Desktop Skylake

Support	Version
Supported OpenCore version	0.6.5
Initial macOS Support	OS X 10.11, El Capitan

Starting Point

So making a config.plist may seem hard, it's 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.

ACPI

Add

Info

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, it's 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-USBX	Fixes both the embedded controller and USB power, 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.

Delete

This blocks certain ACPI tables from loading, for us we can ignore this.

Patch

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

Quirks

Settings relating to ACPI, leave everything here as default as we have no use for these quirks.

Booter

This section is dedicated to quirks relating to boot.efi patching with OpenRuntime, the replacement for AptioMemoryFix.efi

MmioWhitelist

This section is allowing spaces to be passthrough to macOS that are generally ignored, useful when paired with DevirtualiseMmio

Quirks

Info

Settings relating to boot.efi patching and firmware fixes, for us, we leave it as default

More in-depth Info

• AvoidRuntimeDefrag: YES
  • Fixes UEFI runtime services like date, time, NVRAM, power control, etc
• EnableWriteUnprotector: YES
  • Needed to remove write protection from CR0 register.
• SetupVirtualMap: YES
  • Fixes SetVirtualAddresses calls to virtual addresses, required for Gigabyte boards to resolve early kernel panics

DeviceProperties

Add

Sets device properties from a map.

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0)

This section is set up via WhateverGreen's Framebuffer Patching Guide and is used for setting important iGPU properties.

AAPL,ig-platform-id is what macOS uses to determine how the iGPU drivers interact with our system, and the two values choose between are as follows:

AAPL,ig-platform-id	Comment
00001219	Used when the Desktop iGPU is used to drive a display
01001219	Used when the Desktop iGPU is only used for computing tasks and doesn't drive a display

We also add 3 more properties, framebuffer-patch-enable, framebuffer-stolenmem and framebuffer-fbmem. The first enables patching via WhateverGreen.kext, the second sets the min stolen memory to 19MB and third sets the framebuffer memory to 9MB. This is usually unnecessary, as this can be configured in BIOS(64MB recommended) but required when not available.

• Note: Headless framebuffers(where the dGPU is the display out) do not need framebuffer-patch-enable, framebuffer-stolenmem and framebuffer-fbmem

And extra note for P530 users, your iGPU is not natively supported so you will need to add the following property:

Key	Type	Value
device-id	Data	1B190000

Once you're done, you should have something similar:

Key	Type	Value
AAPL,ig-platform-id	Data	00001219
framebuffer-patch-enable	Data	01000000
framebuffer-stolenmem	Data	00003001
framebuffer-fbmem	Data	00009000
device-id	Data	1B190000

(This is an example for a desktop HD P530 without a dGPU and no BIOS options for iGPU memory)

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1b,0x0)

layout-id

• Applies AppleALC audio injection, you'll need to do your own research on which codec your motherboard has and match it with AppleALC's layout. AppleALC Supported Codecs.
• You can delete this property outright as it's unused for us at this time

For us, we'll be using the boot-arg alcid=xxx instead to accomplish this. alcid will override all other layout-IDs present. More info on this is covered in the Post-Install Page

Delete

Removes device properties from the map, for us we can ignore this.

Kernel

Add

Here's where we specify which kexts to load, in what specific order to load, and what architectures each kext is meant for. By default we recommend leaving what ProperTree has done, however for 32-bit CPUs please see below:

More in-depth Info

The main thing you need to keep in mind is:

• Load order
  • Remember that any plugins should load after its dependencies
  • This means kexts like Lilu must come before 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.

