Running Ventura system suddenly only boots into Recovery

[thepensivemonk]

I am still early in troubleshooting this issue, so this post is really just a high level "has anyone seen this before?"

I had a well established Hackintosh system running Ventura 13.6.3 on an ASROCK B450 Pro4. Had been running with no issues, but I have had it offline for quite a period of time (a few weeks, as it is not my primary machine). Yesterday booting there was a panic and now, though Opencore will start it, it only will stop and go into recovery mode.

The oddity is there were no changes to this system (that I am aware of) since the last time I ran it successfully, to when it was behaving this way.

Booting from my backup EFI usb key generates the same result, as does my new Opencore EFI boot key that I have based on the lastest Opencore version.

The troubleshooting logs are thin on hints, so while I am retracing my steps, I am wondering if anyone has seen an issue similar to this. I have not found much in the way of similar errors searching the forum, opencore documentation or the web.

Points of consideration:

• It is possible that the last time I shut the system down, a MacOS security update was applied (I honestly don't recall)
• I realize that without a backup of a previous working system that I may not be able to restore
• MacOS recovery does work properly, and even allows reinstall of the Ventura OS on my target drive, but the issue persists on rebooting
• I am still trying a few options, including a fresh Opencore EFI for booting, and will add more information to this thread as I collect it
• Any high level guidance on where I might focus troubleshooting would be appreciated
• System is as per signature, OC 0.9.7 config.plist that was established working is attached (now failing)

09:423 00:051 AAPL: #[EB.WL.PWLFNV|!] Err(0xE) <- RT.GV wake-failure 7C436110-AB
2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82
09:476 00:052 AAPL: #[EB.WL.DT|!] Err(0xE) <- EB.WL.PWLFNV
09:526 00:050 AAPL: #[EB.WL.PWLFRTC|NONE]
09:575 00:048 AAPL: #[EB.WL.DT|!] Err(0xE) <- EB.WL.PWLFRTC
09:627 00:051 AAPL: #[EB.LD.LKC|D] <"boot\System\Library\KernelCollections\BootK
ernelExtensions.kc.development">
09:677 00:049 AAPL: #[EB.LD.LF|IN] 0 1 <"boot\\System\\Library\\KernelCollection
s\\BootKernelExtensions.kc.development"> <"0">
09:745 00:068 AAPL: #[EB.LD.OFS|OPEN!] Err(0xE) <"boot\\System\\Library\\KernelC
ollections\\BootKernelExtensions.kc.development">
09:814 00:068 AAPL: #[EB.LD.LKC|R.2] <"boot\System\Library\KernelCollections\Boo
tKernelExtensions.kc">
09:866 00:051 AAPL: #[EB.LD.LF|IN] 0 1 <"boot\\System\\Library\\KernelCollections\\BootKernelExtensions.kc"> <"0">
12:755 02:889 AAPL: #[EB|SB:P] 0x1
13:941 01:185 AAPL: #[EB|SB:SBGMFNS] j137ap.im4m
13:990 00:049 AAPL: #[EB|SB:MF] boot\\System\\Library\\KernelCollections\\BootKernelExtensions.kc.j137ap.im4m
14:047 00:056 AAPL: #[EB.LD.LF|IN] 0 1 <"boot\\System\\Library\\KernelCollections\\BootKernelExtensions.kc.j137ap.im4m"> <"0">
15:611 01:564 AAPL: #[EB.SB.VK|!] Err(0x1A) <- 24B73556-2197-4702-82A8-3E1337DAFBF2.VFB MKRN
17:837 02:226 AAPL: #[EB.SB.VK|!] Err(0x1A) <- 24B73556-2197-4702-82A8-3E1337DAFBF2.VFB MKRD
17:888 00:050 AAPL: #[EB.LD.LKCFFP|!] Err(0x1A) <- EB.SB.SBVK
17:957 00:069 AAPL: #[EB|R:SRBM] secure-boot
19:277 01:319 AAPL: #[EB|R:ARB]
19:328 00:051 AAPL: #[EB|WL] 0 0 0x01 0x41   6 0x0E
19:380 00:051 AAPL: #[EB|RESET] 1
19:439 00:059 AAPL: #[EB|LOG:RESET:RECOVERY] 2026-02-16T15:47:12

 

[Edhawk]

Check your Bios settings are still compatible with running macOS. It is not uncommon for the bios to reset, especially if it is a dual boot system that runs Windows or a Linux distro.

It is less likely to be an issue with the OpenCore EFI.

 

[thepensivemonk]

Good point... In my system I dual boot now to Win11 and I need to have Above 4G decoding off for Win and on for Mac. I will double check the other settings, but I know my secure boot, fast boot and CSM are all still disabled. Above 4G decoding is enabled.. but I will look again.

Thank you

 

[Edhawk]

I have revised the config.plist you attached above. Hopefully this will help.

1. Cleaned up and removed unnecessary entries, to make the plist easier to read and navigate.
2. Set Misc > Boot > LauncherOption to 'Full' so an OpenCore entry is presented in your Bios as one of the boot options.
3. Disabled Kernel > Quirks > XhciPortLimt, as you have a USB Map present and enabled. You don't need both.
4. Set Misc > Security > SecureBootModel to Disabled, as Default entry can cause issues with an AMD system.

I would recommend adding ResetNvramEntry.efi to your /EFI/OC/Drivers folder and config.plist, so it is available at the OC boot screen. Make sure it is from the same OpenCore release as the rest of the drivers and tools, OpenCore.efi etc., i.e. same time and date stamp as the other drivers and tools.

 

[thepensivemonk]

Thank you, Edhawk.. I greatly appreciate that. I will check it out and give it a run. I have been testing with a newer OC version 1.0.6 boot key, so the config.plist is version different. I need to reset the key back to a known working version, so I can use this as an alt to see if it makes any difference.

As an update, I have the ResetNVRAM in my old OC menu, and I have done that a few times. I have also done a complete reset to defaults on my bios, with no effect on the behaviour.

One thread that I am currently running down is whether the system on my main boot drive was caught in some sort of incomplete update state, which is causing some of the weirdness. I did run a re-install of Mac OS Ventura from the recovery once already, which completed successfully, but did not change the symptoms.

I am also considering disabling Above 4G Decoding, and throwing in the old compatibility option (though I know it is strongly discouraged) of npci=0x3000 and I will report back if that changes anything.

pm