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[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

Do you know why I keep harping about creating bootable backups on cheap 256GB or 512GB SSDs mounted in even cheaper USB 3.0 external SSD enclosures? I issue this warning every time there is an O/S update. But you're in enough stress already, so I should watch what I say! :)

But let this be a lesson to everyone who has still not decided that they should spend a few dollars and a few minutes of their time to create and periodically update their bootable backup.


Okay, let's try to recover your system in a methodical way. I believe I actually encountered the same problem when I installed 10.14.5 onto a spare SSD and tried to see what would happen by deleting WhateverGreen. The computer would go through the startup sequence, but then the RX580 would terminate its video output, leading to a black screen. Unfortunately, this might have caused some unexpected collateral damage because restoring WhateverGreen did not fix the problem. In fact, I tried various alternatives including a new USB boot loader, but I could simply not overcome the RX580 black screen. The OS itself or a key preferences file might have been corrupted.

Fortunately, this was on a spare SSD so I simply reinstalled macOS 10.14.5 with WhateverGreen (i.e. followed my own guide strictly) and the system booted up perfectly fine.

Did you remove WhateverGreen at any time?
Does your problem sound similar to what I described?

If so, I don't think it makes sense to spend any time trying to identify the root cause. Instead, it would be better to follow a full system recovery procedure instead.

Option 1: Restore from Time Machine
  • You should be able to boot into Recovery. Don't use the USB for this. Boot directly with the Mojave SSD and choose the Recovery option at Clover Boot Menu. You should not get a black screen.
  • When the Recovery system starts, you will have an option to restore from Time Machine.
  • Try that option.
Option 2: Install fresh copy of 10.14.5
  • Install 10.14.5 onto a new or spare SSD. You can easily use a low-cost USB 3.0 external SSD enclosure and a 256GB SSD.
  • Follow all steps of the build guide, but DO NOT LOG INTO iCLOUD at ANY time.
  • When macOS asks you to create a login ID and password, use a different password than the old Mojave SSD.
  • Boot from the new spare SSD and login to your fresh copy of Mojave.
  • Now mount the EFI partition of the old Mojave SSD and copy your config.plist to the EFI partition of the new USB SSD. This will transfer your serial numbers to the new USB SSD.
  • Reboot from the USB SSD.
  • You can log in to iCloud now.
  • Use Migration Assistant to transfer your files and apps to the new USB SSD.
  • Reboot and use the USB SSD for a few days to make sure everything is okay and all your apps are working fine.
    • Yes, for a few days.
  • Fully back up the old Mojave SSD.
  • Once you're convinced that everything from the old Mojave SSD has been transferred, then you can use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the USB SSD to the old Mojave SSD.
  • Then remove the USB SSD and boot directly from the Mojave SSD.
Thank you for the detailed response. I can confirm your description matches mine.

In this install, I took the approach of only installing the kexts that were necessary for the system. I never installed whatevergreen. So, that gives an additional option to recover. I’ll try that out in addition.

Also I see a post right before your where another user had seemingly the same issue. I’ll try his fix in the event the steps you gave me don’t get me recovered.

I do have a bootable local backup, which is on an external NVMe array. It’s theoretically bootable. I say theoretically because I’ve not been able to troubleshoot thunderbolt boot yet. Which, is definitely an option.

I maintain the time machine backup on an external server. On a separate external server, I have a daily bootable backup created with CCC, with the intention of using it as bootable over iSER. When it rains it pours, permissions problem on the time machine. ISCSI/iSER boot is untested, probably take more time to figure out how to boot from iSER.

Now after writing that all out, I could boot the local thunderbolt backup on my real Mac, and clone it to a separate SSD. But, the snag remains the usb bootloader is only in the time machine and ccc snapshots.

At least, as you said, at the very least this brought to light a glaring hole in my backup and recovery process. While all my data is safely stored, replication is only as good as its weakest link. I put this system together with extra redundancy and replication, to avoid a long recovery process. Should be instantaneous recovery and it’s not because of small oversight.

