Apple computers booting to black screen using Blancco Drive Eraser

Problem

Various Apple computers are booting to black screens in Blancco Drive Eraser version 6.10 and higher.

This issue has been identified at least for the following devices:

Cause

Due to a change in the kernel used for Blancco Drive Eraser in 6.10 (and newer) some Apple computers will proceed through most of the boot process stages, but boot to a black screen.

Resolution

1. Take ISO customized with desired options and create bootable USB drive with Blancco USB Creator, or other tool.
2. Navigate to the USB drive in Windows File Explorer.
3. Navigate to the /boot/grub directory.
4. Open grub.cfg and grub_efi.cfg in text editor.

5. In the grub.cfg and grub_efi.cfg files locate the "menuentry" item marked [DEFAULT].

   	menuentry "Customized startup [DEFAULT]" { 
   		 set isofile="/images/Drive_Eraser_EVE_6170_cloud.iso" 
   		 loopback loop $isofile 
   		 set root=(loop) 
   		 linux /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz img_dev=/dev/disk/by-label/BLANCCO img_loop=$isofile archisobasedir=arch archisolabel=BLANCCO copytoram cow_spacesize=1G memtest=00 flr=forced
   		 initrd /arch/boot/intel_ucode.img /arch/boot/config.img /arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
   	} 

   
   

6. In the grub.cfg and the grub_efi.cfg files add the entry ”acpi=off” after the last entry on the linux line.  In this case the last item is ”flr=forced”.

   	menuentry "Customized startup [DEFAULT]" { 
   		 set isofile="/images/Drive_Eraser_EVE_6170_cloud.iso" 
   		 loopback loop $isofile 
   		 set root=(loop) 
   		 linux /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz img_dev=/dev/disk/by-label/BLANCCO img_loop=$isofile archisobasedir=arch archisolabel=BLANCCO copytoram cow_spacesize=1G memtest=00 flr=forced acpi=off
   		 initrd /arch/boot/intel_ucode.img /arch/boot/config.img /arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
   	} 

7. Save grub.cfg and grub_efi.cfg files.
8. Safely eject the bootable USB drive and test in Mac Laptop.

Please note that any following booting attempt with the modified menu entry will include the "acpi=off" parameter.