Configuration: Big Sur

This wiki page will detail the required steps to generate a basic OpenCore tree and configuration for macOS Big Sur operating system. With the official release of macOS Monterey, this page will not be maintained anymore and kept for archive purposes only. Use instead the Monterey Configuration wiki page for latest update instructions.

Configuration Setup

In the learning example listed below, we will create a setup file which implements the following customizations:

• OpenCanopy implementation on a black boot screen
• Pulse RX580 GPU hardware acceleration support, through iMac Pro hybridization (system specific device path)
• NVMe external disks displayed as internal disks (system specific device path)
• Night Shift enabled with NightShiftEnabler Lilu plugin
• SurPlus patch, avoiding CoreCrypto being used before zalloc is fully initialized

The following components will be installed:

• AppleMCEReporterDisabler (optional, for dual processors)
• Lilu
  • NightShiftEnabler
  • WhateverGreen
• OpenCorePkg
  • OcBinaryData
• SurPlus Patch

Clone Repo

See the global definition, for usage.

Create a working branch for your setup:

~$ git clone -b 1.2.6 --depth 1 https://github.com/axivo/opencore.git
~$ cd opencore
~$ git branch build/big-sur
~$ git checkout build/big-sur

Starting with release 1.2.7, Python 2 libraries are obsolete.

File setup.py

See the global definition, for usage.

Start by editing the setup.py file into repo root:

OpenCore 0.7.5 code example (for latest changes, see opencore/examples directory):

#!/usr/bin/env python

from opencore.build import OpenCoreBuild


if __name__ == '__main__':
    build = OpenCoreBuild('Volumes/EFI')
    build.kexts = [
        {
            'project': 'Lilu',
            'repo': 'acidanthera',
            'version': '1.5.7'
        },
        {
            'project': 'NightShiftEnabler',
            'repo': 'cdf',
            'version': '1.1.1'
        },
        {
            'project': 'WhateverGreen',
            'repo': 'acidanthera',
            'version': '1.5.5'
        }
    ]
    build.patches = [
        {
            'Base': '_early_random',
            'Comment': 'SurPlus 1',
            'Find': build.unhexlify('00 74 23 48 8B'),
            'Identifier': 'kernel',
            'Limit': 800,
            'MinKernel': '20.4.0',
            'Replace': build.unhexlify('00 EB 23 48 8B')
        },
        {
            'Base': '_register_and_init_prng',
            'Comment': 'SurPlus 2',
            'Find': build.unhexlify('BA 48 01 00 00 31 F6'),
            'Identifier': 'kernel',
            'Limit': 256,
            'MinKernel': '20.4.0',
            'Replace': build.unhexlify('BA 48 01 00 00 EB 05')
        }
    ]
    build.write_tree()

    settings = {
        'DeviceProperties': {
            'Add': {
                'PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)': {
                    'rebuild-device-tree': 0,
                    'unfairgva': 1
                },
                'PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x7,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)': {
                    'built-in': build.unhexlify('00')
                },
                'PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x7,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x8,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)': {
                    'built-in': build.unhexlify('00')
                }
            }
        },
        'Kernel': {
            'Quirks': {
                'DisableLinkeditJettison': True,
                'SetApfsTrimTimeout': 9999999
            }
        },
        'Misc': {
            'Boot': {
                'HideAuxiliary': True,
                'LauncherOption': 'Full',
                'PollAppleHotKeys': True,
                'PickerMode': 'External',
                'PickerVariant': 'Default',
                'ShowPicker': True
            },
            'Security': {
                'AllowSetDefault': True,
                'BlacklistAppleUpdate': True,
                'ExposeSensitiveData': 3,
                'ScanPolicy': 0,
                'Vault': 'Optional'
            }
        },
        'PlatformInfo': {
            'PlatformNVRAM': {
                'FirmwareFeatures': build.unhexlify('03 54 0C C0 08 00 00 00'),
                'FirmwareFeaturesMask': build.unhexlify('3F FF 1F FF 08 00 00 00')
            },
            'SMBIOS': {
                'BoardProduct': 'Mac-27AD2F918AE68F61'
            },
            'UpdateNVRAM': True,
            'UpdateSMBIOS': True
        },
        'UEFI': {
            'AppleInput': {
                'AppleEvent': 'Builtin'
            },
            'ConnectDrivers': True,
            'Drivers': [
                {
                    'Arguments': '',
                    'Comment': '',
                    'Enabled': True,
                    'Path': 'OpenCanopy.efi'
                },
                {
                    'Arguments': '',
                    'Comment': '',
                    'Enabled': True,
                    'Path': 'OpenRuntime.efi'
                }
            ],
            'Output': {
                'ProvideConsoleGop': True,
                'Resolution': 'Max'
            },
            'ProtocolOverrides': {
                'AppleUserInterfaceTheme': True
            },
            'Quirks': {
                'RequestBootVarRouting': True
            }
        }
    }
    build.write_plist(settings)
    build.run_misc_tasks()

Variable build.kexts

See the global definition, for usage.

Variable build.patches

See the global definition, for usage.

Variable settings

See the global definition, for usage.