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MP 1,1-5,1 Manually Configured OpenCore on the Mac Pro
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I started having today Bluetooth issues in Monterey 12.2. But I’m convinced this is a side effect. If I select Mojave as boot disk from the picker, I get a forbidden circle. Resetting the NVRAM with 3 chimes gets me in Mojave with Apple Bluetooth Magic keyboard and mouse functional.
@tsialex I flushed the BootROM a month ago, could this be something corrupted recently? I flashed again the ROM and the issue persists.
I upgraded to 12.2 few days ago and had no issues with the OS until today. I redid the EFI and I get the same issues, forbidden circle in Mojave or no Bluetooth in Monterey. If I choose Windows from picker, everything works with no issues. Any idea what should I verify?
@tsialex I flushed the BootROM a month ago, could this be something corrupted recently? I flashed again the ROM and the issue persists.
I upgraded to 12.2 few days ago and had no issues with the OS until today. I redid the EFI and I get the same issues, forbidden circle in Mojave or no Bluetooth in Monterey. If I choose Windows from picker, everything works with no issues. Any idea what should I verify?
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Interesting. I also get the Forbidden circle when I try to boot Mojave. Which is kind of a problem, as because the guide didn't highlight in massive letters the absolutely essential need to install SurPlus if not already on the very latest version of Monterey, I can't boot my computer.
In addition, I also can't boot Recovery. This is probably due to the casual recommendation to set AppleBootPolicy to false. Perhaps I'm an idiot for not making sure OC was working before setting this, but again, this could do with a bold warning as it has significant consequences
Luckily, I do have Windows on a separate drive, and can open the macOS EFI partition with that. Unfortunately, due to permissions issues I'm still fighting with, I can't actually move Config.plist to my desktop to edit it... Any suggestions, I'm all ears. I'm using Explorer++ in Admin mode, but Windows still won't cooperate.
Edit - I also reflashed my BootROM beforehand, but I doubt that's got anything to do with it. I've had no issues with Bluetooth - my Apple BT keyboard was having no issues in Big Sur, and BT is still fine for me at the boot picker / in Windows.
In addition, I also can't boot Recovery. This is probably due to the casual recommendation to set AppleBootPolicy to false. Perhaps I'm an idiot for not making sure OC was working before setting this, but again, this could do with a bold warning as it has significant consequences
Luckily, I do have Windows on a separate drive, and can open the macOS EFI partition with that. Unfortunately, due to permissions issues I'm still fighting with, I can't actually move Config.plist to my desktop to edit it... Any suggestions, I'm all ears. I'm using Explorer++ in Admin mode, but Windows still won't cooperate.
Edit - I also reflashed my BootROM beforehand, but I doubt that's got anything to do with it. I've had no issues with Bluetooth - my Apple BT keyboard was having no issues in Big Sur, and BT is still fine for me at the boot picker / in Windows.
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AFAIK, Apple didn't changed the syntax of the BT variables again, at least is not documented in any change logs of the 12.2 betas, but I'll take a look at the Dev forums.
Don't make sense you boot Windows without issue and don't boot Mojave, weird.
Re -reading @TECK's comment, I reset the NVRAM (only held down for 2 chimes though). This allowed me to boot straight to Mojave, where I could then update config.plist. Still not booting, but I'll double check the SurPlus stuff in case I made an error.
Big Sur Recovery is now working though, so I'm in there running disk first aid. All seems fine thankfully.
Edit: Realised that deleting the NVRAM stuff for Mojave in the CP will be why I couldn't boot into it. May be worth mentioning this drawback in the guide.
Big Sur Recovery is now working though, so I'm in there running disk first aid. All seems fine thankfully.
Edit: Realised that deleting the NVRAM stuff for Mojave in the CP will be why I couldn't boot into it. May be worth mentioning this drawback in the guide.
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As you might have surmised already:
- To boot Mojave through OC, you need to keep the no_compat_check boot arg (alternatively, you can use the iMac Pro board ID).
- AppleBootPolicy must be enabled to enter Mojave Recovery.
Good (although this indicates that your ESP is not on the drive with the highest boot priority after an NVRAM reset).
Nothing specific to 12.2. I just clarified that there were settings to add or change for older versions of macOS.
Don't forget that Mojave needs no_compat_check to boot through OC when using the MacPro7,1 board ID.
@cdf Thanks for responding. AppleBootPolicy also seems required for Big Sur Recovery, as before setting it to true I couldn't get into it.
I've added back the NVRAM stuff with no_compat_check but something else is wrong. I don't get the Forbidden circle anymore, but Mojave won't load. It begins to, then the computer reboots into Mojave Recovery.
