Mojave DB 2 damaged the firmware on my iMac

[Ricktracer]

I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this, but after installing DB2 on my 2017 27 inch iMac, bootmanager is acting very weird. The problem is that after installation, whenever I turn my computer on pressing the option key, bootmanager won’t allow me switch to my bootcamp partition, defaulting instead to the Mac one. The only way to make it work, is to boot to Mac, and selecting the bootcamp partition from System Preferences.

Fully wiping the SSD and going back to High Sierra hasn’t restored my iMac to its normal behavior using Disk Utility, so I am thinking, either installing DB2 incorrectly damaged my firmware, or it installed a new version of the firmware with a bug related to the way bootmanager operates.

Since reverting to High Sierra is not fixing the issue, I think the only way is to flash the iMac with a proper version of the firmware, but no matter how hard I tried, I can’t seem to find it anywhere online. It seems I am left with either sending the computer for repairs, or waiting for the final version of Mojave to somehow fix the issue on installation.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the issue.

PS: The issue also affects booting from UEFI External Disks, essentially rendering them useless for booting until the issue is fixed.

 

[Funsize93]

Questions:
- Does the Mac load the boot manager and you cant simply choose bootcamp (please describe in detail) or does boot manager fail to load altogether
- How did you erase the SSD? Did you remove the bootcamp partition with it?
- Did you setup the Mac as new and created the bootcamp partition as new without restoring a backup and tested the issue?
- Have you tried an SMC and NVRAM reset?

 

[Ricktracer]

Questions:
- Does the Mac load the boot manager and you cant simply choose bootcamp (please describe in detail) or does boot manager fail to load altogether
- How did you erase the SSD? Did you remove the bootcamp partition with it?
- Did you setup the Mac as new and created the bootcamp partition as new without restoring a backup and tested the issue?
- Have you tried an SMC and NVRAM reset?

Mac loads Bootmanager, I can choose bootcamp, but it defaults to Mac regardless. I used Internet restore to wipe the SSD using Disk Utility and then reinstalling High Sierra. I did both a SMC and PRAM reset to no avail. So that leds me to believe that the issue is not on the EFI partition but rather on the iMac’s firmware.

The biggest problem is that I feel that installing High Sierra is not working because it detects the newer firmware installed by DB2 of Mojave and decides to keep it. So, I suspect that nothing short of explicitly installing the firmware will solve the issue. However I cant find the firmware online, so short of sending it for repairs ill have to wait for a newer firmware to be automatically installed down the line.

 

[chrfr]

Mac loads Bootmanager, I can choose bootcamp, but it defaults to Mac regardless. I used Internet restore to wipe the SSD using Disk Utility and then reinstalling High Sierra. I did both a SMC and PRAM reset to no avail. So that leds me to believe that the issue is not on the EFI partition but rather on the iMac’s firmware.

The biggest problem is that I feel that installing High Sierra is not working because it detects the newer firmware installed by DB2 of Mojave and decides to keep it. So, I suspect that nothing short of explicitly installing the firmware will solve the issue. However I cant find the firmware online, so short of sending it for repairs ill have to wait for a newer firmware to be automatically installed down the line.

Installing the Mojave beta does not normally prevent the computer from running High Sierra again. It sounds like your computer may have some sort of a disk issue which has nothing to do with the firmware.

 

[Ricktracer]

Installing the Mojave beta does not normally prevent the computer from running High Sierra again. It sounds like your computer may have some sort of a disk issue which has nothing to do with the firmware.

Oh I CAN run High Sierra, the issue is that on Boot Manager I lose the ability to switch to Bootcamp. In other words selecting Bootcamp in Boot Manager, loads High Sierra instead of Windows. If I boot to High Sierra and select Boot Camp as my Startup disk then I can log on Windows.

In short I lose the ability to switch between Bootcamp and MacOS from Boot Manager, and that sounds like a firmware issue to me. I could be wrong but thats my hunch.

 

[FNH15]

You don’t happen to have a 3TB fusion drive iMac by any chance? The release notes say they’re unsupported, and I wonder if that’s the reason why. Another person on the forum said they had the same issue and resolved it using Disk Utility to repair the disk, so that may be worth a shot...

 

[Ricktracer]

You don’t happen to have a 3TB fusion drive iMac by any chance? The release notes say they’re unsupported, and I wonder if that’s the reason why. Another person on the forum said they had the same issue and resolved it using Disk Utility to repair the disk, so that may be worth a shot...

