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A brief guide to using the OpenCore boot-loader for hackintoshes
OpenCore should be considered in Public Beta stage at this time and is intended to be used by experienced hackintosh users, developers, or users who are happy to recover a system which fails to boot or becomes broken in some way.
This guide may not always be able to keep up with every change to OpenCore, (currently OpenCore is in active development,and therefore a moving target) please keep that in mind when compiling the latest version of OpenCore. To be safe, use release versions of OpenCore rather than the latest commits. (0.0.4 Current Release)
OpenCore supports both UEFI and Legacy boot options.
Automatic drive/partition boot is handled by StartUp Disk just like a real Mac, this is also referred to as "bless".
Make sure to have kexts like Lilu and VoodooPS2Controller are to be injected first before kexts that require them like WhateverGreen, VirtualSMC, keyboard/Mouse/Trackpad and etc.
ACPI patches and SSDTs apply to all operating systems.
Some systems like Z97 require pure UEFI mode for booting (also known as Windows 8/10 mode).
AptioMemoryFix has been split between OpenCore and FwRuntimeServices.efi, please use that instead from 0.0.4 Onwards.
USB drive formatted as MacOS Journaled with GUID partition map. This is to test opencore without overwriting your working Clover. Knowledge of how a hackintosh works and what files yours requires. A previously setup and functioning hackintosh is assumed: which you are happy to potentially break. Time and patience. Without these, you are wasting your effort. *Sign out of all apple services until you are sure you have MLB and ROM sections of smbios set to match your previous Clover set up. Not doing so could cause said services to cease to function, or worst case block your machine.
InsanelyMac-Discord If you need any extra help join our discord.
Pavo's OCBuilder Creates a Basic EFI Structure with Basic Kexts which are needed to Boot XCODE App is required
Creating the USB is simple, format a USB stick (any size will suffice) as MacOS Journaled with GUID partition map.
Next, mount the EFI partition on the USB with either diskutil terminal command or Clover Configurator.
By default, the EFI partition will be empty.
To setup OpenCore’s folder structure, copy the files from OpenCorePkg so your EFI looks like the one below:
Place necessary .efi drivers from AppleSupportPkg and AptioFixPkg into the drivers folder, then kexts/ACPI into their respective folders.
While sharing the name, the config.plist in OpenCore, is very different from Clover config.plist, they cannot be mixed and matched. It is also not recommended to duplicate every patch and option from your clover config.
First, duplicate the sample.plist, rename it to config.plist and open in your .plist editor of choice.
The config contains a number of sections:
ACPI: This is for loading, blocking and patching the ACPI.
Booter UEFI modifications on Apple bootloader (boot.efi).
DeviceProperties: This is where you'd inject PCI device properties or set Intel Framebuffer.
Kernel: Where we tell OpenCore what kexts to load, what order to load and which to block.
Misc: Settings for OpenCore's boot loader itself.
NVRAM: This is where we set certain NVRAM properties like boot flags and SIP.
Platforminfo: This is where we setup your SMBIOS.
UEFI: UEFI drivers and related options.
We can delete #WARNING -1 and #WARNING -2 You did heed the warning didn't you?
Add: Here you add your SSDTs or custom DSDT. (SSDT-EC.aml for example)
Block: Certain systems benefit from dropping some acpi tables, most modern desktops however require nothing in this section.
Patch: In OpenCore we should be keeping ACPI device renames to a minimum as they are often harmful and unnecessary. If your system absolutely needs something, you should add it in this section. Refer to configuration.pdf.
For example, common device renames are handled now by WhateverGreen on-the-fly and in a safer way:
GFX0 to IGPU
HECI to IMEI
Do NOT do these in the config.plist nor in DSDT/SSDT.
Do NOT rename EC0 to EC as this can cause an incompatible kext (AppleACPIEC) to load and cause strange issues at any time or a non bootable system.
Certain ACPI fixes. Avoid unless necessary.
FadtEnableReset: NO (Enable reboot and shutdown on legacy hardware, not recommended unless needed).
NormalizeHeaders: Cleanup ACPI header fields, irrelevant in 10.14.
RebaseRegions: Attempt to heuristically relocate ACPI memory regions.
