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

[JedNZ]

Delete - Dayo answered all my questions above.

By failsafe, do you mean mandatory placeholders that must be present even if there’s nothing in the string? Or if there is no string value expressed, can they be removed?

I’m just trying to work out if best practise is to manually add the string values from the first quoted code into my existing config.plist, or completely delete everything in that section and replace it with that first quote code?

I’ve been searching to find out more about the coding rules so I can understand the why as well as the what of what I’m doing, so if anyone can suggest a place where this is all explained that would be appreciated so I can problem solve some of the basics without asking basic stuff here.

 

[Dayo]

By failsafe, do you mean mandatory placeholders that must be present even if there’s nothing in the string? Or if there is no string value expressed, can they be removed?

They can be omitted at present and in reality, I don't see them changing this any time soon as a lot of configs will fail but who knows?

I’m just trying to work out if best practise is to manually add the string values from the first quoted code into my existing config.plist, or completely delete everything in that section and replace it with that first quote code?

Best practice from what they have said is to have them all. However, custom is not to ... particularly with us legacy Mac users.

if anyone can suggest a place where this is all explained that would be appreciated

Let us know when you find such!

 

[JedNZ]

Having said all that, you may want to wait about two weeks for OpenCore 0.6.4 as there are gaps in OpenCore 0.6.3 relating to BigSur (the protection in OpenCore against undesirable firmware updates does not work in v0.6.3). MyBootMgr 064 will come with OpenCore 0.6.4 and have BigSur setup items

I’ll definitely wait then. Thank you again so much @Dayo. You’re a legend.

 

[cdf]

So how do you want to proceed, should we put back the devices into configuration, as they were before? Let me know so I create the PR.

My recommendation is to configure device properties as described in the guide.

 

[h9826790]

With Big Sur and SMBIOS Mac Pro 7.1, I need Lilu, WhateverGreen and graphic card PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)?

No

 

[h9826790]

Hi. I'm using RefindPlus/OpenCore, and previously I was told to refer to the OpenCore thread for instructions on installing Catalina (which I did), and now I want to try out BigSur, so I assume I follow all the instructions and guidance here as well (and that this also all applies to those of us who use the RefindPlus/OpenCore method).

Just a couple of things I'm not sure on (yes, I've read OpenCore post #1 plus RefindPlus/Open post #1 all over again):
I want to install BigSur on a separate SSD (SATA Bay).

1. Should I use the OC or OC_ALT boot option and make any changes to that config.plist option only? The reason I ask is that I read here lately that VMM needs to be toggled off, which is the default setting for RefindPlus/OpenCore OC (as opposed to RefindPlus's alternative OC_ALT which has VMM turned on by default).

2. I saw in a video here that I have to change UpdateSMBIOS from <true> to <false>. Does that also apply to the RefindPlus/OpenCore method?

3. When changing the SMBIOS info, do I copy this section below (i.e append it), or replace the entire section?

<key>SMBIOS</key>
        <dict>
            <key>BoardProduct</key>
            <string>Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94</string>
            <key>ProcessorType</key>
            <integer>1281</integer>
            <key>FirmwareFeatures</key>
            <data>A1QM4A==</data>
            <key>FirmwareFeaturesMask</key>
            <data>P/8f/w==</data>
        </dict>

This is what I currently have – it has quite a few more key s and strings additional to what's above:

<key>SMBIOS</key>
        <dict>
            <key>BIOSReleaseDate</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>BIOSVendor</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>BIOSVersion</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>BoardAssetTag</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>BoardLocationInChassis</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>BoardManufacturer</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>BoardProduct</key>
            <string>Mac-F221BEC8</string>
            <key>BoardSerialNumber</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>BoardType</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>BoardVersion</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>ChassisAssetTag</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>ChassisManufacturer</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>ChassisSerialNumber</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>ChassisType</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>ChassisVersion</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>FirmwareFeatures</key>
            <data></data>
            <key>FirmwareFeaturesMask</key>
            <data></data>
            <key>PlatformFeature</key>
            <integer>0</integer>
            <key>ProcessorType</key>
            <integer>1281</integer>
            <key>SmcVersion</key>
            <data></data>
            <key>SystemFamily</key>
            <string>Mac Pro</string>
            <key>SystemManufacturer</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>SystemProductName</key>
            <string>MacPro5,1</string>
            <key>SystemSKUNumber</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>SystemSerialNumber</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>SystemUUID</key>
            <string></string>
            <key>SystemVersion</key>
            <string></string>
        </dict>

4. And do I need to Turn off boot selection routing by finding RequestBootVarRouting and changing true to false ?

And do I then have to do anything else once BigSur is installed to reverse or change anything back?

