<< Solved >> Mojave Install Looping Endlessly Back To Clover Boot Screen

[mg21202]

MOBO: Gigabyte Z370N WiFi
CPU: i5-8600K
GPU: Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 580 4GB
SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III

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I am following this guide this TonyMac guide.

My installation is stuck. It keeps looping back to the clover boot page, giving me two options:

1. Boot macOS Install from Install macOS Mojave (This is my USB)
2. Boot macOS Install from Mojave (This is my SSD)

Here's what happens with option 1, Boot macOS Install from Install macOS Mojave:

And then at some point during the install, the system restarts and I get looped back to the Clover boot page.


Here's what happens with option 2, Boot macOS Install from Mojave:

Same thing in the end, I restart and get looped back to the Clover boot page.

I'm not sure if it helps but this is what's in Disk Utility:

In BIOS I made the following changes:
- Load Optimized Defaults
- VT-d Disabled
- XHCI Hand-off Enabled

Here are my BOIS settings:

It's frustrating because I completed an install already on a different, identical Samsung SSD and it worked perfectly but for some reason this one has had me spinning in circles googling and trying potential solutions for 2 days now. I'm sure it's something silly and simple that I've overlooked but I'm out of ideas now so hopefully someone can help.

 

[cmn699]

MOBO: Gigabyte Z370N WiFi

CPU: i5-8600K
GPU: Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 580 4GB
SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III

----

I am following this guide this TonyMac guide.

My installation is stuck. It keeps looping back to the clover boot page, giving me two options:

1. Boot macOS Install from Install macOS Mojave (This is my USB)
2. Boot macOS Install from Mojave (This is my SSD)

Here's what happens with option 1, Boot macOS Install from Install macOS Mojave:

View attachment 379579

View attachment 379574

View attachment 379577

And then at some point during the install, the system restarts and I get looped back to the Clover boot page.


Here's what happens with option 2, Boot macOS Install from Mojave:

View attachment 379580


Same thing in the end, I restart and get looped back to the Clover boot page.

I'm not sure if it helps but this is what's in Disk Utility:
View attachment 379581
View attachment 379582
View attachment 379583


In BIOS I made the following changes:
- Load Optimized Defaults
- VT-d Disabled
- XHCI Hand-off Enabled

Here are my BOIS settings:
View attachment 379584
View attachment 379585
View attachment 379587
View attachment 379588
View attachment 379589
View attachment 379590
View attachment 379591


It's frustrating because I completed an install already on a different, identical Samsung SSD and it worked perfectly but for some reason this one has had me spinning in circles googling and trying potential solutions for 2 days now. I'm sure it's something silly and simple that I've overlooked but I'm out of ideas now so hopefully someone can help.

• Good you have shown your hardware and BIOS screen shots to get some important background information about your macOS Mojave Installation problem. This is helpful
• The 3rd and important piece to the puzzle is missing; the EFI(or CLOVER) Folder from the USB Installer as a zipped file.
• Based on the information provided [mainly the screen shots at macOS Utilities_DU interface; macOS Utilities> Install MacOS] here are some comments.
  • When you choose USB Installer to boot and reach macOS Utilities>Disk Utility, your intention must be to find the entire unpartitioned Target SSD or HDD ( In your case the SSD) and not its Volume. The uploaded images do not clarify that.
    • To get the pre-partitioned (unpartitioned) disk, you had to choose View>[√] Show All Devices and NOT [√] Show Only Volumes
  • Once you reach the DU with your macOS Mojave USB Installer disk, the only procedure you should do is to find the whole Target SSD/HDD to Erase in GUID+APFS in one clean sweep (not in HFS+J and let the USB Installer convert HFS+J format to APFS automatically behind the scene causing undue delay and sometimes installation freeze)
  • If you make a mistake initially in the above step and opt to boot the USB Installer disk again from CBM screen instead of the partially installed System SSD, you have to choose the entire Hard disk using View >[√] Show All Devices and Erase it properly.
  • Instead, if you choose to go to macOS Utilities> Install MacOS , and try to install on the previously incorrectly erased disk, you will fail again.
• I suggest you upload your CLOVER from USB Installer disk as a zipped file to get an entire clear picture of the problem.

 

[mg21202]

Thanks!

The 3rd and important piece to the puzzle is missing; the EFI(or CLOVER) Folder from the USB Installer as a zipped file.

I'm sorry I'm not sure what you're asking for here. This is a screenshot of the contents of my USB.

When you choose USB Installer to boot and reach macOS Utilities>Disk Utility, your intention must be to find the entire unpartitioned Target SSD or HDD ( In your case the SSD) and not its Volume. The uploaded images do not clarify that.

• To get the pre-partitioned (unpartitioned) disk, you had to choose View>[√] Show All Devices and NOT [√] Show Only Volumes

Yes, I have been doing this. Each time I get to Disk Utility I select:

1. View > Show All Devices
2. Select Samsung SSD from the available drives to erase.
3. Erase > Name: "Mac (p3)" > Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) > GUID Partition Map

I suggest you upload your CLOVER from USB Installer disk as a zipped file to get an entire clear picture of the problem.

I don't understand the instruction here. How do I upload my Clover from USB Installer as a zipped file?

 

[cmn699]

Thanks!



I'm sorry I'm not sure what you're asking for here. This is a screenshot of the contents of my USB.

