MP 1,1-5,1 OCLP 1.4.2 MP 5,1. Issues at boot picker and keyboard issues e.g. CAPS LOCK and repeat

[cliverlong]

In my MP 5,1 has 3 boot drives with: Ventura, Monterey, Linux/Ubuntu. I chose this setup so if I somehow "ruined" one of the disk I would still have a bootable system. Also it should allow me to upgrade the Monterey to Sonoma and if that turns out to be a disaster I should be able to fall back to the Ventura system.

The graphics card is RX580.

Now I have OCLP 1.4.2 installed with root patches on the Ventura and Monterey drives.

When the system boots into any OS, I have no problems or issues with the stability of the system, no problems with bluetooth wifi etc.

Issues

1: When I boot the MP5,1, often after the boot chime the bootpicker shows the icons of the three disks , but very faint. Also the cursor cannot be moved using either the mouse or the right and left cursor control key. So a particular OS cannot be slected at this point in the boot process. Then OCLP will timeout on this screen and successfully boot the "highlighted" OS. If I then power down and restart the machine after about 3 attempts the three OS boot icons are clear and bright, the mouse responds and the cursor control key does work allowing me to select any of the three systems to boot.

2: In the Ventura and Monterey systems, when booted, 1. the CAPS LOCK key, 2. the left and right cursor control keys, and any repeat by holding down any key does not work. However, when the Linux Ubuntu system is booted, all these keys listed DO work.

3. Although OCLP 1.4.2 is installed with boot patches on the Monterey and Ventura disks, when I remove the Ventura disk (leaving Monterey and Linux disks), I hear the boot chime at machine power up but the screen remains black and neither the Monterey not Linux/Ubuntu boot. I would like to be able to boot the system with the Ventura disk removed then upgrade the Monterey disk to Sonoma. If that upgrade to Sonoma is a disaster I can put the Ventura disk back in and boot the system. I don't want to risk having an unbootable system.

Separately, I am still trying to understand how the Mac Pro selects its boot drive. In Windows/Intel BIOS/UEFI it is possible to go into BIOS/UEFI and either set a default boot drive or select a boot drive override. I have read https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/HOW.html but I can't find how the boot drive is selected. What am I missing?

Thanks

 

[cliverlong]

Trying to recall what I did

1. I found, downloaded and installed EFI mounter. I think there are several tools to access / modify the EFI partition. Output below(*)

2. I navigated in the config.plist XML file in EFI\OC folder. Then I opened config.plist using text editor Misc > Boot > Timeout and changed the value "5" to "10" saving the update. This gives enough time for all the bootable drives/ partitions to become visible after power on, and I can select which OS to boot.

3. I upgraded OCLP to 1.4.2 then accepted the upgrade of the Ventura partition. After the Ventura upgrade the third monitor did not display an image and the screen refresh was agonisingly slow. I ran OCLP 1.4.2 post-installation root patches, Rebooted Ventura and all problems were fixed: third display working in extended mode, screen refresh as quick as I needed. After the upgrade to Ventura 13.6.6 the problem with keyboard repeats not working was fixed. So if I hold down a key on an input field or document, the held key repeats.

So, issues fixed.

(*) MountEFI output:

#######################################################


# MountEFI #


#######################################################


1. EFI | 209.7 MB | EFI | disk2s1

2. MacOS Sonoma - Data | 249.6 GB | APFS | disk3s1 *

3. MacOS Sonoma | 249.6 GB | APFS | disk3s5 *

4. Lexar SSD Ventura | 255.9 GB | APFS | disk4s4s1


5. Win10_clone | 240.1 GB | Microsoft basic data | disk5s1



S. Switch to Full Output

B. Mount the Boot Drive's EFI

C. Mount the Booted EFI (Clover/OC)

L. Show diskutil list Output


D. Pick Default Disk (None Set)

M. After Mounting: None


R. Toggle Window Resizing (Currently Enabled)


Q. Quit


(* denotes the booted EFI (Clover/OC))


Pick the drive containing your EFI:

 

[Macschrauber]

Dont use clover on a MP, you will brick your bootrom.

You can use my ESP Tools for identifying, mounting, labeling etc the bootloaders.

You can use the Dumper to read the boot order and bootvars.

All in the dumper package: https://github.com/Macschrauber/Macschrauber-s-Rom-Dump