Dell 7020 - Using only onboard HD4600 GPU - Build Files and Overview for the experienced. 4k ready.

[lofidub]

But of course it all depends on per-use case and on what part of the performance spectrum we are trying to max out. In my case I need the fastest WRITE I could get for live audio recording latency purposes.

How many channels of audio and at what sample rate are you recording? I was using the SFF 9020 with my interface and extra ADAT so 8-16 channels coming in and a few going out as sends and monitors and it was fine on a SSD, I switched to a NVME (since I had a spare) but the SSD was plenty fast enough.

 

[martin44]

Yes they are SMALL (see the photo below, please ignore my setup mess) Well, thanks to this guide, and the original, I seem to have a working install. 4 of the 6 USB3 ports work (one on the front, 3 on the rear. The "bottom" one, front and rear don't work?), after turning them on again in the bios. Sound and sleep seem to function fine. I'm going to get an i7 and an m.2 SSD at some future date. I'll also add another 8gb to give the max on these of 16gb. Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

PeteView attachment 434394

Trying to get either Mojave or Catalina installed on my Optiplex 9020 i7-4875t with HD4600. Unfortunately installer gets stuck every time. Completed all steps in order, including A19 BIOS with UEFI offsets adjusted for lock disable and 96MB iGPU, kexts and patches. Tried your tips on the USB ports also. Could you share your EFI for the installer please?

Thanks, Martin

 

[nicksoph]

Hi @martin44 , Ive not got one of these micro's so may be unable to help much - Where during the install process does it hang? Try different ports and USB sticks (stick with USB 2 drives and Mojave just because that simplifies and the Catalina upgrade is painless) and ensure you are using the Clover version as described in this thread (including putting it on the USB). If you post your USB's EFI/Clover folder as a zip I'll take a look to see if there is anything you might have missed. How does the BIOS compare with the descriptions on here for the bigger machines?

 

[StSc]

Does anyone have 2560x1440 as HiDPI with a 4k Display?

 

[martin44]

Hi @martin44 , Ive not got one of these micro's so may be unable to help much - Where during the install process does it hang? Try different ports and USB sticks (stick with USB 2 drives and Mojave just because that simplifies and the Catalina upgrade is painless) and ensure you are using the Clover version as described in this thread (including putting it on the USB). If you post your USB's EFI/Clover folder as a zip I'll take a look to see if there is anything you might have missed. How does the BIOS compare with the descriptions on here for the bigger machines?

Hi @nicksoph, thank you for your reply and help. I have been trying for two weeks now. To answer you questions:

• Mojave: The process stalls as part of the USB installer before any user options are displayed.
  • "Warning: IOPlatformPluginUtil : get CPUIDInfo: this is an unknown CPU model 0x3c
  • DSMOS has arrived;
  • Unsupported CPU;
  • Unsupported PCH;
  • hmm.. mismatch sizes 3100 vs 20;
  • ... ;
  • AppleHDAEngineOutput...
  • ControlID: 5, coreAudioChannelID =1 FRONT LEFT..."
  • and then the screen goes black, a pause and then monitor loses signal.
• Initially I spent most of my time with Catalina, however understand your point that Mojave should be easier and tried a couple of time again today with different changes.
• Catalina: Similar stage as Mojave:
  • "Lilu: user @ failed to change memory protection (0, 2);" <-- used to be (0, 3) before BIOS offsets etc.
  • ...;
  • DSMOS has arrived;
  • GTrace Synchronization point 4;
  • Unsupported CPU;
  • Unsupported PCH;
  • hmm.. mismatch sizes 3100 vs 20;
  • ...
  • IOConsoleUsers: gIOScreenLockState 3, hs 0, bs 0, now 0, sm 0x0;
  • _dlil_attach_flowswitch_nexus: en0 9000 1500;
• I tried setting different iGPU id's etc. There might one or two more variations that I can try if that might be the problem.
• For the USB: I tried the top port at the back, 3rd port at the back, and top port in front as these seemed to work for others. Tried different USB3 sticks (Patriot, Sandisk) and USB2. Disabled the unnecessary ports as pointed out by others above.
• BIOS A19 is latest available for my machine. I could Password Protect MEBx. Loaded defaults with USB inserted. BIOS settings and options are very similar to what is described and shown with two exceptions:
  • There is no Video Option:
    Video
    Primary Display
    (.) Intel HD Graphics
    I did BIOS dump to find offset and adjusted CFG Lock at 0xD9F and DVMT at 0x263 for my A19 BIOS.
  • I had to untick the following option as the DP won't output otherwise. Just for luck, I tried the VGA port once; but understand this is generally a no go.
    Advanced Boot Options
    [ x ] Enable Legacy Option Roms - Selected (May be set like this by default)
• I attach my EFI folder. Uneducated question, what files or folder on the USB do you need for clover? All files are c.50MB and not sure if that is what you require? For confirmation, I used and installed Clover_v2.4k_r4961-UEFI to USB after creating with Unibeast 9.3 for Mojave and 10 for Catalina. Happy to provide what you need.

