[Guide] Intel NUC7/NUC8 using Clover UEFI (NUC7i7Bxx,NUC8i7Bxx,etc)

[Leesureone]

I am not able to get OpenCore v0.5.5 to work on an Intel NUC7i5BNH. I want to use OpenCore if I can.

I got Mojave to install. After the first reboot, the setup wizard opens and the NUC immediately reboots. I tried to stop this by setting AppleCpuPmCfgLock and AppleXcpmCfgLock to true. This didn’t work right way. I had to also disable Legacy Boot. Then it worked.

After that, the computer would boot to the setup wizard and not crash, but the keyboard and mouse plugged into the back of the NUC would not work. I cannot move the pointer or use the arrow keys. I tried to set KeySupport to true (remove AppleUsbKbDxe) and to false (add AppleUsbKbDxe), but the keyboard and mouse still did not work.

I have BIOS 81 installed, the latest. I could install a different BIOS.

I could not find a way to change Cfg Lock in the BIOS. I searched the BIOS with UEFITool but did not find “Cfg Lock” there to make a patch.

I have read the OpenCore Vanilla Guide and the troubleshooting section. I have also gone through a lot of this thread and done other searching. It is possible I missed something important.

Is there a way I can get Cfg Lock to be off/patched and still use the keyboard and mouse on a NUC7i5BNH?

I think you need to go back and read the various guides again because you seem to be misunderstanding how to set up the config.plist. Its more complex than Clover so don't feel alone but you have more work to do. (Also just so you are aware in this thread you are the first to post about the NUC7 and OpenCore so I don't know how much support you will get here).

Did you follow the Kaby Lake part of the guide? Also did you read up on any SSDT's needed in the ACPI folder for Kaby Lake? Its also been my experience that any ACPI Patches you have to have in Clover need to be reestablished in OpenCore in the same place. I'm assuming you have had Clover installed and running prior to this.

AppleUsbKbDxe is for legacy USB, read the portion of the guide on "gathering files" but part of what is says "for OpenCore picker on legacy systems running DuetPkg" The NUC7 does not need to use legacy USB, if I remember right, so feel free to use USBinjectall.kext in your kexts folder and add an SSDT for USB in your ACPI folder or leave
XhciPortLimit: YES

I'm not sure how much this will help or if you run into trouble again that I can get you past it, have not set mine up yet because Clover still works great and there is no real difference in boot times or performance.

If you reread the guide it explains how to disable Cfg Lock in the config.plist. I've attached my NUC8 OC for 5.5 for some kind of reference.

 

[oc1988]

@Leesureone thank you for your reply. I appreciate your help and that you have so much good NUC-related information in this thread.

I should explain better than I did in my first post. I have not seen many others try to use OpenCore for a NUC7. I may give up and go to Clover. I wanted to try something new. The same NUC had used Clover in the past but I wiped the disk in between. I do not have the EFI from that Clover install but I think it used an older version from RehabMan.

- I read and followed the Vanilla Desktop Guide for OpenCore.
- I set the BIOS to the defaults and made the changes from the guide.
- I created the SSDT files as recommended in the guide. I booted into a Linux live USB disk and ran the tools there to capture three SSDTs. This got me SSDT-EC.aml, SSDT-HPET.aml and SSDT-PLUG.aml. I do not know if I need others. Only these three were made by the tools from the guide.
- I added the latest versions of the kexts requested in the guide. USBInjectAll.kext is in my OC folder.
- I configured the config.plist following the instructions for Kaby Lake in the guide. I used ProperTree to bring in the kexts and SSDTs and so on from the OC folder.
- I checked it against the OpenCore Sanity Checker for Kaby Lake. I made changes/corrections as needed. Everything was OK there.
- I disabled items in or moved items from the config.plist rather than deleting them, as the guide said, while I was just starting out with OpenCore. My first OpenCore attempt where I had deleted kexts and drivers did not even boot from USB because of a different error I made, but I tried again with OC 0.5.5.
- I was able to boot from a USB installer disk and get Mojave installed with OC 0.5.5. That went smooth.
- I followed the instructions for Stuck after selection macOS partition on OpenCore in the General Troubleshooting portion of the Vanilla Guide. Whatever other parts of the guide said, I had gotten past making the USB and EFI partition, so I tried to do what General Troubleshooting said.
- I read about disabling the Cfg Lock in the config.plist, but the guide said that that should be replaced with a patch if possible for stability. I tried to find how to do the patch with UEFITool and the BIOS 81 image, but did not find the “Cfg Lock” string in the BIOS. I was hopeful there was a way to do it since there seemed to be success with OC on the NUC8 in this thread and it seemed like that NUC would have the same kind of BIOS problem as a NUC7. It did not seem like the config.plist way was good for permanent use.
- I found a post that said that disabling Cfg Lock in the config.plist worked when Legacy Boot was disabled in the BIOS. This got me to the setup wizard without the NUC crashing/rebooting.
- To solve that rebooting crash, the same part of the General Troubleshooting section recommended trying KeySupport/AppleUsbKbDxe.
- I had not done anything specific with USB or USB Mapping. I had only just installed Mojave and have not gotten past the setup wizard yet.
- The config.plist has XhciPortLimit=false right now.
- I do not yet have USBKbDxe.efi like your OC folder does. I will look into that.

