[GUIDE] Full Power Management w/ Dual/Single Broadwell-EP/Haswell-EP CPUs on 10.12.

[Tijhevv]

No problems, i will post a guide if successful, however, itll be at the start of next year when i begin building

 

[oli.mathieu]

Just for info I made some tests with X99 and E5 V4 (ES) with 22 cores on HighSierra
poor cinebench result and unstable (due to ES I suppose)

but Resolve use all cores

 

[davidahn]

@metacollin, are you running High Sierra yet? Do you have any updates to this guide? You're my only hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I gave up about 1.5 years ago because I was getting a blinking cursor on boot, couldn't even install OS X. Plus I got busy with other things.

Recently I got serious again, discovered the blinking cursor was from a dead motherboard CR2032 battery. Then I had VERY unreliable boots (only 1 in 3 times could I select a boot device) because of corrupt network boot EEPROMs, which resolved with simply disabling network booting. (Re-flashing the EEPROMs seems like a real PITA using Intel's BOOTUTIL.)

Anyhoo, I was going to follow this guide but I realized things may have changed in the last 1.5 yrs. So if there's an updated guide, or at least a few updated components, please let the rest of us know!

 

[P1LGRIM]

You're my only hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

May the fourth be with you

 

[metacollin]

@metacollin, are you running High Sierra yet? Do you have any updates to this guide? You're my only hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I gave up about 1.5 years ago because I was getting a blinking cursor on boot, couldn't even install OS X. Plus I got busy with other things.

Recently I got serious again, discovered the blinking cursor was from a dead motherboard CR2032 battery. Then I had VERY unreliable boots (only 1 in 3 times could I select a boot device) because of corrupt network boot EEPROMs, which resolved with simply disabling network booting. (Re-flashing the EEPROMs seems like a real PITA using Intel's BOOTUTIL.)

Anyhoo, I was going to follow this guide but I realized things may have changed in the last 1.5 yrs. So if there's an updated guide, or at least a few updated components, please let the rest of us know!

@davidahn I've lost entire weekends to dying CR2032 cells. I feel your pain. Also, do network boot roms really have a point besides providing an excellent location to install a rootkit? . (I'm kidding. Mostly.)

Anyway, I'm running 10.13.4 like a champ! Fortunately, there aren't too many differences, the main thing is that all the kernel patches are different, and you need a patch to get the 10.13 installer to run at all. Oh, and we can now use Above 4G encoding (which would be particularly important to people using all of their 16X PCIE slots - like if you had an SLI setup, which is half the reason for even getting an X10DAx vs. X10DAi).


Quick and dirty:

1. Flash patched BIOS.

Download the latest bios version from Supermicro's site, then get your hands on UEFIPatch, copy the bios image (X10DAx8.223 in your case) into the UEFIPatch folder. Then, from the command line, cd to the UEFIPatch folder and simply run

./UEFIPatch X10DAx8.223

It will patch the bios so those pesky MSR registers macOS likes to play with will not be locked. The resulting file will be named X10DAx8.223.patched. This is the file you want to flash to your BIOS. Follow Supermicro's directions, just copy the .patched bios file and rename it X10DAx8.223 instead of X10DAx8.223.patched, but otherwise the flashing procedure is no different.

2. Configure your BIOS correctly.

So, the important things are to make sure VT-d is off, and that in CPU->Power Management, you change the power management settings to custom, turn on EIST, Turbo, Throttle/T-States, PM Coordination to SW_ALL. It's not super important, you can use your judgement but try to turn as much stuff on and always favor the OS rather than the BIOS setting power management stuff (this will be noted in the BIOS help text on the far right).

The other important thing is to turn on 'Above 4G Decoding'. It's somewhere in the North Bridge area, under maybe PCIE settings? I am not sure of the exact menu layout of the X10DAx, and its been a while sense I accessed my own for that matter. Doing this from memory, sorry. It's somewhere, you'll find it . Oh, and make sure everything is in UEFI/EFI mode, like PCIE slots and for booting ofc.

This page has a very complete and comprehensive list of what you need to configure BIOS-wise, and should explain why you need the patch in step 1.

3. Everything involved with generating SSDTs is completely unchanged. If upgrading from 10.12, you don't even need to do anything here, the SSDTs do not need any changes and you can keep using them just as before.

