[Success] GIGABYTE Z370 Gaming 7 + Intel Core i7-8700K + RX 580 + (2x) Dell P2715Q 4k @ 60Hz

[HackaShaq]

Great info, thanks @scottkendall

 

[HackaShaq]

There are some boot arguments that fix DRM. However, they do not work in Big Sur, and last I read there are no intentions of fixing it. There is another solution and that is to use iMac Pro 1,1 system definition.

I lucked out and the DRM solution for purchased movies not playing at all in Catalina on. the tv.app was an absolutely SIMPLE fix with Catalina.

Here's the fix if anyone has this issue with this build and the RX580:

1. Just be sure to have the latest WhateverGreen.kext download here
2. Go to Clover Configurator and open your config.plist on your EFI boot drive.
3. In Clover Configurator, select Boot from the left sidebar and in the box for Arguments under Boot Arguments (Right-Click Context Menu) just click the + icon to add a new entry.
4. For that entry line, enter the following: shikigva=16
5. Save your config.plist and reboot.

That's it. Didn't need to spoof the board or anything, just that one little boot argument and DRM/purchased videos were back playing perfectly. This is awesome.

Special thanks to @tecnicasopr and the folks over in this thread here for their wisdom and insight.



Love the easy fixes.

 

[scottkendall]

I lucked out and the DRM solution for purchased movies not playing at all in Catalina on. the tv.app was an absolutely SIMPLE fix with Catalina.

Here's the fix if anyone has this issue with this build and the RX580:

1. Just be sure to have the latest WhateverGreen.kext download here
2. Go to Clover Configurator and open your config.plist on your EFI boot drive.
3. In Clover Configurator, select Boot from the left sidebar and in the box for Arguments under Boot Arguments (Right-Click Context Menu) just click the + icon to add a new entry.
4. For that entry line, enter the following: shikigva=16
5. Save your config.plist and reboot.

That's it. Didn't need to spoof the board or anything, just that one little boot argument and DRM/purchased videos were back playing perfectly. This is awesome.

Special thanks to @tecnicasopr and the folks over in this thread here for their wisdom and insight.



Love the easy fixes.

Depends on what you want to work I guess I have seen at least 3 or 4 shikigva arguments that people used. If you only need Apple TV might be easier then if you are trying to get Apple TV, Netflix, and other streaming services. I found out early on that systems that do not have IGPU in the real Mac work best. So Mac Pro 6,1/7,1 iMac Pro 1,1 are three of the best but 6,1 does not support HEVC encoding and I have been using iMac Pro 1,1 for so long no reason to change to 7,1. However, as far as I know there is no solution for DRM content in Big Sur outside of using iMac Pro and Mac Pro 7,1 as 6,1 is no longer supported.

 

[trs96]

as 6,1 is no longer supported.

Apple still supports the late 2013 TC Mac Pro. You can install Big Sur on them.
It's because they support Metal 2 and have TH2 + AMD FirePro graphics cards.
Every other Mac that only has TH1 ports got dropped.

You can install macOS Big Sur on any of these Mac models.
This list will be updated as other compatible models become available.

 

[scottkendall]

Apple still supports the late 2013 TC Mac Pro. You can install Big Sur on them.
It's because they support Metal 2 and have TH2 + AMD FirePro graphics cards.
Every other Mac that only has TH1 ports got dropped.

You can install macOS Big Sur on any of these Mac models.
This list will be updated as other compatible models become available.

View attachment 510694

Humm. I tried to use that system profile recently, and it told me that Big Sur was not supported.

 

[trs96]

Humm. I tried to use that system profile recently, and it told me that Big Sur was not supported.

I had thought the trashcan would for sure be dropped and the Late 2013 iMac would still be supported. It was the opposite. The only Mac that still uses Nvidia graphics that has Big Sur support is the Late 2013 MacBook Pro. That seems rather strange too. I think they drew the cutoff line at Macs with Thunderbolt II ports. All that are still supported, except the 2013 MBA, have those. The 2013 MBP did get TH2 ports but has a kepler mobile GK107 GPU in it.

Macs released during 4 different years, 2013,14,15 and 2017 are the oldest Macs with Big Sur support. Probably the first time that has ever happened for a new macOS release.

 

[Svart]

I upgraded this build to Catalina last night.

I could do another write up if necessary. It didn't go as smoothly as I thought. I did the standard kext patch for USB devices/ports for Catalina, but after the initial install reboot, the Catalina install got about half way I got nothing but a black screen. (Computer was working fine, just no video out at all.) The good news was that this appears to be a common issue.

