Improving Sonoma support for the Lenovo T530

[5T33Z0]

What works

• Installing and booting works with latest EFI release.
• Setup-Assistant works a lot snappier without iGPU acceleration than in Monterey and Ventura.
• Broadcom Bluetooth still works since BrcmPatchRAM is still compatible
• Intel WiFI and BT should still work if you have a card supported by itlwm.kext.
• Ethernet works fine.
• Firefox works fine
• Graphics Accelleration (since OCLP 068)
• Broadcom WiFI (requires additional post-install root pacthes as described here

Supported macOS

• macOS 14.2 RC. ⚠️ Requires nightly build of OCLP 1.3.0 or newer for root patching. Otherwise you "brick" macOS and have to revert patches.

What else

• This upgrade was definitely much, much, much easier than switching from Monterey to Ventura.
• More Info: macOS Sonoma and OpenCore Legacy Patcher Support dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher#1076
• ⚠️ Any Off-Topic posts which are not about the Lenovo T530 will be DELETED IMMEDIATELY!!!

[Jan-E]

Graphics Accelleration. I haven't applied root patches because I think it will most likely brick the installation. Maybe someone wants to test it in a VM instead.

I tested this in a Sonoma VM under Virtualbox 7.0.8. It did not brick the VM, but did not work either. The VM even felt a little bit snappier without the root patches.

[5T33Z0]

Thanks for testing.

[Jan-E]

I tested a little more. When I first ran OCLP 0.6.7 it told me that the VM was already patched. I assumed this was a leftover after the upgrade from Ventura. I reverted the root patches and it felt snappier. Looking now it still tells me it is patched. I can revert the root patches time and time again, but never install them.

[jozews321]

I patched my T430 running Sonoma with OCLP and it does brick the installation, but its recoverable using safe mode or the boot-arg -igfxvesa

[5T33Z0]

Yeah, I though that it would semi-brick the system when installed natively. Learned that from Ventura beta updates. But I didn't think about -igvesa as another workaround.

[jozews321]

The WindowServer crashes when trying to run accelerated with the current patches. Btw I found that when using VESA you can boot to unpatch because I haven't been able to fix recovery mode for my T430 I just get a prohibited sign.
Does recovery mode work for you? Do you have any advice to try and fix that
Thanks lmo

[5T33Z0]

Have you tried to re-enable the booter and kernel vmm patches? Because using RestrictEvents and -sbvmm does not do the trick when running installers outside of macOS. I guess it affects Recovery as welll, since it expects a compatible board-id/SMBIOS.

[cactusfuzz]

Any chance we can expect an OCLP release for Sonoma in the near future?

[5T33Z0]

@cactusfuzz Don't ask me, I am just a user like you are. According to Dortania, the estimated timeframe for an OCLP update is 6 months.

[cactusfuzz]

OK, thank you.

[Jan-E]

https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter
Drivers for Realtek 802.11n and 802.11ac USB Wi-Fi adapters
Support macOS Sonoma 14 - macOS Ventura 13 - macOS Monterey 12 - macOS Big Sur 11 - macOS Catalina 10.15

[Jan-E]

The dongle I used when taking the screenshot was a little big bigger, but this one also recognized the same networks:
https://www.edimax.com/edimax/merchandise/merchandise_detail/data/edimax/global/wireless_adapters_n150/ew-7811un_v2/
It is a cheap way to get Wifi access, without opening the laptop and fuzzing around with the screws and the connectors.

[Jan-E]

The X230T requires a Mini PCI-E form factor for the Wlan card. And in the same tiny space I have also got a 500GB mSATA SSD. I try to avoid switching the internal Wlan card as much as possible.

Edit: half size mini PCI-E. Something like this one https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32483159126.html

[Jan-E]

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/59474/intel-centrino-ultimaten-6300-dual-band/specifications.html No bluetooth, but looks OK otherwise.
Lots to investigate: https://openintelwireless.github.io/itlwm/Compat.html#dvm-iwn

[Jan-E]

I know you do not like aliexpress, but this Fenvi card has the right size and a Intel AX210 chipset:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32926172242.html Worth a try, for that money.

