mojave to Catalina won't go past Universal NO

[kentval]

Using Clover 5102 with emulated NVRAM, I'm trying to install Catalina. I get the first black screen/white apple thermometer to about 3/4 full and then get the black screen with a "universal NO" mark (circle with line thru it).

Have disconnected my USB devices; rebooted; powered off and so on.

Now I'm wondering if any/all of these items in my EFI kexts/other are a problem:

AppleALC.kext
FakeSMC_ACPISensors.kext
FakeSMC_CPUSensors.kext
FakeSMC_GPUSensors.kext
FakeSMC_LPCSensors.kext
FakeSMC.kext
IntelMausiEthernet.kext
Lilu.kext
USBPorts.kext
WhateverGreen.kext

Does something here jump out as what needs to be removed (and/or replaced) to allow the installation to continue?

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[P1LGRIM]

get the black screen with a "universal NO" mark (circle with line thru it)

Any suggestions?

Search for "prohibitory symbol" or "still waiting for root device".

 

[kentval]

Thanks, Pilgrim. I see that I left out that my issue is NOT with a USB stick. I'm following the instructions that say I can "just install" Catalina over my working install of Mojave, my using the downloaded full Catalina install. "Existing Clover users may do a direct update to macOS Catalina by simply running the Install macOS Catalina app as normal Mac users would. Follow these steps: Update Directly to macOS Catalina."

The seaches seem to all link to people using a Unibeast boot stick.

 

[Feartech]

Thanks, Pilgrim. I see that I left out that my issue is NOT with a USB stick. I'm following the instructions that say I can "just install" Catalina over my working install of Mojave, my using the downloaded full Catalina install. "Existing Clover users may do a direct update to macOS Catalina by simply running the Install macOS Catalina app as normal Mac users would. Follow these steps: Update Directly to macOS Catalina."

The seaches seem to all link to people using a Unibeast boot stick.

boot verbose mode, may give an idea of the issue

 

[kentval]

Thanks, Gents. No Joy. Working on the theme present in most of the references above, I assumed it was a problem finding the drive, or looking for something. Thinking that might be it, and because my boot device is Nvme on the mobo, I cloned to a SSD SATA drive, booted from that, after disabling the Nvme, and ran the installer on the more traditional SATA drive.
Nope.
So I booted with verbose on. When it locked up showing the "prohibitory symbol", the text on the screen was seriously garbled and more than a little difficult to read. I finally concluded that the last line on the screen was "(illegible) waiting for device."

So: I'm still looking for ideas. I'll return to my first question, meanwhile: is there some bare minimum set of kexts that will allow the process to get past this point? I know FakeSMC has to be there, but I'd like to try stripping out all the sensors; the USBPorts.kext, which I built to limit the USB ports; perhaps Lilu and whatevergreen?

(I'm asking rather than trying because I don't want to take out too much and sabotage myself, in case someone here has an opinion. There's nothing urgent about catalina; I have it on my MacBook Pro. I'd just like to see if I can get up to date. It took a zillion tweeks to get Mojave running on this hardware, and I'd rather not have to start from scratch, if at all possible...)

Thanks again to one and all.

 

[donw35]

what files do you have in EFI/CLOVER/drivers/UEFI

 

[kentval]

Thanks for jumping in!

I have:

ApfsDriverLoader.efi
AudioDxe.efi
DataHubDxe.efi
EmuVariableUefi.efi
FSInject.efi
OsxAptioFix2Drv-64.efi
OsxAptioFix3Drv.efi
PartitionDxe-64.efi
PartitionDxe.efi
SMCHelper.efi
VBoxHfs.efi

 

[scottkendall]

Thanks for jumping in!

I have:

ApfsDriverLoader.efi
AudioDxe.efi
DataHubDxe.efi
EmuVariableUefi.efi
FSInject.efi
OsxAptioFix2Drv-64.efi
OsxAptioFix3Drv.efi
PartitionDxe-64.efi
PartitionDxe.efi
SMCHelper.efi
VBoxHfs.efi

If I were you I would copy pasterychefs EFI from his golden build and try that, but having two OSXaptiofix drivers could be part of the issue. The garbled mess you get is likely the panic log.

 

[kentval]

Well, "curiouser and curiouser." I installed Catalina on one of my clone SSDs by hooking it up to my 2018 MacBook Pro. The installation worked, and I was able to boot the MacBook from the new Catalina drive. Excited, I pulled the drive from the enclosure, popped it in my main machine... and... exactly the same thing, at exactly the same place: "prohibitory symbol".

I'm wondering now if it could be an NVRAM issue. My board requires emulated NVRAM and the EmuVariableUefi.efi driver. I'll admit I suspect that the boot drive, when selected from the System Preferences, is not recorded in the NVRAM file. (I could edit the NVRAM file I suppose, if I could figure out what the gaggle of codes mean...)

Whatever it is lies in my EFI folder somewhere, since I now have a disk running Catalina that I know works that far: it will boot my MacBook.

maybe I can get PastryChef to take a look at my setup...

NEW drivers list:
ApfsDriverLoader.efi
EmuVariableUefi.efi
FSInject.efi
HFSPlus.efi
OsxAptioFix2Drv-64.efi
SMCHelper.efi
VBoxHfs.efi

 

[donw35]

For what it's worth, this is the drivers I am using...

ApfsDriverLoader.efi
EmuVariableUefi.efi
FSInject.efi
HFSPlus.efi
OsxAptioFix3Drv.efi
SMCHelper.efi

make sure you are using the latest drivers from Clover 5100 or later

Also in CLOVER/ACPI/patched

SSDT-EC.aml
SSDT-USBX.aml

I would recommend that you dump those sensor kexts for now, best to slim down to the minimum and work your way up

check those kexts version too, make sure you are using the latest

I am only using the folllowing with versions
AppleALC.kext version 1.4.5
Lilu.kext version 1.4.1
RealtekRTL8111.kext version 2.2.2
USBInjectAll.kext version 0.7.5
VirtualSMC.kext version 1.1.0
WhateverGreen.kext version 1.3.6
XHCI-300-series-injector.kext