HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Tower PC (Skylake) for macOS Big Sur & Catalina

Hackintosh your HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Tower PC Skylake. This is intented to create a fully functional hackintosh for the HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Tower PC i7-6700 (Skylake).

Important Notes

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• This guide is for the HP EliteDesk 800 G2 TWR PC i7-6700 (Skylake).
• Following this guide you can run Big Sur 11.0.1. and Catalina 10.5.x up to 10.15.7
• I stopped using Clover. This guide is for OpenCore only. If you need to run Clover for any reason you can check the older Clover Guide
• All files used and detailed readmes are located in github sakoula/HP-EliteDesk-800-G2-6700
• The guide was fully tested with BIOS N01 Ver. 2.36 07/18/2018
• macOS has been installed on an internal SSD. I have no experience of having both Windows and macOS on a single disk.
• The following ports have been disabled to meet the maximum allowed ports in macOS USB back, bottom row/1rst from left/USB back, bottom row, 2nd from left/USB back, bottom row, 3rd from left/USB back, bottom row, 4rth from left. Please see USB mapping if you want to further customize it.
• In order to be able to help you please provide full debug information useing the excellent black-dragon74/OSX-Debug tool.
• Support and Discussion on this guide can be found at tonymacx86.com

Known Issues / Work in Progress

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• sleep hibernation has not checked and is not the focus of the guide
• Audio through DisplayPorts has not checked and is not the focus of the guide
• Enable HiDPI resolutions has not checked and is not the focus of the guide
• in sources.opencore/IM171_0105_B20-10.12.4.firmware update ACPI Tables.zip and sources.opencore/IM171_0110_B00 10.13.0GM ACPI Tables.zip you can find iMac 17,1 ACPI tables from insanelymac. It may be used to create new SSDT patches. All firmwares seems that they are available gdbinit/firmware_vault.

If you face another problem please open a issue.

Hardware Specifications

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• Product Number: L1G77AV
• HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Tower PC

hardware configuration with the following specs:

• Skylake
• Skylake (100 series)
• HP EliteDesk 800 G2 TWR
• MOBO HP 8053 (U3E1)
• Intel® 8 Q170
• BIOS 02.36
• Intel Core i7 6700 @ 3.40GHz Skylake
• GPU: Integrated: Intel® HD Graphics 530 with (2) DisplayPorts with multi – stream and VGA
• 32GB DDR4 2133 DIMM (Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1064MHz (15-15-15-36))
• Audio: Realtek ALC 221 Audio (revision 0x100103)
• Network: Intel® I219LM Gigabit Network Connection LOM
• 500GB Samsung V-NAND SSD 860 EVO MZ-76E500 (Model Code: MZ-76E500B/EU)
• 1000GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003-1SB102 (SATA)
• 1000GB Western Digital Caviar Green WDC WD10EAVS-14M4B0 (SATA)
• display1: HP EliteDisplay E242
• display2: HP EliteDisplay E243i

full specs from the HP site

Table of Contents

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• Dual Monitor
• Installation Guide
  • Installation SSD
  • Keys Shortcuts to Boot
  • BIOS setup
  • Fixing CFG Lock
  • Preparing USB Flash Drive
  • Customize USB Flash Drive
  • Generate a valid SMBIOS
  • Install macOS
  • Post Install
  • Enable TRIM for SSDs
  • Clover to OpenCore Migration
  • Sleep
• Upgrade Guide
  • Upgrade from Catalina 10.15.3 to Catalina 10.15.7
  • Upgrade to Big Sur 11.0.1
• Benchmarking
  • Benchmarking Windows 10
  • Benchmarking macOS 10.14.2 (Clover)
  • Benchmarking macOS 10.15.3 (Clover)
  • Benchmarking macOS 10.15.7 (OpenCore)
• FAQ
  • Disabling SIP
  • OCB: LoadImage failed – Security Violation
  • MacOS installer thinks I am russian
  • OpenCore Sanity Checker
  • Mount Root as read/write
• Changelog
• Buy me a coffee or a beer
• Credits

Dual Monitor

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Dual monitors works. Patching has been done using hackingtool. HotPlugging a monitor is not required. The following patch has been applied

