I am so confused about upgrading to Ventura...

[tonyOB]

If you have a few minutes to spare, I'd be grateful for your time and suggestions.
I built a Sierra Hackintosh several years ago using all of the expert-knowledge and support from tonyMacx86 and it's (about) time to go up a few notches to Ventura. I remember Clover being part of that adventure.

The snip shows my ABOUT and I have already purchased a new graphics card (AMD Radeon RX6600) since I had read here that my old NVidia will not work.

I am getting confused by statements I read in the installation guide like:
Navigate to /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/ and apply necessary kexts.
How do I know what KEXTs I should apply?? Are there a std set? Do I look at my existing system somewhere to know what's needed?

So please allow me to bullet list what I think I should do and ask that you help set me straight as to the things that are not obvious to me...(I'll put those in italics)

1. I download the Ventura Install App from the Apple store.
2. I create a USB Drive installer (using the instructions found in the Installation Guide.)
3. I presume that I then BOOT from that USB drive?
4. The guide then says...
14. Install UEFI or Legacy Clover version using the USB (Install macOS Ventura beta) as the target.
15. Navigate to /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/ and apply necessary kexts.
5. FOR #14. How do I actually "Install UEFI or Legacy Clover..." ?
6. and for #15. Where (i.e. on what device? The USB, the hard drive??) do I navigate to the find the /EFI folder??

7. I presume (again) at this point I (really) boot from the USB and it does whatever it needs to put Ventura on my selected hard disk drive and make *that* bootable?
8. At what point will I be asked to restore my data files from Time Machine?
9. And the last thing that concerns me is that I an Assuming that my internal memory cards (M2 flavor) remain untouched throughout this process??

Thanks A LOT for any assistance you can offer !

tony

 

[trs96]

Thanks A LOT for any assistance you can offer !

In my opinion it makes no sense to keep using Clover with Ventura or Sonoma. Have a look at the OpenCore documentation and see if you can't determine for yourself whether that's a wiser direction to go. Making the installer with OC instead of Clover is really no different. The kexts used are mostly the same. The config.plist and quirks are somewhat different with OC. Also know that now we keep everything in the EFI folder and inject it at boot up. No more installing anything to /L/E.

Getting started with OpenCore | OpenCore Install Guide

Desktop Kaby Lake | OpenCore Install Guide

 

[tonyOB]

In my opinion it makes no sense to keep using Clover with Ventura or Sonoma. Have a look at the OpenCore documentation and see if you can't determine for yourself whether that's a wiser direction to go. Making the installer with OC instead of Clover is really no different. The kexts used are mostly the same. The config.plist and quirks are somewhat different with OC. Also know that now we keep everything in the EFI folder and inject it at boot up. No more installing anything to /L/E.

Getting started with OpenCore | OpenCore Install Guide

Desktop Kaby Lake | OpenCore Install Guide

Thanks for the suggestion... I'll take a look at the OC docs.
The GUIDE here for Open Core also has a line like:

15. Navigate to /EFI and apply necessary kexts, SSDTs.

I don't have any idea which kexts are "necessary." Is this described somewhere?

tob

 

[trs96]

Is this described somewhere?

Dortania goes into detail on this topic.

 

[craighazan]

In regards to which kexts to use, it shouldn’t be much different to what you use with Clover. Like trs96 says, everything now resides in a single EFI folder. Take a look at the OC website and familiarize yourself with the structure of OpenCores EFI folder, it’s pretty straightforward.

 

[EddyMac]

Definitely go the OpenCore route. Just realize that it's not going to be a "three clicks and you're done" type of experience. Block out some time when you can focus and read up on how to make this work--the Dortiana guide and relevant threads on this forum. What you are trying to do is not easy or trivial, but if you put forth some effort and devote some focused time to it, you can do it.

