Lenovo ThinkPad L450 - from unable to boot OC to an (almost) perfect Sequoia Hackintosh

[arsradu]

 Hey guys,

 

So I'm trying to hackintosh an old Lenovo ThinkPad L450 and...I'm having a very annoying issue. I can't even boot OC itself!

 

It's important to mention that the exact same USB drive can boot perfectly fine on my desktop computer. Of course, the EFI itself is not made for desktop, and I haven't even tried to boot MacOS itself with that. I was only curious if I can boot OC!

 

The reason why I think this could be a BIOS setting I can't figure out, is that it simply doesn't even get to OC boot picker. After selecting the USB drive in boot menu (F12), it just restarts, and boots back into Windows, which is the default boot option. And this doesn't occur on the PC.

 

I tried setting up the debug version of OC, just to see if I can get anything, but it's not even loading OC itself, so no log, no nothing, it just reboots into Windows.

 

Has anyone encountered this issue before? is it specific to ThinkPad or laptop BIOSes? I went through those BIOS options over and over again. I can't figure out which of those options could cause this issue. Also, this is my first time attempting to hackintosh a laptop (just for fun), and it's also the first time I'm seeing this issue. Usually the issues I get are after OC is loading, or at least while it's loading. But in this case, it looks like it's not loading it at all.

 

Anyway, if you guys know what could make this not boot, I would really appreciate some feedback.

 

Thank you!

 

A few months later...

 

So, after some time, things have started to fall into place, one by one. So I decided to update this topic for anyone wanting to use the same hardware.

 

So let's try to make a sum-up of everything that works, what has been tested, and so on so forth.

 

But before that, in order to boot from OC USB stick, you might need to set the USB HDD in BIOS as first boot option. It didn't work from the Boot Menu (F12) in my case.
Update on this: you might be able to boot into the USB drive > OC > MacOS if you go through the Boot Menu option twice! It seems to work like this. So, basically press F12, select your USB drive, it will restart (and if you let it, it will go into Windows), press F12 again, select USB drive again, and this time it should boot into OC. 

 

Now that we've managed to boot, and had a couple of weeks and quite a few hiccups along the way (you can read more about it in the following pages), let's see where we are today.

 

What works:

• Trackpad, Track Point, Keyboard - using VoodooPS2Controller kext
• Video acceleration - using OCLP
  AMFIPass.kext needed for patching, and SIP disabled (csr-active-config 03080000)
• Built-in Sound - using AppleALC (layout-id 15)
• Ehternet - using IntelMausiEthernet.kext
• WiFi - using OCLP and Broadcom 4360 fake ID ( OC config.plist > Device Properties > PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1C,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0) > iOName > pci14e4,43a0)
  Also needed:  IOSkywalkFamily.kext, IO80211FamilyLegacy.kext, AirportItlwm.kext
  This also required a SSDT-Bridge.aml to make the device visible to the system so it can be patched after that with Device Properties.
  Also, remember to disable device properties patch after OCLP manages to patch the system, otherwise you won't see it. So basically the patch is only to trick OCLP into offering to patch WiFi. After that, it needs to be disabled.
• BlueTooth - using IntelBluetoothFirmware.kext, BlueToolFixup.kext
  NVRAM params for 7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82:
  bluetoothExternalDongleFailed=00 (DATA)
  bluetoothInternalControllerInfo=00000000 00000000 00000000 0000 (DATA)
  Also requires USBMap/USBPorts (ports mapping in general). I tried USBMap by Corpnewt and worked fine. I also tried USBToolBox on Windows, and...didn't work for me. But your mileage may vary. So..if you wanna give it a try, that's also an option.
• Built-in Camera
  No kext needed, but requires USB mapping to be done properly.
  
