Chapter 4 Changes
General info:
Some of the sentences refer to a previous version of OS X, generally Yosemite or Mavericks. This should be updated to "[current operating system]" as the procedures are generally the same with each version. If there are drastic changes that require different steps, these will be updated accordingly.
Above "Networking Drivers":
Note: To get any video on my current Gigabyte GTX 960 graphics card from an initial installation, I had to boot with the flag “nv_disable=1” repeatedly after updating OS X, other drivers, and switching from Apple's built-in driver to Nvidia's web driver. Once everything was installed, I didn't need to use it again. With Apple's latest OS starting from Sierra (10.12), the same flag is no longer required when using the bootloader Clover.
NEW SECTION:Using Clover and Clover Configurator
Starting with OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), the old bootloader Chimera no longer works. Instead you'll start using a bootloader called Clover. While the learning curve is a little steep, it may be somewhat quick to catch on to, and some of the old flags in Chimera will still work. It's menu-driven with multiple entries for different sections and doesn't rely on the cryptic flags commonly used by Chimera. Clover comes with UniBeast so you'll have it installed when you install OS X, but stabilizing OS X requires the use of Clover Configurator. Clover Configurator can be downloaded from http://mackie100projects.altervista.org/download-clover-configurator/. Once you have OS X installed, you can use Clover Configurator to change the boot settings and stabilize your hackintosh or hackbook. Once saved, create a folder on your OS X installer flash drive such as “Extra Software” and copy the Clover configurator installer to that location so that modifications and changes can be made quickly.
Clover is used much like Chimera where you can modify settings in the installer (UniBeast) and the target drive after installation has taken place. While you may have to make changes in Clover when installing OS X, these same changes should be reflected to the target drive after installation using Clover Configurator. For example, you may boot using UniBeast, boot into Clover, select the UniBeast flash drive and only get a black screen. Or it may show that items are loading but the screen freezes and the computer restarts. Moments like this may require you to repeat the process but stop at Clover's main screen (where you select the hard drive or other options), then go into Options and try different SMBIOS settings so you can at least get to the splash screen of the OS X installer. You can make a note of the SMBIOS used, then use CloverConfigurator to select the same SMBIOS and save it to the config.plist file.
Below is a screenshot of Clover taken from my hackbook. The laptop consists of a 120 GB SSD with Windows, and a 120 GB SSD with OS X where the DVD drive used to be. When I turn the laptop on I am greeted with the following screen after only a few seconds:
I can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the items from left to right. Here the main hard drive and recovery partition are shown, while below you will see four icons for Options, About, Restart, and Exit Clover, respectively. Selecting About will take you to a screen showing the current version and developer credits, Restart will restart your computer, and Exit Clover will take you out of the Clover screen. If your system is set to dual-boot, you can select Exit Clover to boot from your Windows hard drive if you have a Windows system installed.
To make any changes to the boot, highlight Options and press Enter or Return. This presents you with a plethora of booting options. To select an option, use the up/down arrow keys and press Enter/Return to select. When you're in a submenu you can select another line, press Enter/Return to make changes, then press Escape or highlight Return and press enter/Return to go back to the previous screen.
Below are the following options:
- Config: This is the filename for the configuration list. Leave this as-is.
- Boot Args: Here's where the arguments and boot flags go. To make any changes (in this line or any other lines), highlight it, then press Enter, then start typing. Use the arrow keys to navigate the cursor on the line. You can enter such flags as -v for verbose mode where you can see all items loading line by line, or even -x to boot into safe mode for example. There is no specific order for flags so they can be placed anywhere.
- GUI Tuning: Allows you to make modifications to the appearance of the Clover environment.
- ACPI Patching: This small section enables you to make changes to the DSDT or Differentiated System Description Table as well as the ACPI or Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. These settings can be extracted from your motherboard using various software programs, but I'd only use this section if any previous research on your motherboard requires any use or modification to any of the above terms in order to get OS X on your computer.
Note: For the longest time I understood that (according to TonyMacX86.com) if you had a board with UEFI instead of a BIOS, you wouldn't need to use a DSDT. I still see a lot of threads on forums regarding these and have not yet braved the waters into testing it myself on my own board. My board is a gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 which had a BIOS but has since been upgraded to UEFI. Prior to this I was using an ASRock motherboard (didn't use a DSDT), then an Asus P5B and then a Gigabyte GA-P61-USB3-B3 which both utilized a DSDT. When I first purchased my Z68AP-D3 I used a DSDT but havent had to since upgrading it to UEFI. I don't know if perhaps now is the time that users can use a UEFI and a DSDT or if TonyMac's advice is outdated and irrelevant. Perhaps on a rainy day I will test this to find out the truth.
- SMBIOS: This section is important for getting the correct matching model based on your components. Versions of OS X prior to Sierra enabled the MacPro3,1 SMBIOS by default, but this is no longer an option. When this option is selected, change the SMBIOS name in two fields; Product Name and Board Version.
- PCI Devices: Similar to the ACPI Patching menu, this fixes USB issues in some cases and is best used only if you run into specific scenarios that require it.
- CPU Tuning: Provides information regarding your processor and enables you to change paramters regarding voltage stepping and power (C-states).
- Graphics Injector: Used for troubleshooting some video issues and assisting laptops with built-in graphics.
Let's use my Lenovo P580 for example. My laptop has an Intel i5-3210M processor inside with HD4000 graphics. After doing research on the processor and how to get it working in a Hackintosh, I found that the proper platform ID to use is 01660003. To get the installer working on my laptop I selected Options → Graphics Injector, and set the platform ID to 01660003. Once I installed OS X I then used Clover Configurator to apply this same parameter to the config.plist file so that I wouldn't have to keep changing it from the default Clover boot options.
Binaries Patching: enables on-the-fly patching with some systems. The setting of Fake CPUID setting enables you to fool the kernel into thinking your processor is a different one than installed.
NEW SECTION: (Coming Soon)
Clover Configurator