 

[Say Heading]

For sure those old MultiBeast times are history, today you will have to read significantly deeper into details than with those old tools - and they are not available nowadays anyway.
You might be lucky to find someone with exactly the same setup than yours which might get you up and running but that is probably not what will help you keeping your system up to date in the future.
I would also say that working through the dortania guide (from scratch!) is a must. The good news on that somehow difficult peace of work is that the guide covers different convenience levels, so it is not absolutely necessary to go into the deepest and dirtiest details. But even the partly preprepared parts still require some level of understanding. It is not an easy reading but definitely worth the effort.
More important seems to be the question, whether a hackintosh is still what you really need. If you intend to stay on the macOS platform it might be more reasonable to switch to the silicon line right away. But that is a different question that only you can answer yourself.
And yes: It is possible to get into OC via the guide. It looks like a big mountain to climb in the beginning but it is not as difficult as it seems when you are open to go that way.

 

[trs96]

This was written by Greg Gant in March 2023. It explains the differences between OpenCore and Clover.

A bootloader is a piece of software that is responsible for loading the operating system kernel and initializing the hardware devices during the boot process. We'll dig into this more in a minute.

Clover was essential but had shortcomings regarding security, compatibility, configuration and generally required additional patching. Hackintosh users and owners of unsupported Macs faced a similar problem when macOS was on unsupported hardware. A system update could break the entire setup until certain hacks and patches were reapplied.

OpenCore was developed as a way to fix these issues for both unsupported Macs and Hackintoshes, relying on its ability to inject changes as part of the boot process rather than modify the OS itself. The advantage is that the OS would be left intact without requiring altering of most security settings or patching/hacking the OS.

OpenCore and Kexts​

OpenCore uses a feature called Kext Injection. When OpenCore boots the macOS kernel, it scans the system for all available kexts and injects them into the kernel as needed. This allows users to add support for hardware devices that are not natively supported by macOS or to modify system behavior in various ways.

OpenCore also uses the concept of "Kext Patches" to modify the behavior of existing kexts or to patch the macOS kernel itself. This isn't unique to Clover, but OpenCore's methods are improved. Kext Patches are small code snippets that are applied to kexts or the kernel at boot time, which can be used to modify system behavior or to add support for additional hardware components.

When the computer boots, OpenCore acts as middleware for the UEFI or EFI on the computer, a standard for computer Bios that macOS uses. It loads its own firmware and presents the user with a boot loader GUI allowing the user to select the OS. If the user boots macOS, it performs pre-checks, prepares for booting macOS by prepping necessary modifications, then loads macOS Kernel into memory and modifies it with the kernel patches and modifications, and loads kexts for additional hardware support or system modifications. Once done, OpenCore hands over control to the OS, and booting proceeds.

To summarize, each time you boot macOS with OpenCore, it is modifying macOS on the fly, meaning you can update your Operating system without worrying about losing patches or lowering security settings.

 

[tonyOB]

Thanks to all that have offered advice and (moral !) support. I now also have a friend's Hackintosh that is in need of OS upgrading to Ventura. Let the Excitement begin !

I have been reading the info available on OC website; and after a while much of that is less scary and seems MORE straightforward than did the Clover/Unibeast/Multibeast adventure I did the first go'round.

I have a good Time Machine backup to recover my files from and my friend's has a good iCloud so the trick is (and no surprise to all of you) to get the actual hardware and Ventura OS synced up via these kexts.

I've also been watching several videos about using OC from scratch to boot/update to Ventura. And, for me, I am coming around to thinking that the kexts that they say are "standard," I should also load and then try to find those specific to MY HARDWARE when generating the EFI folder (i.e. particularly the CPU model/generation, Ethernet, WiFi, bluetooth, and audio for sure.) Ditto for my friend's hardware.

I shall be in a fairly unique position of being able to keep this hack running while I do my friend's for easy access to this forum and all the other internet sources of OC info.

Thanks, again for all the help thus far and pls advise should anything come to mind.
tony

 

[tonyOB]

So for those of you still watching... I've completed the first of two Hack upgrades to Ventura. As was suggested, the OpenCore methodology was significantly more straightforward. There is (surprise!) one thing left to get correct.

There is M2 memory on the motherboard that is NOT showing up in Ventura (i.e. Disk Utility) This memory was viable in the old OS so I am thinking it is not a BIOS thing... is there a kext or something I need for this type of MOBO memory?

thanks,
tony