Converting from Clover to OpenCore - profzei/Matebook-X-Pro-2018 GitHub Wiki

Converting from Clover to OpenCore

  • Supported version: 0.5.9

Step 0 - Backup your Platform Info

If your ProductName was MacBookPro15,2 then, please, backup your Platform information from Clover's SMBIOS section:

  • BoardSerialNumber info
  • SerialNumber info
  • SmUUID info Else skip to the following step.

Step 1 - Cleaning the Clover Junk in macOS

You will need to have SIP disabled to clean it up!

  • Mount your EFI partition
    • its name depends on your previous installation (it should be SYSTEM ,like mine, or EFI itself...)
    • you need to clean the emulated NVRAM file nvram.plist and CLOVER folder (backup it if you like!)
    • you also need to clean BOOT folder (which loaded CLOVER) replacing then it with OpenCore's one (backup it if you like!)
    • In Terminal type:
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/SYSTEM/nvram.plist
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/CLOVER
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/BOOT

or

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/EFI/nvram.plist
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/EFI/EFI/BOOT
  • Download the script Converting_Clover_to_OpenCore.sh to clean Clover's references in /etc and /Library folders (if you get a no such file or directory warning don't mind! ...it only means that your Clover version isn't too old!) and execute it in Terminal typing:
./Converting_Clover_to_OpenCore.sh

Step 2 - Copying OpenCore Post-Installation EFI folder

  • Now you need to copy OpenCore folder in EFI partition

    • Download my OC_EFI_POST.zip file and unzip it
    • Copy its OC nad BOOT folders "inside" the EFI folder located in your EFI partition (i.e. "inside" /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/ or /Volumes/EFI/EFI/ folder)
    • Reboot your machine!

  • On your initial boot of OpenCore, select Reset NVRAM boot option: this will wipe Clover settings and reboot (automatically) the system when finished.

  • Now in OpenCore Picker select your disk name.

Step 3 - Restoring your Platform Info (Optional)

  • Mount your EFI partition

  • Open /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/OC/config.plist file and in PlatformInfo section restore the following info:

    • Generic -> SystemSerialNumber from Clover's SerialNumber info
    • Generic -> MLB from Clover's BoardSerialNumber info
    • Generic -> SystemUUID from Clover's SmUUID info

If you don't have these info in your (old) Clover config.plist, don't mind!

  • If you want setting up the SMBIOS info, you'll need GenSMBIOS application using ProductName -> MacBookPro15,2 as SMBIOS info.
    • Run GenSMBIOS, pick option 1 for downloading MacSerial and then option 3 for selecting out SMBIOS
    • At this point you can fill PlatformInfo section in /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/OC/config.plist file:
      • the Type part gets copied to Generic -> SystemProductName (i.e. MacBookPro15,2)
      • the Serial part gets copied to Generic -> SystemSerialNumber
      • the Board Serial part gets copied to Generic -> MLB
      • the SmUUID part gets copied to Generic -> SystemUUID.

Multiboot with Windows 10

If you have a dual boot machine, then for restoring Windows 10 boot entry in OpenCore Picker, do the following:

  • Mount your EFI partition
  • Open /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/Microsoft/Boot folder
  • Rename bootmgfw-orig.efi to bootmgfw.efi
  • Reboot.

Adding GUI to OpenCore

If you want you can add a GUI to OpenCore using OpenCanopy. At the moment (23rd June 2020) it does not seem useful to invest energy in this since the graphic part is evolving very quickly: a great improvement is expected in the OpenCore release in early July!

How to dual boot macOS (with OpenCore) and Windows 10

The aim is to get macOS and Windows 10 installed on your system on the same ssd, but without messing macOS or Windows 10 in the process.

Dualbooting with Windows: BIOS approach

The steps are the following:

  • after pressing the power button, press the Fn12 key for accessing to BIOS Boot Option Menu
  • if you followed my previous configuration, you will see (fig. above) a similar screen where you can choose between OpenCore or the usual Windows Boot Manager options
    • if you choose OpenCore option, then OpenCore Boot Picker shows up where you need to select the index related to your macOS partition
    • [optional] if you want macOS as default option (probably it is Windows...) you need to press ctrl + number where number indicates the index for macOS
    • [optional] if you want to change default timeout for OpenCore Boot Picker then modify in config.plist the setting for Misc -> Boot -> Timeout
    • otherwise, if you choose Windows Boot Manager, then Windows 10 will boot
  • at every boot, you need to press the Fn12 key

Dualbooting with Windows: rEFInd bootloader

The steps are the following:

  • in OpenCore Boot Picker you need to press ctrl + number (where number is the index for macOS option) to get macOS as default option
  • boot macOS system and then mount your system's EFI partition
  • open /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/Microsoft/Boot folder and rename bootmgfw.efi to bootmgfw-orig.efi
  • download MatebookXPro-OC-rEFInd-v1.0.0.zip and unzip it somewhere
  • replace old /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/OC and /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/BOOT folders with new ones obtained by unzipping MatebookXPro-OC-rEFInd-v1.0.0.zip file
    • don't modify in config.plist this setting: Misc -> Security -> BootProtect -> None otherwise OpenCore Boot Picker will show up at every boot
    • my setting for OpenCore Boot Picker timeout is 1 sec: if you want to change it, you need to modify in config.plist the value for Misc -> Boot -> Timeout
  • reboot the system
  • press the Fn12 key and select EFI Hard Drive boot option
  • now rEFInd bootloader will load: from now on, it will appear at every boot without having to press the Fn12 key anymore!

In Windows 10, if you launch dxdiag app, you can see something like the following image to check the absence of mess!

Further info: how to set up rEFInd from scratch

To get started you need rEFInd files

  • Mount your system's EFI partition
  • Move OpenCore's BOOTx64.efi to /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/OC/
  • Move refind_x64.efi to /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/BOOT/
  • Rename refind_x64.efi to BOOTx64.efi
  • Add the folders drivers_x64 and tools_x64 to /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/BOOT/
  • Grab refind.conf-sample and add it to /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/BOOT/
  • Rename refind.conf-sample to refind.conf

Once done, you should get something like this:

Now that rEFInd is installed, you need to add a theme and edit its configuration file refind.conf:

  • Create a folder theme in /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/BOOT/
  • Download rEFInd black theme zip file and uncompress it in /Volumes/SYSTEM/EFI/BOOT/theme
  • Next open refind.conf up in a text editor and scroll to the bottom of the file where you'll find some example bootloader setups (you can analyse the various options...): here is an example of a refind.conf supporting OpenCore and Windows using our setup
menuentry "Windows 10" {
	icon \EFI\BOOT\theme\icons\os_win.png
	loader \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw-orig.efi
}

menuentry "macOS" {
	icon \EFI\BOOT\theme\icons\os_mac.png
	loader \EFI\OC\BOOTx64.efi
}

include theme/theme.conf

scanfor manual,external
  • As you can see, the settings for the theme are stored in theme/theme.conf:
#
# rEFInd Dark Theme
#

timeout 5

# Hide UI elements
hideui hwtest,arrows,hints,editor,badges

# Icons
icons_dir theme/icons
small_icon_size 64
big_icon_size 256

# Background
banner theme/back.png
banner_scale fillscreen

# Selection highlighting
selection_small theme/select_small.png
selection_big theme/select_big.png

showtools shutdown
default_selection "macOS"