• Arch
  • Architectures supported by this kext
  • Currently supported values are Any, i386 (32-bit), and x86_64 (64-bit)
• 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 be Contents/MacOS/Kext but some have kexts hidden within under Plugin folder. Do note that plist only kexts do not need this filled in.
  • ex: Contents/MacOS/Lilu
• MinKernel
  • Lowest kernel version your kext will be injected into, see below table for possible values
  • ex. 12.00.00 for OS X 10.8
• MaxKernel
  • Highest kernel version your kext will be injected into, see below table for possible values
  • ex. 11.99.99 for OS X 10.7
• PlistPath
  • Path to the info.plist hidden within the kext
  • ex: Contents/Info.plist

Kernel Support Table

OS X Version	MinKernel	MaxKernel
10.4	8.0.0	8.99.99
10.5	9.0.0	9.99.99
10.6	10.0.0	10.99.99
10.7	11.0.0	11.99.99
10.8	12.0.0	12.99.99
10.9	13.0.0	13.99.99
10.10	14.0.0	14.99.99
10.11	15.0.0	15.99.99
10.12	16.0.0	16.99.99
10.13	17.0.0	17.99.99
10.14	18.0.0	18.99.99
10.15	19.0.0	19.99.99
11	20.0.0	20.99.99

Emulate

Needed for spoofing unsupported CPUs like Pentiums and Celerons

• CpuidMask: Leave this blank
• CpuidData: Leave this blank

Force

Used for loading kexts off system volume, only relevant for older operating systems where certain kexts are not present in the cache(ie. IONetworkingFamily in 10.6).

For us, we can ignore.

Block

Blocks certain kexts from loading. Not relevant for us.

Patch

Patches both the kernel and kexts.

Quirks

Info

Settings relating to the kernel, for us we'll be enabling the following:

Quirk	Enabled	Comment
AppleXcpmCfgLock	YES	Not needed if CFG-Lock is disabled in the BIOS
DisableIOMapper	YES	Not needed if VT-D is disabled in the BIOS
LapicKernelPanic	NO	HP Machines will require this quirk
PanicNoKextDump	YES
PowerTimeoutKernelPanic	YES
XhciPortLimit	YES

More in-depth Info

• AppleCpuPmCfgLock: NO
  • Only needed when CFG-Lock can't be disabled in BIOS
  • Only applicable for Ivy Bridge and older
    • Note: Broadwell and older require this when running 10.10 or older
• AppleXcpmCfgLock: YES
  • Only needed when CFG-Lock can't be disabled in BIOS
  • Only applicable for Haswell and newer
    • Note: Ivy Bridge-E is also included as it's XCPM capable
• CustomSMBIOSGuid: NO
  • Performs GUID patching for UpdateSMBIOSMode set to Custom. Usually relevant for Dell laptops
  • Enabling this quirk with UpdateSMBIOSMode Custom mode can also disable SMBIOS injection into "non-Apple" OSes however we do not endorse this method as it breaks Bootcamp compatibility. Use at your own risk
• 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
• DisableLinkeditJettison: YES
  • Allows Lilu and others to have more reliable performance without keepsyms=1
• 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
• ExtendBTFeatureFlags NO
  • Helpful for those having continuity issues with non-Apple/non-Fenvi cards
• LapicKernelPanic: NO
  • Disables kernel panic on AP core lapic interrupt, generally needed for HP systems. Clover equivalent is Kernel LAPIC
• LegacyCommpage: NO
  • Resolves SSSE3 requirement for 64 Bit CPUs in macOS, mainly relevant for 64-Bit Pentium 4 CPUs(ie. Prescott)
• 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

Scheme

Settings related to legacy booting(ie. 10.4-10.6), for majority you can skip however for those planning to boot legacy OSes you can see below:

More in-depth Info

• FuzzyMatch: True

  • Used for ignoring checksums with kernelcache, instead opting for the latest cache available. Can help improve boot performance on many machines in 10.6

• KernelArch: x86_64

  • Set the kernel's arch type, you can choose between Auto, i386 (32-bit), and x86_64 (64-bit).
  • If you're booting older OSes which require a 32-bit kernel(ie. 10.4 and 10.5) we recommend to set this to Auto and let macOS decide based on your SMBIOS. See below table for supported values:
    • 10.4-10.5 — x86_64, i386 or i386-user32
      • i386-user32 refers 32-bit userspace, so 32-bit CPUs must use this(or CPUs missing SSSE3)
      • x86_64 will still have a 32-bit kernelspace however will ensure 64-bit userspace in 10.4/5
    • 10.6 — i386, i386-user32, or x86_64
    • 10.7 — i386 or x86_64
    • 10.8 or newer — x86_64

• KernelCache: Auto

  • Set kernel cache type, mainly useful for debugging and so we recommend Auto for best support

Misc

Boot

Settings for boot screen (Leave everything as default).

