Note: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU MESS UP YOUR COMPUTER USING THIS GUIDE!
I am by no means an expert and would welcome advice on how to improve. I'm open for any cooperation and will try maintain this repository as much as possible. Please fill free to create Pull Requests.
I have been using Apple hardware and software since the mid 90's and it's has been the best OS to meet my needs. I've had an MBP (15", 2017) for the last few years but for various reasons, have not been 100% happy. I've Hackintoshed a few PC laptops in the early days, borne mainly out of my love of Linux and my most resent success was with a Razer Blade Advanced 2019 using the excellent StoneEvil guide. Whilst an excellent machine, it's just a tad too big for my needs, so decided to go the Stealth route. The following catalogues my pains to get this to the same level as my old Blade 15 Advanced.
Purpose
- Cloud and DevOps.
- iOS development.
- Infrequent gaming.
Razer Blade Stealth late 2019 GTX
| Item | Spec | Working |
|---|---|---|
CPU |
Quad-Core 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1065G7 Processor with Hyper-Threading 1.3 GHz / 3.9 GHz (Base/Turbo) | Yes |
Memory |
16GB LPDDR4 3733MHz dual-channel onboard memory (Fixed) | Yes |
GPU |
Intel UHD Iris Plus | Not yet |
dGPU |
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 VRAM | No dirvers for this card. ACPI should be patched to disable dGPU |
Storage |
256GB PCIe M.2 | Yes |
Screen |
13.3" FHD Matte (1920 X 1080), 100% sRGB, 4.9mm slim side bezels | Yes (although shows as a projector?) |
Webcam |
Webcam (720P) | Yes. Windows Hello is not supported in macOS |
WiFi |
Intel Wireless-AC 9560NGW | Drivers absent for macOS. Should replaced |
Input & Output |
USB-C 3.1 Gen 2, power port 2x Type-A USB 3.1 | Yes |
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) |
Yes | |
Soundboard |
Realtek ALC298 | Not yet |
Battery |
53Wh | No |
Keyboard |
Keyboard with Razer Chroma™ single-zone full key backlighting | Yes |
Touchpad |
Precision Glass | Not yet |
Full Official Spec list here : Razer
The bundled WiFI and NVMe is not compatible with macOS and should be replaced. I replaced my Wifi / BT card with a Broadcom (DW-1560) and the SSD was replaced by a DataRAM 1TB NVME card.
Accessories
| Accessories | Description |
|---|---|
USB mouse |
Trackpad will be unavailable during macOS installation procedure |
USB storage with at least 16Gb storage |
Installation USB media |
WiFi
| WiFi module | Description |
|---|---|
BCM94352Z (DW-1560) |
Recommended. 2 antennas. No issues. Additional kext's are required. Easily to find for $24-60 on |
BCM943602BAED (DW-1830) |
3 antennas. RBA have only 2. Works out of the box. |
ACPI directory. This contains all the decompiled '.aml' files for review.
OC directory. This is my current working 'OC' directory within my EFI directory.
img directory. Images use in this ReadMe and also screenshots that support ACPI alterations.
- Create the install media
- Collect and compile the ACPI files
- Collect the kext's needed
- create the config.plist
- Install OSX
- Copy the EFI onto your bootable drive
- Post Install setups
Create the install media
So, I'm lucky enough to have a Mac already, so these instructions are based on this fact.
I followed the instructions detailed here and downloaded the installer files using gibMacOS and creating the packages. Prep your USB drive and create the Installer USB using the 'createInstallmedia' command.
sudo /path/to/installer-app/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyNewlyFormattedUSB
After creation, copy the OpenCore EFI files over. I followed this guide. The result can be found in the OC folder of this repo.
Folowing on from the install media, the ACPI files were next. Using the guide, we see that we need these SSDT's.
CPU
First up, CPU power management.
The Blade Stealth (according to Device Manager in Windows) has the ACPI path of _SB.PR00 (up to 07) so we can remove all but this reference in the SSDT-PLUG.dsl and then compile.
Embedded Controller
Next, the embedded controller.
So, back in the Windows Device Manager, the EC is shown as _SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0. However, this Blade DOES fall into an Edge case as outlined here
As shown in the DSDT dump from the Blade:
So although the EC is OK, we still need to create a fake EC for OSX to use as it looks for the path EC in the ACPI table. Also, as the Blade is a newer than SkyLake, we will need the SSDT-USBX.aml for USBX.
Backlight
Next, the backlight. I'll go through this process, however we know already that there are issues (currently) with the Mobile Icelake chipset...
Back to Windows Device Manager, we find the ACPI path name for the device:
So, as we're CoffeeLake or newer, we need the SSDT-PNLF-CFL.dsl for our start. This file by default, this uses PCI0.GFX0 for the pathing. So we don't need to do anything. Just compile and move to the next :)
We cannot properly test this until the issues with the IceLake chipset have been resolved, but it's good to have the ACPI patches in place.
System Clocks
According the system DSDT for the Blade, the AWAC clock can be disabled with STAS:
and enable the RTC
So all we need to do is grab the default SSDT-AWAC.dsl and compile.
USB Fixing
The ACPI path for RHUB on the Blade is \_SB.PCI0.XHC.RHUB as shown by the DSDT dump:
So all we need to do is grab the SSDT-RHUB.dsl and alter the path from the file default of SB_.PCI0.XHC1.RHUB to the Blades SB_.PCI0.XHC.RHUB, save and complile.
Trackpad
This was a challenge on my last Blade (the 15" Advanced 2019 model) and needed GPIO pinning to work successfully. However, I've not managed to get this working yet. I will, however, go through the process of what I have done so far.
Following this guide
First, by looking at the STATUS method, I can see the Blade has only one condition, GPHD.
We want is for this to always return 0x0F when booting macOS, so we want to make an SSDT that will return GPHD == Zero.
After making the amendments to the SSDT-GPI0.dsl this is compiled and added to the ACPI folder and the config.plist.
BUT... This is not working. Someone suggested that it was to do with the IceLake addressing in VoodooIC so I downloaded the repo including the latest changes that included the IceLake PCI addressing and compiled the kext. This still doesn't work :(