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

[franzmichaelheinrich]

I remember something now. When I first boot with the Radeon VII on my cMP, I released that has a little different behaviour than the RX580.

With non flashed RX580, my monitor has no sign to wake up until OS GPU driver is loaded.

With Radeon VII, my monitor will try to wake up as soon as I power up my cMP. But then get no signal and sleep again until OS GPU driver is loaded.

I think this is a clear sign that the Radeon VII's GOP is somehow different than the RX580. Even it seems "more compatible to cMP" (because able to wake up the screen once power on), but this actually make it can't display the OC boot picker.

Same thing is happening to me. Seems to be something with the Radeon VII...
I thought it might be my boot loader, so I went through the hustle of going from 140.0.0.0.0 to 144.0.0.0.0 but no change.
Sadly my bootcamp drive is still stuck in legacy and I can't boot into recovery to transform. Its not a very pressing matter. I guess I can just reinstall Windows sometime. Or has anyone got a different Idea?

Anyhow, boot picker would be nice...

Very thankful for the guide! Hardware acceleration is a charm!

 

[Dewdman42]

I have mostly recovered my Catalina drive that got hosed by the failed attempt to apply the security update from the downloaded PKG.

While doing this, in reinstalled Catalina and then restored from TimeMachine. A TimeMachine is not an image backup, so there are still various security settings which are not recovered, but I'll be ok soon... and now I'm on OC 0.6.5!

During that process as I was following CDF's guide, I was able to apply the latest Catalina Security update through the SoftwareUpdate, with VMM enabled and prior to adding any of the advanced settings. Fine so far..

however.. Now I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle SoftwareUpdates in the future. It sounds like in addition to enabling VMM, I need to make sure no spoofing. The CDF guide has a step called "Hybridization" which believe is the step that was creating spoofing of iMacPro. However, after having setup my machine with that optional spoofing on and tested it out, it works, but when I try to remove that setting and enable VMM, leaving everything else the same...then OC can't boot. I get the picker menu..but when I choose Catalina...then I immediately get circle with slash through it.

If I put the Board spoof back in, then it will boot and work, but of course then in the future I might have problems if and when there is another Catalina update that includes firmware update for the iMacPro..

So the question is... first why does removing that spoof now cause the circle with a slash through it? It didn't have that problem when I initially installed Catalina with the basic config.plist provided by CDF. Later on I added all the other advanced settings from CDF guide, hardware acceleration, etc.. and including the hybridization spoof to iMacPro.. and that works too, but now if I try to remove that spoof....I get circle with slash. Put it back and it boots.

What am I missing?

 

[startergo]

It sounds like in addition to enabling VMM, I need to make sure no spoofing.

Highly recommended! Or make sure you have a backup before updating. If the machine is considered a Virtual Machine (VMM enabled) all eventual updates will be bypassed.

So the question is... first why does removing that spoof now cause the circle with a slash through it? It didn't have that problem when I initially installed Catalina with the basic config.plist provided by CDF

-no_compat_check is the only boot argument needed for successful booting of all os's higher than Mojave.

 

[Dewdman42]

-no_compat_check is the only boot argument needed for successful booting of all os's higher than Mojave.

I don't understand this comment as it pertains to my question?

 

[startergo]

I don't understand this comment as it pertains to my question?

Lets say you boot without any boot loaders. You can still boot Catalina and Big Sur with only this boot argument:

nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

There should not be any forbidden signs.

 

[Dewdman42]

still not understanding how that answers my question.

 

[startergo]

still not understanding how that answers my question.

What am I missing?

nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

Or -no_compat_check set in the config.plist. What is the output of this command:

nvram boot-args

 

[cdf]

however.. Now I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle SoftwareUpdates in the future. It sounds like in addition to enabling VMM, I need to make sure no spoofing.

With Catalina, you can leave hybridization enabled and just turn on the VMM flag. The boot argument "run-efi-updater=No" should block unwanted firmware updates. Big Sur is another story (but that is currently outside the scope of the guide).

If you want to disable spoofing, make sure that you keep the boot argument "-no_compat_check" as mentioned by @startergo. (This argument is removed during the hybridization step, but you can keep it without harm).

 

[Dewdman42]

With Catalina, you can leave hybridization enabled and just turn on the VMM flag. The boot argument "run-efi-updater=No" should block unwanted firmware updates. Big Sur is another story (but that is currently outside the scope of the guide).

If you want to disable spoofing, make sure that you keep the boot argument "-no_compat_check" as mentioned by @startergo. (This argument is removed during the hybridization step, but you can keep it without harm).

Thanks for that clarification. I wasn't understanding that the cleanup of no compat check was "part of the hybridization step".

So, just to explain a little, I'm using RefindPlus on top of OC. That way I have OC and OC_ALT configurations. I'm trying to setup OC_ALT to be the right setup just for when I want to run SoftwareUpdate.

If I am understanding correctly, I should configure OC_ALT with VMM=on, disable hybridization (including that I also re-enable the no-compat-check stuff that I took out for hybridization).

Opposite state for normal OC.

 

[cdf]

So, just to explain a little, I'm using RefindPlus on top of OC. That way I have OC and OC_ALT configurations. I'm trying to setup OC_ALT to be the right setup just for when I want to run SoftwareUpdate.

If I am understanding correctly, I should configure OC_ALT with VMM=on, disable hybridization (including that I also re-enable the no-compat-check stuff that I took out for hybridization).

