Dell PowerEdge T30 Hackintosh

**** NOTE: I’ve switched from Clover to OC and will not be updating/supporting the Clover version. The OC version needs a small bit of cleanup work for the config.plist but runs rock solid and pretty much everything works properly. ****

Index

• Overview
• Installation:
  • BIOS Settings
  • Download and create the installer
  • Copy EFI folder
  • Editing config.plist
  • First boot!
  • UEFI Modifications
  • Installing macOS
  • Post-install
• Sleep
  • Sleep
  • Power management
• USB
  • Portmap
• Others
  • iGPU
  • dGPU
  • SMBIOS
  • Fan curve move like a Mac
  • SIP
  • Security
  • Issues
  • Notes
• Credits

Overview

Almost everything works properly and is very stable:

• audio (onboard, via dGPU’s DP, and via USB BT)
• nightshift
• App Store and iServices
• CPU PM
• wifi (requires disabling SIP to install for my drivers)
• bluetooth
• DRM (except for Apple TV)
• Intel Quicksync
• sleep (HDR toggles itself on sometimes upon resume which sucks because it looks like garbage on my monitor when not viewing actual HDR content; haven’t tried to fix yet); wakes up from sleep via BT keyboard or mouse quickly and reliably
• restarts/shutdowns
• recovery
• NVRAM
• extra sensors and fan speed controls via apps

Editing config.plist

Inside the EFI/OC folder on your installer open config.plist and edit/populate the following fields:

PlatformInfo -> Generic -> MLB
PlatformInfo -> Generic -> ROM
PlatformInfo -> Generic -> SystemSerialNumber
PlatformInfo -> Generic -> SystemUUID

You can generate the MLB/Serial/UUID serials with GenSMBIOS. Use option 3 and enter iMac17,1 when asked for the type of SMBIOS to create. If you need to change the model in the future you also need to re-generate a new set of serials, UUID and usb portmap.

Put your ethernet mac address in the ROM field without semicolons. Fixing this post-install is also an option, but is important so don’t skip it.

For more information on setting up OpenCore please refer to this very well written guide that has helped realise this very setup.

Please use ProperTree to edit the OpenCore config.

System Specs

Part	Model Number
CPU	Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1225 v5 @ 3.30GHz (Quad Core)
PSU	Corsair 500W 80 Plus Gold w/ 24-pin to 8-pin adapter
Motherboard	Dell 07T4MC
BIOS	1.4.1
Chipset	Intel C236
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB DDR4-3200MHz non-ECC 16GB x 4 (PN: CMK32GX4M2B3200C16)
GPU	Intel HD P530 iGPU
	MSI RX 570 GAMING X 8GB – slot 1
Monitor	LG 27UK650-W 27″ 4K IPS w/ HDR10
Display Cable	included LG DP cable
Storage	Samsung 830 Series 250GB SSD ()
	PNY CS900 240GB SSD (Revision CS900J13) x2
	Toshiba MQ01ABD100 1TB HDD
Bluetooth	ASUS USB-BT400 (Firmware: v14 c4096)
Wifi	ASUS AC1200 USB-AC53 Nano (using chris111’s drivers)
Ethernet	Intel I219LM2 (onboard)
USB	Intel 100 Series/C230 Series USB 3.00 xHCI Controller
Sound	Realtek ALC899 (Layout ID: 3)
Keyboard	Logitech MX Keys (connected using Logitech Unified receiver)
Mouse	Logitech M590 (connected using Logitech Unified receiver on a USB extension to prevent lag from RF interference)
Bootloader	Clover r5120 OpenCore 0.6.2

BIOS Configuration

• optimized defaults
• storage to AHCI mode
• enable USB powershare
• set preferred graphics to AMD (don’t use auto! set to P530 if you are using the iGPU)
• disable Wake on LAN
• disable TPM (should be by default)
• disable Secure Boot (should be by default)

The rest of the recommended settings are already the defaults used by this BIOS. DVMT is 32MB for the iGPU and setup doesn’t expose a means to change this. I modified it via setup_var and the modified GRUB shell while trying to get an iGPU-only setup working with a 4k display with no luck. Many forum posts say not to try and change DVMT pre-alloc via GRUB; if you break your system don’t be upset as you were warned.

[add screenshots]

UEFI Modifications

These are MY settings given BIOS version 1.4.1 and board 07T4MC. You need to check these offsets and make sure that they’re correct for your machine before trying to change things.

1. Disable CFG Lock

setup_var 0xAF 0x0

CFG Lock Options in BIOS 1.4.1

2. Enable Above 4GB MMIO BIOS Assignment

setup_var 0x355 0x1

3. Set DVMT pre-alloc to 64MB (or greater)

setup_var 0x350 0x2

DVMT Pre-Allocated Options in BIOS 1.4.1

4. Set DVMT Total Gfx Memory to MAX

setup_var 0x351 0x3

DVMT Total Gfx Memory Options in BIOS 1.4.1

This EFI will not work unless you make all of the UEFI modifications. If you’re not up for that, you’ll need to add npci=0x2000 to your boot args, enable KernelPm and AppleIntelCPUPM in your config.plist.

