MP 1,1-5,1 Activate AMD hardware acceleration

[prefuse07]

Hi - I am having a problem doing clean install of 11.6.2 - it just enters boot loop.

Made a backup before I started via CCC. Backup still boots perfectly. Installing not.

Tried three different versions (11.6, 11.6.1, 11.6.2) all same. First boot is fine (disk is still named 'Macintosh HD') next boot begins the loop after picker and white apple - almost a second after the progress bar appears, every single time. (Cannot find macOS installers between 11.3 and .5)

Installing from recovery of the install drive - exactly the same. Result. Tried installing to internal HD, internal SSD and NVMe PCIe. Same every time.

Found a copy of 11.2.3 - installed perfectly first time. Tried to update via System Prefs/SW Update - same boot loop. The point at which the reboot starts is exactly the same every time, unlike the 'race condition' which was kinda random.

Other note, the reboots are silent - no chime and the "Restarted because there was a problem' message comes up after bootpicker.

At my wits end now.

Could there possibly be some setting in the OC config that might prevent 11.6+ from installing but not prevent it from booting OK?

I am using a mod version of Martin's config for 0.7.6 - the mod is the 2 bluetooth/wifi sections: true instead of false and the change for 4K resolution.

Asked in another thread but no response so please excuse any cross posting - I am going crazy!

Thanks

Can you try it with 0.7.5?

I gave up on 0.7.6 because of the same thing kept happening to me (boot loop after OC boot picker), so just went back to 0.7.5 with the latest Lilu and WEG etc...

 

[kkinto]

Can you try it with 0.7.5?

I gave up on 0.7.6 because of the same thing kept happening to me (boot loop after OC boot picker), so just went back to 0.7.5 with the latest Lilu and WEG etc...

Thanks for the response. I tried that: reverted to previous EFI package with 0.7.5 but unfortunately it failed in exactly the same way.

EDIT ** sorted by turning on VMM flag. Thank you @cdf

 

[nandor690]

I created a new "easy to install package" as per many requested (based on the official OpenCore). [The attached package updated to 0.7.6]

For those who only need HWAccel, post #594 has everything you need. This new package mainly offer HWAccel + boot screen. Also, this package should work in Catalina and newer macOS for dual processor cMP.

I don't mind you guys discuss anything about this package, but I have no plan to provide any explanation about OpenCore at here. If you want to know more, please join cdf's OpenCore thread. For new joiners, please make sure read through the FAQ in post #1 before you ask anything.

The attached packaged included Clover Configurator and a complete preconfigured OpenCore. All credits goes to the developer teams. If you want to show your support, please give them donation (declaration of interest： I am NOT in any of their developer teams)

For Clover Configurator and OpenCore developers teams, please let me know if you want me to remove the associated software inside my attachment in this post.

This is a "one package fit all" solution. So, it's designed to fit as much setup as possible, which may not be optimized for your setup (e.g. I haven't provide HiDPI boot screen, for those who are running 4K screen, the Apple logo may be quite small during boot). You have to do the optimization by yourself (details in the OpenCore manual, some info also available in cdf's OpenCore thread).

Anyway, for those who have RX 460 or newer AMD GPU, this package should gives you:

1. Boot screen (via GOP for unflashed card, including some Nvidia card)
2. Firmware protection (to run Windows in EFI mode without risking the cMP bootROM)
3. HWAccel (H264 / HEVC hardware decode + encode in Mojave and newer macOS)
4. ability to watch DRM streaming content (Mojave and newer macOS)
5. Boot picker (only support EFI systems, tested with Apple wired keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Keyboard, 10s timeout. If you can't see this. Just don't touch the keyboard, and your cMP should continue to boot to desktop)
6. NVMe and SATA drives on PCIe card show up as internal
7. Support for Apple USB SuperDrive
8. TRIM (regardless trimforce status)
9. Ability to run non-GUI 32bit software in Catalina
10. Ability to reset NVRAM in boot picker (disabled at this moment to align with the native Apple boot manager)
11. Ability to run any natively supported ancient OSX with modern graphic card e.g. Radeon VII in 10.6.8 (only can display, no acceleration) [Update 5th May 2020: Sierra and High Sierra may not fully supported yet. Thanks for pierrox's report]
12. Ability to boot Catalina / Big Sur / Monterey and the associated Recovery Partition [SurPlus (credit to Syncretic) is included and enabled by default to fix the racing condition in macOS 11.3 or later][MonteRand is also included. another credit to Syncretic]
13. Sleep should work (tested on my cMP, but I can't guarantee it also work with your hardware)
14. Possible to run 8x32GB RAM in macOS (user need to mod the config.plist manually. Replace the false below CustomMemory to true)
15. Enable HDMI Audio for some graphic cards (e.g. GTX680, disabled by default)

It's impossible for me (and other voluntary helpers) to test every single function in all situations. So, as usual, use at your own risk. But you are welcome to report back if there is any problem / error.

