Successfully patched a mini 3,1 system, but since then every time I turn on the computer, the LED flashes quickly and it beeps before going to normal startup. Can anyone tell me how to exit firmware programming mode?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
- Status
I have successfully applied APFS ROM patcher on a MacBook5,1 (2.0Ghz) logic board in 2020. I was planning now to do so with a 2.4Ghz. However, this latter one comes with multiple ROM definitions and the patcher suggests to identify the EFI chip before to apply it in order to choose the correct chip model.
I have identified on the logic board what it looks like a ROM chip which is spotted by a yellow circle in the picture I have attached. It reads the following code: MX12G2523205D.
Can anyone confirm me if this the ROM chip the APFS ROM patcher was asking for?
I have identified on the logic board what it looks like a ROM chip which is spotted by a yellow circle in the picture I have attached. It reads the following code: MX12G2523205D.
Can anyone confirm me if this the ROM chip the APFS ROM patcher was asking for?
Attachments
Last edited:
I am in a very similar situation with my MacBook5,1 as I have two logic boards 2.0Ghz and the 2.4Ghz. I had no issues patching 2.0Ghz board however 2.4Ghz board presented me with a choice to select the right chip and I decided against going through with it. The reason for this is while dosdude1 did an incredible job with the APFS ROM patcher it was impossible for him to collect the dumps from all the possible chip variations. It seems that there are too many of them which makes the probability of bricking your Mac very high.
I have been very cautious with this for the very same reason you have pointed out here and decided not going through with it. Yet I have recently spotted that ROM chip whose ID model matches with one of the choices that the patch presents to select. It seems a correct match, however, I don't know if I have spotted the right chip...
Last edited:
I actually wanted to mention that if you have found an exact match to the every letter and every digit you will probably have more chances for success as long as your Mac does not go to sleep or lose power during the flashing process. It is a tough choice to make regardless considering that the OCLP allows you to boot APFS partitions without any BOOT ROM patching from what I understand.
Can Mac mini mid-2011 (in short 2011) (Macmini5,1) be patched using the APFS ROM patcher? Strangely, there isn't even a single bit of information if Mac mini 2011 can be safely patched or not and the given information and the available videos (such as How to Flash Your Unsupported Intel Chipset Mac For Native APFS Booting!) almost never mention the Mac minis. They seem to talk about the MacBooks 2008, 2009, iMacs but not much about the Mac minis.
EFI (or BIOS) patching, updating is not something that is done often. Last time I did a BIOS update was 5 or 10 years ago on an IBM ThinkPad, to be able to use a different brand Wireless card.
So I don't wanna rush doing an APFS ROM patch.
Did anybody so far do an APFS ROM patch on a Mac mini 2011?
EFI (or BIOS) patching, updating is not something that is done often. Last time I did a BIOS update was 5 or 10 years ago on an IBM ThinkPad, to be able to use a different brand Wireless card.
So I don't wanna rush doing an APFS ROM patch.
Did anybody so far do an APFS ROM patch on a Mac mini 2011?
Last edited:
I don't think that's the case because when I installed the (patched) Mojave on an APFS formatted SSD, it gave a flashing question mark folder during the boot. That flashing mark is reported to happen on hardware that doesn't support APFS. That's all I know. I don't know for sure if that Mac mini 2011 of mine supports the APFS or not.
Actually even Macmini4,1 supports APFS natively so I would investigate the issue closely and if necessary reset NVRAM and re-install High Sierra with all the updates first. If you bought your Mac second hand it is possible that the original owner never updated past Snow Leopard or Lion and therefore this Mac is missing quite a few firmware updates.
Yep, I bought it second hand and its original owner must have never updated past Lion because when I got it it had Lion on it on a 500GB harddrive. I replaced the HD with an SSD and haven't installed any other OS other than Mojave on that SSD. If I reset NVRAM and install H.Sierra is the firmware automatically updated? If so, that's really interesting because I didn't know the OS installation could update the firmware.
Yes. You should be good to go although you might need to install Yosemite or El Capitan first as a stepping stone before High Sierra. Just make sure that your Mac is plugged in a reliable power source as you don't want your Mac to lose power during the firmware update.
That's a good advice. It saves me from unnecessarily applying the APFS ROM patch. I have the Yosemite ISO available in a harddrive. I will just have to download the H. Sierra that's ok.
I use the Mac minis always connected to the UPS which I maintain regularly, to keep the harddrives & ssds healthy.
I've just installed Yosemite on the HFS+ formatted SSD then installed Highr Siearra from scratch. Then I 've installed Mojave, by selecting the APFS on the install wizard. Installed it, restarted it and again that same question folder mark came up again.
This progression of OS intallations doesn't automatically apply the EFI Patch, it seems.
I hope you also installed all the security updates that that came up under the software update.
This is the problem with the second hand Macs as you never know what sort of experiments(like using 3rd party bootloaders) the previous owner did. I never had any issues with second hand Macs but I might have been lucky so far.
You can also try to run this command in terminal on High Sierra.
/usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck/eficheck --integrity-check
The previous owner was a female translator who used this computer between 2011-2016 and never updated anything on it. When I bought it it had Lion on it. Actually its mint condition was the reason I bought it.
I've reinstalled the Yosemite and installed its security update called Security Update 2017-003 Yosemite
After the update the Boot ROM Version was: MM51.0077.B0F and the SMC 1.76F0
It's not clear if those versions support APFS.
