This guide is no longer being updated. See the ThinkPad X220 Mojave guides here

ThinkPad X220 macOS High Sierra 10.13

Installation Guide

Follow these steps to perform a clean installation of macOS 10.13 High Sierra on your ThinkPad X220 or X220 Tablet with an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 CPU.

Most macOS 10.13 High Sierra features are fully functional on the ThinkPad X220. See the Not Functioning section of the Notes and Suggestions at the bottom of this page for the latest status.

PART 1 OF 4: ADJUST BIOS SETTINGS

Install the modified BIOS version 1.46 to remove the whitelist check and permit the installation of a Wi-Fi card compatible with macOS. This modified BIOS will also enable advanced settings and improve battery life under macOS.

– MD5: 4a769c4f17e8aa0dc0e6927ebe75635d

– To install this modified BIOS from a bootable USB drive, see the instructions here.

– Please note the warning on the Advanced menu in the BIOS: Setting items on this screen to incorrect values may cause the system to malfunction! The default values will work fine but the wrong settings can prevent your X220 from booting.



Wi-Fi card recommendations: Stock Wi-Fi cards in the X220 are not compatible with macOS

Wi-Fi cards that require no configuration whatsoever and will work automatically in macOS: Dell DW1510 – 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz (Broadcom)

or Dell DW1515 – 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz (Atheros)

For 802.11ac + Bluetooth as well as Continuity/Handoff support, it may be possible to make the AzureWave AW-CE123H (aka Dell DW1550) card work by following the steps in the guide here. Another guide that might be helpful is available here. Note that it will not be possible to boot from our standard USB installer with this card installed; only install this card after the macOS installation is complete and the necessary modifications have been made

Various other Mini PCIe and USB Wi-Fi adapters compatible with macOS are listed here

A video showing the process to replace the Wi-Fi card can be viewed here

. Press F1 at startup to adjust the BIOS settings as follows:

– Restart > Load Setup Defaults

– Config > Power > Power On with AC Attach > Disabled

– Config > Serial ATA (SATA) > SATA Controller Mode Option > AHCI

– Security > Memory protection > Execution Prevention > Enabled

– Startup > UEFI/Legacy Boot > Both

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PART 2 OF 4: CREATE USB INSTALLER

. Download the Install macOS High Sierra app from the App Store Insert an 8GB or larger USB disk Open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility

– Select the USB disk in the left pane (select the physical disk, not a volume on the disk)

– Click the Erase button

– Under Name: type USB

– Under Format: select Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

– Under Scheme select GUID Partition Map (If the Scheme option is not visible, go to the View menu and select Show All Devices)

– Click Erase



Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal and enter the following command: sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app --no interaction Enter your password when prompted After approximately 25-35 minutes the process will finish and the USB will be renamed Install macOS High Sierra (wait for the “copy complete” message in the Terminal before continuing) Download the ThinkPad X220 macOS 10.13 Utility and Kext Pack and place a copy on your installation USB Launch Clover Configurator from the Utility and Kext Pack and click Mount EFI Click the Mount Partition button to the right of the EFI partition of your USB. It will appear as EFI on EFI, Install macOS High Sierra (disk*s1) Quit Clover Configurator and copy the entire EFI folder from the Utility and Kext Pack to the EFI partition of your USB, replacing the existing folder if present.

The EFI partition on your USB should now contain a single folder named EFI that contains two folders: BOOT and CLOVER. It should look like this:

Eject your USB

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PART 3 OF 4: INSTALL macOS HIGH SIERRA

. Disconnect any external monitors or other devices and place the USB installer in a USB 2.0 port of your ThinkPad X220. Press F12 at startup to select the USB as your boot disk Use the arrow keys to select Boot macOS Install from Install macOS High Sierra at the Clover bootloader menu and press Enter From the macOS Utilities screen, launch Disk Utility In Disk Utility, click the View menu and select Show All Devices

Select your target disk (select the physical disk, not a volume on the disk) and click Erase

If the target disk is already in APFS format, or if multiple partitions exist, it may be necessary to click Partition and remove these partitions

Some users have reported installation issues when more than one disk is installed (primary bay + mSATA). It may be necessary to temporarily remove any additional disks.

You must end up with a single partition on the disk as described in the next step Name the target disk Macintosh HD, select Macintosh OS Extended (Journaled) format and GUID Partition Map scheme, then click Erase

Do not select APFS format as this will prevent the installation from completing. The file system will automatically convert to APFS during the installation process if your target disk is a solid-state drive (SSD).

It should look like this:

After the erase process finishes, quit Disk Utility, select Install macOS and follow the prompts to do a standard macOS installation on Macintosh HD The first stage of the install process should take about 5 to 10 minutes (if the screen dims you can press a key to wake it) The computer will restart at least once during the next stage. When it does, press F12 to ensure that it boots from the USB. At the Clover menu, select Boot macOS Install from Macintosh HD and press Enter to continue. The installation process will then continue very slowly and the screen may become distorted. The computer will eventually restart again. Press F12 to ensure that it boots from the USB. When Boot macOS from Macintosh HD appears on the Clover menu, select this entry and complete the guided macOS setup

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PART 4 OF 4: POST INSTALL

. Copy the Utility and Kext Pack to your Desktop and eject the USB installer Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal and enter the following command to allow apps from unidentified developers: sudo spctl --master-disable Launch Clover Configurator from the Utility and Kext Pack and click Mount EFI Click the Mount Partition button to the right of the EFI partition of your hard drive. It will appear as EFI on EFI (disk*s1) The EFI partition for Macintosh HD should now be mounted and show in the sidebar under Devices when you open a Finder window Quit Clover Configurator and copy the entire EFI folder from the Utility and Kext Pack to the EFI partition of Macintosh HD, replacing the existing folder if present (just as you did in step 12 for the installation USB). Open Utility and Kext Pack > EFI > CLOVER > kexts and launch the script entitled _kext-install.command

Enter your password when prompted and wait for the process completed message after the script has installed the kexts Confirm the installation USB has been removed and restart the computer Install any system updates available through the App Store and take a moment to read through the Notes and Suggestions section below Recommended additional steps to improve battery life with optimized CPU power management: Confirm that you have an active connection to the Internet Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal then copy and paste the following command in the Terminal window and hit Enter: curl -o ~/ssdtPRGen.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Piker-Alpha/ssdtPRGen.sh/master/ssdtPRGen.sh Next, paste this command in the Terminal window and hit Enter: chmod +x ~/ssdtPRGen.sh Finally, paste this command in the Terminal window and hit Enter: ./ssdtPRGen.sh Answer ‘N’ to the questions about copying and opening the ssdt files A customized SSDT.aml for your specific machine will now be in the directory /Users/yourusername/Library/ssdtPRGen Copy the file named SSDT.aml to /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/

(you may need to run Clover Configurator to mount the EFI partition) Restart the computer

Notes and Suggestions