Please remove misinformation regarding OpenCore Configurator

Question

Please remove misinformation regarding OpenCore Configurator

metacollin opened this issue a year ago · 2 comments

Guide: OpenCore Install Guide

Pages with the issue:

First, please understand I am not saying there is anything intentional occurring here. I am using the exact definition of the word and do not intend for any additional connotation to be attached. The definition of misinformation is simply information that is false or inaccurate, but not deliberately so. When done deliberately, it is no longer misinformation, but rather disinformation.

Some further context to give my experiences a bit more weight:

I have been hackintoshing since the Clover days, many years now. Over the years, I have made a few modest contributions to the hackintosh community which include:

Enabling the first multi socket hackintoshes and turning C602 based motherboards into viable hackintosh platform via the xcpm_ipi kernel flag
Added support for LGA2011 processors to ssdtprgen
Fixed a macOS related security vulnerability in the official ACPI code base itself
Authored a BIOS patch that enabled native power management in macOS without any patches to the kernel for C612, C422, and certain vendor's X299 based motherboards.
Identified the original issue and authored the first SSDT-CPU-WRAP.dsl fix, which eventually lead to others creating the far more compact and efficient SSDT-CPUR.dsl fix.

My intent is not to brag and like I said, these contributions are modest and generally quite niche. My intent is to demonstrate that I have been active in the community for many years and am capable enough to solve previously unsolved problems then share that with the community.

I have been using OpenCore since version ~0.6, and I regularly update it upon every new release for over 2 years now.

During those two years, I have been using Mackie's OpenCore Configurator exclusively to manage my config.plist files.

In those two years:

It has never corrupted a single plist file even one time.
It has always produced a 100% valid and correct plist file
it has never been out of date. It tracks the development version of OpenCore along with the latest release, so it is not only up to date, but supports bleeding-edge development usage cases.
It has never added anything related to clover.
It has never added garbage or extra settings/sections. If you create a new, blank config.plist and save it, what you get is the absolute minimum config.plist file required by OpenCore. Additional sections and settings are only added as needed and removed again if emptied and it is safe to do so.

The following false assertions in this guide are as follows:

"OpenCore Configurator is another tool but is heavily outdated"
This is easily proven false, one simply needs to download the latest version to verify that this is the case. It is up to date with both the current release and the master development branch of OpenCore, making it better than up to date. It has maintained this timely tracking of OpenCore's development for at least 2 years, an impressive achievement in its own right.
"and the Mackie version is known for corruption."
OpenCore Configurator is developed by mackie. It is also the only version. The guide is clearly implying there are other versions even though they do not exist. As for 'known for corruption', this is essentially hearsay and I suspect was only ever true very early on in the tool's development. Like most software and open source projects, there will be bugs and issues early on which get fixed as the software continues to improve. Regardless, this hasn't been true for 2 years or more and the burden of proof is on Dortania for making this claim. Please provide the steps necessary to reproduce any claimed instance of file corruption by OpenCore Configurator, otherwise you are obligated if the guide is intended to provide accurate and correct information.
"Using a configurator such as Mackie's Clover and OpenCore configurator. You'll need to start over and make a new config or figure out all the garbage you need to remove from your config. This is why we don't support configurators, they are known for these issues"
I don't know what relevance clover configurators have here. But the statement that you need to start over is false, as is the statement that there is any garbage necessary to remove. As stated earlier, Open Core Configurator only includes the absolute minimum settings necessary, and will only add additional ones as determined by what the user adds. It will also remove them again if the user removes them, no extra blank dicts etc. left behind. I again ask that Dortania provide the steps needed to reproduce 'extra garbage' being added by OpenCore Configurator, and what that garbage supposedly is. I also additionally request examples of extra garbage that will actually break a system/prevent booting as well.
Regardless, by your own words, it would seem (unless you can prove otherwise, but I certainly can't find any examples of extra garbage being added, nonetheless system-breaking garbage) that your reasons for not supporting at least this specific configurator are no longer true and haven't been for at least 2 years.
"these rarely respect OpenCore's configuration and even some like Mackie's will add Clover properties and corrupt plists!"
Open Core Configurator has always respected OpenCore's configuration these last 2 years. In fact, it provides the official OpenCore documentation as a tool tip (if you show the tips window) for each and every setting so you can understand exactly what it is, what it does, how it works, etc. Furthermore, while this is somewhat more recent of a development (but not that much more recent), Open Core Configurator uses OpenCore's own official validator tool to validate the config.plist file and will alert the user to any issues as well as giving suggestions on how to correct said issues. These will detect any problems that might have been introduced via manual/hand-editing, as well as higher level misconfiguration, including both missing and extra/uneeded/unknown config properties, incorrect combinations of settings, invalid values, you name it. So when you say Open Core Configurator doesn't respect OpenCore's configuration, what you're really saying is that OpenCore itself doesn't respect its own configuration. Which I do not believe is an accurate statement. The validator works quite well. Also, as stated earlier, the statement that it adds Clover properties is demonstrably false and I request Dortania provide the steps necessary to reproduce this (get Open Core Configurator to add clover properties to a config.plist file). Likewise for corrupting plists.

