Set Primary Monitor for Booting?

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I've got a late 2012 Mac Mini with two external displays. The problem is that the primary monitor in front of me is NOT being used as the boot monitor. In other words, even though it's set up in OSX monitors to have the menu bar thingy in the picture (normally sets primary monitor) and it has the side-mounted dock bar (which doesn't move so yes it's the primary monitor), it does not BOOT as the primary monitor.

In other words, I don't see the apple logo with the spinning busy indicator on it. That appears on my secondary monitor instead, even if it's turned OFF. Unless I physically unplug the secondary monitor, it will NOT show the boot logo (and drive boot select screen if the appropriate key is held down) on that monitor. Having to unplug the secondary monitor instead of just turning it off is ridiculous. I suppose I could switch the outputs to achieve the effect, but then I have two heavy adapters on one output (i.e. TB to HDMI and then HDMI to DVI) which makes for a rather heavy cord pulling on that monitor instead of just HDMI to DVI on one and TB to HDMI on the other.

I don't know if there's any way to select the primary boot monitor other than to swap plugs, though. OSX preference settings appear to have no effect on the boot monitor default. I'm wondering if the TB to HDMI adapter can properly sense that the monitor is turned off in the first place since on my Macbook Pro, if the cover is closed, it doesn't even see the notebook's monitor whereas it does still see it here, even if it's turned off.

Any ideas?

 

[bleedblue12345]

You could try resetting your NVRAM (see here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379)

Then plug in the primary monitor you want to start up on (and restart a few times) then plug in your secondary monitor.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

You could try resetting your NVRAM (see here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379)

Then plug in the primary monitor you want to start up on (and restart a few times) then plug in your secondary monitor.

Yeah, I tried that already. No dice. The only way I can get it to work thus far is to double up on those adapters and switch the cables over. I mean it's not a huge deal as normally I just boot straight to OSX and once it's booted it all sets up on the display the way I want it to, but if I wanted to use the boot menu on a startup to select to boot say Windows instead, I'd have to turn on the secondary monitor or I get no picture.

 

[St0nehead]

Yeah, I tried that already. No dice. The only way I can get it to work thus far is to double up on those adapters and switch the cables over. I mean it's not a huge deal as normally I just boot straight to OSX and once it's booted it all sets up on the display the way I want it to, but if I wanted to use the boot menu on a startup to select to boot say Windows instead, I'd have to turn on the secondary monitor or I get no picture.

Same annoying problem afert updating to macOS 10.14 Mojave.
Boot screen only shows in connected projector..(((