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

[goMac]

Native NVMe? That's... completely unexpected.

Kudos to whoever at Apple is adding this. I figured they'd just keep it to the bare minimum.

 

[h9826790]

I can see your point, but I would say if the user doesn't need extreme performance then no point buying a RX580, choose a single slot alternative and have no issues at all.

I also can see your point, but you won’t believe how many people out there pick this card just because it’s the Apple recommend card. And they only need it to drive monitors. I am not meaning those people only use Facebook. But someone like audio professional also use this card to drive monitors.

 

[skizzo]

I also can see your point, but you won’t believe how many people out there pick this card just because it’s the Apple recommend card. And they only need it to drive monitors. I am not meaning those people only use Facebook. But someone like audio professional also use this card to drive monitors.

This is very true. For many Pro Tool/Studio One/etc DAW users still on their trusted cMP workhorses if they want to update to Mojave this card is beyond what any DAW requires for strictly audio use, as in not using the video engine to work on video and audio simultaneously. Yet it is one of the most compatible so is a good upgrade option for a lot in the audio community. I am one of these people actually. Also a lot of us like having multiple screens to have them dedicated to a particular window. like one screen for mixing, one for editing, one for MIDI grid, one for Video, etc. And the stock GPUs only offered 2 or 3 outputs so depending on the card you have, likely needed to upgrade if you wanted 3 or more screens.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

I also can see your point, but you won’t believe how many people out there pick this card just because it’s the Apple recommend card. And they only need it to drive monitors. I am not meaning those people only use Facebook. But someone like audio professional also use this card to drive monitors.

That is very true, in this situation I can see the appeal of native support for the GPU being paramount, but it would worry me to have this kind of installation knowing that when the fans are not used at idle the GPU can sit at 40c and above. which means it has to cool passively and as we know heat rises all that heat will hit the back of the PCIe card above covering the fans not only heating the card above but making the GPU card its self retain more heat as it can't escape passively quickly either. working like a convection heater, if you block the vents it will get hot.

Just a personal choice and observation really. but as always each to there own, if it works don't fix it comes to mind

Maybe the RX550 single slot would be a solution if supported. maybe not single output!!!!!

 

[h9826790]

That is very true, in this situation I can see the appeal of native support for the GPU being paramount, but it would worry me to have this kind of installation knowing that when the fans are not used at idle the GPU can sit at 40c and above. which means it has to cool passively and as we know heat rises all that heat will hit the back of the PCIe card above covering the fans not only heating the card above but making the GPU card its self retain more heat as it can't escape passively quickly either. working like a convection heater, if you block the vents it will get hot.

Just a personal choice and observation really. but as always each to there own, if it works don't fix it comes to mind

Maybe the RX550 single slot would be a solution if supported.

Sure it's just the personal choice, I 1000% agree with this.

Anyway, is there any known good single slot Polaris cards? Rarely hear anyone use RX550. And from memory, all test about single slot RX460 failed.

 

[fhturner]

Where is the actual firmware file on that image? I looked around but couldn't locate it yet.

Go back two pages.

3) Open RecoveryHDMeta.dmg with Pacifist, go to the Firmware folder and extract it to your desktop.
4) Replace the Firmware folder of your 10.14.0 Mojave installer with the one you saved on your desktop.

Okay, just for my and others' future reference, I was blind and didn't initially see the Firmware folder, but another look and I see it is here:

RecoveryHDMeta.dmg/BaseSystem.dmg/Install macOS Mojave Beta.app/Contents/Resources/Firmware

This was probably already posted previously, but here it is again.

 

[Synchro3]

This is pretty much how I do it as well.

1) Download the macOSUpd10.14.1.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg (thanks MisterAndrew PM me the link. Just learnt how to search the SUCatalog. Will do it myself next time. Thanks tsialex posted the SUCatalog link, and of course, share all his findings)
View attachment 793384

2) Right click the file, choose "The Unarchiver.app to unzip it.
View attachment 793383

3) Inside the "macOSUpd10.14.1.RecoveryHDUpdate" folder, double click RecoveryHDMeta.dmg to mount it
View attachment 793385

4) Then double click BaseSystem.dmg to mount it. View attachment 793386

5) Double click this "install macOS Mojave Beta.app" to trigger the firmware update. View attachment 793387

6) Then just the usual stuff. Follow the on screen instruction, click shut down, wait 10s, press and hold power button until the long beep, release power button and wait for auto reboot. Anyway, as expected, this can be down with just the RX580, no Mac EFI GPU is required.
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Because he want to utilise all 4 slots

Thank you very much for the detailed installation guide. And big thanks to Alex!

