MP 1,1-5,1 5,1 won't boot with Mojave; works fine in High Sierra

[bwinter88]

I have a very odd problem with a 5,1 machine I've updated to High Sierra, where everything works fine. I successfully updated firmware to 144.0.0.0.0 in anticpation of upgrading to Mojave.

But with Mojave installed, the computer gets about halfway through startup and reboots. I get the "Your computer restarted because of a problem, press any key to continue or wait" warning on a grey screen, after which the same thing happens. A few times, after flashing NVRAM I was able to boot to desktop, but I haven't been able to replicate that since. It just gets stuck on a boot loop.

I've reinstalled Mojave multiple times but the results are the same. It works fine on High Sierra; stuck in a boot loop on Mojave. What could be causing this?

I was able to enable Verbose boot mode and watch the startup process; the last thing to load before the restart is @kec.corecrypto 1.0, but I don't know how helpful that is.

I have a Radeon RX 580 flashed with mac EFI by MacVidCards installed, and a Broadcom 43xx Airport card upgrade, but everything else is stock from the factory.

 

[tsialex]

There isn't enough info to diagnose what is causing this, please save a SystemReport and upload it here.
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Did you tried removing everything but the GPU and your boot disk? Please remove the upgraded AirPort too.

 

[Slash-2CPU]

Are you trying to bout from RAID? Mojave can’t boot from RAID.

 

[startergo]

Try different video card for testing purposes.

 

[bwinter88]

Are you trying to bout from RAID? Mojave can’t boot from RAID.

No, booting from SSD on a regular backplane SATA port. Tried different ports and drives.
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There isn't enough info to diagnose what is causing this, please save a SystemReport and upload it here.
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Did you tried removing everything but the GPU and your boot disk? Please remove the upgraded AirPort too.

Yes, everything was removed but the boot disk. I’ll try removing the airport.

 

[startergo]

No, booting from SSD on a regular backplane SATA port. Tried different ports and drives.
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Yes, everything was removed but the boot disk. I’ll try removing the airport.

Try booting with option key pressed and selecting Mojave.

 

[bwinter88]

Try booting with option key pressed and selecting Mojave.

Interesting, what does this do differently? It has no problem finding the boot disk. It just doesn't complete boot.

 

[startergo]

Interesting, what does this do differently? It has no problem finding the boot disk. It just doesn't complete boot.

It is the EFI RX580 which performs differently on an APFS drives. At least my MVC RX480. That is why I wanted you to try this and if it does not boot try another video card for testing.

 

[startergo]

You don't try to use file vault with Mojave right?

 

[bwinter88]

You don't try to use file vault with Mojave right?

Correct. I always turn it off.

It is the EFI RX580 which performs differently on an APFS drives. At least my MVC RX480. That is why I wanted you to try this and if it does not boot try another video card for testing.

Unfortunately I don't have any other graphics cards to test with. And I don't plan on throwing any more money at this computer so if the RX580 doesn't work with Mojave then I won't be upgrading. How does it perform differently exactly?

MacVidCards clearly states compatibility with Mojave, and even Catalina, so there must be something else going on if it's the graphics card.

Apple EFI AMD RX580 4GB and 8GB Sapphire Pulse for Mac Pro 4,1/5,1

The #1 place for Mac Pro graphics cards. GPU upgrades from AMD and Nvidia.

www.macvidcards.com

 

[startergo]

Correct. I always turn it off.

Unfortunately I don't have any other graphics cards to test with. And I don't plan on throwing any more money at this computer so if the RX580 doesn't work with Mojave then I won't be upgrading.

But MacVidCards CLEARLY states compatibility with Mojave, and even Catalina, so what is going on?

Apple EFI AMD RX580 4GB and 8GB Sapphire Pulse for Mac Pro 4,1/5,1

The #1 place for Mac Pro graphics cards. GPU upgrades from AMD and Nvidia.

www.macvidcards.com

Have you tried booting through the boot picker menu?

 

[Macsonic]

MacVidCards clearly states compatibility with Mojave, and even Catalina, so there must be something else going on if it's the graphics card.

