Big Sur on HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini - The Perfect MacMini8,1 Hackintosh - OpenCore

[deeveedee]

Any idea of info for the non-mini?

Sorry, but no. I never owned one. This thread is exclusively for the HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 MINI. Please start a new thread for your system and request help there. Thank you.

 

[rafale77]

Thanks to @thexsenator for posting his EFI with boot-arg "igfxfw=2," I experimented with and without the boot arg. It does appear that GeekBench5 Metal scores are better with the boot-arg than without. If you experiment with this boot-arg, I would suggest doing so by configuring your experimental EFI on a USB drive, so that you can easily recover. According to Andrey1970 in "the other forum," this boot-arg is for chipsets with ME v12 (Z390, B360, H370, H310, Q370, C246 and newer) which includes the EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini Q370 chipset. Note that I'm running my tests with an i9-9900 CPU.

Spoiler: GeekBench5 Score without boot-arg igfxfw=2

View attachment 536311

Spoiler: GeekBench5 Score with boot-arg igfxfw=2

View attachment 536312

Have you tried the boot argument igfxrpsc=1?

It appears to enable dynamic control of the gpu clock to go higher an potentially improve performance.

 

[deeveedee]

@rafale77 In "the other forum" Andrey1970 told me that igfxrpsc=1 was for older chipsets. I'm using igfxrpsc=1 on my HackBookPro15,2 (KBL-R UHD620) with good results. I never thought to try it with our Q370 / CFL chipset. If you test and find improvement, please post your results. Would love to see.

Since we can't link without having the post deleted, I'm reposting here. Credit to Andrey1970 in "the other forum."

[igfxfw=2 is] For chipsets with ME v12 (Z390, B360, H370, H310, Q370, C246 and newer).
Old chipsets with ME v11 not supported. Such as Z370 and other.
Use boot-arg igfxrpsc=1 for KBL+ with old chipsets.

EDIT: The nature of this Intel GuC firmware update forced by boot-arg igfxfw=2 might provide some clues about what is required to get it to work properly. The boot-arg probably requires Intel ME to be enabled in BIOS (which we do anyway for proper sleep/wake of UHD630) and it may require a BIOS update that includes newer Intel ME firmware. For those experiencing problems with using boot-arg igfxfw=2 and Big Sur, make sure that Intel ME is enabled in BIOS and that your BIOS version is current. It also requires properly patched UHD630 graphics using a current WhateverGreen.kext.

 

[rafale77]

I got it to boot without kernel panic and yes you were correct, I had to enable ME in the BIOS. I have yet to do any sort of performance testing and comparison. That should come soon.

Edit:
After extensive testing, I have concluded that the effect of igfxfw=2 with ME enabled and igfxrpsc=1 with or without ME disabled on performance is the same. Both improve the graphics performance over not having this boot argument by about 4% based on GB5 compute.
I decided to add both even though I am not seeing benefits. The comment that the igfxpsc command is for KBL+ with older chipset conflicts with the whatevergreen changelog page which shows that not only was it enabled by default and changed to be disabled on v1.4.2 but also that it was enabled to work on comet lake on version v1.4.5. It seems to have been disabled by default for compatibility reasons and should be enabled whenever it can be. Or maybe is it no longer in effect once the apple GuC firmware is enabled?

Since I was looking into the iGPU and Whatevergreen, I was trying to see if a fix for the DRM issue had been found. Apparently not...

WhateverGreen/FAQ.Chart.md at master · acidanthera/WhateverGreen

Various patches necessary for certain ATI/AMD/Intel/Nvidia GPUs - WhateverGreen/FAQ.Chart.md at master · acidanthera/WhateverGreen

github.com

Still no dice without a dGPU

 

[deeveedee]

The documentation of boot-args igfxfw=2 and igfxrpsc=1 leaves a bit to be desired. For others considering the two boot-args, my HackBookPro15,2 (KBL-R UHD620) does not boot with igfxfw=2, so at least that is consistent with Andrey1970's statement that it's not for "older chipsets." My baseline currently is igfxfw=2 on this HackMini8,1 and igfxrpsc=1 on my KBL-R UHD620 laptop. For those who want to explore further, download the Whatevergreen.kext source code from https://github.com/acidanthera/whatevergreen/releases and grep for the boot-args. You'll find igfxfw and igfxrpsc and the enumerated values that can be assigned to these boot-args.

