Boot Screen filled with text following High Sierra update

[cdf]

The verbosity is definitely an annoyance, but I think it can be fixed.

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

From my understanding, the problem is not in the firmware; the firmware was updated to load apfs.efi located at /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi, and, as I mentioned in post #9, it is this file, which the hackintosh community have patched, that is causing the problem. I would try to patch it, but I have gone back to HFS+.

 

[federico66]

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.

However it's fast in boot, so I will not loose time to solve two pages of verbose at beginning of my work time, the Mac Pro is very stable and works good, ;-)

 

[jameslmoser]

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.

Yeah, I only see it with a video card that was flashed, not with the Mac Edition OEM card. Based on everything I read the text is not any sort of error or warning. I don't see any sort of performance drop with the drive compared to the same drive with HFS+ on it.

 

[dobrink]

Physically replaced MacBook Pro 15'' Mid 2010 original HDD with a new SSD Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB.

Started the Mac in recovery mode, in the "Disk Utility" formatted the SSD with "APFS" and then clicked "Reinstall Mac OS X" and let the setup download and install the newest OS X. The installation completed after an hour and upon boot a blinking question mark folder shows indicating that the system cannot find a bootable drive.

Got back to the recovery mode to try to fix the problem. Startup Disk was showing an empty window (no bootable drives), then I noticed in the info of the Samsung disk written "bootable: No". I have been playing with the terminal for over 24h hours now trying to make the drive bootable. However getting the error shown on the photo above "Could not load apfs.efi data from /Volumes/...."

After trying everything suggested on the internet, I have nothing else left but call Apple in the morning.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

I have a bootable Samsung 850 EVO SSD on a OWC accelsior PCI SATA III card and a bootable Neptune OWC SSD in an internal SATA II drive bay. They are formatted HFS+. I never had a bootscreen filled with text with High Sierra. I use a non flashed Geforce 980 and a GT 120. I stay away from APFS.

 

[bsbeamer]

View attachment 749495
Physically replaced MacBook Pro 15'' Mid 2010 original HDD with a new SSD Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB.

Started the Mac in recovery mode, in the "Disk Utility" formatted the SSD with "APFS" and then clicked "Reinstall Mac OS X" and let the setup download and install the newest OS X. The installation completed after an hour and upon boot a blinking question mark folder shows indicating that the system cannot find a bootable drive.

Got back to the recovery mode to try to fix the problem. Startup Disk was showing an empty window (no bootable drives), then I noticed in the info of the Samsung disk written "bootable: No". I have been with playing the terminal for over 24h hours now trying to make the drive bootable. However getting the error shown on the photo above "Could not load apfs.efi data from /Volumes/...."

After trying everything suggested on the internet, I have nothing else left but call Apple in the morning.

This is a MacPro forum, but regardless... why not use the original HDD, then CLONE the drive to the 850 EVO (formatted HFS+ NOT APFS) with Carbon Copy Cloner, then replace the HDD with the SSD?

 

[dobrink]

I suppose the issue is identical, no matter that my machine is not MacPro.

Haven't cloned cos I don't want my previous system, just a fresh OS X install (will run faster, won't it?, rather than inheriting all the clutter from a 7-year-old hard drive). Unfortunately, proves impossible as there is obviously some conflict between APFS and the Apple's newest High Sierra. Will have to see what Apple is gonna do about it, but will probably just have me wait till the next patch.

 

[bsbeamer]

Reformat the drive HFS+ within recovery mode, then install macOS.

 

[dobrink]

Reformatted in Disk Utility with Mac OS Extended (Journaled), despite of the fact that I wanted the APFS

High Sierra installed without issues. The disk's "Bootable" parameter is now YES and thus High Sierra boots normally.

The weirdest thing is that now when checking the SSD info in Disk Utility, it shows:

Volume type: APFS Volume
File System APFS (Encrypted)

Contrary to the expected HFS+! So despite that the drive was formatted with Mac OS Extended (Journaled), it not only turned out to be APFS, but APFS (Encrypted), which I had never selected

 

[AidenShaw]

Contrary to the expected HFS+! So despite that the drive was formatted with Mac OS Extended (Journaled), it not only turned out to be APFS, but APFS (Encrypted), which I had never selected

Apple knows what's best for you - don't fight.

 

[dobrink]

I even reinstalled the OS X once more through the wi-fi, this time formatting into the first file system that I tried: "APFS" non-encrypted. It worked flawlessly which makes me think that the first time my old machine (Mid 2010) was missing firmware for the High Sierra. Thus it was failing to boot to the APFS SSD, however after selecting HFS+ and setting up High Sierra, the successful install also updated my Mac's firmware, so now when I retried with APFS it worked

 

[zozomester]

I also get the text for Booting. My system is underneath. Is there a solution to it?
Boot Rom V. : MP51.0084.B00
File system : APFS
Mac os: 10.13.3

 

[Harry322]

I also get the text for Booting. My system is underneath. Is there a solution to it?
Boot Rom V. : MP51.0084.B00
File system : APFS
Mac os: 10.13.3

As others have surmised earlier in this thread, there appears to be an issue with Apple's .EFI when it comes to APFS drives on classic Mac Pros. Possibly involving non-standard GPUs.

