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Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2008
797
363
Here is a guide that I think a few are looking for to help them open the door to other options outside of Nvidia Kepler GPUs like the GTX 680 that are rather old and quite expensive.

I'm going to do my best to break this into two sections, one about getting boot screen with a stock PC RX 580 with no flashing and a second section for getting the RX 580 working in Mojave 10.14.5 as these really seem to go hand in hand.

The Mojave portion of this guide will only work for 10.14.5 due to AMD Metal driver changes for other versions.
@Syncretic has a beta SSE 4.2 limited instruction emulation kext that will allow other versions of macOS
(I'm using it, and it works, no it is not included here until he has released it)

Side Notes:
My 3,1 has the iMac WiFi/BT combo card (BCM94360CD) installed, so I don't use the WiFi patch from dosdude.
My 3,1 BootROM has been modded with native APFS boot support and NVME boot support so I don't use the APFS patch from dosdude. If you want to try doing that the info is available but @h9826790 has mentioned it is risky of creating a real brick for your 3,1 due to a very convoluted setup on the motherboard for the flash memory holding the bootROM.
I also have Win 7 installed in legacy CSM mode, and the RX 580 works perfectly fine in windows with no messing around.

Section 1 - Boot Screen:
First you will want to install rEFInd to enable support for a boot screen that will provide, single user boot, verbose boot, and filevault access for GOP ROM enabled cards, like the RX 580.

You will need to use this version of rEFInd modified with GOP support and an added EFI driver from clover that allows for display support between the rEFInd boot picker and the OS splash screen, if you skip the EFI driver from Clover you will be able to pick a drive to boot to but you will have a blank screen between picking the OS drive and the macOS desktop.

Your /dev/disk## will likely be different, I've got a lot of hard drives and partitions in my machine.
You need to make sure you find the physical disk that contains your APFS partition containers that has your planned install location.

You can see that I have a disk that happens to be "disk1" which has 6 partitions on it, 3 of which are different APFS containers that contain different APFS volumes.

Obtain the output from "diskutil list" from Terminal, it should look somewhat like mine:
Partition '0' isn't really a partition at all, it just IDs it as GUID style partitioning.
Partition '1' is the "EFI" partition we are looking for and is where we want to install rEFInd.
Partitions '2, 3' contain various APFS MacOS installs
Partition '4' is going to be our target APFS partition later for the new copy of Mojave
Partition '5, 6' are HFS+ partitions containing MacOS installers (instead of booting from USB sticks)

Code:
/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk4         822.6 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_APFS Container disk3         66.3 GB    disk1s3
   4:                 Apple_APFS Container disk10        50.0 GB    disk1s7
   5:                  Apple_HFS old-installer           40.4 GB    disk1s4
   6:                  Apple_HFS Installer               20.4 GB    disk1s5

Now for the fun parts:
Download, unzip to your desktop to prepare for manual installation of rEFInd from here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qrXbRiFIfqeqaxgmZ8tPGQn4PIdLL_Hh

Now download the EFI driver from Clover to your Desktop:
https://github.com/NTT123/Hackintosh-HP-Z420-MacOS-High-Sierra-10.13-10.14/blob/master/CLOVER/drivers64UEFI/OsxAptioFix2Drv-64.efi?raw=true

Then from the Terminal, mount your EFI partition and copy rEFInd into place.
First make a mount point:
Code:
sudo mkdir /Volumes/EFI

Now mount the partition:
Code:
sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EFI

Now copy rEFInd over there (The EFI is there twice as the EFI partition has a folder called EFI in it at the root):
Code:
sudo cp -r ~/Desktop/refind /Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind

Now copy the driver from clover into place:
Code:
sudo cp ~/Desktop/OsxAptioFix2Drv-64.efi /Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind/drivers_x64/

If you open Finder you should now see something like this:
Pasted Graphic.png

Now we need to tell the Mac that we want to boot from rEFInd instead of macOS or windows.
Side Note: You may notice there is no refind.conf file, thats fine as you should be able to boot just fine using the default refind configuration, there is no need to create one, however there is a sample you could use to make one.

This command will tell the EFI to boot from this device going forwards.
Code:
sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind/REFIND.efi --shortform

You should now be able to reboot and see the rEFInd boot picker, it looks a little bit like apple's setup but has some other features.

