- Supported version: 0.5.9
So making a config.plist may seem hard, its not. It just takes some time but this guide will tell you how to configure everything, you won't be left in the cold. This also means if you have issues, review your config settings to make sure they're correct. Main things to note with OpenCore:
- All properties must be defined, there are no default OpenCore will fall back on so do not delete sections unless told explicitly so. If the guide doesn't mention the option, leave it at default.
- The Sample.plist cannot be used As-Is, you must configure it to your system
- DO NOT USE CONFIGURATORS, these rarely respect OpenCore's configuration and even some like Mackie's will add Clover properties and corrupt plists!
Now with all that, a quick reminder of the tools we need
- ProperTree
- Universal plist editor
- GenSMBIOS
- For generating our SMBIOS data
- Sample/config.plist
- See previous section on how to obtain: config.plist Setup
And read this guide more than once before setting up OpenCore and make sure you have it set up correctly. Do note that images will not always be the most up-to-date so please read the text below them, if nothing's mentioned then leave as default.
This is where you'll add SSDTs for your system, these are very important to booting macOS and have many uses like USB maps, disabling unsupported GPUs and such. And with our system, its even required to boot. Guide on making them found here: Getting started with ACPI
For us we'll need a couple of SSDTs to bring back functionality that Clover provided:
Required_SSDTs | Description |
---|---|
SSDT-PLUG | Allows for native CPU power management on Haswell and newer, see Getting Started With ACPI Guide for more details. |
SSDT-EC | * Fixes the embedded controller, see Getting Started With ACPI Guide for more details.) |
Note that you should not add your generated DSDT.aml
here, it is already in your firmware. So if present, remove the entry for it in your config.plist
and under EFI/OC/ACPI.
For those wanting a deeper dive into dumping your DSDT, how to make these SSDTs, and compiling them, please see the Getting started with ACPI page. Compiled SSDTs have a .aml extension(Assembled) and will go into the EFI/OC/ACPI
folder and must be specified in your config under ACPI -> Add
as well.
This blocks certain ACPI tables from loading, for us we can ignore this.
This section allows us to dynamically modify parts of the ACPI (DSDT, SSDT, etc.) via OpenCore. For us, our patches are handled by our SSDTs. This is a much cleaner solution as this will allow us to boot Windows and other OSes with OpenCore
Settings relating to ACPI, leave everything here as default as we have no use for these quirks.
This section is dedicated to quirks relating to boot.efi patching with OpenRuntime, the replacement for AptioMemoryFix.efi
This section is allowing devices to be passthrough to macOS that are generally ignored, for us we can ignore this section.
Settings relating to boot.efi patching and firmware fixes, ones we need to change are DevirtualiseMmio
, DisableVariableWrite
and RebuildAppleMemoryMap
- AvoidRuntimeDefrag: YES
- Fixes UEFI runtime services like date, time, NVRAM, power control, etc
- DevirtualiseMmio: YES
- Reduces Stolen Memory Footprint, expands options for
slide=N
values and generally useful especially on HEDT and Xeon systems
- Reduces Stolen Memory Footprint, expands options for
- DisableVariableWrite: YES
- Needed for systems with non-functioning NVRAM, you can verify here if yours works. For X99 we'll assume NVRAM doesn't work but post install you can double check
- ProvideCustomSlide: YES
- If there's a conflicting slide value, this option forces macOS to use a pseudo-random value. Needed for those receiving
Only N/256 slide values are usable!
debug message
- If there's a conflicting slide value, this option forces macOS to use a pseudo-random value. Needed for those receiving
- RebuildAppleMemoryMap: YES
- Generates Memory Map compatible with macOS, can break on some laptop OEM firmwares so if you receive early boot failures disable this
- SetupVirtualMap: YES
- Fixes SetVirtualAddresses calls to virtual addresses, not needed on Skylake and newer . Mainly relevant for Skylake and newer
Sets device properties from a map.
