Fixing Region Selection Bootloop on Surface Pro 4 Hackintosh
A bootloop or kernel panic occurring immediately after the Country/Region selection screen in macOS Ventura on a Surface Pro 4 is typically caused by active network checks failing due to AirportItlwm, or power management issues.
How to fix the bootloop:
- Disconnect from Internet: Do not connect to Wi-Fi during the setup assistant. Choose "My computer does not connect to the internet" to bypass online setup steps.
- Check AirportItlwm Version: Ensure the version of AirportItlwm matches your macOS version exactly (Ventura 13.3.1 requires the Ventura-specific build). Alternatively, use
itlwm.kextwith HeliPort. - Format Entire Disk: In Disk Utility, click View → Show All Devices, select the root drive, and erase the whole drive as APFS/GUID to clear conflicting Preboot/VM metadata from previous installations.
- Disable VoodooI2C during Setup: If the panic persists, temporarily disable VoodooI2C.kext and its satellites in
config.plist, use a USB mouse during install, and re-enable it post-setup.
Original Question: "Surface Pro 4 (i7-6650U) — kernel panic bootloop right after region select, Ventura 13.3.1 via OpenCore Body: Hardware: Surface Pro 4, Intel Core i7-6650U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, dual-booting alongside Windows 10. Using the community Surface Pro 4 OpenCore EFI (xmiguel911x/Surface-Pro-4-i7-i3-Op"
Surface Pro 4 (i7-6650U) — kernel panic bootloop right after region select, Ventura 13.3.1 via OpenCore Body: Hardware: Surface Pro 4, Intel Core i7-6650U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, dual-booting alongside Windows 10. Using the community Surface Pro 4 OpenCore EFI (xmiguel911x/Surface-Pro-4-i7-i3-Op
 | Hardware: Surface Pro 4, Intel Core i7-6650U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, dual-booting alongside Windows 10. Using the community Surface Pro 4 OpenCore EFI (xmiguel911x/Surface-Pro-4-i7-i3-Opencore), which lists Big Sur/Monterey/Ventura 13.3.1 as confirmed working. Installer built via the macrecovery.py BaseSystem download method (not createinstallmedia), USB installer with the Surface-specific EFI copied in. Symptom: Install boots fine, reaches macOS Setup Assistant's "Select Your Country or Region" screen. After selecting a region and continuing, the screen goes blank for ~30-40 seconds, then auto-reboots. It briefly shows the OpenCore picker, then reboots again on its own (no input from me), landing back at the region select screen. Repeats indefinitely. What I've tried: Reset NVRAM via OpenCore's built-in tool Confirmed Secure Boot is disabled in Surface UEFI Confirmed boot order is clean (no duplicate entries — Surface's UEFI only shows generic categories like Internal Storage/USB Storage, not individual NVRAM boot entries) Briefly attempted macOS Sequoia 15 with a self-built EFI (different tutorial, OpenCore 1.0.7) — abandoned after hitting separate errors (HfsPlus.efi Access Denied from a Vault mismatch, then "Already started" boot loop), reverting back to the Surface-specific Ventura EFI Current theory: Suspect leftover Preboot/Recovery/VM volumes from the Sequoia attempt are still on the disk, since I only erased the visible "macos" data volume in Disk Utility each time rather than the whole disk/container. About to try a full disk/container-level erase (View → Show All Devices → select the disk itself, not the volume) before reinstalling Ventura fresh. Questions: Has anyone hit this exact "panic shortly after region select" loop on Surface Pro 4 specifically? Is there a known kext (audio/USB/GPU) commonly responsible for crashes at this exact stage of Setup Assistant? Best way to capture the actual panic log/text — verbose boot via Cmd+V isn't registering through this keyboard, is there a more reliable way (e.g., nvram boot-args -v via Terminal) to confirm? Appreciate any pointers — happy to share config.plist or photos of the actual crash text if helpful. [link] [comments] |
Post a Comment