Guide: Black boot screen + white Apple logo on "unsupported" Macs (boot.efi hack)

[fenomen]

Hello,
I tried Yosemite on my 13 inch rMBP mid 2014 model and my boot screen and startup manager had black background. The thing is I don't like Yosemite, so I downgraded back to Mavericks using the internet recovery. Of course I erased the disk using the disk utility before installing it. So, I am running Mavericks now, but my problem is that the screen during the startup sound is still black and the startup manager has the black background as well. How is that possible? Can anybody tell me how can I revert to the previous state? I don't want this black colour. Some people say Yosemite automatically updates efi or smc on 2013+ models, but I have talked to some Apple representative today and he said this is not true.

 

[Jumpthrough]

So I attempted to do steps 1-11 in terminal but I typed my password in wrong, three times. Terminal is now no longer responding to these commands, does anyone know how I can fix that? I have shut down terminal and also rebooted, it didn't help.

 

[Sirious]

What difference does it make if the screen is white or black? lol

 

[Jumpthrough]

Worked like a charm

New script using old boot.efi

raw text: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/w0lfschild/DarkBoot/master/bootfix.command
download: https://github.com/w0lfschild/DarkBoot/releases/download/1.0/bootfix.command.zip

Ah hah....used this and it worked perfectly!

 

[w0lf]

What difference does it make if the screen is white or black? lol

None, but it looks nice to have the boot screen match the trim IMO.

 

[BlaqkAudio]

What is the FileVault login screen supposed to look like if you have a black boot screen? For those who don't know, if you have FileVault 2 enabled, you have to log in first to decrypt your hard drive before OS X will finish booting. When I used w0lf's script, my login screen had a blurred version of my wallpaper, but it still had the fonts from the gray screen, so it looked messed up.

 

[CasperCL]

What is the FileVault login screen supposed to look like if you have a black boot screen? For those who don't know, if you have FileVault 2 enabled, you have to log in first to decrypt your hard drive before OS X will finish booting. When I used w0lf's script, my login screen had a blurred version of my wallpaper, but it still had the fonts from the gray screen, so it looked messed up.

Yeah, I got the same problem here with FileVault on Yosemite
I recovered the boot.efi, because of the text at the boot screen is still gray (ugly and difficult to read). Anyone knows how this can be fixed?

 

[uberdown]

this works on 10.10.1; you do have to edit the .command file manually (using nano or possibly vi/vim) to change 10.10 to 10.10.1, but then it runs properly & successfully.

 

[w0lf]

this works on 10.10.1; you do have to edit the .command file manually (using nano or possibly vi/vim) to change 10.10 to 10.10.1, but then it runs properly & successfully.

Yup I've updated the script so it should work on future versions greater than 10.10.x without being changed (not that doing that is particularly advised).

Most up to date script will always be here: https://github.com/w0lfschild/DarkBoot

 

[Manic Harmonic]

Updated the OP. Thanks w0lf for the new working script! Am I correct in assuming that this downloads the DP2 boot.efi? Do you think we will experience any issues in the future from using the old version? I don't know how often Apple typically updates boot.efi, but I would assume every few incremental versions of OS X.

 

[10tacleBoy]

Works like a charm on my 27 inch late 2012 iMac.
Thank you very much!
Even though it's just the boot screen, I simply wanted to have it because it looks so much better now while booting. And it fits to the iPhone now.

 

[bruitmonkey]

It worked like a charm on Yosemite 10.10 but after the 10.10.1 update nothing.
Tried re-enabling this mod step by step again, grey boot screen!

 

[10tacleBoy]

Still working here, even with 10.10.1.
Remember to reboot TWICE until you get the black boot screen.

 

[bruitmonkey]

Still working here, even with 10.10.1.
Remember to reboot TWICE until you get the black boot screen.

Yes, rebooted twice, no difference. Still getting the old boot screen.
EDIT: I was using the outdated manual method, w0lf's DarkBoot script did the trick!

 

[10tacleBoy]

Good.

Btw is there a way to remove/hide the progress bar?
I've tried to simply remove all the progress bar PNG files under System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LoginUIKit.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LoginUICore.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ (I backed them up on the desktop), but that didn't work.

