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acer iconia w700

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Hi guys, hope this thread is still alive!

I used a couple of hours yeasterday, trying to figure out how to hack this little thing.

Here is the thing tho, I'm trying to install el capitan. I read somewhere, that the suface pro 2 has oob supported touchscreen in el capitan!

Now i spend 5-6 hours really not getting anywhere, as the tablet just doesn't want to boot my usb.

I created the usb with unibeast, choosing clover uefi.
I bios i enabled uefi booting, and "Trusted" the clover.efi file.

Now i'm presented with a black screen, and a white "_" In the top left corner. It seems odd - Remember on not even in the bootloader yet... :(

I took matter into own hands, and install an external os x disk, using my existing hackintosh. no problem.
Now i installed clover on the new disk, but still no luck booting it form the iconia.


Specs:

i3-2365m
4Gb ram
HD4000 (yes, hd4000 - I suppose, this meens, that my setup is a "mix")
 
Hi guys, hope this thread is still alive!

I used a couple of hours yeasterday, trying to figure out how to hack this little thing.

Here is the thing tho, I'm trying to install el capitan. I read somewhere, that the suface pro 2 has oob supported touchscreen in el capitan!

Now i spend 5-6 hours really not getting anywhere, as the tablet just doesn't want to boot my usb.

I created the usb with unibeast, choosing clover uefi.
I bios i enabled uefi booting, and "Trusted" the clover.efi file.

Now i'm presented with a black screen, and a white "_" In the top left corner. It seems odd - Remember on not even in the bootloader yet... :(

I took matter into own hands, and install an external os x disk, using my existing hackintosh. no problem.
Now i installed clover on the new disk, but still no luck booting it form the iconia.


Specs:

i3-2365m
4Gb ram
HD4000 (yes, hd4000 - I suppose, this meens, that my setup is a "mix")

Follow the Clover guide linked from the FAQ.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...faq-read-first-laptop-frequent-questions.html
 
I'm not an expert in MAC OS, but I've always been dual booting windows and Android on the W700 Core i5 model.

I would really like try this out, but I'm not an expert with MAC OS, and so most of the instructions here would require a high level of skill with MAC OS / Clover / UniBeast.

In the beginning of this thread, Mountain Lion was recommended for the i5 model. Towards, the end of the thread, I can see people having success with El Capitan, ie: Sound / Accelerated Graphics.

Would really appreciate it if someone could post the steps needed to boot MAC OS on the W700, more like a consolidated walkthrough to get the W700 booting MAC OS with maximum functionality.
 
I'm not an expert in MAC OS, but I've always been dual booting windows and Android on the W700 Core i5 model.

I would really like try this out, but I'm not an expert with MAC OS, and so most of the instructions here would require a high level of skill with MAC OS / Clover / UniBeast.

In the beginning of this thread, Mountain Lion was recommended for the i5 model. Towards, the end of the thread, I can see people having success with El Capitan, ie: Sound / Accelerated Graphics.

Would really appreciate it if someone could post the steps needed to boot MAC OS on the W700, more like a consolidated walkthrough to get the W700 booting MAC OS with maximum functionality.

Follow the Clover guide linked from the FAQ.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...faq-read-first-laptop-frequent-questions.html

Although you should read the FAQ for an overview of issues, the Clover guide is linked from the first question: "Q. Where do I start?", just after the bold face "Clover Guide".
Here is a direct link, just to be clear:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-booting-the-os-x-installer-on-laptops-with-clover.148093/

Also, your profile must be filled out with complete details as requested in the FAQ, again under "Q. Where do I start?". All seven details requested are equally important.

And if you have an issue (after following the guide), or on any other problem, you must provide a detailed description of the problem including information that helps us understand what you're doing. Always attach "Problem Reporting" files as per FAQ.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...faq-read-first-laptop-frequent-questions.html
The required files and data are fully detailed in the last question in the FAQ:
"Q. What are typical "Problem Reporting" files?"
 
