IBM/LSI Serve/MegaRAID in hackintosh

Robbish · Jan 18, 2023

Sorry, moved to ;

NVMe in PCI-e x4 adapter in x4 slot causes panic

I added an NVMe SSD with a PCIe x4 adapter in my hackintosh and successfully cloned the system on it, however, the NVMe card in the adapter works fine only in the primary PCIe x16 slot, the first writing byte made through the x4 slot instantly freezes the system and not letting the system boot...

www.tonymacx86.com

eLDeus · Jan 18, 2023

Thanks! But didn’t work either. After successfull flashing booting up from x4 slot stops at 5% of Apple’s logo and the NVMe’s indicator doesn’t blink. Also, there was no option to boot from NVMe from bios. I think i didn’t move EFI anywhere from the NVMe, so I booted up again from x16.

Robbish · Jan 18, 2023

eLDeus said:
Thanks! But didn’t work either. After successfull flashing booting up from x4 slot stops at 5% of Apple’s logo and the NVMe’s indicator doesn’t blink. Also, there was no option to boot from NVMe from bios. I think i didn’t move EFI anywhere from the NVMe, so I booted up again from x16.

Maybe you should try booting from a macOS Install USB as though you are installing macOS for the first time. When you reach the macOS Install Screen, select Disk Utility and see if it recognises your NVMe Drive attached via your PCIe adapter. if it does and you don't mind erasing the NVMe drive then you could format the NVMe drive as GUID and APFS and install macOS onto it.

eLDeus · Jan 18, 2023

The thing is when there is a writing attempt onto nvme with that adapter system instantly hangs up, I tried to boot from a backup drive and the Nvme is recognizable in x4 slot, but weiting operation is impossible, including creation of the clean GUID drive with APFS or formating I believe there is some incampatibility of this adapter with hackintosh, either on the software level or in the hardware part, or there is something wrong with my x4 slot, but at the same time the video card work fine in it. I doubt booting from the installation drive can make any sense. The adapter also works fine on PCs in the x16 slot. Can the cause be in the OpenCore config?

Robbish · Jan 18, 2023

eLDeus said:
The thing is when there is a writing attempt onto nvme with that adapter system instantly hangs up, I tried to boot from a backup drive and the Nvme is recognizable in x4 slot, but weiting operation is impossible, including creation of the clean GUID drive with APFS or formating I believe there is some incampatibility of this adapter with hackintosh, either on the software level or in the hardware part, or there is something wrong with my x4 slot, but at the same time the video card work fine in it. I doubt booting from the installation drive can make any sense. The adapter also works fine on PCs in the x16 slot. Can the cause be in the OpenCore config?

I would doubt that your PCIe Card adaptor is the issue because those cards don't require drivers as all those cards do is connect your NVMe SSD to the PCIe bus.
What is the make/model your NVMe SSD as there are issues with certain NVMe SSD models that have boot issues in macOS (see this link for more info) although I believe those issues tend to be very long boot times and Trim not working.
Even though my Hack boots without it, I still use the NVMeFix.kext in my EFI/OC/Kexts folder as "It's goal is to improve compatibility with non-Apple SSDs"
The only way to rule out your suspicion of a faulty PCIe x4 slot is to install Windows or Linux onto your NVMe and see if you can boot from one of those other OS's. if you can boot then, it's more likely your EFI than macOS.
Lastly, try both of my Z77DS3H mods

eLDeus · Jan 20, 2023

I see. Thanks. I think booting from a Live USB and trying to copy a file to NVMe being installed in x16, can be an easier way.

Is there anything that can allow Windows to recognize APFS and write into it?

Or a Linux is the only way to check that?

Thanks

eLDeus · Jan 21, 2023

I've been able to boot in Windows 11 with installed Paragon APFS for Windows and the first time, when NVMe was in x4 slot the app didn't recognize it (see pic. 1, 2).
Then I thought some of the SATA slots could conflict with the same DMA (or something on the motherboard which is used both by PCIe and SATA slots), disconnected them, and voila, NVMe in x4 shown itself up in the file explorer (see pic. 3, 4). But finally I couldn't figure out which SATA port interfered with x4 slot, maybe it was not the reason, just my guess, because I also made some cleaning of the slot with a brush. Then I tried to boot into Monterey with NVMe in x16 in the verbose mode which I turned on beforehand and the screen showed panic (see pic. 5-7).

1,2

3, 4

5, 6, 7

eLDeus · Jan 26, 2023

The NVMe card model is KIOXIA KBG40ZNV256G. I didn't find any mention of the controller to see if it's compatible with macOS or not. Also, I tried booting with NVMe Fix.kext in the kext folder and OC list, but it didn't help.

So far I can try to install Windows on GPT and check the writing on the drive, it can make any sense.

Robbish · Jan 26, 2023

eLDeus said:
The NVMe card model is KIOXIA KBG40ZNV256G. I didn't find any mention of the controller to see if it's compatible with macOS or not. Also, I tried booting with NVMe Fix.kext in the kext folder and OC list, but it didn't help.

I too searched google for specs on your Kioxia KGB40ZNV256G but could not get any details on it's controller either. Was your NVMe drive pulled from a Dell PC? because I found an old post on another forum that listed your model and a few others with Firmware Support provided by Dell however that post was 3yrs old and none of those links worked now. I still don't know what the controller is. I heard (and I may have heard or read wrong) that Kioxia is supposed to be Toshiba's SSD business that Kioxia own.

Did you post that you cannot write to your NVMe in macOS? and if so did you try installing Windows on your KGB40ZNV256G and writing to it on Windows to make sure that the drive is writeable at all ?

Edhawk · Jan 27, 2023

I provided a link to the Kioxia information in another post responding to @eLDeus regarding his 2030 NVMe SSD.

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