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Dell 7020 - Using only onboard HD4600 GPU - Build Files and Overview for the experienced. 4k ready.

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This is a spinoff thread from trs96's detailed build on the Dell 7020, The 4K Dell OptiMac - Core i7-4790 - AMD Radeon RX 570 - LG 4K 27" IPS Monitor, the difference being that this has has been written to setup a minimal machine with no external graphics.

Trs96's guide is comprehensive, explanatory and carries a lot of other information about these machines.
This guide is brief and only describes the build process. Some previous experience of building a hackintosh is likely needed to follow it.

This build is for a basic setup (see Prepare the Hardware below for details)- any additional hardware should be removed during install and replaced once the minimal system has been installed and tested.

USB/Sleep/Wake/Graphics/CPU Speed Stepping/Audio - seems to work as it should and is very stable.

Edit: This has been tested in use for about two months using 2 dp monitors there hasnt been one single hiccup.

4K Display
4K displays have been setup successfully by first building using this guide and then using the instructions in
Dell 7020 - 4K monitors on Intel 4600 Integrated GPU.
The Clover settings for 4k have been entered in the attached config.plist but are disabled, if you want 4k output you will need to enable in config.plist and possibly make other changes to UEFI firmware variables described in Dell 7020 - 4K monitors on Intel 4600 Integrated GPU. This includes a section on increasing video ram to 2GB which may also be carried out separately from the other changes.

Differences between main and this offshoot
There are small changes from the main thread - 14,3 sys defs and slight changes to BIOS and config.plist, see post 4 below for details.
Note: All the files, other than config.plist, are the same and go in the same places.
The attached zip file has the amended clover.plist, together with all the ssdt's and kexts needed - just add the files in the zip to a Unibeast created install USB together with the 3 programs shown below.
If you have already built from trs96's guide and want to run without an external GPU then the only things needing to be changed are the config.plist and BIOS settings.

Make an Installer on a USB drive using Unibeast
  • Complete sections 1 and 2 from the Mojave Unibeast guide here.
    (You can skip copying Multibeast over, it's not used here.)
    NB. There are significant differences between versions of Clover 4xxx and 5xxx and these instructions will not work with 5xxx versions and you should almost certainly just go with the version linked to.
  • You can probably use a USB3 drive and USB3 port to install but only USB 2 fully tested.
Or start with a standard Clover USB installer created by some other equivalent method.

Add Install files and configure USB boot for 7020
a. Download the 2 programs;
The downloads are .zip's,
b. extract them and copy the programs (not zips) to the USB installer - to be used later.

c. Download 'Dell 7020.zip' (attached at end of this post) and copy to the USB too - keep it as a zip.

d. Run the Clover installer you just downloaded and Install on the USB drive - overwriting whatever version of Clover is installed on the usb.

e. Mount the EFI partition of the Installation USB, and

f. Rename or delete config.plist in USB /EFI/Clover, and

g. Copy all the files and folders in Dell 7020.zip into USB /EFI/Clover merging the two sets of files.

Prepare the Hardware
MUST be a Dell 7020 or 9020, with an i3, i5 or i7 processor with HD4600 graphics, at least 4GB of RAM and a SATA drive (of whatever flavor) plugged into SATA Port 0 on motherboard (The darker blue one). Keyboard/Mouse/Monitor.
Your Monitor connected to the DP port which is furthers from the usb ports- digital sound only works thru this port but both DP's work for graphics.

Any other hardware can be added later unless you are building a 2 drive system where;
Drive 1 is the Sata-Boot and
Drive 2 is the NVMe with OSX on
- Where you can use these files but see PCI based NVMe drive below for the additional instructions.



Prepare The BIOS
I can only confirm these settings on BIOS's with Intel Management Engine Bios Extensions disabled.
For instructions on how to control Intel ME if it is enabled (and to find out how to tell) see
trs96 7010 thread under 3. Password Protect MEBx

Set Boot Mode
Before making the other changes check the boot mode and if needed, set it.
Use F12 to get to the boot options screen and under
'Other Options:' select 'Change Boot Mode Settings'
If boot mode is NOT
'UEFI Boot, Secure Boot Off'
set it to that, confirm and exit, or
if it is already set to that press escape.

If the Bios wont allow you to make any of the changes described - please report back.

Start From Defaults
Set the BIOS back to defaults - click Apply, then insert Install USB and reboot back to bios to make sure you have booted with the default settings and the USB in place.

Then make ONLY the following changes;


BIOS settings

General
Date/Time - Check Date/Time are reasonably accurate and if not set them.

