This guide shows successfully running my iMac Pro 2018 Coffeelake/Z370 Customac Build with macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release

 

This post constitutes a new macOS 10.13 High Sierra Desktop Guide for Coffeelake/Z370, which certainly can still grow and improve by your estimated user feedback. This Coffeelake/Z370 10.13 High Sierra Desktop Guide based on the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7. However, also other Z370 mainboard models or Z370 mainboards of other brands might be compatible with this guide after likely considering and implementing few mandatory modifications not accounted by this guide.

[Edited] 2018.09.15 – Updated version 10.13.6 – Final Release!!!

[Edited] 2018.05.18 – Updated version 10.13.5

[Edited] 2018.04.16 – SSDT-PCI guide updated

[Edited] 2018.04.14 – DSDT +SSDT-UIAC guide updated 

[Edited] 2018.04.02 – Added an option for TH3 Hot-plug (still in progress for Gigabyte) 

[Edited] 2018.03.30 – Updated version 10.13.4

This is my current system’s Bench scores (CPU Delided Overclocked to 5.1GHz)

 

The i3 (4-core) was chosen as the Coffeelake/Z370 Configuration Model in order to minimize the guide development costs. It has been already replaced within the goal configuration by the i7-8700K (6 core). All other Coffeelake models are compatible with this guide as like my Coffeelake/Z370 System is up, fully stable and fully functional.

 

 

 

A) Hardware Overview

 

• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K Coffeelake 6-Core 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 and working with 8086K as well.
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7
• GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX VEGA 64 8GB LIQUID COOLING
• Ram Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series DDR4 16gb x 2ea, 3000mhz
• System Disks: 960 EVO NVME 500gb (macOS) + 950 PRO NVME 512gb (Windows 10)
• Power: Rosewill PHOTON Series 1050W Full Modular Gaming Power Supply
• Case: Deep Cool Quadstellar
• Mouse & Keyboard: USB Mouse and Apple Magic Keyboard
• Monitors: LG UltraFine 5k, LG 4k Cinema
• CPU Cooling System: NZXT Kraken X62 (RL-KRX62-02) Liquid Cooling
• Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) adaptor: GA-Alpine Ridge for LG Ultrafine 5K monitor

 

 

B) Gigabyte BIOS Configuration

 

You can change the BIOS setting to Optimized Default and change it to the following settings. If possible, update the BIOS to the latest version.

 

Depending on your Gigabyte boards and the BIOS version, there may be a difference in the names, but there seems to be no major difference.

Once you have set up your MacOS installation, it’s a good idea to change it to your own configuration later.

The attached photos are the bios configuration of the system I am currently using. (Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 Bios v.F5M, F5 updated! F6 updated! F7 Updated!!)

 

 

 

C) iMac Pro macOS 10.13 High Sierra System Setup

Below, one finds a detailed description of the Clean Install of macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release – special iMacPro build (C.4). This also includes the iMacPro EFI-Folder Preparation (C.1) as well as the iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final ReleaseInstaller Package (C.2) and iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release USB Flash Drive Installer Creation (C.3). One also finds instructions for a direct iMac Pro conversion of a functional Coffeelake/Z370 system with SMBIOS System Definition different from iMacPro1,1 and a standard macOS build implementation (C.5), as well as for the subsequent iMac Pro macOS High Sierra Update Procedure.

 

 

C.1) iMac Pro EFI-Folder Preparation

In order to successfully boot a macOS USB Flash Drive Installer or System Disk on a Customac system, both drives must be equipped with an EFI-Folder in their EFI partitions. In this section, we will prepare a fully equipped EFI-Folder with SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 System definition.

1.) Download and unzip to your Desktop.

Leave a request comment at the end of this post. or you could click the button to get it.

Download file HereEFI-Z370-iMacPro1,1

 

2.) Open the config.plist in /EFI/Clover/ with the latest version of Clover Configurator, proceed to the “SMBIOS” Section and complete the SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 Serial Number, Board Serial Number, and SMUUID entries. These details are mandatory to successfully run iMessage and FaceTime on your iMac Pro System. Note that all other iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS Details are already implemented in the config.plist

Press several times the “Generate New” Button next to serial number text field.

In the final step, open a terminal, enter repeatedly the command “uuidgen”, and copy the output value to
the SMUUID field in the “SMBIOS” Section of the Clover Configurator.