4. You need some love in your EFI/CLOVER folder.

First off, download and install the latest version of Clover released on the sourceforge page onto your flash drive or hard disk or whatever you want to do. And referencing https://github.com/vit9696/AptioFixPkg again, when you install clover, you'll need to check the AptioMemoryFix UEFI driver, and possibly the AptioInputFix. Do not use any other aptio fixes or osxfreemem fixes, or you won't be able to boot. If these are already in your clover folder, remove them. AFAIK, the more recent clover installers will already have the correct UEFI drivers selected by default, so if in doubt, just leave all the defaults checked or unchecked.

5. Move kexts to EFI/CLOVER/kexts/other.

And the only kexts you need, at least to start, are a recent version of FakeSMC, Lilu (as in multipass), AppleALC which works perfectly for getting audio fully working on our super micro mobos. This won't be an issue until you install the web drivers, but if you have a recent Nvidia card (or 3), you'll need to use some sort of fix for the black screen issue. There is nothing special or unique that is different with our mobos, so just look on these forums for how to deal with that. The procedure is the same for us. Lilu is required for this. You'll also want to look into Rehabman's XHCI-x99 injector, and general X99 USB fixes IF YOU HAVE USB ISSUES. Don't fix what isn't broken though, you may not have any issues or you might not care if all bajillion USB ports work. Again, there is nothing special about the C612 vs. X99 when it comes to USB fixes, thank god.

6. Y'all need dem kernel patches

OK, final bit thats changed... you need these patches, and only these patches, for PM to work. Note, all of these are from other people/sources, I do not claim credit for any of them. I am simply putting them all in the same spot for convenience . Sorry if I fail to credit someone or got it wrong, I welcome corrections. I am grabbing this from my clover config plist. Like I said, quick and dirty.

* = optional/use as needed.  Everything else is required.

Kext patches:
Name                   Find                          Replace                        Comment
IOPCIFamily            4881FB00 000040               4881FB00 000080                X99/C610 Chipset Patch by baumbear (i think)
*AppleUSBXHCI          837D940F 0F839704 0000        837D940F 90909090 9090         change port limit to 24 ports
*IOAHCIBlockStorage    4150504C 45205353 4400        00000000 00000000 0000         SSD Trim Enabler


Kernel Patches:
Find                          Replace                        Comment             (leave matchos/ match build blank/empty)

07000000 31D2E88F FCFFFF      07000000 31D29090 909090       10.13 Installer/Updater install patch
723CD077 500FB6C0             6A3CD077 500FB6C0              _cpuid_set_info_1013_broadwell by Piker Alpha     
89D804C4 3C227722             89D804C3 3C227722              _xcpm_bootstrap_1013_broad  by Piker Alpha
BE070000 0031D2E8 8FFCFFFF    BE070000 0031D290 90909090     _xcpm_pkg_scope_msrs  by Piker Alpha
BE0B0000 005DE908 000000      BE0B0000 005DC390 909090       _xcpm_SMT_scope_msrs   by Piker Alpha

You'll note that several patches mentioned in my first post are gone, this is intended. Those patches were needed when we weren't using a patched bios, but now that a patched bios is required anyway, may as well not bother with patches we don't need anymore.

Also, I highly recommend applying PMHeart's wonderful performance patch. It will disable macOS's handling of certain energy efficiency MSRs entirely which are not really relevant to us since we aren't using an actual MacPro and we (probably) don't care too much about heat etc. This shouldn't hurt idle power usage or anything. And it is sweet having all 28 of my cores turboing to their all-core turbo frequency .

xcpm performance fix by PMHeart:

Find   
C1E30848 63D389D0 48C1EA20 B9990100 000F3048 FF05C99E 6B004883 C4085B5D C3662E0F 1F840000 000000

Replace
BB00FF00 004863D3 89D048C1 EA20B999 0100000F 3048FF05 C99E6B00 4883C408 5B5DC390 90909090 909090

Finally, make sure your FakeCPUID is 0x040674, and you have all built in clover pm flags like KernelCPU, KernelPm, KernelXCPM, etc. turned off.

As for boot flags, you'll still want -npci=0x3000 and -xcpm_ipi . Though, if you just use -xcpm, the performance impact is measurable, but not nearly as big a deal as it was in 10.12. In fact, it seems to only make a 5% difference. But I want my 5% .

 

[davidahn]

@davidahn I've lost entire weekends to dying CR2032 cells. I feel your pain. Also, do network boot roms really have a point besides providing an excellent location to install a rootkit? . (I'm kidding. Mostly.)