Where was this posted? cause I tried Disk Utility to no avail. I do not have a 3TB Fusion drive... just a regular 1TB SSD

 

[Thorbjoern]

I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this, but after installing DB2 on my 2017 27 inch iMac, bootmanager is acting very weird. The problem is that after installation, whenever I turn my computer on pressing the option key, bootmanager won’t allow me switch to my bootcamp partition, defaulting instead to the Mac one. The only way to make it work, is to boot to Mac, and selecting the bootcamp partition from System Preferences.

Fully wiping the SSD and going back to High Sierra hasn’t restored my iMac to its normal behavior using Disk Utility, so I am thinking, either installing DB2 incorrectly damaged my firmware, or it installed a new version of the firmware with a bug related to the way bootmanager operates.

Since reverting to High Sierra is not fixing the issue, I think the only way is to flash the iMac with a proper version of the firmware, but no matter how hard I tried, I can’t seem to find it anywhere online. It seems I am left with either sending the computer for repairs, or waiting for the final version of Mojave to somehow fix the issue on installation.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the issue.

Hi!

You are not the only one with that issue. I ran into this problem myself, I have a 2016 MacBook and no matter which option I choose in bootloader, Windows won't boot (USB-Install-Image will though) since installing DB2.
For me the BootCamp-Partition didn't show up to choose at startup-disk for quite some time, so I always used the boot loader if I needed it. I used WinClone to back it up, deleted it and set it up again, it booted fine every time until I set my default startup-disk in MacOS (again bootcamp-partition was a now show again already), now I have reproduced the issue, it seem like DB2 is messing with the partition table or can't handle something there when bootcamp partition is not set as default...

 

[Ricktracer]

Hi!

You are not the only one with that issue. I ran into this problem myself, I have a 2016 MacBook and no matter which option I choose in bootloader, Windows won't boot (USB-Install-Image will though) since installing DB2.
For me the BootCamp-Partition didn't show up to choose at startup-disk for quite some time, so I always used the boot loader if I needed it. I used WinClone to back it up, deleted it and set it up again, it booted fine every time until I set my default startup-disk in MacOS (again bootcamp-partition was a now show again already), now I have reproduced the issue, it seem like DB2 is messing with the partition table or can't handle something there when bootcamp partition is not set as default...

Thanks good to know I am not the only one with this issue. Hopefully will be fixed in future Betas. But we need to spread the words so Apple knows of this.

 

[FNH15]

Where was this posted? cause I tried Disk Utility to no avail. I do not have a 3TB Fusion drive... just a regular 1TB SSD

It’s in the Seed Notes on the Developer portal. I’d post them here but I don’t want to run afowl of NDA rules...

 

[TimmeyCook]

Same problem here, same hardware too with UEFI USB drives.

Tried with Windows 10 installation, Windows 10 install USB drive and Ubuntu install USB drive. All the same problem.

 

[caramelpolice]

This is also affecting the latest 10.13.6 beta.

Pretty sure it's a bug that will be fixed.

 

[Ricktracer]

This is also affecting the latest 10.13.6 beta.

Pretty sure it's a bug that will be fixed.

They just released the new version of the 10.13.6 beta. If they share the same bug, maybe someone would care for see if the bug was fixed in this version?

 

[TimmeyCook]

I have submitted the problem to https://bugreport.apple.com and they are replying, which is nice.

 

[caramelpolice]

They just released the new version of the 10.13.6 beta. If they share the same bug, maybe someone would care for see if the bug was fixed in this version?

Still happening on my 2016 MBP on today's 10.13.6 beta. Have to use Startup Disk to switch boot drives, using option at boot sends me to macOS no matter what I pick.

 

[Ricktracer]

They are about to release the public Beta. Is Apple really gonna make available this bug to the greater public? I sure hope not.

 

[Ricktracer]

They are about to release the public Beta. Is Apple really gonna make available this bug to the greater public? I sure hope not.

They released the public beta. Can anyone confirm the build number and if the bug is fixed?

 

[russ472]

I can choose bootcamp and run windows. But when i go to windows taskbar and try to reboot into IOS from the bootcamp icon, it says it can't find the boot loader. I can just request to reboot Windows normally and it defaults back into IOS.