Pre-installation:

• Recommend to backup your BootROM between step 1 and 2 (e.g. by using ROMTool, credit to Dosdude, password "rom")
• If you want to test OpenCore, you can install this package onto a bootable USB thumb drive.
• Quite a few users reported that can't boot OpenCore from NVMe, analysis shows that depends on hard drives config. It's hard to explain which exact scenario may hit this bug. So, please avoid to install this package on NVMe. You can install this package on ANY SATA drive with virtually no performance lost, not necessary your boot drive.
• If you want to remove OpenCore, please mount the EFI partition by using Clover Configurator, then remove BOOT and OC folders inside the EFI folder on EFI partition.
• If your cMP stuck at boot. After shutdown, please pull out the hard drive that contain OpenCore, then perform NVRAM reset. If still doesn't work, then please install your emergency graphic card that has boot screen. Hold Option to boot, then select your backup boot drive. This should disable OpenCore.
• For those who want to report issue / error. Please provide details (e.g. which graphic card, OpenCore installed on NVMe / SATA drive, the issue's details, etc) otherwise it will be extremely hard (or even impossible) for me to work out what's wrong.
• If you installed Lilu for whatever reason (e.g. because of innie), or applied my previous non-OpenCore HWAccel mod, please remove them or revert them. For Lilu + WEG, that means delete Lilu.kext in /Library/Extensions/ and reboot (caution: these kexts may be installed in System/Library/Extensions/ as well). For hex edit method, that means delete AppleGVA.framework in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ and rename AppleGVA.framework.bak to AppleGVA.framework. Warning: My packages already have Lilu and WEG included, "double installation" of these kexts will cause macOS boot failure.
• For PULSE RX580, users reported that only can see boot screen when boot from gaming mode. There may be no UEFI GOP in the compute mode's ROM.

I tried to make the installation as simple as possible. However, I still demand you to learn some very basic skills. Those skills are very useful in the recovery process if something goes wrong. Anyway, here is what you need to do

1. [Optional] 3x NVRAM reset to avoid some unknown issues.
2. Disable SIP (must do, especially if you performed step 1)
3. Download the attachment in this post (Some users reported 0.6.1 package has compatibility issue. You may download the 0.5.9 package if you prefer that, same installation procedures.)
4. Follow the steps in this video (please turn on and read the subtitle)
   
5. Spoiler: Multi monitors fix for Big Sur

   For Big Sur and Monterey, if some ports on your graphic card are disabled, please follow the steps in this video to re-enable them.
   
6. Reboot

For existing OpenCore users, you may follow the step in this video to update OpenCore [For those who installed OC onto the Windows drive, please make sure you only replace the OC files, but not the whole EFI folder]

Additional option 1: If you have 4K screen, and you want to have "Retina" boot screen. You may do this. [Depreciated in 0.7.6, which Retina should be enabled automatically on 4K monitor]

Additional option 2: If you have a flashed Thunderbolt 3 card, you can install that in slot 4, then enable Thunderbolt 3 support by doing this.

Additional option 3: If you want to enable the ability to install / update Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey, please follow the steps in this video. [N.B. you should revert the changes after macOS installation completed. This special setting is not designed for daily use]

Additional option 4: If you have legacy wifi card, you may try the follow steps to re-activate the old wifi card in Big Sur (only avail in my 0.6.4 package or above)

Additional option 5: Since 0.6.3, I allow OC to take over SIP control. There are various reasons, but anyway, that's defaulted to be disabled. If you want to re-enable SIP, please follow the steps in this video. (please turn on the English subtitle when you watch this video, some useful info at there)

Additional option 6: To enable HDMI Audio support (0.7.3 V2 or later), please mount the EFI partition, open the config.plist by a text editor, search HDMI Audio, and change the false below it to true.

For FCP(X) users, if you want to export HEVC video by using HWAccel, you will need Compressor.
[N.B. The setting MUST identical to the one that I show in the video. Otherwise, HEVC hardware encoding may not work]

If you want to completely uninstall my OpenCore package, please follow the steps in this video.

N.B. Unflashed graphic card means "the ROM is never modified". For those who bought used card, and can't see the boot screen, most likely the last user flashed the card with modified ROM (e.g. downvolt for mining). In this case, you can go to TechPowerUp to find a ROM that fit your own card, and flash it.