ResetHwSig: Needed for hardware that fail to maintain hardware signature across the reboots and cause issues with
waking from hibernation.
ResetLogoStatus: Workaround for systems running BGRT tables.
This section allows to apply different kinds of UEFI modifications on Apple bootloader (boot.efi). The modifications
currently provide various patches and environment alterations for different firmwares. Some of these features were
originally implemented as a part of AptioMemoryFix.efi, which is no longer maintained.
NOTES:
Most up-to-date UEFI firmware (check your motherboard vendor website).
Fast Boot and Hardware Fast Boot disabled in firmware settings if present.
Above 4G Decoding or similar enabled in firmware settings if present. Note, that on some motherboards (notably ASUS WS-X299-PRO) this option causes adverse effects, and must be disabled. While no other motherboards with the same issue are known, consider this option to be first to check if you have erratic boot failures.
DisableIoMapper quirk enabled, or VT-d disabled in firmware settings if present, or ACPI DMAR table dropped.
No ‘slide‘ boot argument present in NVRAM or anywhere else. It is not necessary unless you cannot boot at all or see No slide values are usable! Use custom slide! message in the log.
CFG Lock (MSR 0xE2 write protection) disabled in firmware settings if present. Cconsider patching it if you have enough skills and no option is available. See VerifyMsrE2 nots for more details.
CSM (Compatibility Support Module) disabled in firmware settings if present. You may need to flash GOP ROM on NVIDIA 6xx/AMD 2xx or older. Use GopUpdate or AMD UEFI GOP MAKER in case you are not sure how.
EHCI/XHCI Hand-off enabled in firmware settings only if boot stalls unless USB devices are disconnected.
VT-x, Hyper Threading, Execute Disable Bit enabled in firmware settings if present.
While it may not be required, sometimes you have to disable Thunderbolt support, Intel SGX, and Intel Platform Trust in firmware settings present.
AvoidRuntimeDefrag: This option fixes UEFI runtime services (date, time, NVRAM, power control, etc.), Most but Apple and VMware firmwares need this quirk. maybe required for Z390 or other Boards with NVRAM Issues. Default=YES
DisableVariableWrite : This is a security option allowing one to restrict NVRAM access in macOS. This quirk requires OC_FIRMWARE_RUNTIME protocol implemented in FwRuntimeServices.efi. can also be used as an ugly workaround to buggy UEFI runtime services implementations that fail to write variables to NVRAM (Z390) and break the rest of the operating system. Default=NO
DiscardHibernateMap : This may be used to workaround buggy memory maps on older hardware, and is now considered rare legacy. Default=NO
EnableSafeModeSlide : The necessity of this quirk is determined by safe mode availability. If booting to safe mode fails, this option can be tried to be enabled. This option is relevant to the users that have issues booting to safe mode (e.g. by holding shift or using -x boot argument). By default safe mode forces 0 slide as if the system was launched with slide=0 boot argument. This quirk tries to patch boot.efi to lift that limitation and let some other value (from 1 to 255) be used. This quirk requires ProvideCustomSlide to be enabled. Default=YES
EnableWriteUnprotector : This option bypasses RˆX permissions in code pages of UEFI runtime services by removing write protection (WP) bit from CR0 register during their execution. This quirk requires OC_FIRMWARE_RUNTIME protocol implemented in FwRuntimeServices.efi. Default=YES
ForceExitBootServices : Try to ensure that ExitBootServices call succeeds even with outdated MemoryMap key argument, this quirk is determined by early boot crashes of the firmware. Default=NO
ProtectCsmRegion : The necessity of this quirk is determined by artifacts and sleep wake issues. As AvoidRuntimeDefrag resolves a similar problem, no known firmwares should need this quirk. Default=No
ProvideCustomSlide : Provide custom KASLR slide on low memory, this option forces macOS to use a pseudo random value among the available ones. This also ensures that slide= argument is never passed to the operating system for security reasons. Default=YES
SetupVirtualMap : The necessity of this quirk is determined by early boot failures, workarounds the problem by performing early boot identity mapping of assigned virtual addresses to physical memory. Default=YES
ShrinkMemoryMap : Select firmwares have very large memory maps, which do not fit Apple kernel, permitting up to 64 slots for runtime memory. This quirk attempts to unify contiguous slots of similar types to prevent boot failures. Default=NO
AvoidRuntimeDefrag : Set to YES for Enabled NVRAM Reading.
