ocvalidate

Utility to validate whether a config.plist matches requirements and conventions imposed by OpenCore.

Usage

• Pass one single path to config.plist to verify it.
• Pass --version for current supported OpenCore version.

Technical background

At a glance

• ocvalidate firstly calls OcSerializeLib which performs fundamental checks in terms of syntax and semantics. After that, the following will be checked.
• The error message <OCS: No schema for xxx> complained by OcSerializeLib indicates unknown keys that can be deprecated in new versions of OpenCore. Such keys should be removed in order to avoid undefined behaviours.
• Under active development, newer versions of OpenCore hardly have backward compatibility at this moment. As a result, please first run ocvalidate --version to check which version of OpenCore is supported, and thus please only use the specific version.

Global Rules

• All entries must be set once only. Duplication is strictly prohibited.
• All strings (fields with plist String format) throughout the whole config only accept ASCII printable characters at most. Stricter rules may apply. For instance, some fields only accept specified values, as indicated in Configuration.pdf.
• All the paths relative to OpenCore root must be 128 bytes total including '\0' terminator.
• Most binary patches must have Find, Replace, Mask (if used), and ReplaceMask (if used) identical size set. Also, Find requires Mask (or Replace requires ReplaceMask) to be active (set to non-zero) for corresponding bits.
• MinKernel and MaxKernel entries should follow conventions specified in Configuration.pdf. (TODO: Bring decent checks for this)
• MinKernel cannot be a value that is below macOS 10.4 (Darwin version 8).
• Entries taking file system path only accept 0-9, A-Z, a-z, '_', '-', '.', '/', and '\'.
• Device Paths (e.g. PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1b,0x0)) only accept strings in canonic string format.
• Paths of UEFI Drivers only accept 0-9, A-Z, a-z, '_', '-', '.', and '/'.
• Entries requiring bitwise operations (e.g. ConsoleAttributes, PickerAttributes, or ScanPolicy) only allow known bits stated in Configuration.pdf to be set.
• Entries involving GUID (mainly in Section NVRAM) must have correct format set.

ACPI

Add

• Entry[N]->Path: Only .aml and .bin filename suffix are accepted.

Booter

MmioWhitelist

• Entry[N]->Enabled: When at least one entry is enabled, DevirtualiseMmio in Booter->Quirks should be enabled.

Patch

• Entry[N]->Arch: Only Any, i386, or x86_64 are accepted.
• Entry[N]->Identifier: Only Any, Apple, or a specified bootloader with .efi sufffix, are accepted.

Quirks

• When AllowRelocationBlock is enabled, ProvideCustomSlide should be enabled altogether.
• When EnableSafeModeSlide is enabled, ProvideCustomSlide should be enabled altogether.
• If ProvideMaxSlide is set to a number greater than zero, ProvideCustomSlide should be enabled altogether.
• When DisableVariableWrite, EnableWriteUnprotector, or ProvideCustomSlide is enabled, OpenRuntime.efi should be loaded in UEFI->Drivers.

DeviceProperties

• Requirements here all follow Global Rules.

Kernel

Add

• Entry[N]->Arch: Only Any, i386, or x86_64 are accepted.
• Entry[N]->BundlePath: Filename should have .kext suffix.
• Entry[N]->PlistPath: Filename should have .plist suffix.
• Entry[N]: If Lilu.kext is used, DisableLinkeditJettison should be enabled in Kernel->Quirks.
• For some known kexts, their BundlePath, ExecutablePath, and PlistPath must match against each other. Current list of rules can be found here.
• Plugin kext must be placed after parent kext. For example, plugins of Lilu must be placed after Lilu.kext.

Delete

• Entry[N]->Arch: Only Any, i386, or x86_64 are accepted.
• Entry[N]->Identifier: At least one dot (.) should exist, because any identifier looks like a domain sequence (vendor.product).

Quirks

• CustomSMBIOSGuid requires PlatformInfo->UpdateSMBIOSMode set to Custom.
• SetApfsTrimTimeout cannot be a value that is greater than MAX_UINT32, or less than -1.

Scheme

• KernelArch: Only Auto, i386, i386-user32, or x86_64 are accepted.
• KernelCache: Only Auto, Cacheless, Mkext, or Prelinked are accepted.