WhateverGreen: weg @ (DBG) agdpmod using config vit9696
WhateverGreen: igfx @ (DBG) patching framebufferId 0x19120000 connector [1] busId: 0x05, pipe: 9, type: 0x00000400, flags: 0x00000187
WhateverGreen: igfx @ (DBG) patching framebufferId 0x19120000 connector [2] busId: 0x06, pipe: 10, type: 0x00000400, flags: 0x00000187
WhateverGreen: igfx @ (DBG) patching framebufferId 0x19120000 connector [3] busId: 0x04, pipe: 10, type: 0x00000400, flags: 0x00000187
WhateverGreen: igfx @ (DBG) patching framebufferId 0x19120000 connector [-1] busId: 0x00, pipe: 0, type: 0x00000001, flags: 0x00000020

Patch

General > Devices/Properties
General > Connectors
General > Auto Detect Changes
Advanced > FB Port Limit 3
Device Id: 0x1912: Intel HD Graphics 530

This configuration works with an HP EliteDisplay E242 on the top DP port and an HP EliteDisplay E243i on the bottom DP port. Very rarely when I pass the boot process and once it turns into ‘graphics mode’ (Apple Logo) the machine sometimes hangs there for some seconds and reboots (Framebuffer is crashing).

I noticed that if I have only one monitor on the top DP port (any) the coputer boots fine and then I can hot plug the other monitor once on the logon screen I do not have any problem.

Installation Guide

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These are the steps in order to install or upgrade your EliteDesk-800. There is a very detailed document on the steps followed and the customizations which can be found in DETAILS.opencore.md.

There is a another document on how I setup my environment including all the tools and utilities I have used ENVIRONMENT.wks.md.

Start by downloading the latest version the customization files from the releases page. It includes:

• ELITEDESK800_EFI/: efi directory including all kexts and customization needed

The guide is being written based on the excellent Dortania guides

Installation SSD

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I have installed macOS on the internal 500GB Samsung V-NAND SSD 860 EVO MZ-76E500 (Model Code: MZ-76E500B/EU).

Keys Shortcuts to Boot

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• F9 Boot Menu
• F10 BIOS
• <ESC> Startup Menu

BIOS setup

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Make sure that you check with this link to update BIOS:

• sp90164: HP EliteDesk 800 G2 TWR/SFF SystemBIOS (N01) / 02.36 Rev.A / Aug 13, 2018

Note: Update the BIOS from the BIOS itself. On a USB stick with an EFI directory place bios file N01_0236.bin in directory EFI/HP/BIOS/new. On Finder create an extra EFI directory under the mounted EFI exactly as OpenCore do.

Get into the BIOS and make the following changes:

BIOS Settings:

• Broke Raid without any problem on booting from one disk (computer came with no raid)
• Setup disk as AHCI (there is no option on the BIOS)
• Advanced > Security > TPM Embedded Security > TPM Device Hidden
• Advanced > Security > BIOS SureStart > Unchecked ALL
• Advanced > Security > System Management Command Unchecked
• Advanced > Security > SIntel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) Disable
• Advanced > Boot Options > UEFI boot order Checked (do this or else it will not boot from the stick)
• Advanced > Boot Options > Audio Alerts During Boot Unchecked
• Advanced > Secure Boot Configuration > Unchecked ALL
• Advanced > Secure Boot Configuration > Configure Legacy Support and Secure Boot Legacy Support Enable and Secure Boot Disable
• Advanced > System Options > Configure Storage Controller for RAID Unchecked
• Advanced > System Options > VTx Checked
• Advanced > System Options > VTd Unchecked
• Advanced > System Options > PCI* Unchecked
• Advanced > System Options > Allow PCIe/PCI SERR# Interrupt Checked
• Advanced > Built-In Device Options > Video memory size 512MB here
• Advanced > Built-In Device Options > Audio Device Checked
• Advanced > Built-In Device Options > Internal Speakers Checked
• Advanced > Port Options > Serial Port A Unchecked
• Advanced > Port Options > SATA* Checked
• Advanced > Port Options > *USB* Checked
• Advanced > Port Options > USB Charging Port Function Checked
• Advanced > Port Options > Media Card Reader/SD_RDR USB Checked
• Advanced > Port Options > Restrict USB Devices Allow all USB Devices
• Advanced > Power Management Options > Runtime Power Management Checked
• Advanced > Power Management Options > Extended Idle Power States Checked
• Advanced > Power Management Options > S5 Maximum Power Savings Checked
• Advanced > Power Management Options > SATA Power Management Checked
• Advanced > Power Management Options > PCI Express Power Management Checked
• Advanced > Power Management Options > Power On from Keyboard Ports Unchecked
• Advanced > Power Management Options > Unique Sleep State Blink Rates Unchecked
• Advanced > Remote Management Options > Active Management (AMT) Unchecked
• Advanced > Option ROM Launch Policy > Configure Option ROM Launch Policy > All UEI for the multimonitor support on boot