In your case, you should replace the whole section. Otherwise. You will inject multiple contradicting parameters.

 

[TECK]

Currently works that way but the OpenCore devs have pointed out a few times that they actually do not have defaults and the behaviour on encountering such missing/unspecified fields is not defined.

I tested that today, is true. There are no default values within OpenCore, failsafe is not treated as default.

 

[TECK]

I’ve been searching to find out more about the coding rules so I can understand the why as well as the what of what I’m doing

I started with the OC configuration.pdf, it helped me A LOT to understand the concept. For coding rules, look at axivo/opencore, I plan to create a Wiki soon, once @cdf is available.

 

[TECK]

My recommendation is to configure device properties as described in the guide.

Done, I reverted the code. We need to meet soon on IRC and discuss about the Wiki.

 

[Dewdman42]

So I am trying to decide the best way to keep my Mojave disk available for dual booting into Mojave should the need arise to run some 32bit thing (yes I have a couple things).

I followed CDF's guide, to the letter, and have Catalina running on disk A. Disk B still has the original Mojave installation. OC is on the EFI partition of disk A (per CDF's instructions). As of now, Mojave disk B is in drive bay 1.

Alright, so when I go to the BootPicker, I can choose either the Catalina or Mojave volume and boot up the Mojave volume...but I'm assuming that when I do that, the kernel injections and slight id spoofing that CDF has in his instructions will also be applied to my Mojave session. Am I understanding that correctly?

Is there any way to easily boot back and and forth between Catalina and Mojave, where the Mojave session will be 100% absolutely vanilla, while the Catalina will be using OC with a couple kernel injections?

I have read through the OC manual, some of it is over my head, but its not entirely clear to me exactly the sequence that happens when we turn on the machine...it looks for that EFI on disk A, and then uses that to get to the Boot Picker, which can then choose different drives, but its not clear to me if I select disk B from the BootPicker, will it still be funneling through the OC stuff in the EFI of diskA or will it then search for the EFI on diskB in order to have completely different set of OC parameters and kernel injection, etc. for disk B?

Right now, when I boot over to Mojave, it seems to work mostly ok, but I've been getting weird problems in the App Store and software update ever since installing OC. That makes me think it might be running through the OC stuff I have installed for running Catalina, per CDF's instructions.

Any help or guidance or even just general information about how these various pieces relate would be helpful.

Ultimately, I wish I could boot totally vanilla to Mojave...and through OC for Catalina..or perhaps there is a way to have Mojave boot through OC, but with less kernel injection happening because its less needed and no id spoof, etc.?? Just wondering what is the best way to go about this dual boot scenario.

And lastly, must they both be on their own separate disk?

 

[Dayo]

I'm assuming that when I do that, the kernel injections and slight id spoofing that CDF has in his instructions will also be applied to my Mojave session. Am I understanding that correctly?

You are

Is there any way to easily boot back and and forth between Catalina and Mojave, where the Mojave session will be 100% absolutely vanilla, while the Catalina will be using OC with a couple kernel injections?

If your machine supports Mojave natively and you have a GPU with Mac EFI, you could boot into the Mac Bootscreen and select Mojave or OpenCore from there but as will be explained, this is not the path to resolve your issue.

I have read through the OC manual, some of it is over my head, but its not entirely clear to me exactly the sequence that happens when we turn on the machine...it looks for that EFI on disk A, and then uses that to get to the Boot Picker, which can then choose different drives, but its not clear to me if I select disk B from the BootPicker, will it still be funneling through the OC stuff in the EFI of diskA or will it then search for the EFI on diskB in order to have completely different set of OC parameters and kernel injection, etc. for disk B?

Basically the first set of actions. OpenCore handles the boot and everything is done as it is set up.

Right now, when I boot over to Mojave, it seems to work mostly ok, but I've been getting weird problems in the App Store and software update ever since installing OC. That makes me think it might be running through the OC stuff I have installed for running Catalina, per CDF's instructions.

It is running through the "Catalina" stuff but one mistake often made is to assume concurrence means causation. That is, "Z happened after I did, or while I was doing, Y. Therefore Z was caused by Y". Now while Z MAY have indeed been caused by Y, it may also have been caused by any one of, or a combination of, A to X.

That is, because you are having some issues when booted into Mojave and you are using OpenCore, you assume it is because of OpenCore ... it isn't.