By default, the Sample.plist has this section set for iGPU and Audio. We have no iGPU so PciRoot PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)
can be removed from Add
section. For audio we'll be setting the layout in the boot-args section, so removal of PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1b,0x0)
is also recommended from both Add
and Block
sections
TL;DR, delete all the PciRoot's here as we won't be using this section.
Removes device properties from the map, for us we can ignore this
Here's where you specify which kexts to load, order matters here so make sure Lilu.kext is always first! Other higher priority kexts come after Lilu such as VirtualSMC, AppleALC, WhateverGreen, etc. A reminder that ProperTree users can run Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + R to add all their kexts in the correct order without manually typing each kext out.
- BundlePath
- Name of the kext
- ex:
Lilu.kext
- Enabled
- Self-explanatory, either enables or disables the kext
- ExecutablePath
- Path to the actual executable is hidden within the kext, you can see what path your kext has by right-clicking and selecting
Show Package Contents
. Generally, they'll beContents/MacOS/Kext
but some have kexts hidden within underPlugin
folder. Do note that plist only kexts do not need this filled in. - ex:
Contents/MacOS/Lilu
- Path to the actual executable is hidden within the kext, you can see what path your kext has by right-clicking and selecting
- PlistPath
- Path to the
info.plist
hidden within the kext - ex:
Contents/Info.plist
- Path to the
Needed for spoofing unsupported CPUs and enabling power management on Haswell-E and Broadwell-E
-
Haswell E:
- Cpuid1Data:
C3060300 00000000 00000000 00000000
- Cpuid1Mask:
FFFFFFFF 00000000 00000000 00000000
- Cpuid1Data:
Blocks certain kexts from loading. Not relevant for us.
Patches both the kernel and kexts.
Settings relating to the kernel, for us we'll be enabling AppleCpuPmCfgLock
, AppleXcpmCfgLock
, AppleXcpmExtraMsrs
, DisableIOMapper
, PanicNoKextDump
, PowerTimeoutKernelPanic
and XhciPortLimit
. Everything else should be left as default
- AppleCpuPmCfgLock: YES
- Only needed when CFG-Lock can't be disabled in BIOS, Clover counterpart would be AppleIntelCPUPM. Please verify you can disable CFG-Lock, most systems won't boot with it on so requiring use of this quirk
- AppleXcpmCfgLock: YES
- Only needed when CFG-Lock can't be disabled in BIOS, Clover counterpart would be KernelPM. Please verify you can disable CFG-Lock, most systems won't boot with it on so requiring use of this quirk
- AppleXcpmExtraMsrs: YES
- Disables multiple MSR access needed for unsupported CPUs like Pentiums and many Xeons. Required for Broadwell-E and lower
- CustomSMBIOSGuid: NO
- Performs GUID patching for UpdateSMBIOSMode Custom mode. Usually relevant for Dell laptops
- DisableIoMapper: YES
- Needed to get around VT-D if either unable to disable in BIOS or needed for other operating systems, much better alternative to
dart=0
as SIP can stay on in Catalina
- Needed to get around VT-D if either unable to disable in BIOS or needed for other operating systems, much better alternative to
- DisableRtcChecksum: NO
- Prevents AppleRTC from writing to primary checksum (0x58-0x59), required for users who either receive BIOS reset or are sent into Safe mode after reboot/shutdown
- IncreasePciBarSize: NO
- Increases 32-bit PCI bar size in IOPCIFamily from 1 to 4 GB, enabling Above4GDecoding in the BIOS is a much cleaner and safer approach. Some X99 boards may require this, you'll generally experience a kernel panic on IOPCIFamily if you need this. Note this shouldn't be needed on Mojave and newer
- LapicKernelPanic: NO
- Disables kernel panic on AP core lapic interrupt, generally needed for HP systems. Clover equivalent is
Kernel LAPIC
- Disables kernel panic on AP core lapic interrupt, generally needed for HP systems. Clover equivalent is
- PanicNoKextDump: YES
- Allows for reading kernel panics logs when kernel panics occur
- PowerTimeoutKernelPanic: YES
- Helps fix kernel panics relating to power changes with Apple drivers in macOS Catalina, most notably with digital audio.