Fixing CFG Lock

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CFG Lock removal is not required.

It may be better to remove it. However this cannot be done easily on this BIOS since there is no hidden toggle in the BIOS setup as in others. This is a work in progresss. If you managed to patch it in any way please contact me.

There is a number of information on the Internet. Start here Fixing CFG Lock and see the following reddit posts:

• HP EliteDesk 800 G5 DM, Catalina 10.15.7
• CFG LOCK/Unlocking – Alternative method
• ThinkPad CFG Lock

cannot be removed in this BIOS. This is a work in progress.

Preparing USB Flash Drive

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Get a at least 16GB USB Flash Drive and follow Creating the USB > Making the installer. Follow just the Making the installer Guide.

If you need just a USB stick with OpenCore installation for booting an existing MacOS installation just format the USB stick as following:

Disk Utility > Select USB Device > Erase:

• Scheme = GUID Partition Map
• Name: OC
• Format: macOS Extended (Journaled)

Customize USB Flash Drive

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In this step you will add all the required opencore files to the USB flash drive.

Download the latest release from github and unzip the archive. You will find an ELITEDESK800_EFI directory. Mount the USB Flash Drive’s EFI partition on /Volumes/EFI. You can do this with many utilities (e.g. MountEFI or mount_efi.sh).

Move the ELITEDESK800_EFI to /Volumes/EFI and rename it to EFI. It will look like /Volumes/EFI/EFI

Generate a valid SMBIOS

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Use corpnewt/GenSMBIOS to generate a valid iMac17,1 SMBIOS and populate the following /Volumes/EFI/OC/config.plist with a text editor or corpnewt/ProperTree:

<key>PlatformInfo</key>
<dict>
    ...
    <key>MLB</key>
    <string>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</string>
    ...
    <key>SystemSerialNumber</key>
    <string>XXXXXXXXXXXX</string>
    ...
    <key>SystemUUID</key>
    <string>XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX</string>
    ...
</dict>

a valid SMBIOS is really important for Apple Services, iMessage & FaceTime. Check also the guide An iDiot’s Guide To iMessage

Install macOS

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During the first time you boot you must clear the NVRAM of the system (Clover and other Bootloader leave traces)

To boot from the USB Flash Drive you can just hit F9 and you will get the UEFI boot loader. Once you get to Clover hit space and select CleanNvram.efi. After it completes power off the computer wait for ten seconds and power on again.

Boot again and Install macOS

Post Install

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At this point OpenCore boot loader is installed only in the USB driver. You are required to install it on your bootable disk. Follow Moving OpenCore from USB to macOS Drive

Enable TRIM for SSDs

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Since OpenCore does not reccomends to patch for TRIM using the bootloader you need to enable TRIM for all SSDs manually. Open terminal and use command: sudo trimforce enable. Reboot and check that TRIM is enabled on the Apple > About this Mac > System Report.

