MP 1,1-5,1 attempting to install windows on 09' mac pro 5.1 via usb

[ayr_07]

Please read the first post of the thread below:

MacPro5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0

For MacPro5,1 BootROM upgrades, please read the first post of the thread below to know how to do the firmware upgrade: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp5-1-what-you-have-to-do-to-upgrade-to-mojave-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418/ For MP4,1 to MP5,1 cross firmware flashing...

forums.macrumors.com

Hi @tsialex. I am able to get the reflashing done on the backplane 8 pin chip. However I don't know how to get the bootrom construction done. In the other thread, a few users have mentioned that you have been a great help in getting the Bootrom construction done. Can you PM me the details? Thanks.

 

[tsialex]

Hi @tsialex. I am able to get the reflashing done on the backplane 8 pin chip. However I don't know how to get the bootrom construction done. In the other thread, a few users have mentioned that you have been a great help in getting the Bootrom construction done. Can you PM me the details? Thanks.

Did you saved the corrupt image? Also, you replaced the SPI, no? Never re-use a 12+ years old SPI flash - it will fail again, or die, soon.

I've sent you the PM with instructions on how to get everything needed/cost. Send me the corrupt dump, the System Information report and the ESN/MLB pictures - no need to dump it again (after flashing the MP51.fd).

 

[MuNLoK]

For a series of reasons that I've explained in the past, all MacPro5,1 BootROMs will fail sometime in the future while cross-flashed early-2009 will fail a lot faster, it's inevitable and you have a Mac Pro with 12 or 13 years since it came out of the factory.

Snow Leopard/Lion use/interact a lot less with the NVRAM than Mojave and newer unsupported releases, but even MacPros that never were upgraded from 10.6 still fail.

If I only use the Mac Pro (4.1>5.1) for Windows 10 and never again for Mac do you think this will be a problem too?

 

[tsialex]

If I only use the Mac Pro (4.1>5.1) for Windows 10 and never again for Mac do you think this will be a problem too?

Even more, Windows updates are frequently worse than macOS updates. It's very common that after Windows updates to have boot coups because of the mess that the NVRAM becomes.

With macOS updates, the post-install phase removes each one of the entries set inside the NVRAM, this happens with the last reboot of the macOS updates and it's easy to see if you have verbose boot enables. Windows doesn't do that.

 

[ayr_07]

It's worse with cross-flashed early-2009 Mac Pros, but it can happen even with real mid-2012s. It's not OpenCore related, the culprit are Software Updates staging for macOS releases that requires Signed System Volume, SSV - Big Sur on-wards.

Software Updates with SSV requires 20KB or more of variables to be staged inside the main VSS store and now Apple is issuing almost monthly Software Updates, a perfect storm.



Yes, will happen again. The way to circumvent it is to repair the cross-flashing issues with a BootROM reconstruction service (so you now are equivalent of a mid-2012 with no issues) and re-flash the never booted reconstructed BootROM image from time to time. I do it in 90 days intervals.

THANK YOU @tsialex for helping me sort out the whole situation with my Mac Pro 4,1. I had almost given hope but you helped me to revive it completely with an excellent BootROM reconstruction service. Now the Mac Pro is back up and running like a champ. Glad to have amazing members like you in this forum.

 

[RolfNoot]

Fortunately saved my BootROM before I installed Windows 11 😅. Quite new to MacPro internals, lots to discover! I've 6x 5,1s to play with. Maybe I'll be diving into BootROM specifics and even try to make a restoration tool if I can find some time!

Thanks @Macschrauber for the nice dumper / flasher tool 🥳

 

[Macschrauber]

Everyone should have a healthy bootrom backup before fiddling with alternativ / unsupported OS' on classic Mac Pros.

 

[netsrot39]

Everyone should have a healthy bootrom backup before fiddling with alternativ / unsupported OS' on classic Mac Pros.

