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[Guide] El Capitan on the Intel Skylake NUC

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El Capitan on the Skylake NUC (6i3SYK, 6i3SYH, 6i5SYK, 6i5SYH)

Other NUC guides, in case you're not looking for the Skylake model:

What Works and Doesn't
You should install OS X 10.11.4 or higher to avoid problems with the integrated graphics (this guide last updated for 10.11.6).

Overall, with the latest BIOS and OS X, the NUC works quite well. The major problem is that all present Skylake models include soldered WiFi/Bluetooth, and at least the WiFi part of that does not yet have OS X drivers. (There is an effort underway to port a driver, but it's a long-term kind of thing.)

Working:
  • Audio via headphone jack
  • Video via mini-DisplayPort (including 4K at 3840x2160 or 1080P retina, but NOT higher retina settings)
  • Video via HDMI (including 4K at 3840x2160 or 1080P retina, but NOT higher retina settings)
  • m.2 SSDs including SATA, PCIe, and NVMe
  • Ethernet networking
  • USB3
  • Power saving, sleep, etc.
Has issues:
  • Bluetooth. Driver loads but doesn't pair, probably due to requiring firmware. If you dual boot, you may get it fully working by configuring Bluetooth in Windows and then rebooting to OS X without unplugging the machine. See this post.
Built-in hardware that doesn’t work due to lack of OS X drivers:
  • WiFi -- driver development underway but will take a while to come to fruition.
  • SD card reader (few PCIe card readers supported)
  • HDMI audio (no HDMI audio for Skylake integrated graphics yet)
  • NFC
  • IR

Wireless
If you'd like WiFi, for the moment, you'll need a USB adapter. I've used an Edimax AC-1200, which at long last has a decent El Capitan driver available. However, it is large enough that it blocks a second USB port on the NUC unless you get a USB hub or extension cable.

Installation Prerequisites
  • A Skylake NUC, model starting with NUC6i3 or NUC6i5
  • If you only use one RAM chip, it should be installed in the bottom slot. Using two identical RAM chips is better.
  • Note the size and speed of your RAM chips (e.g. 8 GB / 2133) because you will need to specify those in order to avoid OS X only seeing half your memory.
  • A working Mac or Hackintosh
  • A USB stick or drive, 8 GB or larger

Get El Capitan
  1. Open Mac App Store
  2. Log in with your Apple ID
  3. Download OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 or greater
  4. When the download finishes and the setup screen appears, Quit the app from the menu bar. You should now see the application /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app

Other Things to Download

BIOS Versions
SYH and SYK models (download here):

  • Intel recommends 0039 or higher due to various issues (see the PDF attached to this post). Some users speculate that bad fan settings cause the NUC to overheat with early BIOS releases. It may be a good idea to stay relatively up to date.
  • 0045: Works well so far -- sleep/wake works, no obvious problems. Disabling legacy boot may give cosmetic errors before the Clover menu starts.
  • 0044: Brought improvements to NVMe SSD speed, but reportedly requires BIOS restore for full effect
  • 0039: Works well so far -- sleep/wake works, no obvious problems. Disabling legacy boot may give cosmetic errors before the Clover menu starts.
  • 0036: no reports yet
  • 0033: May disable m.2 slot by default -- be sure to re-enable it if you're using it.
  • 0028: Gives boot errors if onboard Bluetooth is disabled. Seems to require PCIe ASPM Support to be on. Legacy Boot must be enabled in order to display M.2 PCIe SSD settings in BIOS (though you can still boot to the SSD with Legacy Boot disabled). Predated the discovery of a Skylake hardware bug, so it may be worth updating to get the latest CPU microcode if nothing else.