Note that while, for historical reasons, the guide in Post 1 makes it appear that OpenCore and Catalina are linked, they are actually not and the instructions apply whether you have Mojave or High Sierra etc. There is nothing Catalina specific in there that may be messing up with your Mojave installation.

The guide was first written at a time when many were looking to upgrade to Catalina and shows them how to do this by using OpenCore. It could have been silent about Catalina and remained the same. So when it said Catalina can go into one disk and Mojave into another, it could have also said something like "Mac OS Installation A in one disk and Mac OS Installation B in the other where Mac OS Installations A and B are whatever Mac OS versions you are running. Could be the same version or different" as an example

Ultimately, I wish I could boot totally vanilla to Mojave...and through OC for Catalina..or perhaps there is a way to have Mojave boot through OC, but with less kernel injection happening because its less needed and no id spoof, etc.?? Just wondering what is the best way to go about this dual boot scenario.

So where my response has been leading to is: Look again at the issues you have been having. If only affecting Mojave, this is actually evidence they are not OpenCore related. If they had been, they would also affect Catalina.

In other words, your intended solution of bypassing OpenCore for booting Mojave is not the solution to your issue and all the things needed for Catalina are the exact same needed for Mojave. They are not Catalina specific as mentioned.

And lastly, must they both be on their own separate disk?

Not a must but I believe the reason why they should is explained. If you have an issue, you can pull the disk and still boot directly in. You need a fallback OS basically.

Speaking of pulling disks, you should have tried pulling the disk with OpenCore and then booting into Mojave directly to verify that your issues are related to OpenCore being present as a first step before reaching a conclusion about this. That is, remove "Y" from the equation and see whether "Z" is still present.

 

[Dewdman42]

If your machine supports Mojave natively and you have a GPU with Mac EFI, you could boot into the Mac Bootscreen and select Mojave or OpenCore from there but as will be explained, this is not the path to resolve your issue.

RX580, so I guess that means no on the Mac EFI. right? I might get it flashed eventually, but now that Apple is going down the ARM road, I don't want to spend too much more on this Mac.

It is running through the "Catalina" stuff

well not particularly Catalina stuff...that isn't what I meant to say. But "OC stuff" that is particularly configured in order to support Catalina on this hardware...including slightly spoofing the machine identification, and the other kernel injections. Whereas perhaps Mojave is perfectly capable of NOT being spoofed or having certain kernel injections..so if possible I'd like to leave them out...or at least have better clarity about the ramifications of Mojave running with the same kernel injects and id spoofing that I'm using with this Catalina setup.

I would rather have Mojave vanilla if possible. Is that not possible with an OC configuration to somehow configure two different OC configs to use depending on which volume is being booted up? As I understand, the only way to truly boot vanilla Mojave at this point, is to follow CDF's instruction for disabling OC and go through those steps, then I can boot up the Mojave drive vanilla. its kind of a lot of steps to do that though, but that appears to be the only way. But I just wanted to confirm that and find out if there is any other OC configuration possibility that provides a way for multiple OC configurations, different for each boot volume.

Note that while, for historical reasons, the guide in Post 1 makes it appear that OpenCore and Catalina are linked, they are actually not and the instructions apply whether you have Mojave or High Sierra etc. There is nothing Catalina specific in there that may be messing up with your Mojave installation.

I am confident that the fundamental stuff would be essentially the same, but are the kernel injections really necessary for Mojave? Also the slight id spoof that is in there now for hardware acceleration, which, as I thought I understood, would not be necessary if I were running Mojave on top of OC. Yea?

So just to summarize,...you're saying all OS's that I intend to multi-boot in the machine...on however many drives that I have...must all use one common OC configuration and there is currently no way to selectively change any aspect of that on a per boot-volume basis. Yea?

I guess kernel injections would not effect Windows maybe? ..those would only be shared across whatever different OSX boot volumes I had available.

Yes?

In other words, your intended solution of bypassing OpenCore for booting Mojave is not the solution to your issue and all the things needed for Catalina are the exact same needed for Mojave. They are not Catalina specific as mentioned.

I understand what you're saying and all the logic and reasoning about logical fallacies over what may be causing one particular issue, but I'm still interested in having a vanilla Mojave boot up if at all possible, not just for that, but just generally...that's what I would prefer. I wouldn't mind if it always goes through OC, but I would prefer if Mojave didn't have to inject any kernels it doesn't need to, nor spoof anything it doesn't need to for hardware acceleration to work, etc..