EnableWriteUnprotector : Set to YES for Enabled NVRAM Writing.
NVRAM read tests should display the NVRAM information in the Hackin tool/NVRAM correctly.
NVRAM write testing shall ensure that the starting disk was correctly. (Default name was must be Macintosh HD)
Tested on Asus X299, Z370M-Plus II, and Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 5 and 7.
This feature is based on an OpenCore 0.0.4 08082018 distribution and works with the FwRuntimeService.efi driver.
Add: Injects Device properties.
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0) -> AAPL,ig-platform-id
Sets integrated graphics framebuffer, insert required value. Don't forget to add Stolemem and patch-enable if necessary.
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1b,0x0) -> Layout-id
Injects Audio device layout id, insert required value from AppleALC documentation here.
Block: Removes device properties from map. Normally not required.
Add: Here we can specify kexts to inject from our EFI into the kernel kextcache. Order of kexts is important, they are loaded in this order. Plugins for other kexts should always come after the main kext. Lilu should be first, then Lilu plugins like WhateverGreen and VirtualSMC.
Emulate: Needed for spoofing CPU, for unsupported CPUs.
CpuidMask: When set to zero, original CPU bit will be used.
CpuidData: The value for the CPU spoofing, hex swappped.
Block: Blocks kexts from loading. Sometimes needed for disabling Apple's trackpad driver for some laptops.
Patch: Kext or kernel patches can be added here.
AppleCpuPmCfgLock: Only needed when CFG-Lock can't be disabled in BIOS. Avoid unless necessary.
AppleXcpmCfgLock: Only needed when CFG-Lock can't be disabled in BIOS. Avoid unless necessary.
AppleXcpmExtraMsrs: Disables multiple MSR access needed for unsupported CPUs.
CustomSMBIOSGuid: Performs GUID patching for UpdateSMBIOSMode Custom mode. Usually relevant for Dell laptops.
DisableIOMapper: Preferred to dropping DMAR in ACPI section or disabling VT-D in bios.
ExternalDiskIcons: External Icons Patch, for when internal drives are treated as external drives
LapicKernelPanic: Disables kernel panic on AP core lapic interrupt. Often needed on HP laptops.
PanicNoKextDump: Allows for reading kernel panics logs when kernel panics occurs.
ThirdPartyTrim: Trimforce would be preferred via terminal, as most 3rd party Nvme and SSD's are now supported.
XhciPortLimit: This the 15 port limit patch, use only while you create a usb map (ssdt-uiac.aml) or injector kext. Its use is NOT recomended long term.
Timeout This sets how long OpenCore will wait until it automatically boots from the default selection.
ShowPicker: If you need to see the picker screen, you better choose YES.
UsePicker: Want to boot with opencore? must choose yes.
Target: Setting for logging type (by default logging output is hidden). Target 0 fully disables boot log.
HideSelf: If you want to hide EFI partion on OC Bootloader choose YES.
HibernateMode: Recommended set to None.
ConsoleBeHaviousOs: Set to ForceGraphics for most systems.
ConsoleBehaviousUI: Set to Text for most systems.
You won't be able to boot with Open Core Bootloader If you do not set YES at UsePicker. If you want to make macOS the default boot disk, set 'System Preferences > Startup Disk > (Your preferred OS disk)' as the default boot disk.
UEFI/Protocols:
ConsoleControl set to True
UEFI/Quirks:
ProvideConsoleGop set to True
IgnoreTextInGraphics: set to True
SanitiseClearScreen: set to True
Misc/Boot:
ConsoleBehaviourOs: set to Graphics
ConsoleBehaviourUi: set to Text
DisableWatchDog: (May need to be set to yes if macOS is stalling while logging to file is enabled).
Target: Logging level. 75 enables full logging to screen and file. 0 disables all logging.
(File logging is saved as a *opencore-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.txt* or .log file on root of EFI partition). (DEBUG or NOOPT Version of OpenCore maybe required for more detailed log output, see Configuration.pdf for further information under troubleshooting).
