MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0

[tsialex]

Hi, I've been reading through this thread. Very interesting stuff. Please excuse my questions as I'm not intending to derail your thread. I'm running a true 5,1 with upgraded duel X5690's and a flashed EFI GTX 980. I still use 10.11.6 and intend on staying there for a while as I'm an audio engineer and everything currently works. However, I'm interested in the benefit the firmware updates bring mainly in security and PCIe 5GT/s support.
1. Have you noticed any decrease in performance post security patches? (I don't use that computer online so in my case the pros wouldn't outweigh the cons)

It's minimal performance penalty, almost not measurable with benchmarks and you shouldn't nowadays use previous Spectre/Meltdown BootROMs, even with a Mac that don't access internet.

2. NVMe support? I'm assuming still not bootable but will it work fine as a data ssd?

BootROM 140.0.0.0 has NVMe boot support for all NVMe cards that work with a Mac Pro, not all NVMe blades work with a Mac Pro, read the first post of Blade SSDs - NVMe & AHCI thread.

3. Can I take 14.0.0.0.0 after properly taking the final High Sierra firmware and still run El Capitan successfully with the Nvidia Web Drivers? I'm aware there aren't web drivers for Mojave yet but not sure if that matters since I only want the firmware and not the OS.

El Capitan don't have NVMe support, but you can use AHCI blades like Apple OEM, Samsung SM951-AHCI and Kingston Predator AHCI.

140.0.0.0.0 works even with Snow Leopard.

4. Anything else to be aware of before proceeding with these updates? I know it's not really reversible and I'd like to proceed with caution only if there is real benefit for me. I'm also hoping that my fans stop revving up upon cold boot due to the 3rd party GPU. They do settle down after it hits a threshold but the PCIe fans run slightly higher than they used to. Also 2.5GT/s link speed reported with GPU. After reading this thread it sounds like that isn't purely cosmetic as I've been told in the past.

BootROM updates don't change SMC behaviour.

With 138.0.0.0.0, Apple now support 5GT/s for all PCIe cards, not just the cards with Mac EFI. From now on, any card that supports PCIe 2.0 works as a PCIe 2.0 with MP5,1.

You can get from MP51.0089.B00 (10.13.6 MAS full installer for High Sierra) directly to 140.0.0.0.0 (10.14.1, 10.14.2 and 10.14.3 MAS full installers for Mojave). Read the first post of MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave thread.

 

[Mac_User 0101]

It's minimal performance penalty, almost not measurable with benchmarks and you shouldn't nowadays use previous Spectre/Meltdown BootROMs, even with a Mac that don't access internet.



BootROM 140.0.0.0 has NVMe boot support for all NVMe cards that work with a Mac Pro, not all NVMe blades work with a Mac Pro, read the first post of Blade SSDs - NVMe & AHCI thread.



El Capitan don't have NVMe support, but you can use AHCI blades like Apple OEM, Samsung SM951-AHCI and Kingston Predator AHCI.

140.0.0.0.0 works even with Snow Leopard.



BootROM updates don't change SMC behaviour.

With 138.0.0.0.0, Apple now support 5GT/s for all PCIe cards, not just the cards with Mac EFI. From now on, any card that supports PCIe 2.0 works as a PCIe 2.0 with MP5,1.

You can get from MP51.0089.B00 (10.13.6 MAS full installer for High Sierra) directly to 140.0.0.0.0 (10.14.1, 10.14.2 and 10.14.3 MAS full installers for Mojave). Read the first post of MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave thread.

Thanks. I read the thread linked and have a good understanding of how to do the update. A few more questions and I should be set:
1. Following the link to get MAS 10.13.6 it's only downloading a 22.7MB installer. Package seems to contain the legacy firmware and the installer tells me to update the firmware so that might be ok.
2. What wasn't clear from the linked thread was after taking 140 (remaining on previous OS) will I still be able to use a non metal GPU? Again I'm not updating to Mojave (there aren't even web drivers yet), I'm just taking the firmware.
3. Should I read though any other threads and figure out how to backup my current Boot Rom just in case? I thought I read somewhere you stating you could trick a revert by renaming forward.