I referred to just one example of something on Mojave that is not quite working the same way it was a week ago before I jumped into OC stuff. From my perspective there could be other unknowns. So I'm simply asking a more generalized question, which is how to best handle multi-boot scenarios..including at first....Catalina/Mojave. Later I hope to add BigSur and Windows10 as boot options as well...but I need to understand how they all have to work together sharing the same OC config it sounds like. If that is the case then I think I am more inclined to boot Windows using Bootcamp or something so that it truly shares the same EFI and OC as the OSX boot volumes. But maybe I'm not understanding that yet either..I still have much to learn here.

If you have an issue, you can pull the disk and still boot directly in. You need a fallback OS basically.

For sure I want to leave the Mojave volume in there for fallback at any time, pull out the Catalina and rescue the machine. I already had to do that once. Or at least I will prepare a USB volume of some kind for that sort of thing, I haven't gotten there yet. Right now I'm just trying to understand how multi-boot situations work with OC...and the ramifications of different versions of OSX sharing the same kernel injections and id spoofing. I realize Mojave will probably work pretty fine enough with the OC configuration that has been prepared here for running Catalina, but if there is any way to run it more vanilla that is what I would have preferred. It sounds like that is not possible other then pulling out the Catalina drive or disabling OC per CDF's explanation about how to disable OC.

 

[Dayo]

It sounds like that is not possible other then pulling out the Catalina drive or disabling OC per CDF's explanation about how to disable OC.

Basically

 

[Project Alice]

I am having a weird problem.

I had decided against installing OpenCore on my Mac awhile back because I didn’t need it. There are patchers for Catalina, and I don’t edit video so stronger Radeon acceleration was unnecessary for me.

This week I decided to try it, because dosdude isn’t making a bigsur patcher and OpenCore seemed easier than the rudimentary patches that are out there.
I got to the point in the guide where I have to boot to recovery mode and bless OpenCore basically. That is where this venture came to a halt because something must be wrong with my recovery partition. (Mojave officially installed). Both my monitors turn on but are blank. I tried booted to recovery a few different ways and it was the same outcome.

Fast foward to today. I wanted to play a game so I select Windows 10 in startup disk per usual, and press restart. It boots to an OpenCore picker that shows me Mojave and Catalina. Wth? I spent the last 30 minutes figuring out how to disable OpenCore so I can get to Windows (Legacy, and EFI mode is not an option because I won’t be bricking this Mac Pro).

So first off, why would selecting Windows in startup disk magically make OpenCore bootable if I wasn’t able to boot to recovery and bless it?Secondly, OpenCore is an EFI loader so selecting ANYTHING in startup disk should disable it, like it does with say rEFInd/rEFIt. Why is that not the case?

The last question would be is there any way to make OpenCore aware of the legacy Windows installation without changing it to an EFI install (which bricks Mac Pros)?
If not I’ll probably just end up using one of the other patches for BS whenever I get around to installing it.

 

[startergo]

As I understand, the only way to truly boot vanilla Mojave at this point, is to follow CDF's instruction for disabling OC and go through those steps, t

What I do is I installed RefindPlus on the first HFS+ partition of the first drive as appeared on the Apple boot picker screen. I have SSD in the front bay where DVD ROM was. RefindPlus is set so, that it's default boot option is OC. I have a 10 seconds delay where I can choose to boot anything else but OC. This setup survives NVRAM reset and it always Boots to RefindPlus boot screen. With the latest commit RefindPlus supports loading up option ROMs from RAM, which were not accessible before. Now even NVidia cards show boot screen, most probably will also support a lot more previously unsupported AMD vbioses as long as they have valid GOP ROM's.

 

[paalb]

Right now, when I boot over to Mojave, it seems to work mostly ok, but I've been getting weird problems in the App Store and software update ever since installing OC. That makes me think it might be running through the OC stuff I have installed for running Catalina, per CDF's instructions.

I too have some problems in App Store when dual booting. My work has payed for BBEdit subscription with a work apple ID. I use this ID only to get BBEdit. Have been stable for a year, until I got Catalina on my 5,1 some weeks ago.

So normally I am logged into my private Apple ID. When I boot from Catalina to Mojave and back again BBEdit has lost its subscription. This is happening every time. I have to delete BBEdit and then log in as Apple Work ID to resolve it. I am pretty sure this is nothing to do with OpenCore. My bet is that this is a dual boot feature/bug. I have done a lot of dual booting in the past to test new OS/Application combinations at work. There is always a lot of hassle with Apple ID stuff.