Anyway, I'm running 10.13.4 like a champ! Fortunately, there aren't too many differences, the main thing is that all the kernel patches are different, and you need a patch to get the 10.13 installer to run at all. Oh, and we can now use Above 4G encoding (which would be particularly important to people using all of their 16X PCIE slots - like if you had an SLI setup, which is half the reason for even getting an X10DAx vs. X10DAi).


Quick and dirty:

1. Flash patched BIOS.

Download the latest bios version from Supermicro's site, then get your hands on UEFIPatch, copy the bios image (X10DAx8.223 in your case) into the UEFIPatch folder. Then, from the command line, cd to the UEFIPatch folder and simply run

./UEFIPatch X10DAx8.223

It will patch the bios so those pesky MSR registers macOS likes to play with will not be locked. The resulting file will be named X10DAx8.223.patched. This is the file you want to flash to your BIOS. Follow Supermicro's directions, just copy the .patched bios file and rename it X10DAx8.223 instead of X10DAx8.223.patched, but otherwise the flashing procedure is no different.

2. Configure your BIOS correctly.

So, the important things are to make sure VT-d is off, and that in CPU->Power Management, you change the power management settings to custom, turn on EIST, Turbo, Throttle/T-States, PM Coordination to SW_ALL. It's not super important, you can use your judgement but try to turn as much stuff on and always favor the OS rather than the BIOS setting power management stuff (this will be noted in the BIOS help text on the far right).

The other important thing is to turn on 'Above 4G Decoding'. It's somewhere in the North Bridge area, under maybe PCIE settings? I am not sure of the exact menu layout of the X10DAx, and its been a while sense I accessed my own for that matter. Doing this from memory, sorry. It's somewhere, you'll find it . Oh, and make sure everything is in UEFI/EFI mode, like PCIE slots and for booting ofc.

This page has a very complete and comprehensive list of what you need to configure BIOS-wise, and should explain why you need the patch in step 1.

3. Everything involved with generating SSDTs is completely unchanged. If upgrading from 10.12, you don't even need to do anything here, the SSDTs do not need any changes and you can keep using them just as before.

4. You need some love in your EFI/CLOVER folder.

First off, download and install the latest version of Clover released on the sourceforge page onto your flash drive or hard disk or whatever you want to do. And referencing https://github.com/vit9696/AptioFixPkg again, when you install clover, you'll need to check the AptioMemoryFix UEFI driver, and possibly the AptioInputFix. Do not use any other aptio fixes or osxfreemem fixes, or you won't be able to boot. If these are already in your clover folder, remove them. AFAIK, the more recent clover installers will already have the correct UEFI drivers selected by default, so if in doubt, just leave all the defaults checked or unchecked.

5. Move kexts to EFI/CLOVER/kexts/other.

And the only kexts you need, at least to start, are a recent version of FakeSMC, Lilu (as in multipass), AppleALC which works perfectly for getting audio fully working on our super micro mobos. This won't be an issue until you install the web drivers, but if you have a recent Nvidia card (or 3), you'll need to use some sort of fix for the black screen issue. There is nothing special or unique that is different with our mobos, so just look on these forums for how to deal with that. The procedure is the same for us. Lilu is required for this. You'll also want to look into Rehabman's XHCI-x99 injector, and general X99 USB fixes IF YOU HAVE USB ISSUES. Don't fix what isn't broken though, you may not have any issues or you might not care if all bajillion USB ports work. Again, there is nothing special about the C612 vs. X99 when it comes to USB fixes, thank god.

6. Y'all need dem kernel patches

OK, final bit thats changed... you need these patches, and only these patches, for PM to work. Note, all of these are from other people/sources, I do not claim credit for any of them. I am simply putting them all in the same spot for convenience . Sorry if I fail to credit someone or got it wrong, I welcome corrections. I am grabbing this from my clover config plist. Like I said, quick and dirty.

* = optional/use as needed.  Everything else is required.

