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

[DEMinSoCAL]

Just stumbling onto this thread and have been trying to sift through the 2000+ messages. Is there a WIKI with the important bits somewhere?

I have a MP 4.1 --> 5,1 with RX580 on 138.0.0.0 bootROM.

1) To get NVMe boot support, I wait for 10.14.1 to update to 140.0.0.0?
2) What slot is preferred for the NVMe adapter? I read about people moving their GPU around but not sure why.
3) Does 140.0.0.0 enable HDMI audio out on a RX580?
4) With RX580, I should be able to do the 140.0.0.0 bootROM update?

I noticed that the link to the 140.0.0.0 bootROM in another post here is now invalid (a link to apple.com) so I assume we wait for 10.14.1?

 

[tsialex]

Just stumbling onto this thread and have been trying to sift through the 2000+ messages. Is there a WIKI with the important bits somewhere?

Not at the moment, but I'll do one in the future.

I have a MP 4.1 --> 5,1 with RX580 on 138.0.0.0 bootROM.

1) To get NVMe boot support, I wait for 10.14.1 to update to 140.0.0.0?

If you can follow the instructions on posts #1554 and #1569, do the update. I've updated the link yesterday on my #1554 post for the current 10.14.1 DP4.

2) What slot is preferred for the NVMe adapter? I read about people moving their GPU around but not sure why.

Before 138.0.0.0.0, slot 3 or 4, now you can use slot 2. PCIe x16 adapters like Squid or SSD7101A need to be installed into slot 1 or 2.

3) Does 140.0.0.0 enable HDMI audio out on a RX580?

No, this is responsibility of the driver. Read Request tester for HDMI / Displayport audio fix

4) With RX580, I should be able to do the 140.0.0.0 bootROM update?

Yes, only with High Sierra firmware upgrader you need a Mac EFI GPU card, now with Mojave one you need a Metal supported GPU.

I noticed that the link to the 140.0.0.0 bootROM in another post here is now invalid (a link to apple.com) so I assume we wait for 10.14.1?

I've updated the link yesterday on my #1554 post.

Every new 10.14.1 DP release will change the link, so I posted the SUCatalog link for people find her/himself.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Not at the moment, but I'll do one in the future.

If you can follow the instructions on posts #1554 and #1569, do the update. I've updated the link yesterday on my #1554 post for the current 10.14.1 DP4.

Before 138.0.0.0.0, slot 3 or 4, now you can use slot 2. PCIe x16 adapters like Squid or SSD7101A need to be installed into slot 1 or 2.
No, this is responsibility of the driver. Read Request tester for HDMI / Displayport audio fix
Yes, only with High Sierra firmware upgrader you need a Mac EFI GPU card, now with Mojave one you need a Metal supported GPU.

I've updated the link yesterday on my #1554 post.

Every new 10.14.1 DP release will change the link, so I posted the SUCatalog link for people find her/himself.

Thank you very much for the reply and concise info. I swear I tried the link just an hour ago and it came up to a "page not found"! It might have been the link in #1569, which oddly, now works too. Did you just update that post or am I going crazy?

 

[tsialex]

Thank you very much for the reply and concise info. I swear I tried the link just an hour ago and it came up to a "page not found"! It might have been the link in #1569, which oddly, now works too. Did you just update that post or am I going crazy?

Yesterday morning, #1569 is a @h9826790 post and I can't edit it

 

[vgoutis]

There is a thread RX580 vbios study which goes in deep and explains why and when the fans start spinning.

Ok, Thanks. I am aware of it, but I didn't know that the info also applies to RX-560.

 

[Pval]

Offtopic, moved to 'Blade SSDs - NVMe & AHCI'

 

[tsialex]

Look at this BD:

First one with 2014 date.

 

[Slash-2CPU]

Thanks TsiAlex.

Just checking in to confirm this worked with a 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 5,1 (2010 firmware). 512GB 960 PRO installed in top PCIe slot(labeled as RAID slot) gives 5.0GT/s x4 speed. Second slot from top would only give x2 5.0 speed.

ROM 140.0.0.0 boots fine to 10.13.6 and 10.14 on NVMe.

Previous 512GB SM951 AHCI was giving 1274MB/s read and 1448MB/s write on BlackMagic Disk Speed test. New 512GB 960 Pro produces 1444MB/s read (+13%) and 1509MB/s write (+4%). This doesn't show the full benefit from NVMe though. Latency and random IOPS should be much faster. Don't know of a bench app for MacOS that would show it.

