Can't boot past the Apple logo after updating Clover

[Edhawk]

Posting a copy of your CLOVER EFI would be helpful, as we can then see what is causing your system to fail to boot.

Just make sure you confirm the version of Clover you used to created the EFI Partition.

Also make sure you remove your Serial Number from the config.plist, as you don't want to share this with any one else.

 

[SDB49]

Just read this post so I'm late to the party.

@SDB49
Do you have a copy of your Clover EFI on a spare USB pen drive?
If not, can you write an EFI Folder to a HFS+ formatted USB pen drive?
I expect the answer to the last question is yes, so I have created a CLOVER EFI for you, using Clover_r5119, see the attached folder below.

It has been set for a standard Haswell system, using the IGPU (HD4600) with the aim of running Mojave.

It has been set with a iMac14,2 SMBIOS, but this is just for temporary usage, so you to boot the system. You can replace the iMac14,2 SMBIOS with your current SMBIOS data once you are able to boot back in to your system.

I would recommend you do the following:

1. Copy the EFI Folder to the EFI Partition on a spare USB pen drive.
2. Boot from the UEFI partition on the USB Pen Drive, use the F12 key to bring up the boot menu, or set your bios to boot from a USB pen drive as the boot priority.
3. When you arrive on the Clover Boot screen, press the F11 key, to clear NVRAM.
4. If the system doesn't reboot automatically, you need to reboot the system, so the old entries are removed from Nvram.
5. Reboot the system from the pen drive again, this time select your macOS Mojave drive.

Hopefully this will get you booting back in to the system, where you can fix any issues you have caused.

Always helps when you remember to attach the EFI before you post your reply!

Here is the backup OLD EFI I saved before doing anything in Clover yesterday. I've tried to put tis on my OSX drive but still can't boot from it. Maybe I'm putting it in the wring directory? Also attaching a couple screenshots of my boot options, which seems to be overloaded with UEFI and UFI options, even on drives that are no longer on the system. I copied your EFI to a thumbdrive, but I can't boot from it either for some reason. I can't believe all this happened from upgrading Clover???

 

[SDB49]

When you format a drive (any drive) as HFS+ the system automatically creates a single user partition and a hidden EFI Partition. The drive can be formatted with more than a single user partition but it always only has one EFI Partition, which is always hidden by default in macOS.

You need to mount the hidden EFI Partition on the drive (USB, HDD, SSD, NMVe/m.2) in order to be able to copy your EFI Folder to the EFI partition. This can be done with a Terminal command, Hackintool or another app, plus a bunch of Python scripts. How you mount the EFI partition is not really important, what is important is that you mount the correct EFI Partition as you will need to select it in the bios or bios boot menu.

Yes the EFI Partition on a HFS+ or APFS drive is also called the UEFI partition, usually when viewed in the Bios, i.e. when selecting the boot partition from the Bios boot Menu.

Hmmm, I don't know why I can't boot from it then? I can't attach my screenshots either. I took them with my iPhone, and this site doesn't seem to like jpeg or png files.

 

[SDB49]

Posting a copy of your CLOVER EFI would be helpful, as we can then see what is causing your system to fail to boot.

Just make sure you confirm the version of Clover you used to created the EFI Partition.

Also make sure you remove your Serial Number from the config.plist, as you don't want to share this with any one else.

I believe it was Clover_v2.5k_r5102-UEFI. It's the only Clover I have on the drive besides Clover Configurator, but I got that yesterday.
Unfortunately I made this Mojave drive about 4 years ago and for some stupid reason, didn't make a clone of the drive with Carbon Copy Cloner etc. It's also the last time I had to dig into any of this stuff, so forgive me
Hopefully the EFI I posted is helpful?

 

[SDB49]

OK uploading EFI again with SN removed.

 

[SDB49]

I don't know what's happening, but I can't boot from the thumbdrive after copying your EFI folder. I get a message saying to reboot and choose a drive, which brings me back to the Clover screen and it's over at that point, as I can'y boot from the 2 options, APF$ and RECOVERY. Choosing either of those takes me to the Apple logo and stops.
Is there anyway to get on a call or email? I don't know what else to do here? I've been at this since yesterday morning and am not making any progress.
No matter what I do, when I boot the machine from any drive entry, I'm greeted with 2 drive options at the Clover screen: APF$ and RECOVERY and a partial blurry icon which says "Start UEFI Shell 64"?
Selecting either APF$ or RECOVERY just takes me to the Apple logo and stops

 

[trs96]

Are you pressing the F12 key at boot and then selecting the USB drive (UEFI) from that menu ?

 

[SDB49]

Are you pressing the F12 key at boot and then selecting the USB drive (UEFI) from that menu ?

Yes, but it keeps taking me to the same Clover boot screen, where I have the 2 choices APF$ and RECOVERY. I can't seem to boot from the thumbdrive, and it doesn't appear at the Clover screen (maybe it's not supposed to?)
I really wish I could post my screenshots of the boot list, There are so many entries, like Clover start boot.efi at Yosemite??? I don't even have Yosemite on this machine.Also there appear to be boot choices such as UEFI: WDC XXXXX, which is my audio drive??

 

[trs96]

There are so many entries, and I can't remove them, making this whole thing even worse

Clover had some problems like this back when OC wasn't an option yet.

have the 2 choices APF$ and RECOVERY.

Are you using Edhawk's EFI folder on the USB's EFI partition ? If so, the Mojave hard drive icon should be appearing there at the menu. You did mount the EFI partition of the USB first and then dragged the EFI folder there ?

 

[SDB49]

Clover had some problems like this back when OC wasn't an option yet.

Are you using Edhawk's EFI folder on the USB's EFI partition ? If so, the Mojave hard drive icon should be appearing there at the menu. You did mount the EFI partition of the USB first and then dragged the EFI folder there ?

No, unfortunately, I can't even mount his EFI that he attached for me. I copied it to a newly formatted thumbdrive, but every time I choose it from the F12 menu, I'm taken back to the same Clover screen with the same 2 drive options, and neither of those are working.

Maybe I didn't make the thumbdrive correctly, but it seems pretty straight ahead. On my Macbook Pro, I open Disk Utility, format the drive os OSX Journaled and copy his EFI folder to it, right? I don't know what you mean by "creating an EFI partition" and then copying his EFI folder to it. Do I need to make that partitio with Clover?
Maybe that's the problem? Do I need to do anything else like GUID Partition, Master Boot Record, etc. I've never seen any computer act so broken before, lol