Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with UEFI Only

[tluck]

14 hours ago, Keviince said:

@tluck Thanks for your manual , I had successfully installed Hackintosh on my T420 few days before. But I met some problems , can you help me out?

1. Some function keys don't work , just like F8 F8 , even Karabiner-EventViewer can't recognize then out.

2. I cant's use function keys as normal F1-12 keys.

These two issues would be solved when I reinstalled the VoodooPS2Controller.kext , but when I reboot my system it goes wrong.

3. My screen will be blurred from time to time , especially high-load situation.

if you using the SSDT-T420-PS2K-keys.aml (default) then the F1-F12 are remapped to apple functions like F1/F2 are brightness, F10/F11/F12 are audio. 

F8 turns on/off trackpad. 

not sure about blurryness?

[Keviince]

1 hour ago, tluck said:

if you using the SSDT-T420-PS2K-keys.aml (default) then the F1-F12 are remapped to apple functions like F1/F2 are brightness, F10/F11/F12 are audio. 

F8 turns on/off trackpad. 

not sure about blurryness?

 

Thank you ! It works perfectly for my problem , as for blurryness , I found a solution which is  --slide=0 , I will test it.

[goodguess]

Slightly off-topic, but for all of you wanting to renew the touch-pad of your T420,

here is an offer from a German seller:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T420-Handauflage-Palmrest-Keyboard-bezel-Original/263995876149?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

I got two of those working just fine. It was time to replace the worn out "mouse" buttons anyway.

 

Also, the Broadcom WLAN cards became really affordable too:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/New-Half-Mini-Wireless-Wifi-Network-Card-for-DW1510-PW934-BCM94322HM8L-Gree-M1H6/302570350476?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

Edit 1:

Sigh, old hardware does fail.

The Conexant 20672 sound chip of my i5-2540 T420 seems to be fried.

Windows can´t find an audio device any more, headphone jack is dead.

macOS can´t find an output device either, but headphone jack still works.

 

Edit 2: Its not the Conexant sound chip which passed away.

I´m a happy camper again.

Seems my latest W10 update killed the sound device for what reason ever.

As to why macOS is tangled by this too remains a mystery to me.

Anyway, installing the latest chipset driver from Intel enables sound again.

This Intel page has the package I did install:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775/Intel-Chipset-Device-Software-INF-Update-Utility-

(I´ll attach the chipset driver DL below too.)

 

Edit 3:

Be prepared for a missing sound device again, if you let MS do another "upgrade".

Keep the chipset driver in reach as you will need it again after upgrade.

It may be worth a thought to disable upgrades altogether and stop W10 from phoning home.

See attached file OOSU10. 

 

 

MS updates may be questionable, the "repair" function does nothing about the missing device.

Looking at the Sound control panel in W10 shows nothing.

Conexant driver install quits, as there is no matching hardware found.

Not exactly the customer experience MS is targeting to, I hope.

According to HWInfo, the Windows build in question is Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 17134.471 (1803/RS4), just to let you know, in case you get hit by the same update feature.

IntelChipset.7z

OOSU10.7z

Edited January 20, 2019 by goodguess

[snike]

On 12/17/2018 at 3:53 AM, tasteTheBacon said:

 

So this is what I've done :

When I created the USB installer for Mojave I've renamed the Mojave 1600x900 config plist to config.plist in the USB EFI / Clover folder.

My intention was to convert it to become the default config that clover selects.
While installing MacOS from the USB this setup worked.

Once MacOS finished install to the SSD I've copied everything from the USB EFI to the SSD EFI.

When I tried to boot from the SSD it failed as detailed in previous comments. 
Clover properly highlighted my config.plist (which was originally the 1600x900 Mojave config) as the selected one, despite this I had to manually select a different config and re-select the default one to make a successful boot attempt.
I suspect that if I delete all other config.plist it will boot just fine and this is a Clover bug, but I didn't have the time to check this yet.

 

 

Hi tasteTheBacon,

I am in the same boat now. I installed the Tluck Dec 31st package and just ike you I need to unselect and reselect the config file in Clover options to get the Hackintosh to boot up. 

Were you able to resolve it? so that this extra step need not be done?

[tluck]

what config.plist are you selecting? you can just make the one the works the default?

 

for 1600x900 i think config 2e2 works best. 

[ludufre]

With the wireless whitelist removal some AMT features are also disabled with the mod and on some Lenovo you get 5 beeps (twice) on boot.

This is because of RSA signature that as verified on boot. I can fix that.

 

If anyone want, send me the DUMP of the current patched BIOS.

 

Soon I will make a guide so you can do it alone.

 

[EDIT]

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by ludufre

[snike]

On 1/19/2019 at 9:09 PM, tluck said:

what config.plist are you selecting? you can just make the one the works the default?

 

for 1600x900 i think config 2e2 works best. 

I doesnt matter which I choose, the trick to make it boot is to go into CLOVER option , during boot, and into the Config option and change the selection. I mean just go thru the steps of changing the config file selection thats it, you can select the same file which was already preselected.

