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

[tsialex]

Yep! Something I’ve been doing ever since the discovery of errant memory configurations that keep getting added in for unknown reasons. In my case, I’ve noticed it seems to happen mostly after an OS update combined with a reboot, or when I boot to a different disk with a different OS a install.

While yours Mac Pro was the first case I saw, I've found other people that also have a hardware configuration prone to MemoryConfig variable multiplication, like one of the @Eschers Mac Pros.

The real cause is still a mystery, I'll probably need to get one backplane/CPU tray/CPU/DIMM combo that have the problem to find what is going on. Something triggers the constant renew of the MemoryConfig variables and this causes even more pressure inside the main NVRAM store than the current NVRAM usage of recent macOS releases/iCloud.

Having a main store with little available space plus the flurry of NVRAM updates needed for macOS updates/installs is a really bad situation where your NVRAM can corrupt itself.

Another problem frequently overlooked, the need to garbage collection to work constantly rapidly decreases the useful life of SPI flash memory.

 

[joevt]

Is MemoryConfig set by the OS or by EFI? If it's by the OS, then maybe an EFI driver can stop new configs from being written (like OpenCore does for Microsoft certificates).

 

[tsialex]

Is MemoryConfig set by the OS or by EFI? If it's by the OS, then maybe an EFI driver can stop new configs from being written (like OpenCore does for Microsoft certificates).

Mac Pro firmware at POST.

 

[mike2205]

Heyyyy, I'm another one of those annoying people that's had a UEFI install of Windows on my Mac 5,1 .

I've read through all the forum posts over the last two days trying to solve the problem myself without needing to ask, but it seems I need to ask for help with the intermediate files/clean files.

The 2 Windows certificates are present in my ROMdump.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Ashok.Vardhan]

Please excuse if this is not the right thread for it.

I have a MP5,1 (mid-2012) with the following specs (please check attached screenshots). Over the years I got rid of the DVD drives (found no use for them). I was able to use a bootable USB for a clean install of High Sierra 10.13.6 and the SSD on which the OS is installed has a recovery partition, so I am able to boot into Recorvery mode. However, during this process there was no display of Startup Manager options, OS install started directly despite using Alt key to select bootdrive.

I am trying to install Windows 8.1, using a bootable USB version, using bootcamp and am not able to view Startup Manager when I hold down the Alt key during bootup.

I vaguely recall having this option, and possibility, in the past, before I upgraded the OS over the years.

Did something change in the BootROM that it stopped displaying the Startup Manager anymore? Or is mine corrupted in some way?

I am on 144.0.0.0.0

I ran: sudo /usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck/eficheck –integrity-check

However, this is the message I got:

ReadBinaryFromKernel: No matching services found. Either this system is not supported by eficheck, or you need to re-load the kext

IntegrityCheck: couldn’t get EFI contents from kext

I am stuck now and unable to install Windows.

P.S. Reason for installing Windows was to upgrade the firmwares of my Samsung EVO 860 1TB SSD's which are on an external RAID through mini-SAS. The Samsung firmware updater software is made only for windows, and I do not have access to a separate windows system to update the firmware from.

I did try to update their firmware connected as external drives through UBS3 ports on my MacBook Air, while booted into Windows 8 through bootcamp on the MacBook. Unfortunately, the Samsung firmware updater is designed in such a way that it cannot detect external drives for updating firmwares, they have to be installed internally on SATA buses for it to work. So this option was a no-go.

What could be the issue that I am unable to get a display of Startup Manager? Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hutzi20]

Reason for installing Windows was to upgrade the firmwares of my Samsung EVO 860 1TB SSD's

At https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/ unter the Firmware section you can simply download the correct ISO file, create a bootable Stick and upgrade your SSDs. There is no reason to use Windows and the Magician software suite. An installation guide you'll find there too

 

[tsialex]

Please excuse if this is not the right thread for it.

I have a MP5,1 (mid-2012) with the following specs (please check attached screenshots). Over the years I got rid of the DVD drives (found no use for them). I was able to use a bootable USB for a clean install of High Sierra 10.13.6 and the SSD on which the OS is installed has a recovery partition, so I am able to boot into Recorvery mode. However, during this process there was no display of Startup Manager options, OS install started directly despite using Alt key to select bootdrive.

I am trying to install Windows 8.1, using a bootable USB version, using bootcamp and am not able to view Startup Manager when I hold down the Alt key during bootup.

I vaguely recall having this option, and possibility, in the past, before I upgraded the OS over the years.

Did something change in the BootROM that it stopped displaying the Startup Manager anymore? Or is mine corrupted in some way?

I am on 144.0.0.0.0

I ran: sudo /usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck/eficheck –integrity-check

However, this is the message I got:

ReadBinaryFromKernel: No matching services found. Either this system is not supported by eficheck, or you need to re-load the kext

IntegrityCheck: couldn’t get EFI contents from kext

I am stuck now and unable to install Windows.

P.S. Reason for installing Windows was to upgrade the firmwares of my Samsung EVO 860 1TB SSD's which are on an external RAID through mini-SAS. The Samsung firmware updater software is made only for windows, and I do not have access to a separate windows system to update the firmware from.

I did try to update their firmware connected as external drives through UBS3 ports on my MacBook Air, while booted into Windows 8 through bootcamp on the MacBook. Unfortunately, the Samsung firmware updater is designed in such a way that it cannot detect external drives for updating firmwares, they have to be installed internally on SATA buses for it to work. So this option was a no-go.

What could be the issue that I am unable to get a display of Startup Manager? Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

Some SATA/SAS controlers optionROMs disable the BootPicker.

 

[bsbeamer]

Reason for installing Windows was to upgrade the firmwares of my Samsung EVO 860 1TB SSD's

At https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/ unter the Firmware section you can simply download the correct ISO file, create a bootable Stick and upgrade your SSDs. There is no reason to use Windows and the Magician software suite. An installation guide you'll find there too

Might be worth noting - several colleagues have recently had issues launching the bootable "stick" on Mac-based machines. Seems to work better via bootable CD/DVD on MP5,1 machines instead of USB media.

 

[Ashok.Vardhan]

At https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/ unter the Firmware section you can simply download the correct ISO file, create a bootable Stick and upgrade your SSDs. There is no reason to use Windows and the Magician software suite. An installation guide you'll find there too

I did try this method on the Macbook Air with the SSD's connected as external, was an issue, because even in this method they have to be internally connected in the system.

For me to try this method on the MacPro (with the prospective SSD mounted as internal) I need the Startup Manager screen to select the ISO image USB, which brings me back to my initial issue: Cannot see that screen to access the USB as the boot option.

Might be worth noting - several colleagues have recently had issues launching the bootable "stick" on Mac-based machines. Seems to work better via bootable CD/DVD on MP5,1 machines instead of USB media.

Definitely, DVD's work better, but I got rid of the drives itself, though I have the DVDs still.
The SATA cables for the former DVD drives now host two SSDs for my editing system: One is a Macintosh-HD drive and the other is a ScratchDrive (needed for Video Editing) for optimal performance. My plan was to boot off bootable USB's as that is the only option I have left right now.

 

[Ashok.Vardhan]

Some SATA/SAS controlers optionROMs disable the BootPicker.

I had anticipated this as a potential problem (had read something to this end elsewhere) and removed the mini-SAS controller card and mounted the prospective SSDs that needs a firmware update as an internal drives onto the MacPro's existing SATA connections.

I read that 144.0.0.0.0 supports even the latest m.2 NVME drives (through PCIe expanders?), so I am guessing that these older SSD's should not be an issue for it to display them? Or not?

What do you suggest?

 

[tsialex]

I had anticipated this as a potential problem (had read something similar this end somewhere) and removed the mini-SAS controller card and mounted the prospective SSDs the needs a firmware update as an internal drives onto the MacPro's existing SATA connections.

I read that 144.0.0.0.0 supports even the latest m.2 NVME drives (through PCIe expanders?), so I am guessing that these older SSD's should not be an issue for it to display them? Or not?

What do you suggest?

Please don't mix things. For the Mac Pro firmware, PCIe drives (like M.2 NVMe and AHCI) support has nothing to do with SATA drives - the hardware is completely different, support requirements too - it's a different class of storage devices.

Keep it simple, install just one SSD at a time with SATA bay 1, remove all other drives and boot from the firmware updater DVD.

Btw, you should have opened a new thread - this has extremely little to do with this one.

 

[MarkC426]

You will not get the boot picker screen with a PC GPU, unless flashed.

