Note: this guide is for the 12.5 model. The 13 is a different laptop so don't ask me about that.
Hi everybody! I’m not a Pro but I’ve always loved the OS X operating system and I’ll try to help people like me that are not expert and could fail during the installation process. Note: some steps in my guide may be pointless or unnecessary, I did not understand all of the tools used in the hackintosh world and surely I don’t know how to code.. so I’ll keep it simple.
Let’s start with a simple question: if the system isn’t completely working (like we’ll see in a minute) why would you keep OS X Sierra installed? The quick answer is “Final Cut Pro X”. And if you’re a Video Editor/Filmaker you already know why: It’s insanely faster than the other softwares on a low end machine like our poor Core-M device. After I purchased this beautiful notebook I realized that I could’t even edit 1080p footage and I was not so happy about the performances on that field. I’ve put together a quick test for you: five 10 second 4k (GH4) files with light color grading, exposure curves, transitions, stabilization and a simple title. In Sony Vegas and Premiere I had difficulties in editing and choppy playback even with proxies. In Final Cut the performance was perfect: great and fluid experience. Here the export results in 4k 24p h.264:
Premiere: 10:02 minutes.
Sony Vegas: 24:22 minutes. (Are you kidding me!?)
Final Cut Pro X: 1:59 minutes. (55 seconds with Background Render turned on, QuickSync magic. And no, the final image quality is equal to the others)
Let’s go to the point:
What’s working:
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Graphic acceleration
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Sata SSD detected
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Both USB A & C
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Keyboard
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Brightness
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Battery indicator
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HDMI
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Webcam
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Audio: audio is now properly working with AppleALC, codec commander and the IRQ patch to the DSDT.
What’s partially working:
- Audio: I am on VoodooHDA 2.8.9 and have problems with the jack out: I think the driver fails to render the stereo image, it’s like it’s having phase iussues (for example I can’t hear the voice in a song but only instruments). That’s because no matter how I tried the other patches (patched AppleHDA, DSDT or Clover etits) didn’t work. Microphone not recognised.
- Bluetooth: The integrated Bluetooth module was working at first but after a few reboots it stopped randomly. Someone said it's a firmware-loading iussue that I don't know how to fix. Sometimes if I reboot from Windows and then to Sierra works but it's random.
- Trackpad: It works with the uploaded version of VoodooI2C and the DSDT provided at this link (I don't know what they changed): http://www.zdnet.de/88283562/installation-von-macos-10-12-sierra-auf-xiaomi-mi-notebook-air-12-5/
However the sensitivity is not so ok. Even if I set that in the control panel the pointer mooves too slow with short motion on the surface. Note: if you put that in System/Library/Extensions you can't use verbose mode, otherwise you'll get kernel panic. And you must delete AppleIntelLpssI2C.kext and AppleIntelLpssI2CController.kext in System/Library/Extensions.
What’s not working:
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WiFi: and I think will never work. But we can pick an external usb wireless adapter.
What’s not tested:
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NVME SSD: I didn’t upgrade the free slot yet.
What you’ll need:
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Clover Configurator (not the last version, because it didn’t let me choose which EFI partition to mount like the old one)
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Multibeast 8
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Unibeast
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A Mac with OS X Sierra downloaded from the AppStore
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A USB HUB (because you’ll have to use a mouse obviously)
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A USB Drive (I used a 16gb one but maybe 8 will be good too)
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The Kexts (VoodooPS2Controller.kext, USBInjectAll.kext, SATA-100-series-unsupported.kext, IntelBacklight.kext, FakeSMC.kext, FakePCIID_Intel_HD_Graphics.kext, FakePCIID.kext, ACPIBatteryManager.kext).
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Kextbeast
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(copy all of this files in the USB Drive used for the installation, in this way you are ready for later tasks)
Note: currently I’ve installed Sierra on an external hard disk for testing. And that’s because I don’t want to use an OS on a laptop without the trackpad support as my main OS.
Note: for this procedure I didn’t use a DSDT. That’s because its presence didn’t change anything at the end. However it could be necessary to get a fully working trackpad or audio.
Let’s start.
First of all you need to setup your BIOS. Reboot your laptop and press F2 before the Mi logo. In the section “Security” click “Set Supervisor Password” and create a password. After a reboot press F2 one more time and go down until “Secure Boot” (always in the Security section) and disable it.
Now download the latest version of Sierra from the AppStore with your Mac. Run Disk Utility and Format your USB drive in Mac OS Journaled (GUID Partition Table), then run Unibeast and choose UEFI BOOT and Sierra. Now an icon colled “EFI” will appear on your Desktop (if it doesn’t appear, launch clover configurator and in the section “Mount EFI” click “Check Partiotions” on the right, this will show up all EFI partition available; then locate your USB Drive name (for example Disk2S1) thanks to it’s size and click “Mount” selecting the correct disk). At this point go to EFI/CLOVER and open config.plist with Clover Configurator and set up like this:
- In the Acpi section enable Drop OEM_DSM, then click the voice "New Way" and enable New Way and AddPNLF (this will enable Backlight in control panel)
- In the section Boot you must have enabled: Verbose, dart=0, debug=0x100, nv_disable=1.
