MP 1,1-5,1 Manually Configured OpenCore on the Mac Pro

[RottenCotton]

Also here is a quick System Specs Screenie incase hardware is a possible issue

 

[0134168]

I have to try this Opencore stuff some day. But it´s a bit intimidating all the things to configure.

 

[Dayo]

I have to try this Opencore stuff some day. But it´s a bit intimidating all the things to configure.

Its actually not as difficult/risky as it appears and most of the initial issues that you may have seen in the earlier posts were overcome a long time ago.

Having said that, some still do feel unsure and a potentially easier setup process (largely automated) can be found here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thread.2231693.

Disadvantage of that though, is that you don't get to understand the steps as the tools just do them for you but it might be useful in getting started.

 

[startergo]

Hi There,

First off I wanted to say a Huge Thank You to the OP and everyone involved in this guide and all the magic that allowed me to Install OpenCore and get Catalina on my 5,1.

It works and from a complete techno dunce like me being able to follow along and get this done is massive.

I am running into a few small aesthetic issues that if someone has a solution to resolve it would be awesome but if not then its an aesthetic issue so ill just deal with it.

I followed the basic installation parts 1 - 5 to the letter in post #1. and I also Enabled the Graphical Boot Picker in "Part II Advanced Configuration".

When I boot up the Mac the wild and negative colours appear on boot. Much like when I first installed OpenCore. I can make out that the Graphical Boot Picker is working but those pinks and yellows and rainbow spectrum colours don't look the greatest. Once I select the Boot Drive the Black screen with the white apple logo kicks in and everything is fine from there on.

I went and repeated all the Post Install actions again (made sure the changes were correct) I even re enabled some like HiDPI Display, GOP Renderer but reboots with those reverted were still the same.

Could someone let me know if the initial boot screen is supposed to be crazy colours and if not if you have any suggestions on what the issue might be that would be awesome.

End of day though is a small aesthetic issue when I first boot up so if that's just how it is I won't complain.

Awesome Job once again

Edit: Attached are photos of the screens I see in order, Ive seen this (Apart from the Graphic Icon of the Boot Drive) on boot up ever since going to Open Core (incase that in itself is unusual). a second after the last photo in the series it goes to the black apple boot screen for a second before logging into Catalina

View attachment 964769
View attachment 964770
View attachment 964771View attachment 964772

The suggestion is to run the debug version and enable logging for further evaluation. I have seen colors in the code for the boot kicker perhaps they are somewhere else in the code and they mean something.

 

[0134168]

Its actually not as difficult/risky as it appears and most of the initial issues that you may have seen in the earlier posts were overcome a long time ago.

Having said that, some still do feel unsure and a potentially easier setup process (largely automated) can be found here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thread.2231693.

Disadvantage of that though, is that you don't get to understand the steps as the tools just do them for you but it might be useful in getting started.

Thanks!

 

[h9826790]

It does actually, if you get 32GB module DDR3 LRDIMM it will work, I wanted to know if there was something that I could potentially turn on in the config.plist so that mine that was given to me for free could be recognized. The machine boots but hang on the Apple logo...

I may by the LRDIMM instead the one I got was RDIMM only ..

Not sure, you may try to completely spoof the cMP with the 7,1 SMBIOS, and see it if can boot MacOS with 32GB DIMM.

For Windows and Linux, your cMP can boot 32GB DIMM natively without any spoofing.

 

[205Maxi]

Hello anyone

Not sure, you may try to completely spoof the cMP with the 7,1 SMBIOS, and see it if can boot MacOS with 32GB DIMM.

For Windows and Linux, your cMP can boot 32GB DIMM natively without any spoofing.

As my signature states, I am fully spoofing the MacPro7,1 and I means the RDIMM's don't give me a red light whatsoever , I can hear the chime, it will show bootlicker and Apple logo, but the it hangs and no loading bar...

