The Laptop works fairly well with macOS Mojave 10.14.1, I still have to get the touchpad working with VoodooI2C (I'm using ApplePS2SmartTouchpad right now) and to replace the Wifi card with a Broadcom BCM94352Z.
- Intel i7-6500u CPU
- 8 Gb DDR3 Ram
- Nvidia GT920M
- ELAN 0501 Touchpad (I2C, but PS2 Keyboard)
- Realtek ALC255 Audio Codec
- All the basic components work without issues (CPU, RAM, Intel GPU, Display)
- Display brightness
- Battery indicator
- Keyboard (Even the FN keys)
- Touchapd
- Audio
- Suspension (Only if you close the Lid, if you select "sleep" from the menu it wakes up immediately)
- Nvidia GT920M: Obviously this doesn't and will never work, since macOS doesn't support Nvidia Optimus
- SD Card Reader
- HDMI output gives problem
You should follow RehabMan's great guide to prepair your USB stick and install the OS. Huge thanks to RehabMan for his great job.
For the config.plist file, you should choose config_HD515_520_530_540.plist.
If you have any doubt or question, have a look here.
- Clover Configurator (this is what I use, but you can just choose a plist editor)
- MaciASL
- Kext Utility
- IASL: After unzipping the file, you may want to copy the binary to your path:
sudo cp /path/to/iasl /usr/bin/
Kext are kernel extensions in macOS and they are required to get components working properly. To install a kext, put the .kext file in /Library/Extensions. In terminal:
sudo cp -R /path/to/kext/kextname.kext /Library/Extensions/
And then change its permissions and owner:
sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/kextname.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/extensions/kextname.kext
After that, rebuilt the kext cache:
sudo kextcache -i /
If you prefer, instead of changing permissions and ownership + rebuilding the cache in the terminal, you can just run Kext Utility and enter your password, it will do everything for you (just wait for the "Quit" button to appear, it means that the process is complete).
All the kexts which I've installed in /Library/Extensions can be found in the Kexts folder.
The only ones which are not covered by the little "guide" below are: WhateverGreen.kext, FakeSMC.kext (and its Plugins) and USBInjectAll.kext. You should install those too.
You can see my patched SSDTs and my config.plist as well, in the CLOVER folder.
To get audio working, the best way is probably to use AppleALC (VoodooHDA works as well), or at least this is what I use.
Install Lilu and AppleALC kexts and open your config.plist file in /EFI/CLOVER with Clover Configurator.
In the Devices section set Inject Audio to 'No' and in Properties look for #layout-id in the properties keys, then remove the hash character ('#') from it (see this screenshot)
After that, install the CodecCommander kext.
More info here: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/an-idiots-guide-to-lilu-and-its-plug-ins.260063/
Download the latest Kext from Here, it should just work. More info here.
This fix requires Lilu.kext to be installed. You should already have it if you followed the Audio part.
Download the latest zip file from Here. Inside it you will find a kext and a file called "SSDT-PNLF.aml": you have to copy it to EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched, while you should already know what to do with the kext.
NOTE: This with just allow you to change the brightness in Settings->Display, setting the keyboard shortcuts is a different story. More info here.
For the Keyboard and Touchpad I personally use the ApplePS2SmartTouchpad kext from this repository. You could stick with VoodooPS2Controller, but the touchpad will only have a basic behaviour. The best option should be to install VoodooI2C (see here), since the trackpad is a precision one, but unfortunately I couldn't get it to work yet.
Since macOS doesn't support Nvidia Optimus (actually, the only System which currently supports it properly is Windows), you will probably want to disable the Nvidia GPU in order to get a better battery life. RehabMan obviousty made a guide about it and you can find it here, but you should probably read this one first.
NOTE: On this Laptop the _OFF method is in the same SSDT as the _INI one (SSDT6 in my case) and it doesn't access the EC, so everything should work just applying the Disable from _INI (SSDT) patch properly, way easier than the case in the guide.
After patching the SSDT you should save it as .aml and put in EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched.
To see if the Patch was succesful, go to About This Mac -> System report -> Graphics/Displays. If you find an NVIDIA device listed it means that something went wrong, while if you can only see the Intel HD520 IGPU, you're good to go.
Read this guide.
On my laptop everything was already set properly, so you should be good to go as well without any further change (My advice is to read the guide anyway).