Mac Pro Best Drive Configuration

[JedNZ]

Good to see you have success with this joelkalsi.

I don't enjoy the 1400/1400 speed boost to any degree on my setup because I've got my 960 EVO blade paired in a Fusion Drive (FD) with a 2TD spinner. When copying a large file/s, as soon as it fills the 4GB (?) FD buffer on the 960 EVO, it then switches copying the remainder of the file/s to the HD spinner portion of the FD, so I only get SATA II speed.

I do get to enjoy the value of the 960 EVO when playing games when it reads a few GBs to play intro videos etc or loads the next level etc (particularly when I play the games often, which means they are on the SSD portion of the FD). And because all of my User data is on the FD it does mean the often-used files load and save very quickly. But as I said, for copying large amounts of data (videos, movies etc) I can't justify having spent money on the 960 EVO.

A better option for me might be remove the FD and use the 960 EVO on its own for my main data files, and use two spinners in RAID for the heavy lifting videos/movies/games by way of Symbolic links.

 

[joelkalsi]

Good to see you have success with this joelkalsi.

Yeah it's awesome! Thanks again

Noticed one thing though; after enabling SIP it worked fine after the initial boot, but after rebooting the drive disappears. When I disable SIP, the drive returns and all is good, but the same occurs when enabling SIP -- it lets the SSD run in the first boot but the next morning I power up the cMP it's disappeared again. Any idea what's causing this and what would be a fix?

EDIT : The drive seems to stay there with SIP enabled after rebootings, but only as long as I don't power off the computer totally. Am I missing something crucial?

 

[JedNZ]

I haven't experimented much with my setup, but if I enable SIP and then reboot it immediately crashes, just like it does on a cold startup. So I have to run my machine with SIP disabled all the time.

 

[joelkalsi]

Wrecked my Sierra with the security update... I forgot to swap the original IONVMeFamily kext back to system to replace the Hackr file. Gladly got a pretty recent time machine backup and left it restoring over the night. What I noticed with the new patch_nvme utility is I couldn't specify it to use the latest plist file, as the utility responded the plist file does not exist. Running just the utility as "./patch_nvme" worked automatically this time.

 

[h9826790]

For NVMe, IMO, it's really better to go for High Sierra which provide native driver support. Even 10.12.6 is generally more stable than 10.13.1, but for this particular purpose, I will still prefer HS more.

 

[joelkalsi]

Then my cMP crashed, and kept crashing on startups. Reinstalled the macOS 10.12.3, tried some more things, and Crash crash crash!!.

I just recently updated MacOS with the latest security update, and it was just plain crash crash crash at boot. I did have the old NVME.kext in the System Extensions dir though, had to remove it by booting from another drive but it kept crashing and I still saw the kext file in Sys Exts when booting to Recovery Mode and checking in with Terminal. Did take a while to try reseting NVRAM and after that everything was good.
[doublepost=1512481899][/doublepost]

For NVMe, IMO, it's really better to go for High Sierra which provide native driver support. Even 10.12.6 is generally more stable than 10.13.1, but for this particular purpose, I will still prefer HS more.

I'm hesitating updating to High Sierra with all software installed (Resolve, FCPX, Logic, plugins, etc) and I'm not sure if it's all gonna work together yet. Going to go along with Sierra and see about it next year, but good to hear there's no more need to play with kexts in High Sierra with NVME drives, pheww

 

[JedNZ]

I've decided to hold out also until Apple sort out Fusion Drive compatibility/stability with HS/APFS, because my NVMe blade is in a FD with a spinner and I need assurances it will work when I decide to upgrade. If the finances last over Xmas I'll probably get a 256Gb Samsung 960 EVO to experiment with on my other cMP (Hexa-core).

 

[MaziPhoto]

is there any chance to do this patch on new HS update 10.13.2
Hope anyone will be able to help me with this as I am green with technical stuff, and got my mac pro since yesterday, previously was using MacBook pro 15 late 2011.

 

[JedNZ]

You do not need to create an NVMe kext because HS natively supports NVMe drives (for data only - it doesn’t provide booting from NVMe).

With the Github method, it also provides Sierra (10.12.x) comparability if you also boot Sierra from another drive on your same cMP. It’s included in the download zip file all ready to install (not having to curate it).

 

[Egorich]

You do not need to create an NVMe kext because HS natively supports NVMe drives (for data only - it doesn’t provide booting from NVMe).

With the Github method, it also provides Sierra (10.12.x) comparability if you also boot Sierra from another drive on your same cMP. It’s included in the download zip file all ready to install (not having to curate it).

So, does that mean it's gonna be as simple as plug the 960 Evo and play if you're running HS?

 

[h9826790]

So, does that mean it's gonna be as simple as plug the 960 Evo and play if you're running HS?

