For some reason, when I reboot my Mac mini 2018 and hold Cmd-R, I just get a black screen indefinitely (monitors are in power save). I'm not able to get into recovery mode. Am I missing something? It doesn't help that Apple got rid of the startup chime, so it's extremely difficult to know when to start holding boot-up key combos.
Mac mini 2018 or later
Why do you want to boot to Recovery? Having problems?
Are you using a wired keyboard (KB)? Sometimes one is required. You can use a PC KB
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970299
Try starting to Internet Recovery
Shift-Option-⌘-R
Tried that, didn't help.
The Mac seems to have trouble with pre-boot key commands (Cmd-R, Cmd-PRAM, etc) in that they don't always work. Is the Mac incompatible with some keyboards? Now that they got rid of the startup chime, it's even harder to get the timing right.
Try resetting the NVRAM
I want to disable the security option that prevents booting from external drives. I have a keyboard plugged into the USB port on the Mac.
Could be a keyboard problem. I would try another KB. A PC KB is fine.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970299
Black screen when trying to boot into recovery mode