Boot Sequence - Untick anything on the left that isn’t your SATA or USB drive, and
set 'UEFI: SomeUSBdrive' at top of boot device list on right.
We want it to boot from the UEFI:USB every tboot until we setup Clover on the hard drive but the
install process will change this selection to set it to boot from 'OSX', we dont want that, so will need to change back to our UEFI:USB as the only boot device until Clover is installed and BIOS is set to boot from the disk drive.

We never want to boot from OSX so be prepared to interrupt reboots with the F12 key to check and maybe set the USB as the only boot device during the OSX Install process. Some of the install 'Reboots' will not give the opportunity to press F12, and that's ok, just let it run thru.

Advanced Boot Options
[ x ] Enable Legacy Option Roms - Selected (May be set like this by default)

UEFI: BootPathSecurity
(.) Never

System Configuration

Integrated NIC
(.) Enabled

Serial Port
(.) Disabled

Sata Operation
(.) AHCI - (May be set like this by default)

Video
Primary Display
(.) Intel HD Graphics

Power Management
Deep Sleep Control
(.) Disabled

Post Behavior
MEBx Hotkey
[ ] Enable HK - Not ticked

Virtulisation Support
VT for Direct I/OL
[ ] Enable VT Direct IO - Not ticked


Click Apply
Do NOT make any other changes.

Boot USB Installer and install
Reboot with USB plugged in and at the Clover Screen select to boot from the USB OSX Installer. The install process should begin, and you should be prepared to format the SATA drive and begin the install. During the install make the first user without being connected to the internet and without that user having an Apple ID, ie, a local admin account, this account is used for the rest of this process.

Prepare the SATA drive for booting with Clover
a. From the install USB - Copy - Clover Install, Clover Configurator and Kextbeast to the logged in users Desktop.
b. Run the Clover Install Program to install Clover onto the SATA drive - this version will install Clover with the correct options preset
c. Use Clover Configurator to Mount the SATA drive EFI partition, and
d. Rename or delete config.plist in SATA /EFI/Clover, and
e. Copy all the files and folders in the attached Dell 7020.zip files 'Dell 7020 Clover' folder into the SATA \EFI\Clover folder structure of the drive, merging the two.
f. Remove USB.

Finalise Boot options
Reboot to BIOS and in
General-Boot Sequence -
Un-tick any boot entries that mention 'OSX', and
set the boot order to boot from the UEFI:SATA drive first,
apply, exit and leave to run through.


Setup serial numbers
Click on this paragraph heading and follow instructions.
Serial number checking will require an internet connection but it shouldn't be connected to a network until here.

Reboot.

Go Online.

Configure OSX
Log in and run the following commands to free space and configure the machine for use without hibernation;

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 - turns off hibernation
sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage - may report an error - file does not exist until the machine has been to sleep
sudo mkdir /var/vm/sleepimage - creates a directory of the same name NOT a file, which stops it being written to

In System Preferences - Energy Settings - turn off Wake on LAN

Fin.


Other hardware
If you do want to add hardware like wifi or GPU card, I advise building without, keeping it as simple as possible as you build, before adding to it.

It is likely that you will need some changes for what ever hardware you add but GPU's will need particular settings to get sleep and displays working perfectly, trs96's guide which is titled for the RX570 but actually covers the right settings for just about all of the supported GPU's that can sensibly be used in these machines and in post 3 below is my list of the differences between the settings of the two

PCI based NVMe drive
The BIOS capabilities do not provide for booting from NVMe drives on these machines;
so to use a NVMe drive to run OSX;
we boot from a SATA or USB drive where we load a UEFI based NVMe driver ( NvmExpressDxe-64.efi ) and
Clover can then see and load OSX from the NVMe.

These same files will work for a PCI based NVMe drive if it is run with a SATA drive to boot from.
Same instructions except - at OSX install screen;
Select Disk Utility and format both SATA and NVMe drives (Same settings), and​
Select the NVMe drive to install OSX to.​
When logged in to OSX for the first time, ensure you install Clover and its files to the SATA not NVMe drive.
The BIOS should be set to boot from SATA and Clover should be set to boot the PCI_NVMe OSX drive by default.


If anyone is able to test - please feedback, I have tested them myself and it all works, but maybe this isnt a good test.

Edit: attached debug.zip is the output from Blackmagic's Problem Reporting Script - all working as described above (with 4k settings enabled). May be useful for comparisons.
 

Attachments

  • debug_7517.zip
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  • Dell 7020 Clover.zip
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Wondering what is unique to Clover 4961 that improves the install of 10.14.5 ? I don't see anything in MacMan's description that clarifies this. In other words, why use it over 4920 ?
 
