High Sierra errors (apfs_module_start:1279) on Maximus VIII HERO 6700K setup

[RiceNL]

[Edit]: Okay i got it to work guys! Please read all messages in this thread to see how i fixed it. Summary:

Needed to use FAKECPUID to get Skylake CPU to work. - Still don't know why. Does anybody know?
When using FAKECPUID CPU runs at 800MHz max. I implemented a fix for this in Clover to get it to run at 4ghz. Everything works flawless now. Performance is nice. Sound works. I got hardware acceleration working with Nvidia webdriver. Got 3 screens running at 144hz. I'm loving it!

If anybody needs a clover config, feel free to ask.

Still i would like to know why my i7 6700K does not work out of the box. This has been many many hours of trying stuff out :')

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Original post:
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Hi guys,

Been at this for days now and i can't seem to get this to work.

The system:

- i7 6700K
- Motherboard ASUS Maximus VIII Hero
- 16GB Corsair Vengence LPX
- SSD: Samsung 850 EVO
- GFX: Both tried GTX 780 and iGPU

I have done everything i could to get this to work. But it just doesn't. You would think that by using this guide it would be easy to install High Sierra on a system, but man was i wrong: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...og-maximus-viii-hero-i7-6700k-gtx-980.250824/

That guide is awesome BTW.

What have i done already:

- Tried multiple bios versions. The latest version is installed. I even tried the 2202 version since that doesn't have the problems with NVRAM. After i flashed the bios i put the bios settings in like the above guide tells you to do.
- Tried installing High Sierra from USB2.0 thumb drive.
- Inserting USB2.0 Thumbdrive in USB 2.0 HUB
- Using USB.20 Thumbdrive in all available USB slots to see if they work (even the 3.0 ones and the front ports)
- Do a manual install of the MacOS installer on a different Samsung 850 EVO drive and then after that manually use Multibeast to make the installer bootable. Gives the same errors as if i would put the installer on a USB2.0 stick, so that should not be the problem
- Use only 8GB of the 16GB (so only 2 sticks)
- Switch the sticks from slots B1, B2 to A1 and A2
- i did a SHA checksum check of the High Sierra installer - everything is fine - No courupted installer
- Make sure, double check, that the BIOS settings are how the have to be.
- Used the right version of Unibeast/Multibeast for High Sierra to make the USB/SSD bootable.
- Using different SMBioses (stock is 14,1 or 14,2 i believe? - but also tried 17,1 - no difference and this should not make the difference for getting into an installer or not, right? Default values should be fine for first installs)
- Putting some kexts in Clover > Kexts > Other (the usual, lilu, whatevergreen, rehabman USB stuff, Intelmausi, etc etc)
- Using Clover Configurator installing drivers (emu and aptiomemfix etc)

The strange thing is - i used the exact same installer on my i9 9900K with Maximus XI board and that installed just fine. Only thing is in that machine i have a RTX 2080 and that is not supported in MacOS unfortunately but other than that it worked just fine.

That is why i want to use my 6700K as a Hackintosh, it has a GTX 780 in it that should be supported by the web drivers in High Sierra.

The error i got:

apfs_module_start:1279 - The same i got on my Maximus XI board, so i knew what i had to do. I had to put in ACPI Patches. Those worked wonders on my Maximus XI board, so i thought that would be the case. But after putting in two ACPI patches i found in this topic:

FIX for boot hangs after BIOS update (ACPI PATCH)

This is an ACPI Patch for the people who update to the last bios and can't boot. My board is the MSI B360A-Pro and has the latest bios 7B22v27. First add the patch (the blue line from the picture) to clover config, then apply the Bios update. To easily add the patch using terminal, read post #48

www.tonymacx86.com

The installer still won't boot and hangs at that exact same apfs_module_start:1279 error. On the new Bios version, but also on the 2202 bios version which is the last version to work with the native NVRAM.

Like i said, i have been researching everything, tried every possible fix and double checked so many things. There should be something wrong, but i can't seem to find it. I'm letting it cool off for a few hours now, since i have to do much work today, but after that i really want to get this to work. I hope some of you guys have some tips for me to point me in the right direction. The strange thing is, if you read the above guide to install MacOS High Sierra on this exact same setup, the same way i did, it should'nt be this hard. I did everything and more to get it to work. Atleast i should be able to get to the High Sierra installer without doing to much about the newly created boot device by Unibeast right? The NVRAM - sure is important, but with it not working, you should be able to get to the installer without problems, right? That is what i find the most weird part about this problem. People with the exact same setup get it to work, yet i can't seem to get it to work. Even using a guide that should work 100%

I'm starting to think that there is something wrong with this setup, eventho i could game on it very well in Windows. And that never crashed or something. Strange thing is that i did the exact same stuff with my Maximus XI setup and that went very smooth. Needed to fix some issues here and there but other than that i had a running MacOS machine in a few hours. Like with this, ive been banging my head on it for ages now.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RiceNL]

EDIT: Unfortunately this did not work for me Still the same error. Made a new installer on the SSD, did a fresh bios install (latest version 3802) en loaded optimized defaults + did the neccesary BIOS changes, but nope. No worky. Still the apfs_module_start:1279 error.

Edit 2: I checked my AML file for 'STAS' But it does not contain it. My guess is that i don't need the ACPI patch then. So the reason i get the APFS error should be something other than that. The search continues :\

Edit 3: I went ahead and checked deeper in the AML file to see if other patches needed to be applied, and guess what i applied some patches and now i got further. Next freeze is at: VM Swap Subsystem is ON. So going to see if i can fix that

Update:

I couldnt let this rest :') I found something about that a possible fix would be to install a few extra drivers:

HFSPlus.efi: https://github.com/JrCs/CloverGrowerPro/raw/master/Files/HFSPlus/X64/HFSPlus.efi

apfs.efi:

1. Mount the Base System.dmg located inside /Applications/Install macOS HighSierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/BaseSystem.dmg
2. Navigate to : /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi

Copy both the additional drivers, HFSPlus.efi and apfs.efi to: /EFI/Clover/drivers64UEFI

Will try this later and will report back if it did the trick or not

 

[RiceNL]

Oh my god. After several more hours of fiddling around with EVERYTHING i got into the installer. You won't believe how: I put in Fake CPUID:0X0106E0 and everything started to work. I thought that the 6700K was an officially supported Apple CPU? What gives? Anyone that knows what's up?

And how does this affect my performance?

Cheers!

Edit: I now got a fully working Hackintosh with Nvidia Web drivers even supporting 144hz over HDMI. Not bad! Except for my CPU now is running at 800mhz tops which slows things down dramatically. I found a CPUID for the Skylake CPU (which i own) and if i put that in im stuck with the issues i had before. Is there something im missing from my setup or settings in config.plist so i can run this CPU? This CPU should be supported without issues at all right? That is what is strange about this all.

 

[macraq]

Hi RiceNL, just found your posting while having same issus on this combination of Board and CPU. Catalina is fast and reliable on Maximus VIII Gene with a i5 6600 k CPU. But no chance to fire it up with an Upgrade to i7 6700k.

Did you try to update to Catalina with your Fix installed? If so I would like to get detailled informations how you got this to work. Greetings from germany.

UPDATE 26/11/20: After many attempts I found out that I had actually bought a faulty CPU. After exchanging it for a faultless processor, everything is now running perfectly.