[5T33Z0]

Not in the list:

And if it's not in the list, I think you have to dump the firmware so it can be integrated in the kext. And I don't know to do this. I guess with Linux and terminal wizardry. Or maye ypu have to use a programmer to dump the ROM.

[Jan-E]

Wifi 6 might be too modern. Is there any other at https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/Für-Intel-Wi-Fi-Karte/106046_40000001358687.html that might be supported?

[Jan-E]

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005004974948251.html claims to be AX200.

[5T33Z0]

All great findings. BUT: the real problem is figuring out BT compatibility beforehand. Because the list for that is pretty limited: https://openintelwireless.github.io/IntelBluetoothFirmware/Compat.html

What they call "USB id" is actually something else. I was jus lucky the AC 9560 is compatibly. But it wasn't working in Ventura 13.5b first. So I wanted to check if it has a compatible "USB id". I had to go through all the categories of th device manager until I finally found something that resembles the this "USB-id". It's actually the Configuration ID made up of the VID (Vendor ID) and PID (product ID): https://github.com/5T33Z0/Thinkpad-T490-Hackintosh-OpenCore/blob/main/Additional_Files/Pics/Device_Manager/BT_Config-ID.PNG

In the end it was that the BluetoolKext had to be updated by the dev for 13.5. But checking fore the correct PID feforehand – I don't know where to look for that.

[Jan-E]

The list may seem pretty limited, but maybe it is complete as well. It is exactly the same list that Chromium lists for Intel Bluetooth devices:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/kernel/+blame/HEAD/drivers/bluetooth/btusb.c#337

Looking at half size mini PCI-E cards the Fenvi Mini PCI-E MPE-9260AC might be your best chance: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005004231470846.html
Intel AC 9260 is mentioned several times under compatible devices.
The standard link on aliexpress points to the ‘Antenna only’ option. Some Brazilians bought that one and were complaining about it. Be sure to click on the left button under ‘Farbe’ (huh Color !?) and buy it for €19,17 (free shipping).

[Jan-E]

Not in the list:

And if it's not in the list, I think you have to dump the firmware so it can be integrated in the kext. And I don't know to do this. I guess with Linux and terminal wizardry. Or maye ypu have to use a programmer to dump the ROM.

Actually AX210 is in the list, together with AC 9560. See https://openintelwireless.github.io/itlwm/Compat.html#mvm-gen-3-iwx

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32926172242.html might be the best choice after all. Select the ‘Farbe: WIFI 6E MPE-AXE3000H’.

Edit. Too curious. I bought one myself and only had to pay €22,34. If it is not for a Hackintosh, it might be a good one for my other Lenovo (X220, with currently a Broadcom card). Look at the reviews: there are repeat buyers. Allways a good sign.

[5T33Z0]

Wifi charts :D https://imperialpdx.com/half-mini-pcie-wifi-card/

[Jan-E]

With a high score for the Rekong MPE-AXE3000H. Which seems identical to the Fenvi MPE-AXE3000H. Not sure who the real manufacturer is. Or maybe both. Fenvi has a driver download guide. https://fenvi.com

https://www.google.com/search?q=rekong+site%3Afenvi.com shows a link to the driver guide, although 'rekong' is never found on that page. It probably means that there are links to that page when looking for rekong drivers.

https://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Afenvi.com%2Fdrive.html is interesting as well.

Try searching for MPE-AXE3000H on amazon.de. You will find 2 other brands for the same card.

[Jan-E]

The list may seem pretty limited, but maybe it is complete as well.

Intel has a download for IT administrators, which states:

amongst more (above the screenshot).
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/16807/intel-wireless-bluetooth-for-it-administrators.html

[karim2009]

hello and congratulations for your work!
if you want I am willing to participate by testing your patch on a machine at home, I would like to test the graphics acceleration!

