Installing Ubuntu 16.04 on 5,1 Mac Pro (native boot) with non-EFI flashed Nvidia GTX1080

[leon771]

Greetings Macrumors users,

Just a little background on what I am trying to accomplish.
I have an Oxford Nanopore MinION which I am using to generate some whole genome sequences of some viruses. The processing from raw data from the device to "DNA" is quite intensive and using my 12 core Mac Pro takes 10 days of crunching.

There is a version of the software that will run on Ubuntu 16.04 that can leverage CUDA (10 series and up cards) which will speed up this process by an order of magnitude (1 day to process). The CUDA enabled version is not available for Windows or MacOS.

I have at my disposal the following machines.

4,1>5,1 with dual X5570s
5,1 with dual X5680s
13" MacBook Pro (late 2016 Touch Bar).

I have spent quite a bit of time searching the forum but I can't find the answers I am looking for.

I want to know whether it is possible to install Ubuntu onto its own dedicated hard drive in one of my Mac Pro's and boot in to it natively. I would then like to have CUDA installed and be able to leverage a GTX 1080. Is it possible to natively boot Ubuntu on a Mac Pro with a non-EFI flashed Nvidia card, or do you require EFI to see the bootpicker? I have seen some threads stating to install rEFInd as a boot manager.

My other options would be to install Ubuntu on an external TB3 drive and boot my MacBook Pro off it. I will then install a GTX 1080 in a Razer Core X and attempt to leverage CUDA from the eGPU. I'm not sure if this will be an easier process than trying to get Ubuntu running on either of my Mac Pro's.

Are there some resources concerning Ubuntu that anyone would recommend?
I'm a novice with Linux/Ubuntu installs so finding a lot to digest at the moment.

Thank you

 

[orph]

can't see why you can't, just grab a drive or flash stick and try it out.

for testing I always just instal the OS on to a flash stick to keep things simple.

you also have the option to install via some VM software then booting from the drive I gess?

 

[leon771]

Booting from VM won’t allow me to use CUDA as there is no direct access to GPU compute.

Are there issues booting into Ubuntu USB with a non EFI flashed GPU? How do I select the USB image?

 

[orph]

I did not mean to boot from the VM just instal the OS via a VM if you feel like it.

will be simpler just to instal it on to a USB stick or spare SSD and see what happens, wont take long to find out.

for safty, you can pull all OSX drives so you don't wipe them by accident
[doublepost=1560950449][/doublepost]ok did a google serch and this is the first hit
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacPro
may help

 

[leon771]

I did not mean to boot from the VM just instal the OS via a VM if you feel like it.

will be simpler just to instal it on to a USB stick or spare SSD and see what happens, wont take long to find out.

for safty, you can pull all OSX drives so you don't wipe them by accident
[doublepost=1560950449][/doublepost]ok did a google serch and this is the first hit
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacPro
may help

I’ve been to that link but it lists 1,2 2,1 3,1 and 6,1. No 4,1 or 5,1.

Thanks for looking.

 

[tsialex]

Since your GPU don't have pre-boot configuration support, aka BootScreens, you should install Ubuntu with an Apple GT120, check that everything is working as intended, then you replace the GPU.

Every other way to install it will be a nightmare for someone that is starting this now without pre-boot configuration support.

 

[amedias]

Booting from VM won’t allow me to use CUDA as there is no direct access to GPU compute.

A couple of my cMPs are booting ESX and hosting multiple VMs, and ESX (and other hypervisors) does support PCIe device passthrough to give VMs direct access to the a GPU or any other PCIe device...but you should be able to get a native install of any modern *nix running with little to no bother.

Worst case scenario you may need an EFI GPU in there to get going and then replace or add your 1080 once you've got the OS installed but that depends on how you plan to install it. (EDIT - cross post with tsialex)

 

[Kolvir]

After the install and the non-EFI card is put back in, what do you use to switch OSes? I'm using bootchamp now for MacOS and Windows, will it work three OSes, one of them linux? From what I have been reading rEFInd and clover require the bootscreen that I don't have with a non-EFI card. Am I wrong?

In my case I have a GTX 760, 4,1 -> 5,1. 10.13.6, Windows 7 and I'd like to have a linux install on a separate drive.

 

[TLMuse]

@leon771 - Did you ever get this to work? I have a Dell Linux workstation with an NVIDA Titan card that died. I have an unused 2009 Mac Pro (MacPro4,1) that I'd be willing to convert to an Ubuntu machine (without dual boot). But I need to know if an NVIDIA card that isn't flashed for macOS can be used in a Mac Pro booted with Linux. Any insight on this would be appreciated!

