Mac Pro 5.1 various installation problems

[stix666]

I have a 5.1 Mac Pro with 32Gb RAM and an RX580 that shows boot screens. I have various drives that load OSs and some that don't:

- SATAII HDDs do load High Sierra (10.3.6) but do not appear to have a recovery partition (when pressing cmd-alt-r at boot, nothing happens)
- two 850 SSDs in RAID0 on an Apricorn Velocity Duo x2 that load High Sierra (10.3.4), again with no recovery partition
- a SATAII 850 SSD with Windows 10 that boots normally
- a mSata Marvell Chipset 88SE9230 4 bay card with one 860 mSATA III SSD drive


What I would like:

- a windows installation via SSD on PCIE
- a Mac installation with a recovery partition
- a Mojave installation

When trying to install windows via SSD on PCIE on the Apricorn or mSata card, DVD installation does not recognise the disk or gives errors during installation including a locale error. Bootcamp does not seem to work. Winclone doesn't appear to work either

When trying to install Mojave, there are instructions for a firmware update. I never see the grey progress bar and the request for installing firmware keeps repeating.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I've tried PRAM reset, SMC reset, removing all the drives and starting with one spinner in the SATAII bay.

 

[h9826790]

I have a 5.1 Mac Pro with 32Gb RAM and an RX580 that shows boot screens. I have various drives that load OSs and some that don't:

- SATAII HDDs do load High Sierra (10.3.6) but do not appear to have a recovery partition (when pressing cmd-alt-r at boot, nothing happens)
- two 850 SSDs in RAID0 on an Apricorn Velocity Duo x2 that load High Sierra (10.3.4), again with no recovery partition
- a SATAII 850 SSD with Windows 10 that boots normally
- a mSata Marvell Chipset 88SE9230 4 bay card with one 860 mSATA III SSD drive


What I would like:

- a windows installation via SSD on PCIE
- a Mac installation with a recovery partition
- a Mojave installation

When trying to install windows via SSD on PCIE on the Apricorn or mSata card, DVD installation does not recognise the disk or gives errors during installation including a locale error. Bootcamp does not seem to work. Winclone doesn't appear to work either

When trying to install Mojave, there are instructions for a firmware update. I never see the grey progress bar and the request for installing firmware keeps repeating.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I've tried PRAM reset, SMC reset, removing all the drives and starting with one spinner in the SATAII bay.

NO RX580 can shows boot screen. If it does, please show us the boot manager (hold option during boot) with just the RX580 installed. And this is the exact reason why you can't perform the firmware upgrade.

To enter recovery partition, just hold Command + R during boot, not Command + Option + R.

The Apricorn card may able to boot Windows without RAID, but from memory, not always work, and may need some work around. However, there is no big advantage of doing that. Keep the Windows SSD with just the native SATA II connection is the most reliable way of booting Windows.

To check the existence of the recovery partition, open Terminal, and enter

diskutil list

Then look for something like this

 

[stix666]

Brilliant - thanks for the tips!
I was confusing the splash screen (with Apple logo and progress bar on boot up) for boot screen. I'll use the original 5770 card to do the firmware update and see if I can do the other installations.

Thanks

 

[stix666]

OK - I'm in a catch-22
The 5770 does not support Metal so will not allow the Mojave installer to launch. It does not show the dialog for the firmware to update.
The 580 does not allow the firmware to update.
I can't run both cards at the same time.

Any ideas on a fix?

 

[tsialex]

OK - I'm in a catch-22
The 5770 does not support Metal so will not allow the Mojave installer to launch. It does not show the dialog for the firmware to update.
The 580 does not allow the firmware to update.
I can't run both cards at the same time.

Any ideas on a fix?

Download 10.13.6 full installer from Mac App Store and open it upgrade to MP51.0089.B00, it has the same Mac Pro 5,1 firmware as Mojave DP4/PB3. You will need a EFI card installed to upgrade the BootROM.

Take a look on MP51.0089.B00: The return of microcodes =) thread.

 

[bookemdano]

Or you can do a switcheroo. Launch the Mojave installer with your 580 installed. You'll get the firmware required prompt. After it shuts the computer down, remove the 580 and put in the 5770. Then press and hold the power button per instructions. The firmware will update. Wait until you get the beep etc. Then power down again and put the 580 back in, boot back to macOS and the installer will proceed with the Mojave install.

 

[David403]

I have the same or similar Mac Pro 5,1 with 32 Gb Ram and a Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB.

I used 'bookemdano's switcheroo to install mojave before I read his tip at #6.

As I also have GT 120 from a now defunct 4.1, I thought I'd be able to install this as well as the Radeon RX 580 to get a boot screen on a monitor attached to this one - however once in put the GT 120 in neither card had any output and the fans all scream.

