[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[CODYQX4]

So just want to share my latest experience and add my contribution

F8 BIOS completely sucks for me lol. Got the allocation error as soon as I set up my config after flashing. I had disabled the same items as before and enabled above 4G (of course they removed the ability to disable onboard NIC, so had to disable PCH NIC instead). Resetting CMOS didn't change a thing
I wasn't liking the new (advanced) interface either, so reflashed to F7, set things up as before, and I'm back in business! So there really is something to how each UEFI firmware handles things...

The interesting thing is that on F7, I can boot macOS using slide=0 and AptioMemoryFix, IGPU enabled (64MB DVMT),, CSM enabled, WIFI card removed, onboard NIC (I211) disabled, VT-D enabled, above 4g enabled... Regardless of booting from f12 menu, booting from disk, booting Windows from Clover or from disk directly, boots every time (knock on wood lol).

I'm using an RX 590 and a Texas Instruments PCIE firewire card installed as well... But none of this seems to affect whatever memory space is available for the kernel.

Have any of you guys on F7 tried enabling above 4G memory space? I know it has been said that we shouldn't use this setting, but then again, we were also advised not to use OSXAptioMemoryFix2DRV-free2000 lol... Has anyone on F8 BIOS been able to main successful boots using AptioMemoryFix?

That's all for now

I always have Above 4G Decoding enabled from F6-F8 and I wasn't aware of any warning about that being enabled. OP has it recommended to be on. I also don't recall being able to disable both NICs.

Once I cleared my CMOS I have had persistent ability to boot on F8 but not with iGPU enabled.

It works on both Clover 5098 and OpenCore 0.5.2, though I've run into a bug in OpenCore 0.5.2 with the boot menu. It seems if you have enough options (10+) you get letters, but what you type shifts one (you type A and it enters B and boots that, entering B boots C. It's impossible to actually boot whatever is in option A because of this). This led me to do a lot of unnecessary testing wondering why I couldn't boot my backup drive.

 

[djx8605]

I am on F8 now using iMac19,1 slide=0 and AptioMemoryFix, IGPU headless enabled (64MB DVMT), CSM disabled, WIFI card removed (using Fenvi), PCH NIC disabled, VT-D disabled, above 4g enabled. Seems fine and stable, but while tweaking BIOS settings at least once I ran into "no boot zone" and had to re-flash BIOS. I have never used F7, so it is interesting to hear that you could disable onboard NIC in F7. I went directly from F6 to F8 and never seen that option (not sure if it matters at all for memmap).

Ah interesting… I had almost similar settings but got no boot. If I had more time I could have played with the settings longer and tweaked to see if it would work, however, I have to get this machine ready for real stable work lol.
Since I didn't really see anything that brought my setup any improvements (no bug fixes or stabalizations etc) I reverted to my working setup with F7. BTW, in F7 firmware, the I211 is called onboard network controller. The I219 is called PCH network controller (wording may differ slightly, but onboard and PCH are the 2 distinguishing factors for sure). I don't know if the network would have an impact on memory allocation, I don't think so, but I mainly disabled any unneeded items for the sake of keeping DPC latency low on Windows (this system will be a DAW - digital audio workstation).

Glad to see somebody's got F8 working with AptioMemoryFix though maybe I'll give it another try when F9 comes out

 

[djx8605]

I always have Above 4G Decoding enabled from F6-F8 and I wasn't aware of any warning about that being enabled. OP has it recommended to be on. I also don't recall being able to disable both NICs.

Once I cleared my CMOS I have had persistent ability to boot on F8 but not with iGPU enabled.

It works on both Clover 5098 and OpenCore 0.5.2, though I've run into a bug in OpenCore 0.5.2 with the boot menu. It seems if you have enough options (10+) you get letters, but what you type shifts one (you type A and it enters B and boots that, entering B boots C. It's impossible to actually boot whatever is in option A because of this). This led me to do a lot of unnecessary testing wondering why I couldn't boot my backup drive.

This past weekend while researching my shutdown issue with AptioMemoryFix, I read most of the official AptioMemoryFix 22 page thread at IM, and VIT9696 had mentioned somewhere in there that using VTD and above 4G was not a good idea. I believe the reason was that the macOS kernel could not be placed anywhere higher than 4GB. I'm not sure if that only applies to AMF though

EDIT:
[Sorry, I confused the 2 issues, VTD is supposed to be disabled, above 4G enabled... I just checked the AMF R27 readme to verify that. My confusion came from a issue with the wording in one of the posts, but it was not even VIT9696 though sorry for the mixup… That's what happens when you read too much, you stop comprehending lol. So just to be clear, yes Above 4G decoding should be enabled. I believe what they were talking about was not using free space above 4GB when using slide, since the kernel couldn't be placed there...]

Did you use F7 BIOS? I'm surprised that nobody seems to be able to disable I211 on their BIOS. I can confirm for a fact that F8 killed the option... Hmmm wonder if we can look for it and disable it as we do with CFGLock! Perhaps the option is just not available to the interface but it is still there. Even though I don't know if disabling the I211 would have any impact on our subject of discussion, which is getting enough memory allocated

As soon as I get a chance I'll post a pic of the setting and where it is, so anyone else on F7 can check for themselves... This is really crazy! Gigabyte seems to be very undecisive with their UEFI firmware for this board; F6 doesn't have the option, F7 does, F8 does not.... WTH is going on! lol...