 

[bsbeamer]

For #1, search for info on "installinstallmacos.py" on this forum and visit this page:
https://github.com/munki/macadmin-scripts/blob/master/installinstallmacos.py

You will likely need to download the full installer directly through that script. HOWEVER, the smaller (22.7MB) installer DOES include the firmware update and I was personally able to use that for getting to either MP51.0089.B00 or 138.0.0.0.0 at one point.

 

[tsialex]

Apple forgot to release 10.14.4? Nothing new on update or seed channels.

Correction, Cupertino updated MobileDeviceOnDemand, nothing else until now.

 

[tsialex]

Still no 10.14.4, but Apple updated the update and seed channels with CLTools updates (SWIFT 5 support).

If anyone still use El Capitan: Apple just released CLTools_macOS_DevSDK_Remove_1011.pkg. So, now El Capitan is really really dead, even the SDK is deprecated.

 

[tsialex]

Apple released all other Macs firmware updates. MP6,1 got the same 129.0.0.0.0 as the betas.

$IBIOSI$ MP61.88Z.F000.B00.1902141849Copyright (c) 2005-2019 Apple Inc.  All rights reserved.
Apple ROM Version
  Model:        MP61
  EFI Version:  129.0.0.0.0
  Built by:     root@saumon
  Date:         Thu Feb 14 18:49:50 PST 2019
  Revision:     129 (B&I)
  ROM Version:  F000_B00
  Build Type:   Official Build, Release
  Compiler:     Apple clang version 3.0 (tags/Apple/clang-211.10.1) (based on LLVM 3.0svn)

 

[tsialex]

Seed channel already have 10.14.4 final, I'm downloading it now.

 

[bsbeamer]

Public release for MP5,1 still on 140.0.0.0.0?

 

[chrfr]

Seed channel already have 10.14.4 final, I'm downloading it now.

10.14.4 is now released for everyone.

 

[tsialex]

Mac App Store installer updated to 10.14.4:

 

[tsialex]

Apple released 10.14.4 final with 141.0.0.0.0 BootROM version:

$IBIOSI$ MP51.88Z.F000.B00.1812191621
‰Apple ROM Version
  Model:        MP51
  EFI Version:  141.0.0.0.0
  Date:         Wed Dec 19 16:15:33 2018
  Build Type:   Release

So, it's safe to upgrade your BootROM to 141.0.0.0.0, no bricks with W3xxx Xeons.

Apple will probably start with new betas next week, let's see what 10.14.5 DP1 will bring to MP5,1.

[doublepost=1553554642][/doublepost]As usual, Apple says nothing about the firmware upgrades on the Security Upgrade release notes:

About the security content of macOS Mojave 10.14.4, Security Update 2019-002 High Sierra, Security Update 2019-002 Sierra

 

[MisterAndrew]

I noticed there's a 2nd build (18E2034). I wonder if there's anything interesting in it.

 

[tsialex]

I noticed there's a 2nd build (18E2034). I wonder if there's anything interesting in it.

I'm downloading it, it's probably the build for the new iMacs and the iMac Pro with new GPU.

 

[tsialex]

Build 18E2034 has the same 141.0.0.0.0 BootROM as build 18E226:

$IBIOSI$ MP51.88Z.F000.B00.1812191621
‰Apple ROM Version
  Model:        MP51
  EFI Version:  141.0.0.0.0
  Date:         Wed Dec 19 16:15:33 2018
  Build Type:   Release

 

[trifero]

Don´t let me update as my boot drive is not APFS

 

[tsialex]

Don´t let me update as my boot drive is not APFS

This is not news, we know this since before the Mojave GM.

