[BUG] Clover 5168 and up boot menu entries are garbled with signs of internal memory curruption

[kiryanov]

Describe the bug
Starting from release 5168 Clover does not boot, menu items are garbled, mach kernel panics early during boot.

How ​​to reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install release 5168 or 5169 with the old config that boots perfectly with release 5167
2. Try to boot
3. System hangs on an apple logo screen
4. Add -v kernel parameter to see panic screen
5. Going back to 5167 solves the issue

Expected behavior
System boots into Mac OS

Screenshots
Normal menu with Clover 5167

Garbled menu with Clover 5169

Garbled characters change after editing the kernel command line

System panic at boot

Environment:

• OS: Mac OS Sequoia 15.7.3
• Clover version: 5168 and 5169
• Hardware: Intel i5 , ASUS Z390M-PRO, Intel UHD 630

[YBronst]

Check if everything in your config matches the important sections of the new one.

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>KernelAndKextPatches</key>
        <dict>
            <key>KextsToBlock</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>Comment</key>
                    <string>Allow IOSkywalk Downgrade</string>
                    <key>Disabled</key>
                    <false/>
                    <key>MatchOS</key>
                    <string>14.x,15.x,26.x</string>
                    <key>Name</key>
                    <string>com.apple.iokit.IOSkywalkFamily</string>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>Comment</key>
                    <string>Allow Block AppleEthernetRL</string>
                    <key>Disabled</key>
                    <true/>
                    <key>MatchOS</key>
                    <string>25.x,26.x</string>
                    <key>Name</key>
                    <string>com.apple.driver.AppleEthernetRL</string>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <key>Quirks</key>
        <dict>
            <key>AppleXcpmExtraMsrs</key>
            <false/>
            <key>AppleXcpmForceBoost</key>
            <false/>
            <key>AvoidRuntimeDefrag</key>
            <true/>
            <key>ClearTaskSwitchBit</key>
            <false/>
            <key>DevirtualiseMmio</key>
            <false/>
            <key>DisableIoMapper</key>
            <true/>
            <key>DisableIoMapperMapping</key>
            <false/>
            <key>DisableLinkeditJettison</key>
            <true/>
            <key>DisableSingleUser</key>
            <false/>
            <key>DisableVariableWrite</key>
            <false/>
            <key>DiscardHibernateMap</key>
            <false/>
            <key>DummyPowerManagement</key>
            <false/>
            <key>EnableSafeModeSlide</key>
            <false/>
            <key>EnableWriteUnprotector</key>
            <true/>
            <key>ExtendBTFeatureFlags</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ExternalDiskIcons</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ForceAquantiaEthernet</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ForceExitBootServices</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ForceOcWriteFlash</key>
            <false/>
            <key>FuzzyMatch</key>
            <false/>
            <key>IncreasePciBarSize</key>
            <false/>
            <key>KernelCache</key>
            <string>Auto</string>
            <key>MmioWhitelist</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>Address</key>
                    <integer>4275159040</integer>
                    <key>Comment</key>
                    <string>Haswell: SB_RCBA is a 0x4 page memory region, containing SPI_BASE at 0x3800 (SPI_BASE_ADDRESS)</string>
                    <key>Enabled</key>
                    <false/>
                </dict>
                <dict>
                    <key>Address</key>
                    <integer>4278190080</integer>
                    <key>Comment</key>
                    <string>Generic: PCI root is a 0x1000 page memory region used by some firmwares</string>
                    <key>Enabled</key>
                    <false/>
                </dict>
            </array>
            <key>PowerTimeoutKernelPanic</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ProtectMemoryRegions</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ProtectSecureBoot</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ProtectUefiServices</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ProvideCurrentCpuInfo</key>
            <false/>
            <key>AutoModernCPUQuirks</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ProvideCustomSlide</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ProvideMaxSlide</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>RebuildAppleMemoryMap</key>
            <false/>
            <key>ResizeAppleGpuBars</key>
            <integer>-1</integer>
            <key>ResizeGpuBars</key>
            <integer>-1</integer>
            <key>SetupVirtualMap</key>
            <true/>
            <key>SignalAppleOS</key>
            <false/>
            <key>SyncRuntimePermissions</key>
            <true/>
            <key>ThirdPartyDrives</key>
            <false/>
            <key>TscSyncTimeout</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>XhciPortLimit</key>
            <false/>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</plist>

[kiryanov]

Hi,

Thanks for the hint, I missed the transition from BlockSkywalk to KextsToBlock. Now the OS boots just fine, but garbled menu entries remain. Here's a snippet from the boot log for convenience:

