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OpenCore Configuration

Drivers

Depending on the firmware, a different set of drivers may be required. Loading an incompatible driver may lead the system to unbootable state or even cause permanent firmware damage. Some of the known drivers are listed below:

AudioDxe* - HDA audio support driver in UEFI firmware for most Intel and some other analog audio controllers. Staging driver, refer to acidanthera/bugtracker#740 for known issues in AudioDxe.

btrfs_x64 - Open source BTRFS file system driver, required for booting with OpenLinuxBoot from a file system which is now quite commonly used with Linux.

BiosVideo* - CSM video driver implementing graphics output protocol based on VESA and legacy BIOS interfaces. Used for UEFI firmware with fragile GOP support (e.g. low resolution). Requires ReconnectGraphicsOnConnect. Included in OpenDuet out of the box.

CrScreenshotDxe* - Screenshot making driver saving images to the root of OpenCore partition (ESP) or any available writeable filesystem upon pressing F10. This is a modified version of CrScreenshotDxe driver by Nikolaj Schlej.

ExFatDxe - Proprietary ExFAT file system driver for Bootcamp support commonly found in Apple firmware. For Sandy Bridge and earlier CPUs, the ExFatDxeLegacy driver should be used due to the lack of RDRAND instruction support.

ext4_x64 - Open source EXT4 file system driver, required for booting with OpenLinuxBoot from the file system most commonly used with Linux.

HfsPlus - Recommended. Proprietary HFS file system driver with bless support commonly found in Apple firmware. For Sandy Bridge and earlier CPUs, the HfsPlusLegacy driver should be used due to the lack of RDRAND instruction support.

HiiDatabase* - HII services support driver from MdeModulePkg. This driver is included in most types of firmware starting with the Ivy Bridge generation. Some applications with GUI, such as UEFI Shell, may need this driver to work properly.

EnhancedFatDxe - FAT filesystem driver from FatPkg. This driver is embedded in all UEFI firmware and cannot be used from OpenCore. Several types of firmware have defective FAT support implementation that may lead to corrupted filesystems on write attempts. Embedding this driver within the firmware may be required in case writing to the EFI partition is needed during the boot process.

NvmExpressDxe* - NVMe support driver from MdeModulePkg. This driver is included in most firmware starting with the Broadwell generation. For Haswell and earlier, embedding it within the firmware may be more favourable in case a NVMe SSD drive is installed.

OpenCanopy* - OpenCore plugin implementing graphical interface.

OpenRuntime* - OpenCore plugin implementing OC_FIRMWARE_RUNTIME protocol.

OpenLinuxBoot* - OpenCore plugin implementing OC_BOOT_ENTRY_PROTOCOL to allow direct detection and booting of Linux distributiuons from OpenCore, without chainloading via GRUB.

OpenNtfsDxe* - New Technologies File System (NTFS) read-only driver. NTFS is the primary file system for Microsoft Windows versions that are based on Windows NT.

OpenUsbKbDxe* - USB keyboard driver adding support for AppleKeyMapAggregator protocols on top of a custom USB keyboard driver implementation. This is an alternative to builtin KeySupport, which may work better or worse depending on the firmware.

OpenPartitionDxe* - Partition management driver with Apple Partitioning Scheme support. This driver can be used to support loading older DMG recoveries such as macOS 10.9 using Apple Partitioning Scheme, or for loading other macOS Installers where these were created using the Apple Partitioning Scheme (creating macOS Installers using GPT avoids the need for this). OpenDuet already includes this driver.

OpenVariableRuntimeDxe* - OpenCore plugin offering emulated NVRAM support. OpenDuet already includes this driver.

Ps2KeyboardDxe* - PS/2 keyboard driver from MdeModulePkg. OpenDuetPkg and some types of firmware may not include this driver, but it is necessary for PS/2 keyboard to work. Note, unlike OpenUsbKbDxe this driver has no AppleKeyMapAggregator support and thus requires KeySupport to be enabled.

Ps2MouseDxe* - PS/2 mouse driver from MdeModulePkg. Some very old laptop firmware may not include this driver but it is necessary for the touchpad to work in UEFI graphical interfaces such as OpenCanopy.

OpenHfsPlus* - HFS file system driver with bless support. This driver is an alternative to a closed source HfsPlus driver commonly found in Apple firmware. While it is feature complete, it is approximately 3 times slower and is yet to undergo a security audit.

ResetNvramEntry* - OpenCore plugin implementing OC_BOOT_ENTRY_PROTOCOL to add a configurable Reset NVRAM entry to the boot picker menu.

ToggleSipEntry* - OpenCore plugin implementing OC_BOOT_ENTRY_PROTOCOL to add a configurable Toggle SIP entry to the boot picker menu.

UsbMouseDxe* - USB mouse driver from MdeModulePkg. Some virtual machine firmware such as OVMF may not include this driver but it is necessary for the mouse to work in UEFI graphical interfaces such as OpenCanopy.

XhciDxe* - XHCI USB controller support driver from MdeModulePkg. This driver is included in most types of firmware starting with the Sandy Bridge generation. For earlier firmware or legacy systems, it may be used to support external USB 3.0 PCI cards.

Driver marked with * are bundled with OpenCore. To compile the drivers from UDK (EDK II) the same command used for OpenCore compilation can be taken, but choose a corresponding package:

git clone https://github.com/acidanthera/audk UDK
cd UDK
source edksetup.sh
make -C BaseTools
build -a X64 -b RELEASE -t XCODE5 -p FatPkg/FatPkg.dsc
build -a X64 -b RELEASE -t XCODE5 -p MdeModulePkg/MdeModulePkg.dsc