- Joined
- Jan 18, 2020
- Messages
- 8
- Motherboard
- Partaker B16
- CPU
- i7 8595U
- Graphics
- Intel Iris Plus 655
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
DC's Fanless Catalina:
Core i7-8559U - Partaker B16 - 16GB RAM - Intel Iris Plus 655
Core i7-8559U - Partaker B16 - 16GB RAM - Intel Iris Plus 655
Components
Partaker B16 Fanless Mini PC
https://www.newegg.com/p/1VK-01S3-009A8
Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 250GB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MG119KG/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
PNY 8GB DDR4 2400MHz Notebook Memory (a pair)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PYYBXD6/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Already Owned
Dell DW 1510 PW934 Half-Size Mini Wireless PCi-E WiFi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B5A0NGU/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
HP 27 inch 27es IPS LED Full HD ( 1080P ) Ultrafast (a pair)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRKO20L/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Comments
I started Hackintosh build over ten years ago but until about a year ago with good success with ThinkPad X220, X230. Those two are solid and served me well that I was able to use them on a daily basis. On another hand, as a minimalist, I have been longing for a mini PC for years and got hands on a NUC DC3217IYE earlier in the year. The build with the NUC was a success. However with all the builds, the fan noise came up sooner or later bothering me. Thus I ended up the purchase of the fanless mini PC. With much research I only saw suppliers from oversees, especially China. The Partaker B16 off AliExpress was an eventless transaction and delivered from Hong Kong within a week.
I used the EFI files from my NUC build and the installation of the latest Catalina 10.5.6 was ok for the B16. It was though quite an effort to get full video acceleration/Metal and dual external monitor working off the built-in Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655. Details are shared in below section.
Installation Notes
- [open] unable to identify the Partaker B16 motherboard model
- [open] DP -> HDMI does not work
I was unable to find a guide specific for the Partaker B16, and, thus, I adjusted the BIOS based on general guidance such as no secure boot. You need hold down the Delete key to enter the BIOS and F11 to enter the Boot priority list. The manufacturer masked the base board id to Default String and I was unable to identify the motherboard ID. Appreciate if you can shed some light on the specific motherboard information.
With DW 1510, only thing needed to make the Wifi work is the extension: IO80211Family.kext (no need of IO80211FamilyV2.kext)
Graphics Settings
It was quite an effort to make the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 fully work under Catalina 10.5.6. I started with the Clover configuration only as it worked for me for X230 well. With endless research and no success, the Graphics of the About This Mac page always showed 7 MB memory.
- Updated to the latest Lilu (1.4.6) and Whatevergreen (1.4.1)
- Tried with no success, Inject Intel with Fake IntelGFX 0x12345678, 0x3EA50000, and ig-platform-id 0x3EA50000, 0x3EA50004, 0x3EA50009
- Tried with no success, DSDT edits on the Method(_DSM, 4, NotSerialized) with Iris device id and ig-platform-id
- Tried NUC8i7BEH EFIs with no success. I was hoping the NUC configuration work without adjustment for the B16. However it did not.
Until I stumbled upon the Hackintool (version 3.4.4) and CaseySJ's post, I was able to gradually make the graphics work.
[GUIDE] General Framebuffer Patching Guide (HDMI Black Screen Problem)
General Framebuffer Patching Guide using Hackintool Please do not quote this guide in its entirety. Post a link instead. 15 Jan 2019: Intel FB-Patcher has been renamed to Hackintool. 19 Jan 2019: Guide overhauled. Please be aware of possible HDMI hot-plug issues. After boot you may have to...
www.tonymacx86.com
With the general guidance of the Hackintool, I delightfully found the graphics card was fully recognized and finally the memory showed 1536 MB instead of the dreadful 7 MB. However, only one of the two HP 27es that connected to the DP -> VGA works, the other monitor that connected to the HDMI did not work. I searched and found CaseySJ's post about search for the right combination of Connectors parameters: Index/Bus ID/Pipe/Type and con number.
I started with only the DP/VGA port working and thus only the Index=1 (port-number=5) line was red. Not sure if the B16 has two or three port-number's, I tried with both Index=2 and Index = 3. With rounds of failure based on random mapping of Index to Bus ID, I finally experimented with setting the same Bus ID (1, 2, 4, 5, 6 but different from the Index 1 Bus ID) for both Index 2 and 3. It happened that the HDMI screen flickered when I used Bus ID = 0x02 for both ports. The HDMI screen flickered for about 20 seconds and turned stable. However when I restarted B16, the HDMI screen stayed dark for about 30 seconds and flickered again and turned stable after a while.
This is when I turned again to Whatevergreen with the release note promised a fix for the black screen.
- Fixes black screen on Intel HD since 10.15.5.
I was able to spot the suspect boot flag: igfxonln=1. With the boot flag finally I was able to boot the machine with both external display on and stable. At this time I was able to verify with the Hackintool that I have two ports, port-number = 5 for the DP/VGA and 6 for the HDMI.
Attachments
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