Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming build with working NVRAM

[philament23]

Hi, so I can't see a grub prompt. I followed the directions and copied the EFI folder to the EFI partition of the USB drive formatted in FAT 32. The drive doesn't show up in Clover boot menu but after pushing F3 the option to boot to the EFI shell for the external drive comes up. So when I click on it it leads me to a black screen with a single underscore with no grub prompt. I can type things but I can't see text. Sorry if someone asked this already. I tried searching the thread but it's a huge thread at this point.

 

[philament23]

Well, nevermind on that front, I figured out I had to f12 boot to the USB drive. But I must have done something wrong because now my BIOS menu is in another language... Like Italian or Spanish or something. My results after executing the command were slightly different than the original post shows success looks like. 5909 instead of 5906.

 

[philament23]

Hmm I think I got it. thank you for this guide

 

[joobuzz]

Just another shot in the dark here -- I patched my framebuffer and it allowed my iGPU to coexist better with my rig.

The instructions are here:

[GUIDE] General Framebuffer Patching Guide (HDMI Black Screen Problem)

General Framebuffer Patching Guide using Hackintool Please do not quote this guide in its entirety. Post a link instead. 15 Jan 2019: Intel FB-Patcher has been renamed to Hackintool. 19 Jan 2019: Guide overhauled. Please be aware of possible HDMI hot-plug issues. After boot you may have to...

www.tonymacx86.com

But to make it easier, I edited your config.plist with the patch here. You can either use this config.plist, or you can copy the patch to your current config.plist. To do that, open both in Clover Configurator.

1. Go to Devices > Properties (it is next to "Arbitrary") in both config.plists
Scroll down to

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)

in the edited version

2. Right click on this device, and copy

3. Go to your existing config.plist and right click in the Devices pane then paste it

4. Save and restart

After that, that's all I got joobuzz! I can't say if the DVI out is playing a role. It is worth a shot! I'm running old school monitors too. I have a DP to HDMI cable that plugs into a HDMI to DVI adapter on my monitor.

Hi @tedyun,

FINALLY SUCCESS!!!

I copied your PciRoot property to my config.plist, rebooted and wake from sleep finally works!!

Not only that, but Activity Monitor's GPU History window displays both graphics cards properly...

So here's what's curious about all this....post #3 states "*Those with dGPUs should not configure anything for ig-platform-id. Leave it blank."

Also, in post #1,360, I was recommended to delete the PciRoot property, (similar to the one you suggested I add), when I added my dGPU. I did this, and by doing so evidently this caused the sleep/wake issue. In fact, I decided tonight to try booting with the config.plist I used for my iGPU only build, and found it booted fine and I had no sleep issues. The only difference was the graphics cards history window in Activity monitor was not so accurate in it's descriptions of the names of the graphics processors.

That said, in both cases, the iGPU was displayed. It is not displayed in the GPU History window when the PciRoot property is removed from the config.plist file.

I've included my original config.plist file below. I am curious, are they essentially the same? All this is knew to me, so I'd be keen to know how they differ?

I'm also curious why is it important to delete this PciRoot property in the config.plist when a dGPU is installed, since it seemingly (so far!!) is having no negative effect?

Anyway, gonna put my Mac to sleep now and go to bed.

Thanks everyone for putting up with me on this thread, and I hope the discourse has been helpful for some.

 

[tedyun]

I'm glad the framebuffer patch worked! If it didn't work, the only other thing I would have suggested is the nuclear option, which would be to reinstall the system.

I am not sure why pastrychef recommended to delete the iGPU device. All I know is that I was having a difficult time getting a stable system with the iGPU & dGPU both enabled and patching the framebuffer helped a lot. Reading PC's post, I am wondering if he is talking about using a dGPU only and disabling the iGPU.

The only differences I see in your original config.plist is that in the original framebuffer patch, the framebuffers for Connector 1 have different values. The patch I gave you comes from CaseySJ's guide, near the bottom, which is specific for your mobo. If you're not using the motherboard ports, I'm not sure how critical these values are. I used the Z390M Gaming patch for my Z390 Gaming X motherboard and it works fine. My motherboard HDMI doesn't output a signal, and I'm just too lazy to map the connector properly.

Anyway, congratulations and I hope you enjoy your build! Sleep well - both you and your computer!

Hi @tedyun,

FINALLY SUCCESS!!!

I copied your PciRoot property to my config.plist, rebooted and wake from sleep finally works!!

Not only that, but Activity Monitor's GPU History window displays both graphics cards properly...
View attachment 478647
So here's what's curious about all this....post #3 states "*Those with dGPUs should not configure anything for ig-platform-id. Leave it blank."

Also, in post #1,360, I was recommended to delete the PciRoot property, (similar to the one you suggested I add), when I added my dGPU. I did this, and by doing so evidently this caused the sleep/wake issue. In fact, I decided tonight to try booting with the config.plist I used for my iGPU only build, and found it booted fine and I had no sleep issues. The only difference was the graphics cards history window in Activity monitor was not so accurate in it's descriptions of the names of the graphics processors.
View attachment 478648
That said, in both cases, the iGPU was displayed. It is not displayed in the GPU History window when the PciRoot property is removed from the config.plist file.

I've included my original config.plist file below. I am curious, are they essentially the same? All this is knew to me, so I'd be keen to know how they differ?

I'm also curious why is it important to delete this PciRoot property in the config.plist when a dGPU is installed, since it seemingly (so far!!) is having no negative effect?

Anyway, gonna put my Mac to sleep now and go to bed.

Thanks everyone for putting up with me on this thread, and I hope the discourse has been helpful for some.

 

[JohnDoeBlack]

Thank you for this guide. Been trying to make my Gigabyte Z390 M gaming run with hackintosh. This guide help me install it without any issue.

