Any tweak suggestions before I replace my motherboard?

[jahwookie]

Hello - I used your Catalina EFI with great success on my Z390 i9 machine, and then updated to Big Sur, seemingly equally trouble-free, using the updated EFI. This morning I noticed slow responsiveness, and elected to restart. Ever since then, the system goes straight into BIOS. It sees all four of the hard drives, but doesn't consider any of them boot-worthy. And also will not boot from the install USB that previously worked perfectly.

I updated the BIOS from 8 to 9i, then verified all the points you mention, also going back through the BIOS section in a detailed install tutorial by a guy named Technolli on YouTube, which had been helpful before. I'm starting to think it's a hardware thing, partly because I had been getting intermittent crackling on the Thunderbolt 3 port, which self-corrected after a shutdown interval.

Any ideas you have for further testing would be gratefully acted upon. Thanks for all your great work and generous guidance. John W.

[baughmann]

Welcome back, @jahwookie. Yes, I'm afraid to say that's a new one.

Did you verify all of the BIOS settings after updating the BIOS? It's important to remember that some (but not all) of them get reset after upgrading. This is an issue I discovered the hard way...

It 100% sounds like a BIOS configuration issue from my experience, but I suppose there's a small chance that it could be hardware-related. I know that you said you went through the BIOS settings pretty extensively, and I believe you. However, we still need to troubleshoot them anyway.

I'll grab some BIOS pictures and post them here, and list off some of the big points again so we can be sure.

[jahwookie]

Pics would be very helpful. Thx again.

[baughmann]

Roger that, check back here in about 1.5 hours.

[baughmann]

@jahwookie As promised, check out the BIOS guide that I added

[ryanpsims73]

Asking a potentially dumb question: The Bios guide says that USBPorts.kext is no longer needed for this EFI, but when I look at the config.plist, it's still set to being Enabled, and it's included in the repo. Am I missing a configuration somewhere that disables it? Does Big Sur remove some kind of port limit?

[baughmann]

@ryanpsims73 Not a stupid question at all.

You made me freak out and double-check! It's actually disabled

However, its definitely confusing if you're viewing the config.plist in a text editor rather than Xcode. While the format of the file may look on the surface to be similar to XML, it is not. IT's disabled in this line via the false flag. Enabled is just the key (i.e. the name of the value), as seen in the screenshot above.

Take a look here as well:

<dict>
    <key>BundlePath</key>
    <string>USBPorts.kext</string>
    <key>Comment</key>
    <string></string>

        <!-- this is just the NAME of the value to follow -->
    <key>Enabled</key>

        <!-- this is where the VALUE of "Enabled" is set to false -->
    <false/>

    <key>ExecutablePath</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>MaxKernel</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>MinKernel</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>PlistPath</key>
    <string>Contents/Info.plist</string>
</dict>

[ryanpsims73]

Now I see. Ok, to the second question... Does Big Sur handle the port limit differently than Catalina?

[ryanpsims73]

And thanks for clarifying that - I have mine flipped to usbinjectall false, usbports true, and onboard wifi flipped on (I run a dual boot windows machine), and everything seems to work ok. Just more curious about what Big Sur has changed to allow for inject all without any mapping.

[baughmann]

I'm really not sure. I know that there's this issue but not if it messes USB devices.

I know that I personally have more than 17 USB devices on my system with no issue.

It may well be that USBPorts.kext is a better solution than just USBInjectAll.kext and I know that my system doesn't have any problems with that configuration. Maybe I will do some testing and change it. Are you using my EFI and hardware verbatim, aside from the USB kexts?

[baughmann]

@ryanpsims73 BTW I also dual boot to Windows through OpenCore, and I use the Fenvi for WiFi and BT on Windows.

Are you able to use the Fenvi on Windows alongside the integrated chip?

Do you boot to Windows via the BIOS or the OpenCore UI?

[ryanpsims73]

Boot via OpenCore UI. I was able to get both the Fenvi and Intel running at the same time with Windows, just to see how Dual Wifi would work. Overall, seems to be fine, but requires the mapping.

