Hackintosh Build Guide

08-05-2021 by

When building my Hackintosh, this was my cardinal rule. See what others had done before, what hardware and software junkies had deemed as humanly possible, and follow build guides. Although I was willing to build it, I didn’t want it to be a constant source of annoyance due to glitches, and then no avenue to search for answers if things went. Welcome to the new AMD OS X Homepage. Keep up to date on current findings and find useful tutorials and information shared here. This guide was something I put together as I was trying to build a fully functional hackintosh for 4k Video editing. I am primarily a Final Cut Pro X user, and my 2013-late Macbook Pro was beginning to show its age with rendering, timeline scrubbing so I thought it was time to upgrade to an iMac Pro until I was horrified when I found the prices I would be forced to pay.

Overview

This guide derives from @Rehabman's [Guide] Booting the OS X installer on LAPTOPS and [Guide] Intel NUC7NUC8 using Clover UEFI (NUC7i7Bxx,NUC8i7Bxx,etc) but the procedure has been simplified in order to provide a quick guide to install Mojave on the NUC8i7BEH.

Performance

Specs

  • HyperX Impact DDR4 SODIMM 16GB * 1 (Recommend two sticks in dual-channel, 16GB of RAM works fine so far for me) Crucial DDR4 SODIMM 16GB I bought was not compatible with my NUC8. For more information about the recommended RAMs by Intel, see Memory Modules
  • Crucial MX500 1000G SATAIII SSD (I need the M.2 slot for Wi-FI/Bluetooth.)
  • BCM943602CDP Wi-Fi/Bluetooth + M.2 NGFF Key B+M Adapter
  • LT Link Dual Thunderbolt 3 eGPU Dock + Sapphire RX 460 4G (firmware upgraded to RX 560)
  • Mojave 10.14.2 Final Cut Pro has better performance on 10.14.2, less exporting time and better stability than the performance on 10.14.3.

Works

  • AirDrop, Handoff (Apple Wi-Fi/Bluetooth required)
  • iMessage (complete serial required)
  • All USB3.1 Gen1/USB2.0 ports
  • USB3.1 Type-c Hotplugging
  • Hardware Acceleration (Final Cut Pro X, VideoProc, Compressor tested.)
  • Thunderbolt 3 eGPU (Final Cut Pro X, VideoProc, Compressor tested.)

Not working

  • Thunderbolt 3 eGPU Hotplugging

Preparation

BIOS settings

  • BIOS version 0056 (Please do not use the latest one, 0064. If so, please downgrade to 0056, I have attached the firmware in the respository since it was no longer provided from Intel support.)

BIOS setup can be accessed by mashing the F2 key while booting up. It will get you to the main BIOS setup screens. To start, choose 'Load Defaults' (choose from the menu or press F9 in the BIOS setup).

Then change:

  • Boot -> Boot Configuration, disable 'Network Boot'
  • Power -> Secondary Power Settings, 'Wake on LAN from S4/S5', set to 'Stay Off'
  • Boot -> Secure Boot, disable 'Secure Boot'
  • Devices -> OnBoard Devices, disable 'Bluetooth' (macOS is not compatible well with Intel Wi-Fi/Bluetooth)

Suggested:

  • Boot -> Boot Priority -> Legacy Boot Priority, enable 'Legacy Boot'.

Installation

Option 1: GUI (recommended)

  • Mojave 10.14.2 Download (Clover EFI with config will be automatically installed with this ISO)
Build

Option 2: Command-line

  • Download Mojave 10.14.2 from App Store

Post-installation

Clover EFI

  • Download the latest EFI Clover (see release)
  • Mount EFI folder with EFI Mounter V3 or Clover Configurator
  • Place the downloaded EFI folder in your local EFI drive

Fixing Continuity

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Adapter
  • 2-pin JST 1.00mm (pitch) connected to the adapter
  • 4-pin JST 1.25mm (pitch) connected to the NUC internal USB2.0 connector (see 'G' 'H')
Scheme
Continuity Activation Tool (C.A.T)

To enable conitinuity, you must have an invaild serial number (meaning never been used by other Macs), for detailed information, please check Generating invaild serial number from hackintosher. https://flatgol.netlify.app/du-meter-620-serial-number.html. If everything is ready and yet you still cannot have AirDrop and Handoff, please try C.A.T to activate continuity.

Hackintosh Build Guide

FRC Reverse Proxy

Frp is a fast reverse proxy to help you expose a local server behind a NAT or firewall to the internet. As of now, it supports TCP & UDP, as well as http and https protocols, where requests can be forwarded to internal services by domain name. For example, with Frp, VNC port (5900), SSH port (22), and FTP port (445) on Macs behind a NAT, can be exposed to the public. Therefore, a user can have access to Screen Sharing, File Sharing remotely.