I've purchased a cross-flashed Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1 2 weeks ago and I absolutely love it. It also came with the latest BootROM available for the cMP (144.0.0.0.0) which was kind of surprising since the previous owner had High Sierra installed on it. I spent the last hour reading about the BootROM of the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros and it is quite an interesting read, albeit scary taking into consideration how easy it theoretically to corrupt it. I think I will backup my Mac Pro's ROM with your ROM tool and see if there are any Microsoft certificates active (hopefully there aren't any but I really have no idea what that particular Mac Pro has been used for the last ~ 14 years). I do have some questions and perhaps you or someone more familiar with the matter could answer them, I'd really appreciate it:

Why is booting Windows over USB bad vs. booting it by using optical media? (coincidentally I have both Windows 7 and 10 running on my Mac Pro 2,1 and Mac Pro 3,1 and I have never encountered any issues with the BootROM on those machines, I do have to state though that I've always installed Windows via DVD since that is just the way I prefer to install it, i.e. I was unaware that booting Windows on USB could be dangerous)

Doesn't OpenCore fully protect the firmware of the Mac Pro when MacOS and Windows installers are booted with it? (from what I understand it spoofs the BootROM version which makes changes to the BootROM harmless so that Windows could even be booted via USB without concern)

Is BootROM corruption a thing on 1,1-3,1s? (I never gave the possibility of a BootROM corruption by installing Windows a thought on those machines since you really don't hear bad stories about Windows on those machines).

I haven't had much time to tinker around with my 4,1 flashed to 5,1 yet but I intend to install Monterey and Windows 11 on it. Can the BootROM be considered safe if I install Martin LO's OpenCore package first and do every install of an operating system with it afterwards?

Thanks for any insights!

 

[tsialex]

I've purchased a cross-flashed Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1 2 weeks ago and I absolutely love it. It also came with the latest BootROM available for the cMP (144.0.0.0.0) which was kind of surprising since the previous owner had High Sierra installed on it. I spent the last hour reading about the BootROM of the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Mac Pros and it is quite an interesting read, albeit scary taking into consideration how easy it theoretically to corrupt it. I think I will backup my Mac Pro's ROM with your ROM tool and see if there are any Microsoft certificates active (hopefully there aren't any but I really have no idea what that particular Mac Pro has been used for the last ~ 14 years). I do have some questions and perhaps you or someone more familiar with the matter could answer them, I'd really appreciate it:

Why is booting Windows over USB bad vs. booting it by using optical media? (coincidentally I have both Windows 7 and 10 running on my Mac Pro 2,1 and Mac Pro 3,1 and I have never encountered any issues with the BootROM on those machines, I do have to state though that I've always installed Windows via DVD since that is just the way I prefer to install it, i.e. I was unaware that booting Windows on USB could be dangerous)

USB = UEFI Windows and consequently Windows SecureBoot signing the Mac Pro BootROM.

CD/DVD = BootCamp/CSM/BIOS Windows installs, no UEFI, no Windows UEFI SecureBoot.

Doesn't OpenCore fully protect the firmware of the Mac Pro when MacOS and Windows installers are booted with it? (from what I understand it spoofs the BootROM version which makes changes to the BootROM harmless so that Windows could even be booted via USB without concern)

You are mixing two extremely different things.

OpenCore spoofing of EFI and SMC versions is just to avoid macOS Software Updates that try to update the Mac Pro firmware, it fails and sometimes makes a boot loop that you can't get out.

ProtectSecureBoot is to block Windows SecureBoot signing the BootROM.

Is BootROM corruption a thing on 1,1-3,1s? (I never gave the possibility of a BootROM corruption by installing Windows a thought on those machines since you really don't hear bad stories about Windows on those machines).

MacPro3,1 can also corrupt the BootROM, but since the design is simpler and different from MacPro5,1, it's a lot more difficult to happen.

I haven't had much time to tinker around with my 4,1 flashed to 5,1 yet but I intend to install Monterey and Windows 11 on it. Can the BootROM be considered safe if I install Martin LO's OpenCore package first and do every install of an operating system with it afterwards?

Thanks for any insights!

When OpenCore config.plist is configured correctly, you can avoid boot loops from Software Updates and also Windows SecureBoot, but these two are just two of the various ways that the MacPro5,1 BootROM/NVRAM can fail.

You will never avoid failure of the NAND cells of the SPI flash for example. You can't also avoid garbage collection failures. There are other ways that the BootROM fails, but let's keep it simple here.

MacPro5,1 BootROM design back in 2008 was made for the reality of that time - no iCloud, no constant usage of the NVRAM by macOS - and was never intended with the presumption that 14 years later people would be actively running it as daily drivers.

The design is prone to fail by itself overtime and to make matters worse, Apple used a first generation SPI flash memory that have little endurance when the application is a NVRAM (contiguous erases/re-writes).