beej126 / asrock-z390-phantom-itx-opencore-monterey

Working settings for OpenCore Monterey on ASRock Z390 Pantom Gaming ITX

ASRock-Z390-Phantom-ITX-OpenCore-Monterey

Working settings for OpenCore Monterey on ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX

Specs

Thing	Version/Model	Notes
Latest macOS loaded	Monterey 12.2.1
OpenCore	0.7.7
Motherboard	Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/AC
BIOS Version	4.40	(not attempting 4.40c thunderbolt bios just yet)
CPU	Intel i9-9900K (Coffee Lake)
GPU	iGPU Intel UHD 630
WiFi/Bluetooth Module	Broadcom BCM4360 / BCM2046
---
Memory	Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 3200 2 x 16GB (CMD32GX4M2C3200C16)
SSD	Samsung 970 Pro NVMe m.2 SSD 512GB
Case	Old School Chyang Fun "gBox" SFF with handle 💖
PSU	Corsair SF600 SFX - 600watt
Cooler	Corsair H80i v2 - 120mm rad x 2 fans
Monitor	Samsung UN55NU7300 CURVED 55" 4K TV	via motherboard hdmi

OpenCore guide for desktop Coffee Lake

• https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/config.plist/coffee-lake.html#starting-point
• make sure you really enable/disable all the appropriate BIOS settings!!, but fortunately these two things were NOT necessary for me:
  • Intel Platform Trust (i.e. TPM) can remain enabled - recently more important for running Windows 11
  • CSM (Compatibility Support Module) can also remain enabled - my rig would POST 5 beeps and never initialize the hdmi to my 4k tv when i disabled CSM

config.plist highlights

• boot-args - e.g. "-v" verbose is enabled vs seeing clean mac logo and progress bar
• iGPU ig-platform-d - this is saved in base64, "AwCYPg==" corresponds to hex "0300983e" (fyi, here's a gist for the unix commands to convert back and forth)... everybody has this versus what's in the opencore guide, here is some detail on it
• drivers
• kexts
• boot menu "picker" settings
• boot menu tools - handy to have clear/reset nvram, toggle sip and open efi shell

Notes / Tips

• This EFI is iGPU only (i.e. no discrete graphics card settings) which was something i couldn't readily find elsewhere but otherwise this is largely copied from these other EFI bundles i found: SeanZhang98, FangF2018, BoBo88, AnsonLiao
• i had working hackmac already (Catalina on Clover), so preferred to download Monterey from Apple Store and install to another drive versus creating usb boot... the initial install is of course nice and cozy this way but the fun is whether the install runs on your EFI upon boot... mine was freezing on apple logo progress bar a lot till i banged around on opencore configs... classic case of not sure which change really made the difference but i think AnsonLiao's EFI bundle was the closest out of the box.

• EFI partition is a handy go between, make it big!

  • macOs format tools default EFI partition to ~210MB which can fill up fast if you use it to keep things around between multiple OS's and versions... it's hard to find any real concrete recommendations on maximum size... here's one saying 950MB is ok

  • the best time to do this is PRIOR TO INSTALLING macOS!! after the AFPS partition is created, it's non trivial to move (maybe impossible).

  • contemporary versions of macOs Disk Utility hide the EFI from direct manipulation ... one trick is to first erase the disk as usual, to get the stock GDI layout with standard 210MB EFI and then carve out another ADDITIONAL partition for the EFI to expand into later... this way we get a clean EFI that the macOs installer will proceed with and we have also left room to expand our preferred EFI final partition into after the installer is done. I named this partition EFI2 with size of 740MB (i.e. 210 default + 740 = 950 total).

  • another little EFI Tip - when you're in the middle of a lot of EFI changes, to config.plist, etc, save yourself the trouble of having to re-mount the EFI partition after every reboot... one way i stumbled into achieving this is by using a partition tool (e.g. Paragon's) to change the partition type to something other than standard EFI, e.g. "Microsoft Basic Data Partition"... it will still boot fine and since it's not recognized as EFI, macOS will conveniently mount it by default.

Tools

• OpenCore
• ProperTree - the safest way to edit config.plist for opencore
• Mackie's OpenCore Configurator - worked fine for me but OpenCore's docs specifically say to avoid
• Hackintool - good for viewing exact deviceId's and tons of other settings
• XtraFinder - F2 to rename and DEL to delete 💖, dual tab finders side by side
• Paragon Hard Disk Manager