MP 1,1-5,1 [SOLVED] MacOS drive kills booting.

[freqrider]

I had Mojave, Catalina, BigSur booting from nvme on my 3,1. (Modified bootrom) Windows 10 and Ubuntu booting on 2 sata drive sleds. No problems for many years using Refind/Opencore chainload. (For legacy windows) Ubuntu upgrade rendered the nvme unbootable. I was able to get Refind/OpenCore running again and able to boot Win10 and Ubuntu drives with no issues but when the nvme drive with MacOS’ is present, Refi/OC won’t launch? Previously I was always able to remove drive with OC on it and it would default to Mojave since it is a DosDude1 patched install and does not require OC. But now, anytime the nvme drive is in the machine it won’t boot? Nothing, just black screen and I have left it for a long time! Zapped PRAM several times to no avail? I don’t have a patched Mojave install disk because I can’t boot macOS to create one. I assumed once I got Refind/OpenCore to boot, I’d be able to get into [Question] MacOS but computer is unresponsive with nvme present? I’m wondering if pcie sled/nvme drive are damaged? No way to check because even Ubuntu/Windows won’t boot with it present. What would prevent the computer from booting with nvme drive installed? It’s been a month already without MacOS! Help!!!

 

[Macschrauber]

Do you have a bootscreen gpu?

Unplugg Power for a minute and triple reset nvram, just hold the keys until it chimes 4 times.

it should load the 1st ESP it finds. Guess that should be refind.

btw, check out @Dayo variant RefindPlus.

 

[freqrider]

Do you have a bootscreen gpu?

Unplugg Power for a minute and triple reset nvram, just hold the keys until it chimes 4 times.

it should load the 1st ESP it finds. Guess that should be refind.

btw, check out @Dayo variant RefindPlus.

No bootscreen Unflashed RX580. zapped PRAM many times. Haven’t done SMC reset though. Good Call!

 

[Dayo]

Sounds like the NVMe drive is corrupted and/or has otherwise failed.
The Mac OS boot order tries the NVMe slots first and if it gets stuck there as seems to be the case here, nothing will work. I think this is why you can't get to anything else when the problem drive is connected.

You need to get another Mac OS instance going and then try to fix the drive from that. Alternatively, there you could try to run disk repair from recovery (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898) but not sure whether an unflashed GPU will show the items needed. Worth a try though.

If you do manage to get back up, you have to seriously look into creating/updating a bootable clone at regular intervals.

 

[freqrider]

Sounds like the NVMe drive is corrupted and/or has otherwise failed.
The Mac OS boot order tries the NVMe slots first and if it gets stuck there as seems to be the case here, nothing will work. I think this is why you can't get to anything else when the problem drive is connected.

You need to get another Mac OS instance going and then try to fix the drive from that. Alternatively, there you could try to run disk repair from recovery (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898) but not sure whether an unflashed GPU will show the items needed. Worth a try though.

If you do manage to get back up, you have to seriously look into creating/updating a bootable clone at regular intervals.

Thanks Dayo, I was hoping you’d chime in! That makes perfect sense. I do have a sparseimage of my main Mojave disk thats a few months old so not all is lost, worst case. Catalina, BigSur , I could care less about as not much is there. Shame because I just got Refind+Oc .7.3 with SurPlus dialed on my system! Thanks for maintaining that project so diligently

 

[Macschrauber]

Go for a GT120, everyone should have one in the drawer for emergency.

Also check for @cdf rescue cd with OpenCore. Its a OpenCore installation on a cd what runs by the C key pressed as boot key.

like those old installers from cd or dvd.

 

[freqrider]

Yeah, I have a flashed GPU in storage somewhere. CD rescue disk sounds like a plan too. I tried making a JackLuke Big Sur basesystemfix USB in Linux, Win10 but I couldn’t boot from it? Tried transmac, etcher, unetbootin, the windows one, everything. Was able to get an hfs+ restore from dmg but it has no efi so didn’t boot. I formatted it to gpt and manually added the efi but it formats the usb to one partition upon restore everytime. Beating my head against the wall here!

 

[Dayo]

I just got Refind+Oc .7.3 with SurPlus dialed on my system! Thanks for maintaining that project

Only finally clear that you did not mean "rEFInd" by your references to "Refind". I would have chosen a different name if I had realised beforehand that people would have so much trouble with writing "RefindPlus".

OpenCore installation on a cd

That was a useful idea, although more for someone only running OpenCore.

If correct that the drive is corrupt and/or failed, I suppose both that and a bootscreen GPU are likely to have limited use.

Not totally useless I suppose but fundermental issues with the setup are 1) not having a bootable clone to hand and 2) loading from PCI slot on drive that cannot go into different enclosure and moved to a SATA port.

 

[freqrider]

Only finally clear that you did not mean "rEFInd" by your references to "Refind". I would have chosen a different name if I had realised beforehand that people would have so much trouble with writing "RefindPlus".


That was a useful idea, although more for someone only running OpenCore.

If correct that the drive is corrupt and/or failed, I suppose both that and a bootscreen GPU are likely to have limited use.

Not totally useless I suppose but fundermental issues with the setup are 1) not having a bootable clone to hand and 2) loading from PCI slot on drive that cannot go into different enclosure and moved to a SATA port.

Looking into a USB nVME enclosure. I saw a few for $20.

 

[freqrider]

Only finally clear that you did not mean "rEFInd" by your references to "Refind". I would have chosen a different name if I had realised beforehand that people would have so much trouble with writing "RefindPlus".

Dayo, I added the ‘+’! I was just being lazy!

 

[Dayo]

I added the ‘+’! I was just being lazy!

Confusion had come from earlier instances which appear to have affected reponse to the first post which assumed you meant different for instance...

btw, check out @Dayo variant RefindPlus.

Don't sweat it. It's a common issue along with all kinds of wierd spellings and capitalisation arrangements. Should have chosen something different. Actually went as far as priming the code base for a name change but decided not to trigger this.

 

[freqrider]

Well I had the wild idea that since updating Ubuntu broke it, updating it again to latest version might have interesting results and VOILA! Mac booted up with nvme drive present! I then reinstalled my openCore files on the Ubuntu EFI partition and it booted to RefindPlus/OpenCore as expected. All macOS partitions are now bootable! ( been fixed for a while now, just forgot to report ) I think grub may have been corrupted? Either way all fixed! ?