- XhciPortLimit: YES
- This is actually the 15 port limit patch, don't rely on it as it's not a guaranteed solution for fixing USB. Please create a USB map when possible.
The reason being is that UsbInjectAll reimplements builtin macOS functionality without proper current tuning. It is much cleaner to just describe your ports in a single plist-only kext, which will not waste runtime memory and such
Settings for boot screen (Leave everything as default).
Helpful for debugging OpenCore boot issues(We'll be changing everything but DisplayDelay
).
- AppleDebug: YES
- Enables boot.efi logging, useful for debugging. Note this is only supported on 10.15.4 and newer
- ApplePanic: YES
- Attempts to log kernel panics to disk
- DisableWatchDog: YES
- Disables the UEFI watchdog, can help with early boot issues
- Target:
67
- Shows more debug information, requires debug version of OpenCore
- DisplayLevel:
2147483650
- Shows even more debug information, requires debug version of OpenCore
These values are based of those calculated in OpenCore debugging
Security is pretty self-explanatory, do not skip.
We'll be changing AllowNvramReset
, AllowSetDefault
, Vault
and ScanPolicy
- AllowNvramReset: YES
- Allows for NVRAM reset both in the boot picker and when pressing
Cmd+Opt+P+R
- Allows for NVRAM reset both in the boot picker and when pressing
- AllowSetDefault: YES
- Allow
CTRL+Enter
andCTRL+Index
to set default boot device in the picker
- Allow
- AuthRestart: NO
- Enables Authenticated restart for FileVault 2 so password is not required on reboot. Can be considered a security risk so optional
- BlacklistAppleUpdate: True
- Ignores Apple's firmware updater, recommended to enable as to avoid issues with installs and updates
- BootProtect: None
- Allows the use of Bootstrap.efi inside EFI/OC/Bootstrap instead of BOOTx64.efi, useful for those wanting to either boot with rEFInd or avoid BOOTx64.efi overwrites from Windows. Proper use of this quirks is not be covered in this guide
- ExposeSensitiveData:
6
- Shows more debug information, requires debug version of OpenCore
- Vault:
Optional
- We won't be dealing vaulting so we can ignore, you won't boot with this set to Secure
- This is a word, it is not optional to omit this setting. You will regret it if you don't set it to
Optional
, note that it is case-sensitive
- ScanPolicy:
0
0
allows you to see all drives available, please refer to Security section for further details. Will not boot USB devices with this set to default
Used for running OC debugging tools like the shell, ProperTree's snapshot function will add these for you. For us, we won't be using any tools.
- Name
- Name shown in OpenCore
- Enabled
- Self-explanatory, enables or disables
- Path
- Path to file after the
Tools
folder - ex: OpenShell.efi
- Path to file after the
Used for specifying irregular boot paths that can't be found naturally with OpenCore.
