OpenCore NVRAM Problem

[Docshadow]

I have a Gigabyte Z97-UD3H-BK with i5 3.5 Hz, 32 GB memory and Radeon RXVega 56 8 GB graphics. I have a number of dedicated HDs, one drive on which I have 10.15.4 booting with Clover 5108 and another drive on which I have installed OpenCore. Except for having to replace my Nvidia card with the Radeon to run 10.15, the Clover drive is fully functional, except for being locked out of iMessage, and has been rock stable for 3 years through the various OS updates.

Last week I thought I'd try OpenCore so I installed it on another drive. The install went very smoothly, thanks to the Developer community. As initially for my Clover setup I was unable to access the USB 3 ports so have been trying to set them up for the last week, unsuccessfully. I think I may have finally found my problem but I'm unable to find a solution. Booting with Clover I have native NVRAM but booting with OpenCore I do not. In other words running sudo nvram TestVar=HelloWorld in terminal, rebooting and then running sudo nvram -p | grep 'TestVar' results in HelloWorld in Clover and nothing in OpenCore. I also ran OpenCore Configurator and received the message "The bootloader looks like it is not installed or your NVRAM isn't native".

I also have another anomaly that I suspect may be linked to my NVRAM problem. In the NVRAM section of my congfig.plist, the values specified in boot-args and csr-active-config settings are not being implemented on startup. It does not bootup in verbose mode and I cannot disable SIP (I have tried E7030000, 0x3E7, and 0X67).

I have attached my config.plist file.

I appreciate any suggestions the community may have to resolve my problem.

Thanks.

 

[Going Bald]

For csr-active-config:
00000000 - SIP completely enabled
03000000 - Allow unsigned kexts and writing to protected fs locations
E7030000 - SIP completely disabled

If you do not have native NVRAM, enable LegacyEnable, LegacyOverwrite and LegacySchema

Suggest you start over on the config.plist if you used OC configurator on it - the app is known to corrupt the config.plist.

 

[Docshadow]

For csr-active-config:
00000000 - SIP completely enabled
03000000 - Allow unsigned kexts and writing to protected fs locations
E7030000 - SIP completely disabled

If you do not have native NVRAM, enable LegacyEnable, LegacyOverwrite and LegacySchema

Suggest you start over on the config.plist if you used OC configurator on it - the app is known to corrupt the config.plist.

Thanks for the response and suggestions.

I only used OC configurator once to check if it would fix my problem and noticed the error on startup. I usually use Xcode to work on the config.plist. I have made 25 different iterations of the config.plist and used various ACPI, Driver and Kext combinations with no luck. I tried again using the gitbook/github guides that I've used before with the same results.

I do have native NVRAM but only if I boot with the Clover drive. If I boot with the OpenCore drive it appears that I do not as when I run sudo nvram TestVar=HelloWorld in terminal, reboot and then run sudo nvram -p | grep 'TestVar' I get no value returned.

Likewise, OpenCore is also not reading my boot arguments in the NVRAM sections as it doesn't boot in verbose mode; I can in Clover.

I've attached slightly altered version of my config.plsit again.

 

[Going Bald]

Thanks for the response and suggestions.

I only used OC configurator once to check if it would fix my problem and noticed the error on startup. I usually use Xcode to work on the config.plist. I have made 25 different iterations of the config.plist and used various ACPI, Driver and Kext combinations with no luck. I tried again using the gitbook/github guides that I've used before with the same results.

I do have native NVRAM but only if I boot with the Clover drive. If I boot with the OpenCore drive it appears that I do not as when I run sudo nvram TestVar=HelloWorld in terminal, reboot and then run sudo nvram -p | grep 'TestVar' I get no value returned.

Likewise, OpenCore is also not reading my boot arguments in the NVRAM sections as it doesn't boot in verbose mode; I can in Clover.

I've attached slightly altered version of my config.plsit again.

do you have an nvram.plist in your EFI with Clover?

 

[Docshadow]

No nvram.plist in Clover EFI. In Drivers I have:

ApfsDriverLoader
AptioMemoryFix
AudioDxe
DataHubDxe
FSInject
HFSPlus
SMCHelper

In ACPI I have:

SSDT-EC

In Kext I have:

AirportBrocmFixup
AppleALC
IntelMausiEthernet
Lilu
USBInjectAll
VirtualSMC
Whatevergreen

BooterConfig is 0x28 and CsrActiveConfig is 0x67

I do have -hbfx-dump-nvram Boot Arguments.

Thanks

 

[Going Bald]

No nvram.plist in Clover EFI. In Drivers I have:

Not in Clover - in the EFI partition:

This is EFI partition on my X58A (Mojave SSD), which does not have native NVRAM - hence the nvram.plist to emulate NVRAM.

 

[Docshadow]

I only have boot and EFI folder in the EFI Partition of my Clover build. My OC build only has the EFI folder. I have never used the nvram.plist on my Z97.

 

[Going Bald]

I do not know enough about OC yet to be able to tell what the problem is. I compared your config.plist to a trial I did that boots a Z87 board and did not see anything that stands out as a possible cause. Have you tried changing the system definition to a different Mac?

 

[Docshadow]

Thanks for that info. I'll try another definition and see what I get.

 

[fulg]

Did you ever figure it out? I have the same issue on my Z97-A. Native NVRAM works fine in Clover but does not in OC. I guess I could always enable emulated NVRAM to work around this.