Looking for a graphic card with boot

[h9826790]

Thanks for searching out the info for me. All these are super new to me, will study more and do more test.

I have a new 2TB SSHD laying around. So, I can delicate it for Cover test only. At this moment. I format the SSD into a single 2TB HFS+ partition (again, not counting the EFI partition). Clean installed 10.12.4 onto it (with recovery partition automatically created during the installation process). Will try to install Cover (Legacy mode) onto it.
[doublepost=1492617888][/doublepost]Just tried this setting, doesn't work as well. Exactly the same as before. Can boot to cover, but the screen only display when boot from Mac EFI ROM.

 

[DearthnVader]

Not sure what's going wrong, either you Mac Pro is not booting in CSM mode, or you don't have a valid PC Bios on your video card.

 

[Fl0r!an]

The method I used last year didn't rely on the CSM. Instead, I installed Clover in UEFI mode and used a UEFI compliant GPU (R9 280 as well). Gave a boot screen using "UEFI GOP" when auto-booting Clover, switching to Mac EFI gave a "EFI 1.1 UGA" boot screen.

 

[DearthnVader]

You may need to Bless your boot drive for Legacy. Something like:

sudo bless --folder=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot --file=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setBoot --legacy

This assumes you installed Clover to the HFS+ partition with the install you want to boot in Clover. You should see a folder with the name EFI on that partition, containing /BOOT/BOOTX64.efi.

If you installed Clover to the ESP( EFI ) partition of your disk, the last command would need to be modified. Something like:

sudo bless --folder=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot --file=/Volumes/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setBoot --legacy

 

[h9826790]

The method I used last year didn't rely on the CSM. Instead, I installed Clover in UEFI mode and used a UEFI compliant GPU (R9 280 as well). Gave a boot screen using "UEFI GOP" when auto-booting Clover, switching to Mac EFI gave a "EFI 1.1 UGA" boot screen.

Like this?

 

[Fl0r!an]

Looks good. Does your GPU contain a UEFI driver or is it VBIOS only? Not sure if it's necessary, but it won't hurt.

 

[h9826790]

Looks good. Does your GPU contain a UEFI driver or is it VBIOS only? Not sure if it's necessary, but it won't hurt.

My R9 280 came with VBIOS ROM, but I have a 7950 Mac Edition card came with the UEFI ROM. Since the Mac EFI part can just copy and paste to make the R9 280 ROM become a Mac EFI ROM. I will try the same copy and paste method to make the R9 280 VBIOS become a UEFI ROM.

Worth to try, as you said, nothing hurt.
[doublepost=1492623185][/doublepost]

You may need to Bless your boot drive for Legacy. Something like:

sudo bless --folder=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot --file=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setBoot --legacy

This assumes you installed Clover to the HFS+ partition with the install you want to boot in Clover. You should see a folder with the name EFI on that partition, containing /BOOT/BOOTX64.efi.

If you installed Clover to the ESP( EFI ) partition of your disk, the last command would need to be modified. Something like:

sudo bless --folder=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot --file=/Volumes/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setBoot --legacy

Thanks for your suggestion, will try the UEFI method first. Because

1) I am not very sure I should use which command

2) The idea of this project is to make the new GPU able to shows boot screen (newer than GTX680 / R9 280X). And almost all of them come with UEFI ROM. So no need to go all the way to VBIOS if a simple UEFI installation can fix the problem.

 

[DearthnVader]

Thanks for your suggestion, will try the UEFI method first. Because

1) I am not very sure I should use which command

2) The idea of this project is to make the new GPU able to shows boot screen (newer than GTX680 / R9 280X). And almost all of them come with UEFI ROM. So no need to go all the way to VBIOS if a simple UEFI installation can fix the problem.

I guess Clover( EDK Duet ) can load and initialize UEFI/GOP Rom now, I tried years ago with a UGA rom for a 7600GT, but EDK Duet would Kernel Panic and lockup when trying to load a UGA Rom.

You maybe able to load the rom from a file in the Shell in Clover, with the LoadPciRom command.

 

[h9826790]

Still the same result. However, it's hard to tell if I create the UEFI ROM properly. I have no other computer that can really utilise the UEFI ROM.

All I can do is just change the require Hex code "80" to "00" to activate the EFI part in the VBIOS. Copy and paste the 7950's UEFI part to the ROM. And change one of the useless 00 to 80 in order to fix the check sum.

GPU-Z confirm it's UEFI. And I can boot with that ROM without issue.

However, still the same result, no boot screen for cover yet.

 

[ActionableMango]

However, still the same result, no boot screen for cover yet.