This is what you should see in the about page in rEFInd to confirm you have the right version installed.
version 0.10.3+GOPScreen+MemLog

img_9958.jpg

Do not use ALT/OPTION to attempt to pick a boot drive, it will not work, do not change your boot drive from System Preferences as it will 'unbless' this refind boot method. You may want to setup a refind install on a USB stick to help you if needed in the future.

At this point your RX 580 will be able to have a boot screen (or any other GOP enabled ROM GPU), but you still won't have the ability to use the card in modern versions of macOS just yet due to the SSE4.2 CPU instruction set requirement from the AMD Drivers for Sierra (I think) and later, again it will work for Windows 7+ just fine, so if you want windows then you're done and can put the card in.

Section 2 - Mojave:
UPDATE -- As of 10/19/19 it is much simpler to use the now released SSE 4.2 emulator which allows for many other options of macOS with this card. Dosdude has included this in the Catalina patcher only at this time, but you can use the 'AAAmouSSE.kext' across multiple versions of macOS.


Retaining original 10.14.5 specific content should it be useful for someone...

Using the latest patcher for Mojave from @dosdude1 that includes the patch from @netkas for 10.14.5 AMD Metal GPU Driver you should be able to prepare an installation drive that should be able to boot with the RX 580 installed as he removed the AMD graphics acceleration which allows even the RX 580 to display an image in the 3,1.

My process will be using a clean install to a new partition, you could probably upgrade an older OS if desired but that contains risk for the first time users. I choose to install to a new partition and once I've confirmed it is able to handle my needs I then use the migration tool to move my user account, settings, applications, etc over to the new install ... pick your own path.

To make your life easier for later, download, extract, and copy this file over to your installer location (USB/partition, place in the root of the drive for easy access):
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=71892869756912266512

This is the DisableLibraryValidation.kext file that is needed to allow the netkas driver patch to work.

As you saw before I setup a new volume by splitting an existing APFS volume and will be installing to "MJ" (which is container disk10).

If you've prepared the 10.14.5 installer and staged the kext above in the root of the installer drive, you can now install your RX 580 now and boot up to the installer using your new refind boot loader.

Install macOS to your desired location "MJ" in my case.

Do not Restart when done as it will change the "bless" option and you won't be able to boot into the installer again without some effort and it will be panicking due to the Apple Telemetry Plugin as you haven't run the post install tool yet.

We will fix the bless setting again before we reboot, which should be persistent going forwards, unless you install a new copy of macOS (updates don't appear to break it so far).

Open Terminal
Note this assumes that your disk is still disk1, you can verify this again with "diskutil list" if needed.
Code:
mkdir /Volumes/EFI
mount -t msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EFI
bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind/REFIND.efi --shortform

Now that we will be able to reboot when needed, let's continue preparation for Mojave.
Copy your DisableLibraryValidation.kext over from the installer drive and correct permissions.

Code:
cp -r /Volumes/Installer/DisableLibraryValidation.kext /Volumes/MJ/Library/Extensions/DisableLibraryValidation.kext
chown -R 0:0 /Volumes/MJ/Library/Extensions/DisableLibraryValidation.kext
chmod -R 755 /Volumes/MJ/Library/Extensions/DisableLibraryValidation.kext

Start the Post Install tool from DosDude1

Choose the patches you need, then tell it to reboot.
DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT USE THE LEGACY VIDEO PATCH.

IMG_1314 copy.jpg

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT USE THE LEGACY VIDEO PATCH.
After the reboot you should come up to rEFInd
(if not you may have failed to apply the bless command properly)

Boot MJ into single user mode (use F2 to get extended boot options for this drive)

We need to boot single user to manually sign the modified driver as netkas's signature is rejected by macOS (I can only guess as to why it happens, perhaps a self-signed file only works from the machine that signed it) and you can't use codesign from the installer.

Code:
mount -uw /
kextload /Library/Extensions/DisableLibraryValidation.kext
cd /System/Library/Extensions/AMDMTLBronzeDriver.bundle/
codesign -f -s - ./Contents/MacOS/AMDMTLBronzeDriver
exit

Notes:
Due to text wrapping on the terminal it is easier for you to "cd" part of the way to the AMD Metal driver instead of trying to type the whole path in for codesign.
Kextcache will likely run after you type exit, and the Mac will then likely auto reboot which is fine, as you should now be able to boot MJ normally with full AMD GPU Metal acceleration bypassing the SSE 4.2 requirements.

You should see welcome wizard or continued setup if you did an upgrade I suppose.
If you see a cursor and grey / black flickering screens you didn't get the signing done correctly or didn't load the DisableLibraryValidation.kext correctly.

You are done, now don't install any macOS updates, or you will break your video driver.
Feel free to enable / use FileVault, as it will "just work" for the 3,1 and now with your setup you don't need to hang on to an ancient GPU for "boot screens".

Screen Shot 2019-10-09 at 11.17.53 PM.png

Now if you want more fun, look at enabling AMD Hardware Acceleration for h264 / HEVC video encode / decode which will let you play 4k content on the 3,1 flawlessly with very low CPU usage. I'm using this and it has been a very nice addition to the 3,1.


Once the SSE4.2 limited instruction set emulation kext by @Syncretic is released from beta, this will allow you to run with the RX 580 on any version of macOS that the GPU is supported in (Catalina as well) and there will be less messing around as it should be able to be properly integrated into the dosdude1 patcher eliminating the need for the single user mode actions.

Screen Shot 2019-10-10 at 12.36.22 AM.jpg

Ideally, I'll update this post when that is released.
 
Last edited:

joot

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2006
110
21
Thanks for the write up. Does the Bootrom need to be updated first or anything? What is I wanted to go straight to Catalina, will Dosdude's Catalina patcher suffice?
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2008
797
363
Thanks for the write up. Does the Bootrom need to be updated first or anything? What is I wanted to go straight to Catalina, will Dosdude's Catalina patcher suffice?
At this time you can only use 10.14.5 (or windows 7+) using this guide if you want to have graphics acceleration. Dosdude‘s patcher makes things easier for sure.

You don’t need to do anything to your BootROM. The APFS patch provides by dosdude is sufficient.

Once the emulation kext from Syncretic has been released to the masses then you could go direct to Catalina at that time with the aid of the dosdude patcher.
 

joot

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2006
110
21
At this time you can only use 10.14.5 (or windows 7+) using this guide if you want to have graphics acceleration. Dosdude‘s patcher makes things easier for sure.

You don’t need to do anything to your BootROM. The APFS patch provides by dosdude is sufficient.

Once the emulation kext from Syncretic has been released to the masses then you could go direct to Catalina at that time with the aid of the dosdude patcher.

Thank you...
 
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Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2008
797
363
The sse4.2 emulator has been released !! That takes care of a lot of the pain of using the 3,1 with modern AMD cards and modern macOS.

 

joot

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2006
110
21
The sse4.2 emulator has been released !! That takes care of a lot of the pain of using the 3,1 with modern AMD cards and modern macOS.



How do we use this file?
 

Dayo

macrumors 68020
Dec 21, 2018
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Struggling to follow the instructions.
Currently have HiSierra on one drive and trying to go the Mojave by installing on another empty one on my 3,1 MacPro.

I am using an Nvidia card that does not have Mojave support and will like to switch to RX 580

What I have done so far:
  • Followed the Step 1 instructions
    • Drive is formatted as APFS
    • Noticed when I mount EFI as per instructions, I don't have anything in the EFI folder unlike the image posted with a lot of stuff in there
      • So ."../EFI/EFI" not valid as no first EFI folder in root to start with
  • Muddled thorugh with single "EFI" path
  • Inserted RX 580 but just got pale screen after a lot of text with errors mentioned
    • Could not select Mojave USB as didn;t get option to sellect startup disk after holding down option key.
  • Ultimately Managed to get back to HiSierra after restoring the Nvidia Card and reformated proposed Mojave Disk
I will love to know what I have missed in the process.

I suppose the first question is that can the DosDude be booted with RX 580 in the first place?
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2008
797
363
your 200MB EFI partition should have an EFI folder at the 'root' of the drive
which is where the whole EFI/EFI part comes from... some people call the EFI partition the ESP partition if that helps.

what kind of errors did you see?

don't use the option key ... refind will boot to its own version of the option key style boot menu to allow you to pick a drive.

