- Joined
- Oct 4, 2018
- Messages
- 1,488
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte C246-WU4
- CPU
- E-2278G
- Graphics
- WX7100
- Mac
For my first post, I have the pleasure to report success with two C246 motherboards from Gigabyte, ATX-size C246-WU4 and Mini-ITX C246N-WU2. I do not intend to make a fully detailed guide: It suffices to follow the official OpenCore guide (0.6.4 as tested) for Z370/Z390, except for three points, only the last of which is critical.
The latest firmwares, F6g and F2c, expose all required BIOS settings, including removing the CFG Lock, so quirks "AppleXcpmCfgLock" and "DisableIOMapper" are not even required if BIOS is set according to OpenCore recommendations.
The boards have a single USB controller for all ports, so a custom map is required. For C246N-WU2, it suffices to disable HS02, the USB 2.0 personality for the rear USB-C port to be in the clear. C246-WU4 takes a little more custom work: Obvious victims are HS01, HS02 (2.0 from the red USB 3.2 ports), HS06/SS06 (on-board USB-A) but you'll still need to sacrifice HS07 or HS08 (2.0 from the rightmost USB 3.0 ports; the middle ports are on an internal hub and share HS03/SS03) if you use both internal headers (HS13,14 for 2.0, HS/SS04,05 for 3.0).
Bonus: Thunderbolt!
The C246-WU4 has a Thunderbolt header. I have flashed a CG-Titan Ridge v.1 according the guide in the Designare Z390 thread, and made a custom DROM (I recommend using ThunderboltUtil to be sure to "enable the switch at port 7", whatever that arcane means…). With that and the two addtional SSDT, DTPG and the custom DROM, Thunderbolt 3 works, with hot-plug. (Caveat: I only have one Thunderbolt 2 drive and the Apple Thunderbolt adapter to test; no display.) Of course, one also gets an additional USB controller and two ports. Plugging the USB cable to a motherboard header is not required, only the Thunderbolt cable.
The C246N-WU2 has no Thunderbolt header. I tried the card nevertheless, with the SSDTs and a shortcut between pins 1 and 3 of the Thunderbolt header on the card. USB works (curiously, with a different IORegistry identity than on the C246-WU4), but Thunderbolt does not. If a Thunderbolt device is present at boot, it will show up, but there is no hot-plug and no coming back once the device is ejected.
I have mostly focussed on Mojave because I still use one critical 32-bit application, but Catalina and Big Sur appear to work. OS X identify my ECC RAM. I do not have the micro-ATX C246M-WU4, but I suspect that this board would work in the same manner as its two siblings, probably also including Thunderbolt.
Thanks to the awsome folks who have made up the Thunderbolt patches, tools and guides, and to the (*) Acidanthera team for OpenCore and its extensive documentation!
(* adjective missing because their work is beyong superlatives)
- SSDT-AWAC is not needed: The boards have no AWAC but a plain old RTC; workstation chipsets err on the conservative side.
- "Booter>Quirks>ProvideCustomSlide" may be turned off. The debug version of OpenCore reports that all native slides are good, and indeed the boards can boot without this quirk.
- MATs are not supported (again, a conservative design): Under "Booter>Quirks", set "EnableWriteUnprotector" to True and, accordingly, both "RebuildAppleMemoryMap" and "SyncRuntimePermissions" to False.
If set the other way around, as in the guide, you will boot and install OS X but the hack will break after a few reboots, complaining about an invalid frame pointer and locked register CR2.
The latest firmwares, F6g and F2c, expose all required BIOS settings, including removing the CFG Lock, so quirks "AppleXcpmCfgLock" and "DisableIOMapper" are not even required if BIOS is set according to OpenCore recommendations.
The boards have a single USB controller for all ports, so a custom map is required. For C246N-WU2, it suffices to disable HS02, the USB 2.0 personality for the rear USB-C port to be in the clear. C246-WU4 takes a little more custom work: Obvious victims are HS01, HS02 (2.0 from the red USB 3.2 ports), HS06/SS06 (on-board USB-A) but you'll still need to sacrifice HS07 or HS08 (2.0 from the rightmost USB 3.0 ports; the middle ports are on an internal hub and share HS03/SS03) if you use both internal headers (HS13,14 for 2.0, HS/SS04,05 for 3.0).
Bonus: Thunderbolt!
The C246-WU4 has a Thunderbolt header. I have flashed a CG-Titan Ridge v.1 according the guide in the Designare Z390 thread, and made a custom DROM (I recommend using ThunderboltUtil to be sure to "enable the switch at port 7", whatever that arcane means…). With that and the two addtional SSDT, DTPG and the custom DROM, Thunderbolt 3 works, with hot-plug. (Caveat: I only have one Thunderbolt 2 drive and the Apple Thunderbolt adapter to test; no display.) Of course, one also gets an additional USB controller and two ports. Plugging the USB cable to a motherboard header is not required, only the Thunderbolt cable.
The C246N-WU2 has no Thunderbolt header. I tried the card nevertheless, with the SSDTs and a shortcut between pins 1 and 3 of the Thunderbolt header on the card. USB works (curiously, with a different IORegistry identity than on the C246-WU4), but Thunderbolt does not. If a Thunderbolt device is present at boot, it will show up, but there is no hot-plug and no coming back once the device is ejected.
I have mostly focussed on Mojave because I still use one critical 32-bit application, but Catalina and Big Sur appear to work. OS X identify my ECC RAM. I do not have the micro-ATX C246M-WU4, but I suspect that this board would work in the same manner as its two siblings, probably also including Thunderbolt.
Thanks to the awsome folks who have made up the Thunderbolt patches, tools and guides, and to the (*) Acidanthera team for OpenCore and its extensive documentation!
(* adjective missing because their work is beyong superlatives)