubuntu and Debian later this year, although no specific date was given.
(Source: GitHub, Videocardz)