Finally, save the modified config.plist.

You now have a fully equipped EFI-Folder for subsequent implementations as detailed below.

 

 

C.2) iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release Installer Package Creation

 

To derive the macOS 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release Full-Package Installer follow the individual steps below:

createInstaller.sh will automatically create on any MacOS System the “Install High Sierra.app” for MacOS 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 in the /Applications folder.

Just download and unzip createInstaller.sh.zip and run the following terminal commands:

cd ~/Downloads
chmod +x createInstaller.sh
./createInstaller.sh

 

 

 

Verify your “Install High Sierra.app” for completeness. You should now have a complete macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release Installer package in your /Applications Folder.

 

 

If you have the trouble with the automated method, use next method:

 

1.) Open a terminal and create a “091-76233” directory on your Desktop. Subsequently, change to the newly created directory. All this can be done with the following terminal commands:

mkdir ~/Desktop/091-94326/
cd ~/Desktop/091-94326/

 

 

2.) Download the following files from the Apple server (public links) to your ~/Desktop/091-86775/ directory by a copy & paste of the following terminal commands:

curl https://swdist.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/091-94326.English.dist -o 091-94326.English.dist
curl https://swdist.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/RecoveryHDMetaDmg.pkm -o RecoveryHDMetaDmg.pkm
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/RecoveryHDMetaDmg.pkg -o RecoveryHDMetaDmg.pkg
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/OSInstall.mpkg -o OSInstall.mpkg
curl https://swdist.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/InstallAssistantAuto.pkm -o InstallAssistantAuto.pkm
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/InstallAssistantAuto.pkg -o InstallAssistantAuto.pkg
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/BaseSystem.dmg -o BaseSystem.dmg
curl https://swdist.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/InstallESDDmg.pkm -o InstallESDDmg.pkm
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/InstallESDDmg.pkg -o InstallESDDmg.pkg
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/BaseSystem.chunklist -o BaseSystem.chunklist
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/InstallESDDmg.chunklist -o InstallESDDmg.chunklist
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/InstallInfo.plist -o InstallInfo.plist
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/AppleDiagnostics.chunklist -o AppleDiagnostics.chunklist
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/AppleDiagnostics.dmg -o AppleDiagnostics.dmg
curl https://swdist.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/MajorOSInfo.pkm -o MajorOSInfo.pkm
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/MajorOSInfo.pkg -o MajorOSInfo.pkg
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/29/03/091-94326/45lbgwa82gbgt7zbgeqlaurw2t9zxl8ku7/InstallAssistantAuto.smd -o InstallAssistantAuto.smd

 

 

 

3.) If you are currently on an iMac Pro System, create the 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release installer.pkg on your Desktop with the following terminal command:

cd ..
productbuild --distribution ./091-94326/091-94326.English.dist --package-path ./091-94326/ installer.pkg

 

 

4.) Create the “Install MacOS High Sierra.app” in the /Applications folder of your System Disk with the following terminal command:

sudo /usr/sbin/installer -pkg installer.pkg -target /

 

 

5.) Now add the following files to your “Install High Sierra.app” with the following terminal commands:

sudo cp ./091-94326/InstallESDDmg.pkg /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
sudo cp ./091-94326/AppleDiagnostics.dmg /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/
sudo cp ./091-94326/AppleDiagnostics.chunklist /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/
sudo cp ./091-94326/BaseSystem.dmg /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/
sudo cp ./091-94326/BaseSystem.chunklist /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/

 

 

Verify your “Install High Sierra.app” for completeness. You should now have a complete macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release Installer package in your /Applications Folder.

 

 

 

C.3) iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release USB Flash Drive Installer Creation

 

Follow the individual steps detailed below to successfully create a bootable iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release USB Flash Drive Installer.

1.) Format a USB Flash Drive of your choice (source, named USB) with HFS+ [(Mac OS Extended (Journaled)] and a GUID partition table by means of Apple’s Disk Utility on any other Customac or Mac of your choice. This will create an empty HFS+ Partition and a yet empty EFI-partition on your iMac Pro macOS USB Flash Drive Installer.

2.) With the iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release Installer Package in your /Application Folder, connect your USB Flash Drive (named USB) and run the following terminal command:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app --nointeraction

Alternatively, one can create the iMac Pro macOS USB Flash Drive Installer also by means of the Install Disk Creator.app.

