XPS 15 9560 MacOS Catalina 15.1 Full Install Guide

[ShadowSavage]

Hi there !
Thanks for the tutorial.
I currently have a Dell XPS 15 9560 dual-boot Win10/Linux Mint on my partitioned 512Go SSD. I would like to boot MacOS Catalina from an external SSD. Is it possible?

 

[Feartech]

Hi there !
Thanks for the tutorial.
I currently have a Dell XPS 15 9560 dual-boot Win10/Linux Mint on my partitioned 512Go SSD. I would like to boot MacOS Catalina from an external SSD. Is it possible?

best to use internal drive if you can

 

[ShadowSavage]

My internal SSD might be a tad short in space... otherwise I could put Linux Mint over to the external SSD and have MacOS in my internal SSD.
Doing that, it would be possible?

 

[Feartech]

My internal SSD might be a tad short in space... otherwise I could put Linux Mint over to the external SSD and have MacOS in my internal SSD.
Doing that, it would be possible?

should be good with that

 

[ShadowSavage]

great, thanks a lot for the quick reply

 

[Zacharybinx34]

Any chance of posting an OpenCore version?

 

[joot]

Any chance of posting an OpenCore version?

^^ I second this. Opencore on this laptop would be nice.

 

[slowpoke12345]

It’s 3.. almost 4am now. I wasn’t able to boot up past the Apple logo. Will post pics later. I tried 10.15.7

4K
1TB
DW1830
32GB

I was previously able to boot Mojave but did a fresh wipe on the M.2.. now I want Catalina aha

EDIT: I'm trying currently trying to see why it's not working.. I forgot to take pictures but im messing around with config. Also, you don't provide the info for 4k in the preinstall.. A little bit confusing but lets see if we can get this running!

 

[Lopburi]

Any chance of posting an OpenCore version?

Check out mistzzt's GitHub I was be able to get Catalina 10.15.7 OpenCore on mine XPS 15 9560 working very nicely.

 

[slowpoke12345]

I got the OpenCore version to boot up. HW: TOSHIBA 1TB (NVMe Patched) 32GB 4K DW1830

This tutorial implies your have the correct Bios settings

1. Create a vanilla USB (no boot loader installed or anything edited)
2. Download OpenCore https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/releases/ and https://github.com/jardenliu/XPS15-9560-Catalina/tree/OpenCore
3. Mount EFI on the USB using Clover Config or whatever method you use, ect
4. Unzip OpenCore, select x64, and place EFI folder in root of USB EFI partition that you just mounted (a visual representation can be found here
   
   After that, place jardenliu's OC folder inside the EFI folder. This OC folder should make the USB boot to the Apple Logo.. but alas, it won't load the installation screen because we'll need to disable the CFG Lock.
5. To disable CFG Lock, you'll need these files
   1. modGRUBShell.efi​
   2. VerifyMsrE2.efi from OpenCorePkg EFI/OC/Tools folder​
   3. Shoutout al3xtjames for the disable code! You will need to grab the CFG Lock disable code from https://gist.github.com/al3xtjames/e78884e719d7d53fbbf7b752e5db36d1 which is

      # Set CFG Lock to Disabled

      setup_var 0x4ED 0x0

   4. Head over to the Tools folder in the OC directory of our EFI and copy modGRUBshell.efi there​
6. Restart and boot into BIOS. Go to the "Advanced Boot Options" section and select the "Enable Legacy Option Roms" box. Without this, we cannot boot modGrubShell.
7. Next, add boot entries for modGrubShell and VerifyMsrE2 in the 'Boot Sequence' entry of our BIOS. Click "Add Boot Option", name each entry, and select the EFI file you're creating an entry for. You will need to make one entry for each efi file. Save the settings. And note that you'll need to spam the F12 button at restart to bring up the boot option selector.
   1. Boot VerifyMsrE2.efi. It should tell us that CFG Lock is enabled. After a few seconds, it will automatically exit.
   2. Next, boot into modGrubShell. Enter the command:

      setup_var 0x4ED 0x0

      CFG Lock should be disabled
   3. Type exit in the modGrubShell, it should boot your computer off.
   4. Turn the laptop back on and boot VerifyMsrE2.efi. It should show that CFG Lock is disabled.
8. Restart and boot into BIOS. Go to the "Advanced Boot Options" and disable the "Enable Legacy Option Roms" box. Lastly, click and delete (BE CAREFUL) the boot entries for modGrubShell and VerifyMsrE2 in the 'Boot Sequence'. Congrats, you should be able to install Catalina using OpenCore.