Potential Incompatibility between newer HP Touchscreen Laptops and KeySupport

[HansKeksnascher]

Hello there,

a bug exists in the UEFI firmware implementations of certain HP Premium Laptops with touchscreen (manufactured after 2017?) which causes the firmware to think, when you boot an .efi file from the internal storage, that the file is a diagnostic tool. Then it offers a touchscreen keyboard for the user. (see attached screenshot)

This bug prevents the macOS kernel from booting from internal storage, external one work fine. It just freezes at #[EB|LOG:EXITBS:START]

When Clover was used, the workaround was to grab PreLoader.efi from efitools and rename the CloverX64.efi to Loader.efi, so the bootchain was PreLoader.efi -> Loader.efi and the touchscreen keyboard was gone in the Clover menu.

When using OpenCore this workaround does nothing. Touchscreen keyboard is still here.

After some research I discovered, that setting UEFI -> Input -> KeySupport to False fixed my problem, the touchscreen keyboard was gone and I was able to boot. But the new problem was, that OpenCore doesn't recognize any keyboard input and my trackpad, which is connected via SMBUS, stopped working in macOS. I also tried using OpenUsbKbDxe.efi, Ps2KeyboardDxe.efi, Ps2MouseDxe.efi and UsbMouseDxe.efi without any success. I also played around with the UEFI -> Input -> KeySupportMode setting, but it also changed nothing.

Some more ressources regarding this problem:

• https://github.com/acidanthera/bugtracker/issues/1328
• Some laptop guide on tonymacx86
• Issue described on tonymacx86
• Same issue described again on tonymacx86
• Some guy tried to fix it in Clover

My device is a HP Spectre x360 - 13-ae001ng (Intel Core i5-8250U Kaby Lake Refresh with Intel UHD Graphics 620). The used OpenCore version was 0.6.4.

Let me know if you need any additional information and thanks for your fantastic work.

[vit9696]

Using ExitBootServicesDelay does not fix your issue? Could you upload the firmware of your laptop?

[vit9696]

The firmware for your laptop: 083B9.bin.zip. Dedicated driver for the soft keyboard is named SoftKbd: Section_PE32_image_8A2FDFC3-0395-442C-B9F7-9A3D69D2094C_SoftKbd_body.efi.zip Easily found by referencing 0B91234C-00DD-4853-AE76-0B8457874214.

There is a dedicated protocol for this, which I tried calling in https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/commit/a8749e3b2d74b5dbc3c9225778e92dd992abb183

Get the test build from https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/runs/1543700314 and report if it helps.

[vit9696]

Assuming there is no interest in getting this fixed. Closed.

[TingyiChen]

This issue still persists on HP Spectre X360 13-ac010tu i5 7200U model with OpenCore 0.6.5

[vit9696]

Oh, finally a human to test this =) Will you be able to test several test builds and provide us the results? If so, please update to the latest 0.6.6 version from master first.

[TingyiChen]

i'll do this, but i checked my firmware,the softkbd module is not exist in my model, i doubt it may not work.Trying to figure out the driver in my bios now

[TingyiChen]

i'll do this, but i checked my firmware,the softkbd module is not exist in my model, i doubt it may not work.Trying to figure out the driver in my bios now

Uh just double checked, the module exists,sorry

[vit9696]

Right, just to clarify. You do have a virtual keyboard that is stuck onscreen breaking macOS boot. If so, update to 0.6.6 and I will upload a test build here soon (with a softkbd workaround).

[TingyiChen]

uh nop, the soft kbd disappears when stuck,lemme give a image

[TingyiChen]

i doubt it is not the soft kbd which caused boot stuck

[TingyiChen]

there should be a small kbd icon in the top right of the screen i disabled log so it just displayed a apple logo when the log is about to reach "EXITBS:START" ,the kbd icon disappears

[TingyiChen]

anyway i downloaded 0.6.6,lemme try if it can work now

[vit9696]

Hmmm, then it could be the Booter quirk set actually as well. Please upload your EFI folder as well.

[TingyiChen]

just checked release from https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/actions/runs/502565047 it doesn't work,still stuck my efi: https://transfer.sh/FOw4m/EFI.zip

[vit9696]

Right, please retry with this version, and tell me, if the icon behaves any differently.

SoftKbd-r1.zip

Also provide a debug log with Target=67.

[vit9696]

Regarding EFI, are you sure you do not need AppleXcpmCfgLock = YES? I am not positive you can unlock E2 on these machines.

[TingyiChen]

i unlocked cfg lock via setup_var ,and i can confirm it works. the same efi boots well when boot from usb drive

[TingyiChen]

just checked,it doesn't work log file: opencore-2021-01-22-141231.txt

[vit9696]

i unlocked cfg lock via setup_var ,and i can confirm it works.

