- Joined
- Feb 3, 2016
- Messages
- 26
- Motherboard
- Microsoft Surface (Clover)
- CPU
- m3-7y30
- Graphics
- hd 615
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
So I made this a while ago and picked this up again yesterday and upgraded the exising mojave installation to catalina with no issues. I wanted to share my work with you as it might come in handy for others.
I am no expert in this, this is just the result of lots of hours spent trying to get this to work. So suggestions are welcome, you, me or others could try to improve this to make it work better.
Note: I did not Install Clover on the main ssd. Mojave (and after that Catalina) was installed on the ssd, while Clover was on an usb. With that, I could ensure I could keep using Windows normally while trying to get this hackintosh to work. But normally you should just be able to run the efi from your internal disk.
My configuration
Since there seem to be quite a lot of variants of this machine, I’ll quickly explain what version I have. Speaking for itself, this guide is made especially for this variant and yours might have unexpected errors. I can try to help but as I said before, Im not an expert in this.
Model: Lenovo IdeaPad 520-15IKBR (81BF)
CPU: Intel core I5-8250U (Kaby Lake)
GPU: Intel UHD 620 (No Nvidia in here)
RAM: 8GB 2133 mHz
Trackpad: The Synaptic one
Since my Configuration doesn’t have a fingerprint reader or a dedicated GPU, I didn’t look into that. If your Configuration has one of those (especially GPU), it might give Some problems (which wouldn’t work anyway).
What you need
- Lenovo Ideapad 520-15IKBR
- macOS Mojave/Catalina (10.15.2 works) installer on an usb (at least 8GB). Use unibeast to make the installer
- An external mouse, as the trackpad will likely not work in recovery
- Patience, and maybe a cup of coffee
The easy part
Make sure you are on the latest BIOS. You can update your bios with the Lenovo Vantage app on Windows. There are some settings you need to change in your BIOS.
- Press F2 multiple times on startup to enter the BIOS
- Change ‘SATA controller mode’ to AHCI
- Disable ‘Secure Boot’
- Change EFI boot order so USB is on top (select USB, Press F6)
- Optional: disable ‘HotKey Mode’ if you want to map the brightness keys. These won’t work out of the box since they need some more DSDT editing (Fn + c = brightness-, Fn + p = brightness+). You can use Karabiner to map the f1-f12 keys (and thus disable hotkeys in BIOS). This is a temporary solution but it works pretty well.
- Press F10 and save the changes.
Preparing your USB
Create an Unibeast USB installer. I won’t go deeper into this part, as this is Kinda basic and there are guides n the website who’ll help you get through that. After the installer is created, Replace the EFI folder with the EFI folder in this post.
Installing
Boot from the USB into macOS recovery, wipe your drive and Install macOS. This takes a while. Again, I’m not going deeper into this part, since there are many guides out there. Remember that you Will have to boott from your usb as long as Clover is not on your internal disk.
Post-Install
Mount the EFI on your internal disk and replace it with the EFI from the USB. Remember that this will replace the windows bootloader and you might not have access to windows anymore!
Note: since it has been a long time ago, I’m not sure if this method is correct. To play safe, you can always use multibeast first to create a temporary EFI folder and replace it afterwards. With the EFI folder from the USB.
And you’re done!
What works
- It boots, duhh
- Graphics are fully working (Intel UHD 620)
- Battery percentage
- HDMI works AFAIK
- Audio (Both headphone jack and those crappy speakers)
- Mic (Siri can do weird, but it works)
- Keyboard
- Touchpad with gestures
- Sleep and wake (although it sometimes gives a kernel panic, not often)
- Webcam
- Night Shift
- Bluetooth
- USB
- USB-C
- Ethernet
- SD-card reader
- CPU power management
What needs to be fixed
- Mapping of brightness keys
- Fan control (Note: I don’t know if such thing is possible, but I might look into that later. In windows the fan control is actually a bit worse (fans kicking on. At 30 C))
What doesn’t work
- Wifi, card must be replaced to work, or:
- Use a Wifi dongle
- Tether Wifi with an Android phone over usb (horndis kext is included)
- Note: there are Lenovo branded BCM94352Z wifi cards that should work with this machine, however they are crazy expensive since everyone with a hackintosh buys them so I haven’t bought one yet since this is not my main computer. I didn’t look into this so if you buy such a card you should add the appropriate kexts.
If something doesn't work, feel free to ask. I'll try to help you as good as I can.
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