Debug

Info

Helpful for debugging OpenCore boot issues(We'll be changing everything but DisplayDelay):

Quirk	Enabled
AppleDebug	YES
ApplePanic	YES
DisableWatchDog	YES
Target	67

More in-depth Info

• 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
• DisplayLevel: 2147483650
  • Shows even more debug information, requires debug version of OpenCore
• SerialInit: NO
  • Needed for setting up serial output with OpenCore
• SysReport: NO
  • Helpful for debugging such as dumping ACPI tables
  • Note that this is limited to DEBUG versions of OpenCore
• Target: 67
  • Shows more debug information, requires debug version of OpenCore

These values are based of those calculated in OpenCore debugging

Security

Info

Security is pretty self-explanatory, do not skip. We'll be changing the following:

Quirk	Enabled	Comment
AllowNvramReset	YES
AllowSetDefault	YES
BlacklistAppleUpdate	YES
ScanPolicy	0
SecureBootModel	Default	This is a word and is case-sensitive, set to Disabled if you do not want secure boot(ie. you require Nvidia's Web Drivers)
Vault	Optional	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

More in-depth Info

• AllowNvramReset: YES
  • Allows for NVRAM reset both in the boot picker and when pressing Cmd+Opt+P+R
• AllowSetDefault: YES
  • Allow CTRL+Enter and CTRL+Index to set default boot device in the picker
• ApECID: 0
  • Used for netting personalized secure-boot identifiers, currently this quirk is unreliable due to a bug in the macOS installer so we highly encourage you to leave this as default.
• AuthRestart: NO
  • Enables Authenticated restart for FileVault 2 so password is not required on reboot. Can be considered a security risk so optional
• BlacklistAppleUpdate: YES
  • Used for blocking firmware updates, used as extra level of protection as macOS Big Sur no longer uses run-efi-updater variable
• 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 covered here: Using Bootstrap.efi
• DmgLoading: Signed
  • Ensures only signed DMGs load
• 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
• SecureBootModel: Default
  • Enables Apple's secure boot functionality in macOS, please refer to Security section for further details.
  • Note: Users may find upgrading OpenCore on an already installed system can result in early boot failures. To resolve this, see here: Stuck on OCB: LoadImage failed - Security Violation

Tools

Used for running OC debugging tools like the shell, ProperTree's snapshot function will add these for you.

Entries

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

NVRAM

Add

4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14

Used for OpenCore's UI scaling, default will work for us. See in-depth section for more info

More in-depth Info

Booter Path, mainly used for UI Scaling

• UIScale:

  • 01: Standard resolution
  • 02: HiDPI (generally required for FileVault to function correctly on smaller displays)

• DefaultBackgroundColor: Background color used by boot.efi

  • 00000000: Syrah Black
  • BFBFBF00: Light Gray

4D1FDA02-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B30102

OpenCore's NVRAM GUID, mainly relevant for RTCMemoryFixup users

More in-depth Info

• rtc-blacklist: <>
  • To be used in conjunction with RTCMemoryFixup, see here for more info: Fixing RTC write issues
  • Most users can ignore this section

7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82

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.
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
-wegnoegpu	Used for disabling all other GPUs than the integrated Intel iGPU, useful for those wanting to run newer versions of macOS where their dGPU isn't supported

• csr-active-config: 00000000

  • Settings for 'System Integrity Protection' (SIP). It is generally recommended to change this with csrutil via the recovery partition.
  • csr-active-config by default is set to 00000000 which enables System Integrity Protection. You can choose a number of different values but overall we recommend keeping this enabled for best security practices. More info can be found in our troubleshooting page: Disabling SIP

• run-efi-updater: No

  • This is used to prevent Apple's firmware update packages from installing and breaking boot order; this is important as these firmware updates (meant for Macs) will not work.