As far as we are aware it is purely cosmetic.

The Hackintosh community has developed a fix that involves replacing the standard .EFI with a custom .EFI, but this method might be daunting for most users.

 

[hfg]

I can add mine to the list having the brief text issue:

MacPro 5,1 2012 12core
APFS on boot drive (PCIe Apple blade 1TB)
non-standard GPU GeForce 980Ti (MVC flashed)
drive encryption

So far I just ignore it, and it hasn't caused any problems that I know of.

 

[monkeybagel]

Has anyone noticed that APFS volumes can cause the contents of the volume to be slow to update in Finder? I can install a new application and it will not appear in the Applications folder for minutes after. (This is not Mac Pro-specific).

 

[h9826790]

Has anyone noticed that APFS volumes can cause the contents of the volume to be slow to update in Finder? I can install a new application and it will not appear in the Applications folder for minutes after. (This is not Mac Pro-specific).

Stop and remove google drive (or some other sync software) may help.

 

[Susurs]

Same issue here with 10.13.3. Angelbird PCI-E PX1 and MVC GTX980. No text when using regular HD 5770.
[doublepost=1520936100][/doublepost]It was mentioned somewhere on other forums (not regular macs) that simply replacing a line with hex editor in apfs.efi file fixes this to some degree....Wonder whether this works on cMP as well.

 

[cdf]

It was mentioned somewhere on other forums (not regular macs) that simply replacing a line with hex editor in apfs.efi file fixes this to some degree....Wonder whether this works on cMP as well.

I have mentioned in this thread that modifying apfs.efi could fix the issue. On a real Mac, however, the fix involves more than changing a single line; the driver needs to be reloaded. I believe this is done through the "bless" command. But aggravated by slow boot times and other APFS-related issues, I have opted for HFS+.

 

[Susurs]

I have mentioned in this thread that modifying apfs.efi could fix the issue. On a real Mac, however, the fix involves more than changing a single line; the driver needs to be reloaded. I believe this is done through the "bless" command. But aggravated by slow boot times and other APFS-related issues, I have opted for HFS+.

What is the complete terminal command?

 

[cdf]

What is the complete terminal command?

I'm not sure. Since my disk is HFS+, I can't really try anything (besides, I am away from my cMP for the next couple of weeks). But if you are feeling adventurous, you could try something like this after modifying apfs.efi:

sudo bless --mount "/Volumes/[Insert name of boot disk here]" --setBoot

 

[Susurs]

I'm not sure. Since my disk is HFS+, I can't really try anything (besides, I am away from my cMP for the next couple of weeks). But if you are feeling adventurous, you could try something like this after modifying apfs.efi:

sudo bless --mount "/Volumes/[Insert name of boot disk here]" --setBoot

I have just put together my cMP, and installed 10.13. for test purposes... So I can experiment (Will try it in a few days)..Will reinstall it afterwards anyway...

P.S. Is it the whole disk which needs to be reblessed, or the specific apfs.efi?

 

[cdf]

P.S. Is it the whole disk which needs to be reblessed, or the specific apfs.efi?

The disk. This allows us to use the "setBoot" option to hopefully embed the driver into the container.

 

[lclev]

Just a quick update to my previous post in which I indicated I also had flashing text on the screen during booting. Since that time I have completely wiped my previously APFS formatted 1TB SSD and reformatted it with HFS+.

I noticed a slowdown starting with 10.3.2. My cMP got so slow I though the beachball was becoming a permanent fixture. I do a ton of video and photoshop work. The final straw was trying to create a billboard design and sizing text was unbelievably slow. Hour long videos were taking an hour to encode where previously it took about 10 minutes.

After changing the SSD format back to HFS+, I cloned it using CCC back to my original system content. The change was instant. The speed was back and it was acting like the fast computer it has always been. The lines that flashed on the screen at startup were gone. I have no idea which firmware flash (computer or video card) causes the text on screen issue. As for the gradual slowing of my system, I wonder if it was a problem between the SSD's garbage collection system and APFS. Since the SSD is not an official Apple SSD I believe that caused the SSD to bog down.

My cMP is a 2009 flashed to 2010 with a 1TB Crucial SSD. The video card is a firmware flashed GTX 1080.

Lisa

 

[bsbeamer]

That was the EXACT problem I was running into. Same CCC clone to HFS+ fixed the issue immediately. Noticed it when working with video and large resolution images the most. Fonts were taking an extremely long time to load as well. Tested with AJA system test and speeds were over 100MB/s slower than expected. Would not recommend APFS for non-Apple SSDs.

 

[Susurs]

Sorry for a stupid question: You can not install HS without it converting the drive to APFS automatically, but you can clone it to a HFS+, or persuade to install without converting? Something like this?:

https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/t...ll-for-high-sierra-with-hfs-file-system-help/