[Work-In-Progress] El Capitan GA-Z97M-D3H

[HarmlessSaucer]

I figured I would document my journey with El Capitan on my box, in the hope that it might help someone else!


System Configuration:

Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-Z97M-D3H
CPU	i5 4970
RAM	16GB RAM (Kingston)
Graphics Card	EVGA GT 740
Storage	Samsung EVO 850 256GB
Sound Card	External M-Audio USB [Onboard Disabled]
Other	2 x Apple 20" Cinema Displays

BIOS Settings:
As per instructions on:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/bios-uefi/130920-recommended-bios-uefi-settings-beginners.html

- Loaded Optimized Defaults
- Set X.M.P. Memory Profile to Profile1
- Disabled VT-d

USB Creation:
- Used a genuine MacBook Air to download El Capitan (public release, not GM) from the Mac App store.
- Downloaded UniBeast 6.0
- Partitioned 64GB Kingston USB 3.0 Key as GUID and OS X Extended, named "USB"
- Installed UniBeast selecting:
- "USB"
- El Capitan
- UEFI Boot Mode
- Ignored Graphics Configuration Mode

First Attempt:

Installation:
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Waited for setup to boot (got stuck at the three quarter way mark, but eventually booted - be patient!)
- Ran Disk Utility and erased my SSD as "El Capitan"
- Installed on to SSD.
- Rebooted.

Post-Installation:
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Booted to "El Capitan" from Clover.
- Ran through initial setup (ignore the complaints about no internets!)
- Installed "CustoMac Essentials.pkg"
- Rebooted.
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Booted to "El Capitan" from Clover.
- Got to login screen and logged in.
- System hung on desktop.
- Rebooted.
- System hung on login screen this time.

Time for a second try!



Second Attempt:

Installation:
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Waited for setup to boot (got stuck at the three quarter way mark, but eventually booted - be patient!)
- Ran Disk Utility and erased my SSD as "El Capitan"
- Installed on to SSD.
- Rebooted.

Post-Installation:
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Booted to "El Capitan" from Clover.
- Ran through initial setup (ignore the complaints about no internets!)
- On another Mac:

- downloaded the "CustoMac Essentials.pkg" file.
- Downloaded Pacifist.
- Pulled the Ethernet KEXT from the PKG file using Pacifist.
- Downloaded DPCIManager.
- Put DPCIManager and the Ethernet KEXT onto USB.​

- Used DPCIManager to install Ethernet KEXT on El Cap' machine.
- Rebuilt Caches using DPCIManager.
- Rebooted.
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Booted to "El Capitan" from Clover.

So far so good... I have a working system and Ethernet.

- Installed "Clover_v2.3k_r3270_UEFI.pkg"
- Rebooted.
- Pressed F12 while starting up and made sure to select the UEFI of my SSD.
- Progress bar with Apple logo got to about half way and stalled, crawling VERY slowly.
- Rebooted and tried to boot from USB again. Issue persists over USB. Seems installing Clover to my SSD I broke something!

Time for a reinstall!



NOTE:
Before I move on to my Third Attempt, a quick note on El Capitan on my machine. I won't be using it for a little while going forward on this machine. Why? Drivers.
I found out after getting El Capitan working pretty well, that my sound didnt work.
I don't use the internal sound card, I use a 'M-Audio FastTrack Ultra 8R' connected to some studio monitor speakers. I found out the hard way that there are no drivers for this for El Capitan yet
As soon as the drivers are out I'll be upgrading again!



Third Attempt:

Installation:
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Waited for setup to boot (got stuck at the three quarter way mark, but eventually booted - be patient!)
- Ran Disk Utility and erased my SSD as "El Capitan"
- Installed on to SSD.
- Rebooted.

Post-Installation:
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Booted to "El Capitan" from Clover.
- Ran through initial setup (ignore the complaints about no internets!)
- On another Mac:

- downloaded the "CustoMac Essentials.pkg" file.
- Downloaded Pacifist.
- Pulled the Ethernet KEXT from the PKG file using Pacifist.
- Downloaded DPCIManager.
- Put DPCIManager and the Ethernet KEXT onto USB.​

- Used DPCIManager to install Ethernet KEXT on El Cap' machine.
- Rebuilt Caches using DPCIManager.
- Rebooted.
- Pressed F12 while starting up and selected the UEFI USB Key.
- Booted to "El Capitan" from Clover.

