[help me please] booting catalina with clover r5146

[pink101]

Since M1 mac was out, i convince myself that i'm done with hackintoshing and will buy a real macbook instead, but.... a week ago my friend ask me to help him installing catalina on his PC, so while i'm helping him with his PC, i was thinking what if i could install catalina to my old AMD PC as well.... Now the problem is that the installer wont boot on both my friend PC (an Intel Xeon W3520 X58 chipset) and my AMD PC ( Biostar A68n-5600) could anyone help me with it please? and please don't tell me to use OpenCore, because this will be my last hackintosh build and if i could, i will not switch my bootloader to OC....

I dont know whats wrong with the setting, but the same bootloader (clover r5146) can easily boot into my previous hackintosh (which is yosemite 10.10.5)...
below is the output from lshw from linux on my AMD PC and EFI Folder of the installer. when booted with debug option enabled, it stop when the screen said something like "paused for 5 secs"... note that the same bootloader can boot my yosemite 10.10.5 hackintosh with no problem.... the same problem also happen on my friend's Xeon PC.. i tried the latest virtualsmc.kext that i could find on github...

 

[Edhawk]

First the version of Clover you are using is not 5146. You are using Clover_r4119, as stated in the Clover_Install_Log.txt, which accompanied the EFI folder you provided above.

I have edited the Clover EFI you provided to better match what your AMD 4-core Bulldozer system requires. Similar to the Clover setup I used with my FX8350 system.

This revised Clover EFI should work with your AMD Biostar system. It will not work with your friends Intel system, your friend requires a completely different EFI for their Legacy Intel system.

Try this EFI and see what happens, post a photo of the screen if the system kernel panics.

 

[Edhawk]

While you may not like the idea of switching to OpenCore it is a better bootloader for your AMD system, as it has a lot more features that can be set specifically for the AMD CPU and motherboard.

Here is an OpenCore EFI set for a 4-core CPU like yours. To try this all you need to do is rename the folder to EFI, from EFI-OC-4-core. Copy it to your USB installer and it should boot in to macOS Catalina with no issues.

It uses the same SMBIOS data as the Clover EFI in the post above, MacPro6,1, which is a good system to use when you don't have an IGPU and are using an Nvidia GPU.

See if this works better than the Clover EFI.

 

[pink101]

While you may not like the idea of switching to OpenCore it is a better bootloader for your AMD system, as it has a lot more features that can be set specifically for the AMD CPU and motherboard.

Here is an OpenCore EFI set for a 4-core CPU like yours. To try this all you need to do is rename the folder to EFI, from EFI-OC-4-core. Copy it to your USB installer and it should boot in to macOS Catalina with no issues.

It uses the same SMBIOS data as the Clover EFI in the post above, MacPro6,1, which is a good system to use when you don't have an IGPU and are using an Nvidia GPU.

See if this works better than the Clover EFI.

Thanks man... i'll try it when i got home... i've downloaded your EFI setting but haven't tried in in my system... i'll report back when i got home... thanks...

 

[pink101]

H*ly s**t, at first i tought it wont work because it look like it was hang for about couples of minutes, then as my brother come to my room and talk, i let the computer alone and suddenly the kernel was loading... Maybe all this time i tought that the opencore bootloader was hanging it acctually wasn't.. It just took a while to load and patched the kernel... However, the kernel was stuck at glIOScreenlockState... Is it because i'm still using dvi port? Should i switch to HDMI port? I'm asking this because the last time i install hackintosh(mojave) on my friend's PC (the xeon pc with radeon hd 7770) the dvi port wasnt working, only the HDMI port that was working...

Btw is it normal for the installer to boot in more than an hour to get to the glioscreenlockstate? it's possible that it took that long because i put the usb installer on USB 2.0 port... i tried to put the installer in USB 3.0 port and it ran a lot faster but it hang earlier than when i put it in USB 2.0 port... it look like the XLNCUSBfix.kext wasn't doing its job... it stopped at waiting for root device if i'm not mistaken...

 

[pink101]

This is where the installer stop..

 

[Edhawk]

The 'Waiting for Root Device' error means that the system is losing the USB port the installer is plugged in to, as it transfers from the Bios to the OS installers control.

Easiest way to get around this issue is to move the USB installer to an alternative port, before the system completely crashes. Using a USB2 port may be slower but usually results in the system booting, even if it takes some time.

