[Success][Guide] Catalina Vanilla "Hackintosh Deluxe" Z370n WiFi / i5-8400 / RX-570 (FINAL)

[PhrantiK]

The card is about 52mm from the surface of the motherboard.

Thanks. I'm going to have to take a hacksaw to the fan it looks like!

EDIT: another member asked me for an update via PM, I'll edit this for anyone else looking to fit the WIFI card into a NZXT H200 case.

The card fits. Just. There must be less than 1mm in it.

My motherboard is a Z370i Strix, it came with antenna pigtails that were pretty short so the one thing I did need to do was modify the silver bracket that hold the Wifi card and RP-SMA connectors.

The bottom antenna pigtail is too short to reach the top of the BCM943602CS card so I took a needle file and filed the bracket to move the RP-SMA connector about 1-2mm higher.

In another moment of the PC building planets aligning, I was able to move it up just enough to reach the connector and not modify the rear IO shield to keep it nice and clean looking.

You can buy longer ones but I couldn't find any locally and I didn't want to wait a month for one to arrive from China to make a start on the build. I'm in Australia, maybe you can find one on Ebay/Amazon to arrive quickly if you're in the USA.

If you do want to order online the one you want is a MHF4 to RP-SMA antenna pigtail. There's a ton of different sizes so make sure it says specifically MHF4 (0.81mm).

 

[Raine]

UPDATE TO 10.14.6: Apple released a new MacOS update on July 22nd, and it's pretty effortless. Updating to this version was similar to the previous two updates (10.14.4 and 10.14.5) in terms of what was required - which isn't much at all. The whole process took about 12 minutes (mostly waiting for the update to install). If you're regularly following this thread, then the steps to update to MacOS 10.14.6 will be very familiar. In fact, I'm actually going to reuse some images from the last update since it's just about the same process.

REALLY IMPORTANT PART/DISCLAIMER ABOUT USB PATCHES/MAPPING FIRST:
I feel the need to make sure this is understood before every update: I am not using a USB port limit patch! I have all of my USB ports mapped out using a custom generated "USBMap.kext", so I do not lose USB functionality whenever I update MacOS. If you wish to do this before updating, please see my post #79 in this thread; I strongly recommend generating your own USB map file, it makes everything work better and updating much easier.


Update to MacOS 10.14.6
1. As usual before any upgrade/update, I do three things, in this order:
A. Do a complete Time Machine backup;
B. Backup current EFI Folder to an external HDD;
C. Copy current EFI folder to my Mojave Installer flash drive/emergency boot drive;

Normally at this point I also update Clover Configurator, but in this case there was no update so I'm still using 2.4k_r4920.

2. There were a few updated kexts that need to be installed for MacOS 10.14.6:

- AppleALC.kext (latest version is 1.3.9)​

- Lilu.kext (latest version is 1.3.7)​

- Whatevergreen.kext (latest version is 1.3.0)​

​

3. Now time to start the update. To do this I just go straight to the Apple Icon > System Preferences > Software Updates and let MacOS do it's thing.

Click here...

...then click here...

4. IMPORTANT: After the FIRST RESTART you will see your Clover boot screen as usual, but there will be an extra entry named "Boot macOS Install from [your computer name here]":

There's a new entry the my Clover boot screen.

You need to select this entry to continue the 10.14.6 installation. If you select your usual MacOS entry (or have Clover auto-select) the update WILL NOT continue. So select "Boot macOS Install..." and you should see the Apple logo doing something. Just wait until it automatically restarts.

5. After the SECOND RESTART , do the same thing you just did - select "Boot macOS Install..." from the Clover boot menu again. You will see the Apple logo but this time it will be accompanied by the "About XX minutes remaining" bar:

The update really begins here.

This means your system is now updating MacOS. Let it do what it needs to do until it automatically restarts. My screen said "About 30 minutes remaining" at first but it actually took about 9 minutes real time.

6. After the THIRD RESTART, your Clover boot menu should be back to normal, with no "Boot macOS Install..." entries. Select your macOS and your system will boot to the desktop. You will then get yet another black screen like above with "About 15 minutes remaining", just go get a snack and let it do its thing. When the updater is done it will not restart anymore - you will just end up back on the desktop as if nothing happened!

7. To check that the update was installed correctly, go to Apple Icon > About This Mac to check if the update was installed correctly:

"About This Mac" is good.

After the update everything is working as usual. all my peripherals are working as they did with 10.14.5, and all of my USB ports are working as well without having to deal with USB port limit patches. The update to MacOS 10.14.6 is complete.

 

[jmaternowski]

Looks like the Z370N is sold out everywhere. The only one I could find is on Amazon, but it’s used and in pretty bad condition. What should I do? Is the motherboard discontinued?

 

[Raine]

Looks like the Z370N is sold out everywhere. The only one I could find is on Amazon, but it’s used and in pretty bad condition. What should I do? Is the motherboard discontinued?

Quick Google search looks like the Z370N WiFi is discontinued... alternatively the same generation Gigabyte H370N WiFi is very, very similar to the Z370N WiFi - if you aren't planning on overclocking then I'd give the H370 a try.

For a current Z series board the next choice would be the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi.

 

[anhkieet]

Hi Raine. I have a problem when installing mojave 10.14.16. I install a new one, not upgrade

I have passed `About 16 minutes remaining` step. But just after completing that step, I got stuck at Apple logo screen with 0% progress bar. And I waited for more than 30 minutes but the progress bar remained unchanged, nothing happened.

