[Success] Gigabyte Z390 Auros Pro + i7-9700K + Sapphire RX 580 Pulse

[rocco_77]

Roc's StarFighter Build:
Gigabyte Z390 Auros Pro + i7-9700K + Sapphire RX 580

Components

GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO Motherboard
Amazon

Intel Core i7-9700K Processor
Amazon

Crucial Ballistix 2666 MHz DDR4 DRAM Memory
Amazon

Corsair RMX Series (2018), RM650x, 650 Watt Power Supply
Amazon

Noctua NH-D15S, Premium Dual-Tower CPU Cooler with NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan
Amazon

YOUBO PC Hackintosh Dual Band WiFi Card
Amazon

Vetroo MESH6 Mid Tower Case
Amazon

Razer All-Star Gaming Bundle Keyboard + Mouse + Pad + Headset
Amazon

Primary Monitor: MSI Optix 27" Class FHD IPS Gaming Monitor
NewEgg

Patriot 16GB Supersonic Boost Series USB 3.2
Amazon


Already Owned

Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX 580 8GB Graphics Card
- Previously owned. Purchased March 2020 for $189 on Amazon. Good card, but not worth $769 (current asking price)

Secondary Monitor: Apple Cinema Display 20"
- Previously owned



Comments

This is only my second build because I only have need for one workstation at a time. My first build was 10 years ago with Lion, Z68 motherboard, i7-2600K, HD6870. I pushed that hardware to El Capitan and finally Mojave when I added the RX580. Then I decided it was time to build another since my current one is so old... So I stepped the OS on my old machine down to High Sierra and put the RX 580 into my new build. My old machine is still running strong and will live out the rest of its life as the DJ / Karaoke computer for the bar I own.

With the new build I decided to use OpenCore 0.7.0 and really delve into learning how to properly configure this boot loader manually. Clover was a learning curve, and OpenCore a bit more, but I really enjoyed the research and learning how to create SSDTs, USB port mapping, more Terminal commands and functions, Proper Tree for config editing, etc.

Installation

I strictly followed the OpenCore Install Guide found here: Dortania's OpenCore Install Guide.
This guide is extensive, extremely thorough and requires a lot of reading and familiarity of terminology that pertains directly to your chosen hardware. Having used Clover really helped ease the transition into OpenCore, however, patience and comprehension is required.

USB Creation:
When you download OpenCore, download the DEBUG version as it includes some settings and boot args that will assist in troubleshooting.This build is a dual boot Catalina and Windows 10 using separate SSDs. I thought about NVMe, but for my needs it's not required.

I decided to install Windows first and create the USB OpenCore installer in Windows. The process in Windows is slightly different and the Dortania guide provides instruction for USB creation on both platforms. I used Rufus to format the USB and Python in Windows to obtain the Catalina recovery files for the USB.

BIOS SETTINGS:
BIOS settings are motherboard dependent, but there are some universal settings that must be correct. The Dortania guide gives a list of what settings need to be enabled and what must be disabled. If you can't find the specific setting in the list, your BIOS may not have it, or it may be labeled differently. Google is your friend here.

SETTING UP EFI:
You MUST know your hardware. Read the manual for your motherboard thoroughly so you know where all the headers are and which ones you should use. Follow the Dortania guide for your specific hardware when gathering necessary SSDTs and KEXTs. In regard to SSDTs the guide instructs how to create them from scratch but also provides "prebuilt" (compiled) files for you. I read through how to create them manually so I understood the process in the event I had to troubleshoot; however, to save time I opted to use the prebuilt files.

CONFIG FILE:
To properly modify the config file I used ProperTree. To generate SMBIOS I used GenSMBIOS. All of this is in the guide, including download links and instructions.

INSTALLATION:
It is highly recommended (especially on dual boot machines) that you disconnect any peripherals (SSDs / HDDs mainly if you have multiple) before attempting to install MacOS. It was even suggested not to have more than 16GB of RAM installed at the time of installation and then to add the extra RAM after successful install and boot from SSD or NvMe. I opted not to do this and kept the 32GB RAM installed. I did a complete shutdown out of Windows and disconnected the Windows SSD, connected the new SSD for the Mac install and inserted the USB installer and booted to the USB. Installation was smooth, but tedious because your computer will need to restart once or more to complete the install and you should sit and wait to make sure it continues to boot from the USB until installation is complete.