Boot-arg keepsyms=1 is recommended to make kernel panics more verbose.
Further information will be added to this section soon.
RequireSignature: See detailed explanation in configuration.pdf.
RequireVault: For now choose NO.
ScanPolicy: Allows customization of disk and file system types which are scanned (and shown) by opencore at boot time.
ExposeSensitiveData: Sensitive data exposure bitmask (sum) to operating system.
Scan Policy in (Bits)
ScanPolicy value, add the values with a hexidecimal calculator, macOS caluclator app has this built in with ⌘+3). Add your values up, and add this hexidecimal value to ScanPolicy, this will need converting to a decimal value which Xcode will automatically convert for you once you paste it.
Used for running boot time tools like clearing NVRAM, EFIShell or memtest86. Enable if required.
More Information coming soon.
7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82 (APPLE_BOOT_VARIABLE_GUID)
boot-args: -v debug=0x100 keepsyms=1 , etc (Boot flags)
csr-active-config: **(Settings for SIP, recommended to manully change this in terminal by booting in Recovery partition and use csrutil to set value.
nvda_drv: <> (For enabling Nvidia WebDrivers, set to 31 if running a Maxwell or Pascal GPU. This is the equivalent to setting nvda_drv=1 but instead we convert it from text to hex.
prev-lang:kbd: <> (Needed for non-latin keyboards) If you find Russian, you didnt read the manual...
4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14 (APPLE_VENDOR_VARIABLE_GUID)
UIScale : Boot time screen resolution. May need to be set to 02 to enable HiDPI scaling in FileVault 2 UEFI password interface and boot screen logo. but using a 10, you can see the big apple logo with HiDPI.
This will fail when console handle has no GOP protocol. When the firmware does not provide it, it can be added with ProvideConsoleGop UEFI quirk set to 'YES´and in protocols section ´ConsoleControl´to YES.
Block: Forcibly rewrites NVRAM variables, not needed for us as sudo nvram is prefered but useful for those edge cases.
LegacyEnable: Allows for NVRAM to be stored on nvram.plist for systems without working NVRAM. (Example Z390).
LegacySchema: Used for assigning nvram variable on such systems. (This is written to the NVRAM.plist).
So this section is for those who don't have native NVRAM, Hardware to have incompatible native NVRAM with macOS are the Z390-300 series chipsets:
B360
B365
H310
H370
Q370
Z390
Outlay's to making a NVRAM.plist file, Requires the following:
Change these settings within the config.plist:
Booter Section
DisableVariableWrite: set to YES
NVRAM Section
LegacyEnable: set to YES
LegacySchema: NVRAM variables set and injected into OpenCore and compares these variables present in nvram.plist
Security Section
ExposeSensitiveData: set to 0x3 (Which allows all data exposure)
And within your EFI:
FwRuntimeServices.efi (Needed for sleep, wake and shutdown and other services to work correctly (Goes in the EFI/OC/Drivers Folder)
Now grab the 'LogoutHook.command' and place it somewhere safe like within your user directory:
/Users/(your username)/LogoutHook/LogoutHook.command
Open up terminal and run the following:
sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LogoutHook /Users/(your username)/LogoutHook/LogoutHook.command
Now you have emulated NVRAM, Just to note that for macOS to support the -x flag and work correctly which is unavailable on 10.12 and below. nvram.mojave fixes this by injecting it instead of the system based one.
This section used be filled in correctly to avoid errors, if using non automatic setup make sure (DATA, BOOLEAN, STRING) types are set as shown in the Sampleconfig.plist
Automatic: NO (setting YES will provide default values from the Generic section, which in some cases may be acceptable, also maybe required when booting a fresh install from createinstallmedia USB).
Use MacSerial to generate your SMBIOS
MacSerial Example in terminal macserial -a | grep -i iMac19,1
Output Example from above command:
Generic:
SpoofVendor: YES (This prevents issues with having "Apple,inc" as manufacturer).
SystemUUID: Can be generated with MacSerial or use previous from Clover's config.plist.
MLB: Can be generated with MacSerial or use previous from Clover's config.plist.