[5T33Z0]

Graphics Acceleration does not work in Sonoma with this machine yet since OpenCore Legacy Patcher must be updated first.

[5T33Z0]

@jozews321

If you say so.

In the OC Post-Install guide it says that you can also use the "RTC Blacklist" in NVRAM to enter the memory regions to exclude. But you have te enter every single region from 80 (128) to AB (170 manualy (43 regions). So: 8081828……A9AAAB. Not going to do that :D

After further testing in Big Sur and Sonoma, it seems that I don't need RTCMemoryFixup. Switching HibernateMode to NVRAM for Hibernation, adding the Reserved Memory region and adding DiscardHibernateMap solved idle sleep so the machine now enters hibernation on its own.

[jozews321]

Yes I can confirm the RTC fixes are not necessary for me either.
But now I had the issue that not matter what time I was setting in standbydelayhigh and standbydelaylow and using hibernatemode= 3, I wasn't getting the laptop to auto hibernate.

Turn out the fault was the Disable RTC wake scheduling kernel patch that was preventing the RTC to wake the laptop in the scheduled time, I enabled the patch a long time ago on my t430 because I was getting random wakes and I just figured that those random wakes were the stock values of standbydelayhigh and standbydelaylow and hibernatemode=3 that are set by default on a mbp SMBIOS trying to hibernate but unable to do it. So you should disable that kernel patch too, i see that you have that kernel patch enabled in your config too.

Now talking about other things, have you seen something like this when waking from sleep or booting macOS just before the login screen

The temporal solution is to go to sleep again and wake or use Shift + Control + eject(Insert) to turn the display on and off or closing the lid and opening it again.
I've seen online people with T420, T430, X230, and more second and third gen Thinkpads but I haven't been able to find info on how to solve it, do you have any idea?

[5T33Z0]

I have never seen anything like this, sorry.

Yes, I've added the RTC Wake Scheduling patch in April as well because RTC/HID activity was waking the system all the time. But my concern is that the wake issue returns if I disable the patch.

[jozews321]

Maybe my LCD inverter is going bad, but I've had the problem just in macOS so I don't think is a HW issue.

These are the RTC DarkWakes that I get when the standbydelay time elapses, to go into hibernation

[5T33Z0]

Ah, now I get you. So what caused the wake, was actually an attempt to enter Hibernation and since it couldn't do it, it woke instead. I will test it tomorrow.

I created a new issue for this.

[Jan-E]

I really had an ouch experience today: my Sonoma 14.1.1 would not start anymore, after I had shut it down normally yesterday. See picture. After booting into my Ventura and rebooting into Sonoma once again it booted smoothly. Anyone experienced that before?

[5T33Z0]

Did you try and NVRAM reset before booting?

[Jan-E]

Did you try and NVRAM reset before booting?

No, I did not. Just booted as normal. And I cannot reproduce the issue, luckily.

[5T33Z0]

I guess it was just a "hickup" somewhere. I've seen a few reports on other ThinkPads but no real explanation as to what caused it (all obvious config issues aside)

[Jan-E]

Flawless inplace update to Sonoma 14.2. I first updated OCLP to 1.3.0, then installed the update to Sonoma 14.2. A couple of reboots later I had to install the OCLP root patches. In another partition installing the update to Ventura 13.6.3 now.

[5T33Z0]

14.3 Beta (23D5033f) working fine with OCLP 1.3.0

[LoveJessyChen]

My Hacintosh is 14.1.2 ,cpu is i5-6267u. When patched with oclp 1.3.0, the system can't boot normally and restart automatically.

[herrnst]

Hi,

I'd like to ask a question regarding Sonoma on the T530 machine, which I'm running into an issue with:

My T530 has the i5-3320M CPU with the basic 4GB RAM configuration, and the stock Centrino 6205 WiFi module. I was able to install Sonoma on it aswell as make all hardware work using "standard" Kexts (WiFi runs with AirportItlwm) and OCLP (HD4000 drivers/root patching),

Now, after as fresh boot of Sonoma, if I try to open the System Settings app, it will simply crash, same applies to "About this Mac". When I run "sudo purge" on the Terminal (sometimes need to run this twice), System Settings and About this Mac (System Profiler) start working for a short period of time (not sure how long exactly), and then those two apps start failing to open again.

