How to view hidden EFI partition on Mac drive

Open a terminal and run the following command to list your hard drives

diskutil list

It should return something similar to the following

bobs-MacBook:~ bob$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1000.1 GB  disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Install macOS Sierra    7.0 GB     disk2s2

bobs-MacBook:~ bob$

From above we see that the EFI partition on the main drive is disk0s1.

Make a directory for it to mount to

sudo mkdir /Volumes/TMPEFI

Mount it.

sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/TMPEFI

It should now show up in finder for you to browse.

To unmount it simple eject it in Finder, or use one of the following commands

umount /Volumes/TMPEFI
diskutil unmount /Volumes/TMPEFI

How to Create a Bootable macOS USB drive for Hackintosh with Clover

Whats needed

  1. Bootable macOS USB drive (Guide here)
  2. Clover (Download here, or on source forge)
  3. Computer running macOS to run clover from

Plug the drive into your Mac, or current Hackintosh and launch the Clover installation package you downloaded from above.  Click Continue

macos-clover-install-1

And continue again.macos-clover-install-2

Select “Change Install Location”macos-clover-install-3

Select your macOS Sierra Drive.  NOT YOUR main OS drivemacos-clover-install-4

Hit Continue, it’ll take you back to the screen before, now select Customize on the left and select the following options.macos-clover-install-5 macos-clover-install-6

Now Install.macos-clover-install-7 macos-clover-install-8

You should now be able to boot the USB on a PC.  You will need to change the settings on the PC to boot using EFI, and make sure your hardware is compatible.

 

Create Bootable macOS Sierra drive

You’ll need the following

  1. USB drive 8GB+
  2. macOS Sierra

The easy way to create a bootable macOS drive is by executing the following command.  This assumes your USB drive is named USBDrive and your macOS Sierra installer is in the Applications folder.  Change if needed.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USBDrive --applicationpath /Applications/Desktop/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

It’ll ask you for confirmation and then proceed to wipe the USB drive and put macOS on it.  Do note that it will erase the contents of the drive, so make sure you don’t have anything important on it.

Non interactive

You can add the option “–nointeraction” to have it not ask for confirmation.

Example :

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USBDrive --applicationpath /Applications/Desktop/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --nointeraction

 

 

Installing macOS Sierra on Alienware 18 – Notes

Note : This is not a complete guide to Installing macOS Sierra on an Alienware, mainly just some notes for now.  Everything here should apply to the Alienware 14 and 17, and maybe some of the newer ones 15 R1, 17 R2, etc.

You will need to either patch the kernel for the Haswell CPU, or enable it from clover when booting up.   If you don’t, the system will reboot on start up (See Troubleshooting section).

You may need to boot with the nv_disable=1 option if you don’t have a supported nvidia card

Creating the Boot Drive

  • Download macOS Sierra
  • Download Clover (Download from SourceForge, or here)

Create the boot drive just like you normally would and then run clover.  When you install Clover, be sure to CHANGE THE INSTALL LOCATION to the USB drive.

Also select the following options when installing clover.

  • Install for UEFI booting only
  • Install Clover in the ESP
  • Drivers64UEFI
    • OsxAptioFixDrv-64

 

After that is finished, you should be good to go.  Setup the Alienware BIOS for UEFI, and boot from the USB drive.  Install like you normally would.

POST Install

More coming later…

Troubleshooting

Alienware reboots after selecting the macOS drive in Clover.
Issue is related to the unpatched kernel for Haswell.

Fix :

  1. Once you get to clover, hit “o” this will give you the options menu
  2. Select “Binaries patching->
  3. Select “Kernel PM Patch
  4. Go back to the main menu
  5. Select the macOS drive and hit “Space Bar”
    1. Select the other options you want i.e.(safe mode, nv_disabled, etc.), and hit “Boot macOS with selected options

Black screen after selecting the macOS boot drive
Looks like the issue is some sort of incompatible hardware.  I had a wifi card that was causing trouble.

Fix:

Disable wireless card in BIOS.

Kernel Panic
Could be any number of things:(

Things to try,

Boot in safe mode

  1. Boot to clover
  2. Select the macOS drive
  3. Hit the “Space Bar”
  4. Select the option that says “Safe mode”
    1. Hit “Boot with selected Options”

How To Install OS X Mountain Lion on Dell Latitude E6410

This is basically a summarized version of the guide over on OSXLatitude.

Credits go to patel4prez over at osxlatitude.com for the work, instructions, and files to get this working!

Original Guide : http://forum.osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/1695-e6410-with-nvidia-nvs-3100m-graphics-mountain-lion-guide/

These instructions are for the Latitude E6410 with NVIDIA NVS 3100m Graphics.

What is needed

  1. OS X Mountain Lion Installer
  2. USB Drive 8GB or larger, and preferably a fast one
    1. E6410ML.zip file which contains some extras and applications

Create Bootable USB Drive

Locate your OS X Mountain Lion Installer file in Finder, right click on it and “Show Package Contents”, then go to “Contents” > “SharedSupport” and copy the “InstallESD.dmg” to your Desktop.

Unzip the E6410ML file and open up the Applications folder and launch myHack

Enter Password and select Create OS X Installer > Create OS X 10.8 Install Disk > Select the Correct USB drive, and then select the InstallESD.dmg when it wants the install file.

