The 4K Dell OptiMac - 9020 MT - Core i7-4790 - Radeon RX 570 - LG 4K IPS Monitor

[trs96]

So, shouldn't that port have a value of 0xff (or dec 255) for UsbConnector, at least according to RehabMans SSDT guide?

This is correct it should be “UsbConnector”, 255, Important for all MT owners to have this internal USB header value set to 255. You'll need to edit the .dsl file, compile and then save it as .aml and then add your SSDT_USB.aml to the "patched" folder. Of course, replacing the existing SSDT_USB. Good to see that you are checking files that closely. I wanted to see whether my readers were blindly copying and pasting or actually studying the guides here and verifying for everything for themselves. You passed the test. Cheers

 

[triplec76]

EDIT: Whoops.

This is correct it should be “UsbConnector”, 255, Important for all MT owners to have this internal USB header value set to 255. You'll need to edit the .dsl file, compile and then save it as .aml and then add you SSDT_USB.aml to the "patched" folder.

Dang. Your knowledge amazes me. My 9020 will be here Monday. Then it’s on like Donkey Kong.

Edit 2: @trd96, do you have a place to donate?

 

[nicksoph]

You'll need to edit the .dsl file,

Can you post the dsl file or anybody post the new ssdt-usb.aml
I wish to use the blindly copying method

 

[trs96]

@trs96 , do you have a place to donate?

I don't take any kind of compensation for this. You can support the site/community though. Look on the Home page for the "Buy us a cup of Coffee" icon and click on "contribute" for that Paypal button.

 

[trs96]

I wish to use the blindly copying method

Don't forget the pasting part that is just as important. Any of the Optiplex 7020/9020 USFF, SFF models don't have the internal USB 2.0 header so it really makes no difference for those. The entry for HS13 in the .dsl file can be left alone or removed for all USFF and SFF owners.

You can refer to the Beginners Guide by utterdisbelief for the editing method, here's the .dsl template if you want to do the edits. https://www.tonymacx86.com/attachments/ssdt-usb-template-dsl.163422/

I have posted the USB port mapping of all 14 external ports in post #4 of this thread, here it is again. Note that these pics are from my SFF 7020 which has no HS13 (the internal USB header) so as i said previously it doesn't exist on the small form factor Dells. When you add in the internal HS13 usb port for the Mini-towers you'll get exactly 15 ports. Neat how that works out perfectly within Apple's 15 port limit. I'm a huge fan of lots of onboard USB 2/3. The dual front USB 3.0 is something no iMac can offer you. Requires buying an expensive brushed aluminum hub to match your iMac.

 

[bluepr0]

The BT/Wifi card comes with a 2 wire cable which you need to connect to an external usb but comes fitted with an internal usb connector - If you can join 2 pairs of wire together, the cheapest option is to take the plug end of a standard usb cable and take two of the wires in it (green/white) and join them to the two wires that the are in the cable the card comes with. There will be a youtube vid on it. It is just two wires here because the power comes from the pci card and not thru the usb port.

Sorry to bother you again with this. I was preparing some of the things I need to install everything on the Optiplex 9020 and I found out in the WIFI/BT card photo that the cable only comes with 2 wires (red and black) but it should have a white and green one as well (or at least 4 cables). Is this just a photo error or am I missing something here?. This is the one in the guide @trs96 linked.

 

[nicksoph]

The two wires on the USB cable will be Green/White (or poss yellow/white) and the white cable joins up with the black cable in pic (greenor yello then goes to red). Ignore (cut) the red and black wires on usb cable. Make up the usb cable and you test before finalising by poking the wires into the connector on the right of image you posted above.

 

[percussive]

Instructions feedback (as we talked about a couple of days ago):

First off, just want to say again that your Guide is really, truly excellent! These are just a few suggestions for clarity (mostly for newb-eyes).

1) In Step 2, under “Summary of BIOS Setting Changes”, the BIOS categories show up out-of-order (compared to order onscreen). It would be easier for users to accurately work their way down the list if the order matched the screen.

2) In Step 4, there is a picture of /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other which shows IntelMausiEthernet.kext’. But for those following instructions exactly, it will not be there (as it’s been installed by MultiBeast over in /L/E, which is enough for most people’s purposes). Perhaps it’s worth adding a few words about it only being needed in /E/C/k/Other for Recovery/TimeMachine on a NAS?

3) In the "select country" screen it’s great that you have the text “..do not sign in to iCloud at this time” in red. In addition, I suggest BOLD for "Choose Setup Later" just beyond the red. Someone just scanning down to find their place (after they’ve completed a step) can easily miss/skip the next action step, if the formatting doesn’t separate it out. Seems minor, but this is an important one; if they have tried to sign into iCloud with the default S/N… then fixing iMessage/iClould/Handoff/etc becomes rather detailed and/or difficult.

4) Broken link: in the section “For Video Editors and Graphic Designers”, the first link to “iDiot's Guide to Lilu and it's Plugins” doesn’t link to your intended target. The second one (next to the TM icon) works.

5) Your good post in the great Backups thread is too well-hidden ("Easy Way to make a Bootable Clone of your macOS System Drive". Perhaps add a link to it at the end of the OptiMac Guide? Being buried on page 4 of a different thread means many people won’t find it. I know that you referred to it recently on OptiMac Page 58 (Post 571)… but same thing about people finding it. Interestingly, the word "Backup" does not appear on the full first page of the OptiMac Guide. Also, the "How to use Acronis True Image 2020" in your clone-verbiage needs to have the URL corrected.