POST INSTALL:
The only thing I had to do after install was:

1. Confirm I could boot from the SSD... check.
2. Install my WiFi / Bluetooth card and confirm it was working... check
3. Create a USB map Kext (this is the only part I deviated from the Dortania guide.
   • I used Hackintool to map my USB ports and exported the Kext file using Hackintool
   • Mounted EFI partition using Terminal
   • Put the exported Kext in the Kext folder in the EFI folder on the EFI partition
   • Reboot and confirm all ports are functioning

That's it! SUCCESS!

WHAT WORKS:
Everything.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK:
I have set my Mac SSD as the primary boot drive, and I can successfully boot to Windows or Mac through OpenCore. However, I did notice that when just restarting and bouncing from OS to OS, the Mac boot would sometimes lag a bit, and verbose would show some different things where it would stall. It always eventually boots, but might stall before the Apple logo comes up, or may go to black screen for about 30 seconds before the Apple logo shows up. Restarting and booting to Windows doesn't seem to have this issue.

My suspicion is it may have something to do with NVRAM being reset during Mac boot after restarting from Windows and booting to Catalina. Since it hasn't caused an issue yet, I haven't researched it. So to avoid this, I simply do complete shutdowns instead of restarts; unless I'm restarting back into the same OS. When I want to run Windows, I don't boot through OpenCore. Instead I just use the boot disk function (on my mobo it's F12 during post); if I want to run Catalina, I just start up straight to OpenCore and choose the Catalina drive from there.

Well... that's all! It was really a blast to do a new build, and I'm very thankful for the people here and the authors of the Dortania and Clover guides.

HUGE THANK YOU to the developers that provide their knowledge and tools to produce these projects. Tonymacx86 is a wonderful organization. You folks here and the developers all across the Hackintosh community have done a ton of work and it's so very appreciated.

CHEERS!

 

[Stork]

Good Build Description, @rocco_77!

 

[rocco_77]

I opened another thread about this under Catalina Desktop Support... but since this is my build thread, I'm going to repeat it here in hopes more eyes will see it and help me out... Thank you!

OpenCore 0.7.0
Catalina 10.15.7
Dual Boot Mac & Win10 - Separate SSDs

When I want to boot into Windows, I use F12 and select the drive.
Mac OS drive is set as primary boot device so it boots to OpenCore screen and I select Catalina. (Windows is visible as a selection as well)

When switching to each OS, I do full shutdowns and use methods above to select OS.

At first all is well. Now, when shutting down from Windows and then booting to Catalina, I'm sometimes getting stalls and then it boots fine, but sometimes I get a lot of AppleHostUSBClient errors.. (see attached Verbose screenshot). This time is hung up there and never booted.
I shut down power, then tried again. This time it stalled but didn't give me all these USB errors; however, stalled at the end of progress bar at Apple logo before getting to login screen... It booted this time, but not sure why I'm getting intermittent luck with booting.

I did a USB map right after installing Catalina, and it was working flawlessly. It seems that switching from Windows to Mac is the issue even though on separate drives.

I mapped my USB ports using Hackintool and exported the Kext, installed it into EFI/OC/Kexts folder, and all was well.

Just took another look at my port map in Hackintool and all is still the same as when I created the map.

Can anyone point me to the issue here? Thank you!

Bluetooth and Wifi are still working.

 

[Ben42]

I opened another thread about this under Catalina Desktop Support... but since this is my build thread, I'm going to repeat it here in hopes more eyes will see it and help me out... Thank you!

OpenCore 0.7.0
Catalina 10.15.7
Dual Boot Mac & Win10 - Separate SSDs

When I want to boot into Windows, I use F12 and select the drive.
Mac OS drive is set as primary boot device so it boots to OpenCore screen and I select Catalina. (Windows is visible as a selection as well)

When switching to each OS, I do full shutdowns and use methods above to select OS.

At first all is well. Now, when shutting down from Windows and then booting to Catalina, I'm sometimes getting stalls and then it boots fine, but sometimes I get a lot of AppleHostUSBClient errors.. (see attached Verbose screenshot). This time is hung up there and never booted.
I shut down power, then tried again. This time it stalled but didn't give me all these USB errors; however, stalled at the end of progress bar at Apple logo before getting to login screen... It booted this time, but not sure why I'm getting intermittent luck with booting.

I did a USB map right after installing Catalina, and it was working flawlessly. It seems that switching from Windows to Mac is the issue even though on separate drives.

I mapped my USB ports using Hackintool and exported the Kext, installed it into EFI/OC/Kexts folder, and all was well.