Slot config:
960 PRO on EZDIY-FAB M.2 adapter x4 5.0GT/s
Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro x4 5.0GT/s
AbleConn USB 3.0 card x2 5.0GT/s
Sapphire Radeon RX580 x16 5.0GT/s

 

[SneakyTLoD]

Either you are mistaken, or something went wrong, or it’s not a UUID problem. You should run First Aid on the drive to make sure there are no errors.
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After you did the clone, did you go to the startup disk applet and change it to the new drive? You have to set it, otherwise the default will always go to an SATA drive instead of Non-SATA drives mounted to PCIe card.

This could have been the problem rather than UUID issue too. If you remove all other drives, I believe it would eventually find the PCIe drive, but I’m not 100% sure.

I had to get back to work so I haven't been able to check the UUID. I cloned my backup drive using CCC just like I always do. Went to startup disk and changed to the NVMe and set it to boot. Restarted and immediately noticed that (audibly and speed wise) the HDD was loading. I opened up startup disk and checked it and NVMe was highlighted but anytime I did anything it was moving the hdd. Tried selecting the NVMe again and reset. Same behavior. Pulled all other boot drives and it reset a couple of times on it's own (like you get with pram reset) and finally booted. I'll investigate it more when I get a chance but just happy to be back up and running since my whole upgrade to Mojave took away my NVMe fusion drive speeds.

 

[theone29]

I installed my Angelbird Wings PX1 with an Evo 970 1TB in my 5,1, it is in the second slot from the top and I am only getting 1500MB/s. Any ideas why I am not getting similar speed to your set up?

Ok, I recevied the IOCrest PCIe 3.0 x16 to 2x M.2 adapter card today.

Performance with a single 970 EVO blade :
View attachment 797670

Interestingly though adding a second 970 EVO blade and creating a soft-raid0 group didn't improve performance. Actually Read performance dropped by about 100MB/s and Write performance rose by about the same.

Also interesting; it's two devices in system report :
View attachment 797671

I wonder if it's working correctly, I'lll move it around a bit and test some more.

 

[tsialex]

I installed my Angelbird Wings PX1 with an Evo 970 1TB in my 5,1, it is in the second slot from the top and I am only getting 1500MB/s. Any ideas why I am not getting similar speed to your set up?

To get more than 1500MB/s you need a PCIe adaptor with a PCIe 3.0 switch to convert PCIe2.0 x16 (x8 for IOCrest/Syba) into PCIe3.0 x4.

 

[crjackson2134]

I had to get back to work so I haven't been able to check the UUID. I cloned my backup drive using CCC just like I always do. Went to startup disk and changed to the NVMe and set it to boot. Restarted and immediately noticed that (audibly and speed wise) the HDD was loading. I opened up startup disk and checked it and NVMe was highlighted but anytime I did anything it was moving the hdd. Tried selecting the NVMe again and reset. Same behavior. Pulled all other boot drives and it reset a couple of times on it's own (like you get with pram reset) and finally booted. I'll investigate it more when I get a chance but just happy to be back up and running since my whole upgrade to Mojave took away my NVMe fusion drive speeds.

I've had a few random anomaly's from time to time as well, but I don't think CCC is to blame. There is most likely some other nonsense going on. It happens... At least you're on the right track.

Sometimes, when I switch boot drives, it shows properly in the startup disk applet, but gives same behavior. It's rare, but as I haven't been cloning from or to the aforementioned drives, I don't think it has anything to do with CCC in my case. I believe it's a startup disk selector issue. I had this happen long before I used CCC. It started either in late High Sierra or first DP of Mojave. It (for me) has mostly went away by the time Mojave was released, so I heavily suspect it's related to this macOS version's handling of startup disk settings. Perhaps it's not properly writing to the NVRAM all the time.

I don't know, I'm out of ideas. Check the UUID's as mentioned before to either confirm or eliminate that suspect.

 

[theone29]

To get more than 1500MB/s you need a PCIe adaptor with a PCIe 3.0 switch to convert PCIe2.0 x16 (x8 for IOCrest/Syba) into PCIe3.0 x4.

Damn it, I bought the wrong one. Can you suggest a specific model? Thanks again.

 

[tsialex]

Damn it, I bought the wrong one.

