The Hackintosh Thread

[h9826790]

Did you use one of the EFI folders from my Z370-G build thread?

Another alternative is to just clone your Mac Pro's system drive, then put the EFI folder in to the EFI partition of the clone drive and plug it in to your hack.

I did, but may be I copy the wrong EFI folder, I will try that again.

In fact, I was exactly thinking why not just clone and install Clover
[doublepost=1530256993][/doublepost]You are 100% right. Obviously I was too tired last night and did something wrong. I just copy the EFI folder to the USB drive once more, work straight away, now trying to install the MacOS

 

[pastrychef]

I did, but may be I copy the wrong EFI folder, I will try that again.

In fact, I was exactly thinking why not just clone and install Clover

When I switched from my MacPro5,1 to hackintosh, I just put the EFI folder on my MacPro SSD and transplanted it to my hackintosh. Worked perfectly.

Remember, the EFI folders go in to the EFI partitions' root directory.

 

[h9826790]

I tried to track the error log during installation, but that’s a bit too fast, something about can’t covert to APFS then suddenly restart even the loading bar no to the end yet (but the target partiton did converted to APFS).

I can manually select the Hackintosh SSD during boot to let the installation continue. But that may be the reason causing this failure during installation

[doublepost=1530258203][/doublepost]Anyway, obviously clover works, MacOS / installer can boot. So, if the problem is just can’t perform the MacOS installation. I can easily overcome this by cloning the current working OS to there.
[doublepost=1530258413][/doublepost]I have 100% confidence can make it work now. Thanks partychef! Just need some time to make it work later
[doublepost=1530258964][/doublepost]As long as I can make his thing boot MacOS and read all my current Mac Pro’s drive. I will have no fear about the Mac Pro failure anymore. This should be fairly easy to achieve
[doublepost=1530259125][/doublepost]In fact, I completely forget your post (about how you transfer from Mac Pro to Hackintosh), but just keep reading the TonyMac website about how to install macOS via USB. I shouldn’t do that at the beginning. I should just follow your “clone method”. Again, Keep It Simple Stupid is the way to make things work.

 

[pastrychef]

I tried to track the error log during installation, but that’s a bit too fast, something about can’t covert to APFS then suddenly restart even the loading bar no to the end yet (but the target partiton did converted to APFS).

I can manually select the Hackintosh SSD during boot to let the installation continue. But that may be the reason causing this failure during installation

View attachment 768256
[doublepost=1530258203][/doublepost]Anyway, obviously clover works, MacOS / installer can boot. So, if the problem is just can’t perform the MacOS installation. I can easily overcome this by cloning the current working OS to there.
[doublepost=1530258413][/doublepost]I have 100% confidence can make it work now. Thanks partychef! Just need some time to make it work later
[doublepost=1530258964][/doublepost]As long as I can make his thing boot MacOS and read all my current Mac Pro’s drive. I will have no fear about the Mac Pro failure anymore. This should be fairly easy to achieve
[doublepost=1530259125][/doublepost]In fact, I completely forget your post (about how you transfer from Mac Pro to Hackintosh), but just keep reading the TonyMac website about how to install macOS via USB. I shouldn’t do that at the beginning. I should just follow your “clone method”. Again, Keep It Simple Stupid is the way to make things work.

Are you using two sticks of RAM? If yes, you may need to change the slots they are installed in. Here's a quote from my build description:

RAM slots:

Asus Z370 motherboard users have reported that when using two sticks of RAM, it is recommended to install them to slots B1 and A1 rather than the manual's recommendation of B2 and A2. The reason for this is that using B2 and A2 will cause a Clover error that will prevent booting. (I don't know if this issue affects Z370 motherboards from other makes.)​

 

[h9826790]

Are you using two sticks of RAM? If yes, you may need to change the slots they are installed in. Here's a quote from my build description:

RAM slots:

Asus Z370 motherboard users have reported that when using two sticks of RAM, it is recommended to install them to slots B1 and A1 rather than the manual's recommendation of B2 and A2. The reason for this is that using B2 and A2 will cause a Clover error that will prevent booting. (I don't know if this issue affects Z370 motherboards from other makes.)​

Yes, I read that. Will double check that if I can't boot from the clone.

