I understand that no one was forced to buy a 2012 Mac Pro but why “blame Intel”?
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Boot OSX on a NVMe Card
- Thread starter foxfoobar
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I understand that no one was forced to buy a 2012 Mac Pro but why “blame Intel”?
Intel is the one that killed off 3rd party chipsets for their CPUs.
Intel offered the X58 chipset without native SATA III. When it comes down to Apple having to include some sort of extra SATA III controller across millions or tens of millions of units sold, that starts to add up to real money very fast.
People weren't crying back in 2012 when these machines were made, at least not to the point it really hurt Apple's sales of the units, and I don't see a bunch of people crying about it now. It's a shame that the after market for PCI type upgrades pretty much has died off, and I don't think it's restricted to the Mac realm, it just hits there harder because it's a smaller market.
Intel wants to sell a new chipset for each new CPU, and people expect more things to be built-in, when they have to plunk down the money for a new motherboard every few years. I just don't think people are upgrading CPU's that often anymore, or buying as many PCI type cards as once may have been the case.
Margins are shrinking in the traditional desktop space, so Intel, Apple, Dell, whoever saves a few pennies wherever they can.
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Apple aren't watching here, nor are Intel, and neither care now. For Apple, SATA III in the 2012 cMP was a missed opportunity but would have involved significant R&D anyway (re-engineering the MoBo etc) to bring SATA III. Apple was being just plain lazy, just like their half-hearted attempt with the nMP - they got a bit carried away with other hardware and took their eye off a sector they completely underestimated. And for Intel, it was likely a good opportunity to deplete their SATA II chipsets stock so they wouldn't have given a toss because there was likely high demand and restrained stock so one less maker vying for SATA III would have been a reprieve. All guesswork and conjecture based on nothing more than what I 'thunk'. And that was my two cents worth - and that is overvaluing it by two hundred percent.
But can we please move back to focussing on getting NVMe to boot. My 960 EVO is looking decidedly sad (it's actually wasted) sitting in a Fusion Drive, and I'm marvelling the incredible talent of those who are working to hopefully make this happen. Soo excited!
But can we please move back to focussing on getting NVMe to boot. My 960 EVO is looking decidedly sad (it's actually wasted) sitting in a Fusion Drive, and I'm marvelling the incredible talent of those who are working to hopefully make this happen. Soo excited!
Hear hear!
My XG5 is underway from Israel. I’ll try and replicate the method of stitching together a new BIOS and try and boot from the XG5. Hope this will work.
Maybe the 960 EVO failure has something to do with 4K nvme drives and that the 512b drives won’t boot with this driver in the bios?
Apple charge money on every single 2012 Mac Pro they sold. Having little bit extra cost on each unit is not an issue at all. Now, they sold a machine that identical to the 2010 model, which require literally zero R&D is the right thing?
At 2012, other cheaper Mac has SATA III support. R&D cost is definitely not an excuse, especially if we considered the Mac Pro’s price.
The only explanation is “Apple was lazy”.
No one complain about no SATA III in 2012 is another matter. Making the cMP has no SATA III is definitely Apple’s decision, therefore their responsibility, not Intel.
A French user at the Macbidouille site found a novel solution to booting NVMe on his MP 4,1. He desoldered the ROM chip from the logic board, patched the ROM to include the NVMe DXE driver and flashed the chip via an external programmer device and then soldered the improved chip back onto the logic board.
Full story here for those who can manage French or throw the link into an online translator of your choice.
http://macbidouille.com/news/2018/05/22/faire-booter-un-mac-pro-de-2009-sur-un-disque-nvme
Original tweet by the hacker, Gilles Aurejac: https://twitter.com/gillesaurejac/status/997893176135385089
He goes on to say that he is working on a software solution that will allow the same functionality through a firmware update without having to remove the ROM chip.
Full story here for those who can manage French or throw the link into an online translator of your choice.
http://macbidouille.com/news/2018/05/22/faire-booter-un-mac-pro-de-2009-sur-un-disque-nvme
Original tweet by the hacker, Gilles Aurejac: https://twitter.com/gillesaurejac/status/997893176135385089
He goes on to say that he is working on a software solution that will allow the same functionality through a firmware update without having to remove the ROM chip.
Yeah, we know. See post #13
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp51-0084-b00-rom-dump-request.2119496/
/Per
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp51-0084-b00-rom-dump-request.2119496/
/Per
Hi,
I'd really love to boot my Mac Pro 5,1 from my XPG SX8200, but sadly, it doesn't work with the current next-loader. I tried putting it on a USB stick, then on an original Apple-branded SATA spinning rust devise, both times with the option to make next-loader my default boot drive, but in both cases the Mac boots into the recovery from another SATA drive.
When I boot holding the option key, the disk "More options" is shown, when I click it, the up arrow appears below it, but when I click that, the machine freezes. The image stays the same, but the mouse pointer doesn't move any more.
I'm doing this using an original GT 120 card, because with my GTX 1050 Ti without Mac EFI, I only ever see a black screen.
Any idea?
@abdyfranco:
just downloaded nextloader and put it with your install script on a thumb drive.
Mac Pro 3.1 freezes when booting with alt key held until I remove the thumb drive. Then I get my drives / Systems.
Mac Pro 5.1 shows an USB Icon with name "more options" with alt key held but when I select the drive it freezes.
Ran the bless script, no difference.
both machines with stock EFI Cards (3.1: HD2600, 5.1:HD5770)
just downloaded nextloader and put it with your install script on a thumb drive.
