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[Guide] El Capitan on the Skylake Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac

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  1. MacBook Pro
  2. Mac mini
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El Capitan on the Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac
Update: High Sierra 10.13.1 install procedure
This guide assumes you are installing from scratch. I find integrated graphics on the HD 530 a little challenging, but the system works nicely with an Nvidia card.


Fatal1tyZ170Gaming-ITXac-promo.jpg

My Configuration
  • BIOS 1.50 (current at the time of writing)
  • Core i7-6700
  • 2x 4 GB DDR4-2133 CL10 (XMP 2.0 Profile 1)
  • GeForce GTX 960
  • Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe x4 m.2 drive
  • Included BCM94352 WiFi/Bluetooth chip

What Works
  • SATA and m.2 SATA and m.2 PCIe x4 system drives
  • Audio (tested with case and rear headphone outputs -- HDMI audio working as well on an Nvidia card)
  • USB, including USB3 speed
  • Wireless networking via the included Broadcom PCIe Half-Mini card
  • Onboard Ethernet (an Intel i219)
  • iTunes radio, including Beats One
  • All high-resolution modes when using a 4K monitor

Potentially working with Beta Drivers
  • Onboard USB 3.1 ports (one Type A, one Type C) -- try the updated GenericUSBXHCI kext (should work for USB2 & USB3 devices; USB 3.1 devices as yet unknown)
  • m.2 NVMe drives -- try the driver here (should work for boot and data drives). Tends to crash during shutdown and in some scenarios involving the iOS Simulator, and does not support power saving, but otherwise seems stable.

What Doesn't Work At All
  • HD movie previews in iTunes, suggesting that any rented or purchased movies may not work.
  • If you were to use integrated graphics, the HDMI 2.0 port does not work (tested on a Samsung 4K monitor with HDMI 2.0 support). The HDMI 1.4 port works fine, but at 30 Hz for 4K.
  • Sleep/wake -- seems to crash on wake, but may yet be correctable

Installation Prerequisites
  • A Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac build
  • A working Mac or Hackintosh
  • A 16 to 32 GB USB drive (larger ones require partitioning)

Get El Capitan
  1. Open Mac App Store
  2. Log in with your Apple ID
  3. Download OS X El Capitan (10.11.1 at time of writing; beta releases may be unreliable)
  4. When the download finishes and the setup screen appears, Quit the app from the menu bar. You should now see the application /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app

Other Things to Download

BIOS Settings

  • Press DEL during boot to access BIOS. All these changes should be done on Advanced mode (hit F6 if necessary to get there).
  • In Advanced / USB Configuration:
    • Legacy USB Support: UEFI Only (Enabled or Auto might also work; do not set to Disabled)
  • In Advanced / Chipset Configuration:
    • Primary Graphics Adapter: PCI Express
    • VT-d: Disabled
    • Share Memory: 128M (only needed if using integrated graphics)
    • IGPU Multi-Monitor: Set to Disabled if you want to turn off integrated graphics when Nvidia card is installed
  • In Security:
    • Secure Boot: Disabled
  • In Boot:
    • Fast Boot: Disabled
    • CSM(Compatibility Suport Module): may be disabled

Prepare Bootable USB Drive Installer
This whole section should be performed on the working Mac/Hackintosh