FWIW, @JoSch got boot screens on his RX480. But he couldn't boot OSX or Windows:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...the-other-alternatives.2036710/#post-24397232

 

[DearthnVader]

You may need to Bless your boot drive for Legacy. Something like:

sudo bless --folder=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot --file=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setBoot --legacy

This assumes you installed Clover to the HFS+ partition with the install you want to boot in Clover. You should see a folder with the name EFI on that partition, containing /BOOT/BOOTX64.efi.

If you installed Clover to the ESP( EFI ) partition of your disk, the last command would need to be modified. Something like:

sudo bless --folder=/Volumes/OSXDriveYouWantToBoot --file=/Volumes/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setBoot --legacy

I'm pretty sure this is the right route to getting the CSM to initialize your graphics card.

As I understand it, these old Mac Pro's an EFI CSM( Bios ) Mode, that is what is loaded when you bless with --legacy, only the Bios Compatibility can initialize your graphic card, not Clover, unless you use Clover's UEFI loader, and I don't know how to do that.

You should install Clover to the first HFS+ partition of a drive, as, I believe Clover Legacy has a limitation that will only allow it to load from the fist HFS+ partition.

These should be the correct settings, even if you have a GPT disk, it still has a mbr @ block 0.

Then you must bless the disk and the boot file.

So:

diskutil list

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS MacOS Sierra            338.5 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:           Windows Recovery                         314.6 MB   disk1s4
   5:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s5
   6:           Windows Recovery                         314.6 MB   disk1s6
   7:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s7
   8:       Microsoft Basic Data                         89.9 GB    disk1s8
   9:         Microsoft Reserved                         133.2 MB   disk1s9
  10:                  Apple_HFS ELCAP                   15.7 GB    disk1s10
  11:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s11
  12:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s12
  13:                  Apple_HFS 10.6.8                  43.0 GB    disk1s13
  14:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s14
  15:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s15
  16:                  Apple_HFS Install OS X Yosemit... 9.2 GB     disk1s16
  17:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s17
  18:                  Apple_HFS Mav                     389.6 GB   disk1s18
  19:           Linux Filesystem                         62.3 GB    disk1s19
  20:                 Linux Swap                         1.1 GB     disk1s20
  21:       Microsoft Basic Data Fat32                   37.6 GB    disk1s21
  22:                  Apple_HFS Snow Install            9.0 GB     disk1s22

So the first HFS partition is the Volume MacOS Sierra, so in the Clover installer, I would choose to install Clover there.

Then we must bless this drive partition and set it for boot, and for legacy( Bios Mode ).

sudo bless folder=/Volumes/MacOS Sierra file=/Volumes/MacOS Sierra/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setboot --legacy

 

[h9826790]

I'm pretty sure this is the right route to getting the CSM to initialize your graphics card.

As I understand it, these old Mac Pro's an EFI CSM( Bios ) Mode, that is what is loaded when you bless with --legacy, only the Bios Compatibility can initialize your graphic card, not Clover, unless you use Clover's UEFI loader, and I don't know how to do that.

You should install Clover to the first HFS+ partition of a drive, as, I believe Clover Legacy has a limitation that will only allow it to load from the fist HFS+ partition.

These should be the correct settings, even if you have a GPT disk, it still has a mbr @ block 0.

Then you must bless the disk and the boot file.

So:

diskutil list

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS MacOS Sierra            338.5 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:           Windows Recovery                         314.6 MB   disk1s4
   5:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s5
   6:           Windows Recovery                         314.6 MB   disk1s6
   7:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s7
   8:       Microsoft Basic Data                         89.9 GB    disk1s8
   9:         Microsoft Reserved                         133.2 MB   disk1s9
  10:                  Apple_HFS ELCAP                   15.7 GB    disk1s10
  11:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s11
  12:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s12
  13:                  Apple_HFS 10.6.8                  43.0 GB    disk1s13
  14:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s14
  15:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s15
  16:                  Apple_HFS Install OS X Yosemit... 9.2 GB     disk1s16
  17:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s17
  18:                  Apple_HFS Mav                     389.6 GB   disk1s18
  19:           Linux Filesystem                         62.3 GB    disk1s19
  20:                 Linux Swap                         1.1 GB     disk1s20
  21:       Microsoft Basic Data Fat32                   37.6 GB    disk1s21
  22:                  Apple_HFS Snow Install            9.0 GB     disk1s22

So the first HFS partition is the Volume MacOS Sierra, so in the Clover installer, I would choose to install Clover there.

Then we must bless this drive partition and set it for boot, and for legacy( Bios Mode ).

sudo bless folder=/Volumes/MacOS Sierra file=/Volumes/MacOS Sierra/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setboot --legacy

1st HFS partition on ANY hard drive? Or must be the 1st drive, 1st HFS partition?

e.g. So, in my case, do I need to install Cover (BIOS mode) on disk0s2? Or I can choose to install that on disk4s2?

 

[mpta]

And did any one of you tried to flash quadro k5000? I am also looking for most compatible card and 680 for me is bit to much power hungry.