Earlier I had just one config file in the CLOVER folder and I could not boot. I added a dummy config file, so i can go thru the motions of selecting a config file. After that I am able to boot. 

So the config file i had originally works, but to make it work I need to do these steps outlined above. 

[tluck]

2 hours ago, ludufre said:

With the wireless whitelist removal some AMT features are also disabled with the mod and on some Lenovo you get 5 beeps (twice) on boot.

This is because of RSA signature that as verified on boot. I can fix that.

 

If anyone want, send me the DUMP of the current patched BIOS.

 

Soon I will make a guide so you can do it alone.

 

huh, i was wondering why i get that from time to time! i thought maybe it was my MoBo clock battery

 

i am on 1.46 mod for T420 - but some are on a later 1.48 mod and maybe 1.52... see this file:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15KmNGZkoJ1ToTyHDfvp9Uu55Xk3tOR-S

[laziboi]

Hi guys, I've been installed Sierra with the latest package from @tluck, followed exactly the guide from tluck but I got random freeze and glitch issues recently. Anyone pls tell me what to do right now to fix these issues 

 

My specs: 4gb ram, 1366x786 LCD, BIOS v1.46 (modded).

 

Thanks.

[ludufre]

17 hours ago, tluck said:

 

huh, i was wondering why i get that from time to time! i thought maybe it was my MoBo clock battery

 

i am on 1.46 mod for T420 - but some are on a later 1.48 mod and maybe 1.52... see this file:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15KmNGZkoJ1ToTyHDfvp9Uu55Xk3tOR-S

 

@tluck  Fixed your BIOS signature:

 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/w9cafl

 

I could not understand how you are flashing your BIOS, this file was inside the folder: 83ET76WW/

 

[EDIT]

Two volumes on BIOS has been fixed:

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by ludufre

[tluck]

5 hours ago, laziboi said:

Hi guys, I've been installed Sierra with the latest package from @tluck, followed exactly the guide from tluck but I got random freeze and glitch issues recently. Anyone pls tell me what to do right now to fix these issues 

 

My specs: 4gb ram, 1366x786 LCD, BIOS v1.46 (modded).

 

Thanks.

 

hmm. seems not as many have reported glitches/freeze on lo-res LCD. 

you could try to patch frame buffer to increase nvram memory since you only have 4GB vram, it uses 386 vs 512 (or more)

even though its not native you could try with EDID injection such as with 1600x900 2e2 config 

 

[ludufre]

2 hours ago, ludufre said:

 

@tluck  Fixed your BIOS signature:

 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/w9cafl

 

I could not understand how you are flashing your BIOS, this file was inside the folder: 83ET76WW/

 

[EDIT]

Two volumes on BIOS has been fixed:

 

 

@tluck More info in my guide: 

 

[leaddonkey]

On 1/5/2019 at 3:27 AM, davidian said:

@leaddonkey I have the same card, DW1520 will work almost OOB, without any extra kexts in Sierra/Mojave with just a small config plist patch:

            <dict>
                <key>Comment</key>
                <string>DW1520 Whitelist Patch (MBP11,1)</string>
                <key>Disabled</key>
                <false/>
                <key>Find</key>
                <data>
                TWFjLTJFNkZBQjk2NTY2RkU1OEM=
                </data>
                <key>Name</key>
                <string>com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360</string>
                <key>Replace</key>
                <data>
                TWFjLTE4OUEzRDRGOTc1RDVGRkM=
                </data>
            </dict>
 

If you use for example MBP9,1, as tluck suggested recently, you will need to change the replace data appropriately (base64 encoding of Mac Board-Id). For MBP9,1 use 

TWFjLTRCN0FDN0U0Mzk0NTU5N0U=

 

For El Capitan search here for DW1520, you will find the solution with MBP8,1.

 

So, I finally figured out what I was doing.  After following the walkthrough on Pg 20 (or 25), I was using KextUtility to install the Kexts, but was not putting them in the 10.13 folder under EFI/EFI/Clover/Kexts/10.13, when I did that with the key fix here, it worked a real treat.

 

Thanks TLuck and davidian.

 

I'll use HS for a bit then look at upgrading to Mojave.

[tluck]

hey if you are on Mojave - don't upgrade past 10.14.3

- i got blackscreen and window server crashes etc.

- in other words, the old recipes are not enough. 

[goodguess]

Thanks for the warning, so 10.14.3 is still safe?

I think we can call ourselves lucky that our old SandyBridge laptops do still run a recent macOS.

It has to be expected that macOS will kick us out some day.

 

Edited February 1, 2019 by goodguess

[POWerSUrgeSW3]

I recently upgraded hard drives (SSDs) in my T420s and thought I would come back to playing with this idea again. Had it working no problem, but haven't used it since Sierra came out. Thought I would wipe everything and start fresh.

 

... Which seems to be dumb. When I did this back then I had 0 issues and everything installed smoothly. Now I can get Clover to boot, see the Apple logo, but after the status bar gets over half way, I just have a circle with a slash through it. I've tried going in and checking options I thought that would help, but nothing seems to get me any further. I'm even still on the same modded BIOS I had back then, I haven't seen an updated v1.46 for the T420s, so I'm still on v1.45.