- In the section Devices enable USB inject and FixOwnership. And put 3 in the audio inject box (i had 1 before)
- In the section Graphics, in the box called ig-platform-id put 0x12345678 (ony used for installation) and enable inject intel, then 0 in Dual Link.
- In kernel and Kext Patches enable Apple RTC.
Save and exit.
Go in EFI/CLOVER/kext and verify you have all the kexts mentioned above (If you don't, you can download everything in this forum when subscribed).
Now plug in your USB Drive with everything ready. Boot again into BIOS and go into the "Boot" section and in the "boot device", pressing F6, raise up your EFI Device, in the place of Windows Boot Manager, confirm pressing enter. Exit pressing F10 to save. Reboot and at the Clover boot-screen select "boot from UniBeast".
After setting up your language click Disk Utility at the top of the screen. Select the drive you want to use for the installation (for example I used an external HDD for this test) and Erase it in Mac OS Extended calling it "MAC". Close Disk Utility and the installation utility will appear again, select the drive you want for the installation and wait about 20 to 30 minutes. Now the system will reboot and this time arrived in the Clover boot-screen you have to choose "Boot Mac OS X from MAC" (graphics driver will fail but it's normal). Complete the installation. Now launch MultiBeast, select UEFI and install on the wanted disk (MAC in my case ). The new disk's EFI will show on the desktop: now open Clover Configurator, mount the EFI of the USB Drive used for the installation.
Now you should have 2 EFI: the first of the installation disk (created now by MultiBeast) and the old EFI you just mounted (of the USB drive used for the installation). Copy the EFI folder of the USB in substitution of the one of the Disk (or you can redo the config.plist another time). Open config.plist in EFI/CLOVER of the disk and follow the steps:
- in the section Graphics in the ig-platform-id, put 0x191e0000
- In the section Kernel and Kext Patches you have to add 3 lines of patch pressing +. 1) In the box name put "AppleUSBXHCIPCI", under find "83BD74FFFFFF10", under replace "83BD74FFFFFF1B", under comment "change 15 port limit to 26". 2) Respectively: AppleIntelSKLGraphicsFramebuffer - 8945C839C67651 - 8945C839C6EB51 - QE/CE 515 - 10.12.x (under MatchOS, empty in the other 2 patches! This bypass the DVMT pre-alloc change of the BIOS). 3) Respectively: AppleAHCIPort - 45787465726E616C - 496E746572E616C - external icons patch
- In the section SMBIOS, click the magic wand, select the MacBook image and then select MacBook 9,1 in the box.
- In the section System Parameters in the box Inject Kexts change it to "Yes".
- In the section Devices add the device: "IntelGFX" (Device)- "AAPL,GfxYTile" (key) - "0100000000" (value) - "data" (value type) (this will fix a graphic glitch)
- Also, make sure that the old changes in Clover Configurator are there. And make sure that all of the kext I listed are in the EFI/CLOVER/KEXT/OTHERS folder.
- Now open the terminal app and type: "defaults write apple.com.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE" (this will show hidden files). Go to MAC/System/Library/Extensions and delete AppleIntelLpssI2C.kext and AppleIntelLpssI2CController.kext.
- Place VoodooHDA version 2.8.9 into the Desktop and run KextBeast.
You are done. One last thing: if you use headphone you'll notice that some element in the mix of some songs is missing and I don't know why, maybe a problem with VoodooHDA. For example, try to listen to Obstacles by Syd Matters and you will not hear the vocal track, but only the instruments. A partial fix to this problem is to go in Audio MIDI Setup and change the volume of one of the two mono channel.
I also tried to run VoodooI2C from the terminal and it froze my entire system, for sure it would give a Kernel Panic if placed in System/Library/Extensions.
If someone is able to get the trackpad working properly we are facing the perfect HackBook. I’ll update the guide in that case.
EFI of the USB drive and EFI of the disk attached below.
UPDATE: there was an error on the old EFI partition (it gives only 2gb of ram). Download EFI HDD FIXED if you have this problem.
UPDATE: Thanks to ninetto for your recommendation. I tried the DSDT of that guide (in EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched) and Voodoo I2C injection from the terminal and it works but it has a bug that make it unusable. I opened a new Iussue here for the developer of this driver: https://github.com/alexandred/VoodooI2C/issues/26
UPDATE: audio is now properly working with AppleALC, codec commander and the IRQ patch to the DSDT.
UPDATE: Bluetooth stops working randomly, no fix known yet.
To inject a kext from the terminal, put VoodooI2C on the Desktop and type in Terminal:
Code:
cd ~/Desktop
sudo chown -R root:wheel VoodooI2C.kext
sudo kextload VoodooI2C.kext
