What would happen if I force installed a Linux driver into Mac OS X?
So, recently I got a Mac system and I was planning to put in an Intel WiFi card (as an upgrade for its current card). Now, as we know, Apple and Intel do not get along WiFi-wise.
However, this same card works in Linux.
What would happen if I were to force the Intel drivers for the Linux kernel into Mac OS X? Would it work? Would there be severe instability or data loss? Is it even possible?
Solution 1:
What would happen if I were to force the Intel drivers for the Linux kernel into Mac OS X? Would it work? Would there be severe instability or data loss? Is it even possible?
At best? 100% nothing. At worst? Crash your whole system and make it unusable or even unbootable.
While Mac OS X and Linux are both different “flavors” of Unix, you can’t just grab parts from one OS and just install it into the other OS and expect them to work.
That said, if there is source code for the driver somewhere, you could potentially compile them for Mac OS X using the Xcode suite of development tools.
But that is one big if. The reality is compiling Linux application source code on a Mac OS X system from a Linux system is a crapshoot. Sometimes it works and you get to use nice Linux tools on a Mac OS X system. But sometimes it just won’t work. And that is at the application level. On the driver level it’s even less plausible or doable; and even if it was doable it would be difficult to do that at best.
That said, there seems to have been an open source effort to compile Linux Intel drivers for Mac OS X as seen here. But note that the versions of Mac OS X referred to are Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5; nothing more modern.
Solution 2:
Nothing would happen, because they would not work (kernel modules). MacOS and Linux have 2 completly different kernels. It's like trying to put engine from one car brand to another: it will not work because all the connections/specifications are totally different.
Besides, there is no lsmod/insmod/modbrobe/rmmod commands in Mac OS X...
Now, if you try binary drivers that would be like -- pardon my 'car' comparisons -- getting some materials for a car seat (according to specs for brand A) and trying to build (compile) the car seat for brand B. If the two car brands are compatible in area of car seats, than you would probably make it and it might actually work. But if you try to build race car seat from materials for 20 year old car, you're gonna have a rough ride, if not crash and injure yourself.