Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with UEFI Only

[Tetonne]

do someone of you have issue with speed of external usb HD?

bad blocs found

[manueljaime]

Hi guys. I have a t420 on 10.8.5, which has been running perfectly for months now (well, you know, except for sleep, hardware buttons, etc). Would I be able to update to Mavericks directly, in-system? Would it boot afterwards so I can replace the necessary kexts, ect? Or do I NEED to create a Mavericks usb? Has anyone tried a direct update and succeeded?

[Tetonne]

Hi guys. I have a t420 on 10.8.5, which has been running perfectly for months now (well, you know, except for sleep, hardware buttons, etc). Would I be able to update to Mavericks directly, in-system? Would it boot afterwards so I can replace the necessary kexts, ect? Or do I NEED to create a Mavericks usb? Has anyone tried a direct update and succeeded?

if you're using a GTP GUID

Up to me you just have to downolad 10.9.x

click on install (select HD) install

reboot select install partition

boot without kext and cache (press space)

install will finish

after you'll have to place back 10.9 kext from a other boot volume

Wait tluck advice to confirm this 

[tluck]

yes that works... if you have Clover installing on a GUID with driver HFSPlus-64.efi. it works just like on a real mac. 

i.e. you can boot into the installers and/or Recovery HD.

 

Note: the zip i posted has 2 modes.

1) Install/recover - the top level config.plist is good for installers etc... as it will inject the kexts needed.

2) Normal mode - i.e. use OEM/<Product>/config.plist - assumes custom kexts replace stock versions.

 

for use with installers, i just rename the OEM folder to OEM.NU to move it out the way for these functions.

 

even so, i do have a USB installer as it so easy to make now!

[lcortez]

Hi All, 

 

I have trying to install Mavericks  on my T420s using Tlucks guide but have been unsuccessful, has anybody done a fresh install of Mavericks on a T420s? your help would be greatly appreciated, any help really would be greatly appreciated.

 

I followed the steps below and managed to create a USB boot disk however when I boot, the computer keeps crashing and rebooting. I have attached a couple of pictures with the error messages.

 

Regards

 

LC

 

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

• for 10.9 install USB
  1. Download Mavericks from the App Store - puts in /Applications
  2. Partition an 8GB USB as GUID (use option menu to change from MBR) - call this partition USB
  3. Run this command:
     sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app —nointeraction
      
• Common steps:

1. manually mount ESP of USB and copy the clover EFI folder onto USB ESP (assuming the USB is disk2
   mkdir /Volumes/ESP-USB
   mount -t msdos /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/ESP-USB
2. Don't rename OEM folder yet - for USB installer use top level config.plist so it will inject kexts
3. Rename config.1600x900.plist to config.plist or rename config.1366x768.plist to config.plist - depending on which matches your system.
4. Boot from USB and select Install OSX
5. Install on your GUID OSX partition!

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

 

[tluck]

hmm. yeah something is not right! not sure where/why there all those SMC errors? i just retested the procedure - built a GUID USB installer with 10.9.1 and it works fine for me! 

basics - turn off VT-d virtualization? 

 

anyway, so i presume you are using the "top-level" config.plist (vs OEM folders) that is set to inject the kexts - you may to try and remove the dsdt.aml file from /EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched (not sure if a T420s is the same as T420 ?

[Adrenalation]

I'm sure it's simple, but when trying to install Clover, both latest from Sourceforge and from the supplied clover link, v2 1625, the installation keeps failing at the scripts section. 

 

I'm on a 10.6.6 vm, trying to boot from a 250+ mb usb, and I've got ML on the other one.

 

Here's what I've done:

 

sudo diskutil eraseDisk "MS-DOS FAT32" EFI GPTFormat /dev/disk2        /* Formatted 250mb USB */ Here's what it looks like

/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *261.8 MB   disk2
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data EFI                     260.0 MB   disk2s1

Installing Clover, and I get an exclamation with "This Installation Failed". 

 

Now, what would be the correct settings when trying to setup Clover on USB? I let it default and it always fails. I'm stumped.

[tluck]

@Adrenalation ... does not seem like your USB is properly formatted?

 

you can copy the zip bundle and follow instructions in from the guide in my signature to make a OSX installer. v1625 is ancient so you probably want to not start with that rev. 

 

to make a GPT USB, it should look more like this with diskutil ... the EFI partition is automatically formatted as FAT32.

 

$ sudo diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ test GPT /dev/disk2

Started erase on disk2

Unmounting disk

Creating the partition map

Waiting for the disks to reappear

Formatting disk2s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name test

Initialized /dev/rdisk5s2 as a 14 GB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal

Mounting disk

Finished erase on disk2

 

tluck@toms-mac ~

$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:                  Apple_HFS OSX+                    697.7 GB   disk0s2

   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

   4:       Microsoft Basic Data C                       51.5 GB    disk0s4

/dev/disk2

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *15.6 GB    disk2

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1

   2:                  Apple_HFS test                    15.3 GB    disk2s2

[Adrenalation]

No wonder the installation was failing. Does the guide in your SIG tell you how to install clover and boot installation disk off of one USB? Also, will 8gb be enough?

 

Also.....where do i find this ZIP bundle?

[Adrenalation]

So where would I find the zip bundle? In your post or at the start of this thread?

Just kidding. One more question. First format the way you described, install the b2482 cloverboot package, and copy the installesd os x image to the USB and I should be good to go?

[Adrenalation]

Quick edit on your guide, the reason I couldn't get it working was because of my directory structure on the esp partition. I put the files of clover folder in /ESP, whereas it should be /ESP/EFI/.....

