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
Could be a keyboard problem. I would try another KB. A PC KB is fine.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970299
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.
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.
Try resetting the NVRAM
Black screen when trying to boot into recovery mode