  1. Insert the USB drive
  2. Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility
  3. Highlight the USB drive in left column
  4. On a Yosemite or older system:
    1. Click on the Partition tab
    2. Click Current and choose 1 Partition
    3. Click Options...
    4. Choose GUID Partition Table
    5. Under Name: enter Installer
    6. Under Format: choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    7. Click Apply then Partition. When it finishes, close Disk Utility.
  5. On an El Capitan or newer system:
    1. Click on the Erase button in the toolbar
    2. For Name: enter Installer
    3. Make sure Format is set to OS X Extended (Journaled)
    4. Make sure Scheme is set to GUID Partition Map
    5. Hit Erase. When it finishes, close Disk Utility.
  6. Run UniBeast
    1. Hit Continue on the main screen, Continue on the UniBeast+MultiBeast screen, Continue on the Clover Credits screen, Continue on the Software License Agreement screen, and agree to the license
    2. Select your newly formatted USB drive (so it turns blue) on the Select a Destination screen and hit Continue
    3. Select El Capitan (so it turns blue) and hit Continue
    4. Select UEFI Boot Mode (so it turns blue) and hit Continue
    5. Select appropriate graphics options (nothing checked for the Nvidia 7xx or 9xx or onboard HD530 graphics) and hit Continue
    6. On the Verify Installation Options screen, hit Continue
    7. Enter you password when prompted and wait
    8. When the install finishes, hit Quit
  7. Add a few customizations to the USB install drive. UniBeast should have left a drive mounted that appears as "EFI" in Finder. Go to that drive and:
    • Go to EFI/CLOVER/kexts/ and:
      • Move FakeSMC.kext from the 10.11/ directory to the Other/ directory
      • Delete all the numbered directories (you don't need the other kexts in there)
      • Put the USBInjectall.kext you downloaded (get it from the "Release" directory of the ZIP) into Other/
      • Put the AppleIntelE1000e.kext or IntelMausiEthernet.kext you downloaded into Other/
      • If using an NVMe drive, put the NVMeGeneric kext you downloaded into Other/
    • Copy the SSDTs you downloaded into EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/. For HDMI audio on the Nvidia card, you'll need to unzip the ssdt_hdmi_nvidia-PEG0.zip package, rename the SSDT-2.aml file it extracts to SSDT-Nvidia-HDMI-Audio.aml and copy it to EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/
  8. Copy the config.plist you downloaded into EFI/CLOVER/ in place of the default one that UniBeast configured
  9. Customize config.plist (the Clover configuration file)
    • Run the Clover Configurator app that you downloaded (may be in "CCV.zip").
    • Use File/Open to open the config.plist you just put in the EFI/CLOVER/ directory
    • Select the Boot entry on the left and on the right replace MacSSD under Default Boot Volume with the name you plan to give to your El Capitan system drive.
    • The Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac has too many USB ports for El Capitan (19, while the limit is 15). By default, the USB2 header on the motherboard is disabled using the uia_exclude boot argument, along with USB3 devices on the two ports under the PS/2 port. If you require different ports, ask for help configuring that.
    • Go to SMBIOS on the left and replace the "0000" in the middle of the Serial Number with four random characters.
    • If you don’t care about iCloud/iMessage/etc. then hit File/Save to save config.plist and Quit Clover Configurator.
    • Otherwise if you do want iCloud/iMessage/etc., then you must further customize config.plist. For more details on this process see How to Fix iMessage.
      1. Still on the SMBIOS screen, copy the value in the Serial Number field
      2. Go to the RtVariables screen on the left
      3. Paste your serial number into the MLB field, and then add 5 random characters or digits to the end, to make 17 characters total.
      4. Enter a value for the ROM field. This should be 12 hexadecimal digits. If you have it handy, you can use the digits from the MAC address of the onboard WiFi or Bluetooth.
      5. File/Save config.plist and Quit Clover Configurator.
  10. Create an extra directory called postinstall on the USB drive to hold the files you’ll need on the machine after installation. Copy these files you downloaded to the new directory:
    • MultiBeast
    • EFI-Mounter-v3.zip
    • KextBeast.zip
    • The two RehabMan zips
    • The Nvidia Web drivers installer
  11. Eject the USB drive and insert it into the new machine.

Install El Capitan
Note: the speed of this installation process is not a reflection on the speed or quality of your hardware. It’s just going to take a while.

  1. Start the Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac machine with the USB drive inserted. If you don't see the Clover boot screen, restart and hit F11 at the BIOS splash screen to get a list of boot devices, and select the UEFI entry for your USB drive.
  2. Select Boot Mac OS X from Installer (use left/right arrow keys to select from multiple options and press enter when the correct one is selected)
  3. You should see the apple logo and a progress bar as the installer loads.
  4. After a couple of progress bars (one of which takes a long time with little apparent progress), you should be prompted to select a language. Then you should see the OS X screen.
  5. Select Utilities / Disk Utility... from the menu bar.
  6. Select the drive on the left where you want to install El Capitan
  7. Hit Erase
  8. From the dialog that pops up, put in whatever Name you want for the disk, select the Format OS X Extended (Journaled), and the Scheme GUID Partition Map
  9. Hit Erase
  10. When the erase finishes, hit Done then Quit Disk Utility from the menu
  11. If you're at the OS X Utilities screen select Install OS X then hit Continue and then on the OS X El Capitan screen hit Continue. If you're at the OS X screen just hit Continue.
  12. On the license screen hit Agree or Continue and the on the popup Agree again
  13. Select the disk you just created by name and hit Install or Continue
  14. This stage of the installation will take some time, but it should eventually restart. (The installation is not yet complete, though; do not remove the USB drive.)
  15. After the reboot, the machine should boot to the Clover menu again. If it says there's no boot device or boots to the wrong thing, reboot and hit F11 from the BIOS splash screen and select the USB drive. At that point you should get the Clover menu. If the Clover menu lets you boot to the new drive, you are actually on step 18 -- so boot to the new drive and continue with step 19. Otherwise, it will not yet offer the option to boot to the new installation. Once again, select Boot Mac OS X from Installer and hit enter.
  16. The apple logo should appear and a new progress bar should start.
  17. Eventually a graphical Install OS X screen should appear, with another progress bar.
  18. It will reboot again. At the Clover boot screen, select Boot Mac OS X from YourDiskName and you should get to the Welcome screen.
  19. Select your country, keyboard, and complete the rest of the setup process. Tell it your Mac does not connect to the Internet. Do not "Transfer Information to This Mac" yet either (you can run Migration Assistant later to do that).
  20. After the setup, you should end up at the desktop. Congratulations! But you must still perform the post-install setup next.

