MP 1,1-5,1 Is it possible install windows 10 over mac pro 5.1 with Catalina

[juliovg]

Hello guys

This is how my mac looks like:

i install Catalina following this link: http://dosdude1.com/catalina/

Now i would like to install windows 10 because some job tools that i need are just for windows.

I have two questions:
1- There is an option to install windows 10 without losing anything from my Catalina?
2- After installing windows 10 (if is possible) it's easy to change between operation systems?

Best regards

Julio

 

[Macschrauber]

this is the most secure method:

How to: Boot Camp without a Boot Screen

I don't remember uninstalling any bootcamp drivers before 6. But I had to uninstall before 6.1

forums.macrumors.com

method 2 is even more tricky but has some benefits:

You can Install OpenCore and install Windows in Uefi mode but this is a little risk and can harm your firmware.

But it will get you a bootscreen if your gpu has a gop firmware und will give native Catalina updates without dosdude patches.

 

[juliovg]

this is the most secure method:

How to: Boot Camp without a Boot Screen

I don't remember uninstalling any bootcamp drivers before 6. But I had to uninstall before 6.1

forums.macrumors.com

method 2 is even more tricky but has some benefits:

You can Install OpenCore and install Windows in Uefi mode but this is a little risk and can harm your firmware.

But it will get you a bootscreen if your gpu has a gop firmware und will give native Catalina updates without dosdude patches.

Can you explain me .. how is the method 2?
i want to do a clean installation, Mac os Catalina and Windows 10 (i bougth 4 ssd 2.5 -> 1-1-1-2 TB).

The idea is install Catalina ans Windows 10, make dual boot to change operation system. But i would like to know if i could install Big Sur too on third disk (1 TB) on the future ( i saw some videos that has the 3 operation system using OpenCore, and i'm really interesting how to do it.

To start i would like to test with Catalina and Windows 10.

Can you or somebody with an advice?

Regards

 

[Macschrauber]

Pull all drives but the one you want to install windows to

insert a Windows Installer DVD and boot with c key held.

install windows

this avoids (if you do not select efi with the boot picker) a problematic uefi installation what can harm your bootrom with certificates.

 

[TECK]

You can Install OpenCore and install Windows in Uefi mode but this is a little risk and can harm your firmware.

Can you explain how you can harm your firmware? OC is just a bootloader with a very clean codebase, how is this going to harm your firmware?

 

[tsialex]

Can you explain how you can harm your firmware? OC is just a bootloader with a very clean codebase, how is this going to harm your firmware?

If you ever boot Windows UEFI without the OC blocking SecureBoot signing of the firmware, you will have certificates/dbs/PKs written to the NVRAM volume the moment Windows starts to boot.

For a Mac Pro that have little free space inside the first store, certificates/dbs/PKs require lots of space inside the NVRAM volume, you could brick it instantly - SecureBoot signing is not fool proof in any way.

Mac Pro NVRAM 1st and 2nd stores are extremely tiny for todays standards, a little less than 64KB each. It's becoming commonplace to see dumps with extremely little free space available.

Two dumps sent me this week, one with less than 6KB free (@Eschers), another with less than 2KB (@Macschrauber).

 

[TECK]

@tsialex I don't understand, NVRAM is just a storage place which Mac’s firmware has access to it and sets all useful information for your system to have before it boots. That all it is, if is corrupt we reset it. You are telling me that OC can modify the Mac's firmware directly? How is this possible, thanks for explaining.

 

[tsialex]

@tsialex I don't understand, NVRAM is just a storage place which Mac’s firmware has access to it and sets all useful information for your system to have before it boots. That all it is, if is corrupt we reset it. You are telling me that OC can modify the Mac's firmware directly? How is this possible, thanks for explaining.

You can't fully reset the NVRAM like you assumed, NVRAM reset process does nothing to the private or internal NVRAM variables, just to the public ones that you can see with nvram -xp.

MemoryConfig is one of the several private/internal that can't be removed with a NVRAM reset, AAPL,PanicInfoLog and iCloud FindMyMac (fmm-mobileme-token-FMM) are two examples of other variables that are not erased. This is a too complex topic that require low-level knowledge of the firmware/hardware interface and the macOS interactions with the EFI itself, there are several things that are not exactly obvious.

One of the good things of OpenCore is that developers implemented a way to trap and block Windows signing the firmware, that's what I explained on my previous post:

ProtectSecureBoot
Type: plist boolean
Failsafe: false
Description: Protect UEFI Secure Boot variables from being written.
Reports security violation during attempts to write to db, dbx, PK, and KEK variables from the operating system.

It's not OC that is damaging the firmware itself*, but Windows SecureBoot signing of the firmware that UEFI Windows always does. So, never boot UEFI installed Windows 8.1/10 without OC with ProtectSecureBoot enabled.

*Btw, early on when OC started to be used with Mac Pros, several dumps showed very weird binary blobs inside the stores of the NVRAM, this was rectified later.

 

[Macschrauber]

Can you explain how you can harm your firmware? OC is just a bootloader with a very clean codebase, how is this going to harm your firmware?

I dont mentioned OC in a single word.

like Alex explained in detail the problematic thing is the certificate In uefi mode.

Booting just the usb Windows installer without installation writes the first certificate. What you cant get ridd of without a rom backup or bootrom reconstruction.