MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 early 2009 OS Upgrade

[atarmiga]

I recently got a really good deal on a 2009 Mac Pro (dual Xeon 3.33 6-core, 32GB ram, 1TB SSD, 500GB HDD, RX580) running Mojove 10.14.6. All I had to do it replace the PSU and it runs perfectly!

What I was wondering is is it worth upgrading the OS more or should I not bother?

Where would I find a good tutorial on getting it up to the latest MacOS?

Thanks!
Atarmiga

 

[atarmiga]

So I found the Open-Core Patcher and made myself a Ventura USB stick but I am unable to reboot into the boot loader. Is it because of the RX580? I do have the Mac boot screen, just won't open boot options...

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number of Processors: 2
Total Number of Cores: 12
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Memory: 32 GB
Boot ROM Version: 144.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

Radeon RX 580:

Chipset Model: Radeon RX 580
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 8 GB
Vendor: AMD (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x67df
Revision ID: 0x00e7
Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily2 v1

Generic SSD Controller:

SPCC M.2 PCIe SSD:

Capacity: 1.02 TB (1,024,209,543,168 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: SPCC M.2 PCIe SSD
Revision: HBAF28FT
Serial Number: 30011880358
Link Width: x4
Link Speed: 5.0 GT/s
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Removable Media: No

 

[davidodwell]

Interesting...

I just flashed my new (to me) 2009 Mac Pro and it shows as a 5,1. Harder than I thought it would be. It is running El Capitan. It boots fine now on the old Nvidia 120 it came with but will not boot with the new Radeon 580. The 580 is metal and will boot off a High Sierra drive but not the El Capitan.

I began working toward Open Core LP and DosDude1 but haven't gotten it going. Is it possible El Capitan will not support the 580??

Our machines are very similar. Dual processor etc

 

[atarmiga]

Interesting...

I just flashed my new (to me) 2009 Mac Pro and it shows as a 5,1. Harder than I thought it would be. It is running El Capitan. It boots fine now on the old Nvidia 120 it came with but will not boot with the new Radeon 580. The 580 is metal and will boot off a High Sierra drive but not the El Capitan.

I began working toward Open Core LP and DosDude1 but haven't gotten it going. Is it possible El Capitan will not support the 580??

Our machines are very similar. Dual processor etc

Are you able to boot yours from a USB flash drive?

 

[tsialex]

Is it possible El Capitan will not support the 580??

AMD Polaris GPU generation (RX 580 is a Polaris one) support starts with 10.12.6.

You can't boot anything earlier unless the RX 580 is thridparty flashed (by MacVidCards or you have EnableGop flashed to the Mac Pro/GPU), then you will have the display working, but completely unaccelerated with anything earlier than 10.12.6.

 

[davidodwell]

El Capitan does not support the TX 580. Upgraded to High Sierra and all is fine.

Thanks folks.

 

[Dayo]

I boot into MacOS versions back to 10.4 Tiger with RX580.
Works particularly well on 10.8 MountainLion and older.
10.9 Mavericks to 10.11 ElCapitan are not so brilliant.
Neither GPU nor firmware have had hacks applied.

 

[tsialex]

I boot into MacOS versions back to 10.4 Tiger with RX580.
Works particularly well on 10.8 MountainLion and older.
10.9 Mavericks to 10.11 ElCapitan are not so brilliant.
Neither GPU nor firmware have had hacks applied.

You forgot to write a disclaim that this is only possible because you have a MacPro3,1 and have the help of boot loaders like your MyBootMgr to enable the GOP GPU support and while the display works, the GPU will be completely un-accelerated for anything earlier than 10.12.6.

Also, you can only boot Tiger and Leopard with a MacPro3,1, while with a MacPro4,1 still with the factory original MP4,1 firmware you can got back to Leopard 10.5.6, no support for Nehalem Xeons before that. A MacPro5,1 can't boot anything earlier than 10.6.4, no support for the Westmere Xeons before that and earlier kernels than 10.6.4 just KP.

 

[Dayo]

You forgot to write a disclaim

You are correct. There are other considerations indeed.

• I run an MP31 along with RefindPlus and OpenCore (MyBootMgr is not a loader but a config suite for these).
• The RX580 GOP is started on MP31 with RefindPlus and/or OpenCore out of the box.
• This allows booting into the older Mac OS versions (without acceleration).
• 10.4 Tiger to 10.8 MountainLion work well because they are light
• The bloat appears to have started with 10.7 Lion, starts getting noticeable in 10.9 Mavericks and 10.11 ElCapitan is for emergencies only when run without acceleration.

I think the same outcomes should be possible on MP51 with OpenCore.
I even suspect 10.4 Tiger can be booted on these units via OpenCore.

 

[MrCheeto]

A MacPro5,1 can't boot anything earlier than 10.6.4, no support for the Westmere Xeons before that and earlier kernels than 10.6.4 just KP.

AFAIK the 5,1 with Nehalem CPU will boot Leopard. My hurdle has been to circumvent Leopard’s CPU ID check since supposedly Westmere is just a die shrink of Nehalem and similar as far as execution.

/AFAIK

OP

How have you progressed? My 5,1 is running Ventura and it’s as flawless as a Ventura experience can be short of my lack of Metal support.

Go for Monterey via Martin Lo’s patcher or later OS’ with OCLP with your current card. It will be seamless. I just ran a horribly abusive stress test on mine and I could not get it to drop frames on two 4k videos playing back while maxed out. Peaked over 390W at the mains. Excellent experience.

Do you have a boot picker screen normally?