Any idea what might be causing this?

Thanks!

[5T33Z0]

Minimum Requirement for macOS Sonoma is 8 GB of RAM

[herrnst]

Thanks, suspected something like this. Since that laptop really only serves as a toy right now and isn't doing anything productive at all, I need to think a bit about putting a bit of more RAM into it ;)

Thank you!

[5T33Z0]

I have 16 Gig installed and it runs really well with Sonoma. Although I prefer using Big Sur for productive uses. 09.01.2024 16:01:34 Daniel Scheller ***@***.***>:

…

Thanks, suspected something like this. Since that laptop really only serves as a toy right now and isn't doing anything productive at all, I need to think a bit about putting a bit of more RAM into it ;) Thank you! — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub[#43 (comment)], or unsubscribe[https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ASKOAEN3SYVMPAJDS6W2DNTYNVLUTAVCNFSM6AAAAAAZBT5HNWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQOBTGIYTENZQGM]. You are receiving this because you were mentioned. [Verfolgungsbild][https://github.com/notifications/beacon/ASKOAEOIHQZRJFXRWLJRXODYNVLUTA5CNFSM6AAAAAAZBT5HNWWGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNMJFZXG5LFINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTTQH6FZ6.gif]

[herrnst]

Minimum Requirement for macOS Sonoma is 8 GB of RAM

Well. Since DDR3L got quite cheap, I upgraded my T530 to 16GB (2x8GB Dualchannel), and that appears to have fixed the issue. Booted a few times and directly started System Settings and/or About this mac, worked every time.

Thanks again for the pointer!

[Jan-E]

Effortless update to Sonoma 14.3 (RC). Right after the update Xcode 15.2 was available, although that had been releases 10 days ago. Apparently Xcode 15.2 requires Sonoma 14.3.

[Jan-E]

Tonight I installed Sonoma 14.4 RC. Seemed to go OK, but after applying the root patches with OCLP 1.3.0 the next boot came no further than an Apple logo (on my 1366x768 display). VNC still worked, so I could see that the system really booted the whole way. However, trying to access System Settings > Displays forced a crash and immediate reboot. With the same result: Apple logo, no progress bar. I connected once again over VNC and reverted the root patches. Then the system came up normally, however with a screen at maximum brightness. Looks like OCLP needs another update.

[5T33Z0]

I guess you need the nightly build of the patcher. You can use my guide to recover from the failed patching attempt: https://github.com/5T33Z0/OC-Little-Translated/blob/main/14_OCLP_Wintel/Guides/Reverting_Root_Patches.md

[Jan-E]

The 1.4.0 nightly build of OCLP, downloaded from https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/blob/main/SOURCE.md did the trick. Maybe you should add that in the first post in this issue.

[Jan-E]

You can use my guide to recover from the failed patching attempt: https://github.com/5T33Z0/OC-Little-Translated/blob/main/14_OCLP_Wintel/Guides/Reverting_Root_Patches.md

There sometimes is a fourth option: reverting the patches over a VNC/screen sharing connection. That is what I did.

[5T33Z0]

It's a well-known fact that you have to use the nightly version of OCLP when using beta versions of macOS.

I have mentions about it all over the repo and in the changelogs as well.

Not my problem, if people don't read them.

[Jan-E]

A RC release is not exactly a beta. The release in a few days will probably be the same build number.

[5T33Z0]

Doesnt matter if it's a beta or a RC! It's just very new and OCLP has to be up to par with it in order for the patch process to work.

It's well documented in my repo. If people don't stick to the info, I don't care. It's not my job to handhold people.

And that's the end of this discussion!

[Jan-E]

Flawless in-place update to Sonoma 14.5 with OCLP 1.4.3. Currently installing the update to Xcode 15.4.