Look at the prices for PCIe cards with PCIe switch from PLX and you will think again this statement

 

[Le_Cactus]

Damn it, I bought the wrong one. Can you suggest a specific model? Thanks again.

Yes, the one you need is here:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...=syba_PCIe_3.0_x16-_-9SIA0ZX8A60564-_-Product

 

[tsialex]

Apple seeded a new BridgeOSUpdateCustomer version, but not a new 10.14.1 DP, weird.

 

[theone29]

Wow, that is pricey. Any in the range of $50-100 usd?

 

[tsialex]

Wow, that is pricey. Any in the range of $50-100 usd?

No, just the PLX 8747 PCIe switch costs around $134.07 per unit. Was $120 earlier this year.

Please move this discussion to the Blade SSDs - NVMe & AHCI thread. Let's keep on the BootROM topic here. PCIe adaptors are better discussed there.

 

[fhturner]

Apple seeded a new BridgeOSUpdateCustomer version, but not a new 10.14.1 DP, weird.

I show 10.14.1 DB5 update available in System Preferences, but when using installinstallmacos.py script, I only see 10.14 Beta and 10.14 Final, no 10.14.1. Is this what you mean? Been meaning to ask you...what's your preferred method for directly accessing and downloading seed components. I've run SUS (Software Update Server) hosts for years, so I'm familiar w/ the SUCatalogs, etc., but would appreciate if you wouldn't mind sharing your most direct route to download a portion of a large installer (like RecoveryHD, etc.). Thx, FT

EDIT: Inadvertently skipped a page, so looking at link you put up yesterday. I see how you can get to the link for downloading, but can you elaborate if you have a specific way you parse the sucatalog and then find/copy the link?

 

[MisterAndrew]

Any new firmware in today’s beta? (I’m not at home so I can’t check.)

 

[fhturner]

Any new firmware in today’s beta? (I’m not at home so I can’t check.)

Just to get you a quick answer, best I can tell, no. The firmware file is dated 9/27/18. I forget if there's a way to see the actual version # by scanning that file.

EDIT: Here's the link to the 10.14.1DP5 RecoveryHD package.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Any new firmware in today’s beta? (I’m not at home so I can’t check.)

nope nothing new this round (sadly?)

guess we wait and see what DP6 brings us?

 

[tsialex]

Just to get you a quick answer, best I can tell, no. The firmware file is dated 9/27/18. I forget if there's a way to see the actual version # by scanning that file.

EDIT: Here's the link to the 10.14.1DP5 RecoveryHD package.

This week Apple didn't updated the Recovery. This is from 20181018, DP4.

Edit: I was wrong, Apple updated but the CDN I was connected did not.

[doublepost=1540320812][/doublepost]

Any new firmware in today’s beta? (I’m not at home so I can’t check.)

Nope.
[doublepost=1540320891][/doublepost]

I show 10.14.1 DB5 update available in System Preferences, but when using installinstallmacos.py script, I only see 10.14 Beta and 10.14 Final, no 10.14.1. Is this what you mean? Been meaning to ask you...what's your preferred method for directly accessing and downloading seed components. I've run SUS (Software Update Server) hosts for years, so I'm familiar w/ the SUCatalogs, etc., but would appreciate if you wouldn't mind sharing your most direct route to download a portion of a large installer (like RecoveryHD, etc.). Thx, FT

EDIT: Inadvertently skipped a page, so looking at link you put up yesterday. I see how you can get to the link for downloading, but can you elaborate if you have a specific way you parse the sucatalog and then find/copy the link?

Check for the most recent macOSUpd10.14.1.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg, check the date on the root to know if Apple released a new one or is from a past DP.

 

[fhturner]

This week Apple didn't updated the Recovery. This is from 20181018, DP4.

Hmmm...a lot of the mod dates in the RecoveryHDMeta.dmg are 10/21/18, such as on BaseSystem.dmg:

Check for the most recent macOSUpd10.14.1.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg, check the date on the root to know if Apple released a new one or is from a past DP - like this week.

Okay, thanks!

 

[tsialex]

Hmmm...a lot of the mod dates in the RecoveryHDMeta.dmg are 10/21/18, such as on BaseSystem.dmg:

View attachment 797740



Okay, thanks!

Maybe the CDN I'm connected didn't updated to the new SUCatalog yet, but with what I'm seeing, the RecoveryUpdate is from 20181018.

CDN just updated. Apple issued a new RecoveryUpdate for DP5, but no firmware update for Mac Pro.