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[Guide] Razer Blade 15 (2018) Detailed Install Guide High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G2208-17G5019)

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When I did this, I just get a black screen and it just stays black. It did not go into apple logo or load anything. Do I tap f2 and f4 separately and then hold fn and select osx installation from the usb? Very confused about this. What does this do and what I'm doing wrong here?

This is the part of the guide you need to make sure you're doing properly. This assumes you got MacOS installed to your internal drive properly.

IV
Post Installation:


Once you did all of the OSX set up stuff and are at the desktop:

  1. Open the Install macOS High Sierra USB Drive and copy the folder with the files you downloaded earlier to the desktop.
  2. Run the Clover Installer from that folder, follow the prompts. Make sure on the Installation Type section that clover is set to install to your main drive you installed OSX to. Install it and close the installer.
  3. Open terminal and type:
    Code:
    diskutil list
    Find the name of your main drive that you installed OSX to. Just above it will be the EFI EFI drive. Take note of the Identifier.
  4. Open and run the EFI Mounter app and mount the EFI Drive of your main OSX Drive that you found the Identifier to above.
    • 4.1.Once mounted navigate to the Clover folder inside of the EFI Folder.
      Inside of the Post Installation Clover Folder that you downloaded earlier there's a config.plist file copy and paste that into your Clover folder, replace the already existing config.plist file.
  5. Next find the drivers64UEFI in the Post Installation Clover Folder, copy that folder and paste it into your Clover folder, when prompted click on Replace.
  6. Next open the ACPI Folder that's in your Clover Folder, then open the Patched Folder it should be empty.
    • 6.1.Open the Patched folder in the Post Installation Clover Folder, copy and paste those files into your empty Patched folder.
  7. Next open the Kexts folder inside of the Post Installation Clover Folder, copy and paste all of the kexts to your desktop. DO NOT copy the folder itself, copy all of the Kexts directly to your desktop, do not put them inside any kind of folder. (If you didn't upgrade your WiFi card you can omit the FakePCIID_Broadcom_WiFi.kext and the 2 Brcm kexts.
    • 7.1.Open and run Kext Beast, when prompted select the option to install the kexts to Library-Extensions, click install.
  8. Once finished open terminal and type in this code:
    Code:
    sudo kextcache -i /
    Type your password in and let it finish. All of the kexts that pop up should say "Allowed" next to them if you installed them correctly
  9. Disable Hibernation. Hackintosh' are not compatiable with hibernation, so it needs to be disabled. Type in the following codes into terminal to disable it.
    Code:
    sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
    sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage
    sudo mkdir /var/vm/sleepimage
At this point you can eject the USB Installer Flash Drive and reboot your laptop.

Your laptop should boot right into clover, but don’t select anything yet.

This next few steps is to prepare you for editing your DSDT.

  1. Once you are in Clover tap on the F2 key and then tap the F4 key.
    • 1.1.Do so again with the F2 and F4 keys, this time holding down the fn key on the keyboard.
  2. Now select your OSX Installation and let it boot. Your screen will go black as soon as it starts to boot. This normal and is okay.
    This is the ONE AND ONLY MAJOR BUG with this laptop and is currently being worked on.
    Shine a flash right on the screen to see what it's doing, you should be able to see the Apple Logo go to the login screen. Once it gets to the login screen, shut the lid/screen of the laptop and wait for the logo light to shut off and then open the lid, the backlight should be working now.
Log In

This next step is ONLY if you did not install the 17G2208 with your USB Installer.
If you made your USB Installer with the 17G2208 build, skip this and move onto the DSDT & SSDT Editing section.

Now if you installed the 17G65 build and not the 17G2208 Build, you will not have working backlight controls, or working sleep, you will also not have the black screen on boot up. Before proceeding any further get a copy of the 17G2208 build.
**This process of the update WILL convert your file system to APFS. This is why I recommended installed the 17G2208 build with the USB Installer from the start. You will have to run an HFS converter App to get the HFS file system back.***

  1. installinstallmacos.py script found here: https://github.com/munki/macadmin-scripts
  2. Once it downloads the installer, open and and run it.
  3. It will ask you to reboot the laptop
    • 3.1 Insert your USB Installer before rebooting
  4. Reboot
  5. Tap F12 once it reboots
    • 5.1. Chose your USB Installer as your boot device wait for clover to boot.
  6. At the Clover screen choose Install macOS from your main boot drive (it will be an option again) let the installer boot
    • 6.1. The screen will probably go black during the install, this is fine. Just keep an eye on it for when it decides to reboot.
  7. When it reboots, tap F12 while rebooting, again choose your USB Installer as the boot device and again pick Install macOS from your main drive again. It will boot back up and finish the install. It might reboot once more and you will have repeat this step (G).
  8. Once the installer is done and asks to reboot, you can let the laptop boot off of your main drive and chose your macOS from your main drive in clover and let it boot.
  9. You should be good to continue now.
 
