Z87E-ITX Updates

[WonkeyDonkey]

Thanks for reporting. Are you planning to try Clover in UEFI boot mode?

Right now, no. Im actually getting a little tired of re-install after re-install on multiple systems here, so Im ready for a bit of a break from testing for a while.

I thought more people might have invested in this board too. I still love this board and everything it does; my main concern in starting the thread was getting people involved so I cold keep going back to Asrock to fix as much as possible.

They have done some good stuff for us to date. No longer needing to patch the bios, performance improvement for non-K processors, the ongoing memory issue which they have put a lot of work into. I have yet to raise sleep / wake with them as I'd like to see an end to the memory issue first.

Without having enough knowledge to fully optimise a clover install, it would be difficult to know if it is working as intended, other than the visual references of course. I'd say there is probably two thirds of the options in the Clover config file that I dont fully understand, so if I tried it, it would be based purely on guess work.

Once again, the lack of solid and cohesive documentation for Clover doesn't help. If we had that I might be more inclined to dig in deeper.

Even a simple Yes/No/Auto/Recommended for each option it contains would be a good starting point.

Clover is one of those things I would like to be more optimistic about, but right now I just can't.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

To my way of thinking this is not a good solution since the system does not have 4 memory slots. Booting the same board but using Clover as the boot loader, memory speed etc is displayed correctly.

Maybe you would consider sharing your Clover config file....

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Just done some further testing here for sleep/wake.

It goes to sleep perfectly, although there is a slight delay before it happens. From what I have read that is normal for 10.9 Once it sleeps the power led flashes slowly.

Wake also works perfectly, using the power button, or usb mouse button press, or usb keyboard key press. The monitor wakes up within about 1 second, everything is working and responsive.

From my understanding, that is sleep/wake working perfectly.

For anyone who hasnt already noticed, there are 2 options in the UEFI bios for wake from usb keyboard and wake from usb mouse, both of which I have enabled.

I think that is sleep/wake pretty much perfect.



I do have my own compiled dsdt here, not sure if that contributes to sleep/wake. Im happy to share that in time.

 

[AP2]

Awesome Wonkey! Thanks for all the hardwork. Would you mind, posting your DSDT? I would like to get my hack up and running this week.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Awesome Wonkey! Thanks for all the hardwork. Would you mind, posting your DSDT? I would like to get my hack up and running this week.

I wont be sharing this DSDT since it is based on bios version 2.30D which is not public yet and something I wont be sharing at this time. Remember DSDT's should be compiled for each bios version.

I need your guys thoughts on whether you prefer the bios showing 4 slots with correct memory speed, or 2 slots showing one of them incorrect speed (Cosmetic only).

If any of you wish to post your raw unedited DSDT extract, I'll do the compile and post here for everyone.

smbios.plist and org.chameleon.boot.plist is something you can easily generate yourselves based on which system definition you choose. I have found 14,1 works well and its the one I would recommend for a good installation. I actually use 14,3 here and there is little difference in it except that I have the cpu (4770S) which is more closely matched. Functionality will be the same though.

If you get really stuck I will post mine, but they are the same as the 14,1 available in Multibeast.

Message and icloud are somethign I dont use at all here, app store and updates work perfectly.

Going back to the bios versions, we currently have the following:

2.30 - Official release on Asrock web site.

2.30A - Testing version which I posted on here previously.

2.30D - Testing version which shows 4 memory slots but fixes the memory speed issue. I dont intend to publicly post this one at this time.

All 3 work well overall and no longer need PM patching.

Im leaning towards reverting back to 2.30A and correcting the memory speed by modifying smbios.plist, but as stated above, your preferences between 2.30A and 2.30D would be appreciated. I can then go back to Asrock with this information.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Well, Im voting for 2.30D but it seems people don't care much unfortunately.

Well I have made some progress myself with this. I have loaded 2.30A back onto mine right now. I still have the 2.30D file though. The reason for this is :

With 2.30A everything pretty much worked except the second stick of memory showing up as 1333 speed; even though it actually runs at its configured speed of 1866. Everything else with this bios is spot on. By adding a couple of lines to smbios.plist, the memory speed can be corrected in OSX itself; the only place it shows incorrect is in the Chimera startup screen. DMIDecode shows the configured speed for both sticks as 1866, so I really dont know where the issue lies; with the bios itself or Chimera.

With 2.30D, we have the 'ghost' memory slots reported in OSX, 3 memory slots repoted in the bios, incorrect amount of memory reported in bios (I have 16 Gb installed, but in the bios it reports 24 Gb).

