An iDiot's Guide To iMessage

[larrikinaus]

It's clearly stated in this guide that you generate a serial number with Clover Configurator which should not match a pre-existing one from a real Mac.
"

My question does not relate to the serial number. It relates to ROM / MLB.

 

[trs96]

My question does not relate to the serial number. It relates to ROM / MLB.

The MLB is the serial number for the motherboard. (MLB = Main Logic Board )

"Open a Finder window and browse to the location where you downloaded simpleMLB.sh
Drag simpleMLB.sh from Finder onto the Terminal window, click inside the Terminal window and press Return"

• 

"Copy the generated number then paste it into Clover Configurator - SMBIOS - Board Serial Number." This guide also says to simply "Make sure that the MLB box is empty" so don't fill in anything in that box under Rt Variables.

 

[larrikinaus]

The MLB is the serial number for the motherboard. (MLB = Main Logic Board )

Correct - so up until now, I've followed guides that said the MLB and the ROM had to be from a real Mac computer for iMessage to work. So I did exactly that - I took a ROM / MLB from a mate's iMac for my own Hackintosh and put it in the ROM / MLB settings as well as used the MLB as the board serial number in SMBIos. This is the first guide I have seen that departs from that. So, for clarity, I am questioning that this new procedure works as its quite different to anything else I've seen.

*edit* I've always generated my own serial number using shake... (different to the board serial number)

 

[trs96]

Correct - so up until now, I've followed guides that said the MLB and the ROM had to be from a real Mac computer for iMessage to work. So I did exactly that - I took a ROM / MLB from a mate's iMac for my own Hackintosh and put it in the ROM / MLB settings as well as used the MLB as the board serial number in SMBIos. This is the first guide I have seen that departs from that. So, for clarity, I am questioning that this new procedure works as its quite different to anything else I've seen.

Is your iMessage still working on your hackintosh ? If not, give this a try and see what happens. tonymacx86 has stated that you may use an MLB from a Mac that you own but not from someone else's Mac. That can cause conflicts if that iMac is still in use and trying to access the iMessage / Facetime servers at Apple.

 

[larrikinaus]

Is your iMessage still working on your hackintosh ? If not, give this a try and see what happens. tonymacx86 has stated that you may use an MLB from a Mac that you own but not from someone else's Mac. That can cause conflicts if that iMac is still in use and trying to access the iMessage / Facetime servers at Apple.

My iMessage works fine - no problem at all. FaceTime as well. My mate has his iMessage and FaceTime working on his iMac as well and its still in use.

Therefore, you might wonder why I am therefore bothering we asking about this... It's more, as you say, that there are warnings about using a live ROM / MLB from another in use Mac - but so far I haven't encountered any issues. I wonder whether I should change to this method though given the ongoing risk? That's the key question.

 

[trs96]

My iMessage works fine - no problem at all. FaceTime as well. My mate has his iMessage and FaceTime working on his iMac as well and its still in use.

Therefore, you might wonder why I am therefore bothering we asking about this... It's more, as you say, that there are warnings about using a live ROM / MLB from another in use Mac - but so far I haven't encountered any issues. I wonder whether I should change to this method though given the ongoing risk? That's the key question.

I can't answer that but I'm sure that P1LGRIM and other moderators will leave some comments here to clear up this issue for you the next day or two. The guide in post #1 is the current preferred method for anyone setting up their El Capitan CustoMac. As long as you or anyone else follows it step by step it should work without problems.

 

[larrikinaus]

I can't answer that but I'm sure that P1LGRIM and other moderators will leave some comments here to clear up this issue for you the next day or two. The guide in post #1 is the current preferred method for anyone setting up their El Capitan CustoMac. As long as you or anyone else follows it step by step it should work without problems.

OK, thanks mate. The other thing to consider with the ROM / MLB is that I think Handoff relies on that data as well. So not sure that whilst iMessage may work with this method, I wonder if Handoff does as well? I'm entering into an area that I don't really understand too well either, but I think we need some clarity around how the ROM / MLB situation should work going forward for all services that depend on those fields.

 

[P1LGRIM]

Thank you, thank you and THANK YOU!

My iMessage broke way back in 2014 and even on Mountain Lion, Mavericks or Yosemite, nothing I could do even with Clover (after a major headache upgrading from Chimera), could fix it.

I wasn't so lucky the first time around, however you highlighting the iMessagedebug output brought to my attention that my ROM and MLB number were not consistent upon reboot. Turns out filenvram.kext was still stuck in S/L/E. Once I removed that and rebooted again, I was able to sign back in with no problems.

Migrated my messages from another laptop, and I'm happy as a pig in mud.
So thank you so much!

Great news

 

[P1LGRIM]

Does this mean that, using this method, you no longer need to use a cloned (real) ROM / MLB from another MAC for RT Variables and also that you no longer need to use that same MLB as the Board Serial Number in SMBios?

There has never been a need to use cloned values - You just have to set everything up properly.

The other thing to consider with the ROM / MLB is that I think Handoff relies on that data as well. So not sure that whilst iMessage may work with this method, I wonder if Handoff does as well?

Just wanted to say a big THANKYOU! for this guide.
You have shown me how to actually get Continuity and Handoff fully working clearly and succinctly (I have an Apple mini-PCI-e WiFi/BT card).

Like many I suppose I'd invested in the card and used Clover to configure El Capitan, but although Continuity and Handoff were said to be present and working, they weren't. Clearly it was the proper checks and SMUUID and MLB generation - and re-signing into iCloud - that were needed to correct everything.

@UtterDisbelief Confirmed (in another thread) that this method enabled Continuity and Handoff too.

 

[larrikinaus]

There has never been a need to use cloned values - You just have to set everything up properly.





@UtterDisbelief Confirmed (in another thread) that this method enabled Continuity and Handoff too.

Wow - thank you for confirming that. And thank you for taking the time to right such clear instructions on this. Well done. I'll spend some time and re-do my iMac config and move away from using my mate's ROM / MLB.