[Success/Guide] High Sierra on i7 7700 + ASRock DeskMini GTX1060

[missile0407]

Hi everyone,
I finally finish High Sierra installation on this machine. And everything works great except HDMI on HD630.
For me, maybe it enough if just get NVIDIA working because it's more powerful than HD630.

Select just because it's very amazing that they using STX + MXM to build this mini but powerful desktop PC.
And most parts can change according from your design, even few parts (like GPU) is hard to buy & expensive.

Specification (Model: ASRock Deskmini GTX1060)

• CPU: Intel Core i7 7700
• RAM: Crucial DDR4-2400 8Gx2 SO-DIMM
• Motherboard: ASRock B250M-STX MXM
• IGPU: Intel HD Graphics 630 (with 1 x HDMI)
• DGPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX1060 6GB (MXM, with 1 x HDMI | 1 x DP | 1 x mini-DP)
• SSD: Intel 540s 120GB 2.5" SATA + Plextor M7VG 256GB M.2 SATA
• HDD: HGST 500GB 2.5" SATA
• Ethernet: Intel i219-V
• Audio: Realtek ALC283
• WIFI + BT: Broadcom BCM94352Z (DW1560)
• Ports: 3 x USB3.0 | 2 x USB2.0 | 1 x Type-C | 1 x speaker jack | 1 x microphone jack

What works?

• QE/CI on NVIDIA GTX1060
• SATA
• WIFI & Bluetooth (with DW1560)
• Sleep
• HDMI / DisplayPort (GTX1060)
• Audio (both audio jack & DisplayPort)
• USB Ports (included Type-C)
• CPU Power Management
• Dual boot (Windows 10 + Mac OS X 10.13.2)

Not test:

• M.2 PCIe

Issues:
Intel HD630 can work, but will KP + reboot if plug HDMI cable on its port.


Note before install:
For this model, it will give you a WIFI module & 2 x antenna, which is Intel Wireless-AC3168 and OS X not support it. You need to install other WIFI module if you want to use WIFI on this machine.
(Be aware that this board only support NGFF interface WIFI module.)


OK, let's start!


High Sierra installation:
I. Prepare install usb stick
Please follow the guide to build your install USB stick.
During build, you will need these kexts below. Download and put into CLOVER/kexts/Others.

FakeSMC
IntelMausiEthernet
USBInjectAll

For EFI drivers, make sure HFSPlus-64, EmuVariableUefi-64, and apfs has put into CLOVER/drivers64UEFI.
Also I prefer to use OsxAptioFixDrv2-free2000 rather than OsxAptioFixDrv.

For config.plist, make sure "nv_disable=1" is set in Boot/Arguments. I suggest that put also "-v" "debug=0x100" to look for issue if you got KP during boot into installer.
And DO NOT inject any graphic in Graphics/Inject.

There're few DSDT patches need to put into config.plist. You can follow my file.

II. BIOS settings
Make sure you disable secure boot, Intel HD630, and VT-d.
Note that you have to set both settings below to disable HD630.

• Share Memory=Auto
• IGPU Multi-Monitor=Disabled

And according few guides that install OS X on Deskmini 110, "IOAPIC 24-199 Entries" need to disable either.

After that, try to boot your USB and install OS X.
(Note: Installer will convert system partition to APFS if you install to SSD drive. Follow this guide if you want to keep HFS+)


High Sierra Post Installation:
First install CLOVER on your system EFI partition. Then copy necessary files from USB and test it bootable.
Below is post installation to get device work.
Note that you need to install all kexts into /L/E from CLOVER.

NVIDIA GTX1060:
Install NVIDIA Web Driver need to do more steps because now installer will detect SIP.
After downloaded Web Driver, follow below steps:

1. Reboot to CLOVER menu, enter Options/System Parameters/System Integrity Protection. Uncheck all options then boot into OS X
2. Install Web Driver.
3. Not reboot yet. Open config.plist, and change nv_disable=1 to nvda_drv=1
4. Install Lilu & NvidiaGraphicsFixup to /L/E
5. Reboot

For HDMI, follow the guide to get NVIDIA HDMI/DP audio work.
You need to use DisplayPort or DP->HDMI convertor to get audio output.

Audio (ALC283):
Install AppleALC to /L/E and set inject id to 66 in config.plist/Devices/Audio/Inject.
Audio jack will work, but the output quality will also become very awful.
To fix this, download CodecCommander and find ALC283 profile. Change "0x19 SET_PIN_WIDGET_CONTROL 0x25" command data from 0x1970725 to 0x1970720, then install it to /L/E.

WIFI + BT:
Install below kexts into /L/E.

FakePCIID
FakePCIID_Broadcom_WIFI
BrcmFirmwareRepo
BrcmPatchRAM2

And add kext patch to config.plist. You can follow my config.plist to edit.

CPU Power Management:
You have two options to do that.

1. Generate SSDT.aml by using ssdtPRGen.sh, and put into CLOVER/ACPI/patched
2. Set config.plist/ACPI/SSDT/Generate/PluginType=true

Choose one exclusively.

Sleep:
This machine can get into sleep mode if CPU power management works, but will get blank screen or KP when wake.
To fix this, add "darkwake=8" into boot-arg.

Intel HD630:
To get it work, just install IntelGraphicsFixup & add "-disablegfxfirmware".
Then enable it and set Share Memory to 64MB above in BIOS. It will show at system report.
But plug HDMI cable on HD630's output will cause KP & reboot.
I'm glad to hear if anyone know how to fix it.

Update:
Since Intel GPU is not compatible with discrete GPU, we can enable HD630 on BIOS but disable on OS X.
To do this, set Graphics > Inject > Intel=true, and set ig-platform-id to 0x59120003.
It will not show HD630 on OS X.





Attachment has included my problem report, it contains CLOVER that you may want.

Thanks to @RehabMan @toleda , and other people's guide let this installation to success.
(And sorry about my bad English.)

 

[hazcod]

Awesome! I really like this deskmini.
What about the noise when using 4K? I assume you VESA mounted it behind your monitor?

 

[missile0407]

Awesome! I really like this deskmini.
What about the noise when using 4K? I assume you VESA mounted it behind your monitor?

This model didn't have VESA mount kit (Because it may too heavy.)
Also I don't know what "noise" you mean. And I don't have 4K monitor.

 

[hazcod]

With noise I mean sound, how much sound does it make when running or under load?

 

[missile0407]

With noise I mean sound, how much sound does it make when running or under load?

Very quiet, and just got little noise on GPU fan during playing games.
CPU fan is only noisy part when playing games or running something.
But it can be fixed by changing CPU fan from Intel factory model to Noctua NH-L9i.

 

[missile0407]

Update: OS X 10.13.4 upgrade.

Using the same kexts and CLOVER settings seems no issue during upgrade.
Only two issue I found.

1. DisplayPort sound output lost.
2. Laggy UI (especially using Chrome) when install latest NVIDIA Web Driver.

To solve these issue above:

1. Install latest AppleALC.
2. Using nvidia-update script to find suitable driver. Issue fixed after using this script and reboot.

New CL files has updated at #1.

 

[_mikey]

thanks for posting! I just got my Deskmini GTX and its a fantastic machine.

One thing - I think you need a SSDT for the USB ports. (unless something changed, I made one for my h170n build a few years back)

I can help make one once I have some time, currently running windows but will def install OSX soon

 

[longnt]

Thank for the EFI, I got High Sierra on my i7 6700K + GTX 1080, H110i, though it is a custom motherboard from Mouse PC (a Japanese brand).