If you use the internet much on that machine, expect a drive-by at some point. Malware getting into web ads happens, and is just enough to worry.
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MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0
- Thread starter tsialex
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Yes.
No, Apple services would have to be infected for this scenario, since you can't intercept HTTPS easily.
You could, for example, just download the update from Software Update, then extract the *RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg and install the firmware from there with the MacOS Install.app.
I did try that and it seems to cause kernel panics when sending the box to sleep. Not sure that's a coincidence. Would be interested if others see the same when disabling HT/SMT...
Cheers
Just as a data point, I was still on 140.0.0.0.0 (never bothered installing 141). I could not get the 144 firmware to install while running from my WD Black 500GB NVMe SSD on a Kyro M.2 evo PCIe adapter. Tried a dozen or more times, holding the power button down different lengths of time (until flashing, until long beep, after long beep, etc. etc.)--always got the same symptom, the cMP would reboot about 5 seconds after the long beep and boot back into Mojave.
Fortunately I still had my old Mojave install (on an OEM Apple SATA SSD) from before I bought the NVMe drive. Changed the Startup drive to that, ran the 10.14.5 full installer, shut down, held the power button until I heard the long tone. Then, the CD tray opened and everything proceeded normally.
This was the first firmware upgrade I have attempted from this NVMe drive. I've seen that others have had no issues so it may just be this particular WD Black drive, the Kyro adapter, or some other peculiarity of my setup.
It could also have been something related to the 140 firmware that had been fixed in 141. Hard to say at this point. But I would say to anyone else having trouble flashing the firmware from an NVMe drive, try from a SATA SSD/HDD.
Fortunately I still had my old Mojave install (on an OEM Apple SATA SSD) from before I bought the NVMe drive. Changed the Startup drive to that, ran the 10.14.5 full installer, shut down, held the power button until I heard the long tone. Then, the CD tray opened and everything proceeded normally.
This was the first firmware upgrade I have attempted from this NVMe drive. I've seen that others have had no issues so it may just be this particular WD Black drive, the Kyro adapter, or some other peculiarity of my setup.
It could also have been something related to the 140 firmware that had been fixed in 141. Hard to say at this point. But I would say to anyone else having trouble flashing the firmware from an NVMe drive, try from a SATA SSD/HDD.
I would think this to be the case. I do all my firmware upgrades while booted to NVMe. Never a problem so far on my system.
Came to the party quite late... anyways, Macpro 5,1 12core 3.33GHz, 64Gb RAM, still running 10.11.6 on an internal HD.
I want to upgrade and migrate everything to an NMVe (Samsung 970EVO 1Tb) on a MicroConnectors PCIe card.
Opened 10.13 full installer, did just the firmware update, Boot ROM went from MP51.007F.B03 to MP51.0084.B00.
Now (AFAIK) in order to see the NVMe drive (where I want to install HS first and then Mojave, but migrating all my apps from 10.11.6), I have to upgrade the Boot ROM to 140.0.0.0.0 or later. How to achieve that since obviously the Mojave installer requires HS ?
I want to upgrade and migrate everything to an NMVe (Samsung 970EVO 1Tb) on a MicroConnectors PCIe card.
Opened 10.13 full installer, did just the firmware update, Boot ROM went from MP51.007F.B03 to MP51.0084.B00.
Now (AFAIK) in order to see the NVMe drive (where I want to install HS first and then Mojave, but migrating all my apps from 10.11.6), I have to upgrade the Boot ROM to 140.0.0.0.0 or later. How to achieve that since obviously the Mojave installer requires HS ?
Thank you, I was able to update to Boot ROM MP51.0089.B00.
Now I am still on 10.11.6. What I want to do is upgrade to HS on an SSD NMVe drive (migrating my apps from 10.11.6). Will I be able to see it or do I have to find a way to update to 140.0.0.0.0 ? The ssd has not arrived yet so I can't check directly for a couple days. I'm not interested in updating to Mojave, just migrating to the SSD with HS would be enough, but of course I can buy a metal compatible video card.
Thank you
It's not. My main disk is a 970 Pro installed in a SSD7101-A. Never had any problems flashing BootROMs and I probably flash in a week more than a normal Mac Pro user will flash in a lifetime.
So I 've finally been able to update to 144.xx and it seems the issue I had was specific to the Samsung 970 EVO.
Luckily, I had a SM951 laying around, so I popped that in and used that drive to update to 10.14.5 and the BootROM ran completely fine. So it seems several folks are having issues with updating, depending on the NVME model they have.
Weird, never had problems with BootROM upgrades with NVMe drives. Thx for the report.
Some other oddball data points:
Updating the firmware on a 2012 Mac Pro with RX 580 on 10.13.6 that was previously flashed with 141.0.0.0 that Alex sent to me, clicked the shutdown button in the 10.14.5 installer firmware update screen, and it took forever to shutdown. Instead of shutting down, it rebooted. I suspect that Mac had already queued some updates to install and installing them took priority over actually shutting down. Second try, all went as expected.
Updated the firmware on a 2009 4,1->5,1 with MVC Titan booted from a Mojave install on a Samsung 840 on a Tempo SATA III card. All went as expected. One oddity is switching the boot drive back to the High Sierra NVME (KryoM.2/970 Pro) booted into HS just fine, but after installing a few of the updates in HS, it rebooted into recovery mode. This has happened on occasion. Sometimes it just decides to reboot to recovery after certain operations. Was really scary when it did that with a GPU that didn't have boot screen support because boot time to recovery is crazy long.
