iM 4,1-14,4 EnableGop: Pre-OpenCore GOP support for EFI-era iMacs and Mac Pros

[cdf]

Truly outstanding work as usual @Bmju!

 

[dennisausbremen]

Thank you so much for this. It worked like a charm! 😍

 

[rajks]

finaly i managed to get the vbiosinsert script running...thanks to @h9826790 + @Bmju.
as i tested several rom's, which some of was successfull, but some are not...

getting a bit offtopic here, so i put the story in a spoiler...

Spoiler

as i have a wall full of bricked and brocken hardware, there was a still known as good hd6670 which produce some red lines when insert in the cMP. just as a test objekt, i unpinned it from the wall and read the rom with gpu-z

f.e., an HD6670 which does not have any GOP part inside of the vbios. conclusion was for me, to update the GOP of the vbios with GOP_Updater ( success ), but the file size truncate from 131.072 byte to 121.344 byte.

vbiosinsert script refuse to insert the driver and reports :

File size of 121344 bytes must be at least safe size of 131072 bytes; use -s or check file

same is with an firepro v4800 cards vbios...

the nvidia quadro k600 vbios does a bit better, the size of the rom file expanded from 205.312 byte to 217.600 bytes, the file could be flashed and shows the native bootpicker when insert into my cMP, but not when plugged into my xserve2,1...

is there any solution to get the ancient ATI/AMD cards running with an modded vbios instead of the modded firmware of the mac?

i'd like to run the firepro or the quadro inside of the xserve...

Have you been able to use the vbiosinsert script with the hp rx 460 2gb gpu? I am getting the AMD size limitation error?

 

[Bmju]

Have you been able to use the vbiosinsert script with the hp rx 460 2gb gpu? I am getting the AMD size limitation error?

There's a success report for this card here, but I think it's for a MacPro with EnableGop in main firmware. If you are on a MacPro, that is probably your best bet. If you are on an iMac (is there even an MXM format RX 460?) or even if not, you can try asking on this thread if anyone has (or could make) and RX 460 rom without the legacy bios.

 

[jeanlion]

Have you been able to use the vbiosinsert script with the hp rx 460 2gb gpu? I am getting the AMD size limitation error?

Hope use the rom and have a fun

 

[jeanlion]

Please send the ROMs.

I did make an update to the script attempting to support these newer Nvidia cards. Not published yet and I don't know if it works - the previous user who hit this issue (see thread from here onwards: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-era-imacs-and-mac-pros.2378942/post-32018613 ) had problems with their machine and has been unable to test so far.

If you send the ROMs, I can make test versions using my updated script. But don't test them unless you have a hardware way to restore your vBIOS if it doesn't work (CH341A + SOIC clip which you can run from another machine, or from your machine with another GPU in it, basically).

Dear friend ,Did you have sloved this problem :

k2000.rom add EnableGOP.efi failed things??I notice that

@armdn have report this things​

EnableGop: Pre-OpenCore GOP support for EFI-era iMacs and Mac Pros

Well, this is strange... For the Quadro K600 ROM Auto-detecting GOP offset... Compressing EFI using EfiRom... Adding Nvidia header... Combining... Verifying (starting at 0xF400)... Found compressed EFI ROM start at 0x4c Input size: 110004, Output size: 11967, Scratch size: 13376 UEFI...

forums.macrumors.com

Auto-detecting GOP offset...


Compressing EFI using EfiRom...


Adding Nvidia header...


Combining...


Verifying (starting at 0xF400)...


Found compressed EFI ROM start at 0x4c


Input size: 148404, Output size: 13393, Scratch size: 13376


UEFI decompression failed!

 

[Bmju]

Dear friend ,Did you have sloved this problem :

k2000.rom add EnableGOP.efi failed things?

I never got a reply to my post asking for a ROM to test, so dropped this issue. If you send a ROM with this issue, I can take a look.

 

[jeanlion]

OK,here is the GT610.rom . the same problem:UEFI decompression failed! ,you could use it to test

 

[jeanlion]

I never got a reply to my post asking for a ROM to test, so dropped this issue. If you send a ROM with this issue, I can take a look.