-Curious if anyone has successfully booted macOS over iSER/iSCSI or PXE. I can with my VM’s. That would be pretty awesome. I’ve got 32TG of NVMe block storage, I just don’t know to use it yet.

-CaseySJ -> how do you approach having the local bootable backup directly attached via SATA/NVMe? I wanted to implement this as a tertiary protocol for replication, but every time macOS saw the clone, it would cause issues; freezing, stuttering, etc.

I think it has something to do with detecting a duplicate UUID. My assumption either macOS isncinfused by it, or its an anti-piracy mechanism.

I still keep coming back to being very anti bare metal and more in favor of vm or NvME block storage with iSER boot. My VM’s on the flash array are absurdly fast. R/W speeds to VM’s on the array is over 20GB/s -> Gigabytes per second, not gigabits per second. Not that the read/write speed is needed, but the flexibility and ease, is incredible.
 
Just to give an update, the newly released LG UltraFine Display 4k (24MD4KL) works GREAT with the setup. Apple just started selling this display in the Apple store. Definitely worth it.
...
Thank you. 2019 LG UltraFine 4K has been added to Thunderbolt 3 Experiences.
 
  • Have you tried a newer monitor? Can you borrow a monitor from a friend, from a relative, or from the office? It would be good to see whether the problem is due to the monitor. If it is, it gives us a clear direction for troubleshooting.

I will try to find one...

VideoProc is prioritizing the iGPU probably because its name is alphabetically ahead of the RX 580:
  • Intel HD Graphics...
  • RX 580
But regardless, the iGPU should be recognized as "Intel UHD 630". If you use WhateverGreen, it will be recognized correctly.

I am currently using Sysdef iMac19,1 with Lilu + WEG in EFI/CLOVER/Kexts/Other and /Library/Extensions but, even so, HEVC is not supported in VideoProc
View attachment 408184

If you can remove serial numbers from SMBIOS section of your config.plist and upload it, I'll check your audio configuration.

In my previous post I uploaded the EFI/CLOVER folder (with config.plist) and the current IOreg file

Thanks again for Your help
 
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Has anyone ever managed to get WOL working when it's shut down?
 
Casey, or anyone...
I made a backup of my EFI folder to another drive and on restart my Facetime and Messages just stopped working!
My machine has been working perfectly for a while and I haven't done anything else... Anyone seen this before?
Screenies of kexts, /L/E and config.plist included .
 

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Casey, or anyone...
I made a backup of my EFI folder to another drive and on restart my Facetime and Messages just stopped working!
My machine has been working perfectly for a while and I haven't done anything else... Anyone seen this before?
Screenies of kexts, /L/E and config.plist included .

Looks like you're missing the EmuVariableUefi-64.efi driver. Restore that to driver64UEFI, reboot, and you should be good.
 
Looks like you're missing the EmuVariableUefi-64.efi driver. Restore that to driver64UEFI, reboot, and you should be good.
Yup.
WOW! How the hell did that file get trashed?
It's like my buddies Hackintosh we built for him a few weeks ago. It was working fine and then he rebooted and found it was having all sorts of display issues.I opened the config.plist and found the SMBIOS screen completely empty!
 
Thank you for the detailed response. I can confirm your description matches mine.

In this install, I took the approach of only installing the kexts that were necessary for the system. I never installed whatevergreen. So, that gives an additional option to recover. I’ll try that out in addition.

Also I see a post right before your where another user had seemingly the same issue. I’ll try his fix in the event the steps you gave me don’t get me recovered.

I do have a bootable local backup, which is on an external NvME array. It’s theoretically bootable. I say theoretically because I’ve not been able to troubleshoot thunderbolt boot yet. Which, is definitely an option.

I maintain the time machine backup on an external server. On a separate external server, I have a daily bootable backup created with CCC, with the intention of using it as bootable over iSER. When it rains it pours, permissions problem on the time machine. ISCSI/iSER boot is untested, probably take more time to figure out how to boot from iSER.

