[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[jiffyslot]

Well, this is awkward. My EFI "broke" early Saturday afternoon. Upon restart or cold boot, I get the dreaded Ø "prohib symbol" after Clover loads and immediately after the Apple logo shows up. My backup EFI USB sticks and my Mojave installer's EFI also yields the dreaded Ø "prohib symbol" after Clover loads. My backup SSDs created months ago –stored safely away– also will not boot. Before, I could always wipe an EFI partition and unzip a known-good safety and I could be up and running in 10 minutes. Something else is going on, for sure.

I've reset/shorted the CMOS pins, and I have loaded the F9b's Optimized Defaults (the regular setup we all do) but nothing works except for one old EFI stick. I've mounted each SSD's EFI and erased whatever polluted contents of these EFI's and I'm trying to start over with (Mojave) Multibeast since I can't launch the OS installer. My F12 key has been getting quite a workout.

I didn't "do anything wrong" to the boot disk's EFI. I wonder if it's BIOS rot or something. (I haven't been able to generate Problem Reporting Files via F2, etc. -The destination folder is always empty- This is new.) I did manage to get a photo of the BIOS boot screen before things went totally upside down. -It was taking a long time to reboot.

If anyone has some advice, I'd appreciate it. I'm back in 2018! PS: Please and thank you.

 

[CaseySJ]

Yesterday I went on and tried the above.
At first reboot upon resetting the CMOS it worked. I had saved a BIOS profile so I just had to reload that without drilling through the settings
Then I checked for MSR 0xE2 and it was locked, so I went through the ordeal of unlocking it and it worked fine for a couple reboots, but then the card did not show up anymore.

Also the behaviour of TB3 ports is not consistent (and it won't always show up in System Profile). Yesterday I plugged in a drive and it only showed up at reboot (cold plug), while the iPad Pro 2020 I have connected USB-C to USB-C (data) won't show up as a video capture device in quicktime.

I'm happy I gave it another shot, but while this machine is stable enough to use software and run a GPU, it proved unreliable when it comes to running multiple expansions and a lot of USB devices.
I have noticed that if no USB device is plugged in (not even keyboard/mouse) there are more chances of this card showing up and the iPad working as video source over TB3.

I'll order my Mac Pro when I return from my holiday
Thank you for the effort, Casey.
Much appreciated

You're quite welcome. At least you gave it a try. While most devices work very well on Hackintosh, some do not. Apple's Macs are always an excellent choice in cases like this.

 

[CaseySJ]

Thank you for the quick response and confirmation!
I also followed the Handoff and is now working!

In regards to Thunderbolt, I'll leave my BIOS pics below. I couldn't find anything from vF8.
I did find this guide, but it seems like I need something right before it. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...700k-amd-rx-580.267551/page-1768#post-2095044

What you meant by files in the CLOVER/ACPI/patched folder? Did you mean within my EFI on my bootdisk? I'll leave the screenshot of that below as well.


How do I implement these KEXTS to my OpenCore EFI folder to activate the 2nd ethernet?

So you're using OpenCore, not Clover? In that case, please follow the OpenCore Mini-Guide located here (from the top of Post #1):

 

[CaseySJ]

It has not been unlocked. I think its writing ram files on my HD. how do I unlock it?

Please see top of Post #1:

 

[svandive]

Are they insane? Is this the same group of people that are developing OpenCore? If Apple shuts them down, how will that affect future OpenCore development?

'OpenCore Computer' Launches Commercial Hackintosh in Violation of Apple's macOS Licensing Agreement [Updated]

Update: The developers of the OpenCore Bootloader have released a statement regarding the unauthorized use of the OpenCore name. We at Acidanthera...

www.macrumors.com

View attachment 475912

This has been tried and shut down before, a couple of different companies have tried to bring commercial Hackintoshes to the market and they have been pounced on with a ton of lawyers.... bad move here...

 

[CaseySJ]

Thank you, Casey, for putting together this guide. I just finished this build using OC 0.5.9 and everything is working like a real Mac. I built my own SSDTs and USBMap.kext and the system has been rock solid. I used your TB-V4 SSDT, and that's been working great using my 4K TB monitor and Caldigit. But, now, I've read about 100 pages of info on flashing the TB control with the modified ROM. Now, I have a few questions before I commit to this.

I am thinking of using RP4 to flash my Designare TB controller to enable TB Bus.
1. Will there be any speed benefit of doing this flash? Currently, my TB controller is working at 2.5GT/s. Will I get the full 40Gbps?

I think for the most part we can ignore "2.5GT/s". If "Link Width" says "x4" then you're okay. Even with flashed firmware we see "Link Speed = 2.5GT/s" in System Information --> PCI.

2. Will there be any downside? Such as not being able to use TB in Windows 10 dual boot? Or potential instability? I use this as a production machine, so stability is the key. Will be purchasing Apollo interface soon.

This is addressed at the top of each Thunderbolt DROM Micro-Guide. Namely, Thunderbolt will not work under Windows unless we boot macOS first and then warm boot into Windows.
[/quote]
3. If I remember correctly, after flashing the ROM, I will need to remove the SSDT-Z390-Designare-TB3HP-V4. Do I need a different SSDT to enable the bus? Or will it work out of the box?[/quote]
Thunderbolt Bus will work without replacing the existing SSDT, but other parts of Thunderbolt will be improperly configured. Replacing the SSDT is required in order to set up the controller properly.