So I thought I'd write back and let everyone know where I've landed with getting Hackintosh on the Acer Iconia W700.

Throughout the entire process, I've learned so much about the differences between MBR/EFI and how the UEFI firmware in the Acer Iconia W700 reacts to different OSes. Glad to share that I was able to get Windows 10, Remix OS (Android), and Mac OS Sierra all running on separate partitions using the W700 's UEFI firmware (Touch Enabled) bootloader to select the desired OS at the time of booting :-D Not only that, but I've been able to back up each and every single partition separately in MBR & GPT format for experimentation purposes. I could even convert from MBR to GPT, and then back to MBR to test different system setups.

Of course this required a hardware upgrade of the internal SSD from 64gb to 512gb to comfortably accommodate all three OSes. I found the Samsung EVO 850 Trim Enabled SSD 512gb perfect from a price perspective.

Both Windows 10 and Remix OS work flawlessly with full hardware acceleration. Now I'm at the stage of ironing out all hardware compatibility issues in MacOS Sierra.

Bought a small Wifi AC 600MBPS that works great with Mac OS, so have WIFI up and running.

Now sorting out audio and graphics issues. Any idea what graphics kext I should use for the Core i5 model ? I know it's an Intel Graphics HD 4000, but it seems that the available Kext keeps crashing Sierra.
 
Thanks RehabMan. I'm still unable to get MacOS to boot if I use any of those prepackaged plists. When booting with -v, it'll say DMOS has arrived! and then hang.

When using the Intel HD4000 1600x900 config.plist, the graphics ID is getting injected as 0x00000000. What I'm doing now is having to manually override that entry and typing 0x01660004 -> Intel IvyBridge HD4000 Mobile Chipset. This boots into MacOS flawlessly, but I doubt if I have any hardware acceleration at all. The flurry screensaver is very choppy, other screen savers show a black screen.

One big issue I came across was getting my mini Wifi usb to work with Sierra. It's Mediatek chipset that is not supported in Sierra. At some point while trying different kexts for Mediatek, I corrupted the entire MacOS partition and lost my installation. I had to re-install and re-setup everything again from scratch. But I finally found a working Kext for my MediaTek Wifi USB.

At this point, I got Audio (Speakers, Mic) working via VoodooHDA, as well as patched some Kexts to get the Intel HDMI Audio output working too.

- Built-in front and rear cams work OOTB.
- Touch Screen works OOTB.

The one thing I'm going in circles with is the graphics acceleration part. Would appreciate any kind of help with this.
 
While trying different MediaTek kexts to get my mini USB Wifi adapter to work, I researched the built-in WIFI/BT module that comes with the Acer Iconia W700 motherboard. The Iconia W700 comes with an non-replaceable (soldered to motherboard) Qualcomm Atheros ar5bmd222 WIFI/BT module which surprisingly has very little online support. Hackintosh support is almost non-existent. In short, if you have that WIFI/BT module in your laptop/tablet, you're doomed... worse if soldered :p

But further reading showed something interesting. This Qualcomm Atheros ar5bmd222 module is actually two separate modules in one. The WIFI module is defined as AR5, and the BT Module is defined B(MD)222, (MD) being very specific to Acer. The AR5 is technically the AR9462 WIFI module (vendor 168C, device 0034) and there has been substantial progress made in getting this module along with its BT counter part to work under El Capitan and Sierra. Some documents also mention that the ar5bmd222 is natively supported in High Sierra as working (OOTB).

I will be experimenting further in hopes of getting the internal WIFI/BT to work. Once I have a stable setup, I'll share the necessary steps so others can get that working too :)
 
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Question for @RehabMan

Should I move the remainder of this conversation, future findings, and steps to the Laptops/Sierra Support sub-forum by creating a separate thread for it ? Or do I continue posting my findings here considering that my entire work is based on Sierra ?
 
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