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

[Frixo Cool]

Huuuhhhh....

In short: Hooray! Success!

A bit longer: It was tiring and stressful, a whole day of tinkering... Booting into clean Mojave allowed me to restart the Mac Pro in firmware mode. But then a new problem appeared - SIP was enabled. And for reasons unknown, I could not boot into the Recovery partition. I thought maybe that Mojave install on that SSD was without a Recovery partition, so I went to install a fresh Mojave on a brand new SSD. Unfortunately, the same again, the machine does not boot into Recovery no matter what. And I remember that it worked long time ago, when I first installed Mojave on my machine. Strange.

Then I removed the Mojave SSD, returned the Sonoma NVMe and turned off SIP through OpenCore and then shut down the machine. Replaced the disks again and booted into Mojave with SIP finally turned off. However, it was not "disabled" the usual way but "enabled" with a list of "disabled" options. NVRAM write was enabled, so I figured it could work. Terminal message was not very reassuring:

"This is an unsupported configuration, likely to break in the future and leave your machine in an unknown state."

Anyway, I tried to run it and the process went fine. However, after reboot I had minor heart attack when I got this:



Then it all went black... machine worked for maybe a minute and shut itself down! I thought: "That's it, I bricked my main machine, no boot, shut down by itself... curiosity killed the cat!" Then I pulled myself together and restarted the machine again, the chime sounded, I did a PRAM reset and the good old boot picker showed up on my RX 580! What a relief!



But when I got the Sonoma drive back in, Bluetooth was lost. Reinstalling OpenCore and root patches did not help. At least I have some good advice here: the solution is to reset the SMC on the motherboard and then do another PRAM reset. Finally fully operational again!

Thanks people, that's why I love the Mac community so much!

 

[N008]

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/

Thank you for your answer.

I just solved it few hours ago by BootROM flash "EnableGOP".(for your notice I didn't have OpenCore yet.)
Opt key opens nicely Startup manager.

 

[jeanlion]

Hello @jeanlion - I'm trying to get more time to look into this further. I have previously posted on here post describing this basic issue, and I see it again in the ROM you sent me.

If these ROMs have been burned onto the relevant boards, could you please confirm which of them are already operational (i.e. at least displaying graphics in macOS) and which are already operational in OpenCore (i.e. displaying the graphical boot selector after configuring the OC)?

As described on page 1, EnableGop only applies to boards that are known to be fundamentally runnable in OpenCore - it is part of the OpenCore project and uses various parts of OpenCore's GOP processing.

For cards where you can 100% confirm that the ROM you are currently sending is already working and displaying the graphical pick menu in OpenCore, I'd be happy to continue this work and try to figure out how to get the EnableGop insertion scripts to support these ROMs.If you've already purchased one of these ROMs, but can't confirm that it's ready to burn and display the graphical pick menu in OpenCore, be sure to check! If you have purchased one of these ROMs and cannot confirm that it burns and displays a graphical pick menu in OpenCore, be sure to check! If you have purchased one of these ROMs and cannot confirm that it can burn and display graphical menus in OpenCore, be sure to check! (Any ROMs that you yourself have extracted from a graphics card known to be able to run graphical menus in OpenCore, and any ROMs that you have downloaded and burned to a graphics card that can run graphical menus in OpenCore, are fine - I'm happy to deal with those ROMs!)

GT610 compatible with opencore ,it can display the graphical pick menu

 

[Bmju]

GT610 compatible with opencore ,it can display the graphical pick menu

And ... that firmware is the actual firmware currently burnt to it? Or...? Sorry, you already answered this.

 

[Bmju]

Hope@Bmju have a good news

Hello @jeanlion - Possibly good news. Can you try the attached version? WARNING: If it does not work, it may crash your card and require CH341A + SOIC clip to restore GPU to a good vBIOS.

 

[N008]

And for reasons unknown, I could not boot into the Recovery partition. I thought maybe that Mojave install on that SSD was without a Recovery partition, so I went to install a fresh Mojave on a brand new SSD. Unfortunately, the same again, the machine does not boot into Recovery no matter what. And I remember that it worked long time ago, when I first installed Mojave on my machine. Strange.

What kind of keyboard do you use?

I just did Enable GOP successfully yesterday:
Mac Pro 5,1 2010
- Mojave 10.14.6
- Intel Xeon 6 core 3.46Ghz x 2
- 64Gb DDR3 EEC 1333MHz (8 x 8 Gb)
- 256Gb SSD
- Radeon PULSE RX 580 4Gb

- Apple Magic keyboard
- Mouse: Logitech MX620 Laser

 

[Bmju]

@jeanlion - I made some further updates to the vBiosInsert.sh script, now uploaded here: https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/blob/master/Staging/EnableGop/vBiosInsert.sh

It should handle all the ROMs you sent, and the M5000M which @terabay sent above in the thread last March.

