[Guide] El Capitan on the Intel Broadwell NUC

[ammulder]

I think in general it's considered easier to have each OS on its own drive. So for instance, if a Windows update wants to change the boot loader setup, it won't mess up Clover/OS X.

But I've only done it on a single drive as described in the first post, and I haven't had major issues.

The biggest challenge is when a major Windows update wants to reboot 10 times and I don't want to watch it, so I have to change the configuration to boot Windows by default long enough to get through all that. I guess the advantage to a dual-drive setup there is that you could set the BIOS to boot the Windows drive by default instead of needing to change config.plist.

 

[youssef123]

Yes, I am dual booting in this manner, and had no issues with the setup following the instructions in appendix B.

The Clover bootloader will allow you to select which OS you want to boot on start up.

Thank you for your response. I'm assuming it doesnt matter if I've installed Win10 First normally first and then just proceeding with following the instructions to install OSX as my second OS.

I'm at the point where I've created the OSX bootable USB and I get the Bootloader screen when i boot with USB - at this point I see 3 NTFS drives all of them say WINDOWS and a 4th boot OSX from USB but when trying any of the 3 Windows options It gets me nowhere, I must be that I need to proceed until the end of the tutorial for that to work but just wanted to make sure...

Thank you again

 

[dakishimesan0]

I'm assuming it doesnt matter if I've installed Win10 First normally first and then just proceeding with following the instructions to install OSX as my second OS.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to do it that way using this guide. Basically, if you follow the steps in Appendix B, you end up with a configuration where:

1. Unibeast USB OSX installer wipes out any pre-existing partition maps on the drive and creates a GUID partition table and HFS formatted partition.

This is necessary because that is the partition table/format required by OSX. The OSX installer doesn't have the complexity to recognize an MBR/NTFS configured drive with a Windows installation and allow you to create a Hybrid Partition Table on that drive, splitting the drive and leaving the Windows data/partition intact -- it will not do this.

2. After you finish installing OSX, you use the OSX disk utility to create a second partition on the drive, ostensibly for another OSX installation or other Mac data with HFS+ (Apple) format.

3. Then you use Windows install media to kind of hijack that second HFS+ formatted partition and format it for Windows (NTFS) instead.

Windows installer may muck with the partition tables and try to take boot priority (can someone else speak to this?), but the Clover bootloader then comes into play to recognize both installations at boot and allow you to choose.

So, TL;DR: Installing OSX on a drive that already has Windows is outside the scope of this guide, I think, and may result in the accidental deletion of your Windows partition/data. It might be easiest to try to install OSX on a second, independent drive if possible. I think then, you can use your Unibeast USB on the separate drive, and Clover will recognize the new OSX on the second drive and your original Windows on the original drive.

Please verify this info with others to make sure I have this right!

Update: I found a relevant guide here, which although was written for Win8/ML has the basic info you need. Among other things, they note that two separate drives are preferred, but otherwise they can be installed on the same drive, in any order, EXCEPT that in any case it seems to be required that the drive have a GUID partition map or OSX cannot be installed. Since you are talking about adding OSX to a pre-existing solo Windows install, I think you are out of luck unless you install both from scratch, or install OSX to a separate drive. Can others confirm?

http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-booting/96000-guide-dual-booting-mountain-lion-windows-8-a.html

See also this thread:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/multi-boo...boot-loader-too-many-options.html#post1168708

 

[ammulder]

First, I agree that it's not a good assumption that you can install Windows 10 first. If it has to be that way, you need to use a different procedure than I have in the first post here.

Second, it depends on whether you installed Windows Legacy or UEFI. If you installed Legacy, you need to convert to UEFI before you could add OS X UEFI to the same drive. The big list of solutions has links for checking which way you installed Windows, and converting Windows Legacy to UEFI. After that, I hear you need to delete the MSR partition and resize the EFI partition, though I haven't gone through that routine myself. It may be possible to install OS X Legacy instead, though I haven't tried that on the NUC and I'm not sure whether it would cause any problems.

While all that is possible, it would be more straightforward to either install OS X first (following the steps in the first post) or install to separate drives.

 

[SamTT]

Do you think choosing a early 2015 13" macbook pro in the magic wand instead of macbook air would work better? This 13" MBP which has a i7 - 5557U processor, exactly like the NUC5i7RYH http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/macbook-pro/ I haven't tried it yet, but it would make more sense than the macbook air recommended on this this guide.

Again, I am truly very thankful for this great thread!

Does anyone know how to set MACBook Pro 12, 1 Early 2015 of SMBIOS in config.plist? I double check the clover configurator but only support up to MacBook pro 11.