Thanks for looking into my setup. Cheers, Martin

 

[trs96]

Thanks for looking into my setup.

Hi Martin, thought I'd comment on some very obvious issues in your Clover folder. You've got duplicate and conflicting drivers in the drivers64UEFI and driversUEFI folders. One of these represents drivers for a Clover version before 5xxx and one that is newer. So you have to go with one or the other depending on the version of Clover you're using. You also don't want VBoxHFS and HFSPlus.efi loading at the same time. If you are using Clover r5102 you should only be using the driversUEFI folder below (shown as UEFI). Not the drivers64UEFI. Delete the whole drivers64UEFI folder and try to boot again. Clover Devs dropped the "64" part because only 64 bit apps work in Catalina now. Not any reason to designate it as 64.

Here is an excellent read on the topic of differnces in the file structure when you go from v2.4 Clover to v2.5.

How to Update Clover v2.4k r4xxx to v2.5k r5xxx (v2.4k r4972 to v2.5 r5018 example)

I really like to update Clover every time I update to a new version of Mac OS to help prevent issues. For 10.14.6 however, the Clover update would not work. I eventually found out that there are changes in Clover v2.5k that do not allow simple updating from v2.4k – detailed in a post by Slice...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[nicksoph]

@martin44 - Looking at the MadSundays notes, Trs96 reply and guessing a bit, my thinking is this will work once we get the USB's working and if I had this problem I would;

Re-prepare a Unibeast USB for Mojave following the instructions in this thread, (ie go with the older versions of Clover and the old file structure)
Remove the /ACPI/patched/SSDT-USB.aml File and leave everything else including
USBInjectAll as it is with the intention that USBInjectAll will give us what we need to boot from and we can try and fix later.

Ive noticed my config.plist is set to display Clover at 4k res - 3840x2160 - best change that to 1920x1080 - I will alter the file on this thread when Im next at a mac.

Once those changes are made - check the BIOS settings and install again - making sure at each and EVERY reboot you go into the BIOS and remove any BOOT entries that say 'OSX' or 'MAC'

Some concern about the BIOS changes here but lets leave that to later - they are not needed except to get 4k and as they are, they should get you 1920x1080 and if we get that far, its a good place to work on the rest from.

 

[trs96]

Once those changes are made - check the BIOS settings and install again - making sure at each and EVERY reboot you go into the BIOS and remove any BOOT entries that say 'OSX' or 'MAC'

I finally got some good clear screenshots of how to remove the Mac OS X entry in the BIOS. You are welcome to put them into your post #1 for your readers to view. I'd like to understand why these Dells do this. Only happens when Legacy Option ROMs are enabled. It's one of the reasons I like to disable that if at all possible.

Before:

After:

Don't forget to apply the changes after you delete the Mac OS X entry. If you don't save the changes, nothing will happen.

 

[trs96]

Does anyone have 2560x1440 as HiDPI with a 4k Display?

Monitors look the best scaled to 2560 x 1440 when they are 16:9 aspect and 5K. That's why Apple went to all the trouble to make the Late 2014 iMac 5K instead of just 4K. The one person that has reported getting really sharp text at a 1440p resolution used a Dell UltraSharp UP2715K. One of the first 5K monitors on the market not produced by Apple. 5120 x 2880 is an exact doubling of 2560 x 1440. That's why text looks the best/sharpest. The one required boot flag needed to make this work on a 5K display with an OptiMac is:

agdpmod=pikera boot flag. You need to use both DP 1.2 outputs on the Optiplex to get this.

Here's an image from the Dell UP2715K Manual:

These monitors can only be found used and are more expensive than newer 4K monitors. The extra money may be worth it if you are looking at a monitor all day long reading text or coding. Each individual needs to make their decision based on how they will use it.

 

[nicksoph]

Only happens when Legacy Option ROMs are enabled

That's interesting, I'd never made that connection, I'd thought it was always changed by the OSX install. Thanks for the pics, Ill use them in OP.