Lenovo T490 macOS with OpenCore

Status: WIP

Update: This project will no longer be actively maintained, since I recently got an M1 MacBook. I may still update OpenCore and the kexts every once in a while but no promises about that. Feel free to fork this repo if you want to see this project live on!

This repo contains information for getting macOS 11 Big Sur working on a Lenovo T490 laptop.

The compatibility is very good for the most part, and it behaves as a real MacBook Pro, including camera, audio, trackpad, iCloud services. In general, the experience is pleasant, as the laptop is smooth and responsive under macOS. Battery life is acceptable (around 6h with the brightness set to half). The Intel WiFi card is soldered onto the motherboard, which means it can’t be replaced with a Broadcom one, but the Intel card is now functional – I am getting 150/20 mbit up/down on a 200/20 connection. With the latest AirportItlwm kext even Handoff and continuity features are working, except for AirDrop.

Currently running:

Hardware info

Note on NVME storage: Samsung PM981 drives will not work out of the box if at all, consider replacing the drive if you have one (issue)

Status

Working

•  Keyboard (including all media keys)
•  Battery indicator
•  Display auto brightness
•  Audio
•  Ethernet
•  iCloud services – iMessage, FaceTime, AppStore
•  GPU acceleration
•  Camera
•  Microphone
•  Bluetooth
•  Mac-like booting interface for multiboot
•  Sleep/wake
•  Trackpad and gestures
•  Native CPU power management
•  HDMI video and audio up to 1440p
•  Handoff, continuity
•  AirPlay
•  FileVault
•  DRM content playback (Netflix, Apple TV+)
•  Thunderbolt – works with Lenovo Thinkpad Thunderbolt 3 Dock (tested Ethernet, display over DisplayPort and HDMI, USB ports)

Working, sort of

•  Wifi works but not at full speeds
•  Audio jack – glitches after wake from sleep. I don’t use it so won’t fix but will merge pull requests
•  USB-C video output works, but no audio

Not working at the moment

•  HDMI video at 4K
•  SD card reader – I don’t use it so won’t fix but will merge pull requests
•  AirDrop

Not tested

•  Sidecar

Kexts

ACPI patches