[GUIDE] ASUS Zenbook UX430 - i7 8550 Kaby Lake R ALC294

[starcentral]

OSX 10.12 Sierra Guide: post #7 below https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...7-8550-kaby-lake-r-alc294.243618/post-1683113

OSX 10.15 Catalina Guide: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-asus-zenbook-ux430-i7-8550-kaby-lake-r-alc294.318616/

Prelude:

my late 2011 mpb is experiencing the infamous graphics card issue that resulted in a class action law suit whereby apple extended the warranty on them for a good 6 years after the fact replacing logic boards for anyone who had the problem. I had my logic board replaced once already for free by apple but just the other day I hooked up an external monitor via port triggering the 2nd graphics card and it fried. back to square one, and apple won't do the repair free anymore, the extended warranty period is over.

I'm not sure if people are aware, but when you have this issue the screen goes completely messed up and even if you force shut down, the mpb will boot up only to default using the AMD Radeon HD again not the Intel graphics one. It's highly annoying. My work around is sticking the mbp inside a computer bag with the lid slightly open and getting it to overheat significantly that then, and only then, the computer shuts itself down, then you immediately turn it on and it boots using the Intel graphics card.

From there once I'm in the OS I use gfxCardStatus to force the Intel graphics and prevent the AMD graphics from switching in.

After two successful desktop hackintosh builds I'm now highly considering a laptop hackintosh??

I spent weeks researching and narrowed it down to a few laptop models in particular, but in any of these cases I'm looking at the same price as a genuine MacBook Air. Obviously the air has weak specs compared to a 8th gen PC laptop - but the hassle factor of doing a hackintosh on a laptop has me thinking maybe I just get another MacBook :/

I need some advise, encouragement, or words from the wise. Kind of on the fence right now.

laptop models narrowed down: Acer 573, Asus Zenbook ux430, Acer Swift 3.

 

[RehabMan]

my late 2011 mpb is experiencing the infamous graphics card issue that resulted in a class action law suit whereby apple extended the warranty on them for a good 6 years after the fact replacing logic boards for anyone who had the problem. I had my logic board replaced once already for free by apple but just the other day I hooked up an external monitor via port triggering the 2nd graphics card and it fried. back to square one, and apple won't do the repair free anymore, the extended warranty period is over.

I'm not sure if people are aware, but when you have this issue the screen goes completely messed up and even if you force shut down, the mpb will boot up only to default using the AMD Radeon HD again not the Intel graphics one. It's highly annoying. My work around is sticking the mbp inside a computer bag with the lid slightly open and getting it to overheat significantly that then, and only then, the computer shuts itself down, then you immediately turn it on and it boots using the Intel graphics card.

From there once I'm in the OS I use gfxCardStatus to force the Intel graphics and prevent the AMD graphics from switching in.

After two successful desktop hackintosh builds I'm now highly considering a laptop hackintosh??

I spent weeks researching and narrowed it down to a few laptop models in particular, but in any of these cases I'm looking at the same price as a genuine MacBook Air. Obviously the air has weak specs compared to a 8th gen PC laptop - but the hassle factor of doing a hackintosh on a laptop has me thinking maybe I just get another MacBook :/

I need some advise, encouragement, or words from the wise. Kind of on the fence right now.

laptop models narrowed down: Acer 573, Asus Zenbook ux430, Acer Swift 3.

If you need to get actual work done on your computer, purchase an Apple laptop.
The purpose of hackintosh is more about learning about technology and improving your computer skills.
Hackintosh requires a lot of time/learning/fiddling, and even then it is not 100% hassle free.

 

[starcentral]

dang I hope you weren't going to say that!

Spec for spec I just can't justify the prices for a top end macbook pro. Here in Canada this would be around $3000-$3500 - the exact same money my daughter spend on a decent used car!

I think I am going to go hack-top route and spend 1/3 that amount. I admit this hacking business is very complicated and most times over my head, but thanksfully there is tonymacx86 website and many helpful people on it.

Because I don't think laptops ship with a "restore" disc anymore, is there any way to pull off the recovery partition and back it up somehow incase I want to use it?