 

[atarmiga]

AFAIK the 5,1 with Nehalem CPU will boot Leopard. My hurdle has been to circumvent Leopard’s CPU ID check since supposedly Westmere is just a die shrink of Nehalem and similar as far as execution.

/AFAIK

OP

How have you progressed? My 5,1 is running Ventura and it’s as flawless as a Ventura experience can be short of my lack of Metal support.

Go for Monterey via Martin Lo’s patcher or later OS’ with OCLP with your current card. It will be seamless. I just ran a horribly abusive stress test on mine and I could not get it to drop frames on two 4k videos playing back while maxed out. Peaked over 390W at the mains. Excellent experience.

Do you have a boot picker screen normally?

Honestly I haven't progressed at all. You're the first one who actually responded to my OP. I decided to just stick with Mojave.

 

[MrCheeto]

Honestly I haven't progressed at all. You're the first one who actually responded to my OP. I decided to just stick with Mojove.

😅 Well if you’re already in Mojave you’re just a Martin Lo patcher away from Monterey which I feel is the most capable OS currently. I’m skipping Ventura and Sonoma. Monterey actually feels fresh and I know it flies on these machines.

 

[atarmiga]

😅 Well if you’re already in Mojave you’re just a Martin Lo patcher away from Monterey which I feel is the most capable OS currently. I’m skipping Ventura and Sonoma. Monterey actually feels fresh and I know it flies on these machines.

So after replying to your post I used the Martin Lo patcher and things seemed to go fine until I royally screwed it up. I got everything done in the instructions I found (OpenCore 0.9.4) and then I installed opencore legacy patcher to the boot drive (obviously wasn't the right thing to do) because now it won't boot into Mojove anymore, I just get a circle with a line through it (\). I can't boot from my Mojave install USB either (circle with line though it) and it's not even going into recovery mode. Been researching and cannot find a solution. I hope it's not bricked.

Getting "FileSetPosition2995 FileSetPosition attempt to set position for directory to 18446744073709551615" message right before the (\) comes up.

 

[MrCheeto]

So after replying to your post I used the Martin Lo patcher and things seemed to go fine until I royally screwed it up. I got everything done in the instructions I found and then I installed opencore legacy patcher to the boot drive (obviously wasn't the right thing to do) because now it won't boot into Mojove anymore, I just get a circle with a line through it. I can't boot from my Mojova install USB either (circle with line though it) and it's not even going into recovery mode. Been researching and cannot find a solution. I hope it's not bricked.

Martin Lo is very responsive to support questions. I bet he’s on the Facebook Mac Pro group right now if you want to hop in and ask.

I will give you as much of the limited information I have on this subject. Did you install Monterey and Mojave on separate drives? If so, pull the Monterey drive and see if the internal Mojave will boot. OCLP stores itself onto a drive partition so it doesn’t have to touch the firmware. I hope if you are using two drives you selected the proper one for post boot install of OCLP.

Don’t fear bricking. You still have EFI showing up. It’s just a switch that needs to be flipped somewhere.

 

[atarmiga]

Martin Lo is very responsive to support questions. I bet he’s on the Facebook Mac Pro group right now if you want to hop in and ask.

I will give you as much of the limited information I have on this subject. Did you install Monterey and Mojave on separate drives? If so, pull the Monterey drive and see if the internal Mojave will boot. OCLP stores itself onto a drive partition so it doesn’t have to touch the firmware. I hope if you are using two drives you selected the proper one for post boot install of OCLP.

Don’t fear bricking. You still have EFI showing up. It’s just a switch that needs to be flipped somewhere.

No, I haven't installed Monterey yet. I believe Mojove is installed on the following:

Generic SSD Controller:

SPCC M.2 PCIe SSD:

Capacity: 1.02 TB

Edit: Just posted on the Facebook group. Thx

 

[culser]

AMD Polaris GPU generation (RX 580 is a Polaris one) support starts with 10.12.6.

You can't boot anything earlier unless the RX 580 is thridparty flashed (by MacVidCards or you have EnableGop flashed to the Mac Pro/GPU), then you will have the display working, but completely unaccelerated with anything earlier than 10.12.6.

hypothetically - is there a reason why RX 580 will install Sonoma but then goes blank at the end of the install. 580 being a metal supported card should work , in theory ?

 

[atarmiga]

So when trying to install Monterey I get an error message "A required firmware update could not be installed."

 

[h9826790]

So when trying to install Monterey I get an error message "A required firmware update could not be installed."

 

[John Fu]

I just upgraded my cMP4>5 from single CPU to dual CPU, I am very happy about it, just wonder can I mix an NVME M2 SSD with a SATA HDD as software raid 0? I tried using disk utility, but it takes a long time without success, any one can help?

 

[h9826790]

I just upgraded my cMP4>5 from single CPU to dual CPU, I am very happy about it, just wonder can I mix an NVME M2 SSD with a SATA HDD as software raid 0? I tried using disk utility, but it takes a long time without success, any one can help?

Can but no point to do so. Of more accurate, the HDD will destroy the NVMe's performance.

When doing RAID 0, the slowest storage device will define the whole array's performance. So, by paring up a HDD with a NVMe, the NVMe will have to wait for the HDD to complete the I/O most of the time. And end up the whole RAID 0 array is slower than just use the NVMe itself.

 

[John Fu]

Can but no point to do so. Of more accurate, the HDD will destroy the NVMe's performance.

When doing RAID 0, the slowest storage device will define the whole array's performance. So, by paring up a HDD with a NVMe, the NVMe will have to wait for the HDD to complete the I/O most of the time. And end up the whole RAID 0 array is slower than just use the NVMe itself.

Thank you!