  And since we’re talking about USB mapping, USB2.0HUB, Camera and BlueTooth (on XHCI controller) all needed to be set to Internal (255) otherwise it causes sleep issues. I also removed HUB-1d100000 Controller since that seems to be for a Integrated Rate Matching Hub for devices using USB 1.1... I can't test that, and I don't think anyone will miss that, so that's also removed.
• Sleep/Wake - Ports mapping is crucial for this.
• Hibernation - using HibernationFixup.kext
• iServices
  iMessage and FaceTime work ok. Make sure you add your own serials or switch SMBIOS! If you want a newer Mac version, but older SMBIOS, use -no_compat_check boot arg. 
  Airdrop works fine.
  Continuity works fine
  Continuity Camera works via USB only. Doesn't work (yet) via WiFi.
• Battery status
• External Display via VGA connector.
• Dual-booting with Windows 11 on the same disk, thanks to this topic.
  Basically add OC folder to the existing Windows files (Boot and Microsoft by default). Then boot into Windows and from cmd line, set OC (or Clover, but this is with OC) as the default bootmgr with the following command.

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\OC\OpenCore.efi

• Full UEFI boot (with CSM disabled) and without garbled graphics! In short, you need to patch your EDID with H. Sync Width to 100 (mine was 32) and inject via Device Properties in OC (into your regular graphics device).
  
  Here's an awesome guide for that: https://github.com/Sniki/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T440S#patching-display-edid-wip
  This was not for this exact model, but I'm pretty sure it works on any laptop.
   

Probably other things I forgot to add..

 

What doesn't work (yet):

• Card Reader - Sinetek-rtsx.kext doesn't work anymore. Not Sure why. It worked a couple of times, then it just stopped. And Realtek Card Reader kext apparently causes kernel panics after sleep (180s). So there is no good solution for now.
• special keys for volume, brightness, etc work...BUT
  There are a couple options here, none of which is perfect.
  1. using ThinkPad Assistant app and the SSDT-L450-KBRD.aml in the EFI folder. Works perfectly fine until sleep. Function keys don't work after sleep. Couldn't find a solution. I think either VoodooPS2 is doing something that disables them after sleep, or...I don't know. I couldn't figure out what was going on with it.
  2. you can map SOME keys (brightness is one of them, and it's pretty easy to map) using VoodooPS2Controller's PS2Keyboard > Info.plist > Custom PS2 Map feature. That works...and it's persistent after sleep. But it's not persistent over kext updates, and you can't map specific features (only PS2 scan codes can be used).
  3. you can use a third party app like Karabiner Elements and again, map some keys to some functions. This also works after sleep, but not all keys can be mapped to the most relevant functions.
• Three-Finger drag (kinda works...but it's really annoying to use, so I can't recommend enabling it)
• Continuity Camera via WiFi. As far as I could see, this feature requires some software to be downloaded and installed. The problem is the installation fails for some reason. So this part doesn't seem to work just yet.

 

Couldn't test/pending test:

• MiniDP - Cannot test for now, due to missing MiniDP cable and compatible hardware.

 

Annoyances/weird things:

• scrolling is choppy for some reason. Not on all sites, but on most sites. The scroll bar still displays a "ghost" scroll bar behind after scrolling.
• after copying something, when moving the cursor, it might not react for a fraction of a second.

 

So far, that's it. I'll update the list above as soon as I remember more things, or get some of the things that don't work fixed.

 

For now, this is still very much work in progress. Many things have been done, thanks to your help, and many of the resources I found online. But I think there's still work to be done. So it's not perfect...yet, but it's getting there.  

EFI.zip

Edited March 14 by arsradu

[Anto65]

Some  bios to default , do not see the opencore or clover bootloader for security reasons , it happened on an Acer I think

you have to select an efi file and tell it , that that file is trusted

If you have a screen in the Bios similar to this , in the Security tab , you can try this 

 

Spoiler

Enter the bios and enable Secure boot (you will have rightly disabled it) and reboot

 

Enter the bios again now that indicated item (Select an EFI file ...) should be selectable

 

Click on it and In this case, locate the USB and the EFI folder inside it , and select bootx64.EFI inside Boot folder ( OC )

You can give the name for example "Opencore"

 

Save the settings and reboot

 

Enter the bios once again , and disable SecureBoot
save the settings ... reboot

 

With f12 you should now see the USB with OC

 

Edited July 6, 2025 by Anto65

[arsradu]

Thank you, eSaf.
I came accross that page as well, and I did try those settings. Doesn’t seem to be enough to get this thing to boot into OC though. I also have the EFI downloaded as well. I haven’t tried it yet. I was planning to do that today, in case I don’t find a fix otherwise.  But the thing that doesn’t make any sense right now is the fact that the same exact ISB drive works fine on my other computer. Even if it probably won’t boot MacOS like that. But at least I can see it’s loading OC. The laptop just rejects it from the start and reboots. Anyway. I’ll take another look. Maybe I missed something.

