[Guide] El Capitan on the Skylake H170N-WIFI

[Ali-247]

Sorry I forgot to mention I'm using HDMI (hooking up to a TV which only has HDMI ports) so the part about Display Port doesn't apply to me. And my graphics card has only one HDMI port.

Also I definitely rebuilt the kextcache using the commands in your guide.

Any other ideas?

Also I'm guessing I need to do something else to fix the problem with being only able to boot from USB stick?

 

[ammulder]

It's a bit of a stretch but you can post your config.plist for review.

 

[Ali-247]

config.plist attached

Like I say I'm only able to get into OS X by using nv_disable=1 boot argument (manually entering it at the Clover boot screen from USB)

 

[smoothbit]

The H170N-WIFI has too many USB ports for El Capitan (17, while the limit is 15). By default, the USB2 header on the motherboard is disabled using the uia_exclude boot argument so all other USB ports should work (including the USB3 motherboard header). If your case uses the USB2 header, ask for help configuring different USB ports to be disabled.

Could you please tell me the numbers for all the USB ports? I don't use the USB 3.0 Type C port on the back but I do use one of the internal USB 2.0 headers for my wireless Xbox 360 controller.

 

[ammulder]

config.plist attached

I'm surprised you can get into OS X at all with this config.plist as it lacks the Skylake IOAPIC patch. Are you sure it's the right one? Which version of El Capitan are you running?

 

[Ali-247]

I'm surprised you can get into OS X at all with this config.plist as it lacks the Skylake IOAPIC patch. Are you sure it's the right one? Which version of El Capitan are you running?

It's the one from my HDD. The one from my USB stick is attached to this post, which does have the patch. I take it I should replace the one on the HDD with this one? Sorry if that's a noobish mistake I've made

edit: also the version of El Capitan I'm using is 10.11.2

 

[ammulder]

It's the one from my HDD. The one from my USB stick is attached to this post, which does have the patch. I take it I should replace the one on the HDD with this one?

Yes, I would try that. In the first post that's Step 11 under Post-Install Configuration.

Skylake support is still a bit of a mess, so it takes a little work to get everything straightened out.

 

[Ali-247]

OK so I replaced the config.plist on the HDD with the one from the USB stick and without entering any boot arguments I can get into OS X without the USB stick, so that's one problem sorted

But sadly the nvidia issue is still happening. When I enter nvda_drv=1 at the Clover Boot Menu, the output to my TV eventually stops and I get 'No Signal'. If I try to switch to Web Drivers using the nvidia Drive Manager (in System Preferences) that doesn't seem to do anything either, i.e. it still boots using the default driver.

I noticed in Clover Configurator that it shows 'Inject Intel' ticked in the Graphics section. Should I untick that? And maybe tick 'Inject Nvidia' instead?

Argh I feel like I'm so close to having this working!!

EDIT: Holy crap I think I got it working! I took the config.plist from your first post and modified it a bit with Clover Configurator using your guide (e.g. changing the RAM settings) and also enabled nvda_drv=1. With this new config.plist I'm booting into OS X and the nvidia drivers seem to be working now because I don't see any of the minor screen tearing I was seeing before and also the slight transparency in the Finder sidebar is working now. Thanks so much for providing that config.plist! Now I'm off to buy an SSD to recreate this installation on rather than my noisy old HDD!

Also can I let the system update itself to 10.11.3 or would I need to do something more manual?

 

[ammulder]

Nice. If you install the latest Nvidia drivers, you can do the 10.11.3 install. I suggest putting this Clover patch in config.plist as well -- otherwise you will need to boot with nv_disable=1 and re-apply the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy fix after the update to avoid booting to a black screen.

<key>KextsToPatch</key>        
<array>
    [B]<dict>
        <key>Comment</key>
        <string>AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy (board-id) Patch by Pike R. Alpha</string>
        <key>Find</key>
        <data>
        Ym9hcmQtaWQ=
        </data>
        <key>Name</key>
        <string>AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy</string>
        <key>Replace</key>
        <data>
        Ym9hcmQtaXg=
        </data>
    </dict>[/B]
</array>

toleda has suggested perhaps a better approach to avoid this problem, but I haven't tried it yet.

 

[Ali-247]

I had version 346.03.04f02 of the drivers which I thought were the latest so installed the 10.11.3 update after adding that <dict> entry to my config.plist but my system then restarted using the default driver. The nvidia Driver Manager prompted me to install the latest version (346.03.05f01) so I did but I was getting the No Signal problem again, so just booted with nv_disable=1 and re-applied the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy fix. Now I'm booting into 10.11.3 just fine.

Thanks again!