[SOLVED] OpenCore EFI not recognized from HDD EFI partition

[RePete222]

After a successful Big Sur install, I have been attempting to get my HDD (SSD)  OpenCore bootable.  My Mobo firmware has been able to recognize the installer USB stick as UEFI bootable, but for some reason I can't seem to get the same result from the internal SSD containing the Big Sur system.  The best I have been able to accomplish is to copy EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi to the top level of the EFI partition, and rename it to SHELLx64.efi.  I can then get into the BIOS, and navigate to an exit menu that gives the option to boot the UEFI shell from whichever device it can find SHELLx64.efi on.  Choosing that option works to boot via OpenCore; the problem is that I find no BIOS setting to make that happen automatically.

 

If nothing else, I could get some legacy boot file (from Duet package?) installed as a go-between.  But, having already succeeded with true UEFI booting from the USB stick, I ought to be able to accomplish the same thing from the SSD.  What step or steps am I missing to get that to happen?

Edited January 25, 2022 by RePete222
Mark solved

[RePete222]

UPDATE:  Tried doing the DuetPkg install; it will boot from the drive, but when it gets to the picker, the keyboard is unresponsive.  I tried the recommended troubleshooting in the Guide; not only did that not work, it also broke UEFI booting--made the keyboard unresponsive in that mode as well, forcing me to boot from the USB stick to get back in and revert the settings.  So at this point, I really need to get UEFI booting to work, and without having to do the BIOS-->Advanced Mode-->Exit Menu-->Launch EFI Shell from filesystem device routine to get there.

 

I have also disabled Secure Boot, with no improvement to the situation.  Also have tried various combinations of CSM Auto/Enabled/Disabled; same result with each setting.

[RePete222]

WORKING NOW!

Not quite sure what did it, but I decided to update the BIOS from version 1503 (early 2013) to version 2901 (mid 2016).  After the BIOS update, it was seeing my SSD as UEFI bootable; however, due to BIOS settings reverting to defaults after the update, I could not immediately boot from it.  I had to go in and change settings to disable Secure Boot, along with the other usual Hackintosh changes.  Once those were done, and I put my UEFI SSD at the top of the boot priority list, it booted up to the OC picker without intervention.