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Pattern of MLB (Main Logic Board)


holyfield
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That means u like to say , we need at least one Genuine Apple machine to activate iMessage /Facetime  on hackintosh????

No! If you are genius enough to generate proper MLB, you should succeed. MLB is reversible like Serial Number. You can generate valid MLB like you do it for Serial Number.

 

Truth is, that several users have reported success (on various forums) by using MLB/ROM from genuine Mac, but some have failed too. But I don't know any details of these cases.

 

I personally don't recommend to use same MLB for various comps. But, based on this pattern you can lightly modify your genuine MLB, for example by changing the week and production number of this week (bigger number is recommended to avoid mismatch). Its wise to use adequate MLB, it's obvious that Mac Mini logic board isn't part of Mac Pro etc. Your system serial number and MLB are sent to Apple, so they can easily compare system and hardware part match if needed.

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if it helps:

 

Number of Bytes making up the MLB .... 17 
Number of Characters in the string .... 17
Your System Type .... iMac 12,1
Last four digits of OSX S/N .... DHJF
First five hex values of MLB .... 43 30 32 31 31 
First five string values of MLB ... C0211
Last three hex values of MLB .... 36 31 44
Last three string values of MLB ... 61D

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14:MLB
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
000000: 43 30 32 31 31 xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx 36 31  |C0211xxxxxxxxx61|
000010: 44                                                                        |D|
 

 

Spang1974

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I've seen differing advice. So you are saying that if I am using a definition from a Mac older than 2010, like MacPro3,1 (Early 2008 MacPro) then my MLB should only be 13 characters? The advice I've seen elsewhere always seems to say that it has to be 17 characters. Even Clover complains that my MLB is not 17 characters long in the boot log.

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I've seen differing advice. So you are saying that if I am using a definition from a Mac older than 2010, like MacPro3,1 (Early 2008 MacPro) then my MLB should only be 13 characters? The advice I've seen elsewhere always seems to say that it has to be 17 characters. Even Clover complains that my MLB is not 17 characters long in the boot log.

 

Where exactly did you see this advice? Who is the author of this advice? Please can you share the link?

 

There are a lot of myths available about Serial / MLB / ROM, especially in TonyAdolf forum. What I'm trying to do, is to demystify MLB. 

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http://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/2jui49/yosemite_new_imessage_issue/

 

http://www.macbreaker.com/2013/01/how-to-fix-imessage-login-problem-on.html

 

In Clover's own wiki:

http://clover-wiki.zetam.org/Configuration/RtVariables#MLB

 

And yes, on TM site as well :-)

 

BTW I am using a 17 digit number based on the serial and 6 additional digits and Clover boot log is not complaining anymore. Haven't tried connecting to iMessage yet.

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And yes, on TM site as well :-)

 

BTW I am using a 17 digit number based on the serial and 6 additional digits and Clover boot log is not complaining anymore. Haven't tried connecting to iMessage yet.

 

All those links, which you have posted, doesn't refer  to any research/investigation about MLB. 

 

I suspect that there haven't been a proper knowledge about MLB available this far. A lot of half-truths and myths are available, based on various guesswork, success or failure. I'm not telling that I know exact truth. As you see, my research isn't complete yet. I don't have enough data to hack completely the MLB.

 

If you read my first post in this thread, you should notice, I'm not telling that you shall use only 13 char MLB. Length of MLB depends at production time of chosen model. You use for older Mac's 11 char serial and for new ones 12 char serial, the same applies to MLB.

 

I have investigated serials/mlbs etc of almost 50 genuine Macs. Most of them are older models. All older models have 11 char serial and 13 char MLB. But, for example some older comps which have been in Apple repair, have 17 char MLBs. Comps with 12 char serials have 17 char MLB. I haven't seen comp with 12 char serial with a 13 char MLB. Maybe it's possible, but I haven't seen. 

 

Anyone who have a genuine mac, is welcome to pm to me the model and length of serial and mlb, to demystify length issue.

 

But it's the fact that Apple has changed the pattern for serials and MLB's couple of years ago. So, it depends at model production year which type of MLB you shall use.  It's obvious that Apple is improving services validation methods. With simple reggex and logic you can easily validate MLB, like you do it for email, domain names etc, as it's based on standard.

 

But the length is the smallest issue, match of pattern should be your primary concern, whichever type of MLB you use. As you see, I don't know full pattern of 17 char MLB yet.

 

Re-read my first post.

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Thanks for all your hard work on this!

 

I'd like to understand more about how to convert a serial number into the MLB. For instance, a real serial number for a Mac Pro (Early 2008) is formatted exactly as you describe:

 

G8 - Country Code US

8 - Year of production

35 - Week of production

1FY - Production number

XYL - Product code (?, seems most are XYL or XYK)

 

My question is how to I convert that into the format for the MLB which uses 4 digits for Pproduction number and 4 digits for Product Code?