• 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 input en-US:0 directly instead of converting to HEX

Key	Type	Value
prev-lang:kbd	String	en-US:0

Delete

Info

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. For us, we'll be changing the following:

Quirk	Enabled
WriteFlash	YES

More in-depth Info

• LegacyEnable: NO

  • Allows for NVRAM to be stored on nvram.plist, needed for systems without native NVRAM

• LegacyOverwrite: NO

  • Permits overwriting firmware variables from nvram.plist, only needed for systems without native NVRAM

• LegacySchema

  • Used for assigning NVRAM variables, used with LegacyEnable set to YES

• WriteFlash: YES

  • Enables writing to flash memory for all added variables.

PlatformInfo

Info

For setting up the SMBIOS info, we'll use CorpNewt's GenSMBIOS application.

For this Skylake example, we'll choose the iMac17,1 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:

  #######################################################
 #               iMac17,1 SMBIOS Info                  #
#######################################################

Type:         iMac17,1
Serial:       C02S3HYWGG7L
Board Serial: C02629102GUGPF7AD
SmUUID:       3508AD44-B67D-4AD7-A109-7955130A1033

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"

Apple Check Coverage page

Automatic: YES

• Generates PlatformInfo based on Generic section instead of DataHub, NVRAM, and SMBIOS sections

Generic

More in-depth Info

• AdviseWindows: NO

  • Used for when the EFI partition isn't first on the Windows drive

• SystemMemoryStatus: Auto

  • Sets whether memory is soldered or not in SMBIOS info, purely cosmetic and so we recommend Auto

• ProcessorType: 0

  • Set to 0 for automatic type detection, however this value can be overridden if desired. See AppleSmBios.h for possible values

• SpoofVendor: YES

  • Swaps vendor field for Acidanthera, generally not safe to use Apple as a vendor in most case

• 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
  • Setting to Custom with CustomSMBIOSGuid quirk enabled can also disable SMBIOS injection into "non-Apple" OSes however we do not endorse this method as it breaks Bootcamp compatibility. Use at your own risk

UEFI

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.

Drivers

Add your .efi drivers here.

Only drivers present here should be:

• HfsPlus.efi
• OpenRuntime.efi

APFS

Settings related to the APFS driver, leave everything here as default.

Audio

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

Input

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

Output

Relating to OpenCore's visual output, leave everything here as default as we have no use for these quirks.

ProtocolOverrides

Mainly relevant for Virtual machines, legacy macs and FileVault users. See here for more details: Security and FileVault

Quirks

Info

Relating to quirks with the UEFI environment, for us we'll be changing the following:

Quirk	Enabled	Comment
UnblockFsConnect	NO	Needed mainly by HP motherboards

More in-depth Info

• RequestBootVarRouting: YES

  • Redirects AptioMemoryFix from EFI_GLOBAL_VARIABLE_GUID to OC_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.

• 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

ReservedMemory

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

Cleaning up

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:

• r/Hackintosh Subreddit
• r/Hackintosh Discord

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:

• Sanity Checker

Note that this tool is neither made nor maintained by Dortania, any and all issues with this site should be sent here: Sanity Checker Repo

Intel BIOS settings

• Note: Most of these options may not be present in your firmware, we recommend matching up as closely as possible but don't be too concerned if many of these options are not available in your BIOS

Disable

• Fast Boot
• Secure Boot
• Serial/COM Port
• Parallel Port
• 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 AppleXcpmCfgLock under Kernel -> Quirks. Your hack will not boot with CFG-Lock enabled)

Enable

• VT-x
• Above 4G decoding
• Hyper-Threading
• Execute Disable Bit
• EHCI/XHCI Hand-off
• OS type: Windows 8.1/10 UEFI Mode
• DVMT Pre-Allocated(iGPU Memory): 64MB
• SATA Mode: AHCI

Now with all this done, head to the Installation Page