 

[DearthnVader]

1st HFS partition on ANY hard drive? Or must be the 1st drive, 1st HFS partition?

e.g. So, in my case, do I need to install Cover (BIOS mode) on disk0s2? Or I can choose to install that on disk4s2?
View attachment 697636

Any bootable disk should work, this I'm not sure how bless deals with spaces in the Volume Name.

You may need a bless command like:

sudo bless folder=/Volumes/Mac\ Pro\ SSHD file=/Volumes//Mac\ Pro\ SSHD/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setboot --legacy

Also, bless is somewhat restricted under Sierra, with SIP enabled.

Seems bless won't work if SIP is set to restrict NVRAM Access, it will just return an error.

Disable SIP, and run bless with the --verbose flag, and you should get something like:

sudo bless --folder=/Volumes/Clover --file=/Volumes/Clover/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi --setBoot --legacy --verbose
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Mount point for /Volumes/Clover is /Volumes/Clover
Common mount point of '/Volumes/Clover' and '' is /Volumes/Clover
No BootX creation requested
No boot.efi creation requested
Got directory ID of 2 for /Volumes/Clover
Got file ID of 2818 for /Volumes/Clover/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi
finderinfo[0] = 2
finderinfo[1] = 2818
finderinfo[2] = 0
finderinfo[3] = 0
finderinfo[5] = 2
Firmware feature mask: 0xC003FFFF
Firmware features: 0xE001F537
Legacy mode suppported
Got IODeviceTree:/rom
Got start address ffe00000
Got size 100000
Found USB interconnect in protocol characteristics
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    efi-boot-device='<array><dict><key>MemoryType</key><integer size="64">0xb</integer><key>StartingAddress</key><integer size="64">0xffe00000</integer><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>HardwareMemoryMapped</string><key>EndingAddress</key><integer size="64">0xffefffff</integer></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFirmwareVolumeFilePath</string><key>Guid</key><string>2B0585EB-D8B8-49A9-8B8C-E21B01AEF2B7</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIBootOption</key><string>USB</string></dict></array>'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-file'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-mkext'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-kernelcache'
NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set.

You may also want to use the --nextonly switch, while testing, incase you still boot to a black screen:

--nextonly               Only change the boot device selection for the
                              next boot. This is only supported on EFI-based
                              systems.

 

[owbp]

1st HFS partition on ANY hard drive? Or must be the 1st drive, 1st HFS partition?

For testing purposes, your best bet is to install it on USB flash drive and boot from there.
Format USB drive the usual way (gpt, hfs) and install clover for UEFI boot. No need to test it for BIOS, since I assume that you would go with some new GPU after all is done.
And Clover can UEFI boot Mac from its EFI. Boot into boot menu with your Mac 7950, and while holding control key choose EFI Boot (clover USB) from the boot menu. That way it will continue to boot from USB when you flip the switch to UEFI bios on your GPU (you could bless it from terminal but this is the easier way).
I'll join you in testing as soon as I get back home. I'm also interested in this since ordering MVC card would result in paying double price until it comes to my address (same, or even worse, would be dealing with their U.K. partner).

 

[owbp]

double post

 

[h9826790]

For testing purposes, your best bet is to install it on USB flash drive and boot from there.
Format USB drive the usual way (gpt, hfs) and install clover for UEFI boot. No need to test it for BIOS, since I assume that you would go with some new GPU after all is done.
And Clover can UEFI boot Mac from its EFI. Boot into boot menu with your Mac 7950, and while holding control key choose EFI Boot (clover USB) from the boot menu. That way it will continue to boot from USB when you flip the switch to UEFI bios on your GPU (you could bless it from terminal but this is the easier way).
I'll join you in testing as soon as I get back home. I'm also interested in this since ordering MVC card would result in paying double price until it comes to my address (same, or even worse, would be dealing with their U.K. partner).

Thanks for the suggestion. may be we can go different route in order to speed things up. e.g.

You go for the USB drive EFI route. And I go for the internal HDD BIOS route.

If anyone can shows boot screen. Then the other one can follow the exact same step to verify if the procedure is correct.

 

[DearthnVader]

If blessing the disk with --legacy doesn't work it maybe because a MBR disk is needed to trigger the CSM( Bios ) mode.

Macs manage BIOS/CSM/legacy-mode booting by using the partition table as a cue: If the disk contains either an old-style Master Boot Record (MBR) Partition table or a hybrid MBR, and if a partition in that MBR has its boot flag set, the firmware activates its BIOS/CSM/legacy support, enabling it to boot in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode. If the disk contains a GPT with a conventional protective MBR, or if no MBR partition is marked as bootable, the firmware will boot only in EFI mode.