Won't be covered here, see 8.6 of Configuration.pdf for more info
Booter Path, mainly used for UI Scaling
-
UIScale:
01
: Standard resolution(Clover equivalent is0x28
)02
: HiDPI (generally required for FileVault to function correctly on smaller displays, Clover equivalent is0x2A
)
-
DefaultBackgroundColor: Background color used by boot.efi
00000000
: Syrah BlackBFBFBF00
: Light Gray
System Integrity Protection bitmask
- General Purpose boot-args:
boot-args | Description |
---|---|
-v | This enables verbose mode, which shows all the behind-the-scenes text that scrolls by as you're booting instead of the Apple logo and progress bar. It's invaluable to any Hackintosher, as it gives you an inside look at the boot process, and can help you identify issues, problem kexts, etc. |
debug=0x100 | This disables macOS's watchdog which helps prevents a reboot on a kernel panic. That way you can hopefully glean some useful info and follow the breadcrumbs to get past the issues. |
keepsyms=1 | This is a companion setting to debug=0x100 that tells the OS to also print the symbols on a kernel panic. That can give some more helpful insight as to what's causing the panic itself. |
npci=0x2000 | This disables some PCI debugging related to kIOPCIConfiguratorPFM64 , alternative is npci= 0x3000 which disables debugging related to gIOPCITunnelledKey in addition. Required for when getting stuck on PCI Start Configuration as there are IRQ conflicts relating to your PCI lanes. Source |
alcid=1 | Used for setting layout-id for AppleALC, see supported codecs to figure out which layout to use for your specific system. More info on this is covered in the Post-Install Page |
- GPU-Specific boot-args:
boot-args | Description |
---|---|
agdpmod=pikera | Used for disabling boardID on Navi GPUs(RX 5000 series), without this you'll get a black screen. Don't use if you don't have Navi(ie. Polaris and Vega cards shouldn't use this) |
nvda_drv_vrl=1 | Used for enabling Nvidia's Web Drivers on Maxwell and Pascal cards in Sierra and HighSierra |
- csr-active-config: Settings for SIP, generally recommended to manually change this within Recovery partition with
csrutil
via the recovery partition
csr-active-config is set to 00000000
which enables System Integrity Protection. You can choose a number of other options to enable/disable sections of SIP. Some common ones are as follows:
00000000
- SIP completely enabled03000000
- Allow unsigned kexts and writing to protected fs locationsE7030000
- SIP completely disabled
Recommended to leave enabled (00000000
) for best security practices, see here for all possible values: csr.h.
- prev-lang:kbd: <>
- Needed for non-latin keyboards in the format of
lang-COUNTRY:keyboard
, recommended to keep blank though you can specify it(Default in Sample config is Russian): - American:
en-US:0
(656e2d55533a30
in HEX) - Full list can be found in AppleKeyboardLayouts.txt
- Hint:
prev-lang:kbd
can be changed into a String so you can inputen-US:0
directly instead of converting to HEX
- Needed for non-latin keyboards in the format of
Key | Type | Value |
---|---|---|
prev-lang:kbd | String | en-US:0 |
Forcibly rewrites NVRAM variables, do note that Add
will not overwrite values already present in NVRAM so values like boot-args
should be left alone.
LegacyEnable: YES
- Allows for NVRAM to be stored on nvram.plist, needed for systems without native NVRAM like X99
LegacyOverwrite: YES
- Permits overwriting firmware variables from nvram.plist, only needed for systems without native NVRAM like X99
LegacySchema
- Used for assigning NVRAM variables, used with LegacyEnable set to YES
WriteFlash: NO
- Enables writing to flash memory for all added variables, not compatible with emulated NVRAM
For setting up the SMBIOS info, we'll use CorpNewt's GenSMBIOS application.
For this Haswell-E example, we'll choose the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS.
Run GenSMBIOS, pick option 1 for downloading MacSerial and Option 3 for selecting out SMBIOS. This will give us an output similar to the following:
#######################################################
# iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS Info #
#######################################################
Type: iMacPro1,1
Serial: C02YX0TZHX87
Board Serial: C029269024NJG36CB
SmUUID: DEA17B2D-2F9F-4955-B266-A74C47678AD3
The Type
part gets copied to Generic -> SystemProductName.
The Serial
part gets copied to Generic -> SystemSerialNumber.
The Board Serial
part gets copied to Generic -> MLB.
The SmUUID
part gets copied to Generic -> SystemUUID.
