richApr 20, 2024

OK, I've been using Opencore Legacy Patcher for a few months now and it has been working well, but the big issue has been updating it and rebooting. There is a step called root patching where the boot drive gets kernel extensions in /Library/Extensions and on reboot these can fail.

I had in the past had to rebuild the entire thing, but thanks to the Discord channel, I discovered this fix which solved the problem. It involves deleting the offending kext that is causing the boot to fail in the middle of the startup bar.

The solution is in a nutshell:

  • Boot the system up and have the USB key that you used to install OLCP, this should boot fine assuming that what is happening is that you installed root patches (kernel extensions) on your main disk and these are hanging
  • If you are using FileVault 2 (the disk encryption), then go to the Disk Utility and mount the partition called Data. You will see the name of your main disk and then a Data piece, mounting it will require a password (which hopefully you remember, for me, it is the password of my main user account and no, I don't understand how that user account is associated with the hard disk).
  • When you boot it, you will see the Recovery windows, and here is the unintuitive part, choose Utilities > Terminal at the top menu, it is not one of the items in the main part of the screen
  • In the terminal, you need to first mount the main hard disk, typically called "Macintosh HD", but if you rename it use that name with mount -uw "/Volumes/Machintosh HD
  • Now you revert the snapshot of the main drive that didn't work with bless --mount "/Volumes/Macintosh HD" --bootefi --last-sealed-snapshot. I had never heard of bless before this, but this writes information to a disk volume saying it is bootable, copies boot.efi which is the magic file in a blessed volume that the system reads when it starts into magic location /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi. For non-T2 Macs, this had to be on a special disk /dev/disk1s2 so there is a lot of magic. The --bootefi means work on that special drive and --last-sealed-snapshot means that you are reverting backward as you can have different versions of what is on that drive.
  • Now comes the magic, /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Library/Extensions and you have to delete all the kext files except for HighPoint* and SoftRAID.kext
  • Now restart and it should work

    • Reminder on MacOS boot commands

    The big thing to remember all all the magic keys for rebooting which are for Intel Macs:

  • Reset the PRAM. Command-Option-P-R for Intel Macs resets the boot options.
  • Command-R puts you into recovery mode
  • Command-S puts you into single-user mode where you get just a command line window
  • Option key to get the Startup manager so you can pick which boot drive (for instance if you have a USB key that is bootable)
  • Shift key put you into safe mode where you can diagnose things
  • D. Puts you into the diagnostic utility
  • T. For those macs that support it, turns the entire Mac into a hard drive, so at least you get things out
  • Ctrl-V. Verbose mode to try to figure out where things are handing

    • Apple silicon Macs have far fewer things, basically one, when you boot, hold down the power button while it is booting and it will give you startup options and other options under the gear icon (and from there get to Recovery mode, etc.)

    Still have problems with MacBook Pro 2014 even after dGPU disabled

    OK, here is another strange thing, I've been trying to make my MacBook Pro 2014 with an Intel Pro and an nVidia 750 discrete GPU. From work on my MacBook Pro 2010, I know there is a nvram command that disables the dGPU

    However, when I run this command on my MacBook Pro 2014 with Crystal Well, instead I disable the integrated GPU (which is pretty weird). Safari and Photos still don't work so Metal emulation is broken and the graphics on the Mac are not enabled when I plug a screen in. Net, net, I think that options must be reversed on this machine. Sigh. I set it to %01 to disable it seems to be reversed on 2014, it is hard to say because I found but can't find anymore what the magic parameters had what do any of these fields mean?

    It does look like getting both graphics card again is done by setting this magic to zero:

    nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%00%00%00%00

    The other thing is to just reset the PRAM and there is a rumor that sudo pmset -b gpuswitch 2 works

    What the heck is nvram?

    It stands for nonvolatile RAM where key parameters are kept and where you can:

  • nvram -p this print out all the nvram parameters
  • nvram -c clears all the parameters
  • nvram -d _variable name will delete a variable
  • nvram _variable_=_value_ to set a value

    • https://tongfamily.com/2024/04/20/mac-olcp-stuck-on-boot-after-root-patching-and-mbp-2014/

    #dgpu #nvram #olcp

    Troubleshooting | OpenCore Legacy Patcher

    richJan 22, 2024

    We've now transitioned four very different machines: MacBook Pro 2017, MacBook Pro 2014, MacBook Air 2012 and Mac mini 2011. TL;dr. Here is the latest update on getting all these old Macs to run, so a summary of the outstanding problems

    • Fixed. Sonoma is still pretty early I had to deinstall them on all the machines.
    • Fixed. MacBook Pro 2010 needed to disable the discrete GPU so that it is stable.
    • Open. Mac mini 2011 on Ventura has a searchpartyd spin problem. This machine is super, super slow, but it finally came up. The main issue is that the process called searchpartyd would just be in runaway mode. This supports the Find My application. I kept on trying to kill it but it seems stable now. The main problem is that searchpartyd spins and searchpartyusedagent ends up consuming all available RAM.

