[GUIDE] Creating Clover macOS Monterey Installer USB on Windows

[kushwavez]

Creating Clover macOS Monterey Installer USB on Windows

(should work with Ventura or later)

(Internet Recovery)

(tested on Windows 10)

 

(Updated 2024. May. 03.)

 

Important! On Windows you can’t create a full installer, only Internet Recovery, so you need live internet connection when installing Monterey (either WiFi or Ethernet)

 

First download (and install) the applications/files linked below:

• TransMac (HFS+ Disk Manager)
• MiniTool Partition Wizard (to mount USB EFI)
• PlistEDPlus (to edit config.plist)
• Explorer++ (to manage USB EFI)
• Python (needed to download macOS Recovery, select “Add Python to PATH” when installing)
• macrecovery.py (will download the macOS Recovery, right-click on “Raw”, “Save as…”)
• Clover Bootloader

 

Downloading the macOS Monterey Recovery

 

• Install Python
  • Select “Add Python to PATH”

 

• Create a new directory for the Recovery in the Downloads folder, for example “Monterey_Recovery”

 

• Open Command Prompt (cmd)
• Navigate to the newly created directory:

• cd Downloads\Monterey_Recovery

   

• Drag & Drop macrecovery.py to the cmd window
• Press space, paste the following: 

• -b Mac-E43C1C25D4880AD6 -m 00000000000000000 download

  (if Ventura: python3 macrecovery.py -b Mac-4B682C642B45593E -m 00000000000000000 download) Full list: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/installer-guide/windows-install.html#downloading-macos

• After it’s finished there will be two files in the directory: “BaseSystem.dmg” and “BaseSystem.chunklist”

 

 

Creating macOS Monterey Internet Recovery

 

• Erase your USB drive in GPT (UEFI) mode
  • You can do that with MiniTool Partition Wizard, right click on your drive, Delete all partitions (if MBR disk, "Initialise as GPT")
• Open up TransMac in administrator mode
• Right-click on the USB drive, “Restore with Disk Image”
• Select the downloaded “BaseSystem.dmg”

 

• Wait for it

 

• After finished, the macOS Monterey Internet Recovery USB is ready!
• We just need to create an EFI partition for installing Clover bootloader, and configure it

 

Creating EFI partition for Clover

 

• Re-plug your USB drive after the finished BaseSystem.dmg restoration, and open up MiniTool Partition Wizard

 

• Right click on “Unallocated”, “Create”, Partition Label: EFI, File System: FAT32, Partition Size: 200 MB, “OK”, “Apply” and “Yes”

 

• That’s it, the USB Installer is ready for Installing Clover!

 

Installing Clover to USB on Windows

 

• Download the latest CloverV2-5xxx.zip (where xxx is the version number, at time of writing 5143) and unzip it

 

• Download the next kexts:
  • VirtualSMC.kext, AppleALC.kext, Lilu.kext, WhateverGreen.kext, USBInjectAll.kext
  • You'll also need a kext for your Ethernet network card if you're planning to use that as your network source. You need to identify it and use the corresponding kext. Most commonly used kexts are IntelMausi.kext, RealtekRTL8111.kext, AtherosE2200Ethernet.kext
  • If you have Intel WiFi use AirPortItlwm.kext, if you have Broadcom BCM94352 based card then you'll need AirportBrcmFixup.kext

 

• Download the next SSDT files:
  • If your PC is desktop and Broadwell or older: SSDT-EC-DESKTOP.aml
  • If your PC is notebook and Broadwell or older: SSDT-EC-LAPTOP.aml
  • If your PC is desktop and Haswell or newer: SSDT-EC-USBX-DESKTOP.aml
  • If your PC is notebook and Haswell or newer: SSDT-EC-USBX-LAPTOP.aml

 

• Mount USB EFI partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard (if it isn't already mounted):
  • Right-click on the USB drive’s EFI partition, “Change Letter” (ex. E: ), OK, Apply, Yes

 

• Start Explorer++ in admin mode
• Navigate to your USB EFI partition

 

• Open a new tab with CTRL+T, navigate to the downloaded, unzipped Clover and copy & paste the EFI folder to the USB’s EFI partition

 

• Navigate to EFI\CLOVER and rename config-sample.plist to config.plist

 

• Navigate to EFI\CLOVER\drivers\UEFI
• Delete SMCHelper.efi
• Copy & Paste the next drivers from drivers\off\UEFI
  • FileSystem\ApfsDriverLoader.efi and FileSystem\VboxHfs.efi
  • MemoryFix\OpenRuntime.efi

 

• Navigate to EFI\CLOVER\ACPI\patched
• Copy & Paste here the downloaded SSDT-EC.aml file

 

• Navigate to EFI\CLOVER\kexts\Other
• Copy & Paste here the downloaded kexts
  • VirtualSMC.kext, Lilu.kext, AppleALC.kext, WhateverGreen.kext, USBInjectAll.kext, and the kext for your Ethernet or WiFi card

 

• Open up the config.plist with PlistEDPlus
• At DSDT, rename “Fixes” to “#Fixes”

 

• At Boot/#Arguments, delete “#” before Arguments, and write the following to the string:

•  -v debug=0x100 -no_compat_check

   

 

• Save config.plist

 

• That’s it!
• The Clover Recovery Installer is ready! Now you can boot from the USB.

 

Notes:

• After the installation is finished, you need to generate a proper SMBIOS (do not log-in to iCloud before that), after that, you can delete "-no_compat_check" bootarg
• This is just a basic Clover configuration, most likely you'll need to tweak it to your system
• Depending on your network connection, the installation could take up hours to finish, be patient
• If you have a working EFI, then you can skip almost all the steps at "Installing Clover to USB on Windows", you just need to mount the USB's EFI with MiniTool, and place your EFI folder to the EFI partition with Explorer++

 

Edited May 3 by kushwavez
should work with Ventura

[besweeet]

On 2/16/2021 at 6:25 AM, kushwavez said:

Mount USB EFI partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard:

• Right-click on the USB drive’s EFI partition, “Change Letter” (ex. E: ), OK, Apply, Yes

 

 

This does not work for me. After using TransMac to restore BaseSystem.dmg, it overwrites the 200MB EFI partition that MiniTool Partition Wizard created.

[diablos872001]

10 hours ago, besweeet said:

 

This does not work for me. After using TransMac to restore BaseSystem.dmg, it overwrites the 200MB EFI partition that MiniTool Partition Wizard created.

 

Exactly the same for me.

I'm installing BigSur on a Dell 3579 with i5 8300H + Nvidia GTX 1050 (I know not supported but i will use the integrated one).

I followed the guide to create (in order):

- EFI partition

- BaseSystem.dmg restored with transmac

 

If I read well, the last update of transamac are different on the EFI, maybe the problem?

 

Re-creating the EFI partition after the transmac process is good o bad? Because transmac erase it

[kushwavez]

@besweeet @diablos872001 You're right guys. The new version of Transmac is overwriting the created EFI partition. 

So the order is bad. First, restore the .dmg with Transmac, THEN open MiniTool Wizard and create the 200 MB FAT32 EFI from the unallocated space. I also recommend to un-plug re-plug the USB drive after the .dmg restoration finished.

Do everything with admin rights.

 

I'll update the GUIDE reflecting the changes, thanks for noticing.