Black screen when booting to refind 0.12 - mac OS x 10.15.3

[0nobody0]

starting with a clean install of mac os x 10.15.3 (with a prospective empty linux partition) disabled SIP and ran the 0.12.0 refind-install script . the script appeared to run without issue:

ShimSource is none
Installing rEFInd on macOS....
Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at /Volumes/ESP
Found suspected Linux partition(s); installing ext4fs driver.
Installing driver for ext4 (ext4_x64.efi)
Copied rEFInd binary files

Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure
rEFInd.

upon restart the backlight for the monitor turns on, lights on keyboard turn on, but the screen is black. no keyboard input seems to register. after manually turning the computer off and on the same behavior persists.

booting while holding option brings up the standard apple boot option screen with a single option for the os x system drive. back in os x, manually mounted the ESP all the refindit files appear to be in the correct places.

any help is greatly appreciated

[Roderick W. Smith]

First, you should be able to get macOS booting directly again by using the Startup Disk item in the System Preferences panel. You can then experiment with rEFInd on a USB flash drive or try re-installing it.

The symptoms you describe suggest that one of a couple of things is happening:

• The EFI might not be launching rEFInd and is hanging (perhaps because of a bad NVRAM boot entry). Re-installing might fix this problem, especially if you re-install in some other way. Testing with a USB flash drive may also be informative; if the same rEFInd version launches OK from a USB flash drive, then there's almost certainly a problem with how rEFInd is launching from your hard disk.
• It's possible that rEFInd is hanging very early in its own code (or in EFI code called by rEFInd). This sometimes happens because of filesystem problems, but the symptom there is that you see the rEFInd splash screen, but no icons appear. Thus, if this is the case, it's probably hanging even earlier than that. I don't recall ever hearing a bug report with quite this symptom, so this is a puzzle.

Further debugging and resolution will depend on which of these broad categories is the cause. In the first case, an adjustment to how rEFInd is installed should work around the issue. In the second, it will require tedious debugging with custom-built debugging code.

[Dan Ran]

Hey @srs5694 (Roderick Smith), Thanks in advance for all the help and assistance you give with refind. Unfortunately though, I would also like to report this issue with refind 12, on a much different mac than all of the other reports. I am using a Macbook Pro 11,3 15' mid 2014, running Catalina 10.5.7 (not sure which build number as I just updated) and this issue occurs after a clean install, on both a usb stick version of refind, and a mac installed version of refind. Downgrading to 11.5 did the trick, up until my most recent update to Catalina 10.15.7 (19H114)). Now, 11.5 does not seem to work either after this update.

Some extra information I have, is the I do have bootcamp installed with windows 10. It does not have the secure boot feature as it's an older mac. After the update, Windows 10 seems to be unbootable under the normal mac os bootloader, and obviously from the black screened refind. I'm not sure if this has something to do with Mac OS, or Refind, or Both. Is there any possibility that Apple could be blacklisting bootloaders in their firmware updates somehow?

If you can walk me through debuggging this, in order to fix it for the next release, I am relatively compentent with macs and compiling things from source. I'd be willing to do this with you per your instructions and guidance if you are up for it and have the time.

Let me know.

Thanks
Dan

[dakanji]

Temporarily replace your rEFInd EFI file with a debug version of RefindPlus (Rename the RefindPlus efi file to match) and share the log.

You can get RefindPlus here: https://github.com/dakanji/RefindPlus/releases

[0nobody0]

thanks very much for the quick reply.

• reset the NVRAM, disabled SIP and installed rEFInd and the same problem appears to be happening.
• installed rEFInd to a flash drive. was able to select the flash drive as a boot device, again the same black screen.

the computer is a Macmini 7,1 (Late 2014 3.0 GHz i7).

any other ideas? happy to provide any further details as necessary. would you like a bug report submitted?

[0nobody0]

p.s. just tried version 0.11.5 and it seems to be working fine

[Roderick W. Smith]

You can find versions of rEFInd built with either GNU-EFI or with Tianocore EDK2. You can tell which is which from the About/Info screen in rEFInd; there's a line that tells which is which. Also, Tianocore builds are about 213KiB in size (for version 0.12.0), whereas GNU-EFI builds are a bit larger, at about 276KiB. There are binary .zip files for both types of build on the rEFInd downloads page. I mention this because it's possible that you're running into a problem unique to one or the other build system, so the first thing to do is to try both versions of 0.12.0. If only one fails, try both versions of 0.11.5, too, to see if the problem is new for 0.12.0 or existed in the past and you just didn't realize it.

If both the Tianocore and GNU-EFI builds fail, then I'll have to provide you with a series of test builds. Alternatively, if you're familiar with git and software development, you can try rolling back the changes in rEFInd's git repository and making builds of the various interim versions until you find the commit that's causing the failure.

However you do this, I strongly recommend testing by installing test versions of rEFInd in an alternative location that a working rEFInd can find and launching from the working rEFInd; or put test versions on a USB flash drive and launch from that. Installing in the normal way, with changes to EFI boot variables, will be more hassle and will put wear and tear on the NVRAM, which is inadvisable.

[smcs]

For the record, I have exactly the same mac mini model as 0nobody0 and exactly the same experience. I also have an even older machine (2008 Macbook Pro) that took the 12.0 upgrade with no problems.

[Roderick W. Smith]

One more thought: This could be a Secure Boot issue. Secure Boot for UEFI-based computers is covered in the rEFInd documentation here:

https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/secureboot.html

Apple has recently added a feature that they call "Secure Boot," but it's not 100% clear to me that it's the same thing as Secure Boot on UEFI-based computers. Apple has some documentation on their feature here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208330

If the problem is caused by this feature, then that would imply that the old build of rEFInd (version 0.11.5) was authorized in some way, but version 0.12.0 was not. This could happen when switching between installation methods or because the old rEFInd was authorized via a hash rather than a key. Switching the system to use "no security" should work around the problem, but of course that would disable your Secure Boot features, too. Ensuring that rEFInd is installed with Shim and a MOK list would be a better solution in the long term, but that can be a pain to manage. As I don't have a Mac that's new enough to support this feature, I have no way of testing it myself.

[0nobody0]

thanks, the additional info is much appreciated. for the moment needing to move ahead using 0.11.5.

[McCraic]

I have the same problem when I upgrade from rEFInd-0.11.4 to rEFInd-0.12.0 on a Mac Mini Late 2014 1.4GHz Dual Core Intel Core i5 running MacOS Catalina. Downgrading fixes the issue.

[David Grainger]

I also wish to report the same experiences as the above posters in that rEFInd-0.12.0 didn't work for me but 0.11-5 works just fine.

My Mac Mini (late 2014), 2.6 GHz Dual core i5 (64 bit), integrated Iris graphics and running Catalina 10.15.1 (runs too slowly which was my motivator to start experimenting with Ubuntu)

I saw the exact same boot symptoms as 0nobody0: black screen, no activity. No unusual devices, just USB keyboard and HDMI display.

On one occasion (just after installing Ubuntu) I saw those symptoms of an early hang you described Rod "...the rEFInd splash screen, but no icons appear..."

Things I tried before downgrading to 0.11.5 were:
- installing and re-installing rEFInd from Mac OS and Ubuntu
- disable system integrity protection
- remove mac OS full disk encryption
- checked ESP volume status was good using gdisk (hybrid MBR)

I'm donating some $ to you Rod in appreciation of rEFInd and your documentation from which I have gained much confidence :-)

David,
New Zealand