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

[Chimiel]

This tool is awesome, finally got me over from Clover. One of the few tools also approved by Dortania, right ? Thank you !

 

[Superbogey]

Absolutely! A nice GUI gives you a sense of security when you're new to hackintosh. I don't know how I would have managed without Multibeast or Clover Configurator, a few years ago.

Think of OCAT as Clover Configurator on steroids (and yes, I know there's an OC Configurator but having heard that it isn't as stable as the Clover version, I pretty much avoid it while I've heard nothing negative about OCAT). Having tried ProperTree and Xcode to build and maintain Plists, OCAT makes maintaining them so much easier. Plists edited in Xcode open just fine in OCAT and vice versa.

 

[demonknight9]

What exactly is OCAT ?

OCAT is an app like Hackintool that serves various functions to help you build,edit and maintain your OpenCore EFI folder. It's primary advantage over manual EFI creation is that it gives beginners a graphical user interface that is easy to navigate. It greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to produce a custom, working EFI folder.
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Brilliant will give it a try. Thank you

 

[huug]

Really great tool.

 

[Hoka]

As off the last version of opencore things have gone completely wrong, since updating to 8.8 my apsf volumes are split into an unreadable and a Data volume and I cannot boot anymore....
When I go back to a backup things are fine again but applying only a small change with the last version of OCAT produces the same errors!

 

[Edhawk]

once I open an EFI created in Propertree in OCAT, save it, I can't open it in propertree again!

I would avoid using those two apps together. Will likely create issues.

I agree, you will get conflicts between the two.

That being the case then one of the two are not set correctly for the version of the Sample.plist from OpenCore being used.

OCAT and ProperTree are both Plist Editors, so should in theory be able to open, save and edit any plist.

However, an existing installation of either may not contain the latest OC options, if it is not set of the latest version of OpenCore. ProperTree (my preferred plist editor) usually tells you there is a new version available ,when you try to open the latest OC Sample.plist with an older version of ProperTree. Does OCAT do the same?

There are versions of OCAT and ProperTree available for each release of OpenCore. Backwards compatibility is expected, compatibility with newer releases is not.

So using a version of ProperTree to edit a config.plist with the latest release of OC, then opening and saving it in OCAT (not set for the same release of OC) may bork the config.plist and prevent it being opened in the latest version of ProperTree the next time you try.

I don't think there is anything wrong with either Plist editor, just that mixing OC, OCAT and ProperTree releases/versions is causing this issue.

 

[Superbogey]

That being the case then one of the two are not set correctly for the version of the Sample.plist from OpenCore being used.

OCAT and ProperTree are both Plist Editors, so should in theory be able to open, save and edit any plist.

However, an existing installation of either may not contain the latest OC options, if it is not set of the latest version of OpenCore. ProperTree (my preferred plist editor) usually tells you there is a new version available ,when you try to open the latest OC Sample.plist with an older version of ProperTree. Does OCAT do the same?

There are versions of OCAT and ProperTree available for each release of OpenCore. Backwards compatibility is expected, compatibility with newer releases is not.

So using a version of ProperTree to edit a config.plist with the latest release of OC, then opening and saving it in OCAT (not set for the same release of OC) may bork the config.plist and prevent it being opened in the latest version of ProperTree the next time you try.

I don't think there is anything wrong with either Plist editor, just that mixing OC, OCAT and ProperTree releases/versions is causing this issue.

If you set OCAT to "check for updates on launch", it will notify you when doing so if there is a new version available.

 

[oldman20]

OACT seem good but i still using propertree

 

[trs96]

OACT seem good but i still using propertree

OCAT doesn't make you keep taking OC snapshots of your config.plist when you make changes. It does that automatically. Just that feature alone makes it worth using in my Opinion. It does many more things than that too. Give OCAT a try sometime. Make sure to use the exact same version of OC that was used with your config.plist. Or just create a whole new one with OCAT. Then copy over your serials/SmUUID.

 

[esafeddie]

It does many more things than that too.

One of the many things, it also keeps a backup of your last working config.plist whenever you make a change or alteration.