My PC has the same configuration as your PC, only different the case. This is my EFI folder.

 

[Raine]

Are you using the latest Clover and updated kexts?

 

[jmaternowski]

Hi Raine. I have a problem when installing mojave 10.14.16. I install a new one, not upgrade

I have passed `About 16 minutes remaining` step. But just after completing that step, I got stuck at Apple logo screen with 0% progress bar. And I waited for more than 30 minutes but the progress bar remained unchanged, nothing happened.

My PC has the same configuration as your PC, only different the case. This is my EFI folder.

Hi, I’ve tried your EFI folder on my build. I’m getting stuck at the beginning of ‘About 15 minutes remaining’ step. Also I’ve enabled verbose mode on the installer and just before rebooting I got this message. Any ideas on how to resolve this?

 

[bamblambazinga]

Thanks for your documentation of your build and upgrades Raine. I just recently updated to 10.14.6 from 10.14.4 and it went smoothly. Those upgrading to clover 2.5k 5XXX...the driver directories have been moved within the EFI/CLOVER folder. All the .efi files are no longer within the drivers64UEFI folder and have been moved into drivers/UEFI... installing will also delete your AptioMemoryFix-64.efi. So please make a backup of it and then drag it back into the new UEFI folder and remove the "-64" at the end. Do not install the other memory fixes within the Clover installation menus unless you plan to replace AptioMemoryFix-64.efi. OsxAptioFix3Drv.efi seems to the closest replacement to AptioMemoryFix from what I've read though.

 

[Stew]

Hello, if I were to do a vanilla install and download the latest mojave version from the app store, should I make the changes you made during my clover configuration before I install? Or in what ways does using the guide you have stepped out change when downloading the latest version of Mojave from the store? Because following your guide would lead that way, or am I supposed to download 1.14.0 and follow your exact procedure throughout your posts here to get to 14.6?

Thank you.

 

[Raine]

Hello, if I were to do a vanilla install and download the latest mojave version from the app store, should I make the changes you made during my clover configuration before I install? Or in what ways does using the guide you have stepped out change when downloading the latest version of Mojave from the store? Because following your guide would lead that way, or am I supposed to download 1.14.0 and follow your exact procedure throughout your posts here to get to 14.6?

Thank you.

You can use my guide to setup your EFI folder and config.plist - no need to start with MacOS 10.14.0. just go through the guide and setup your EFI folder as you go along.

When you get to my post about the 10.14.6 upgrade, then you can begin your install using the current macOS 10.14.6 since your EFI folder and config.plist should be ready to go.

 

[mille1j]

I've built a whole bunch of hackintoshes using the Gigabyte z370n board. Apparently I bought them all and the boards are no longer in stock anywhere.

Anyway, I bought a pair of h370n boards and have been trying to get them up and running. Used the same i3 CPUs, the same corsair ram and ssd, etc. Hardware is all the same, except the mobo.

However, I cannot get the h370n builds to boot. I'm using the same EFI, attached, that I used on all the z370n's. Any ideas why this configuration isn't working on this board? It seems like many others didn't have any issues going from the z370n to the h370n. I'm pretty sure that my EFI is based on one from this group!

help appreciated!

 

[Raine]

Try using a USB 2.0 flash drive in a USB 2.0 port, make sure port limit patch is correct and you have USBInjectAll.kext in the right place.

 

[Fabi91]

Hey Guys,

i guess i need some help. i followed all the steps of every Rainee post but i still got stuck (see in the attached picture)

my system is actaully near to the same: Gigabyte Z370N Wifi, i5 -8500, Noctua Cooler, 16 GB Ram, 512 GB SSD M.2

Can Somebody please help me? :/

 

[Fabi91]

@Raine, my Motherboard ist currently on Firmware F12. Could this cause any Problem If i Just follow the steps/Changes that you Made?

 

[Raine]

Maybe, don't know. My system is on F5, never updated higher so I can't tell you what happens. I generally do not upgrade BIOS just because there's a new version out unless I'm having problems with the current version.

 

[Edhawk]

It is likely to cause problems if you are using Raine's SSDT's in an unaltered state. As the new bios may have changed how the system deals with and activates specific components, i.e. USB ports, new CPU's and revised memory allocations. The last two are common reasons for a bios to be updated.

 

[Fabi91]

Hm okay i found a patch to get over the Problem, i readjust everything, means i followed every step you made, added the ACPI-Patch and started the process again.

New problem: after booting (verbose-mode) the System randomly shuts down. I have no clue why, i can not find anything like this on the internet!

Does anybody know how to solve this?

(EFI Folder attached)

 

[Raine]

Hm okay i found a patch to get over the Problem

What "patch", and where did you find this?

 

[mille1j]

Try using a USB 2.0 flash drive in a USB 2.0 port, make sure port limit patch is correct and you have USBInjectAll.kext in the right place.

Sweet! This worked. Sort of. I couldn't find a USB 2.0 Flash, so I put my installer onto an SSD and installed that, booted from there, and then installed into the NVME drive. Worked great! thanks!

 

[stefan33]

Hi, at the end on Z370N-WiFi with Mojave 10.14.6, the Rear USB Tipe-C with a NVMe USB Type-C enclosure and a NVMe SSD like 870 EVO ecc... What speed can get? Many thanks...