Post-Installation Configuration
Note: You must complete this or else your Hackintosh won't be able to boot without the USB drive in place. At this point, you should still expect some graphical glitches.

  1. Copy all the files from the postinstall directory of the USB stick to your new El Capitan install (e.g. to Downloads)
  2. Run the copy of MultiBeast you just copied to the new drive.
  3. Select Quick Start and then UEFI Boot Mode
  4. Select Drivers and then Audio and the Realtek ALCxxx and then ALC1150
  5. Hit Save on the top right to save a copy of this configuration for future reference.
  6. Hit Build and then Install
  7. When it says "Install Succeeded" then quit MultiBeast
  8. The MultiBeast installation should have left the EFI partition of your system drive mounted (called EFI in Finder).
  9. Run the EFI Mounter v3 app you copied from the USB drive. Select the EFI partition of your USB install drive and hit OK (it is often /dev/disk1s1 but you can use diskutil list in Terminal to confirm). Then hit Mount. Now you should have two EFI drives showing in Finder, one with a hard drive icon and the other with an external drive icon and an eject icon.
  10. Copy the following files from the EFI drive with the external drive icon (your USB drive EFI partition) to the same location on the EFI drive with the hard drive icon (your system drive EFI partition):
    • EFI/CLOVER/config.plist
    • EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/ (copy all SSDTs in there)
    • EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/ (copy the kexts in there, typically including USBInjectAll, your Ethernet kext, and the NVMeGeneric kext if you have an NVMe drive)
  11. On the system EFI partition with the hard drive icon, delete the numbered directories under EFI/CLOVER/kexts/
  12. Eject and remove the USB install drive (will also eject the EFI partition from that drive)
  13. Edit the file /System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext/Contents/Info.plist and search it for Mac-65CE76090165799A. On the line after that, change Config2 to none and save the file.
  14. Rebuild the kernel cache using the following two commands in terminal:
    Code:
    sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
    sudo kextcache -system-caches
  15. If using an Nvidia card that's not supported out of the box, install the Nvidia Web drivers
  16. While that installer is running, edit the file EFI/CLOVER/config.plist on the system drive EFI partition. Find the text nv_disable=1 and replace it with nvda_drv=1 . If you don't want to edit this file by hand, you can use Clover Configurator to open the file and uncheck the box for nv_disable=1 on the Boot screen and then check the box for nvda_drv=1 and then save it.
  17. (Optional) If you want to support integrated graphics with an HDMI display:
    • Edit your EFI/CLOVER/config.plist to add this to the KextsToPatch array. This should enable 4K and 1080P Retina modes on a 4K display, and may cause better monitor detection in general. Again, only the HDMI 1.4 port is expected to work.
      Code:
                  <dict>
                      <key>Comment</key>
                      <string>10.11-HD530-Port_0-change-to-HDMI</string>
                      <key>Find</key>
                      <data>
                      /wAAAAEAAABAAAAA
                      </data>
                      <key>Name</key>
                      <string>AppleIntelSKLGraphicsFramebuffer</string>
                      <key>Replace</key>
                      <data>
                      AAAIAAAIAACCAAAA
                      </data>
                  </dict>
  18. Restart your system. It may take some time to restart.
  19. You should get a Clover menu on startup, and you can select Boot Mac OS X from YourDriveName or let it do it automatically. It should quickly proceed to the login screen.
  20. After the restart, your audio jacks should be working. In System Preferences / Sound you can turn on the volume control in the menu bar. If you have speakers or headphones handy, try playing a song in iTunes to be sure.
    • To get headphone output, try the output called "Internal Speakers". It should work if you plug headphones into the green audio out on the back, or the audio out on your case. If you use the one on your case, the name may change to "Headphones".

