MP 1,1-5,1 Can Refit hard brick my Mac Pro 1,1 2006? (install windows on ntfs partition)

[AnonA2]

Can Refit hard brick my Mac Pro 1,1 2006?

Purpose: I would want to install Windows on existing NTFS partition instead formatting whole drive (and tweaking for Win7 x64 bootcamp).

More about it... (I'm curious also I can't solder anything but fry lol ):

Adding any efi files to efi partition mac does not change anything. Nothing crashes. So can I use PC to install windows on external disk on one NTFS partition (Mac partition is FAT32, not encrypted) and then connect it to mac. It will not probably work natively, but maybe through refit.

What I should have before proceeding? I have hack, backup of files, separated partition for system, free 1TB drive, backup of efi, disk station, maybe a system recovery (didn't do anything with it after installing os x on clean drive), can use paragon if really needed. I don't have backup of firmware bin/raw file (doesn't want to flash anything) and clone of drive.

Ideally I would want to have slow workaround for this. So mac loads first its bootloader, then from mac I can boot to another bootloader and then I can boot to not natively supported Windows and install for it bootcamp drivers.

Booting through usb is another option. If it's safer then I'm okay to use it every time I want to boot to Windows. (I am worried about only pendrive that will someday break from it...but 1gb one for it will be fine option). Ideally maybe creating small partition for booting through refit without changing the bless. Can I change bless from hack for other mac? Some people just were removing refit.efi from efi partition or sth. Would I be able at least to go terminal after changing the bootloader (and check here - maybe Gparted messed sth there - gparted is really bad software, I would use paragon partition manager instead)? Maybe replacing boot.efi from coreservices would do the trick (anytime I can replace it back to original one)?

How does the efi work in Mac? Is it simillar to PC. On PC I can do anything to my EFI and boot through any efi file I want. Does mac work simillarly?

Also is there LEFI or other interfaces than BIOS and UEFI generally? UEFI is both EFI 1.x and EFI 2.x. Old macs uses code from EFI 1.x which is more vulnerable to bugs in it's way of communicating to firmware and using different tools instead one UEFI. Especially when using Mac Mini.

I heard that some people had this problem with their mobo when firmware glitched to black screen or ubuntu changed efi partition to fat16 and glitched sth on m2 macbook drive (or sth, maybe soldered hard drive idk). So the way for them to restore system functionality was to flash sth or change fat16 partition back to fat32 with symlink firmware.scap file and eventually format the Mac HD partition for new system. What does that firmware.scap even does. Does it wirtes (instead of sending data) sth to firmware? Or it's just a bunch of software? I know removing it does nothing probably, because orginal file is located in /usr/standalone/...

On other hand functionality of first versions of Clover was glitching in the past I/O of mac so bootloader was failing to load. New Clover is slow, rewritten in #C and maybe more emulating than legacy and even installing this on mac on hypervisior (note you cannot hibernate hack etc if you have not at least ivy bridge intel) caused to mac on efi (OS X 10.8 or 10.12 which uses normal UEFI probably) to boot using clover instead and windows worked. But clover on actual mac would glitch firmware or at least cause some bugs.

 

[AnonA2]

Okay, I've read a bit about it - there aren't many threads like that. Efi normally works like this: I / O - EFI or UEFI - kernel - system, not I / O - kernel - EFI. And depending on what I tried, replacing boot.efi is same for both Macs and PCs. Ubuntu can hardbrick your computer by mounting EFI memory (rm rf and using systemd) as read write (read exec), but UEFI itself should prevent that unless using a UEFI console. Such a procedure would result in a bug at best, that's it. So in fact on Efi 1.x there is little risk so better not try to install betas. On a Mac this could be done by installing a firmware or a bad efi patch (on a PC it probably won't result in a brick). Possibly some driver can bug EFI 1.x or some component (refit - there it seems impossible, there are no such cases). It is not possible to reset smc on old mobs. On the Mac pro, just unplug the cable ... Smc will reset then without firmware. Otherwise, sometimes something breaks on too new motherboards. And on a PC some assembly script might lead to a softbrick (and then you have to use another PC), or a virus might bug the BIOS or flashing the firmware may be cause. The driver is also not able to break the motherboard likely, but it also depends on the manufacturer. For example, Samsung blew it entirely with the driver for the graphics card ... Similarly, Lenovo Thinkpad X240 blew it with the UEFI firmware (such situations are caused by installation of firmware etc.). I quote a few cases for comparison I had with phones (where the entire disk is normally not accessible). I once clicked somewhere in the recovery and bugged EMMC in xperia Z1. Or I just ran some assembly script on a Sony phone, but it came back to life after a while. So with all that being said, I am personally in favor of giving warns to people who say they have bricks. Brick induces soldering and other serious procedures, such as external chip programming, and should not be used selectively. In general, why manufacturers won't put 2x GPU in laptops, firmware on a separate disk without unnecessary encryption and other nonsense/tuning. Hope this clears up for someone when dealing with risk of bricking sth.

