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

[donvito4ever]

I believe your question isn't quite precise.

Big Sur itself is 100% relevant to NVRAM / SMC reset. All these reset perform before any OS even start to load.

If you want to know if OpenCore can stay if you reset NVRAM, then the answer is "depends".

It depends on your OC config, and OC is installed on which drive, etc.

Is the MacPro of my wife...

Bigsur ínstalled on a NVME ssd, no more operating systems. OC is installed in the EFI partieron of this SSD.

 

[Reefwalker]

You didn't say if the DisplayPort port of the GTX 680 works in Catalina with a display that is not the Apple Thunderbolt display. If it doesn't then you need a patch. I don't know if WEG has that patch.

As a followup, I received the DP to DVI adapter yesterday and checked the DP output of the GTX 680 with both Mojave and Catalina with a single DVI monitor. Both posted with the white screen and displayed max resolution of the adapter (1920 x 1200). So, DP output seems to work in Catalina with the GTX 680. There seems to be an issue with the firmware and/or SSDTs for the GC-Titan Ridge card. I'm not experienced modifying SSDTs, but it's my understanding this should be done to match the specific configuration of a given machine. Any recommendations on tutorials?

 

[amstel78]

As I mentioned, the OS Loaders that are shown in OpenCore is an OpenCore configuration item based on where they are installed. Therefore, the OpenCore config file has to be set to enable that disk type to be scanned.

Chances are that OpenCore is not configured by ConfigFactory to scan such external drives for OS boot loaders. Unable to verify right now but likely to be the case. EDIT: Recollect Now. This was a conscious decision

You will need to look at the ScanPolicy key in your OpenCore config and set it to scan such drives or set it to "0" to scan everything. The Config used in Post 1 of this thread sets to zero as it needs to be "one size fits all" for settings that do not appear in the guide here. Can add the option to include external drives to ConfigFactory if currently excluded. EDIT: This was a conscious decision as not likely day to day OS Boots will be from external drives and for the one-offs, it appears in RefindPlus from where it can be used. So, will not be adding this.

The main thing is that as long as you understand that OpenCore setup using MyBootMgr is just like any other OpenCore, then you know that to configure it, you need to amend the OpenCore config file.

In this case, you need to either refer to the OpenCore manual or if asking the question here for instance, this then becomes "What do I need to set in my OpenCore Config for Mac OS installed on an external disk to appear as a boot option". That you are also running RefindPlus is not relevant and the question would be the same with or without RefindPlus.

Now someone answering might say it should appear by default as they may assume you are following Post 1 which you will need to bear in mind.

So as to that question, the ScanPolicy key needs to be set accordingly. You can go for 0 (Scan Anything/Everything) if you find the manual difficult but this has some side effects as some unwanted items may show up.

Need to be conscious of drifting further Off-Topic here though.

Thank you again, Dayo for your help.

I modified the OC config.plist by altering ScanPolicy's value to 0x12F0103 which enables OC_SCAN_ALLOW_DEVICE_USB. I can now see other OS's booted from external volumes.

Now for the other respondents of this thread (and perhaps Dayo); is there a way to enable support for external PCIe USB 3.0 cards at boot? I ask because external OS volumes connected to that card are not recognized unless they're connected directly to a factory USB port. Not sure if this is an OC or RefindPlus issue. I'm guessing it's an OC matter.

 

[Dayo]

is there a way to enable support for external PCIe USB 3.0 cards at boot?

Have you tried with ScanPolicy set to zero?

Not sure if this is an OC or RefindPlus issue.

To determine where issues lie:
If manifested in RP, then related to RP and if manifested in OC, then related to OC.
If manifested in both, then related to both (separately) or perhaps absence of system support.

 

[amstel78]

Have you tried with ScanPolicy set to zero?


To determine where issues lie:
If manifested in RP, then related to RP and if manifested in OC, then related to OC.
If manifested in both, then related to both (separately) or perhaps absence of system support.

I believe this to be a kexts issue as the problem manifests itself in both OC and RFP. FWIW, I was able to boot Catalina from an external HDD after modifying the congif.plist file for both OC instances (0x12F0103). Once Mojave has loaded though, the PCIe USB card gets initialized.

 

[Dayo]

Possibly but repeat question though: Have you tried with ScanPolicy set to zero?

If that doesn't work, maybe someone with better knowledge of requirements for such cards on OC might be able to chip in.