Alternatively I'm thinking to do partition and dual boot, in my searches I see you suggested this link: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/mavericks-windows-8-on-same-drive-without-erasing.133940/

Is this still current for Sierra or higher?

cheers

 

[RehabMan]

Because I don't think laptops ship with a "restore" disc anymore, is there any way to pull off the recovery partition and back it up somehow incase I want to use it?

If you wish to restore your laptop with all the OEM garbage, most OEMs provide a way to create a USB key.
But if you want a clean Windows system (without OEM crapware), it is probably best to do a fresh install of retail Win10.

Alternatively I'm thinking to do partition and dual boot, in my searches I see you suggested this link: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/mavericks-windows-8-on-same-drive-without-erasing.133940/

There is additional dual boot info in the FAQ/guide.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...faq-read-first-laptop-frequent-questions.html
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-booting-the-os-x-installer-on-laptops-with-clover.148093/

Is this still current for Sierra or higher?

Yes.

 

[starcentral]

Yes OEM garbage is indeed garbage... alerts for new drivers full of ads, then more alerts for more things that take up precious memory and resources. On my family's PC computers which continually need fixing I'm quick to hit the runOnce in registry and delete most of it from loading, but still there will be some resident garbage.

You are right, nothing beats a FRESH clean install of Windows. I will have to get myself a retail copy of 10 if I decide to stick with dual boot.. for now I'm undecided. ie. If I get OSX running 97% I won't need windows anyways, i have my dual boot desktop for that.

Thanks for the links, will be checking those out and ordering laptop this week!

Pretty excited about it!

 

[RehabMan]

I will have to get myself a retail copy of 10

You can download it direct from Microsoft.
No cost... as your PC already has the license embedded in BIOS.

 

[starcentral]

Great news so far... I picked up a brand new ASUS UX430 last week. $1250 Canadian dollars plus tax. So far I am dual booting using partitions into each O/S Windows 10 & Sierra 10.12.6 straight off the internal SSD.

ASUS UX430UA / i7 8550 / Intel 620

BIOS PREP: Disable secure boot. Under boot set everything to disabled. Under advanced set everything enabled but VT-D = disabled. Under graphics config: DVMT 64.

CREATE USB INSTALLER: I used uniBeast to create the installer for 10.12.6 Sierra.

DUAL BOOT: Before I stated the install, this model laptop came with a 500 GB SSD and I wanted to repartition it so OSX would have 400GB and leave Windows with 100GB. The built in Windows disk management tool will only let you shrink the partition so far, even if you remove pagesys, restore, etc. so I researched it and used MiniTool Partition Wizard (free). I've also used USEase Partition Tool paid version which works well too.


Setting up the dual boot was not too difficult but thankfully for Rehab's guides and tips. On this laptop you press ESC (escape key) to show the boot menu and select your USB stick.

I'm thankful my drive was already GPT and not MSR, so this made the 12 minute install go smooth and I was booting into 10.12.6 from USB very easily. I did not run Multibeast because I don't think its really good option for a laptop. Since the USB was booting the machine good, I copied the clover folder over to the SSD boot partition and then copied clover.efi from the boot USB to the SSD boot partition EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ and renamed it to bootmgfw.efi (You will read in newer posts that I eventually switched over to Rehabman's guide config.plist based on Intel HD620)

POST INSTALL: (the rest of my journey configuring and patching the system continues over the next several pages, and possible even into the future). I hope you will enjoy this guide.

I spent this entire week trying to get the ELAN1300 trackpad working. Finally by using VoodooI2C, GPIO pinning, many attempts and lots of DSDT patching I was successful. For me was quite difficult to follow the install guide. I wrote details about it here in VoodooI2C support thread: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/voodooi2c-help-and-support.243378/page-11#post-1682671

I continue to work on my build.

