MP 1,1-5,1 Mac OS 11.3 has broken support for older Mac Pros

[tsialex]

…what could be the root cause for all the issues others have, while I don't have any except the Progress Bar freeze?

You have a newer AirPort Extreme model than most people here have, maybe this have some influence. Tonight I'm gonna remove the AirPort Extreme to eliminate it from the equation.

 

[tsialex]

@cdf I just checked if Big Sur still officially supported iMacs with BCM94360CD and the iFixit teardown of the late-2014 5K iMac, 2nd oldest iMac supported model by Big Sur, show that this model still has one (step 11), so it's not exactly that (I don't doubt that it could still have some influence).

iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown

Think of the most colorful and radiant display you’ve ever seen. Now, discard that memory and stare at Apple’s newest iMac Intel 27” with Retina 5K...

www.ifixit.com

 

[TECK]

You have a newer AirPort Extreme model than most people here have

I purchased the Broadcom BCM943602CDPAX as a kit from eBay to replace the existing internal card, so I can get missing features into cMP like continuity etc.

 

[cdf]

@TECK, does booting from 11.3 to Mojave and back work consistently for you?

 

[TECK]

@TECK, does booting from 11.3 to Mojave and back work consistently for you?

Let me try that, I have not tested. In the past, I would lose the Bluetooth when I would switch back from Mojave to Big Sur, remediated by an additional reboot. My current setup requires Esc key pressed to display the bootpicker. Will report back in few minutes.

Edit: I can reboot back and forward between Mojave and Big Sur, without issues, I tried twice only. Every time, I experienced the previous behaviour where I would lose Bluetooth in Big Sur, forcing me to reboot again in order to gain it back.

I attached a quick video which shows the progress bar login in Big Sur, with Bluetooth not functional.

 

[ses2008]

This is strange:
I've tried twice to install on a compatible MabookPro to an external NVMe SSD 11.3. with the full installer.
And all it will install is 11.2.3.
Could it be possible that external NVMe's are not supported at all?

 

[startergo]

This is strange:
I've tried twice to install on a compatible MabookPro to an external NVMe SSD 11.3. with the full installer.
And all it will install is 11.2.3.
Could it be possible that external NVMe's are not supported at all?

What model?

 

[w1z]

Since you are testing with the same SSD7101A-1 as I am, could you please take note of the kext that is crashing?

Mine is crashing at different kexts, without any consistency that I can see, besides being PCIe related.

Sure.. I have to rescue my installation first as installing the HighPoint drivers was a bad move.. crashing all the time now.

 

[ses2008]

What model?

Installing took place on a MacBookPro14,3 and then put the SSD back into a MacPro 4,1 > 5,1 2009.
That was always my way of updating. No MicroPatch, just nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check" …

 

[startergo]

Installing took place on a MacBookPro14,3 and then put the SSD back into a MacPro 4,1 > 5,1 2009.
That was always my way of updating. No MicroPatch, just nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check" …

Well if you could not install it on the external NVMe on MBP14.3 you can help by reporting this to apple. That should have installed. Also you can enable verbose mode and see where it hangs.

 

[cdf]

Edit: I can reboot back and forward between Mojave and Big Sur, without issues, I tried twice only.

If this can be repeated more than a few times, your machine will exhibit the most consistent behavior yet.

Although we're interested in identifying which devices could be causing the boot issue, we have keep in mind that perhaps there are devices that help prevent it.

 

[Jigga Beef]

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make my bootable backups. Just clone your bootable backup, back to your system drive.

So 2 of them are bootable backups but when I boot the machine up I don't get the boot drive picker so I can't even et the system launched to run CCC to do that.

 

[TECK]

Although we're interested in identifying which devices could be causing the boot issue, we have keep in mind that perhaps there are devices that help prevent it.

@tsialex already has my BootROM, not sure if this can help in any way, plus you have in my signature all hardware upgrades I performed, otherwise everything is stock on my 2010 cMP 5,1.