Yes (non bootable)

 

[Boomish69]

I'm trying to follow the instructions here, as I have bought anew Samsung 960 EVO M.2 together with a Lycom PCIE DT-129, however when I run the NVME patch in terminal I get an error :
./patch_nvme.sh 10_12_6

Creating patched HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_6.kext from /System/Library/Extensions/IONVMeFamily.kext

WARNING: Vanilla MD5 (1b712ac1b6e56f846a7e5d0056cdea20) does not match expected MD5 (c506f1fc40026c0262a736f0be318223)

ERROR: Vanilla MD5 does not match and --override not specified. No kext generated!

I've googled a few solutions one says my kexts are corrupted or not installed correctly the other seems to say I think the patch might be out of date. I find this all quite confusing , I'm on 10.12.6 & because of a few driver issues I can't got to High Sierra, I restored back to sierra a few backs after discovering the drivers for my Wacom Pen tablet aren't supported & it wrecked all my Mail rules..

Anyone got any suggestions? How do I restore Kexts from the OSX installer? just copy them?

I'm still searching but I'm not having much luck finding a clear solution.

 

[JedNZ]

Looks like the original IONVMeFamily.kext may be corrupt or not as it should be. Incidentally, have you installed the 10.12.6 Security Update 2018-001? If not, no worries. I haven't updated to it yet myself. The latest Github files have been updated for the 10.12.6 Security Update 2018-001, so it should work if you have applied that update.

Make sure you are using the latest Github files from here (click on the green Clone or Download link).

First off, I would suggest running Kext Utility which can be downloaded from here. This will repair permissions for S/L/E and L/E.

If that doesn't work, I would suggest re-applying the macOS 10.12.6 Combo updater in order to refresh things just in case there are some other issues with your OS.

Let us know how you go.

 

[Boomish69]

Looks like the original IONVMeFamily.kext may be corrupt or not as it should be. Incidentally, have you installed the 10.12.6 Security Update 2018-001? If not, no worries. I haven't updated to it yet myself. The latest Github files have been updated for the 10.12.6 Security Update 2018-001, so it should work if you have applied that update.

Make sure you are using the latest Github files from here (click on the green Clone or Download link).

First off, I would suggest running Kext Utility which can be downloaded from here. This will repair permissions for S/L/E and L/E.

If that doesn't work, I would suggest re-applying the macOS 10.12.6 Combo updater in order to refresh things just in case there are some other issues with your OS.

Let us know how you go.

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I hadn’t done the security update but I tried to create the kext before & after applying with same error. I also did grab the right files from Github but that’s still helpful to know because I was searching in case I hadn’t got the right ones. And I had run kept utility to repair everything before I got the error.
It’s wierd as I did a fresh install of Sierra only 2 weeks ago then a time machine restore after a disappointing High Sierra upgrade.
Thanks for the suggestion of the combo updates I’ll try that next. So appreciate the help, am a bit excited to see how much difference it’ll make to my system, I don’t want to use it as a boot but as a work drive for audio projects.
Cheers

 

[Boomish69]

Update - I tried the 10.12.6 combo update, it wouldn't run, it said my OSX wasn't suitable for the update, I presume because it was already up to date + the additional security update..
I reinstalled Sierra OSX via recovery, then updated via App store for the security update convinced that should fix the kext's but I get the same error :
Creating patched HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_6.kext from /System/Library/Extensions/IONVMeFamily.kext

WARNING: Vanilla MD5 (1b712ac1b6e56f846a7e5d0056cdea20) does not match expected MD5 (c506f1fc40026c0262a736f0be318223)

ERROR: Vanilla MD5 does not match and --override not specified. No kext generated!

I also tried running Kext utility to repair anything, maybe it's because I have existing PCIE cards? my SATA III PCIE & my UAD PCIE cards.

I can only think I either have to go to High Sierra & try and fix the problems I had last time & buy a new Wacom tablet (seriously Wacom? The Bamboo is only a few years old) or I do a fresh install then try the kext procedure then a time machine restore.
I did not realise adding an NVME drive would be this hard..

 

[JedNZ]

Yeah, no fun for you. My experience wasn't as complicated, so I'm feeling a little blessed at the moment.

Let's try some other things.

Have you disabled SIP?

How about starting up in Safe Boot mode by holding down the Shift key on Restart. Find out more about Safe Boot here. You will need to boot back into Recovery HD and disable SIP again after that in order to try and install the curated kext file, but this might clean up some gremlins along the way.

How about installing Sierra on a different partition/drive, then creating the patched HackrNVMeFamily kext file and installing it, and if that works, dragging it to your troublesome partition.

 

[Boomish69]

Thanks again JedNZ for the reply, I keep trying things but same error.

