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#80 Change hardware primary monitor in EFI fimrware?
This isn't exactly an rEFIT support issue, but here goes anyway. We are using a dual boot Mac mini 2010 in our conference room podium. Only issue is, the rEFIT boot picker screen comes up on the projectors - not the tablet/monitor as it should. I think this is because the Mac mini defaults to the HDMI connection as it's hardware primary monitor. Our projectors are connected to the miniDisplayPort.
Anyone run up against this and find a fix? I don't think it will be a simple matter to switch the HDMI/minidisplayPort connections in the back of the Mac mini to our video switcher. I've done some basic searching but can't find if NVRAM variables exist that can be changed for the hardware primary monitor.
If you can get the startup screen to appear on the tablet/monitor, then rEFIt should be able to appear there also since they are both displayed by EFI. The startup screen is the one with the gray Apple logo in the middle of the screen on a background of light gray. It's also where the Start Manager will appear. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1310
Does moving the menu bar using the Arrange tab of the Displays Preferences Panel change the startup screen? I don't have a second monitor to test this. I remember there used to be a setting in Mac OS 9 to make the startup screen different than the main display (the one with the menu bar).
Joevt,
Thanks for your comments. I can't get the gray Apple logo to show up on the tablet/monitor either (unless I unplug the projectors from the HDMI output) - moving the menubar on the Arrange tab in Displays preferences in OS X or using the "use as primary monitor" setting when booted into the Windows/Bootcamp partition don't make a difference for the startup screen. I contacted an Apple Systems Engineer - he thinks the hardware primary monitor which dictates location for Apple startup screen and rEFIT scrren is either hard coded in firwmare to HDMI or might exist as a NVRAM variable. I'm not having much luck finding documentation on the available NVRAM variables in the Mini's EFI or dumping a list that is human readable (nram -P) from the command line.
I think this may become a problem as more people use the Mac mini in dual boot configurations for AV applications. If your designing a room, you may want to make sure your projector(s) are fed by the miniDisplayPort output and not the HDMI.