Early Adopters of the Gigabyte H/Z97N WiFi

Check out this great article by Stork over at TonyMacx86.

Early adopters have it rough! Little or no support until Apple supports the hardware/firmware/chipsets in a product.

The 9-series of motherboards are a PITA to set-up for and install Mavericks. First, the 9-series are not currently supported by Apple so modified drivers/kexts are required. The good news is that tonymacx86 and toleda have been hard at work to make them work for the time being. Second, the HD4600 has a different implementation in the 9-series motherboards, so you will have to use two of toleda's graphics "helpers" after running MultiBeast for Mavericks (version 6.3.1 or greater) to get Mavericks to properly use the on-board graphics.

Normally, I wouldn't put such a detailed installation procedure in a build installation guide, but, instead, referencing the tonymacx86 guide with just a few installation steps to cover unique differences. However, as I mentioned before, Apple does not yet support the Intel 9-series motherboard chipset in a product. So, thus, the detailed installation procedure with the check boxes so you can copy & paste into a document for printing and checking off each step as you accomplish the step so as not to miss a step.

As noted in the thread title, this is the installation procedure I did for an H97N-WIFI motherboard using a i7-4770K from my Z87MX "Zippy" system. This installation procedure will work for a Z97N-WIFI as the two motherboards are very similar. Additionally, any Intel i3/i5/i7 processor, which supports HD4600, will work with either motherboard.


Preparation
 Prepare the UniBeast USB thumb drive in accordance with the tonymacx86 Installation Guide, Steps 1-2;
 Download and put the following zip files on the UniBeast thumb drive:
[INDENT] the latest MultiBeast,
 FileNVRAM-1.1.3 if you want to use iMessage,
 Kext Utility,
 toleda's AppleIntelFramebufferAzul.Kext, and
 toleda's graphics_intel_hd5k-azul-d-90_patch (read hispost for more information);

Note: The graphics_intel_hd5k-azul-d-90_patch is unique to the H/Z97N-WIFI motherboard on-board graphics layout.

 Power down the computer;
 Disconnect all drives except for the drive onto which Mavericks will be installed;
 Connect you monitor to either the DVI or HMDI Back Panel connector; and
 Put the UniBeast USB thumb drive in an USB 2.0 socket on the motherboard Back Panel.

BIOS Set-up
Rather than clutter up this guide, I won't show a lot of BIOS screen snapshots, just the actual BIOS parameters that I changed to start the Installation of Mavericks. Boot into the BIOS by holding down the DELETE key on your keyboard's numeric keypad. (Also see Step 3 in the tonymacx86x 10.9 Mavericks Installation Guide.)

 Update to the latest BIOS version (See How to Update Your Gigabyte Motherboard's BIOS ) and Load the Optimized Defaults (F7);
 M.I.T. > Advanced Memory Settings > X.M.P. > Profile 1 for memory not recognized with the Default setting;
 BIOS Features > Boot Options Priorities > set this to the P0 setting for the UniBeast USB thumb drive
 BIOS Features > VT-d > Disable <--- for non K processors
 Peripherals > Initial Display Output > IGPX <--- make sure on-board graphics is enabled
 Peripherals > Intel Processor Graphics > Enable <--- likewise, make sure this is enabled
 Power Management > Wake on LAN > Disable
 Save & Exit > Save & Exit Setup (and the computer will reboot)

Installation of OS X
 At the Chimera screen, choose the UniBeast Thumb drive USB) to execute and follow the installation procedure in Steps 4; if you get a Kernel Panic:

 Reboot and, at the Chimera screen, press the keyboard's SpaceBar to open the boot flag window at the bottom of the screen;
 Enter "maxmem=4096" (without the quotes), where 4096 is your memory size div by two; and 
 Press the Return key on the keyboard to boot into the Mavericks Desktop.

 After the installation, the computer will reboot;
 At the Chimera screen, use the arrow keyboard key to highlight the Mavericks drive;
 Press the keyboard's SpaceBar to open the boot flag window at the bottom of the screen;
 Enter "-v -x" (without the quotes) and press the Return key on the keyboard to boot into the Mavericks Desktop.

Note: The "-v" will show you the load information and is useful for debugging. The "-x" causes Mavericks to boot into the Safe mode.

 At the Mavericks Desktop, copy the MultiBeast zip file into the /Applications folder and unzip it;
 Before running MultiBeast for Mavericks, open the Security & Privacy Preference Pane in System Preferences, which is located in your Dock, and:

 In the lower left corner, click on the padlock and type in your Admin username & password;

 Click on the General tab if it isn't already highlighted;
 Click on the "Anywhere" radio button under "Allow applications and downloaded from:" and
 Close the System Preferences window.

 Run MultiBeast and selection the following:

 Quick Start > DSDT-Free
 Drivers > Audio > Realtek ALC8xx > ALC892
 Drivers > Disk > Trim Enabler <--- Optional for SSDs (most SSDs will need it)
 Drivers > Network > either or both of the following:

 Atheros > AtherosL1cEthernet <--- Ethernet cable to the Atheros Ethernet port
 Intel > AppleIntelE1000e

 Customize > System Definitions > iMac > iMac14 (",1" for i3/i5 processors and ",2" for i7)
 Build <--- To see your full configuration

 Save <--- Save your MultiBeast configuration file somewhere convenient

Here's my MultiBeast configuration file: Hector Fresh.mb To use it
 Download it and unzip it;
 Run MultiBeast and click on the Load button and select the downloaded .mb file; and

 Click on the Install button in the MultiBeast window bottom right hand corner.

 After the MultiBeast installation is complete, copy the Kext Utility from the UniBeast USB thumb drive to the Desktop and unzip it by double clicking on it;
 Copy the Azul zip file to the Desktop, unzip it and move the zip file to the Trash;
 Drag and drop the AppleIntelFramebufferAzul.kext onto the Kext Utility icon to install the kext;
 copy the graphics_intel_hd5k-azul-d-90_patch.zip file to the Desktop, unzip it and move the zip file to the Trash;
 Double click on the graphics_intel_hd5k-azul-d-90_patch.command and enter your password;
 Reboot into the BIOS.
 Change BIOS Features > Boot Options Priorities > set this to the P0 setting for the Mavericks drive
 F10 to save the BIOS update and reboot.

Done! Enjoy your Gigabyte H/Z97N-WIFI motherboard based system using HD4600 graphics. :thumb up:

What does work that I've tested so far:

• Bluetooth Apple keyboard wakes from sleep but 2nd monitor is a tad slower to "catch up" to display.
• iMessage

What doesn't work that I've tested so far:

• iTunes trailers playing causes system freeze. This is due to the 9-series not being recognized by the iTunes store.

I'll add to the above What Works and What Doesn't Work list as I use the system. But, I wanted to get the information out to you.