Anyway, if I can boot from clover, does that mean this is not an issue already? Or can still causing unknown bug?
[doublepost=1530263898][/doublepost]The clone method work! Exactly two steps. Clone and copy EFI folder, that’s it! I didn't even clone the whole user profile to the new SSD, but just part of it for testing purpose to save time. It can still boot.

Thanks for pulling me back from the “wrong” way.
[doublepost=1530264379][/doublepost]It’s so simple, no more black screen even using 1080Ti.

 

[pastrychef]

Yes, I read that. Will double check that if I can't boot from the clone.

Anyway, if I can boot from clover, does that mean this is not an issue already? Or can still causing unknown bug?
[doublepost=1530263898][/doublepost]The clone method work! Exactly two steps. Clone and copy EFI folder, that’s it!

View attachment 768261

Thanks for pulling me back from the “wrong” way.
[doublepost=1530264379][/doublepost]It’s so simple, no more black screen even using 1080Ti.
View attachment 768262

Congratulations and welcome to the dark side!!

I have been testing out the Mojave beta a little. In my opinion, moving forward, AMD video cards are the way go. The quality of the Nvidia web drivers have degraded while Apple has improved AMD support greatly with their efforts to add eGPU support.

As I mentioned, in my build thread, when it comes time to upgrade macOS versions, barring any major changes, it's enough to just update to the latest Clover and all the kexts found in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/. I have provided links to all the relevant kexts our systems need in my build thread.

The final thing you should do is to do the proper USB configuration. That means creating an SSDT for USB. It may look a little confusing, but, once you get to doing it, it's not as hard as it may seem and it really does help system stability and can eliminate many quirks. Again, links are provided in my build thread.

I truly believe that, over time, like myself, you will end up loving this system more than the old Mac Pro.

 

[Hater]

HP Z800

Pretty much ran up MultiBeast on my MBP, copied over some kexts and booted the standard install, everything works except two USB ports.

Out of the box.

 

[The Mercurian]

Hi folks,
Anyone know if the 2018 Dell XPS 15" can be persuaded to run High Sierra ?

 

[pastrychef]

Hi folks,
Anyone know if the 2018 Dell XPS 15" can be persuaded to run High Sierra ?

Probably. But it most likely will require a considerable amount of work to get it working right and even then the Nvidia GPU will probably need to be disabled.

I don't recommend anyone to try hackintoshing for the first time on a laptop. Even if you've built hackintoshes, I recommend that your first attempt at hackintoshing a laptop be a model with very basic specs, i.e. IGPU only.

To get an idea of what's involved in hackintoshing a laptop, click on the Dell Latitude 3450 link in my signature below.

 

[The Mercurian]

Probably. But it most likely will require a considerable amount of work to get it working right and even then the Nvidia GPU will probably need to be disabled.

I don't recommend anyone to try hackintoshing for the first time on a laptop. Even if you've built hackintoshes, I recommend that your first attempt at hackintoshing a laptop be a model with very basic specs, i.e. IGPU only.

To get an idea of what's involved in hackintoshing a laptop, click on the Dell Latitude 3450 link in my signature below.

Thanks! Really useful info. Hmmm yeah it does look like a pfaff. I guess I'll be lumped with windoze then if I buy one

Edit:
@pastrychef - hmm for practice sake, what about hackintosh on my desktop? Threadripper 1920 on an Aorus Gaming 7 motherboard. I've a couple of spare drive lying around I could stick one in it and do a dual boot. I'm wary though because its a fussy motherboard even in Windows.

 

[pastrychef]

Thanks! Really useful info. Hmmm yeah it does look like a pfaff. I guess I'll be lumped with windoze then if I buy one

Edit:
@pastrychef - hmm for practice sake, what about hackintosh on my desktop? Threadripper 1920 on an Aorus Gaming 7 motherboard. I've a couple of spare drive lying around I could stick one in it and do a dual boot. I'm wary though because its a fussy motherboard even in Windows.

To be very honest, I know next to nothing about hackintoshing an AMD CPU. tonymacx86.com rules do not allow discussion about AMD CPUs...

The little bit that I do know, the process has matured a lot and a good number of people have macOS installed on Ryzens now. I don't know how good the experience is... By that, I mean, when hackintoshing an Intel system with well chosen components (i.e. highly compatible), usage-wise, an Intel based hackintosh can be nearly imperceptible from a real Mac.