I've tried with SIP off & on, (currently off) I also tried in Safe mode. I also tried by using Pacifeist to extract a vanilla IONVMeFamily.kext, then I edited the patch to point to it, then I tried with an --upatched command as detailed in Github that got a little closer but still gave an error of a vanilla MD5 does not match etc.

Great idea about installing Sierra on fresh drive, I did in fact try a few things on my Clone backup but same error so I'll wipe this and try that, that has to work! then I can copy the kext. if that doesn't work I'll probably install High Sierra and fix the incompatibilities with my other hardware & software.

 

[Boomish69]

OK I did a fresh Sierra install to newly formatted drive, after the install I tried the patch_nvme.sh and low & behold success , however this was for 10.12.4 so I then ran the OSX update for 10.12.6, then the security patch, rebooted , ran the patch & guess what it failed! so it can't be me!
Creating patched HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_6.kext from /System/Library/Extensions/IONVMeFamily.kext

WARNING: Vanilla MD5 (1b712ac1b6e56f846a7e5d0056cdea20) does not match expected MD5 (c506f1fc40026c0262a736f0be318223)

ERROR: Vanilla MD5 does not match and --override not specified. No kext generated!

It does however create a HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_6.kext despite it saying it doesn't but goodness knows if it's right..I'm going to know test both kexts on the fresh install.after this I give up..

Update ; the HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_6.kext doesn't work it comes up with error on loading the file, as a last ditch attempt I tried the HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_4.kext it created when I first tried it..And bugger me it works!! I had to reboot but I see the drive and formatted it and tested the speed, I only got 700MB/s first attempt then I read your original (and brilliant walkthrough) post on page 2 of this thread JedNZ and moved the card to slot 3. Whoo hoo 1400 write & 1500 Read! I don't know how running at 10.12.4 kext in 10.12.6 will affect it but nothing else I can do but try it & see.. Tomorrow I'll try transferring this all to my working system drive..I tested this all on the fresh Sierra install.
So happy..

 

[JedNZ]

Well done! Sharing your experience will help others, so thanks for walking us through your journey.

As for the 10.12.4 / 10.12.6 thing – I'm outta ideas, but if it works then that's great!

 

[Boomish69]

Thanks JedNZ yes I thought I might as well document it in case someone else finds this & it helps..
OK I finally found the source of all the problems, the Github patch was out of date and I wasn't using the right command well I did at some point but the patch wasn't up todate, hence the 10.12.4 worked but not 10.12.6.

Rehabman on Github has now updated the patch for 10.12.6 inc the security patch he had done this but the Github link hadn't been updated, but since yesterday I can confirm this now works. So if you trying to install an NVMe drive in Sierra follow JedNZ excellent guide on page 2 of this forum..
grab the patch from the green download button here
I unzipped into the downloads folder and after disabling SIP I ran using this command in terminal, no patch file name is needed as it will find the correct one (advice from rehab man)
cd ~/Downloads/patch-nvme-master
./patch_nvme.sh

This should give
Determined patch automatically from vanilla IONVMeFamily: 10_12_6_sec2018-001

Creating patched HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_6_sec2018-001.kext from /System/Library/Extensions/IONVMeFamily.kext

Vanilla MD5 matches expected MD5 entry (1b712ac1b6e56f846a7e5d0056cdea20)

Patched MD5 matches expected MD5 entry (cde08888426959748a7c1e01f990643e)

Hooray...

 

[JedNZ]

Ah, that explains a problem I had with 10.12.6 where I ended up just using the Hackr kext from 10.12.5. I thought it was just something wrong with my system, so thanks for that.

 

[Acden]

Then system prefs - users - advanced - select where the home directory will be (your 3.5' spinning disc)
Restart and hey presto

Do you know how to move home dir in High Sierra?

Due to my User account residing on the NVMe, I would have to log out of my primary User account first, and back in using another admin account that's housed on my boot volume, before updating/upgrading. Anyone else got some ideas on this one?

How do you move home directory?

 

[JedNZ]

Not sure things have changed with HS, but go to System Preferences > Users & Groups. Unlock the padlock if it’s locked. Click on a User and right click - click on Advanced Options. Here you can set the location of the Home directory, which is where you can select it on an external drive.

If you already have an existing user account, copy it first to another drive (I think the Terminal command dd preserves User permissions etc, but there’s other ways of doing it). Then select the new location using the technique at the start of this post.

I have had some other issues to navigate doing this in the past, but it hasn’t been a major hassle.

 

[zozomester]

Is it currently possible to boot from NVME ssd only?
Which description should I follow? I want to use Amfeltec Squid with 4xToshiba XG5 256GB NVME SSD. Can it be possible to boot from this system?

 

[JedNZ]

There are a couple of links below that discuss booting with NVMe - check these out.

Boot OSX on a NVMe Card
PCIE M.2 NVMe on MacPro

Search around and you may find others as well.