P.S. If you want to support my work, please donate via the following link. Million thanks in advance! https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/martinlo420

[Last update: 10 Dec 2021, OpenCore 0.7.6, Lilu 1.5.8, WhateverGreen 1.5.5, AppleALC 1.6.6, NightShiftEnabler 1.1.1, SurPlus, MonteRand]

Anyone know a reason of why every time I try to install Windows on the same drive or a completely separate drive, it screws my whole system up and macOS will no longer boot. Iv tried about every different way you can install Windows. And tried multiple different Open Core and OCLP efi setups.
It’s really driving me crazy. This is day 4 of trying

 

[0134168]

Anyone know a reason of why every time I try to install Windows on the same drive or a completely separate drive, it screws my whole system up and macOS will no longer boot. Iv tried about every different way you can install Windows. And tried multiple different Open Core and OCLP efi setups.
It’s really driving me crazy. This is day 4 of trying

I suggest you to install Windows in Legacy Mode.

 

[MacGarage]

When using Safari, I will get GPU Reset / VTDecoderXPCServ and WindowServer Kernel Panics or whenever I need to use a VTDecoderXPCServ process (which is rare).

In Chrome and Firefox, I have hardware acceleration turned off. As a result, I can stream video all day long and use EyeTV. However, once I start to use Safari or another process using VTDecoderXPCServ, I will receive the error.

Is it possible to turn off the hardware acceleration in the config file or modify something else?

I am using the 0.7.6 package for Big Sure 11.6.2. However, I have an AMD Radeon HD 7950 card. I did see where the 7950 is not part of the hardware acceleration modifications included hence the question.

Everything else works greats.

 

[h9826790]

When using Safari, I will get GPU Reset / VTDecoderXPCServ and WindowServer Kernel Panics or whenever I need to use a VTDecoderXPCServ process (which is rare).

In Chrome and Firefox, I have hardware acceleration turned off. As a result, I can stream video all day long and use EyeTV. However, once I start to use Safari or another process using VTDecoderXPCServ, I will receive the error.

Is it possible to turn off the hardware acceleration in the config file or modify something else?

I am using the 0.7.6 package for Big Sure 11.6.2. However, I have an AMD Radeon HD 7950 card. I did see where the 7950 is not part of the hardware acceleration modifications included hence the question.

Everything else works greats.

You can turn off SMBIOS spoofing. This should also turn off HWAccel.

If still crash, you may need to remove all HWAccel related boot agrument in the config plist as well.

 

[h9826790]

Anyone know a reason of why every time I try to install Windows on the same drive or a completely separate drive, it screws my whole system up and macOS will no longer boot. Iv tried about every different way you can install Windows. And tried multiple different Open Core and OCLP efi setups.
It’s really driving me crazy. This is day 4 of trying

cdf has a detail guide about how to install Windows.

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

This guide explains how to use the excellent OpenCore boot loader to install, run, and update the latest version of macOS on the MacPro5,1, resulting in a clean, unaltered operating system just like on a supported Mac.

forums.macrumors.com

Post #1 Appendix

 

[bigbadneil]

Guys I used the instructions below to update the EFI to 7.6 and all went well.

As soon as I rebooted I was asked to update to Montgomery..............Is it safe to do so?

Thanks in advance guys
Neil

 

[star-affinity]

Is it worth going to Monterey from Big Sur on the MacPro5,1? About the same performance wise? Think I'll wait until 12.2 anyway.

 

[MacGarage]

You can turn off SMBIOS spoofing. This should also turn off HWAccel.

If still crash, you may need to remove all HWAccel related boot agrument in the config plist as well.

Thanks.
To turn it off, should I change CustomSMBIOSGuid to "true"? If so, is there anything I need to change?

 

[h9826790]

Thanks.
To turn it off, should I change CustomSMBIOSGuid to "true"? If so, is there anything I need to change?

Not this one, search UpdateSMBIOS, change the true below it to false.

 

[h9826790]

Is it worth going to Monterey from Big Sur on the MacPro5,1? About the same performance wise? Think I'll wait until 12.2 anyway.

I don't think you can feel any difference if in terms of performance.

 

[bigbadneil]

My 5.1 cMP now thinks its a iMac Pro after updating the EMI from 6.1 to 7,6. I really want to update to Montgomery now but I'm scared to do it after reading a warning somewhere saying "DO NOT UPDATE TO MONTGOMERY USING THE OS POP UP BUT DO IT BY DOING XYZ".....but for the love of me I cant find what the XYZ is. Can someone please help me?
Thanks

 

[avro707]

My 5.1 cMP now thinks its a iMac Pro after updating the EMI from 6.1 to 7,6. I really want to update to Montgomery now but I'm scared to do it after reading a warning somewhere saying "DO NOT UPDATE TO MONTGOMERY USING THE OS POP UP BUT DO IT BY DOING XYZ".....but for the love of me I cant find what the XYZ is. Can someone please help me?
Thanks

On both the 5,1 Mac Pros I have I upgraded using the OS pop-up they said "DO NOT UPDATE..."