Is the effort worth to try and hackintosh your Threadripper system? I'd say yes as long as you have the time to spare. You will undoubtedly learn a great deal in the process.

Will it serve to help with hackintoshing the Dell XPS 15 in the future? At least a bit... A laptop is still going to be more difficult because you have to deal with things like battery, screen brightness, keyboard/trackpad, etc. Probably the most difficult aspect is to patching a DSDT. Yes, you can look for things to patch in the DSDT of your Threadripper, but most of the time, when hackintoshing a desktop, DSDT patching is not required.

 

[The Mercurian]

To be very honest, I know next to nothing about hackintoshing an AMD CPU. tonymacx86.com rules do not allow discussion about AMD CPUs...

The little bit that I do know, the process has matured a lot and a good number of people have macOS installed on Ryzens now. I don't know how good the experience is... By that, I mean, when hackintoshing an Intel system with well chosen components (i.e. highly compatible), usage-wise, an Intel based hackintosh can be nearly imperceptible from a real Mac.

Is the effort worth to try and hackintosh your Threadripper system? I'd say yes as long as you have the time to spare. You will undoubtedly learn a great deal in the process.

Will it serve to help with hackintoshing the Dell XPS 15 in the future? At least a bit... A laptop is still going to be more difficult because you have to deal with things like battery, screen brightness, keyboard/trackpad, etc. Probably the most difficult aspect is to patching a DSDT. Yes, you can look for things to patch in the DSDT of your Threadripper, but most of the time, when hackintoshing a desktop, DSDT patching is not required.

Cheers for be advice. I’ll leave it on the long finger for now but might come back to to. Odd that that forum bans talk of AMD hackintoshes !?!?!??!

 

[pastrychef]

Cheers for be advice. I’ll leave it on the long finger for now but might come back to to. Odd that that forum bans talk of AMD hackintoshes !?!?!??!

I think the idea is to stick to CPUs that are supported by macOS. This helps keep things simpler and, presumably, using supported CPUs provide a better user experience. Even Intel Atom and Celeron discussion is not allowed.

 

[The Mercurian]

I think the idea is to stick to CPUs that are supported by macOS. This helps keep things simpler and, presumably, using supported CPUs provide a better user experience. Even Intel Atom and Celeron discussion is not allowed.

Ah got you that does make sense I guess

 

[dfritchie]

Might want to start here, not alot of info out there concerning amd cpus.

 

[The Mercurian]

Might want to start here, not alot of info out there concerning amd cpus.

Fantastic thanks dude!

 

[h9826790]

Finally have some time to learn more about the Hackintosh.

Manaually tuned the CPU to reduce operating temperature (rarely go above 70C now).

Memory speed fine tuned.

Latest clean 10.13.6 installed.

Switched to APFS, so far so good.

Clover updated.

Learnt how to remove the 15 USB ports limit.

Learnt how to fix audio.

About My Mac info edited.

The next one will be learn how to identify each USB port and properly disable the unnecessary port to make it natively run at 15 ports. Already finish the reading, just need some time to do it.

Also, I may replace all stock case’s fans by the Noctua fans. The stock fans are OK, not too noisy, but just loud enough to catch my attention. I think the Noctua fan can do much better.

And realised that as long as the initial Clover installation is done. And clone the whole EFI folder to the backup boot drive. Then it’s almost like handling a Mac.

In fact, I intentionally use Clover (from SSD) to boot the 10.13.6 USB installer (native MacOS created installer for real Mac, not unibeast). I can use that to erase the SSD (just the OS partiton, not the whole drive. Similar to what we can do in the recovery partition), and install MacOS natively like a Mac does.

If this can be done, then nothing on the Hackintosh is not recoverable. With multiple drives and multiple Clover installation on each boot driver, then the setup will be extremely safe. No matter we mess up the OS or mess up the primary drive’s Clover. We can still easily boot from another drive (another good Clover) and fix the bad one.

This Hackintosh is still mainly a Windows computer at this moment becasue i want to utilise the 1080Ti’s video hardware encoding ability. Also, only Windows can release the true power of the 1080Ti in gaming.

