Hello all,
I have a weird one. I am currently running a Mac Pro 3,1 with a debian 9 minimal install. All was well for days (maybe 45 intentional reboots while testing hardware).
Today I got 32GB of ram (yay for free old hardware), installed it all, and 2 of the sticks would not register. So I got the bright idea to reset the PRAM (nVRAM). After doing so, the system shows me the famous "question mark folder" until I plug in a Refit USB thumb drive, upon which it immediatly boots.
I've tried the reinstall-grub stuff, and all appears to be correct, except the main drive is not detected as a boot drive (which previously worked fine).
I don;t have any copies of OSX laying around as this is a fairly old mac pro, so aside from that what else could I try so that I do not have to have the USB stick permanently plugged in?
I have not yet tried booting the same drive via an external drive tray, but I will be doing that shortly.
Thanks,
Chance
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[SOLVED]Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
[SOLVED]Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
Last edited by t4thfavor on 2019-01-15 13:18, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnIntelMacPro
not many questions here dealing with mac
maybe someone will show up and surprise us...
not many questions here dealing with mac
maybe someone will show up and surprise us...
In memory of Ian Ashley Murdock (1973 - 2015) founder of the Debian project.
Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
Well, I'm "Bandwidth challenged" so downloading a fresh copy of a decade old OS is going to be difficult. When I got it, it had a working install of some version of OSX, but that's long since been deleted. I'll probably end up having to boot OSX install, click one button, then reboot remove the OSX drive, and all will be right in the world...
That, or I'll have to move this to one of the newer ones. It's just running OpenMediaVault and Plex, but it's darn good at it, and I want to use the better hardware for other stuff.
I tried it with another HDD that is known good for booting (I DD'd an IDE drive with debian on it to a SATA drive which I'm trying to boot now, so the IDE drive was used), and it does the same thing.
I have little hope that someone will happen upon this post, but stranger things have happened.
Meanwhile I'll be downloading OSX 10.2 (Some cat name) off ThePirateBay... Should take about a month.
Thanks,
Chance
That, or I'll have to move this to one of the newer ones. It's just running OpenMediaVault and Plex, but it's darn good at it, and I want to use the better hardware for other stuff.
I tried it with another HDD that is known good for booting (I DD'd an IDE drive with debian on it to a SATA drive which I'm trying to boot now, so the IDE drive was used), and it does the same thing.
I have little hope that someone will happen upon this post, but stranger things have happened.
Meanwhile I'll be downloading OSX 10.2 (Some cat name) off ThePirateBay... Should take about a month.
Thanks,
Chance
Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3095886
scroll down to the third post:
scroll down to the third post:
Jun 3, 2011 4:19 AM in response to gomaccrazy
Try holding down the option key. You should get a screen that allows you to pick from bootable drives.
If your startup disk appears, select it. After it boots, go into the System Preferences, Startup Disk, and set it.
If that doesn't work, try booting while holding down the shift key.
If that doesn't work, you may have to reinstall.
Unless you are often editing files larger than 20 MB, there's not much need to defrag Mac OS X.
In memory of Ian Ashley Murdock (1973 - 2015) founder of the Debian project.
Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
you could also try pulling the memory you just installed
reboot once or twice
and another once or twice using the Option key
if Grub or boot camp or whatever your bootloader is
still doesn't show up try resetting pram again...
edit: https://www.macworld.com/article/201885 ... rt-up.html
scroll to
Step 2 Safe Boot
reboot once or twice
and another once or twice using the Option key
if Grub or boot camp or whatever your bootloader is
still doesn't show up try resetting pram again...
edit: https://www.macworld.com/article/201885 ... rt-up.html
scroll to
Step 2 Safe Boot
In memory of Ian Ashley Murdock (1973 - 2015) founder of the Debian project.
- Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
Did you add the --removable flag to the `grub-install` command? That should let GRUB boot without NVRAM entries.t4thfavor wrote:I've tried the reinstall-grub stuff
deadbang
Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
So I have already tried the old ram, etc. it booted many times with the new ram, so that is why I did not suspect it.
HERE IS WHAT FIXED IT...
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questio ... out-refind
Specifically step #6
Except replace the OSX style paths with /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/grubx64.efi
No idea, but it seems the older Mac is incapable of finding the bootloader in the debian folder under EFI.
Will try it more later as the system is headless too (I know, great...), and difficult to mess with when remote.
Thanks for all the replies.
-Chance
HERE IS WHAT FIXED IT...
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questio ... out-refind
Specifically step #6
Code: Select all
cp /Volumes/EFI/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
No idea, but it seems the older Mac is incapable of finding the bootloader in the debian folder under EFI.
Will try it more later as the system is headless too (I know, great...), and difficult to mess with when remote.
Thanks for all the replies.
-Chance
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Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
What have you tried exactly ? Which commands ?t4thfavor wrote:I've tried the reinstall-grub stuff
As suggested by Head_on_a_Stick, "grub-install --removable" would have done this automatically.t4thfavor wrote:cp /Volumes/EFI/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi
The UEFI firmware needs to register a boot entry for anything outside EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi. EFI boot entries are stored in the NVRAM. grub-install (without arguments) should have re-created a boot entry.t4thfavor wrote:No idea, but it seems the older Mac is incapable of finding the bootloader in the debian folder under EFI.
Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
I just did the regular grub-install, and possibly grub-install /dev/sde
efibootmgr shows an entry for "debian" and that's it, it's just no longer capable of finding that entry without the --removeable flag (I guess).
Bottom line is now it works. I stumbled upon the entry early this AM, and before coming back here and reading anything posted after last night.
I never tried the shift key, but holding down left alt did not allow me to see other bootable media until I put the rEFIt flash drive in.
Thanks for everyone's help!
-Chance
efibootmgr shows an entry for "debian" and that's it, it's just no longer capable of finding that entry without the --removeable flag (I guess).
Bottom line is now it works. I stumbled upon the entry early this AM, and before coming back here and reading anything posted after last night.
I never tried the shift key, but holding down left alt did not allow me to see other bootable media until I put the rEFIt flash drive in.
Thanks for everyone's help!
-Chance
- Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Mac Pro cannot boot after NVRAM reset
Liar!t4thfavor wrote:efibootmgr shows an entry for "debian" and that's it
The `efibootmgr` output should also show the boot order and that is probably what the problem was if you can see a "debian" entry.
deadbang