Clover to OpenCore Migration

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This section is for those who run Clover and want to migrate to OpenCore. You need to:

1. make sure you have a backup USB flash drive with clover in order to boot your system. Check README.clover.md. If something goes wrong you may end up with an unbootable system! You have been warned!
2. Create a USB flash drive without the macos installer. check Preparing USB Flash Drive and Customize USB Flash Drive.
3. Remove Clover. Check Converting from Clover to OpenCore. TLDR you need to Cleaning the Clover Junk in macOS and Removing kexts from macOS(S/L/E and L/E)
4. Most likely you will hit the stuck on OCB: LoadImage failed – Security Violation. Follow the link and fix it now. Do not disable SecureBootModel. Follow the terminal instructions
5. Boot from the USB and Clear the NVRAM. Check Install macOS section.
6. Boot from the USB flash drive. Make sure you have a working system
7. Move OpenCore from USB to macOS Driver. Check Post Install

Sleep

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check your current state:

$ sudo pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standby              1
 Sleep On Power Button 1
 womp                 1
 autorestart          0
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 proximitywake        1
 powernap             1
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            10
 standbydelayhigh     86400
 sleep                0 (sleep prevented by screensharingd)
 autopoweroffdelay    28800
 hibernatemode        3
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         0
 highstandbythreshold 50
 standbydelaylow      0

Be aware that hibernation (suspend to disk or S4 sleep) is not supported on hackintosh.

You should disable it:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage
sudo mkdir /var/vm/sleepimage

Always check your hibernatemode after updates and disable it. System updates tend to re-enable it, although the trick above (making sleepimage a directory) tends to help.

And it may be a good idea to disable the other hibernation related options:

sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0
sudo pmset -a powernap 0
sudo pmset -a standby 0
sudo pmset -a proxymitywake 0

Upgrade Guide

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Upgrade from Catalina 10.15.3 to Catalina 10.15.7

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Upgrade from within macOS. No special action is needed

Upgrade to Big Sur 11.0.1

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Use the latest release from here boot in Catalina and upgrade.

Benchmarking

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Benchmarking Windows 10

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• GeekBench x64 4.0.3 CPU 4796/15263
• GeekBench x64 4.0.3 CPU 4787/15225
• GeekBench x64 4.0.3 GPU/OpenCl 21496
• GeekBench x64 4.0.3 GPU/OpenCl 21479
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 OpenGL 55.71fps
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 OpenGL 55.53fps
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 CPU 824cb
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 CPU 821cb
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL GPU 2544
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL GPU 2541
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL CPU 2253
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL CPU 2274
• LuxMark-v3.1 Native C++ 2569
• LuxMark-v3.1 Native C++ 2532

Benchmarking macOS 10.14.2 (Clover)

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• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 CPU 4490/16686
• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 GPU/OpenCl 32007
• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 GPU/Metal 23400
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 OpenGL 29.91fps
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 CPU 810cb
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL GPU 2141
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL CPU 1773
• Heaven FPS 13.2 Score 332 Min FPS 9.6 Max FPS 26.1
• AJA System Test Lite SanDisk (with trim) SanDisk SD7SB3Q-256G-1006: 217MB/sec write, 400MB/sec read
• AJA System Test Lite Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003-1SB102: 140MB/sec write, 161MB/sec read
• AJA System Test Lite Western Digital Caviar Green WDC WD10EAVS-14M4B0: 84MB/sec write, 91MB/sec read

Benchmarking macOS 10.15.3 (Clover)

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• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 CPU 4824/16966
• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 GPU/OpenCl 32249
• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 GPU/Metal 23928
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 OpenGL 30.46fps
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 CPU 760cb
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL GPU 2240
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL CPU 1914
• Heaven FPS 12.9 Score 324 Min FPS 8.9 Max FPS 20.8 (fullscreen/Quality:Medium/Tessellation:Disabled/Anti-aliasing:off/Stereo3D:Disabled)
• AJA System Test Lite SanDisk (with trim) Samsung 860 EVO MZ-76E500B/EU: 491MB/sec write, 522MB/sec read
• AJA System Test Lite Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003-1SB102: 127MB/sec write, 144MB/sec read
• AJA System Test Lite Western Digital Caviar Green WDC WD10EAVS-14M4B0: 65MB/sec write, 62MB/sec read

Benchmarking macOS 10.15.7 (OpenCore)

