Fixing Restart Issue on X99 Xeon Hackintosh After Boot Selection

The immediate restarting of your Hackintosh after selecting the boot drive is often indicative of a kernel panic or a misconfiguration in your EFI folder that is preventing the system from booting correctly. Here's a troubleshooting guide to help you resolve the issue:

Guide Step by Step:

1. Access Verbose Mode:

   • Boot using the -v flag in your bootloader to enter verbose mode. This should provide detailed information about what is happening during the boot process up until the point of the restart.

2. BIOS Settings:

   • Based on the images you provided, ensure the following:
     • Secure Boot: Should be disabled.
     • SATA Configuration: Set to AHCI mode.
     • Intel Virtualization (VT-d): Can be disabled for compatibility, unless you need it for virtualization software in macOS.
     • CPU Configuration: Ensure that Hyper-Threading, Execute Disable Bit, and VT-x are enabled if they are supported and available.
     • CSM (Compatibility Support Module): Should be disabled to avoid boot issues with UEFI.
     • Boot from the Correct Drive: Make sure you're booting from the EFI partition of the drive where your Hackintosh system is installed.

3. Check EFI Folder Structure:

   • The EFI folder structure is crucial. Ensure that you have the following:
     • EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi
     • EFI/OC/OpenCore.efi (for OpenCore bootloader)
     • EFI/OC/config.plist
     • Properly structured kexts, drivers, and ACPI folders within EFI/OC.

4. config.plist Configuration:

   • Use a plist editor to carefully check your config.plist settings. Incorrect settings here can cause boot failures.
   • Verify that your ACPI patches, kernel extensions, and SMBIOS are all configured correctly for your hardware.

5. Kernel Extensions:

   • Make sure that you're using the correct versions of kexts for your system, and that they are compatible with the version of macOS you are trying to boot.
   • Common essential kexts include Lilu.kext, VirtualSMC.kext (or FakeSMC.kext), WhateverGreen.kext, and AppleALC.kext.

6. DSDT and SSDT:

   • Check if you need a custom DSDT or SSDTs for your specific motherboard. The Dortania guide provides information on how to compile or obtain these.

7. Graphics Configuration:

   • Since you're using an AMD RX 5700 XT, make sure you're using WhateverGreen.kext and that your config.plist does not have any unnecessary flags for Nvidia or Intel graphics that could interfere with the boot process.

8. Review the Pastebin Log:

   • Check the log you posted on Pastebin for any ACPI errors, kext loading issues, or other anomalies that might point to the cause of the restart.

9. OpenCore Debugging:

   • If using OpenCore, you can enable debug logging to capture more detailed logs of the boot process. Consult the OpenCore guide for instructions on how to do this.

10. Seek Community Assistance:

    • If you're still unable to resolve the issue, share your verbose log and EFI configuration with a Hackintosh community forum. Experienced members may be able to spot issues more quickly.

Remember: Always make backups of your EFI folder and any other critical data before making changes. Hackintosh systems can be very sensitive to changes and may not work if configured incorrectly. The process can be trial and error, and having a backup ensures you can revert to a known good state if something goes wrong.