Not sure if you're using Thunderbolt on a monitor, but that seems to be the most finicky thing with this setup. The top thunderbolt port works fine and can drive a monitor, the bottom one not at all. Using a passthrough cable and all.

[baughmann]

@ryanpsims73 Interesting. Maybe I will go back to using the USB map. I will have to do some testing. Are you using my EFI verbatim or have you modified it?

Your issue could be related to my USB map or to my ACPI settings. Have you taken a look at either of them?

[ryanpsims73]

I'll verify. I was tinkering around with enabling, disabling kexts after I noticed stock with your EFI I couldn't use the onboard bluetooth. Rather than disable Wifi, I ended up disabling usbinject all, enabling usbports, and setting the XhciPortLimit port limit to false.

That got bluetooth and onboard wifi working at the same time. Thunderbolt on this board has always been iffy... and ACPI is a dark art.

I'll double check EFI diffs.

[baughmann]

@ryanpsims73 Ok let me know. If you’re close enough to my EFI, pull down my repo, modify it, and then make a pull request. That way you become an official contributor :)

[jahwookie]

Very detailed and complete. Thanks, NIck! I went through each slide twice this morning, making adjustments accordingly. Still no joy — the system refuses to recognize anything inside the box or my boot USB as bootable. Tomorrow I'm cracking the tower open, re-seating the drives, and bridging the CMOS reset. Then back to the BIOS with your illustrated guide. If that doesn't work, time for a new mobo. But your illustrations will be just as useful at that point! Will update...

On Tue, Dec 1, 2020 at 5:13 PM Nick Baughman notifications@github.com wrote:

@jahwookie https://github.com/jahwookie As promised, check out the BIOS guide https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/blob/master/BIOS.md that I added

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/issues/20#issuecomment-736853433, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQTAP3AJTVVONOFBWI3YINLSSVTA7ANCNFSM4UJNYP3Q .

[baughmann]

Well that sucks. OK, let me know what you end up doing. Just a weird issue though....

[baughmann]

@jahwookie so, what’s the word?

[jahwookie]

Yeah, it seems this board is the equivalent of paralyzed from the neck down: knows it has toes, but can't make them wiggle. I usually update some components once a year anyway, so the refresh is a little early this time. Will be glad to see the back of 2020! This will take into next week.. will post results. Good weekend, all!

On Thu, Dec 3, 2020 at 10:55 PM Nick Baughman notifications@github.com wrote:

@jahwookie https://github.com/jahwookie so, what’s the word?

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[baughmann]

Well, that blows...

Are you gonna get the same exact board? If so, double check that its revision 1. If it's anything else, IDK what will be different. IDK if they even have multiple hardware revisions.

[jahwookie]

The one I'm replacing is the Z390 Aorus Xtreme. Planning to replace with your Designaire, and I'll make sure it's Rev. 1 or better. Thanks.

On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 10:36 AM Nick Baughman notifications@github.com wrote:

Well, that blows...

Are you gonna get the same exact board? If so, double check that its revision 1. If it's anything else, IDK what will be different. IDK if they even have multiple hardware revisions.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/issues/20#issuecomment-738850585, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQTAP3BVC2XQP6KH5VXACJLSTD6WNANCNFSM4UJNYP3Q .

[jahwookie]

Update, early Sunday -

Well, before trashing the existing mobo, thought I'd give it a test shot with a bootable Windows 10 USB I had lying around. The process was annoying and very much on the pushy, upsell side, but it worked, easily, including soft and hard restarts.

So, I redid the OS 11 flash drive, and somehow it was acknowledged this time, and allowed me to do an install. At that point I erased the drive where I'd put Windows, though in the BIOS it took a re-flash of 9i followed by a flash of 8 to get rid of the Windows boot residue that kept showing up as bootable, even though it had no OS to trigger. Ultimately, I did installs of Big Sur on both of the SATA drives that show up in BIOS, but NOT as bootable. And I can get to either of them, but ONLY as long as I keep the boot USB in a slot. Suppose I could go on like that, but it isn't making me confident enough to spend half a day installing software etc.