Again, thank you for your help. I will look over your NUC8 OC folder to see what else I can do.

 

[Leesureone]

@Leesureone thank you for your reply. I appreciate your help and that you have so much good NUC-related information in this thread.

I should explain better than I did in my first post. I have not seen many others try to use OpenCore for a NUC7. I may give up and go to Clover. I wanted to try something new. The same NUC had used Clover in the past but I wiped the disk in between. I do not have the EFI from that Clover install but I think it used an older version from RehabMan.

- I read and followed the Vanilla Desktop Guide for OpenCore.
- I set the BIOS to the defaults and made the changes from the guide.
- I created the SSDT files as recommended in the guide. I booted into a Linux live USB disk and ran the tools there to capture three SSDTs. This got me SSDT-EC.aml, SSDT-HPET.aml and SSDT-PLUG.aml. I do not know if I need others. Only these three were made by the tools from the guide.
- I added the latest versions of the kexts requested in the guide. USBInjectAll.kext is in my OC folder.
- I configured the config.plist following the instructions for Kaby Lake in the guide. I used ProperTree to bring in the kexts and SSDTs and so on from the OC folder.
- I checked it against the OpenCore Sanity Checker for Kaby Lake. I made changes/corrections as needed. Everything was OK there.
- I disabled items in or moved items from the config.plist rather than deleting them, as the guide said, while I was just starting out with OpenCore. My first OpenCore attempt where I had deleted kexts and drivers did not even boot from USB because of a different error I made, but I tried again with OC 0.5.5.
- I was able to boot from a USB installer disk and get Mojave installed with OC 0.5.5. That went smooth.
- I followed the instructions for Stuck after selection macOS partition on OpenCore in the General Troubleshooting portion of the Vanilla Guide. Whatever other parts of the guide said, I had gotten past making the USB and EFI partition, so I tried to do what General Troubleshooting said.
- I read about disabling the Cfg Lock in the config.plist, but the guide said that that should be replaced with a patch if possible for stability. I tried to find how to do the patch with UEFITool and the BIOS 81 image, but did not find the “Cfg Lock” string in the BIOS. I was hopeful there was a way to do it since there seemed to be success with OC on the NUC8 in this thread and it seemed like that NUC would have the same kind of BIOS problem as a NUC7. It did not seem like the config.plist way was good for permanent use.
- I found a post that said that disabling Cfg Lock in the config.plist worked when Legacy Boot was disabled in the BIOS. This got me to the setup wizard without the NUC crashing/rebooting.
- To solve that rebooting crash, the same part of the General Troubleshooting section recommended trying KeySupport/AppleUsbKbDxe.
- I had not done anything specific with USB or USB Mapping. I had only just installed Mojave and have not gotten past the setup wizard yet.
- The config.plist has XhciPortLimit=false right now.
- I do not yet have USBKbDxe.efi like your OC folder does. I will look into that.

Again, thank you for your help. I will look over your NUC8 OC folder to see what else I can do.

Its definitely a process first time. Fyi I posted my clover EFI folder for your model NUC7 in this thread a ways back. You can search for it by selecting "This Thread". I will see if I can find it, on my phone, and link to it.

