El Capitan 10.11.2 On
MSI Z170A Gaming M7, I7 6700K, GTX970, 16 GB DDR4, 256GB SSD
Unibeast & Multibeast
*Note - I'm doing the text write up first, I will add pictures after I've finished the text portion.
This guide will walk you through the steps required to get an working El Capitan Customac running on a Skylake Z170A Gaming M7 board.
For the installation I used a blank 256GB Sandisk Ultra Plus SSD plugged into the IRST controller and set to AHCI mode in UEFI.
Prerequisites
A working Mac OS Machine to create the install USB
A blank or unused HDD to install onto
Utilities
Unibeast 6.1.1
Multibeast 8.0.1
EFI Mounter V3
A kext Installer of your choice
Files, Drivers and kexts
OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi
The preconfigured config.plist for Skylake
USBInjectAll.kext
AtherosE2200.kext v2.0.1 (Updated to add support for E2400)
Nvidias Alternate Driver for El Capitan
Finally a fair few hours of your time.
Whats Working and Whats Not?
Honestly the only thing not working 100% is Audio. I have not encountered any other issues as of yet. I will keep this updated as I discover issues but almost everything, including power management appears to be working OOTB.
Obviously it does suffer from the same USB issues that all Skylake builds currently suffer from. I'm working for the rest of the week so don't have time but am hoping to spend some of my Saturday looking into the USB drives with the intention of creating a working SSDT for my board. I will keep this guide updated with the results.
I haven't tested the Onboard Video or HDMI as I have nothing to test them with
Pre Install Setup And Configuration
These steps should be carried out on your existing Mac.
1)
Follow this amazing guide up to the end of step 2
You should now have a working El Capitan USB Installer.
2) Run EFI Mounter V3
3) Select the USB Drive and click OK then click Mount
4) The EFI folder should auto launch, navigate into /EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI/
5) Delete OsxAptioFix2Drv-64.efi (or make a new folder and copy the file into it)
6) Replace it with
OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi
7) Go back a folder
Delete config.plist and replace it with
The preconfigured config.plist for Skylake
9) Open Kexts and copy
USBInjectAll.kext into the 10.10 folder and the 10.11 folder
WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED DO NOT DELETE THESE FILES AS YOU WILL NEED THEM AFTER THE INSTALL IS DONE, I RECOMMEND COPYING THEM ONTO ANOTHER FLASH DRIVE SO YOU HAVE THEM ALL AVAILABLE TO YOU ONCE EL CAPITAN IS INSTALLED ONTO YOUR MACHINE. REMEMBER YOU WILL HAVE NO INTERNET ACCESS UNTIL YOU INSTALL ATHEROSE2200.KEXT!
UEFI Configuration
UEFI Configuration is identical to MSI Z97 systems,
see this excellent guide for detailed instructions.
For reference:
Windows 8/10 Support - Disabled
Windows 7 Support - Disabled
VT-D - Disabled
CFG Lock - Disabled
XHCI Handoff - Enabled
Installation
Now we move onto the interesting part. The UEFI should be configured and the USB Drive should be inserted into your Computer before you begin these steps. Remember that until you run Multibeast you'll need to boot via USB through the boot menu everytime.
1) Boot up your machine and mash F11 to bring up the boot menu
2) Select the (UEFI) entry for your flash drive in the boot menu
3) Click on Options, navigate to Boot Args, press Enter and add the argument
4) Go back to the boot menu and select External - Boot Mac Os X
5) Install Mac OS as normal
6) Once rebooted add the boot arguments again and boot from the HFS drive
7) Run through the initial configuration wizard making sure to select My Device Does Not Connect To The Internet for Internet Options
Setup tour User Account and El Capitans Desktop will load
9) Run Multibeast
10) Select
Quick Start - UEFI Boot Mode
Drivers > Disk - Intel Generic AHCI
Drivers > Misc - Leave Default
Drivers > Network - None
Customise > System Definitions - Mac Pro 3.1
11) Click Build > Install
12) Run EFI Mounter V3
13) Select the Hard Disk and click OK then click Mount
14) The EFI folder should auto launch, navigate into /EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI/
15) Delete OsxAptioFix2Drv-64.efi (or make a new folder and copy the file into it)
16) Replace it with
OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi
17) Go back a folder
1
Delete config.plist and replace it with
The preconfigured config.plist for Skylake
19) Open Kexts and copy
USBInjectAll.kext into the 10.10 folder and the 10.11 folder
20) Close the EFI folder
21) Run your Kext Installer and install AtherosE2200.kext
22) Remove the USB drive and Reboot, add the boot arguments and boot from the HFS drive
23) Install the Nvidia Alternative Driver
Now you should be ready to reboot into a working Mac OS El Capitan install with no boot arguments required.
Sound Not Working
The first thing you will notice is that you have no sound. Its a problem I am still working on and hoping to get a solution in the near future but for now there is a partially working workaround.
1) Download the latest
VoodooHDA Package
2) Install and then reboot
3) Plug your speakers into the Line Out (RED) connector
4) Open System Preferences > Audio
5) Select Line Out as the Output device
6) Open Preferences > VooDooHDA
7) Change the second drop down option to the HDEF device
Set the Volume to the 11 O Clock position
9) Set PCM to Full and iMix nd Input Gain to minimum
You should now have working sound, albeit very quiet.
USB Issues
Thats a Skylake thing, for now it appears the USB 3 ports are working at USB 2 speeds and the USB 2 ports don't work at all.
I'm hoping to spend some of my Saturday looking into this issue and coming up with a working SSDT to resolve this. Stay tuned for updates as I have them.
As I said at the start, I don't have time today but I will update this guide with some screenshots in the near future.
Thank You.