MP 1,1-5,1 Innie: A fix for PCI drives seen as external

[jafonso]

Hi @cdf (and all). I'm having a problem with this, and I am completely at a loss about it.

I have a MP5,1, updated with a radeon rx 580 and running Mojave 10.4.3 (a bit of work there, following https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418/, but it all worked out in the end). At the same time got rid of the Raid card, and installed a Kingston KC1000 SSD NVMe (PCIe) for the operating system, as APFS - apparently got it just in time for the PCIe boot support in Mojave late last year, so got this machine working like a dream. Still, PCIe is identified as an external disk, which had no impact so far, except...

I use sugarsync to keep files sync'ed between this work machine and my macbook pro. With the upgrade late last year I got the MP5,1 out of the sync and was just re-including it when I discovered sugarsync only supports sync'ing external disks in the empresarial plan (??), which made me search and find these webpages.

Followed all the procedures in #9. Unfortunately, I got no image whatsoever on my LED cinema display. I was a bit scared I had messed up something (dealing with kext files sounded dangerous), so I reinstalled the OS and all was again fine. But I really need to have my NVMe SSD as an internal disk, so I have been trying with different versions of Lilu - but with no success.

When I install Lilu+Innie (1.3.1 and 1.2.8 seem to be the same) what I get is a non working LED cinema display but, using screen sharing with my macbook, I can confirm the NVMe is seen as internal (and the LED cinema display is not recognized, with a generic 2880x1800 resolution shown - which is higher than the LED's 2560x1440 res). So, somehow, the Display is not being identified. If I then reboot with a PRAM reset I get kicked out to starting up on another SATA (internal) disk (where I have put a copy of the system - but without Lilu and Innie) and Display now has no problems (and System Information now recognises it). Lilu+Innie are not listed in the Extensions. If I then reboot explicitly to the NVMe as startup disk I manage to get the display still working but the NVMe is back to be identified as an external disk. However, System Report shows Lilu and Innie both still in the Extensions list...

Just to make sure I re-run the touch and kextcache commands from #9 and reboot:
- no LED display recognised (but able to work with Screen Sharing);
- NVMe is seen as internal, Lilu and Innie are listed as loaded.
- Reboot (no PRAM reset)
- All unchanged - no Display, NVMe is internal, Lilu and Innie listed (ADDED: but not loaded)
- Reboot (PRAM reset)
- startup disk changed (which means no Lilu and Innie), Display recognised, NVMe again external, Lilu and Innie NOT listed
- Reboot changing startup disk to NVMe disk again
- Display recognised, but NVMe seen as external in spite of Lilu and Innie still being listed in the Extensions (?) (ADDED: but not loaded).

I would very much appreciate any help possible. I really need to set the sync working before I can make use of this (now almost powerful again) MP...

PS EDIT: apparently Lilu+Innie in spite of being listed in the Extensions, are not loaded whenever the Display is working correctly... SIP is disabled throughout...

Jose

 

[cdf]

Interesting. There are a few things that we can do to isolate the issue. First, let's try to remove Innie from the equation: Make sure that SIP is completely disabled and leave it like that for now. Remove all traces of Lilu and Innie. Make sure that your display is working and that there are no kexts in System Information > Extensions marked as "Not Signed." If indeed there are none, proceed to install only Lilu (no plugins folder) and check if your display works.

 

[jafonso]

Interesting. There are a few things that we can do to isolate the issue. First, let's try to remove Innie from the equation: Make sure that SIP is completely disabled and leave it like that for now. Remove all traces of Lilu and Innie. Make sure that your display is working and that there are no kexts in System Information > Extensions marked as "Not Signed." If indeed there are none, proceed to install only Lilu (no plugins folder) and check if your display works.

Wonderful!

