Boot Screen filled with text following High Sierra update

[Harry322]

Hoping someone can help me figure out the source of this puzzling issue. See this attached image:

Following my update to High Sierra (which included the required firmware update to my 4,1 -> 5,1 tower), my boot screen is filled with verbose text. This occurs prior to the "Apple" logo, at which point the text disappears.

I'm inclined to believe this is somehow a symptom of the firmware update, since it occurs prior to the OS loading. Does anyone know a fix for this?


My specs:
[macOS 10.13.2 - 2009 Mac Pro, upgraded to 5,1 firmware. MVC GTX 1080 Ti using newest nVidia WebDrivers. Booting from 1TB Samsung SM951 PCIe SSD on Lycom DT-120 PCIe adapter. 48 GB RAM]

Let me know if I can provide any additional info.

Thanks in advance!

 

[orph]

re install or restore from backup maybe?

 

[Harry322]

re install or restore from backup maybe?

Clean install from a USB stick via diskmakerx.com

Edit: Ah, I see you were suggesting I re-install. Tried that. As I said, since this occurs BEFORE the OS loads, it happened when I booted from the backup. Also occurs when I boot from the USB installer or startup in recovery mode. Seems like it's from the firmware.

 

[orph]

i have never seen diskmakerx.com before so i dont know?

just use the 10.13 installer from apple or go back to the last working OS, or restore last OS from backup i tend to use CC https://bombich.com/

tends to fix most things, just reinstalling past that some one who know more about osx10.13 or gtx 1080's can help

 

[lclev]

Mine does a flash of text line similar to what you have pictured. This started with one of the updates to High Sierra. It goes by so fast I have never been able to read it and it never pauses.

Your picture text mentions mounting with apfs and something about fusion. Do you have a fusion drive?

Lisa

 

[Harry322]

Mine does a flash of text line similar to what you have pictured. This started with one of the updates to High Sierra. It goes by so fast I have never been able to read it and it never pauses.

Your picture text mentions mounting with apfs and something about fusion. Do you have a fusion drive?

Lisa

Interesting that you suffer from a (much less intrusive) form of this bug.

No fusion drives whatsoever. Just a Samsung SM951 PCIe SSD.

Hoping that I can simply replace a damaged .kext file or delete a problematic directory. But I fear this may require an update to the firmware...

 

[haralds]

Might try to turn off verbose mode in recovery mode.

Press CMD-R to boot.
Open terminal from utilities.

sudo nvram boot-args=

You might have to turn off SIP, if you have that off. Not sure, it is done via boot args.

 

[Executor]

I have the same error message with a Samsung SM951. No idea how to fix it but other than the text during boot everything else seems to work just fine.

 

[cdf]

This is a well known issue, and it seems to happen depending on the combination of monitor and graphics card if one of the drives (not necessarily the startup disk) is APFS formatted. For me, it occurs with my flashed (MacVidCards) GTX 750 Ti and 4K display, but not with my GT 120 (perhaps because of its struggle with displaying a boot screen on such a display). The issue has been addressed on the hackintosh scene (see this link) by patching APFS.efi, an EFI driver found at /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi that gets loaded into the APFS container. Perhaps the same fix can be applied to our machines. In my case, I stayed with HFS+. The reports of slow and verbose boots made APFS seem too unpolished.

Regarding really fast flashes of text, there is another issue, which I don't think has been mentioned here, and that is with the Kingston HyperX predator PCIe SSD, which upon boot flashes some unsightly text regarding SATA pass through.

 

[bsbeamer]

Do not even see firmware available for the SM951 on Samsung's SSD website:
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

I had an issued with APFS and EXTREMELY slow write speeds on a Samsung SATA SSD (EVO 840 or 850) when connected to the 5,1 machine via SATA drive sled. Moving the drive into a PCIe adapter restored speeds. Cloning to an idential model HFS+ formatted drive, placing in SATA slot via drive sled and speeds were back as expected.

Not sure what it was/is, but believe the security fix through 10.13.2 updates were the culprit. Not electing to use APFS for non-Apple drives. Did not choose to format this drive APFS, was updated from HFS+ during 10.13 update/upgrade install.

 

[flehman]

Hoping someone can help me figure out the source of this puzzling issue. See this attached image:
View attachment 747559

Following my update to High Sierra (which included the required firmware update to my 4,1 -> 5,1 tower), my boot screen is filled with verbose text. This occurs prior to the "Apple" logo, at which point the text disappears.