From what I can see, it's seem there's normal way to remove the CMOS battery from the stationary machine, but it's harder to get there. It's somewhere near the graphics card. But you have to avoid Apple laptops that have permanent bios batteries or a built-in M2 / MMC disk, otherwise you have to spend 50$ for soldering and it's drastically shortens the life of laptop. So a manual EFI reset or whatever you prefer to call it including
BIOS (which is needed in some cases) shouldn't pluck me. Generally Bios in Mac is simply called Firmware. A standard motherboard generally includes: I / O, EFI, BIOS (or the so-called EFI BIOS and sometimes also an additional firmware interface), RAID, USB, AC etc. controller, sometimes GPU vendor, engine ("engineering engine"), Dual Bios sometimes, PRAM, SRAM, EMMC bones, component BIOSes, fuses, CPU, NVRAM, ROM, and also connectors and spare paths in the laminate. Opencore works, depending on the configuration, as a native bootloader (because it is based on the open source Darwin infrastructure) or as a chainloader. For example, I use Clover as a chainloader that loads the Windows bootloader. So the bootloader would be a driver and software for EFI, not strictly an EFI scriptable like systemd or the console. About me, for example, DVD does not work in a laptop after cutting the screw with a miller-grinder, idk if it hadn't working either (anyway it ejects, both in MBR and UEFI) ... Maybe in this laptop there was a broken DVD BIOS after renovation... But with OpenCore would be I able to use 64 bit kexts on a 32 bit (x86) kernel implementation?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I think the easiest way is to spare a whole HDD/SSD for Windows.
I could run Windows 10-64bit on my cMP 1,1 without any issue.
But I didn't install Windows using cMP 1,1.
It's much faster to do it from a Windows native PC.
Afterthat, transfer the disk to cMP1,1. It'll simply work.

 

[monokakata]

Exactly. I had a 1,1 and did as Nguyen Duc Hieu suggested -- devoted an internal disk to it. It worked perfectly with Windows 7.

I had a Win 7 DVD, so I was able to install in place. As I remember, it was easy.

When I wanted to use Windows, I simply selected the Win 7 disk on startup.

 

[AnonA2]

So i may put it into disk station (I remember this way I installed ESXi althrough ESXi needs full disk) and simply install Windows 7 x64 on existing NTFS partition. I have hacks and partitions used by these are seen as unknown or unlocated space. All Windows are seen as bootcamp partitions by hack and can be run under vm using boot.efi replace. This will grant me better compatibility with bootloader but if I would want ever to install Linux should I use Refind via replace or bless? As I know Opencore doesn't support EFI32 at least somehow graphically and requires generally firmware MP100+ (Mp 3,2 at least).
Also Hack 10.10 would be the most compatible newer system that will probably work on Mac Pro with full graphics support (I have standard Nvidia 7300 GT, no need for flashing BIOS of GPU or sth then? I have read that I can upgrade to nvidia en210 1gb ddr3 (no boot screen visible though), only some Nvidia gtx work with mac pro but not fully with anything newer than OX X 10.7, I have gtx 470). But will it work through patching through SFOTT Install Mac.app downloaded from internet ? Replacing the app with content of usb? I doubt booting to partition through patcher/MacPostFactor would apply for Mac Pro.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

So i may put it into disk station (I remember this way I installed ESXi althrough ESXi needs full disk) and simply install Windows 7 x64 on existing NTFS partition. I have hacks and partitions used by these are seen as unknown or unlocated space. All Windows are seen as bootcamp partitions by hack and can be run under vm using boot.efi replace. This will grant me better compatibility with bootloader but if I would want ever to install Linux should I use Refind via replace or bless? As I know Opencore doesn't support EFI32 at least somehow graphically and requires generally firmware MP100+ (Mp 3,2 at least).
Also Hack 10.10 would be the most compatible newer system that will probably work on Mac Pro with full graphics support (I have standard Nvidia 7300 GT, no need for flashing BIOS of GPU or sth then? I have read that I can upgrade to nvidia en210 1gb ddr3 (no boot screen visible though), only some Nvidia gtx work with mac pro but not fully with anything newer than OX X 10.7, I have gtx 470). But will it work through patching through SFOTT Install Mac.app downloaded from internet ? Replacing the app with content of usb? I doubt booting to partition through patcher/MacPostFactor would apply for Mac Pro.

I don't understand a word you said.
Just simple spare 1 whole drive for it. A Windows pre-installed HDD/SSD will run smooth on Mac Pro.
It just the installation process is obstructed by Apple. Once you get pass that, it's just the same as any other PCs.