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

[deeveedee]

For those who need this capability, the Acidanthera kext FeatureUnlock appears to be relevant to our HackMini8,1 for Monterey. I'm not familiar with the capability, but according to the FeatureUnlock readme, the kext unlocks "Airplay to Mac" for the MacMini8,1 when running Monterey (maybe other macOS versions, too).

 

[liriolebron]

Guys, reporting back.

Answering the same question I had regarding 3 displays with a resolution greater than 1080p. I took a gamble and sold my 3 1080p monitors for getting 3 1440p monitors.

Turns out it works like a charm with our little machines. I'm using the 3 of them with 3 DP to DP cables.

So far everything seems to be in good working worder, it seems the UHD 630 packs a punch.

Hope this helps for future cases.

 

[deeveedee]

I'm building another 800 G5 Mini to be used as a Windows server. I'm amazed at the price increase since I last looked. If you're building a hackintosh based on this EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini platform, your costs right now may be higher than what you've read previously in this thread. After not finding a complete system that met my requirements, I'm slowly piecing together a new build (contrary to my previous advice to save money by purchasing a complete system). So far, here's what I've spent and I don't even have the two 500GB NVMe SSDs (WD Black) and the 2TB SATA HD yet (all costs are for used components, include all tax/shipping and are in USD):

• Barebones 800 G5 Mini 65W Chassis (no CPU, no memory, no SSDs/HDs, includes G5 Mini motherboard, includes copper CPU heatsink, includes SATA drive caddy with SATA fan, includes CPU cooling fan, includes vented cover): $96
• 90W Genuine HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini AC Adapter: $14
• 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 2666: $128
• i9-9900 CPU: $281

Total so far: $519 (doesn't include 2 x 500 GB NVMe SSDs and 2TB SATA HD)

I purchased the i9-9900 only because it was an OK deal for the CPU (not because it's the best value for the EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini).

See my revised comments about the i9-9900 here.

 

[liriolebron]

I'm building another 800 G5 Mini to be used as a Windows server. I'm amazed at the price increase since I last looked. If you're building a hackintosh based on this EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini platform, your costs right now may be higher than what you've read previously in this thread. After not finding a complete system that met my requirements, I'm slowly piecing together a new build (contrary to my previous advice to save money by purchasing a complete system). So far, here's what I've spent and I don't even have the two 500GB NVMe SSDs (WD Black) and the 2TB SATA HD yet (all costs are for used components, include all tax/shipping and are in USD):

• Barebones 800 G5 Mini 65W Chassis (no CPU, no memory, no SSDs/HDs, includes G5 Mini motherboard, includes copper CPU heatsink, includes SATA drive caddy with SATA fan, includes CPU cooling fan, includes vented cover): $96
• 90W Genuine HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini AC Adapter: $14
• 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 2666: $128
• i9-9900 CPU: $281

Total so far: $519 (doesn't include 2 x 500 GB NVMe SSDs and 2TB SATA HD)

I purchased the i9-9900 only because it was an OK deal for the CPU (not because it's the best value for the EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini).

If you don't mind me asking, where did you get the components? I've trying to get a barebones G4/G5 for a long time without luck.

 

[deeveedee]

@liriolebron Various sources. Lots of persistence with a little luck. Best deals I find are from surplus resellers. Everyone has their own contacts (including me), so a lot has to do with access and who you know. If you're limited to the traditional auction sites, be sure to search for variations of what you want (be creative with your searches) and look for "Best Offer" where you can negotiate.

 

[deeveedee]

Discovered this on my HackBookPro14,1 (not for HackMini): Missing your battery percentage in Big Sur? To enable battery percentage in your menu bar: System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar > Battery > Show Percentage.

 

[rafale77]

I did some more research and though I sold my G4 a while ago for the reason that I could not get a 9700T to work on it, I would also recommend not going the i9-9900 route. As @deeveedee mentioned you will have some power issues limiting the actual performance of your box but also heat issues as well as I am experiencing with mine. The TDP doesn't tell the whole story on the heat generation of these CPUs and these small boxes can barely handle a 9700 without thermal throttling, let alone with a GPU. Reading through all the posts from users and HP official support list, it won't work and if you got a 9500T to work on a G4, consider yourself lucky because it's not supposed to and could at any time stop working after a BIOS update from HP.

For your configuration, I suppose you are planning on running the box without the cover? The 90W units (and the ones with a GPU) have a perforated cover to allow more air intake. At any rate, my recommendation would be to stick with a 8700 which would be as optimum as it gets for these boxes without a GPU and if you need the GPU to go down to a 8700T.

 

[deeveedee]

I performed a very quick test with i7-9700 CPU in EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini motherboard. On power up, the display remained blank and the motherboard emitted a short beep. I didn't observe any other activity and without a display, could not diagnose any further. Without spending much time on this test, I'm concluding that we shouldn't use an i7-9700 with a G4 Mini.

 

[deeveedee]

I was unable to upgrade from XCode 12.4 to XCode 12.5.1 after upgrading from Catalina to BS. My solution was a clean install of BS. Details below...

I finally had to upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur, since I need XCode 12.5. I attempted to perform an in-place macOS upgrade which appeared to go well, but I could not upgrade XCode 12.4 to 12.5.1 (even though the macOS upgrade to BS seemed to complete without issues). Since I was performing my Catalina -> BS upgrade on a separate SSD, I was able to make multiple attempts at the OS and then XCode upgrade, but none of my attempts succeeded. I tried both an AppStore upgrade of XCode and I tried downloading XCode 12.5.1 from developer.apple.com, but neither XCode upgrade would work. In all attempts, my rig would freeze at 95+% complete. The only way to recover from the frozen system was to force shutdown by holding the power button.

XCode 12.5.1 upgrade almost complete

Spoiler: Almost Complete

I was finally able to upgrade from XCode 12.4 to XCode 12.5.1 by peforming a clean installation of BS, migrating my data from Catalina to BS and then upgrading XCode. With a clean install of BS, the XCode 12.5.1 upgrade proceeded without issues.

 

[deeveedee]

I believe I understand how the G4 Mini and G5 Mini are different. It does appear that the G4 Mini and G5 Mini share identical motherboards. The two systems are differentiated by system-specific parameters that are configured when the unit is first powered on. You can access these read-only system-specific parameters in the BIOS configuration. They are:

• Feature Byte (a very long string, so not actually a byte)
• Build ID
• Serial Number
• SKU

When a G4/G5 Mini motherboard is powered on for the very first time, it boots in "HP Management Mode" and requires entry of the system-specific parameters. After these parameters are entered and verified, the parameters are committed to non-volatile memory and become read-only for the end user. These system-specific parameters determine enabled features, the acceptable BIOS versions, etc.

An HP Technician has a USB tool that can unlock these system-specific parameters to be edited if necessary. Theoretically (not to be discussed in this forum), it is possible to change a G4 Mini to a G5 Mini.