I haven't currently got the right cards to actually burn and test any of these results however, so any success or failure reports would be very welcome - with the warning that if it fails (i.e. seems to work, but builds an incorrect ROM) then it really may brick your card, requiring hardware CH341A + SOIC clip to restore it to a previous good ROM.

 

[Frixo Cool]

What kind of keyboard do you use?

I use Apple Magic Keyboard with numpad. Of course, it was connected to USB in the process. But, as I was suspicious, I also tried an older Apple USB keyboard, also didn't help...

 

[jeanlion]

@jeanlion - I made some further updates to the vBiosInsert.sh script, now uploaded here: https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/tree/early-nvidia/Staging/EnableGop

It should handle all the ROMs you sent, and the M5000M which @terabay sent above in the thread last March.

I haven't currently got the right cards to actually burn and test any of these results however, so any success or failure reports would be very welcome - with the warning that if it fails (i.e. seems to work, but builds an incorrect ROM) then it really may brick your card, requiring hardware CH341A + SOIC clip to restore it to a previous good ROM.

I have flashed the modEnableGOP.rom(GT610.rom).and get the boot screen,You did a great work!!!But there is another thing,use the nvflash tool flash the modEnableGOP.rom into the card,and then backing up rom use the same nvflash,,the rom last NPDE structure is not same,here is the backup file after flash the modrom,you may take a look.maybe the script has a little error??Or nvflash autoprocess rom??Use the original rom flash and back up always get same.

 

[Borowski]

No.
Normal behaviour, that some images may be altered after flashing, even when flashed the same image several times.

 

[Bmju]

I have flashed the modEnableGOP.rom(GT610.rom).and get the boot screen,You did a great work!!!But there is another thing,use the nvflash tool flash the modEnableGOP.rom into the card,and then backing up rom use the same nvflash,,the rom last NPDE structure is not same,here is the backup file after flash the modrom,you may take a look.maybe the script has a little error??Or nvflash autoprocess rom??Use the original rom flash and back up always get same.

I'm glad it worked, I'm actually getting a GT 610 to test some of this, so let me have a look.

 

[tsialex]

I'm glad it worked, I'm actually getting a GT 610 to test some of this, so let me have a look.

Just a friendly warning, back when I was helping Syncretic debug his version of the GOP shim, we've found that
some OEM GT 610 and 710 require HII firmware support and will not boot with a MacPro5,1, more or less like the AMD NAVI 2x.

 

[bornnslippy]

Hi ive got a K600 (with GOP addition in VBIOS)

Can someone explain what (with GOP addition in VBIOS) means and how do i do it?

Thanks

 

[Bmju]

Hi ive got a K600 (with GOP addition in VBIOS)

Can someone explain what (with GOP addition in VBIOS) means and how do i do it?

Thanks

GOP is UEFI Graphics Output Protocol. Not all early cards have it, but there's an era of cards where it can be successfully added, even if the card didn't have it in the first place. If your card works with OpenCore then it basically has GOP already (ignoring complications about the earlier EFI UGA protocol). Then to add EnableGop for older cards like this one, you may need to use the new version of the script, which has only just added support for these older cards.

If your card's VBIOS doesn't have GOP you are better off searching the web, or threads on MacRumors including this thread, for a VBIOS for the card which does have it; or a user who can point you to, or make you, a version which does. Possibly the guys on this thread could help, in that case. They specialise in MXM format cards for iMac, but the process of modifying the VBIOS for these and PCI-e cards is basically the same.

 

[startergo]

In some cases if GOP is missing it can be added:

https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/amd-and-nvidia-gop-update-no-requests-diy/30917?page=1

 

[man132]

Hi All,
I can confirm that EnableGOP works well with Nvidia NVS 510 card in my Macpro5,1 2012

Thanks to @Bmju and all supporters for this thread

 

[idenis42]

В некоторых случаях, если GOP отсутствует, его можно добавить:

https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/amd-and-nvidia-gop-update-no-requests-diy/30917?page=1

Using this method, I decided to deal with my RX5500XT 8Gb graphics card. There is a brightness control. But, when the slider moves, the brightness does not change. The user Ausdauersportler posted that his brightness is working. I wanted to talk to him about adjusting the brightness. But for some reason he is silent, I do not know. We need to help each other. And the user Ausdauersportler hides himself behind a fence. I didn't offend him in any way. And he's silent and ignores me.

 

[Bmju]

I have flashed the modEnableGOP.rom(GT610.rom).and get the boot screen,You did a great work!!!But there is another thing,use the nvflash tool flash the modEnableGOP.rom into the card,and then backing up rom use the same nvflash,,the rom last NPDE structure is not same,here is the backup file after flash the modrom,you may take a look.maybe the script has a little error??Or nvflash autoprocess rom??Use the original rom flash and back up always get same.

No.
Normal behaviour, that some images may be altered after flashing, even when flashed the same image several times.

Hi @jeanlion - I've grabbed some more old Nvidia cards and played around with this a bit, and I'm sticking with @Borowski's answer. For some reason nvflash seems to re-arrange some of the bits of the ROM that it owns (after the normal PCI expansion ROM structures) when it flashes. It's helpful to have some confirmation that this is already known to be 'normal'. The updated vBiosInsert.sh will be included in the upcoming OpenCore release.

 

[Borowski]

Some models have will also have individual data (serial no. or keys) in an image after bios, to my experience respective several Quadro-models.

 

[Bmju]

Some models have will also have individual data (serial no. or keys) in an image after bios, to my experience respective several Quadro-models.

Yes, the script carefully keeps all this. I just hadn't come across it being rearranged when flashed before! Thanks.

 

[Macschrauber]

Yes, this is what I seen as a option or feature rom when using nvflash linux version.

Could be that this ist just for Quadros, and the the reason why no Quadro dump matches another I took from Kepler GPUs.

Ended keeping each dump with the serial of the GPU stored.

 

[webtrialsgeek]

So Ive got a MacPro 5,1, that I used to run Mojave and Win10 with a legacy install that I could switch between the two with the bootcamp bits. For whatever reason I had to upgrade to Monterey using open core legacy patcher. That worked fine but I lost the ability to switch between windows and macOS easily...

I have an rx580 4GB card and it shows the open core bootpicker with Enable AMD GOP in the settings for open core, so I thought I could do the bootrom enablegop injection to get the pre open core picker to have easy switching again. I used the Macschrauber Rom dump with dosdude DXEInject to insert the Enablegop1.4.ffs into the bottom and it all flashed ok. a rescan of the bootrom shows it in there - "EnableGop 1.4 EFI module identified". But Im not getting anything before the open core boot picker any ideas?

 

[startergo]

So Ive got a MacPro 5,1, that I used to run Mojave and Win10 with a legacy install that I could switch between the two with the bootcamp bits. For whatever reason I had to upgrade to Monterey using open core legacy patcher. That worked fine but I lost the ability to switch between windows and macOS easily...

I have an rx580 4GB card and it shows the open core bootpicker with Enable AMD GOP in the settings for open core, so I thought I could do the bootrom enablegop injection to get the pre open core picker to have easy switching again. I used the Macschrauber Rom dump with dosdude DXEInject to insert the Enablegop1.4.ffs into the bottom and it all flashed ok. a rescan of the bootrom shows it in there - "EnableGop 1.4 EFI module identified". But Im not getting anything before the open core boot picker any ideas?

Are you keeping pressed the Option (⌥) key during start up? If Yes you might have not flashed the upgraded firmware . You need to enter programming mode on the cMP to be able to flash the firmware.

 

[Macschrauber]

So Ive got a MacPro 5,1, that I used to run Mojave and Win10 with a legacy install that I could switch between the two with the bootcamp bits. For whatever reason I had to upgrade to Monterey using open core legacy patcher. That worked fine but I lost the ability to switch between windows and macOS easily...

I have an rx580 4GB card and it shows the open core bootpicker with Enable AMD GOP in the settings for open core, so I thought I could do the bootrom enablegop injection to get the pre open core picker to have easy switching again. I used the Macschrauber Rom dump with dosdude DXEInject to insert the Enablegop1.4.ffs into the bottom and it all flashed ok. a rescan of the bootrom shows it in there - "EnableGop 1.4 EFI module identified". But Im not getting anything before the open core boot picker any ideas?

If you read the firmware and it identified EnableGop it is in.

USB 1 keyboard is directly plugged into the Mac backplane ( no Hub, no Monitor, no USB 3 cards, etc. ) ?

If yes, unplug everything but the Monitor and the GPU and try again. You should see a ? icon after a while, when no startup disk or bootloader is found.

If you get the bootscreen with all the stuff out, replug all the parts one by one, until you lost the bootscreen. Some hardware like the McFiver card was reported to be incompatible with the Apple BootPicker. Or some Sata controllers.

 

[webtrialsgeek]

Unfortunately, pulling everything gave the same result. Nothing. Currently running on hdmi, I might try and borrow a displayport cable and see if that makes a difference (earlier in the thread someone had the issue on displayport but resolved on hdmi)

If I put the oc drive back in it gets to the opencore boot picker no problem and if I hold option beforehand it gets to the apple boot picker (doesn’t progress to the oc picker) but no signal to the monitor.

Is it possible my gpu has non standard firmware? (How can I check?) Can you flash the enablegopdirect.ffs to the bootrom?