Guide: Black boot screen + white Apple logo on "unsupported" Macs (boot.efi hack)

[w0lf]

ok,, worked, however where does it update ?

I looked at /System/Library/ Coreservices boot.efi which i assume is *not* updated because its locked and stays locked after applying changes in the app, so i assume app cannot "re-lock" the boot.efi automatically without user intervention it again.

Knowing that,,, the update has to be stored elsewhere... the above app works, but i'd still like to know where the the change is updated to on the Mac.

com.apple.boot.plist revealed no hints either

NVRAM. This is using the method posted by dabrain13 earlier in this thread just automated. The EFI hack stuff from earlier in this thread is dead, and good riddance, it was terribly unsafe.

Hate to post on a dead thread, but I tried w0lfschild DarkBoot app without any success. After some hunting in the OS system files, it appears that you can set this boot option in the NVRAM. Try:

sudo nvram 4d1ede05-38c7-4a6a-9cc6-4bcca8b38c14:DefaultBackgroundColor=%00%00%00

 

[Tech198]

For some reason Dark Boot app above or sudo does not 'stick' after a second restart.. although it does work after reboot the first time.

Similarly, if u clear NVRAM (Command-Option+P+R) it is only temporary as well... If I set background color manually via sudo, whatever was initally "applied" with Dark mode always hols true
Anyway to fix?

Tried "Restore to defaults" as background but didn't work
..

Now i'm left with green background at boot with small grey Apple logo image in center.

Update: I replaced boot.efi from BaseSystem.dmg from Yomsemite installer, as root user (THis stuff is easy )

However this did nothing to replace the green screen.... so its not in efi... and clearing NVRAM did nothinng long term... so what's the sloution apart from probably upgrading then downgrading ?

It applied the background with Dark boot, initially, but now won't change. I'm thinking maybe now i know why someone mentioned before about using the above sudo was not a good idea? *shugs* although i can't understand why, since Dark boot does exactly the same..

Update 2: All fixed. I figure the EFI hack was to blame since i ended up wiping SSD clearing all partitions, even the 200MB one, and starting over..

 

[dabrain13]

NVRAM method confirmed working with macOS Sierra public beta!

 

[Dushan Dobreek]

Hello,

does it work also on El Capitan?

Thanks

 

[w0lf]

Hello,

does it work also on El Capitan?

Thanks

Works on at least 10.9 - 10.12

 

[JMVB]

Didn't work for me

Yosemite 10.10.4
Macbook pro 15" 8.2, late 2011, i7

This is my board id (same as the example)

And this is my actual modified boot.efi

I don't know why don't work

PDT: I have my mac with efi firmware protection, just in case...



--------------------- EDIT --------------------

Nevermind, I used DarkBoot-NVRAM and got it work

 

[tanayxbox]

Would this hack work in mac sierra, the new update.

 

[dabrain13]

Would this hack work in mac sierra, the new update.

Use https://github.com/w0lfschild/DarkBoot. It works for sure works on 10.12. DO NOT use the EFI hack featured in the first post. There's a new method via NVRAM manipulation which is automated in w0lfschild's app.

 

[cube]

Is there a path here to boot a supported Mac into Windows with eGPU?

 

[Giacomo04]

This is a guide for enabling the black boot screen + white Apple logo on "unsupported" Macs.

It should in theory work on all 64-bit EFI Macs.

WARNING: A small mistake or even just a fluke problem could potentially prevent your Yosemite partition from booting. Make sure you have a backup of it! I'm not responsible for anything that happens to your Mac.

NOTE: When you run an update it's possible that it could revert this, so you may have to repeat the process again after the update.

UPDATE: w0lf has been kind enough to write a script to automate this process! This link will always have the latest version: https://github.com/w0lfschild/DarkBoot
note: You may have to make DarkBoot.command executable after downloading. Put it on your desktop, open the Terminal and type the following:

cd ~/Downloads && chmod +x DarkBoot.command

The following method is how to do this manually, but it's outdated so it won't work on current versions of Yosemite. I have left it here for informational purposes.

If you want to see what the current script is doing, you can open it in a text editor.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you boot back into an older version of OS X after doing this, it will boot with a completely black screen. On the next boot, you will have your white screen back in both pre-10.10 and 10.10 versions. To get the black Yosemite screen again, just reboot into your Yosemite partition twice.

For this guide you need:
-A hex editor such as HexFiend
-Preferably some basic terminal knowledge... however I have done my best to make this guide as fool-proof as possible so even if you have no terminal knowledge you should be able to do it.

First off, I would like to thank Pike R. Alpha for explaining how boot.efi determines whether to use a black or white boot screen, as seen here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/298808-can-we-get-back-the-apple-logo-on-boot/?p=2036030 Also, thanks to VanillaCracker who explained how he got this to work on his 2012 Mac Mini in that same thread.

What this hack does is it simply checks the board id of your Mac to determine if it supports the black boot screen.

So basically, what we will be doing is changing one of the "supported" board id's to our own to trick it into thinking our Mac is supported.

Here's how to do it:

1. First, you need to get the board id of your Mac model.
EDIT: Thanks to w0lf, here is a script you can use to tell you your board id:

var_ID=$(ioreg -p IODeviceTree -r -n / -d 1 | grep board-id);var_ID=${var_ID##*<\"};var_ID=${var_ID%%\">};echo $var_ID

View attachment 479568
As you can see, the board id for my MacBookPro8,1 is Mac-94245B3640C91C81.
2. Now let's back up the boot.efi file just in case. Make a folder on your desktop called "efi_backup" and copy /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi to that folder.
3. Now make another folder called "new_efi" for example, drag boot.efi into that folder. Note that the icon has a lock on it:
View attachment 479434
This means that NO user can modify the permissions or ownership of the file, not even the root user. Let's fix this so we can actually modify it.
4. Open the terminal and navigate to your new efi folder:

cd ~/Desktop/new_efi/

5. Type this command to disable the lock flag for the file:

sudo chflags nouchg boot.efi

6. Make sure you have write permissions:

sudo chmod 755 boot.efi

7. Now we're going to edit boot.efi to tell it that our Mac supports the black boot screen. Open it up with HexFiend, click on the right column, and search for "Mac-" (make sure you have the dash). You should see a bunch of Mac board id's. Highlight one of them, in this example I am using the third one which is Mac-35C1E88140C3E6CF. That's the MacBookAir6,1 board id. Replace that with your board id, which again in my case is Mac-94245B3640C91C81.
View attachment 479433
NOTE: If you have an 8-digit board id, the last 8 digits of the board number you are replacing will have to be replaced with spaces (this can be done by going to the hex side of the window and replacing that section of the board number with 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00)
Save the file and exit hex fiend.
8. Now let's replace the original boot.efi file. Since the file is locked, we need to unlock the original before it will let us replace it, just like we did before:

sudo chflags nouchg /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

9. Drag your newly modified boot.efi file into the CoreServices folder to replace it, and type in your password when prompted.
10. The last thing we need to do is set ownership+permissions and re-lock the file:

sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

sudo chown root:wheel /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

sudo chflags uchg /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

11. Now let's reboot! You will most likely need to reboot twice for the settings to take effect.
Here is the result:
View attachment 479431
View attachment 479432

I'm extremely happy with this hack, I hope some of you will find it as useful as I have!

If this guide is useful to you, please check out my music in my signature.

I have a problem with this hack:When it type in the sudo chflags nouchg boot.efi after the ls Desktop (i copied the file to my desktop)it asks for my password,I put my password and the terminal says chflags:boot.efi:no such file or directory and it does not unlock the file.What should i try?Edit:using
sudo chflags nouchg (drag the file now)
worked
[doublepost=1492438840][/doublepost]

This is a guide for enabling the black boot screen + white Apple logo on "unsupported" Macs.

It should in theory work on all 64-bit EFI Macs.

WARNING: A small mistake or even just a fluke problem could potentially prevent your Yosemite partition from booting. Make sure you have a backup of it! I'm not responsible for anything that happens to your Mac.

NOTE: When you run an update it's possible that it could revert this, so you may have to repeat the process again after the update.

UPDATE: w0lf has been kind enough to write a script to automate this process! This link will always have the latest version: https://github.com/w0lfschild/DarkBoot
note: You may have to make DarkBoot.command executable after downloading. Put it on your desktop, open the Terminal and type the following:

cd ~/Downloads && chmod +x DarkBoot.command

The following method is how to do this manually, but it's outdated so it won't work on current versions of Yosemite. I have left it here for informational purposes.