Now after writing that all out, I could boot the local thunderbolt backup on my real Mac, and clone it to a separate SSD. But, the snag remains the usb bootloader is only in the time machine and ccc snapshots.
Well, it seems you have a very good backup strategy already. Because you were able to boot the local Thunderbolt backup and clone it to a spare SSD, you should try to boot from a USB bootloader and select the spare SSD at the Clover Boot Menu. If necessary, you can build a new USB bootloader by following the UniBeast instructions in the first part of the installation guide (post 1 of this thread).

...
-CaseySJ -> how do you approach having the local bootable backup directly attached via SATA/NvME? I wanted to implement this as a tertiary protocol for replication, but every time MacOS saw the clone, it would cause issues; freezing, stuttering, etc.
I use the following components:
I clone my Mojave M.2 NVMe SSD to the external 256GD SSD. Because my home folder is on a separate SSD, my Mojave SSD itself is rather small, and it can be backed up very quickly. I also copy the EFI folder from Mojave SSD to the external USB SSD.

MacOS will happily boot right from the USB 3 enclosure. I have never encountered any problems with this approach -- no freezing or stuttering.

...
I still keep coming back to being very anti bare metal and more in favor of vm or NvME block storage with iSER boot. My VM’s on the flash array are absurdly fast. R/W speeds to VM’s on the array is over 20GB/s -> Gigabytes per second, not gigabits per second. Not that the read/write speed is needed, but the flexibility and ease, is incredible.
This is very interesting.
  • Is your NVMe block storage a Thunderbolt 3 device connected over one of the two on-board Thunderbolt 3 ports?
  • And you're getting 20GB/s read/write speeds (160 Gbits per second)? May I ask you to double-check this with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and perhaps post a screenshot?
    • I'm curious because Thunderbolt 3 operates over four PCIe lanes and has a theoretical maximum of 40 gigabits per second (much lower than 160 gigabits per second).
 
Well, it seems you have a very good backup strategy already. Because you were able to boot the local Thunderbolt backup and clone it to a spare SSD, you should try to boot from a USB bootloader and select the spare SSD at the Clover Boot Menu. If necessary, you can build a new USB bootloader by following the UniBeast instructions in the first part of the installation guide (post 1 of this thread).


I use the following components:
I clone my Mojave M.2 NVMe SSD to the external 256GD SSD. Because my home folder is on a separate SSD, my Mojave SSD itself is rather small, and it can be backed up very quickly. I also copy the EFI folder from Mojave SSD to the external USB SSD.

MacOS will happily boot right from the USB 3 enclosure. I have never encountered any problems with this approach -- no freezing or stuttering.


This is very interesting.
  • Is your NVMe block storage a Thunderbolt 3 device connected over one of the two on-board Thunderbolt 3 ports?
  • And you're getting 20GB/s read/write speeds (160 Gbits per second)? May I ask you to double-check this with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and perhaps post a screenshot?
    • I'm curious because Thunderbolt 3 operates over four PCIe lanes and has a theoretical maximum of 40 gigabits per second (much lower than 160 gigabitsper second).
I wish I got throughput over the network of 20GB/S. The 20GB/S R/W speed is local, on the flash server itself. That's the performance of 24 drives in a RAID Array, VM created on the array, disk test run within the VM.

Throughput over the network is pathetic. I've been running Dual 40GbE and trying dual 100GbE, amongst other options. I'm six months into testing solutions to achieve superior network performance.

I have a separate quad NvMe array which is thunderbolt, for local DAS. That has a potentially bootable backup but it doesn't show as an available drive to boot to.

I'm about to start troubleshooting now.
 
Hey Casey,

Enjoying catching up on this thread and reading about new discoveries. Just had two questions:

1) I unlocked the 0xE2 MSR register on my motherboard. Would it be okay to uncheck "PluginType" in Clover Configurator? What does PluginType do in our case?

2) Should we keep the installation of EmuVariableUEFI? Mine is uninstalled and imessage/facetime are working fine. However, I'm getting this odd issue where YouTube videos are unable to play after wake from sleep. Sleep is working fine though besides that.

Doing some research online, people are saying to reset and clear the PRAM/NVRAM, which we can do in terminal on our hacks.

We don't have native NVRAM support on our mobo as far as I'm aware, so maybe best to try keeping EmuVariable installed?
 
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