[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[CaseySJ]

Yup both are set to -1

Even stranger, I'm trying much older OC releases from this thread like 0.6.3 and 0.6.8, but when I boot up the USB EFI doesn't show up at the picker. I've tried 0.7.3 and 0.8.3 as well, they at least show up but just lead to a blank screen.

Please compress and post your EFI folder with serial numbers removed from PlatformInfo-> DataHub. I’ll try installing Big Sur using the same folder on my Z390 Designare.

 

[clichequiche]

Please compress and post your EFI folder with serial numbers removed from PlatformInfo-> DataHub. I’ll try installing Big Sur using the same folder on my Z390 Designare.

Not sure whether you mean my current daily driver EFI 0.6.0, or the 0.9.2 I'm trying to update to. I attached both just in case. Though for 0.9.2 the SMBIOS info and disabling Secureboot are the only changes I made. Appreciate you trying this!!

 

[CaseySJ]

Not sure whether you mean my current daily driver EFI 0.6.0, or the 0.9.2 I'm trying to update to. I attached both just in case. Though for 0.9.2 the SMBIOS info and disabling Secureboot are the only changes I made. Appreciate you trying this!!

There is no problem on my system when using the 0.9.2 EFI folder that you posted. These are the steps I took:

1. Downloaded your EFI folder and copied my serial numbers into PlatformInfo -> DataHub
2. No other changes were made
3. Copied EFI folder to EFI partition of 32GB Samsung USB 3.0 flash drive
4. Downloaded Bug Sur 11.7.x using gibMacOS
5. When download finished, I ran InstallAssistant.pkg inside of the downloaded folder
   
   
6. This creates a file in Applications folder called Install macOS Big Sur
7. My USB flash drive is called test; I opened a Terminal window and typed the following (if your USB drive has a different name, replace "test" with the real name):
   

   sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/test

8. When the process completed, I rebooted the system and pressed F12 at Gigabyte splash screen to open the BIOS boot menu
9. From BIOS boot menu I selected the USB flash disk
10. Then the OpenCore boot picker showed up normally
11. I selected Install macOS Big Sur
12. After a couple of minutes, the installer window appeared normally:

So why this does't work on your system?

• Have you double-checked all BIOS parameters?
• Also, post a list of all the devices in the system (make and model), including:
  • NVMe SSDs
  • GPU
  • PCIe cards
  • USB devices
  • Thunderbolt devices (if any are connected)
  • SATA drives

 

[clichequiche]

There is no problem on my system when using the 0.9.2 EFI folder that you posted. These are the steps I took:

1. Downloaded your EFI folder and copied my serial numbers into PlatformInfo -> DataHub
2. No other changes were made
3. Copied EFI folder to EFI partition of 32GB Samsung USB 3.0 flash drive
4. Downloaded Bug Sur 11.7.x using gibMacOS
5. When download finished, I ran InstallAssistant.pkg inside of the downloaded folder
   View attachment 567793
6. This creates a file in Applications folder called Install macOS Big Sur
7. My USB flash drive is called test; I opened a Terminal window and typed the following (if your USB drive has a different name, replace "test" with the real name):
   

   sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/test

8. When the process completed, I rebooted the system and pressed F12 at Gigabyte splash screen to open the BIOS boot menu
9. From BIOS boot menu I selected the USB flash disk
10. Then the OpenCore boot picker showed up normally
11. I selected Install macOS Big Sur
12. After a couple of minutes, the installer window appeared normally:

View attachment 567794

So why this does't work on your system?

• Have you double-checked all BIOS parameters?
• Also, post a list of all the devices in the system (make and model), including:
  • NVMe SSDs
  • GPU
  • PCIe cards
  • USB devices
  • Thunderbolt devices (if any are connected)
  • SATA drives

So, sorry, to be clear, I am able to get the Big Sur MacOS installer to boot up properly. The problem is, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Big Sur requires Opencore 0.6.3 and above, when I'm currently running OC 0.6.0. Since I'm running an old/incompatible version of OC and currently on Catalina (10.15.7), I was under the impression that I could not go ahead and install Big Sur (if that would be the next step in your example) without first updating OC. So currently, the blank screen I'm referring to is me attempting to just update OC by booting the 0.9.2 EFI and seeing if it runs properly via USB. Please let me know if this is the correct way to go about this, and I'm sorry if I was being unclear before.