Post-install

Sleep

Sleep is working as it should. It will fall asleep automatically after a while. Waking up the machine can be done with a bluetooth or usb keyboard/mouse. Apple has removed the slider to control this but it does go to sleep on its own. Manual sleep also works, it takes about 30 seconds. Hibernation is disabled by default on desktops. For good measure lets disable stand-by and auto power off.

sudo pmset -a standby 0
sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0

If you don’t plan on enabling hibernation you can delete the sleepimage to regain some space. Delete the file and create a folder so macOS can’t generate the sleepimage file again.

sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage
sudo mkdir /var/vm/sleepimage

Power Nap is enabled and doesn’t cause any issues with sleep. Not sure if it actually works though (doing Time Machine backups while sleeping, etc). Don’t want Power Nap? Disable it while you’re here; sudo pmset -a powernap 0

Verify the settings with pmset -g.

Power Management

CPU power management works fine as does sleep.

[add intel power gadget screenshot]

USB Portmap

I created an injector kext using hackintool which you can use to save some time. One port had to be disabled in order to get down to the 15 port limit; I went with the bottom port on the front panel of the case. You could just as easily set a USB 3.0 port to USB 2.0 to get to 15 ports, too if you prefer.

If you’d like to create your own port mapping follow these steps:

1. Open your OpenCore config and set Kernel -> Add -> 6 -> USBPorts.kext to disabled and enable Kernel -> Quirks -> XhciPortLimit.
2. Reboot.
3. Open Hackintool and go to the usb tab, select all ports listed and remove them, then click the refresh button.
4. Plug a usb 2 device in every usb port.
5. Plug a usb 3 device in every usb port.
6. Remove anything not green, you should be left with 16 green ports.
7. Make sure all the HSxx ports are set to usb 2 and SSPx ports are to usb 3.
8. Remove one port to get down to the 15 port limit.
9. Click on the export button and place the resulting USBPorts.kext in the OpenCore kexts folder (overwriting the existing one).
10. Open your OpenCore config and set Kernel -> Add -> 6 -> USBPorts.kext to enabled and disable Kernel -> Quirks -> XhciPortLimit.
11. Reboot.

[add port diagram and hackintool screenshot]

dGPU

The current config assumes you have an AMD GPU and a Xeon E3-1225v5 with the Intel HD P530 iGPU in headless mode.

If you don’t plan on using the iGPU at all (i.e. no display connected) you can delete the whole PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0) section and WhateverGreen should automatically configure it as computing device. It can do video encoding/decoding and such. You will also need to change the BIOS and make the dGPU the primary video card for encoding/decoding to work.

iGPU

The Intel HD P530 that my Xeon has is 100% supported by macOS but requires a few device properties so it is recognized as a supported Skylake device.

The real device ID 0x191D will not allow hardware acceleration and needs to be adjusted to the nearest natively supported option that shipped in a real Mac.

After comparing the Skylake CPUs which Apple offered to my Xeon on Intel’s Ark I decided that 0x1912 would be the closest device ID.

I setup the framebuffer as follows within the device properties section:

• AAPL,ig-platform-id
  • 0x19120000
    • 00001219
• device-id
  • 0x1912
    • 12190000

With these settings I had full hardware video acceleration and was able to view DRM-protected content (FairPlay 1.x and FairPlay 2.x/3.x). FairPlay 4.x for Apple TV is not working for me and I’m not sure why yet. I’m guessing it’s because my system doesn’t have a fully supported wifi/bt setup and my USB wifi adapter is seen as an ethernet interface.

SMBIOS

It’s best to use a model that matches your processor as closely as possible.

The iMac17,1 SMBIOS is recommended for Skylake desktops if you have an iGPU+GPU combo.

The iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS should be used if you only have a dGPU. These two options are the only Macs that shipped with Skylake CPUs.

Readme

• Read everything first and be careful
• Tested on macOS Catalina 10.15.7

macOS Updates

• fresh install of 10.15.6
• updated to 10.15.7 without any issues (did not update clover or kexts since everything was running perfectly smooth as-is)

Geek Bench

Credits

• Shouts to zearp for his excellent Optihack repo which I’ve modeled mine after.
• The Acidanthera team — OpenCore(!), WhatEverGreen, Lilu, VirtualSMC, AppleALC, etc, etc. Amazing work.
• Dortania — Vanilla Desktop Guide, without this I wouldn’t have gotten far.
• headkaze — Hackintool (an essential) and EFI-Agent is pretty sweet too.
• corpnewt — Many essential tools, guides/documentation, simply great!
• Apple — for creating such a great OS that we go through all of this to run it.
• And many, many more I forgot.