The only thing I ever personally encountered was back on 10.11, installing ethernet kext on K/O (EFI/Clover) the kext name would not show, and the ethernet port would not always be n0, which could caused issues with iMessage. Placing the kext in the L/E folder would cause everything to show up fine and the ethernet port would always be n0. Moreover, a real mac doesn't load kexts from anywhere else except L/E or S/L/E AFAIK, so why feed it kexts from elsewhere?
Not sure what tests you can run nowadays to prove one or the other, but in case you haven't seen them, check these posts out:
Overview One of the first challenges you'll face in installing OS X to your laptop will involve getting the OS X installer to boot from USB. This guide is for those wishing to use Clover (and in fact the only bootloader supported here). Both installing using Clover UEFI and Clover legacy are...
www.tonymacx86.com
@RehabMan wrote:
"You should install all kexts you need (including FakeSMC, VoodooPS2Controller, etc) to /Library/Extensions (/L/E) or /System/Library/Extensions (/S/L/E) for 10.10.x and prior using a kext installer or Terminal. Think carefully about "kexts you need". For example, if you needed HPRAIDInjector.kext for a SATA chip locked in RAID mode, you'll need to install it in order to boot (without it, the system would be unable to mount root and would get stuck early in the boot process).
Of course, essential kexts should be installed to EFI/Clover/kexts/Other as they are needed to boot the installer (during updates) or the recovery partition.
It is a mistake to install everything to Clover/kexts. Contrary to popular hackintosh myth, it does not result in a cleaner install (the opposite is true). Many kexts will not work from Clover/kexts, so installing them to /S/L/E where they can be included in kernel cache is the best approach.
People often ask me why I install kexts to /S/L/E (or /L/E on 10.11).
I have many reasons:
- placing them in /S/L/E (or /L/E on 10.11+) and including in kernel cache, makes kextcache do a lot of error checking.
- if you develop kexts, error checking is very important!
- some kexts don't work from Clover/kexts (AppleHDA injector, CodecCommander, BrcmFirmware*)
- the idea behind Clover/kexts is to have a set of *stable* and *minimalistic* kexts that will allow booting of the installer/recovery, not full functionality
- so...the kexts there I tend to not update as often and the full set is not there (less unneeded kexts, less problems)
- placing kexts into kernel cache for day-to-day use is "more native" (as it would be on a real Mac) vs. injection (which is very non-Mac) ........."
I tried googling for it but couldn't find it, but years ago I read somewhere that cached kext would load faster than having Clover inject kext each time the system boots. (not sure if that was or still is true, but it could be)
O! and that reminds me, on laptops we would always have that issue with having to load Clover without caches to get the patched audio kext injected into cache and then reboot twice etc... and then redo it if something broke or cache got updated or macOS got update......... That was a crazy mess lol.
Here's another post (which you've probably seen) that also tackles the issue:
Installing 3rd Party Kexts in /Library/Extensions Note: This guide was originally written to support MacOS Mojave and older versions (< r5200) of the Clover boot-loader. The methods detailed here are now considered legacy methods and should only used with older versions of MacOS as detailed...
www.tonymacx86.com
@jaymonkey wrote:
".........
It seems that many users are under the impression that you can simply copy all 3rd Party Kexts into EFI/Clover/kexts/Other and allow Clover to Inject the kexts by setting Clover -> System Parameters -> Inject Kexts to "Yes" which will result in a maintenance free and more native MacOS install.
This assumption is completely wrong ...
[Why should I use /Library/Extensions over Clover Injected kexts ?]
Contrary to Hackintosh myth, having Clover inject all the 3rd party kexts does not result in a cleaner install, in fact the exact opposite is true.
•Injected Kexts live outside of "protected MacOS memory" *
•Injecting a large amount of kexts can result in an unstable system.
•Many 3rd party kexts will not work correctly when injected by Clover.
•Injected Kexts are not included in the kernel cache and thus are excluded form MacOS error checking.
•Installing kexts in /Library/Extensions is the Apple endorsed and recommended location for all 3rd Party kexts.
If you purchase a piece of hardware that requires the installation of a manufactures MacOS driver, the kexts will be installed in /Library/Extensions so why treat hackingtosh kexts any different ?
* Note: I use the term "protected MacOS memory" in this guide as a generic descriptive term. In reality kext's installed in /L/E are loaded into MacOS's kernel memory which is 'protected' (IE: segregated) form application memory and execution memory. Everything running in kernel memory (including kexts) is actively managed and monitored by MacOS. ........."
I'm sure others can chime in and give more info/details of their own experiences regarding this topic
For me personally, I just figure if the veteran hackintoshers advise doing things that way (and it makes logical sense to me), then I should be wise and listen lol.