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

[TECK]

Say you upgrade your current Mojave disk to OpenCore Big Sur. If your OC setup has an issue or the OS has Bluetooth problems (like I had), how are you going to fix it? You cannot. You should have a vanilla Mojave dish and a separate Catalina/Big Sur disk where you apply your OC settings.

Myself I have a Mojave base disk used for rescue and one OC Big Sur + one OC Windows for daily use.

 

[s.m.t.]

Could I not simply boot to a USB Installer, reformat the drive and reinstall or better yet do a TM restore?

 

[TECK]

I think you are missing what the OpenCore concept is. From what I see, you are after a blind "I don't care" method to install Catalina or Big Sur. Which is exactly the oposite what everyone here does. Please take 20min of your time and read the first post, then if you are interested, please ask related questions.

 

[s.m.t.]

Yeah, I read the first post several times, thank you... No need to be condescending... If you don't want to answer my related question, feel free to skip my post... Not sure I understand your attitude towards my post...

So what is the concept then? As I asked, what am I missing? Why the recommendation is to have 2 drives, when it appears like the only modification to the system is the EFI partition... My questions are related...

 

[startergo]

like the only modification to the system is the EFI partition

That is correct.

 

[TECK]

Not sure I understand your attitude towards my post.

There is no attitude towards you, I'm still upset of that video. From their website:

That is not true, I have GPU acceleration and updates enabled. What bothers me is they ripped @cdf work and they did a bad job at it.

 

[s.m.t.]

That is correct.

Okay, so I am trying to understand why I couldn't install OpenCore onto an existing install? Given if I pull that drive, I still have a stock MacPro (excluding the 5,1 firmware of course)...

 

[startergo]

Okay, so I am trying to understand why I couldn't install OpenCore onto an existing install? Given if I pull that drive, I still have a stock MacPro (excluding the 5,1 firmware of course)...

Correct.

 

[s.m.t.]

Correct.

Okay, thanks! Now it seems like going to Big Sur is not an out of the box experience and will require spoofing, if I am reading correctly...

 

[TECK]

Yes, you spoof the board product and change only a single bit of the firmware.

 

[wickerstick]

Update from my 5,1. Big Sur is still running! My upgraded wifi/BT 4.2 card is working fine ATM. The Bluetooth reception is bad but it always has been that way. I can confirm handoff and airdrop working fine. have not setup Apple Watch unlock yet but I'm confident it will work. Bluetooth did not work until changing board-ID from Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 to Mac-27AD2F918AE68F61 as described by h9826790 on post #4,799. This also resolved my issue with dual monitors not functioning after the update.

The 2 glaring issues I'm having ATM are:
1. hardware acceleration doesn't seem like it's working. video proc says its good however, when moving stuff between screens and dragging things around quickly its very very buggy. drag and drop is pretty awful as well, its struggling 4k playback safari only shows 4k option and its mostly smooth with some lag here and there. Firefox will allow 8K but its a slide show. overall the system feels pretty sluggish and laggy but useable for a desktop and for basic office work.

2. Not sure if this is a widespread issue so please confirm is you have noticed this, migration assistant from a NAS is way too slow, not sure what could be causing this, as I've never had an issue with this before Big Sur.

My network is hardwired cat 6 throughout it house I deployed, runs into a patch panel and to a 24 port GB switch. The time machine backups are going to a Synology NAS with a bonded network and normally its pretty fast transfer rates. However, when I tried to restore my wife's account (far less data) it would only transfer at 7-8MB/s and took over 12 hours. I have far more data to transfer than her but I don't want to start it until I can figure this out, I even did a disk speed test over the network to the TM backup folder ran a little over 100MB/s so I am not sure the problem. also I have 1GB internet speed but that's WAN and it has nothing to do with the LAN speeds. here is a pic of the test on pretty full drives (89%), I'll be upgrading my NAS soon to either the DS920+ or the QNAP x53D 6 bay.

If Anyone can assist with either of these 2 issues that would be awesome. I may move my gas and try to connect direct via usb3.0 but id be fine with just getting the speeds I am supposed to be getting.

 

[TECK]

Not sure if this is a widespread issue

Since point 2 is not OC related, can you please create a new thread in this forum and ping me there? I'll help you, we can do some tests together. I get 110MB/s transfer rates to my TrueNAS located 75feet away from my switch.