BIOS Settings on the NUC
  • Press F2 during boot to access BIOS
  • Most important: on Advanced / Boot / Boot Priority screen, set UEFI Boot to checked. (It may show no boot devices; that is OK.)
  • On Security, set Intel VT for Directed I/O (VT-d) to unchecked
  • On Boot / Boot Configuration, set Network Boot to Disable
  • On Boot / Secure Boot make sure Secure Boot is unchecked
  • On Power make sure Wake on LAN from S4/S5 is unchecked or set to stay off (or else when you shut down the NUC may restart instead)
  • In Devices / Video set IGD Minimum Memory to 128 MB and IGD Aperture Size to 256 MB
  • In Devices / Onboard Devices you can uncheck WLAN, Near Field Communication (NFC), and Enhanced Consumer IR (unless you will dual-boot with an OS that recognizes all this hardware). With BIOS 0028 you must leave Bluetooth enabled, even if you will not use it.
  • If you like, you can compare many of the other BIOS settings to the screen captures in the attached View attachment nuc6i5-0039.zip (taken with 0039)

Prepare Bootable USB Install Drive
This whole section should be performed on the working Mac/Hackintosh

  1. Insert the USB drive
  2. Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility
  3. Highlight the USB drive in left column
  4. On a Yosemite or older system:
    1. Click on the Partition tab
    2. Click Current and choose 1 Partition
    3. Click Options...
    4. Choose GUID Partition Table
    5. Under Name: type Installer
    6. Under Format: choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    7. Click Apply then Partition. When it finishes, close Disk Utility.
  5. On an El Capitan or newer system:
    1. Click on the Erase button in the toolbar
    2. For Name: enter Installer
    3. Make sure Format is set to OS X Extended (Journaled)
    4. Make sure Scheme is set to GUID Partition Map
    5. Hit Erase. When it finishes, close Disk Utility.
  6. Run UniBeast
    1. Hit Continue on the main screen, Continue on the UniBeast+MultiBeast screen, Continue on the Clover Credits screen, Continue on the Software License Agreement screen, and agree to the license
    2. Select your newly formatted USB drive (so it turns blue) on the Select a Destination screen and hit Continue
    3. Select El Capitan (so it turns blue) and hit Continue
    4. Select UEFI Boot Mode (so it turns blue) and hit Continue
    5. Leave all graphics options unchecked and hit Continue
    6. On the Verify Installation Options screen, hit Continue
    7. Enter you password when prompted and wait
    8. When the install finishes, hit Quit
  7. Create an extra directory called postinstall on the USB drive to hold the files you’ll need on the machine after installation. Copy these files you downloaded to the new directory:
    • MultiBeast
    • Clover Configurator
    • The SSDT for your model
  8. Eject the USB drive and insert it into the new machine.

Install El Capitan
Note: the speed of this installation process is not a reflection on the speed or quality of your hardware. It’s just going to take a while.

  1. Start the NUC with the USB drive inserted. Hit F10 at the BIOS splash screen to get a list of boot devices, and select the UEFI entry for your USB drive. You should get a Clover menu.
  2. Select Boot Mac OS X from Installer (it should have a picture labeled "EXTERNAL"; use left/right arrow keys to select from multiple options and press enter when the correct one is selected)
  3. You should see the apple logo and a progress bar as the installer loads.
  4. After a couple of progress bars (one of which takes a long time with little apparent progress), you should be prompted to select a language. Then you should see the OS X screen.
  5. Select Utilities / Disk Utility... from the menu bar.
  6. Select the drive on the left where you want to install El Capitan
  7. Hit Erase
  8. From the dialog that pops up, put in whatever Name you want for the disk, select the Format OS X Extended (Journaled), and the Scheme GUID Partition Map
  9. Hit Erase
  10. When the erase finishes, hit Done then Quit Disk Utility from the menu
  11. Back at the OS X screen hit Continue.
  12. On the license screen hit Continue and the on the popup Agree
  13. Select the disk you just created by name and hit Continue
  14. This stage of the installation will take some time, but it should eventually restart. (The installation is not yet complete, though; do not remove the USB drive.)
  15. After the reboot, the machine should boot to the Clover menu again. If it says there's no boot device or boots to the wrong thing, reboot and hit F10 from the BIOS splash screen and select the USB drive. At that point you should get the Clover menu. At the Clover boot screen, select Boot Mac OS X from YourDiskName and you should get to the Welcome screen. (The progress bar for this takes longer than average as well.)
  16. Select your country, keyboard, and complete the rest of the setup process. Tell it "My computer does not connect to the Internet" because we have not set up network drivers yet. Do not "Transfer Information to This Mac" yet (you can run Migration Assistant later to do that).
  17. After the setup, you should end up at the desktop. Congratulations! But you must still perform the post-install setup next.

Post-Installation Configuration
Note: You must complete this or else your Hackintosh won't be able to boot without the USB drive in place.