If you want to see what the current script is doing, you can open it in a text editor.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you boot back into an older version of OS X after doing this, it will boot with a completely black screen. On the next boot, you will have your white screen back in both pre-10.10 and 10.10 versions. To get the black Yosemite screen again, just reboot into your Yosemite partition twice.

For this guide you need:
-A hex editor such as HexFiend
-Preferably some basic terminal knowledge... however I have done my best to make this guide as fool-proof as possible so even if you have no terminal knowledge you should be able to do it.

First off, I would like to thank Pike R. Alpha for explaining how boot.efi determines whether to use a black or white boot screen, as seen here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/298808-can-we-get-back-the-apple-logo-on-boot/?p=2036030 Also, thanks to VanillaCracker who explained how he got this to work on his 2012 Mac Mini in that same thread.

What this hack does is it simply checks the board id of your Mac to determine if it supports the black boot screen.

So basically, what we will be doing is changing one of the "supported" board id's to our own to trick it into thinking our Mac is supported.

Here's how to do it:

1. First, you need to get the board id of your Mac model.
EDIT: Thanks to w0lf, here is a script you can use to tell you your board id:

var_ID=$(ioreg -p IODeviceTree -r -n / -d 1 | grep board-id);var_ID=${var_ID##*<\"};var_ID=${var_ID%%\">};echo $var_ID

View attachment 479568
As you can see, the board id for my MacBookPro8,1 is Mac-94245B3640C91C81.
2. Now let's back up the boot.efi file just in case. Make a folder on your desktop called "efi_backup" and copy /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi to that folder.
3. Now make another folder called "new_efi" for example, drag boot.efi into that folder. Note that the icon has a lock on it:
View attachment 479434
This means that NO user can modify the permissions or ownership of the file, not even the root user. Let's fix this so we can actually modify it.
4. Open the terminal and navigate to your new efi folder:

cd ~/Desktop/new_efi/

5. Type this command to disable the lock flag for the file:

sudo chflags nouchg boot.efi

6. Make sure you have write permissions:

sudo chmod 755 boot.efi

7. Now we're going to edit boot.efi to tell it that our Mac supports the black boot screen. Open it up with HexFiend, click on the right column, and search for "Mac-" (make sure you have the dash). You should see a bunch of Mac board id's. Highlight one of them, in this example I am using the third one which is Mac-35C1E88140C3E6CF. That's the MacBookAir6,1 board id. Replace that with your board id, which again in my case is Mac-94245B3640C91C81.
View attachment 479433
NOTE: If you have an 8-digit board id, the last 8 digits of the board number you are replacing will have to be replaced with spaces (this can be done by going to the hex side of the window and replacing that section of the board number with 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00)
Save the file and exit hex fiend.
8. Now let's replace the original boot.efi file. Since the file is locked, we need to unlock the original before it will let us replace it, just like we did before:

sudo chflags nouchg /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

9. Drag your newly modified boot.efi file into the CoreServices folder to replace it, and type in your password when prompted.
10. The last thing we need to do is set ownership+permissions and re-lock the file:

sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

sudo chown root:wheel /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

sudo chflags uchg /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

11. Now let's reboot! You will most likely need to reboot twice for the settings to take effect.
Here is the result:
View attachment 479431
View attachment 479432

I'm extremely happy with this hack, I hope some of you will find it as useful as I have!

If this guide is useful to you, please check out my music in my signature.

I need help:I'm reinstalling Mountain Lion back on my mac.Before formatting i want to disable the black boot screen and get the white one back.So i want to delete the board id from the boot.efi of El Capitan file,reboot twice and reinstall ML.But i can't find Mac-031AEE4D24BFF0B1 (the 2012 Mac Mini one) to delete it.My Mac does support the black boot screen natively so the board ID should be there.Any idea about how to fix?

 

[czh6888]

NVRAM. This is using the method posted by dabrain13 earlier in this thread just automated. The EFI hack stuff from earlier in this thread is dead, and good riddance, it was terribly unsafe.

I use your dark boot app it can change my boot screen to dark boot screen, but It has a problem in boot menu. The select disk text is miss . I THINK THAT MAYBE THE TEXT COLOR STILL BLACK. It maybe has some other command to change the text color

 

[senpaianimewatcherlol69]

Thanks a lot for doing this !

However, using 10.10.4 beta (14E36b) I get the black boot screen on my 2012 mini without using Dark Boot.

thats because it only natively works on 2011 and newer Macs. if pre-2011 then you'll have to use the hack to get dark boot screen