<< Solved >> Unable to boot (Dell Precision T3600 - X79)

[flyboywn]

Hi, think I may have misplaced the thread. Original here https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/dell-precision-t3600-clover-boot-issues.300531/ (ED: Original thread is now gone, thx to the mods for pruning)

I am having issues getting my computer to boot the Clover EFI. I have made a working install medium for High Sierra and am able to boot to the Clover loader on a MacBook Pro, but cannot get to it on my desktop.

Using Clover R5119.

PC: Dell Precision T3600
Xeon E5-2667 V1
16gb ram
GTX1070 or ATI HD 5870

 

[flyboywn]

So I'm really trying everything I can think of here, I have a spare SSD that I've formatted and put Clover onto. I can boot the MacBook Pro from the SSD but I cannot get the drive to boot on the Dell. I have tried Unibeast for UEFI and Legacy, neither seem to work.

 

[flyboywn]

I was able to solve my non-boot issue by formatting the drive with Unibeast for Legacy mode, arranging the kexts, updating config.plist to use flags -f UseKernelCache=No -v npci=0x3000 nvda_drv=1 dart=0 slide=0 and by doing a lot of fighting with the BIOS. Marked as resolved.

 

[flyboywn]

ED: Moved to own thread in Installation/High Sierra

 

[howmanyds]

I'm having issues with my Precision T3600, bios A18, that I just got from a friend. I'm trying the unibeast install disk for Catalina but I can't get the usb disk to boot! It's getting stuck on "Error: Aborted returned from boot.efi".

I'll try the flags you listed above, but could you also explain any of the kexts you arranged and/or what you had to do in bios to get her running?

Thanks!

 

[howmanyds]

Ok, with simply using those flags in the clover options, I got my unibeast disk to boot into the install screen once, however I couldn't get the installer to recognize my HDD or SDD when plugged in internally. The drives were recognized in the F12 list of boot options, so I know they're there. Why would MacOS installer not recognize the motherboard's HDD ports?

I tried connecting the disks through USB, but the installer said it couldn't install to them because the computer was missing firmware??

Now, I'm trying again to startup with those flags and I'm getting that same "Error: Aborted returned from boot.efi"

 

[howmanyds]

I removed my data disks from their connections and was able to get it to start; perhaps there's an old EFI partition on one of them that is causing this error when I'm booting onto the unibeast disk.

I wiped and formatted a disk to AFPS instead of HFS+ and connected by USB; Catalina is now installing, but I'm concerned that the installer isn't recognizing internal disks.

 

[howmanyds]

After one restart, putting the boot flags back in, Catalina seemed to complete installation, but after the second automatic restart, even with the boot flags I'm getting the "Error: Aborted returned from boot.efi" error.