    Here are the details on how we fixed the various problems

    MacBook Pro 2010 mysteries

    OK, this has got to be the most obscure thing that we can talk about. It's all about how to turn on and off the dedicated GPU on MacBook Pros from 2010 or so. There are a few things to understand.

    First is that these Macs had an Intel integrated GPU and then an nVidia discrete GPU and there was magic to switch between the two so that while on battery you used the power efficient iGPU and then when you were slamming graphics, it would switch to the dGPU.

    There are two issues. First is that the dGPU would fail back then and you had to know how to disable it. The second is that with OpenCore Legacy Patcher you can run modern operating systems like Sonoma, but the GPU switching doesn't work, so you can use this to disable the dGPU.

    Getting to iGPU only

    As documented before, you reset the NVRAM, boot into Command-S mode and then type in an nvram incantation. Then on reboot, you are in GPU-only mode. You can check this by looking at the About menu and you should see only the iGPU mentioned and not the nVidia dGPU.

    # Power down# Reset the NVRAM by holding down Command-Option-P-R and Power up# Keeping holding until the second chime# Now hold down the Command-S to get to single user mode# now clear the NVRAMnvram -cexit# GUID - Standard Apple Macbook Pro Early 2011-> GUID=fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9NVRAM_Variable=gpu-power-prefs# Value for Integrated gpu - In this case Binary data Hexadecimal (%) -> IGPU=%01%00%00%00# Value to turn on the Discrete GPUDGPU=%00%00%00%00sudo nvram $GUID:$NVRAM_Variable=$IGPU

    Getting the dGPU Back

    There is a magical incantation, but not much documentation on how this all works, but thanks to Alexandru Metai, now I know, so the basics are:

  • When you do this, you need to do an SMC reset with Control-Option-Shift and the Power button to reset the System Management Control (SMC)
  • How hit the power and hold Command-S, then you get into single-user mode. This is great because if you have a GPU issue, this doesn't use graphics at all. So use Command-R to get into graphical recovery mode or Command-S if the graphics card is bad.
  • There is a command nvram that writes to the non-volatile RAM and has low-level configuration information. The basic trick is that you can see what is there nvram -p and write about it. The relevant key is huge but nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%00%00%00%00 turns on the dGPU and then nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00 turns off the dGPU. Then type exit and it tries to boot to graphical mode (if you were in iGPU mode it will be that way until you...)
  • Then and then boot the computer up and reset the PRAM with Command-Option-P-R held down and if it works, it will "bong" twice, once to reset the PRAM and the next to boot MacOS
  • I found that this doesn't work correctly, but if you download the gfxstatus application, and then tell it to do dynamic, then you see both graphics cards in the Apple > About menu.

    • Now you can see if this works by going to the MacOS about and seeing if the nVidia GPU is mentioned

    Getting OLCP on High Sierra

    The other problem is that the Safari browser on High Sierra is so old that it won't show the releases on Github for OLCP and brew doesn't work either, so I had to use MacUpdate to get OLCP

    I ended up having a dedicated High Sierra USB key with gfxCardStatus and OpenCore-Patcher and could see that as it changed in the status menu as it flipped from Intel only and then to showing both the discrete GPU and the integrated GPU.

    Getting to Ventura on MacBook Pro 2010

    Then finally I got to the MacBook Pro 2010 and discovered that the gfxstatus application can indeed flip the thing from iGPU only to discrete GPU, so I just use it to monitor where I am and not actually to change it. However, on every reboot, the nvram setting kept us at iGPU only as confirmed by Apple > About This Mac.

    MacBook Pro 2010 Venture Kernel Panic when running gfxstatus

    OK, I did get a kernel panic when I hit the F4 button. I'm not sure what this was as the iGPU was on, but continuing the installation now. One note on setting I had this is that I would have hangs all the time, then the idea of resetting the SMC with unplugging it from power and then holding the left-side SHIFT-OPTION-CONTROL keys worked. Followed by a PRAM reset by holding down power and then pressing Command-Option-P-R worked. Finally disabling gfxstatus which kept wanting to move to dynamic helped a lot.