Here is the K600.rom and K2000.rom,also has the same error :UEFI decompression failed!

 

[Bmju]

@jeanlion - Well I can repeat the error, at least! Just to confirm what I'm dealing with, are these definitely valid ROMs? Which you've ideally burnt to the cards in question and they work, or at least read directly from working cards?

 

[jeanlion]

@jeanlion - Well I can repeat the error, at least! Just to confirm what I'm dealing with, are these definitely valid ROMs? Which you've ideally burnt to the cards in question and they work, or at least read directly from working cards?

GT610.rom use nvflash backup from a real card;k600.rom and k2000.rom download from
@armdn reply;I did not flash the “EnableGOP gt610.rom ”into the real card,because it shows error:UEFI decompression failed!
May cause a black screen?

 

[Macschrauber]

without looking at the details: I have made for k600, k2000 and k2000d roms with EnableGop.

Just by using the provided script. I am not the GPU rom guru

And, no, you should not fetch a prebuilt GPU rom, there are various versions with 3 kinds of GRam of those Quadro GPUs on the market. And countless firmware versions. It's dump your GPU and patch it.

I had a lot of Quadros in my hands as I like this little beasts, especially as they provide a DP output, and some mDP like the K2000d.

...Or patch the Mac firmware, what imo is way easier.

 

[Bmju]

GT610.rom use nvflash backup from a real card;k600.rom and k2000.rom download from
@armdn reply;I did not flash the “EnableGOP gt610.rom ”into the real card,because it shows error:UEFI decompression failed!
May cause a black screen?

Thanks for the additional info.

Correct, do not flash after 'UEFI decompression failed', it very likely will cause a black screen, and need to reprogram the card using hardware (e.g. CH341A plus SOIC clip).

 

[YZFNYC]

I was trying to add the Mac Boot Screen support to my AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 (PCI-E) card on my Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 but constantly get the "- Not enough space within 128k limit - aborting!" and I have tried all EnableGop 1.0 - 1.4. I read the "Deleting the VGA" Github instructions twice and played around with it but honesty it felt like I was taking my final in Organic Chem again, Lost. I thought I knew what I was doing until I had to. Let's just say it's been a long time since I used a hex editor. If someone would help point me to exactly where I find the "atomdis" tool? and any help with where exactly is the area were I can delete the VGA section, I think I can figure it out but HEX Fiend keeps freezing in Ventura. So any advice on other editors that will work with the template from Ausdauersportler? I attached my rom file (262 KB) unzipped, in case anyone wants to peek and let me know if it is even doable or am I just wasting time. I also downloaded some of the roms from iMac WX7100 but it was like comparing apples to oranges. That did not help point me anywhere with the PCI-E card. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[macsoundsolutions]

I was trying to add the Mac Boot Screen support to my AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 (PCI-E) card on my Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 but constantly get the "- Not enough space within 128k limit - aborting!" and I have tried all EnableGop 1.0 - 1.4. I read the "Deleting the VGA" Github instructions twice and played around with it but honesty it felt like I was taking my final in Organic Chem again, Lost. I thought I knew what I was doing until I had to. Let's just say it's been a long time since I used a hex editor. If someone would help point me to exactly where I find the "atomdis" tool? and any help with where exactly is the area were I can delete the VGA section, I think I can figure it out but HEX Fiend keeps freezing in Ventura. So any advice on other editors that will work with the template from Ausdauersportler? I attached my rom file (262 KB) unzipped, in case anyone wants to peek and let me know if it is even doable or am I just wasting time. I also downloaded some of the roms from iMac WX7100 but it was like comparing apples to oranges. That did not help point me anywhere with the PCI-E card. Thanks in advance for any help.

Why not just install EnableGop to your boot rom instead of the GPU?

 

[jeanlion]

Hope@Bmju have a good news

 

[YZFNYC]

Why not just install EnableGop to your boot rom instead of the GPU?

