macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[L Caputo]

Not entirely sure what your post is telling me as the page you linked to is for macs running supported OS's and none of the links within the article discuss the Mac Pro 3.1 or El Capitan even though there is a link that is supposed to, so that was no help at all.
My Mac Pro 3.1 is running Mojave and Catalina, and whenever I run SilentKnight to find and install updates it tells me the EFI firmware is out of date but does not tell me how to update it.

So if anyone knows what EFI firmware I am supposed to be running and how to install it.
The last time it had the firmware updated was installing High Sierra, but on installing Mojave
and Catalina there was no firmware update procedure given on the installation splash screen.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Not entirely sure what your post is telling me as the page you linked to is for macs running supported OS's and none of the links within the article discuss the Mac Pro 3.1 or El Capitan even though there is a link that is supposed to, so that was no help at all.
My Mac Pro 3.1 is running Mojave and Catalina, and whenever I run SilentKnight to find and install updates it tells me the EFI firmware is out of date but does not tell me how to update it.

So if anyone knows what EFI firmware I am supposed to be running and how to install it.
The last time it had the firmware updated was installing High Sierra, but on installing Mojave
and Catalina there was no firmware update procedure given on the installation splash screen.

Neither Mojave nor Catalina are supported on this system and you cannot expect that these macOS versions will tell you the truth about your system and the firmware version needed.

Which High Sierra @dosdude1 offered his APFS firmware update patch. Unless you expect to get non Apple firmware updates like the one needed for NVME support the normal way to get a new firmware was and is always through macOS updates and in history via special installer packages.

This took me 5 minutes of searching the net through the big search machine using "macpro3,1 efi firmware upgrades" - it took more time to digest your answer!

Hope you give my first answer another chance digging into the previous versions of the article mentioned there (why should I do this?) finding how to use the eficheck utility. And there are half a dozen MacPro3,1 threads discussing about firmware and hardware upgrades. You may check these for a short and better answer.

 

[avz]

Not entirely sure what your post is telling me as the page you linked to is for macs running supported OS's and none of the links within the article discuss the Mac Pro 3.1 or El Capitan even though there is a link that is supposed to, so that was no help at all.
My Mac Pro 3.1 is running Mojave and Catalina, and whenever I run SilentKnight to find and install updates it tells me the EFI firmware is out of date but does not tell me how to update it.

So if anyone knows what EFI firmware I am supposed to be running and how to install it.
The last time it had the firmware updated was installing High Sierra, but on installing Mojave
and Catalina there was no firmware update procedure given on the installation splash screen.

I would ignore the SilentKnight firmware warnings as it was designed for supported Macs only.
I found that SilentKnight can be useful for getting critical updates as sometimes even older supported OS’s (El Capitan) are not receiving them by default in some regions.

 

[Dayo]

My Mac Pro 3.1 is running Mojave and Catalina, and whenever I run SilentKnight to find and install updates it tells me the EFI firmware is out of date but does not tell me how to update it.

So if anyone knows what EFI firmware I am supposed to be running and how to install it.

Firmware version MP31.006C.B05 is basically the only firmware version available for cMP3,1.

I say "basically" because there is rare version that apparently came with the very first cMP3,1 units out of the factory but that and was soon stopped.
If you ever upgraded the OS that came from the factory, you would be on MP31.006C.B05. Even if you never did, you would most likely be on that firmware version anyway.

There is no update for cMP3,1. SilentKnight is not checking the Mac Model and just assumes you are on a model supported for Mojave/Catalina as others have mentioned.

The last time it had the firmware updated was installing High Sierra

There was no firmware update for the cMP3,1 in HiSierra actually ... remember that cMP3,1 support had already been dropped before HiSierra.

 

[FarmerBob]

I've been trying to chase down the Firmware thing in SilentKnight for a while. Thanks for the info. I can relax now.

But I have a new more severe issue that just came out of the blue. I have 10.14.6 18G9022 on a private partition on a 3,1 that has been running great for some time even after the 2021-003 SecUpdt. The other morning I fired up my machine, it booted all the way to the desktop I was able to a couple things, then it rebooted itself. About halfway through the next startup, it restarted again. But this time I get nothing but a continuous evenly flashing power light. That usually means Memory issues.

But it will run great with no issues off another partition, same drive, running Sierra. Matter of fact, it's defaulting to starting up off that Sierra install. I've run Disk Utility off the DD1 Patcher USB, reinstalled the patches, reinstalled the OS, back to 18G103. Learned that after an 18G103 installation you can go right to 2021-002 when I did it on an APFS partition, probably 003 now. Same intermittent shutdown and reboot with flashing power light on the original install. But not in Sierra when it boots to it.

Often I can't get to the Boot Picker and the machine continues to boot to Sierra. I'm just about ready to fire it up and see if I get any Memory LEDs on the daughter boards. Then depending on what that yields, unplug everything check the cards and DIMMs, blow everything out and go from there.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated . . .

 

[L Caputo]

Firmware version MP31.006C.B05 is basically the only firmware version available for cMP3,1.