Getting the dosdude stick to boot with the 580 can be a pain as he hasn't / won't make the updates to it that i've requested.
He either needs to remove all the AMD drivers or include the SSE emulation kext in the installer, neither of which he is willing to do.

That means to get the RX card to boot a dosdude installer you will have to boot the USB in single user mode with a working refind setup and remove the AMD drivers and then reboot the USB installer to get it to load to the point where you can install and then patch things.
 
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Dayo

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Dec 21, 2018
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Figured a few things out.

My EFI is blank because the disk I want to install to is blank while your setup instructions are based on a disk that already has the OS installed in other partitions.

Is the process to follow therefore:
  1. Install AAAMouSSE.kext
  2. Carry Out Part 1 instructions
    1. Mount EFI (Which is currently blank)
    2. Create EFI folder in new EFI volume
    3. Copy stuff into "EFI/EFI" folder
    4. Bless as boot target
  3. Carry Out Part 2 instructions
???

Also, could it be that the booting into refind probably didn't work because the disk was blank?
 

Dayo

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Dec 21, 2018
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2020-04-19: SUPERSEDED BY NEW INSTRUCTIONS

Finally managed to get this done:
mod Mojave ScreenshotNew.jpg


Took multiple goes at it before I succeeded in a satisfactory way and needed a few small changes to the instructions in the first post.

This was probably because I messed things up myself but here is a Noob to Noob guide on implementing this.


Requirements
  • DosDude1 USB for Mojave created using v1.3.7 or later of DosDude1 patcher.
  • Current Graphics Card that can open Mojave.
    • Doesn't need to be accelerated in Mojave, just one that can simply boot into Mojave E.G., Radeon 5770. Most my issues came from trying to do this with the RX 580 installed.
    • Easier to deal with the blessing after everything is done as when the DosDude installer finishes, it will reboot 10 seconds after. If you miss this and dont run stuff you are supposed to before, you might have issues.
    • So better to simply install Mojave first and then roll this after
    • This uses your current card to set things up fully and only swap in the RX 580 at the end.
  • KextBeast to install kexts
    • The commands for dealing with DisableLibraryValidation.kext such as...
Code:
chown -R 0:0 /Volumes/MJ/Library/Extensions/DisableLibraryValidation.kext

did not work for me. I needed...

Code:
chown -R root:wheel /Volumes/MJ/Library/Extensions/DisableLibraryValidation.kext

but using kextbeast bypasses all these issues.


Step 1: Install Mojave
  • Create DosDude1 Mojave USB and install Mojave following the Standard DosDoude1 Process.
    • Don't apply any of the adjustments in Section 2 of Post 1 for now. Just get Mojave installed.
    • Remember to heed the warning by @Ludacrisvp not to do the legacy video card patch.
    • Use v1.3.7 or later of DosDude1 patcher
Step 2: Create Boot Volume
  • Create a small HFS+ partition using Disk Utility.
    • Only needs to about 30mb ... I went crazy and use 512mb.
    • I called mine "Boot" and the instructions will reflect this.
  • Create "EFI" Folder
Code:
sudo mkdir /Volumes/Boot/EFI
  • Download rEFInd using the link provided in Post 1 or use this themed version I created which gives a nicer macOS styling to things: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Z9pBwIm44Hm7Zq5IzrrIqd5MP-E0jCqP
    • The default rEFInd interface, as with most such, is ugly
    • Already includes the EFI driver from Clover from Post 1.
    • Only includes the relevant efi file from Post 1 and this has been renamed as refind.efi.
    • Disables the autoboot in theme.conf
  • Unpack to your desktop
  • Copy rEFInd to the Boot volume
Code:
sudo cp -r ~/Desktop/refind /Volumes/Boot/EFI
  • Bless the boot volume
    • After this, all booting will be via the new boot volume
Code:
sudo bless --setBoot --folder /Volumes/Boot/EFI/refind --file /Volumes/Boot/EFI/refind/refind.efi
  • Reboot and you should get the rEFInd Boot Manager.
    • Check the "About" section and made sure it says SIP is disabled
      • If it says it is not, and using the version I linked above, toggle SIP off using the small maroon shield icon on the second row
    • Select your Mojave drive and proceed
    • If anything is funky, Reboot, reset the NVRAM, reboot again and start over.
Step 3: Activate RX 580
  • Shut down, insert the RX 580 and you should be done and set up when you reboot!
    • Keep a copy of your original card for last ditch recovery
--- EDIT ---

Step 4: Optional "reBlesser" Launch Daemon

Some processes may will reset your startup disk when they run.
CC Cloner for instance, appears to reset the startup disk to the current disk every time it runs.

