FileVault2 enabled, unable to start Recovery Partition with Cmd-R

Question

FileVault2 enabled, unable to start Recovery Partition with Cmd-R

I have been studying ACSP, this week I am taking the 101 course, my MacBook is disposable/rebuildable/trashable.

I have a Late 2010 11" MacBook Air. I have just installed a fresh copy of Lion 10.7.4 with a new single partition layout. I switched on FileVault2 and encryption process completed successfully.

I am unable to work out why, using Cmd-R, it always starts Internet Recovery? Trainer does not know either - so I came home to research further and I am still none the wiser.

The fact that FV2 is working proves that the Recovery Partition exists otherwise we would not be able to login/start the machine. But, 'diskutil list' shows:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 120.5 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

So, it exists.

Rebooting with 'option' does not work, this is to be expected as it's now hidden. Cmd-R though simply takes me to Internet Recovery...curious!

This is not urgent, but I would like to assert the cause of this behaviour. Certainly the apple docs suggest it should work as I expect.

Eg: HT4811 FileVault 2 and Recovery

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Dec 12, 2012 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Dec 12, 2012 4:46 PM in response to QuickCallDave

About NVRAM and PRAM

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Answer 2

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Dec 12, 2012 7:04 PM in response to QuickCallDave

With Lion 10.7.x if you enable the FileVault2 system it makes the startup keyboard coomand functions inaccessible.

To use any of them you first have to turn off the FileVault2 system.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Dec 12, 2012 7:30 PM in response to Shootist007

if you enable the FileVault2 system it makes the startup keyboard coomand functions inaccessible.

That's incorrect. Safe booting doesn't work. All other keyboard startup modifiers do work.

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Answer 4

Dec 13, 2012 1:52 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you both for replying.

I checked which key combinations are available at this link:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4811

My case did not have a firmware password.

I did some debugging prior to speaking to my ACSP trainer today and later visited the Apple store.

I wanted to assert if the problem was related to FileVault2, so I switched it off. Did not take long.

After FV2 was removed, I restarted holdind CMD-R, it went into Internet Recovery

Restarted again, hold Option (Alt) and I am allowed to select the Mac HD or the Recovery HD, I select the Recovery HD and it boots up just fine.

So, I think something must have broken linking the bootup to the Recovery HD, but what I don't know.

I spoke to the Apple Genius bar, one of the chaps suggested rebuilding the Recovery HD but hen was unable to find the link to the Apple utility in the time we had.

I found a bunch of articles like:

http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/removing-and-rebuilding-a-malfunctio ning-recover-hd-partition/

But, I've got homework today to work through, so I thought it better to use the Recovery HD (using Option key) to re-install over the internet (10.7.5). It took a while, everything worked and the Recovery HD is working in Cmd-R.

But there must be a way to fix 'properly' rather than 're-install'.

I'm not going to let this lie, once this week is done and the exam is over next week I'm going to purposefully try to break it and fix it. My instinct is something to do with kernel extensions and the bootloader.

Thank again!

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Answer 5

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Dec 13, 2012 5:38 PM in response to QuickCallDave

Funny how with FV2 enabled you were unable to use those commands. Now with is disabled you can.

Go Figure.

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