Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with UEFI Only

[tluck]

For FN keys on Sierra Karabiner-Elements seems to be the way forward. FN+P/K doesn't do anything on the T420 (does on my T460). not sure about these artifacts? odd.

[Somez]

For FN keys on Sierra Karabiner-Elements seems to be the way forward. FN+P/K doesn't do anything on the T420 (does on my T460). not sure about these artifacts? odd.

 

Hi tluck,

 

Do you have idea how should I start finding the root cause of these artifacts? Earlier you gave me the tip to check system.log for VRSYNC messages. I did not find any using grep. Any other idea?

 

Thanks.

[tluck]

@somez

 

are you using the stuff from the guide zip as is? 

 

3 things to check -

is the config.plist set to inject the EDID? see config.1600x900.plist - 

use the dsdt.edid.aml - which injects this same EDID for 1600x900 - see the EFI/CLOVER/ACPI folder

did you add the display overrides which also have this EDID?

[Somez]

@somez

 

are you using the stuff from the guide zip as is? 

 

Yes, I only replace the ACPIPoller.kext with the version from this forum with I can use my fan at 2000 RPM. But the artifacts issue was already present before using this kext anyway.

 

3 things to check -

is the config.plist set to inject the EDID? see config.1600x900.plist - 

 

I mounted the EFI and found this in the config.plist:

key>Graphics</key>

<dict>

<key>Comment</key>

<string>LCD 1600x900</string>

<key>CustomEDID</key>

<data>

AP///////wAw5OICAAAAAAEUAQOAHxF46jOFmVZVkScXUFQAAAABAQEBAQEB

AQEBAQEBAQEBgCVAgGCEGjAwIDUANq4QAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAA/gBMZW5vdm8KICAgICAgAAAA/gAxNjAweDkwMAogICAgAKU=

</data>

<key>DualLink</key>

<string>1</string>

<key>Inject</key>

<dict>

<key>Intel</key>

<true/>

</dict>

<key>InjectEDID</key>

<true/>

</dict>

 

Is this ok?

 

use the dsdt.edid.aml - which injects this same EDID for 1600x900 - see the EFI/CLOVER/ACPI folder

 

I have a file like that along with others. How do I know which one is being used?

 

did you add the display overrides which also have this EDID?

 

I did. I performed step #7 Recommended Option: Install (copy) the DisplayVendorID-* directories.

[jus12]

For FN keys on Sierra Karabiner-Elements seems to be the way forward. FN+P/K doesn't do anything on the T420 (does on my T460). not sure about these artifacts? odd.

 

Yes can confirm with Karabiner and the FN mapping posted by you, the keys work now. However once you install the karabiner package you will give up some mac functionality related to keyboard configuration, e.g. key mappings.

So if you use karabiner, all possible key mappings (replacing control with option etc) need to be done in karabiner. If you using external keyboard that has slightly different key mapping, you will need to replace config files manually.

[cydonia]

I've also upgraded my system to Sierra now. Is it just me who does not see anything in System Preferences/Trackpad? Screenshot attached.

Actually there is more, Fn+Home/End does not adjust the brightness anymore.

On top of that I'm still suffering from that screen issue I was mentioning earlier. Out of nothing my screen freezes but the machine runs fine. Sometimes I even see visual artifacts such as black lines. I've attached a screenshot of the login screen too.

One-tap left click on the touchpad is also not working some times.

 

Same problems here. If the screen freezes continue I may go back to El Capitán. Luckily they're not very frequent (only happened once so far).

[Tepoo]

Hey short question, 

 

i have the same T420 like you do, but sadly after installing El Capitan 10.11.6 i can not use the Clover packages.

with 3763 i get an error that i can't open the package

and with 3751 i get a Installation error after i selected all values for the isntallation.

 

does anyone has an idea, what's wrong there?

 

Kind regards

[tluck]

@Teepoo - well i am not sure what you mean by use the Clover packages. i presume you mean you downloaded the .pkg and are installing the bits. this step is not strictly required. so you can skip it. but you will have to provide more information about this issue.

 

 

Sierra - i have seen a horizontal glitch one time - but have not had any other severe issues. bummer. 

[Tepoo]

@Teepoo - well i am not sure what you mean by use the Clover packages. i presume you mean you downloaded the .pkg and are installing the bits. this step is not strictly required. so you can skip it. but you will have to provide more information about this issue.

 

 

Sierra - i have seen a horizontal glitch one time - but have not had any other severe issues. bummer. 

 

i followed each step before this very strict.

i am using a 64gb samsung ssd in a T420 which is identical to yours (as far as i can see it on the specs)

i am able to enter the osx without any issues.

i formated a small stick(on the mac with DiskUtil) to copy over the latest clover pkg from sourceforge from my windows pc, over to the macosx.

when i copy it on the desktop on macosx, i can start it now, but as soon as i select the options for installing it to the ESP, it tells me "The Installation failed".

[tluck]

@Tepoo

so your HD has an EFI partition as the 1st partition?

and you have copied the contents of the zip to the HD ESP?

can you boot Clover from the HD without the USB?

but now you want to install the other clover items?

 

to get the zip contents (clover etc) on your HD,  i was saying to skip step 4a (use clover.pkg) for now and move on to 4b

[Tepoo]

@Tepoo

so your HD has an EFI partition as the 1st partition?

and you have copied the contents of the zip to the HD ESP?

can you boot Clover from the HD without the USB?

but now you want to install the other clover items?