  1. Copy all the files from the postinstall directory of the USB stick to your new El Capitan install (e.g. to Downloads)
  2. Run the copy of MultiBeast you just copied to the new drive.
  3. Select Quick Start and then UEFI Boot Mode
  4. Select Drivers and then Audio and then Realtek ALCxxx. Under that heading check first ALC283 (BRIX Pro and NUC only) and then 100 Series Audio
  5. Select Drivers and then Network and then Intel and then IntelMausiEthernet (while the latest AppleIntelE1000e driver also works for this Ethernet chip, it breaks sleep/wake so the Mausi driver is preferred). In MultiBeast 8.2.3 the current Mausi release is v2.1.0d3
  6. Select Customize and then Graphics configuration. Choose Intel HD 530.
  7. Select Customize and then System Definitions. Choose iMac then iMac 17,1.
  8. Hit Save on the top right to save a copy of this configuration for future reference.
  9. Hit Build and then Install
  10. When it says "Install Succeeded" then quit MultiBeast
  11. Go to the Apple menu in the top-left corner and hit About This Mac. Note whether the Memory total is correct (if not, we will fix it shortly).
  12. The MultiBeast installation should have left the EFI partition of your system drive mounted (called EFI in Finder).
  13. Copy the SSDT from your postinstall directory into EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/
  14. Run the Clover Configurator app from your postinstall directory (may be in "CCV.zip")
  15. Select the file EFI/EFI/CLOVER/config.plist to open (it should be listed on the bottom of the main window).
  16. Go to the SMBIOS screen on the left.
  17. If the Memory total was NOT correct in About This Mac, click the "+" under the Memory box, once for each chip you have installed (typically 2). Also under the Memory box, set Channels to Dual Channel and SlotCount to 4 (even though the machine only has two slots, it needs to be set to 4 to active dual-channel memory). Then:
    • Set the Size and Frequency for each of the two memory entries to match your installed RAM. You should enter a Vendor, Part, and Serial value for each chip, though you can set it to whatever you want if you're not sure of the correct values (just don't leave them blank). Set the first slot to 0, and if you have two chips set the other slot to 2. All entries should use the Type DDR4.
    • If you have 16 GB or larger memory chips, the current release of Clover Configurator does not let you select that value for your memory chips. Just use 8192 for now.
  18. If you don’t care about iCloud/iMessage/etc. then hit File/Save to save config.plist and Quit Clover Configurator.
  19. Otherwise if you do want iCloud/iMessage/etc., then you must further customize config.plist. For more details on this process see How to Fix iMessage.
    1. Still on the SMBIOS screen, copy the value in the Serial Number field
    2. Go to the RtVariables screen on the left
    3. Paste your serial number into the MLB field, and then add 5 random characters or digits to the end, to make 17 characters total.
    4. Enter a value for the ROM field. If you will use the Ethernet port on the machine, you can select "UseMacAddr0" from the drop-down. Otherwise, enter 12 random hexadecimal digits.
    5. File/Save config.plist and Quit Clover Configurator.
  20. If you couldn't set your proper memory chip size, open the same /EFI/CLOVER/config.plist file in TextEdit or your favorite text editor. Scroll down to the SMBIOS section, then find the Memory entry under SMBIOS, and set the size for each memory chip. A 16 GB chip should use a size of 16384.
  21. If you use an HDMI television for a display or a high-resolution HDMI monitor, and you're not getting the correct resolution, you should add the following patch to config.plist. The best way is to copy and paste this block into config.plist in the KernelAndKextPatches array (which ought to have a few entries already; just add this before or after one of them):
    Code:
                <dict>
                    <key>Comment</key>
                    <string>Port 5 HDMI fix</string>
                    <key>Disabled</key>
                    <false/>
                    <key>Find</key>
                    <data>
                    AQUJAAAEAAA=
                    </data>
                    <key>Name</key>
                    <string>AppleIntelSKLGraphicsFramebuffer</string>
                    <key>Replace</key>
                    <data>
                    AQUJAAAIAAA=
                    </data>
                </dict>
  22. Eject and remove the USB install drive
  23. Restart your system. It may take some time to restart.
  24. You should get a Clover menu on startup, and you can select Boot Mac OS X from YourDriveName or let it do it automatically. It should quickly proceed to the login screen.
  25. After logging in, check whether your audio is working. If not, there's one last fix needed:
    1. Mount your EFI partition. The easiest way is to run Clover Configurator. When it gives a popup saying no config.plist found, hit Mount EFI Partition and then Mount EFI Partition again on the bottom right.
    2. Run MultiBeast again. This time only select Drivers / Audio / Realtek ALCxxx / ALC283. Then go to Build and hit Install.
    3. When MultiBeast finishes, close it.
    4. Restart one last time.
    5. After the restart, your front headphone jack should be working. In System Preferences / Sound you can turn on the volume control in the menu bar. If you have speakers or headphones handy, try playing a song in iTunes to be sure.