Final Hardware Setup
At this point, no wireless devices are configured, and CPU power saving is not fully configured, which may cause problems with heating and/or sleep mode. To fix this:

  1. Extract four driver kexts:
    • Unzip RehabMan-FakePCIID.zip and copy FakePCIID.kext and FakePCIID_Broadcom_WiFi.kext from the Release/ directory to the Desktop
    • Unzip RehabMan-BrcmPatchRam.zip and copy BcrmPatchRAM2.kext and BrcmFirmwareRepo.kext from the Release/ directory to the Desktop
    • If using your USB 3.1 ports, unzip the Generic USB XHCI zip and copy the GenericUSBXHCI.kext from the Release/ directory to the Desktop
  2. Unzip the KextBeast application you copied from the postinstall directory of the USB stick earlier. Run the resulting application, and select /Library/Extensions as the install location when prompted. When it finishes, restart.
  3. Delete all the .kext files remaining on the Desktop.
  4. You should have WiFi working now.
  5. If you have one of the following CPUs, mount your system drive EFI partition again and select the one correct SSDT and copy it to EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/ (later this guide will use ssdtPRGen.sh but the version with Skylake support is not yet ready). Your system will still run OK without the SSDT, but may not reach full turbo speeds or maintain turbo speeds for as long.
  6. Reboot one last time
  7. If you want to confirm that your CPU is using the correct speeds and power states with the SSDT above, there are tools and techniques at http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks...vericks-native-cpu-igpu-power-management.html
  8. If sleep/wake doesn't work at all, you can disable it in System Preferences / Energy Saver. If you only have problems after your machine has been sleeping for a long time ("standby" mode), try running the following terminal command to restrict it to regular "sleep" instead of allowing standby:
    Code:
    sudo pmset -a standby 0 && sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0


That’s it! Your hackintosh should be working in El Capitan. Enjoy.




Credits: tonymacx86 (original Clover installation procedure)
Skylake fix from Pike R Alpha
UniBeast and MultiBeast from MacMan, with audio install based on Audio script by toleda
USB fix procedure from RehabMan
Wireless kexts from RehabMan (wireless and bluetooth), Bluetooth handoff enabler from lisai9093



Appendix: Windows 10 Dual Boot (same drive)
If you'd like to install Windows 10 in a dual boot configuration on the same drive as El Capitan, follow these additional steps. There are many ways to do the installation, this is just one that is known to work.

Requirements
  • Your El Capitan install USB drive (if you wipe this out to use for Windows, you will have to recreate it later)
  • A USB drive to use for the Windows installer
  • A Windows 10 ISO
  • An existing Windows computer to prepare the ISO
    • If you don't have a Windows computer, skip the next section and see n3oNLit3's instructions in this post.

Prepare Windows 10 USB on a Windows computer
  1. Download the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
  2. Insert your USB stick or drive
  3. Run the tool
  4. Select your Windows 10 ISO
  5. Select the USB install type
  6. Select your USB drive
  7. Wait for it to finish and move the USB drive to the hackintosh

Install Windows 10
Start from the working El Capitan install above, and:
  1. Open Disk Utility
  2. Select your El Capitan drive (not the partition underneath it)
  3. Select Partition
  4. Hit the + to add a new partition for Windows, and drag the pie chart slider until the two partitions are sized appropriately
  5. Leave the format of the new partition as OS X Extended (Journaled).
  6. Hit Apply
  7. With the Windows USB drive attached, restart the hackintosh
  8. If the BIOS does not boot the USB drive first, hit F11 and select the USB drive
  9. Install Windows. When you get to the pick a disk partition screen, select the partition you created for Windows above (easiest to identify by size, usually). Delete the partition, then format it. When it prompts you that Windows may create extra partitions, that's OK. Then select the new big partition it created to install to.
  10. After the first reboot during the Windows install, if your hackintosh is set to boot USB devices first, you will need to remove the USB drive. If you missed it and you're back at the "choose a language" installer screen, remove the USB and reboot to boot to the new install and continue the process.
  11. After the Windows install completes and leaves you at the desktop, go to Settings / Update & security / Windows Update and install all available updates. (You can skip this, but you'll probably have more work later if you do because the updates may break the boot loader.)

