The New Beginner's Guide to USB Port Configuration

[Say Heading]

So finally I followed your advice. But at first I followed the Dortania guide and also mapped both ASMedia controllers (PXSX) simply because the USBMapSample.kext had templates in it.
Works.
But after that I deleted them from the final USBMap.kext and the result is the same. All ports there (IOReg), all of them working.

There is just an issue with an NVMe (Samsung 970PRO M.2) in an external USB-housing (my former OS drive previously connected to the NVMe motherboard connector, Catalina, Clover) that now freezes the finder and/or Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, even with NVMeFix.kext. Hopefully no mapping fault from my side, effects both the fully mapped system as well as the XHC-only mapped one.

 

[manolo2001]

Hi,

I'm in need of some help. I have for some time now been trying to install Monterey in a setup I have.

Supermicro X10SAE motherboard, it`s a C226 chipset
i7-5775C CPU
AMD WX Pro 4100 GPU
SMBIOS iMac 16,2

I have followed the guide and managed to map every USB port, (both USB 2 and 3), they all work properly. Nevertheless, I am not being able to boot my Monterey USB Drive properly, and a test drive I made and upgraded to Big Sur 11.6.4 will not boot either.

I am attaching screenshots of IORegistry Explorer and Hackintool, that show what I have working, and a copy of my EFI.

I have 15 ports mapped in Hackintool, but IO Explorer shows a whole bunch of other ports, including two AppleUSB20InternalHUBs that have a bunch of other USB ports, I can't see in Hackintool.

I also see some PXSX ports.

The boot process for the Monterey Installer stops when it is going to show the Install GUI. And neither mouse nor keyboard work.

I have checked the Dortania guide extensively and tried various things but nothing gets me past the boot process into the GUI. I am also attaching a copy of the dumped txt file.

Any help is welcome,

Thanks

Manolo

 

[Nodarkthings]

Hi @UtterDisbelief ! Hope you're fine.
Across the years, I think I've tried on my Z68 every available method, and the closest I got to a working USB3 is yours... But still, it doesn't work: AFAICT, Hackintool shows what's expected, Apple Info too (though the 2nd USB3 shows the same values as the 1st one), but IOREG doesn't fit with your indications.
Is the Z68 doomed for USB3? Or is this some additional trick I could try?

Note that I've renamed PXSX to XHC_ in OpenCore (50585358 > 5848435F) as a last attempt...
I've also tried SSDT-EHCx_OFF.aml but my USB2 ports were unavailable...

I'm currently running Mojave and I'd be glad even to use the USB3 ports as USB2 if it worked...
Until 10.11, I've been using GenericUSBXHCI.kext or CalDigitUSBxHCI.kext with good enough results.

 

[Feartech]

Hi @UtterDisbelief ! Hope you're fine.
Across the years, I think I've tried on my Z68 every available method, and the closest I got to a working USB3 is yours... But still, it doesn't work: AFAICT, Hackintool shows what's expected, Apple Info too (though the 2nd USB3 shows the same values as the 1st one), but IOREG doesn't fit with your indications.
Is the Z68 doomed for USB3? Or is this some additional trick I could try?

Note that I've renamed PXSX to XHC_ in OpenCore (50585358 > 5848435F) as a last attempt...
I've also tried SSDT-EHCx_OFF.aml but my USB2 ports were unavailable...

I'm currently running Mojave and I'd be glad even to use the USB3 ports as USB2 if it worked...
Until 10.11, I've been using GenericUSBXHCI.kext or CalDigitUSBxHCI.kext with good enough results.

View attachment 543452

View attachment 543451

View attachment 543450

do the doubles light up in green when you attach a device to them? also HS01 and HS02 would normally be set to USB3.0

then delete the ones not in use to be in the 15 limit

 

[Nodarkthings]

do the doubles light up in green when you attach a device to them? also HS01 and HS02 would normally be set to USB3.0

then delete the ones not in use to be in the 15 limit

Here's what I get when plugging a USB2 key (HS01 and HS02 light up), then a USB3 (SS01 and SS02 light up). I don't know why there are doubles, they are not in my USBMap.kext but they always appear in Hackintool...
As for the EH all light up except for HP11 and HP13 (they are not in USBMap.kext but are always there anyway...)

N.B.: the info.plist from USBMap.kext is attached to my first post, as you can see, only 11 connectors are defined for EH and 4 for XHC, so I'm already in the 15 limit.

EDIT: I've tried your suggestion to set HS01 and HS02 to USB3.0 (ans SS01 and SS02 to USB2), Hackintool reflects those changes but I still have doubles and nothing mounts in the Finder, as before...

 

[Edhawk]

I always thought the Etron USB controllers (ET168) were treated as 'External' USB ports, i.e. not counted within the 15 port limit, as they are not Intel ports/controller, as is the case for Asmedia USB ports? Also how a MacPro treats a PCIe USB card's ports.

I can't recall a Z68 board having any Intel USB3 ports. The USB3 ports on a Z68 board usually are provided by Asmedia, Etron or another third-party.

Using the PXSX to XHC_ rename patch means you now have 5 x XHC controllers:
(/_SB/PCI0/RP04/XHC),
(/_SB/PCI0/RP05/XHC),
(/_SB/PCI0/RP06/XHC),
(/_SB/PCI0/RP07/XHC) and
(/_SB/PCI0/RP08/XHC).

Only RP05 and RP06 are generating any usable USB ports.

Do the 8 x ports (4 x USB2 and 4 x USB3), which should all be set with the connector Type USB3, show up if they are not renamed to XHC?

