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MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0
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Use this AST_BBS_1_1.rar Download (1.77 MB) Make USB using balenaEtcher-1.5.102 boot insto BBS and it works automatic
I have a Mac Pro 4.1 (bought used recently) with a weird symptom, where it turns on but there is no chime and I can’t firmware restore the Mac because when I hold down the power button with the a firmware restore CD inside, the power button’s led just doesn’t blink although I hold it. It just stays solid white?
Any ideas?
• tried minimal configuration
• removed drives
• removed and swapped CPU tray and did some trouble shooting, but still no joy
• EFI card is installed (GT120)
Any ideas?
• tried minimal configuration
• removed drives
• removed and swapped CPU tray and did some trouble shooting, but still no joy
• EFI card is installed (GT120)
It's bricked.
Btw, when you cross-flash an early-2009 Mac Pro with MP5,1 firmware, you will lose the ability of use Firmware Restore CD. You can't use a MP4,1 or a MP5,1 Firmware Restore CD with a MP4,1>5,1.
Since MP4,1>5,1 are hybrids, one of the several problems is that you can't restore the firmware anymore. Buy a brand new SPI flash, write the 144.0.0.0.0 MP51.fd, desolder the original U8700 SPI flash, solder the new one and get your MP4,1>5,1 booting again.
After that, we can try to recover the hardwareIDs from the dump of the corrupted SPI flash.
zip archive is asking for a password for info.plist. Do you happen to know what it is by chance?
If you had simply used the search function, you would have found that it’s “rom”.
Hi Folks.
I write here, hoping it's the right place.
I've got a 4.1 cmp, I've successfully upgraded to the High Sierra firmware. After the upgrade I was able to login to the old Sierra os, where I could start the upgrade to High Sierra, but I didn't do that. I just wanted to upgrade to the newest firmare available using Mojave installer, but I had to install High Sierra first. I have a usb key to do a fresh install, so I restarted the computer and since then I keep having the grey screen.
I hear the booting chime but after that nothing. I got rid of anything inside the mac but graphics card nvidia gt120, still same issue. At the moment I don't have an original apple keyboard, so shift command and ctrl pressed at boot are not working. I did with success the NVRAM an the smc resets. Still on grey screen.
I've just purchased an original apple usb keyboard, I'm waiting for the arrival. In the meantime, have you got any ideas of what's happening here?
I write here, hoping it's the right place.
I've got a 4.1 cmp, I've successfully upgraded to the High Sierra firmware. After the upgrade I was able to login to the old Sierra os, where I could start the upgrade to High Sierra, but I didn't do that. I just wanted to upgrade to the newest firmare available using Mojave installer, but I had to install High Sierra first. I have a usb key to do a fresh install, so I restarted the computer and since then I keep having the grey screen.
I hear the booting chime but after that nothing. I got rid of anything inside the mac but graphics card nvidia gt120, still same issue. At the moment I don't have an original apple keyboard, so shift command and ctrl pressed at boot are not working. I did with success the NVRAM an the smc resets. Still on grey screen.
I've just purchased an original apple usb keyboard, I'm waiting for the arrival. In the meantime, have you got any ideas of what's happening here?
Not the correct thread. Please read the first post of the sticky thread:
MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...
forums.macrumors.com
@tsialex I read it. I did the upgrade following that post. But still don't know what's happening and still don't know where to correctly post. Could you assist me in that please?Not the correct thread. Please read the first post of the sticky thread:
MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...
Diagnose what you did wrong, remove all disks and try to boot from a High Sierra createinstallmedia USB key.
If you need further assist, please post on the thread I linked, not here.
That's plenty fast enough for me. With that speed, a HighPoint SSD7101A is a costly option for one card. What would you recommend for a single memory 1TB card, or two of them not running raid, and also Windows usable?
You want something that simply don't exist/not even possible. It's the PCIe switch of the HighPoint SSD7101A-1 and others that transform the wide and slow PCIe v2.0 x16 MP5,1 slot into the fast and narrow PCIe v3.0 x4 for the M.2 blade and then makes 3200MB/s possible with single M.2 device installed on a MP5,1.
A non switched low cost card is limited to the M.2 connection, a M.2 device is always PCIe x4 or less, and when installed on a MP5,1, this means a throughput of ~1450MB/s.
Please read the first post of the PCIe thread, ask your questions there and not here.
PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI
This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...
forums.macrumors.com
Thanks tsialex, will do.
But hey you know, its 1:30 am in Brazil ... I get into trouble if I am not with my wife by then ...
Then again, with this Covid getting into trouble seems more common ...
But hey you know, its 1:30 am in Brazil ... I get into trouble if I am not with my wife by then ...
Then again, with this Covid getting into trouble seems more common ...
Alex and the rest of you all, thank you for what you do to help us.Mac Pro 5,1 BootROM releases, from the oldest EFI update to the newest:
BootROM Version Released with: Type: Note: MP51.007F.B03 Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5 General release First public released Mac Pro 5,1 firmware update, microcodes vulnerable to Spectre and Meltdown MP51.0083.B00 10.13 DP5 Beta Beta APFS support, microcodes vulnerable to Spectre and Meltdown MP51.0084.B00 10.13 DP6 and 10.13.0 General release Initial APFS support, microcodes vulnerable to Spectre and Meltdown MP51.0085.B00 10.13.4 and Mojave DP1 to DP3 General release APFS support, microcodes vulnerable to Spectre and Meltdown MP51.0087.B00 10.13.5 General release Missing microcodes and bricks the Mac Pro if you boot UEFI installed Windows 10 MP51.0089.B00 10.13.6 General release Spectre/Meltdown mitigated microcodes on the April 2 Microcode Update Guidance. 138.0.0.0.0 10.14 DP7 and 10.14.0 General release 5GT/s support for every PCIe 2.0 card 139.0.0.0.0 10.14.1 DP1 Beta minor updates and corrections 140.0.0.0.0 10.14.1 DP3 and 10.14.1 to 10.14.4 General release Native NVMe boot support, several minor updates and corrections 141.0.0.0.0 10.14.4 DP2 Beta minor updates and corrections 142.0.0.0.0 10.14.4 DP4 and 10.14.5 DP1 Beta Updated APFSJumpStart EFI module - W3xxx Xeon bricker.
This BootROM version was never released outside betas.144.0.0.0.0 10.14.5 DP4 and 10.14.5 General release lot's of corrections, booting improvements, works with W3xxx Xeons.
This is the current BootROM release
For BootROM upgrades, please read the first post of the thread:
MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...
For MP4,1 to MP5,1 cross firmware flashing, see this thread below:
Mac Pro Firmware Upgrade Utility Released!
Mac Pro Firmware Upgrade Utility Released!forum.netkas.org
I want to update my firmware from 140. to 144. I already on Mojave. trying to find the procedure.
Use this instructions, pay attention to the notes:
MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
Hi tsialex,
Sorry for the noob question I am new on Mac Pro.
I would like to check my bootROM whether it has the issue of the windows 10 secureBoot.
Can you help me with step by step, I'm very new with this, never had experience of dumping any rom.
My spec:
cMP 2009 (4,1 to 5,1)
10.14.6
Thank you.
BR, DocSnow
Sorry for the noob question I am new on Mac Pro.
I would like to check my bootROM whether it has the issue of the windows 10 secureBoot.
Can you help me with step by step, I'm very new with this, never had experience of dumping any rom.
My spec:
cMP 2009 (4,1 to 5,1)
10.14.6
Thank you.
BR, DocSnow
There is no mystery doing this, you can use the search and find step-by-step instructions, but you just dump your ROM with ROMTool (password is "rom"), then binwalk the dump to see if there is x.509 certificates.
You can install binwalk with the homebrew package manager.
binwalk is the magic tool!
I did it and there are two of this x.509 certificates included.
What to do next?
If you have a clean backup dump, just flash it back to the backplane using ROMTool.
For people that have a firmware engineering background, reconstruction of the firmware based on your current BootROM dump is not to much complicated, but since you asked how to check, seems it's not the case and you can pay someone that have the knowledge and experience with Mac Pro firmwares to do it for you.
Many thanks for your help. No clean backup in palce. Is there a person on this forum who can help me? Maybe you?
Pretty new on Mac pro's but I guess I fell in love with the possibilities these boxes still have in 2020 
I have a 4,1, upgraded to 5,1 with 48GB RAM, dual X5670 and a RX580.
My last upgrade, recently, was to purchase a PCIe NVME card + Evo 970. As I noticed that can do ~1500MB/s while a regular SSD through SATA 2 goes only up to ~200MB/s.
