MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (10.13/10.14 BootROM upgrades instructions thread)

[xxcfdrr]

Well thats a bummer.

I see the list of cards that are compatible, but these seem like older weaker cards.

What newer video card would you recommend?

 

[tsialex]

Well thats a bummer.

I see the list of cards that are compatible, but these seem like older weaker cards.

What newer video card would you recommend?

RX 580 or VEGA 56 (needs at least an eVGA Powerlink to be used balancing the load between the two backplane PCIe AUX connectors since it's a card that needs more power than the backplane can provide unbalanced). Anything newer will need a PSU with Pixla's mod.

 

[mik70]

Hi,

I read carefully quite a lot of posts in that very informative thread but didn't find a similar case.
I'm sorry if i missed something.
We have a Mac PRO Upgraded to 5,1 with the configuration above, running great High Sierra 10.13.6 :
- upgraded from quad core 2009 to Westmere 6 core 3,46 Mhz
- ROM 144.0.0.0
- AMD R9 270X 2GB

All of that seems Mojave compatible and ready to go.
But the MAc Pro doesn't want to boot with Mojave, and stop with the grey Apple with the progressive bar.

What we tried :
- When we try to install directly from high Sierra, we had a warning talking about Filevault and Graphic card.
But no filevault active on the computer, and the graphic card seems metal compatible.
So we use Mac Os Mojave Patcher and install Mojave. The install went at the end, but at the end of the process , the Mac Pro won't go at the end of th boot.

- Install Mojave on another computer does the same thing.

Anyone can help ?

 

[tsialex]

Hi,

I read carefully quite a lot of posts in that very informative thread but didn't find a similar case.
I'm sorry if i missed something.
We have a Mac PRO Upgraded to 5,1 with the configuration above, running great High Sierra 10.13.6 :
- upgraded from quad core 2009 to Westmere 6 core 3,46 Mhz
- ROM 144.0.0.0
- AMD R9 270X 2GB

All of that seems Mojave compatible and ready to go.
But the MAc Pro doesn't want to boot with Mojave, and stop with the grey Apple with the progressive bar.

What we tried :
- When we try to install directly from high Sierra, we had a warning talking about Filevault and Graphic card.
But no filevault active on the computer, and the graphic card seems metal compatible.
So we use Mac Os Mojave Patcher and install Mojave. The install went at the end, but at the end of the process , the Mac Pro won't go at the end of th boot.

- Install Mojave on another computer does the same thing.

Anyone can help ?

Apple removed support for Pitcairn family of GPUs after Mojave. That’s your problem, unsuppprted GPU.

 

[mik70]

Apple removed support for Pitcairn family of GPUs after Mojave. That’s your problem, unsuppprted GPU.

Thanks a lot for your very quick answer. I will change the card.

I see everywhere that the card is metal compatibe and works with Mojave it's not the case??

 AMD R9 270X MSI 2GB tout Mac Pro (As 7950) 4k Metal X.14 Mojave X.15 Catalina | eBay

Les meilleures offres pour  AMD R9 270X MSI 2GB tout Mac Pro (As 7950) 4k Metal X.14 Mojave X.15 Catalina sont sur eBay ✓ Comparez les prix et les spécificités des produits neufs et d'occasion ✓ Pleins d'articles en livraison gratuite!

www.ebay.fr

And i want to thank you for all your incredible work and the way you share it with the community.
Thumbs up from France !

 

[tsialex]

Thanks a lot for your very quick answer. I will change the card.

I see everywhere that the card is metal compatibe and works with Mojave it's not the case??

 AMD R9 270X MSI 2GB tout Mac Pro (As 7950) 4k Metal X.14 Mojave X.15 Catalina | eBay

Les meilleures offres pour  AMD R9 270X MSI 2GB tout Mac Pro (As 7950) 4k Metal X.14 Mojave X.15 Catalina sont sur eBay ✓ Comparez les prix et les spécificités des produits neufs et d'occasion ✓ Pleins d'articles en livraison gratuite!

www.ebay.fr

And i want to thank you for all your incredible work and the way you share it with the community.
Thumbs up from France !

Metal support has nothing to do with driver support. If the card is not one that has the PCIe id in the drivers, it won’t work. Apple removed HD7850/7870/R9-270/R9-270x made from Pitcairn and Curaçao GPUs but kept support from the ones made from binned Tahiti (HD7950/HD7970/R9-280/R-9-280x)chips. That’s why some of these cards still work, they use Tahiti chips with less CUs and less RAM.

 

[mik70]

Metal support has nothing to do with driver support. If the card is not one that has the PCIe id in the drivers, it won’t work. Apple removed HD7850/7870/R9-270/R9-270x made from Pitcairn and Curaçao GPUs but kept support from the ones made from binned Tahiti (HD7950/HD7970/R9-280/R-9-280x)chips. That’s why some of these cards still work, they use Tahiti chips with less CUs and less RAM.

ok got it.
thanks

 

[carbanm]

I've got a 4,1 flashed to 5,1 that has boot rom MP51.007F.B03 I do not have an EFI GPU. Is there a method of upgrading the firmware to 144 that either skips the High Sierra bootROM version, or allows installation of the same?