We set Generic -> ROM to either an Apple ROM (dumped from a real Mac), your NIC MAC address, or any random MAC address (could be just 6 random bytes, for this guide we'll use 11223300 0000
. After install follow the Fixing iServices page on how to find your real MAC Address)
Reminder that you want either an invalid serial or valid serial numbers but those not in use, you want to get a message back like: "Invalid Serial" or "Purchase Date not Validated"
Automatic: YES
- Generates PlatformInfo based on Generic section instead of DataHub, NVRAM, and SMBIOS sections
- SpoofVendor: YES
- Swaps vendor field for Acidanthera, generally not safe to use Apple as a vendor in most case
- AdviseWindows: NO
- Used for when the EFI partition isn't first on the Windows drive
UpdateDataHub: YES
- Update Data Hub fields
UpdateNVRAM: YES
- Update NVRAM fields
UpdateSMBIOS: YES
- Updates SMBIOS fields
UpdateSMBIOSMode: Create
- Replace the tables with newly allocated EfiReservedMemoryType, use Custom on Dell laptops requiring CustomSMBIOSGuid quirk
ConnectDrivers: YES
- Forces .efi drivers, change to NO will automatically connect added UEFI drivers. This can make booting slightly faster, but not all drivers connect themselves. E.g. certain file system drivers may not load.
Add your .efi drivers here.
Only drivers present here should be:
- HfsPlus.efi
- OpenRuntime.efi
Settings related to the APFS driver, leave everything here as default.
Related to AudioDxe settings, for us we'll be ignoring(leave as default). This is unrelated to audio support in macOS.
- For further use of AudioDxe and the Audio section, please see the Post Install page: Add GUI and Boot-chime
Related to boot.efi keyboard passthrough used for FileVault and Hotkey support, leave everything here as default as we have no use for these quirks. See here for more details: Security and FileVault
Relating to OpenCore's visual output, leave everything here as default as we have no use for these quirks.
Mainly relevant for Virtual machines, legacy macs and FileVault users. See here for more details: Security and FileVault
-
DeduplicateBootOrder: YES
- Request fallback of some Boot prefixed variables from
OC_VENDOR_VARIABLE_GUID
toEFI_GLOBAL_VARIABLE_GUID
. Used for fixing boot options.
- Request fallback of some Boot prefixed variables from
-
IgnoreInvalidFlexRatio: YES
- Fix for when MSR_FLEX_RATIO (0x194) can't be disabled in the BIOS, required for all pre-Skylake based systems
-
RequestBootVarRouting: YES
- Redirects AptioMemoryFix from
EFI_GLOBAL_VARIABLE_GUID
toOC\_VENDOR\_VARIABLE\_GUID
. Needed for when firmware tries to delete boot entries and is recommended to be enabled on all systems for correct update installation, Startup Disk control panel functioning, etc.
- Redirects AptioMemoryFix from
-
UnblockFsConnect: NO
- Some firmware block partition handles by opening them in By Driver mode, which results in File System protocols being unable to install. Mainly relevant for HP systems when no drives are listed
Used for exempting certain memory regions from OSes to use, mainly relevant for Sandy Bridge iGPUs or systems with faulty memory. Use of this quirk is not covered in this guide
And now you're ready to save and place it into your EFI under EFI/OC.
For those having booting issues, please make sure to read the Troubleshooting section first and if your questions are still unanswered we have plenty of resources at your disposal:
Sanity check:
So thanks to the efforts of Ramus, we also have an amazing tool to help verify your config for those who may have missed something:
- Fast Boot
- Secure Boot
- VT-d (can be enabled if you set
DisableIoMapper
to YES) - CSM
- Thunderbolt(For initial install, as Thunderbolt can cause issues if not setup correctly)
- Intel SGX
- Intel Platform Trust
- CFG Lock (MSR 0xE2 write protection)(This must be off, if you can't find the option then enable both
AppleCpuPmCfgLock
andAppleXcpmCfgLock
under Kernel -> Quirks. Your hack will not boot with CFG-Lock enabled)
- VT-x
- Above 4G decoding
- Hyper-Threading
- Execute Disable Bit
- EHCI/XHCI Hand-off
- OS type: Windows 8.1/10 UEFI Mode
... head to Post-install.