- Downloaded Clover from the Clover SF page.
- Installed Clover to my SSD.
- Downloaded "Clover Configurator" on a real Mac, saved to USB Key.
- On a real Mac, ran Clover Configurator and mounted the EFI of the USB key.
- Copied the EFI folder to a folder on the USB key root (accessible therefore without mounting the USB EFI)
- On the El Capitan machine, used Clover Configurator to mount the SSD EFI partition.
- Overwrote the contents of the SSD EFI folder with the one saved to the USB key earlier.
- Used Clover configurator to generate a Serial Number etc. as per the iMessage guides.
- Rebooted.
- Pressed F12 while starting up and made sure to select the UEFI of my SSD.
- Success! The Machine Booted!


No drivers for my sound card yet tho


Updates to follow...

 

[albertorossi]

let me know

 

[idris3396]

I have got El Capitan working on my GA-Z97M-D3H. The only problem is that the on board audio is not working. I ran the terminal command and selected my codec as ALC892 but, the audio doesn't work!

 

[albertorossi]

I have got El Capitan working on my GA-Z97M-D3H. The only problem is that the on board audio is not working. I ran the terminal command and selected my codec as ALC892 but, the audio doesn't work!

A lot of people here with a lot of problem with the new Chimera/El Capitan.
Did you try this one? http://www.tonymacx86.com/audio/143757-audio-realtek-alc-applehda-guide.html#post886744

https://github.com/toleda/audio_RealtekALC

What's about iMessage and USB 3.0?

 

[idris3396]

I installed OS X El Capitan on a new SSD. Everything works great including the audio!

 

[idris3396]

A lot of people here with a lot of problem with the new Chimera/El Capitan.
Did you try this one? http://www.tonymacx86.com/audio/143757-audio-realtek-alc-applehda-guide.html#post886744

https://github.com/toleda/audio_RealtekALC

What's about iMessage and USB 3.0?

I don't use iMessage so, I have no idea about it. I have to test USB 3.0!

 

[albertorossi]

which kexts/drivers you used exactly? Just the original guide from TonyMacx86? I want to upgrade to El Captain!

 

[HarmlessSaucer]

So... I managed to get El Capitan working pretty successfully on my machine.

I dont use the on board audio because I have a nice M-Audio interface and some studio reference monitors for sound. The only problem is that the drivers aren't there for this in El Capitan yet

I therefore switched back to Yosemite. I have used the same UniBeast install, but with the Yosemite installer. After a bit of fiddling with Clover configs (I am new to Clover, like a lot of people here!) I managed to get a stable system and I have things like USB 3.0 and iMessage working with very minimal effort. No issues so far! I'm impressed.

As soon as M-Audio (AVID) get their act together and sort out the El Capitan driver, I shall be upgrading!

 

[FloridaRon]

Hello Idris,
I have almost the same set-up as you with the exception of the HD, I am using a Seagate 2TB SATA drive. Can you post your BIOS; Plist and Clover setup. It would be very helpful to many people struggling with this system.
Thanks & Cheers

 

[idris3396]

which kexts/drivers you used exactly? Just the original guide from TonyMacx86? I want to upgrade to El Captain!

Yes. I went through the exact installation process as posted in the guide. As for the post installation part, I installed the UEFI Boot Mode (Clover_v2.3k_r3270_UEFI.pkg). Then I ran the CustoMac Essentials to install FakeSMC and ethernet support (Well, in my case the ethernet was working fine without doing so, but I did it again).

For the Clover Configurator part, SMBIOS: Mac Pro 3,1. I was using the same SMBIOS configuration in Yosemite as well. It works perfectly fine for me.

And then, for the onboard audio to work I did exactly as mentioned in the steps 16 to 19. On Z97M-D3H you need to use ALC892 codec. If you get an error after entering your password in the terminal saying, EFI partition is not mounted, just use EFI Mounter to mount the EFI partition. Here: View attachment EFI_Mounter-v2_app.zip

I didn't like the theme of the bootloader, so I used the official Clover Bootloader installer for the new theme.

For now, everything works fine for me.