Hi Lance, I did to my wife's Mac Pro also to her RX480 and will to mine once I get this card done. I swap my cards oftentimes into Mac's I repair for friends and family and the occasional repair customer (side gig) it's nice to have a single slot card to use for that. Figured since I'm likely to upgrade soon to an RX6600 this could become my diagnostic card especially since support goes back to High Sierra. It's only 125 watts max and works fine off 1 pci-e mini 6 pin and the bus power. That said when diagnosing Macs you sometimes need that good old boot screen and If it's not my Mac I'm not doing anyone's ROM upgrade. Just in case something goes wrong. If it can't be done it's fine but figured it be useful for my side hustle and for a little bit of learning too.

 

[Bmju]

Hi Lance, I did to my wife's Mac Pro also to her RX480 and will to mine once I get this card done. I swap my cards oftentimes into Mac's I repair for friends and family and the occasional repair customer (side gig) it's nice to have a single slot card to use for that. Figured since I'm likely to upgrade soon to an RX6600 this could become my diagnostic card especially since support goes back to High Sierra. It's only 125 watts max and works fine off 1 pci-e mini 6 pin and the bus power. That said when diagnosing Macs you sometimes need that good old boot screen and If it's not my Mac I'm not doing anyone's ROM upgrade. Just in case something goes wrong. If it can't be done it's fine but figured it be useful for my side hustle and for a little bit of learning too.

EnableGop targets the most recent MP5,1 (or MP4,1 upgraded to 5,1) firmware, and may not (probably won't) work and may cause the machine not to boot (while the card is in), if it has earlier firmware.

 

[N008]

injected enablegop.ffs into my 4.1 test rig with rebuilt 144 firmware and can report success with

Nvidia Quadro K2000 (unchanged)
Nvidia Quadro K2000d (unchanged)
Nvidia Quadro K600 (with GOP addition in GPU Bios)
Nvidia Quadro 410 (with GOP addition in GPU Bios)
GT640 1GB
AMD RX560 V1 (unchanged)
Sapphire RX580 Pulse

with the RX560 I booted El Capitan natively and got framebuffer graphics

I just checked Lance's

and he mentioned about rx580 dual BIOS.

On my GPU it is written: SAPPHIRE PULSE RADEON RX 580 4G GDDR5 DUAL HD MI/DVI-D/DUAL DP OC W/BP (UEFI)

How do I know:
- Does my Radeon RX 580 come with "dual BIOS" or not(physically there is no switch unlike my friends NITRO model).
- And if mine is still with dual BIOS, how can I be sure I have it switched on "gaming mode" or "full power mode"?

How was your experience? Did you had to do anything extra or you just "did the enableGOP without extra moves"?

 

[Macschrauber]

I just checked Lance's

and he mentioned about rx580 dual BIOS.

On my GPU it is written: SAPPHIRE PULSE RADEON RX 580 4G GDDR5 DUAL HD MI/DVI-D/DUAL DP OC W/BP (UEFI)

How do I know:
- Does my Radeon RX 580 come with "dual BIOS" or not(physically there is no switch unlike my friends NITRO model).
- And if mine is still with dual BIOS, how can I be sure I have it switched on "gaming mode" or "full power mode"?

How was your experience? Did you had to do anything extra or you just "did the enableGOP without extra moves"?

If the GPU provides a bootscreen with OpenCore it should provide one with EnableGop.

If it does not give a bootscreen with OpenCore than it may have no valid GOP. So that's your path to follow. Maybe someone modded the GPU firmware for mining.

I am aware knowing a dual bios GPU without a physical switch, if it has none it is no dual bios GPU.

Edit: switch position for RX580 pulse: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...se-stock-bios-and-modification-advice.296675/

 

[Bmju]

Hope@Bmju have a good news

Hi @jeanlion - I'm trying to get some more time to look further. I did get as far as reminding myself of the basic issue, which I described here before, and I can see again in the ROMs you sent me.

I can tell you one thing that would help to save time, please can you confirm which of those ROMs already work if burnt to the relevant cards in question (i.e. at least show graphics in macOS), and which of them already work in OpenCore (i.e. show a graphical boot picker, after configuring OC)?

As explained in p.1 EnableGop only works for cards which are known to basically work in OpenCore - it is part of the OpenCore project, and uses various parts of OpenCore's GOP handling to work.

