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Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with UEFI Only

K0gen

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freddie
freddie
Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, _Cute_Kitty_ said:

 

So you think it might be related to overloading the system? I'll do some testing and see if I can replicate the issue on lower system usage.

 

Yes, I had system freezes due to overloading. Other freezes were a bit on the opposite sense (of overloading): when I would leave the system idle, e.g. just downloading something, the system would freeze. For the "idle freezes" I installed Caffeine (as suggested by @tluck); you can download it here. Then go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy tab -> Accessibility -> Click the + button and select your Caffeine (restart Caffeine afterwards).

Edited by freddie
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tluck
tluck
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IMO, I dont think the gfx hangs are related to system load. my system with an LG display NEVER hangs or freezes - with 8GB or 16GB. The same system with an AUO LCD would freeze randomly.  i use caffeinate only so that it never sleeps with the lid shut and no monitor attached.  with 16GB, and AUO LCD should work better. 

 

@_Cute_Kitty_ did you try injecting one of the fake EDID for 1600x900 display? i think you have a low-res LCD but it may still work. curious about that outcome.

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freddie
freddie
Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, tluck said:

IMO, I dont think the gfx hangs are related to system load. my system with an LG display NEVER hangs or freezes - with 8GB or 16GB. The same system with an AUO LCD would freeze randomly.  i use caffeinate only so that it never sleeps with the lid shut and no monitor attached.  with 16GB, and AUO LCD should work better. 

 

@_Cute_Kitty_ did you try injecting one of the fake EDID for 1600x900 display? i think you have a low-res LCD but it may still work. curious about that outcome.

 

I don't know, in my experience, if I use it moderately it never freezes and I have the original Lenovo LCD 1600x900. Also, I barely have any glitches...

One thing I noticed is that the system after some time it became more stable - maybe because the Spotlight indexing finished? 

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zarpanzur
zarpanzur
Posted
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Everything is working for me on my T420s, High Sierra, except for the USB 3.0 port, it doesn't work at all. I have the USBInjectAll kext installed and supposedly loaded but it just doesn't work. Anybody experience the same issue and have a fix? I am using pure, unmodified files from the zip supplied from an earlier post. I am using the default config.plist from the zip file. Any tips? This is my second install and funny thing is, I had USB 3.0 working in my first install but I just can't remember what I did to get it working, lol. Thanks guys

 

edit: clover detects my flash drive on the USB 3 port but High Sierra will not

 

edit 2: I checked the system report and High Sierra is not even detecting the USB 3 controller/bus

 

Clover detects the port just fine. Any ideas guys? I have all default USB rename patches enabled, i ticked Inject USB and also fix USB in Clover Configurator.

Edited by zarpanzur
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zarpanzur
zarpanzur
Posted
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6 hours ago, goodguess said:

Had a T420s for evaluation, but returned it because of a broken chassis.

As far as I recall, RehabMan´s 2015 kext did work for me with the USB3 port.

RehabMan-Generic-USB3-2015-1215.zip

OS was Mojave methinks, installation was to S/L/E.

Well that certainly did it!! Only problem is the USB3 drive has to be in the port during bootup. If I remove the stick and insert it again, my hackintosh won't detect it.

 

Edit: It's working properly now. I don't know exactly what I did to make it work because I made a bunch of changes and then rebooted.

 

Thank You to whoever created this guide/thread and all who posted about their own experience I learned from you all!!

Edited by zarpanzur
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goodguess
goodguess
Posted
Posted

Please excuse me, if this has been discussed lengthy elsewhere.

I can get a T420 with Nvidia Quadro 4200 GPU for about 100 bucks in reasonable condition.

Is it possible at all to run macOS with the NV 4200 GPU?

I know that switching GPU is a no go with Hackintosh, but is it possible to run with dedicated GPU alone?

If so, is there already a config.plist which does just that?