 

Both Terminal or App methods take quite long time to make bootable USB so please be patient until finishing all the process (In my case, taking for almost an hour)

 

3.) Yet we have to make our iMac Pro macOS USB Flash Drive Installer also bootable. This can be partly done by means of the following terminal commands:

don’t forget the isolated dot “.” at the end of the last copy (cp) command below

cd /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra
mkdir .IABootFiles
cd .IABootFiles
cp /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi .

 

With the terminal command:

ls boot.efi

 

you can subsequently verify that boot.efi is there where it should be.

 

If you mistake at this point, your USB Flash Drive Installer will not be bootable and the USB Flash Drive macOS Installer partition will be simply invisible in the Clover Boot Menu!

 

4.) Copy the EFI-Folder you prepared in Section C.1) to the empty EFI Partition of your iMac Pro macOS USB Flash Drive Installer.

You now have a fully functional and bootable iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release USB Flash Drive Installer.

 

 

 

D) iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release Clean Install on Coffeelake/Z370

 

Follow the individual steps detailed below to successfully setup macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release on a virgin system drive of your choice (NVMe, SSD or HDD).

1.) In order to perform a clean install of macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release, prepare a NVMe, SSD or HDD destination drive for the iMac Pro macOS installation by formatting the drive with HFS+ [Mac OS Extended (Journaled)] and a GUID partition table by means of Apple’s Disk Utility on any other Customac or Mac of your choice. This will create an empty HFS+ Partition and an empty EFI-partition on the drive.

2.) Copy the EFI-Folder you prepared in Section C.1) to the yet empty EFI Partition.

3.) Now connect the Destination Drive to your Customac System and boot the plugged iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release USB Flash Drive Installer, you’re created in Section C.2)

4.) While booting your system, press the F12 button to enter the BIOS boot menu. Select to boot from your iMac Pro macOS USB Flash Drive Installer.

5.) Subsequently, click on the USB Flash Drive Installer Icon in the clover boot menu to boot the respective macOS Installer partition on your iMac Pro macOS USB Flash Drive Installer

6.) After a successful boot, pass the individual steps of the macOS high Sierra 10.13 installation menu and finally select the destination drive of your macOS High Sierra 10.13 Installation, which should be logically the system disk you successfully configured above. In the next step, the Installer will create a macOS High Sierra 10.13 Installer Partition on the system disk and subsequently reboot your system.

7.) During system reboot, just press again the F12 button to enter the BIOS boot menu. Select again to boot from your USB Flash Drive. In contrary to 6.), click this time on the “Install MacOS..” icon in the clover boot screen to boot the newly created macOS High Sierra 10.13 Installer Partition on your system disk.

8.) After the successful boot, you will enter now the macOS High Sierra 10.13 Installer Screen with a progress bar starting at 34 minutes.

9.) After another reboot, press again the F12 button to enter the BIOS boot menu. Select to boot with your System Disk EFI-folder. Click on the “MacOS High Sierra” icon in the clover boot screen to boot the updated macOS High Sierra 10.13 partition on your system disk.

10.) After the successful boot, you will enter again the macOS High Sierra 10.13 Installer Screen with a progress bar starting at 18 minutes. After successfully registration at iCloud at the end of the macOS installation, you now have your first iMac Pro macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release build.

 

After the successful clean install or conversion, you can update your iMac Pro macOS Mojave build directly via the Appstore. In case of Mojave beta, it is recommended to clone your 10.13.6 (17G65) – Final Release System Disk with Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to a test drive and to update to Mojave Public Beta.

Also, any other future macOS Update can be directly performed via the Appstore.

 

 

 

E) System Overview CPU Cosmetics

 

As our Coffeelake CPU at present will not be properly recognized by OS X, Apple’s System Overview (“About This Mac”) reveals incomplete or simply wrong CPU details. Many times CPU’s like the i7-8700K are implemented as “unknown”. Follow method below to fix it.

 

Note that the following example is only valid for systems with English as the main system language. If your system language is German, French, Spanish, Chinese etc., substitute “English.lproj” in the individual commands by the “lproj” of your System language!