 

[MisterAndrew]

I'm trying to download the 18E2034 build with the script and it gives this error:
"installer: Error - ERROR_474D32D8FC
Command '['/usr/sbin/installer', '-pkg', './content/downloads/44/42/041-47723/gt7p2zncc41nrdr8ahp0c4udjrf01r43kn/041-47723.English.dist', '-target', '/private/tmp/dmg.6Kohvq']' returned non-zero exit status 1
Product installation failed."

Edit: Must be because the build isn't supported by the MP5,1.

 

[trifero]

This is not news, we know this since before the Mojave GM.

Anyway, I´m now at 141.0.0.0

 

[tsialex]

I'm trying to download the 18E2034 build with the script and it gives this error:
"installer: Error - ERROR_474D32D8FC"

I'm still downloading, just started BaseSystem.dmg and it will take some time to download the rest.
[doublepost=1553558334][/doublepost]18E2034 is a special build for these two Macs:

• Mac-AA95B1DDAB278B95 (Radeon Pro Vega 48)
• Mac-63001698E7A34814

 

[jaysee_au]

I just ran the update from System Prefs (10.14.4) and with my setup it didn't seem to do the EFI update?

      Model Name: Mac Pro
      Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
      Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
      Processor Speed: 3.46 GHz
      Number of Processors: 2
      Total Number of Cores: 8
      L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
      L3 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB
      Memory: 32 GB
      Boot ROM Version: 140.0.0.0.0
      SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
      SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

It did pop out both DVD drives on reboot though (so I thought it may have been!)...

Edit: Wondering if this may be because I'm still running a GTX680 Mac Firmware GPU?

 

[Eschers]

I just ran the update from System Prefs (10.14.4) and with my setup it didn't seem to do the EFI update?

      Model Name: Mac Pro
      Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
      Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
      Processor Speed: 3.46 GHz
      Number of Processors: 2
      Total Number of Cores: 8
      L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
      L3 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB
      Memory: 32 GB
      Boot ROM Version: 140.0.0.0.0
      SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
      SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

It did pop out both DVD drives on reboot though (so I thought it may have been!)...

Edit: Wondering if this may be because I'm still running a GTX680 Mac Firmware GPU?

As far as I know (and just did by myself)you have to download the full installer via AppStore and then start it, from where you will be prompted to follow the firmware update procedure!

 

[PianoPro]

As far as I know (and just did by myself)you have to download the full installer via AppStore and then start it, from where you will be prompted to follow the firmware update procedure!

I just ran the update from System Prefs (10.14.4) and with my setup it didn't seem to do the EFI update?

Correct. Download the full installer and it will do the firmware upgrade. After the FW upgrade it will give you the opportunity to stop before proceeding to the operating system upgrade again.

 

[jaysee_au]

Thanks @Eschers & @PianoPro. Downloading full installer now. Any specific benefits to 141.0.0.0 that make it worth the effort?

 

[Eschers]

Thanks @Eschers & @PianoPro. Downloading full installer now. Any specific benefits to 141.0.0.0 that make it worth the effort?

On the first post of this thread is a lot of information for 141 from @tsialex such as:

• Build date is 20181219
• CRC32 is 58ee7535.
• same microcodes as 138.0.0.0.0
• same NVMe module as 140.0.0.0.0

So I guess no major feature improvements. However, safer to be on the newest bootrom and upgrade your machine!

 

[hknatm]

hi guys, I am having trouble with my Mac Pro 5.1 again. it boots slow (I mean chime sound comes late, it was short before).

I changed the rams to Micron MT36JSF2G72PZ-1G6E1FE 16 gb stick Slots 1/2/5/6
Cpu to X5675.

@tsialex helped me out about my processor tray changing process and bootrom configuration. Thanks Alex.

And now after I changed my cpus I can not dump rom to check if I have hardware panics on NVRAM. there should be a problem. The MacOS freezes sometime when I am using it.