Did you install clover to the drive you installed MacOS on? When you start your computer you should be booting into clover automatically, without your USB installer. You'll have two options, booting MacOS or Recovery. At that screen you press F2 once. Then press F4 once. Afterwards Hold FN then press F2 once. Keep holding FN then Press F4 once.

Thank you for your reply, Yes I have copied the clover over to the EFI on the drive that High Sierra was installed on. I just got a little confused on f2 and f4 part because I thought I was suppose to hit fn after f2 f4. I was doing it in the wrong order. I'll give this another try. Hopefully it will work with my laptop. I have MSI P65. The build seems similar to blade 15. Do you think the post installation would work with my laptop?

This is what I did before trying out your installation guide. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/help-msi-p65-high-sierra-17g2208-post-installation-help.268816/

Any help would be appreciated. :D
 
Thank you for your reply, Yes I have copied the clover over to the EFI on the drive that High Sierra was installed on. I just got a little confused on f2 and f4 part because I thought I was suppose to hit fn after f2 f4. I was doing it in the wrong order. I'll give this another try. Hopefully it will work with my laptop. I have MSI P65. The build seems similar to blade 15. Do you think the post installation would work with my laptop?

This is what I did before trying out your installation guide. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/help-msi-p65-high-sierra-17g2208-post-installation-help.268816/

Any help would be appreciated. :D

It may have similar specs but the board and hardware layout will be different. You may be able to use this guide to get started, but it will likely never be enough to get everything working properly on your laptop because you'll have different hardware in a different configuration so the hardware specific files OP has posted won't match up with yours. Like the DSDT editing for enabling trackpad and battery. I highly doubt you have the same exact trackpad and battery system as the Razer Blade, so those patches likely wouldn't do anything for you. Also, we won't be able to help by testing things with you since we don't have that hardware.

We could help with comprehension of the guide itself, but otherwise I'd suggest seeing how much you can get working with this guide, then creating a thread specifically for your hardware.
 
It may have similar specs but the board and hardware layout will be different. You may be able to use this guide to get started, but it will likely never be enough to get everything working properly on your laptop because you'll have different hardware in a different configuration so the hardware specific files OP has posted won't match up with yours. Like the DSDT editing for enabling trackpad and battery. I highly doubt you have the same exact trackpad and battery system as the Razer Blade, so those patches likely wouldn't do anything for you. Also, we won't be able to help by testing things with you since we don't have that hardware.

We could help with comprehension of the guide itself, but otherwise I'd suggest seeing how much you can get working with this guide, then creating a thread specifically for your hardware.

Got it, Thank you! :)
 
Even with the 1.05 BIOS backlight at boot wasn't 100%, that is why I have yet to update the guide for it. I'm still waiting for the issue to be 100% fixed. But it's pretty much there.
But to answer your question overall, yes. Don't expect backlight to work at every boot for the time being. And yes, sometimes you will get random hangs upon boot, it's a WhateverGreen bug with the Framebuffer Patching. But it should only happen once in a while.

But you should have working sleep with and without Nvidia disabled, working trackpad, battery status and brightness. All of the basics should work as intended.

The last few issues are pretty much related to WhateverGreen and waiting for it to be updated once it's figured out why the black screen bug is so hit or miss.

There is another bug that I'm trying to sort myself. I don't know if maybe the 1.06 BIOS has taken care of it or not, or if a couple of other things I have tried has. Today will be the big test. The bug is, after 4.5-5.5 hours of constant use, the laptop will randomly start to shut itself down, but before it finishes the shutdown sequence it will freeze. Nobody else has reported this, it seems that I was the only one that has had it thus far. If you want to do some more test, use the laptop for a long period of time, don't put it to sleep or shut it down. If you're not going to use it, leave the lid open and the screen on, it can go to screensaver, but just make sure it's set to never go to sleep. See if you have the same bug.

So I left my laptop on for a few hours. Around the 3.5 hour mark I came back to it. Blank screen. Didn't come back on with trackpad or keyboard presses like normal and fans running. This *might* be the same thing you've experienced but I'll restart and set the timer again and see what I run into.