 

[LightBulbFun]

interesting that they closed your Bug Reports,

given these circumstances I just submitted a bug report to Apple about the fact that you cant boot a MP5,1 from an FL1100 based USB 3 card.

ill keep yall updated on how it goes

if anyone has an X5687 or X5698 CPU they should submit a Bug report about the fact it does not work in a MP5,1 and see what apple says

Say Apple did not sneakily recently role out a new MacPro5,1 BootROM with one of the Mojave security updates did they?

because apple after *3 years* out of the blue finally responded to the bug report I sent about not being able to boot from FL1100 based USB cards

seems like a fairly generic response, so I would not get hopes up, but its a bit weird how after not responding to it at all they finally did 3 years later?

I am currently on my MBP9,1 but tomorrow when im on my MacPro5,1 Ill respond and see what happens LOL

(told you I would keep yall updated LOL)

 

[tsialex]

Say Apple did not sneakily recently role out a new MacPro5,1 BootROM with one of the Mojave security updates did they?

because apple after *3 years* out of the blue finally responded to the bug report I sent about not being able to boot from FL1100 based USB cards

View attachment 1774413
seems like a fairly generic response, so I would not get hopes up, but its a bit weird how after not responding to it at all they finally did 3 years later?

I am currently on my MBP9,1 but tomorrow when im on my MacPro5,1 Ill respond and see what happens LOL

(told you I would keep yall updated LOL)

Nope.

Downloaded the SecUpd2021-003Mojave.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg, then extracted the RecoveryHDMeta.dmg, still 144.0.0.0.0

$IBIOSI$    MP51.88Z.F000.B00.1904121248
Apple ROM Version
  Model:        MP51
  EFI Version:  144.0.0.0.0
  Date:         Fri Apr 12 12:43:00 2019
  Build Type:   Release

 

[pcwizzul]

Hi there everybody, and especially @tsialex

I bought a used 4,1 (dual xeon x5570 and 20gb ram 4+4+1+1 for each cpu) updated the bootrom up to 144 then installed Opencore and now it's running Mojave fine.

I bought a used r9 280x and I've been making some tests in windows 10 too, simply disconnecting the mojave ssd with OC and booting from another SSD with windows.

I then realized it was the best idea to kill my bootrom, according to this post

So I panicked and made 3 different backups of the bootrom. The strange thing (or normal, still not clear to me) is that the vss value is different everytime but always smaller that it should be: from mojave with OC almost 30000, mojave without OC 20000, and high sierra 3300 (HS is not a clean install BTW)!

So my simple question is... Should I wait for the macpro not to be able to boot anytime soon? Will one of these bootrom backup usable to flash a new spi? I compared them with Notepad++ and there are no more than 50 different lines, but I have no idea if it means anything. Am I safe using the macpro with opencore (as it shows the biggest vss free space value)?

If you @tsialex agree I can send you my backups but I found no way to send you a pm, I think beacuse I just registered myself.

Thanks to everybody in advance

 

[tsialex]

Hi there everybody, and especially @tsialex

I bought a used 4,1 (dual xeon x5570 and 20gb ram 4+4+1+1 for each cpu) updated the bootrom up to 144 then installed Opencore and now it's running Mojave fine.

I bought a used r9 280x and I've been making some tests in windows 10 too, simply disconnecting the mojave ssd with OC and booting from another SSD with windows.

I then realized it was the best idea to kill my bootrom, according to this post

So I panicked and made 3 different backups of the bootrom. The strange thing (or normal, still not clear to me) is that the vss value is different everytime but always smaller that it should be: from mojave with OC almost 30000, mojave without OC 20000, and high sierra 3300 (HS is not a clean install BTW)!

So my simple question is... Should I wait for the macpro not to be able to boot anytime soon? Will one of these bootrom backup usable to flash a new spi? I compared them with Notepad++ and there are no more than 50 different lines, but I have no idea if it means anything. Am I safe using the macpro with opencore (as it shows the biggest vss free space value)?

If you @tsialex agree I can send you my backups but I found no way to send you a pm, I think beacuse I just registered myself.

Thanks to everybody in advance

PM sent.

 

[thegoofeedude]

Howdy folks! Long time lurker, first time poster.