BTW, I was under the impression that OpenCore actually had better memory allocation etc than Clover? Thought that was why some people were switching to it...

 

[totototo]

I always have Above 4G Decoding enabled from F6-F8 and I wasn't aware of any warning about that being enabled. OP has it recommended to be on. I also don't recall being able to disable both NICs.

Once I cleared my CMOS I have had persistent ability to boot on F8 but not with iGPU enabled.

It works on both Clover 5098 and OpenCore 0.5.2, though I've run into a bug in OpenCore 0.5.2 with the boot menu. It seems if you have enough options (10+) you get letters, but what you type shifts one (you type A and it enters B and boots that, entering B boots C. It's impossible to actually boot whatever is in option A because of this). This led me to do a lot of unnecessary testing wondering why I couldn't boot my backup drive.

Can you share your OpenCore EFI with serials removed?

 

[gandem]

I am on F8 now using iMac19,1 slide=0 and AptioMemoryFix, IGPU headless enabled (64MB DVMT), CSM disabled, WIFI card removed (using Fenvi), PCH NIC disabled, VT-D disabled, above 4g enabled. Seems fine and stable, but while tweaking BIOS settings at least once I ran into "no boot zone" and had to re-flash BIOS. I have never used F7, so it is interesting to hear that you could disable onboard NIC in F7. I went directly from F6 to F8 and never seen that option (not sure if it matters at all for memmap).

Out of curiosity- do you have a dual boot setup with Windows? Or any other OS attached other than Mac OS?

 

[PicLock]

Wow!! Let me get this straight:

• This is your X99 Asus Deluxe II we're talking about?
• You installed the GC-Titan Ridge card into that system, but did not connect the THB_C header?
• Did you connect any other cables such as?
  • Two PCI power cables from the PSU to the GC-Titan Ridge?
  • USB 2.0 header cable?
• For hot plug on macOS, did you install the Thunderbolt hot plug SSDT?
  • Or no SSDT at all?
• If you do a cold start (i.e. shutdown system and flip power switch on PSU for 10 seconds) and boot directly into macOS with no Thunderbolt devices connected, then hot plug a Thunderbolt device, does it show up?

• This is your X99 Asus Deluxe II we're talking about?

Yes

• You installed the GC-Titan Ridge card into that system, but did not connect the THB_C header?

Yes. THB_C header connected

• Did you connect any other cables such as?
  • Two PCI power cables from the PSU to the GC-Titan Ridge?
  • USB 2.0 header cable?

No

• For hot plug on macOS, did you install the Thunderbolt hot plug SSDT?
  • Or no SSDT at all?

It's the original X99 Asus Deluxe II EFI file you uploaded.
I attached a screenshot.

• If you do a cold start (i.e. shutdown system and flip power switch on PSU for 10 seconds) and boot directly into macOS with no Thunderbolt devices connected, then hot plug a Thunderbolt device, does it show up?

Today I unplugged the power cable from the PSU, after 30 seconds, I plugged in the power cable and boot into Mojave. I then hot plug thunderbolt 3 cable attached to a thunderbolt G-Raid drive and the drive mounted successfully. I suppose is good news!

 

[totototo]

Out of curiosity- do you have a dual boot setup with Windows? Or any other OS attached other than Mac OS?

I have Windows on the M2M NVMe. Have not tried roundtripping macOS -> Windows -> macOS via Clover yet. Will try that tonight.

 

[totototo]

Ah interesting… I had almost similar settings but got no boot. If I had more time I could have played with the settings longer and tweaked to see if it would work, however, I have to get this machine ready for real stable work lol.
Since I didn't really see anything that brought my setup any improvements (no bug fixes or stabalizations etc) I reverted to my working setup with F7. BTW, in F7 firmware, the I211 is called onboard network controller. The I219 is called PCH network controller (wording may differ slightly, but onboard and PCH are the 2 distinguishing factors for sure). I don't know if the network would have an impact on memory allocation, I don't think so, but I mainly disabled any unneeded items for the sake of keeping DPC latency low on Windows (this system will be a DAW - digital audio workstation).

Glad to see somebody's got F8 working with AptioMemoryFix though maybe I'll give it another try when F9 comes out

Wasn't @CaseySJ advising against upgrading to F7 from F6 in the past for some reason? That is why I have never tried F7.

 

[kwalter]

Are you updating kexts in both CLOVER/kexts/Other and /Library/Extensions?

If the 10.15.1 update is not finished (i.e. screen blacks out after 2nd phase of loading) it may be possible to boot back into the pre-update state. At the Clover Boot Menu, if you see both:

• Boot macOS Install from ...
• Boot macOS from ...

Then choose the second one (without the word Install). Does it boot up?

Phew!! I got there in the end - I was booting from the wrong volumes each time.
I was starting off with 'Install from Mojave' and it should have been 'Preebooter from Preeboot', then 'Filevault Preeboot' then final install. Do it right and it goes extremely smoothly

 

[gandem]

I have Windows on the M2M NVMe. Have not tried roundtripping macOS -> Windows -> macOS via Clover yet. Will try that tonight.

I assume it's a UEFI installation of Windows? Not sure if MBR is possible on NVME. I only ask because my Aorus Master became much more sensitive to have a Windows drive (sata-ssd) attached- throwing allocation errors on Mac boot when it's attached. I still need to do more testing myself.