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OCAT Tips & Tricks

About

This section highlights useful additional features of OpenCore Auxiliary Tools (OCAT). If you only need instructions for updating OpenCore, drivers, and kexts, follow this guide instead.

Switching between Release and Debug builds

To switch from the RELEASE to the DEBUG version of OpenCore to produce a proper OC bootlog, do the following:

  • In OCAT, select Edit → OpenCore DEBUG from the menu bar (indicated by a checkmark)
  • Navigate to Misc → Debug
    • Enable AppleDebug
    • Enable ApplePanic
    • Set Misc/Debug/Target to 67
  • Click Upgrade OpenCore and kexts
  • In the next dialog:
    • Select Get OpenCore
    • Once the files are downloaded, click Start Sync
  • Save config.plist and reboot

To revert back to the RELEASE build:

  • Select Edit → OpenCore DEBUG again to disable it
  • Mount your ESP and open config.plist
  • Navigate to Misc → Debug
    • Disable AppleDebug
    • Disable ApplePanic
    • Set Misc/Debug/Target to 0
  • Click Upgrade OpenCore and kexts
  • Update OpenCore files and drivers
  • Save and reboot

Adding kext URLs to OCAT

OCAT does not contain all the links to kext repos. You can tell if a link to a repo is missing by a grey box in front of a kext. In order to fetch updates for these kexts, you have to add links to the corresponding repos to KextURL.txt. You can do this manually from within the app, but it's a bit tedious. So we will edit the text file directly.

Instructions

  1. Open Finder
  2. Press CMD+Shift+G
  3. Paste in this path and hit Enter: 
    ~/.config/OCAuxiliaryTools/
  4. Open KextUrl.txt with TextEdit
  5. Add the following entries (examples): 
    AdvancedMap.kext | https://github.com/narcyzzo/AdvancedMap
AMFIPass.kext | https://github.com/bluppus20/AMFIPass
IntelMausiEthernet.kext | https://github.com/Mieze/IntelMausiEthernet
  6. Save the file

The next time you check for kext updates in OCAT, the color of the squares in front of kexts you added will no longer be grey (not found) but either red (outdated) or green (up to date). Kexts from the OCLP repo can't be fetched automatically, so they will remain highlighted in grey!

Refreshing the OCAT Database

If you want to reset OCATs preferences and its Database (after an update for example), do the folling:

  • In Finder, navigate to your Home folder.
  • Press CMD+. to show hidden files
  • Delete the .ocat folder
  • Press CMD+. to hide the folders and files again.
  • Next, run OCAT
  • Fix Database errors downloading the lasted version of OpenCore from the Sync Window:
    • In Release mode: select "Latest Version" from the dropdown menu and click on "Get OpenCore"
    • In Dev Mode: select either "Get OpenCore" (or import a zip file of the latest build)
  • Once the download has finished, the latest files will be integrated into the database so you can continue using OCAT as usual.

Shortcomings of OCAT

As useful as OCAT is, it has some shortcomings. The ones that come to mind are database issues, downloading drivers from OcBinaryData and copying the hidden files .contentFlavour and .contentVisibility which were added in OC 0.8.8 into the EFI/OC/Boot folder.

Fixing "Development/Debug version database does not exist" error

Err01

This error occurs when opening a config.plist which was created for a different/newer version of OpenCore which is not present in the Database yet. Do the following to get rid of the error:

  1. Click on "Edit" and select "Upgrade OpenCore and Kext" (or click on the symbol).
  2. Download the lasted version of OpenCore. Depending on the Mode OCAT is currently running in, the process differs.
    • In Release mode: select "Latest Version" from the dropdown menu and click on "Get OpenCore"
    • In Dev Mode: select either "Get OpenCore" (or import a zip file of the latest build)
  3. It will download and integrate the latest version of OpenCore into the database
  4. Close the Syn Window. The version number displayed in the top left of the main window should have outdated as well:
    Err04

Integrating Drivers from OcBinaryData

OCAT is currently not fetching drivers from Acidanthers's OcBinaryData repo automatically, so you have add them to the database manually. Usually, this only concerns the HFS+ driver, so it's not really a big deal:

  • Go to the OcBinaryData repo
  • Click on "Code", select "Download ZIP" and unpack it
  • Place the Drivers here (Press CMD+. to show hidden files and folders):
    • .ocat/Database/EFI/OC/Drivers/ (for the "Release" version)
    • .ocat/Database/EFI/OC/Drivers/ (for the "Dev" version)
  • Press CMD+. to hide the folders and files again

Adding .contentFlavour and .contentVisibility

  • Mount your EFI
  • Download OpenCore Package
  • Extract it
  • Navigate to Downloads/OpenCore-0.9.X-RELEASE/X64/EFI/BOOT
  • Press CMD+. to show hidden files
  • Copy .contentFlavour and .contentVisibility to EFI/OC/Boot
  • Press CMD+. to hide the folders and files again

Note

Refer to OpenCore's Documentation.pdf to find out how to configure these files.