Edit: It happened again. Right at 3.5 hours my fans turn on (they were completely off before) and the screen wouldn't come back on anymore. I had been periodically tapping the trackpad or keyboard to make sure it was still coming on. Checked if it was backlight: negative. Completely blank screen. So that issue is definitely not just you.
 
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ALERT TO ANYONE WHO RECENTLY BOUGHT A RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED

I just checked Razer's website and they're teasing the new Razer Blade 15 Adanced which will have the RTX 2060, 2070 and 2080 Max-Q. It's likely (but not guaranteed) that the motherboard/hardware configuration is otherwise the same as with the 2018 version. Motherboard development costs a *lot* of money and it's much easier to use what's already available. The Razer Blade isn't even 1 year old, so it's very possible that Razer designed the motherboard to account for future upgrades. It *might* be worth while to return your laptop and (or) wait for the RTX version.

They're not upgrading the Base Model, for those who were considering that machine.
 
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I would like to advise everyone that is planning on getting this laptop or that has this laptop and has done/is planning on doing the OSX install that OSX currently is not stable enough to run as a daily driver.

For whatever reason, after 4-6 hours of use, the laptop will attempt to shut itself down KP and freeze. I have exhausted every option I can think of to fix this issue. It's not a kext that's being used, it's not a DSDT or SSDT file. It's not a USB issue, I don't even think it's a graphic issue. I've tried different config.plists, different patches and clean installs. It's all the same.

It's either something with the new processors or something in the BIOS that I'm missing. Until someone can chime to offer advice on how to figure it out, I'm going to say that the install is not stable enough for a daily driver. At least not for me.

I've posted about the issue in a different section of the Tonymac site and have no gotten any responses as of yet. But if I do, I will keep you guys posted.
 
Thanks a lot for all of the work you put into this! I’ll be giving it a shot in the next week or two.

I decided to go with the HP EX920 for my SSD (I got a good deal on it), so I’ll report back to confirm if it works or not and we can add that to the list if so.

Have you had the issue of your system closing apps / freezing after a few hours of use? OP and I have both experienced this issue and one thing we have in common is the 970 EVO nvme drive. Since you got the EX920 I was wondering if you had a different experience.
 
Thanks for the responses! I pulled the trigger earlier today and decided to get the Advanced model in Mercury White with the GTX 1060. The DisplayPort/HDMI situation sucks, but as long as dongles work everything should be fine. I'm almost positive we should be able to get audio over the dongle as well but we'll see.

@protech would you mind checking to see if thunderbolt hot-plugging works? Or does the device need to be plugged in before you turn the laptop on? If hot-plugging works, does it continue to work after sleeping? This isn't a big deal, but I figured I'd ask. I'm really excited to get everything running once I receive mine!

Sorry for the late reply, didn't get any notifications for this :/ Hot-plugging works fine, I do it all the time! Congrats on the sexy Mercury version - wish they sold it outside of USA when I was buying! :)
 
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I would not recommend the Basic model if you plan on running it as a Hackintosh. As of right now there is no trackpad support for the basic model, as it's a different model. Trackpad support might come later, but it will be a pretty long wait, if it ever comes.

TB/USB3 port Hotpluging works just fine, for normal devices, not sure on an external display with it though, as I've never tried it with a display.

As far as it working with an audio interface. Mine works just fine with an M32, Si Performer 3, Saffire Pro 40 and a cheap little Berhinger 2 channel interface.

As far as stability goes. We're almost there with it. I bounce back and forth between Windows and OSX. The last real bug that seems to need to be worked out is a random system freeze that happens after an extended amount of use on the laptop, 4+ hours of constant use without sleeping or shutdown. Although I'm not sure if that's just an issue on my end, or everyone's end. It's something new that I've just discovered over the past couple of weeks now that I'm not rebooting the laptop constantly trying new things. I've just recently started to dive into the issue trying to pinpoint it. I'm sure it will be taken care of soon.
The 3 minute black screen is pretty much taken care of at this point, like 95% there with it.

Really sorry to hear about stability issues, @vettz500 - I don't have any similar issues... Sometimes it restarts when waking from sleep, but rarely - other than that, really solid and I use it for work, quite happy with it at this point, and mostly thanks to your guide! Can I help in any way, send you my setup? I didn't do everything according to the guide (put all kexts in Clover - I know it's not recommended, but somehow I like it better that way and didn't have problems so far, and also didn't manage to set up audio easily, so using VoodooHDA in the end), so there might be something valuable in differences there?
 
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