Beginners Guide to using OC Auxiliary Tools App (Also known as OCAT)

[esafeddie]

But in my tests, Puttin Lilu and VirtualSMC at the top always resulted in better boot times.

I can also categorically vouch for that. That is the pattern I started with and will maintain despite the mantra that the kext order now does not matter.

@trs96 As far as backups are concerned: there's a button for it. Klicking it saves a zipped copy of the EFI folder (with date) on the desktop. Having a zipped folder of the EFI in your ESP doesn't really help you if the system won't boot unless you're real good with the shell. And there's always the 200 MB limit.

This also I agree with as I stated the same fact above albeit not in much detail.

 

[5T33Z0]

@Nodarkthings Interesting. I didn't even know this was possible.

 

[tastic]

Quick question (hope it fits here) - suddenly OCAT is no longer generating a System Serial Number or MLB, only the UUID. Am I making a blindingly obvious mistake just hitting the "generate" button? I could have sworn in the past it would populate SerialNumber and MLB. Thanks.

Edit: Nevermind, I realize now I have to hit the "Generate" button next to the System Product Name, not the one next to UUID or ROM.

Also - maybe this is a bug? I created an EFI using the CoffeeLake iMac 19,2 database selection but on the PI subscreen, the SystemProductName shown was iMac 19,1. I manually changed it to 19,2 and was alble to generate the parameters needed while inputting my ethernet MAC address.

 

[esafeddie]

Quick question (hope it fits here) - suddenly OCAT is no longer generating a System Serial Number or MLB, only the UUID. Am I making a blindingly obvious mistake just hitting the "generate" button? I could have sworn in the past it would populate SerialNumber and MLB. Thanks.

Edit: Nevermind, I realize now I have to hit the "Generate" button next to the System Product Name, not the one next to UUID or ROM.

Also - maybe this is a bug? I created an EFI using the CoffeeLake iMac 19,2 database selection but on the PI subscreen, the SystemProductName shown was iMac 19,1. I manually changed it to 19,2 and was alble to generate the parameters needed while inputting my ethernet MAC address.

I see what you mean, in the Data Base 19.1 is catered around the Z390 and since your platform is that with an i7 CPU, 19.1 is more suited to your machine.

Why it was changed from your choice I don't know whether it is by design or a glitch, the person that can answer your query is @5T33Z0 as he had extensive input in the Data Base entries.

 

[5T33Z0]

@tastic Thanks for the info. This and a handful of other templates had the wrong SMBIOS pre-selected. I fixed them now. You can download them from my repo. https://github.com/5T33Z0/OC-Little...p_EFIs#updating-the-config-templates-manually

I will push them to the app developer too, so he can integrate them in the next update.

 

[1Revenger1]

@1Revenger1: What do you mean by nested kexts exactly? Do you mean actual sub-folders in the kext folder – thi would be new to me – since it's undocumented .

I don't think OpenCore differentiates between kexts in PlugIns and kexts within folders, since kext bundles are just fancy folders. This is originally where I got the idea to organize my kexts this way. When I say kexts in nested folders though, I just mean that I have folders within my Kexts folder used to organize my kexts. Can see an example from my Laptop's EFI in the Spoiler below:

Spoiler

Edit: I know it's a slight bit messy. It's mostly because I throw kexts in there to test pull requests, hence why VoodooInput is in there by itself. (Am working on MT1/older macOS support for it right now)

 

[5T33Z0]

Interesting. Just for fun, I tested it and moved metworking kext into their own folder and created one for macOS 13 where I put in Cryptexfixup and AppleIntelCpuPowerManagement kexts while OCAT was running with the config open. It monitors the ACPI and kext folder so any changes you make in there are reflected in the config.

Turns out that OCAT cannot handle an additional level of folders. These kext just disappeared from the config once they were moved. So I undid the config changes so I wouldn't lose Comments, Min/Max Kernel and Arch settings. So I created a new snapshot in ProperTree instead. It picked up the kexts in the sub-folders but replaced the previous entries, so now the comments etc were gone as well.

If someone wants to start organizing kexts in sub-folders, he/she should adjust the entries in the config manually to keep additional infos intact. In this case, you only need to add folder folder name and "/" in front of the BundlePath.

Example: If you move IntelMausi into the sub-folder "Networking", you have to change the entry in BundlePath from IntelMausi.kext to Networking/IntelMausi.kext. Then you keep all the dependencies, comments Min/Max kernel settings etc. intact.

PS: OCAT got updated and includes the fixed Intel config templates (V20230006)

 

[5T33Z0]

I've created a feature request for sub-folder support in OCAT, but it probably won't come. If it would be implemented – which is unlikely –, ocvalidate would have to be modified as well. Because as of now, having kexts in sub-folders will produce errors when validating the config.

 

[1Revenger1]

I've created a feature request for sub-folder support in OCAT, but it probably won't come. If it would be implemented – which is unlikely –, ocvalidate would have to be modified as well. Because as of now, having kexts in sub-folders will produce errors when validating the config.

I don't have any errors with OCValidate. What sort of errors are you getting with it?

 

[5T33Z0]

Once you move kexts into subfolders you get errors from OC validate (not when booting). Try it for yourself. Since I reverted my sub-folder approach I won't recreate it.