Thank you!

Edited July 7, 2025 by arsradu

[arsradu]

7 hours ago, Anto65 said:

Some  bios to default , do not see the opencore or clover bootloader for security reasons , it happened on an Acer I think

you have to select an efi file and tell it , that that file is trusted

If you have a screen in the Bios similar to this , in the Security tab , you can try this 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Enter the bios and enable Secure boot (you will have rightly disabled it) and reboot

 

Enter the bios again now that indicated item (Select an EFI file ...) should be selectable

 

Click on it and In this case, locate the USB and the EFI folder inside it , and select bootx64.EFI inside Boot folder ( OC )

You can give the name for example "Opencore"

 

Save the settings and reboot

 

Enter the bios once again , and disable SecureBoot
save the settings ... reboot

 

With f12 you should now see the USB with OC

 

Thanks, Anto! I’ll take a look at that as well. 

The problem is not that I can’t see the USB drive in Boot menu. The problem problem is, after I select it from the menu to boot from it, screen goes black, no logs, no nothing, and it just reboots. 

Edited July 7, 2025 by arsradu

[arsradu]

Hey guys!

Unfortunately none of these worked...

@Anto65 I don't have that option, and if it's meant to just show the USB drive in Boot Menu, that's already not an issue. I can see it there, I can select it, it would just not boot off of it. Anyway, I did try with Secure Boot enabled and disabled. Same result.

 

@eSaF I tried that EFI, and same result. Doesn't even load OC. Let alone the installer. :)) It doesn't even get into the boot picker. This is the weirdest thing I've seen so far. Weirder even than Tahoe. :))) For that one, at least I was able to boot into OC, but there were some issues booting into the installer. With this one, it's rejecting boot to OC itself. There is no log generated, there's no verbose text, nothing. After selecting the USB drive from boot menu, it just goes into reboot, and back to Windows again.

So far, I've only seen one person on reddit with something that looks like the same issue. But nobody answered. So...I have no clue.

 

I also checked BIOS settings. They're all good. Or at least...as mentioned on that page. There are probably other options that are not mentioned there and could cause this.

 

Pretty sure it's BIOS/UEFI related. But what exactly...I have no idea.

 

Edited July 7, 2025 by arsradu

[Anto65]

Yes indeed I had placed the conditional " if you had a similar setting in the bios "

 

You can try from Windows using DiskGenius to manually insert a Boot Entries ( OpenCore ) in the Bios , selecting the Bootx64.efi , inside the OC Boot folder from usb

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another trick could be
rename the file inside the BOOT folder in usb EFI
Bootx64.efi --> bootmgfw.efi

 

In some cases it is necessary without renaming the ( OC ) Bootx64.efi ,

create a folder inside the EFI usb , Microsoft --> Boot , copy the OC Bootx64.efi and rename it bootmgfw.efi

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Even if it's trivial, check that there is not the EFI folder (OC) inside another EFI folder, it can happen 😆

[arsradu]

12 minutes ago, Anto65 said:

Yes indeed I had placed the conditional " if you had a similar setting in the bios "

 

You can try from Windows using DiskGenius to manually insert a Boot Entries ( OpenCore ) in the Bios , selecting the Bootx64.efi , inside the OC Boot folder from usb

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another trick could be
rename the file inside the BOOT folder in usb EFI
Bootx64.efi --> bootmgfw.efi

 

In some cases it is necessary without renaming the ( OC ) Bootx64.efi ,

create a folder inside the EFI usb , Microsoft --> Boot , copy the OC Bootx64.efi and rename it bootmgfw.efi

