OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

The current version of the Mac operating system is OS X Mountain Lion (10.8).

Hackintosh Instructions & Tutorials

  • Although hardware compatibility is essentially identical to OS X 10.11 "El Capitan," OS X 10.10 "Yosemite," and OS X 10.9 "Mavericks," Hackintosh installation procedures and tools can be different for OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion":
  • Helpful tutorials to install or upgrade this version of the macOS on Intel and AMD PCs include:

Tutorials List

Tutorials

Name Description
macOS Sonoma USB Installation Originally for the beta, and updated for the final release, this brief guide from tonymacx86 explains how to create a USB installer for macOS Sonoma via the Clover and OpenCore bootloaders.
Install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion A complete OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" Hackintosh installation guide from the legendary tonymacx86 using the site's UniBeast installation tool. The site covers the OS X 10.8.1, 10.8.2, 10.8.3, 10.8.4, and 10.8.5 updates, too.
Install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion with myHack An installation guide for OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" using the sophisticated myHack app (no longer online), which has more features than UniBeast and may be of interest accordingly.
Install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion with UniBeast If the "official" tutorial from tonymacx86 wasn't enough, this one from MacBreaker may help. The same site also covers how to install both of the dodgy iATKOS and Niresh distros of "Mountain Lion" as well as how to install "Mountain Lion" in Virtualbox with Hackboot.
Budget Hackintosh Project An archive of a ten page tutorial covering hardware selection and construction for an inexpensive "Ivy Bridge" OS X "Mountain Lion" Hackintosh from BenchmarkReviews (no longer online). The author also provides shorter tutorials about OS X Mountain Lion software installation and Hackintosh performance hardware options.
Build an OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Hackintosh Originally written for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and subsequently updated to cover OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and "Ivy Bridge" motherboards, this archive of a twelve page Hackintosh tutorial from NoFilmSchool (no longer online) is geared toward amateur filmmakers. It covers hardware selection and assembly in addition to OS X installation.
Install OS X 10.8.5 on a Hackintosh How to install OS X 10.8.5 on a Hackintosh from Lifehacker. Covers hardware selection and construction as well as installing the OS X "Mountain Lion" software.
Upgrade to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion from OS X 10.7 Lion A well-written tutorial to upgrade a Hackintosh running OS X 10.7 "Lion" to OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" from the excellent Bassheadtech. The same blogger also covers how to switch from BIOS to UEFI on a compatible Gigabyte board.
HP ProBook 4530 Hackintosh An interesting article from Sonic State (no longer online) about OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" installation on an HP ProBook 4530 from the perspective of a professional musician -- and "old school" Mac and Amiga user -- interested in backwards compatibility. Significant coverage of emulation environments, too.
Create a Bootable OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion USB Drive A detailed ArsTechnica piece to create a bootable OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" USB flash drive for a Hackintosh (or a Mac) using the (subsequently discontinued) DiskMaker X app.
Fusion Drive Setup for a Hackintosh A tutorial from MacBreaker that covers the process of configuring a Fusion Drive on a "Mountain Lion" Hackintosh system.
Adding an SSD to a Hackintosh with a Hard Drive A useful walkthrough from Bassheadtech that explains how to install an SSD in an OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" Hackintosh that already has a hard drive to significantly enhance performance.

Hackintosh Installation & Usability Videos

Usability Videos

Description Videos
This video -- from YouTube's Duncan33303 -- covers needed hardware as well as how to install OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" using commonly available software tools.

Note

  • Just like its predecessor, OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" does not support "Rosetta" and cannot run older Mac OS X software written for the PowerPC processor. Those who need older software should instead consider Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard."