How To Set EFI Password?

If you're running Mountain Lion, to set a firmware password, you reboot while holding down Command + R, in the Utilities menu is the Firmware Password Utility. Same with Lion.

What if rebooting while holding down Command + R doesn't take you to the Utilities Menu, but to the initial Install screen?

That is the Utilities menu. If it looks like this.

R3searcher wrote:

What if rebooting while holding down Command + R doesn't take you to the Utilities Menu, but to the initial Install screen?

No, sorry. It looks like this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dUy2x43RqZ8/TzW5kamI7bI/AAAAAAAAAuY/UhMjS6iPQog/s1600/ Lion+step+2.png

I'm saying it looks like it wants to do a brand new install!

Also, I'm using Mountain Lion 10.8.2 on a mid-2012 MacBook Pro (and I DON'T want to "upgrade" to 10.8.3 due to the very many bad reports I've read!)

It sure does. Are you booting off the Recovery HD? Do you have a Snow Leopard DVD in the DVD drive?

Ok I know what is going on. that screen comes up before the screen I posted. Otherwise if the screen you posted didn't come up people in other parts of the world would need to know English to navigate the screen I posted. Just select your language and then the arrow at the bottom and you should get the screen I posted.

From there you should be able to set the EFI password.

Good Luck & Best Wishes.

R3searcher wrote:

No, sorry. It looks like this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dUy2x43RqZ8/TzW5kamI7bI/AAAAAAAAAuY/UhMjS6iPQog/s1600/ Lion+step+2.png

I'm saying it looks like it wants to do a brand new install!

Also, I'm using Mountain Lion 10.8.2 on a mid-2012 MacBook Pro (and I DON'T want to "upgrade" to 10.8.3 due to the very many bad reports I've read!)

Thanks, Shootist007, you're probably right, but to be honest I'm a little scared to try it!

That screen always comes up when booting from an OS X installer, it has to for the language selection.

Don't be scrared. You can always dump/end the installer up until the point you select a disk to install TO and then click the comtinue button. And you will never get to that point as you will never select "Reinstall Mac OS X".

Okay - thank you very much. I tried it, and, just like you said, it took me directly to the Recovery Disk Utility Menu. Question answered! : )

You must be working in a very insecure environment to think you NEED the EFI password protection. After all, TB and FW attacks require physical access to the computer and I'll be damned if I let miscreants that close to my beloved. You will find yourself in a world of pain when that password is activated; things that worked simply before won't and you'll be at a loss to know why.

Vaya con Dios, amigo.

I have a son who is somewhat of middle-of-the-night computer addict. Despite having passwords on all computers in the house, he knows about Command-S during startup to get into single-user mode, and knows exactly what to type to change passwords, add accounts, etc.. He learned all this from googling from the school library computer!

So now he trolls the house at 1AM, 2AM or 3AM and does his dirty work.

I just want to disable Command-S, and heard that having an EFI password is the only way. If there's another way, pray tell, I'm all ears! Please make my life simple! (and no, telling me to ship my son off to boarding school, as much as I might like to do it, is not a viable solution).

Thanks!

I have exactly the same issue, and the following worked for me (Mountain Lion and Mavericks) http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060202045826871.

That worked! Couldn't do it from Finder, or even from Terminal with root enabled, so I did it in single user mode.

Steps:

1. boot up in single user mode (cmd-s during startup)
2. run those two commands to enable write access (the ones that follow that message that says "run these commands to update files").
3. cd var/root
4. ed .profile

i (input mode)

if term is vt100 then reboot

(tried to use actual UNIX command but this forum did not allow it)

. (exit input mode)

w (save file)

q (exit ed)

5. exit

Upon reboot, tried to go into single user mode, looked like it was going into it, but then it did an automatic reboot instead (yay!).

Thanks for the pointer.

Bill