Kext patches:
Name                   Find                          Replace                        Comment
IOPCIFamily            4881FB00 000040               4881FB00 000080                X99/C610 Chipset Patch by baumbear (i think)
*AppleUSBXHCI          837D940F 0F839704 0000        837D940F 90909090 9090         change port limit to 24 ports
*IOAHCIBlockStorage    4150504C 45205353 4400        00000000 00000000 0000         SSD Trim Enabler


Kernel Patches:
Find                          Replace                        Comment             (leave matchos/ match build blank/empty)

07000000 31D2E88F FCFFFF      07000000 31D29090 909090       10.13 Installer/Updater install patch
723CD077 500FB6C0             6A3CD077 500FB6C0              _cpuid_set_info_1013_broadwell by Piker Alpha    
89D804C4 3C227722             89D804C3 3C227722              _xcpm_bootstrap_1013_broad  by Piker Alpha
BE070000 0031D2E8 8FFCFFFF    BE070000 0031D290 90909090     _xcpm_pkg_scope_msrs  by Piker Alpha
BE0B0000 005DE908 000000      BE0B0000 005DC390 909090       _xcpm_SMT_scope_msrs   by Piker Alpha

You'll note that several patches mentioned in my first post are gone, this is intended. Those patches were needed when we weren't using a patched bios, but now that a patched bios is required anyway, may as well not bother with patches we don't need anymore.

Also, I highly recommend applying PMHeart's wonderful performance patch. It will disable macOS's handling of certain energy efficiency MSRs entirely which are not really relevant to us since we aren't using an actual MacPro and we (probably) don't care too much about heat etc. This shouldn't hurt idle power usage or anything. And it is sweet having all 28 of my cores turboing to their all-core turbo frequency .

xcpm performance fix by PMHeart:

Find  
C1E30848 63D389D0 48C1EA20 B9990100 000F3048 FF05C99E 6B004883 C4085B5D C3662E0F 1F840000 000000

Replace
BB00FF00 004863D3 89D048C1 EA20B999 0100000F 3048FF05 C99E6B00 4883C408 5B5DC390 90909090 909090

Finally, make sure your FakeCPUID is 0x040674, and you have all built in clover pm flags like KernelCPU, KernelPm, KernelXCPM, etc. turned off.

As for boot flags, you'll still want -npci=0x3000 and -xcpm_ipi . Though, if you just use -xcpm, the performance impact is measurable, but not nearly as big a deal as it was in 10.12. In fact, it seems to only make a 5% difference. But I want my 5% .

YOU ARE DA MAN!!! I’m gonna get on it ASAP. But ASAP doesn’t mean what it used to, with a 3 month old infant. Thanks SO MUCH though! Once this is working, maybe I can justify splurging on the new Space Gray Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad to better match my all black Hackintosh.

 

[davidahn]

@davidahn I've lost entire weekends to dying CR2032 cells. I feel your pain. Also, do network boot roms really have a point besides providing an excellent location to install a rootkit? . (I'm kidding. Mostly.)

Anyway, I'm running 10.13.4 like a champ! Fortunately, there aren't too many differences, the main thing is that all the kernel patches are different, and you need a patch to get the 10.13 installer to run at all. Oh, and we can now use Above 4G encoding (which would be particularly important to people using all of their 16X PCIE slots - like if you had an SLI setup, which is half the reason for even getting an X10DAx vs. X10DAi).

@metacollin, quick question: Did you disable the automatic HFS+ to APFS conversion, or are you running APFS? Or did you upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra and not get the mandatory conversion to APFS? I know APFS is nice but risky for Hackintoshes. Thanks!

 

[Midoo]

@davidahn I've lost entire weekends to dying CR2032 cells. I feel your pain. Also, do network boot roms really have a point besides providing an excellent location to install a rootkit? . (I'm kidding. Mostly.)

Anyway, I'm running 10.13.4 like a champ! Fortunately, there aren't too many differences, the main thing is that all the kernel patches are different, and you need a patch to get the 10.13 installer to run at all. Oh, and we can now use Above 4G encoding (which would be particularly important to people using all of their 16X PCIE slots - like if you had an SLI setup, which is half the reason for even getting an X10DAx vs. X10DAi).


Quick and dirty:

1. Flash patched BIOS.

Download the latest bios version from Supermicro's site, then get your hands on UEFIPatch, copy the bios image (X10DAx8.223 in your case) into the UEFIPatch folder. Then, from the command line, cd to the UEFIPatch folder and simply run

./UEFIPatch X10DAx8.223

It will patch the bios so those pesky MSR registers macOS likes to play with will not be locked. The resulting file will be named X10DAx8.223.patched. This is the file you want to flash to your BIOS. Follow Supermicro's directions, just copy the .patched bios file and rename it X10DAx8.223 instead of X10DAx8.223.patched, but otherwise the flashing procedure is no different.

