Hoping to repurpose Hackintosh as a server, but "File Sharing" greyed out

[Middleman]

Wow. Thank you! That could well be it.

Apparently, I have a lot going on with my network. I also seem to recall fussing with the network settings ages ago, back when Messages wasn't working (maybe 3 years ago?). Hopefully I can find time to sort this out tomorrow. (At a glance, I presume the instructions will work even though I'm using Clover and not OC)

Thank you again!

Aha, that might be just it! Yes technically it should work with Clover also - methodology is the same for both. But if it helps, it may be worth your while to update your Clover to OC at some point, that's what I did with my other systems. That way you can get access to the latest updates.

Generally I find Opencore to work far better than Clover (despite Clover being the easier to install between the two). Clover is more rounded and generalised with settings while Opencore is more specified (and has a steeper learning curve). I think one of the main reasons why Opencore works so well now is probably because it uses the actual named definitions used in the macOS kernel in the rather than pseudo-naming schemes as used in Clover. Also because Clover still yet has any form of auxiliary tool or online sanity checker (which can sometimes help diagnose many issues).

 

[Edhawk]

Have you tried selecting the 'tick box' highlighted in the screenshot below? Does that allow you to select the File Sharing tab, or is this selection box also greyed out?

File Sharing options

I just checked my MacOS Monterey 'Server' and the SMB file sharing option is selected. That is all it requires for my shares to be made available on my mixed Windows/macOS network.





The screenshots above are from System Preferences > Sharing tab under Big Sur.

I don't think there are any entries in OpenCore or Clover that restrict network shares. So I think that is a turn too many down an empty rabbit hole!

Have you checked that you are enabling File Sharing from an Administrator User profile?

 

[astrobruin]

Have you tried selecting the 'tick box' highlighted in the screenshot below? Does that allow you to select the File Sharing tab, or is this selection box also greyed out?

View attachment 549321 File Sharing options

I just checked my MacOS Monterey 'Server' and the SMB file sharing option is selected. That is all it requires for my shares to be made available on my mixed Windows/macOS network.



The screenshots above are from System Preferences > Sharing tab under Big Sur.

I don't think there are any entries in OpenCore or Clover that restrict network shares. So I think that is a turn too many down an empty rabbit hole!

Have you checked that you are enabling File Sharing from an Administrator User profile?

Thank you very much for your thorough and thoughtful reply.

Alas, I have tried checking the "Share files and folders" for both SMB and AFP. The weird thing is I can check both of them, but they don't stay checked (I've tried all three combinations: checking only the first, only the second, or both). But when I reopen the options window a second later, they're back to being unchecked. It's very odd.

Per your suggestion, I have also tried adding other users to the file sharing columns, including administrators, giving them all full read/write permissions, etc. But still no change.

For good measure, I also gave full permission to the Administrator and guests under Users and Groups.

Still no luck, I'm afraid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[pastrychef]

Thank you very much for your thorough and thoughtful reply.

Alas, I have tried checking the "Share files and folders" for both SMB and AFP. The weird thing is I can check both of them, but they don't stay checked (I've tried all three combinations: checking only the first, only the second, or both). But when I reopen the options window a second later, they're back to being unchecked. It's very odd.

Per your suggestion, I have also tried adding other users to the file sharing columns, including administrators, giving them all full read/write permissions, etc. But still no change.

For good measure, I also gave full permission to the Administrator and guests under Users and Groups.

Still no luck, I'm afraid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I tried searching Google and couldn't even find anyone else reporting File Sharing being greyed out...

I still say try OpenMediaVault. You should be up and running with drives shared within an hour.

 

[astrobruin]

I tried searching Google and couldn't even find anyone else reporting File Sharing being greyed out...

I still say try OpenMediaVault. You should be up and running with drives shared within an hour.

Thank you for looking. That's reassuring in a way. I didn't turn up anything in my internet searches either, but I'm not confident I understand the problem well enough to know what to search for. At least it reduces the odds that I'm overlooking something painfully obvious.