I did it this way:

See more in this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...n.2180095/page-53?post=28255048#post-28255048

How you do this with the other Opencore iterations you'll have to research and I'm not recommending any one of them over any of the others.

 

[bigbadneil]

On both the 5,1 Mac Pros I have I upgraded using the OS pop-up they said "DO NOT UPDATE..."

I did it this way:

See more in this post: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...n.2180095/page-53?post=28255048#post-28255048

How you do this with the other Opencore iterations you'll have to research and I'm not recommending any one of them over any of the others.

Sorry I don’t want to sound thick. But I saw that video already but don’t understand how to initially get the Mac OS installer. In the video it shows Catalina and I’m guessing Montgomery is the same. But how do I get the OS Montgomery download to start the process?
Thanks

 

[bigbadneil]

How do I get the Montgomery download to start this process

 

[bigbadneil]

Sorry I don’t want to sound thick. But I saw that video already but don’t understand how to initially get the Mac OS installer. In the video it shows Catalina and I’m guessing Montgomery is the same. But how do I get the OS Montgomery download to start the process?
Thanks

I tried following this but after I mount the EFI and open the OC folder the Config folder on my computer says config.plist not config

And if I double click on that something else opens up not the same as in the video...........What am I doing wrong?

 

[joevt]

I tried following this but after I mount the EFI and open the OC folder the Config folder on my computer says config.plist not config
View attachment 1939100
And if I double click on that something else opens up not the same as in the video...........What am I doing wrong?

I haven't looked at the video so I have no idea what you're expecting but I'll make some guesses.
You have "Show all filename extensions" enabled in Finder preferences which is good.
When you double click something it opens the default app which might be different than the app that someone else uses.
A plist will appear differently in a text editor than it does in a plist editor.

 

[bigbadneil]

I haven't looked at the video so I have no idea what you're expecting but I'll make some guesses.
You have "Show all filename extensions" enabled in Finder preferences which is good.
When you double click something it opens the default app which might be different than the app that someone else uses.
A plist will appear differently in a text editor than it does in a plist editor.

Thanks for your reply. The actual contents of my EFI/OC folder is different
My OC folder

Contents in the video EFI/OC folder is

 

[gradyg22]

Hi everyone (especially @h9826790 ). Thanks for all the hard work. I just wanted to know if there's a way to switch off the auto hi-DPI mode in 0.7.6? I saw your comment, Martin, that manually turning it on off is deprecated with 0.7.6, but unfortunately my 3440x1440 21:9 gets counted as a hi-DPI display, and the interface/apple logo are hilariously large. Crisp! But way too big. Is there a new way to disable this?

 

[gradyg22]

Hi everyone (especially @h9826790 ). Thanks for all the hard work. I just wanted to know if there's a way to switch off the auto hi-DPI mode in 0.7.6? I saw your comment, Martin, that manually turning it on off is deprecated with 0.7.6, but unfortunately my 3440x1440 21:9 gets counted as a hi-DPI display, and the interface/apple logo are hilariously large. Crisp! But way too big. Is there a new way to disable this?

Here are some photos to show just how large I mean. Hand for scale.

 

[cdf]

I just wanted to know if there's a way to switch off the auto hi-DPI mode in 0.7.6?

Yes. Look for "UIScale" in your config: 0 is auto, 1 is 1x scaling, and 2 is 2x scaling.

 

[gradyg22]

Yes. Look for "UIScale" in your config: 0 is auto, 1 is 1x scaling, and 2 is 2x scaling.

That worked, thank you! Should have thought to look for that myself.

 

[bigbadneil]

I haven't looked at the video so I have no idea what you're expecting but I'll make some guesses.
You have "Show all filename extensions" enabled in Finder preferences which is good.
When you double click something it opens the default app which might be different than the app that someone else uses.
A plist will appear differently in a text editor than it does in a plist editor.

I opened the config.plist file in text editor and I found the lines where you have to make the changes..........I did that and "bobs your uncle" Montgomery opened up.......thanks for all the help

 

[offdwall]

I opened the config.plist file in text editor and I found the lines where you have to make the changes..........I did that and "bobs your uncle" Montgomery opened up.......thanks for all the help

My uncle's name is Bob Monterey.