I only have 2 computers. So, make much more sense to let you cMP continue serve as the primary MacOS computer for all daily usage. And let this Hackintosh ready PC serve as an assistant computer with Windows to do everything that MacOS can’t do.

But at least, I now know how to transplant all my hard drives to the Hackintosh to “respawn” my cMP in no time if it die again. TBH, the cMP is getting old now. More and more strange failure cases on different forums. Really can’t let it be my one and only one computer.

Once again, pastrychef, thanks for brining me to this route, your “EFI” folder save me lots of time.

 

[howiest]

Finally have some time to learn more about the Hackintosh.

Manaually tuned the CPU to reduce operating temperature (rarely go above 70C now).

Memory speed fine tuned.

Latest clean 10.13.6 installed.

Switched to APFS, so far so good.

Clover updated.

Learnt how to remove the 15 USB ports limit.

Learnt how to fix audio.

About My Mac info edited.
View attachment 772847
The next one will be learn how to identify each USB port and properly disable the unnecessary port to make it natively run at 15 ports. Already finish the reading, just need some time to do it.

Also, I may replace all stock case’s fans by the Noctua fans. The stock fans are OK, not too noisy, but just loud enough to catch my attention. I think the Noctua fan can do much better.

And realised that as long as the initial Clover installation is done. And clone the whole EFI folder to the backup boot drive. Then it’s almost like handling a Mac.

In fact, I intentionally use Clover (from SSD) to boot the 10.13.6 USB installer (native MacOS created installer for real Mac, not unibeast). I can use that to erase the SSD (just the OS partiton, not the whole drive. Similar to what we can do in the recovery partition), and install MacOS natively like a Mac does.

If this can be done, then nothing on the Hackintosh is not recoverable. With multiple drives and multiple Clover installation on each boot driver, then the setup will be extremely safe. No matter we mess up the OS or mess up the primary drive’s Clover. We can still easily boot from another drive (another good Clover) and fix the bad one.

This Hackintosh is still mainly a Windows computer at this moment becasue i want to utilise the 1080Ti’s video hardware encoding ability. Also, only Windows can release the true power of the 1080Ti in gaming.

I only have 2 computers. So, make much more sense to let you cMP continue serve as the primary MacOS computer for all daily usage. And let this Hackintosh ready PC serve as an assistant computer with Windows to do everything that MacOS can’t do.

But at least, I now know how to transplant all my hard drives to the Hackintosh to “respawn” my cMP in no time if it die again. TBH, the cMP is getting old now. More and more strange failure cases on different forums. Really can’t let it be my one and only one computer.

Once again, pastrychef, thanks for brining me to this route, your “EFI” folder safe me lots of time.

Really happy to read this. Both you and pastrychef have been so helpful. Thanks guys!

 

[pastrychef]

Finally have some time to learn more about the Hackintosh.

Manaually tuned the CPU to reduce operating temperature (rarely go above 70C now).

Memory speed fine tuned.

Latest clean 10.13.6 installed.

Switched to APFS, so far so good.

Clover updated.

Learnt how to remove the 15 USB ports limit.

Learnt how to fix audio.

About My Mac info edited.
View attachment 772847
The next one will be learn how to identify each USB port and properly disable the unnecessary port to make it natively run at 15 ports. Already finish the reading, just need some time to do it.

Also, I may replace all stock case’s fans by the Noctua fans. The stock fans are OK, not too noisy, but just loud enough to catch my attention. I think the Noctua fan can do much better.

And realised that as long as the initial Clover installation is done. And clone the whole EFI folder to the backup boot drive. Then it’s almost like handling a Mac.

In fact, I intentionally use Clover (from SSD) to boot the 10.13.6 USB installer (native MacOS created installer for real Mac, not unibeast). I can use that to erase the SSD (just the OS partiton, not the whole drive. Similar to what we can do in the recovery partition), and install MacOS natively like a Mac does.

If this can be done, then nothing on the Hackintosh is not recoverable. With multiple drives and multiple Clover installation on each boot driver, then the setup will be extremely safe. No matter we mess up the OS or mess up the primary drive’s Clover. We can still easily boot from another drive (another good Clover) and fix the bad one.

