My ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 Triple-Boot Journey (macOS Sequoia)

[kahunalx]

Hello everyone,
 

I wanted to share my successful journey of getting a triple-boot system up and running with macOS Sequoia, Windows 11, and Linux Mint on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
 

This is a 4-5 year old laptop that was kindly "donated" to me from work  
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 (20U9)
Intel Core i7-10610U (4 cores / 8 threads)
16GB DDR3
WD Black SN770 1TB NVMe (replaced)
Intel UHD Graphics (Comet Lake-U GT2)
14" 4K Resolution
 

To build the EFI folder, I followed the Dortania guide to the best of my knowledge. However, I couldn't boot the installer; the boot process was always stuck in a loop throwing ACPI-related errors.

Before that, I also tried with Sonoma and what HJebbour did here (thank you!). Unfortunately, the installer never showed up. I had a prohibited sign on the screen. By disabling some kexts, I was able to progress a bit, but eventually it would fail.
 

Reading this forum, someone mentioned "OpCore Simplify." So I tried it and it worked like a charm!

After the EFI is built, you have to manually map the USB ports with USBToolBox. It was pretty straightforward, though. In my case, I used a USB thumb drive that has both USB-C and USB-A connectors to make sure I was selecting the right ports to map.

Finally, after installing macOS Sequoia, I found the laptop's internal EFI partition was empty. To make the system bootable, I copied the EFI folder from my USB drive directly into that partition.

What's not working
 

After installing Sequoia, I tried everything I could think of to make sure my laptop was actually working. Here is what did not work (minor things from my point of view):
 

- Internal Microphone
 

- Sleep on Lid Close: Closing the lid doesn't trigger sleep, instead I get a black screen and no way of doing anything but powercycle the laptop. However, I can trigger a sleep state manually from the menu. At any rate, I use the Amphetamine app to keep the laptop awake when the lid is closed, which I actually prefer.
 

- HDMI integrated port: I got a black screen on the HDMI display. However, I can use an external monitor with a USB-C to DisplayPort cable.
 

Working with minor workarounds
 

- Sound: I used layout-id 71 for the 4 speakers. In macOS, they appear as if they are different devices. You can create an aggregated device using macOS's "Audio MIDI Setup" tool. To control the volume, you will need AggregateVolumeMenu. I have disabled the macOS audio slider from the menu bar, so only the Aggregated one appears.
 

- WiFi: This uses itlwm, which appears in macOS as if it were a cabled ethernet interface. Similarly to the above, you can use HeliPort to get a WiFi network selection menu and disable the one that comes with macOS by default. Likely due to this implementation, things like "Unlock with Apple Watch" and "Airdrop" do not work.

I was worried that considering it's a laptop, perhaps macOS was not using all its horsepower so I installed Intel PCM following this guide and launched Cinebench to make the thing sweat a bit, happy to report all was good.

 

My EFI Folder & Triple-Booting

Here it is.

IMPORTANT: Please create new SMBIOS information using GenSMBIOS and incorporate that information into the config.plist using ProperTree. Alternatively, OCAuxiliaryTools can do both.
 

At this point, the main goal was achieved. However, sometimes I need that thing called "Windows" for specific applications that I use from time to time, like colour calibration tools and for writing EPROMs. So, I went ahead and installed Windows 11 which, as expected, overwrote my EFI boot, so I couldn't boot macOS unless I did so from the USB thumb drive I used originally to install Sequoia.
 

I found somewhere a program for Windows called BOOTICE that allows you to edit the UEFI boot options. I used it to recover my macOS boot. Now, the issue was that I couldn't boot Windows from the OpenCore menu; it worked if I selected the Windows Boot Loader in the UEFI/BIOS (F12) screen, though. It seems you need to modify the SSDTs to incorporate a condition like "if it is Darwin (macOS) then...".
 

At any rate, I was going to install Linux anyway (yes, I do stuff in Linux as well), and I was able to boot everything on the first try.

Windows is discovered automatically by GRUB (the Linux bootloader).  However, when it comes to macOS, you have to add the following to the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom:

menuentry "macOS" {
    insmod chain
    insmod part_gpt
    insmod fat
    insmod search_fs_uuid
    search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root 67E3-17ED
    chainloader ($root)/EFI/OC/OpenCore.efi
}
 

If you want to further personalize the GRUB boot menu, there is a wonderful tool called grub-customizer.
 

Anyway, hope this helps someone!

 

Edited September 9, 2025 by kahunalx
Added a step to make macOS bootable after its installation

[deeveedee]

@kahunalx Thank you for posting your triple-boot solution.  I do plan to try it.  I have a hack with i7-10610U with part of my OC EFI posted here.  I haven't fixed wake yet (haven't had the time to investigate further), but my config.plist and ACPI patches may give you ideas for sleep on lid close (if you're curious).  I'm going to look at your EFI to see if it gives me any ideas.  Thank you.

 

EDIT: @kahunalx Your method worked for me.  I made some minor modifications: I created a separate EFI partition for Open Core (which had its own UUID) and inserted the new UUID into 40_custom. Note that after editing 40_custom, I ran update-grub to incorporate the new macOS entry into the grub menu.

Edited November 25, 2025 by deeveedee