[Guide] Intel NUC7/NUC8 using Clover UEFI (NUC7i7Bxx,NUC8i7Bxx,etc)

Hi I Have Nuc8i7beh and i'm using your open core At boot i have a black screen can you help Everything works great It would be nice if you could make a complete identical with bios iMac Pro thank. Try this version of the config.plist. The apple now shows during boot, stayed with the...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[bitbass]

The onboard intel card can't be relied on in my experience, although some users have reported it working, either way it won't get you hand off. A USB dongle won't either, you have to use one of the cards listed in this thread. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/broadcom-wifi-bluetooth-guide.242423/

The simplest solution I found is to use the adapter and airport card below in your M2 slot. You also need to add antenna connectors that I found at Ebay.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BQ976CR/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C7B29FM/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

2PCS/Set Wireless IPEX MHF4 Antenna WiFi Cable Dual Band Laptop Tablet | eBay

Quick and easy installation. The self-adhesive is easy to tear and fasten. The copper foil increases the receiving surface and enhances signal reception and fixation. Antenna Cable only, other accessories demo in the picture are not included!

www.ebay.com

Not to dispute your links, but the adapter doesn't look like it's the right key for the M.2 slot. I think I need a "b+m" keyed adapter. Am I right about that?

 

[Leesureone]

Not to dispute your links, but the adapter doesn't look like it's the right key for the M.2 slot. I think I need a "b+m" keyed adapter. Am I right about that?

I've read that before and I think you are right because the pin configuration for a hard drive M2 slot is different. The adapter I linked works in the M2 slot on one of my gigabyte boards perfectly with the airport card listed.

For the NUC what you need is below with a diagram for how the usb cable pins are connected:

Or this one for a native airport card.

 

[Cyberdude]

guys, I seem to be having an issue with my USB. I followed the install guide from Rehabman since I'm running Mojave. Everything runs perfectly fine, but when I plug my iphone into the front ports, I get a "usb accessories disabled" error.

I tried with and without the USBinjectall.kext, but no difference.

Here is the fresh USB map from hackintool:

And here is my plist:

 

[Leesureone]

guys, I seem to be having an issue with my USB. I followed the install guide from Rehabman since I'm running Mojave. Everything runs perfectly fine, but when I plug my iphone into the front ports, I get a "usb accessories disabled" error.

I tried with and without the USBinjectall.kext, but no difference.

Here is the fresh USB map from hackintool:

And here is my plist:

You have a slightly different model than the guide was written for so that could cause a few different issues (an NUC 7i7DNHE vs a NUC7i7Bxx). I am thinking that the SSDT-NUC7.aml the script creates for your ACPI/ patched folder isn't properly capturing all your ports. More evidence of that is it appears you have a Broadcom adapter attached to one of the USB internal headers (the highlighted line in the hackintool usb output) and Rehabman didn't ever account for use of either of those. It could be as simple as that.

I would follow this guide from start to finish and create your own model specific SSDT and report back.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/the-new-beginners-guide-to-usb-port-configuration.286553/

 

[arkaprovaz]

I am having an issue with FaceTime calling. No microphone input is detected when I receive or make a call from the NUC. Previously it used to work absolutely fine. Also when call comes, receiving the call from other device does not stop the NUC from ringing. It continues until I forcefully close the FaceTime app. I think updating to Catalina broke this.
Calling through Zoom, Teams, Skype, Discord etc works fine.
Any idea?
Thanks

 

[PeteA]

Hi @PeteA, check this out and let me know. As usual you must change your serial number and UUID.

Thanks buddy

 

[Leesureone]

I am having an issue with FaceTime calling. No microphone input is detected when I receive or make a call from the NUC. Previously it used to work absolutely fine. Also when call comes, receiving the call from other device does not stop the NUC from ringing. It continues until I forcefully close the FaceTime app. I think updating to Catalina broke this.
Calling through Zoom, Teams, Skype, Discord etc works fine.
Any idea?
Thanks

There are different Bluetooth kexts for Catalina that might help. See here

<< Solved >> - No Bluetooth with BCM94352Z

Hi. I installed Cata on an external HDD for testing and even though I have installed the latest versions of BrcmPatchRAM2.kext and BrcmFirmwareRepo.kext and I can see them starting in verbose boot, BT just doesn't work ("not available"). Can somebody provide some help? Thanks in advance...

www.tonymacx86.com