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Post installation

Two tidy-ups, then the one thing that actually has to be done.

Tidy up the config

Open config.plist with TextEdit.

  • Search for HideAuxiliary and change false to true — hides the extra boot entries.
  • Search for boot-args and delete -v — stops the verbose text on every boot.

Leave SecureBootModel at Disabled

Guides for other setups tell you to raise it, and for those setups they are right. Not here.

Any other value refuses to boot macOS released before that Mac model, and this repository ships images back to Yosemite. From macOS 12 the value also has to match the SMBIOS, and 101 of the configs here use a Mac model that predates the T2 chip and has no Secure Boot model at all. Apple Secure Boot additionally rejects unsigned kernel extensions, which is most of what this EFI injects.

Set ROM to your own MAC address

This is the one that is not optional. Every build ships ROM as a placeholder, and no builder can know yours in advance. iCloud, iMessage and FaceTime will not work until you do this.

  1. Go to System Settings → Network → Ethernet → Details → Hardware and read your MAC address.
  2. Strip the colons: 54:1A:AF:43:70:CA becomes 541AAF4370CA.
  3. Convert that to Base64. It gives VBqvQ3DK.
  4. Put it in ROM and save.
  5. Restart, press Space at the OpenCore menu, and choose ResetNVRAM.

Your BIOS settings may reset

Check them after a NVRAM reset, before booting macOS again.

Your own serial number

A build generates its own serial, MLB and UUID, so you are not sharing one with the whole repository. But everyone who downloads the same release file does share it. If you want one nobody else has:

  1. Download GenSMBIOS and open the .command file. If it offers to download Python, let it. Then pick option 3.

    GenSMBIOS opening

  2. Enter the SMBIOS your config already uses. The builder printed it, and it is in SystemProductName.

    Entering the model

  3. Copy the first serial.

    The generated serials

  4. Check it with Apple. It should come back as an invalid or unpurchased serial. If Apple recognises it, use the next one — a serial that belongs to a real Mac is somebody else's.

    Checking the serial

  5. Replace SystemSerialNumber, MLB and SystemUUID with the Serial, Board Serial and SmUUID it produced, then reset NVRAM as above.

If that model does not support the macOS you installed

Add -no_compat_check to boot-args.

It gets a boot past the model check; it does not carry an install through on an identity the release does not serve. Its place is after the install, once the proper identity is put back.

Now you can sign in to iCloud, iMessage and the rest.