The claims about OpenCore Configurator have not been true for at least 2 years which makes their continued inclusion in the guide a form of misinformation. Even if these claims were at one point true, this is no different from any other software project in early stages of development. Singling out this tool by perpetuating myths about bugs that were fixed long ago is unfair to the developer and a disservice to the target audience of the guide by turning them away from what is now an excellent tool.

A tool that is far safer than any sort of semi-manual editing using tools like Plistbuddy, as it removes the possibility of human error, incorporates as much as it can directly from OpenCore itself (documentation, configuration settings, validation of those settings etc.). It warns the user if their plist is meant for a different version of OpenCore than they have installed. It has built-in update support so using an outdated version is not really a risk.

It is even in-line with Dortania's own goals. Dortania wants people to actually learn what is going on rather than just doing things by copying them from somewhere else without understanding what any of it does or means. OpenCore Configurator facilitates learning and understanding by making it easy to mouse over each and every setting and read all about what it is, what it does, and if/when it might be needed. No more blind toggling of mystery settings. Not even this guide provides a complete description of every setting, only a handful that are usually the minimum needed, but not all systems are so easy.

Frankly, what would be the most beneficial to users of this guide, in my opinion, would be not only to remove the false statements, but accurately mention Open Core Configurator has long since corrected past issues with corruption etc, and recommend it as an easier and safer alternative to manual editing using Plistbuddy. An alternative that incorporates OpenCore's own config validation, finding any configuration problems as they're made. This does not mean to say it should be officially supported, I agree it should not be. The guide should remain as generic as possible and not rely on custom tools, but all of the guide's instructions are easily and intuitively done in OpenCore Configurator, so suggesting it as a viable but unsupported alternative is still worthwhile.

However, at the very minimum, the false statements should be removed from the guide. I feel like this is a case of some bugs in the past propagating like old wives' tales or myths as many bits of information seem to do in the hackintosh community, an effect that this guide was, amongst other things, meant to combat. How often do you see people putting ancient boot flags in their config.plist because of what amounts to digital superstition? And how is this any different?

I would encourage the authors to download Open Core Configurator and (with an open mind free of preconceptions) reevaluate it for themselves, as it really has become a very mature, safe, and reliable tool no matter how bumpy its development have been at the beginning.

Answer 1 · 2024-10-27T14:36:36.000Z

The part that says "injects Clover properties" are completely right, and not all configurators are equal. We count OCAT as configurators and that has broke some config in past, so no
I just saw a person who changed their SMBIOS to be compatible with Sonoma, but it did not work for some reason, probably because of OCC.
The biggest part is, why configurators? ProperTree always works.
Another big part is, everybody has different experience. You can't say it's good because it :worksonmymachine:.

Answer 2 · 2024-10-27T14:54:01.000Z

Personal Experience, tried to change some SMBIOS settings and it messed up my entire config. If it works for you, congratulations, but it doesn't mean it will work for everybody else. There have been many cases of Configurators like Mackie's or OCAT breaking configs like mine, so it's suggested that configurators are avoided. And as another user commented, why not ProperTree? Simple UI, and it's made specifically for OpenCore.