Run myHack again once it creates the drive and select Install Extra.  Select the correct USB drive, and then select Use My Own, select the Extra folder in the E6410ML folder.

Now run Kext Wizard(Inside the same folder as myHack)

In Kext Wizard go to the Installation Tab and Select kext to Install: Browse, select the S/L/E folder in the E6410ML folder, select all the kext files and hit open.  Check the box to Backup kexts, set the Destination to System/Library/Extensions, set the Target Disk to the USB drive and Install.  Once finished go back to the Maintenance Tab, select all the check boxes, set Target Disk as the USB Drive and Execute.

Copy over the E6410ML folder to the USB drive.  You need it for the last part of the install.

Install

You will need to set the BIOS to use AHCI

Select the USB drive on boot up

Install like you normally would.  You will probably need to reformat the hard drive.

Towards the end, you will be asked for an Extra file, select use my own and select the one you copied over to the USB drive.

Hit Yes to the following three prompts that pop up.

Post Install

Run through the whole setup process

Open up System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Click the lock at the bottom left > enter password > Allow applications from Anywhere

Open up the myHack USB install drive > Open up the E6410ML folder > then go to Applications and launch Kext Wizard

In Kext Wizard go to the Installation Tab and Select kext to Install: Browse, select the S/L/E folder in the E6410ML folder, select all the kext files and hit open.  Check the box to Backup kexts, set the Destination to System/Library/Extensions, and Install

Next go to the Maintenance Tab and Select all the check boxes, make sure the Target disk is the hard drive you installed OS X to, and then hit Execute.

Now open up Chimera (It is in the same place as Kext Wizard) and go through the install process.

Reboot!  You should have working Hackintosh!  You can follow the rest of the steps if you want sound.

Once you log back in, open up the E6410ML folder again and go to VoodooHDA and install the pkg.  It will say it failed, but continue anyway.

Open Kext Wizard back up and under the Installation Tab hit Browse and navigate to the VoodooHDA.kext (it is in the same folder as the VoodooHDA pkg) select Destination as System/Library/Extensions and hit Install.

Go back to the Maintenance Tab, select all the check boxes and Execute.

Next open up System Preferences > Users & Groups > Your Username > Login Items > hit the + then hit CMD+SHIFT+G all at once and type /vhda select Go and select the VoodoooHDASettingsLoader.app, hit Add > Check the box to Hide it

Reboot and you should have a mostly working hackintosh with sound.

 

 

Create a Bootable OS X Yosemite Thumb Drive – Simple Version

Open up disk utility and format your thumb drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”

Open up a terminal, and run the following command.  Change “USBdrive” to your USB Drives name.

sudo /Path/to/Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USBdrive --applicationpath /Path/to/Yosemite.app --nointeraction

Enter in your password and let it run.

Example:

sudo /Applications/Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/OSXInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Yosemite.app --nointeraction

Clean GPT Drive in Windows

Hit the Windows  key, type in diskpart and hit enter

You should get a black Command like Prompt window.

List the disks

list disk

You should get a list of the disk you have as well as the number for the disk.

Select the disk you want in our case disk 3.  Change the number to the number of your drive

select disk 3

clean the disk

clean

Now you can open up Disk Manager and create a new Simple Volume on your drive.

Installing sshpass on OS X

Note: To install sshpass you need to make sure you have Xcode installed along with the Xcode command line tools.  You can download Xcode from the app store, and then install the command line tools from Xcode’s Preferences.

Now open up your terminal and run the following commands.

Download sshpass from source forge.

curl -O -L http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/sshpass/sshpass/1.05/sshpass-1.05.tar.gz

Extract the tarball and cd into the directory.

tar zxvf sshpass-1.05.tar.gz && cd sshpass-1.05

make and install.

./configure
make
sudo make install

Now test and make sure it works

sshpass -V

You should receive the following.

sshpass 1.05 (C) 2006-2011 Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
This program is free software, and can be distributed under the terms of the GPL
See the COPYING file for more information.

 

Create an Image of Hard Drive with ddrescue on OS X

Install ddrescue

sudo port install ddrescue

If you don’t have ports installed, then I would recommend doing some web searching on how to install ddrescue.

Identify Disk:

identify the “name” of the disk you want to “image” .

diskutil list

Example:

Macbook:~ bob$ diskutil list
 /dev/disk0
 #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
 0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *200.1 GB   disk0
 1:                        EFI EFI                     204.2 MB   disk0s1
 2:                  Apple_HFS Mac                     199.7 GB   disk0s2
 3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             641.1 MB   disk0s3
 /dev/disk1
 #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
 0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *250.8 GB   disk1
 1:               Windows_NTFS Windows Hard Drive      250.8 GB   disk1s1
 Macbook:~ bob$

The first disk “disk0” is the OS X System disk, the second one “disk1” is an external drive, the one I want to image.

Recovery/Image command:

Change /dev/disk1s1 to your disk.  If you have multiple partitions and want to image the whole drive then just use the disk name like “/dev/disk1”  instead of  “/dev/disk1s1”.

sudo ddrescue -v /dev/disk1s1 ~/Desktop/ddrescue.dmg ddrescue.log

In the above command I am attempting to rescue data from the first partition on disk1 and send it to an image “ddrescue.dmg” on my desktop.

Now go get some coffee, lunch, etc. and it might be finished when you get back…