Also I have put a XFX GTS RX580 8GB, I am only getting low res on a 30-inch ACD any idea how I can display at full res?

Using the latest 0.6.2..

Thank you.

 

[h9826790]

I means the RDIMM's don't give me a red light whatsoever , I can hear the chime, it will show bootlicker and Apple logo, but the it hangs and no loading bar...

These are all the expected outcome.

As I said, you can boot Windows, Linux, but not MacOS with 32GB DIMM. You can boot OC, but once start to load MacOS, it won’t work.

You can spoof memory config by Clover, but no such function in OC yet.

If 7,1 SMBIOS can’t bypass this “limit”, then I can’t think about any other work around yet.

 

[RottenCotton]

Its actually not as difficult/risky as it appears and most of the initial issues that you may have seen in the earlier posts were overcome a long time ago.

Having said that, some still do feel unsure and a potentially easier setup process (largely automated) can be found here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thread.2231693.

Disadvantage of that though, is that you don't get to understand the steps as the tools just do them for you but it might be useful in getting started.

I checked out your suggestion and it sounds very nice for someone like me to have the process automated as much as possible but and this is just some advice from your potential audience (i.e. someone that doesn't know much and could use the help) you take a great concept of a simplified process and present SO MANY options.

I get you want to allow users to take what they need, but really your target audience is guys like me so I start reading the guide and I'm not even through the pre prep and I already have multiple points where I've been confused and bewildered by options.... options I don't fully understand the result of those options.

If the goal is to make it a super simple automated process for those that don't know or simply have the time to know/understand then I would make it a very "on the rails" guide.

Step 1 - Do This
Step 2 - Do This
etc etc

It might be that the guide you wrote and your efforts to create a "Brain Dead, can do it in your sleep" guide / process is exactly that for you and those like you but speaking as someone who doesn't know his ass from his elbow when it comes to this stuff I felt my anxiety go through the roof a short way in.

I think its great your providing the automated process and trying to simplify things as much as possible for the layman. It really is appreciated, but read your audience what is elementary for you might as well be written in Ancient Greek for the rest of us.

Also the first reply you had was from another member and it said something like "why is this so complicated?"

That should be warning bells for you, instead you replied with something like "Well its a lot of info but its not complicated, for example in this section you could do steps one, two and five but not the others"

Once again MAJOR RESPECT to you for doing this (I really don't want you to feel its not appreciated) but if you sincerely want to help others like myself (who are technology dumb) with these guides and the automated tools I would suggest you strip the guide and step by step down to a simple one path guide that literally tells them exactly what to do, no options (at that point) no lengthy explanations.... or if you want to keep the explanations and options have the core instructions bolded so all I need to do is look for the bolded parts and get the job done, or if I want to learn it and feel comfortable exploring options I can read the non bolded stuff too.

 

[RottenCotton]

The suggestion is to run the debug version and enable logging for further evaluation. I have seen colors in the code for the boot kicker perhaps they are somewhere else in the code and they mean something.

So does that mean that what I am seeing when I initially boot up is normal or did something go wrong in my process?

 

[startergo]

So does that mean that what I am seeing when I initially boot up is normal or did something go wrong in my process?

We don't know until we see the log file:

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

It kind of does not work for NVIDIA. Can you please use the debug version for logging?

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Dayo]

I checked out your suggestion ...

Thanks for the feedback. There is no intention to change anything on how that is set up at this point.
There are a few options open to those that want to implement OC and it is up to each to decide what suits them.

Just pointed out an option to someone which might or might not suit them.
The details on that are all off topic here though.

 

[JedNZ]

I checked out your suggestion and it sounds very nice for someone like me to have the process automated as much as possible but and this is just some advice from your potential audience (i.e. someone that doesn't know much and could use the help) you take a great concept of a simplified process and present SO MANY options.