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

Even if it's trivial, check that there is not the EFI folder (OC) inside another EFI folder, it can happen 😆

 

You know, it's funny, cause I was thinking the same thing. :)) Basically trick BIOS into thinking it's booting Windows. :)) 

 

Yeah, no, the folder structure is ok (only EFI (partition)/EFI (folder)). Also, since it can boot just fine on the desktop, pretty sure the structure is ok. But yeah...I think BIOS wants Windows. And...we'll need to agree to disagree on that one. :))

 

But I'll tell you this much: I've never seen this issue before, or this method (renaming bootx64.efi -> bootmgfw.efi). And it's weird! Cause..you'd think someone would have stumbled upon the same thing and found a solution, right? Including the guy who made the github page above. I mean, it's the same laptop, only older OS (which I was going to fix anyway). But I never expected not to be able to boot to OC. :)) That's new, for sure.

[arsradu]

The mother%#@##%$#@!

 

I'm just gonna leave this here, for now.

Yes, it works now. But no, it doesn't need a rename. It just needs Boot priority to be set in BIOS to USB HDD (your USB drive) as the first option and Microsoft Boot Manager anywhere else. Somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.

So, in other words: it doesn't work if you select it from Boot Menu, but it does work if you make your USB the first option to boot from. Funny enough, at first I thought it won't work, because it rebooted again.

But after the reboot, instead of Microsoft Boot Manager I've got OC.  Freaking FINALLY!!!

 

Edited July 7, 2025 by arsradu

[Anto65]

Sometimes the solution is right in front of your eyes ... better this way 👍

 

In some cases even having set the USB in the boot order from bios
it was necessary to resort to the methods mentioned above 🥵

[arsradu]

12 minutes ago, Anto65 said:

Sometimes the solution is right in front of your eyes ... better this way 👍

 

In some cases even having set the USB in the boot order from bios
it was necessary to resort to the methods mentioned above 🥵

Yeah, I thought that since I selected the USB drive in Boot Menu, that should be enough to override Microsoft's boot manager. Apparently that wasn't enough. So yeah, next option was setting the first boot option in BIOS to be the USB drive. Finally! :)))

But yeah, sometimes the solution is right in front of your eyes.

[arsradu]

Well, first milestone is now complete and we now have Sequoia installed successfully, but not without a few hickups, on this laptop.

With graphics acceleration provided by OCLP. 
note: i had to set CSM support back to ENABLED (usually disabled for “uefi boot”) otherwise I would get broken graphics after patching with OCLP. Yes. After!

Solution, in case you come accross this issue: boot in Safe Mode and undo root-patches. 

Next up: wifi.

Edited July 7, 2025 by arsradu

[Anto65]

🤔  I was wondering if it would help to boot and install in vesa mode ( -igfxvesa ) leaving csm disabled and then patching it

 

... well done anyway

[arsradu]

On 7/7/2025 at 7:53 PM, Anto65 said:

🤔  I was wondering if it would help to boot and install in vesa mode ( -igfxvesa ) leaving csm disabled and then patching it

 

... well done anyway

Probably not... But I'll come back to that another time. Right now I'm struggling to get my WiFi patched... And it's not easy. This laptop has got Intel BT and Wifi (7265) and seems there's no support for it in Sequoia. And trying to trick OCLP into patching it doesn't seem to work too well, either... But I'll keep trying.  

It's a challenge after all. I don't expect it to be easy, otherwise it wouldn't be a challenge. :))

[LockDown]

I have a few AC7265 and it works

[arsradu]

33 minutes ago, LockDown said:

I have a few AC7265 and it works

Hmm... With AirportItlwm.kext and OCLP? I cannot get it to recognize the "broadcom" WiFi card for the love of me. :)) Keeps saying "all the patches are already applied"

[LockDown]

	<key>DeviceProperties</key>
	<dict>
		<key>Add</key>
		<dict>
			<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1C,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
			<dict>
				<key>IOName</key>
				<string>pci14e4,43a0</string>
			</dict>
		</dict>
	</dict>

Complete details here

 

