NUC8IxBEx Hackintosh

This is a quick and dirty repo for Intel NUC 8th gen Coffee Lake models. I've used various sources (see credits) to build my EFI and did quite some testing. It should leave you with a stable and reliable build but as always, these things are never really finished. Compatible with macOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma.

SMBIOS changes

The SMBIOS on the current and future releases will be iMac19,1 this fixes the Tahoe update from showing and also prevents the App Store from installing Tahoe versions of apps that might not work on Sequoia. Xcode is a good example. This was caused by the usage of the "sbvmm" patch thats part of the now removed RestrictEvents kext and was used to get updates to show at all. The downside was that it also showed incompatible updates and if you left auto update enabled this could lead to a broken install. I would prefer to keep using the Mac mini but since its a T2 machine it will require the "sbvmm" patch to show updates. The only way to currently solve it in a nice way is to change model.

Migrating your current install is easy:

• If logged in, logout of your AppleID in system preferences, iMessage and Facetime (the latter should happen automatically but isn't always the case in my experience).
• Use GenSMBIOS to generate new serials etc, use iMac19,1 as model.
• Update config.plist and also edit the plist found inside USBMap.kext. You can right click on it and select show contents to find the file.
• Reboot and clear NVRAM once before booting back into macOS.
• You can now login to AppleID again and continue using it as before.
• Check if the old machine has been removed from your account in system preferences or online.

Assumed install target is Sequoia:

Please note that from the 13th of October 2025 the assumed installation target will be macOS Sequoia.

You can still install on older versions, on Sonoma and older just swap out itlwm.kext with AirportItlwm.kext matching your target version from the Stuff folder on the repo. Use the snapshot function in ProperTree to easily update the config once you made the kext swaps. If you encounter bluetooth issues on versions prior to Monterey you may also have to replace BlueToolFixup.kext with IntelBluetoothInjector.kext -- the kexts can be found in the "stuff" folder on the repo. Good luck!

Broadcom:

Broadcom users need to use OCLP starting with Sonoma and newer and will no longer run vanilla macOS as security features have to be disabled and the root filesystem will be patched and no longer sealed. Please refer to this issue to get Broadcom working again. My goal is to run vanilla macOS not modify it in any way. Ventura will keep receiving security updates for at least a few more years. So if you want to leave security features enabled stay on Ventura for now. Stock NUCs are not affected.

Incremental updates:

Incremental updates will not work and a full installer will be downloaded instead unlessBlueToolFixup.kext is disabled.

Index

• Installation
• Post install
• Updating
• Thunderbolt
• Apple and 3rd party wifi/bt
• Intel wifi/bt
• Native bt dongle
• What doesn't work?
• Undervolting
• Performance, power and noise
  • Noise
  • Passive cooling
• Todo
• Credits

Installation

• ~~Update to the latest (0095 BIOS~~ -> load BIOS defaults -> click advanced and change;

(April 2023 tmp update: It seems Intel has nerfed undervolting in a recent bios update to patch the plundervolt exploit. I'm not sure which verison exactly but I tried reverting all the way back to one of the first versions and it didn't give me back my undervolting on my test machine. A complex exploit that to my knowledge required access to the machine itself. I wish we could disable that and have undervolting back. I am looking into ways to re-enable it. For now don't update if you want to undervolt. You can always update later if undervolting was already disabled in your bios and there is not really a need to update the bios unless you experience issues that can only be solved by updating the bios I would stay on older versions that allow undervolting.)

Also be sure to run the latest hdmi firmware which can only be installed in Windows. It fixes many issues and bugs in relation to using the hdmi port. Specially if you connect it to a monitor with a hdmi 2.0 connection.

Devices -> USB -> Port Device Charging Mode: off
Devices -> USB -> USB Legacy -> Disabled
Security -> Thunderbolt Security Level: Legacy Mode
Power -> Wake on LAN from S4/S5: Stay Off
Boot -> Boot Configuration -> Network Boot: Disable
Boot -> Secure Boot -> Disable

• Download macOS from the App Store and create a USB installer with createinstallmedia on macOS (real mac/hack or vm) or use gibMacOS*
• Download the EFI folder here or download/clone the complete repo for latest builds
• When not installing Sonoma download the AirportItlwm.kext file matching your macOS install from the Stuff folder and replace the one in the kext folder with it. Not doing this may cause a boot loop.
• Edit config.plist with ProperTree and change the following fields;

PlatformInfo -> Generic -> MLB
PlatformInfo -> Generic -> ROM
PlatformInfo -> Generic -> SystemSerialNumber
PlatformInfo -> Generic -> SystemUUID

Generate new serials/rom with GenSMBIOS.

• Copy the EFI folder to the EFI partition on the USB installer
• Clear NVRAM from the OpenCore picker
• Install macOS

* Installers made with GibMacOS on Windows and Linux require a working internet connection as it uses the recovery image only, it then downloads the full installer from Apple. The createinstallmedia script makes an offline installer.

Note 1: OpenCore doesn't always select the correct partition in the menu when installing. You will only boot into the installer once, do your formatting and have the installer copy all it needs to the internal disk. From that point onwards always select the internal disk from the menu. The name might change during the installation, but it should be easy to spot as it won't have an "external" label.

Note 2: I noticed on newer macOS creating the usb on the NUC itself fails unless SecureBootModel is set to j174 but this will cause the installer to boot loop. So only change this when needed or after install. In order to make incremental OTA updates work this may also need to be set with a risk of bootlooping. Else downloading the full installer is needed (and done automatically by macOS after the smaller OTA fails). Creating installers inside a VM may also need the model used in the SMBIOS to match the one SecureBootModel uses. But I haven't tested that.

Note 3: When updating on Sonoma or newer the smaller delta updates will fail, this is expected and when you try again Software Update will download the full installer which will install without issues. If anyone has a working solution please open an issue so we can test and fix it in the EFI too.

Post install

• Check if TRIM is enabled, If not run sudo trimforce enable to enable it
• Disable NVMeFix.kext if you don't have an NVMe drive
• Don't forget to copy the EFI folder from the installer's EFI partition to the internal disk's EFI partition. This is needed to boot from the internal disk. You can use EFI Agent to easily mount EFI partition.

Finally make sure sleep works properly. You can skip some of these but it will make your machine wake up from time to time. Same as real Macs.

sudo pmset standby 0
sudo pmset autopoweroff 0 
sudo pmset proximitywake 0
sudo pmset powernap 0 
sudo pmset tcpkeepalive 0
sudo pmset womp 0
sudo pmset hibernatemode 0

The first two and last need to be 0 the rest can be left on if you want.

• Proximity wake can wake your machine when an iDevice is near
• Power Nap will wake up the system from time to time to check mail, make Time Machine backups, etc, etc
• Disabling TCP keep alive has resolved periodic wake events after setting up iCloud, just disabling Find My wasn't enough.
• Womp is wake on lan, which is disabled in the BIOS as it (going by other people's experience) might cause issues. I never use WOL, if you do use WOL please try enabling it in the BIOS and leave this setting on, the issues might have been due to bugs that haven been solved by now. Let me know if it works or not.
• Hibernate is sometimes set to 3 in my testing. It could be possible to get hibernation to work by using HibernationFixup but I haven't tested it. I'm fine with normal sleep.

With hibernation disabled you can delete the sleepimage file and create an empty folder in its place so macOS can't create it again, this saves some space and is optional.

sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage
sudo mkdir /var/vm/sleepimage

At this point you should enable FileVault to encrypt your disk. The config is setup to support this and it works flawlessly.

To get a nicer boot experience you can remove the verbose boot flag -vin the config and also set ShowPicker to fal