I get you want to allow users to take what they need, but really your target audience is guys like me so I start reading the guide and I'm not even through the pre prep and I already have multiple points where I've been confused and bewildered by options.... options I don't fully understand the result of those options.

If the goal is to make it a super simple automated process for those that don't know or simply have the time to know/understand then I would make it a very "on the rails" guide.

Step 1 - Do This
Step 2 - Do This
etc etc

It might be that the guide you wrote and your efforts to create a "Brain Dead, can do it in your sleep" guide / process is exactly that for you and those like you but speaking as someone who doesn't know his ass from his elbow when it comes to this stuff I felt my anxiety go through the roof a short way in.

I think its great your providing the automated process and trying to simplify things as much as possible for the layman. It really is appreciated, but read your audience what is elementary for you might as well be written in Ancient Greek for the rest of us.

Also the first reply you had was from another member and it said something like "why is this so complicated?"

That should be warning bells for you, instead you replied with something like "Well its a lot of info but its not complicated, for example in this section you could do steps one, two and five but not the others"

Once again MAJOR RESPECT to you for doing this (I really don't want you to feel its not appreciated) but if you sincerely want to help others like myself (who are technology dumb) with these guides and the automated tools I would suggest you strip the guide and step by step down to a simple one path guide that literally tells them exactly what to do, no options (at that point) no lengthy explanations.... or if you want to keep the explanations and options have the core instructions bolded so all I need to do is look for the bolded parts and get the job done, or if I want to learn it and feel comfortable exploring options I can read the non bolded stuff too.

I think I was in the same place as you, but was lucky I started following this work shortly after it started AND had the opportunity of following the thread grow as people encountered issues and solutions and advice was given. What I’m saying is, if you haven’t already, read the WHOLE thread. There’ll be parts that are confusing, but most if not all get answered. The guides need to be read and reread before people like you and I start. The community here is incredibly patient and helpful to those of us with questions, but you have to play your part too and read up a bit. I only gave it a go two or so months ago after watching others stumble and succeed. If it’s still too technical for you now, maybe hold off a while and see what else you can learn from others. I’ve just gone the RefindPlus/OpenCore way with its awesome ConfigFactory tool that automates the process, and when I found myself scratching my head with all the options I just had to take a chill pill and work through it and ask questions. These tools are developing at a fervent pace, and it’s simply not a simple task to design and maintain a “Dummy’s Guide to...” when it’s evolving so quickly. Feel free to PM if you’re getting lost and can’t get answer from anyone else. I’m no expert but I got it going so I must have at least a basic amount of experience.

 

[TECK]

if you sincerely want to help others like myself (who are technology dumb) with these guides and the automated tools

I think you need to play your part and spend time to read and learn what OC can do, words like technology dumb are irrelevant. If you cannot afford this time, you cannot ask others to spoon feed you. You must be good at something, if you are not technologically inclined, you became good at it because you persisted. I personally find the guide made by @cdf extremely clear and easy to follow, everyone here took their time to read the OP and ask questions, you will get answers if you ask them.

 

[RottenCotton]

I think you need to play your part and spend time to read and learn what OC can do, words like technology dumb are irrelevant. If you cannot afford this time, you cannot ask others to spoon feed you. You must be good at something, if you are not technologically inclined, you became good at it because you persisted. I personally find the guide made by @cdf extremely clear and easy to follow, everyone here took their time to read the OP and ask questions, you will get answers if you ask them.

Hey Teck,

Yeah, If you read my first post above (the one with all the screenshots) I gave CDF and everyone who contributed on this thread huge props and respect. I followed the guide and instructions to the letter and my installation is working fine and its awesome.

I too found the guide in #1 relatively easy to follow. It told me to do X,Y and Z, I did X,Y and Z and for the most part I have achieved what I wanted with relative ease

I read all of the OC literature on Git Hub as I was downloading it post #1 says I should read it so I did. I had one small aesthetic issue which is when I power up my Mac I have a lot of weird colours up to and just after selecting my boot drive (using the boot picker) this is after making the change to have the black boot screen.

