Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Pro i7-9700K RX580

Introduction

This repository is exclusively designed for Aorus Z390 Pro i7-9700K RX580 to run Catalina 10.15.X with no hassle. However, due to the time constraint, a step by step installation guide won't be covered in this guide. For more information (regarding installation), please check [Guide] Creating OSX Installer by Rehabman or installing Mojave 10.15.x with Etcher.

Specs

• Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Pro (M.2 Key B * 2 + PCIe 3.0 x16 * 2 + PCIe2.0 x16 *1)
• Intel i7-9700K (4.9GHz GHz No OC, SMBIOS iMac19,1)
• OpenCore (0.6.1)
• Be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 (250w TDP, highly recommended)
• Ballistix DDR4 3200MHz 8G * 2 (Overclocked to 3200MHz)
• WD Black 2018/PC SN720 NVMe 1T SSD
• **Sapphire VEGA56 ** (VBIOS flashed to VEGA64, BruceX 5K Apple Res 422 Master Exporting time 4s, connected to 27' 4K monitor via a DP-DP cable)
• Apple BCM94360CD Wi-Fi/Bluetooth + M.2 NGFF Key A+E Adapter
• USB3.1 Gen2 to PCIe Card (ASM1142 chip-based)

What works

• dGPU Hardware Accelaration (Final Cut Pro X, VideoProc, Compressor tested)
• AirDrop, Handoff (Apple Wi-Fi/Bluetooth required)
• SideCar (the same as above )
• iMessage (SystemProductName, SystemSerialNumber, MLB, SystemUUID, are required, see Fixing iServices)
• All Rear USB3.1 USB2.0 Type-C/Type-A Ports (few USB2.0 ports disabled)
• HDMI Audio (Sound Control is required to adjust volume)
• Onboard HD Audio (Realtek alc892, layout id: 1)
• USB 3.1 Gen2 (may require a USB3.1 Gen2 to PCIe Card, i.g. ASM1142 chip-based)
• H264/H265 HW Encode/Decode Supported
• Netflix (1080P) with Safari Supported (using boot-arg shikigva=80 and set Automatioc Platform (iMac19,1 SMBIOS not iMacPro1,1 nor MacPro7,1) to Yes)

Bugs

• Both Sidecar and DRM Content playback are supported individually, but Safari (playing DRM contents) will turn to Black Screen while using Sidecar. Fortunately, there is a dummy solution for that, see pinned issue.
• Hibernation might not work as expected or should be disabled for better stability.

To-do

• Future deployment may involve a GC-Titian-Ridge Thunderbolt 3 PCIe adapter card.
• Investigation into KVM-Opencore solution to have full performace of macOS and Windows simultaneously.

Kext explained

Name	Note
AppleALC	Fixing onboard audio
CPUFriend	CPU frequency dependency
CPUFriendDataProvider	CPU frequency profile for i7-9700K with iMac19,1 SMBIOS
IntelMausi	Fixing onboard Ethernet
Lilu	Essential Dependency
SMCProcessor	CPU status plugin
SMCSuperIO	IO port status plugin
SystemProfilerMemoryFixup	Fixing memory information in system info page
USBPorts	Defining USB ports of Aorus Z390 Pro
VirtualSMC	Sensors status dependency
WhateverGreen	GPU dependency (v1.3.8 later required)

Drivers explained

Name	Note
OpenCanopy.efi	GUI support
OpenRuntime.efi	Fixing memory
HfsPlus.efi	HFS volumes support

Deployment

1. BIOS Firmware and Settings

I would highly suggest you to upgrade you BIOS firmware to 12d and apply the profile I created in the /repositoryRoot/BIOS/. This would allows you to unlock your motherboard CFG, allowing you to use native NVRAM.

1. Clone the repository

2. Copy EFI and BIOS to your EFI formatted USB flash. (usually needs to be mounted via, for instance:

sudo diskutil mount disk2s1 (disk2s1 shall be replaced by your USB identifier)

3. Reboot your PC, press F8 to enter Q-Flash, choose from USB and select /BIOS/Z390AORP.12d
4. (Wait util it gets done)
5. Enters BIOS setting again and load the BIOS profile: either Profile_noCFG_noOC (if you do not expect to overclock your CPU)
6. Reboot.

2. macOS Installation

**macOS DMG Download**:

• Link1: mirrors.dtops.cc
• Link2: Google Drive hosted

Option 1: GUI (recommended)

• Install macOS with etcher

Option 2: Command-line

• [Guide] Creating OSX Installer by Rehabman

3. Fixing iServices

To use Apple services, you need to have a vaild but unregistered serial (consisting of four attributes, shown as below) patched in your config.plist. For more editing details, please check wiki page: How to fix iServices

Type = SystemProductName
Serial = SystemSerialNumber
Board Serial = MLB
SmUUID = SystemUUID

4. Dual Boot (Windows)

*(No longer needed as `scan policy` has been changed to `0` and `darwin` detection has been added in SSDT to apply SSDT mod in macOS.)*

Using motherboard boot menu would disrupt the deflaut booting order, to resolve so, using OpenCore to boot Windows Boot Manager is one solution. You only need to add a boot entry for your Windows Boot Manager EFI. For more details, please check wiki page: How to add a boot entry

Changelog

2020/09/16

• Add VEGA56/VEGA64 (turbo fan) VBIOS with GOP updated to fixed stretched Apple logo.

2020/08/09

• Add Big Sur Beta support

2020/06/13

• Add vega56/64 support

2020/02/24

• Add wiki pages
• Update README

2020/02/23

• Initial release

Credits

• OpenCore Bootloader from OpenCore Respository
• The best Installation guide I followed from OpenCore Vanilla Desktop Guide
• CFG-locked BIOS profile, SSDT-PM retrieved form AudioGod's Aorus z390 Pro Guide
• Fixing stretched Apple logo by RX VEGA56/64 VBIOS
• MemoryAllocation.efi, which is explicitly required for addressing the Aorus Z390 Pro's memory allocation issue retrieved from UEFI Drivers