 

[DWegmann]

If you have time to try this I would be very interested to know if it works to resolve the issue. Thanks!

So, I tried it out.
I had to use my MacBook Pro because I was missing a special cable to connect the output HDMI of my switch to the NUC.

So the setup was the following:
My MacBook was connected over the HDMI port to the switch. The output of the switch was the TV. The switch had only the MyBook as output, the other HDMI output of the switch was not connected.
Over display port to HDMI I connected the MacBook separate to my monitor.
When I turned the TV off, the mentioned mouse problems occurred. But it has not effect to switch the switch.
This can be a problem of my specific switch, because when the switch occurred there were no short black screen when the OS rearrange the desktop.

So I will stay with my unplugging of the HDMI cable. To prevent damage on the NUC HDMI port you could use a short HDMI extension cable.

 

[dakishimesan0]

So, I tried it out... This can be a problem of my specific switch, because when the switch occurred there were no short black screen when the OS rearrange the desktop.

Thank you muchly for testing this. Y, I agree that if there was no temporary black screen then from the computer's standpoint the source was never disconnected -- perhaps your switch maintains any connected HDMI as active, which would ordinarily be a good thing. If I happen to buy a pure HDMI switch on Amazon I will test it, but you're right that with a short extension cord (or even just the necessary mini HDMI to HDMI adapter on the NUC) you can prevent the wear/tear on the backplate port.

 

[dg30m]

Finally got my NUCi5RYH operating reliably. System details:
Intel NUCi5RYH
2x 8GB Crucial SODIMM
Samsung EVO 850 250GB SSD
500GB SATA hard drive
Philips monitor 1920x1080
HDMI audio via the monitor, haven't tried the headphone jack
OSX 10.11.2

First I want to thank ammulder and all others who worked out all the guide details. The software installation went smoothly as per the guide. The only software trouble was the rebooting issues associated with BIOS 350. I changed it to 348 and that fixed that problem.

But I did have intermittent hardware problems. The screen would go blank for anything from a second to half an hour whenever I turned something else in the room on or off. This was due to a poor display port to HDMI cable. Changed to a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable and problem 2 fixed.

Next were intermittent problems such as the screen blanking and rebooting. I suspected a memory problem. Tried a memory test program but passed. Then decided to open the case and reseat RAM. These seemed ok. Then went to reseat the SSD and found the PCB was deformed. The cables to the SATA drive had been caught between the SSD and the pad under the SATA mount, and were pressing down on the SSD board. I put the SSD back in and kept the cables out of the way as the case went back together.
It has been a week since and the NUC has run everyday without these problems occuring again.

Thanks everyone.

 

[tazman1937]

I'm still having random reboots up to 10 times per day on my NUC5i5-RYH, 16GB / 512GBm.2 machine. There is no warning or typical behavior that causes them; they happen when the machine is just sitting idle or when I'm using it.

One question I have:
What does everyone's screens look like on boot?
For me, the apple logo is screwed up during the last 1/3 of the loading bar (i know this is normal),
but then, one screen (hdmi) is tri-color static noise, the other screen is distorted. Then, the hdmi screen goes black, the other screen goes normal, but just one monitor desktop, then, the HDMI screen kicks on and it switches to dual monitor desktop.

Is this typical of everyone else's boot? Is it an indicator of why my NUC is rebooting randomly?

 

[dakishimesan0]

I'm still having random reboots up to 10 times per day on my NUC5i5-RYH, 16GB / 512GBm.2 machine. There is no warning or typical behavior that causes them; they happen when the machine is just sitting idle or when I'm using it.

One question I have:
What does everyone's screens look like on boot?
For me, the apple logo is screwed up during the last 1/3 of the loading bar (i know this is normal),
but then, one screen (hdmi) is tri-color static noise, the other screen is distorted. Then, the hdmi screen goes black, the other screen goes normal, but just one monitor desktop, then, the HDMI screen kicks on and it switches to dual monitor desktop.

Is this typical of everyone else's boot? Is it an indicator of why my NUC is rebooting randomly?

I'm using two displays on displayport and HDMI, and after the Apple logo gores screwy during the last 1/2 of boot, both screens display the desktop (login screen) normally.

Try using just the DP monitor with nothing on HDMI and seeing if you still get reboots; try just the HDMI and not the displayport; try using a single stick of RAM (which has to be in the bottom slot, I believe) and then the other stick; try other RAM if available; try installing and booting from external disk only -- and see if you still get reboots, to try an narrow down the problem.