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zarpanzur
zarpanzur
Posted
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This may sound silly but how do I go about getting the fn+keys working on my T420s? The only key that works is F11. I read a few hundred posts down that the mappings are stored in Info.plist inside voodoops2controller.kext but I don't really want to change anything in there so as not to mess things up. Thanks

 

Edit: I'm using SSDT-T420-PS2K-keys.aml in the patched folder and SSDT-T420-PS2K-keys.dsl in the root of ACPI folder, if that helps.

 

Edit 2: F11 key and fn+PgUp(think light) are the only keys working

Edited by zarpanzur
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Garehard
Garehard
Posted
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Hi guys,

 

i’ve installed High Sierra on my X220 and i know that the T420 is relative identical. So tlucks files should work here. I have good experience with OpenCore and I tried that on my X220 with Version 0.58 with success. Everything works as it should (Graphic, Sleep, Brightness, Keys etc.). The only thing that makes me problems is the soundchip.

 

Here is my install log:

  • Installed High Sierra
  • Opencore 0.58 on EFI partition installed
  • Config.plist with OC-Documentation created
  • DSDT-Files taken from tlucks-files
  • SSDT-File (Power-Management) created with ssdtPRGen.sh
  • Kext-Files integrated and in config.plist registered

 

Things i’ve tested:

  • Integration with VoodooHDA and AppleHDA_20672.kext. Here I have Sound but I think this method is old and what is really annoying is that I have to select the audio output after restart again and again.
  • Integration with AppleALC.kext (with and without Bootarg -alcbeta). This should be the best method. tluck has integrated that long time ago and should work. Under Clover that works but OpenCore has different AudioInjects and maybe there are entries in OC-config.plist I havent done. 

 

Any OpenCore experts here that can help me with that problem?

(My actual OC-Folder is attached.)

OC.zip

Edited by Garehard
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SteamingYams778
SteamingYams778
Posted
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After making the bootable catalina USB for my T420, I have a problem with the installer. I get the error "Installation requires downloading important content". Apparently even real Mac owners were facing this issue with Catalina as well. There are many different suggestions as to how to fix this online, but the most common suggestion is that the SMBIOS is incorrect. I'm using the default config file from March of this year as my machine is the exact same specs as tluck's.

 

Edit: I am plugged into Ethernet and can even access Google from safari in this live boot environment. I still get this error. I don't think the problem is that I can't reach the internet. Also, I tried this over two days, so I don't think Apple's servers are down either

 

Can anyone lend a hand here?

 

f7f5abcd-c58f-45a6-bb0a-0ad524990dca.jpg

Edited by SteamingYams778
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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, zarpanzur said:

This may sound silly but how do I go about getting the fn+keys working on my T420s? The only key that works is F11. I read a few hundred posts down that the mappings are stored in Info.plist inside voodoops2controller.kext but I don't really want to change anything in there so as not to mess things up. Thanks

 

Edit: I'm using SSDT-T420-PS2K-keys.aml in the patched folder and SSDT-T420-PS2K-keys.dsl in the root of ACPI folder, if that helps.

 

Edit 2: F11 key and fn+PgUp(think light) are the only keys working

 

if you mount the ESP do see something like this:

 

$ cd /Volumes/ESP/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched

$ ls -l

total 95

-rwxrwxrwx  1 tluck  staff  44132 Jan  2 16:31 DSDT.aml

-rwxrwxrwx  1 tluck  staff   1128 Jan  6  2019 SSDT-PNLF.aml

-rwxrwxrwx  1 tluck  staff    911 Nov  1  2019 SSDT-RMCF.aml

-rwxrwxrwx  1 tluck  staff   1418 Sep  7  2018 SSDT-T420-PS2K-keys.aml

 

and if you run

 

$ ioreg -l|grep T420|grep RM

    | | |   "device-properties" = {"RM,oem-table-id"="T420","RM,oem-id"="LENOVO"}

    | | |   "RM,oem-table-id" = "T420"

 

you should have F1 tied to brightness etc

 

 

11 hours ago, goodguess said:

Please excuse me, if this has been discussed lengthy elsewhere.