Right.

the same efi boots well when boot from usb drive

Hmmm, i.e. this EFI folder boots into macOS from a USB flash, but does not boot from the SSD? Is there any visual difference between these boots?

[TingyiChen]

Hmmm, i.e. this EFI folder boots into macOS from a USB flash, but does not boot from the SSD? Is there any visual difference between these boots?

Both EFI are same, when the EFI boots fine from USB, directly copy it into internal SSD EFI partition and boot , it hangs.

[vit9696]

Both EFI are same, when the EFI boots fine from USB, directly copy it into internal SSD EFI partition and boot , it hangs.

Right, but is there any visually noticeable difference between USB boot and SSD boot? Well, besides the hang :D

I tried disabling the soft keyboard right before launching boot.efi. Please try this one and include the debug log with Target 67: SoftKbd-r2.zip. I expect that you see the soft keyboard icon disappear right before the Apple logo appears, please confirm that.

[TingyiChen]

Right, but is there any visually noticeable difference between USB boot and SSD boot? Well, besides the hang :D

The keyboard icon doesn't appear when booting from usb device

I'll check it right now

[TingyiChen]

The icon still disappears after apple logo comes out

[TingyiChen]

i tried unload the softkbd from efishell and quit to opencore and boot,still hangs and it looks like that the icon is not shown by the driver, it is still there after the softkbd unloaded

[TingyiChen]

log file: opencore-2021-01-22-142652.txt opencore-2021-01-22-142800.txt

[TingyiChen]

https://github.com/Just-maple/Hp-spectre-X360-hackintosh/blob/master/CLOVER/PreLoader.efi it is said that use this preloader efi wrapper to load clover worked,but it didn't work on oc

[vit9696]

Hmmm, can you upload your firmware and make a clearer photo of your icon? Also, that preloader, do you have the source code for it?

[TingyiChen]

My firmware: 0827E.zip that icon: the preloader file seems comes from linux, released by microsoft or someone else: https://blog.hansenpartnership.com/linux-foundation-secure-boot-system-released/ https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface/Secure_Boot

[vit9696]

Hmmm, uneasy. Cannot find it so far. Can you disable picker showing and KeySupport in OC? And simply let it boot macOS without any keyboard interaction? Master version and r2.

[TingyiChen]

lemme try now as I saw somewhere before, it is said that hp bios is treating opencore as it's diag utility UEFI and applied some limitations, I don't know if it is true

[TingyiChen]

I tried both versions, still the same

[vit9696]

Try this version (please include the log). Also tell me if the icon is affected anyhow. SoftKbd-r3.zip

[TingyiChen]

It doesn't work The icon still behaves like before,disappeared after the apple logo comes out Log file: opencore-2021-01-22-161000.txt I doubt it is not caused by that icon related things?Because the boot process still hang even after I unloaded the SoftKbd module from EFI shell. Is there any other way to debug?

[vit9696]

Hard to say. The soft keyboard driver is definitely off according to the logs. Can you try setting ExitBootServicesDelay to a reasonable value? See the docs…

[TingyiChen]

Sure,I'll check it

[vit9696]

Also try this one, provide logs…

SoftKbd-r4.zip

[TingyiChen]

i applied 5 second delay,With r3 it doesn't work,lemme try r4

[TingyiChen]

R3 log: opencore-2021-01-22-170013.txt

[TingyiChen]

R4 One failed to boot,showing smc io protocol fatal error log: opencore-2021-01-22-170735.txt

[vit9696]

Sorry, fixed. SoftKbd-r5.zip

[TingyiChen]

Failed to load Openruntime.efi: invalid arg log: opencore-2021-01-22-171818.txt I'm going to sleep now..may test tomorrow,i'll try to figure out which efi driver caused this loop

[TingyiChen]

I doubt that Hp did something in their bios for touch or some input driver,maybe not exist in the softkbd module need further investigation

[vit9696]

Very hard to say, but trying to unload other drivers might help. The situation with r5 is very strange, and I'd suggest you try loading r5 without OpenRuntime driver tomorrow.

[TingyiChen]

I tried boot without openruntime, the screen becomes black after os pickup menu, and the keyboard icon is always there and the kbd can be triggered out when clicking on it log: opencore-2021-01-23-014812.txt

[vit9696]

Very strange, I will try to understand this, but probably you are best to try finding the driver to unload.

[TingyiChen]

I'll try to figure out the diff when booting from internal and usb, haven't found now.

[TingyiChen]

usb.txt internal.txt This is loaded module list when booting from different devices

[vit9696]

I do not expect to see any difference in the module list, but rather some configuration issue. Thus I would unload the input-related drivers. Also, it might be easier to try to understand why the kernel does not boot in the first place. Is there a serial header on the motherboard?

[TingyiChen]

Serial number of motherboard?Or something else

[vit9696]

Serial/COM port pins to attach a serial debugger and see early kernel boot logs.