Gigabyte Designaire Z390 - OpenCore - macOS Catalina Big Sur

NOTE: The latest release is for Big Sur may not work with Catalina anymore. See the previous release if you are still on Catalina.

⭐️ Thank you guys for all the stars! ⭐️

Benchmarks (Geekbench)

CPU:

• Single-core: 1261
• Multi-core: 7901

Compute (GPU):

• Metals: 59488
• OpenCL: 51655

Table of contents

• Features
• Hardware
• Functionality (aka "what works" and "what doesn't work)
• Installation
• About the EFI
• Troubleshooting
• Changelog
• Releases
• Issues

Features

• macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 (20B29)
  • For Catalina, see this release. It seems to be pretty stable and I can make new Catalina releases if needed, just open an issue.
• OpenCore 0.6.3 (release mode)
• OpenCanopy (boot UI -- but no boot chime)
• Almost plug-n-play if you have my hardware configuration
• Regularly updated
• Pretty stable (my every-day driver)
• I suffer so you don't have to! 👨‍🎤

This EFI is a revision of the previous Clover EFI that I posted. Given that OpenCore has a definitive and always-up-to-date installation guide (a much welcome change from Clover), you should read it in addition to using this EFI.

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Hardware

Primary System

Component	Product
CPU	Intel Core i9 9900K
MB	Gigabyte Designaire Z390 (rev 10)
GPU	AMD Radeon VII 16 GB
SSD	Samsung EVO 970 (NVMe - 1TB)
BT/Wi-Fi	Fenvi T919 Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Card

Verified Secondary System

I can also confirm that this basically also works on my wife's computer whose specs are below.

Component	Product
CPU	Intel Core i7 8700K
MB	Asus ROG Maximus X Hero (Wi-Fi AC) Z370
GPU	AMD Radeon VII 16 GB
SSD	Samsung 860 EVO SSD (1TB)
BT/Wi-Fi	Fenvi T919 Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Card

Other Configurations

• Without a dedicated GPU
• Other AMD GPU's are probably mostly plug-n-play. Be sure to read the fantastic Buyer's Guide by Dortania before you buy!.
• MacOS Big Sur Beta: According to this issue, this EFI reportedly works for the Big Sur beta with nearly no modifications. Additional confirmation required on the base system.

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Functionality

What works

• Bluetooth & Wi-Fi
• AirDrop and other continuity features
• Audio (rear 3.5mm audio jack works, haven't tested the front)
• Shutdown / Restart / Sleep
• USB 3.0/3/1
• Thunderbolt 3 (including charging and hot-swapping)
• NVMe
• APFS (actually, APFS is required for this build)
• iMessage, AirDrop, etc.
• Sidecar

What doesn't work

• Emulated NVRAM (it's a Z390 after all) ☹ - please comment on the issue if you know of a resolution.

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Installation

Customize the config.plist

The following fields have been replaced by [REPLACEME] (for ease of Cmd+F):

• config.plist > PlatformInfo
  • SystemSerialNumber
  • SystemUUID
  • MLB Follow these instructions to generate your own unique identifiers. The AppleCare step is optional.

Update your motherboard's BIOS firmware

• Visit Gigabyte's website and make sure you're running the latest version of the bios
  • I'm on version F9i but any later version should work

BIOS configuration

Visit the BIOS configuration page to ensure that your BIOS is configured properly.

Note: If you've recently updated your BIOS firmware, you will need to double-check these as some of them get reset after updating!

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About this custom EFI

Most important differences from The Official Guide

The primary changes that I remember making that differ from the fantastic OpenCore Desktop Guide for Coffee Lake are:

• boot args slide=0 alcid=7
• Adding my own USB map kext (USBPorts.kext) that shuts off the MoBo's built-in Wi-Fi card so that I can use the Fenvi No longer necessary as of macOS Big Sur
• Adding the HfsPlus.efi driver
• All packages are RELEASE and debugging is enabled. If you're having issues, be sure to enable debugging as described in the OpenCore docs, and also grab the DEBUG version of OpenCorePkg. For debugging help see the Troubleshooting section of this page.

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Troubleshooting

• Check your config.plist against the corresponding version using this handy utility.
• Read the official OpenCore Desktop Guide for Coffee Lake when making changes to the config.plist and the guide's Gather Files section when picking drivers and kexts.
• Post an issue and I will get back to you when I can. I should be able to be pretty helpful if you have similar hardware as I do.
  • You must grab the OC boot logs if you wish to get help! Refer to the debugging section of the OpenCore docs as well as the debugging section of config.plist setup for info on how to enable logging.

Changelog

• 1 December 2020:
  • Modified BIOS suggestions to get Sidecar working (thanks @QueercoreTrash for #19)
  • Added a BIOS configuration page with screenshots for user assistance.
• 16 Nov 2020:
  • Updated to macOS Big Sur from Catalina
  • For some reason, with Big Sur and OC 0.6.3, we no longer need AirportBrcmFix for the Fenvi BT/WiFi Card
  • Changed slide=1 to slide=0
  • Kept USBPorts.kext inside the config.plist, but disabled it because it seems as though USBInjectAll.kext does the trick
• 13 August 2020:
  • Verified that supplemental update 10.15.6 19G73 => 19G2021 works without issues.
• 10 August 2020:
  • Added SmallTreeIntel82576.kext for enabling the secondary Ethernet port as per issue #7
• 4 August 2020:
  • Updated OC to version 0.6.0
  • Updated all of the acidanthera's drivers and kexts
• 1 August 2020:
  • Updated OC to version 0.5.9
  • Updated all kexts and drivers to the latest
  • Removed ApfsDriverLoader.efi because it was rolled into OC starting with 0.5.9
• 13 June 2020:
  • Updated OC, Kernel Extensions, and Drivers to be compatible with latest macOS update 10.15.5 (and supplemental update).
  • Somehow the boot picker remembers my choice now, meaning that emulated NVRAM is somehow working?
  • IMPORTANT: Upgraded from DEBUG to RELEASE:
    • Changed all drivers and OC files from the DEBUG versions to RELEASE versions because I seem to have a stable system.
    • Modified config.plist to no longer generate logs (log level now 0).
    • If you're having problems, switch back to DEBUG mode yourself by following this guide.