Mac OS X 10.4.8 – WTF Mouse problems
Posted by Ron H on December 2, 2007
My room mate has recently lost his mind, and decided he’d like to try out Mac OS X. Since the newer Mac installations work on x86 based systems, the idea is that it shouldn’t be hard to get a few things running just to check it out. Who wants to actually pay for a Mac anyhow?
There have been hits and misses, but it has successfully installed on a system. That is to say, it has installed, but is not functioning properly.
For some strange, Mac-reason, the mouse remains stuck in the upper left hand corner. You can move it away, but after a moment, it will snap right back into its original position. The mouse is known to work properly on multiple other systems, and is supported by Mac OS X 10.4.8. It even worked properly. Once.
We are terribly confused. We’ve tried connecting the mouse via PS2 ports, alternate USB ports. No good. We have removed all non-essential peripherals from the machine. No good. 3 other mice exhibit the same problem, but only when booting to OS X.
On the one hand, it serves us right. I mean, we aren’t really supposed to get this to work on non-Mac hardware. But, I can’t help but wonder why this, such a simple and fundamental aspect of computing is failing while other more complicated functions are working fine.
Please, feel free to give some input, anyone.
Mac Genius said
Boot the OS with the -x tag.. It fixed mine.. The -x tag loads bare minimum kexts and usually fixes most problems. If it doesn’t, try reinstalling the os. If it works, Go and play with it. If not, Go buy VMware workstation 6.5 and find how to install OS X On it. Then boot with the -vmware tag. That forces it to boot with all hardware recognized. Oh and by the way. Installing OS X on Non-Apple hardware violates the EULA. And No, putting an apple sticker on it doesn’t make it apple hardware.
If you like it, You either can do it LEGALLY and become an apple developer ($500) or go and buy a mac. Buying the mac is cheaper, the developer is Per Year.
Ron H said
Mac Genius,
Thanks for the tip. In hindsight, it seems my original post is a bit misleading by saying “Who wants to actually pay for a Mac anyhow”. I suppose it to be more accurate to say, “Who wants to buy a Mac to try it out”.
Since writing the article, I had manage to get it working in a virtual environment (http://www.virtualbox.org/) which was enough for my friend to see if he liked it or not. As a result, I believe Mac won a new customer, though I haven’t spoken to him since hearing his decision.