 

[joobuzz]

I'm glad the framebuffer patch worked! If it didn't work, the only other thing I would have suggested is the nuclear option, which would be to reinstall the system.

I am not sure why pastrychef recommended to delete the iGPU device. All I know is that I was having a difficult time getting a stable system with the iGPU & dGPU both enabled and patching the framebuffer helped a lot. Reading PC's post, I am wondering if he is talking about using a dGPU only and disabling the iGPU.

The only differences I see in your original config.plist is that in the original framebuffer patch, the framebuffers for Connector 1 have different values. The patch I gave you comes from CaseySJ's guide, near the bottom, which is specific for your mobo. If you're not using the motherboard ports, I'm not sure how critical these values are. I used the Z390M Gaming patch for my Z390 Gaming X motherboard and it works fine. My motherboard HDMI doesn't output a signal, and I'm just too lazy to map the connector properly.

Anyway, congratulations and I hope you enjoy your build! Sleep well - both you and your computer!

Hey again @tedyun,

System stayed asleep all night and woke fine this morning, so still going good. One more query though to test your patience...!

I noticed that in post #4,853 of CaseySJ's thread (and in the Going the Extra Mile section in post #1) he recommends using Platform ID 0x3E980003 for the iGPU (UHD 630) and in the HeadlessPlatform section of the An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-ins guide it states to use:

• 8/9th Gen - Coffee Lake CPU
  • UHD-630 IGPU = 0x3E910003 or 0x3E920003 or 0x3E980003 (use on MacOS 10.14.6+)

I notice in the config.plist you sent me and in Hackintool that the current platform id is 0x3E9B0007, which appears to be configured for a Macmini8,1.

Is there any reason you are using this platform id over the ones recommended in the above idiots guide?

I know that for a test export in FCPX, the current config (yours) exports it in 2m50s, but the previous config (the one with the sleep issues) exported it closer to 2 minutes. Just trying to get the best out of my build now sleep is fixed!!!

Thanks.

 

[pastrychef]

Booting from my original EFI from before I installed the RX580 (attached), this is what I see in IORegisterExplorer. Also attached is what System report states for Graphics. The GPU history window in Activity monitor only shows AMD Radeon RX 580 (Slot 0) - image also attached.

Hope this makes some sense in your head.

All three images look correct to me.

If you want to fix the naming of your RX 580, please see the bottom of post #3. Look for "How to populate System Information > PCI".

 

[tedyun]

I honestly never tried different Platform ID's. I used basically what was in CaseySJ's patch. I struggled a lot with the iGPU and framebuffer thing -- it didn't work the first time I tried it, and after many attempts, I ended up pulling the nuclear option (wiping the drive and reinstalling the system), put everything back and then it worked! After I got Sidecar working, I didn't tweak it. It was such a glorious sight to see the iGPU correctly identified and I moved on to tweaking other things.

I don't have the latest version of FCPX to test. One of my friends here, @Diorama, recently built his rig. He said that he had to set the iGPU as the primary display output in the BIOS to improve his FCPX rendering. He isn't very active on Tonymac, but we talk over FB. Maybe try that? I'll reach out to him and see if he has any advice to add.

I definitely understand trying to juice the extra last bit of performance from your rig. As a Hackintosher I expect nothing less than "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Hey again @tedyun,

System stayed asleep all night and woke fine this morning, so still going good. One more query though to test your patience...!

I noticed that in post #4,853 of CaseySJ's thread (and in the Going the Extra Mile section in post #1) he recommends using Platform ID 0x3E980003 for the iGPU (UHD 630) and in the HeadlessPlatform section of the An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-ins guide it states to use:

• 8/9th Gen - Coffee Lake CPU
  • UHD-630 IGPU = 0x3E910003 or 0x3E920003 or 0x3E980003 (use on MacOS 10.14.6+)

I notice in the config.plist you sent me and in Hackintool that the current platform id is 0x3E9B0007, which appears to be configured for a Macmini8,1.

Is there any reason you are using this platform id over the ones recommended in the above idiots guide?

I know that for a test export in FCPX, the current config (yours) exports it in 2m50s, but the previous config (the one with the sleep issues) exported it closer to 2 minutes. Just trying to get the best out of my build now sleep is fixed!!!

Thanks.

 

[joobuzz]

I honestly never tried different Platform ID's. I used basically what was in CaseySJ's patch. I struggled a lot with the iGPU and framebuffer thing -- it didn't work the first time I tried it, and after many attempts, I ended up pulling the nuclear option (wiping the drive and reinstalling the system), put everything back and then it worked! After I got Sidecar working, I didn't tweak it. It was such a glorious sight to see the iGPU correctly identified and I moved on to tweaking other things.

I don't have the latest version of FCPX to test. One of my friends here, @Diorama, recently built his rig. He said that he had to set the iGPU as the primary display output in the BIOS to improve his FCPX rendering. He isn't very active on Tonymac, but we talk over FB. Maybe try that? I'll reach out to him and see if he has any advice to add.

I definitely understand trying to juice the extra last bit of performance from your rig. As a Hackintosher I expect nothing less than "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Sadly, this morning I had to revert back to the approach @pastrychef recommended....removing Whatevergreen and enabling change GFX0 to IGPU and PEGP to GFX0 in config.plist. This was because for some reason FCPX crashed with your patch installed and wouldn't restart, not even when I rebooted.

FCPX is working now with his method and sleep is working - but doesn't give me as fast FCPX exports as with WEG in place - it'll do for now (and I could probably settle!), but since I know some version of WEG and a platform id of some kind will be more optimal, I'm gonna keep messing with it.

BTW, where exactly can I find CaseySJ's patch on here? I'd like to read around it a bit more.

Thanks again!!!