TL;DR: I'd like to run Linux full time on my 5,1, and am not sure if I'll risk getting bricked due to firmware filling up or something. I'm on 144.0.0.0.0, and have made a copy of my bootROM with dosdude1's ROMTool. I don't know how to tell if I'm going to get myself into trouble distro-hopping; can I get an assist to determine that my firmware is healthy?

Long version with a little more context:

I have a 2012 Mac Pro 5,1[1] that I bought from OWC/Macsales.com in 2018, with the idea that I'd have a hack-free "cheap" way to run MacOS at home (I had been running Slackware Linux at home for the previous decade). To my surprise, Apple stopped supporting the hardware with Mojave, and so I thought "eh, the whole point was to have a problem free, hack-free way to run an OS I don't have to think about, how about I just switch to Windows, which should have updates essentially forever?"

So I did that for a while (installed from DVD, trying to be careful that it booted in BIOS compatibility mode, to avoid Windows bricking the machine with extra certificates), but I grew tired with Windows for reasons, and decided to go back to Linux. Before I did, though, I thought it would be best to upgrade to the last official firmware release from Apple.

So I installed El Capitan, upgraded to High Sierra, and then got the Mojave installer and ran the firmware update. I got 144.0.0.0.0, but now the machine won't sleep, and won't soft reboot properly (lands on a black screen with fans spinning high; always boots fine after holding down power button long enough to hard poweroff). I'm not too bothered if that stuff doesn't work in MacOS, because I want to run Linux anyway, but if it means there's a firmware problem, I'd like to know what's up.

Now, I'd like to install Linux, but after scanning the thread, it seems like my firmware might be growing unbounded and eventually brick itself? I'm going to be shuffling disks around while I figure out what distro I want to use, so I thought it would be best to ask for advice here before proceeding.

Thanks for all the terrific help in this thread!

1. Single CPU Xeon X5670, Mac version Radeon HD 7950

 

[tsialex]

can I get an assist to determine that my firmware is healthy?

PM sent.

 

[Dewdman42]

@thegoofeedude, my 5,1 works totally fine with Mojave, none of those problems. Get to the bottom of that first. I also recommend you follow whatever advice you get from tsialex. You can also run Catalina quite well on the 5,1.

I'm not sure I would relegate your 5,1 to dedicated linux. While that is certainly possible, that is just swimming upstream. Might as well sell it while you still can and buy a PC for running linux. But that's just me.

 

[thegoofeedude]

Thank you both very much @tsialex and @Dewdman42 !

I'm working with tsialex via PM -- he was able to determine the firmware is indeed not performing garbage collection properly, and so it's pretty close to getting full.

As far as relegating the 5,1 to dedicated Linux, I am on the fence about it. I like MacOS, but I'm worried that it might be increasingly difficult to keep the later versions running on the machine. And since I'm pretty comfortable with Linux, it seemed like a win-win to just go that direction with it. I'll ponder on it some more, though. This community of experts is definitely a vote in favor of keeping MacOS on it.

 

[trifero]

Thank you both very much @tsialex and @Dewdman42 !

I'm working with tsialex via PM -- he was able to determine the firmware is indeed not performing garbage collection properly, and so it's pretty close to getting full.

As far as relegating the 5,1 to dedicated Linux, I am on the fence about it. I like MacOS, but I'm worried that it might be increasingly difficult to keep the later versions running on the machine. And since I'm pretty comfortable with Linux, it seemed like a win-win to just go that direction with it. I'll ponder on it some more, though. This community of experts is definitely a vote in favor of keeping MacOS on it.

I got a reconstructed from @tsialex , he rules.

 

[TheDrooch]

Been reading this thread (for a while!) and seems like my 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) has 2 windows certificates in the BootROM dump. Any advice/options to get a reconstructed BootROM? @tsialex is this something you can assist with still?

 

[tsialex]

Been reading this thread (for a while!) and seems like my 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) has 2 windows certificates in the BootROM dump. Any advice/options to get a reconstructed BootROM? @tsialex is this something you can assist with still?

Check your PM.

 

[basslik]

I got a reconstructed from @tsialex , he rules.

Alex I would like to back up my BootRom. I searched for the process and I'm not able to find the post on how to back up. Greatly appreciate it, thanks.

 

[tsialex]

Alex I would like to back up my BootRom. I searched for the process and I'm not able to find the post on how to back up. Greatly appreciate it, thanks.

See your PMs, I've sent my instructions to people that want a reconstruction, you will learn what to do following it.