Below updated Feb 19th 2018:
Working after basic install:
• 1920x1080 HD screen (damn sharp nice looking screen in OSX - I love it)
• Keyboard
• SD card reader
• USB ports
• Wi-Fi with USB adapter TP-Link TL-WN725N and OSX drivers
• Built-in camera (had some glitches until I stopped spoofing graphics)
• Sleep (lid sleep seemed to work from beginning but not sure)

Working after further patching:
• ELAN1300 - Trackpad with click, 2 finger scroll, 3 finger mission control, 4 finger cmd+W
• Keyboard Backlight 3 levels
• Screen brightness control 16 levels
• Battery status
• Hardware monitor
• Power over USB
• Intel 620 support under 10.12.6
• HDMI output (so far only tested HD, so far no sound over HDMI)
• Built-in camera fully functioning no glitches
• Speakers & internal mic with beta AppleHDA patch for ALC294 by Insanelydeepak
• AirPlay

In progress:
• Replace internal wi-fi board with Broadcom adapter
• HDMI audio
• Headphone jack audio

If I get time and feel like it:
• Storing keyboard light and screen brightness values to Nvram after reboots
• Auto light sensor
• Turbo
•

My BruceX Final Cut Pro X benchmark result was 82. This is not bad considering the graphics chip built in, it puts it on par with a MacBook Pro late 2013 15" 2.6GHz with GT750M 2GB and definitely surpasses my mbp late 2011 15".

 

[starcentral]

Update on build:

- Keyboard backlight with 4 levels now working using ASUSfnkeys.kext and keyboardbacklightpatch 4 to patch DSDT.

- Tested bluetooth, natively doesn't work.

- Damn I found out my audio ALC is 294 which is a bit on the rare side. From my research it will need AppleHDA and I will need to learn how to patch this and create custom XML (pathmaps, layout, pinconfigs) using Linux audio codec dump (which so far I do not know what any of that even means. I'm real new to this)

EDIT: update 6:53pm EST
I can get audio to work using voodooHDA.kext but the audio crackles a lot when music has lower frequency. I want to try this solution next https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/help-with-realtek-alc294.239535/page-2#post-1664923 but ultimately I'm hoping to do custom patch for AppleHDA.

 

[starcentral]

Update:

USB Power

The ASUS UX430 has no CD/DVD drive so I was able to hookup an Apple superdrive (A1379) via USB after enabling power to the USB using some renames in config.plist. Rehabman helped me with this, that thread is here: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...superdrive-compatibility.245180/#post-1687770


Sound Realtek ALC294

Cedron was successful at getting original AppleHDA.kext to work with ALC294 but I haven't been so lucky yet. Rehabman gave me some tips on trying to get it to work, I still have to get back to working on that.. That post is here: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/help-with-realtek-alc294.239535/page-2#post-1664923

In the meantime I have also been exploring Rinone's AppleHDA patcher. Over the weekend I did a codec dump of ALC294 so Rinone could make me a custom AppleHDA patch. We're still working on implementation.

How to do codec dump with Linux live ISO

If you need a codec dump, you will need to boot into Linux to dump the codec details. In my case I made a Linux Live ISO using Ubuntu.

Here are the steps to making bootable Linux USB:

1) Get a copy of Linux Live ISO. I used 16.04.3 LTS I downloaded here https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

2) On OSX format your USB (2GB or higher will work) using disk utility and under Partition 1 select GUID Partition table.

3) When you download Ubuntu it sill be in ISO format. You'll need to convert it to DMG using terminal:

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/ubuntu.iso

4) In terminal unmount the USB. You might need to run diskutil list to know the id (disk2 was mine).

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

5) Now you use the image to make the boot USB (disk2 was mine). For my old USB stick this took almost 10 minutes, just wait until it finishes.

sudo dd if=/path/to/ubuntu-14.04-desktop-amd64+mac.img.dmg of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m

When it does finish you'll get a OS message to initialize, eject, etc.. the USb ... don't press anything. In terminal type:

diskutil eject /dev/disk2

6) Boot of the disc get to the desktop. Find terminal and type:

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0

7) When it is finished you can copy and paste this to a document and save to your USB.

 

[starcentral]

Today received the TP-Link TL-WN725N wireless N nano USB adapter as temporary wi-fi access for my ASUS UX430 - only $12 and what a great slim profile.

This is a temporary solution to get this machine on Internet until I get around to replacing the internal Wi-Fi card with a supported Broadcom Wi-Fi adapter. Probably 6 weeks delivery time from China.

Retail link: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B008IFXQFU/?tag=tonymacx86c0c-20

Driver I'm using for 10.12.6 on UX430 available via http://www.tp-link.com/us/download/TL-WN725N.html or direct: TL-WN725N(US)_V2_170912_Mac