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• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 CPU 5128/17340
• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 GPU/OpenCl 33472
• GeekBench x64 4.3.2 GPU/Metal 23276
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 OpenGL 29.41 fps
• CINEBENCH R15.038_RC184115 CPU 796cb
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL GPU 2204
• LuxMark-v3.1 OpenCL CPU
• Heaven FPS Score Min FPS Max FPS
• AJA System Test Lite SanDisk (with trim) Samsung 860 EVO MZ-76E500B/EU: 456MB/sec write, 490MB/sec read
• AJA System Test Lite Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003-1SB102: 122MB/sec write, 130MB/sec read
• AJA System Test Lite Western Digital Caviar Green WDC WD10EAVS-14M4B0: 61MB/sec write, 70MB/sec read

FAQ

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Disabling SIP

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Disabling SIP

OCB: LoadImage failed – Security Violation

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Users may find upgrading OpenCore on an already installed system can result in early boot failures due to Security > SecureBootModel > Default OCB: LoadImage failed – Security Violation

MacOS installer thinks I am russian

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macOS installer in Russian

OpenCore Sanity Checker

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make sure to check your config.plist against OpenCore Sanity Checker

Mount Root as read/write

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Apple has introduce SSV (signed system volumes). SSV features a kernel mechanism that verifies the integrity of the system content at runtime, and rejects any data — code and non-code — that doesn’t have a valid cryptographic signature from Apple. In order to make root volume writable you need to disable, mount it, change it, create a new snapshot and boot from that snapshot. I am not responsible if you make your machine unbootable. This may break OS updates. Check how to do it @ macOS 11 Big Sur and Mount root as writable in Big Sur

Steps:

1. Boot from recovery and disable SSV (this will be permanent)

csrutil authenticated-root disable

2. Boot on macos and mount your root volume as writable. Find your root mount’s device – run mount and chop off the last s, e.g. if your root is /dev/disk1s2s3, you’ll mount /dev/disk1s2

$ mount
/dev/disk2s5s1 on / (apfs, sealed, local, read-only, journaled)
$ mkdir /Users/xxx/mount
sudo mount -o nobrowse -t apfs /dev/disk2s5 /Users/xxx/mount

3. Make any modifications you want in /Users/xxx/mount
4. Generate and tag new APFS System Snapshot as follows and make it bootable

# Create snapshot.
sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_systemsnapshot -s "ChangedRoot" -v /Users/xxx/mount

# Tag snapshot for next boot.
sudo /System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_systemsnapshot -r "ChangedRoot" -v /Users/xxx/mount

5. reboot and you are done
6. check the snapshots XXX how do you delete snapshot history?

$ diskutil apfs snapshots disk2s5s1
Snapshots for disk2s5s1 (3 found)
|
+-- AFD82B0C-23D3-481B-9401-0A17DC46C1EC
|   Name:        com.apple.os.update-779BDF1556C6F688504E24FB29C75AFFABFCB91E701806FFFF35235E19914F1E
|   XID:         489684
|   Purgeable:   No
|   NOTE:        This snapshot limits the minimum size of APFS Container disk2
|
+-- 4A6FACBE-2667-4127-8143-646C38E3C3B4
|   Name:        ChangedRoot
|   XID:         490985
|   Purgeable:   Yes
|
+-- 3DC0C93D-F858-4420-AC0B-49FDF23D5C3A
    Name:        NewRoot
    XID:         9223372036855268389
    Purgeable:   Yes

Changelog

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You can view Changelog for detailed information.

Buy me a coffee or a beer

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If you feel so you can buy me a coffee or a beer!

Credits

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• Thanks to Piker-Alpha
• Thanks to vit9696/Acidanthera for providing AppleALC, CPUFriend, HibernationFixup, Lilu, USBPorts, VirtualSMC, and WhateverGreen.
• Thanks to Dortania for their amazing guides!
• Thanks to apianti, blackosx, blusseau, dmazar, and slice2009 for providing Clover.
• Thanks to RehabMan for providing EAPD-Codec-Commander, OS-X-Clover-Laptop-Config, OS-X-Null-Ethernet, OS-X-ACPI-Battery-Driver, OS-X-Voodoo-PS2-Controller, and SATA-unsupported and all the amazing help in the forums.
• Thanks to sniki and his guide on [Guide] HP Elite 8300 / HP 6300 Pro using Clover UEFI hotpatch
• Thanks to edelton and his guide HP EliteDesk 800 G2 / HP ProDesk 600 G2 – SUCCESS