There’s a fundamental difference in the way that Intel and M1 Macs store and load their ‘firmware’, which enables the M1 Mac to load and run difference versions of iBoot.
iBoot
This article has now been extensively corrected and modified.
How your M1 Mac starts up in the Recovery mode of your choice, or when it decides you need to take a trip to Recovery to fix an issue.
macOS 11.4 brought major changes to the way M1 Macs handle external bootable disks. This explains how this works during the boot process.
How an M1 Mac can start up from an external bootable disk, and how that can fail. All about boot security policy, and how that’s applied.
Unlike Intel Macs, M1 models always start booting from internal SSD, and can only offer full Recovery from there too. This has benefits, and some drawbacks too.
When does an M1 Mac validate its Sealed System Volume? Who designed its display interface? How soon does Find My Mac launch? So many answers found in the log.
What were the first things you tried out on a new M1 Mac? Benchmarks, perhaps, or tested battery endurance? Try looking at Recovery Mode – that’s more important.
The Eclectic Light Company 