Yes, long delays when booting and installing macOS an old AMD system are common place. You really need to be patient. Working out which USB ports are retained from the Bios to the OS's control can be time consuming and take many trials.

Have a read of this guide I put together for my FX8350 system - https://forum.amd-osx.com/index.php...0-oc-0-7-6-big-sur-11-6-2-monterey-12-1.2400/

It might shed some light on what is happening.

 

[pink101]

The 'Waiting for Root Device' error means that the system is losing the USB port the installer is plugged in to, as it transfers from the Bios to the OS installers control.

Easiest way to get around this issue is to move the USB installer to an alternative port, before the system completely crashes. Using a USB2 port may be slower but usually results in the system booting, even if it takes some time.

Yes, long delays when booting and installing macOS an old AMD system are common place. You really need to be patient. Working out which USB ports are retained from the Bios to the OS's control can be time consuming and take many trials.

Have a read of this guide I put together for my FX8350 system - https://forum.amd-osx.com/index.php...0-oc-0-7-6-big-sur-11-6-2-monterey-12-1.2400/

It might shed some light on what is happening.

thank's Edhawk for the help... i think i can call this installation a success.... i finally can boot into catalina... there's nothing wrong with my previous usb installation, but because it's so slow, i decided to remake the installation using my unused IDE hardisk 13GB with the help of IDE to SATA adaptor and run the installation from there. It run much faster than using USB2 flashdisk...
i guess for the sound, only VoodooHDA that works with old AMD system isn't it? the AppleALC.kext is only for ryzen if i'm not mistaken.... btw here's the screenshot:

 

[Edhawk]

Great to see you have the system up and running.

Yes, VoodooHDA.kext is more likely to work with the old AMD motherboard.

 

[trajan]

While you may not like the idea of switching to OpenCore it is a better bootloader for your AMD system, as it has a lot more features that can be set specifically for the AMD CPU and motherboard.

Here is an OpenCore EFI set for a 4-core CPU like yours. To try this all you need to do is rename the folder to EFI, from EFI-OC-4-core. Copy it to your USB installer and it should boot in to macOS Catalina with no issues.

It uses the same SMBIOS data as the Clover EFI in the post above, MacPro6,1, which is a good system to use when you don't have an IGPU and are using an Nvidia GPU.

See if this works better than the Clover EFI.

OpenCore is not good for AMD mobile GPUs cause it cant load a VBios. If it can its a pain in the ass . Open Core is a pain in the ass for laptops . I want someone to prove me wrong but Clover is much better for many right now.

 

[Edhawk]

@trajan if you get an AMD laptop running macOS Catalina, or any version of macOS for that matter, while using the APU then you are doing better than anyone else. As to my knowledge no AMD APU's are supported in macOS. Best that they can provide is graphics in VESA mode, which is blocky, low resolution and no acceleration. So using macOS is painfully slow and plagued with graphics issues. Thats if it will boot!

If your laptop has an AMD APU and a second/discrete GPU with MUX capabilities, then you may be able to install macOS. But that would depend on whether or not the discrete GPU (dGPU) is supported in macOS.

Also as far as boot loaders go, recent versions of Clover have incorporated a lot of what OpenCore provides. It is now a bastardised bootloader, as it first runs the Clover processes and then the OpenCore processes. If you are going to use OpenCore via a third-party you may as well take the next logical step and switch to OpenCore.

If Clover was as good as you think, then the developers wouldn't have needed to incorporate the OpenCore processes to run the latest versions of macOS. As without this OC processes Clover can't run Big Sur or Monterey. Unlike OpenCore, which has been designed to be able to run all versions of macOS that have been released for the Intel Mac.

 

[Steen]

OpenCore is not good for AMD mobile GPUs cause it cant load a VBios. If it can its a pain in the ass . Open Core is a pain in the ass for laptops . I want someone to prove me wrong but Clover is much better for many right now.

I've used both. I have far more experience with Clover than OC (~ eight vs one). Right now I would have to say OC is by far the better way to go. I've not had my build under OC bork after two OS update vs Clover is a no-no. It also a lot easier and faster to build once you get used to the drastic change.

What you say about AMD APU make no sense to me. You imply Clover has way to enable iGPU of AMD? If so where? I am very new to AMD-OSX build as my very first and very first on OC, but I never hear of this so very new?

Don't be afraid of new and improved. I remember in movies where the 'talkies' were a fad, 'who need stereo sound', and colour was unneeded luxury.

Try yourself maybe you like it?

Cheers!