6) Lilu & WEG updates. For me, Lilu = 1.3.8 and WEG = 1.3.2 in /L/E folder has been working fine. Maybe some words about how updating in the /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other but not /L/E/ is not really the change or update they might think it is? Many people don’t understand Clover’s “Inject Kexts” logic, and the fact that the ‘live’ kext over in /L/E is what matters for normal operation. Perhaps a link (towards the end of your guide) to jaymonkey’s excellent “[GUIDE] Installing 3rd Party Kexts - El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina” might help people understand the how’s and why’s of where kexts need to be placed (and what gets activated). This is one of those blurry lines when writing a Guide: you want it to be comprehensive, but you also want to get people to go do a touch of learning! I’ve pointed that guide out to people who were going in circles (and wasting tons of time) tweaking their /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other folder (but with inject OFF), and I’ve actually been thanked for referring them to it.

Question, not feedback:
Updating Clover to more-recent version: what was the ‘big change’ in the Clover Installer that we’re trying to keep from biting folks? I’m wanting to investigate that a bit!

Suggestion, not feedback:
I have several friends and local users that I assist with their hacks, and I always offer what I consider to be an easy best-practice step: just after they’ve got their initial setup working well (and before making that all-too-critical backup of the initial setup which you've mentioned in the thread), they should create a “Backup Admin” account.
This can be very useful in the case they bork their main Account and need an alternate Admin-level login to go manually repair things, or to pull data files before a re-install. This is a matter of choice and preference, though.

Thanks again!

 

[bluepr0]

Instructions feedback (as we talked about a couple of days ago):

First off, just want to say again that your Guide is really, truly excellent! These are just a few suggestions for clarity (mostly for newb-eyes).

1) In Step 2, under “Summary of BIOS Setting Changes”, the BIOS categories show up out-of-order (compared to order onscreen). It would be easier for users to accurately work their way down the list if the order matched the screen.

2) In Step 4, there is a picture of /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other which shows IntelMausiEthernet.kext’. But for those following instructions exactly, it will not be there (as it’s been installed by MultiBeast over in /L/E, which is enough for most people’s purposes). Perhaps it’s worth adding a few words about it only being needed in /E/C/k/Other for Recovery/TimeMachine on a NAS?

3) In the "select country" screen it’s great that you have the text “..do not sign in to iCloud at this time” in red. In addition, I suggest BOLD for "Choose Setup Later" just beyond the red. Someone just scanning down to find their place (after they’ve completed a step) can easily miss/skip the next action step, if the formatting doesn’t separate it out. Seems minor, but this is an important one; if they have tried to sign into iCloud with the default S/N… then fixing iMessage/iClould/Handoff/etc becomes rather detailed and/or difficult.

4) Broken link: in the section “For Video Editors and Graphic Designers”, the first link to “iDiot's Guide to Lilu and it's Plugins” doesn’t link to your intended target. The second one (next to the TM icon) works.

5) Your good post in the great Backups thread is too well-hidden ("Easy Way to make a Bootable Clone of your macOS System Drive". Perhaps add a link to it at the end of the OptiMac Guide? Being buried on page 4 of a different thread means many people won’t find it. I know that you referred to it recently on OptiMac Page 58 (Post 571)… but same thing about people finding it. The word "Backup" does not appear on the full first page of the OptiMac Guide.

6) Lilu & WEG updates. For me, Lilu = 1.3.8 and WEG = 1.3.2 in /L/E folder has been working fine. Maybe some words about how updating in the /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other but not /L/E/ is not really the change or update they might think it is? Many people don’t understand Clover’s “Inject Kexts” logic, and the fact that the ‘live’ kext over in /L/E is what matters for normal operation. Perhaps a link (towards the end of your guide) to jaymonkey’s excellent “[GUIDE] Installing 3rd Party Kexts - El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina” might help people understand the how’s and why’s of where kexts need to be placed (and what gets activated). This is one of those blurry lines when writing a Guide: you want it to be comprehensive, but you also want to get people to go do a touch of learning! I’ve pointed that guide out to people who were going in circles (and wasting tons of time) tweaking their /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other folder (but with inject OFF), and I’ve actually been thanked for referring them to it.

Question, not feedback:
Updating Clover to more-recent version: what was the ‘big change’ in the Clover Installer that we’re trying to keep from biting folks? I’m wanting to investigate that a bit!

Suggestion, not feedback:
I have several friends and local users that I assist with their hacks, and I always offer what I consider to be an easy best-practice step: just after they’ve got their initial setup working well (and before making that all-too-critical backup of the initial setup which you've mentioned in the thread), they should create a “Backup Admin” account.
This can be very useful in the case they bork their main Account and need an alternate Admin-level login to go manually repair things, or to pull data files before a re-install. This is a matter of choice and preference, though.

Thanks again!

I always wondered the same thing regarding kexts and where to install them. Isn't it better to just inject kexts from EFI/Clover so you do as little as possible modifications to the main system? You could do it "so vanilla" that you could just use the same SSD on a real Mac!

EDIT: reading the guide https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...an-sierra-high-sierra-mojave-catalina.268964/

EDIT2: maybe this inject problem is gone with OpenCore? As they use a different system to "inject" (AFAIK and read their posts)

 

[trs96]

Isn't it better to just inject kexts from EFI/Clover so you do as little as possible modifications to the main system? You could do it "so vanilla" that you could just use the same SSD on a real Mac!

There are advantages and disadvantages of injecting all your kexts via Clover. I'm not going into that debate here. As of today my view and this guide states that using FakeSMC and installing kexts to /L/E is the preferred way to go.