A- Nothing different. But by saying this, we wont have the problem where people who use more standard versions of Clover dont get the aptio fixes in clover install without selecting them explicitly. See 2nd sentence.:) edited to give options to use whatever people want to perform function used for. Edit changed title to 'experienced' and added the options to use whatever they like.

Things that may be wrong;
It has kexts in both /other and /L/Extensions and Clover set to 'detect' - does this work well for all the kexts?
I have deleted all the kext in SATA efi/clover except fakeSMC and IntelMausiEthernet and can get to recovery ok, may delete IntelMausiEthernet too.
I currently have fakesmc and usbInjectAll in /Other and everything else in /L/E - still testing where things might go.

EDIT: Clever people have been discussing where to put KEXT's and their valuable opinions are that NO Kexts should go in /Library/Extensions ie, put all the Hackintosh kexts on the EFI partition.

Would Wake On Lan work if we enabled it in BIOS and OSX? Read somewhere that the BIOS setting does not effect hackintoshes WOL function at all?

Things that I think
the 14,3 defs are likely to be easier to work with - whatever variation of DP that's there on the 14,2 is not there on the dell and that's likely to be an extra piece of work - so are there any costs with swapping SMBIOS version?



Differences between Main and Spinoff thread settings - awaiting trs96 confirmation

Clover - config.plist
System Definitions
Main - 14,2
Spinoff -14,3

ACPI - SSDT - PluginType
Main - Ticked
Spinoff - Not ticked

Main - No ig-platform-id key
Spinoff - includes;
<key>ig-platform-id</key>
<string>0x0d220003</string>

BIOS
General - Advanced Boot Options - Enable Legacy ROMS
Main - no tick during install - tick after install
Spinoff - tick

Video - Primary Display
Main - Auto for HD4600
Spinoff - Intel HD Graphics (unless you wish to use another GPU as primary, in which case build as Intel and after installing GPU choose Nvidia or AMD.

Power Management - Deep Sleep Control
Main - Disabled
Spinoff - Disabled

Post Behaviour - MEBx Hoykey
Main - ?
Spinoff - Not ticked

Virtualisation Support - VT for Direct I/O
Mian -
Spinoff - Not ticked
 
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imma try these changes with my 9020.
Looks like the only changes for me will be plugin type and system def.

@nicksoph what sort of performance do you get with NVMe drives on this (or the main thread) set-up?
I got my first NVMe drive the otherday and set it up but it doesnt seem any faster than my old Samsung 850 SSD.
Maybe I just got a crappy one, I guess I'll do some read/write benchmarks tonight and test it.
I had heard boot times were really fast etc... but mine takes quite a while to get through bios and clover and then the actual boot isnt that great either. I was underwhelmed.
 
what sort of performance do you get with NVMe drives
From Power off to Clover screen = 14 seconds.
From Power off to Login screen = 33 seconds - Including 1 second timeout on clover screen.
 
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I got my first NVMe drive the otherday and set it up but it doesnt seem any faster than my old Samsung 850 SSD.
Maybe I just got a crappy one, I guess I'll do some read/write benchmarks tonight and test it.
I had heard boot times were really fast etc... but mine takes quite a while to get through bios and clover and then the actual boot isnt that great either. I was underwhelmed.

What brand NVMe are you using?. Do you have it installed in the X4 or X16 slot?.
I have a 250 GB HP EX900 NVMe with Mojave installed in the X16 slot, (Worth keeping an eye on prices, sometimes there much cheaper than equivalent SSD). Boot up time is noticeably quicker, even from cold, but only by a few seconds.


@trs96 always points out in his guides that NVMe is optional because they're more about moving large files quickly and not about booting or loading applications faster. And he's right, yes macOS will feel a little snappier but your not going to notice a lot a difference in opening apps or booting.
 
Boot up time is noticeably quicker, even from cold, but only by a few seconds.
I would also add that the primary "must have" scenario for an NVME drive is for 4K+ video editing. In most other situations a good name brand Sata SSD gets the job done.
 
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@craighazan Stripes - I have seen these so often that I don't know if it currently does it but think it is not a problem - its just the graphics changing state. I think it does not occur if "Allow Legacy ROMS" is ticked not sure why but guessing it's because the gpu is in its native state at boot.
 
@craighazan Stripes - I have seen these so often that I don't know if it currently does it but think it is not a problem - its just the graphics changing state. I think it does not occur if "Allow Legacy ROMS" is ticked not sure why but guessing it's because the gpu is in its native state at boot.

@nicksoph I like the stripes!, apparently the latest WEG Kext will fix it, (7020). But I like the odd glitch here and there, here’s another from when I attempted the sys def change yesterday.

899EACAD-AAAF-4D8C-8769-1724AE502032.jpeg
 
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