ASUS Z97A Catalina Install - main partition gone?

[Chumanix]

Hey everyone,

I recently swapped out my GTX970 for a RX580 so I could get off of High Sierra. When the package arrived, I began the update process. Updating to Mojave went smooth, and I followed the guide for updating to Catalina, but I'm having some issues and can no longer boot into macos.

I ran the installer and rebooted into clover and ran the macos install partition, but it seems to just hang at the apple logo (progress bar moves extremely slow until full and just hangs at full). I've tried moving various kexts around and inspecting the config but I can't figure out what it is. I also applied the SSDTTime aml patch, if that's relevant to this process.

Anyways, after a few tries, my SSD with macos began showing as 10.15.2 in clover, even though I was never actually able to boot into the install part. I tried to boot back into macos, but it stopped working and now all I see is the install partition.

Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
I also attached my EFI folder if anyone would like to poke around
(pictured, clover bootloader shows 2 preboot parts, install part, and recovery but not the actual os)

 

[Chumanix]

Update: Now it shows 2 recovery partitions... weird

Im also able to boot into one of those partitions, where it seems you would reinstall macos but it doesnt let me because there is no internet connection

 

[Chumanix]

The installation USB I made also shuts down midway thru the apple logo when trying to boot the catalina installation off the USB

 

[Chumanix]

Bump. Still unable to boot into Catalina installation media via USB or SSD

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Bump. Still unable to boot into Catalina installation media via USB or SSD

Hi there.

First thing - you are only allowed to "bump" after 24-hrs, one bump per day etc. (It's in the site Rules above).

Right, first thing is to check BIOS and ensure your Serial port is disabled.

Assuming that your USB installer hasn't been overwritten it should still boot your PC even without a destination SSD. That's why BIOS is the place to start.

 

[Chumanix]

Hi there.

First thing - you are only allowed to "bump" after 24-hrs, one bump per day etc. (It's in the site Rules above).

Right, first thing is to check BIOS and ensure your Serial port is disabled.

Assuming that your USB installer hasn't been overwritten it should still boot your PC even without a destination SSD. That's why BIOS is the place to start.

My bad, I forgot about that. I disabled it and am rebooting now.

The install partition now shows as macos install - Data. When trying to boot from it, it shows the apple logo and progress bar but after 75% or so, the screen cuts off into a backlit black screen. It might have something to do with my GPU configuration, but I was under the impression that the AMD cards work out of the box. The SSD Clover partition still shows in BIOS and Disk Utility it still shows, but I cant see it in clover for some reason

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hey everyone,

I recently swapped out my GTX970 for a RX580 so I could get off of High Sierra. When the package arrived, I began the update process. Updating to Mojave went smooth, and I followed the guide for updating to Catalina, but I'm having some issues and can no longer boot into macos.

I ran the installer and rebooted into clover and ran the macos install partition, but it seems to just hang at the apple logo (progress bar moves extremely slow until full and just hangs at full). I've tried moving various kexts around and inspecting the config but I can't figure out what it is. I also applied the SSDTTime aml patch, if that's relevant to this process.

Anyways, after a few tries, my SSD with macos began showing as 10.15.2 in clover, even though I was never actually able to boot into the install part. I tried to boot back into macos, but it stopped working and now all I see is the install partition.

Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
I also attached my EFI folder if anyone would like to poke around
(pictured, clover bootloader shows 2 preboot parts, install part, and recovery but not the actual os)

Okay ... to move on.

Don't know where the Serial Ports are in your BIOS. Look through the motherboard manual or scroll the menus to find it. Peripherals usually.

That EFI folder looks "unusual".

Clearly the install was High Sierra.

There's nothing in your config.plist worth the name. But only 530 characters? Hmmm.

Unnecessary *.efi in the drivers64EFI folder: apfs.efi not needed with ApfsDriverLoader-64.efi. Instead install AppleImageCode-64.efi. apfs.efi is an alternative, not needed with the latter.

Your diskutil output shows a BootCamp partition. It also shows a 24.5MB drive at disk2. Something to do with Flash Player? Maybe correct, but not seen that before. Perhaps it was an *.img file left attached?

So, as I said previously, if you can't even boot USB then check or reset your BIOS and then check the recommended settings in the guide.

 

[Chumanix]

Oh shoot, I attached the EFI that I was using back on High Sierra I think. Here is the one I was using to boot Mojave. This should work for installing Catalina right?

 

[Chumanix]

Oh shoot, I attached the EFI that I was using back on High Sierra I think. Here is the one I was using to boot Mojave. This should work for installing Catalina right?

Alternatively, this is a config I found online recommended for Catalina. Should I just swap this out for the Mojave's config?

Update: I ran the Mojave installer again and am successfully back on Mojave and am able to login. What should I do now?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Oh shoot, I attached the EFI that I was using back on High Sierra I think. Here is the one I was using to boot Mojave. This should work for installing Catalina right?

Okay, that EFI folder is a lot nicer.

It does not look as though your failing to boot is caused by it though.

No, I would not recommend ever using a random config.plist taken from the Internet. To be of any use at all it would have to be from from a PC with exactly the same components - in every detail - as yours.

The icons you show us look fine and the normal advice is to select the "Install macOS ...' one until it disappears, however the worrying point about yours is the apparent lack of a correctly formatted destination drive, if as you say the other icon is the Recovery partition. (This though, may not be there on a fresh install, until completed).

Also strongly recommend you disconnect your Windows drive before trying again. Leaving it in place will just end in tears.