[SOLVED] Z390 Can not boot from M.2

[mariorodrigues]

I followed this guide: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...390-thunderbolt-3-i7-9700k-amd-rx-580.267551/

The installation was smooth but when I try to install Clover on my M.2 SSD I get a black screen followed by a HDMI signal loss on my monitor.
What puzzles me about this issue is the following: If I use my USB thumb drive to boot with the installed Kexts, I'm able to boot and everything works very well expect for the integrated graphics that don't render properly in Safari but somehow usable but choppy.

The guide proposed to use MacMini 8,1 but once I boot I get the message> "this version of mac os is not supported on this platform" which doesn't really make any sense since the latest Mac mini does support the latest version of macOs.

After try other products like iMac18,1 , etc and I get the loss of signal issue.

I installed the CoffeLake graphics fix but nothings seems to make my machine to boot from the M.2 Drive.

Hardware:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Designare
CPU: i9 9900K
RAM: Gskill 32gb 3200Mhz CL14
SSD: Samsung 970 PRO 1TB
GPU> None yet, a Vega 64 will arrive next Monday probably

I'm out of ideas, what could I try?

 

[mariorodrigues]

Just found the problem and I'm posting the solution just in case someone runs into it.

I forgot one key section of the guide: Framebuffer patching

Even after patching the framebuffer something odd was happening: I was able to boot but the graphics were just very very broken. I would drag a window and the hole thing would flash like hell. Then I look at my system info and the UHD 630 was being detected and I even could run GeekBench 4 on it, that is when I noticed that I was "using" an iMac 18,3 with a 5K Retina Display.

So, I switched to iMac 14,3 and now everything works fine. I'm able to use my board HDMI port but not the DisplayPort and I lack thunderbolt 3 displays to test the thunderbolt ports. For some reason the system expects the primary display to be 5K and that seems to be reason why the graphics were mad.

Still, I've no clue about why I can not use MacMini 8,1 , I still get the same error when booting which is shame since it's the closest to a Desktop.

 

[CaseySJ]

If you're installing MacOS 10.14.0, it will not work with SMBIOS = Macmini8,1. This is because the new Mac mini was released after 10.14.0.

So you must install 10.14.1 or later, preferably 10.14.3, then switch to Macmini8,1.

 

[mariorodrigues]

Ah, now it makes sense.

Thank you for your help and the awesome guide.

One more thing that you can add to the guide btw, I just tried the update from 10.14 to 10.14.3 and it has the same odd restart behaviour. First time it crashes and reboot, on reboot there is a new partition for the update named "Install Mojave", It was select by default on Clover, and then it crashes again. On the 3rd run I loose my HDMI signal ( no discrete gpu yet ) but my machine was not rebooting as fast as before and i noticed my monitor got signal for a couple of seconds. The install process works with reboots that crash.

As far as I can tell, the update works and nothing is broken.