View attachment 379761

Yes, I have been doing this. Each time I get to Disk Utility I select:

1. View > Show All Devices
2. Select Samsung SSD from the available drives to erase.
3. Erase > Name: "Mac (p3)" > Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) > GUID Partition Map

I don't understand the instruction here. How do I upload my Clover from USB Installer as a zipped file?

To upload CLOVER from your USB Installer Disk as zipped file read the bulleted steps and images posted to this post -> #4

 

[mg21202]

Update:
I have now managed to get the install to work successfully twice, but the problem is I have no idea how I did it. It is seemingly random when it decides to work.

I basically just looped through this cycle again and again and until it was successful... That's not really a satisfactory outcome because if I ever have to do a clean install of OSX again, I want to be confident that I can actually do it without these headaches.

One possible different thing I did was at the MacOS Utilities screen, instead of selecting Install macOS went to Choose Startup Disk. From here I selected "Install macOS Mojave".

I'm not convinced that this was the solution to my problem though because even after doing this, the install failed again. After that failure I tried again and this time it works, but it seems likely that this was just a coincidence.

The one significant thing is that on the Clover boot menu, instead of just the two options, there is also FileVault Preboot, MacOS Install Prebooter, and Recovery. The first time I successfull installed, MacOS Install Prebooter was available and it was through this option that I reached a successful install. The second time I succeeded, it was not through this Prebooter option... it just happened.

Before:

After:

 

[mg21202]

To upload CLOVER from your USB Installer Disk as zipped file read the bulleted steps and images posted to this post -> #4

Okay thanks, I'll do this right now and post the results

 

[mg21202]

To upload CLOVER from your USB Installer Disk as zipped file read the bulleted steps and images posted to this post -> #4

Okay, here's the Zip file

 

[cmn699]

Okay, here's the Zip file

• I have reviewed the CLOVER and its config.plist and uploaded edited screen captures with some annotations for your consideration
• Your drivers64UEFI seems to be OK ; in some 300 series they may need a different Aptiofix and added EmuVariableUefi-64. If you had not had any problem during boot, current contents may be OK
• For Mojave it is better to use APFS file format when Erasing the Target SSD in MacOS Utilities>Disk Utility Screen. I do this even for Platter Hard disks to reduce the chance of problem during automatic conversion of HFS+J to APFS required in Mojave (unlike earlier versions of macOSes where HFS+J was acceptable as Hard disk format) and this will reduce the chance of long installation time and even some freeze.

Edited to change image #5 config.plist_Devices to add USB Injection , and slightly modify Audio Section

 

[topcatone]

So Mojave was my easiest Build ever...

why the upgrade to Mojave
-Microsoft did not sell a version of Office for El Capitan
-Sierra and High Sierra failed

I followed The Mojave install here downloading from Apple on my Hackintosh El Capitan.
Trial an error it would not reboot to finish install, I...Downloaded full version

Only Downloaded 22mb of Mojave
http://osxdaily.com/2018/09/29/download-full-macos-mojave-installer/#comment-6477531

then made a separate thumb drive for Mojave USB Booter (note Unibeast usb also created)

http://osxdaily.com/2018/09/26/make-macos-mojave-boot-usb-installer/

deleted the mojave install and eject from finder

I ran it straight from the applicaton folder (full Mojave) also created a bootable unibeast with Multbeast just in case

when it did not boot, I put both thumb drivers in my computer

it froze once at 37 minutes restarted and no problem(on restart i clicked the preboot)

Imac 14 is the only one(that I know of) that would run 3 screens independent on motherboard

Finally I thought is it worth it see below

https://digimanx.com/want-to-install-macos-mojave-on-hackintosh-think-again/


Unfortunately I purchased anEVGA GTX 1060 6G

Right now I have no WIFI no Bluetooth and only one lan working

Previous builds i was able to get five monitors (two mirrored) on mac side with 5 separate on windows with Radeon 6850

This Build has three independent screens (good sign) but no video due to Metal Mojave and lack of Nvidia drivers for 1060 6g

 

[mg21202]

• I have reviewed the CLOVER and its config.plist and uploaded edited screen captures with some annotations for your consideration
• Your drivers64UEFI seems to be OK ; in some 300 series they may need a different Aptiofix and added EmuVariableUefi-64. If you had not had any problem during boot, current contents may be OK
• For Mojave it is better to use APFS file format when Erasing the Target SSD in MacOS Utilities>Disk Utility Screen. I do this even for Platter Hard disks to reduce the chance of problem during automatic conversion of HFS+J to APFS required in Mojave (unlike earlier versions of macOSes where HFS+J was acceptable as Hard disk format) and this will reduce the chance of long installation time and even some freeze.

Edited to change image #5 config.plist_Devices to add USB Injection , and slightly modify Audio Section

I really appreciate the detailed response

I've followed your directions and I'm about to try the install again. Attached are screenshots of everything I have altered.

A few questions if you have time to address them:

Rt Variables
Can/should I re-enable SIP after completing installation? It seems like a scary thing to disable...

Drivers
You did not include AudioDXE-64.efi in your recommended drivers list, but you did not mention deleting it like you did with kexts. Should I delete AudioDXE-64?

GUI
Why is Windows hidden? I will actually have two SSD’s in this computer, one booting mac and one booting Windows. Will having Windows as a hidden volume here cause me problems in booting Windows?

Thank you!