To my surprise it is nearly impossible (at least I did not find it so far) to get Windows to boot natively from the NVME SSD using MBR mode (**see below)
Hence I started to read/investigate about the issues with the secureboot certificates.
So far I installed Windows multiple times using EFI mode, on a SATA SSD and also the NVME SSD (which works fine).
As I started to worry regarding this issue, I took a dump of the rom and went through it with binwalk:
To my surprise, and contrary to what I read here, going through 4 times NVRAM reset (Cmd/option P+R and waiting for 4 chimes), the certificates were removed.
This is a dump I took right after going through the process:
The questions I have:
- Am I safe, just going through the process on a regular basis?
- If not, am I safe monitoring the contents of the bootrom and flashing the backup if it grows?
In this case, won't I wear out the flash?
- I see a lot of entries in the bootrom and do not have any previous backup... How much is too much?
- Any chance anyone could help, or better, provide a guide on how to clean up the bootrom?
- Any other options to avoid using EFI mode to run Windows of a NVME SSD?
- Any options to prevent Windows from writing to the bootrom?
Thanks for having a look at this.
**Just FYI, what I tried to avoid running Windows on the NVME SSD using EFI mode:
- Tried to run install using boot from CD -> message that Windows cannot be installed on this disk
- Clonezilla copy of my SATA SSD with Windows in MBR -> Not bootable (error message)
- WinToUSB copy of my SATA SSD with Windows in MBR -> Not bootable (error message)
- Install Windows on a SATA HD, adding entries for the clone using bcdedit (works for SATA SSD, not for NVME)
- Install Linux (Debian) on a SATA HD, adding entries using GRUB (both manual and automatic) -> can't find boot device
- Install rEFInd -> can't boot from the cloned volume, works find for a SATA SSD clone
- Install nextloader -> same as rEFInd
- More variations on the above...
I have a 4,1, upgraded to 5,1 with 48GB RAM, dual X5670 and a RX580.
My last upgrade, recently, was to purchase a PCIe NVME card + Evo 970. As I noticed that can do ~1500MB/s while a regular SSD through SATA 2 goes only up to ~200MB/s.
To my surprise it is nearly impossible (at least I did not find it so far) to get Windows to boot natively from the NVME SSD using MBR mode (**see below)
Hence I started to read/investigate about the issues with the secureboot certificates.
So far I installed Windows multiple times using EFI mode, on a SATA SSD and also the NVME SSD (which works fine).
As I started to worry regarding this issue, I took a dump of the rom and went through it with binwalk:
To my surprise, and contrary to what I read here, going through 4 times NVRAM reset (Cmd/option P+R and waiting for 4 chimes), the certificates were removed.
This is a dump I took right after going through the process:
The questions I have:
- Am I safe, just going through the process on a regular basis?
- If not, am I safe monitoring the contents of the bootrom and flashing the backup if it grows?
In this case, won't I wear out the flash?
- I see a lot of entries in the bootrom and do not have any previous backup... How much is too much?
- Any chance anyone could help, or better, provide a guide on how to clean up the bootrom?
- Any other options to avoid using EFI mode to run Windows of a NVME SSD?
- Any options to prevent Windows from writing to the bootrom?
Thanks for having a look at this.
**Just FYI, what I tried to avoid running Windows on the NVME SSD using EFI mode:
- Tried to run install using boot from CD -> message that Windows cannot be installed on this disk
- Clonezilla copy of my SATA SSD with Windows in MBR -> Not bootable (error message)
- WinToUSB copy of my SATA SSD with Windows in MBR -> Not bootable (error message)
- Install Windows on a SATA HD, adding entries for the clone using bcdedit (works for SATA SSD, not for NVME)
- Install Linux (Debian) on a SATA HD, adding entries using GRUB (both manual and automatic) -> can't find boot device
- Install rEFInd -> can't boot from the cloned volume, works find for a SATA SSD clone
- Install nextloader -> same as rEFInd
- More variations on the above...
I just have to chime in that @tsialex is a fantastic contributor here in this thread and others. A wealth of knowledge. I'm not saying others here aren't great contributors as well.... but he's amongst the best!
...
To my surprise, and contrary to what I read here, going through 4 times NVRAM reset (Cmd/option P+R and waiting for 4 chimes), the certificates were removed.
This is a dump I took right after going through the process:
...
I have tested it and it looks like the certificates were removed.
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