 

[tsialex]

I've got a 4,1 flashed to 5,1 that has boot rom MP51.007F.B03 I do not have an EFI GPU. Is there a method of upgrading the firmware to 144 that either skips the High Sierra bootROM version, or allows installation of the same?

You can hire someone capable to reconstruct the firmware image of your Mac Pro to 144.0.0.0.0 directly, overcoming the Apple firmware upgrade requirements. Besides that, no other way to upgrade the BootROM.

P.S.:

A cross-flashed MP4,1, what we call MP4,1>5,1 is a time-bomb waiting to brick. The cross flash process executed by the Netkas forum tool made by MacEFIROM just updates the EFI itself, while everything else inside the firmware image is kept as is.

So, the BootBlock/NVRAM/hardwareIDs are still MP4,1. This is extremely problematic with recent macOS releases, leading to NVRAM volume fragmentation/variable multiplication and then to a brick.

You should correct this as soon as possible with a BootROM reconstruction.

 

[carbanm]

You can hire someone capable to reconstruct the firmware image of your Mac Pro to 144.0.0.0.0 directly, overcoming the Apple firmware upgrade requirements. Besides that, no other way to upgrade the BootROM.

P.S.:

A cross-flashed MP4,1, what we call MP4,1>5,1 is a time-bomb waiting to brick. The cross flash process executed by the Netkas forum tool made by MacEFIROM just updates the EFI itself, while everything else inside the firmware image is kept as is.

So, the BootBlock/NVRAM/hardwareIDs are still MP4,1. This is extremely problematic with recent macOS releases, leading to NVRAM volume fragmentation/variable multiplication and then to a brick.

You should correct this as soon as possible with a BootROM reconstruction.

Do you have any tips in finding a party to do this reconstruction or what it should cost? Or is there possibly a guide?

Edit

I'm. Seeing your post about reconstruction with intermediate files. Where do I get intermediate files? Is that just referring to a dump of my current efi?

 

[tsialex]

Do you have any tips in finding a party to do this reconstruction or what it should cost? Or is there possibly a guide?

Edit

I'm. Seeing your post about reconstruction with intermediate files. Where do I get intermediate files? Is that just referring to a dump of my current efi?

No, I have to generate it. I sent you a PM.

 

[Upgrader]

You can hire someone capable to reconstruct the firmware image of your Mac Pro to 144.0.0.0.0 directly, overcoming the Apple firmware upgrade requirements. Besides that, no other way to upgrade the BootROM.

P.S.:

A cross-flashed MP4,1, what we call MP4,1>5,1 is a time-bomb waiting to brick. The cross flash process executed by the Netkas forum tool made by MacEFIROM just updates the EFI itself, while everything else inside the firmware image is kept as is.

So, the BootBlock/NVRAM/hardwareIDs are still MP4,1. This is extremely problematic with recent macOS releases, leading to NVRAM volume fragmentation/variable multiplication and then to a brick.

You should correct this as soon as possible with a BootROM reconstruction.

I have a cross flashed 4,1.

How can I check the level of my NVRAM fragmentation and can I prevent this fragmentation from happening?

I'm running Mojave 10.14.6 with a Sapphire Pulse GPU. I also have BootROM 138.0.0.0.

 

[tsialex]

I have a cross flashed 4,1.

How can I check the level of my NVRAM fragmentation and can I prevent this fragmentation from happening?

I'm running Mojave 10.14.6 with a Sapphire Pulse GPU. I also have BootROM 138.0.0.0.

Sent you a PM with instructions.

Btw, why you are still running 138.0.0.0.0?

 

[Upgrader]

Sent you a PM with instructions.

Btw, why you are still running 138.0.0.0.0?

Yeah I'm unsure why. I had assumed that upgrading to Mojave would've auto updated the BootROM.

 

[Upgrader]

Sent you a PM with instructions.

Btw, why you are still running 138.0.0.0.0?

Thanks for the PM - I'll get onto that now.

 

[tsialex]

Yeah I'm unsure why. I had assumed that upgrading to Mojave would've auto updated the BootROM.

You must have one of the pitfalls described on the first post.

 

[Upgrader]

You must have one of the pitfalls described on the first post.

Yes I've looked through but nothing seemed to cover my situation.

Can I download the latest Mojave installer and run just the firmware upgrade operation to get to 140.0.0.0?

 

[tsialex]

Yes I've looked through but nothing seemed to cover my situation.

Can I download the latest Mojave installer and run just the firmware upgrade operation to get to 140.0.0.0?

Like I wrote before, it's not possible to install 140.0.0.0.0 nowadays, but you can install 144.0.0.0.0 downloading 10.14.6 full installer.

Btw, you said that you have a cross flashed early-2009, you will most likely need a firmware reconstruction, the reconstructed BootROM will be 144.0.0.0.0.

 

[PTuser]

I have a 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with MP51.0089.B00 boot rom running last version of high sierra. I had a gt120 in there . Added a radeon Pro wx3100. I use the wx4100 with Mojave on another machine without any additional drivers and its the same family of drivers, so should work. The Mojave Installer wont start because it says no metal support. The radeon in slot 2 shows as a graphics card in high sierra but looks like drivers not loaded in sys prefs . I also have an Nvdia Quadra card that works with high sierra but for some reason I cant get to a desktop on high sierra with both the radeon and the quadra installed in place of gt120 in order to start the installer.

Any idea what I need to do? Im stumped....

 

[tsialex]

I have a 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with MP51.0089.B00 boot rom running last version of high sierra. I had a gt120 in there . Added a radeon Pro wx3100. I use the wx4100 with Mojave on another machine without any additional drivers and its the same family of drivers, so should work. The Mojave Installer wont start because it says no metal support. The radeon in slot 2 shows as a graphics card in high sierra but looks like drivers not loaded in sys prefs . I also have an Nvdia Quadra card that works with high sierra but for some reason I cant get to a desktop with both the radeon and the quadra installed in place of gt120.

Any idea what I need to do? Im stumped....

You can't use unsupported GPUs with Mojave, remove any unsupported GPU before trying to upgrade.

You can't mix AMD and NVIDIA GPUs after HighSierra, very weird and inexplicable errors will happen.

 

[PTuser]

You can't use unsupported GPUs with Mojave, remove any unsupported GPU before trying to upgrade.

You can't mix AMD and NVIDIA GPUs after HighSierra, very weird and inexplicable errors will happen.

I couldn't get the radeon going in high sierra with the gt120 installed as well. It just showed as a generic display card but nothing worked

 

[tsialex]

I couldn't get the radeon going in high sierra with the gt120 installed as well. It just showed as a generic display card but nothing worked

First and most important thing: you can get the W3100 working fine when installed with the Mac Pro that has the current firmware and Mojave?

If yes and you can't get it working with High Sierra updated to 10.13.6 + MP51.0089.B00, maybe you have a corrupted EFI. It's extremely rare, but happens when you used some old NVIDIA web drivers + some Quadro and TITAN cards. If it's the case, you will need a BootROM reconstruction.

 

[tsialex]

I have a 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with MP51.0089.B00 boot rom running last version of high sierra. I had a gt120 in there . Added a radeon Pro wx3100. I use the wx4100 with Mojave on another machine without any additional drivers and its the same family of drivers, so should work. The Mojave Installer wont start because it says no metal support. The radeon in slot 2 shows as a graphics card in high sierra but looks like drivers not loaded in sys prefs . I also have an Nvdia Quadra card that works with high sierra but for some reason I cant get to a desktop on high sierra with both the radeon and the quadra installed in place of gt120 in order to start the installer.

Any idea what I need to do? Im stumped....

Correcting what you wrote, being the same family says nothing for driver support. If the PCIe ID is not present inside the Apple AMD drivers, macOS will ignore the card.

Most Lexa GPUs don't work with macOS at all, your WX3100 is the Pro version of the real RX 450/550. WX4100 is a Baffin GPU, the Pro version of RX460/560.

Most RX 450/550 video cards won't work at all with macOS, since Apple never added the Lexa PCIe IDs to the drivers, just the video cards that were made from Baffin GPUs that were binned to lower spec during manufacture and then used to make RX 450/550 will work with macOS, since Baffin is a fully supported AMD GPU with the Apple AMD drivers.

If you search for WX3100 on the Mac Pro forum, most posts talk about it not working.

 

[PTuser]

Correcting what you wrote, being the same family says nothing for driver support. If the PCIe ID is not present inside the Apple AMD drivers, macOS will ignore the card.

Most Lexa GPUs don't work with macOS at all, your WX3100 is the Pro version of the real RX 450/550. WX4100 is a Baffin GPU, the Pro version of RX460/560.

Most RX 450/550 video cards won't work at all with macOS, since Apple never added the Lexa PCIe IDs to the drivers, just the video cards that were made from Baffin GPUs that were binned to lower spec during manufacture and then used to make RX 450/550 will work with macOS, since Baffin is a fully supported AMD GPU with the Apple AMD drivers.

If you search for WX3100 on the Mac Pro forum, most posts talk about it not working.

thanks for the information - Ive obviously got it wrong- If I get a 4100 would that boot by itself in high sierra and allow the install to Mojave ?

 

[tsialex]

thanks for the information - Ive obviously got it wrong- If I get a 4100 would that boot by itself in high sierra and allow the install to Mojave ?

Should work.