 

1.) Open a terminal and use the following commands:

cp /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleSystemInfo.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/AppleSystemInfo.strings ~/Desktop/

 

sudo mv /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleSystemInfo.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/AppleSystemInfo.strings /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleSystemInfo.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/AppleSystemInfo.strings-Backup

 

2.) Open “AppleSystemInfo.strings” on your Desktop with TextWrangler and change

<key>UnknownCPUKind</key>
<string>Unknown</string>

to whatever you want. In my case I choose:

<key>UnknownCPUKind</key>
<string>3,7 GHz 6-core 12-thread Coffeelake i7-8700K</string>

Save “AppleSystemInfo.strings”

 

3.) Run the following terminal commands:

sudo codesign -f -s - ~/Desktop/AppleSystemInfo.strings

sudo cp ~/Desktop/AppleSystemInfo.strings /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleSystemInfo.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/

and reboot your system.

 

F) Optional change for GA-Alpine Ridge TH3 adaptor  This method is No more needed

If you have a TH3 adaptor, you can make a TH3 Hotplug enabled.

1. Go to you EFI>Clover>Config.plist, open it at clover configurator.
2. Go to Devices and Click ‘+’ in Arbitrary section.
3. Add the codes like this.

   PCIAddr*        Comment
   
   01:00.00        PCI THUNDERBOLT 1578 0

Key*                 value*         Value Type
PCI-Thunderbolt      1              NUMBER
IOName               pci-bridge     STRING

 

 

G) How to apply DSDT + SSDTs (Buyer’s only)

 

First, please check out the latest EFI.zip, DSDT.zip and SSDTs. There is the file name with numbers which is modified date. 

1. Audio

Some ppl asked me about the Audio setting. I am using my monitors audio which is working great without any patch or kext. However, if you are using internal audio, you can have two options.

a. You can use AppleALC which is already included in kext folder.

b. There is kext named VoodooHDA.kext // it is easily found in google search.

 

Simply use either of kext whatever you prefer. But do not use both files at the same time.

 

2. DSDT +SSDT-UIAC implement

Put those files in EFI > Clover > ACPI > Patched

No more worry about USB port limit patch in Kext and Kernel area. Simply, disable or remove.

 

3. SSDT-PCI implement

* PCI implement requires DSDT and SSDT-UIAC

 

Applying SSDT-PCI is able to show cosmetic and real PCI devices in your Customac.

However, this modification is a process that requires special DSDT patches. If you do not follow the instructions below, you can cause Kerner panic.

a. Download SSDT-PCI first and then save it with DSDT and SSDTs in Patched folder.
b. After mounting the EFI, add the following DSDT hot patches to the ACPI> DSDT> Patches section of the config file. Use TextWrangler.

If you are using my EFI’s config, do like below picture.

 

c. Save it. Reboot.

d. Download MaciASL to edit the SSDT-PCI

e. If you see different devices from original SSDT-PCI, you can find ‘Model’ and ‘Name’ of devices to replace with your own model and name. Use MaciASL.

f. See the example, so if you want to change the model name and slot number of your wifi device, open the SSDT-PCI and use find tool (command +f) and find the ‘

OSX WIFI Broadcom BCM94360CD 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.0 Controller‘ and simply replace it with your own device name. You can see slot number there so put your number instead of ‘3’

(Do not change any values rather than model, name and slot. All other variable’s are already set to GA-Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 board only)

 

g. If you have different AMD GPU, you should google its FB name.

h. Save it and reboot your Mac.

 

4. SSDT-TB3 implement (TBA)

 

 

 

 

H) Benchmarking (Dual monitors: 5K + 4K)

 

 

 

Geekbench CPU Benchmark: Coffeelake Intel i7-8700K (3.7GHz)

• Multi-Core Sore: 27914
• Single-Core Sore: 6170

 

 

 

 

 

Geekbench OpenGL and Luxmark OpenCLBenchmarks: Sapphire Radeon RX VEGA 64 8GB Liquid Cooling

• OpenGL Sore: 205542
• OpenCL Sore: 24628

 

 

 

H) Summary

 

Now time to compare this RIG vs a Real iMac Pro 2018 (8core)

You can save more cost from dual monitors (mine are quite expensive tho :))

 

My Coffeelake RIG: USD2,300 (Monitors not included)

iMac Pro 2018: USD5,599

 

 

Last modified: September 15, 2018