Misc

BlessOverride

• Entries cannot be \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi or \System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi since OpenCore knows these paths.

Boot

• HibernateMode: Only None, Auto, RTC, or NVRAM are accepted.
• PickerMode: Only Builtin, External, or Apple are accepted.
• PickerAudioAssist requires AudioSupport in UEFI->Audio to be enabled.
• LauncherOption: Only Disabled, Full, or Short are accepted.
• LauncherPath cannot be empty string.

Security

• AuthRestart: If enabled, VirtualSMC.kext should be present in Kernel->Add.
• DmgLoading: Only Disabled, Signed, or Any are accepted.
• Vault: Only Optional, Basic, or Secure are accepted.
• SecureBootModel: Only Default, Disabled, j137, j680, j132, j174, j140k, j780, j213, j140a, j152f, j160, j230k, j214k, j223, j215, j185, j185f, or x86legacy are accepted.

NVRAM

• Requirements here all follow Global Rules. In addition, the following keys and values are checked:

gAppleBootVariableGuid (7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82)

• nvda_drv must have type Plist Data with the value of 0x30 or 0x31.
• boot-args must be an ASCII string (thus Plist String) without trailing \0.
• bootercfg must be an ASCII string (thus Plist String) without trailing \0.
• csr-active-config must have type Plist Data and have length of 4 bytes.
• StartupMute must have type Plist Data and have length of 1 byte.
• SystemAudioVolume must have type Plist Data and have length of 1 byte.

gAppleVendorVariableGuid (4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14)

• UIScale must have type Plist Data with the value of 0x01 or 0x02.
• FirmwareFeatures must have type Plist Data and have length of 4 bytes.
• ExtendedFirmwareFeatures must have type Plist Data and have length of 8 bytes.
• FirmwareFeaturesMask must have type Plist Data and have length of 4 bytes.
• ExtendedFirmwareFeatures must have type Plist Data and have length of 8 bytes.
• DefaultBackgroundColor must have type Plist Data and have length of 4 bytes. Also, its last byte must be 0x00.

PlatformInfo

• UpdateSMBIOSMode: Only TryOverwrite, Create, Overwrite, or Custom are accepted.

Generic

• SystemProductName: Only real Mac models are accepted.
• SystemMemoryStatus: Only Auto, Upgradable, or Soldered are accepted.
• SystemUUID: Only empty string, OEM or valid UUID are accepted.
• ProcessorType: Only known first byte can be set.

UEFI

APFS

• When EnableJumpstart is enabled, ScanPolicy in Misc->Security should have OC_SCAN_ALLOW_FS_APFS (bit 8) set, together with OC_SCAN_FILE_SYSTEM_LOCK (bit 0) set. Or ScanPolicy should be 0 (failsafe value).

Audio

• When AudioSupport is enabled, AudioDevice cannot be empty and must be a valid path.

Quirks

• When RequestBootVarRouting is enabled, OpenRuntime.efi should be loaded in UEFI->Drivers.

Drivers

• When OpenUsbKbDxe.efi is in use, KeySupport in UEFI->Input should never be enabled altogether.
• When Ps2KeyboardDxe.efi is in use, KeySupport in UEFI->Input should always be enabled altogether.
• OpenUsbKbDxe.efi and Ps2KeyboardDxe.efi should never co-exist.
• When HFS+ filesystem driver or AudioDxe.efi is in use, ConnectDrivers should be enabled altogether.
• When OpenCanopy.efi is in use, PickerMode in Misc->Boot should be set to External.

Input

• KeySupportMode: Only Auto, V1, V2, or AMI are accepted.
• When PointerSupport is enabled, the value of PointerSupportMode should only be ASUS.

Output

• ClearScreenOnModeSwitch, IgnoreTextInGraphics, ReplaceTabWithSpace, and SanitiseClearScreen only apply to System TextRenderer
• Resolution should match NUMBERxNUMBER or NUMBERxNUMBER@NUMBER sequences (unless it is an Empty string or is set to Max).

ReservedMemory

• Type: Only Reserved, LoaderCode, LoaderData, BootServiceCode, BootServiceData, RuntimeCode, RuntimeData, Available, Persistent, UnusableMemory, ACPIReclaimMemory, ACPIMemoryNVS, MemoryMappedIO, MemoryMappedIOPortSpace, or PalCode are accepted.