On T2 Macs, when booting macOS 26 Tahoe via OpenCorePkg via OpenCorePkg, regardless of the configs I tried, when trying to format, create or delete an APFS partition, it fails with the following error:
Terminal:
Last login: Mon Aug 17 14:10:50 on console
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | grep IOPlatformUUID
"IOPlatformUUID" = "1A5A5B7B-1161-506A-A11D-6EB60EA0A83C"
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % diskutil info / | grep "Volume UUID
pipe dquote>
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % diskutil info / | grep "Volume UUID"
Volume UUID: 4727043E-6783-42E4-B59C-3FA32DD8FF8D
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % fdesetup status
FileVault is Off.
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
Snapshots for disk /:
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 1000G
Password:
Started APFS operation
Error: -69461: Unable to get VEK info for an APFS Volume which is marked as encrypted in the IOKit Registry
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo log show --predicate 'sender == "AppleKeyStore" OR eventMessage CONTAINS[c] "VEK"' --last 5m
Filtering the log data using "sender == "AppleKeyStore" OR composedMessage CONTAINS[c] "VEK""
Skipping info and debug messages, pass --info and/or --debug to include.
Timestamp Thread Type Activity PID TTL
2026-08-17 14:25:40.128755+0300 0x3a28 Default 0x0 1029 0 fdesetup: (DiskManagement) [com.apple.diskmanagement:] _DMAPFSEncryptionPropertiesForVolume IntErr=1=0x1 aft APFSVolumeGetVEKState err=1=0x1 Out_USER_Prot=0 Out_SYSTEM_Prot=0 disk=disk1s1
2026-08-17 14:25:57.921093+0300 0x3ac2 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:596,sel:7:8088: unexpected session uid: -1 requested by: spindump (596)
2026-08-17 14:25:57.921111+0300 0x3ac2 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:596,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002c2, -1)
2026-08-17 14:25:57.924066+0300 0x3ac2 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:596,sel:7:8088: unexpected session uid: -1 requested by: spindump (596)
2026-08-17 14:25:57.924083+0300 0x3ac2 Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:596,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002c2, -1)
2026-08-17 14:26:41.850985+0300 0x3e4c Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:146,:13297: operation failed (sel: 84 ret: e00002e6, -1)
2026-08-17 14:26:42.027168+0300 0x3e7c Default 0x0 320 0 storagekitd: [com.apple.diskmanagement:] _DMAPFSEncryptionPropertiesForVolume IntErr=1=0x1 aft APFSVolumeGetVEKState err=1=0x1 Out_USER_Prot=0 Out_SYSTEM_Prot=0 disk=disk1s1
2026-08-17 14:26:42.027979+0300 0x3e78 Default 0x0 1044 0 diskutil: (DiskManagement) [com.apple.diskmanagement:] DMUnlocalizedTechnicalErrorString DMErr=-69461 request for un-localized tech error string; CODE: -69461 STR: Unable to get VEK info for an APFS Volume which is marked as encrypted in the IOKit Registry
2026-08-17 14:27:24.525041+0300 0x40aa Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:24.976497+0300 0x40aa Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:25.274236+0300 0x40aa Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:25.670368+0300 0x40aa Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:26.229831+0300 0x40aa Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:26.671078+0300 0x2ccb Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:27.024734+0300 0x2ccb Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:27.423179+0300 0x2ccb Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:27.681408+0300 0x2ccb Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
2026-08-17 14:27:28.175639+0300 0x2ccb Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (AppleKeyStore) "AppleKeyStore":pid:359,:13297: operation failed (sel: 7 ret: e00002f0, -1)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Log - Default: 18, Info: 0, Debug: 0, Error: 0, Fault: 0
Activity - Create: 0, Transition: 0, Actions: 0
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ %
At the same time, when I checked whether FileVault is on or off, it was saying this:
Last login: Mon Aug 17 14:30:28 on ttys001
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % fdesetup status
FileVault is Off.
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ %
The EFI and the issue overall is documented also in my project: albert-mueller/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher-T2#130 , which also includes tested EFI configs.
On my supported 2020 4 thunderbolt 3 ports MacBook Pro, despite this issue, it boots via OpenCorePkg flawlessly macOS 26, but on the Mac mini 2018 it does panic with Needs authenticator (81).
I also tried to open a discussion in MacForums and Reddit about this issue, but nobody answered what is exactly the issue or had an idea about it or how to fix it.
I'm certain that the Mac mini 2018 can boot macOS 26's kernel just fine since the installer does load perfectly fine:
If it were really a T2 issue on unsupported T2 Macs, it would already have been panicking before even initializing the kernel of the installer, while even in the fully installed macOS 26 I was able to reach the kernel space, but the only thing that prevents unsupported T2 Macs from being able to boot into macOS 26, is the Needs authenticator (81) panic. If this panic wasn't happening, it would have reached the desktop by now.
On T2 Macs, when booting macOS 26 Tahoe via OpenCorePkg via OpenCorePkg, regardless of the configs I tried, when trying to format, create or delete an APFS partition, it fails with the following error:
Terminal:
At the same time, when I checked whether FileVault is on or off, it was saying this:
Last login: Mon Aug 17 14:30:28 on ttys001
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ % fdesetup status
FileVault is Off.
boyan2@MacBook-Pro ~ %
The EFI and the issue overall is documented also in my project: albert-mueller/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher-T2#130 , which also includes tested EFI configs.
On my supported 2020 4 thunderbolt 3 ports MacBook Pro, despite this issue, it boots via OpenCorePkg flawlessly macOS 26, but on the Mac mini 2018 it does panic with Needs authenticator (81).
I also tried to open a discussion in MacForums and Reddit about this issue, but nobody answered what is exactly the issue or had an idea about it or how to fix it.
I'm certain that the Mac mini 2018 can boot macOS 26's kernel just fine since the installer does load perfectly fine:
If it were really a T2 issue on unsupported T2 Macs, it would already have been panicking before even initializing the kernel of the installer, while even in the fully installed macOS 26 I was able to reach the kernel space, but the only thing that prevents unsupported T2 Macs from being able to boot into macOS 26, is the Needs authenticator (81) panic. If this panic wasn't happening, it would have reached the desktop by now.