Fix Dual Booting
  1. At this point, the machine will be booting only to Windows. Insert your El Capitan install USB drive and restart. Use F11 if needed to boot to the USB.
  2. You should see a Clover menu. Select Boot Mac OS X from YourDriveName.
  3. Once in OS X, mount your EFI partition with EFI Mounter v3
  4. Go to the EFI partition
  5. Go to EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ and rename bootmgfw.efi to bootmgfw-orig.efi
  6. Copy EFI/CLOVER/CLOVERX64.efi to EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
  7. Eject the El Capitan install USB drive
  8. Reboot
  9. You should get a Clover menu, with the usual settings to boot to OS X and also new Windows options. To start Windows, select Boot Microsoft EFI boot menu from EFI.
  10. After future Windows updates, Windows may reset the EFI partition to boot only to Windows again. You'll need to repeat the steps in this section.
You should now be able to boot to both Windows and OS X!
 
Last edited:
Would this work with the Asus Z170-a motherboard?
 
The general procedure would work, but some of the specifics would be different. You wouldn't want to use the USB SSDT, for instance, and you'd want the port limit patch instead. I'm not sure what audio or Ethernet devices that board has.
 
The cost of this board has jumped up to US$174.99 on Newegg at this point.

It's a shame that there is no support for third-party NVMe SSDs in OS X yet, NVMe really seems to be the way to go with system drives in the future.

What is your thoughts on the Asus Maximus VIII Impact Z170 mini ITX board having FULL compatibility with OS X anytime soon?

My ideal setup for a really stellar performing Hackintosh in the Osmi chassis would be:

Asus Maximus VIII Impact mini ITX motherboard
Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core CPU
32GB DDR4 RAM (2 @ 16GB DIMMs)
Intel 750 Series 2.5" NVMe SSD (400GB, 800GB, or 1.2TB)
Radeon R9 Nano ITX GPU

This would be the Ultimate Hackintosh Cube!

Sadly, most of these components are not OS X compatible yet…
 
Thanks for the wonderful guide.

I have the same board and managed to install before I found out your guide. I would like to add the following,

1. Issue: LAN not working
Fix: Use the driver from http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...00ekext-for-108107106105/page-38#entry2195842

2. Issue: HW Monitor app shows only SMART information
Fix: Use FakeSMC and plugins from https://github.com/majonez/HWSensors binary download available at http://d-h.st/3ghw

3. Issue: RAM detected incorrectly i.e. 16GB detected as 8GB
Fix: Use the patched clover from https://github.com/majonez/CloverGrower binary download available at http://d-h.st/4p3C

Thanks for detailed information in your guide. Hope you can also include the provided information.
 
I've added suggestions for Ethernet, USB 3.1, and NVMe drivers.

It's a good point on the FakeSMC plugins, though I think they could be installed by MultiBeast as well. I will try to confirm that at some point.

On the Clover/memory issue, I'd rather not recommend an unofficial build. Do you know if the latest 3330 from SourceForge includes the memory fix?
 
Nope, the 3330 version doesn't fix the issue.

I didn't use unibeast and multibeast, I used createinstallimage and installed clover 3330 directly together with latest fakesmc from sourceforge. However I faced the issue of not booting up and then replaced the fakesmc with the patched version. While researching this I also came across the patched clover version (patched by same guy) and so installed that version.

Another difference from your guide is my wifi kexts are injected by clover rather than in SLE.

Thanks for posting the kext for USB 3.1.
 
They released the source for El Capitan today, it looks like. Maybe someone can poke around the storage drivers and figure out what's up with NVMe. :)

For your info; bought this board the other day and it does boot from the Samsung 950 Pro with the driver from Macvidcards just like you can read everywhere.


Got a funny issue though; my setup only displays half the ram! When I initially installed it it showed 16GB but now after applying all patched and kexts (ethernet/wifi) it shows 8GB. A clean install didn't solve it and it keeps displaying 8GB although when I look into the bootlog with clover configurator I can clearly see 2x 8GB modules within the first few lines. Have been googling but mainly found old threads dating years back with chimera. Forcing 2x 8GB in the SMBIOS tab in Clover Configurator didn't also help... any clue as to this? As it did display 16GB initially I'm pretty sure it's not a board issue but I'm more comfortable with Chimera than Clover I'm afraid so no idea where to look.
 
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