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dataharvested

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 13, 2022
120
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Hello again. I am wondering how I can set OCLP to boot into macOS by default when I power on or restart my Classic Mac Pro. I have macOS Monterey and Windows 10 installed, both on their own SATA SSD drive. When I power on the computer it defaults to the Windows 10 drive/OS unless I choose macOS Monterey manually. Any guidance is appreciated.
 
If your configuration allows for it, it's just like with the native boot picker: select the desired entry and press Control-Enter.
 
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If your configuration allows for it, it's just like with the native boot picker: select the desired entry and press Control-Enter.
I've tried that multiple times with no success unfortunately. It is always defaults to the Windows SSD upon start.

I feel stupid now because I totally forgot about Startup Disk in the System Preferences and changing the default boot disk worked there. So I'm good to go, booting into macOS by default now!

Thanks for the help however.
 
I'd like to ask this, too!

How can I permanently determine from which drive the Mac should boot without a boot screen selection?

My OCLP patched MacPro 3,1 on Ventura contains three, sometimes four SSD drives, all of them have own EFIs.

  • I've tried to select the corresponding EFI with control-enter on the boot screen.
  • In the corresponding EFI chosen on boot screen I've also tried to select a startup drive with control-enter.
  • I've tried to determine the startup drive conventionally in System Preferences.

Result in all cases: Without further action the Mac always starts from the drive in Bay 1.

If I swap the drives, the Mac will start from the other drive in Bay 1.

Is there any other possibility I don't know? Or is there a utility that provides exactly this function?

Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
I'd like to ask this, too!

How can I permanently determine from which drive the Mac should boot without a boot screen selection?

My OCLP patched MacPro 3,1 on Ventura contains three, sometimes four SSD drives, all of them have own EFIs.

  • I've tried to select the corresponding EFI with control-enter on the boot screen.
  • In the corresponding EFI chosen on boot screen I've also tried to select a startup drive with control-enter.
  • I've tried to determine the startup drive conventionally in System Preferences.

Result in all cases: Without further action the Mac always starts from the drive in Bay 1.

If I swap the drives, the Mac will start from the other drive in Bay 1.

Is there any other possibility I don't know? Or is there a utility that provides exactly this function?

Thanks in advance!
You are correct. The classic Mac Pro always looks first at a drive in SATA Bay 1. On my 5,1 (2010) machine I have a SATA SSD here with the OpenCore boot loader in the EFI partition and Bit Sur macOS. It is a bad idea to have more than one disk with OpenCore boot-loader on your machine, and so it is only on this disk. Then I have an NVMe SSD in PCIe with Monterey macOS. There is no OpenCore on this disk, however, the installation was done with OCLP. On my machine, the boot-loader remembers which macOS you used last, and it defaults to this drive. I only have Big Sur on the SATA SSD for trouble-shooting. I use the NVMe SSD for booting Monterey almost always, and so it defaults to this disk.
 
My OCLP install automatically sets EFI as boot when that is picked with the Option Boot picker. After that Startup Disk set the boot volume.
I have to use Option-Boot to get into Mojave or Windows 10.
 
My OCLP install automatically sets EFI as boot when that is picked with the Option Boot picker. After that Startup Disk set the boot volume.
I have to use Option-Boot to get into Mojave or Windows 10.
It is helpful to make a distinction between the boot-loader and the macOS boot. There should only be one OpenCore EFI partition with OpenCore on your computer at any time. This contains the boot-loader with, among other things, the code to display a boot picker on your screen. The macOS, in contrast, is the operating system. It does not reside in the EFI partition or the GUID partition, but on a bootable disk, which does not have to be the same disk on which the OC boot-loader is located. It is activated after you have made a selection with the boot picker.
What computer do you have? If it is a classic Mac Pro, then the NVRAM (the Mac equivalent of Windows BIOS) will search for the EFI partition on drive bay 1 first. It is therefore recommended that you put OC there. I am using a small SATA SSD in that bay on which I have installed OC. However, my operating system boot disks are NVMe drives on a PCIe adapter card. There is no OpenCore on any of the NVMe drives. I can set my default drive by selecting it when the boot picker appears on the screen, and pressing [Ctrl] + [Enter].
I hope this is useful.
 
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