I'm inclined to believe this is somehow a symptom of the firmware update, since it occurs prior to the OS loading. Does anyone know a fix for this?


My specs:
[macOS 10.13.2 - 2009 Mac Pro, upgraded to 5,1 firmware. MVC GTX 1080 Ti using newest nVidia WebDrivers. Booting from 1TB Samsung SM951 PCIe SSD on Lycom DT-120 PCIe adapter. 48 GB RAM]

Let me know if I can provide any additional info.

Thanks in advance!

I have the same issue on a similar system - mine is a MVC-flashed 980, and I just have a 2.5” Samsung SSD in the stock drive bay. Monitor is a Dell p2715q. I have been on High Sierra since October and not observed any issues. Startup proceeds normally other than the flash of text. It is the price I am paying for a “Franken-Mac” until a viable upgrade path presents itself (in my case, a new Mac Pro or maybe a new Mac Mini depending on how eGPU is coming along).

 

[bsbeamer]

What model Samsung SSD? Do you know what firmware it's running?

 

[flehman]

What model Samsung SSD? Do you know what firmware it's running?

850 EVO. Not sure about the firmware and am not at home to check System Info.

 

[Harry322]

Interesting to see that this is a more widespread issue. Thank you to everyone who chimed in with information and suggestions. Sounds like I will have to live with issue for the time being and hope that apple releases a fix for the EFI.

 

[federico66]

so I have the same problem, Mac Pro mid 2012 with macvidcard gtx 980 ti and ssd on a faster pic card, the boot is always in verbose mode, but if I boot pressing option to choose the disk It's not booting in verbose, I tried to install a clean High Sierra 10.13.2 formatting the disk, for a few of boot no verbose then again, I don't like

 

[h9826790]

so I have the same problem, Mac Pro mid 2012 with macvidcard gtx 980 ti and ssd on a faster pic card, the boot is always in verbose mode, but if I boot pressing option to choose the disk It's not booting in verbose, I tried to install a clean High Sierra 10.13.2 formatting the disk, for a few of boot no verbose then again, I don't like

Did you keep HFS+ or convert to APFS? This issue may be APFS related.

 

[ActionableMango]

If it is pre-OS boot and then shows the Apple logo, I don't think this is verbose mode. Verbose mode shows many many more lines and persists during OS boot in order to show progress during OS loading, driver loading, etc. This is something else.

 

[Celeste.ch]

If it is pre-OS boot and then shows the Apple logo, I don't think this is verbose mode. Verbose mode shows many many more lines and persists during OS boot in order to show progress during OS loading, driver loading, etc. This is something else.

I got the same with my 5.1 when enabling FileVault. If i disable FileVault, the text is gone.

 

[bsbeamer]

I got the same with my 5.1 when enabling FileVault. If i disable FileVault, the text is gone.

Are you able to sucessfully boot with FileVault enabled, despite the text?

 

[Celeste.ch]

yes.

 

[splifingate]

On my MP 5,1 '12 I use a Samsung AHCI 512MB m.2 on a pci-e riser as my boot drive (non-FileVault; no-verbose), a 980ti MVP hooked to two Dell P2715Q's, and I have always had/have! the boot-screen text post-HS.

Attached are two screenshots to compare:

HS 10.13.0 (fresh-install)



HS 10.13.3...



I do not see said boot-text on my MBP...

Regards, splifingate

 

[jameslmoser]

I have this as well when I use a Nvidia GTX980 flashed video card, but not with the Mac Edition GTX680. I did some research and it appears to be just the APFS EFI output. The hackintosh community seems to have figured out how to disable it:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/327584-apfsefi-without-verbose-boot/

But I don't want to risk trying to update the firmware on my Mac Pro, if its even possible.

 

[federico66]

Did you keep HFS+ or convert to APFS? This issue may be APFS related.

I have converted in APFS, but the verbose was in HFS+ too, I have converted in APFS when I tried to solve the problem making a clean installation of High Sierra again

 

[jameslmoser]

I have converted in APFS, but the verbose was in HFS+ too, I have converted in APFS when I tried to solve the problem making a clean installation of High Sierra again

Interesting... If I remove my APFS disk, the output goes away.

 

[bsbeamer]

Interesting... If I remove my APFS disk, the output goes away.

There are issues with APFS on MacPro5,1 and SSDs connected directly via SATA in 10.13. I was getting extremely reduced write speeds after one of the 10.13.2 updates. Cloning to an HFS+ drive and removing APFS from the system solved those issues. Never experienced the text on screen, however.