I can get a T420 with Nvidia Quadro 4200 GPU for about 100 bucks in reasonable condition.

Is it possible at all to run macOS with the NV 4200 GPU?

I know that switching GPU is a no go with Hackintosh, but is it possible to run with dedicated GPU alone?

If so, is there already a config.plist which does just that?

 

seems like someone got NV graphics working a long time ago. i would buy a newer system IMO.

9 hours ago, Garehard said:

Hi guys,

 

i’ve installed High Sierra on my X220 and i know that the T420 is relative identical. So tlucks files should work here. I have good experience with OpenCore and I tried that on my X220 with Version 0.58 with success. Everything works as it should (Graphic, Sleep, Brightness, Keys etc.). The only thing that makes me problems is the soundchip.

 

Any OpenCore experts here that can help me with that problem?

(My actual OC-Folder is attached.)

OC.zip

i may play with OC this weekend. what is your audio codec?

 

5 hours ago, SteamingYams778 said:

After making the bootable catalina USB for my T420, I have a problem with the installer. I get the error "Installation requires downloading important content". Apparently even real Mac owners were facing this issue with Catalina as well. There are many different suggestions as to how to fix this online, but the most common suggestion is that the SMBIOS is incorrect. I'm using the default config file from March of this year as my machine is the exact same specs as tluck's.

 

Edit: I am plugged into Ethernet and can even access Google from safari in this live boot environment. I still get this error. I don't think the problem is that I can't reach the internet. Also, I tried this over two days, so I don't think Apple's servers are down either

 

Can anyone lend a hand here?

 

lots of talk on this over the last few months here. but yeah MacOS Mojave and Catalina are not supported on HD 3000 gfx - so you have use the dosdude1.com method of creating an macOS Installer and then patching it. you combine the ESP from my guide and then use dosdude1 method to install the OS.

 

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zarpanzur
zarpanzur
Posted
Posted (edited)

Thanks for responding tluck. Here's the output of those commands:

 

Martins-MBP:~ martin$ ioreg -l|grep T420|grep RM

    | | |   "device-properties" = {"RM,oem-table-id"="T420","AAPL,has-embedded-fn-keys"=<01000000>,"RM,oem-id"="LENOVO"}

    | | |   "RM,oem-table-id" = "T420"

Martins-MBP:~ martin$ cd /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/

Martins-MBP:patched martin$ ls -l

total 89

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 martin  staff  44016 20 Apr  2017 DSDT.aml

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 martin  staff   1351 10 Apr  2017 ssdt.aml

 

Is it because I'm missing two files from patched folder? I'll add them and see what happens.

 

Edit: adding those two files made all the difference! fn+keys working now.

 

Last thing on the list is USB3.0 port which is not working. I'm using the 2e2 config with no modifications made to it. I'll play around with the config and see if I can't figure it out. I have the kext USBInjectAll as well.

 

Edit 2: ok, so USB3.0 port works now. After turning on "USB Inject" and restarting, the port works fine. Is it ok to leave it like this or is it better to not use "Inject USB"?

 

Another note: with the 2e2 config, sometimes when the OS boots up, I will be presented with a grey screen instead of the login screen. I would enter my password blindly and then the desktop would appear. Small annoyance but I guess I can live with it.

 

Thanks tluck!

Edited by zarpanzur
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Garehard
Garehard
Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, tluck said:

i may play with OC this weekend. what is your audio codec?

Thanks for your reply. I have played around with settings last night and it seems that the boot-arg "alc-id=14" fixes the problem. I have now sound with OC. Everything works now as it should. I am very happy with that OC-Config.

 

Newest OC-Folder is attached. Maybe that helps you a little bit when playing around.

 

One cosmetic thing: OC bootscreen starts in low resolution, looks like 640x480px. I think it's beceause the BIOS doesnt support non-CSM UEFI-Boot. Tested some settings in OC but without success. But luckily the systemstart under OC is really fast and using sleep feature, restarts are very rare.