0:860  0:000  - [06]: 'Preboot'
0:860  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:860  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=EB76482E-380B-42EE-8269-CD9D333D9E05
0:860  0:000      APFSTargetUUID=D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5
0:861  0:001        contentDetails name:Machintosh HD
0:861  0:000        AddLoaderEntry for Volume Name=Preboot, idx=2
0:862  0:000        OSVersion=15.7.4 Build=24G517
0:862  0:000        Check if volume Is Hibernated:
0:862  0:000        Check sleep image 'by signature':
0:862  0:000        using default sleep image name = \private\var\vm\sleepimage
0:862  0:000        cannot open sleepimage -> Not Found
0:862  0:000        hibernated: no - sign
0:862  0:000        IconName=sequoia,mac comma=7 size=11
0:862  0:000        first=os_sequoia
0:862  0:000        Second=os_mac
0:862  0:000        IconName=unknown comma=-1 size=7
0:862  0:000        Full=unknown
0:862  0:000        Loader entry created for 'PciRoot(0x0)\Pci(0x1D,0x0)\Pci(0x0,0x0)\NVMe(0x1,34-9C-75-4B-8B-44-1B-00)\HD(2,GPT,48A3F151-124F-48C1-B424-7748AF23AF8C,0x64028,0x1D1619
20)\VenMedia(BE74FCF7-0B7C-49F3-9147-01F4042E6842,2E4876EB0B38EE428269CD9D333D9E05)\D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi'
0:864  0:001        Menu entry added at index 2
0:864  0:000  - [07]: 'Machintosh HD – Data'
0:864  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:864  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5
0:864  0:000  - [08]: 'Recovery'
0:864  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:864  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=901A31A0-55DC-41CD-8BE3-4F886F489C84
0:864  0:000      APFSTargetUUID=D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5
0:864  0:000        contentDetails name:Machintosh HD
0:865  0:000        AddLoaderEntry for Volume Name=Recovery, idx=3
0:865  0:000        OSVersion=15.7.4 Build=24G517
0:865  0:000        IconName=sequoia,mac comma=7 size=11
0:865  0:000        first=os_sequoia
0:866  0:000        Second=os_mac
0:866  0:000        IconName=unknown comma=-1 size=7
0:866  0:000        Full=unknown
0:866  0:000        Loader entry created for 'PciRoot(0x0)\Pci(0x1D,0x0)\Pci(0x0,0x0)\NVMe(0x1,34-9C-75-4B-8B-44-1B-00)\HD(2,GPT,48A3F151-124F-48C1-B424-7748AF23AF8C,0x64028,0x1D161920)\VenMedia(BE74FCF7-0B7C-49F3-9147-01F4042E6842,A0311A90DC55CD418BE34F886F489C84)\D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5\BaseSystem.dmg'
0:867  0:001        Menu entry added at index 3
0:867  0:000  - [09]: 'Machintosh HD'
0:867  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:867  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=4C218888-50FE-4B7B-BB8B-810719BFCE55
0:871  0:003  - [10]: 'VM'
0:871  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:871  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=AC58E89B-7A49-4869-8900-9C2D7F4BBCD9
0:871  0:000  - [11]: 'Update'
0:871  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:871  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=C1D942BC-DC18-4AC8-8C05-48B0E2D2DA30
0:871  0:000  Entries list before ordering
0:871  0:000      Entry 0 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:871  0:000      Entry 1 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:871  0:000      Entry 2 : 晧牸獰㵣1污
0:871  0:000      Entry 3 : Boot Mac OS Recovery for Machintosh HD via Recovery
0:871  0:000  Entries list after ordering
0:871  0:000    Entry 0 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:871  0:000    Entry 1 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:871  0:000    Entry 2 : 晧牸獰㵣1污
0:871  0:000    Entry 3 : Boot Mac OS Recovery for Machintosh HD via Recovery
0:871  0:000  Scanning legacy ...

Entry 2 still seems corrupted.

[kiryanov]

...and it's different with every boot. Now I have

0:869  0:000    Entry 2 : 杩硦睦㈽밀

and then

1:309  0:000      Entry 2 : 䄀䙁㔸䔶䘭㍆ⴳㄱう㤭䔸ⵃ㕂䕂㜸䌳㠰䍆

Looks like uninitialized memory to me.

[YBronst]

...and it's different with every boot. Now I have

0:869  0:000    Entry 2 : 杩硦睦㈽밀

and then

1:309  0:000      Entry 2 : 䄀䙁㔸䔶䘭㍆ⴳㄱう㤭䔸ⵃ㕂䕂㜸䌳㠰䍆

Looks like uninitialized memory to me.
I don't know why this is happening to you. It's a hexadecimal code (GUID/UUID) that, due to an encoding error, is displayed in Chinese characters.
If you convert these characters back to standard text format, you get the identifier:
AF858E6F-3F3-11E9-E8A-5BEB78C380CF.
You most likely need to reset the NVRAM.
For me, it looks like this:

[kiryanov]

I do not have anything like that in my NVRAM, and release 5167 displays everything correctly. As I mentioned, the characters are different every time I boot, so it's not some GUID displayed incorrectly, it's random data.
Any idea of how to debug this further?

[kiryanov]

So, I've tried booting with debug/true but it didn't help to shed any light on the issue.
All labels and names are detected correctly during "ScanLoader" phase, but then something goes wrong. It must be related to the massive menu overhaul in 5168.