    Finally issue is that for some reason on the MacBook Pro 2010, Command-S would hang at the trim command and then reboot, so I had to use Command-R (Internet Recovery) to reset the NVRAM. This is actually pretty painful as you have to boot and then download from the Internet, but worked.

    Once I disabled gfxstatus, all seems good.

    MacBook Pro 2014 headaches: works but install to EFI may be needed twice

    So the main issue here is that when you restart you end up High Sierra and you have to manually update to Big Sur before you do the OLCP Ventura update:

  • Start all over with Command-R while hitting the power button.
  • This will get you the High Sierra installation. I would just go to Disk Utility and erase the whole drive to make sure it clean
  • Once this installation is done, go to the Mac App Store and download the Big Sur installer. You probably want to copy it to a bootable USB to save it so you don't have to keep doing this.
  • Once Big Sur is installed, you can install OpenCore Legacy Pather and download Ventura, build the new EFI boot partition
  • One note is that with Ventura, you should not sign into Apple iCloud at the start, for some reason this causes the License Agreement screen that happens next not to show the OK button, so say Set Up Later and do it when it boots.
  • Now hold the option key and power to boot and select EFI boot. And it should run
  • The first time you start, OpenCore will detect you are booting from a USB drive and install on your boot drive and then you will be able to boot without the USB.
  • On this particular machine, unlike the others you have to use the Option key to boot, you can't just boot without it, and you get a no startup drive message the first time, but when I tried to reinstall the EFI boot partition, it magically started by itself.

    • MacBook Air 2014 Notes

    MacBook Air 2012 on Ventura rebuild after failed OLCP root patch. OK, the main note here is that I tried to update to the latest OLCP 1.3 and I started uploading a bunch of updates and this failed. So I was back to the start. You need to have your install Ventura USB key handy and this worked, although it took over an hour to get it back. The main note is that you need to be careful when installing root patches, don't do it over and over. What happened was the system just hung after the login. I think it was trying to rebuild the kext cache.

    Mac mini 2011: the ghost of searchagentd

    OK, this machine should be working great but has two strange problems:

  • There is a process called searchagentd associated

    • https://tongfamily.com/2024/01/22/mac-latest-olcp-tricks-disable-dgpu-searchpartyd-spin/

    #olcp #Reboot

    sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00 · Issue #41 · 0xbb/gpu-switch

    I would use the gpu-switch but the home page says: "WARNING: broken on macOS +10.12.4". Macbook Pro Early 2011 - Intel HD 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M - Mac OS Sierra 10.12.5 Test: Single-User mode...

    GitHub
    richJan 14, 2024

    OK, some gentle reminders on making everything work. The first is that if you are using Google Workspace, you currently have to allow Bard for all your users. This also enables Google AI Studio which you can use to manage your prompts for vision and test them and NotebookLM which is similar to the studio but for

    This is buried in the admin setup, but go to Google Workspace > Admin Console > Apps > Additional Google services > Early Access Apps, click this on and, then press Turn On.

    MacOS Setup checklist

    Man the list is actually pretty huge, but the basics are:

  • System Settings > Your Name > iCloud. Turn on all the "Apps Using iCloud". Note you have to wait for each toggle to move, you will have to wait a bit until the spinning daisy ends and note that the behavior on Sonoma is a little weird as the button will show off and then suddenly move again. These include iCloud Private Relay, Find My Mac, Calendars, Reminders, Safari, News, Notes,
  • System Settings > General > Sharing. I turn file sharing, media sharing, screen sharing, and Remote login on so I can manage it and look at the local hostname to make sure it looks correct. You correct the name in a completely different place in System Settings > General > About and the name is an editable text box although it looks grey. To make sharing easier, I also renamed the disk to the same as the hostname so when you access it you can tell where it came from.
  • System Settings > Control Center. This sort of strangely is where the menu bar settings are such as turning off Battery in the menu bar, showing keyboard brightness
  • System Settings > Network > Firewall. Turn this on
  • Systems Settings > Privacy & Security > FileVault so your disk is encrypted
  • System Settings > Internet Accounts. Add your Google account (or Microsoft if you must :-), it will have a suggestion list which is all the accounts it's seen before. You definitely want to do this early so you get your contacts and things populated.