The good news is that after a bit of googling and searching here last night, I found a solution. The solution was the following:

1. Download the latest version of WhateverGreen.kext and simply drop it in the "Other" folder insider of your CLOVER EFI from your boot drive (the location where all the other kexts for this build reside inside "Other").

WhateverGreen.kext download here

2. Inject ATI and add the following "agdpmod=pikera" bootflag to your config.plist file with Clover Configurator.
Solution and how to, was thanks to users like @peanutismint here fromthis thread/post.

That was it, but it was a tough nut to crack when you can't see anything. LOL

Moral of the story is to ALWAYS have a quality bootable backup drive.

After fixing this issue, I've tested out Catalina for a whopping 2-3 hours max, and so far so good. No sleep/wake issues. And in fact the machine wakes up almost instantly now.

I currently just need to figure out a solution to playing DRM content in the new tv.app. (All the movies I purchased in iTunes/AppStore previously won't play. Screen starts to go black, and then it instantly bounces back out to the menu and doesn't play. Has to be a DRM issue I'm sure. No worries, I'll figure it out.)

But all in all, I now have this build running the absolute latest version of Catalina. So fear not, anyone thinking about upgrading.

I think I'll rest the machine on Catalina here for a while, and don't plan on upgrading to Big Sure anytime soon. This Catalina upgrade should fight off any apps that require a more modern OS than High Sierra for a few years.

Feels new, snappy, and man, that background photo of Catalina island as a new desktop background is simply gorgeous.

Hi HackaShaq,

I got a very similar build and if you want to try out OC check out my EFI folder here. Everything works pretty flawless, also DRM is no problem. Currently very happy with Catalina, I also installed BigSur but the system freezes at some time not sure where the problem is.

cheers

 

[HackaShaq]

My current build has Catalina running like a champ.
I'm running macOS 10.15.7 to be exact.

I have been making bootable backups with SuperDuper as I always have in the past. My backup is just an SSD I pop into a USB 3 docking station. I use SuperDuper to clone it, and ensure that the source EFI is also copied over (manually) to the backup EFI, so it's Hackintosh bootable.

But I noticed an oddity and then a major issue:

• Catalina now separates the boot volume into "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - data"
• You will only see the Macintosh HD on the desktop.
• After making a bootable clone of "Macintosh HD" via SuperDuper (Called "Macintosh HD Backup" for example), I would then eject it from the desktop and then power off the docking station.
• When I did, I would get the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" alert that "Macintosh HD Backup - data" was removed improperly. It was still virtually mounted (but hidden) I guess.
• No worries, I figured I could just go into Disk Utility select "Macintosh HD Backup - data" then click "Unmount" and remove then turn off the docking station.
• This worked. No more alert it was not ejected properly. Great.
• However, that warning made me want to test my backup to make sure it was actually bootable.
• It's not.
• When I reboot and choose the backup EFI from the backup volume, I get to the Clover boot loader just fine, I now can select from either ""Macintosh HD" or "Macintosh HD Backup" to boot from, and when I select "Macintosh HD Backup" I see the Apple logo and then nothing. No progress bar initiates, and that's it. It sill just stay like this indefinitely. No ability to boot from the backup at all.

There was no message in SuperDuper saying anything was wrong.

I paid for SuperDuper, but figured it might be best to do a trial of CarbonCopyCloner, and tried this. Formatted the backup SSD to APFS and then did a CCC-based clone. All messages said everything went well with CCC, rebooted and selected the backup EFI to boot from and the backup HD for macOS and the same thing happened. Can view the Clover boot loader, and when I select the backup drive to boot from, the Apple logo appears and then nothing, no progress bar ever and it doesn't boot.

I even tried a different USB docking station, and still the same issue.
I can technically create a bootable backup (I think) using CCC or SuperDuper.

So I can't actually boot from the backup in Catalina.

Anyone run into this issue and solve it? My system is running perfectly now, but I never want to be the trapeze artist without a net and really need a bootable backup.

Any help/info is appreciated, thanks.

 

[NCMacGuy]

So I can't actually boot from the backup in Catalina.

Anyone run into this issue and solve it? My system is running perfectly now, but I never want to be the trapeze artist without a net and really need a bootable backup.

Any help/info is appreciated, thanks.

@HackaShaq

Perhaps booting with verbose mode would help give a clue why/where booting hangs.

I'm using OC 0.6.6 so can't help with Clover. I did see this type of hang on another hack running Big Sur and OC that I solved by changing a security setting, which I don't believe has an equivalent in Clover. So that's no help.