I've added the SurPlus code and double checked all my other additions to Config.plist, but I still can't boot into Big Sur. It reboots almost immediately on choosing it from the picker (the bar fills up a couple of pixels). Ocvalidate finds no issues. I'm at a bit of a loss.
OC is on my NVMe drive. I also have 0.7.1 on the Windows drive that usually lives in bay 1, to make sure it can't boot without OC. At present, I've removed all drives except for the Mojave HDD in bay 1, and the NVMe drive.
Just out of interest, is 0.7.1 (with SurPlus) OK for OTA upgrading to Monterey 12.2? I could simply restore it, but thought I'd move to the latest version before upgrading. Alternatively, would the default Config.plist + SurPlus be sufficient to at least boot Big Sur?
Additionally, would it be worth relying on the OC on the Windows SATA drive in bay 1? It would certainly save a load of hassle with re-blessing after a BootROM re-flash / NVRAM reset. I could leave OC on the NVMe as well, so if I needed to remove the Windows drive for any reason, the Mac would just default to the NVMe as the only bootable drive in the system. Similarly, if I needed to use Mojave (e.g. to reflash the BootROM), I could just swap it into bay 1. If I needed to be able to examine a non-booting Windows EFI from Mojave or Big Sur, I could just move it to e.g. bay 4. That way, there's no need to mess about with Mojave compatibility in OC.
I guess if OC weren't working correctly, there could be a danger of Windows booting outside of OC. In which case perhaps the OC would be better on a Mac data drive in Bay 1?
I've added back the NVRAM stuff with no_compat_check but something else is wrong. I don't get the Forbidden circle anymore, but Mojave won't load. It begins to, then the computer reboots into Mojave Recovery.
I've added the SurPlus code and double checked all my other additions to Config.plist, but I still can't boot into Big Sur. It reboots almost immediately on choosing it from the picker (the bar fills up a couple of pixels). Ocvalidate finds no issues. I'm at a bit of a loss.
OC is on my NVMe drive. I also have 0.7.1 on the Windows drive that usually lives in bay 1, to make sure it can't boot without OC. At present, I've removed all drives except for the Mojave HDD in bay 1, and the NVMe drive.
Just out of interest, is 0.7.1 (with SurPlus) OK for OTA upgrading to Monterey 12.2? I could simply restore it, but thought I'd move to the latest version before upgrading. Alternatively, would the default Config.plist + SurPlus be sufficient to at least boot Big Sur?
Additionally, would it be worth relying on the OC on the Windows SATA drive in bay 1? It would certainly save a load of hassle with re-blessing after a BootROM re-flash / NVRAM reset. I could leave OC on the NVMe as well, so if I needed to remove the Windows drive for any reason, the Mac would just default to the NVMe as the only bootable drive in the system. Similarly, if I needed to use Mojave (e.g. to reflash the BootROM), I could just swap it into bay 1. If I needed to be able to examine a non-booting Windows EFI from Mojave or Big Sur, I could just move it to e.g. bay 4. That way, there's no need to mess about with Mojave compatibility in OC.
I guess if OC weren't working correctly, there could be a danger of Windows booting outside of OC. In which case perhaps the OC would be better on a Mac data drive in Bay 1?
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Set SecureBootModel to Disabled. You'll want to re-enable it for seamless OTA updates in BigSur and Monterey, though.
This practice is a bit too overzealous. LauncherOption=Full should prevent Windows from staging boot coups. To make sure that Windows cannot ever boot without OC, you can also delete the Boot folder in the Windows EFI after updates. This is cleaner and no more difficult than to replace it with the OC EFI files.
I wouldn't recommend this. A few things have changed since then. You're better off getting an updated 0.7.7 setup up and running.
If the OC on that SATA drive is the one that boots by default after an NVRAM reset, then this tells you that this drive gets boot priority, and (as described in Basic setup) it should be used for your (single) ESP. Just move your updated OC setup there.
But in Monterey 12.2 I should not have any Bluetooth issues, right? I had everything working for days and all of the sudden my Apple Magic Keyboard and Mouse stopped working. Bluetooth shows disabled when I login with a wired keyboard.
Edit: it does not makes sense but after letting the Mac powered down all night, when I started it this morning, Bluetooth works. I also noticed j no one of startup disks were selected.
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This happened several times with me, even with a fully supported 2014 Mac mini (without any OC) and with my early-2013 rMBP running OC 0.7.7 and OCLP 0.4.1. Also happened with BigSur and OCLP 0.4.1 on a mid-2012 MBP, maybe 0.7.7 have some issues here.
