Bless tool problem from 10.12 to 10.13

[clay_9]

Hello all.
Im having the 'The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk' error when trying to change my boot drive from 10.12.5 to 10.13.6.

I’m currently running 10.12.5 boot on an internal spinning disc drive, this is a backup where I keep some legacy apps. Im trying to boot into 10.13.6, my main work OS, but getting this error.

I also have a win7 bootcamp partition on an internal drive. Currently from 10.12 I can select the bootcamp boot, but not 10.13.

10.13 is on a fast SSD PCie card. The 10.12 install was on this SSD drive as my main OS a few weeks ago. I created a new partition on a spinning disc drive and copied 10.12 to that. I reformatted the SSD for a fresh 10.13 install. Its been a few weeks with no problems, mostly. The only oddity since all this, the 10.13 has not been selectable at all from win7 (not visible - win7 bootcamp doesn’t see the partition). Ive had to go into 10.12 first, then select 10.13 from there. Which i was doing just now, when i hit the error. I’ve been doing this piggy backing from 10.12 to 10.13 from windows for a few weeks without issue.

I’m on a Mac Pro, Early 2009, firmware updated to identify as MacPro5,1. 2x3.46 6 Core Xeon. 32GB Ram and Geforce 980Ti. Apple support chat can't / won't help as this combination of software and hardware is not supported and considered obsolete.

I have all my files on other drives so I could just opt for a re-format and re-install (but would prefer to avoid this), but I want to understand what has gone wrong here, as what is there to stop this from happening again?

Any advice please. I can’t find anyone else online with a solution to this problem going from Sierra to High Sierra, it seems to mostly effect selecting a windows partition.

Thanks for reading.

 

[pigoo3]

Im having the 'The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk' error when trying to change my boot drive from 10.12.5 to 10.13.6.

I’m currently running 10.12.5 boot on an internal spinning disc drive, this is a backup where I keep some legacy apps. Im trying to boot into 10.13.6, my main work OS, but getting this error.

A lot of details in that post...hopefully I didn't miss something.

Maybe we can clear up some terminology first. The thing you're calling the "Bless Tool"...could you be referring to the "Startup Disk" utility found in "System Preferences"?

And in case you weren't aware (or haven't tried it)...another way to choose which disk (or partition) the computer boots from...is holding down the "Option" key on the keyboard during a reboot.

Also..when you say "unable to set the current boot disk (between 10.12.5 and 10.13.6)...are these OS installs on different drives...or different partitions on the same drive?

Thanks,

- Nick

 

[clay_9]

Hi Nick. Thanks for your reply. I have done some further tests and have seemingly fixed the issue....without having really done anything. To answer your questions, yes I was using the startup disk option under system preferences, the error was appearing after selecting the drive I wanted to boot from and then hitting restart or closing the window. I have no idea what the bless tool is specifically. The 10.12.5 from which I had the problem is on a spinning disk HDD and the 10.13 main OS in on a SSD PCIe card.

So to the 'fix'. I swapped out my 980ti for a GT120 in order to access the EFI screen (can't view it from the 980ti as it's not flashed). From the EFI I was able to boot into 10.13 without problems. I booted back to 10.12 and I have been able to select 10.13 without the error re-occurring, and now currently back in 10.13 from a restart without going via the EFI screen.


?


So it seems like this is problem fixed, but I really want to understand what has happened here. Swapping out my gfx card every time I need to get from windows back to High Sierra is not really practical. Can anyone shed any light on all of this?

Also, maybe an issue itself is 10.13 not being visible from within bootcamp win7 install. Is there a known issue around this, it's frustrating having to piggy back through 10.12 to get from windows to 10.13.

 

[ferrarr]

Can you not have both gfx cards installed at the same time? I'm just wondering?

 

[pigoo3]

Can anyone shed any light on all of this?

There are quite a few things that can be done with Mac Pro's that alter's them from what they were when brand spanking new. For example...you mentioned upgrading the EFI to make your 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 think it's a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1. Another thing is using non-Apple video cards. Video cards meant for Windows computers can sometimes act "funny" when installed in a Mac Pro (various "funny" things).

When you operate your Mac Pro with it's original GT120 video card...everything should mostly act normal. But when you switch to the Windows video card...you have to understand some anomalies may happen. And as soon as you change something on the computer (such as an OS update or OS upgrade)...things may change majorly.

- Nick

 

[clay_9]

I know that things outside of the standard configuration can maybe be a bit problematic, i've had no issues at all for a couple of years with this hardware setup though. The current partition configuration and High Sierra has only been active for 3 weeks, with no issue until now. It's just, odd. And for it to be resolved after a gfx card swap-out is even more so.

- - - Updated - - -

Reply to Ferrarr: I think I tried that but it didn't work for a few reasons I recall, I don't think windows booted as it didn't recognise the GT120 at all. I only need it if I need to access the EFI or update the nvidia gfx drivers.

 

[pm-r]

The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk' error

Maybe this:

I was able to resolve macOS Sierra error about the bless tool by using the pictured setting on WinClone 6.0.3.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...the-current-boot-disk-error-in-bootcamp-macos




- Patrick
======

 

[clay_9]

Well 6 weeks without issue and the same thing has happened again. Setting the boot drive in Windows to Sierra (Because High Sierra is not listed as an option), then after booting into Sierra to set it to High Sierra, it won't due to the bless tool error.

'Fixed' again in the same way. Swapped out the gtx970ti for the gtx120 in order to to access the EFI screen to select High Sierra from the selection after start up. Booted into HS without problem. Swap back to the gfx970, and able to boot back into Sierra and then able to switch to High Sierra as the boot drive without issue.

I desperately want to understand what the cause of this problem is! I don't want to have to do a gfx card swap every month or so.

 

[harryb2448]

If the GFX970 is nOptimus that is where your problem lay. This is one of the problems Nick referred to in using non Mac Pro gfx cards. Have a read through this:-


https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...nvidia-web-driver-issues.215715/#post-1446305

 

[clay_9]

Yet more problems with this dang thing.

So now my HS main boot drive is not visible at all in startup disk when piggy-backing through 10.12, it just doesn't appear! Disk utility states it's found corruption and to run first aid from recovery. The drive IS mounted however, I can access everything on the drive, I just can't select it to boot from.

It states:
Verifying storage system
Storage system check exit code is 8.
Repairing storage system
Storage system check exit code is 8.
Storage system verify or repair failed.
Operation failed…

After swapping out the 970ti for the gt120 again, first aid indicates no issues when run from recovery. But even in recovery, HS 10.13 is not visible in startup disk. The only way to get to it currently is via the EFI after a restart when the 120 is plugged in.

When booting into HS from there, everything appears normal. Booting back to 10.12 doesn't resolve anything.

I just find this bonkers! I haven't messed with any settings for booting whatsoever, yet I'm having these recurring issues (first the bless tool and now it's missing entirely).