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Last active October 20, 2021 01:44
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Attempts at installing Mac OS on a Thinkpad T450s
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t450s_hackintosh.md

[NO] = Does not work
[NO ?] = Did not have good results, but still testing
[?] = Still testing

Main methods tried: (working method at bottom)

1. [NO] Searched for GH repos hosting EFIs for T450s setups. One here Following instructions as of 10/18/2021 resulted in OpenCore booting a black screen.
2. [NO ?] Attempting to follow the guide here mentioned in an issue in above repo. MacOS Catalina in VMs run extremely slow.
Following and using the ISO in this guide:

  • VirtualBox 6.26 - Extremely slow
  • VirtualBox 6.20 - Extremely slow
  • VirtualBox 6.10 - Extremely slow
  • VMWare Workstation Pro - Still had USB issues where it would freeze up the guest OS after a short while. Same issue with VirtualBox Edit: plugged in a different USB drive (bye bye mobile music disk). Executing createinstallmedia is making progress copying to disc now

4. [?] Using gibMacOS on Windows to download an online recovery image of Catalina and install alongside OpenCore, but assuming will have same results as 1.

  • Flashing a Catalina (Full Installer) recovery image grabbed by gibMacOS with TransMac
  • Plugging into Mac OS guest session to setup OpenCore EFI environment

5. [?] Using CLOVER bootloader

Working method

(Unfortunately I had to deploy a Mac OS VM)

1. Grabbing a Mac OS ISO

This will probably be a different process for you. I followed this guide at first to deploy a Catalina ISO to VirtualBox, but then ended up deploying to VMWare using this guide since VirtualBox was giving me lots of trouble. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. I seriously wish there was a one-guide-worked-for-all.

2. Creating install media

  • Copying the Install Mac OS Catalina.app to my /Applications folder, I plugged in a USB drive (plug in a decent, preferably new one! It'll save you a lot of trouble, trust me). Format it as HFS+ and with a GPT partition scheme.
diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ MacUSB GPTFormat disk2

MAKE SURE TO REPLACE disk2 AT THE END WITH YOUR DISK DEVICE

  • You can check this with sudo dmesg | grep disk.
  • After formatting, cd into /Applications/Install Mac OS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources and run ./createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MacUSB (MacUSB can be whatever name you picked when you formatted your USB). This will take almost an hour (maybe more, or maybe a lot less), depending on the speed of your USB.

3. Setting up the EFI environment

Originally, I started here at racka98/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T450-T450s-Hackintosh-Guide-Opencore.

  • Now, mount the EFI partition (still in the Mac OS VM) using a script such as MountEFI
  • You should have an empty EFI drive showing up in Finder and in /Volumes/EFI. Either setup OpenCore from scratch here, or copy the EFI directory from the above repo (here). Honestly I've spent two full days on this, I just copied the EFI. I was tired of this
  • Check out this repo as well. It supposedly supports touchscreen and dock, but I'll be testing it out.

4. Boot it up!

  • After OpenCore EFI files have been setup/copied to your EFI partition on the USB, power off your laptop, go into BIOS setup (this is important) and make sure your BIOS looks like the BIOS settings in this guide
  • Now save, reboot, boot your USB, and OpenCore should boot up with an icon of Catalina (or whatever Mac OS you go for) that says "Install Mac OS" or something similar. Select that and go through the install process
  • After the first step of install, after it reboots, don't unplug your USB just yet. Let it boot to USB, but instead of selecting the Catalina icon, select the option to the right of it that looks like a hard drive. (Not "Recovery DMG")
  • It should continue and Mac OS should install

5. Post install (Read this!)

  • You should probably continue following this guide
  • The most important part is verifying OpenCore installed to your hard drive. Mount the EFI partition in your new Mac OS installation. Mount the EFI partition from your USB. Copy all EFI files from the USB to your hard drive EFI partition.
  • Should be good to go!

Upgrading Mac OS

This Reddit comment looks like a worthy guide to follow, but here's my transcription ignoring his mentions of Clover:

We won't be touching the EFI on your Hackintosh until we have a working, updated version of the bootloader (OpenCore, in this case)

  • Copy your working EFI as a backup. I recommend you do so to another hard drive on a working computer (preferably Linux. I'm not sure if Windows will mount your EFI drive on your USB. But VMs should work).
  • Delete the EFI on your USB. Keep the EFI on your working Hackintosh laptop intact. Just in case
  • Replace the EFI on the USB (use MountEFI tool to mount EFI on your Hackintosh) with an updated EFI (kexts and all) where the Mac OS you wish to upgrade to has been tested. For example, OpenCore 0.7.4 for Monterey
  • Reboot the laptop, but boot from the USB and see if the updated bootloader/EFI will boot your current OS. If not (if functions are not working), research and alter configurations. If so, then proceed
  • Boot into your Hackintosh and make necessary backups. Perform the update through System Preferences, cross fingers that it works. Make sure you boot the USB's bootloader!
  • If everything works, copy EFI from USB to hard drive

I will update my process here when I update my Mac OS

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