With itlwm no need for OCLP. AirportItlwm needs OCLP

 

I was on the move when i replied... back to homebase 👍

 

UPADATE: No need to fake IONAME in config if you will use itlwm

Edited July 9, 2025 by LockDown

[arsradu]

15 minutes ago, LockDown said:

	<key>DeviceProperties</key>
	<dict>
		<key>Add</key>
		<dict>
			<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1C,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
			<dict>
				<key>IOName</key>
				<string>pci14e4,43a0</string>
			</dict>
		</dict>
	</dict>

Complete details here

 

With itlwm no need for OCLP. AirportItlwm needs OCLP

 

I was on the move when i replied... back to homebase 👍

Yeah, I'm keeping itlwm.kext as a backup option. I haven't tried that yet.

 

Also, I think that requires Heliport or something, right? I was thinking maybe I can get AirportItlwm to work with OCLP, but looks like it doesn't want to... Weird thing is that it seems to have worked with previous versions of macOS Sequoia. For example 15.1 worked, but 15.5 does not...?

Anyway, looks like the link you provided has some details that the others don't (or maybe they haven't been updated)... So I'll try to give that a go.

 

Right now, I'm at a point where the WiFi icon in the menubar is greyed out, but no exclamation mark over it. So it can be enabled/disabled. It just doesn't find any networks. Pretty sure that's to be expected since it hasn't been patched by OCLP.

Same for BT. I can toggle it on and off, but doesn't find any BT devices.

 

Anyway, I'll check that out. Thank you!  

Edited July 9, 2025 by arsradu

[LockDown]

16 minutes ago, arsradu said:

I think that requires Heliport or something, right?

itlwm + heliport

 

15.1 worked, but 15.5 does not...?

itlwm works from HS and above. Even in 15.6 beta.

Airportittlwm (no need for heliport)has specific build per OS version

 

WiFi icon in the menubar is greyed out, but no exclamation mark over it. It just doesn't find any networks. 

Same for BT.

Those are covered on the link i linked (i think 🤔😄)

 

Edited July 9, 2025 by LockDown

[arsradu]

55 minutes ago, LockDown said:

 

Either I'm not doing it right, or...something is messing with me right now. :))

 

I followed that tutorial to the letter. I still can't get OCLP to patch the damn thing. :))

 

Edited July 9, 2025 by arsradu

[LockDown]

AirportItlwm is from ventura?

Make sure you remove the deviceproperties after you applied OCLP

Edited July 9, 2025 by LockDown

[arsradu]

21 minutes ago, LockDown said:

AirportItlwm is from ventura?

Make sure you remove the deviceproperties after you applied OCLP

Yes, AirportItlwm is the one from here. I downloaded AirportItlwm_v2.3.0_stable_Ventura.kext.zip

And yeah, I will remove it, but so far, I can't get OCLP to recognize this card and patch it. :))

How can I check if my spoofing was successful? I think that's where the problem is.

[LockDown]

for complete faking... No need for subsystem*

 

Airportitlwm must be injected after IOSkywalk & IO8021FamilyLegacy

 

Edited July 9, 2025 by LockDown

[arsradu]

20 minutes ago, LockDown said:

for complete faking... No need for subsystem*

 

Airportitlwm must be injected after IOSkywalk & IO8021FamilyLegacy

 

Yeah, I came across that page, as well. And I already tried this, with no success unfortunately.

And yeah, AirportItlwm.kext is placed after the two you mentioned above.

[LockDown]

Could it be your PCI Path🤔

[arsradu]

1 hour ago, LockDown said:

Could it be your PCI Path🤔

Well, I'm supposed to take the one from Hackintool, right?

If so...then I think it is correct.

However, and I'm not sure I'm reading this right, but looks like my properties are not being injected. So...no surprise OCLP doesn't pick it up, cause it doesn't show up as a "broadcom" card.

 

 

Are you supposed to disable something related to WIFI in BIOS...? I mean, it would make sense to be enabled, not disabled, but...I'm just asking. Looks like something is overwriting my patch right now.

Edited July 9, 2025 by arsradu