<< Solved >> Fujitsu Esprimo P400 + High Sierra - Slow Boot

[Luka-x86]

Solution: See post 14 and post 16.
For the latest EFI (also Mojave), see post 20.

--------------------------------------------------

Hi erveryone

I successfully installed macOS High Sierra on my Fujitsu Esprimo P400 a few days ago.
What I am struggling with at the moment is that boot is super slow.
After clover GUI it hangs at that screen for 7-8 Minutes:



Before and after that stage everything runs as fast as expected.

Do you have any idea?
config.plist and EFI-folder are attached.

Thanks a lot, any help is appreciated!

 

[dakishimesan0]

I believe that is the stage in the boot process where memory is initialized. I see that you already have your memory configuration specifically defined in your plist, but it doesn't look like it matches what macOS is reporting in the about screenshot. The reported frequency is 1600 instead of 1333, and it says you have 10 GB of RAM which is really weird. Do you have other ram if you can try? Or try with a single module?

<key>#Memory</key>
<dict>
<key>Channels</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>Modules</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Frequency</key>
<integer>1333</integer>
<key>Part</key>
<string>C0001403</string>
<key>Serial</key>
<string>00001001</string>
<key>Size</key>
<integer>4096</integer>
<key>Slot</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>Type</key>
<string>DDR3</string>
<key>Vendor</key>
<string>Kingston</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>Frequency</key>
<integer>1333</integer>
<key>Part</key>
<string>C0001404</string>
<key>Serial</key>
<string>00001002</string>
<key>Size</key>
<integer>4096</integer>
<key>Slot</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>Type</key>
<string>DDR3</string>
<key>Vendor</key>
<string>Kingston</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>SlotCount</key>
<integer>4</integer>
</dict>

 

[Luka-x86]

Thank you for your answer dakishimesan0!

So this is interesting. First of all, the reading of 10 GB RAM is correct, I actually do have a 8 GB module and a 2 GB module installed (upgraded from 2x 2 GB Modules).
I tried removing one stick, didn't change anything. The frequency of 1600 MHz in about this mac might be because the 8 GB is a 1600 MHz module (of course running at @1333), only the 2 GB one is 1333 (see attached screen shot of System Profiler > memory).

Next thing is that I didn't specify my memory configuration in config at all. I rechecked my config and found a second SMBIOS as well. I do all changes using Clover Configurator (recent version), so I guess CC didn't recognise the original SMBIOS automatically made by clover (?) and added a second one.
I now manually cleaned up using TextEdit (deleted the wrong SMBIOS and memory config, new files attached). Unfortunately that didn't change anything, but at least the system still boots. I also updated to macOS 10.13.6 b17G65.

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Luka-x86]

Next thing is that I didn't specify my memory configuration in config at all. I rechecked my config and found a second SMBIOS as well. I do all changes using Clover Configurator (recent version), so I guess CC didn't recognize the original SMBIOS automatically made by clover (?) and added a second one.

OK I've realized by now that the "first" SMBIOS and the memory config are disabled by a #-prefix. So they shouldn't do anything at all. I updated config once again.

 

[Luka-x86]

Hi

still trying to figure this out, no success so far.
Does anyone of you guys have another idea?
Is there any log-file I should upload?

Thank you!

 

[Taclino]

Hi!
Even if that post is almost 3 year old now i was wondering if you had found a solution to make MacOS boot faster... I have the exam same issue with the same computer (Esprimo P400)... Thank you

 

[Luka-x86]

Hi Taclino

unfortunately I didn't solve the problem yet. It still takes the Machine 8 minutes to boot, which is sad because everything else but this very stage of the boot process is very fast, and it renders macOS pretty much useless, which is why I still use Windows most of the time.

But I also didn't have much time for testing. For example, I didn't reinstall the OS from scratch. But I actually intended to do so this week, and maybe I will be doing some further testing as well.

What boot-mode do you use? I use UEFI-boot-mode, but I read somewhere that Intel 6-series motherboards are recommended to boot Clover using CSM-mode (legacy BIOS emulation).

However, with you having the same issue, I think it's not my weird 10 GB memory configuration that slows down boot. Could you update your profile with your hardware? I'm curious about similarities/differences.

Also, if you should find a solution, I'd love to hear from you how you did it.

Best regards!

 

[Taclino]

Hi,

Thank you for your quick reply!
I updated my profile with my specs. We have the same motherboard but not CPU / GPU... I personally think that this issue comes from the RAM... I have 2GB on slot « 1A »... on internet I found that maybe we had to map the RAM in Config.plist (SMbios), which I did but didn’t fix it... I will keep looking to solve that, cause it is very annoying... as you said the boot is pretty fast except for that step that takes more than 15/20 minutes for me actually (Maybe because I don’t have as much ram as you do ?)

I was personally stuck with End RandomSeed (the computer wouldn’t do anything after that) but I choosed to copy your EFI folder to my USB drive... it works on MacOS Mojave if you want to upgrade !!!

On my side I still have to fix the GPU not working and can you tell me how you did to make the computer able to boot directly from the HDD and not through the USB stick? Couldn’t install clover on my hard drive...


However I would rather keep UEFI booting... but if legacy boot is the only solution then...

There is a lot of people having the same issue... maybe someone found something...

Looking towards you,
Taclino

 

[Luka-x86]

Hi Taclino

I tried to map my RAM as well, but it didn't fix the problem neither. The fact that you have less RAM and (therefore?) your boot takes even longer leads me into believing that it might not be about RAM initialization but that the RAM is used for an actual task (like decompressing or whatever, I don't know). Maybe I'll test my system with only 2 GB of RAM installed to see if less RAM increases boot time for me as well.

At first, I was also stuck at End RandomSeed, but I can't remember what I did about it. Anyway, did you switch the SMBIOS to iMac13,x in order to boot Mojave? As far as I know, iMac12,x is not supported by Mojave anymore as it officially requires a Late 2012 iMac or newer.

If you want to UEFI boot your system you need to copy your/my EFI-folder to the EFI-partition of your HDD. Usually that is enough, but this specific mainboard/UEFI doesn't pick it up automatically for some reason. So I had to follow this POST.

This may become quite annoying when every major macOS/security update replaces the EFI-folder with the stock Apple one. But as you, I'd like to keep UEFI-booting if possible. For testing I also once wanted to try legacy boot, but Clover didn't even get to boot that way, it always ended with black screen (though, when I think about it now, maybe it would have worked if I had waited the 8 minutes. But that would mean it doesn't solve the problem, so…)

You also wrote that there were a lot of people who had the same problem. Can you post some links? Whenever I searched for slow boot issues I only found people who had boot-ups as slow as 1 minute or so, who had clearly different issues.

I probably start testing again on Thursday. But if you have an update or question or anything feel free post…

Best regards
Luka

 

[Taclino]

Hi,

I thin so too. RAM is being used for something but however not used in the right way. Maybe we had to map the ram differently. Like start with slot 2 ? slot 1? I personally started with slot 0 but did not fix anything... However, it might be better to have all of the verbose output during boot written down in some kind of text file. I guess the process doesn't stop after randomseed but before some kind of other process. So if everything was written down we could see what process is taking a while.

I was wondering if the fact that the boot is taking longer for me might also be explained because I have a slowest CPU.

Do you remember changing something about ram that made the boot process "successful"? About CPU? And yes i have change the mac model to "iMac17,1" / core i5 6600 for mojave to be working.

There is a lot of similar problems when you look for "End RandomSeeed hackintosh" on google or on this site.

Thank you for that post. I will try fixing my hackintosh this week end as i don't have access to it during the week.

Hope we'll get this to work