I say "basically" because there is rare version that apparently came with the very first cMP3,1 units out of the factory but that and was soon stopped.
If you ever upgraded the OS that came from the factory, you would be on MP31.006C.B05. Even if you never did, you would most likely be on that firmware version anyway.

There is no update for cMP3,1. SilentKnight is not checking the Mac Model and just assumes you are on a model supported for Mojave/Catalina as others have mentioned.


There was no firmware update for the cMP3,1 in HiSierra actually ... remember that cMP3,1 support had already been dropped before HiSierra.

When installing High Sierra on the MP 3.1 I performed the firmware update as requested from the first installation screen, I believe the firmware update was necessary to facilitate the booting of APFS formatted disks/ partitions.

 

[joevt]

When installing High Sierra on the MP 3.1 I performed the firmware update as requested from the first installation screen, I believe the firmware update was necessary to facilitate the booting of APFS formatted disks/ partitions.

MacPro3,1 only support macOS up to 10.11 El Capitan. High Sierra would not have a firmware update for MacPro3,1. There is a rom patch that adds APFS for MacPro3,1

APFS ROM Patcher

Since @dosdude1 released the APFS ROM Patcher utility, has anyone used it to successfully enable APFS in their unsupported Mac's ROM? Has anyone been adventurous enough to try and fail? I've searched and searched and it is hard to find success and fail stories and I hope there could be a central...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Dayo]

When installing High Sierra on the MP 3.1 I performed the firmware update as requested from the first installation screen, I believe the firmware update was necessary to facilitate the booting of APFS formatted disks/ partitions.

MacPro3,1 is not supported by Apple on HiSierra (or LoSierra before it) and they would therefore not include a firmware update for an unsupported unit as the previous poster pointed out

I presume you installed with DosDude's tool which would have installed a patch to enable booting APFS ... that was not a firmware update.

 

[HDMC]

Urgent !
After installing the last security update, my monitor with the display port isn't working anymore ...
it´s like with Catalina (Display port issue)
Anyone with the same issue and a solution ?
I am on a Mc Pro 3.1 and 10.14.6
Cheers

 

[FarmerBob]

Urgent !
After installing the last security update, my monitor with the display port isn't working anymore ...
it´s like with Catalina (Display port issue)
Anyone with the same issue and a solution ?
I am on a Mc Pro 3.1 and 10.14.6
Cheers

Somewhere along the update process I lost my second Video Card and two monitors. So now when I run the Patch Updaters I add in the "Legacy Video" and it works now. Also select all of the video Patches and one gets added later.

 

[HDMC]

Somewhere along the update process I lost my second Video Card and two monitors. So now when I run the Patch Updaters I add in the "Legacy Video" and it works now. Also select all of the video Patches and one gets added later.

Thanks for the reply !
I do have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, which is recommended and still I do have this issue ?
Someone else ?

 

[L Caputo]

Thanks for the reply !
I do have a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, which is recommended and still I do have this issue ?
Someone else ?

Hi Mac Pro 3.1 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 680, running Mojave 10.14.6 Build Number 18G9028,
Security Update 2021-003 installed. DisplayPort to HDMI working fine to my Sony 4k TV.

When installing the Security Update and then redoing the post install patches did you make sure the legacy video
patch was deselected.

 

[HDMC]

Hi Mac Pro 3.1 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 680, running Mojave 10.14.6 Build Number 18G9028,
Security Update 2021-003 installed. DisplayPort to HDMI working fine to my Sony 4k TV.

When installing the Security Update and then redoing the post install patches did you make sure the legacy video
patch was deselected.

Thanks very much !
Must have click on the Legacy video patch ... it works now !
Only way is to install macOS again and apply the patches.
Or would there be another way ?
There is no way to depatch, I guess ...

 

[L Caputo]

Thanks very much !
Must have click on the Legacy video patch ... it works now !
Only way is to install macOS again and apply the patches.
Or would there be another way ?
There is no way to depatch, I guess ...

First of all I would try reapplying the patches, boot to your Mojave install USB, select the post install patches option
select Mac Pro 3.1 from the drop down and then make sure the legacy video patch is deselected, apple the patches
and then Reboot with Force Cache Rebuild selected. See if this brings back the DisplayPort functionality.
If not then reinstalling Mojave and reapplying patches may be the only way forward.

 

[jordanfc21]

Help! Today I tried upgrading my MacBook Pro 15” 2011 from high Sierra to Mojave with the latest @dosdude1 patcher. My Mac has FileVault enabled if that makes a difference. The install was successful, however, when I rebooted after patching I get the stop sign on startup and then my Mac shuts down. Booting into single user recovery, I can’t do anything as it says “This version of Mac OS X s not supported on this platform!”

please, if anyone has had this issue and resolved it I would really appreciate it!

 

[RK78]

Running HSierra (supported) and Mojave on separate partitions. Several times now, have discovered SIP disabled in the HSierra partition, without having done anything to make that happen. Each time this has happened, have re-enabled SIP for the HSierra.

Seems unlikely, but is there any way that the Mojave partition, where SIP is necessarily disabled, could be causing this across partitions?

