OSX-KVM/UEFI

Setting up UEFI enabled macOS

This is under development. Experiment at your own risk.

• Install macOS by following the usual Enoch method.

• Build and use QEMU from https://github.com/kholia/qemu/. Use the "macOS" branch. Clover + macOS will fail to boot without this step.

• Install the included Clover_v2*.pkg on the main macOS disk.

  • Hit the Customize button during Clover install.

  • Tick 'Install for UEFI booting only', OsxAptioFix2Drv-64 and PartitionDxe-64 options.

• The Clover installer should leave the EFI partition mounted for us. Open that up in Finder.

  • Replace the EFI/CLOVER/config.plist file with config.plist included in this folder.

  • Put the included q35-acpi-dsdt.aml file into EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/origin location.

• You may edit EFI/CLOVER/config.plist to change the screen resolution from 800x600 to a higher supported value.

  This change also requires a corresponding change in the OVMF settings. When using OVMF with a virtual display (without VGA passthrough), you can set the client resolution in the OVMF menu, which you can reach with a press of the ESC button during the OVMF boot logo. In the OVMF menu settings, set Device Manager -> OVMF Platform Configuration -> Change Preferred Resolution for Next Boot to a supported value. Commit changes and exit the OVMF settings. Relaunch the boot-macOS script.

• Finally, use boot-clover.sh to use OVMF/UEFI to boot macOS with Clover.

• You can use Clover Configurator to modify your Clover configuration, if required.

GPU passthrough notes

These steps will need to be adapted for your particular setup. A host machine with IOMMU support is required. Consult the Arch Wiki article linked to at the bottom of this file for exact requirements and other details.

I am running Ubuntu 17.04 on Intel i5-6500 + ASUS Z170-AR motherboard + NVIDIA 1050 Ti.

• Enable IOMMU support on the host machine.

  Add iommu=pt intel_iommu=on video=efifb:off to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line in /etc/default/grub file.

• Uninstall NVIDIA drivers from the host machine and blacklist the required modules.

  $ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
  ... <existing stuff>
  
  blacklist radeon
  blacklist nouveau
  blacklist nvidia
  

• Enable the required kernel modules.

  # echo "vfio" >> /etc/modules
  # echo "vfio_iommu_type1" >> /etc/modules
  # echo "vfio_pci" >> /etc/modules
  # echo "vfio_virqfd" >> /etc/modules
  

• Isolate the passthrough PCIe devices with vfio-pci, with the help of lspci -nnk command. Adapt these commands to suit your hardware setup.

  $ lspci -nn
  ...
  01:00.0 ... NVIDIA Corporation [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] [10de:1c82]
  01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0fb9]
  03:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia ASM1142 USB 3.1 Host Controller [1b21:1242]
  

  # echo "options vfio-pci ids=10de:1c82,10de:0fb9 disable_vga=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf
  

• Update initramfs, GRUB and then reboot.

  $ sudo update-grub2
  $ sudo update-initramfs -k all -u
  

• Verify that the IOMMU is enabled, and vfio_pci is working as expected. Consult Arch Wiki again for help on this.

• On the macOS VM, install a NVIDIA Web Driver version which is appropriate for the macOS version. Consult http://www.macvidcards.com/drivers.html for more information.

  For example, macOS 10.12.5 requires version 378.05.05.15f01 whereas macOS 10.12.6 requires version 378.05.05.25f01.

• Boot the macOS VM using the boot-passthrough.sh script. At this point, the display connected to your passthrough PCIe device should turn on, and you should see the Clover boot screen. Using the keyboard, navigate to Options -> Graphics Injectord, and enable Use NVIDIA Web Driver, then boot macOS.

• Updating SMBIOS for the macOS to iMac14,2 might be required. I did not do so myself.

• To reuse the keyboard and mouse devices from the host, setup "Automatic login" in System Preferences in macOS and configure Synergy software.

Note: Many AMD GPU devices (e.g. AMD RX 480 & RX 580) should be natively supported in macOS High Sierra.

USB passthrough notes

These steps will need to be adapted for your particular setup.

• Isolate the passthrough PCIe devices with vfio-pci, with the help of lspci -nnk command.

  $ lspci -nn
  ...
  01:00.0 ... NVIDIA Corporation [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] [10de:1c82]
  01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0fb9]
  03:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia ASM1142 USB 3.1 Host Controller [1b21:1242]
  

  Add 1b21:1242 to /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf file in the required format.

• Update initramfs, and then reboot.

  $ sudo update-initramfs -k all -u
  

• Use the helper scripts to isolate the USB controller.

  $ scripts/lsgroup.sh
  ### Group 7 ###
      00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise ...
  ### Group 15 ###
      06:00.0 Audio device: Creative Labs Sound Core3D ...
  ### Group 5 ###
      00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise ...
  ### Group 13 ###
      03:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia ASM1142 USB 3.1 Host Controller
  

  $ scripts/vfio-group.sh 13
  

• Add -device vfio-pci,host=03:00.0,bus=pcie.0 \ line to the boot-passthrough.sh script.

• Boot the VM, and devices attached to the ASMedia USB controller should just work under macOS.

Synergy Notes

• Get Synergy from https://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy-stable-builds.

  I installed "synergy-v1.8.8-stable-MacOSX-x86_64.dmg" on the macOS guest and configured it as a client.

  For automatically starting Synergy on macOS, add Synergy to "Login Items", System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Select your user account -> Login Items -> Add a login item

• On the Linux host machine, install "synergy-v1.8.8-stable-Linux-x86_64.deb" or newer, configure ~/.synergy.conf and run synergys command.

• The included .synergy.conf will need to be adapted according to your setup.

Credits

• Nicholas Sherlock and others - UEFI, Clover, and other hacks

• Kyle Dayton - UEFI, Clover, and GPU passthrough notes

References

• https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Qemu/KVM_Virtual_Machines

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF

• https://clover-wiki.zetam.org/configuration/smbios

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy-stable-builds.

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/synergy