So, I did remove Lilu and Innie, and checked I actually have a number of "Not Signed" kexts, namely BJUSBLoad, EPSON|USBPrintClass, 13 different hp_<printer>_enabler, JMicronATA, LexmarkUSBMerge, ZoomAudioDevice and, most importantly, AVFrameBuffer and AVVideoCard. Disabling SIP by itself didn't allow these to be loaded, but installing Lilu (or perhaps it the kextcache command...?) somehow resulted in loading ZoomAudioDevice (which is from Zoom Conference Services - didn't notice anything weird with this loaded...), and AVFrameBuffer and AVVideoCard. These are from Air Display, which I had installed (and never actually used...) a few years back.

Given the name, I thought they could be messing the system somehow, so deeply uninstalled AirDisplay (which got rid of these two kexts), and rebooted... all fine! Then included Innie and re-rebooted... and all fine again, with my NVMe now seen as a primary disk!

Just to wrap things down, went back to reenabling SIP, confirmed that NVMe still seen as internal, list of kexts now indicates "Not Signed" kexts not loaded except for Lilu and Innie (and ZoomAudioDevice).

And just checked sugarsync is now recognising the NVMe disk as internal and syncing without complaining! Excellent!

One question - will Lilu+Innie somehow stop working in future OS updates? I tend to forget about what I did when installing these things (although MacRumors allows to recover this information in the future)...

Many, many thanks @cdf , things are again working delightfully with this revamped cMP! Probably not the most powerful machine in the world but it has grown on me in that special way only Apple products can, so I need to keep it going smoothly (and competitive) for as long as possible - thanks to you guys and this amazing community!

Jose

 

[cdf]

Glad you got it working! And thanks for pointing out a concrete example of Innie being more than a cosmetic fix.

You mentioned re-enabling SIP; I would recommend instead:

csrutil enable --without kext --without fs

With these settings, my Lilu setup has survived multiple macOS updates. If you leave SIP completely enabled, then things are harder to manage: even booting into another installation and back sometimes blocks unsigned kexts, and you may have to re-run the terminal commands in post #9.

 

[c-3po]

Hey cdf,

I’d like to thank you for this great tool. I am using it with an Amfeltec Squid Gen2 x16 card carrying 3 Samsung 960 PRO NVMe and 1 Samsung SM951 AHCI M.2 SSDs and an Angelbird Wings PX1 with 1 Samsung SM951 AHCI M.2 SSD, it works great.

 

[sailmac]

I added Innie 1.0.9 to the updated Lilu 1.3.3 and the combo runs fine.

Did everyone send @cdf a valentine? He deserves it!

 

[CanMacAB]

Hi everyone, ive been working with a group on FB to get this to work on my 4,1>5,1 running Mojave 10.14.3. With little luck.

SIP is disabled
Tried the process serval times with the file cooied in to Library extensions and system library extensions
I get the Locked waiting for lock after the last command then the apple internal warning
The lilu ex is loaded and indicated as Yes in the system report but the drive is still showing external.

Any ideas?

 

[sailmac]

Hi everyone, ive been working with a group on FB to get this to work on my 4,1>5,1 running Mojave 10.14.3. With little luck.

SIP is disabled
Tried the process serval times with the file cooied in to Library extensions and system library extensions
I get the Locked waiting for lock after the last command then the apple internal warning
The lilu ex is loaded and indicated as Yes in the system report but the drive is still showing external.

Any ideas?

Is Mojave the only OS installed on your system?

Have you tried resetting NVRAM? (shutdown, boot holding Cmd+Opt+P+R, let chime twice before releasing) In my experience that resets SIP restricted and excepted files in a file named rootless.conf (I don’t know where that file is actually located). Then proceed to disable SIP (boot into Recovery from shutdown, not via restart), reboot, run the sudo commands so Lilu/Innie are added to the config, reboot.

If that works, then you can shutdown/boot into Recovery to enable SIP and be on your merry way. If not, let us know and maybe we'll think of another step to debug.

 

[CanMacAB]

Is Mojave the only OS installed on your system?

Have you tried resetting NVRAM? (shutdown, boot holding Cmd+Opt+P+R, let chime twice before releasing) In my experience that resets SIP restricted and excepted files in a file named rootless.conf (I don’t know where that file is actually located). Then proceed to disable SIP (boot into Recovery from shutdown, not via restart), reboot, run the sudo commands so Lilu/Innie are added to the config, reboot.

