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Warning/Report: Booting Clover on a real Mac can be dangerous

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TL;DR Clover messed up my Mac's firmware, had to remove logic board, reprogram a really tiny chip with a Raspberry Pi, countless hours wasted.

Also, I LOVE Clover...on real PC hardware. But don't boot it just for fun on your Mac, you'll maybe regret it.

I just wanted to report my experience here as I'm sure someone will try this, just like I did and really mess up their Mac.
I have read on multiple occasions that nothing will happen, even by RehabMan.

So I decided to boot Clover on my MacBook Pro 13" early 2015. I did not boot an OS and also didn't modify the settings, but decided to turn the Mac off after playing around for a bit.
After powering the Mac down, it would not boot again.

When it is powered on, you hear the chime one time and the backlight turns on. After that you will hear the second half of the chime looped infinitely. Nothing except for the SMC reset will work, every action that requires powering the Mac on will result in the loop.

To fix it, I had to fully disassemble it, remove the Logic Board and access a tiny SOIC8 chip (the chip containing the UEFI firmware) on the BACK of the LB using the POMONA 5250 clip and then dump the corrupted firmware (will explain why), then reprogram the EEPROM with a Raspberry Pi and 8 cables with a dumped original firmware I had downloaded. You cannot download every original dump for every Mac model, every dump came from forum users and I got lucky to even find one for my machine.

Then, I had to open the corrupted dump with a Hex Editor and find the Intel ME region and how long it is, copy it to the new downloaded dump (without a clean or original ME region your Mac will be unbearably slow) and also find the serial number and replace it with my own. Then I had to reprogram the chip with the new, modified ROM.

Also, the chip is so damn tiny the clip could not make proper contact and I had to physically remove plastic from the clip to further expose the contacts and hold it in place by a contraption of lego bricks and elastic bands. I had to try over an hour just to make stable contact.

All in all I spent countless hours researching and waited over a week for the damn clip ($25 btw + $4 for cables) to arrive.
8/10 experience cannot complain but wouldn't recommend.



Hi everyone,

The Web site ghostlyhaks is offline and I cannot find information how to proceed.
I have mac mini 2012 6.1 with logic board 820-3227-A and SOIC8 25L6406E
Could you explain me step by step what to do to program flash memory and how can I use my serial and correct ME?
Where Can I find the BIN files for my mac mini?

Thank you
 
Hi everyone,

The Web site ghostlyhaks is offline and I cannot find information how to proceed.
I have mac mini 2012 6.1 with logic board 820-3227-A and SOIC8 25L6406E
Could you explain me step by step what to do to program flash memory and how can I use my serial and correct ME?
Where Can I find the BIN files for my mac mini?

Thank you

It is far easier to just insert a Matt Card onto the motherboard, no flashing/trashing needed. Takes about 5 seconds once you have the case opened.

Have a look here, http://www.cmizapper.com/buy/mattcard-mac-desktops.html
 
Thanks Ploddles, I know this possibility but I'd like to keep it as a second option.
 
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I inadvertently installed Clover on my Mac Mini a few days ago, but have not restarted it since. I can mount the EFI partition and see the BOOT folder, CLOVER folder and Clover install log.

Would deleting the CLOVER folder from the EFI partition be enough? Or should I consider my BIOS already flashed and as good as bricked on the next restart?
 
Yep, pretty much kaput now.
Hey all, for what it's worth I was able to shut down and restart.
Here's what I did after installing Clover and before restarting:
  • I mounted the EFI partition of disk0s1 and removed the CLOVER folder and emptied the trash.
  • I shut down and unplugged the monitor, based on what @mmcubu1 suggested above.
  • I reset PRAM by holdiing cmd+alt+p+r for about 30 seconds. For some reason it wouldn't chime like normal. I figured 30 seconds was enough to cycle at least 3 times. (After restarting I saw my monitor was set as the audio output, so maybe it didn't auto-switch to the internal speaker when I unplugged it, or maybe my sound was all the way down, IDK.)
  • Powered off with the button on the case.
  • Plugged monitor in and restarted. No issues.
I opened Clover Configurator to see what was on the EFI partition, but there is no option to mount the disk0s1 anymore.

Maybe deleting the Clover files before the first restart made the difference? Hope this helps someone.
 
Ok, I faced the same thing on my MacBook Pro 13.
Wanted to reinstall macOS, and by mistake used a clover flash drive, while booting my macbook.
Now, it just keeps chime looping.
Any suggestions?

Tried to detach the screen, but that didn't helped either.
 
Ok, I faced the same thing on my MacBook Pro 13.
Wanted to reinstall macOS, and by mistake used a clover flash drive, while booting my macbook.
Now, it just keeps chime looping.
Any suggestions?

Tried to detach the screen, but that didn't helped either.

The only real option now is to buy one of the ‘chips’ mentioned earlier in the thread. They are very easy to install. Mine took about 3 days to arrive after order and takes 10 minutes to install.
 
goto macunlocks.com and buy the chip that's been referenced numerous times in this thread already.
 
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