[WARNING] Clover will break your REAL Mac, use with caution

[pin-head]

update: I was able to boot without problem! I deleted the three extra elements, and I discovered that there is an "Efi backup" folder in the root. The files were the same that were in the EFI/Apple folder, but copied them anyway.
I very happy right now Thanks a lot again!

 

[Gigamaxx]

whoa, thanks a lot - the Apple folder has two subfolders: Extensions and Firmware.
In the Extensions folder there is a firmware.scap file, while in the Firmware folders there is a MBP112.scap file (and it should be exactly my model).
Shall I delete the Apple folder as well?

Do you have a way to save it? Can you remove the disk and edit it or add it later if it doesn’t work without it?

 

[pin-head]

no I could not remove the disk - it's the internal disk of a MBP retina 15. Anyway, since I didn't reboot the mac, and I was able to delete the extra folders in EFI, it's now working like nothing happened.
Thanks a lot for you help!

 

[willumpie82]

Hi, I wanted to grab a few EFI files from the clover pkg, but did not realize it could cripple my EFI, I didn't reboot yet so went ahead and mounted the EFI partition and removed the CLOVER folders. now only the apple folder is left (see screenshot)

I have a MBP13 2018 with touchbar, does this look correct? (no firmware folder?), I compared it to my macmini EFI and that one has the FIRMWARE folder

 

[Gigamaxx]

Hi, I wanted to grab a few EFI files from the clover pkg, but did not realize it could cripple my EFI, I didn't reboot yet so went ahead and mounted the EFI partition and removed the CLOVER folders. now only the apple folder is left (see screenshot)

I have a MBP13 2018 with touchbar, does this look correct? (no firmware folder?), I compared it to my macmini EFI and that one has the FIRMWARE folder

View attachment 418953

Yes that looks correct. You could create a new Firmware folder by clicking on the open window and then go to tool bar FILE and New Folder. It will drop an Untitled folder in the EFI window you can rename it and drag the firmware.scap into it so it matches your Mac Mini.

 

[bittantone]

Just asking it out of curiosity.
I always thought that - at least on latest MacBook Pros - the online recovery was read-only, and that nothing could have prevented me in case of "emergency".
How is it possible that Clover is booted on a MBP if SecureBoot is enabled? If the efi application is not signed by Apple, it won't get started, and it won't be able to harm the hardware.

But the question is: would the online Recovery tool be accessible after clover installation?

 

[m0rle]

I used a bootable usb stick to intall High Sierra on my MacBook Pro 2012. The stick was created for a hackintosh and contained Clover. After that I was not able to use the MacBook and could not install High Sierra with a correct bootable usb stick.

Luckily I was able to fix by reseting the parameter RAM or PRAM. After reseting the PRAM I could use the MacBook compatible bootable usb stick to install High Sierra.
How to reset the PRAM:

1. Turn your Mac back on.
2. Immediately press and hold the following keys: command+option+P+R. That's four keys: the command key, the option key, the letter P, and the letter R. You must press and hold these four keys before you see the gray screen during the startup process.

 

[Ritchie333]

Apologies for the thread bump, but I'm confused about exactly why this is a problem, and there are several scenarios going on here, which as far as I can tell are:

1) Install Clover onto a real Mac's EFI partition on the boot drive
2) Install Clover onto a USB, boot it and run the installer on a real Mac's boot drive, going through to the rebooting stage
3) Install Clover onto a USB, boot it but don't run the installer; for example, restore a Time Machine backup or run Disk Utility.

I can imagine 1) won't do much good; you're overwriting the right EFI kexts with totally wrong ones, same for 2). But I can't imagine 3) being an issue, as at no point would you expect any data to be written onto your boot drive. Indeed, that sequence would work regardless of what other disks you had in the drive. How exactly could this trash the boot ROM?

 

[willumpie82]

Apologies for the thread bump, but I'm confused about exactly why this is a problem, and there are several scenarios going on here, which as far as I can tell are:

1) Install Clover onto a real Mac's EFI partition on the boot drive
2) Install Clover onto a USB, boot it and run the installer on a real Mac's boot drive, going through to the rebooting stage
3) Install Clover onto a USB, boot it but don't run the installer; for example, restore a Time Machine backup or run Disk Utility.

I can imagine 1) won't do much good; you're overwriting the right EFI kexts with totally wrong ones, same for 2). But I can't imagine 3) being an issue, as at no point would you expect any data to be written onto your boot drive. Indeed, that sequence would work regardless of what other disks you had in the drive. How exactly could this trash the boot ROM?

point one will break/brick your mac unless you have a copy of the original EFI, not just a copy of another mac.

anyway, why would you want to boot a real mac with clover? You can look at it as if Clover is used to emulate mac hardware on regular pc hardware, mostly the hardware is there but initialisation of it require some tweaks that are normally done by the mac bios

 

[Ritchie333]

You wouldn't want to boot a real Mac with Clover - what's the point? - but you might do it by accident if you're not paying attention and don't label your USB sticks properly.