Dual Boot Linux Mint 21.2 and macOS with OpenCore Legacy Patcher and OpenCore Bootpicker

[PatiB]

Update: No luck. Tried several things:
- Installing mint via "ubiquity -b" ergo without boot loader => no luck

- In Linux "sudo systemctl disable systemd-boot-check-no-act.service" => failed.. does not exist, since I got no boot loader

- In Linux "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor nvram_modify_on_write=0"" was a suggestion, together with "sudo apt purge os-prober -y" and "sudo update-grub" => All yielded the same result.

- In macOS "sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/OC/OpenCore.efi" gave me an error: "could not set boot device property: 0xe00002e2"

- Also tried in Linux "sudo apt remove efibootmgr -y", and blacklisting efi changes via "echo "blacklist efivarfs" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvram.conf" and "sudo update-initramfs -u"

Now Gemini suggest to place an additional boot loader IN FRONT of OCLP... I don't know... that doesn't seem right.

 

[NightSwing]

Update: No luck. Tried several things:
- Installing mint via "ubiquity -b" ergo without boot loader => no luck

- In Linux "sudo systemctl disable systemd-boot-check-no-act.service" => failed.. does not exist, since I got no boot loader

- In Linux "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor nvram_modify_on_write=0"" was a suggestion, together with "sudo apt purge os-prober -y" and "sudo update-grub" => All yielded the same result.

- In macOS "sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/OC/OpenCore.efi" gave me an error: "could not set boot device property: 0xe00002e2"

- Also tried in Linux "sudo apt remove efibootmgr -y", and blacklisting efi changes via "echo "blacklist efivarfs" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvram.conf" and "sudo update-initramfs -u"

Now Gemini suggest to place an additional boot loader IN FRONT of OCLP... I don't know... that doesn't seem right.

I had lost all hope on attempting to get a dual boot to work until I came across your comments. I have endeavorOS(arch based) installed and blacklist efivars worked for me to not have to reinstall opencore after every linux boot. I cant imagine what else you could do. Are you using the ext4 driver in opencore or another boot manager to boot linux.

 

[PatiB]

I had lost all hope on attempting to get a dual boot to work until I came across your comments. I have endeavorOS(arch based) installed and blacklist efivars worked for me to not have to reinstall opencore after every linux boot. I cant imagine what else you could do. Are you using the ext4 driver in opencore or another boot manager to boot linux.

I just yesterday in the evening found the seemingly real reason. I will try to get it fixed today/tomorrow and post an update for if other tinkerers experience the same pain!

 

[PatiB]

I found the solution. Finally.
The main issue is: in EFI in the folder OC/Kexts/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ the file "AppleUSBTcKeyboard.kext" was missing after booting Linux, but instead I got an additional "FSCK000..." folder.

Not 100% sure but it seems that Linux did some scan and maybe considered that file corrupted and removed it.

Solution is very simple:
- Boot Linux
- sudo nano /etc/fstab
- Change "/boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1" to "/boot/efi vfat ro,nosuid,nodev,noauto 0 0" which prevents Linux from farting around in there

Then for me to finally get it working after this, since the boot I used to adapt this had already broke it again:
- Plugin OCLP USB drive
- Hold alt, power Mac on
- In boot picker, select USB (orange icon)
- In second picker, select internal ssd/drive
- Boot macOS, wait 1-3 min for OCLP to detect that you booted from USB
- let OCLP reinstall itself into your internal drive
- Reboot (not 100% needed, maybe)
- You might only be able to boot macOS from bootpicker now, so carry on:
- back in macOS do "sudo diskutil mount disk0s1" to mount your EFI partition
- in finder go into EFI partition
- download "ext4_x64.efi" from here: https://github.com/acidanthera/OcBinaryData/tree/master/Drivers
- add that file to EFI partition folder: EFI/OC/Drivers
- edit EFI/OC/config.plist
- find entry "OpenLinuxBoot.efi"
- Duplicate that whole XML-section and replace "OpenLinuxBoot.efi" with "ext4_x64.efi" so that both are loaded
- NOW you should in reboot finally see both OS in bootpicker

 

[NightSwing]

I found the solution. Finally.
The main issue is: in EFI in the folder OC/Kexts/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ the file "AppleUSBTcKeyboard.kext" was missing after booting Linux, but instead I got an additional "FSCK000..." folder.

Not 100% sure but it seems that Linux did some scan and maybe considered that file corrupted and removed it.

Solution is very simple:
- Boot Linux
- sudo nano /etc/fstab
- Change "/boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1" to "/boot/efi vfat ro,nosuid,nodev,noauto 0 0" which prevents Linux from farting around in there

Then for me to finally get it working after this, since the boot I used to adapt this had already broke it again:
- Plugin OCLP USB drive
- Hold alt, power Mac on
- In boot picker, select USB (orange icon)
- In second picker, select internal ssd/drive
- Boot macOS, wait 1-3 min for OCLP to detect that you booted from USB
- let OCLP reinstall itself into your internal drive
- Reboot (not 100% needed, maybe)
- You might only be able to boot macOS from bootpicker now, so carry on:
- back in macOS do "sudo diskutil mount disk0s1" to mount your EFI partition
- in finder go into EFI partition
- download "ext4_x64.efi" from here: https://github.com/acidanthera/OcBinaryData/tree/master/Drivers
- add that file to EFI partition folder: EFI/OC/Drivers
- edit EFI/OC/config.plist
- find entry "OpenLinuxBoot.efi"
- Duplicate that whole XML-section and replace "OpenLinuxBoot.efi" with "ext4_x64.efi" so that both are loaded
- NOW you should in reboot finally see both OS in bootpicker

Great that you got it to work. Hopefully more people will be able to dual boot since the time of OCLP is sadly coming to an end.

 

[michaela]

Hello, since this is probably the only place on the internet that resembles the issues I am currently dealing with, here I am:

I am trying to establish a dualboot of CachyOS (Arch based distro -- a bit of hunch of mine what could or could not be a culprit here, see 11.7.1 flag 0x00000400) using OpenLinuxBoot trough OCLP alongside MacOS Sonoma 15.5. I've used both OP's write up (Method A to be precise, since that seemed like a perfect match for my use case) and the Dortania docs as a reference and currently I am just stuck left my head scratching. I followed the process step by step, yet when I do reboot into the OCLP boot picker, there is no linux entry. I've checked the config.plist for any errors, checked the Drivers folder (had to add the btrfs driver and did add an entry into the config.plist accordingly), still no luck. Searching the internet (as stated above) didn't provide many results -- if any. I have a bit of a hunch that there is something fishy with APFS snapshots and bless command in the works, since getting the system running in the first place was an absolute mess on its own and honestly it is a miracle on its own that it runs. But before I'll dive into this another can of worms, I decided to try asking here, maybe some of you encountered a similar issue? Any input will be very, very much appreciated.

Thank you kindly