Hey guys, it’s HackaShaq here! Just checking in after a long absence for a brief update.
I haven’t been around much because this build I made is still my main daily driver machine, and I honestly have no need for a new Mac. I’ve been running Catalina for years now, and this build has been flawless. Best decision I ever made. So that explains why I haven't been following this tread much since this build just works great for me.
Well, I had some time the other day and thought it would be fun to try to update this build to the latest version of macOS Monterey (currently 12.6).
Well, it’s all done:
But here’s the funny thing. I’ve been away from Hackintoshing for so long now that I basically forgot everything. So this update was super simple and surprisingly easy.
I read that most people migrated from Clover to Opencore, and that would be even more of a learning curve for me. I thought about this and kept wavering on the idea of upgrading to Monterey. So instead of learning and digging back in deep, I did the opposite. I cut every corner I could, and jumped right from (clover) macOS Catalina to (open core) macOS Monterey, and got it working easily on this machine with maybe a lot of luck (I think).
Here’s a brief write up in case some people have this build (or a very similar build) and want to run the latest version of macOS Monterey. My working EFI folder is attached at the end, but you just need to enter your own serial number, UUID, etc.
The Basics:
“Good artists borrow, great artists steal” well, for this build, I have to give a major shout out to user
Svart for
his build listed here. This was the first thread I stumbled upon that looked similar to mine, and without this thread (and his generosity in posting his opencore-based EFI folder as an attachment), I would be dead in the water. He was running Big Sur in his example, but I got Monterey working with this EFI as the base. Thanks, Svart!
Once again, I literally don’t know what I’m doing anymore in the hackintosh community, (LOL) and my mind is still stuck in Clover mode. So please assume that there are a million better ways to do this, but this is what worked for me which may assist others. Here we go.
The Dummy's (me) Guide to Updating this Build to macOS Monterey:
If you don’t want to read all of this, just scroll to the end and download my open core-based EFI folder, and open the config.plist file in a text editor like BBEdit to enter in your four unique items based on your machine: serial number, SmUUID, etc. (replace the “XXXX-XXXX-XXXXX” info)
1. I made a bootable backup on my Catalina boot drive and EFI folder with SuperDuper. (A must!!)
2. I then created a USB Installer for macOS Monterey based on this guide:
Here's a quick guide to create a macOS 12 Monterey Public Beta Installation USB. Please note, this guide is not universal, and may not work for all systems. STEP 1: Download macOS Monterey Public Beta 1. Enroll in the Free Apple Beta Software Program 2. Download Public Beta Access Utility 3...
www.tonymacx86.com
3. I had my USB Monterey installer ready to go, and then prepared my boot drive.
4. I then downloaded and reviewed Svart’s EFI folder from his excellent thread, and saw that only a few things needed to customized:
A. The Product Identifier (ex. iMac19,2)
B. Serial Number
C. SmUUID
D. MLB (Board Serial Number)
E. ROM (your machine's MAC Address without the colons)
For ROM, find your machine's MAC address by going under the Apple menu, selecting System Report > Ethernet and then selecting the Ethernet Device. Then remove the colons (i.e. e0:d6:5e:55:a8:55 would be e0d65e55a855 entered for ROM)
I technically didn’t have to change the Product Identifier, but I went with
iMac19,2 (my original setup was iMac14,2)
5. And yes, even though this is an opencore EFI, I just launched Clover Configurator, to select the config.plist from Svart’s EFI folder and then used the pull-down menu to use a new Product Identifier (iMac19,2):
6. Then I clicked the buttons a few times to generate a new
Serial Number, and
SmUUID (keep this window open so you can copy/paste from it later.) Yes, I know there are terminal-based options to do this, but I'm lazy and this worked fine.
7. Not having a clue about opencore (still don't LOL), I then opened the config.plist in EFI > OC and copied/pasted the newly generated serial numbers generated from Clover Configurator. (There are four items listed as XXX-XXX-XXXXXX etc. in my config.plist file in my EFI attachment that you will need to generate and update the config.plist file. Serial Number, SmUUID, ROM, and MLB board serial number)
8. I then just dropped in the latest kext versions of the kexts I used from my build.
9. Svart used USB Mapping to generate a true USB map, (the right way) but I was lazy and just dropped in the “USBInjectAll.kext” and called it a day.
NOTE: Unlike clover, it looks like in opencore you need to add a text path in config.plist for every kext you add. It was easy since they’re all in the same folder/location. I just copy/pasted and updated it in BBEdit. If you download my EFI, it’s already taken care of. No editing needed, but if you add a kext, be sure to add the text path in config.plist.
10. After I had the opencore EFI ready, I launched Clover Configurator and selected Mount EFI on my boot drive and replaced the old clover-based EFI folder with this new opencore-based EFI folder.
11. After rebooting from the USB stick, I started the install of macOS Monterey onto my pride and joy boot drive that was running Catalina. *gulp*
NOTE: There were multiple reboots and it takes about an hour. You will see a message saying it will be about 28 mins or so multiple times I bet. The machine restarted maybe four times. Just let it do its thing.
13. After the install, I pulled the USB stick, crossed my fingers, and as crazy as this sounds, everything worked!
14. I was fully expecting some USB or audio issues, but there were none! Worked great! No issues with audio, no issues with sleep/wake, etc. all USB ports were working, and I did notice that I could now use the “hot” red USB port on the back of my machine that previously didn't work.
Some Negatives:
It seems like it takes a good 3-5 minutes to boot up. I usually sleep/wake, so it’s nothing big, but it takes notably longer to boot up over Catalina.
WiFi / Bluetooth: I also should point out, that I don’t use WiFi or Bluetooth with this machine, and originally I had a small plug-n-play USB Bluetooth adapter that I don’t even use anymore either. So I can’t verify anything about Wifi or Bluetooth.
iTunes Movies / DRM: Also, with the iMac19,2 identifier, I think that means that movies purchased will not play due to DRM issues. I tried using the “shikigva” trick with multiple values (16, 80, 128, 256, etc.), but none of them worked. Then I remembered I don’t even watch movies on my computer, and VLC will play any movie you purchased anyway via the Finder, so it’s fine for me.
Some Positives:
4k: macOS Monterey feels great and the new product identifier replaces my ancient one, now allowing for 4k video on youtube, etc. I tried a few YouTube 4k videos and they look spectacular.
BIOS: I didn’t even update my BIOS, and haven’t updated it since the original build (I think)
WINDOWS (Dual Boot): I have Windows 10 on a separate drive and the boot loaders properly allows for selection at startup. Nice.
Future Proof: Probably the biggest benefit is that this machine is now far more future proofed with the latest version of macOS. I use this machine for Photography work (Photoshop/Lightroom) as well as some small YouTube channel stuff (Final Cut Pro) and then management stuff (FileMaker, Email, Web, etc.) and I honestly see no reason to upgrade this machine for years to come. I have something like 7 separate HDs inside, and everything just works.
So there you have it. An Idiot's Guide to macOS Monterey. I think it's funny that this is an opencore EFI now, but I used Clover Configurator and BBEdit for all tasks since that's all I know.
If anything goes haywire, I likely can’t really assist much since I still know nothing about opencore, but I wanted to pass this info along in case it helps anyone else out there with the same (or similar) build. So fire up a backup drive, use my include EFI, update those four unique machine items, and let it rip.
Cheers!
