Boot loop after reinstalling Ventura and restoring Time Machine Backup (OCLP )

[s1l3nce]

Hello!

I was running Sonoma on a Macbook Pro 2011 (OCLP 1.0.1) and I was a bit disappointed with the performance, so I went back to Ventura, which felt faster. This is what I did:

1. Time Machine backup.
2. Prepare a new Ventura 13.6 OCLP pendrive.
3. Reinstall Ventura.
4. Restore time machine backup during the last step.

After the restoration ended, my machine got stuck in a boot loop: it tries to load the operating system but after 50 seconds, the computer restarts itself and repeats the same process.

I've replicated the same process on an iMac from 2011 and I got the same result: a boot loop.

Bear in mind that the only time where you can restore a time machine backup when using OCLP is during the installation process. If you try using migration from inside the operating system, it will not work (it freezes).

Any possible solutions to this issue? And any ideas of what might have caused this?

Any information will be appreciated. Thanks! 🙏

 

[s1l3nce]

I have another question:

Is this issue with the Migration Assistant a known OCLP issue or is it a Ventura issue? I ask this because I might try Installing Monterey or Big Sur to test if the migration tool works there.

 

[s1l3nce]

I've been doing some testing and I have some good news: Sonoma's Time Machine backup can be restored on Big Sur (also running it using OCLP). So the problem lies in Ventura. Maybe you can't even restore Time Machine backups made in Ventura.

Very weird.

PS: Small note. You might not be able to login with your Apple ID after restoring your backup on Big Sur. This is a common known problem in Big Sur. Just do the following:

• Make a copy of your own /Users/username/Library/Keychains folder (like on your Desktop)
• Delete all files in /Users/username/Library/Keychains leaving the folder empty
• Restart

I found this solution here.

 

[steve123]

Experiencing a similar problem with an iMac 10,1. Sonoma install would error so I attempted to install Monterey. Weird thing is that when the iMac does a soft reboot, the internal disk disappears now. I think this is why I had the problem with the Sonoma install. After a warm reboot, the disk was not there and Sonoma reported a verify error. When installing Monterey, at the point the install process performs a warm reboot, the iMac hangs when the internal dvd drive does its reset cycle with a white screen appears. If I turn the mac off, the installation process continues. Repeating the power cycle cold boot keeps the install process going until what I think is the last boot. This boot progresses about half way and then the computer reboots and I am now stuck in a boot loop. I can boot into safe mode but since there are no user accounts (I erased the disk), I get the set up screen and the UI is very laggy. So, I cannot run OCLP and install the root patches in safe mode.

 

[s1l3nce]

Experiencing a similar problem with an iMac 10,1. Sonoma install would error so I attempted to install Monterey. Weird thing is that when the iMac does a soft reboot, the internal disk disappears now. I think this is why I had the problem with the Sonoma install. After a soft reboot, the disk was not there and Sonoma reported a verify error. When installing Monterey, at the point the install process performs a soft reboot, the iMac hangs when the internal dvd drive does its reset cycle with a white screen appears. If I turn the mac off, the installation process continues. Repeating the power cycle keeps the install process going until what I think is the last boot. This boot progresses about half way and then the computer reboots and I am now stuck in a boot loop. I can boot into safe mode but since there are no user accounts (I erased the disk), I get the set up screen and the UI is very laggy. So, I cannot run OCLP and install the root patches in safe mode.

I actually have no errors while installing any of the versions. I only had trouble when restoring a Time Machine Backup on Ventura but not under Big Sur. And it's quite possible that Monterey works fine too (I'll try that soon).

What I found out is that when restoring a backup on Ventura, the mac reboots itself automatically even before finishing the process, which is clearly a bug (probably OCLP related).

Regarding the laggyness, it's usually fixed once you apply the OCLP patch after installing the OS.

Edit: If the OCLP root patch is not running in your machine, you will know because, apart from the obvious lag, when you check information on your GPU model you will see something like what is shown in this picture instead of the actual GPU model.

 

[s1l3nce]

Another update: I've just tried Monterey and I was also able to restore the Time Machine backup from Sonoma. So it seams that, so far, Ventura is the only OS having issues with this. I need to try if Sonoma also has this bug but I have no interest on moving to it yet. I think I might stick to Big Sur, which was running a bit faster than Ventura.

 

[steve123]

I actually have no errors while installing any of the versions. I only had trouble when restoring a Time Machine Backup on Ventura but not under Big Sur. And it's quite possible that Monterey works fine too (I'll try that soon).

I think there maybe two issues:

1. Disk not available after warm boot
2. Kernel panic during boot

Maybe the disk unavailable issue is because the disk I am using is incompatible (Corsair Force GS SATA 240GB SSD)? IIRC, I installed Ventura 13.2 several months ago without experiencing this problem. The problem with the disk disappearing seems to coincide to a Ventura update. Since the attempted Ventura update, the disk disappears when there is a warm reboot. This interferes with completing the installation. I think the installation did complete successfully though since booting into safe mode appears to confirm the operating system will boot.

I think there is some sort of kernel panic occurring during normal (not safe) boot. I'll try to boot in verbose mode and see if I can see where reboots.

A cold boot always restores the disk.

I have not gotten to the point of restoring the Time Machine backup yet. Anticipating your issue is why I tried Monterey. Good to know you successfully restored with Monterey.

 

[steve123]

It appears I need to spoof the SMBIOS to avoid the boot loop. I have not had to do this before so it was not immediately clear to me I needed to do so. I spoofed my iMac 10,1 as an iMac 16,1 and Monterey boots in normal mode now. Thanks for the latest GitHub commit by ParaDoX1994 for giving me the hint.

Now I will attempt the Time Machine restore.

 

[steve123]

Time Machine restore to Monterey worked fine. Still encountered the issue with the warm boot but doing a cold boot restored the disk and the migration completed. The initial login took a very long time. After boot, OCLP notified that it was booting from an external disk and asked to install to the internal disk. I followed through with that but noted after that it did not enable the SMBIOS spoof. Interestingly, the computer did boot without the SMBIOS spoof. Nevertheless, I manually set the SMBIOS spoof anticipating that an OS update may cause a boot loop if it is not set correctly.