If that works, then you can shutdown/boot into Recovery to enable SIP and be on your merry way. If not, let us know and maybe we'll think of another step to debug.

Yes its the only OS. I will try the reset but I had inly just done that yesterday after changing the CPU.

I already have 4 internal drives, will that stop the Nvme mounting? As a fifth?

Cheers

 

[c-3po]

Hi everyone, ive been working with a group on FB to get this to work on my 4,1>5,1 running Mojave 10.14.3. With little luck.

SIP is disabled
Tried the process serval times with the file cooied in to Library extensions and system library extensions
I get the Locked waiting for lock after the last command then the apple internal warning
The lilu ex is loaded and indicated as Yes in the system report but the drive is still showing external.

Any ideas?

What file have you copied? I mean have you followed the exact instructions?

 

[CanMacAB]

Copied 1.3.4 debug lilu and 1.0.9 debug innie
[doublepost=1550879925][/doublepost]So i did the reset and disabled sip again, re did the process and the commands ran without error but the drive still shows as external after i restarted.

 

[sailmac]

Copied 1.3.4 debug lilu and 1.0.9 debug innie
[doublepost=1550879925][/doublepost]So i did the reset and disabled sip again, re did the process and the commands ran without error but the drive still shows as external after i restarted.

Hmm. What is the drive and how is it connected? In fact, more details about your system will likely be helpful. If indeed you have followed cdf's instructions exactly, then something else is interfering.
[doublepost=1550885285][/doublepost]Hey CanMacAB, I think I just spotted your problem. I looked at your screenshots again and noticed it looks like you ran the wrong commands -- you ran them on /System/Library when they should be just /Library.

In other words you ran:

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
sudo kextcache -update-volume /

and that explains why the last command failed -- you didn't touch the correct place. If I might infer something from this, it seems to me you may also have put Lilu in the wrong place as well.

The correct commands are:

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo touch /Library/Extensions
sudo kextcache -update-volume /

Make certain you have put Lilu in /Library/Extensions, not /System//Library/Extensions

If you put it in the wrong place, make certain you delete it from that place, too.

Make sure this is all okay, then let us know how it goes.

 

[CanMacAB]

Samsung 960 Pro 512gb
Silvertown heatsink
Startech pcie card - single Nmve card in slot 2
OS is on a Sandisk ssd ultra in bay 1 256gb
Bay 2 is a 5400 640gb empty apart from 10.11.6 recovery partition
Bay 3 is a 5400 1tb media storage drive
Bay 4 is a Sandisk ultra 1tb music playback drive holding apps and files
32gb ram
Sapphire Nitro + RX580 8gb slot 4
1x X5690 CPU
4,1>5,1 flashed running Mojave
Sonnett USB 3 card slot 1
[doublepost=1550886637][/doublepost]

Hmm. What is the drive and how is it connected? In fact, more details about your system will likely be helpful. If indeed you have followed cdf's instructions exactly, then something else is interfering.
[doublepost=1550885285][/doublepost]Hey CanMacAB, I think I just spotted your problem. I looked at your screenshots again and noticed it looks like you ran the wrong commands -- you ran them on /System/Library when they should be just /Library.

In other words you ran:

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
sudo kextcache -update-volume /

and that explains why the last command failed -- you didn't touch the correct place. If I might infer something from this, it seems to me you may also have put Lilu in the wrong place as well.

The correct commands are:

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo touch /Library/Extensions
sudo kextcache -update-volume /

Make certain you have put Lilu in /Library/Extensions, not /System//Library/Extensions

If you put it in the wrong place, make certain you delete it from that place, too.

Make sure this is all okay, then let us know how it goes.

Ive tried it in both locations, still no joy.

 

[cdf]

The lilu ex is loaded and indicated as Yes in the system report but the drive is still showing external.