Mac Pro 3.1 freezes when booting with alt key held until I remove the thumb drive. Then I get my drives / Systems.
Mac Pro 5.1 shows an USB Icon with name "more options" with alt key held but when I select the drive it freezes.
Ran the bless script, no difference.
both machines with stock EFI Cards (3.1: HD2600, 5.1:HD5770)
Thank you for your feedback, The problem with Mac Pro freezing when you start Next Loader is because a driver crashes, probably the GopDriver.
I still don't know the exact cause of the problem.
Yesterday I ordered an NVMe SSD and a Nvidia GT 1030 from eBay, so I could try Next Loader on my machine and continue the development.
Amen.
Why do people try to blame Intel when Apple skips new technology?
Intel released the E5-x6xx v3 CPUs, Apple kept E5-x6xx v2 in the MP 6,1 ...
Intel released the E5-x6xx v4 CPUs, Apple kept E5-x6xx v2 in the MP 6,1 ...
Other vendors added small, cheap USB 3 controllers to their systems before USB 3 rolled into the Intel chipset. Apple stuck with USB 2.0 long after other workstations had native USB 3.0.
You're absolutely right. Many motherboard manufacturers added a USB 3.0 and a SATA III controllers on their own, when Intel chipsets didn't include it by default.
It will take a brave person cMP owner with Boot ROM Version MP51.0085.B00 running to flash their ROM.
Correct me if I'm wrong : In the
MP51.0084.B00 Rom Dump Request thread post #13 Gilles says t that cMP 4,1 with BootRom MP51.007F is ideal for this project.
My cMP is now at MP51.0085.B00.
Looks like I'll have to burn the 4.1 Apple Firmware Restore CD 1.8 for cMP 4,1 ( and see if it boots up ) as a test first.
Then again, my 4,1 has been flashed to a 5,1 .. so should I also download Apple Firmware Restore CD 1.9 for a genuine cMP 5,1 ?
Quandary 1 : Anyone willing to try Gilles procedure on a MP51.0085.B00 cMP ?
Quandary 2 : High Sierra will not install without the MP51.0087.B00 bootrom update .. .will that overwrite any NVMe booting roms we create ?
Correct me if I'm wrong : In the
MP51.0084.B00 Rom Dump Request thread post #13 Gilles says t that cMP 4,1 with BootRom MP51.007F is ideal for this project.
My cMP is now at MP51.0085.B00.
Looks like I'll have to burn the 4.1 Apple Firmware Restore CD 1.8 for cMP 4,1 ( and see if it boots up ) as a test first.
Then again, my 4,1 has been flashed to a 5,1 .. so should I also download Apple Firmware Restore CD 1.9 for a genuine cMP 5,1 ?
Quandary 1 : Anyone willing to try Gilles procedure on a MP51.0085.B00 cMP ?
Quandary 2 : High Sierra will not install without the MP51.0087.B00 bootrom update .. .will that overwrite any NVMe booting roms we create ?
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At the moment it is only available for x64, but this week I will upload the compiler for ia32.
For OP or anyone who's using foxfoobar's method of copying system files to a bootable drive while the full OS is installed on a non-bootable NVMe drive: how do you handle OS updates?
If you're copying the kernel from the non-bootable NVMe drive onto the bootable drive, I'm guessing you have to redo the process whenever there's a kernel/OS update? Has anyone automated this?
Trying to decide whether to pursue this method or a Fusion Drive.
Let's say my bootable drive is a 6TB SATA HDD which I will use for long term media storage. The non-bootable NVMe drive would be like a 1TB drive for system, apps, scratch disk for video editing projects. Better to make a 100MB partition on the 6TB HDD to keep the boot files separate from the media? Or all in one partition is fine?
If I were to go the Fusion Drive route, could I create a small <1GB partition on the HDD and only join that partition with the NVMe SSD as a Fusion Drive? (Thereby forcing the system to keep 99% of the data on the SSD.) And use the remaining 5.9TB HDD partition as a separate media storage drive?
Very intriguing possibilities, both!
If you're copying the kernel from the non-bootable NVMe drive onto the bootable drive, I'm guessing you have to redo the process whenever there's a kernel/OS update? Has anyone automated this?
Trying to decide whether to pursue this method or a Fusion Drive.
Let's say my bootable drive is a 6TB SATA HDD which I will use for long term media storage. The non-bootable NVMe drive would be like a 1TB drive for system, apps, scratch disk for video editing projects. Better to make a 100MB partition on the 6TB HDD to keep the boot files separate from the media? Or all in one partition is fine?
If I were to go the Fusion Drive route, could I create a small <1GB partition on the HDD and only join that partition with the NVMe SSD as a Fusion Drive? (Thereby forcing the system to keep 99% of the data on the SSD.) And use the remaining 5.9TB HDD partition as a separate media storage drive?
Very intriguing possibilities, both!
Check this thread. People shared how to boot from nvme ssd guide, mod tool etc. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp51-0084-b00-rom-dump-request.2119496/
Direct link to an easy to follow, step-by-step guide for adding NVMe Boot support to the 3,1 / 4,1 / 5,1 cMP
Does this work with the new 0087 ROM?Quick link to an easy to follow, step-by-step guide for adding NVMe
As noted elsewhere, the 0087 rom appears incomplete as it is missing CPU microcode. Users should skip installing the 'OPTIONAL' firmware update in 10.13.5. One user who updated with 0087 and had issues, cleared them up with a PRAM reset.
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