 

Read all 87 pages. Phew, finally figured it out. I congratulate everyone who contributed to their discoveries.!

Runs like native Mac! Woohoo!

[tluck]

@Adrenalation - well glad it worked out for you! thanks for the input ... I have added a bit more to the instructions in hopes to make the steps clearer for others! Welcome to the T420 Hack club! 

[lcortez]

@Tluck

 

Hi Tluck.

 

Thanks for your help, disabling the VT-d virtualization solved my issue.

 

I have a couple of more questions for you, what do you mean by the following.

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

Set up OEM folder: Here is the tricky part - fix OEM folder name to match your system model (found on the bottom label or clover will list it.)

 

I have a 1600x900 LCD , but i am still trying to figure out what the system model is.

 

Cheers

 

 

LC

[tluck]

@lcortez - one way to get your product id is to go into the Clover GUI and hit the  arrows key before the count-down to navigate to the Options Menu then look in SMBIOS. or if you install the clover scripts, then the /Library/Logs/CloverEFI/boot.log will also show it.

 

3:170  0:000  Clover revision: 2547  running on 4236AT9

3:170  0:000  ... with board 4236AT9

[tluck]

@Tetonne

 

- did you change the name of the volume?

- did you put the clover stuff in the right subdirectory folder?

 

/<mntpt>/EFI/CLOVER or for example: /Volumes/ESP/EFI/CLOVER/

[k.surachai]

Dear,

 

I think I have a very strange case here with my ThinkPad T420 (4180AJ5). It seem not able to boot the Clover Boot loader. After restart (set to boot in UEFI Only mode, and also tried with "both" and "UEFI First" mode) .. the pen drive seem to be working for a few seconds (the flash light on the pen drive telling me so). But after that, every thing seem to freeze here. What I can see on screen is just a simple black screen with a blink cursor on the top left corner .. and nothing happen.

 

My pen drive set up seem to be good as I put it on my friend ThinkPad X201 ... it boot just fine and able to perform the OS installation.

 

I had tried replicate the BIOS setup of both ThinkPad T420 and X201 .. make it as identical as possible. But no luck.

 

 

Any kind / expert advise ?

 

Appreciated it .. Best Regards.

[tluck]

@k.surachai

a simple black screen usually means that it can't find a bootable image on any disk.

 

- did you select the USB to boot from F12 or set USB to be first?

- is your USB formatted MBR or GPT/GUID? 

- what is on your CLOVER USB? did you install Kogen's pack or my pack? 

[karaoketropical]

Same guide and files to T420s?

Thanks

[tluck]

@karaoketropical - almost! the guide should work (mostly) for your T420s except for the DSDT. A few folks on this thread have T420s and i think they took the mods and applied to T420s dsdt. you can ask them to see if there is a post with T420s DSDT or other differences. Pokenguyen is one member i believe.

[wojtoo]

hi

Does anyone have problem on the lcd like washout colours, vertical lines and streched pictrure?

I have T520 2520 with integrated HD3000 only, and 1920x1080 lcd

On 10.6 was ok, I was able to use 1280x1024 by use command graphics mode, default was 1024x768

On 10.7,10.8 and 10.9 the picture is as mentioned above.

I tried "graphics enabler=no" with no resault

Thanks for any advice

[lcortez]

@TLUCK

 

First of all thanks for your help so far, i have got my T420S working and booting, however the only issue i have now is that i cannot login into any of the apple services.

 

Face time

Messages

App store.

 

Can you please advise what i need to do.

 

Once again thanks for your help, you are a legend.

[tluck]

@wojtoo - all you have to do is add DualLink = 1 to config.plist (or the DSDT) - download the zip from my signature and use that instead of the clover v1625 stuff i see in the image! the DSDT in there should really help you out.

 

@lcortez -

(1) do you have Recovery HD partition?

(2) if you have installed the ethernet kext, then remove 

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist   

reboot and re-add network devices. 

[lcortez]

@TLUCK

 

That worked, i can use all the apple serviced bar FaceTime. Every time i try to login it goes to the stage of Verifying then it asks me to login again without any errors.

 

Cheers

[k.surachai]

@k.surachai

a simple black screen usually means that it can't find a bootable image on any disk.

 

(1)- did you select the USB to boot from F12 or set USB to be first?

(2)- is your USB formatted MBR or GPT/GUID? 

(3)- what is on your CLOVER USB? did you install Kogen's pack or my pack? 

 

@TLUCK

 

Thanks for your kind response. Here more info from my point.

 

(1) - both, my boot order is (USB CD/USB HDD/HDD0/...) also once the machine fail for find bootable media, it jump to Boot Device list. I try the USB again from the F12 menu list ... also, nothing happen

 

(2) - I think it's MBR

 

(3) - Neither. I don't have Macintosh or Hackintosh machine yet. So, I can't create USB from your pack. My plan is to install iAtkos L2 first, then use it to run your pack. I use "Bootdisk Utility v2.0.2013.159" to create the Clover boot USB.

[tluck]

@k.surachai - well it sounds like the USB is not configured right for one reason or another if it will not boot to the clover GUI? i am not very familiar with cvad tool and proper settings. i may take a look at his latest rev based on clover v2444 to see what is the right settings. 

EDIT - yeah i tried cvad's tool - does a good job loading up a clover config - but not suitable for the T420 - but there probably a variety of reasons it would NOT boot. However, there is no reason you cannot set it up on windows. Download the zip from my post, then replace the CLOVER folder with the contents of the my zip folder to get a bootable USB or HD. just follow instructions.