Just took another look at my port map in Hackintool and all is still the same as when I created the map.

Can anyone point me to the issue here? Thank you!

Bluetooth and Wifi are still working.

Did you disable fast boot in windows?

 

[tech1eguy]

I opened another thread about this under Catalina Desktop Support... but since this is my build thread, I'm going to repeat it here in hopes more eyes will see it and help me out... Thank you!

OpenCore 0.7.0
Catalina 10.15.7
Dual Boot Mac & Win10 - Separate SSDs

When I want to boot into Windows, I use F12 and select the drive.
Mac OS drive is set as primary boot device so it boots to OpenCore screen and I select Catalina. (Windows is visible as a selection as well)

When switching to each OS, I do full shutdowns and use methods above to select OS.

At first all is well. Now, when shutting down from Windows and then booting to Catalina, I'm sometimes getting stalls and then it boots fine, but sometimes I get a lot of AppleHostUSBClient errors.. (see attached Verbose screenshot). This time is hung up there and never booted.
I shut down power, then tried again. This time it stalled but didn't give me all these USB errors; however, stalled at the end of progress bar at Apple logo before getting to login screen... It booted this time, but not sure why I'm getting intermittent luck with booting.

I did a USB map right after installing Catalina, and it was working flawlessly. It seems that switching from Windows to Mac is the issue even though on separate drives.

I mapped my USB ports using Hackintool and exported the Kext, installed it into EFI/OC/Kexts folder, and all was well.

Just took another look at my port map in Hackintool and all is still the same as when I created the map.

Can anyone point me to the issue here? Thank you!

Bluetooth and Wifi are still working.

Same thing for me. I have similar setup - windows in one nvme and macos in another. If sleep works in windows, then macos sleep works. Otherwise it won't. Have to disable hibernate in windows and wake on lan in windows device manager even though bios settings are correct. Weird but windows is doing something at bios level I think.
I also disabled fastboot in windows power/sleep settings as it won't shutdown if enabled.

I have not created a separate efi partition for windows. I added efi folder in C drive using bcdboot command.
I don't use f12 for windows but use opencore to boot to windows or macos. I don't use bootstrap either.
I don't have any acpi patches. All I did was: kernel quirks - customsmbiosguid - enable and under platforminfo - updatesmbiosmode - custom.
No issues with sleep or any windows blue screen errors.

 

[rocco_77]

Did you disable fast boot in windows?

I had NOT disabled fast boot... It appears "Restart" is not affected by fast boot, but full shutdowns are, which is what I've been doing. Interesting. I've now disabled fast startup and let's see if I still get the intermitted issue.

Thank You! @Ben42

 

[rocco_77]

Same thing for me. I have similar setup - windows in one nvme and macos in another. If sleep works in windows, then macos sleep works. Otherwise it won't. Have to disable hibernate in windows and wake on lan in windows device manager even though bios settings are correct. Weird but windows is doing something at bios level I think.
I also disabled fastboot in windows power/sleep settings as it won't shutdown if enabled.

I have not created a separate efi partition for windows. I added efi folder in C drive using bcdboot command.
I don't use f12 for windows but use opencore to boot to windows or macos. I don't use bootstrap either.
I don't have any acpi patches. All I did was: kernel quirks - customsmbiosguid - enable and under platforminfo - updatesmbiosmode - custom.
No issues with sleep or any windows blue screen errors.

Thank You @tech1eguy !

I went into device manager and my ethernet as set to allow this computer to wake. My WiFi cards had this disabled already, so now both are disabled. I also disabled Fast Start Up. Now we see if all works as it should.

I so have a few SSDTs being used for this specific mobo.
SSDT-AWAC
SSDT-EC-USBX-DESKTOP
SSDT-PLUG-DRTNIA
SSDT-PMC

It said these were required in Dortania guide for the Z390.

Pretty sure I have customsmbiodguid - enabled and updatesmbiosmode - custom as well, but would have to confirm that.

 

[rocco_77]

So this is new... I restarted from Windows boot and selected OpenCore drive to boot... got a panic I'm having a hard time identifying. I did a forced power off and then just booted again and it booted fine. Any insight from anyone?

See attached shot of verbose from panic. Thank you!

 

[rocco_77]

Same thing again.. Got a panic. Hard power down, reboot and it boots fine. ??
Here is another shot of the issue from the OS.

 

[tech1eguy]

You have to grab the Sample.plist from OpenCore and modify it per the guide. Share your EFI and DSDT