8x70W Hackintoshing

This page is about hackintoshing the 8x70W.

History about the EFI

There is already a history written in German by @TECHNIKVERBOT, which you can find here.

But here is a quick TL;DR in English:

  • Our tester (@HansHubertHass) wanted to try Hackintosh.

  • We attempted to download an EFI from a Chinese website, which failed.

  • We created a Clover EFI that failed to boot macOS.

  • Initial boot with an OpenCore EFI on 05/31/2020 with many broken features.

  • After many trial-and-error attempts, the EFI became stable, except for:

    • Sleep

    • Brightness control

    • Battery readout

  • Development of the EFI paused after deciding to uninstall macOS and revert to Windows.

  • After @TECHNIKVERBOT suggested our tester buy an external enclosure, further development of the EFI resumed.

Improve the Hackintosh experience

The EFI I provide is still not complete, in my opinion. Yes, it is usable for daily use, but the EFI can be improved. The changes I made do not suit every system, so the patches have to be done by yourself. Here are some examples:

SMBIOS

This EFI already includes an SMBIOS. However, since it is a pre-made EFI, I suggest changing the serial number so that people who use the EFI do not have the same serial number/board number, which can be blocked. Using GenSMBIOS will create a serial number and replace the numbers in the "config.plist", which can be found under PlatformInfo > Generic.

Language

This is a minor OCD thing, but changing the language to your preferred language is recommended. The current default language is English. The list of languages can be found here.

Fast Boot

The EFI displays the picker at every boot, which is a waste of time if you need to get your work done quickly. You can disable the picker by changing 'ShowPicker' to false in "config.plist" (which can be found under Misc > Boot). The boot chime is still activated. Accessing the picker is hit-or-miss for me. According to the documents, you can enter the picker menu by holding the "Option" key.