Hi,
@AllanMarcus. You changed your post before I had a chance to respond. I know you mentioned two plists, one at 14,2 and the other at 15,1. In Sierra the recommendation was to use iMac 14,2, because 15,1 caused a black screen, and currently in High Sierra they said, I believe, that 15,1 doesn't black screen now. The best fix for that anyway--
NvidiaGraphicsFixup.kext and Lilu.kext--are said by RehabMan to be important for Nvidia graphics in other ways, so should still be used. So use them. Here are pictures of my kexts and drivers.
If yours don't match that, then I'd feel fairly safe in saying that since our systems are fairly close you could use these same kexts and drivers. I use HFS+. If you use APFS you need that driver.
Now I don't know your technical knowledge about tonymacx86 setups and all that, so I'd rather be crystal clear and not assume proficiency. I got into all this and just followed basic directions and never really put together in my head what I was doing and when El Capitan came around my settings were a mess, so I skipped eventually to Sierra--and man I had to read these posts
endlessly to understand this stuff (but just for my system or ones close, though the basics are the same).
@ 15,1 is closer to the right setting for your system (than even mine is). But 14,2 is no problem until Apple makes that smbios obsolete.
@ If you ever make a new USB installer use the RehabMan's method I mentioned before.
@ In case you don't, always use
Clover Configurator to work on your system configuration. It looks complex at the start, but once you get used to it it will be great. You can look at the EFI partition folder of any of your disks or your USB installer by goin down to Tools> Mount EFI. You can look at your Clover config.plist in the entire top section of the app by simply
dragging the plist image to the Clover Configurator icon in your dock, which opens it up.
@ I wrote the following in another post, but pursue it since much still applies:
I suggest you follow ILikeHackintosh's guide exactly. Without this guide I would not have gotten past the point where you are now:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...erra-black-screen-panics.234390/#post-1603620
Moving to High Sierra was very hard for me, so for anyone with a
Z87 or Z97 motherboard who is trying to do this with difficulty, I am posting my notes, apologizing for length:
I added “
Dart=0” (re RehabMan, which negates the VT-d that seems to be enabled by default in the UEFI) into Clover plist. Then I tried four different USB-drive installer setups, finally settling on RehabMan’s installation [MAKE NEW INSTALLER!]:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-booting-the-os-x-installer-on-laptops-with-clover.148093/
With RehabMan’s fork of Clover and the High Sierra installer, I added my previous EFI file. I added additional kexts (for black screen, probably) and used his HFSPlus.efi, and have only the “Other” folder in kexts. [USE NEWEST KEXTS!]
But it was not until I
added “MATS” in Clover Configurator’s ACPI Drop Tables (because of my Z87/Z97 board) that I could finally use the USB installer to actually install High Sierra:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/update-directly-to-macos-high-sierra.232707/page-60
referred to this source, see the top of this page:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/kernel-panic-on-high-sierra-installation.233227/page-2 so that I was able to get past a kernel panic, showing a frozen white apple, as I tried to install. This is added into Clover plist:
<key>DropTables</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Signature</key>
<string>MATS</string>
</dict>
</array>
Additionally, I had NOT been able to install from the boot SSD as an upgrade either, probably for the same reason.
[The kernel panic results from an invalid character in the MATS table in the system UEFI with Z87/ Z97 boards, as detailed by Moheban79 here (#7):
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...n-in-clover-configurator-to-drop-mats.226488/ and worked out in Pikeralpha et. al. discussion, ”Chameleon and High Sierra…” for a solution re Z87/ Z97 boards and High Sierra:
https://pikeralpha.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/chameleon-and-high-sierra/ ]
However, because I definitely wanted to stay with HFS+ and not convert to APFS yet, I started the installation from the Install High Sierra app on the SSD partition, just to see if it would work now, and it did.
After the install, I could not boot into the High Sierra desktop—every attempt would go into a reboot before the login screen. Then I found and followed this brilliant guide from top to bottom:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...erra-black-screen-panics.234390/#post-1603620 The numbered list below is derived from ILikeHackintosh’s instructions.
1) Removed NVDAStartupWeb.kext as directed, but did so by finding/removing from my other bootable SSD. Now I was able to reach the desktop!
2) I had none of the three mentioned kexts to remove.
3) Added EmuVariableUefi.efi into /EFI/CLOVER/Drivers64UEFI.
4) Downloaded and installed the new NVIDIA Web Drivers fix kexts and then rebooted afterward:
(See
Black Screen with MacPro 6,1 or iMac 15 or iMac 17 System Definition if you use those definitions.)
5) Enabled SIP by editing Clover configuration file, set SIP-related setting CsrActiveConfig to 0x00. Rebooted. Then before installing the web driver, I disabled SIP again by setting CsrActiveConfig to 0x67 as before.
6) Installed the latest NVIDIA web driver: (17A405)
378.10.10.10.15.120 [USE AT LEAST THE 25.104 WEB DRIVER]
7) NOW I was able to properly boot with the Nvidia graphics.
Because of this amazing post, #53, by Antilogical:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...high-sierra-black-screen-panics.234390/page-6
I switched “Other OS” to “Windows 8” and this opened up the CSM Support option for the first time, and I turned this to “Never.” That was it! I finally fixed the monitor blackout, forcing a turn off-and-on of the monitor [DISPLAYPORT]. Now the Clover boot loader and the entire boot up process are in full resolution, and startup takes far less time than before!
@AllanMarcus, more in next post...