Apple EFI AMD RX580 4GB and 8GB Sapphire Pulse for Mac Pro 4,1/5,1

The #1 place for Mac Pro graphics cards. GPU upgrades from AMD and Nvidia.

www.macvidcards.com

Your MacVidCards AMD RX-580 likely works fine since the GPU works Okay in High Sierra. You may want to try using a different thumb drive installer and try installing Mojave in a different SSD or HD. Just a routine troubleshooting. A client of mine had problems installing Mojave and later found out the bootable USB thumb drive was defective. The problem was resolved when he got another USB thumb drive. I understand your case is different but something you could look into.

 

[bwinter88]

Your MacVidCards AMD RX-580 likely works fine since the GPU works Okay in High Sierra. You may want to try using a different thumb drive installer and try installing Mojave in a different SSD or HD. Just a routine troubleshooting. A client of mine had problems installing Mojave and later found out the bootable USB thumb drive was defective. The problem was resolved when he got another USB thumb drive. I understand your case is different but something you could look into.

I've tried two different installers and two different drives, so that can't be the issue. My Mojave install is downloaded straight from Apple while running High Sierra.

The real weird thing is, this was not a problem at the beginning. It booted up to the desktop fine with Mojave, when I first installed it. But now it refuses and just gets stuck in a boot loop. So it can't be a graphics card issue, as it worked fine in Mojave before.
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Have you tried booting through the boot picker menu?

I'm just keeping it at High Sierra now. I'm exhausted from the reinstalling and troubleshooting. But, can you tell me what's significant about it booting through the boot picker menu? What does it indicate? What should I do to fix it if that were to work?

 

[startergo]

I'm just keeping it at High Sierra now. I'm exhausted from the reinstalling and troubleshooting. But, can you tell me what's significant about it booting through the boot picker menu? What does it indicate? What should I do to fix it if that were to work?

I explained it here:

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

Very strange with my EFI video card. If I boot automatically it only recognizes HFS+ drives and Windows defined in Entries: If I reset NVRAM first and only first boot it recognizes APFS drives as well: Every subsequent reboot, only WIN Entries and HFS+ drives/paths are recognized. I even tried...

forums.macrumors.com

Sounds familiar to your case, right? That is why I wanted you to do the test. If it turns out to be the MVC vbios we can contact him. I found a workaround. If I boot with refind and after a timeout of 5-10 seconds it chain loads to my main boot loader OpenCore and then APFS paths are initialized. The strange thing as you may noticed is that it works fine the first time after NVRAM reset.

 

[bwinter88]

I explained it here:

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

Very strange with my EFI video card. If I boot automatically it only recognizes HFS+ drives and Windows defined in Entries: If I reset NVRAM first and only first boot it recognizes APFS drives as well: Every subsequent reboot, only WIN Entries and HFS+ drives/paths are recognized. I even tried...

forums.macrumors.com

Sounds familiar to your case, right? That is why I wanted you to do the test. If it turns out to be the MVC vbios we can contact him. I found a workaround. If I boot with refind and after a timeout of 5-10 seconds it chain loads to my main boot loader OpenCore and then APFS paths are initialized. The strange thing as you may noticed is that it works fine the first time after NVRAM reset.

Hmm. Well the PRAM reset does sound similar. But my machine has no problem recognizing the boot drive. For me the problem is a reboot halfway through booting. Additionally, way back when I first installed Mojave, it was booting to the desktop no problem, every time. This has only cropped up recently.

 

[Macsonic]

I've tried two different installers and two different drives, so that can't be the issue. My Mojave install is downloaded straight from Apple while running High Sierra.

The real weird thing is, this was not a problem at the beginning. It booted up to the desktop fine with Mojave, when I first installed it. But now it refuses and just gets stuck in a boot loop. So it can't be a graphics card issue, as it worked fine in Mojave before.

I guess for now you can just stick with High Sierra. It’s still a good OS as I jump alternately between High Sierra and Mojave. Maybe in the future you would discover a solution to the Mojave problem, you never know. By habit, I keep a clone master copy of the working boot drives for Mojave and High Sierra. In case unexpected problems occur, the easy and quick fix is to re-clone the master copy that works. All my work files are in separate HDs.

 

[sedaray]

When I installed a metal GPU and tried to upgrade, I too did all those handstands.
Finally one day it offered me a firmware update (required for metal) and that was the solution.
I have no idea how to force the firmware update, however, but it sounds like that's what you're looking for.