 

[tsialex]

Thank you again, Dayo for your help.

I modified the OC config.plist by altering ScanPolicy's value to 0x12F0103 which enables OC_SCAN_ALLOW_DEVICE_USB. I can now see other OS's booted from external volumes.

Now for the other respondents of this thread (and perhaps Dayo); is there a way to enable support for external PCIe USB 3.0 cards at boot? I ask because external OS volumes connected to that card are not recognized unless they're connected directly to a factory USB port. Not sure if this is an OC or RefindPlus issue. I'm guessing it's an OC matter.

It's an EFI firmware support issue. You can't boot a Mac Pro 3,1/4,1/5,1 from a third-party USB card, no EFI support for it - any non south bridge USB cards are ignored at POST/Boot.

 

[startergo]

It's an EFI firmware support issue. You can't boot a Mac Pro 3,1/4,1/5,1 from a third-party USB card, no EFI support for it - any non south bridge USB cards are ignored at POST/Boot.

This post suggests it can be be done?

Boot FL1100

Hi all, I have a FrescLogic FL1100 USB 3 card. Clover can't see any of the hard drive connected to it. It works fine once os x booted. I'd like to boot, from time to time, from a USB 3 HDD. Anyone knows if it's even possible ? Jief

www.insanelymac.com

 

[tsialex]

This post suggests it can be be done?

Boot FL1100

Hi all, I have a FrescLogic FL1100 USB 3 card. Clover can't see any of the hard drive connected to it. It works fine once os x booted. I'd like to boot, from time to time, from a USB 3 HDD. Anyone knows if it's even possible ? Jief

www.insanelymac.com

Everything is possible with enough developer hours, but this is a minor issue and there are lots of more important issues to solve. Btw, adding the EFI module for FL1100 from MP6,1 didn't worked.

 

[h9826790]

This post suggests it can be be done?

Boot FL1100

Hi all, I have a FrescLogic FL1100 USB 3 card. Clover can't see any of the hard drive connected to it. It works fine once os x booted. I'd like to boot, from time to time, from a USB 3 HDD. Anyone knows if it's even possible ? Jief

www.insanelymac.com

That's another issue.

Both of you and me tired to inject the USB driver in OpenCore, which doesn't work. (But the same injection can work on a PC)

If the firmware of the cMP somehow only active the USB on the Southbridge, but ignore anything USB related on the NorthBridge. Then it is NOT USB driver issue, and can be much much harder to fix without any help from Apple.

I don't know if this "SouthBridge only" is true. Or it's something else.

Technically, it is very easy to test. Just install a USB 2.0 card into the PCIe slot, which has the same controller as on the cMP's logic board, then we can know the answer.

If the USB 2.0 port on that PCIe card is bootable, then we know that we can boot from USB via NorthBridge.

But if even that's not bootable, the highly likely somehow USB on the Northbridge is ignored during boot.

What I am thinking now, before we developed the BootROM mod for NVMe boot, there was a "USB 2.0 redirection method" to boot from NVMe. I am wondering if even this method won't work, because everything on the (Northbridge) USB is somehow ignored. Therefore, even we boot from USB 2.0, but if we re-direct the boot sequence to the USB 3.0 card, that will become "redirect to an ignored location".

 

[tsialex]

Just install a USB 2.0 card into the PCIe slot, which has the same controller as on the cMP's logic board, then we can know the answer.

Intel never sold it's USB controllers standalone. Even on Intel own motherboards when needed more USB ports than the southbridge or PCH native ports, Intel used 3rd party controllers, usually NEC/Renesas.

 

[amstel78]

It's an EFI firmware support issue. You can't boot a Mac Pro 3,1/4,1/5,1 from a third-party USB card, no EFI support for it - any non south bridge USB cards are ignored at POST/Boot.

Well that answers that question for me. Thanks so much for clarifying. Much appreciated.

 

[wormstrum]

Hello everyone, I just did a clean install of Big Sur with opencore. I previously had it up and running after upgrading from Catalina, but it seemed slow and buggy so I wanted to do a clean version... the good news is that it's not slow anymore, and working great.

The bad news is I lost the boot picker screen on the displayport with my Nitro+ RX580 SE gpu. It just auto-boots to Big Sur after pausing at the bootpicker (but my monitor doesn't receive the signal) and then everything works.

I tested the dvi and hdmi ports and those bring up the boot picker, it's just the displayport, which was working with my previous install. Would anyone know a simple solution to fix this? I figured I'd ask before doing something stupid that might screw up my config.