 

Any advise would be helpful (@tluck - Thanks for your continued hard work! Sounds like you got bigger issues to deal with no looking for anyone to rush to my head just throwing a line out to see if anyone has any ideas)

[leaddonkey]

So I have 2 questions please for those on High Sierra 10.13.6.

1) What MBP do I need if I want to download Mojave?

2) For those that initiated the APFS Encrypted HDD/SSD how did you get it to boot after encrypting?  I have encrypted the drive 2xs and each time the drive is unbootable.

 

Thanks for responses in advance, I really appreciate all of the hard work and time put in to making this thread sustainable.

[tluck]

@POWerSUrgeSW3 what version macOS is your installer? if you have a working HD, do you have bay or external USB box to make a clone? you can always reinstall the same OS on top a workin instance to clean it up.

 

10.14.3 is working as good as High Sierra.

 

@leaddonkey the best way to upgrade from High Sierra to Mojave is to use the config.mojave.plist on HighSierra (I.E. get it running on MPB9,1 - and then download the version you need. but stay with 10.14.3

 

sorry i have zero experience with encrypted HD. but i presume you have put all the extra clover drivers in place?

Edited February 4, 2019 by tluck

[tluck]

if you are using Mohave with non-metal GPU (such as HD3000 on the T420) there is some good news: 10.14.3 is not the end of the road.

 

@dosdude has discovered and provided a recipe where one can use/roll-back 2 system frameworks from 10.14.3. this is essentially what he discovered: 

these are 2 frameworks that need to be saved from 10.14.3 and replaced when on a later version such as 10.14.4 (beta):

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GPUSupport.framework

/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework 

 

it is a bit tricky...

1) pre update - remove the HD3000 kexts from /S/L/E

2) update to 10.14.4 beta

3) post update - then in single user mode

replaced the HD3000 kexts in /S/L/E

replaced the 2 frameworks

[Tetonne]

help with non Booting T420

i use to boot on a dual boot HD (EFI/MAC/WIN) in an extra caddy (replacement of dvd)

1st hb was WIN 10 SSD

 

Because the T420 did boot on 1st SSD but only with 2nd HD EFI...

 

i try to fix BIOS F12 volumes détection

i use EasyUEFI

with nos success cos i could not delete unwanted entries

...

Now my T420 light on power On but screen is always black (no matter with HD/SSD...) wit or without battery

 

what will you suggest to bring my T420 back to live?

bios issue if ithink

 

Edited March 10, 2019 by Tetonne

[namisloc]

@tluckI was having issues with firefox application windows freezing when moving (note: HD3000) and noticed that others were seeing the problems fixed when they used 2e3 config.  I tried this and it fixed the exact issue that was causing the graphics glitch.  I decided to take it a step further and delete the other configs from my EFI so it could only load this working config.plist.  However, now when I boot it's a very slow booting window that freezes at a black screen.

 

I can boot Ubuntu from USB, but I can't access the EFI drive (at least I don't know how).

 

 

 

 

 

 

------------------------------------------

Problem solved.

Nevermind, I was able to plug in the bootdrive to my PC and using minitool partition wiz and explorer++ I added the configs back to the EFI and I'm booted up with my random freeze issue seemingly solved.   Cheers!

Edited March 11, 2019 by namisloc

[tluck]

On 3/10/2019 at 10:19 AM, Tetonne said:

help with non Booting T420

i use to boot on a dual boot HD (EFI/MAC/WIN) in an extra caddy (replacement of dvd)

1st hb was WIN 10 SSD

 

Because the T420 did boot on 1st SSD but only with 2nd HD EFI...

 

i try to fix BIOS F12 volumes détection

i use EasyUEFI

with nos success cos i could not delete unwanted entries

...

Now my T420 light on power On but screen is always black (no matter with HD/SSD...) wit or without battery

 

what will you suggest to bring my T420 back to live?

bios issue if ithink

 

can you bring up Clover?

can get to the bios to reset to defaults?

 

Do you have bootable USB - to boot this guide zip/Clover ? 

 

I think you have multiple computers, so I would take the HDD out of the caddy and make sure it is properly formatted.

if you have a USB enclosure, attach to 2nd machine. then put clover on it. put that in 1st slot (not bay)

[Tetonne]

^thanks tluck, 

- no clover (but i don't think it's the problem, cos it doesn't work on a win hdd too)

- don't know how to reset bios (i'm sure it's the problem

   I try remove your battery, remove any AC adapters, hold the power button for 1 minute, install battery and AC adapter
   but nothing special after

 

 i need to reset bios may be

[tluck]

@Tetonne so you can get into BIOS with F1 - then you can do F9 to load Defaults. then set ACHI mode etc. 

to see if the computer is toast or not. maybe download and create an Ubuntu USB and see if you can boot that.

otherwise not sure what to say?

[some good man]

Hi @tluck,  Can you give us a bit of explanation for the config files, such as  2e2, EDID etc.?

Edited April 11, 2019 by free2000fly