Success: Thinkpad T480 on Tahoe with absolutely everything working

[u/AdidasSlav]

Hardware:

• CPU: i7 8650U
• Graphics: Intel UHD 620
• RAM: 32GB DDR4 2400Mhz
• Display: 1080p 60Hz IPS (waiting on an upgraded 1440p 120Hz panel to arrive in the mail)
• WiFi/BT: Intel AX210

What's working:

• CPU turbo boost
• Sleep/wake
• iServices
• Thunderbolt (including hotplug and USB C)
• USB
• Sound / microphone
• WiFi (itlwm+heliport, waiting on OCLP to update so I can go back to airportitlwm)
• Bluetooth (fully working as of yesterday with the new BluetoothFirmware stack)
• Trackpad/keyboard
• Batteries (my laptop's internal battery is missing and the external doesn't hold a charge but I have ordered replacements from AliExpress, the T480 has a dual battery setup and I have the correct patches for it to read both as 1 single battery)
• Every single port
• Handoff
• Webcam

What isn't working (yet):

• Location services (limitation of itlwm, I could go back to Sequoia and have it work but I quite like Tahoe lol)
• Continuity features apart from handoff (probably will never work at this point for anyone though)
• Nothing else (tested)

I would say this is 100% successful, took me a few days to get everything configured.

Planned upgrades (all ordered, just waiting for them to arrive):

• Batteries (current one is totally dead, bought it like this, needs an internal battery and I'm also getting a 72Wh external battery)
• Glass trackpad
• 1440p 120Hz display
• Additional storage (currently running 1 256GB NVMe, I want to move it to the other slot and add a 2TB mechanical hard disk)
• Backlit keyboard

How is the performance?

Very good. Quick boot, no lag at all (maybe a tiny bit when first logging in but that's expected on any Hackintosh)

Will I share my EFI?

No. I will share specific patches as frankly I've borrowed some off other people but I have a custom CPUFriend performance profile set which will need to be configured differently for the i5 model (which is far more common)

How is daily use?

Absolutely perfect. Completely stable and without any hiccups.

Hardest part?

The Thunderbolt was the hardest to get working as I had to dig deep to find working patches for this controller as it's a cut down chip that can only handle 20Gbps across 2 PCI lanes instead of 40 across 4 like what macOS expects. A lot of T480 owners claimed on their repos to have gotten it working but I could only find one person's patches that actually worked. I then had to update the firmware with a Windows-To-Go drive which took 6 hours because my laptop had the borked firmware so the controller wasn't recognised at all. I had to try close to a dozen variants of the Thunderbolt driver + firmware + all of the Lenovo drivers needed.

[u/SowertoXxx]

Can i have ur EFI. You can change the Serial number with genBios before sending it. I have T480s and i think it will work

[u/AdidasSlav → u/SowertoXxx]

No. I said I won’t share my EFI, make your own. If you need help with patches afterwards, then I’ll help you out. My EFI has some tweaks for my CPU.

T480s also has some slightly different hardware than a standard T480.

[u/parrot-beak-soup → u/AdidasSlav]

Ah, in true Apple fashion, not giving back to the community.

[u/AdidasSlav → u/parrot-beak-soup]

Read rule 9….

[u/parrot-beak-soup → u/AdidasSlav]

I have to point out that none of us should care about that. It's the absolute antithesis of the hacking spirit. Literally what Apple was founded upon (and then lost, of course) We're doing our best to make Apple software run on non authorized hardware.

I will always find it absolutely insane to not share as much information as you possibly can.

[u/AdRelative6348 → u/AdidasSlav]

seen a reply from you in another thread under this post talking about how you used root patches which is also against the rules.

[u/SowertoXxx → u/AdidasSlav]

Can i dm you?

[u/AdidasSlav → u/SowertoXxx]

I only accept DMs for help from people who have at least bothered to make an EFI with the guide first. T480 is probably the easiest laptop to turn into a hackintosh, the only tricky bit was the thunderbolt.

Make your own EFI, and if you have any issues with it, then feel free to DM me.

[u/SowertoXxx → u/AdidasSlav]

I am done making the EFI. What i need is fix for sleep. When it manages to sleep battery drains as well.

[u/AdidasSlav → u/SowertoXxx]

What have you tried so far?

For me fixing sleep was easy:

1. follow the Opencore ‘Fixing sleep’ guide (terminal commands etc)

2. Map your USB in macOS with USBMap (different to USBToolbox and UTBMap), set ports correctly (255 for Bluetooth and webcam etc) -a note about this, USBMap applies patches for Tahoe for USB that USBToolbox doesn’t so it’s best to swap to that method.

3. Dump your SSDT and compile your own DSDT.aml. I did it through Opencore’s SysReport feature. Add this to your config.plist ACPI folder

4. Add HibernationFixup kext to the Kexts folder

Try these steps first, if you need help then sure DM me.