[GUIDE] Installing 3rd Party Kexts - El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina

[Feartech]

The developers of lilu kexts already said they belong in the clover folder. Yes, most third party kexts that are made for hardware belong in /library/extensions. But, any kext that is a "hack" kext belongs in the clover folder. I feel that saying "All" kexts belong in /library/extension will cause more problems and more posts and less success... Listen to the developers...

from a dev:

[Guide] Booting the OS X installer on LAPTOPS with Clover

Overview One of the first challenges you'll face in installing OS X to your laptop will involve getting the OS X installer to boot from USB. This guide is for those wishing to use Clover (and in fact the only bootloader supported here). Both installing using Clover UEFI and Clover legacy are...

www.tonymacx86.com

read the section installing Kexts

but then again, it is your choice where you install your kexts, your machine etc

 

[jaymonkey]

as advised, first I move 2 device-related kexts for testing. IntelMausiEthernet.kext and realtekALC.kext to

/Library/Extensions , guess what? both won't load at all thus any LAN to use.​

​

Revert back and everything works. Maybe those are not designed to work from the /L/E (not signed maybe?)​

I think all kexts as in the attach are for me the "minimum kext set".
Any different thought or advice?

@susudio,

Make sure you have the boot argument kext-dev-mode=1 ...



And make sure you set BooterConfig and CsrActiveConfig in Clover RTVariables section



All three properties should be set to these values when running MacOS on non Apple hardware.

I've added this to the guide as it is important.

Cheers
Jay

 

[totototo]

The only way I've found to make the VegaTab_64.kext to work is to inject it with Clover. So I have to set "Inject Kexts" to Yes in clover and remove FakeSMC.kext from /Library/Extensions. Did anybody find a way to inject VegaTab_64.kext from /L/E. I use Vega 64 by Sapphire.

 

[jaymonkey]

The only way I've found to make the VegaTab_64.kext to work is to inject it with Clover. So I have to set "Inject Kexts" to Yes in clover and remove FakeSMC.kext from /Library/Extensions. Did anybody find a way to inject VegaTab_64.kext from /L/E. I use Vega 64 by Sapphire.

@totototo,

No need to use the VGTab kext as you can inject the Vega Properties via Clover see my other guide which deals specifically with this issue :-

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...vega-power-and-fan-control-properties.267519/

Cheers
Jay

 

[totototo]

@totototo,

No need to use the VGTab kext as you can inject the Vega Properties via Clover see my other guide which deals specifically with this issue :-

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...vega-power-and-fan-control-properties.267519/

Cheers
Jay

Thanks Jay, I missed that option in your writeup. This is working great for me.

 

[susudio]

@susudio,

Make sure you have the boot argument kext-dev-mode=1 ...

View attachment 386312

And make sure you set BooterConfig and CsrActiveConfig in Clover RTVariables section

View attachment 386314

All three properties should be set to these values when running MacOS on non Apple hardware.

I've added this to the guide as it is important.

Cheers
Jay

＠jaymonkey

Thank you for reply.
I check your suggestion setting, they are already set as you said.
Anyway the clover-loaded kext works no issue.
I leave it that way.

 

[lisai9093]

I think kext-dev-mode=1 is abandoned long time ago, only sip disable is needed for unsigned kext to load.

 

[GeraldB]

To make things work it has to be:
FakeSMC.kext and IntelMausiEthernet.kext into EFI/Clover/kexts/Other because these kexts are not dependant on macOS version, but has to be there for recovery/update mode. All Lilu and friends kexts belongs to EFI/Clover/kexts/10.14 or next version. Kernelextensions (=drivers) belongs to /Library/Extensions.
I really don't understand why someone seeds confusion like OP. Please read Clover instructions. Lilu and friends won't work your way. These kexts are designed for Clover.

 

[BFACTOR]

Your guide is terrific in helping to understand the structure, components and execution priorities.

An earlier post mentioned the desire to learn how to best maintain kexts over long term (and through Major OS upgrades). What ways can someone determine the version number of the installed kext? Can I change
the kext name to include a version number (before installing)? If not can we put the original kext in a sub directory like /L/E/Lilu-1.3.3/Lilu.kext

I understand that FakeSMC.kext is required to be in 'Other', I presume the FakeSMC*Sensors.kext should be ONLY in /L/E - did I understand correctly?

Can you please help to inform how the kexts/10.X directories can be useful? For instance if I were to have both High Sierra (10.13) and Mojave (10.14) on the same boot disk would Mojave ignore the kexts in 10.13?

So very grateful for your taking the time and effort to educate, warn and guide the community.

 

[GeraldB]

I have the FakeSMC*Sensors.kext in the EFI/CLOVER/kexts/10.14 directories. And yes, you will need to put the kexts which belongs to the version of macOS in the directoires. So you will have them double, but Clover is designed to read the correct directory for the used version of macOS. Never rename the kexts and use them as you did download them. Also you can just maintain these kexts with Clover Configurator and choose the correct directories for them in the GUI.
I hope I could help you.