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Thanks for all your hard work on this!

 

I'd like to understand more about how to convert a serial number into the MLB. For instance, a real serial number for a Mac Pro (Early 2008) is formatted exactly as you describe:

 

G8 - Country Code US

8 - Year of production

35 - Week of production

1FY - Production number

XYL - Product code (?, seems most are XYL or XYK)

 

My question is how to I convert that into the format for the MLB which uses 4 digits for Pproduction number and 4 digits for Product Code?

 

You couldn't convert it into MLB. You can generate MLB, but you couldn't convert Serial Number into MLB. Do not try. Similarity is confusing,

MLB and serial are sharing only overall barcode pattern. Serial number is good point from where to start, thats obvious, as MLB and serial should have logical match, not match by letter. You couldn't use MacPro logic board on MacBook. So, pieces of puzzle should fit with each another.

 

I guess it's smart to use similar production time, set MLB production time up to 6 months earlier. Production number is easy to calculate. Trickiest parts are the beginning and the end as there is no public knowledge about these parts for MLB. 

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The MLB can also be get from SMBIOS data and it looks like this: PPP Y WW TTT XX XX XXXX where TTT is board type.

 

MacPro6,1 has a SMC key called SMBR with the MLB (except the first character I think) but for other (newer) models it is set to all zero's (if available).

 

 

 

 

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I already answered to this question (asked by another user)

 

Thanks holyfied.

 

I'm not trying to generate an MLB from my serial number.

 

I have a valid Serial number for a valid system definition (iMac)

 

I have deciphered:

PPYWW - location, year & week of manufacture from my valid Serial number.

SSSS - I generated a base34 random number.

 

I'm stumped about what to use for CCCC that corresponds to the appropriate model identifier.

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As I said, first and last part are tricky, which means, you couldn't use location directly from beginning of serial for MLB. You need a definitions database for these values. I got a hint already, there will be a MLB generator available soon too.

 

 

Why shouldn't you use the location from the serial number? Doesn't that indicate where the computer was built? Wouldn’t the motherboard have most likely been built there as well?

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Explained in OP already.

 

Not really. You only say that the MLB should match serial logically, but not "by letter" by which I guess you mean "exactly." By that logic I understand that you shouldn't create a MLB by just adding digits to the end of a serial, that it should follow the pattern you suggest.

 

Therefore, if one is to logically match the MLB to the serial of the computer you are using, it should match the manufacturing location of the computer. Or as I mentioned in my earlier post, did the motherboard get manufactured in a different location from the computer?

 

Example: If your serial number starts with CK (manufactured in Cork, Ireland) then would it not follow that the first two letters of the LB would be CK?

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Not really. You only say that the MLB should match serial logically, but not "by letter" by which I guess you mean "exactly." By that logic I understand that you shouldn't create a MLB by just adding digits to the end of a serial, that it should follow the pattern you suggest.

 

Therefore, if one is to logically match the MLB to the serial of the computer you are using, it should match the manufacturing location of the computer. Or as I mentioned in my earlier post, did the motherboard get manufactured in a different location from the computer?

 

Example: If your serial number starts with CK (manufactured in Cork, Ireland) then would it not follow that the first two letters of the LB would be CK?

 

No, no! Not at all. Logical match -- you couldn't use iMac MLB for MacBookAir. It's obvious. Please reread OP. So, if your serial says you have MacBook, but your MLB states that it's a Mac Mini, something is very suspicious. Isn't? I hope it's clear now?

 

Probably you aren't familiar with modern logistic? Parts of comps aren't  usually made on the same manufactory where comps were assembled and packed for sale.

 

Please check the list of Apple suppliers.

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I think you are misunderstanding me. I completely understand that you can not use a serial number from one model of Macintosh for another, i.e MacPro vs. iMac. I also am aware that computer manufacturing takes place all over the world and components are assembled in one place. Much in the same way that automobiles are built. The question is, do we know where the motherboard were manufactured for each model of Macintosh?

 

So as an example, a generated serial for a MacPro3,1 using Clover Configuator would be G88118B5XYL

 

G8 - US

8 - 2008

11 - week of manufacturing

8B5 - production number

XYL - product code

 

This we know. So in order to create a MLB for this particular computer which is a MacPro (Early 2008) and has an 11 digit serial; would it not make sense to do the following:

 

G8 - US

8 - 2008

11 - week of manufacturing

XXXX (randomly generated base-34 number such as 2SSX)

CCCC (some code we can't identify yet.)

 

Example : MLB would be G88112SSXCCCC (don't yet know what to use for last four)

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Example : MLB would be G88112SSXCCCC (don't yet know what to use for last four)

 

You have got general concept correctly. Location is misinterpreted. I haven't recommended to use this kind approach for MLB location. Please check also last link, which I shared with you. Apple uses different location codes for MLBs than system serials.

 

You need a valid database to pickup PP and CCCC.

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