Mojave install restarts without completing

[Purrga]

Attempting a fresh install of Mojave from USB (following the general install thread) on my machine.
- Using 32GB USB drive.
- Disconnected SATA cable from my 2TB HD before attempting install. I intend to make my boot drive a 512GB SSD.

Initial step of booting clover from USB works as expected.
I formatted (erased) the SSD; however unlike the guide, my only option for disk format was APFS file system.

After initial install of Mojave was completed, the system rebooted and launched clover from USB again - as expected. I had an additional clover option, called "boot mac os Preboot from Preboot" (not sure what that is).

I set -v flag and chose "Boot macOS from Mojave"

• Shows verbose logging for a while
• then changes to apple logo showing "about 10 min remaining" or something similar
• then restarts abruptly and loads clover from USB again (since I set it as top boot priority in BIOS)
• This time there is an additional boot option, "Boot FileVault Prebooter from Preboot"

Is there a path forward for Mojave Install from here? Or should I do something differently and try the install again?

PS. When clover is loading, I can see what look like logs from the previous session, just before the restart. Screenshots attached.

 

[Purrga]

"preboot" option results in a prohibited (no) symbol

 

[UtterDisbelief]

"preboot" option results in a prohibited (no) symbol

Hi there.

The first screengrab shows the APFS "Early Logging". This is normal. You can hide this if you'd like by changing a file in the EFI/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI folder. Here's one member's example. There are actually 2x files needed - ApfsDriverLoader-64.efi and AppleImageLoader-64.efi. This isn't compulsory and is not actually needed.

Looking at the middle screen, External is your USB drive and of the 3x APFS icons I guess the left-most 2x are "preboot" ones. If so, the right-most is the main Mojave booting one. If that's the case then you've completed the preliminary installation.

The PreBoot entries should not be used and can be hidden using Clover Configurator to modify the config.plist :

If there is an icon that says "Boot Installation ..." then that would mean the installer still has work to do. Generally you select this option until it disappears. Looks like you might already have got that far. If so use MultiBeast to complete the install and make it bootable.

 

[Purrga]

Thank you very much! Your explanation helps a lot.

Looking at the middle screen, External is your USB drive and of the 3x APFS icons I guess the left-most 2x are "preboot" ones. If so, the right-most is the main Mojave booting one. If that's the case then you've completed the preliminary installation.

Yes, that's the case. So I will use the right-most APFS option, "Boot macOS from Mojave".

 

[Purrga]

Wow, it worked. I was only 1 step away from finishing. Thank you very much for the help.