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Installing Next Loader

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Abdy Franco edited this page Oct 6, 2018 · 2 revisions

Installing Next Loader as a Beta Tester

Next Loader is a boot manager optimized for Mac systems. It is in beta phase, still undergoing active development, and in need of testers to provide feedback on specific features in a variety of configurations.

To reduce the impact on your system, you should first install Next Loader onto a spare USB flash drive. This drive can be very small — Next Loader takes less than 512MB of disk space. If Next Loader works on your system running from the USB drive, and you want to keep it as your default boot manager, you can then re-install it onto a small empty partition on one of your system drives.

The Next Loader version for beta testers is available in the "debug" branch of the repository.

Installing Next Loader as a Developer

You should install Next Loader onto a spare USB flash drive. This drive can be very small — Next Loader takes less than 512MB of disk space.

The Next Loader version for developers is available in the "dev" branch of the repository.

Installing Next Loader as an End User

In order to install the end-user version of Next Loader on your Mac, you must create a 512MB partition on some AHCI drive on your Mac with the HFS+ Format and use it during the installation wizard.

The Next Loader version for end users is available in the "master" branch of the repository.

How to install Next Loader

Requirements

  • An Intel Mac (Compatible with UGA or GOP). The development it's mainly focused on to the Mac Pro 5,1 (or 4,1 flashed to 5,1), but you may be able to install Next Loader on other systems, but development is focused on these for now.

  • A Mac-compatible Graphics Card (Only for Mac Pro). You can tell if your Mac Pro has the right EFI if you hold down the Option key while rebooting after you hear the chime, and about 30 seconds later you see a graphical menu of disk icons with bootable OS choices. If so, then your GPU is compatible with Next Loader.

    Examples include: a stock Radeon 5770 or 5870 or Nvidia GT 120; any of the stock “Mac edition” cards like the Sapphire 7950 or GTX 680; any cards that have been flashed with Mac EFI, like an R9 280x or 7950; or various Nvidia cards flashed by MacVidCards.

    It is possible to install and run Next Loader with non-Mac-EFI cards, but currently you will get a black screen and be unable to see the menu that lets you pick which drive to boot.

  • An empty USB flash drive (For Beta Testing), or a small (512MB) empty partition on a non-NVMe drive (For End User) The flash drive or partition you select will be wiped clean by the installer. Although Next Loader can boot an NVMe drive on unsupported systems, can not be installed itself on an NVMe drive.

    Next Loader can be installed on an NVMe drive if your BootROM has been modified to include the NVMe Driver in your Mac firmware.

Steps

  1. Disable SIP (system integrity protection, introduced in El Capitan). To do this, boot into Recovery Mode (hold down Command and “R” keys after you hear the startup chime), then start a Terminal session, and type “csrutil disable”, and reboot.

  2. For Beta Testers: Plug it into one of the built-in USB 2.0 ports (front or rear panel) — you CANNOT use a USB 3.0 port on a PCIe card if you have one. Erase the drive using Disk Utility, and call it “UEFI”. This name is temporary, the installer will create a new one. The format doesn’t matter, but you can use the default “Mac OS Extended (journaled)”.

    For End Users: Use Disk Utility to create a new empty 512MB partition on one of your non-NVME drives (SATA HDD or SATA SSD or PCIe AHCI SSD), typically on your current boot drive, and call it “UEFI”. This name is temporary, the installer will create a new one. The format doesn’t matter, but you can use the default “Mac OS Extended (journaled)”.

  3. Downloading Next Loader. Download Next Loader from the corresponding branch (master, dev or debug) from GitHub. Click the “Clone or download” button, pick the option to download a ZIP file.

    When that is done you have a folder called “next-loader-master” (for End Users), “next-loader-debug” (for Developers) or “next-loader-debug” (for Beta Testers) in your Downloads folder. Move it to your Desktop.

  4. Open a Terminal session and get into the Next-Loader build folder by typing this command: (Replace "master" with "debug" if you are a Beta Tester or with "dev" if you are a Developer)

    cd Desktop/next-loader-master/build

  5. Start the installer by typing this command:

    sudo ./install.sh

  6. Answer the first question by typing “1” followed by return/enter — indicating you want to install or update. Answer the second question by typing "1" if you want use Next Loader side by side with the Startup Manager or “2” followed by return/enter — indicating you want Next Loader to be the default boot manager.

  7. Select where you want to install Next Loader. It will show you a list of your current volume names. Read them carefully, one should be “UEFI”. WARNING: You are about to wipe this volume, so be sure you give the correct name! Type “UEFI” and hit the return/enter key. Wait while Next Loader reformats the USB drive or disk partition and copies the boot loader onto it.

  8. When the installer finishes, it lets you choose whether to reboot immediately, or just exit to the shell and then you can restart your system later.

Originally contributed by two-mac-jack, Maintained by abdyfranco.

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