That’s it! Your hackintosh should be working in El Capitan. Enjoy.




Credits: tonymacx86 (original Clover installation procedure)
UniBeast and MultiBeast from MacMan, with audio install based on Audio script by toleda



Appendix B: Windows 10 Dual Boot (same drive)
If you'd like to install Windows 10 in a dual boot configuration on the same drive as El Capitan, follow these additional steps. There are many ways to do the installation, this is just one that is known to work.

Requirements
  • Your El Capitan install USB drive (if you wipe this out to use for Windows, you will have to recreate it later)
  • A USB drive to use for the Windows installer
  • A Windows 10 ISO
  • An existing Windows computer to prepare the ISO
    • If you don't have a Windows computer, skip the next section and see n3oNLit3's instructions in this post to prepare a bootable USB Windows installer

Prepare Windows 10 USB on a Windows computer
  1. Download the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
  2. Insert your USB stick or drive
  3. Run the tool
  4. Select your Windows 10 ISO
  5. Select the USB install type
  6. Select your USB drive
  7. Wait for it to finish and move the USB drive to the NUC

Install Windows 10
Start from the working El Capitan install above, and:

  1. Open Disk Utility
  2. Select your El Capitan drive (not the partition underneath it)
  3. Select Partition
  4. Hit the + to add a new partition for Windows, and drag the pie chart slider until the two partitions are sized appropriately
  5. Leave the format of the new partition as OS X Extended (Journaled).
  6. Hit Apply
  7. With the Windows USB drive attached, restart the NUC
  8. If the BIOS is not set to boot USB devices first, hit F10 and select the USB drive (you want the UEFI entry in order to be able to install to a GPT drive)
  9. Install Windows. When you get to the pick a disk partition screen, select the partition you created for Windows above (easiest to identify by size, usually). Delete the partition, then format it. When it prompts you that Windows may create extra partitions, that's OK. Then select the new big partition it created to install to.
  10. After the first reboot during the Windows install, if the NUC is still set to boot USB devices first, you will need to remove the USB drive. If you missed it and you're back at the "choose a language" installer screen, remove the USB and reboot to boot to the new install and continue the process.
  11. After the Windows install completes and leaves you at the desktop, go to Settings / Update & security / Windows Update and install all available updates. (You can skip this, but you'll probably have more work later if you do because the updates may break the boot loader.)

Fix Dual Booting
  1. At this point, the NUC is booting only to Windows. Insert your El Capitan install USB drive and restart. Use F10 if needed to boot to the USB.
  2. You should see a Clover menu. Select Boot Mac OS X from YourDriveName.
  3. Once in OS X, mount your EFI partition. You may need to use diskutil list to identify the correct partition, but the typical command is:
    Code:
    mkdir /Volumes/EFI && sudo mount_msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/EFI
  4. Go to the EFI partition
  5. Go to EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ and rename bootmgfw.efi to bootmgfw-orig.efi
  6. Copy EFI/CLOVER/CLOVERX64.efi to EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
  7. Eject the El Capitan install USB drive
  8. Reboot
  9. You should get a Clover menu, with the usual settings to boot to OS X and also new Windows options. To start Windows, select Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI.
  10. After future Windows updates, Windows may reset the EFI partition to boot only to Windows again. You'll need to repeat the steps in this section.

You should now be able to boot to both Windows and OS X!
 
Last edited:
Wow, thanks so much for posting this! I just bought a NUC6i3SYK this week for other purposes, but before I really apply it to that use, I want to see if maybe it's worth getting a second one to upgrade from my late 2012 Mac Mini. I really admire this hardware, the resource limits, the ability to boot from M.2 NVMe. It would make a great little Mac if only Apple had made it.

