Clover General discussion

[vector sigma]

24 minutes ago, Florin9doi said:

OsxFatBinaryDrv works for .efi files, not for mach_kernel.

It expects a different header: https://github.com/CloverHackyColor/CloverBootloader/blob/7c0aa811ec303899bba18244425ad61c6ed07da8/Protocols/OsxFatBinaryDrv/OsxFatBinaryDrv.h#L22

Yes but as I said is boot.efi that load your prelinked into the memory map. In the OSes you mentioned, boot.efi is a Fat file, so the driver thin and keep the right arch. 

Injected kexts in those old OSes are thinned with this function instead:

EFI_STATUS EFIAPI ThinFatFile(IN OUT UINT8 **binary, IN OUT UINTN *length, IN cpu_type_t archCpuType)

where the CAFEBABE header is taken into account, which can be in reverse order too (FAT_MAGIC = 0xcafebabe vs FAT_CIGAM = 0xbebafeca)... depending on the indianess used.

Edited December 20, 2019 by vector sigma
typos

[Matgen84]

1 hour ago, Jief_Machak said:

OK, some people don't like the information about CLover boot volume.

Is it really a problem to see that in Clover, which you are supposed to see only few seconds at boot ? Maybe I should move on bottom right corner, like "5100, booted from xxx" ? Or a setting, disabled by default ?

 

Oups, I was too quick, I didn't check. I see that Slice did something. Thanks Slice.

That said, maybe the bottom right corner, next to the version, is nicer anyway. Opinion, anyone ?

 

Thanks for your great job  I already comment Slice's answer but just my opinion is:

 

•  Hackinbtosher who choose UEFI only knows that Clover boot from EFI, I think.
• this change could be optional. But the right place could be bottom right near version number as you says.

Edited December 20, 2019 by Matgen84

[vector sigma]

24 minutes ago, Matgen84 said:

Hackinbtosher who choose UEFI only knows that Clover boot from EFI, I think.

I do not think this is the scenario. You may want to know or realize if you boot from a USB stick or a specific  ESP partition in your system. I have four of it in my system, so I can write "ESP on Samsung EVO" or "ESP on OCZ Vertex 4", which can be of help.

Edited December 20, 2019 by vector sigma

[Matgen84]

13 minutes ago, vector sigma said:

I do not think this is the scenario. You may want to know or realize if you boot from a USB stick or a specific  ESP partition in your system. I have four of it in my system, so I can write "ESP on Samsung EVO" or "ESP on OCZ Vertez 4".

 

At this time, I don't know the scenario. Today, I've this message "Clover booted from EFI" at the top left of the screen (bottom right is better place, It think) in a typo different from the theme I use. I have only one hard drive for each hack for macOS (Mojave and another for Catalina). So the message is not necessary. 

 

This is why I wrote that it could be optional. Like F1=Help, the possibility could be integrate in theme.plist for example.

Edited December 20, 2019 by Matgen84

[Jief_Machak]

57 minutes ago, Matgen84 said:

 

Thanks for your great job  I already comment Slice's answer but just my opinion is:

 

•  Hackinbtosher who choose UEFI only knows that Clover boot from EFI, I think.
• this change could be optional. But the right place could be bottom right near version number as you says.

The point is not to tell you it's booted from EFI. In fact a legacy should tells you the same. The point is to know which Clover is booted when you have more than one.

If you give a name to your volume, it can tells you which clover you are booting. Especially useful to prevent a mistake I made : I was mistakenly booting from my regular Clover while I was trying to test a new clover on a USB stick. Took me some time to realise why my modification seems to be uneffective !!

I'll move at the bottom. More discrete...

[bronxteck]

using 2 different themes would have saved you the headache. use one for usb and a different one for HDD. problem solved.

[n.d.k]

1 hour ago, Matgen84 said:

 

I don't understand well this change. Hackinbtosher who choose UEFI only knows that Clover boot from EFI, I think.

I don't understand also: "If Volumename begins with #: it means we have to rename the volume: for example catalina-HD to #catalina-HD 

 

Personally, I prefer the reverse: In the case of "#...." the message Clover boot from XXX" will appear. Just my opinion: this change could be optional.

 

Sorry for my bad english, If I misunderstood what you says.

You don't have to rename anything.  Ok to make it clear for someone not understand it well.