Locate Innie in System Information > Extensions (if you click twice at the top on "Obtained from" all the kexts in the category "Not Signed" will be listed first, and you should find it there). Do you see "Loaded: Yes"? Other than Lilu and Innie (and other Lilu plugins), do you see any kexts in the "Not Signed" category? These may be problematic.

Ive tried it in both locations, still no joy.

Either location should be fine, but /Library/Extensions/ is intended for third party kexts.

 

[CanMacAB]

Just tried it again and copied all the info....

Locate Innie in System Information > Extensions (if you click twice at the top on "Obtained from" all the kexts in the category "Not Signed" will be listed first, and you should find it there). Do you see "Loaded: Yes"? Other than Lilu and Innie (and other Lilu plugins), do you see any kexts in the "Not Signed" category? These may be problematic.



Either location should be fine, but /Library/Extensions/ is intended for third party kexts.

I will try this tomorrow and report back, thanks everyone.

 

[CanMacAB]

So after a good nights sleep and a bottle of wine, I deleted everything including all the zip files and started the whole process again with a fresh pair of eyes and guess what.....

✅

Awesome group of people, thanks for sticking with me through the fix.

 

[bobica]

The kext is called "Innie" and is a Lilu plugin. Lilu is an open-source kext that provides a unified platform to apply various fixes (see https://github.com/acidanthera/Lilu). For our testing purposes, I recommend the latest debug version (see the releases page).

An updated version of Innie that works with any SATA (AHCI) or NVMe device has been attached to this post.

Warning: Please make sure that you understand the risks of trying early releases of software, particularly kexts. Back up all data. Should your system become unbootable, you will need to get into recovery mode, open terminal, and delete Lilu by entering the following command:

rm -r /Volumes/"Macintosh HD"/Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext

(You may have to replace "Macintosh HD" by the actual name of your system disk in quotation marks, if it is different.)

To install Innie, please carry out these steps:

0) Disable SIP. (SIP can be enabled again after.)
1) Download Lilu. The file (unzipped) will be called Lilu.kext.
2) Control-click on Lilu.kext and select Show Package Contents. You will see the folder "Contents." Open it.
3) In Contents, create a new folder called "Plugins" (exactly like this, but without quotation marks, of course). This is where Innie (and any other plugins) will live.
4) Copy Innie into the Plugins folder.
5) Now copy Lilu.kext to /Library/Extensions. You will need to authorize this.
6) Open terminal. Enter the following commands:

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Extensions/Lilu.kext
sudo touch /Library/Extensions
sudo kextcache -update-volume /

Wait for the last command to complete.
7) Reboot.

If all goes well, your drive will now be seen as internal, just like mine.

Unfortunatelly not ...
I have a mac pro 5.1 and my external drive is m.2 nvme ssd 512gb installed in pcie 2 beside gpu. Os installed is high sierra 10.13.6
I follow exactly your instructions : download lilu.kext last version. open content folder create Plugins folder, drop innie.kext you uploud inside, copy lilu.kext in Library/Extensions and after this in 2,3 seconds computer restart alone and never boot back in Os just black screen. I go in recovery run cmd to delete lilu, reboot and same story apple logo and after black screen. I run os from other ssd drive (my os clone) and i figure out lilu.kext was deleted but in Library/Extensions i have NVMEcontroller.kext what make before my ssd bootable was wiped still there but 0 kb. I delete and put back new one 106 kb, restart and nothing apple logo and black screen. Open again os from clone, check Library/extensions and again new NVMEcontroller kext find wiped 0 kb and of course ssd is not bootable without that kext.
I install Mojave 10.14.3 in m.2 ssd repet all operation but same story. Computer reboot/crash after i copy mod lilu.kext and never been bootable, even after i remove mod lilu, something in Library/Extensions was corrupt and make drive not bootable. Mention... Mojave support nativ m.2 pcie to be bootable, don't need NVMEcontroller kext.
Maybe in all this steps i do something wrong and i don't realise. Please if you can help to figure out what go wrong in my case because is frustrating to see 99% have succes to make drive internal. Thank you!