0:823  0:027  === [ ScanLoader ] ==============================
...
0:857  0:000  - [06]: 'Preboot'
0:857  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:857  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=EB76482E-380B-42EE-8269-CD9D333D9E05
0:857  0:000      APFSTargetUUID=D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5
0:859  0:001        contentDetails name:Machintosh HD
0:859  0:000        AddLoaderEntry for Volume Name=Preboot, idx=2
0:859  0:000        OSVersion=15.7.4 Build=24G517
0:859  0:000        Check if volume Is Hibernated:
0:859  0:000        Check sleep image 'by signature':
0:859  0:000        using default sleep image name = \private\var\vm\sleepimage
0:859  0:000        cannot open sleepimage -> Not Found
0:859  0:000        hibernated: no - sign
0:859  0:000        IconName=sequoia,mac comma=7 size=11
0:859  0:000        first=os_sequoia
0:859  0:000        Second=os_mac
0:859  0:000        IconName=unknown comma=-1 size=7
0:859  0:000        Full=unknown
0:859  0:000        Loader entry created for 'PciRoot(0x0)\Pci(0x1D,0x0)\Pci(0x0,0x0)\NVMe(0x1,34-9C-75-4B-8B-44-1B-00)\HD(2,GPT,48A3F151-124F-48C1-B424-7748AF23AF8C,0x64028,0x1D161920)\VenMedia(BE74FCF7-0B7C-49F3-9147-01F4042E6842,2E4876EB0B38EE428269CD9D333D9E05)\D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi'
0:861  0:001        Menu entry added at index 2
...
0:862  0:000  - [08]: 'Recovery'
0:862  0:000      ApfsContainerUUID=E9364AA3-59DB-4F4F-B727-FD17BD8BFBEC
0:862  0:000      ApfsFileSystemUUID=901A31A0-55DC-41CD-8BE3-4F886F489C84
0:862  0:000      APFSTargetUUID=D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5
0:862  0:000        contentDetails name:Machintosh HD
0:862  0:000        AddLoaderEntry for Volume Name=Recovery, idx=3
0:863  0:000        OSVersion=15.7.4 Build=24G517
0:863  0:000        IconName=sequoia,mac comma=7 size=11
0:863  0:000        first=os_sequoia
0:863  0:000        Second=os_mac
0:863  0:000        IconName=unknown comma=-1 size=7
0:863  0:000        Full=unknown
0:863  0:000        Loader entry created for 'PciRoot(0x0)\Pci(0x1D,0x0)\Pci(0x0,0x0)\NVMe(0x1,34-9C-75-4B-8B-44-1B-00)\HD(2,GPT,48A3F151-124F-48C1-B424-7748AF23AF8C,0x64028,0x1D161920)\VenMedia(BE74FCF7-0B7C-49F3-9147-01F4042E6842,A0311A90DC55CD418BE34F886F489C84)\D4E2A596-54B3-40A2-AFD8-B8AA279F49E5\BaseSystem.dmg'
0:865  0:001        Menu entry added at index 3
...
0:869  0:000  Entries list before ordering
0:869  0:000      Entry 0 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:869  0:000      Entry 1 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:869  0:000      Entry 2 : 杩硦睦㈽琀污
0:869  0:000      Entry 3 : Boot Mac OS Recovery for Machintosh HD via Recovery
0:869  0:000  Entries list after ordering
0:869  0:000    Entry 0 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:869  0:000    Entry 1 : Boot UEFI internal from EFI (hidden)
0:869  0:000    Entry 2 : 杩硦睦㈽琀污
0:869  0:000    Entry 3 : Boot Mac OS Recovery for Machintosh HD via Recovery

[YBronst]

Try a slightly tweaked Clover. It shouldn't spew Chinese gibberish anymore.

[kiryanov]

Indeed, the gibberish is gone, now it shows "Options for boot.efi on Preboot" as first menu entry.

[YBronst]

Indeed, the gibberish is gone, now it shows "Options for boot.efi on Preboot" as first menu entry.

Provide solution for incompatible config settings in Clover 5168+
I have identified the causes of the "garbled menu" reported in your's issue:

1. ProvideConsoleGop defaults to TRUE in 5168+, causing display corruption on some firmwares.
2. Missing or old-style Quirks sections lead to critical booter quirks being disabled by default.
3. KextsToBlock logic changed to require dictionary format and bundle identifiers.
4. Regarding "Options for boot.efi on Preboot," that's been around for a while. I solved it by creating an empty file named .empty with no extension and placing it in Clover's BOOT folder.

[kiryanov]

1. Setting ProvideConsoleGop to false causes my system not to boot (no apple logo, no progress bar and reset after a couple of seconds), so I believe it was always enabled in my case.
2. My Quirks section looks exactly as you posted, nothing seems missing there.
3. Missing KextToBlock was indeed causing a KP, my bad
4. Placing ".empty" file in EFI BOOT folder changes nothing, the tweaked version you provided still shows "Options for boot.efi on Preboot" instead of "Boot Mac OS from Macintosh HD via Preboot" as r5167 does.

[kiryanov]

Try a slightly tweaked Clover. It shouldn't spew Chinese gibberish anymore.

Oh, I have re-downloaded your release and now the Chinese characters are back :/