Any idea?

 

[w0lf]

Am I correct in assuming that this downloads the DP2 boot.efi?

Yup.

Do you think we will experience any issues in the future from using the old version?

There is certainly potential that there could be problems that pop up in the future. For the moment though I don't believe there is any glaring problem. It would be ideal to just modify the current boot.efi but I'm not really sure that works anymore.

Yes, rebooted twice, no difference. Still getting the old boot screen.
EDIT: I was using the outdated manual method, w0lf's DarkBoot script did the trick!

Glad it's still working.


Anyone tested my script on 10.10.2?

 

[10tacleBoy]

Anyone tested my script on 10.10.2?

Yes, still working.

 

[Manic Harmonic]

I wonder what they did that makes it not work. I'll try putting it into hopper and see if I can find. @w0lf have you looked into that at all?

Something that I find strange is that macpro5,1 gets the black boot screen. I was sure they would be one of the ones with a white bootscreen.

Is there any way to make a shutdown hook or something for this so we don't have to do it every update?

 

[w0lf]

I wonder what they did that makes it not work. I'll try putting it into hopper and see if I can find. @w0lf have you looked into that at all?

No idea. I don't really know anything about the boot process or what the efi does. Most of it looks like gibberish and of the percent that is mostly human readable only a little bit has changed.

Something that I find strange is that macpro5,1 gets the black boot screen. I was sure they would be one of the ones with a white bootscreen.

I have no clue how they pick devices that get the black screen vs the gray one. I would have figured they'd set it to match the screen bezel color of macs that have a built in screen but that's not the case so I don't really know what is the deciding factor.

Is there any way to make a shutdown hook or something for this so we don't have to do it every update?

Um sure anything's possible but a login item would be smarter. You'd also still have to enter your password every time unless you made it have root privileges.

 

[PurrBall]

I have an Early 2011 MBP and the most up-to-date script is saying that my board ID was already in the boot.efi, but I have never run this before nor do I have a black boot screen.

 

[FirstTimeMacUse]

Not working on MBP dec 2011

Just tried the script and it does not change anything. I have changed the write permissions so the script can do his work. But no luck.

What to do next?

 

[stuckwithme247]

Just tried the script and it does not change anything. I have changed the write permissions so the script can do his work. But no luck.

What to do next?

Try changing the execute permissions? That should be the ONLY thing you have to change. Copy/paste the script to a PLAIN text file. Save the text with the .command extension. Use chmod +x [filename], then open from the GUI.

I can tell you that the script works. Also, use the directions on the website for reference.

 

[FirstTimeMacUse]

I have copied the html file DarkBoot to the teksteditor and saved it as DarkBoot.command. Than i open the terminal and typed: cd ~/Downloads && chmod +x DarkBoot.command.

Than I changed the permissions of the DarkBoot.command from read only to read and write. The file is located on the desktop. However when I double-click on the command file the error is about write permissions. If i copy the command file to the downloads map, the file opens in the terminal with following test.

Last login: Sun Dec 21 09:27:06 on ttys000
MacBook-Pro-van-*********:~ *********$ /Users/*********/Downloads/DarkBoot.command ; exit;
/Users/*********/Downloads/DarkBoot.command: line 1: {rtf1ansiansicpg1252cocoartf1343cocoasubrtf160: command not found
/Users/*********/Downloads/DarkBoot.command: line 2: syntax error near unexpected token `}'
/Users/*********/Downloads/DarkBoot.command: line 2: `{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;}'
logout

[Proces completed]

So the script is done, but with no effect.

 

[stuckwithme247]

I have copied the html file DarkBoot to the teksteditor and saved it as DarkBoot.command.

That's your problem right there. That's not what I said to do, and not what worked for me. Downloading it as an HTML file will probably screw it all up. Use TextEditor to make a PLAIN text file, then copy paste the script.

 

[FirstTimeMacUse]

I have done copied an past into the test file. I still having problems with the rights. The message I keep getting is no rights. Look into archive en info.

There I gave read and write settings. ...

I think there are problems with the user rights..

If i cope the whole test script and past it into the terminal (i try everything) on the end the script is asking for a password.

My macbook does nog have a password...