 

[cdf]

Unfortunatelly not ...
I have a mac pro 5.1 and my external drive is m.2 nvme ssd 512gb installed in pcie 2 beside gpu. Os installed is high sierra 10.13.6
I follow exactly your instructions : download lilu.kext last version. open content folder create Plugins folder, drop innie.kext you uploud inside, copy lilu.kext in Library/Extensions and after this in 2,3 seconds computer restart alone and never boot back in Os just black screen. I go in recovery run cmd to delete lilu, reboot and same story apple logo and after black screen. I run os from other ssd drive (my os clone) and i figure out lilu.kext was deleted but in Library/Extensions i have NVMEcontroller.kext what make before my ssd bootable was wiped still there but 0 kb. I delete and put back new one 106 kb, restart and nothing apple logo and black screen. Open again os from clone, check Library/extensions and again new NVMEcontroller kext find wiped 0 kb and of course ssd is not bootable without that kext.
I install Mojave 10.14.3 in m.2 ssd repet all operation but same story. Computer reboot/crash after i copy mod lilu.kext and never been bootable, even after i remove mod lilu, something in Library/Extensions was corrupt and make drive not bootable. Mention... Mojave support nativ m.2 pcie to be bootable, don't need NVMEcontroller kext.
Maybe in all this steps i do something wrong and i don't realise. Please if you can help to figure out what go wrong in my case because is frustrating to see 99% have succes to make drive internal. Thank you!

If I understand correctly: Your computer restarts itself after step 5 without you having the chance to carry out steps 6 and 7? Then your system refuses to boot? In High Sierra, you observe that a kext called "NVMEcontroller" goes bad? While in Mojave, you speculate that something else gets corrupted in Library/Extensions?

It seems that something is definitely amiss in your system to begin with. Why are you using the NVMEcontroller kext? NVMe drives are supported natively in High Sierra and are bootable with firmware 140.0.0.0.0. What drive do you have? Some drives (like the Samsung 950 Pro) are incompatible. I think that before we can troubleshoot any further, these matters need to be addressed. See the NVMe and BootROM threads for more information.

 

[bobica]

If I understand correctly: Your computer restarts itself after step 5 without you having the chance to carry out steps 6 and 7? Then your system refuses to boot? In High Sierra, you observe that a kext called "NVMEcontroller" goes bad? While in Mojave, you speculate that something else gets corrupted in Library/Extensions?

It seems that something is definitely amiss in your system to begin with. Why are you using the NVMEcontroller kext? NVMe drives are supported natively in High Sierra and are bootable with firmware 140.0.0.0.0. What drive do you have? Some drives (like the Samsung 950 Pro) are incompatible. I think that before we can troubleshoot any further, these matters need to be addressed. See the NVMe and BootROM threads for more information.

Yes is true. Firmware is updated to 140.0.0.0.0. i use this drive :512GB AData XPG SX6000 PRO PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive and in High Sierra i need that controller kext to be visible and bootable. After update to Mojave drive was visible and bootable without any other kext added. I suppose something else was corrupted in Mojave after step 5 same moment like in Hsierra,because computer react similar but without that kext NVMEcontroller. Ok, agree maybe my drive is incompatible but before i try to mod that lilu.kext computer work perfect and boot perfect in HS and Mojave as well. Agree maybe that controller kext from HS was problem and in combination with mod lilu, crashed my computer... but os mojave fresh and clean install, react exactly the same and no way to make him bootable again.
I ask here, to be sure all steps i do was correct before pc crash. And maybe somebody else have same problem before me. I really need to make that drive internal because my gpu is not apple and i can't swich from windows to mac with ALT/Option key. I need to use bootcamp app in windows and because mac drive is external is not visible and mounted in windows 10.. I tested with sata ssd drive for mac os and everything work perfect in bootcamp aplication,is mounted and can restart very well in macOS. But in pcie ssd is impossibe and i suppose because is external drive.
Thank you very much for your prompt answer!