 

- Create a file name VolumeLabel.txt on Desktop

- Open it with text editor and write #EFI or any name you want with # in front on the first line, then save it.

- Mount the EFI partition (the one you install the clover on) and open up Finder click EFI on the left pane.

- Drag the VolumeLabel.txt file to it (the root, not into the EFI folder)

- Rename VolumeLabel.txt to .VolumeLabel.txt and it will disappear from the Finder since it's a hidden file name.

Done!

 In Finder, you can use Shift + Command + . to show/hide the hidden files. 

[Matgen84]

28 minutes ago, Jief_Machak said:

The point is not to tell you it's booted from EFI. In fact a legacy should tells you the same. The point is to know which Clover is booted when you have more than one.

If you give a name to your volume, it can tells you which clover you are booting. Especially useful to prevent a mistake I made : I was mistakenly booting from my regular Clover while I was trying to test a new clover on a USB stick. Took me some time to realise why my modification seems to be uneffective !!

I'll move at the bottom. More discrete...

 

Thanks for moving  at the bottom  

 

I have two Hacks UEFI only: one HD for Mojave and another HD for Catalina. The first volume is named 'Mojave', the second 'Catalina'. The message is: "Clover booted from EFI". That doesn't tell me what efi on which volume. Can you explain to me, why?

 

 

[vector sigma]

Just now, Matgen84 said:

is: "Clover booted from EFI". That doesn't tell me what efi on which volume. Can you explain to me, why?

Sorry but what is 'EFI' for you?

[Matgen84]

6 minutes ago, n.d.k said:

You don't have to rename anything.  Ok to make it clear for someone not understand it well.

 

- Create a file name VolumeLabel.txt on Desktop

- Open it with text editor and write #EFI or any name you want with # in front on the first line, then save it.

- Mount the EFI partition (the one you install the clover on) and open up Finder click EFI on the left pane.

- Drag the VolumeLabel.txt file to it (the root, not into the EFI folder)

- Rename VolumeLabel.txt to .VolumeLabel.txt and it will disappear from the Finder since it's a hidden file name.

Done!

 In Finder, you can use Shift + Command + . to show/hide the hidden files. 

 

Thanks for this explanation  

[Matgen84]

1 minute ago, vector sigma said:

Sorry but what is 'EFI' for you?

 

For me, EFI is EFI Partition. Take a look to the screenshot, I've post before: in attachment bellow, and diskutil list via Terminal.

 

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI NO NAME                 353.4 MB   disk0s1
   2:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data Win10                   2.0 TB     disk0s3
   4:           Windows Recovery                         516.9 MB   disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1  <----------
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         1000.0 GB  disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1000.0 GB  disk2
                                 Physical Store disk1s2
   1:                APFS Volume Mojave                  496.6 GB   disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 24.1 MB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                510.3 MB   disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      8.6 GB     disk2s4

 

[vector sigma]

2 minutes ago, Matgen84 said:

For me, EFI is EFI Partition

 

 1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1  <----------

And why you expect to show something else then?

Edited December 20, 2019 by vector sigma

[Matgen84]

4 minutes ago, vector sigma said:

 

 1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1  <----------

And why you expect to show something else then?

 

For example, Clover booted from EFI / Volume_Name  Just "Clover booted from EFI" doesn't give me any information

[n.d.k]

3 minutes ago, Matgen84 said:

 

For example, Clover booted from EFI / Volume_Name  Just "Clover booted from EFI" doesn't give me any information

That's where the VolumeLabel.txt become useful, instead of #EFI, write Samsung970EVO on the first line, so you know that Clover booted from that drive,  One drive can have multiple volume with multiple macOS, but can only have one EFI partition.  So Use the drive brand makes more sense than use the macOS name if one have multi OSes on the same drive.

[vector sigma]

19 minutes ago, Matgen84 said:

 

For example, Clover booted from EFI / Volume_Name  Just "Clover booted from EFI" doesn't give me any information

EFI is the name of the partition. '/Volumes' is a folder that exist only in macOS. '/Volumes/EFI' is a mount point which can exists only after the volume is mounted, after the OS is loaded. But you are in a time you don't even boot into one OS.

The same for disk0s1. It is called BSD name and it is only used by Darwin OSes due to the BSD kernel part. In Linux would be some thing like sda1. In Windows would be B:. 

