[HOW TO] OpenCore 0.7.2 > 0.7.3 differences

As always, please read the message by vit9696, the best place to learn about the changes received by OpenCore.

During the month of August, OpenCore Team has taken a break compared to other months but, despite this, more than 25 compilations have been launched making improvements in OpenCore, OpenCanopy and Drivers. The main changes (but not the only ones) are:

• Linux support to be natively displayed in the OpenCore boot pickers
• Updated MacPro7,1 database with new AMD graphic cards
• Improved laptop backlight (SSDT-PNLF compatibility with CFL+ graphics)
• Fixed OpenCanopy performance reverting a change introduced in 0.6.9 that was causing redraw of all of screen right and below mouse position at every frame
• Implemented Boot Entry Protocol, allowing plug-in boot entry drivers
• Improved security (updated Apple Secure Boot variables for x86legacy...).

config.plist

Misc > Security > ScanPolicyOperating system detection policy list has been modified:

• changed 0x00001000 (bit 12) — OC_SCAN_ALLOW_FS_EXT >> OC_SCAN_ALLOW_FS_LINUX_ROOT, allows scanning of Linux Root file systems
• added 0x00002000 (bit 13) — OC_SCAN_ALLOW_FS_LINUX_DATA, allows scanning of Linux Data file systems
• added 0x00004000 (bit 14) — OC_SCAN_ALLOW_FS_XBOOTLDR, allows scanning the Extended Boot Loader Partition as defined by the Boot Loader Specification.

UEFI > DriversUpdated Drivers to support arguments, requires config.plist update. Each driver has now 3 properties: Path, Enabled and Arguments (some OC plugins accept optional additional arguments which may be specified as a string). See Sample.plist file.

UEFI > Quirks > added ForceOcWriteFlash (bolean) to enable writing to flash memory for all OpenCore system variables. This value should be disabled on most types of firmware but is left configurable to account for firmware that may have issues with volatile variable storage overflows or similar.

OpenCanopy

• Updated Linux variants in Flavours.md
• Fixed overlong boot entry names breaking text flow in builtin menu.

Drivers

• Added OpenLinuxBoot.efi, OC-native Linux autodetect and boot plugin, implementing OC_BOOT_ENTRY_PROTOCOL to allow direct detection and booting of Linux distributions from OpenCore without chaining via GRUB
• Added ext4_x64.efi, open source EXT4 file system driver required for booting with OpenLinuxBoot from the file system most commonly used with Linux.
• Added btrfs_x64.efi, open source BTFRS file system driver required for booting with OpenLinuxBoot from a file system which is now quite commonly used with Linux.

Note: btrfs_x64.efi and ext4_x64.efi come from rEFInd 0.13.2. They can be downloaded from OcBinaryData. It is highly recommended that users interested in using OpenLinuxboot to boot Linux systems read the OpenLinuxboot section of the OpenCore 0.7.3 Configuration.pdf file.

Kexts

• AppleALC 1.6.4: Allow optional audio for GPUs and other improvements...
• CpuTscSync 1.0.4: Added constants for macOS 12 support...
• DebugEnhancer 1.0.4
• HibernationFixup 1.4.3
• Lilu 1.5.6: Added helper APIs for backlight smoother in WhateverGreen...
• MacHyperVSupport: Added network driver stub...
• RestrictEvents 1.0.4: Skip leading spaces for automatically received CPU names, fixed dual-core CPU spoofing on macOS 10.14 and earlier...
• VirtualSMC 1.2.7: Improved EC fan monitoring on some systems...
• VoodooPS2 2.2.5
• WhateverGreen 1.5.3: Added the backlight smoother for Intel IVB+ platforms, added two Asus AMD R9 380 graphics cards...

Thank you, OpenCore team!