I'm waiting for El Capitan install media to download now (and waiting) but I should be able to make observations on a few untested items, including:
  • Video via HDMI
  • SD card reader
  • Bluetooth (especially bluetooth audio)
 
I want to see if maybe it's worth getting a second one to upgrade from my late 2012 Mac Mini.

I'm not sure of your needs and time frame... But the Skull Canyon NUC is probably coming in 3-ish months, and it will reportedly be quad-core. I've been grouchy ever since Apple replaced the quad-core Mac Mini with only dual-core versions... While the Skylake NUCs are pretty nice, a quad-core NUC would be "no compromises" to me.
 
I will update this comment as I go... Problems I ran into with the guide.

"Set the Size and Frequency for each of the two memory entries [...]" - Clover only allows for 8GB max per slot. I've got 16GB per slot.

HDMI video: Doesn't work. Booting from Unibeast, the Apple logo comes up, the progress bar starts progressing... it gets about 20% of the way in and then the display shuts off. I went away for an hour to see if something else might be loading in the background that would bring it back. No such luck.
 
Do you mean that Clover Configurator only allows 8 GB max? I just put 16384 in each field in the file and it correctly shows 32 GB total.

For the display problem, you may need to put the HDMI patch in the KextsToPatch section. I've tried both a 1080p HDMI display and a 4K HDMI display successfully.
 
I'm not sure of your needs and time frame... But the Skull Canyon NUC is probably coming in 3-ish months, and it will reportedly be quad-core. I've been grouchy ever since Apple replaced the quad-core Mac Mini with only dual-core versions... While the Skylake NUCs are pretty nice, a quad-core NUC would be "no compromises" to me.

Awesome! I bought the original 2011 quad core Mini for that feature and traded up to a 2012 after those became available. Wait for 2 years and when the 2014 dual core-only Minis came out I quickly snatched up another quad 2012 from the refurb store the first day those became available with the new pricing.

While I love my i5 and i7 Broadwell NUCs and was looking forward to the Skylake NUCs, the complete package will be these quad core Skull Canyon NUCs. The big deal will be the cooling, though. My 2012 2.6 quad converts in Handbrake at 3.2 to 3.4GHz continuous, depending on room temp (76 to 67°F, respectively). Since 3.4 is the max turbo on the 3720QM with 4 cores running, this is an effective cooling setup IMO, dissipating 45W of heat. On the 2.3 quad in HB, it turbos to 3.1 continuous (the max for the 3615QM) under all temperature conditions I've tested (73°F max), dissipating 39W of heat.

If Intel can match this cooling with the Skull Canyon, then I'll be very happy. When converting in HB with the i7 Broadwell NUC, the fan noise is not as pleasant as Apple's cooling solution, though there is little to any fan noise on the i5. That said, HB is a good deal faster on the i7.
 
Supposedly Skull Canyon will come with a 45W chip (quad core with Iris Pro 580 -- just like a MacBook Pro?) and a larger case to accommodate better cooling. I don't know how accurate all this is, but it'll be interesting to see!
 
Hi,

thanks for that wonderful easy guide.

unfortunately i am getting the same problem of the HDMI video , after the apple Logo appears for the first time, it dispeapers again in about 20 seconds. i also tried to put the code of the HDMI into the KextsTopatch and also did not work. is there anything to do more?

maybe you can write a guid for inserting the code into the kextsTopatch array.

thanks in Advance:)
 
Thanks for the guide, I'm looking into buying a NUC6i5SYH. You could put the link into your Broadwell NUC guide table where Skylake is as coming soon, and I couldn't find this one through searching their codes (you have only 6i5SYH in the title instead of NUC6i5SYH..).

I have a 1440p DP/HDMI monitor, from your guide I understand it should run through miniDP only at 1080p? Also turning off the graphics accelleration you lose e.g. what?

Regarding the Skull Canyon i7, I'm also afraid of the cooling even though it's gonna be bigger - the Broadwell i7 was notoriously loud/hot making me doubt a 10cm longer case w/ bigger fan would cut it. And the price might be too much for me - worth to build a bigger more powerful mini-ITX then w/ a proper heatsink.
 
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