Are two NVME-drives on a dual PCI-NVME adapter still bootable?

 

[mikas]

Thank You for your work, information and especially for your surveillance mode. You know who you are.

That was a surprise. Well, I just bought one half a terabyte samsung 970 for some tests and future use. I guess Kingston AHCI predator has to move away sometime really soon.

 

[PhamNA]

Confirm that Firmware upgrade successfully with Non-EFI MSI Radeon 560.

 

[fhturner]

Okay, just for my and others' future reference, I was blind and didn't initially see the Firmware folder, but another look and I see it is here:

RecoveryHDMeta.dmg/BaseSystem.dmg/Install macOS Mojave Beta.app/Contents/Resources/Firmware

This was probably already posted previously, but here it is again.

So, inside the Install macOS Mojave Beta.app/Contents/Plugins, there is a package called MetalCardRequired.bundle. For fun, I removed that, but then instead of getting the screen informing me that I need a Metal card installed and cannot use FileVault, I get a simple alert: "macOS Mojave cannot be installed on this computer." Any suggestions on what bundles or plist or other files to try modifying to get the installer to not slap me down? OR, is there a (safe) way to run the efiupdater Unix executable inside the Firmware folder directly?

 

[bookemdano]

So, inside the Install macOS Mojave Beta.app/Contents/Plugins, there is a package called MetalCardRequired.bundle. For fun, I removed that, but then instead of getting the screen informing me that I need a Metal card installed and cannot use FileVault, I get a simple alert: "macOS Mojave cannot be installed on this computer." Any suggestions on what bundles or plist or other files to try modifying to get the installer to not slap me down? OR, is there a (safe) way to run the efiupdater Unix executable inside the Firmware folder directly?

You should be able to use dosdude1's Mojave Patcher to bypass the metal card requirement. His installer is meant for Macs that Apple dropped from their compatibility list, so it disables many/all of the pre-install checks. Since the cMP 5,1 is a supported model, you can ignore all of the post-install stuff. You can download the patcher at his web site dosdude1.com

 

[fhturner]

You should be able to use dosdude1's Mojave Patcher to bypass the metal card requirement. His installer is meant for Macs that Apple dropped from their compatibility list, so it disables many/all of the pre-install checks. Since the cMP 5,1 is a supported model, you can ignore all of the post-install stuff. You can download the patcher at his web site dosdude1.com

Good thought. I tried this, but the main problem w/ the updater installers is that they do not pass the patcher's testing of the validity of the installer. Do you think I'd have to make a copy of the 10.14.0 full installer app, then manually copy/replace the Firmware folder, then make a patched version of that? I will get started trying that, but was hoping for a little more direct way to do it, like perhaps making a firmware updater on thumb drive (like you can do w/ some Apple firmware updaters), or running the efiupdater from the Terminal to initiate the process. Continued input welcomed...I'm no expert w/ this, but I'm willing to try to develop a method.

 

[crjackson2134]

Good thought. I tried this, but the main problem w/ the updater installers is that they do not pass the patcher's testing of the validity of the installer. Do you think I'd have to make a copy of the 10.14.0 full installer app, then manually copy/replace the Firmware folder, then make a patched version of that? I will get started trying that, but was hoping for a little more direct way to do it, like perhaps making a firmware updater on thumb drive (like you can do w/ some Apple firmware updaters), or running the efiupdater from the Terminal to initiate the process. Continued input welcomed...I'm no expert w/ this, but I'm willing to try to develop a method.

Are you trying to install Mojave or just the firmware?

 

[bookemdano]

Oh derp, sorry yeah I wasn't thinking that you were just trying to install the fw. Dosdude1's patcher is only for booting from USB to install the OS (and FW can't install that way, at least not to my knowledge).

 

[star-affinity]

It should work.

But for NVMe, this Adata SX8220 960GB only cost $210. Direct from Adata, free shipping, metal heatsink included. It really looks like the best "low cost' NVMe option to me at this moment.
View attachment 793508

What do you think about this?

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12165/the-crucial-mx500-1tb-ssd-review/8

Sounds pretty good:

Several of our synthetic benchmarks returned results for the MX500 that are far above any previous SATA SSD we've tested. The Crucial MX500 is faster at handling short bursts of I/O than any of its competitors, and even outperforms some NVMe drives with MLC NAND. This is exactly the kind of performance that a consumer SSD should focus on: increasing responsiveness, rather than trying to get a high score on a benchmark of throughput with queue depths that consumer workloads never hit.

EDIT:
Aha, it's M.2 SATA…

 

[turluttu]

Does not work Plextor M8SE 256GB. Works on Windows. What do you think about this?