For cards where you can 100% confirm that the ROMs you have currently sent already work fine with that card in OpenCore and show a graphical picker menu, then I'm happy to carry on the work and try to figure out how to make the EnableGop insertion script support them. If any of these are ROMs which you picked up which are not yet confirmed to burn, boot, and work in OpenCore for a graphical menu, then please do check! (For any which you extracted yourself from a card known to work for a graphical menu in OpenCore, and any which you downloaded but have already burnt to the card and the result worked for a graphical menu in OpenCore, that is fine - and those are the ones I am happy to work on!)

 

[Frixo Cool]

I'm a long-time Mac Pro user and first of all I want to thank the experts here for the enthusiasm, expertise and time they invest in allowing this community of ours to enjoy these wonderful machines for so long. I don't think Apple has ever made a computer as good and long-lasting as the 5,1. And they probably won't do it again because they would go bankrupt.

I read these instructions carefully, saved the current Mac ROM, injected EnableGOP, tested the new ROM, everything seems ok and quite routine. The last step is to get into firmware mode and flash it to the motherboard. And here I get into unexpected sideway: when I restart Mac Pro into firmware mode (flashing, long beep) it continues to boot but after a while it just stops and restarts (of course not in firmware mode any longer). Before that I disconnected all drives except the boot drive (NVMe) so it's not that it could boot to some wrong OS.

I am on latest OCLP 1.3.0 with current Sonoma 14.2.1, system is perfectly stable daily work horse. Any idea what is happening? Is it a good idea to make one clean Mojave drive and try the procedure without OpenCore? Any other way to force firmware boot?

 

[Macschrauber]

I'm a long-time Mac Pro user and first of all I want to thank the experts here for the enthusiasm, expertise and time they invest in allowing this community of ours to enjoy these wonderful machines for so long. I don't think Apple has ever made a computer as good and long-lasting as the 5,1. And they probably won't do it again because they would go bankrupt.

I read these instructions carefully, saved the current Mac ROM, injected EnableGOP, tested the new ROM, everything seems ok and quite routine. The last step is to get into firmware mode and flash it to the motherboard. And here I get into unexpected sideway: when I restart Mac Pro into firmware mode (flashing, long beep) it continues to boot but after a while it just stops and restarts (of course not in firmware mode any longer). Before that I disconnected all drives except the boot drive (NVMe) so it's not that it could boot to some wrong OS.

I am on latest OCLP 1.3.0 with current Sonoma 14.2.1, system is perfectly stable daily work horse. Any idea what is happening? Is it a good idea to make one clean Mojave drive and try the procedure without OpenCore? Any other way to force firmware boot?

The easy path would be booting into Mojave,

You can flash the firmware with Linux, I have a grml thumb drive with Flashrom on it if the Mac is booting no Mac Os no more.

Another path, if nvram is havoc is booting into Mavericks with the RTC battery pulled.

I guess you have checked the health of your dump. Also check RTC battery, should read at least 3.0 volts with a multimeter.

 

[Frixo Cool]

Tnx! I checked it, no errors, no Microsoft garbage, VSS1&2 healthy and I have 9243 bytes free space of 65464, is that enough to add EnableGOP? I guess RomDump will tell me if there is not enough? But let's cross that bridge later...

 

[Macschrauber]

Tnx! I checked it, no errors, no Microsoft garbage, VSS1&2 healthy and I have 9243 bytes free space of 65464, is that enough to add EnableGOP? I guess RomDump will tell me if there is not enough? But let's cross that bridge later...

Thats free space in the active nvram stream. Its a circular log, gets filled with every boot / wakeup from full hibernatemode 25 sleep, until close to empty, gets cleared and filled again. This is happens about every 8 to 16 boots, regarding how many's variables the system and the firmware writes.

EnableGop is injected elsewhere, we have plenty space for firmware modules.

As your machine acts strange I would not take the risk to flash in Sonoma, even if you get it to boot in Firmware unprotect mode.

Better run a supported OS without OpenCore. And do a deep nvram reset before, holding alt-cmd-p-r until the box chimes 4 times to clear as much of the nvram as you can.

Something is strange. I also would reduce the hardware to as less as possible what’s needed to boot the machine in a supported OS.