 

[Scrotorr]

Okay, continuing to poke at my cMP 4,1->5,1. OpenCore is installed and working but I cannot get hardware acceleration working. GPU is an AMD R9 Nano. I have the iMac Pro board info in there and finally got my VBIOS flashed to support UEFI/GOP which is now working like a charm - but still no joy when it comes to the acceleration.

Ideas? Thoughts? Or is it just not going to work with the R9 Nano?

 

[startergo]

Okay, continuing to poke at my cMP 4,1->5,1. OpenCore is installed and working but I cannot get hardware acceleration working. GPU is an AMD R9 Nano. I have the iMac Pro board info in there and finally got my VBIOS flashed to support UEFI/GOP which is now working like a charm - but still no joy when it comes to the acceleration.

Ideas? Thoughts? Or is it just not going to work with the R9 Nano?View attachment 1671672

The best way to find out is to boot in Windows and check with Videoproc. If you have acceleration there then it could be done in MacOS, otherwise no.
This suggest that it supports HWA:

Add support for Nvidia gpu encoding · Issue #75 · FallingSnow/h265ize

This requires the user to have a self compiled ffmpeg with nvenc enabled.

github.com

 

[Scrotorr]

However, when I tried to restore my wife's account (far less data) it would only transfer at 7-8MB/s and took over 12 hours.

Having done hundreds of Migration Assistant restores over every type of connection conceivable I would say if she has a lot of small files it's going to take longer. There's always a minimum amount of time required to transfer each file. With an average amount of large files they are passed closer to full potential speed. With a bunch of smaller files it has to initiate and negotiate each file and so you have this aggregate time build up per file.

Now even saying that - 12 hours seems like an awfully long time. I've gone from 2009 iMacs to modern machines via firewire and it normally wouldn't take that long.

 

[TECK]

@cdf @h9826790 @startergo I found a pattern to the Bluetooth issue I'm experiencing since Big Sur upgrade: If I boot through OpenCanopy into Mojave disk, when I boot back into Big Sur, I will lose Bluetooth. To fix it, I have to reboot again into Big Sur. I can reboot 100 times in Big Sur, no issues. As soon as I'm switching to Mojave and then back to Big Sur, Bluetooth is gone on initial boot.

I'm using the Apple Magic keyboard and mouse 2 set. I tried to have a lighting cable attached to keyboard and plugged into USB port, it would not detect the keyboard. The only way I was able to gain control is to plug a wired Apple keyboard, so I can restart the Mac.

 

[h9826790]

Update from my 5,1. Big Sur is still running! My upgraded wifi/BT 4.2 card is working fine ATM. The Bluetooth reception is bad but it always has been that way. I can confirm handoff and airdrop working fine. have not setup Apple Watch unlock yet but I'm confident it will work. Bluetooth did not work until changing board-ID from Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94 to Mac-27AD2F918AE68F61 as described by h9826790 on post #4,799. This also resolved my issue with dual monitors not functioning after the update.

The 2 glaring issues I'm having ATM are:
1. hardware acceleration doesn't seem like it's working. video proc says its good however, when moving stuff between screens and dragging things around quickly its very very buggy. drag and drop is pretty awful as well, its struggling 4k playback safari only shows 4k option and its mostly smooth with some lag here and there. Firefox will allow 8K but its a slide show. overall the system feels pretty sluggish and laggy but useable for a desktop and for basic office work.

2. Not sure if this is a widespread issue so please confirm is you have noticed this, migration assistant from a NAS is way too slow, not sure what could be causing this, as I've never had an issue with this before Big Sur.

My network is hardwired cat 6 throughout it house I deployed, runs into a patch panel and to a 24 port GB switch. The time machine backups are going to a Synology NAS with a bonded network and normally its pretty fast transfer rates. However, when I tried to restore my wife's account (far less data) it would only transfer at 7-8MB/s and took over 12 hours. I have far more data to transfer than her but I don't want to start it until I can figure this out, I even did a disk speed test over the network to the TM backup folder ran a little over 100MB/s so I am not sure the problem. also I have 1GB internet speed but that's WAN and it has nothing to do with the LAN speeds. here is a pic of the test on pretty full drives (89%), I'll be upgrading my NAS soon to either the DS920+ or the QNAP x53D 6 bay.View attachment 1671615

If Anyone can assist with either of these 2 issues that would be awesome. I may move my gas and try to connect direct via usb3.0 but id be fine with just getting the speeds I am supposed to be getting.