4. If I am not adding any additional TB card, I won't need to tinker with the unique ID for my TB interface, correct?

Technically correct.

5. Will this process be completely reversible?

Yes, it's completely reversible. One of the first steps in the flashing procedure is to read the existing firmware 3 times into 3 different files. Not only does this ensure that we're reading the file correctly (if checksums match), but it provides a backup of the original firmware.

The Supplemental Procedure for flashing Thunderbolt firmware is highly recommended. It's in the Quick Reference spoiler at the top of Post #1.

 

[CaseySJ]

Well, this is awkward. My EFI "broke" early Saturday afternoon. Upon restart or cold boot, I get the dreaded Ø "prohib symbol" after Clover loads and immediately after the Apple logo shows up. My backup EFI USB sticks and my Mojave installer's EFI also yields the dreaded Ø "prohib symbol" after Clover loads. My backup SSDs created months ago –stored safely away– also will not boot. Before, I could always wipe an EFI partition and unzip a known-good safety and I could be up and running in 10 minutes. Something else is going on, for sure.

I've reset/shorted the CMOS pins, and I have loaded the F9b's Optimized Defaults (the regular setup we all do) but nothing works except for one old EFI stick. I've mounted each SSD's EFI and erased whatever polluted contents of these EFI's and I'm trying to start over with (Mojave) Multibeast since I can't launch the OS installer. My F12 key has been getting quite a workout.

I didn't "do anything wrong" to the boot disk's EFI. I wonder if it's BIOS rot or something. (I haven't been able to generate Problem Reporting Files via F2, etc. -The destination folder is always empty- This is new.) I did manage to get a photo of the BIOS boot screen before things went totally upside down. -It was taking a long time to reboot.

If anyone has some advice, I'd appreciate it. I'm back in 2018! PS: Please and thank you.

Ouch! Some immediate suggestions:

• The screenshot indicates the presence of TbtForcePower.efi. This driver does not work on the Designare Z390 and should be removed.
• Enable Verbose at the Clover Boot Menu in either of 2 ways:
  • Press spacebar and select Verbose from the menu
  • Select Options. Boot Arguments should be the first item in the menu. Press Enter to begin editing the arguments. Use right-arrow key to move cursor to the end of the string and type -v
    • Then press Esc
  • Select the macOS disk and boot...any hints on screen?

 

[verendus]

Thunderbolt Bus will work without replacing the existing SSDT, but other parts of Thunderbolt will be improperly configured. Replacing the SSDT is required in order to set up the controller properly.

Wow, didn't expect such a prompt response. How do you have time to compile and share all this knowledge and then provide individual support? So generous of you. Hate to take advantage of your kindness, but could I confirm that the new SSDT I will need to replace the older one is SSDT-TBOLT3-RP05-V3.alm?

Huge thanks to you in advance!

Ver

 

[CaseySJ]

Wow, didn't expect such a prompt response. How do you have time to compile and share all this knowledge and then provide individual support? So generous of you. Hate to take advantage of your kindness, but could I confirm that the new SSDT I will need to replace the older one is SSDT-TBOLT3-RP05-V3.alm?

Huge thanks to you in advance!

Ver

Correct, except that the file extension is .aml instead of .alm. Just a typo, I know. AML = ACPI Machine Language.

Enabling Thunderbolt Bus through a firmware flash incurs risk of electrical and physical damage. Near-sighted individuals have the advantage here, but they should remove corrective lenses in order to focus their eyes more easily and without fatigue when attaching the SOIC clip. Far-sighted individuals should, of course, wear corrective lenses or delegate the clipping/unclipping task to someone one. Steady hands are also necessary because there are tiny surface mount resistors in the immediate vicinity that may be dislodged if the SOIC clip strikes them.

It's very important to read the relevant guides two or three times in advance. Shortcuts can lead to disaster. Impatience can lead to disaster. Frustration can lead to disaster.

After attaching the SOIC clip, if the Winbond chip is not readable for any reason, do not force it. Try very gently to reseat the SOIC clip, and if the problem persists STOP immediately and let us know. Take a coffee break or even call it a day and resume the next morning. This gives time to decompress and reflect on what might be going wrong.

Remember, most people will encounter chip-read failures, but they will eventually figure out the solution. If you use the simple circuit board with a single resistor and capacitor (please see Quick Reference Guide, section 8.2.6 -- I'll let you figure out where that section is ) you should have the least amount of difficulty. But if you take a shortcut (i.e. not use the circuit) you may still succeed, but may run into some difficulty.

And finally, if you succeed, we'll welcome you into the Society of Mad Scientists!

 

[bmoney]

USB dropping out here with 0.7.1 on Mojave. Rolled back to 0.6.9 for s*&ts and giggles- will report any success.

update: same story USB still dropping out . About to give up- I'm used to the PPC macs of yesteryear that used to crash all the time but have never been nostalgic about trying to get work done with them. The siren song of windows beckons.