<< Solved >> Hackintosh only boots with USB Stick inserted (although it's formatted) / Mojave

[Dave99]

Hello guys, I'm totally new to Hackintosh and just made my way through by following the Installation guide of tonymacx86 for Mojave.

My problem right now:
I can only boot into the clover menu with my "ex-USB Installer Drive" plugged in although I formatted it after I finally got to the OSX homescreen.
When I change the USB Port or pull the USB Stick and let the PC boot from the HDD nothing is happening and a little white _ is in th left upper corner.
The reason I formatted the USB Stick was to transfer Multibeast from another Mac to the Hackintosh afterwards.

What I did:

• I followed each step in the Installation guide
• BIOS seems to be alright
• booted from the created UniBeast/Clover USB Stick and choosed "External", formatted the HDD I wanted the System to get installed on
• installed the first part of the OS on the HDD
• after a reboot I choosed the HFS+ partition in the Clover menu
• the installation canceled almost immediately, restarted and choosed the HDD again, the installation completed (I think typical problems with Hac )
• I could create my account, set up the mac and was on my homescreen, formatted the USB Stick and pulled Multibeast over from another Mac
• choosed recommended settings for this Mainboard and the iMac 14,2 (maybe there is something wrong?) and hit install to the HDD named "Mojave"
• then I wanted to reboot without the stick but got stuck at the liitle white _ in the left upper corner, nothing happend until I plugged in the nearly empty USB Stick again and did a reboot from the stick

In short:
- system won't boot without my evidently formatted stick which only has a Multibeast folder on it and just from this particular USB Port

Maybe I only formatted one partition of the stick and the EFI partition is still "alive" somewhere and necessary to get to clover?
How can I fix this?

Sorry for such a long message, hope everything is explained properly. And sorry for some english expressions, I'm german

Dave

 

[P1LGRIM]

Is the hardware in your profile correct ?

 

[Dave99]

Yes, that is the hardware I am using for this build
Such a quick reply
By the way my stick is a USB 3.0 Stick but by deactivating the USB 3 in the BIOS everything worked out so far

 

[P1LGRIM]

Yes, that is the hardware I am using for this build

Xeon X5650 is not on the CPU support list for the GA X58A UD3R.
Is the GA X58A UD3R UEFI capable ? - Did you create your USB installer in UEFI or Legacy mode ?

 

[Dave99]

I don't know but I'm sure the CPU isn't the problem, it worked fine in Windows as well and is capable of OC and so on with this board. I also don't know if the board is UEFI capable, but I created the USB Installer using Legacy mode.

 

[P1LGRIM]

I created the USB Installer using Legacy mode.

Then you should download the Clover installer and install Clover to your hard drive in Legacy mode.
Then copy the config.plist from your USB to /EFI/CLOVER on your system disk.

Alternatively run MultiBeast and select Legacy Boot Mode :
Make sure that you select the hard drive as the target (not the USB).

 

[Dave99]

Okay. I'm not sure what you mean by the first point. I boot up the way it works right now and install Clover in Legacy mode (I suggest the installation will aks me which mode I wanna use?).

To your second point, I already run Multibeast but I think I never used the Quick start menu. I will try this first, seems a lot easier to me.

I will let you know what happend after this step. Thanks for your fast support!

 

[sriHacPro]

I had an issue like this. My Mojave disk would not appear in boot options, unless the usb installer is plugged in. Then I used multibeast to update config/plist and install a kext. After that it is showing in boot options. no need of usb installer.

 

[Dave99]

Then you should download the Clover installer and install Clover to your hard drive in Legacy mode.
Then copy the config.plist from your USB to /EFI/CLOVER on your system disk.

Alternatively run MultiBeast and select Legacy Boot Mode :
Make sure that you select the hard drive as the target (not the USB).

View attachment 389713

So, I tried your second recommendation.

• I booted with my USB stick plugged in
• started Multibeast which I copied from the stick to the desktop
• I chose Legacy Boot Mode under Quick Start and went to the page "Build" and pressed install to my HDD (not the stick)
• after the installation has finished I shut down the PC and pulled the stick
• then I tried to boot twice, the first attempt I just pressed POWER and let go -> I was stuck as everytime before, blank black screen and a white _ in the left upper corner
• the second time I especially pressed F12 to get into the boot menu and chose the HDD to be sure the PC didn't do anything wrong by chosing the wrong bootup disk for example
• finally I had the exact same issue

One note!
Everytime I boot without my stick there is a quick text in between all the other boot up text. It says "No boot device found" or something like that.
It seems that the PC olny finds the HDD when the stick is in...

The funny thing is that the stick is totally normal, I formatted it after using it as an installer stick. That is also the reason why I can't copy the config/pList (even don't know what that is) to the system because it's gone. Can I get this file by simply creating a new installer stick?

And a question to sriHacPro, what kext file did you use?

 

[cmn699]

So, I tried your second recommendation.

• I booted with my USB stick plugged in
• started Multibeast which I copied from the stick to the desktop
• I chose Legacy Boot Mode under Quick Start and went to the page "Build" and pressed install to my HDD (not the stick)
• after the installation has finished I shut down the PC and pulled the stick
• then I tried to boot twice, the first attempt I just pressed POWER and let go -> I was stuck as everytime before, blank black screen and a white _ in the left upper corner
• the second time I especially pressed F12 to get into the boot menu and chose the HDD to be sure the PC didn't do anything wrong by chosing the wrong bootup disk for example
• finally I had the exact same issue

One note!
Everytime I boot without my stick there is a quick text in between all the other boot up text. It says "No boot device found" or something like that.
It seems that the PC olny finds the HDD when the stick is in...

The funny thing is that the stick is totally normal, I formatted it after using it as an installer stick. That is also the reason why I can't copy the config/pList (even don't know what that is) to the system because it's gone. Can I get this file by simply creating a new installer stick?

And a question to sriHacPro, what kext file did you use?

• Your System Hard Disk /EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI installed by Multibeast on the hard disk's EFI Folder DOES Not have the required efi file for making your Clover boot Manager (CBM) Screen to display your Mojave System Disk.
• Boot your Computer once again with the Same USB installer you had used and as you stated

  [*]after the installation has finished I shut down the PC and pulled the stick

• Once in CBM screen, now you should be able to see your "missing Mojave Disk" and you select it to boot in Verbose mode and reach the Mojave Desktop.
• Unhide EFI of your Mojave System Hard disk and locate its CLOVER folder and zip and attach to your post to the Forum.
  • If you need the steps to 'mount' the hidden EFI of your System Disk, instead of USB installer from the bulleted steps: -> #4