I bring that up because I wonder if some people updating the ROM from HS with a nVidia webdriver only card are getting thrown into recovery where they can't see what is going on.
Updating the firmware on a 2012 Mac Pro with RX 580 on 10.13.6 that was previously flashed with 141.0.0.0 that Alex sent to me, clicked the shutdown button in the 10.14.5 installer firmware update screen, and it took forever to shutdown. Instead of shutting down, it rebooted. I suspect that Mac had already queued some updates to install and installing them took priority over actually shutting down. Second try, all went as expected.
Updated the firmware on a 2009 4,1->5,1 with MVC Titan booted from a Mojave install on a Samsung 840 on a Tempo SATA III card. All went as expected. One oddity is switching the boot drive back to the High Sierra NVME (KryoM.2/970 Pro) booted into HS just fine, but after installing a few of the updates in HS, it rebooted into recovery mode. This has happened on occasion. Sometimes it just decides to reboot to recovery after certain operations. Was really scary when it did that with a GPU that didn't have boot screen support because boot time to recovery is crazy long.
I bring that up because I wonder if some people updating the ROM from HS with a nVidia webdriver only card are getting thrown into recovery where they can't see what is going on.
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A nice uneventful upgrade here on a 2010 MP going from 141.0.0.0.0 to 144.0.0.0.0, then from 10.14.4 to 10.14.5. All worked as expected, and no issues so far with single 6-core, Intel NVMe boot drive, and RX570 (an early OEM which shows as RX470). No change to performance noted so far and my one SATA drive that tends to sleep then not wake until a cold reboot remains the same.
As noted earlier, a system report now shows Hyperthreading Enabled, where previous no mention was made. Off topic, both a MBP 8.1 and MBP 9.2 got firmware updates.
Thanks to all, especially tsialex for the help, tips and insights.
As noted earlier, a system report now shows Hyperthreading Enabled, where previous no mention was made. Off topic, both a MBP 8.1 and MBP 9.2 got firmware updates.
Thanks to all, especially tsialex for the help, tips and insights.
Strange. No issues upgrading to 10.14.5, but I currently have 140.0.0.0.0 and can't update the firmware to 144.0.0.0.0. Didn't have any issues upgrading previous firmware before. Anyone else?
I use the full installer as always have. Same procedure as when I graded to 138 then to 140. The only difference is this time after reboot the power led flashing and beep I notice the DVD didn’t eject as it has in the past.
Hi had a similar problem of @PowerMike
MacPro 5.1 (2010 with X5677 cpu), kryo + evo970
Before this last bootrom update this mac would fail to boot 50% of the times...
Bootrom update (with full 10.14.5 installer) did not work, I ended up booting from a sata ssd and run the bootrom update from there: all good. Then I updated the os on the evo970, again all good.
Now this mac is on 10.14.5 with bootrom 144.0.0.0.0 and for the first time today it booted right away from the evo970.
Will check the next days, but it never booted right away in the last month, it usually booted the second try.
I have also disabled hyper-threading, as my cpu will not receive microcode updates according to this: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/w...A00233-microcode-update-guidance_05132019.pdf
Right away the mac does not seem slower, will see next time I'll work with heavy images.
MacPro 5.1 (2010 with X5677 cpu), kryo + evo970
Before this last bootrom update this mac would fail to boot 50% of the times...
Bootrom update (with full 10.14.5 installer) did not work, I ended up booting from a sata ssd and run the bootrom update from there: all good. Then I updated the os on the evo970, again all good.
Now this mac is on 10.14.5 with bootrom 144.0.0.0.0 and for the first time today it booted right away from the evo970.
Will check the next days, but it never booted right away in the last month, it usually booted the second try.
I have also disabled hyper-threading, as my cpu will not receive microcode updates according to this: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/w...A00233-microcode-update-guidance_05132019.pdf
Right away the mac does not seem slower, will see next time I'll work with heavy images.
Good to hear. I remember Intel said even disabling the hyper-threading will not completely prevent from risk. It may help reduce the risk. So we totally rely on the software fix from APPLE now.
Sierra only work with NVMe drives that have 4096 bytes per sector, most drives are 512 bytes per sector. Read here: Blade SSDs - NVMe & AHCI
NVMe native boot support starts with 140.0.0.0.0.
A METAL supported GPU is required for 1xx.0.0.0.0 BootROM updates.
High Sierra works perfectly with NVMe and 14x.0.0.0.0 firmwares.
I upgraded from 140.0.0.0 with no issue. I have an original Apple SSD though (dumb PCIe adapter).
Thank you bookemdano,
I had 140.0.0.0.0 installed on my 2009 4,1 -> 5,1 Mac Pro. Mojave installed on a NVME m.2 960 Evo using a lycom Adapter card. After numerous failed attempts to upgrade to 144.0.0.0.0 (SMC Reset, Clearing PRAM, Taking out all adapter cards. Switching out GPU, removing ram), I cloned my Mojave to a SATA Hard drive and booted to one of the Drive Bays. The Updated went through successfully.
I had 140.0.0.0.0 installed on my 2009 4,1 -> 5,1 Mac Pro. Mojave installed on a NVME m.2 960 Evo using a lycom Adapter card. After numerous failed attempts to upgrade to 144.0.0.0.0 (SMC Reset, Clearing PRAM, Taking out all adapter cards. Switching out GPU, removing ram), I cloned my Mojave to a SATA Hard drive and booted to one of the Drive Bays. The Updated went through successfully.