Credit

  • Thanks @RehabMan for the initial development of installing guide for NUC series.

  • Thanks @Daliansky for providing the installing guide and clover config library for common PCs.

  • Thanks @GoingDark for contributing the internal USB headers id.

Having had to rebuild my system this past weekend I thought I would document my journey for my Hackinstosh. This guide is intended as a roadmap as a fresh install for my developer setup.

Be kind to your future self

Prerequisites

  • 8GB USB Drive
  • OSX Mojave from the App Store
  • 🤞 Lots of patience

My System Specs

  • NZXT Tempest 210 case
  • GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-D3H motherboard
  • Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz
  • 16GB memory
  • Corsair CX500 Power Supply
  • 256 SSD and 1TB HD

Hard to believe this build is over 4years old and is still running great. Hackintosh's are very picky on hw so make sure you choose wisely. Tonymacx86 Buyers Guide is a great resource to choose from guaranteed working builds.

Step One: Bootable USB

Great video explaining the process
  1. You will need to have a copy of Mojave from the App store.
  2. Format USB Drive to MacOS Extended(Journaled) and name it USB.
  3. Open Terminal and run:

Step Two: Clover Configuration

Clover configuration is a two part process. You'll have to do it once on the USB Drive and then again on the install drive. TechHowdy has a great guide for this.

USB Drive Config

  1. Make sure your USB Drive is inserted.
  2. On the Destination Select tab, click on the option Change Install Location.
  3. Select the USB Flash Drive.
  4. Now on the Installation Type Tab Click on the Customize option. Select the option Install for UEFI booting only.
  5. Click on the Dropdown for Drivers64UEFI and Select the following options:
  • AppleImageCodec-64.UEFI
  • AppleKeyAggregator-64.UEFI
  • AppleUITheme-64.UEFI
  • DataHubDxe-64.UEFI
  • FirmwareVolume-64.UEFI
  • FSInject-64.UEFI
  • SMCHelper-64.UEFI
  • VboxHfs-64.UEFI
  • Apfs
  • OsxAptioFix2Drv-64
  • PartitionDxe-64

Copying Files to EFI partition on Hackintosh macOS Mojave USB Installer

  1. Go to Finder and open mounted EFI. Now open the folder EFI > Clover > drivers64.
  2. Copy the apfs.efi file in drivers64 and the drivers64UEFI folder.
  3. Now go back to the Clover folder and open the kexts/Other folder.
  4. Copy the kexts in the Other folder.
  5. Now go back to Clover folder and Delete config.plist file and Paste the empty config.plistfile.
Hackintosh Build Guide

Step Three: Install

  1. Boot from your new USB Drive (on USB2 port) and when it boots up, Go to Disk Utilty and format your SSD to use APFS.
  2. Install MacOSX Mojave.-During installation process the Mac OS will reboot several Times.

Hackintosh Guide 2018

Step Four: Post-Install

  1. Now you will need to do Clover EFI steps again but this time to your new Mojave SSD. Follow same steps as in Step 2 but choose Mojave SSD rather than the USB Drive.
  2. I had issues with Intel 4600 video and sound drivers.
  • Sound Issues with my ALC 892 kexts solution. I've added the sound kexts and Lilu so hope this won't be an issue.
  • Video issue was not using 2K screen to full resolution. Solution was found in this YouTube Video that describes using Clover Configuration to tweak video settings.
  1. Save Clover Configuration and reboot to make sure everything is working.

Step Five: Configuration

The next steps are not related to Hackintosh installation but just things specific to my dev setup.

Homebrew

First things first is to get Homebrew setup.

Next install development tools.

Next install programs from brew casks.

Git

First Time Setup
Git configuration for use with Github and SSH.

Terminal

I use Iterm2 and oh-my-zshell with night owl iterm theme.

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Hackintosh Buyers Guide

Editor

I am using Visual Studio Code with these extensions.

  • advanced-new-file
  • Auto Rename Tag
  • Bracket Pair Colorizer
  • Cobalt2 Theme
  • colorize
  • ESLint
  • File Utils
  • Material Icon Theme
  • Night Owl
  • npm Intellisense
  • Path Intellisense
  • Prettier
  • Simple React Snippets
  • Sublime Text Keymaps
  • SVG Viewer
  • TODO Highlight
  • vscode-styled-components

Gigabyte Ga-z270m-d3h Hackintosh Build Guide

Credits

Minecraft 1.8.9 Download Full Version
Unreal Editor Download

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