My original question was is there a way to solve this, did I screw up something in my installation or does everyone have these weird colours initially upon booting up?

If that's the way it is then no biggie, I am pleased as punch that with this communities assistance I was able to get Catalina working on my 5,1

If the normal experience is not to have those weird colours and the boot picker look like one of my Acid Trips from the 70's and I screwed something up then no problem I will start fresh and get it right

The post you're responding to was a word of advice I offered to Dayo. It looks like he put a lot of work and effort into creating an even easier and semi automated process for those daunted by the manual side of CDF guide. I didn't need to follow his process as I have already done it but as an educator and someone who enjoys learning and understanding new things I thought id check it out.

Dayo created (or was presenting) a way for the uninitiated to get Catalina, windows and Linux running on unsupported Macs which is apparently easier than the way I had done it which is marvellous, truly.

What I found ironic however was that Dayo was presenting an automated process and conceivably a much easier process for the layman than the guide I followed by CDF and yet the pre amble and numerous options made the guide a much more daunting task.

With the original guide in #1 yes I had to get my hands dirty but the instructions I received were straight forward "Do A, then B, then C"... "You've done that, great you've setup OpenCore and Installed Catalina, now if your ready here is some more advanced stuff and what it will do"

I didn't have to decide anything, I didn't need to know anything, I just had to follow along. Once I had followed the instructions I had done something I was honestly quite proud of myself for having tackled and done, yes all I had done was follow instructions and read the OC tech manual but I had still done it and through following that instructions I learnt along the way and had a small understanding which gave me the confidence to want to know more.

I have been an educator for well over thirty years now (if you hadn't guessed it wasn't anything to do with computers ) and one of the biggest things I learnt early on was the value and impact of the mind worm you can implant teaching a new concept to the uninitiated by just straight up telling them what to do and allowing them to achieve something simply by parroting you. By providing on the rails instruction you are ensuring their first foray is a complete success, its not daunting, they have nothing to put them off and that success encourages them to want to learn more, do more.

Lets take a simple example, when you learned to drive. That first lesson did your instructor show you the car, the wheels, the ignition, clutch and brake, then hand you the keys and tell you to go wild? Did they tell you three different ways to parallel park and say you should try which ever method you liked the sound of the most? Probably not that first lesson they told you exactly how to do every little thing, they told you one method of doing each thing and when you got it right you felt more confident driving because you were successful. 15 - 20 lessons later that's when your feeling more confident that they start teaching you tertiary methods and other ways of doing that basic stuff.

Everyone in this community are doing wonderful things, they helped teach me and helped me achieve a goal. its really awesome and very appreciated, but if Dayo wanted to provide a simpler way of doing it, I thought it would be a shame if anyone new and wanting to get OC up and running if they were put off of working though what looks like it might be a much simpler process because they were being swamped with options and pre amble.

So to cap off my reply, yes I followed the guide to the letter and yes I read all of the OC literature, I got my installation completed and its all working for me, I even have a better understanding of what I was doing. Yes I am Technology Dumb but I also happen to be in my 60's a highly educated and long serving University Professor helping expand minds for well over 30 years, so I guess you could say I'm good at educating

Seeing as I am good at educating I thought I would take the time to offer advice to help this community do a better job of helping those who are new to this and are daunted by the prospect of doing things in an environment they are not comfortable with (Computer) in a language they don't know. I would like to see all of your efforts CDF, Dayo's and others help many people like me, so I offered some advice on delivery, I am sure you can see that now

 

[Dayo]

Apologies to everyone for inadvertently setting off this runaway train of off topic posts.

 

[naerct]

I enjoy reading this thread much more, now that I have learned the basics. The one tool I wish I had is to be able to use SuperDuper! (or CCC if necessary) on disk A (Catalina) to create a clone that will boot. I remember reading a post, but I can't find it again, searching at MacRumors, and manually. I came away from what I read originally with the understanding that it can be done. Can anyone help?

