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Intel Mac boot menu - Hold down option

By @crognlie
    2023-12-05 17:36:29.033Zassigned to
    • @cghague

    On this mac, holding down the 'option' key during boot brings up the startup disk selection menu. I cannot duplicate this behavior with my physical keyboard in full screen mode, or with the on screen keyboard.

    I see this issue, but it implies that it does in fact send 'hold down' for control keys.

    What's the right way to create this behavior?

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    • 5 replies
    1. C
      Charles Hague @cghague2023-12-06 20:05:45.407Z

      Hi @crognlie, thank you for reaching out to us. I'm sorry to hear you're having difficulty accessing the startup menu on your Mac. Please accept my apologies for the delayed response. I was looking into testing this with the team, and it appears I didn't submit my first message.

      My colleague tested this on a late-2012 model Intel MacBook Pro and was able to enter the startup menu by holding down the "Alt" key on the TinyPilot on-screen keyboard. However, the MacBook Pro only appeared to display the startup menu on its internal display, so it wasn't apparent that anything had happened when viewing it via TinyPilot.

      Is it possible that this is happening in your scenario? If so, one potential workaround could be avoiding the startup menu and instead changing the startup disk from within macOS by going to System Preferences, then Startup Disk, choosing the disk from the list, and pressing Restart.

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      1. C@crognlie
          2023-12-06 20:18:18.687Z

          Thanks for the response @cghague , When you say holding down the Alt key on the on screen keyboard, do you mean holding down the mouse button over the Alt key?

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          1. CCharles Hague @cghague2023-12-07 17:06:58.355Z

            Thanks for getting back to me! You should be able to click the Alt button once to "press" the key, wait as long as required for the startup menu to launch, and then click the Alt button again to "release" the key. This action is equivalent to holding the key down on a physical keyboard.

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            1. C@crognlie
                2023-12-07 19:59:43.271Z

                Thanks Charles -- this isn't working for me. Here's a recording of me using the Alt button on the on screen keyboard, and a second recording where I connected a physical keyboard and held Alt down during boot. In the second recording, the Alt key correctly brought up the boot device selection, whereas in the first recording, it skipped directly to booting the OS.

                link

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                1. CCharles Hague @cghague2023-12-07 22:26:42.304Z

                  Thanks for getting back to me with those videos; they're very helpful!

                  It looks like you're pressing the Alt key before the target computer has powered back on. TinyPilot presents itself to the target computer as a composite USB device, and the target computer may only accept keyboard events from TinyPilot once it has powered on.

                  Can you please try only pressing the Alt key once the "No signal" screen disappears and see if that makes a difference?

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