Well, I would just use one config and togle the VMM flag. If you want to disable hybridization, you can also simply set UpdateSMBIOS to false.

 

[Dewdman42]

Thanks for letting me know I can just disable the SMBIOS flag...that is an easier way to disable it.

I find it easier to setup rEFInd and switch the OC config to use then to actually toggle the VMM flag. Is there some easy way to toggle the VMM flag that I'm not aware of? That was the main thing that led me to using rEFInd and there are some other advantages too, so its all up and working and I can easily boot to one OC config or the other that way. Otherwise the only way I know to toggle the VMM flag is to copy a different config.plist into the EFI partition, which is kind of a manual process to do.. But maybe there is some easy way people are doing that, I haven't found out about yet?

 

[thielsa]

I am trying to get windows 10 working. Have been following the process on page 1. I get stuck at the following step:

• Apply the install image by entering: dism /apply-image /imagefile:install.wim /index:1 /applydir:C:\ /compact /EA

I get a call out of Error:3 when I do this. I confirmed the index and drive letters to be correct. Does anyone have experience with this or have a suggestion? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[johnwillsey]

I am trying to get windows 10 working. Have been following the process on page 1. I get stuck at the following step:

Check out what I did and see if it works for you.. See post #4,625

 

[startergo]

I wen't crazy with this for a day before I figured it out.. Windows even on my UEFI machine would install fresh but not be a UEFI install. do some googling, but I used the mbr2gpt utility to convert my fresh install to UEFI. Then it finally appeared in Opencore. I just found the instructions again by searching for "convert mbr to efi windows 10"

Still if Windows is on a separate drive and request bootvar rooting is enabled it should not boot straight to Windows but to the OC boot picker.

 

[thielsa]

Check out what I did and see if it works for you.. See post #4,625

Thanks for the response. I already have OpenCore set up with Big Sur and am trying to add Windows 10 on a separate drive. Am hoping someone has a suggestion. I will try again this weekend. Thanks

 

[johnwillsey]

Thanks for the response. I already have OpenCore set up with Big Sur and am trying to add Windows 10 on a separate drive. Am hoping someone has a suggestion. I will try again this weekend. Thanks

That is exactly what I did with that approach.. I have a working OC that boots all OSs on multiple drives and a separate drive for Win10. And it is choosable via OC boot picker.

 

[startergo]

This is very strange. I just had a KP with

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.AppleIntelMCEReporter

And the AppleMCEReporterDisabler.kext is loaded
73:159 00:026 OC: Prelinked injection AppleMCEReporterDisabler.kext (DisableAppleIntelMCEReporter) - Success

 

[thielsa]

I am trying to get windows 10 working. Have been following the process on page 1. I get stuck at the following step:

• Apply the install image by entering: dism /apply-image /imagefile:install.wim /index:1 /applydir:C:\ /compact /EA

I get a call out of Error:3 when I do this. I confirmed the index and drive letters to be correct. Does anyone have experience with this or have a suggestion? Any help would be appreciated.

I found a typo in the command. Was missing a space. Working now. Thanks

 

[cdf]

Things are starting to look better for Big Sur and the classic Mac Pro: This week, WhateverGreen was updated to enable DRM on Big Sur systems with older CPUs and supported AMD GPUs (many thanks to Acidanthera developer vit9696), and based on this development, NightShiftEnabler was rewritten for Big Sur compatibility. The kexts should be available with next month's releases.

 

[startergo]

Things are starting to look better for Big Sur and the classic Mac Pro: This week, WhateverGreen was updated to enable DRM on Big Sur systems with older CPUs and supported AMD GPUs (many thanks to Acidanthera developer vit9696), and based on this development, NightShiftEnabler was rewritten for Big Sur compatibility. The kexts should be available with next month's releases.

It would be nice also to make a fix for the USB ports unavailability after disconnect/reconnect.

 

[cdf]

It would be nice also to make a fix for the USB ports unavailability after disconnect/reconnect.

Indeed. Although, I haven't experienced any USB issues myself, I know that several users have. Has your testing revealed any possible causes?

 

[TECK]

I haven't experienced any USB issues myself,

Are you using Apple Bluetooth mouse and keyboard? Boot to Mojave with OC, then boot back to Big Sur, Bluetooth is gone (USB related). To fix it, reboot again to Big Sur.

 

[cdf]

Spoke too soon:

Sleep transition timed out after 180 seconds while calling power state change callbacks. Suspected bundle: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHostFamily.

Maybe this is because I connected my trackpad for charging...

@TECK, I've been booting back and forth between Mojave and Big Sur. No issues with losing Bluetooth. I have an internal hub between the bluetooth USB header and my BCM94360CD, but I'm not sure if this changes anything. I've actually experienced what you're describing when I was experimenting with older macOS systems. After booting into Mountain Lion, there would be no Bluetooth in Catalina. A reboot would fix this.

 

[startergo]

Indeed. Although, I haven't experienced any USB issues myself, I know that several users have. Has your testing revealed any possible causes?

One of the issues is that if you have a keyboard and mouse connected directly to the USB ports (front or back) and unplug/reconnect the cable it will not reinitialize. If you plug it to a USB hub there is no problem.

 

[cdf]

One of the issues is that if you have a keyboard and mouse connected directly to the USB ports (front or back) and unplug/reconnect the cable it will not reinitialize. If you plug it to a USB hub there is no problem.

OK. I've just verified this with an Apple wired mouse connected directly (rather than connected to the Apple wired keyboard).