E5450: Building Monterey with OpenCore

[ViBE]

This is not the first time I trying but the very first time when I have a way more supported(?) hardware for Hackintoshing. Also this is my second attempt on this exact machine. I'm not a newbie but never dived deep into this topic. I'm still doing my learning curves.

So at the moment I have this machine with two SATA SSDs. One for testing and one contains a properly installed up-to-date Windows 10 and an Ubuntu 22.04. Both detects all hardware. The testing SSD contains the Monterey installation. Just in case I attached an AIDA and a HardInfo report too but I can swap the SSDs anytime if any other information needed.

My first attempt was kinda random cause my expectation was that Mac will instantly fails on this machine. BUT I'm way too curious and after a few little fixes the installation was successful. As I noticed most hardware works under Mac just need to fix things. I don't have too much routine so I started rebuild my config to achieve a better config. My goal is to build a properly working system which is as close to a genuine Mac as possible. In most case I followed the Dortania guide and checked a bunch guide videos. Sadly it is still not clear which files are needed. As I noticed different files/patches can easily break an already working hardware or function.

 

So I have a new config in early state and I don't want to ruin it again. I collected any relatable kexts and most debugging features are on. LAN/WLAN/USB working at the moment. GPU partially working(?). Keyboard/touchpad/audio/bluetooth worked while I did my first build. Webcam/SD card reader/smartcard reader/DSUB/HDMI not tested. So please review.

 

Sadly I cannot attach the config cause it is reached the size limit. Everything uploaded to Google Drive.

[Jazzoo]

Hello and welcome!

Latitude 5450 is known as hack friendly so it will be relatively easy. I am not sure about the SSD in your system as some people reported compatibility issues before. Make sure to update the firmware in Windows and enable TRIM in MacOS.

Here's my 100% working EFI under MacOS Monterey. Since I don't have the actual laptop anymore I didn't update the OC and kexts but the provided version will boot to MacOS Monterey so you can update the OC and kexts yourself with OCAT for example.

Keep in mind that this EFI is configured to work with Intel Wifi/BT using itlwm.kext and HeliPort. You can also use the latest version of Airportitlwm.kext for Monterey instead of itlwm.kext. Use ONLY ONE of them, never use both.  Enjoy! 

 

Dell Latitude 5450 OC 0.8.3 Intel

[Hervé]

There will be no need to enable TRIM in recent macOS versions such as Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura. It'll be enabled by default.

[ViBE]

Cool, thanks. I did a quick review and my guess that some devices and components are different. Could you please check somehow?

The wifi definitely differs. I have an Intel 8260 and it didn't work with your config. I have no clue about Heliport and itlwm, so I just replaced it with Airportitlwm. Now wifi works but as I understand there are some 7260 related configurations in your config. And looks like the SD reader also different. If I put a card into it cause some issues and the system starts to hang when a program starts (for example Firefox). Even Disk manager don't want to come up till I remove the SD card. I updated everything but nothing changed. Btw is it a good idea to redo all the SSDTs and patching with the actual OpenCore or not? I mean if the hardware significantly differs it may cause some issues, right?

 

Also I still notice a major issue with your config too. When I built first time my config I enabled Legacy boot (CSM) support in UEFI. But several articles mention that this is not a good idea. I enabled it because the screen was distorted. I dunno why is this option related with the issue but temporarily fixed the it. Before my second build I disabled CSM support and noticed that even if the system boots with distorted screen after the login screen appears closing the lid or suspending the laptop fix this issue most of the times.  With your config now the boot screen appears properly till the system utilize the drivers (i guess cause it became distorted when the system set the last used brightness level) and then become distorted again. I can still use my temporary fixes but would be nice to know how can I permanently fix this:

 

 

I'm not well informed but as @Hervé mentioned TRIM is enabled by default in Mac for a while. I checked this before cause I don't wanted to ruin any drives. Before I do anything with a hardware I update all firmwares if possible so it's done already.