Installing macOS on the Google Pixelbook.

It turns out that the latest verion(s) of macOS work quite well on the Google Pixelbook.

Before you begin,

Pixelbook owners with an Samsung 512GB NVMe SSD should be aware that problems will arise during the installation process. This is primarily due to the fact that the Samsung SSD does not play well with macOS, which could result in degraded performance and prolonged boot times.

If you have an Pixelbook with eMMC, you may proceed without any issue.

Table of Contents

• Specs
• Current Status
• Mandatory Disclaimer
• Requirements
• Installation
• Post Install
• Misc. Information
• macOS Ventura
  • Preparations
  • Installing Ventura Directly
  • Fixing WiFi

OpenCore Boot Menu	macOS Ventura

Some notable specs:

• Intel Core i5 7Y57 / i7
• Intel HD 615
• Intel WiFi Chip: 7265
• Keyboard - PS/2
• Touchpad: HID-over-I²C
• Suspend: ACPI S3 sleep
• Audio Codec: max98927 as speakers, RT5514 as DMIC on SSP0, and RT5663 as headset on SSP1.
  • Note: Audio / Mic are currently not working, and may never work. As a cheap and easy workaround, a $10 USB sound adapter or Bluetooth audio work perfectly well. Or you can write audio drivers for us. ;)

Current Status

⚠️ Mandatory Disclaimer

By continuing, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the contents of the following disclaimer, and consent to their terms.

The process described in this document could cause irreversible damage to your laptop, and you should prepare yourself for that outcome before you begin. I accept absolutely no responsibility for the consequences of anyone choosing to follow or ignore any of the instructions in this document, and make no guarantees about the quality or effectiveness of the software in this repo.

Requirements

Before you start, you'll need to have the following things to complete the process:

• A willingness to accept that this is a potentially destructive process that may render your expensive Pixelbook inoperable or otherwise busted. Refer to the above disclaimer.
• A SuzyQable CCD Debugging cable (or make your own) if you haven't disabled write protect already.
• A USB-A to USB-C adapter
• 1 USB flash drive with USB-C connectors or adapters for your OpenCore USB.
• OpenCore version 0.8.8 or newer for proper boot device selection.

Installation

Here are the steps to go from stock Pixelbook to a macOS install using OpenCore:

1. If you haven't already, flash UEFI firmware. Read and follow MrChromebox's instructions on how to flash the UEFI firmware using MrChromebox's scripts. To do this, you will need to disable write protect with either the SuzyQable cable or by removing the battery.

Fixing coreboot 4.2.0

coreboot 4.2.0 (5/15/2023 release) has a known issue where macOS will hang on due to coreboot not defining CPU cores by default. To fix this, we'll use a SSDT to manually define them. Credits to ExtremeXT for the fix. You do not need this SSDT if you're on 4.1.9 or older.

• Add SSDT-PLUG-ALT.aml to your ACPI folder and snapshot your config.plist.

2. Setup your EFI folder using the OpenCore Guide. Use Laptop Kaby Lake & Amber Lake Y for your config.plist.

3. Re-visit this guide when you're done setting up your EFI. There are a few things we need to tweak to ensure our Pixelbook works with macOS. Skipping these steps will result in a very broken hack.

4. In your config.plist, under Booter -> Quirks set ProtectMemoryRegions to TRUE. It should look something like this in your config.plist when done correctly:

   Quirk	Type	Value
   ProtectMemoryRegions	Boolean	True

   Warning This must be enabled.

5. In your config.plist, under NVRAM -> Add -> 7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82, add -igfxnotelemetryload to your boot-args. Without it, you will NOT have iGPU acceleration. translation: it will run horribly.

6. Under DeviceProperties -> Add -> PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0), make the following modifications:

   Key	Type	Value
   AAPL,ig-platform-id	data	0000C087
   device-id	data	C0870000
   enable-dpcd-max-link-rate-fix	data	01000000
   dpcd-max-link-rate	data	1E000000

   Warning These should be the only items in PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0).

7. Set your SMBIOS as MacBookAir8,1. Ignore what the guide tells you to use, MacBookAir8,1 works better with our laptop.

   Note If you choose to use MacBook10,1, which also works, you will not have Low Battery Mode.

8. Download EmeraldSDHC for eMMC storage support. Put it in your Kexts folder.

9. Download corpnewt's SSDTTime, open it, select the first option FixHPET, choose C for default, and drag the SSDT it makes (SSDT-HPET.aml) into your ACPI folder. Then, in the same folder, copy the patches from oc_patches.plist into your config.plist under ACPI -> Patch. Without it, eMMC won't be recognized by macOS.

10. Snapshot (cmd +r) or (ctrl + r) your config.plist.

11. Now, boot from the OpenCore USB. In Disk Utility, go to Show All Devices in the top left, and then select the entire drive to format it as APFS. Begin the install after.

