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MacOnChromebox

Hardware (Total cost 200€)

Asus Chromebox CN60 (130€ on Ebay)

  • CPU: Intel i7 4600U @ 2.1 GHz
  • GPU: Intel HD 4400
  • RAM: Samsung 2x4GB DDR3 1600 MHZ
  • Audio: Intel Haswell HDA Controller and Realtek ALC283
  • LAN: RTL 8168G/8111G
  • Wifi/Bluetooth: AzureWave AW-NB110H (replaced with DW1550 - 26€ on Ebay)
  • SSD: SanDisk 16G (replaced with Transcend 256GB SATA III 6Gb/s MTS430S 42 mm M.2 SSD - 44€ on Amazon)

pcie devices

UEFI boot

to install macos on chromebox, we need to do some hw and firmware changes first to enable UEFI boot.

Remove write-protect screw

https://kodi.wiki/view/Chromebox#Disable_Firmware_Write_Protect

Install custome firmware

https://mrchromebox.tech/#fwscript

Install Custom coreboot Firmware (Full ROM). During the installation you should save a backup of the original firmware, in case you want to run chromeOS again.

Install MAC OS

Working software version

  • macOS High Sierra 10.13.5
  • macOS Mojave 10.14.6
  • macOS Catalina 10.15.4
  • Clover 5033
  • WhateverGreen 1.3.8
  • Lilu 1.4.3

Boot Arguments

-lilubetaall debug=0x100 -disablegfxfirmware -v darkwake=8

Display Port

 HDMI is used during the installation and works also afterwards.

Post Installation

Ethernet

Use driver RealtekRTL8111-V2.3.0d7.kext

thanks mieze to provide this work around for the empty MAC address issue

"In the driver's Info.plist I added the option "fallbackMAC" to "Driver Parameters". "fallbackMAC" is a string which may be used to supply your original MAC address. It is used only if retrieving a valid MAC address fails. In the default configuration, the string is empty. In case you need it, please fill in your MAC with the following syntax "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" in which every x represents exactly one hexadecimal digit." https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/287161-new-driver-for-realtek-rtl8111/?page=56&tab=comments#comment-2686166

Display

To use the acerlerated driver for Intel HD4400, the only key to be modified in config.plist is Graphics->ig-platform-id = 0x0d220003

Default working settings for intel gpu (IGPU@2) are as following. check those value with IORegistryExplorer, if the display doesn't work correctly.

key Property Value
igpu@2 AAPL,ig-platform-id 0300220d
igpu@2 device-id 12040000
igpu@2 hda-gfx "onboard-1"
AppleIntelFramebuffer@0 connector-type 00080000

Audio

HDMI Audio works with VoodooHDA 2.9.2 kext. Only surround sound playing has strange issue, the central channel (mainly speech) is very blurry and quiet.

Onboard Realtek ALC283 is not shown as audio device. Still working on that. AppleHDA HDMI Audio_v2 [Guide]https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/applehda-hdmi-audio-guide.234735/ https://github.com/acidanthera/WhateverGreen/blob/master/Manual/FAQ.IntelHD.en.md

Wifi/Bluetooth

the AR9462 doesn't work, no wifi device is identified. The ATH9KFixup doesn't help in Mojave and Catalina. Bluetooth driver is loaded, but no bluetooth device can be found.

I have tried the following two wifi/bluetooth combo cards

Broadcom BCM94360NG NGFF 802.11AC BT 4.0 Card (43.3€ on aliexpress)

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/working-bcm94360ng-native-support-for-catalina-vs-bcm94352-dw1560.292767/ It is supported natively by macos, no extra kext is needed.

Broadcom BCM94352HMB DW1550 tvff 3 802.11AC WLAN Wifi Karte + Bluetooth 4.0 2.4/5 GHz (26.65€ on ebay)

Usefull Tools

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Hackingtosh build with Chromebox

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