Only other extra info is that I tried quiet mode and performance mode by manually switching the bios tab on the card. Neither work.

Thanks so much!

 

[TECK]

A generator tool can abstract many OC settings and therefore simplify installation and updates, but for it to be consistent with the guide, it requires a configuration of its own. Of course, such a tool is very useful, and admittedly I have contemplated incorporating one in the guide. However, my current view is that the added abstraction is at odds with the aim of the wiki.

You are missing the most important aspect my generator covers: a way to track all changes done for each OC version. Right now, there is no way to track what you changed for last say 2 versions. That's the main reason I created the Github repo and the generator.

Here are the last 2 changes, so users can easily see what needs to be adjusted in their configuration:

OC 0.6.5 upgrade by fmunteanu · Pull Request #49 · axivo/opencore

github.com

OC 0.6.4 upgrade by fmunteanu · Pull Request #48 · axivo/opencore

github.com

Second important aspect is the will to learn OC configuration, which is quite simple if you read the documentation. Manually editing everything is a true nightmare. No matter how detailed you are, people will ALWAYS make human mistakes. I'm the first one to promote the OC learning and the way you present the tutorial is very useful, but only the first time. Also, you need to break down the configuration and have people understand each OC configuration section and what it does. For example, you set many settings inside your configuration and users have no idea why you did it, nobody is asking why you built the configuration the way you did. In other words, you give users a working solution, without them understanding one thing what you did.

With your manual edits, you are promoting exactly what an automated tool does, for users to perform copy/pastes blindly, without understanding anything related to the actions they just performed. Except the added layer of mistakes they can make, due to manual intervention.

Myself, I challenged this approach from the beginning and decided to understand everything inside, that is why my plistlib generator configuration is slightly different than yours, while forcing the users to actually read the manual, without using a prebuilt setup. In other words, using the plistlib generator will simply not work, unless you put the effort to understand what OC does for your Mac.

Best example is when @Dewdman42 opened several issues related to plistlib generator basic configuration settings. These issues should've never been open, for the simple reason an user should have a good understanding what OC does. Still, his questions were valuables because he helped me improve the documentation, thank you again @Dewdman42.

You know we talked many times in private and we have a good communication. This post is definitely not a form of attack, but rather a reality check for users to understand what myself and I believe also yourself are trying to achieve, for people to actually take the time and understand what they are doing. Which I frankly believe very few people will do.

Therefore, what is the point of manually performing actions, if most people will never have the will to understand what they are doing? Is easier to do what @h9826790 does and provide a drop-in zip file with all changes done, no?

 

[startergo]

Hello everyone, I just did a clean install of Big Sur with opencore. I previously had it up and running after upgrading from Catalina, but it seemed slow and buggy so I wanted to do a clean version... the good news is that it's not slow anymore, and working great.

The bad news is I lost the boot picker screen on the displayport with my Nitro+ RX580 SE gpu. It just auto-boots to Big Sur after pausing at the bootpicker (but my monitor doesn't receive the signal) and then everything works.

I tested the dvi and hdmi ports and those bring up the boot picker, it's just the displayport, which was working with my previous install. Would anyone know a simple solution to fix this? I figured I'd ask before doing something stupid that might screw up my config.

Only other extra info is that I tried quiet mode and performance mode by manually switching the bios tab on the card. Neither work.

Thanks so much!

Are you injecting any device properties to your video card?

 

[Reefwalker]

I mistakenly created a Big Sur volume in the same APFS container where I’d installed Catalina creating a number of problems I only read about afterwards. I reformatted my drive and went through the whole OC and Catalina install from scratch, which wasn’t terrible, but now the BootPicker is showing three drives: Catalina, EFI, and Mojave. I’ve tried the Bless command a few times with no change. How can I remove the EFI disk from the picker?

 

[joevt]

This post suggests it can be be done?

Boot FL1100

Hi all, I have a FrescLogic FL1100 USB 3 card. Clover can't see any of the hard drive connected to it. It works fine once os x booted. I'd like to boot, from time to time, from a USB 3 HDD. Anyone knows if it's even possible ? Jief

www.insanelymac.com

There's also this post

Bootable XHCI PCI-E for the 3,1.( Experimental).