 

[Dewdman42]

What I do is I installed RefindPlus on the first HFS+ partition of the first drive as appeared on the Apple boot picker screen. I have SSD in the frond bay where DVD ROM was.. RefindPlus is set so ,that it's default boot option is OC. I have a 10 seconds delay where I can choose to boot anything else but OC. This setup survives NVRAM reset and it always Boots to RefindPlus boot screen. With the latest commit RefindPlus supports loading up option ROMs from RAM which which were not accessible before. Now even NVidia cards show boot screen, most probably will also support a lot more previously unsupported AMD vbioses as long as they have valid GOP ROM's.

Thank for this tip! I will look into this...

 

[Paolo-Sp]

No

Thanks
I ask you one more thing please ....
With MacPro 7.1 SMBIOS and Big Sur, into config.plist I must clean up the NVRAM?
<key>boot-args</key>
<string>-no_compat_check</string>
and
<string>boot-args</string>

 

[PeterHolbrook]

@Project Alice
If, by selecting Windows from Apple's Startup Manager you get the OC Boot Picker, that probably means your Windows disk is a GPT+MBR hybrid and its EFI volume is NOT empty. Even if you never blessed it, you or someone else must have copied the EFI folder to that volume, which means OpenCore will kick in. OpenCore can be installed to ANY GPT disk, even data disks. Naturally, since OpenCore can only start (U)EFI systems, it won't be able to start a legacy (Boot Camp) version of Windows. If you want both Boot Camp and OpenCore, it's quite easy, provided you have a GPU flashed for the Startup Manager boot screen. Simply press Option when you hear the chime and select Windows (provided its EFI volume is empty) and select a different disk (a blessed EFI volume, perhaps on your Catalina disk) to boot from OpenCore.

 

[h9826790]

Thanks
I ask you one more thing please ....
With MacPro 7.1 SMBIOS and Big Sur, into config.plist I must clean up the NVRAM?
<key>boot-args</key>
<string>-no_compat_check</string>
and
<string>boot-args</string>

Better to leave the no compat check boot argument at there.

 

[startergo]

Proof of concept:
4 GPUs in Catalina. RefindPlus-->OC. Only the Kepler cards produce video output, while connected to the displays. AMD has to be VNC'ed remotely when connected to the display.

Only 2 displays connected at boot.

 

[ylluminate]

Have run into issues with DisplayLink's new userland driver/support software on Catalina and by extension Big Sur. It has been suggested that we need to start shifting model identification away from MacPro5,1 to perhaps MacPro7,1.

• Any particular drawbacks here? What configuration changes are needed in the config.plist aside from the normal identity stuff?
• What kext changes are required?
• Any other considerations to keep in mind when switching?
• I assume I need to generate a new serial number too for iCloud/iMessage support too, right?

 

[haralds]

I currently have patched versions of Catalina and BigSur booting on my Mac Pro 5,1 with EFI patched Radeon and updated BLE/WiFi.
I am experimenting with openCore for Radeon acceleration and updates. I do have it booting.
I have searched this thread but have not found answers for this:

• How do I get the Boot Screen to be black?
• Is it necessary to remove the boot-args="-no_compat_check" for Radeon acceleration to work? I presume it does not impact real NVRAM but just the emulated one?

 

[startergo]

with EFI patched Radeon

Can you elaborate on this? Model number, what is patched?

 

[0488568]

I currently have patched versions of Catalina and BigSur booting on my Mac Pro 5,1 with EFI patched Radeon and updated BLE/WiFi.
I am experimenting with openCore for Radeon acceleration and updates. I do have it booting.
I have searched this thread but have not found answers for this:

• How do I get the Boot Screen to be black?
• Is it necessary to remove the boot-args="-no_compat_check" for Radeon acceleration to work? I presume it does not impact real NVRAM but just the emulated one?

<key>NVRAM</key>
<dict>
<key>Add</key>
<dict>
<key>4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14</key>
<dict>
<key>UIScale</key>
<data>AQ==</data>
<key>DefaultBackgroundColor</key>
<data>AAAAAA==</data>
</dict>
<key>7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82</key>
<dict>
<key>boot-args</key>
<string>-lilubetaall -wegbeta agdpmod=pikera shikigva=80 mbasd=1 -wegtree -no_compat_check no32exec=0</string>
<key>csr-active-config</key>
<data>dwgAAA==</data>
<key>run-efi-updater</key>
<string>No</string>
</dict>
</dict>

Check those settings.

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE ALL CODE.