Some examples of different settings between us:
DisableVariableWrite: Unlike you I have no native nvram so I need this on. I can't boot past entering password in FileVault without it either.
ProvideCustomSlide: My testing is still up for debate on this. I started with it on, and when I got the sleep crash, a theory was that since this hides slide=0 from the OS, maybe it was doing something else. I didn't need it, but now that I just fixed sleep a few minutes ago I may enable it, if it does not conflict with me explicitly passing slide=0. While I have not done the memmap method you posted for OC, I have tried it with Clover and nothing actually booted. So far I've only gotten slide=0 to work. Currently it's off but I may turn it back on now if for no other reason than the "This also ensures that slide= argument is never passed to the operating system for security reasons."
SetupVirtualMap: I did not need to enable this to boot and run. I initally started with it on and turned it off. The documentation says it is a quirk for early boot crashes, but I have not had any early boot issues, so I disabled it and have not noticed any side effects so far.
AppleXcpmCfgLock: I unlocked MSR CFG Lock and the documentation says to avoid enabling this setting if possible, and patching CFG Lock allows not enabling it.
DisableIoMapper: I turned this on (in Clover I have dart=0 and drop DMAR table) so that if I leave VT-d enabled I won't have any problems.
Anyway, it looks like I fixed sleep, as I've put my PC to sleep twice and woke without the panic and restart on wake. OC doesn't enable plugin-type=1 on it's own, and my initial SSDT attempt was botched. My latest attempt fixes that. So I have to load an SSDT file to get this working, but it's using native power management now, which seems to fix sleep. I did not load the AGPM kext I made, as it wasn't necessary, but the reading there led me to figure out I didn't have native CPU power management working properly. Without loading the AGPMInjector kext, I haven't noticed any problems and it looked the same as it did in Clover in IORegistryExplorer.
For the boot options, I may just be projecting my experiences with other boot managers, and OC just doesn't behave as I expect, but I would assume that if I enable the boot picker, that should I not choose an option and let the time expire, that it will boot from NVME. But it lists a USB drive for Catalina installer and then my USB SSD bootable backup above my NVME drive. Yes, I can exclude USB from ScanPolicy, but then I'd never be able to boot my bootable backup. I tried RequestBootVarRouting on and off, and I went as far as to setup LegacySchema to accept any variables in case I was excluding something. In your build you don't even use the picker at all and your ScanPolicy filters out the USB devices.
Sounds good. It gives me a smile to my face when I find someone dedicated and eager to know how MacOS is running on their computer. The entire experience just seems more like an art work.
I don't have CFG unlocked, unfortunately. Though I once modified the UEFI fw for it.But I never used it. :/
When it comes to slide calculation. There are actually two ways, depending on Clover version.
Method 1: [(available start value) - 100000] ÷ 200000 in base-16 to base-10.
or
Method 2: [(available start value) - 100000] ÷ 200000 +1 in base-16 to base-10.
When you do this, you're always suppose to keep it in base-16, till you get the final result out of it.
example:
0000000001A11000 is the available start value.
S0 0x1A11000
Method 1: [0x1A11000 - 0x100000] ÷ 0x200000 = 0xC
Convert to decimal from base-16 of 0xC = 12
slide=12
Method 2: 0x1A11000 - 0x100000 + 0x1 = 0xE
Convert to decimal from base-16 of 0xE = 14
slide=14
Regarding the boot option. Yes, I mentioned it in my post with my uploaded EFI, that it won't show the boot picker.
I just find it much convenient to boot to MacOS that way. And if someone uses that OC-EFI, they can gladly help themselves to show the boot picker. The thing is, I am actually fully blind. So I have to memorise things such as functions in the UEFI firmware GUI, and boot options etc. Memorising how many arrow keys it takes to come to a certain place, what number the right boot volume is and so on. That is the reason why I find it convenient to boot instantly without selecting. A lot of people are unaware of blind people using computers, but we do. I use screen readers such as VoiceOver on Apple platform, and JAWS on Windows. I also use Braille display and avail the chance to OCR often.
I digress...
I take backups, but I generally don't have any backups to boot to. I don't have any bootable OS to boot to, via USB. But I completely understand what you mean. I can easily get how inconvenient that might be.
The main focus of OpenCore is to make it as close as Apple MacOS booting experience is. Even when you have windows, it is suggested to have the bootable media installer made from BootCamp the "non-legacy way". Whilst Apple doesn't really use UEFI, but rather EFI with the extensibility being used more, and CSM support for bootcamp from 2006. So there are perks of using OpenCore, with advantages and disadvantages. Boot options being a downside. Though OpenCore is still beta, so it is quite understandable.
www.tonymacx86.com