I have taken a number of screenshots from the manual for your Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3, to show which USB ports are USB2 (Intel RED) and which are USB3 (Etron BLUE)

These are the USB ports present in your Z68 system:


You seem to have 8 x USB2 ports showing up, without needing to do anything. Are these the 8 x USB2 physical ports on the rear I/O plate?




The Internal ports on your motherboard can be found in locations 16 (USB2 headers) and 17 (USB3 header) on the image below:


Are any of the Internal USB2 ports (Red rectangle) connected to your case front ports/card reader or Bluetooth module?

Is the USB3 header (Blue rectangle) connected to 2 x USB3 ports on the case front?

You need to identify which physical port or header port works with each port shown in Hackintool. This may be easier to see if you also observe which ports are activated in IORegistryExplorer.

What might also help is using the comment column in Hackintool to state which port is associated with each port shown. The screenshot below shows an example of what I mean.



The Comment column can be populated by right-clicking in the empty field for any port, and then typing the location of the USB port. It helps, and the comments are also included in any exported USBPorts.kext etc.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I always thought the Etron USB controllers (ET168) were treated as 'External' USB ports, i.e. not counted within the 15 port limit, as they are not Intel ports/controller, as is the case for Asmedia USB ports? Also how a MacPro treats a PCIe USB card's ports.

Absolutely.

Z68 has only an EHCI controller pair. Anything else is external.

Converting PXSX to XHCI is not something I've seen before, but 10 out of 10 for ingenuity!

However macOS would not know how to treat the ports. For example, Intel XHCI is only 1x chipset. The Z68 motherboard has 2x Etron.

The EHCI ports can be easily configured. You can enable all 14x because the 15x port limit only applies to Intel. So just set the UsbConnector type.

As the system is running Mojave it's just about possible to test GenericUSBXHCI.kext, but even then it hadn't been updated for 3x years.

 

[Nodarkthings]

I always thought the Etron USB controllers (ET168) were treated as 'External' USB ports, i.e. not counted within the 15 port limit, as they are not Intel ports/controller, as is the case for Asmedia USB ports? Also how a MacPro treats a PCIe USB card's ports.

I can't recall a Z68 board having any Intel USB3 ports. The USB3 ports on a Z68 board usually are provided by Asmedia, Etron or another third-party.

Using the PXSX to XHC_ rename patch means you now have 5 x XHC controllers:
(/_SB/PCI0/RP04/XHC),
(/_SB/PCI0/RP05/XHC),
(/_SB/PCI0/RP06/XHC),
(/_SB/PCI0/RP07/XHC) and
(/_SB/PCI0/RP08/XHC).

Only RP05 and RP06 are generating any usable USB ports.

Do the 8 x ports (4 x USB2 and 4 x USB3), which should all be set with the connector Type USB3, show up if they are not renamed to XHC?

I have taken a number of screenshots from the manual for your Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3, to show which USB ports are USB2 (Intel RED) and which are USB3 (Etron BLUE)

These are the USB ports present in your Z68 system:
View attachment 543457

You seem to have 8 x USB2 ports showing up, without needing to do anything. Are these the 8 x USB2 physical ports on the rear I/O plate?
View attachment 543460

View attachment 543459

The Internal ports on your motherboard can be found in locations 16 (USB2 headers) and 17 (USB3 header) on the image below:
View attachment 543464

Are any of the Internal USB2 ports (Red rectangle) connected to your case front ports/card reader or Bluetooth module?

Is the USB3 header (Blue rectangle) connected to 2 x USB3 ports on the case front?

You need to identify which physical port or header port works with each port shown in Hackintool. This may be easier to see if you also observe which ports are activated in IORegistryExplorer.

What might also help is using the comment column in Hackintool to state which port is associated with each port shown. The screenshot below shows an example of what I mean.

View attachment 543462

The Comment column can be populated by right-clicking in the empty field for any port, and then typing the location of the USB port. It helps, and the comments are also included in any exported USBPorts.kext etc.

Thanks a lot for this very documented answer. I will take some time to examine every aspect of it. ;-)
- Yes, the Z68XP-UD3 has 2 USB3 ports, as you've seen in the manual.
- What you write about the PXSX rename matches with IOREG
- Before applying the rename, everything was the same, except they were named PXSX in Hackintool as well as IOREG (looks like just a cosmetic change...) — see my third post after this one.
- Yes, the 8 USB2 ports show ok, but not without doing anything, here's what I get when disabling USBMap.kext — I've put Apple Info above Hackintool's window)


- the right-most internal USB2 port (Red rectangle) is connected to a front USB connector but nothing is connected on it
- nothing is connected to the USB3 header (Blue rectangle)
=> the only thing that doesn't match what you wrote is that the USB2 connectors for the USB2 part of the USB3 ports are set to USB2, I'll try setting them all to USB3.
Thanks again!

 

[Nodarkthings]

Absolutely.

Z68 has only an EHCI controller pair. Anything else is external.

Converting PXSX to XHCI is not something I've seen before, but 10 out of 10 for ingenuity!

However macOS would not know how to treat the ports. For example, Intel XHCI is only 1x chipset. The Z68 motherboard has 2x Etron.

The EHCI ports can be easily configured. You can enable all 14x because the 15x port limit only applies to Intel. So just set the UsbConnector type.

As the system is running Mojave it's just about possible to test GenericUSBXHCI.kext, but even then it hadn't been updated for 3x years.

Hé! Hé! I first tried with the old kexts and CalDigitUSBxHCI.kext was partially working, except the computer gave crash reports at each boot because of what was connected (my old trackball...) so I gave up as I had only one USB3 key that I never used. But you know, I won't find peace until I'm certain that it's impossible or if it works!

 

[Nodarkthings]

Just a quick addendum:
I've tried not renaming PXSX and setting all of its connectors to USB3. None of them show.