Any suggestions as to how to configure this to work ?... or do you think I have to wait until the final release of Mojave and as the RX 580 is recommended by Apple, they do as I hope, and will release their own firmware update for the card...

PS bookemdano might be interested I use the original Hawaii Five 'O' theme tune for my iPhone ring tone.

 

[stix666]

Thanks all - I used a combination of bookemdano's and tsialex' suggestions - using the combined 10.3.6 installer to trigger the firmware update, then putting the 580 back in (same card as David403's) to install Mojave on the spinner.

Next steps will be to see if I can get a bootable Mojave install on the mSata SSD. If that works, I can lose the RAID0 on the Apricorn and try to install windows 10 in one of the SSD slots.

 

[bookemdano]

I have the same or similar Mac Pro 5,1 with 32 Gb Ram and a Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB.

I used 'bookemdano's switcheroo to install mojave before I read his tip at #6.

As I also have GT 120 from a now defunct 4.1, I thought I'd be able to install this as well as the Radeon RX 580 to get a boot screen on a monitor attached to this one - however once in put the GT 120 in neither card had any output and the fans all scream.

Any suggestions as to how to configure this to work ?... or do you think I have to wait until the final release of Mojave and as the RX 580 is recommended by Apple, they do as I hope, and will release their own firmware update for the card...

PS bookemdano might be interested I use the original Hawaii Five 'O' theme tune for my iPhone ring tone.

Haha! Nice choice. That was one of the best TV show theme songs IMHO (even objectively speaking). Catchy as hell.

I'm surprised that you're not getting any output with the 580/GT120 combo, as I remember someone here (I think h9826790?) tried that exact combo in Mojave and while it did work, I think he got graphics glitches that were annoying enough to pull out the GT120. Hopefully he will see this and correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Have you tried swapping the cards between slots 1 and 2? Maybe try the GT120 on its own too just to make sure it still works.

 

[David403]

Haha! Nice choice. That was one of the best TV show theme songs IMHO (even objectively speaking). Catchy as hell.

I'm surprised that you're not getting any output with the 580/GT120 combo, as I remember someone here (I think h9826790?) tried that exact combo in Mojave and while it did work, I think he got graphics glitches that were annoying enough to pull out the GT120. Hopefully he will see this and correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Have you tried swapping the cards between slots 1 and 2? Maybe try the GT120 on its own too just to make sure it still works.

Thanks - I did a search and found several posts by h9826790 - he did say he had graphics glitches. he didn't say if they were on both cards or just the GT120. If were just on the GT120 that would be OK.

The GT120 does works on its own and I can boot into a copy of El Capitan or a copy of Sierra.

I haven't tried swopping slots one and 2. I had the 580 in slot 1 and have tried the GT120 in slots 2, 3 and 4 with the same result: no output and fans all on full steam ahead/full scream! I'll see if I get any more advice before trying GT120 in one as that would mean the 580 would take up slots 2 and 3 leaving me only one other slot.

I really need 2 one for USB 3 and the other for eSATA for my 2 x 24 Tb RAID HDDs - I have already moved my PCIe SSD to a SATA tray.

I could try a copy of either rEFInder or perhaps BootChamp, QuickBoot or Boot Runner (vers. 3.0.2 which advertises it support APFS on High Sierra) to bypass the need for the Apple Boot Screen if I can find advice on how to install any of these on an APFS drive. I hope one of them will provide a good alternative to the Option-Boot but obviously not all the other things the Boot screen is required for.

 

[h9826790]

Thanks - I did a search and found several posts by h9826790 - he did say he had graphics glitches. he didn't say if they were on both cards or just the GT120. If were just on the GT120 that would be OK.

The GT120 does works on its own and I can boot into a copy of El Capitan or a copy of Sierra.

I haven't tried swopping slots one and 2. I had the 580 in slot 1 and have tried the GT120 in slots 2, 3 and 4 with the same result: no output and fans all on full steam ahead/full scream! I'll see if I get any more advice before trying GT120 in one as that would mean the 580 would take up slots 2 and 3 leaving me only one other slot.

I really need 2 one for USB 3 and the other for eSATA for my 2 x 24 Tb RAID HDDs - I have already moved my PCIe SSD to a SATA tray.

I could try a copy of either rEFInder or perhaps BootChamp, QuickBoot or Boot Runner (vers. 3.0.2 which advertises it support APFS on High Sierra) to bypass the need for the Apple Boot Screen if I can find advice on how to install any of these on an APFS drive. I hope one of them will provide a good alternative to the Option-Boot but obviously not all the other things the Boot screen is required for.

Both cards.

The image from GT120 is distorted.

The image from RX580 is very normal. But in Photos, the image may become 100% transparent.

N.B. I didn’t test all the combination. So, can’t quite remember which card has monitor connected. From memory, GT120 may work OK when no monitor is connected to the RX580. But the bug on RX580 is applicable when no monitor connected to GT120.