Lenovo ThinkPad T470 (Type 20JM) Hackintosh

Supports: macOS Catalina 10.15.x including iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, etc.

Introduction

This is my attempt at outlining the necessary configuration and dependencies to get macOS running on a ThinkPad T470. There's quite a lot of useful Reddit & forum posts, guides and other repositories here on GitHub that I was able to pull small bits of information from in order to make this guide. One problem that I discovered is that the T470 has shipped with many different hardware configurations making a one-size-fits-all approach impossible. Another problem I found is that many of the sources I used didn't provide enough detail making the learning curve a little more challenging. In turn, I decided to create this for anyone else who may have purchased one of these T470 models (specifically, Type 20JM, although it may work on similar sub-models with minor modifications).

Definitions

This section is used to specify some abbreviations or acronyms you'll see either in this guide or elsewhere in the hackintosh community. It can be a little confusing following instructions if you don't know what certain things stand for.

• /S/L/E - /System/Library/Extensions (location of official Apple kexts)

• /L/E - /Library/Extensions (location of modified/user installed kexts)

• /C/K/O - /CLOVER/kexts/Other (location of modified/user installed kexts used for installation/setup)

Note on EFI and kexts location

For the purpose of this install, I keep my kexts stored on the flash drive's EFI partition under /C/K/O. Once you have a system that boots, copy the EFI folder from the flash drive to the local EFI partition (you can use Clover Configurator to mount it). Some recommend installing kexts locally to /L/E but I haven't seen any issues with storing them on the EFI partition. I would highly recommend keeping the flash drive as a backup in the event that you're unable to boot from the local drive due to an update or your own experimenting.

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ThinkPad T470 (Type 20JM) Specs

• Part Number: 20JMS0Q400
• BIOS: 1.60 (N1QET85W)
  • Set default config
  • Secure Boot: disabled
  • Boot Mode: UEFI Only
  • CSM Support: enabled

	Hardware	Working	Supported in
CPU	Intel Core i7-6600U @ 2.6GHz (3.4GHz Turbo)	Yes	config.plist
Graphics	Intel HD Graphics 520	Yes	config.plist
Memory	16GB DDR4 2666Mhz (SK Hynix)	Yes	-
Storage	Intel SSD Pro 7600P 512GB NVMe	Yes	-
Battery	3 + 3-cell (Internal + Removable)	Yes	ACPIBatteryManager.kext
USB	XHC 100-series chipset (8086:9d2f)	Yes	USBInjectAll.kext
SD Card Reader	Realtek USB 3.0 Card Reader (0BDA:0316)	WIP	-
Audio	Realtek ALC298	Yes	AppleALC.kext, layout-id 3
Camera	IMC Networks Integrated Camera	Yes	USBInjectAll.kext
Ethernet	Intel I219-LM	Yes	IntelMausiEthernet.kext
WiFi/BT (M.2 2230 "A")	Intel Dual-Band Wireless-AC 8260 (vPro)	No¹	-
WWAN (M.2 2242 "B")	Not installed	-	-
Function/media keys		Yes	-
Fingerprint Reader	Validity Sensors (138a:0097)	No	-
Touchpad	Synaptics UltraNav	Yes	VoodooPS2Controller.kext, SSDT
Trackpoint		Yes²	VoodooPS2Controller.kext
Keyboard backlight		Yes	-
Backlight		Yes	AppleBacklightFixup.kext, SSDT
Touchscreen	AU Optronics Touchscreen (appears as Raydium Touch System)	No	-
Sleep/Wake		WIP	-
Power Button		Yes	-
Power Management		WIP	ACPIPowerManagement.kext
Headphone Jack		-	-
Thunderbolt		-	-
Other	ThinkPad Ultra Dock (90w)	Yes³	-

¹ Bluetooth appears to be detected and allows you to scan but never detects devices.
² Trackpoint is a little too fast; I haven't looked into this so there could be improvement.
³ Only have tested USB3, ethernet and charging; video output untested.

Known Issues

• Audio device still disappearing after sleep but not everytime now
• HEVC videos do not play even though HEVC is supported (per VideoProc)
• Battery life while sleeping is still high (10% per hour)
• Overall battery life is only 4hr (maybe the best on dual 3-cell batteries)

Hardware Setup and Configuration

Info: Everything you see below is already contained in the EFI folder. Since not all models of the ThinkPad T470 are completely the same, I'm including the methods I used to get the individual modules working which can be cherrypicked to finalize your setup.

Usage: For usage information or support on a specific kext, follow the associated link to its repository page.

Prerequisites

Info: These are needed to get this off the ground. Place the kexts on your EFI partition under /CLOVER/kexts/Other and config.plist under /CLOVER

• Lilu.kext

• WhateverGreen.kext

• VirtualSMC.kext

  • SMCBatteryManager.kext
  • SMCLightSensor.kext
  • SMCProcessor.kext
  • SMCSuperIO.kext

• config.plist for HD 520

Battery

Info: The ThinkPad T470 has two batteries, an internal and external (a.k.a removable). This uses an SSDT patch to make macOS see the two batteries as one large battery.

