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JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 6, 2015
647
247
Deep South
Can anyone confirm if the GITHUB NVMe driver works with macOS 10.12.4 (located here - only mentions compatibility to macOS 10.12.3)? I don't want to update to 10.12.4 until I know the NVMe kext is compatible.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I think you are actually the pioneer in this area. If you have a backup boot drive, may be use that to confirm your setup can survive in 10.12.4.

Even the NVMe driver work, still don't know how it perform in a FD setup.
 

JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 6, 2015
647
247
Deep South
Hmmm. Will build a new boot HD tomorrow and upgrade it to 10.12.4 and see how I goes with the 10.12.3 curated NVMe kext (using Github method).
 
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h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
For better "simulation", if you can clone your system drive to the backup drive (e.g. Via Carbon Copy Cloner. Just clone the system is enough, apps / data won't affect the result anyway), then perform the OS update on the backup drive. That will be easier to know if the NVMe FD can survive through the system update.
 

Fl0r!an

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2007
909
530
That NVMe patch is very likely to break when Apple changes their binaries (which they usually do). I'd wait for RehabMan to provide an update (or verify that no update is needed).
 
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JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 6, 2015
647
247
Deep South
Github NVMe Kext has been updated to include 10.12.4

Works like a dream: followed the instructions to curate a 10.12.4 NVMe Kext, installed it with Kext Utility (moves it to S/L/E), and removed IONVMeFamily.kext (from S/L/E). Restart - all working perfectly.

Big ups to RehabMan and all who do this work to enable people like me to play and work with NVMe drives on their cMP.
 
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vorkosigan1

macrumors member
Jan 23, 2017
71
68
Just to confirm--still can't boot in a stock MP, right? Only for data disks, not OS boot disks, right?

Thanks.

Github NVMe Kext has been updated to include 10.12.4

Works like a dream: followed the instructions to curate a 10.12.4 NVMe Kext, installed it with Kext Utility (moves it to S/L/E), and removed IONVMeFamily.kext (from S/L/E). Restart - all working perfectly.

Big ups to RehabMan and all who do this work to enable people like me to play and work with NVMe drives on their cMP.
 

JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 6, 2015
647
247
Deep South
Yes - they can only be used for data - they are not bootable.

Fingers crossed (but not holding my breath) that someone might be talented enough to create a bootable NVMe kext/driver. Without offending anyone here, I fear my next MP will actually end up being a Hackintosh, with bootable NVMe, SATA III, Thunderbolt and all the other "modern world" technologies that Apple is depriving us of.
 

itdk92

macrumors 6502a
Nov 14, 2016
504
180
Copenhagen, Denmark
If I may ask, why choose NVME over AHCI? (given AHCI is fully compatible OOTB)

Is there such a great performance difference?

Price looks about the same? (Or maybe I am looking at the wrong items :) )
 

JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 6, 2015
647
247
Deep South
I couldn't get my hands on a 500GB AHCI M.2 blade, so went for a 500GB Samsung 960 EVO NVMe. I have my boot OS on a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO sitting in an Accelsior S SATA III PCIe card, and wanted a blade to Fusion with my 2TB WD Black for my data so didn't need the blade to be bootable.

As for speed, the Samsung 951 AHCI is slower than the Samsung 960 NVMe - check this link for a speediest comparison. The 960 EVO is capable of 3200R/1900W BUT, what I didn't realise is that my cMP 4,1>5,1 PCIe speed is limited to 2GB/s, so the best I get is around 1500RW. Check out this post and h9826790's explanation about speeds.
 

Logan_the_man

macrumors newbie
Apr 4, 2017
3
0
Hey do you guys now of a fast m.2 SSD that is super reliable and is also compatible with my 10.12.4 trashcan and pcie expansion chassis? ...

It has gen 2.0 pcie, but supports full hight and length...I have an angel wings adapter in it cuz I like the idea of a good heatsync.

I have not been able to get the samsung 960 pro to be detected because I think that the kext files u guys talk about are patched specific to a cMP slot instead of being able to auto detect the card in a pcie enclosure over thunderbolt 2.0. I would have loved to run a benchmark over that chasis. If someone knows how to fix my issue that would be sick...otherwise I would love just a simple recommendation for a good ssd m.2 that I can put in the adapter instead of the 960 pro. If I could get 1200 megs read/write that would be amazing! And hopefully it would be no harder than installing a driver. Like a good AHCI card maybe? Let me know your thoughts. Thank you guys!
 

Logan_the_man

macrumors newbie
Apr 4, 2017
3
0
Expansion rigs are beyond my knowledge sorry. Would something like this work for you?

Yeah it would be pretty cool. I doubt it enables the nvme tho. I still would need a samsung driver I think. It's the exact same funtion as my enclosure + adapter anyway I think. So id still be in te same boat. but still very cool thanks
 

travisrex

macrumors newbie
May 11, 2017
3
0
London
Yeah it would be pretty cool. I doubt it enables the nvme tho. I still would need a samsung driver I think. It's the exact same funtion as my enclosure + adapter anyway I think. So id still be in te same boat. but still very cool thanks
Hey Logan - I'm in the same boat. Did you get this resolved? THX
 

zwing

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2017
1
0
Does anyone know that this works with 10.2.6 yet? Rebooting my system with my 960EVO after using the command in terminal and dragging a 10.2.6 kext into kext utility and my system will turn on but I only see a black screen.
 

JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 6, 2015
647
247
Deep South
Does anyone know that this works with 10.2.6 yet? Rebooting my system with my 960EVO after using the command in terminal and dragging a 10.2.6 kext into kext utility and my system will turn on but I only see a black screen.

You'd need to expand little more on what you're trying to do.
NVMe blades are NOT bootable on cMP - you can only use them for data.

I'm running 10.12.6 on my cMP with an NVMe blade (for data) using the Github method developed by RehabMan. See this post for additional info on how to curate the NMVe kext.
 
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