    • After some while, it will reboot. Go back into the boot menu and select your macOS Monterey install . In the OpeCore boot menu, you should now see "Install macOS Monterey" as a menu item. Select that to continue the installation.
      • The second phase of the installation will continue for about ~25-30 minutes. If it appears to be stuck, do NOT shut it down. It is not stuck. It just takes a while.

12. After installing, make sure to copy your EFI from the USB Drive over to your EFI Partition in your eMMC drive. corpnewt's MountEFI is great for doing this.

Post install:

• To fix sleep, you may want to follow these steps from the OC guide fix here
• Sound currently works via Bluetooth or a USB sound adapter.
• Karabiner, can make the touchpad functional, but not great. It's also helpful for remapping the keyboard to match what the Pixelbook F1-F10 keys do.

Note: Required for macOS 12 and up: Make your own USB map, by following the documentation.

Warning You NEED to have USBToolBox.kext in your kext folder for the generated UTBMap.kext to work.

Misc.

• Read the OpenCore guide on how to improve this hackintosh build and contribute here.
• When formatting the eMMC drive in Disk Utility, make sure to toggle "Show all Drives" and erase the WHOLE drive, not just the current partition.
• Format the drive as APFS
• Map your USB ports prior to installing macOS for a painless install. You will reget it if you don't. You can use USBToolBox to do that. If you are using USBToolBox (Mainly Windows users), you need a second kext that goes along with it. Github repo here. USBToolBox will not work without this kext.
• itlwm is more stable & faster than AirportItlwm
• You might have DRM issues, there's no fix for this. :(
• To fix the battery life on Ventura, you can set Low Battery Mode to be always enabled on battery. It's not perfect, but it helps. You can also use CPUFriend to tweak power settings but it might cause your system to die on boot. Please test on external USB disk first.
• eMMC will come up as an external drive in the boot picker since eMMC is just an embedded SD card. Nothing you can do about it.
• To hide the drive picker, set ShowPicker to False in Misc ->Boot -> ShowPicker
• AppleXcpmCfgLock and DisableIOMapper can be enabled or disabled. Makes no difference.
• It's worth noting that while it's recommended, coreboot already includes mapped USB ports, meaning that USB mapping is not required. Proceed at your own risk if you decide to skip USB mapping.
• Make sure your ScanPolicy is set to 0. eMMC will not be recognized if it's some other value.
• You are unable to swap wireless chips for Continuity features because the wireless chip is soldered onto the motherboard.

*Note: The hotkey to show drives DOES NOT WORK. Make a copy of your EFI with ShowPicker enabled if you need to boot from another drive.

macOS Ventura

Before beginning, it's important to keep the following in mind:

• Your battery life will decrease more quickly while using Ventura. To prevent this, it is recommended to stick with Monterey or an earlier version.
• AirportItlwm's Ventura variant does not work well with our wireless chip, use itlwm to avoid issues.

Preparations

Note: These steps can be completed after updating, however, you won't have WiFi during this time. For a smoother experience, it is recommended to perform the following steps before updating.

1. Mount your EFI using Corpnewt's MountEFI.
2. In the OC/Kexts folder, delete your previous itlwm/AirportItlwm kext and replace it with itlwm v.2.2.0 alpha.
3. If you haven't already, download and install Heliport, with the most recent stable release being sufficient.
4. Launch ProperTree and reload (by pressing ctrl+r) your config.plist.
5. Start the update process (if you haven't already).
6. See below for fixing WiFi.

Preparations for installing Ventura directly:

Note: For Windows only, not sure how it's like on Linux.

1. Under OC/Kexts, delete your old itlwm/AirportItlwm kext and replace it with itlwm v.2.2.0 alpha
2. Open up your kext folder, and locate itlwm.kext.
3. Open it, and find Info.plist.
4. Open ProperTree, navigate to where your Info.plist is, and open it.
5. Under IOKitPersonalities -> itlwm -> WiFiConfig, enter your WiFI details. Save and close when done.
6. Launch ProperTree and reload (ctrl+r) your config.plist.
7. Boot recovery. There will be no WiFi logo/symbol, but you will have WiFi. If you are able to install macOS, then you have not messed up.

Fixing WiFi on Ventura

Only for those that have macOS installed but haven't edited their Info.plist.

1. Mount your EFI
2. Open up your kext folder, and locate itlwm.kext.
3. Click it, and select Show Package Contents and open the Contents folder. Once inside, find the Info.plist and copy it via ctrl + c.
4. Exit itlwm.kext and go back to your Kext folder. Paste your Info.plist.
5. Open ProperTree, select the Info.plist in your Kext folder and open it.
6. Under IOKitPersonalities -> itlwm -> WiFiConfig, enter your WiFI details. Save and close when done.
7. Replace the old Info.plist with the one you just edited.

Do note that Heliport will report no WiFi upon logging in but keep in mind you actually do thanks to the edits we just made. :)

That's it. Feel free to share your ideas of how to improve this process and the hardware compatibility.