 

[cdf]

I enjoy reading this thread much more, now that I have learned the basics. The one tool I wish I had is to be able to use SuperDuper! (or CCC if necessary) on disk A (Catalina) to create a clone that will boot. I remember reading a post, but I can't find it again, searching at MacRumors, and manually. I came away from what I read originally with the understanding that it can be done. Can anyone help?

You want to make sure to clone the EFI partition of Disk A. There are scripts that can automate the process:

GitHub - kobaltcore/EFIClone: macOS Shell Script to automatically clone the EFI partition from either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! when run on a Hackintosh.

macOS Shell Script to automatically clone the EFI partition from either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! when run on a Hackintosh. - kobaltcore/EFIClone

github.com

 

[6DecadesLater]

Hi There,

First off I wanted to say a Huge Thank You to the OP and everyone involved in this guide and all the magic that allowed me to Install OpenCore and get Catalina on my 5,1.

It works and from a complete techno dunce like me being able to follow along and get this done is massive.

I am running into a few small aesthetic issues that if someone has a solution to resolve it would be awesome but if not then its an aesthetic issue so ill just deal with it.

I followed the basic installation parts 1 - 5 to the letter in post #1. and I also Enabled the Graphical Boot Picker in "Part II Advanced Configuration".

When I boot up the Mac the wild and negative colours appear on boot. Much like when I first installed OpenCore. I can make out that the Graphical Boot Picker is working but those pinks and yellows and rainbow spectrum colours don't look the greatest. Once I select the Boot Drive the Black screen with the white apple logo kicks in and everything is fine from there on.

I went and repeated all the Post Install actions again (made sure the changes were correct) I even re enabled some like HiDPI Display, GOP Renderer but reboots with those reverted were still the same.

Could someone let me know if the initial boot screen is supposed to be crazy colours and if not if you have any suggestions on what the issue might be that would be awesome.

End of day though is a small aesthetic issue when I first boot up so if that's just how it is I won't complain.

Awesome Job once again

Edit: Attached are photos of the screens I see in order, Ive seen this (Apart from the Graphic Icon of the Boot Drive) on boot up ever since going to Open Core (incase that in itself is unusual). a second after the last photo in the series it goes to the black apple boot screen for a second before logging into Catalina

View attachment 964769
View attachment 964770
View attachment 964771View attachment 964772

Check out post #3,062

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

Try setting the switch on the RX580 to the non-gaming mode. It is on the top side of the card. Really tiny. Slide it away from connector end. Power down first of course.

forums.macrumors.com

 

[6DecadesLater]

You want to make sure to clone the EFI partition of Disk A. There are scripts that can automate the process:

GitHub - kobaltcore/EFIClone: macOS Shell Script to automatically clone the EFI partition from either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! when run on a Hackintosh.

macOS Shell Script to automatically clone the EFI partition from either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! when run on a Hackintosh. - kobaltcore/EFIClone

github.com

I used CCC tp clone my Mojave disk, then installed OC, then updated the cloned Mojave to Catalina. Worked fine

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

I installed OC on an NVME, I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Mojave from a SATA drive to the NVME. I then installed OC on the NVME. I then updated the NVME Mojave to Catalina. It works well. I did have some issues a couple of days ago I posted but I'm sure I had messed something up. I ended up...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[wnlewis]

I'm not sure if my question should go in the "I got a new, used, rebuilt cMP," or if it should go here in the "OpenCore" discussion.

I just got an upgraded 4,1 to 5,1 cMP with Radeon RX580 and Westmere 3.33 6 logical (12 virtual) dual cores. It is running Mojave. I cannot install Windows using Boot Camp, so I need to find another way to get Windows on this Mac. My purpose is to be able to do CAD (2 PC and 1 Mac) on this cMP.