2. Configure your BIOS correctly.

So, the important things are to make sure VT-d is off, and that in CPU->Power Management, you change the power management settings to custom, turn on EIST, Turbo, Throttle/T-States, PM Coordination to SW_ALL. It's not super important, you can use your judgement but try to turn as much stuff on and always favor the OS rather than the BIOS setting power management stuff (this will be noted in the BIOS help text on the far right).

The other important thing is to turn on 'Above 4G Decoding'. It's somewhere in the North Bridge area, under maybe PCIE settings? I am not sure of the exact menu layout of the X10DAx, and its been a while sense I accessed my own for that matter. Doing this from memory, sorry. It's somewhere, you'll find it . Oh, and make sure everything is in UEFI/EFI mode, like PCIE slots and for booting ofc.

This page has a very complete and comprehensive list of what you need to configure BIOS-wise, and should explain why you need the patch in step 1.

3. Everything involved with generating SSDTs is completely unchanged. If upgrading from 10.12, you don't even need to do anything here, the SSDTs do not need any changes and you can keep using them just as before.

4. You need some love in your EFI/CLOVER folder.

First off, download and install the latest version of Clover released on the sourceforge page onto your flash drive or hard disk or whatever you want to do. And referencing https://github.com/vit9696/AptioFixPkg again, when you install clover, you'll need to check the AptioMemoryFix UEFI driver, and possibly the AptioInputFix. Do not use any other aptio fixes or osxfreemem fixes, or you won't be able to boot. If these are already in your clover folder, remove them. AFAIK, the more recent clover installers will already have the correct UEFI drivers selected by default, so if in doubt, just leave all the defaults checked or unchecked.

5. Move kexts to EFI/CLOVER/kexts/other.

And the only kexts you need, at least to start, are a recent version of FakeSMC, Lilu (as in multipass), AppleALC which works perfectly for getting audio fully working on our super micro mobos. This won't be an issue until you install the web drivers, but if you have a recent Nvidia card (or 3), you'll need to use some sort of fix for the black screen issue. There is nothing special or unique that is different with our mobos, so just look on these forums for how to deal with that. The procedure is the same for us. Lilu is required for this. You'll also want to look into Rehabman's XHCI-x99 injector, and general X99 USB fixes IF YOU HAVE USB ISSUES. Don't fix what isn't broken though, you may not have any issues or you might not care if all bajillion USB ports work. Again, there is nothing special about the C612 vs. X99 when it comes to USB fixes, thank god.

6. Y'all need dem kernel patches

OK, final bit thats changed... you need these patches, and only these patches, for PM to work. Note, all of these are from other people/sources, I do not claim credit for any of them. I am simply putting them all in the same spot for convenience . Sorry if I fail to credit someone or got it wrong, I welcome corrections. I am grabbing this from my clover config plist. Like I said, quick and dirty.

* = optional/use as needed.  Everything else is required.

Kext patches:
Name                   Find                          Replace                        Comment
IOPCIFamily            4881FB00 000040               4881FB00 000080                X99/C610 Chipset Patch by baumbear (i think)
*AppleUSBXHCI          837D940F 0F839704 0000        837D940F 90909090 9090         change port limit to 24 ports
*IOAHCIBlockStorage    4150504C 45205353 4400        00000000 00000000 0000         SSD Trim Enabler


Kernel Patches:
Find                          Replace                        Comment             (leave matchos/ match build blank/empty)

07000000 31D2E88F FCFFFF      07000000 31D29090 909090       10.13 Installer/Updater install patch
723CD077 500FB6C0             6A3CD077 500FB6C0              _cpuid_set_info_1013_broadwell by Piker Alpha   
89D804C4 3C227722             89D804C3 3C227722              _xcpm_bootstrap_1013_broad  by Piker Alpha
BE070000 0031D2E8 8FFCFFFF    BE070000 0031D290 90909090     _xcpm_pkg_scope_msrs  by Piker Alpha
BE0B0000 005DE908 000000      BE0B0000 005DC390 909090       _xcpm_SMT_scope_msrs   by Piker Alpha

You'll note that several patches mentioned in my first post are gone, this is intended. Those patches were needed when we weren't using a patched bios, but now that a patched bios is required anyway, may as well not bother with patches we don't need anymore.