Now, if you mount the disk0s1 and create a file ".VolumeLabel.txt" on it, you can write for example "This is the disk where my preferred Clover is" and reboot. Now you know where you are booting from.

 

echo "This is the disk where my preferred Clover is" > /Volumes/EFI/.VolumeLabel.txt

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by vector sigma

[Florin9doi]

I think that by default, when no VolumeLabel.txt file is present, the text should be hidden.

[vector sigma]

What if I make Clover.app handle this??

[Matgen84]

21 minutes ago, vector sigma said:

EFI is the name of the partition. '/Volumes' is a folder that exist only in macOS. '/Volumes/EFI' is a mount point which can exists only after the volume is mounted, after the OS is loaded. But you are in a time you don't even boot into one OS.

The same for disk0s1. It is called BSD name and only used by Darwin OSes due to the BSD kernel part. In Linux would be some thing like sda1. In Windows would be B:. 

Now, if you mount the disk0s1 and create a file ".VolumeLabel.txt" on it, you can write for example "This is the disk where my preferred Clover is" and reboot. Now you know where you are booting from.

 

echo "This is the disk where my preferred Clover is" > /Volumes/EFI/.VolumeLabel.txt

 

 

I've to do the same for all bootable macOS devices: USB Installer, external drive that I use for test, etc... Right? If I don't need this info 

 

I second @Florin9doi : " I think that by default, when no VolumeLabel.txt file is present, the text should be hidden."

Edited December 20, 2019 by Matgen84

[vector sigma]

4 minutes ago, Matgen84 said:

I've to do the same for all bootable macOS devices: USB Installer, external drive that I use for test, etc... Right?

Only where you installed Clover. But, you understood that this is optional, right? 

[Jief_Machak]

1 hour ago, bronxteck said:

using 2 different themes would have saved you the headache. use one for usb and a different one for HDD. problem solved.

I did that for a while.

I also modified the background image. But, eventually, when I copied a Clover folder onto an old one, I forgot to change...

I moved to the bottom right corner.

A setting in the GUI section would make everyone agree ? (the default would be not to display, of course).

[Matgen84]

37 minutes ago, Jief_Machak said:

I moved to the bottom right corner.

A setting in the GUI section would make everyone agree ? (the default would be not to display, of course).

 

Thanks a lot  I'm agree of course for setting in GUI section.

 

I've compile and install r5101 (7a0295e3): no new kexts folder structure. Same thing for a clean install 

[vector sigma]

1 hour ago, Matgen84 said:

I've compile and install r5101 (7a0295e3): no new kexts folder structure. Same thing for a clean install 

 

assuming an OS goes to 10.X.6 max (Snow Leopard 10.6.8 Lol)... there are six seven folders each, so since 10.6 there are 11 OSes to be multiplied for 3 (_normal, _recovery and _install).... for an amount of 198 231 directories  in the OEM path and in the usual place. 

 

I think no one wants hundreds of empty folders at each installation in the EFI directory. Since no one knows what a user needs, this must be done at user will, imho.

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by vector sigma

[artur_pt]

6 hours ago, Jief_Machak said:

OK, some people don't like the information about CLover boot volume.

Is it really a problem to see that in Clover, which you are supposed to see only few seconds at boot ? Maybe I should move on bottom right corner, like "5100, booted from xxx" ? Or a setting, disabled by default ?

 

hello

 

just what I think about that

 

thanks

[Jief_Machak]

2 hours ago, vector sigma said:

 

 for an amount of 198 231 directories  in the OEM path and in the usual place. 

 

I think no one wants hundreds of empty folders at each installation in the EFI directory. Since no one knows what a user needs, this must be done at user will, imho.

 

Not sure what you mean. You're not obliged to create folders you don't need. So why "empty folders" ?

Just create the one you need, and if you need to make a difference for a minor version for 1 or 2 kext, you can.

4 hours ago, Matgen84 said:

 

" I think that by default, when no VolumeLabel.txt file is present, the text should be hidden."

That's a lot of noise for a small piece of text in a screen you see few seconds now and then.

Still, I'm perfectly fine with no .VolumeLabel.txt == no text.

[chris1111]

Jief_Machak

Nice !  thank you 

Edited December 20, 2019 by chris1111