I'm half tempted to try another generic Hackintosh install, to see if that magically resolves the problem. But my guess is that it's a hardware issue, i.e. the motherboard's Intel networking hardware just doesn't play well with the Apple OS).

So your recommendation of OpenMediaVault is probably the best path forward, given that I'm out of tequila and can't find my hammer.

(I was really hoping I wouldn't have to learn something new, lol)

 

[pastrychef]

Thank you for looking. That's reassuring in a way. I didn't turn up anything in my internet searches either, but I'm not confident I understand the problem well enough to know what to search for. At least it reduces the odds that I'm overlooking something painfully obvious.

I'm half tempted to try another generic Hackintosh install, to see if that magically resolves the problem. But my guess is that it's a hardware issue, i.e. the motherboard's Intel networking hardware just doesn't play well with the Apple OS).

So your recommendation of OpenMediaVault is probably the best path forward, given that I'm out of tequila and can't find my hammer.

(I was really hoping I wouldn't have to learn something new, lol)

In my opinion, using NAS software to share drives is much better than using macOS. There isn't much to learn for OpenMediaVault. Once it's booted, it should just take you a few minutes to get the drives shared.

Just out of curiosity, what kext are you using for your ethernet?

 

[Edhawk]

You checked that your logged in User has admin rights for the system, while trying to enable file sharing, it isn’t set as a Standard user profile.

 

[astrobruin]

In my opinion, using NAS software to share drives is much better than using macOS. There isn't much to learn for OpenMediaVault. Once it's booted, it should just take you a few minutes to get the drives shared.

Just out of curiosity, what kext are you using for your ethernet?

I was using just AppleIntelE1000e.kext.

I added IntelMausi.kext since my last post, just to see if it would help (it didn't)


——————————————————————————————
Not sure if it's relevant, but just in case it is: in the DPCIManager, there are two (network device?) models checked:

l210 Gigabit Network [EN1 ☑︎]
Ethernet Connection l217 [EN0 ☑︎]

The l210 Gigabit Network [EN1 ☑︎] has a corresponding kext: - AppleIntell210Ethernet.kext
Located: S/L/E/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins folder.

The Ethernet Connection l217 [EN0 ☑︎] does *not* have a corresponding kext.

My EFI kexts "other" folder:

List of the network thingies at top:

Their full names here. When I clicked the magnifying glass next to the highlighted device l210 Gigabit Network [EN1 ☑︎] nothing happened (presumably no corresponding kext). The l210 Gigabit Network Connection device did have a corresponding text, as above.

 

[pastrychef]

I was using just AppleIntelE1000e.kext.

I added IntelMausi.kext since my last post, just to see if it would help (it didn't)


——————————————————————————————
Not sure if it's relevant, but just in case it is: in the DPCIManager, there are two (network device?) models checked:

l210 Gigabit Network [EN1 ☑︎]
Ethernet Connection l217 [EN0 ☑︎]

The l210 Gigabit Network [EN1 ☑︎] has a corresponding kext: - AppleIntell210Ethernet.kext
Located: S/L/E/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins folder.

The Ethernet Connection l217 [EN0 ☑︎] does *not* have a corresponding kext.

My EFI kexts "other" folder:

View attachment 549333

List of the network thingies at top:
View attachment 549338
Their full names here. When I clicked the magnifying glass next to the highlighted device l210 Gigabit Network [EN1 ☑︎] nothing happened (presumably no corresponding kext). The l210 Gigabit Network Connection device did have a corresponding text, as above.
View attachment 549337

Try deleting AppleInteE1000.kext. Then go to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and delete NetworkInterfaces.plist. Then reboot.

Btw, NoVPAJpeg disables hardware acceleration...

 

[astrobruin]

You checked that your logged in User has admin rights for the system, while trying to enable file sharing, it isn’t set as a Standard user profile.

I believe so. If this is what you mean, it looks like it's checked - albeit greyed out for some reason.