For example, if you look in WhateverGreen/kern_igfx.hpp, you'll find the definition of enum FirmwareLoad which defines the valid values for boot-arg igfxfw:

        enum FirmwareLoad {
                FW_AUTO    = -1 /* Use as is for Apple, disable for others */,
                FW_DISABLE = 0, /* Use host scheduler without GuC */
                FW_GENERIC = 1, /* Use reference scheduler with GuC */
                FW_APPLE   = 2, /* Use Apple GuC scheduler */
        };

When we assign 2 to igfxfw, we're assigning the value of FW_APPLE which forces installation of Apple's Intel GuC firmware. I've asked for some explanation of the other values in "the other forum" and am awaiting a reply.

 

[deeveedee]

The Big Sur 11.6.2 update installed without issues using the OC 0.7.6 EFI attached to Post #1.

 

[thexsenator]

Anybody using vmware fusion and w10 vm? Gfx performance in Unity mode is terrible......

 

[deeveedee]

As noted here, I need to switch my patched connector types to HDMI <00080000> for Monterey. I have found that my DP->DVI video adapters work with Big Sur 11.6.2 when using patched connector type HDMI (instead of DVI), so I will be modifying my EFI baseline to use type HDMI. My next posted EFI will include patched connector type HDMI instead of DVI.

EDIT: Note that in order to use DP->DVI video adapters with this rig (CFL UHD630 iGPU), I must use a "mobile" framebuffer (I'm using AAPL,ig-platform-id 0x3E920000). A "desktop" framebuffer (e.g., AAPL,ig-platform-id 0x3E9B0007) with DP->DVI video adapters results in booting to black screens. This has been true for as long as I have been patching the HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Minis.

EDIT2: I was reviewing older posts and see that @fennec62 may have been the first to mention something related to this here. Unfortunately, I wasn't trying to solve my own Monterey blackscreen problem at the time and didn't pay enough attention. Well done, @fennec62 for being the first to find this solution in this thread.

 

[deeveedee]

Gonna order a second hp 800 G4 at the end of the month for working solely on the Monterey version on it

You could also install Monterey on a new volume in the same 800 G4/G5 Mini if you don't want to purchase a second complete system. I have Big Sur installed on one NVMe SSD and Monterey installed on a second NVMe SSD (as of this post, Big Sur is still my production OS and Monterey is just for experimentation and testing). I select my desired version of macOS from the OC boot menu. Read more about this here.

I do not have Windows installed anywhere on my HackMini8,1 - it only boots macOS. I have configured a second system (which happens to be another HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini) as a HyperV server running multiple Windows VMs. When I need to run Windows, I remote desktop into one of the Windows VMs using Microsoft Remote Desktop installed on my HackMini8,1. For basic office applications, this strategy works great for me. I don't care about Windows graphics performance (i.e. I don't do any gaming or Windows video editing), so Windows VMs work well for me.

 

[rafale77]

EDIT: Note that in order to use DP->DVI video adapters with this rig (CFL UHD630 iGPU), I must use a "mobile" framebuffer (I'm using AAPL,ig-platform-id 0x3E920000). A "desktop" framebuffer (e.g., AAPL,ig-platform-id 0x3E9B0007) with DP->DVI video adapters results in booting to black screens. This has been true for as long as I have been patching the HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Minis.

@deeveedee, I am using the desktop framebuffer and do not have this problem of booting to a black screen with my DP->HDMI adaptor. (I am no longer using DVI). One odd thing I discovered with my adaptor though is that I would boot to a black screen even in windows if my adaptor is first plugged to the HDMI cable plugged and the monitor powered on before plugging it into the HP. I managed to resolve the problem by unplugging the adaptor from the monitor, plugging in the DP end of the adaptor to the HP first, before plugging in the HDMI end to the monitor.

It is off that the desktop framebuffer seems to be less accomodating than the laptop one when it comes to video adaptors. I wonder why...