To answer your other questions, yes I've double checked BIOS parameters. Here's a list of devices:

NVMe SSD: WDS500G3X0C-00SJG0

GPU: AMD Radeon RX 570

PCIe:
I believe just NVMe SSD above ^

USB:
Sandisk Ultrafit 64gb USB drive (OC installer)
Tripp-Lite USB HUB > iLok (unplugging for install), Apple Keyboard

Thunderbolt devices:
UA Apollo Twin Duo X (unplugging for install)

SATA Drives:
2x 4TB WDC WD4000FYYZ-01UL1B2 as RAID
512GB WDC WDS500G2B0A-00SM50 SSD

 

[CaseySJ]

@clichequiche

I’m still confused so let me ask very specific questions:

• You are using the OC 0.9.2 EFI folder to boot existing Catalina, but Catalina does not boot properly (it gives you a blank screen when booting)?
• Although the Big Sur installer loads and runs, you have not attempted to install Big Sur at this time. You are first trying to ensure that 0.9.2 can boot Catalina?

 

[clichequiche]

@clichequiche

I’m still confused so let me ask very specific questions:

• You are using the OC 0.9.2 EFI folder to boot existing Catalina, but Catalina does not boot properly (it gives you a blank screen when booting)?
• Although the Big Sur installer loads and runs, you have not attempted to install Big Sur at this time. You are first trying to ensure that 0.9.2 can boot Catalina?

Yes exactly. And to attempt to boot 0.9.2 (and many other versions) I'm pressing F12, selecting the USB installer, and choosing the EFI at the Opencore picker.

 

[CaseySJ]

Yes exactly. And to attempt to boot 0.9.2 (and many other versions) I'm pressing F12, selecting the USB installer, and choosing the EFI at the Opencore picker.

When the OpenCore boot picker appears, press and release CMD-V to enable verbose mode, then select the Catalina disk. You should see a lot of log messages fly by on the screen. When those log messages stop (or freeze) please capture and post a photo.

 

[clichequiche]

When the OpenCore boot picker appears, press and release CMD-V to enable verbose mode, then select the Catalina disk. You should see a lot of log messages fly by on the screen. When those log messages stop (or freeze) please capture and post a photo.

And sorry but to reiterate Catalina boots fine, the log messages don't stop/freeze. I would be perfectly content running Catalina forever but unfortunately Apple stopped offering security updates back in Dec 2022, which is why I'd like to upgrade to Big Sur. Not sure if it would still help to post logs of Catalina booting, I captured photos but they're blurry since they never stop.

 

[CaseySJ]

And sorry but to reiterate Catalina boots fine, the log messages don't stop/freeze. I would be perfectly content running Catalina forever but unfortunately Apple stopped offering security updates back in De 2022, which is why I'd like to upgrade to Big Sur. Not sure if it would still help to post logs of Catalina booting, I captured photos but they're blurry since they never stop.

If the Big Sur installer starts, then you should be able to proceed with the upgrade.

We should make a full bootable backup of Catalina first.

 

[clichequiche]

If the Big Sur installer starts, then you should be able to proceed with the upgrade.

We should make a full bootable backup of Catalina first.

Wow, that seems to have worked! Only thing that broke is the system no longer recognizes my Thunderbolt UA Apollo Twin, but I know that's a known issue with many builds so I'll poke around the forum (I've set the BIOS --> Thunderbolt --> Thunderbolt Boot Support --> Boot Once setting). Thanks for all your time and patience @CaseySJ and I'm sorry again about my being overly careful with going ahead with the install using an old version of OC. It still doesn't quite make sense to me how it booted successfully