 

[tsialex]

Yes is true. Firmware is updated to 140.0.0.0.0. i use this drive :512GB AData XPG SX6000 PRO PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive and in High Sierra i need that controller kext to be visible and bootable. After update to Mojave drive was visible and bootable without any other kext added. I suppose something else was corrupted in Mojave after step 5 same moment like in Hsierra,because computer react similar but without that kext NVMEcontroller. Ok, agree maybe my drive is incompatible but before i try to mod that lilu.kext computer work perfect and boot perfect in HS and Mojave as well. Agree maybe that controller kext from HS was problem and in combination with mod lilu, crashed my computer... but os mojave fresh and clean install, react exactly the same and no way to make him bootable again.
I ask here, to be sure all steps i do was correct before pc crash. And maybe somebody else have same problem before me. I really need to make that drive internal because my gpu is not apple and i can't swich from windows to mac with ALT/Option key. I need to use bootcamp app in windows and because mac drive is external is not visible and mounted in windows 10.. I tested with sata ssd drive for mac os and everything work perfect in bootcamp aplication,is mounted and can restart very well in macOS. But in pcie ssd is impossibe and i suppose because is external drive.
Thank you very much for your prompt answer!

The NVMe kext is a hack from yesteryears, you shouldn't be using it with High Sierra or Mojave since both have native NVMe support.

Another thing, you can't install Windows to a PCIe NVMe drive, it's a external drive and Windows don't work with external ones.

Since you don't have a Mac EFI GPU, you should just do a CSM Windows install and use iMac Pro bootcamp to have APFS support and BootCamp Assistant applet to change the boot drive.

Search the forum, there are threads that will show you exactly how to do it.

 

[cdf]

I need to use bootcamp app in windows and because mac drive is external is not visible and mounted in windows 10.. I tested with sata ssd drive for mac os and everything work perfect in bootcamp aplication,is mounted and can restart very well in macOS. But in pcie ssd is impossibe and i suppose because is external drive.

Innie will only make your drive internal in macOS (which has proven helpful—for some AHCI drives—when Boot Camp Assistant gives you the error message "You cannot partition an external disk..."—I cannot confirm this for NVMe drives). In Windows, your drive will remain external.

 

[bobica]

The NVMe kext is a hack from yesteryears, you shouldn't be using it with High Sierra or Mojave since both have native NVMe support.

Another thing, you can't install Windows to a PCIe NVMe drive, it's a external drive and Windows don't work with external ones.

Since you don't have a Mac EFI GPU, you should just do a CSM Windows install and use iMac Pro bootcamp to have APFS support and BootCamp Assistant applet to change the boot drive.

Search the forum, there are threads that will show you exactly how to do it.

I know, i try and don't work. My bootcamp drive is on sata ssd and is CSM windows installed
Thank you for all information, Can you help me with a valid link to download bootcamp drivers for iMac pro with APFS support? I am not sure but i try to find bootcamp 6.1.6969 last version for iMac pro but without success.

 

[tsialex]

I know, i try and don't work. My bootcamp drive is on sata ssd and is CSM windows installed
Thank you for all information, Can you help me with a valid link to download bootcamp drivers for iMac pro with APFS support? I am not sure but i try to find bootcamp 6.1.6969 last version for iMac pro but without success.

All info you need is here, just follow the instructions: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ut-a-boot-screen.2114788/page-9#post-26689280

 

[h9826790]

I know, i try and don't work. My bootcamp drive is on sata ssd and is CSM windows installed
Thank you for all information, Can you help me with a valid link to download bootcamp drivers for iMac pro with APFS support? I am not sure but i try to find bootcamp 6.1.6969 last version for iMac pro but without success.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ut-a-boot-screen.2114788/page-9#post-26689280

 

[bobica]

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ut-a-boot-screen.2114788/page-9#post-26689280

Thanks i see that, i download brigadier.exe, run cmd on usb fat32 but to can run cmd ''
cd Bootcamp61/Bootcamp/Drivers/Apple'' i need to have bootcamp6.1 downloaded in my pc.and i didn't find a valid link to download.
Thanks