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First boot

Select the USB from your computer's boot menu. The OpenCore screen comes up; press Enter on Install macOS "Sonoma", or whichever release yours is.

Text will start flowing down the screen. That is verbose mode, showing what happens as the machine boots. If it keeps moving you are fine - after a while the Apple logo and the installer appear.

The text stops and stays stopped

Photograph where it stopped. The last few lines are what an issue needs; a machine.json from the Report pane alongside it turns the guess into an answer.

If you get an SMBIOS error

The SMBIOS mismatch error

This is a mismatch between the macOS you are trying to install and the Mac identity the config claims. Apple decides what it will install from that identity, not from your hardware.

The builder checks this before it writes anything and offers to set an identity that is served the release you asked for - see which macOS, and why it is not only about kexts. If you are here anyway, open config.plist in a text editor and change SystemProductName to a model Apple serves that release, then boot again.

Legacy BIOS

Try booting first without touching the boot file that comes in the EFI partition. If it will not boot:

  1. Rename boot to boot-default.
  2. Rename bootx64 (or bootx32, according to your processor) to boot.
  3. If it still will not boot, try boot6, boot7 and boot9 in turn.

Once the installer is on screen, your Ethernet or Wi-Fi kext is the important piece for what comes next.

macOS installation steps :material-arrow-right: