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MP 6,1 MacPro6,1, Ventura/Sonoma and OCLP (DRM + Chrome + Electron issues)

Netflix + Safari frequently stops working after sometime, usually takes more than an hour to happen, the video freezes or the screen turns black and just the audio goes on. Only restarting the Mac Pro makes Safari + Netflix to work again.

Netflix + Firefox usually works very well, but the DRM works by software (FairPlay v1.0) instead and the CPU usage is much greater than with Safari.
 
steve123 said:
That is a good suggestion to investigate. My initial thought is LibreOffice will likely work as I understand the problem is the Apple apps now use AVX2 instructions. The generation of CPU used in the MP 6,1 does not support AVX2.
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Hello,
For your information, I tested macOS Ventura (13.5) with OCLP (0.6.8) on my MacPro6,1 today.
The system seems functional and LibreOffice works but several applications don't work properly (pages, Microsoft todo, etc). So I decided to go back to macOS Monterey (12.6.8).
Best regards,
 
tahitibub said:
Hello,
For your information, I tested macOS Ventura (13.5) with OCLP (0.6.8) on my MacPro6,1 today.
The system seems functional and LibreOffice works but several applications don't work properly (pages, Microsoft todo, etc). So I decided to go back to macOS Monterey (12.6.8).
Best regards,
Click to expand...
OCLP on Macs condemns you to a never ending series of landmines as per AVX2, security updates, application incompatibilities, etc.. I've been hackintoshing for 15 years. All good fun, learnt a lot in the early days, makes sense for PC's but at the end of the day probably a waste of time for Macs. With my Macs I've reverted to the latest supported version and an comfortable knowing that things "just work".
 
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tahitibub said:
For your information, I tested macOS Ventura (13.5) with OCLP (0.6.8) on my MacPro6,1 today.
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I just bought a MacPro6,1 (8-core 3.0GHz/32GB/512GB/D500) for US $349 on eBay. It just arrived so I will start tinkering with it this weekend.

Is there a good solid, no-brainer set of instructions for doing the OCLP 0.6.8 + macOS Ventura upgrade? Also, should 13.5.1 be avoided?
 
tsialex said:
View attachment 2102970

Tonight, OCLP team (thx @khronokernel) started supporting MacPro6,1 and Ventura for the first time:

View attachment 2102971
View attachment 2102974

OCLP 0.5.1 Nightly brought Ventura support for the late-2013 Mac Pro. Somethings don't yet work, like DRM and CPU power management (Ventura is running with the VMM flag enabled), but besides that, it's fast/stable and the installation is fully automatic:

View attachment 2102975
View attachment 2102973

DRM is one of the two major bummers right now and nothing (really nothing) that demands DRM with Safari works, Netflix asks for Silverlight for example:

View attachment 2102972

The other major bummer is the missing macOS CPU power management - no Intel SpeedStep, so the CPU is always clocked from the nominal to the Turbo frequency with no SpeedStep down clock when the CPU is idle - this generation of Xeon processors can down clock to 1,1GHz when idle.

Sleep works, fan works - the SMC works and is independent of the CPU power management by macOS, so the fan works as expected. While you are not in CPU load, no greater heat is generated, even without SpeedStep working at this moment.

Apple removed AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext from Ventura, and OCLP devs are waiting for Apple to publish the XNU sources to start re-implementing it (edit 20221103: Apple already released the XNU sources xnu-8792.41.9 for Ventura GM) - the workaround to begin supporting the late-2013 was setting the VMM flag and running Ventura as a VM.

As of OCLP 0.6.6, Power Management seems to be working, but still present minor DRM issues with late-2013 Mac Pro, like when mirroring to an AppleTV.
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I have a Mac Pro 2013 running Monterey. What do you recommend? Should I upgrade (via OCLP) to Ventura or go straight to Sonoma?
 
plunger said:
I have a Mac Pro 2013 running Monterey. What do you recommend? Should I upgrade (via OCLP) to Ventura or go straight to Sonoma?
Click to expand...

Stick to Monterey, install Ventura to an external disk and see if works acceptably for you. Forget Sonoma.
 
I’d update to Sonoma - no reason not to. Sonoma works fine, and may even be a bit faster than Ventura and Monterey. I have a moderately complex Mac Pro 2013, and everything works for me on Sonoma…
 
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Killerbob said:
I’d update to Sonoma - no reason not to. Sonoma works fine, and may even be a bit faster than Ventura and Monterey. I have a moderately complex Mac Pro 2013, and everything works for me on Sonoma…
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Does this include streaming Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, AppleTV+, etc?
 
adam9c1 said:
Does this include streaming Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, AppleTV+, etc?
Click to expand...
I can confirm that on my 2013 Mac Pro (MacPro6,1), iTunes, AppleTV+, and Netflix via Chrome works. It is sometimes funky with the video on Netflix, but eventually, it works. YMMW.
 
Killerbob said:
I can confirm that on my 2013 Mac Pro (MacPro6,1) iTunes, AppleTV+, and Netflix via Chrome works. It is sometimes funky with the video on Netflix, but eventually, it works.
Click to expand...

This is a very ingenious way to answer the question.

Right now, a MacPro6,1 running Sonoma have nothing DRM related working except when running Chrome. Chrome have its own library/extension to manage DRM, Widevine, that completely bypass macOS own DRM (Apple FairPlay).

Safari, AppleTV app and anything else that uses hardware based FairPlay (2.x/3.x) are not working with a MacPro6,1 running Sonoma.

More info about OCLP and DRM here:

 
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I didn’t know that, and as that usage does not apply to me, I’d never know until you said it. Any DRM content I ever access on my 2013 Mac Pro would be via iTunes and via Chrome.
 
tsialex said:
Current 470.0.0.0.0 late-2013 BootROM update solved serious crashes and security failures, so, yes, you need to install it running BigSur/Monterey.



Happens with all Macs one day and you can't do anything about it. Apple will support late-2013 Mac Pro until Monterey still have Software Updates, up to September 2024.



While you didn't had the crashes yourself, the bugs that cause it are still present.

Running Catalina will not get firmware updates anymore, since it's unsupported since September.
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My system firmware version on my late-2013 Mac Pro is 474.0.0.0.0
 
plunger said:
My system firmware version on my late-2013 Mac Pro is 474.0.0.0.0
Click to expand...

My post that you quoted was from November 7th last year, since then Apple released new EFI firmwares and the current MacPro6,1 BootROM is 474.0.0.0.0.

Edit:

Apple released BootROM version 478.0.0.0.0 with Monterey 12.7.1 (21G920):

Code: 
Hardware Overview:

  Model Name:	Mac Pro
  Model Identifier:	MacPro6,1
  Processor Name:	6-Core Intel Xeon E5
  Processor Speed:	3,5 GHz
  Number of Processors:	1
  Total Number of Cores:	6
  L2 Cache (per Core):	256 KB
  L3 Cache:	12 MB
  Hyper-Threading Technology:	Enabled
  Memory:	64 GB
  System Firmware Version:	478.0.0.0.0
  OS Loader Version:	540.120.3~37
  SMC Version (system):	2.20f18
  Panel Illumination Version:	1.4a6
 
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tsialex said:
This is a very ingenious way to answer the question.

Right now, a MacPro6,1 running Sonoma have nothing DRM related working except when running Chrome. Chrome have its own library/extension to manage DRM, Widevine, that completely bypass macOS own DRM (Apple FairPlay).

Safari, AppleTV app and anything else that uses hardware based FairPlay (2.x/3.x) are not working with a MacPro6,1 running Sonoma.

More info about OCLP and DRM here:

Click to expand...

Hey tsialex,

Long time. Is there anything specific on AppleTV or Netflix to test whether it's working or not?

I'm asking because I have no issues on my 6,1 on Sonoma 14.1. I can play AppleTV, watch Netflix via Safari and play Music no problem.

I would be interested to know how to test if "properly"
 
MoerBoer said:
Hey tsialex,

Long time. Is there anything specific on AppleTV or Netflix to test whether it's working or not?

I'm asking because I have no issues on my 6,1 on Sonoma 14.1. I can play AppleTV, watch Netflix via Safari and play Music no problem.

I would be interested to know how to test if "properly"
Click to expand...

OCLP have examples on the page I've linked, but I've found that FairPlay v1.0 (DRM via software) works and v2.0/3.0 (DRM via hardware) won't.

Netflix 4K HDR/HDR10 usually fails right away, but it's difficult to know which video works or not.
 
I just installed Sonoma 14.1.1 with latest OCLP on my MacPro 6,1 and Netflix worked out of the box with Safari. Only tested for like 5 minutes though
 
tsialex said:
OCLP have examples on the page I've linked, but I've found that FairPlay v1.0 (DRM via software) works and v2.0/3.0 (DRM via hardware) won't.

Netflix 4K HDR/HDR10 usually fails right away, but it's difficult to know which video works or not.
Click to expand...
Makes sense, my 4k monitor doesn’t support HDR
 
I also find happiness in OCLP v1.2.0 and Sonoma 14.1.1. Perhaps the difference is I have an older "vintage" Apple LED Cinema Display using Thunderbolt; resolution of 2560x1440. Netfix on Safari works fine with everything I have tried, even recent movies like Godzilla vs. Kong. As well as iTunes music videos and playing AppleTV+ shows.
 
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These are encouraging posts! I don't do any DRM stuff on my Mac (no Netflix, no AppleTV+, no iTunes videos) so I'm hopeful it'll Just Work when I get around to trying out Sonoma 14.3 with OCLP 1.3.0. Thanks to all the posters for the updates. 👍
 
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