This Hackintosh is still mainly a Windows computer at this moment becasue i want to utilise the 1080Ti’s video hardware encoding ability. Also, only Windows can release the true power of the 1080Ti in gaming.

I only have 2 computers. So, make much more sense to let you cMP continue serve as the primary MacOS computer for all daily usage. And let this Hackintosh ready PC serve as an assistant computer with Windows to do everything that MacOS can’t do.

But at least, I now know how to transplant all my hard drives to the Hackintosh to “respawn” my cMP in no time if it die again. TBH, the cMP is getting old now. More and more strange failure cases on different forums. Really can’t let it be my one and only one computer.

Once again, pastrychef, thanks for brining me to this route, your “EFI” folder safe me lots of time.

It's good that you have learned the most important aspects to making macOS run on your system. You are correct, as long as you have your EFI folder backed up to a USB flash drive, you can always easily boot in to macOS. Honestly, it's pretty much imperceptible to using a real Mac.

There has been some major changes in the most recent versions of the kexts I use in my EFI folder. This is in preparation for Mojave. After some troubleshooting with a few other forum members at tonymacx86.com, I think we have everything working perfectly again. If you have any questions and/or problems with these new kexts, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer. The biggest benefit is that we can switch video cards without making any changes to the EFI folder now.

Yes, Windows harnesses the power of your GTX 1080 Ti more effectively. I had been a big fan of the Nvidia cards for a long time due to their price, performance, and TDP. But, earlier this year, I sold my GTX 1080 and switched to a Vega 56 because the AMD cards just run better with macOS. Apple's work to get eGPU support greatly benefitted hackintoshes to the point that quite a few AMD cards are very much plug-n-play now.

I truly feel that this system you've built can be a worthy successor to your Mac Pro. As time passes, it becomes increasingly difficult to mask the age of the MacPro4,1/5,1s.

 

[dfritchie]

Finally have some time to learn more about the Hackintosh.

Great! Nice rig you have there. I have been running my hack since 2016, works just like a real mac. You will find the macOS updates just like a real one once you do the USB SSDT, no suddenly disappearing ports after an update!

 

[Mackan]

I almost had a hackintosh working, but but my screen always turned off during boot. Worked fine when booting from USB stick though. Could never figure out why, so I had to abandon the project.

 

[TheStork]

I almost had a hackintosh working, but but my screen always turned off during boot. Worked fine when booting from USB stick though. Could never figure out why, so I had to abandon the project.

Did you post your problem? Link so that I can maybe help.

 

[ekwipt]

easily fixed with a kext, i'm guessing Vegagraphicsfiup, nividiagraphicsfixup, lilu or whatevergreent kexts would've fixed the issue.

 

[Mackan]

Did you post your problem? Link so that I can maybe help.

It was a couple of months ago, and I didn't make a post about the problem. I have a 6700K with the Z170-I (mini itx) motherboard. So, integrated graphics only, with output to Asus mg248q via DisplayPort.

I did harvest a lot of forums though for people with similar problems, but in the end I faced a situation where it should have worked, but simply didn't. It was related to the integrated Intel graphics kext, and some configuration done in Clover that never worked as intended. Or that it actually worked, but never together with my particular monitor. The universal Unibeast EFI USB stick worked, but it didn't use the Intel kext, that I needed to get hardware acceleration working.

easily fixed with a kext, i'm guessing Vegagraphicsfiup, nividiagraphicsfixup, lilu or whatevergreent kexts would've fixed the issue.

Yeah, in theory it sounds simple.

 

[pastrychef]

It was a couple of months ago, and I didn't make a post about the problem. I have a 6700K with the Z170-I (mini itx) motherboard. So, integrated graphics only, with output to Asus mg248q via DisplayPort.

I did harvest a lot of forums though for people with similar problems, but in the end I faced a situation where it should have worked, but simply didn't. It was related to the integrated Intel graphics kext, and some configuration done in Clover that never worked as intended. Or that it actually worked, but never together with my particular monitor. The universal Unibeast EFI USB stick worked, but it didn't use the Intel kext, that I needed to get hardware acceleration working.



Yeah, in theory it sounds simple.

Please try this EFI folder. It should allow you to boot in to macOS whether it be a clone of your Mac or the macOS installer as long as it is macOS Sierra or higher. Mojave public beta should be fine too.