So I created a Launch Daemon, reBlesser, that periodically checks whether refind volume is blessed and if it is not, it blesses it.

Requires the the rEFInd version I linked under Step 2 above. and is geared for rEFInd installations on a HFS+ boot volume and not for installations into the disk EFI partition.
  • Some edits if your rEFInd volume is not called "Boot":
    • Open the /Desktop/refind/added/reblesser/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist file from the rEFInd version I linked under Step 2 and change the "Program" string from "/Volumes/Boot/EFI/refind/added/reblesser/reBless.sh" to "/Volumes/YOURVOLUME/EFI/refind/added/reblesser/reBless.sh"
    • Open the /Desktop/refind/added/reblesser/reBless.sh file from the Step 2 rEFInd version and edit the "EFIPATH" at the top.
  • Copy the reBlesser Launch Daemon plist file from the rEFInd version I linked above to your /Library/LaunchDaemons folder
Code:
sudo cp -r ~/Desktop/refind/added/reblesser/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist

  • Duplicate and amend the comand above to copy to every bootable drive you have.
    • This is to make sure the daemon is launched which ever drive you boot into.
  • Probably a good idea to set permissions as copying process may have messed this up despite entering password:
For current volume:
Code:
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Volumes/ABCXYZ/Library/LaunchDaemons/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist

For other volumes:
Code:
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Volumes/ABCXYZ/Library/LaunchDaemons/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist
  • Start the daemon (It starts once the plist file is loaded by launchctl)
Code:
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist
  • This will check your startup disk at intervals and should this not be rEFInd for any reason, it will reset it back to rEFInd.
  • The daemon is enabled on every boot when enabled
  • Changing the "Disabled" string in your "/Library/LaunchDaemons/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist" file to "true" will disable the daemon while "false" will enable it.
    • After such edits, run the combined unload and load commands below for them to take effect. (launchctl has no reload command).
Code:
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist && sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/xyz.o1sr.reblesser.plist

  • This should keep rEFInd always being the boot target
  • Actions are logged to "/Library/Logs/reBlessDaemon.log"
 
Last edited:

egetrop

macrumors newbie
Dec 2, 2019
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0
Hello, I'm new here and followed the instructions by ludacrisvp and dayo but...I don't get the boot screen/rEFInd. I did get it before with the original ATI 2600 card before I swapped the RX580 in. macOS eventually loads and I can login and see that the RX 580 is detected properly - works great! However, I am on Catalina 10.15.1. Could it because of this macOS version that I don't see the boot screen/rEFInd? I've tried re-blessing and also resetting NVRAM. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 

DearthnVader

macrumors 68000
Dec 17, 2015
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Red Springs, NC
Hello, I'm new here and followed the instructions by ludacrisvp and dayo but...I don't get the boot screen/rEFInd. I did get it before with the original ATI 2600 card before I swapped the RX580 in. macOS eventually loads and I can login and see that the RX 580 is detected properly - works great! However, I am on Catalina 10.15.1. Could it because of this macOS version that I don't see the boot screen/rEFInd? I've tried re-blessing and also resetting NVRAM. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Have you modified the RX580 bios in any way?
 

egetrop

macrumors newbie
Dec 2, 2019
9
0
I have not flashed it. It's a stock Asus DUAL-RX580-O8G. I simply followed dosdude1's catalina patcher on my Mac Pro 3,1 then tried to follow the instructions on this post. The card works, even gets detected properly, just no boot screen or rEFInd.
 

Dayo

macrumors 68020
Dec 21, 2018
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Did refind work with your old card?

Btw, once you reset NVRAM, the blessing is reset as well and refind boot will not work until blessed again.
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2008
797
363
The OS version won’t matter with the boot screen from refind working or not.

