[Guide] Intel Kaby Lake NUC7 using Clover UEFI (NUC7i7BNH, NUC7i5BNK, NUC7i3BNH, etc)

[RehabMan]

Great thread, I'm considering buying one. Any ideas how to fix wifi? What card to buy?

The only easy option would be USB WiFi.
There may be some recommendations in the Buyer's Guide. USB WiFi tends to be a horrible experience due to poorly written software drivers.

The other way would be to use some sort of adapter to connect an M.2 WiFi card, such as BCM94352Z (the slots are M.2 2280, most WiFi are M.2 2230). Then you would, of course, need to use a 2.5" SATA SSD for the system drive, not M.2.

 

[sparc1234]

Hi,

I have installed macOS Sierra using your guide on a NUC7i5BNH. The BIOS version on the unit is v45.

While USB devices which are connected to the USB-C connector might work (I don't have any), this doesn't seem to be the case with Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 2 (using the Apple Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 adapter). When booting into Windows 10 everything is fine and an external TB3 HDD drive array as well as a Belkin (Mac) Thunderbolt 2 dock iare being recognised and usable. When 'restarting' the NUC and booting into MacOS, System Report reports under Thunderbolt "Thunderbolt: No drivers are loaded."

Can anybody confirm that they are using Thunderbolt on their NUC7 and the required driver is actually shown as loaded in the System Report ? I'm specifically asking since a lot of people don't seem to realise that their USB-C device actually isn't a Thunderbolt device.

On a desktop computer which I ran macOS on for some time I had to set Thunderbolt to 'Legacy' mode in the BIOS/UEFI, a function that is not present in the NUC7 BIOS (unless there are some hidden items to activate somewhere)...

In short. Is there anything I can do to/somebody is willing to do to help solve this issue ?

Thanks,
Roel

 

[RehabMan]

Hi,

I have installed macOS Sierra using your guide on a NUC7i5BNH. The BIOS version on the unit is v45.

While USB devices which are connected to the USB-C connector might work (I don't have any), this doesn't seem to be the case with Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 2 (using the Apple Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 adapter). When booting into Windows 10 everything is fine and an external TB3 HDD drive array as well as a Belkin (Mac) Thunderbolt 2 dock iare being recognised and usable. When 'restarting' the NUC and booting into MacOS, System Report reports under Thunderbolt "Thunderbolt: No drivers are loaded."

Can anybody confirm that they are using Thunderbolt on their NUC7 and the required driver is actually shown as loaded in the System Report ? I'm specifically asking since a lot of people don't seem to realise that their USB-C device actually isn't a Thunderbolt device.

On a desktop computer which I ran macOS on for some time I had to set Thunderbolt to 'Legacy' mode in the BIOS/UEFI, a function that is not present in the NUC7 BIOS (unless there are some hidden items to activate somewhere)...

In short. Is there anything I can do to/somebody is willing to do to help solve this issue ?

Thanks,
Roel

Did you plug in the device prior to booting?
The Thunderbolt controller doesn't show on the PCIe bus unless something is plugged in. Some sort of PCIe hotplug issue. But if you have something plugged in, you will see the TB controller in ioreg.

I'm sure there is a fix for that, but haven't looked into it seriously yet (I don't really need the port, very few TB/USB-C devices here)

 

[sparc1234]

Did you plug in the device prior to booting?

Yes.. I've tried with both Thunderbolt devices I have. From a cold boot as well as from simply 'restarting' from Windows 10 (where thunderbolt is functional) and booting into MacOS without powering down the unit first.

Thanks,
Roel

 

[RehabMan]

Yes.. I've tried with both Thunderbolt devices I have. From a cold boot as well as from simply 'restarting' from Windows 10 (where thunderbolt is functional) and booting into MacOS without powering down the unit first.

Thanks,
Roel

You should check what you see in ioreg.

 

[sparc1234]

You should check what you see in ioreg.

All the requested information for "Problem reporting" is included in the NUC7_logs.zip file. At the time of producing the logs a Belkin Mac Thunderbolt 2 dock was attached via an Apple TB3 -> TB2 adapter (ever since powering on the NUC).

(edit: attachment deleted)

 

[RehabMan]

All the requested information for "Problem reporting" is included in the NUC7_logs.zip file. At the time of producing the logs a Belkin Mac Thunderbolt 2 dock was attached via an Apple TB3 -> TB2 adapter (ever since powering on the NUC).

You can see in ioreg that TB controller is at least partially working...

If you can, plug the same device into a real Mac, then examine ioreg on that Mac.

I have it on my list to check out this thread and experiment a bit...
(but that would be assuming I had an actual TB device...)
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/323540-thunderbolt-drivers/

 

[sparc1234]

You can see in ioreg that TB controller is at least partially working...
View attachment 258149

If you can, plug the same device into a real Mac, then examine ioreg on that Mac.

I have it on my list to check out this thread and experiment a bit...
(but that would be assuming I had an actual TB device...)
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/323540-thunderbolt-drivers/

I'll watch this and the thread you mentioned....

Thanks,
Roel

 

[sparc1234]

Hi,

I've gotten Thunderbolt 3 to work ! It still doesn't show any driver being loaded but it does allow me to access an Atikio Thunder 3 Quad 4 HDD drive bay (Thunderbolt 3 device) now.

If I enable 'Thunderbolt Boot' from the 'Boot' menu in the Visual BIOS, MacOS detects the attached Thunderbolt device. I did boot into Windows before trying it for the first time. After that, even after doing warm/cold boots, Thunderbolt keeps working (as long as 'Thunderbolt Boot' is enabled). My guess is that 'Thunderbolt Boot' is the same/similar as the 'Legacy' mode that is available and required on Gigabyte motherboards to enable Thunderbolt.

The only thing that is left is that my NUC seems to suffer from some memory corruption inside MacOS. Could somebody tell me whether you are using OsxAptioFixDrv-64 or OsxAptioFixDrv2-64 ? Also could enabling/disabling a device (e.g. Thunderbolt, audio etc) cause issues in MacOS for one or more boots ?

Thanks,
Roel

 

[babel1234]

Finally up and running on my nuc7i3bnh!
I bought the nuc hoping to get osx on it and have tried windows and ubuntu on it, but since I've got a mac laptop, nothing compares to be able to a mac desktop up and running for less than the price of a new ipad.
I've got a usb lid from gorite, so I'm going to try to get that working, but I am new to this. If anyone's got some time-saving advice on whether to try to fix the additional USB's first, or iMessage first, I will gladly take it. Sometimes messing with one thing changes the other's functionality, and I'd rather not get stuck in another hackintosh-time-warp if possible.
Runs great though.
I've got a 3440x1440 lg monitor, my mx mouse working as expected, bluetooth dongle working great (though I had to change BlutoothAudioAgent's default values because it kept going mono on me). m2 nvme works great after a couple attempts at trying to get it working. Whatever you found in rehab, keep it going man.