The discussion here seems to be mainly about putting Catalina on a cMP. Will that help me get where I want to go - getting Windows 10 on this Mac so that I can use Creo Parametric and SolidWorks (I know that SolidWorks does not support Macs, but I think that I can a video card that will work). The other CAD package is Cobalt by Ashlar Vellum for Mac.

Is this the right place to post to get some answers?

 

[PeterHolbrook]

I'm not sure if my question should go in the "I got a new, used, rebuilt cMP," or if it should go here in the "OpenCore" discussion.

I just got an upgraded 4,1 to 5,1 cMP with Radeon RX580 and Westmere 3.33 6 logical (12 virtual) dual cores. It is running Mojave. I cannot install Windows using Boot Camp, so I need to find another way to get Windows on this Mac. My purpose is to be able to do CAD (2 PC and 1 Mac) on this cMP.

The discussion here seems to be mainly about putting Catalina on a cMP. Will that help me get where I want to go - getting Windows 10 on this Mac so that I can use Creo Parametric and SolidWorks (I know that SolidWorks does not support Macs, but I think that I can a video card that will work). The other CAD package is Cobalt by Ashlar Vellum for Mac.

Is this the right place to post to get some answers?

This is clearly off-topic, so this isn't the place to dwell on this issue. Let me give you a couple of hints, though. The first one is that, even if Mojave or Catalina won't help you with Boot Camp Assistant or provide Boot Camp drivers, you can still run Windows, provided you install it on your own (for instance, booting your computer off a Windows install DVD and installing it to a MBR FAT32 or NTFS disk). The second one is you might get a functional Boot Camp Assistant if you boot into an earlier iteration of macOS/OS X, perhaps as late as High Sierra.

 

[dvbcheck]

Windows 10 EFI install with activated OpenCore only with RAW Disk Mode in VirtualBox.

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

Use this guide, this for Windows and this manual. The guide missed sudo. Use this command: sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ".vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/disk# Where /dev/disk# is the disk number where you will be installing Windows revealed by diskutil list. First, make sure the...

forums.macrumors.com

Use iMacPro BootCamp from here:

Help Installing Windows 10 on Mac Pro 5,1

Well, I add my fresh experience in installing Win10 on my MacPros (flashed 4.1 -> 5.1 and also 5.1 native), I have not much experience on the Microsoft side but this path worked for me. 1) Choose a dedicated empty internal SATA disk, we are not using BootCamp Assistant and my experience trying...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[lxmeta]

It does actually, if you get 32GB module DDR3 LRDIMM it will work, I wanted to know if there was something that I could potentially turn on in the config.plist so that mine that was given to me for free could be recognized. The machine boots but hang on the Apple logo...

I may by the LRDIMM instead the one I got was RDIMM only ..

cMP with 32gb modules did boot Linux without issues for me, but not macOS. I tried all combinations, and the kernel is crashing for me. My take is that Mojave (without opencore) and Catalina don't support this configuration.
I don't think the problem is the hardware, it's the OS.

 

[Alex-IN]

I'm not sure if my question should go in the "I got a new, used, rebuilt cMP," or if it should go here in the "OpenCore" discussion.

I just got an upgraded 4,1 to 5,1 cMP with Radeon RX580 and Westmere 3.33 6 logical (12 virtual) dual cores. It is running Mojave. I cannot install Windows using Boot Camp, so I need to find another way to get Windows on this Mac. My purpose is to be able to do CAD (2 PC and 1 Mac) on this cMP.

The discussion here seems to be mainly about putting Catalina on a cMP. Will that help me get where I want to go - getting Windows 10 on this Mac so that I can use Creo Parametric and SolidWorks (I know that SolidWorks does not support Macs, but I think that I can a video card that will work). The other CAD package is Cobalt by Ashlar Vellum for Mac.

Is this the right place to post to get some answers?

Look at it.