I ran Repair from Recovery on both drives, with no effect. I've also ordered an NvME drive, and will ghost one of the installations over to it early next week, and see if that's any different. Clearly, I'm not an old hand at any of this, so let me ask a question to determine if I'm doing something wrong on a basic level: I made the install Big Sur USB using the Apple approved method, with an install file downloaded from the App Store, and copied in with the Terminal command they provide online. Then, I mount the factory file's EFI folder using Clover Configuration, and copy in your EFI. Is that the correct method so far? Is there anything else I should be adding, or some additional process I"m skipping? I mean, it works, but thought I'd ask.

Any ideas at all for things to try, either in the BIOS or Configurator, would be most welcome.

Thanks, and have a good Sunday. John W.

On Tue, Dec 1, 2020 at 5:13 PM Nick Baughman notifications@github.com wrote:

@jahwookie https://github.com/jahwookie As promised, check out the BIOS guide https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/blob/master/BIOS.md that I added

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/issues/20#issuecomment-736853433, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQTAP3AJTVVONOFBWI3YINLSSVTA7ANCNFSM4UJNYP3Q .

[jahwookie]

LInk to some snapshots that illustrate current state of high functioning not-quite-right-ness.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CWuZSCrrLaskFUw38

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 8:29 AM John Wehmeyer qubitual@gmail.com wrote:

Update, early Sunday -

Well, before trashing the existing mobo, thought I'd give it a test shot with a bootable Windows 10 USB I had lying around. The process was annoying and very much on the pushy, upsell side, but it worked, easily, including soft and hard restarts.

So, I redid the OS 11 flash drive, and somehow it was acknowledged this time, and allowed me to do an install. At that point I erased the drive where I'd put Windows, though in the BIOS it took a re-flash of 9i followed by a flash of 8 to get rid of the Windows boot residue that kept showing up as bootable, even though it had no OS to trigger. Ultimately, I did installs of Big Sur on both of the SATA drives that show up in BIOS, but NOT as bootable. And I can get to either of them, but ONLY as long as I keep the boot USB in a slot. Suppose I could go on like that, but it isn't making me confident enough to spend half a day installing software etc.

I ran Repair from Recovery on both drives, with no effect. I've also ordered an NvME drive, and will ghost one of the installations over to it early next week, and see if that's any different. Clearly, I'm not an old hand at any of this, so let me ask a question to determine if I'm doing something wrong on a basic level: I made the install Big Sur USB using the Apple approved method, with an install file downloaded from the App Store, and copied in with the Terminal command they provide online. Then, I mount the factory file's EFI folder using Clover Configuration, and copy in your EFI. Is that the correct method so far? Is there anything else I should be adding, or some additional process I"m skipping? I mean, it works, but thought I'd ask.

Any ideas at all for things to try, either in the BIOS or Configurator, would be most welcome.

Thanks, and have a good Sunday. John W.

On Tue, Dec 1, 2020 at 5:13 PM Nick Baughman notifications@github.com wrote:

@jahwookie https://github.com/jahwookie As promised, check out the BIOS guide https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/blob/master/BIOS.md that I added

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/issues/20#issuecomment-736853433, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQTAP3AJTVVONOFBWI3YINLSSVTA7ANCNFSM4UJNYP3Q .

[baughmann]

@jahwookie IDK how I missed this in my inbox, sorry for the delayed response.

That's fantastic news! I don't know how any of the Windows crap managed to get left over after wiping the drives. What did you use to erase the drives? The Win 10 install USB?

And yes, you are indeed missing a critical step. You need to do the same thing to the macOS HDD that you did to the macOS install USB: You need to put my EFI on there.

Basically:

1. Boot to macOS using your USB

2. Use diskutil list to find the drive that looks like this:

   

3. Use sudo mkdir /Volumes/EFI to make a mount point for the partition, then mount it with sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 (note, it's disk0s1 in the screenshot, but your identifier may be different). You can also use Clover configurator if you'd prefer.