So kinda the same problem, but it works opposite from the problem you guys are having.

 

[Ricktracer]

I am at a loss how they did release that bug into the wild with this public beta

 

[allan.nyholm]

I have the same issue with yesterday having tried to create a Windows only Mac with my iMac late 27" 2015 Retina model like I've done many times in the past only to find that I can no longer boot directly into the Windows installation program and instead an icon with the 'Folder plus Question mark' pops up. Previously like the OP I did manage to create a BootCamp partition while having macOS High Sierra installed but after having macOS Mojave Developer Beta 1 previously installed I have to choose the Startup Disk and specifically choose the BootCamp partition to boot from. Holding down option and choosing the newly made Windows install defaults to macOS. Perhaps by choosing that other boot loader for UEFI (whose name escapes me right now) will help resolve the issue. I can no longer install Windows from USB. Right now with Mojave Developer Beta 2 I still have no way of letting Windows boot from the same USB key like I've done in the past.

Something must have happened. I don't think the firmware is damaged but I do notice that in the hidden EFI folder there's some FIRMWARE folder that might something to do with this whole thing. I haven't got the nerve to mess with that particular folder. I also have a folder on the hidden EFI partition called Cakebeef - which is very amusing

 

[Ricktracer]

I have the same issue with yesterday having tried to create a Windows only Mac with my iMac late 27" 2015 Retina model like I've done many times in the past only to find that I can no longer boot directly into the Windows installation program and instead an icon with the 'Folder plus Question mark' pops up. Previously like the OP I did manage to create a BootCamp partition while having macOS High Sierra installed but after having macOS Mojave Developer Beta 1 previously installed I have to choose the Startup Disk and specifically choose the BootCamp partition to boot from. Holding down option and choosing the newly made Windows install defaults to macOS. Perhaps by choosing that other boot loader for UEFI (whose name escapes me right now) will help resolve the issue. I can no longer install Windows from USB. Right now with Mojave Developer Beta 2 I still have no way of letting Windows boot from the same USB key like I've done in the past.

Something must have happened. I don't think the firmware is damaged but I do notice that in the hidden EFI folder there's some FIRMWARE folder that might something to do with this whole thing. I haven't got the nerve to mess with that particular folder. I also have a folder on the hidden EFI partition called Cakebeef - which is very amusing

At this stage, I think our only recourse is to wait for Apple to fix the issue, which already has been reported by several people. I am hoping Developer Beta 3 will bring the solution, but I am not discounting Apple taking its sweet time to tackle this bug.

I suspect that Developer Beta 2 introduced a bug into the firmware. No matter how many times we try to fiddle with the firmware portion of the EFI partition, nothing will be solved, because that partition only acts like a staging area from which the firmware will be flashed onto the Mac (It's not the actual firmware used by the Mac). To fix the problem, the iMac will need a newer version of that firmware (which only Apple can provide) to be copied to the EFI partition, which in turn will be flashed into the Mac at installation.

So here's hoping for Developer's Beta 3 / Public Beta 2.

 

[TimmeyCook]

This sucks.

I have zeroed my disk (including EFI partition, everything, did a dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0), installed High Sierra through network recovery and the problem persists.

 

[Ricktracer]

This sucks.

I have zeroed my disk (including EFI partition, everything, did a dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0), installed High Sierra through network recovery and the problem persists.

Yah been there done that. I already stated what I think the problem is, so its no surprise that zeroing the disk would not work. DB3 better fix this problem.

 

[TimmeyCook]

Yah been there done that. I already stated what I think the problem is, so its no surprise that zeroing the disk would not work. DB3 better fix this problem.

You said you used Disk Utility, no dd to zero the disk.

 

[Ricktracer]

You said you used Disk Utility, no dd to zero the disk.

I took my Mac to the local Apple store, where the technicians zeroed the disk, and were pretty much dumbfounded by the issue. I kept telling them to reflash the firmware (thinking they had access to it being Apple Certified), but they politely ignored me.

The thing that really gets to me about the whole ordeal, is that I have an external USB 3.1 1TB SSD with Windows to Go and a full compliment of software installed in it. I had a plan to use it as a fall back option in case the Beta had some bug I could not handle, never thinking the bug ended up being a firmware one that prevented me from using that option on the first place!!

I hope this time I really learned never to install Betas.