MP 1,1-5,1 At a complete loss 4,1 (flashed) will only boot into Recovery mode

[840quadra]

Well, I somehow jacked my system and my tried and true 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) will now only boot into recovery mode.

TLDR
Same issue with only 1 disk and fresh install of the following
1. Mojave
2. High Sierra

Regardless of what boot disk I select, it will not go into the actual OS, JUST Recovery mode in any instance.

What likely caused this.
1. Dossdude install of Catalina on one of my drives
2. Install of OCLP and TOTALLY MISSED that "Secure Boot Model" Was checked and selected my Catalina drive as opposed to my intended target (Mojave install on my other disk)

After that I was stuck on

OCSB: No suitable signature - Security Violation
OCB: Apple Secure Boot prohibits this boot entry, enforcing!
OCB: LoadImage failed - Security Violation

Since then I have decided to toss out and reload this system with a brand new copy of (at the initial point) Mojave and proceed with open core upgrades only. Sadly, my system will now not boot into anything but recovery from Catalina all the way down to High Sierra.

Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) 12 core 32GB RAM Single disk installed (now)

GUID scheme on only installed drive
- GUID Partition Scheme disk0
- EFI - EFI disk0s1
- Apple_HFS - Untitled disk0s2 < - My install location for High Sierra
- Apple Boot Recovery HD Disk0s3


Is there a way for me to force / bless this system into booting MacOS as opposed to Recovery?

I am out of ideas on how to get this system back to life at this point.

Thanks for any help those can offer!

 

[840quadra]

Murphy's law. I got it sorted so far.

Sometimes it is the combination of things + order that make a difference.

While I did zap NVRAM prior to installing High Sierra, I may have missed some steps after the fact. What I did, and now able to boot into that fresh High Sierra volume for those who may find my issue in search.

1. Boot into Recovery mode (in my case I had ZERO choice)
2. Disable SIP
3. Reboot
4. Boot into Install High Sierra image
5. Let it reboot to finish install and let it auto-reboot
4. Zapped NVRAM 4x
5. System FINALLY booted into my fresh install.

I have installed OS X more times today than I can remember, but this order was able to help me resolve my loop into booting.

Glad ( I think) I don't have to buy a new Logic board. Last night I even took the battery out and let it sit overnight with zero power to no avail. So, FINALLY finding some solution feels great!

 

[h9826790]

For "Legacy" macOS on cMP. When you installed the OS without Secure Boot Model, you should keep this option disbaled when you install OCLP. Otherwise, can't boot into those old OS.

If you want to "fix" it and you want to keep Secure Boot Model for better newer macOS support. You can turn on Secure Boot Model, then run the legacy macOS installer again to "re-install" the OS (just cover on top, all users data should remain).

But with Secure Boot Model enabled, from memory, if you perform NVRAM reset, you will lost the ability to boot into those legacy OS again (even the OS was installed after Secure Boot Model enabled).

 

[840quadra]

For "Legacy" macOS on cMP. When you installed the OS without Secure Boot Model, you should keep this option disbaled when you install OCLP. Otherwise, can't boot into those old OS.

If you want to "fix" it and you want to keep Secure Boot Model for better newer macOS support. You can turn on Secure Boot Model, then run the legacy macOS installer again to "re-install" the OS (just cover on top, all users data should remain).

But with Secure Boot Model enabled, from memory, if you perform NVRAM reset, you will lost the ability to boot into those legacy OS again (even the OS was installed after Secure Boot Model enabled).

Secure Boot was never the intention, I didn't realize that it was enabled until I did a post mortem on the situation.

When I installed and opened OCLP on my other Mac Pro I learned that in my version Secure Boot was enabled by default. I totally skipped looking into that area as I typically don't play with switches in the install.

Regardless, the system was backed up and no critical data was lost. I did a secondary backup of some files before I wiped the disk.

Lesson learned for sure!