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Since your GPU don't have pre-boot configuration support, aka BootScreens, you should install Ubuntu with an Apple GT120, check that everything is working as intended, then you replace the GPU.

Every other way to install it will be a nightmare for someone that is starting this now without pre-boot configuration support.

Install is no problem when you burn Ubuntu to a DVD. Burn, reboot, press „c“ key, install.

The problem is to boot Ubuntu from HD.

My setup is MacOS, Windows 10 (BIOS), Linux and I get no way to boot what I want to start. Windows and MacOS is no problem with Quickboot, but Linux is not selectable.

Is there a solution for that? Opencore don’t show the Windows.

 

[tsialex]

Install is no problem when you burn Ubuntu to a DVD. Burn, reboot, press „c“ key, install.

The problem is to boot Ubuntu from HD.

My setup is MacOS, Windows 10 (BIOS), Linux and I get no way to boot what I want to start. Windows and MacOS is no problem with Quickboot, but Linux is not selectable.

Is there a solution for that? Opencore don’t show the Windows.

You can chain load CSM/BootCamp/Legacy Windows installs from OpenCore. Look at MyBootMGR and friends.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

You can chain load CSM/BootCamp/Legacy Windows installs from OpenCore. Look at MyBootMGR and friends.

My experience with OC does nearly not exist. I can install it, finish^^

Windows, HS, Mojave, Catalina are installed. I want to add a Linux for fun, but selecting for boot is the problem without EFI GPU. At he moment i play arround with GRUB to boot the different systems, but also with problems.

 

[Popsi-DBW]

What is the best way to install Linux/Kali on a 5.1? GTX680. Native or VM?

 

[leon771]

@leon771 - Did you ever get this to work? I have a Dell Linux workstation with an NVIDA Titan card that died. I have an unused 2009 Mac Pro (MacPro4,1) that I'd be willing to convert to an Ubuntu machine (without dual boot). But I need to know if an NVIDIA card that isn't flashed for macOS can be used in a Mac Pro booted with Linux. Any insight on this would be appreciated!

Yes this worked. Retired the machine though as I bought some Ryzen 9 machines with RTX3090s.

When anything went wrong it was hard to trouble shoot as there was no easy way to access diagnostics/boot selection as I could never really get GRUB to show up properly.

 

[LangdonS]

What is the best way to install Linux/Kali on a 5.1? GTX680. Native or VM?

Install Natively.
Linux can take a while to get used to; but it's also fast, free, and amazing.
If you are not very Tech savvy, install Pop!_OS instead of Ubuntu.
Pop!_OS is much less annoying and is better unless you truly need to use the few additonal features ubuntu provides.
However, Pop!_OS has less configureability and is more likely to work, but also more likely to be unfixable.
Ubuntu always works eventually, it just takes forever.
Pop!_OS is very simple to set up, but somethimes it refuses to cooperate.
If you have an old ATI GPU, linux will not work well.

 

[LangdonS]

Why is Windows installled?
Windows is garbage.
Linux can run on anything 64-bit regardless of age.

 

[vjl323]

Install Natively.
Linux can take a while to get used to; but it's also fast, free, and amazing.
If you are not very Tech savvy, install Pop!_OS instead of Ubuntu.
Pop!_OS is much less annoying and is better unless you truly need to use the few additonal features ubuntu provides.
However, Pop!_OS has less configureability and is more likely to work, but also more likely to be unfixable.
Ubuntu always works eventually, it just takes forever.
Pop!_OS is very simple to set up, but somethimes it refuses to cooperate.
If you have an old ATI GPU, linux will not work well.

Pop!_OS is a polished UI on top of Ubuntu. Since they both use Gnome, the configuration of both is quite the same. This is a good article that explains both. As a long, long time user of Linux [and UNIX-based OS's], I'd say Ubuntu support is a *ton* better than System76 as the amount of Ubuntu users and developers who participate in forums and support websites is quite significant.

Pop!_OS vs Ubuntu: Which One is Better?

Well, you might find it easy to pick one from the list of best Linux distributions. However, it is often confusing to compare two similar Linux distros, just like Pop!_OS vs Ubuntu. Interestingly, Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu. So, what is the difference between Pop!_OS and Ubuntu?

itsfoss.com

 

[LangdonS]

Just make sure you don't erase all partitions and install Pop!_OS.

If you delete the UEFI partition, you have to erase the disk and create a new partition table with a bootable macOS USB.
Choose custom install.