OC.zip

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, zarpanzur said:

Thanks for responding tluck. Here's the output of those commands:

 

Edit: adding those two files made all the difference! fn+keys working now.

Edit 2: ok, so USB3.0 port works now. After turning on "USB Inject" and restarting, the port works fine. Is it ok to leave it like this or is it better to not use "Inject USB"?

Another note: with the 2e2 config, sometimes when the OS boots up, I will be presented with a grey screen instead of the login screen. I would enter my password blindly and then the desktop would appear. Small annoyance but I guess I can live with it.

glad you got your keys now! 

i dont have USB3 so sure the change you made is fine.

on gray screen. hmm. using the 2e2 config which injects a fake EDID  + adding the displayOverrides should fix that? but i guess it goes away after you login?
 

6 hours ago, Kralj said:

Hello! I have installed modded bios 1.46 on my ThinkPad t420, in boot section high resolution is enabled, but I don't have full resolution in clover. Anyone know why? 

in boot section high resolution is enabled - i presume this is in BIOS?

what do get in Clover boot.log for resoltino options - or  when in Clover can you get there with f9 toggle thru available resolutions.

 

9 hours ago, Garehard said:

Thanks for your reply. I have played around with settings last night and it seems that the boot-arg "alc-id=14" fixes the problem. I have now sound with OC. Everything works now as it should. I am very happy with that OC-Config.

 

Newest OC-Folder is attached. Maybe that helps you a little bit when playing around.

 

One cosmetic thing: OC bootscreen starts in low resolution, looks like 640x480px. I think it's beceause the BIOS doesnt support non-CSM UEFI-Boot. Tested some settings in OC but without success. But luckily the systemstart under OC is really fast and using sleep feature, restarts are very rare.

OC.zip

cool. i will take a look. thanks for sharing.

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Kralj
Kralj
Posted
Posted

I generated boot.log and it says SetMaxResolution: found best mode 2: 1024x768. In clover i checked load vbios , patch vbios , iin GUI section i put 1600x900 resolution , and in bios i set UEFI only. But no luck

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted

@Kralj which modded bios did you install? my clover boot log has this: 

5:901  5:607  === [ InitScreen ] ==============================
5:901  0:000  Console modes reported: 6, available modes:
5:901  0:000   - [01]: 80x25 (current mode)
5:901  0:000   - [03]: 128x40
5:901  0:000   - [04]: 80x25
5:901  0:000   - [05]: 100x31
5:901  0:000   - [06]: 200x47
5:901  0:000  SetScreenResolution: 1600x900 - setting Mode 3
6:218  0:317  Video mode change to mode #3: Success
6:218  0:000  SetScreenResolution: 1600x900 - already set

 

last one 200x47 should be 1600x900 

 

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Kralj
Kralj
Posted
Posted

this is my boot.log

 

 [01]: 80x25
4:561  0:000   - [03]: 96x25
4:561  0:000   - [04]: 120x31
4:561  0:000   - [05]: 128x40 (current mode)
4:561  0:000   - [06]: 80x25
4:561  0:000   - [07]: 100x31
4:561  0:000  SetMaxResolution: found best mode 2: 1024x768
4:561  0:000   - already set

 

 

i downloaded Bios mod from this site

 

https://sdx1.net/tools/t420bios/

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Kralj
Kralj
Posted
Posted

Thanks man. When I go to SA /Graphics configuration / IGD configuration / IGD LCD panel type there is no 1600x900 resolution. 

So I need to flash this bios from your link ? Can I do that from this modded version that I have now? It's modded 1.46 but I think it is not the same as this one from your link. 

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Kralj said:

Thanks man. When I go to SA /Graphics configuration / IGD configuration / IGD LCD panel type there is no 1600x900 resolution. 

So I need to flash this bios from your link ? Can I do that from this modded version that I have now? It's modded 1.46 but I think it is not the same as this one from your link. 

so what resolution do you see?

 

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