ROM: <> (6 character MAC address, can be entirely random but should be unique).
SystemProductName: Can be generated with MacSerial or use previous from Clover's config.plist.
SystemSerialNumber: Can be generated with MacSerial or use previous from Clover's config.plist.
DataHub: Fill all these fields to match your clover smbios.
PlatformNVRAM: Fill all these fields to match your clover smbios.
SMBIOS: Fill all these fields to match your clover smbios.
UpdateDataHub: YES (Update Data Hub fields)
UpdateNVRAM: YES (Update NVRAM fields)
UpdateSMBIOS: YES (Update SMBIOS fields)
UpdateSMBIOSMode: Create (Replace the tables with newly allocated EfiReservedMemoryType)
ConnectDrivers: YES
Drivers: Add your .efi drivers here. (HFSPlus, AptoMemoryFix, APFSLoader, etc)
Protocols:
AppleBootPolicy: (Ensures APFS compatibility on VMs or legacy Macs).
ConsoleControl: Needed on most APTIO firmwares otherwise you may see text output during booting instead of Apple logo.
DataHub: (Reinstalls Data Hub).
DeviceProperties: (Ensures full compatibility on VMs or legacy Macs).
ExitBootServicesDelay: 0 (Switch to 5 if running ASUS Z87-Pro with FileVault2).
IgnoreInvalidFlexRatio: Required for almost all pre-skylake based systems.
IgnoreTextInGraphics: (Fix for UI corruption when both text and graphics outputs happen).
ProvideConsoleGop: (needed when GPU doesn't have a GOP Firmware/Driver (Also check for CSM in BIOS and is Disabled).
ReleaseUsbOwnership: (Releases USB controller from firmware driver).
RequestBootVarRouting: (Recommended to be enabled on all systems for correct update installation, Startup Disk control panel functioning, etc.
SanitiseClearScreen: (Fixes High resolutions displays that display OpenCore in 1024x768) Also necessary on select AMD GPUs on Z370.
AvoidHighAlloc: (This is a workaround for select board firmwares, namely GA-Z77P-D3 (rev. 1.1), failing, Also may help to boot online recovery images (*.DMG Files)
to properly access higher memory in UEFI Boot Services. Not recommended unless required) Only for 0.0.4 Config.plist
Further Information regarding AMD CPU Booting with opencore and how to set various patches can be found here: AMD OSX Github
When you are satisfied opencore boots your system correctly, simply mount your Clover efi partition, (back it up somewhere safe) and overwrite it with your OpenCore one. Certain system BIOS may require you to manually remove Clover as an EFI boot option (rarely some system might need a factory reset to permanently remove it).
OpenCore supports DuetPkg which emulates a UEFI environment for legacy systems.
To start, you need the following:
BootInstall.command
Install source
Within your OpenCore build folder, navigate to Utilities/BootInstall. Here you'll find a file called BootInstall.command. What this does is install DuetPkg to your desired drive.
Now you'll want to run BootInstall.command, do note that you may need sudo for this to work correctly on newer versions of macOS
This will give you a list of available disks, choose yours and you will be prompted to write a new MBR. Choose yes[y] and you'll be finished. This will provide you with an EFI partition with a boot file, this is where we'll add our OpenCore EFI.
Copy BootChimeDxe.efi & AudioDxe.efi to OC/Drivers folder.
Copy BootChimeCgf.efi & HdaCodecDump.efi to OC/Tools folder.
Bootchime can be played through the WAV file in the EFI root folder.
Add BootChimeDxe.efi & AudioDxe.efi drivers to UEFI/Drivers in Config.plist.
Add BootChimeCfg.efi & HdaCodecDump.efi drivers to Misc/Tools in Config.plist.
Reboot & wait a few seconds.
The default sound reproduction is line 1 of the built-in sound, and the speaker volume depends on the NVRAM setting.
Apple for MacOS.
Acidanthera for everything they contribute to hackintosh. :)
Pavo-IM for Opencore Builder and edits
ZISQO to translate this guide for korean language and update gigabyte and asus data.
MacProDude for images and guide rewrite
AlGrey AMD Kernel patches
InsanelyMac For finding issues and solutions to different hardware issues