    • Brew's many convenience applications

    Everyone has their own, but my list after the brew install is:

  • Coconut Battery. This is a better battery icon and tells you how much potential charge you have. Remove the system battery and make this run at startup.
  • Aldente. To keep your battery at 70% and save cycles. Make this run at startup.
  • Rectangle. For keyboard shortcuts to manage tiled windows. Make this run at startup. For big displays, I also set the 1/6th screen entries as Ctrl-Option-5 through 0 and this works well.
  • Dozer. To manage the mess that is your menubar. I use Bartender for Macs with a Notch. Make sure to set it to run at startup.
  • Authy. For two-factor authentication across multiple devices
  • AVG Antivirus. Decent and free. The setup is pretty arduous so be patient on slow machines. There are lots of permissions you need to give it, so make sure to use brew or the website to download it.
  • Google Chrome, Brave Browser, and Firefox. I use Chrome when I'm really in trouble, but Brave is great for multiple identities and doesn't leak content. I use Firefox because I love keyboard shortcut
  • Stats. To monitor CPU usage on the menubar'
  • iterm2. Because I can't stand the regular terminal. Then I turn on the Solarized Dark theme
  • neovim. This requires lots of setup, but it is much less painful than vi
  • bash. This is a later one and requires editing /etc/shell to enable but worth it.
  • Open Core Legacy Patcher. This normally gets blown away on installation and this gives you the latest one.

    • Then for paid applications. As an aside if you do buy these check Cashback Monitor as there are usually huge savings (like 60% off) especially for NordVPN:"

  • 1Password. Yes if only use Macs, you can use the Apple one, but this is pretty indispensable. You want to get this going right away so you can use Passkeys and the other passwords
  • Bartender. As I said above if you have a notch Mac. Make sure to pick launch on startup.
  • NordVPN. VPNs are pretty necessary. I turn on Threat Protection, Autoconnect and launch on start-up.
  • Superhuman. It's expensive, but you get to love it if you are a keyboard geek

    • This magical command will do it all after you do the brew install by copying the script at brew.sh

    brew install coconutbattery aldente rectangle dozer authy nordvpn avg-antivirus google-chrome google-drive brave-browser firefox opencore-patcher neovim superhuman bash

    Brave and Firefox Sync

    Well, this is simple for the Mac, but since I'm setting up so many machines with the upgrade to Ventura on my old Macs, but in order to get everything working, you need to:

  • Brave Sync Chain. Go to Settings > Sync > Sync Everything and then it will want a sync chain prompt. You should have one for your other browsers so save that in 1Password, you need to get a new 25th word all the time and the application by Alex Barabash gives it to you, so just store the 24 words and then add the last one.
  • Firefox Sync. Log in and go to Settings > Sync and make sure to select Sync all.
  • Safari Sync. You should have picked this up from System Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Safari

    • iMessage, Facetime, Mail and Contacts

    OK, now you have to the setup for the communications applications, at a minimum:

  • iMessage. Go to iMessage > Settings > iMessage > Enable iMessage in iCloud
  • iPhoto. Start it up so it can start syncing your photos

    • OLCP Maintenance

    OK, you will get new versions of OpenCore Legacy Patcher very so often and you have to do two things:

  • Start Opencore-patcher and have it build OpenCore and this will put new stuff in the boot partitions (these are tiny 200MB portions). You want this on both your USB flash drive and on the root partition of your machine.
  • Install root patches. YOu want this on the boot drive so it gets the latest fixes. YOu should only do this after installing a new operating system. Beware that I tried this with Sonoma and it ended up corrupting the system so do this sparingly.

    • Note that on really slow machines like a MacBook Pro 2010, don't be too alarmed, you will get a grey screen for 20 seconds before it really boots, so don't panic.

    Share this:

    https://tongfamily.com/2024/01/14/web-new-google-workspace-ai-browser-sync-and-olcp-updates/

    #homebrew #macbookPro2010 #olcp

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    Rich Tong ❤️🤷‍♂️Jan 14, 2024
    web: New Google Workspace AI, browser sync and OLCP updates
    OK, some gentle reminders on making everything work. The first is that if you are using Google Workspace, you currently have to allow Bard for all your users. This also enables Google AI Studio which you can use to manage your prompts for vision and test them and NotebookLM which is sim
    https://tongfamily.com/2024/01/14/web-new-google-workspace-ai-browser-sync-and-olcp-updates/
    #ai #Geek #mac #web #homebrew #MacbookPro2010 #olcp