 

[mrploppy]

Running HSierra (supported) and Mojave on separate partitions. Several times now, have discovered SIP disabled in the HSierra partition, without having done anything to make that happen. Each time this has happened, have re-enabled SIP for the HSierra.

Seems unlikely, but is there any way that the Mojave partition, where SIP is necessarily disabled, could be causing this across partitions?

I may be wrong but my understanding is that there's only one SIP i.e. it's not per-partition. That's why, when you boot into Recovery and disable SIP, it's disabled for your main system.

 

[RK78]

I may be wrong but my understanding is that there's only one SIP i.e. it's not per-partition. That's why, when you boot into Recovery and disable SIP, it's disabled for your main system.

According to that, SIP enabled from recovery mode in HSierra, should have prevented the Mojave partition from booting, but unsurprisingly it didn't. (Have done this many times, and this is the expected behavior.)

Plus, to test if booting to the Mojave was somehow causing SIP to be disabled in HSierra, restarted back to the HSierra, where SIP remained enabled.

Hmmm ????

 

[mrploppy]

According to that, SIP enabled from recovery mode in HSierra, should have prevented the Mojave partition from booting, but unsurprisingly it didn't. (Have done this many times, and this is the expected behavior.)

Plus, to test if booting to the Mojave was somehow causing SIP to be disabled in HSierra, restarted back to the HSierra, where SIP remained enabled.

Hmmm ????

I'm not an expert on SIP, but don't forget there's the SIP Disabler Patch - the post-install patch. I vaguely remember someone saying that the patch allows you to boot regardless of the actual SIP state.

 

[RK78]

I'm not an expert on SIP, but don't forget there's the SIP Disabler Patch - the post-install patch. I vaguely remember someone saying that the patch allows you to boot regardless of the actual SIP state.

Thought about that, but checking csrutil status showed disabled just after booting.* Maybe next time this happens I'll be able to tie it to something. But doesn't seem to be whatever Mojave is doing.

*EDIT: Although that doesn't necessarily preclude what you pointed out, that the SIP Disable Patch could have been responsible.

 

[mrploppy]

Thought about that, but checking csrutil status showed disabled just after booting.* Maybe next time this happens I'll be able to tie it to something. But doesn't seem to be whatever Mojave is doing.

*EDIT: Although that doesn't necessarily preclude what you pointed out, that the SIP Disable Patch could have been responsible.

I doesn't sound to me like you have a real issue. As I said, there is only one SIP per machine (not per partition) and it's stored in NVRAM (I think). Mojave might boot with SIP enabled - because of the SIPManager.kext (installed by post-install patch?). Easy to check though, isn't it.

 

[K two]

Thought about that, but checking csrutil status showed disabled just after booting.* Maybe next time this happens I'll be able to tie it to something. But doesn't seem to be whatever Mojave is doing.

*EDIT: Although that doesn't necessarily preclude what you pointed out, that the SIP Disable Patch could have been responsible.

All of the @dosdude1 patchers disable SIP as SOP, it's a requirement. The OCLP disables SIP, as well. Keeping X-Protect and MRT up-to-date is more important. ?

 

[RK78]

I seem to have gotten sidetracked concerning whether SIP being disabled or enabled at the HSierra (supported), will have any effect on SIP at the Mojave. Clearly, since the Mojave Patcher necessarily disables SIP in order to run this isn't the pertinent question.

Still need to find out why several times I've found SIP (maybe spontaneously??) disabled at the HSierra. The answer, whatever that might be, seems to be completely unrelated to the Mojave partition, where SIP is disabled by the particular operation of the Patcher, and not dependent on having SIP disabled or enabled globally in NVRAM.

 

[mrploppy]

I seem to have gotten sidetracked concerning whether SIP being disabled or enabled at the HSierra (supported), will have any effect on SIP at the Mojave. Clearly, since the Mojave Patcher necessarily disables SIP in order to run this isn't the pertinent question.

Still need to find out why several times I've found SIP (maybe spontaneously??) disabled at the HSierra. The answer, whatever that might be, seems to be completely unrelated to the Mojave partition, where SIP is disabled by the particular operation of the Patcher, and not dependent on having SIP disabled or enabled globally in NVRAM.

Since you have Mojave (unsupported) on the same machine as HS (supported) you're sort of forced to leave SIP disabled, aren't you? Because the advice is to leave SIP disabled when running Mojave unsupported (SIPManager.kext notwithstanding). Unless you want it on for when you're running HS and off for Mojave - which means booting into something else (Recovery or the Mojave Patcher, in order to change the setting) every time you want to switch from one to the other (again SIPManager.kext notwithstanding because I'm not entirely sure what it does).

 

[Ausdauersportler]

All of the @dosdude1 patchers disable SIP as SOP, it's a requirement. The OCLP disables SIP, as well. Keeping X-Protect and MRT up-to-date is more important. ?

OCLP disables SIP only when system volume changes are unavoidable (aka patching back OpenGL graphics acceleration). You could mod your iMac11,2 to get an metal enabled GPU to move over to into the SIP enabled world, again