My experience with Carbon Copy Cloner with versions of macOS until Big Sur has always been excellent. Apple introduced some things (bugs?) in Big Sur that make cloning more complicated, but cloning still works.

I never had any problems with CCC under Catalina keeping a fully bootable (and exact) clone of both the OS and data portions of a boot drive.

Knowing your desire to keep with something that is stable and works, it still might be time to look at trying OpenCore 0.6.6. OpenCore seems to be the future with hackintoshes, and in my experience has been very stable.

 

[HackaShaq]

Thanks for the suggestion and info @NCMacGuy

Thankfully, after much testing I was able to figure out why my Catalina bootable backup wouldn't boot. It was all due to how I formatted the drive. I thought I needed to just format it as APFS. Nope. This is probably common knowledge to most, but I'm a dope so I'll describe this in detail for any other dopes like me that can't figure this out, or find it via googling.

Problem: Catalina Bootable Backup made with either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner would not boot when inserted into a USB external enclosure

Description: ​

I could easily make backups with SuperDuper, just how I always did. I got no errors making a clone of the startup disk in previous versions of macOS High Sierra or Mojave. However, with Catalina 10.15.7 (w/Security Update), when actually trying to boot from a bootable backup SSD in an external USB3 enclosure, the system would not boot and be stuck on the Apple logo with no progress bar ever.​

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Looks like this...forever:​

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I thought this might have been an issue with SuperDuper, being that Catalina introduces a virtual separation of the boot drive into "Mac Pro" and "Mac Pro - Data" but I tried cloning my boot drive with Carbon Copy Cloner as well, and I ran into the exact same issue. (This was actually good thing...it wasn't SuperDuper's fault.)​

​

After numerous tests I thought it might be the USB enclosure itself, and tried a different one. Nope. Still no go. I thought it might be related to System Integration Protection so I turned this off and tried again, and it was unsuccessful.​

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To avoid the enclosure completely, I simply pulled my backup SSD out of the enclosure and physically installed the backup SSD directly inside the computer via a SATA cable, (no enclosure) and that worked! So hey, I felt better that I had a workaround, and since the case I bought just flips open from the side, this is actually easy if I ever need to boot from the backup. But I wanted to use my enclosure.​

​

And after carefully looking at Disk Utility, I saw my blunder. I was selecting the parent drive in the side bar, and then choosing APFS as the scheme, when I actually first needed to select GUID for the parent drive/enclosuer, and then format again as APFS for the actual disk container. Formatting as APFS only caused this issue.​

Solution: First format your Parent Drive (Enclosure) in Disk Utility as a GUID Partition Map, and *then* Format the Container diskX as APFS

Step 1. Pop in your backup hard drive or SSD into your enclosure and prepare it for formatting.​

​

Step 2. My Enclosure is listed as "JMicron Generic Media" below. I highlighted this, entered the name "Mac Pro Backup", selected the format "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and selected "GUID Partition Map" (not APFS!)​

​

See this was my issue all along. I knew Catalina needed APFS, so I incorrectly selected the parent "JMicron Generic Media" and formatted as APFS when this is wrong. My mistake here. I'm a dope. Don't be like me. ​

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Step 3. After the parent/enclosure gets formatted as "GUID Partition Map" it will show as such when selected.​

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Step 4. Now highlight the Container disk (in my case it was listed as "Container disk7" and once that drive is highlighted, select Erase from the top menu, and for the format here is where your select APFS.​

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Step 5. After clicking the Erase button, you will now see that the Container disk is APFS Container.

Step 6. Now you can backup/clone your startup disk with SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner and it will work as planned. While cloning your startup disk, the "Mac Pro Backup - Data" virtual portion will be created automatically. My screen shot was taken after it was already created.

That was the fix!

NOTE: Oddly enough, when booting from this backup SSD in my enclosure, it will take MUCH longer to see the progress bar after the Apple logo appears. At first I thought it was still unbeatable, but I let it go for about two minutes, and then finally the process bar appeared. So be a bit patient.

Again, these steps might be common knowledge to most, but formatting the parent drive as APFS also made "successful" bootable backup clones in CCC and SuperDuper, but they were actually never really bootable when placed in my enclosure. Most confusing since there were no error messages. Again, likely because of new restrictions Apple has placed on booting from USB.

This is likely not even a Hackintosh issue, but rather a new Catalina issue when creating bootable backups and booting from USB enclosures.

Hope this helps someone who may have the same issue.