Controller: Marvell 88SS1093

 

[fhturner]

Are you trying to install Mojave or just the firmware?

Just the firmware. I'm doing some research about manual firmware updating, but again, I'm not an expert on that, so I am not sure I am considering everything I need to. My current thought is to perhaps try this:

1. Disable SIP
2. Copy the EFIUpdaterApp2.efi, firmware file, and CRC file into /System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates
3. Bless the firmware updater using sudo bless -mount / -firmware [path]
4. Reboot holding down power key and let firmware patch run

Anybody know if that will work? I also wondered if you could take Apple's Firmware Restoration CD image, clone it to a USB thumb drive, then change out to the firmware you wanted to install. Again, not an expert, so there may be caveats to any and all of these methods.

 

[crjackson2134]

REDACTED​

 

[bookemdano]

I don't think the CD method will work--as I recall it looks for a corrupted boot rom before it will do anything.

Where there's a will there's a way though. I'm sure someone here will have a solution.

Edit: Yeah I thought about maybe the 10.13.6 installer, but I didn't know if the new format updates require the EFIUpdaterApp2 or not. But like you say, worth a try. There's little risk involved and that seems like it would be the easiest way to go.

 

[crjackson2134]

REDACTED​

 

[DPUser]

I'm an audio guy who moved to an RX460 so I could drive a 4k display at 60Hz. Cautiously optimistic that, when the day arrives that I simply must move from Sierra to Mojave, my Gigabyte 4GB card with reference ports will work without undue thru-hoop jumping.

 

[fhturner]

You can just replace the whole firmware folder with the one from the Mojave package.

Not promising it will work that way, but that's what I would try.
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Before doing anything, please verify that you are running the latest High Sierra 10.13.6 and it's included firmware. If not, then I wouldn't try any of this until you are.

Hmmm...I've tried it both ways w/ High Sierra and patched Mojave installers. At no point do I get prompted to update the firmware. The HS installer just wants to go right into installing the OS. The patched Mojave installer gives the same Metal/FileVault alert if I try to launch from Finder, or also goes directly into installing OS if I boot onto the patched installer partition.

Should I try the bless command? Would like to find a way to do it that doesn't require copying massive 6GB images all over the place, patching them, etc. We know where the firmware files are located, so hopefully we can find a way to deploy them w/o all the extra bloat and copying.

BTW, yes, I'm running 10.13.6 w/ firmware MP51.0089...

 

[tsialex]

Hmmm...I've tried it both ways w/ High Sierra and patched Mojave installers. At no point do I get prompted to update the firmware. The HS installer just wants to go right into installing the OS. The patched Mojave installer gives the same Metal/FileVault alert if I try to launch from Finder, or also goes directly into installing OS if I boot onto the patched installer partition.

Should I try the bless command? Would like to find a way to do it that doesn't require copying massive 6GB images all over the place, patching them, etc. We know where the firmware files are located, so hopefully we can find a way to deploy them w/o all the extra bloat and copying.

I really don’t understand why you are doing this. You gonna risk bricking Mac Pros just to don’t have to change a GPU and a disk?

I know what I’m doing and I DON’T manually install firmwares.

Stop asking for trouble, you gonna brick one fast.

 

[crjackson2134]

Hmmm...I've tried it both ways w/ High Sierra and patched Mojave installers. At no point do I get prompted to update the firmware. The HS installer just wants to go right into installing the OS. The patched Mojave installer gives the same Metal/FileVault alert if I try to launch from Finder, or also goes directly into installing OS if I boot onto the patched installer partition.

Should I try the bless command? Would like to find a way to do it that doesn't require copying massive 6GB images all over the place, patching them, etc. We know where the firmware files are located, so hopefully we can find a way to deploy them w/o all the extra bloat and copying.

BTW, yes, I'm running 10.13.6 w/ firmware MP51.0089...

At this point then you should sit back a wait for better advise from @tsialex.

EDIT: Never mind, I see @tsialex has responded. You really need to heed his advice and warnings.

 

[bookemdano]

I really don’t understand why you are doing this. You gonna risk bricking Mac Pros just to don’t have to change a GPU and a disk?

I know what I’m doing and I DON’T manually install firmwares.

Stop asking for trouble, you gonna brick one fast.

I assumed he doesn't own a Metal card and isn't interested in running Mojave but did want native NVMe booting on HS. Seems like a valid reason, but that said should remember that this is beta firmware and hasn't been fully tested. Maybe it's better to wait for the release of 10.14.1 (probably only a couple weeks away).