When this happens, BT controller disappears and not even SysInfo shows anything.
I'm not aware of 12.2 causing any issues with supported Bluetooth hardware. I'm surprised an NVRAM reset doesn't fix this, though.
Sorry, was updating my post while you were replying. Do you know if Windows has to be in bay 1? If not, I can move a Mac data drive to that bay instead. My only concern with using a Windows disk for OC is that if I have a situation where I’ve messed up an update, like now, there’s a possibility of it booting straight into Windows?
I like to keep the Windows Boot folder, as it seems to be necessary for Parallels to work.
If I switch to booting OC from bay 1, I guess OC compatibility with Mojave isn’t really necessary, since I can just swap in the Mojave drive there if I need to boot it?
Same for me, on previous occasions. Only this time something was not right, any reboot would not fix anything. Leaving the Mac powered down all night fixed the issue.
I should make it clear that this is not happening frequently and when it first happened with me, I thought that my BCM94360 USB data cable disconnected or something, I revised the connection (I messed up around it some days earlier looking for ideas where to get 5V) and didn't thought about it anymore.
Some time later happened with my mid-2012 MBP and BigSur 11.6.3 betas, the first time I noticed that SysInfo wasn't showing any BT information. Only when it happened with my rMBP that my very sleepy spider sense activated and I started to look for clues.
I don't think that is related to the BT NVRAM entries (bluetoothActiveControllerInfo, bluetoothInternalControllerInfo, BluetoothUHEDevices and EFIBluetoothDelay), at least I didn't notice any changes with recent BootROM image dumps. Maybe it's an Apple issue that become more noticeable with 0.7.7?
Same here, Bluetooth not working is very rare. I had the same reaction like you, wire disconnected etc. inside the case, until I did the NVRAM reset and everything worked properly in Mojave.
While I'm fairly sure that is not related to the BT NVRAM entries, like the different syntax when you go back to Mojave or earlier, I've kept SIP disabled and I'll do a dump/save the SysInfo report if ever happens again with my Mac Pro.
You should be able to put it anywhere. However, with Windows being Windows, moving it now might be problematic. I don't know.
That shouldn't be a problem because the Boot folder would actually be the OC one.
But I thought you had another instance of OC installed on the Windows drive, thereby replacing the Boot folder with the OC one...
Exactly. After your initial OC setup, you can keep Mojave on a USB drive and only ever boot it natively.
Probably best to use a USB drive for Mojave and only plug it in when needed. I don't think macOS plays nice with concurrent installations of different versions, especially since APFS.
I'll give it a go. From what I've quickly read, bay 1 is only needed for installation (and possibly not even then).
I'm not sure of the exact details, but I believe there is a folder that is removed post-install for safety (the Boot folder?). I later found I needed to restore it for Parallels to work. This was before I put the OC one on there for extra protection though. If the OC folder substitutes for the Windows one, I'll remove the Windows one (if it's still there).
I've put a Mac HDD in bay 1 now, and transferred my 0.7.1 EFI backup there. I'm currently booted off the NVMe in Big Sur, so that's working. I'll still need to get to the bottom of why 0.7.7's not working before I can upgrade the OS though.
I realise that having OC on the Windows drive is a bit 'belt and braces', but it's useful to have the ability to quickly boot into Windows and work from there, should things go wrong with macOS / the main OC when updating. If necessary, I can just put Windows in bay 1. Also means I'll never accidentally boot up without protection, should I be swapping disks around etc.
I won't need OC on my NVMe now though. Do I just delete the EFI folder there?
Booting Mojave via USB could be useful. How would I achieve this? Pull all the drives and hold down C at boot? I obviously won't have a boot picker without OC.
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The easiest approach is probably to run the full installer from your current Mojave installation. Just select your external drive when installing.
Yes. But first make sure that your current OC is blessed. You can also set LauncherOption=Full. This will ensure that OC is blessed after booting just once.
If it's the only drive, it should boot automatically. You can also boot natively into Mojave by inserting the USB drive while still in an OC-booted installation of macOS, and carrying out the steps in Maintenance > Disabling OpenCore > The long way.
I'll make sure to set LauncherOption=Full when I sort 0.7.7. Why does the drive in bay 1 need blessing? It seems to be booting from there already since the NVRAM reset. So the NVMe drive's EFI shouldn't be affected any more?
What's the speed like booting Mojave off a USB stick? Presumably this needs to be in a built-in USB2 port? Booting into Mojave Recovery (to disable SIP before reflashing) is already painfully slow with a HDD.