Cannot get OC USB Drive with Big Sur installer to boot

[TurboPablo]

Hello

I am trying to upgrade from Mojave 10.14.6 using Clover to Big Sur 11.1 with Opencore. First time using Opencore, I have no idea what to do. I tried following the Dortania guide but now I can't boot the USB drive. (I made a backup and deleted all the previous Clover files from ssd's EFI but I will format it during Big Sur utility anyways)

Specs:
Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 DDR3 (BIOS F20)
Intel Core i5 6600
20GB 2133Mhz DDR3
Radeon RX 570 4GB
Samsung 970EVO NVMe M.2

Running SystemDefinition iMac17,1 as it's the closest to my machine and recycled the SMBIOS from my Clover (Serial, UUID etc) as the one I have currently supports all the iCloud services (iMessages etc) and is already tied to my Apple ID.

This is what I get and then it restarts. I can upload my config.plist if necessary. Surely I did something wrong but I don't know exactly where.

 

[SamSam47]

Hi there,
try the EFI. My system is so similar, so it should work.

 

[TurboPablo]

Hi there,
try the EFI. My system is so similar, so it should work.

Thank you so much for your help, you really saved me from a lot. I managed to get in the installer and I'm now erasing data from the drives. I won't connect to the internet before changing the smbios so I won't mess up your setup.

 

[SamSam47]

I was happy to help, I regenerated the serial and it's not mine Have fun and happy new year

 

[TurboPablo]

I was happy to help, I regenerated the serial and it's not mine Have fun and happy new year

Wow that's very kind I appreciate it, yes I'm definitely going to have some fun with reinstalling the apps and benchmarking, have a good one too

 

[TurboPablo]

I was happy to help, I regenerated the serial and it's not mine Have fun and happy new year

Hello, I managed to get everything working and did some tests too but I have an issue with the Ethernet port, I'm currently using my USB Dock for internet and it works but it would be easier to use the board port for the "en0" benefit as the dock one is having a little bit of a bigger ping and is "en1", and BPAN is even worse it doesn't even need mentioning. I don't know how to change kexts with Opencore and I don't want to mess up the whole installer by doing the clover way as I'm sure that won't work and will only make it worse.
How should I do it properly and how could I find the exact chip model for the correct kext? Gigabyte's site isn't useful at all, it mentions the Audio Chip (which I don't care about) but in the Network specs, it only says Gigabit 10/100/1000 and not a specific model.

 

[miliuco]

Hello, I managed to get everything working and did some tests too but I have an issue with the Ethernet port, I'm currently using my USB Dock for internet and it works but it would be easier to use the board port for the "en0" benefit as the dock one is having a little bit of a bigger ping and is "en1", and BPAN is even worse it doesn't even need mentioning. I don't know how to change kexts with Opencore and I don't want to mess up the whole installer by doing the clover way as I'm sure that won't work and will only make it worse.
How should I do it properly and how could I find the exact chip model for the correct kext? Gigabyte's site isn't useful at all, it mentions the Audio Chip (which I don't care about) but in the Network specs, it only says Gigabit 10/100/1000 and not a specific model.

I think you need IntelMausi.kext instead of RealtekRTL8111.kext. Download it, put it in the EFI/OC/Kexts folder and add it to the config.plist file in Kernel - Add.
Where you now have

            <dict>
                <key>Arch</key>
                <string>Any</string>
                <key>BundlePath</key>
                <string>RealtekRTL8111.kext</string>
                <key>Comment</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>Enabled</key>
                <true/>
                <key>ExecutablePath</key>
                <string>Contents/MacOS/RealtekRTL8111</string>
                <key>MaxKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>MinKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>PlistPath</key>
                <string>Contents/Info.plist</string>
            </dict>

Instead you have to put

            <dict>
                <key>Arch</key>
                <string>Any</string>
                <key>BundlePath</key>
                <string>IntelMausi.kext</string>
                <key>Comment</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>Enabled</key>
                <true/>
                <key>ExecutablePath</key>
                <string>Contents/MacOS/IntelMausi</string>
                <key>Arch</key>
                <string>Any</string>
                <key>MaxKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>MinKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>PlistPath</key>
                <string>Contents/Info.plist</string>
            </dict>

 

[TurboPablo]

I think you need IntelMausi.kext instead of RealtekRTL8111.kext. Download it, put it in the EFI/OC/Kexts folder and add it to the config.plist file in Kernel - Add.
Where you now have

            <dict>
                <key>Arch</key>
                <string>Any</string>
                <key>BundlePath</key>
                <string>RealtekRTL8111.kext</string>
                <key>Comment</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>Enabled</key>
                <true/>
                <key>ExecutablePath</key>
                <string>Contents/MacOS/RealtekRTL8111</string>
                <key>MaxKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>MinKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>PlistPath</key>
                <string>Contents/Info.plist</string>
            </dict>

Instead you have to put

            <dict>
                <key>Arch</key>
                <string>Any</string>
                <key>BundlePath</key>
                <string>IntelMausi.kext</string>
                <key>Comment</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>Enabled</key>
                <true/>
                <key>ExecutablePath</key>
                <string>Contents/MacOS/IntelMausi</string>
                <key>Arch</key>
                <string>Any</string>
                <key>MaxKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>MinKernel</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>PlistPath</key>
                <string>Contents/Info.plist</string>
            </dict>

I downloaded it and tried it and it doesn't work either, maybe I need to do some custom configurations in System Preferences @ Network? I have nothing underneath Configure IPv4 and it shows "Cable Unplugged; Either the cable for Ethernet is not plugged in or the device at the other end is not responding" but that's not a problem since the cable is good and I am running my internet through my dock from my Airport router and it works so the cable is good and my router is functioning well.

 

[miliuco]

I downloaded it and tried it and it doesn't work either, maybe I need to do some custom configurations in System Preferences @ Network? I have nothing underneath Configure IPv4 and it shows "Cable Unplugged; Either the cable for Ethernet is not plugged in or the device at the other end is not responding" but that's not a problem since the cable is good and I am running my internet through my dock from my Airport router and it works so the cable is good and my router is functioning well.

Try this:

cd /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
sudo zip backup.zip \
         com.apple.airport.preferences.plist       \
         com.apple.network.identification.plist    \
         com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist       \
         NetworkInterfaces.plist preferences.plist
sudo rm  com.apple.airport.preferences.plist       \
         com.apple.network.identification.plist    \
         com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist       \
         NetworkInterfaces.plist preferences.plist

Some files may not exist. The file not found errors can be ignored.
Reboot your Mac and enable network interfaces again.

 

[TurboPablo]

Try this:

cd /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
sudo zip backup.zip \
         com.apple.airport.preferences.plist       \
         com.apple.network.identification.plist    \
         com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist       \
         NetworkInterfaces.plist preferences.plist
sudo rm  com.apple.airport.preferences.plist       \
         com.apple.network.identification.plist    \
         com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist       \
         NetworkInterfaces.plist preferences.plist

Some files may not exist. The file not found errors can be ignored.
Reboot your Mac and enable network interfaces again.

I tried these but unfortunately while they did clear out previous settings and arranged the "enX" order, it didn't fix my issue so I tried to go back to the Realtek kext maybe it would work with this so I cleared it before I swapped the kext file and then after I swapped it as well and the result was the same, didn't work with either of these 2 kexts but I'll remember about this deleting stuff as it can come in very handy. I guess Big Sur just broke compatibility with my network built-in chip so I'll try to buy a compatible PCI-e one and in the meanwhile I'll use the internet from my USB Dock as that for some reason works.