Making the installer in Linux

• Supported version: 0.8

While you don't need a fresh install of macOS to use OpenCore, some users prefer having a fresh slate with their boot manager upgrades.

To start you'll need the following:

• 4GB USB Stick
• macrecovery.py

Downloading macOS

Now to start, first cd into macrecovery's folder and run one of the following commands:

# Adjust below command to the correct folder
cd ~/Downloads/OpenCore-0/Utilities/macrecovery/

Next, run one of the following commands depending on the OS you'd like to boot:

# Lion(10.7):
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-2E6FAB96566FE58C -m 00000000000F25Y00 download
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-C3EC7CD22292981F -m 00000000000F0HM00 download

# Mountain Lion(10.8):
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-7DF2A3B5E5D671ED -m 00000000000F65100 download

# Mavericks(10.9):
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-F60DEB81FF30ACF6 -m 00000000000FNN100 download

# Yosemite(10.10):
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-E43C1C25D4880AD6 -m 00000000000GDVW00 download

# El Capitan(10.11):
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-FFE5EF870D7BA81A -m 00000000000GQRX00 download

# Sierra(10.12):
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-77F17D7DA9285301 -m 00000000000J0DX00 download

# High Sierra(10.13)
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 -m 00000000000J80300 download
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-BE088AF8C5EB4FA2 -m 00000000000J80300 download

# Mojave(10.14)
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-7BA5B2DFE22DDD8C -m 00000000000KXPG00 download

# Catalina(10.15)
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86 -m 00000000000000000 download

# Big Sur(11)
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-E43C1C25D4880AD6 -m 00000000000000000 download

# Monterey (12)
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-E43C1C25D4880AD6 -m 00000000000000000 download

# Latest version
# ie. Ventura (13)
python3 ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-B4831CEBD52A0C4C -m 00000000000000000 -os latest download

From here, run one of those commands in terminal and once finished you'll get an output similar to this:

Making the installer

This script automatically flash the recovery and OpenCore to the USB-drive, the Opencore partition will be mounted at/mnt
if you prefer to do the entire process manually skip to the manual installation.

1. run

curl -o ocflashdrive.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Broly1/ocflashdrive/main/ocflashdrive.sh && chmod +x ocflashdrive.sh && ./ocflashdrive.sh

or manually download it a paste it inside /macrecovery/ directory and type ./ocflashdrive.sh

2. type in your root password and wait for the script to do its job.

Manual Instalation

For manual instalation this section will target making the necessary partitions in the USB device. You can use your favorite program be it sgdisk gdisk fdisk parted gparted or gnome-disks. This guide will focus on sgdisk as it's fast and simple.

Method 1

In terminal:

1. run lsblk and determine your USB device block

2. run sudo umount /dev/xxx?* replace /xxx with your USB block

3. run sudo sgdisk --zap-all /dev/xxx && partprobe to remove all partitions on the drive

4. run sudo sgdisk /dev/xxx -o to clear the partition table and make a new GPT one

5. run sudo sgdisk /dev/xxx --new=0:0: -t 0:0700 && partprobe to create a Microsoft basic data partition type

6. run sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n "OPENCORE" /dev/xxx1 to format your USB to FAT32 and named OPENCORE

7. Use lsblk to determine your partition's identifiers

8. mount your USB partition with udisksctl (udisksctl mount -b /dev/xxx1, no sudo required in most cases)
   or with mount (sudo mount /dev/xxx1 /where/your/mount/stuff, sudo is required)

9. cd to your USB drive and mkdir com.apple.recovery.boot in the root of your FAT32 USB partition

10. now cp or rsync both BaseSystem.dmg and BaseSystem.chunklist into com.apple.recovery.boot folder.

Method 2 (in case 1 didn't work)

In terminal:

1. run lsblk and determine your USB device block

2. run sudo umount /dev/xxx?* to umount the USB device

3. run sudo sgdisk --zap-all /dev/xxx && partprobe to remove all partitions on the drive

4. run sudo sgdisk /dev/xxx -o to clear the partition table and make a new GPT one

5. run sudo sgdisk /dev/xxx --new=0:0:+300MiB -t 0:ef00 && partprobe to create a 300MB partition that will be named later on OPENCORE

6. run sudo sgdisk -e /dev/xxx --new=0:0: -t 0:af00 && partprobe for Apple HFS/HFS+ partition type

7. Use lsblk again to determine the 300MB drive and the other partition

8. run sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n "OPENCORE" /dev/xxx1 to format the 300MB partition to FAT32, named OPENCORE

9. then cd to /OpenCore/Utilities/macrecovery/ and you should get to a .dmg and .chunklist files

10. download dmg2img (available on most distros)

11. run dmg2img -l BaseSystem.dmg and determine which partition has disk image property

12. run dmg2img -p <the partition number> -i BaseSystem.dmg -o <your HFS+ partition block> to extract and write the recovery image to the partition disk * It will take some time. A LOT if you're using a slow USB (took me about less than 5 minutes with a fast USB2.0 drive).

13. mount the FAT32 partition udisksctl (udisksctl mount -b /dev/xxx1, no sudo required in most cases)
    or with mount (sudo mount /dev/xxx1 /where/your/mount/stuff, sudo is required) this is where you will drop your OC EFI folder.

Now with all this done, head to https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/ktext.html to finish up your work

credits to Dortania for the original guide.