Thinkpad T460s macOS Catalina (OpenCore bootloader)

OpenCore for ThinkPad T460s with DW1820A Cards

Introduction

General knowledge & credits

• Why OpenCore

• To install macOS follow the guides provided by Dortania

• Lots of SSDT patches from OC-little

• Useful tools by CorpNewt

• Acidanthera that make this possible

• @MSzturc for keyboard map and ThinkpadAssistant

• @simprecicchiani for his original work on making OpenCore work on the T460s.

My Hardware

• Model: Thinkpad T460s (20F9003AUS)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-6600U (2C, 2.6 / 3.4GHz, 4MB) vPro
• Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics 520
• Memory: 4GB Soldered + 8GB DIMM
• Display: 14" FHD (1920x1080) IPS
• Sound Card: Realtek ALC293
• Storage: TOSHIBA THNSF5256GPU7 256GB NVMe Drive
• WLAN + Bluetooth: Dell DW1820A
• Camera: 720p
• Keyboard: Backlit
• Fingerprint Reader: Yes
• Battery: 3-cell (23Wh) + 3-cell (26Wh)

What if I don't have this exact model?

This EFI will suit any T460s regardless of CPU model¹ / RAM amount / Display resolution / Storage drive (SATA or NVMe²).

Recommended changes

USB ports map

Needed to make TP dock ports working since I don't have one and my config doesn't include them.

Use one of the following methods:

• USBMap from CorpNewt

• USBPorts from Hackintool

• Native USB fix without injector kext

CPU Power Management

If you happen to have a different CPU model remove CPUFriend.kext and replace SSDT-CPUD with plain SSDT-PLUG, power management is natively supported by OpenCore. If you want to take a step forward and create a custom profile, follow the steps below:

• Use CPUFriendFriend to generate a .plist file with PM data; (settings for i7-6600u):

Low Frequency Mode (LFM) = 800MHz #(TDP-down frequency for i7-6600u)
Energy Performance Preference (EPP) = 80 #(Balance power)

• via ResourceConverter.sh inside CPUFriend, select the .plist to generate either CPUFriendDataProvider.kext or SSDT-DATA.dsl;

• Load CPUFriend.kext and CPUFriendDataProvider.kext inside EFI/OC/config.plist or

• Alternatively combine SSDT-DATA.dsl data with SSDT-PLUG (renamed in SSDT-CPUD) and load it with CPUFriend.kext inside EFI/OC/config.plist.

That's how power consumption looks like on my machine at idle state:

True Macbook experience 

Generate your own SMBIOS

run the script with MacbookPro13,1
add results to PlatformInfo > Generic > MLB, SystemSerialNumber and SystemUUID

Enable HiDPI with RDM Utility

install RDM Utility
open it, click on "resolution", then "edit"
for 2560x1440 screens I suggest using 1440x810 resolution
to accomplish that, use the settings below

Other tweaks

Install ThinkpadAssistant

Every hotkey will work on macOS with a beautiful, apple like control hud.

include SSDT-KBRD and relatives names patches in config.plist
install ThinkpadAssistant app under /Apllication/
check launch on login

Use PrtSc key as Screenshot shortcut

set F13 shortcut under SystemPreferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Screenshots

Monitor temperatures and power consumption with HWMonitor

This app is relatively old and no longer supported, but it gets the job done and has a nice simple look.

Make dock animation faster and without delay

Run these lines in terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.5
killall Dock

Bios settings

• Config > USB > UEFI BIOS Support > Enable
• Config > Power > Intel SpeedStep Technology > Enable
• Config > Power > CPU Power Management > Enable
• Config > CPU > Hyper-Threading Technology > Enable
• Security > Security Chip > Disable
• Security > Memory Protection>Execution Prevention>Enable
• Security > Virtualization > Intel Virtualization Technology > Enable
• Security > Virtualization > Intel VT-d Feature > Enable
• Security > Anti-Theft > Computrace > Current Setting > Disable
• Security > Secure Boot > Disable
• Security > Intel SGX > Disable
• Security > Device Guard > Disable
• Startup > UEFI/Legacy Boot > UEFI Only
• Startup > CSM Support > No
• Startup > Boot Mode > Quick

What's working ✔️

Startup time from OC Picker to Desktop was 26s, now it's 18s

• CPU Power Management ~1W on IDLE

• Intel HD 520 Graphics incuding graphics acceleration

• All USB ports with custom kext or SSDT

• Internal camera working fine on FaceTime, Skype, Webex and others

• Sleep / Wake / Shutdown / Reboot with lid sensor

• Intel Gigabit Ethernet

• Wifi, Bluetooth, Airdrop, Handoff, Continuity, Sidecar wireless

• iMessage, FaceTime, App Store, iTunes Store Generate your own SMBIOS

• DRM support iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Netflix and others

• Speakers and headphones jack fairly good volume

• Batteries very stable and precise capacity tracking

• Keyboard map and hotkeys with ThinkpadAssistant thanks to @MSzturc

• Trackpad, Trackpoint and physical buttons two fingers swipe and three fingers gestures

• SIP and FileVault 2 can be enabled

• miniDP and HDMI with digital audio passthrough

• SD Card Reader slow r/w speed but works

What's not working ⚠️

• Fingerprint Reader

• Video output not so stable

What needs testing

• WWAN Legacy_Sierra_QMI.kext included, but not tested yet

Update tracker 🔄

• safe to install macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.5

Item	Version
MacOS	10.15.5
OpenCore	0.5.9
Lilu	1.4.5
VirtualSMC	1.1.4
WhateverGreen	1.4.0
AppleALC	1.5.0
VoodooPS2Controller	2.1.4
VoodooInput	1.0.5
IntelMausi	1.0.3
Sinetek-rtsx.kext	2.2

Thanks to

The hackintosh community from GitHub, InsanelyMac and r/hackintosh.

Footnotes

1. non-i7 models follow CPU Power Management guide ↩

2. Some NVMe drives may not work OOTB with MacOS, NVMeFix could resolve some issues. ↩