 

to get the zip contents (clover etc) on your HD,  i was saying to skip step 4a (use clover.pkg) for now and move on to 4b

 

i did that,

 

when i try to boot without the stick, i just get a blackscreen.

i now copied all files to the EFI partion, manually, like i also did to the USB Efi Partiton.

now i tryed to execute install command for the kext files to install them into L/E.

but it gives me an error in line 86.

i checked the file, and based of my checks, the klist stays empty when i execute the command.

that way, he does not copy over any file to L/E, and can not go further.

 

i placed the folder like you under Downloads, so the path is identical to your guide.

i am kinda confused :-| 

[tluck]

try this:

 

cd to T420/EFI/CLOVER/kexts

sudo ./_kext-install.command

[Tepoo]

okay, now he finds the files, but at the end when he is rebuilding the cache, i get this.

 

[tluck]

well i am not sure how or why the kexts are corrupted? but perhaps something about using windows?

if you can boot from the USB (that is not corrupted) -

remove these messed up kexts from /L/E and run the install script from the USB ESP.

or re-download the zip from OSX.

[Tepoo]

well i am not sure how or why the kexts are corrupted? but perhaps something about using windows?

if you can boot from the USB (that is not corrupted) -

remove these messed up kexts from /L/E and run the install script from the USB ESP.

or re-download the zip from OSX.

 

i won't be able to work on this today, but just for your information.

it seems that windows is corrupting your pack hardly.

i now started all over again and prepared all the files and so on on my Hackintosh Tower, and now everything works without any error messages sofar. 

i was also able now to install Clover into the ESP.

 

Update1: Everything worked fine now, as i copied all the files from my hackintosh tower to the stick, instead of using windows. 

Will check for finetuning now to make my wifi and wwan working.

 

thanks for the support.

 

Kind regards

[pepo930]

I just installed El Capitan on my T520 using this guide and so far everything works except WiFi.

 

Here's some problems I faced and how I fixed them:

I have a 1920x1080p display so I used the 1366x768 plist with Duallink enabled.

I also had to resize the EFI partition made by Windows from 99mb to 400mb so that OSX would install, otherwise I'd get errors such as "This disk is locked".

After that I installed it on a new partition on the same HDD as Windows 10 and both operating systems work fine.

I also got my USB3.0 ExpressCard working.

The only thing left is buying a Broadcom wifi card. My custom BIOS is already flashed.

[tluck]

@Tepoo - glad it is working.

@pepo930 - yeah, if EFI can be tricky coming from a PC. sometimes the EFI is not the first partition etc. i usually try to partition and format my disk on OS X when using them for OS X - er i mean macOS.

and there is very little difference between the lo res and high res config.plist - EDID and dual link - the EDID is for a bogus 1600x900 situation with some displays. 

 

FYI, i moved from 10.12.0 to 10.12.1beta1 -- seems a little better. 

[TomSull]

I successfully set up Mavericks on my T420 just over a year ago. Today I decided to finally upgrade to El-Cap, installing the latest Clover from Github at the same time. On reboot, I get a message "This version of Mac OS X is not supported on this platform". I've tried using the options menu on Clover to back the Model Number down from 8,3 to 8,1 in the SMBIOS settings. These settings don't seem to be saved and I'm stuck with the same error message.  Can anyone help point me in the direction of a solution?

[tluck]

@TomSull - could be a DSDT issue - are you using the stuff - clover, config.plist, dsdt, kexts from this Guide? 

 

so i take the system is not booting now? if you can get to the clover menus reduce the DSDT edits nothing if possible. 

 

or build a "Clover" USB with the contents of this zip in this guide to match your system and use that to boot up.

[TomSull]

@TomSull - could be a DSDT issue - are you using the stuff - clover, config.plist, dsdt, kexts from this Guide? 

 

I am using the clover from this guide.

 

so i take the system is not booting now? if you can get to the clover menus reduce the DSDT edits nothing if possible. 

 

or build a "Clover" USB with the contents of this zip in this guide to match your system and use that to boot up.

 

Thanks for your quick response. No, it is not booting. I can get to the Clover boot screen where you can choose between OS's. I'll have to give the USB route a try.

[Tepoo]

hey @tluck:

 

the system seems to run really propper now, have to adjust some things because of my rebranded wifi, but most stuff works fine, even the brightness controll works now as intended. awesome

 

but i have one small issue.

the wwan card i have, a Ericsson F5521gw with a GOBI3000, is not working propperly under 10.11.6 with my T420. based on some other guides i found, the only thing which is necessary to be done, is to edit the CellPhoneHelper.kext to make the card work.

but sadly, it only works partial for me.

 

after i edited the CellPhoneHelper.kext the card shows up as a WWAN Card in the System Info. but unfortunately, i can not select the card on the Network Preferences.

there should be 3 entries after the patching, but i see nothing.

 

Do you have an idea, what the cause could be for this?

 

Kind regards

Tepoo

[tluck]

@Tepoo - sorry I have no experience with WWAN cards.

[wijatka]

Hello!
I installed OS X El Capitan on my T420 and everything works well, except the battery. My energy management is sick. My T420 is running on battery on OS X about 30-40 minutes, when on Windows it was more than 2 hours. I installed custom SSDT but it's the same, as it was. I'm attaching a capture showing my problem: 

.

There are also 2 small problems. The streaming to AppleTV doesn't work and I can't pair with my iPhone by bluetooth. Thank you in advance.

[tluck]

@wijatka - my phone does pair on BT either - could be a white list thing not sure. 

no idea on appleTV

battery - you could do a battery reset with windows. 

[wijatka]

Is it possible to do a reset on LiveCD windows? What should I do to reset my battery? I charged my battery to 100% on OS X, then uncharged to moment, when there was no reaction pushing power key and charged to 100% again. Now my T420 on OS X shows an hour, so it is better and now I see that the it is rising while the battery is uncharging. Sorry for my bad english. Let's see how long will it work.