On a more positive note, I have a shiny new DSDT Ive been working on that does several things, including :

Full hdmi audio output
Broadcom wifi card correctly shown in System Profiler
Insufficient USB Power issue when a USB external drive is connected (Showed in the system log as insufficient current available)

So the whole thing is working quite smooth at the moment.

Also, sleep, wake and shutdown are all working flawlessly.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

The wifi that comes preinstalled is an AzureWave one. The wifi on that can be made to work but not the bluetooth. I swapped it out for a broadcom (DW1510) which i previously rebranded to airport extreme. To be honest, while the azurewave wifi did work, the performance wasnt as solid as the broadcom. The broadcom also shows up as native airport card with a whole heap of channels available, as well as airdrop and other bits all available.

The usb power issue has been widely reported, i think mostly on Haswell based systems. My apple 'super' drive never worked when i plugged it in, complaining there wasnt enough current available for it. My external usb3 drive did work but also complained about not having enough power - this stuff can be seen in the system logs if anyone is curious. Anyway, all those messages are now gone and all the devices now have sufficient power getting to them.

I havent left it to sleep overnight but can try it soon. Im awaiting some upgraded parts i have ordered including a shiny new mac-like case. When its all here i'll do a final rebuild, but ive done it a few times already and it has been consistent every time now that we no longer need to PM Patch the bios.

As for autosleep, what exactly are you refering to ? Let me know and i'll see if i can test it out.

 

[Huberer]

But be aware when using MacMini 6,2 as system definition. If your Hac is in hibernate mode after 4 hours it will go into deep standby. That means you only can boot your machine by pressing the power button. To avoid this just enter

sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0

in terminal and deep standby after 4 hours is gone. Don't know if it is the same by system definiton macmini5,2

Huberer

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

If you go to system preferences -> energy saver –> you're able to set the amount of minutes after your monitor or your mac goes to sleep.
could you check if – let's say – 5 minutes work?
just let it sit there for five minutes and it should go to sleep automatically.
I'm very interested if it wakes up and everything is fine.

what case is it? jonsbo aka cooltek u2 (very nice, i'll choose that one)?

Hope you will help us with a guide when you'll do the final rebuild!
personally i can't wait to put mine together (haven't hackintoshed since 2008 but sure addicted since then).

keep it up and thanks again

edit: does the problem below occur with imac 14,1 or 14,3 defintion which you are using as well, wonkey?

Well the further testing appears positive.

If I set 'Display Sleep' on its own to a few minutes (Using the slider in Prefs), the display does shut down or 'sleep'. Bashing a key on the keyboard wakes it up correctly and everything is working correctly.

If I set both Display Sleep and Compuer Sleep using the sliders, the display goes back to sleep but the computer doesnt seem to sleep. Wakes up fine pressing a key on the keyboard.

Selecting the sleep option from the Apple menu, causes the computer and display to sleep correctly; the power led flashes slowly and the monitor sleeps. Pressing a key or clicking a mouse button or pressing the power button wakes everything up correctly and it all works.

So its only sleep from using those sliders that hasnt worked initially.

pmset -g assertions shows this :

iMac:~ System$ pmset -g assertions
06/02/2014 22:03:17 GMT
Assertion status system-wide:
BackgroundTask 0
PreventDiskIdle 0
ApplePushServiceTask 0
UserIsActive 0
PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep 0
InteractivePushServiceTask 0
PreventSystemSleep 0
ExternalMedia 0
PreventUserIdleSystemSleep 0
NetworkClientActive 0
Kernel Assertions: 0x4=USB
id=500 level=255 0x4=USB mod=06/02/2014 09:48 description=XHC1 owner=AppleUSBXHCI

It may be something to do with that last line about XHCI, but I dont know enough about it.

The new case is indeed a Jonsbo model

I'm using the 14,3 definition since that matches exactly the CPU im using. Discrete graphics (GTX650Ti Boost) works perfectly as does all other functionality on the board.

I haven't tried the 6,x definition since it doesnt really match my hardware.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

well, cool – as long as sleep/wake works everything is fine. no clue about the xhci though.

ha, can't wait to see some pictures of your final build
do you have a hint which identifier to choose with a 4770/4771 (non-k) cpu and gtx 760?
imac 14,2 is perfect for 4771 but for 4770??

don't forget the guide please (i'm serious )

keep it up!

Well 14,2 and 14,3 are the imac models with the 4770 processors (Non K variants). I have a 4770S here as I wanted the lower TDP (65W) and used 14,3 since that is the exact processor used in that model. I would suggest using that for yours too, since it is the closest match in terms of the CPU.

I will do a guide but that may take a little time. You only need use the standard Unibeast/Multibeast method though.