I've had success making a USB3.0( FL1100 chipset) bootable on my MP3,1. I've also been able to boot from USB2.0 flash drives connected to the USB3.0 card, but I still have some issues to sort out there, as some 2.0 Flashdrives are only bootable with the USB3 to SATA drive I have connected to...

forums.macrumors.com

Instead of grabbing XHCI.efi and UsbBus.efi from a MacPro6,1, I would get the code for those drivers from edk2 and modify them to be compatible with cMP. I tried xhcidxe.efi by itself. I can get it to load, and it can detect connected USB devices, but they're not being connected completely (e.g. a Flash drive does not get its mass storage block device added to EFI). So maybe a look at UsbBus.efi will show what is needed to correct that problem.

 

[startergo]

There's also this post

Bootable XHCI PCI-E for the 3,1.( Experimental).

I've had success making a USB3.0( FL1100 chipset) bootable on my MP3,1. I've also been able to boot from USB2.0 flash drives connected to the USB3.0 card, but I still have some issues to sort out there, as some 2.0 Flashdrives are only bootable with the USB3 to SATA drive I have connected to...

forums.macrumors.com

Instead of grabbing XHCI.efi and UsbBus.efi from a MacPro6,1, I would get the code for those drivers from edk2 and modify them to be compatible with cMP. I tried xhcidxe.efi by itself. I can get it to load, and it can detect connected USB devices, but they're not being connected completely (e.g. a Flash drive does not get its mass storage block device added to EFI). So maybe a look at UsbBus.efi will show what is needed to correct that problem.

I can try the drivers. So as I understand I have to replace the existing UsbBus.efi in the firmware and load XHCIdxe.efi in RP? I tried injecting the XHCIdxe.efi driver which made the firmware unbootable.

 

[TECK]

I reformatted my drive

Did you formatted the disk with a different format type (e.g. journaled), then back to APFS? This will wipe all leftover partitions on disk. This is the only method I know to clean a drive, unfortunatelly.

 

[Reefwalker]

Did you formatted the disk with a different format type (e.g. journaled), then back to APFS? This will wipe all leftover partitions on disk. This is the only method I know to clean a drive, unfortunatelly.

View attachment 1722313

Yes I did and before formatting to APFS, I checked using diskutil and there was no EFI partition. I then converted it to APFS.

 

[joevt]

I can try the drivers. So as I understand I have to replace the existing UsbBus.efi in the firmware and load XHCIdxe.efi in RP? I tried injecting the XHCIdxe.efi driver which made the firmware unbootable.

No, don't do that. The way to do this is to load them manually in EFI Shell to test them. If they crash, then you just need to restart. If they work, then you can add them to the firmware.
For xhcidxe.efi, it requires some minor changes to work with EFI 1.1 (currently it depends on a UEFI 2.x feature).
For usbbus.efi, if a new version is needed, then for testing it may be possible to unload the old version and load the new one.
This should be discussed in that other thread.

 

[wormstrum]

Are you injecting any device properties to your video card?

Thank you for the reply... so I believe you're asking if I have the PCIRoot set and I do.

So here's the thing... after my original post, I put all my drives back in and the PCIe lock bar thing and returned the side panel, as I had it open and had minimal hardware placed due to the install process. So I packed it up and hooked everything back in and for some reason the boot picker is showing up now with my display port.

I have no idea why, but I'm just happy it's working. Maybe it wasn't seated correctly, I have no idea.

 

[MoerBoer]

Is it possible to make OpenCore boot from a PCI USB 3 card with an external drive connected?

 

[startergo]

Is it possible to make OpenCore boot from a PCI USB 3 card with an external drive connected?

No

 

[LFO8]

For disk labling OC provides its own program called disklabel:
View attachment 1676598
Copy and paste that to your Bootx64.efi folder:
View attachment 1676600
cd to the folder in terminal and run:

g5@G5s-Mac-Pro-2 BOOT % /Volumes/EFI/EFI/BOOT/disklabel
Usage:
disklabel -d .disk_label image.ppm!
disklabel -e "Label" .disk_label .disk_label_2x
disklabel -bgra "Label" .disk_label .disk_label_2x

I normally pick the second option disklabel -e "OpenCore" .disk_label .disk_label_2x

I can type in the command all day, but none of the files are created. It asks me for my password, then executes but then nothing. FYI: I am typing in the command in the :BOOT command line in Terminal as it won't go to /disklabel since it is prompting met 'Not a directory'

sudo ./disklabel -e "YourLabel" .disk_label .disk_label_2x