1) Youtube won’t use HWAccel. You should download the Sony Swordsmith video to test HWAccel.

2) Looks like just Big Sur use a new algorithm that’s slower than before. Not hardware or OpenCore‘s issue.

 

[h9826790]

@cdf @h9826790 @startergo I found a pattern to the Bluetooth issue I'm experiencing since Big Sur upgrade: If I boot through OpenCanopy into Mojave disk, when I boot back into Big Sur, I will lose Bluetooth. To fix it, I have to reboot again into Big Sur. I can reboot 100 times in Big Sur, no issues. As soon as I'm switching to Mojave and then back to Big Sur, Bluetooth is gone on initial boot.

I'm using the Apple Magic keyboard and mouse 2 set. I tried to have a lighting cable attached to keyboard and plugged into USB port, it would not detect the keyboard. The only way I was able to gain control is to plug a wired Apple keyboard, so I can restart the Mac.

If Lightning cable also doesn’t work, then it’s not BT issue, but USB / HID support issue.

 

[h9826790]

Okay, continuing to poke at my cMP 4,1->5,1. OpenCore is installed and working but I cannot get hardware acceleration working. GPU is an AMD R9 Nano. I have the iMac Pro board info in there and finally got my VBIOS flashed to support UEFI/GOP which is now working like a charm - but still no joy when it comes to the acceleration.

Ideas? Thoughts? Or is it just not going to work with the R9 Nano?View attachment 1671672

From memory, no report about Nano yet, but I believe only RX460 or above can provide HWAccel in MacOS.

Anyway, from your screen capture, the code for HWAccel isn’t working yet. Otherwise, you should see 3.5GHz but not 3.46GHz for the CPU speed.

 

[wickerstick]

Having done hundreds of Migration Assistant restores over every type of connection conceivable I would say if she has a lot of small files it's going to take longer. There's always a minimum amount of time required to transfer each file. With an average amount of large files they are passed closer to full potential speed. With a bunch of smaller files it has to initiate and negotiate each file and so you have this aggregate time build up per file.

Now even saying that - 12 hours seems like an awfully long time. I've gone from 2009 iMacs to modern machines via firewire and it normally wouldn't take that long.

As someone who spent 10 years as an apple technician I’m well aware. I may have you beat in the number of times I’ve used it as I worked on multiple units a day and golden rule was to make a backup first before doing work. We had a rack full of higher end synology nas equipment I personally setup and used for years. Often times we would preform SSD replacements for failing HDDs in 2009-2012 MacBook Pro models iMacs and mini’s and we used this process day in and day out for year's. now I no longer do that professionally but my ACMT cert. went back to 2009. I only just noticed the issue since the Big Sur upgrade. More on that in the other thread

 

[TECK]

If Lightning cable also doesn’t work, then it’s not BT issue, but USB / HID support issue.

Thank you for the tip, I had no idea the lightning cable attached to the Bluetooth keyboard transforms it into a wired USB keyboard? I thought the cable is used just for charging. I'm using a normal wired Apple keyboard to reboot.

 

[h9826790]

Thank you for the tip, I had no idea the lightning cable attached to the Bluetooth keyboard transforms it into a wired USB keyboard? I thought the cable is used just for charging.

For Magic Mouse, that’s for charging only.

But for keyboard, that can become a wired keyboard. In fact, when you connected the keyboard via the Lightning cable. The keyboard shows inactive in the BT panel.

Until you disconenct the Lightning cable, MacOS will show you the OSD that Magic keyboard connected via BT again.

Or you can even completely switch off BT, but connect the keyboard via the Lightning cable, and it still works. Magic mouse doesn't have the same behaviour.

 

[The Spirit]

i am running oc 0.6.3 and everything is working in big sur. the only thing which does not work ist night shift.
is there anything i can check why nightshift is not working?
i am using the hardware in my signature.
Thanks

 

[h9826790]

i am running oc 0.6.3 and everything is working in big sur. the only thing which does not work ist night shift.
is there anything i can check why nightshift is not working?
i am using the hardware in my signature.
Thanks

Please check the previous posts for details, known issue, no work around yet.

 

[The Spirit]

i allready looked at the previous post, but did not find any solution how to check i nightshift kext really works.
at the moment i use f.lux, but if the integrated thing would work, i would like it much more.
thanks