My best guesses are:
refind isn’t in the EFI partition that you think it is (how many drives do you have)
your bless command failed (perhaps typo or unique config difference?)
you blessed the wrong refind efi file
macos installer does bless the newly installed OS to boot which will override what you had manually set.
Catalina requires SIP to be off to use bless manually as far as I recall (which you probably need disabled anyways)
[automerge]1575516850[/automerge]
side note ... re-reading @Dayo’s steps ... you mentioned your chown command didn’t work, did you do zero:zero (0:0) or the letter “O” (O:O)? As the UID/GID for root:wheel is 0:0
 

egetrop

macrumors newbie
Dec 2, 2019
9
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Did refind work with your old card?

Btw, once you reset NVRAM, the blessing is reset as well and refind boot will not work until blessed again.
Yes, refind worked when I had the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB card. I've reset the NVRAM, ran the blessing again but no refind menu. The monitor's screen is black and the LED shows amber like no signal is being received, then the LED goes white and the login screen for Catalina shows up and I can login.
[automerge]1575518413[/automerge]
The OS version won’t matter with the boot screen from refind working or not.

My best guesses are:
refind isn’t in the EFI partition that you think it is (how many drives do you have)
your bless command failed (perhaps typo or unique config difference?)
you blessed the wrong refind efi file
macos installer does bless the newly installed OS to boot which will override what you had manually set.
Catalina requires SIP to be off to use bless manually as far as I recall (which you probably need disabled anyways)
[automerge]1575516850[/automerge]
side note ... re-reading @Dayo’s steps ... you mentioned your chown command didn’t work, did you do zero:zero (0:0) or the letter “O” (O:O)? As the UID/GID for root:wheel is 0:0

This is my diskutil list:

devdisk0 (internal, physical).png



I use ESP Mounter Pro to easily get into my EFI partition.
Q Search.png

I run your command to bless the file:
sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind/REFIND.efi --shortform

I did not use the chown command as I used Kextbeast from Dayo's instructions. The card does work once I'm in Catalina. I'm going to try going through the steps again with the RX 580 already installed.
 
Last edited:

Dayo

macrumors 68020
Dec 21, 2018
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you mentioned your chown command didn’t work, did you do zero:zero (0:0) or the letter “O” (O:O)? As the UID/GID for root:wheel is 0:0

I can't believe I would have used letter “O” (O:O) instead of zero:zero (0:0) but not outside the realms of possibility. Kextbeast worked well and better anyway.

Side Note: Actually no need for any kext installation with latest versions of the DosDude patcher.
[automerge]1575519848[/automerge]
Yes, refind worked when I had the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB card. I've reset the NVRAM, ran the blessing again but no refind menu. The monitor's screen is black and the LED shows amber like no signal is being received, then the LED goes white and the login screen for Catalina shows up and I can login.
Aha! Now I get that the issue is not that the whole thing fails but that the rEFInd Boot Screen is skipped and you go straight to the OS Splash Screen.

I had that when I tried to follow @Ludacrisvp instructions. Wasn't sure whether it was because I had messed something up along the line and while it was a nice and fast boot experience, I wanted to have the rEFInd Boot Screen so I could swap drives etc.

I run your command to bless the file:
sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind/REFIND.efi --shortform
Probably best to fully follow one or the other of the instructions. You will notice that the bless command I gave is slightly different to the original. The shortform tag was causing problems for me for instance. Also not using the mount tag as installing to a boot volume (This can be a USB Drive).
 
Last edited:

egetrop

macrumors newbie
Dec 2, 2019
9
0
When I had refind working with the original 2600 card, I set a timeout of 5 secs within refind.conf. I continually tested rebooting and had no issues with refind working and loading the OS with the DisableLibraryValidation.kext in place. Today I received my dual 6-pin to 8-pin cable and removed the 2600 and installed the RX 580 in its place. I'm using an HDMI cable out to my HP 1080P monitor. I notice that if I remove the 5 sec timeout from refind.conf that upon rebooting the monitor's screen is just black and the led amber. I hit Enter and a few seconds later the OS loads and I am able to login and the card works. I think it's working but I just can't see what is on the screen...
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 14, 2008
797
363
Lack of shortform tag can cause long delays during boot from what I recall.
i would try other ports on the card I suppose.

You have a refind.log file generated inside the EFI partition ... can you post it?
 
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