More about NVRAM on Hackintosh

About half a month ago we discussed how to simulate NVRAM on Hackintosh, especially for those PC without UEFI support. Let’s figure out a little more about NVRAM.

As for NVRAM module, lots of data are stored there:

These are NVRAM data on my Hackintosh (BIOS+GPT+Clover). Among those variables, we may focus on some specific ones like:

backlight-level —- save current backlight value data.

fmm-computer-name/fmm-mobileme-token-FMM —- save current “Find My Mac” status (enable or disable).

If the NVRAM are not saved before system shutdown and not properly set during startup, these data will lost and lead to the backlight level reset to its default value and disable the “Find My Mac” function. That’s exactly what I talked about in my earlier blog.

But sometimes we may find that we lost those values again, which means one day your backlight level is reset and FMM state is disabled after every startup. Meanwhile, the shutdown script and startup plist are all untouched. In this situation, resetting NVRAM can always work ’cause one or more NVRAM variables contain incorrect value or cannot be handled properly due to lack of Apple UEFI support.

For Hackintosh, resetting NVRAM would be easier as that on real Macs. Just type this in Terminal to delete all NVRAM data:

# nvram -c

Or just delete certain variable(s) if you know which one of them causes problem.

# nvram -d efi-boot-device-data

After clean up or fix the NVRAM, we can try adjust backlight level and recheck the FMM status. Now restart the OS X, everything should works fine.

7 thoughts on “More about NVRAM on Hackintosh

  1. Firefox 3.0.10 Firefox 3.0.10 Windows XP Windows XP
    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042316 Firefox/3.0.10

    Please help, Installation success but no boot.My PC:CPU: Intel Core i5-2310 2.90GHzMotherboard: Intel Desktop Board DH67BLMemory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAMVGA card: ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series Current OS: Windows 7 64 bitThe inatallstion steps:1. I downloaded the .dmg file (Iatkos L1 OSX Lion 10.7.1)2. Converted to .iso and burned to DVD using “TransMac”.3. Changed bios settings of Sata to mode “AHCI”4. Booted from DVD.5. Followed the inatallstion steps.6. in Customize screen, I checked almost all the options.7. Completed to inatallstion successfully.After the inatallstion I cant boot from HDD (boot not found).I burned the last version of iBoot and booted from it.In iBoot I see 2 options: iBoot, name of the System volumeNo matter that I choose (even safe mode) the system reboots itself after few seconds.What else can I do?

    1. Google Chrome 25.0.1323.1 Google Chrome 25.0.1323.1 Windows 8 x64 Edition Windows 8 x64 Edition
      Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/25.0.1323.1 Safari/537.19

      You may consider adding Fakesmc.kext and other essential kexts for your pc. Even Iatkos version cannot work perfectly since there are so many different hardwares. Thx.

  2. TT Explorer TT Explorer Windows XP Windows XP
    Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; TencentTraveler)

    Hey very cool site!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your site and take the feeds also鍘圛 am|I’m} happy to find a lot of useful information here in the post, we need develop more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .

  3. Google Chrome 41.0.2272.118 Google Chrome 41.0.2272.118 Mac OS X  10.10.3 Mac OS X 10.10.3
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_3) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/41.0.2272.118 Safari/537.36

    But doesn’t deleting NVRAM “# nvram -c” delete all find my mac settings?

    1. Google Chrome 43.0.2357.81 Google Chrome 43.0.2357.81 Windows 8.1 x64 Edition Windows 8.1 x64 Edition
      Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/43.0.2357.81 Safari/537.36

      Yes. This command would clear all contents in the NVRAM. Thus the status of Find My Mac would be reset.

  4. Google Chrome 50.0.2661.102 Google Chrome 50.0.2661.102 Mac OS X  10.11.4 Mac OS X 10.11.4
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_4) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/50.0.2661.102 Safari/537.36

    Thanks for the info. I was looking for way to reset NVRAM, to get iMessage and FaceTime to use.

    1. Safari 9.1.1 Safari 9.1.1 Mac OS X  10.11.5 Mac OS X 10.11.5
      Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_5) AppleWebKit/601.6.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.1.1 Safari/601.6.17

      You are welcome. Glad that you figure it out.

Leave a Reply to smab Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.