• SSDT-BATC-T470.aml

  • Location: /EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched

• config.plist (DSDT Patches)

  • Add via Clover Configurator: ACPI > DSDT > Patches

    comment	find	replace
    change Notify(_SB.BAT0 to Notify(_SB.BATC	_SB.BAT0	_SB.BATC
    change Notify(_SB.BAT1 to Notify(_SB.BATC	_SB.BAT1	_SB.BATC
    change Notify(BAT0 to Notify(BATC	BAT0	BATC
    change Notify(BAT0 to Notify(BATC	BAT1	BATC

Audio

Info: This was fairly straightforward. You'll need to know which codec your system has which you can find by booting from a Linux live USB. Try running lspci | grep audio or aplay -l. My ALC298 works with a layout-id of 3 and 47.

• AppleALC.kext

• Lilu.kext

  • Both kexts located at: /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other

• config.plist

  • Option 1 - Set Device Property

    • Add via Clover Configurator: Devices > Properties

      Properties Key	Properties Value	Value Type
      layout-id	3	DATA

      Note: You'll need to know the PCI location. I only had two entries appear: one for the iGPU (should have key named "ig-platform-id") and another for onboard audio (PciRoot(0)/Pci(0x1f,3).

  • Option 2 - Use Boot Argument

    • Add via Clover Configurator: Boot > Arguments alcid=47

Ethernet

• IntelMausiEthernet.kext
  • Location: /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other

_Note: For some reason, I couldn't get this to work with the installer so I used a USB to Ethernet adapter. It does work after booting the first time.

Backlight

• SSDT-PNLF.aml

  • Location: /EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched

• AppleBacklightFixup.kext

  • Location: /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other

• Brightness Controls

  Note: My model's brightness keys (Fn+F5 & Fn+F6) uses ACPI not PS2. To determine the key name (_Q14, _Q15 below) please see RehabMan's ACPIDebug.kext. Compatibility Note: If using ACPIDebug.kext to determine keys, syslog/Console.app will not show these anymore. From Terminal run log show --last 5 | grep ACPIDebug instead.

  • Requires DSDT patch; my model uses LPCB.KBD not LPC.PS2M or LPC.PS2K

     Method (_Q14, 0, NotSerialized)  // _Qxx: EC Query
     {
    
         // Brightness Up
         Notify(\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.KBD, 0x0206)
         Notify(\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.KBD, 0x0286)
    
     }
    
     Method (_Q15, 0, NotSerialized)  // _Qxx: EC Query
     {
    
         // Brightness Down
         Notify(\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.KBD, 0x0205)
         Notify(\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.KBD, 0x0285)
    
     }
    

Function and Media Keys

Note: This section is still a work in progress. I haven't had time to play around with the remaining "special keys" such as Settings (F9), Bluetooth (F10), On-screen Keyboard (F11) and Favorites (F12). I imagine these will require a similar DSDT patch as the brightness keys by determining the keys ID via ACPIDebug.kext.

• Working:
  • Mute, VolUp, VolDown, BrightDown, BrightUp
• Not Working (yet):
  • F1-F12, Mic, Display, Airplane, Settings, Bluetooth, OSK, Favorites

SD Card Reader

Coming soon: This section is still a work in progress. I don't have a regular need for this so it's definitley the last thing on my list, however I did stumble across a kext patch that may work. I'll test this out and update.

Touchpad

Info: For my Synaptics touchpad, I was able to get it working using RehabMan's VoodooPS2Controller.kext but tluck's SSDT-Thinkpad_Clickpad patch was required to enable the PrefPane. Multi-touch gestures are fairly limited. You can utilize two finger scrolling but swiping to go back a page in Safari, pinch-to-zoom and rotate don't work. I would also recommend disabling tap-to-click as this caused the cursor to intermittently jump to a second position on the screen if you touched the touchpad simultaneoulsy with a second finger.

Note: To enable three finger gesture for Exposé you must define the gesture as a keyboard shortcut under SysPrefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Under Mission Control, select Application Windows and make the gesture on the touchpad to set it.

• VoodooPS2Controller.kext
  • Location: /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other
• SSDT-Thinkpad_Clickpad.aml
  • Location: /EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched

USB (Camera, USB ports, etc.)

Using USBInjectAll, I was able to build a custom SSDT (SSDT-UIAC) to only enable the ports that are physically present. I disabled the internal USB port designated for biometrics since it doesn't work anyway.

Power Management (Sleep, wake, battery life, etc.)

CPUFriend (KEXT) + CPUFriendFriend (SSDT patch) has allowed me to run the system down to 800Mhz and has prevented the CPU fan from running as often. Temps however around 45-50C when idle which is a little higher than I like but it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

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Post-installation work (Serial, UUID)

Make sure you generate a new serial number and UUID in Clover Configurator to avoid any conflicts with iCloud, iMessage, etc. I've removed some of my unique identifiers so they

Special Thanks

• okay - some good info here which kickstarted my efforts
• RehabMan - base config.plist for Intel 520, various kexts, DSDT patches and SSDTs
• tluck - modified version of RehabMan's SSDT-BATC; SSDT-Thinkpad_Clickpad
• ImmersiveX - dark theme for Clover