 

[KevinClark]

I m trying to install a fresh Full Big Sur 11.3 on a HDD SATA in the bay of my Mac Pro with Big Sur installer under Mojave and Opencore 068 it seems to be ok the process is in progress (I have unplug all PCI EXPRESS CARDS and SSD SATA in bay )

 

[cdf]

Tonight I'm gonna remove the AirPort Extreme to eliminate it from the equation.

I just tried this. I removed all PCIe devices, including the AirPort Extreme but excluding the video card. Still no consistency, though a higher success rate (about 50%)...

 

[Dayo]

I removed all PCIe devices excluding the video card.

Thought the issue was only when booting from disks on PCIe slots. Do you mean you get the issue when booting from a disk on a SATA Port and all PCie slots are empty except for the GPU?

 

[eVasilis]

Thought the issue was only when booting from disks on PCIe slots. Do you mean you get the issue when booting from a disk on a SATA Port and all PCie slots are empty except for the GPU?

When I tried to clean install on a sata ssd with only the gpu in slot 1, the installer hung twice.

 

[tsialex]

I just tried this. I removed all PCIe devices, including the AirPort Extreme but excluding the video card. Still no consistency, though a higher success rate (about 50%)...

I got it a little bit more stable/consistent without the BCM94322MC and the original BT controller, but still crashes with different PCIe related kexts. I think that the best course of action right now is to nuke my disk and start over with a clean install.

The weird thing is that I never got the consistency/stability that @TECK and @w1z are reporting, maybe we are overlooking something else related to our Mac Pros configs that is helping the crashes.

 

[JohnD]

I don't suppose this will really solve anything, but perhaps the experts should be aware that updating 11.2.3 to 11.3 on a Parallels virtual machine fails repeatedly. I've tried twice.

This seems to be a clue that the issue is with the CPU (instruction set), as only the CPU and RAM have direct access in a VM - the rest of the "hardware" is virtualized. I have 2x Big Sur 11.2.3 VM's I can test upgrading today.

 

[JohnD]

So far, it's a hit or miss with slots 3/4 free and no loading whatsoever with a card in slot 4. I'll fiddle with it more later tonight.

I have an LSI eSAS card in slot 3 (though drivers don't load in 11.2.3), and a SATA PCIe card in slot 4, and have about a 50% success rate booting.

 

[JohnD]

Is it accepted at this point that 11.3 is just a blanket no-go on any cMP, or is it only ones with extra cards in PCIe slots having issues?

NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER SURRENDER!

 

[startergo]

This seems to be a clue that the issue is with the CPU (instruction set), as only the CPU and RAM have direct access in a VM - the rest of the "hardware" is virtualized. I have 2x Big Sur 11.2.3 VM's I can test upgrading today.

So how come cMP3,1 has a higher success rate with slower CPU/RAM?

 

[JohnD]

The weird thing is that I never got the consistency/stability that @TECK and @w1z are reporting, maybe we are overlooking something else related to our Mac Pros configs that is helping the crashes.

I've been at a 50% success rate the whole time, booting from SATA SSD on PCIe (slot 4), and eSAS w/no drivers (slot 3). 100% success from 11.3 on a SATA HDD (with the 2x PCIe cards installed - no hardware changes), after ~30x reboots. 11.4b1 brings that down to a 90% success from SATA HDD.

 

[JohnD]

So how come cMP3,1 has a higher success rate with slower CPU/RAM?

I don't know that it really is... it's just a different configuration. My 5,1 test machine boots 100% reliably from SATA HDD (in sled bay), *WITH* SATA SSD PCIe card and eSAS HBA installed in slots 3+4, in SO MANY reboots, throughout every beta since 11.3b3 - never had a fail. It's upgraded to 11.4b1 now, and now I do get fails, but so far works out to 90% success.

 

[socamx]

NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER SURRENDER!

Classic movie rallying cry for the classic Mac Pro!

I suppose I should have qualified that with "for now", I don't think 11.3 is going to defeat these guys. I'm consistently impressed with the knowledge and ingenuity everyone has with getting the cMP so far.

When I have a good chunk of time I'll try a few experiments with my solo 2010 model and see what kind of results I get. Can't really mess too much with my dual 2009 which has USB 3 (not type-c), upgraded WiFi and a boot screen 580 since it is my main.