MP 1,1-5,1 dosdude catalina patch on mac pro 4,1 with default GPU

[grrrz]

Hello, I need to update a mac pro to at least High Sierra 10.13.6 to be able to install ableton live 11. I was gonna go with dosdude catalina patcher for futureproofing but someone on reddit told me it wouldn't work with a non-metal GPU; is it right? The dosdude page doesn't list any problem but since High Sierra would be ok I thought I'd play it safe and install High Sierra. The Mac runs lion currently (I need to double check it's a mac pro 4,1 with the default GPU since I don't have easy access to it but I'm pretty sure. Could be a 3,1 but that doesn't change much).
what do you think? Will I be able to have at least the 10.13.6 version of high Sierra or will I be able to update to it from the dosdude patched install?

(Usually when I boot I don't have the boot screen until the desktop appears so I hope it won't be a problem to access the boot menu; something to do with the screen detection probably.)

 

[tsialex]

High Sierra works perfectly with early-2009 GPUs (GT120/HD 4870), but Mojave and later won't have acceleration since these GPUs don't have METAL support. Even if you use dosdude1 patches for non-METAL CPUs, the performance is lackluster.

Check what you really have (correct Mac Pro model, GPU and current BootROM installed) and we can advise you better.

 

[grrrz]

ok thanks; I'll go with High Sierra then. The mac pro is running Lion and has never been updated since about 2012; would I need to update the EFI as well before installing High Sierra? I'll try this when I have access to the computer and I'll give you more info then if needed.

 

[tsialex]

ok thanks; I'll go with High Sierra then. The mac pro is running Lion and has never been updated since about 2012; would I need to update the EFI as well before installing High Sierra? I'll try this when I have access to the computer and I'll give you more info then if needed.

You can check the needed info with 10.7, no problem. Sierra is the last version the a MacPro5,1 can run without any firmware updates.

 

[grrrz]

You can check the needed info with 10.7, no problem. Sierra is the last version the a MacPro5,1 can run without any firmware updates.

would the dosdude installer install the necessary firmware updates?

 

[tsialex]

would the dosdude installer install the necessary firmware updates?

Nope, only supported clean installs will install the required firmware upgrades.

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[grrrz]

Nope, only supported clean installs will install the required firmware upgrades.

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

so there's no separate installer I can download from apple that would do the firmware upgrade? in this case I will have to install 10.11. (in my case it's for the mac pro 4,1)

 

[tsialex]

so there's no separate installer I can download from apple that would do the firmware upgrade? in this case I will have to install 10.11. (in my case it's for the mac pro 4,1)

Nope. Btw, an early-2009 not yet cross-flashed to MP5,1 firmware can only officially run Leopard to El Capitan.

 

[grrrz]

Nope. Btw, an early-2009 not yet cross-flashed to MP5,1 firmware can only officially run Leopard to El Capitan.

yep I know. 10.11. that's exactly why I'm using the dosdude patch.

 

[greenmeanie]

With opencore I am using a MID 2012 5,1 with a Radeon 5770 HD running Monterey.
It installed real easy to my surprise.
I get a weird window blur effect every once in awile but I can live with it until I buy a 580.

 

[grrrz]

With opencore I am using a MID 2012 5,1 with a Radeon 5770 HD running Monterey.
It installed real easy to my surprise.
I get a weird window blur effect every once in awile but I can live with it until I buy a 580.

yeah but I don't want to spend any money on a new GPU. High Sierra will be fine for my purpose.

 

[grrrz]

So FIY I installed high sierra with dosdude1 directly from lion and it works fine. the GPU is a radeon HD 5770 after all, not the default one (it is indeed a MacPro 4,1; bootrom is ROM MP41.0081.B07 ). I did install the patch for radeon in the post install.
I also installed a battery (there was none; I was tired of resetting the date); only problem is it seem to slightly block the GPU so I can't completely screw the little cover thingy for the PCIE cards, and the card has a bit of play. well that should be fine.

 

[tsialex]

Some people like to do the hard and hackish way, instead of the correct/documented procedures. Seems you are one

You hacked High Sierra to run with your early-2009 Mac Pro, but you can't run 1333MHz DIMMs at the correct speed, can't upgrade to a Westmere Xeon, can't boot a disk formatted with APFS directly, can't install a NVMe drive, all your third party PCIe cards are running at PCIe v1.0 and etc.

Btw, in my own viewpoint, it's just dumb to hack a macOS install that you can run it completely supported and officially doing it the right way.

 

[grrrz]

Some people like to do the hard and hackish way, instead of the correct/documented procedures. Seems you are one

You hacked High Sierra to run with your early-2009 Mac Pro, but you can't run 1333MHz DIMMs at the correct speed, can't upgrade to a Westmere Xeon, can't boot a disk formatted with APFS directly, can't install a NVMe drive, all your third party PCIe cards are running at PCIe v1.0 and etc.

well I don't intend to do any of those things ever so I'm good. The only pcie card is the GPU and it's working fine.
what do you mean "correct" way? high sierra is not supported officially on this sytem; what are you on about? and what was hard about the way I did it? the dosdude tool is super easy to use. I don't even understand what is this "correct" procedure you describe. The computer will be running an ableton live patch for a week at a time for exhibitions with minimal interaction then go back to its box until the next time. I don't care about upgrading it; and the 3$ I spent on a new battery are the most I'm gonna spend on this thing. If we have to spend more than 100$ then I might as well buy a used mini from 2012 that will do the job just fine and will be much easier to drag around.

 

[tsialex]

what do you mean "correct" way?

You can get official support up to HighSierra with the original GPU or Mojave if you already upgraded your GPU to a METAL supported one once your early-2009 MacPro is cross-flashed or reconstructed to the MacPro5,1 firmware.

 

[grrrz]

You can get official support up to HighSierra as is (Mojave if you already upgraded your GPU to a METAL supported one) once your early-2009 MacPro is cross-flashed or reconstructed to the MacPro5,1 firmware.

ok; you didn't really mentioned this. well now that's done and it doesn't really make a difference.

 

[tsialex]

ok; you didn't really mentioned this. well now that's done and it doesn't really make a difference.

I've talked about it on posts #6 and #8.

 

[Pandybelly]

Hi,
I recently used the Catalina patcher on my 2009 MacPro and the installation went fine until I tried to log in. I got the attached message at the login screen and don't know what to do.