Also, I highly recommend applying PMHeart's wonderful performance patch. It will disable macOS's handling of certain energy efficiency MSRs entirely which are not really relevant to us since we aren't using an actual MacPro and we (probably) don't care too much about heat etc. This shouldn't hurt idle power usage or anything. And it is sweet having all 28 of my cores turboing to their all-core turbo frequency .

xcpm performance fix by PMHeart:

Find 
C1E30848 63D389D0 48C1EA20 B9990100 000F3048 FF05C99E 6B004883 C4085B5D C3662E0F 1F840000 000000

Replace
BB00FF00 004863D3 89D048C1 EA20B999 0100000F 3048FF05 C99E6B00 4883C408 5B5DC390 90909090 909090

Finally, make sure your FakeCPUID is 0x040674, and you have all built in clover pm flags like KernelCPU, KernelPm, KernelXCPM, etc. turned off.

As for boot flags, you'll still want -npci=0x3000 and -xcpm_ipi . Though, if you just use -xcpm, the performance impact is measurable, but not nearly as big a deal as it was in 10.12. In fact, it seems to only make a 5% difference. But I want my 5% .

I have the same motherboard and processes everything work fine on 10.13.4 but I am trying to make the sleep functionality work probably.

Any suggestions?

 

[volition]

@metacollin, It's ~2 years later but your guide here let me upgrade a non-working Sierra install to a working High Sierra. X10DAi with TB add-in card (UAD Apollo works great when TB is set to Legacy in BIOS), 64 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 RAM. Only 32 GB utilized from using a single 2643 v4 CPU. RX 480 in slot 1. Thanks again.

 

[metacollin]

@metacollin, quick question: Did you disable the automatic HFS+ to APFS conversion, or are you running APFS? Or did you upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra and not get the mandatory conversion to APFS? I know APFS is nice but risky for Hackintoshes. Thanks!

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I'm crazy busy these days.

Honestly, I uh didn't even know about the HFS+ to APFS without asking policy of the 10.13 installer, and didn't even notice/realize that anything had changed for a embarrassingly long time afterwards. If I had the option, I would have probably opted out, but I also don't care enough to actually go through the trouble of formatting my drive and reinstalling to get back to HFS+.

It also helps that my boot drive is an SSD, which theoretically APFS will someday be the best choice for. But, from a compatibility standpoint, let's just say that it doesn't matter at all. I used my desktop for months without even realizing the boot volume was APFS and not HFS+. I honestly don't think there is anything risky, it's just a file system. The disk is still a GPT disk, your bios can still see it, your bootloader (clover) can find the correct boot partitions and it all just seems to work. I would argue that all the reasons to use or not use APFS are completely 'real mac vs hackintosh' agnostic.

Actually, that's not quite true. If you need to manually fix something in the actual root partition, and you are dual-booting windows, then your options for working with APFS volumes are pretty limited and will require buying some software most likely. This will certainly change over time, but 3rd party support for APFS is limited right now.

That said, you should not be doing anything to your actual APFS partition anyway, as anything you might need to do you can do on the EFI (clover) partition, which remains good ol' FAT32.

I have the same motherboard and processes everything work fine on 10.13.4 but I am trying to make the sleep functionality work probably.

Any suggestions?

I assume when you try to sleep, your machine immediately wakes up? This is the same USB sleep problem seen in less exotic hardware, rehabman has some great tutorials on fixing this.

There is one caveat though, which is you will lose any ability to wake the computer via USB. So no key presses or mouse movements will wake your computer up. You pretty much have to press the power button to wake the computer back up.

I spent a very long time trying to find a solution to this, as this is kind of inconvenient and for me, the entire point of sleep is that one can easily wake the computer out of it simply by attempting to use the keyboard or mouse.

I ultimately traced the issue back to Apple's USB driver kext itself, and the fact that it was interfacing with a slightly different intel chip set, and when the system was put to sleep, the kext was actually disconnecting the virtual hubs of the USB controllers completely, so it was as if one had just unplugged everything from all the USB ports. The specific USB kext was, sadly, one of the parts of Darwin that Apple hadn't really open sourced at all, so the source code was unavailable.

Long story short, Apple's USB driver kext mismanages certain chipset's USB controllers in regards to sleep, so we can work around this using rehabman's DSDT/SSDT USB sleep fix, but there is really nothing to be done (except maybe a binary patch but I was never able to find exactly the bit of code responsible in Hopper) if you want sleep AND usb wake-ability. C'est la vie.