Clover keeps making 'UEFI OS' boot entries

[dragonmel]

I to have new issues that I have not had in a long time

My previous install on this DX58so is El Cap from about 5 years ago at least.

native NVRAM wasn't working yet so it was installed UEFI but with rtvariables and scripts
everything worked as it should

fast forward.. I decided to do a fresh install of Mojave ... using clover in the 5000+

now the computer wont boot to Clover unless I hit F10 and go into the one time boot menu

The one time boot menu now has a 'Heading' or grouping label called Mac OS X ... that my EFI shell hard drive is under

I have never installed as Mac OS X
MAC OS X doesn't show up anywhere other than the one time boot menu.. if I select it.. I get the same boot to black cursor freeze as if I let the system boot through

If I F10 and select the EFI SHELL volume that is indented one character in under the Mac OS X header it will boot to clover.. sometimes I get the no entry sign when booting my volume other times it boots

I installed on a APFS formatted drive

using the bless --info --verbose and bless --getboot --verbose commands

I get errors that there are no linked boot items and that bless doesn't match...

additionally .. here is the ONLY place other than the one time boot menu where I find 'Mac OS X'

bless is trying to link it as boot but its not valid

there is no way in intel DX58so UEFI implementation for me to mess with the UEFI boot menu.. and in fact.. I didn't think it even kept one.. but I never had issues with it using clover in the mid 4000 range and not using native NVRAM

now that the new clover recommends using OSXAPTIOFIX3 .. that has given me native nvram on this board

perhaps it has opened the ROM up to allow clover / OS X to make changes in the motherboards non volatile memory that should never be accessed outside a real mac

resetting the board, downgrading and reloading bios .. nothing clears it..

my motherboard is now permanently damaged and wont boot through to any operating system attached

WITH NO DRIVES attached... that Mac OS X heading is still in my one time boot menu..

additionally.. looking in /system/library/coreservices (where boot.efi lives) I now have MANY boot.efi files that end with random boot.efi.XXXXXXXX garbage that I don't have on my real macs..

I am thinking of deleting some of those to see if that helps with the no entry .. as perhaps the boot chain is picking the wrong boot.efi?

anyway.. its jacked up

 

[nicksoph]

You can 'delete UEFI boot entries' - search for that and pick one of the methods that suits. (but dont bother its easier just to prevent them being the first thing to boot)
Never choose to boot from OSX at the bios level - Clover should be on the first boot device and should always run before anything else - it may be on the same physical drive as OSX but it is the drive and not OSX that should normally be selected as the first boot device - normally it is named something like UEFI:MakeAndCodeForDrive
If you cant get that drive to boot;

• check it has an efi partition,
• check your BIOS settings for what boot devices are allowed (sometimes in two places - General description ie, sata before USB and also in Boot devices.

The most frequent cause of the issues you describe is formatting of the drive - the instructions in the main thread miss out a step, for Mojave you must first select to show all devices before you can see the drive you must format but there are other mistakes that sometime occur.

If you post pics of your bios settings that relate to boot and a pic of the settings you choose when formatting, Ill seeif I can spot anything.

 

[dragonmel]

@nicksoph

thanks for weighing in

this DX58so is a strange beast.. and is beset with the most jack balled UEFI boot ...its incomplete

first... 'I' am not trying to boot 'OS X' at the bios level.. I believe that either Clover is.. or that it permitted OS X installer in making permanent writes to my motherboard in places I can't access from a gui, shell, or even in clover

If I F2 into bios setup.. there is only one hard drive listed.. great.. and I have hard drives at the top of the list to boot.. there is no UEFI boot list or boot list maintenance options..

before installing the latest clover using Mac Pro 5,1 (which my hardware is almost identical to real), I had no issues with boot or with the one time boot menu..

the one time boot menu use to look like this

[EFI volume]
bios volume

now I have in the F10 one time boot menu AND ONLY THERE..

Mac OS X
[EFI shell drive]
bios volume

the extra spaces are for effect in reality its indented one character

when I boot this board in UEFI and load clover, by having to F10 and select the [EFI volume] and get to clover
I can't use clover shell

I have an older version of clover/unibeast USB installer, and on this board the installer has to be MBR and booted bios not UEFI or it wont work... and I can get to shell

if I bcfg dump list etc there is no Mac OS X or any other weirdness.. all I see are the 4 entries in clover boot picker.. the preboot, install preboot from preboot, MOJAVE, recovery

if I try and make any changes just for giggles .. it doesn't take.. likely because when booting clover off this usb stick, in bios mode, and without the newest OSXAPTIOFIX3 .. I don't have native nvram so it probably can't see it and likely definitely can't write back to it

the ONLY place where I can find any other mention of 'Mac OS X' is in the bless commands illustrated above.. and the errors that I get in bless..IE nothing is properly 'blessed' i.e. the boot chain is broken before it starts

I don't have the errors on my HP6300SFF hack.. it too is running clover.. but it has better UEFI I am guessing and cleaner UEFI boot implementation but running bless.. it has a boot chain and a blessed volume/folders paths that don't throw mismatch or other errors

diskutil list, diskutil apfs list, EFI shell (from bios boot clover), nowhere can I get any details or delete or work with this Mac OS X think in my boot menu

another potential issue is this.. the disk that I did the install on was sitting around and was previously once used as a win 7 install

I did format it Guid / OS X APFS during install ... but perhaps it left the old windows bios MBR in place? perhaps that is screwing things up?

I notice in the clover boot log that when its scanning devices looking for boot etc.. it says boot unknown legacy or something to that effect...

installed another mojave last night from scratch on a fresh SSD but it too wont boot to clover without going into the one time boot menu.. and it for sure has no MBR on it.. AND the clover log show no such comments when scanning for volumes at boot.. no legacy mentioned.. do I don't think that is it..

I strongly believe that clover and or the installer is making changes to the non volatile areas of my MOBO thinking its a real mac but in areas that I can't access , erase, or modify ..

I found another thread where someone was saying that this DX58 even with windows.. installing in UEFI was risky because if the installer ever failed or the boot was messed up that the UEFI list was not editable and you would have to F10 boot for the rest of your life... which is what I have now.. just it wasn't a windows install that jacked up the UEFI list, it was clover

also can't figure out why my system/library/coreservices would have a dozen boot.efi.xxxxxxx files in there

also.. just for flavor..

I have found articles where people with real macs that were either dual booting or booting other operating systems from external that after some updates they were blocked from booting anything other that OSX.. so I believe on real macs, a firmware / UEFI bios change was pushed where even real macs (as confirmed on my older macbook pro running dosdude mojave) that there is a Mac OS X in the boot chain an it likely will only boot volumes underneath it.. IE OS X only

 

[dragonmel]

at this point it is not something I can access.. and the only reference or variable I can find in in the bless command

if I type sudo bless --getboot --verbose

I get the Mac OS X as part of a boot path error... so something it picking this header up as a boot variable even though clovers boot.log etc shows nothing,

 

[tabarus]

That stuff escalated now to a total failure

No longer booting, screen is contininiously flashing

Loose power cable. Loose monitor cable/connectors. Badly seated graphics card. Hardware fault. definitely not a hardware issue , booting windows works 100% I have separate drives and have unplugged windows while trying to boot from macOS. So we can exclude any interference from that side either

www.tonymacx86.com

So attachiong multiple SSD with OS is a less good idea.
Is that only ASUS related or do other mainboards also have that f*reaking behavior?