After this I've installed H.Sierra from scratch, and signed in to App Store when I clicked the Updates button on the App Store it said:
No Updates Available
Here is the output of the Terminal code:
Bash:
/usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck/eficheck --integrity-check
EFI Version: MM51.88Z.0077.B0F.1110201309
Matching allowlist not found in EFIAllowListShipping. Searching in EFIAllowListAll.
This system does now allow downloading background update data. Canceling.
Primary allowlist version match not found for version MM51.88Z.0077.B0F.1110201309.You can try installing High Sierra Security Updates manually.
First this:
Download Security Update 2020-005 (High Sierra) - Apple Support
Security Update 2020-005 is recommended for all users and improves the security of macOS.
Security Update 2020-006 (High Sierra) - Apple Support
Security Update 2020-006 is recommended for all users and improves the security of macOS.
Installing those updated manually worked it out!You can try installing High Sierra Security Updates manually.
First this:
And then this:Download Security Update 2020-005 (High Sierra) - Apple Support
Security Update 2020-005 is recommended for all users and improves the security of macOS.support.apple.com
Security Update 2020-006 (High Sierra) - Apple Support
Security Update 2020-006 is recommended for all users and improves the security of macOS.
Finally I do have a Mac mini which supports APFS.
It's nice to have a 2011 machine running Mojave on SSD at full speed
Thanks!
How can i tell if i need this? I think that i might not. I'm successfully booting dosdude1 patched Catalina, using APFS on my upgraded SSD for iMac9,1 (Mid-2009).
Trying to apply the latest update and things are going sideways. Wondering if i need this patch. I read somewhere that if i have previously installed High Sierra, then it's already patched?
Trying to apply the latest update and things are going sideways. Wondering if i need this patch. I read somewhere that if i have previously installed High Sierra, then it's already patched?
If your Mac is listed on the WikiPost then it's a candidate for the APFS patch. It's listed.
AFAIK, those machines listed on the WikiPost cannot use APFS even if H. Sierra is installed. If it doesn't say APFS under Apple menu
then it means that it runs H.Sierra without APFS.
I think I came in here with a misunderstanding. Must have gotten lost pages deep in the comments.
In this thread, we are probably NOT talking about jackluke's OpenCoreAPFSloader, right?
I'm just trying to get Catalina to take updates, and get this system rolling.
looking at the dosdude1 post-install utility booted from the installer USB... there is an APFS patch listed. So I'm guessing that this system is only able to boot itself from the APFS SSD because of said patch... and by extension, I'm left to assume that this machine is NOT "booting natively" from APFS.
All of which brings me back to the question: Do I need to patch the ROM?
What benefits?
Will this allow me to install official OTA updates?
Just looking for more clarity. Off to do some more reading...
I managed to install the update. Just had to step thru carefully, and also use the OpenCoreAPFSloader. I'm not sure precisely what worked and why, but I think the APFSloader on USB stick allowed me to "boot" into the update "image", or otherwise trick the system into believing it's really APFS. Something like that.
I may or may not try this ROM patcher... but considering that it currently works, may be best to leave it alone. It appears that I have an Nvidia chipset, but I'm making an assumption.
I may or may not try this ROM patcher... but considering that it currently works, may be best to leave it alone. It appears that I have an Nvidia chipset, but I'm making an assumption.
It looks like you have successfully completed the patch otherwise you'd end up with a bricked machine unable to boot at all.
Applying that APFS rom patcher is risky but once you do it the reward is high: You can run even Big Sur on a pre 2010 machine. I have a Mac mini late-2009 which is a candidate for that patch and doing that patch stays at the corner of my mind.
My 2009 Mini 3,1 failed first attempt, APFS ROM Patcher stalled & froze for 1+ hour, when I force rebooted I had no video, just a black screen. Tried resetting PRAM, NVRAM, etc. no help. Thought Mini was dead, however seemed to boot, just no video at all. Solution was to hold the start button until the light flashed (firmware programming mode), then the video returned. Tried APFS ROM Patcher a 2nd time, it completed normally. Not exactly certain what advantage APFS ROM Patch gives? Mini 3,1 last supported MacOS version was El Capitan 10.11.6, anything newer requires a patched system, which uses an EFI partition patch to make an APFS volume bootable. Any MacOS that installs onto an APFS volume can recognize other APFS volumes, so the whole ROM patch seems unnecessary. It will show an APFS volume in the Option key boot menu, but you can't boot it directly, you must first select the patched EFI partition to get the 2nd boot menu, which will show the APFS volumes, so the patch seems like unnecessary eye-candy. My Mini 3,1 is now running latest Sonoma 14.1.2 using OCLP 1.2.1 and seems to work fine, no problems I'm aware of. Am I missing something that's actually "useful" about having an APFS patched ROM?
How did the OCLP run in your mini? Did you get any errors? I tried it in a similar Model, but couldn’t made the Installer boot.
Downloaded installer from Mr. Macintosh Sonoma Installer database. Must have internet connection to create USB installer, has to download graphics patches during creation of USB. Takes a while to create. If you fail, you can use another Mac to create USB by going to OCLP Settings and changing the Host Model to Mini 3,1 or whatever Mac you need to create USB for. Might want to use OCLP Settings to select verbose dialog & maybe Firewire booting for the Mini 3.1. Once USB is created, be sure to install OCLP to the EFI partition before using. Boot holding Option key, select EFI partition, a 2nd boot menu appears, select the MacOS USB Installer, it should boot normally and install a patched System that will automatically boot. On my Mini, there were 3 or 4 automatic restarts during the installation process, once you start the install, don't mess with it until you get booted to the new installed system. I always install from USB. Scared to use Software Update without having a USB Installer, just in case something goes wrong during the update.