4. Delete any folders currently on that drive, then empty the trash (just right-click on the trash can on the dock and hit "Empty", this empties your main trash as well as the trash folders on any mounted drives)

5. Copy my EFI (or the one you made yourself on the USB) over to this folder

6. Restart, boot to the drive you just modified

7. Enjoy

EDIT: Due be sure to re-upgrade your BIOS to F9i just in case, if you can.

[jahwookie]

Aha! Thanks so much. I'll report back on this by tmrw. Have a good evening!

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 2:21 PM Nick Baughman notifications@github.com wrote:

@jahwookie https://github.com/jahwookie IDK how I missed this in my inbox, sorry for the delayed response.

That's fantastic news! I don't know how any of the Windows crap managed to get left over after wiping the drives. What did you use to erase the drives? The Win 10 install USB?

And yes, you are indeed missing a critical step. You need to do the same thing to the macOS HDD that you did to the macOS install USB: You need to put my EFI on there.

Basically:

1. Boot to macOS using your USB
2. Use diskutil list to find the drive that looks like this:

[image: Screen Shot 2020-12-06 at 2 17 13 PM] https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6177411/101289998-c5b92280-37cd-11eb-851b-4cc92c7d4820.png

3. Use sudo mkdir /Volumes/EFI to make a mount point for the partition, then mount it with sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 (note, it's disk0s1 in the screenshot, but your identifier may be different). You can also use Clover configurator if you'd prefer. 4. Delete any folders currently on that drive, then empty the trash (just right-click on the trash can on the dock and hit "Empty", this empties your main trash as well as the trash folders on any mounted drives) 5. Copy my EFI (or the one you made yourself on the USB) over to this folder 6. Enjoy

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/issues/20#issuecomment-739549780, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQTAP3G2LO4IZOMTREUWIV3STPKSJANCNFSM4UJNYP3Q .

[jahwookie]

That totally worked. You're a lifesaver, several times over. This treatment is only really necessary for the boot drive, I assume, yes? Anyway, thanks again! John W.

Now, we just need to keep eyes and ears open for when the schematic for the Apple silicon chips leaks sometime in the next year or two, and one of the less scrupulous Asian firms starts cloning them for retail sales in the West!

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 2:54 PM John Wehmeyer qubitual@gmail.com wrote:

Aha! Thanks so much. I'll report back on this by tmrw. Have a good evening!

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 2:21 PM Nick Baughman notifications@github.com wrote:

@jahwookie https://github.com/jahwookie IDK how I missed this in my inbox, sorry for the delayed response.

That's fantastic news! I don't know how any of the Windows crap managed to get left over after wiping the drives. What did you use to erase the drives? The Win 10 install USB?

And yes, you are indeed missing a critical step. You need to do the same thing to the macOS HDD that you did to the macOS install USB: You need to put my EFI on there.

Basically:

1. Boot to macOS using your USB
2. Use diskutil list to find the drive that looks like this:

[image: Screen Shot 2020-12-06 at 2 17 13 PM] https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6177411/101289998-c5b92280-37cd-11eb-851b-4cc92c7d4820.png

3. Use sudo mkdir /Volumes/EFI to make a mount point for the partition, then mount it with sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 (note, it's disk0s1 in the screenshot, but your identifier may be different). You can also use Clover configurator if you'd prefer. 4. Delete any folders currently on that drive, then empty the trash (just right-click on the trash can on the dock and hit "Empty", this empties your main trash as well as the trash folders on any mounted drives) 5. Copy my EFI (or the one you made yourself on the USB) over to this folder 6. Enjoy

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/baughmann/designaire-z390-intel-i9-9900k-opencore/issues/20#issuecomment-739549780, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AQTAP3G2LO4IZOMTREUWIV3STPKSJANCNFSM4UJNYP3Q .

[baughmann]

Good to hear! And yes, only for the macOS boot drive.

I'm not sure I'd trust a processor like that hahah.