Lenovo X1 Carbon 3rd Generation Dual boot with High Sierra and Windows 10 Pro.
This is NOT a guide…
Hi all, I've recently succeeded in installing High Sierra on my Lenovo X1 Carbon 3rd Generation and wanted to share my struggles and eventual success.
My X1 Carbon is a 20BT-X016US built in 2015. It has an i5-5300k and Integrated HD Graphics 5500. 256gb M.2 HD and 8gb of soldered ram. Only upgrade was the LCD panel which was originally TFT 1080p but now it is an IPS 1080.
I initially followed JCSnider's guide for Yosemite but was using the High Sierra Install downloaded from Apple, however, I was unable to even load the installer. I may have messed something up with Clover config or maybe High Sierra requires different settings. I then tried the new Unibeast 8.0 which worked amazingly. The BIOS was set as per JCSnider's guide with some tweaks that I don't quite remember but which included turning off the fingerprint reader, disabling security chip and disabling internal HD tampering protection. I also changed Video memory to 512 and changed USB to AUTO instead of 2.0. I would recommend following the most current High Sierra installation guide
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ierra-on-any-supported-intel-based-pc.235474/. (This is the guide I used)
Since I am Dual booting Windows 10 and High Sierra, I decided that after loading the installer, and just prior to formatting my internal disk, to partition in half, one MS DOS and the other for High Sierra.
After installation with the Unibeast boot USB, I created a boot EFI on my hard disk using the latest clover. Only kexts used in Clover Boot EFI Kexts Folder were the latest version of USBInjectAll, PS2VoodooController, FakeSMC and IntelMausiEthernet. I had initially tried using Multibeast but initial versions of Multibeast did not work with APFS file system, which is why I resorted to using Clover, but the new Multibeast for APFS is now out and should work. Eventually I added ACPIBatterymanager kext once I patched my DSDT.
Post installation tweaks involved using VoodooHDA-2.9.0 V10 for Audio (Sierra install) and Installing USB wifi adapter (cheap $8 Edimax EW-7811Un) with drivers and utility application from their website. I also patched my DSDT as per Rehabman's Patching guide. I was able to then get the battery meter after the patch. I tried patching LCD backlight but I failed and it since it wasn’t that much of an issue/concern for me, I gave up.
Lastly, throughout this entire process, I had struggled to get my HD5500 graphics to be recognized. I made the mistake of assuming that since my DVMT listed on Windows 10 was 128mb then I wouldn't have to worry about patching the Pre-allocated DVMT. I was wrong. I never quite figured out my actual Pre-Allocated DVMT size but the patch for the 32mb frame buffer size worked. The patch is included in Rehabman's Intel HD graphics Config files. I simply copied some of his config set-up to fit mine. I now have Intel HD Graphics 5500 with 1536 MB running well on my machine. Throughout the process of patching my Config file with clover, I learned that my Fake ID for IntelGFX was 0x12345678, but it needed to end with 0x....8086. After this change my Laptop would not load as this now finally truly injected Intel Graphics but the patch was not working... I later learned that I needed to check off, in System Parameters, "No Caches" in order for my patches to take effect.
Intel HD Graphics 5500 Summary for X1 Carbon Config: (not a guide but some important info)
1. Used Rehabman's Config-HD5500.plist as reference as it has the needed ACPI and Kexts patches.
2. I used the lower 6 ACPI patches which may or may not have helped but there was no harm done.
3. Under Devices, I changed my Intel GFX fake ID to one ending in 8086 to allow for injection of Intel Graphics.
4. Under Graphics, I checked off Inject Intel and the Ig-Platform ID worked on both 0x16260006 and 0x16160002 but I ended up using 0x16160002 as it was brighter.
5. In KextsToPatch: be sure to use the AppleintelBDWGraphicsFramebuffer patch.
6. Rt-Variables – Initially set CsrActiveConfig 0x67 but now after all is done, I’ve reset it back to 0x3.
7. SMBIO – I used Macbook Pro 12,1
8. In System Parameters, I checked off “No Caches” for two boot cycles to allow for patches to take effect. Then I unchecked “no caches.”
What still doesn’t work:
1. LCD backlight control
2. Internal Intel WIFI card (I’m using USB Dongle but considering buying wifi card but I’ve read that there is none that work with both Windows 10 and MacOS…)
3. Trackpoint – Sometimes it works, and when it does, it’s too fast and jittery. I’ve read to use Tluck’s version of PS2 Controller, which I believe I am using, but still only works intermittently and still very jittery.
4. Trackpad advanced multi gestures: The track pad works great but lacks some of the more advanced gestures. I bet I just need to find the correct kext as it had been working initially but after never ending tweaking on my end, the advanced gestures don’t work to it’s full capacity.
5. HDMI Audio Out. I used VoodooHDDA after failing with Patching and CloverALC… Everything else works great but HDMI Audio out does not work.
6. Unable to connect to 802.X on-campus Certificate requiring Wi-Fi. Still need to troubleshoot as it may be an issue with High Sierra itself and my Universities Wi-Fi.
Overall, this was a very difficult learning curve. 1 month prior to this venture, I had easily installed High Sierra on my first Hackintosh Desktop, which was built using known compatible hardware, and it took about 1-2 hours to complete. Installing on X1 Carbon to work almost perfectly is still ongoing… But after 2 weeks of about 4 hour days, I’ve given in and will keep it as is. It works great and I’m very happy. All of the information I needed to get to this point was available on this forum but it was scattered. I would love to have made a guide for the X1 but I made so many mistakes and changes along the way that I wouldn’t be able to make a trustworthy/reliable guide.
Good luck to all who venture in this journey and thank you to all who continue to post and help others.