If the legacy mode is never triggered, the video card will never initialize with a PC Bios Option Rom on the card. As I say, it's not Clover that initializes the video card, it's the CSM( Bios ).

If you have a disk with Windows installed, via BootCamp, then it is a hybrid MBR/GPT disk, or if you need to create one, use BootCamp on your GPT disk to create a Windows partition.

As far as a MBR partition being marked as bootable, I think that means having the active partition set. So, fdisk should be able to do that, if Bootcamp doesn't set the Windows partition to active.

 sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk2
Enter 'help' for information
fdisk: 1> help
    help        Command help list
    manual        Show entire man page for fdisk
    reinit        Re-initialize loaded MBR (to defaults)
    auto        Auto-partition the disk with a partition style
    setpid        Set the identifier of a given table entry
    disk        Edit current drive stats
    edit        Edit given table entry
    erase        Erase current MBR
    flag        Flag given table entry as bootable
    update        Update machine code in loaded MBR
    select        Select extended partition table entry MBR
    print        Print loaded MBR partition table
    write        Write loaded MBR to disk
    exit        Exit edit of current MBR, without saving changes
    quit        Quit edit of current MBR, saving current changes
    abort        Abort program without saving current changes
fdisk: 1> print
Disk: /dev/disk2    geometry: 1954/255/63 [31405824 sectors]
Offset: 0    Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*1: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         2 -   31405822] HFS+      
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused    
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused    
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused    
fdisk: 1> flag 1
Partition 1 marked active.
fdisk:*1> write
Device could not be accessed exclusively.
A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n] y
Writing MBR at offset 0.
fdisk: 1> quit

In the example above *1: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 2 - 31405822] HFS+ , the * means partition 1 is the active( bootable ) partition.

To check what the active portion is for a disk, just run fdisk, with no arguments:

sudo fdisk /dev/disk2
Password:
Disk: /dev/disk2    geometry: 1954/255/63 [31405824 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*1: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         2 -   31405822] HFS+      
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused    
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused    
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

It shouldn't be needed to install Windows, just make a hybrid disk, with an active partition, maybe format it fat32, and install Clover Legacy to the MBR of that disk.

The hard part is getting you Mac Pro to know that you want to boot in Legacy mode to that disk, if you don't have Windows installed to it, you can't choose it as a startup disk in the control panel.

 

[owbp]

@h9826790 ,
I get the same result as you. If it wasn't for @Fl0r!an and his confirmation that all worked, i would have given up by now. Especially that ill move to nVidia for the next card so i have no particular interest in AMD GPUs. It was easier back then (when not using AMDs for hacknitosh, with Chameleon it was EFI string or NVEnabler.kext, and with Clover it is only InjectNvidia, haha).

But ill try some more, not giving up yet.

Clover boots into OS without any problem, but it's showing boot screens only with EFI ROM of the GPU.
With or without graphic injections, personalities, etc i always get the same result.

Regarding windows booting, for now, look at the topic for easy fix http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ot-with-windows-10-and-clover-legacy-or-uefi/

Btw, late to the party, but sign out of your iCloud before start messing with clover or replicate machines info to SMBios.

 

[h9826790]

@h9826790 ,
I get the same result as you. If it wasn't for @Fl0r!an and his confirmation that all worked, i would have given up by now. Especially that ill move to nVidia for the next card so i have no particular interest in AMD GPUs. It was easier back then (when not using AMDs for hacknitosh, with Chameleon it was EFI string or NVEnabler.kext, and with Clover it is only InjectNvidia, haha).

But ill try some more, not giving up yet.

Clover boots into OS without any problem, but it's showing boot screens only with EFI ROM of the GPU.
With or without graphic injections, personalities, etc i always get the same result.

Regarding windows booting, for now, look at the topic for easy fix http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ot-with-windows-10-and-clover-legacy-or-uefi/

Btw, late to the party, but sign out of your iCloud before start messing with clover or replicate machines info to SMBios.

That's for your sharing. So, it seems my experiment was valid. It's not that easy to get boot screen via cover, at least not in EFI mode.

 

[owbp]

So, it seems my experiment was valid. It's not that easy to get boot screen via cover, at least not in EFI mode.

Yep, i would say it is valid.
I've tried using Legacy BIOS also when UEFI wasn't successful but the same thing happened. It stays at clover (i've put boot to 0) and after hitting return key it booted into OS X, no boot screens but loads OS and everything works.

I'll give it some more time. Although i'm messing with hackintosh since 10.8, i've always used nVidias, so i'm not completely sure what is due to AMD and my lack of knowledge and what is Apple's EFI firmware and if it has something to do with it.

 

[Fl0r!an]

My R9 280 currently resides in a PC, but I'll plug it back in my Hackintosh and give it another go. I think the Clover install I had used back then should still be on one of my USB drives, don't remember if it contained any special drivers (e.g. CsmVideoDxe).