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

[startergo]

The USB works perfectly well on the motherboard now. That problem cleared up after I removed power from the computer.

The mouse and the keyboard are plugged into the USB 1 ports at the front. They were plugged into those ports when I booted the computer several days ago and had the failure. The mouse and keyboard worked on the add-on USB 3 ports.

The USB 1 ports went back to normal function after removing and reapplying power to the computer.

There have been no further failures of USB ports.

The main problem now is that Mojave is essentially unusable, for what reason, I do not know.

If you go to sleep the USB will not reconnect on the front port.

 

[bookemdano]

My CMP (4,1 updated to 5,1 with the necessary firmware updates) is running Open Core quite happily (or so it appears): Mojave, Catalina, and Windows 10; each on their own drive. The Mojave OS is on the 2 Tb spinning hard drive. Catalina is on the next drive, a 1 Tb Samsung EVO 850 SSD. The Windows drive is on the last drive, a 1 Tb Samsung EVO 850 SSD.

A few days ago, I lost the USB ports front and rear that are connected directly to the motherboard. I could still use the add-on PCI USB/Firewire card. Nothing that I did seemed to fix that. And since I am running OpenCore, Apple's AHT or the newer hardware tester did not seem to run or load properly (didn't work at all, even after option + d).

As a last resort, I unplugged the cMP from the cord, at the machine, and left it that way for several minutes. When I plugged it back in I had the "native" USB ports again.

However, since that incident, Mojave has gotten increasingly sluggish to the point that now, even a click on the mouse results in a spinning color wheel. Catalina (which I am using right now) and Windows 10 do not suffer from any ill effects.

At the present, Mojave will not even completely shut down. Even when I shut down, and select that option, the cursor remains on the screen. The cursor can be moved around on a black screen. If I click the mouse I get a spinning color wheel. This went on for more than twenty minutes last night. I finally pressed the power button.

I tried Avast for Mac (free version) and it had no effect. However, in downloading the software, the download would slow down to 0 bps for a minute or two, before resuming. It took over an hour to download a file that should have only taken maybe five minutes (or less).

As I said previously, I can boot and get the correct boot picker all the time. If I choose Catalina, or Windows the process continues properly and the OS's work great.

I've not updated OpenCore in three or four months. That is my first inclination. However, I think I should also consider virus problems (I know, it's not likely) or a problem with the hard drive. The hard drive gives no such indications and is only about a tenth full, if that.

If the problem is a virus, then I need to get that resolved first. If it is a hardware problem, then I will probably have to replace the hard drive.

If I need to update OpenCore, then the question I have is: can that be done through Catalina, or do I need to do it through Mojave (since that's how I originally installed it)? Considering the current problems with Mojave I would probably be looking at a long time (several hours to several days) to do it.

I need the most conservative approach. If there is a virus, or even a remote possibility of a virus, then I absolutely must address that first. On Windows' machines there are root viruses that can be remedied only by doing a boot time scan. Since the cMP's are Intel machines, that might have to be done.

Thanks for any input.

My guess is failing hard drive, since Catalina works fine on the same hardware. Either that or something is borked in your Mojave install. I would back up anything of importance on the Mojave drive ASAP. Take this opportunity to get an SSD for Mojave--running an OS off spinning rust is painfully slow even in the best case.

Have you tried opening Activity Monitor from within Mojave to see what your CPU and memory usage looks like? If you had a rogue process eating up all your resources you would see it in there.

 

[wnlewis]

If you go to sleep the USB will not reconnect on the front port.

It wouldn't work on the back ports either. After the power was removed and reapplied, the USB's front and rear worked correctly. No further problems with USB.

 

[wnlewis]

It wouldn't work on the back ports either. After the power was removed and reapplied, the USB's front and rear worked correctly. No further problems with USB.

P.S. I've never had problems with the front ports failing after the computer goes into sleep mode and comes back out.

 

[wnlewis]

My guess is failing hard drive, since Catalina works fine on the same hardware. Either that or something is borked in your Mojave install. I would back up anything of importance on the Mojave drive ASAP. Take this opportunity to get an SSD for Mojave--running an OS off spinning rust is painfully slow even in the best case.

Have you tried opening Activity Monitor from within Mojave to see what your CPU and memory usage looks like? If you had a rogue process eating up all your resources you would see it in there.

The hard drive indicates good. I will try the activity monitor. I suspect rogue processes.

When I download from a regular website. Fine.

When I download from an antivirus website, such as Kaspersky or Avast, or Intego the download completely stops for several minutes. Fortunately I am downloading them in a browser, so they resume. That even got stopped one time and I had to resume it.

This is acting very much like a rootkit.

 

[wnlewis]

The hard drive indicates good. I will try the activity monitor. I suspect rogue processes.

When I download from a regular website. Fine.

When I download from an antivirus website, such as Kaspersky or Avast, or Intego the download completely stops for several minutes. Fortunately I am downloading them in a browser, so they resume. That even got stopped one time and I had to resume it.

This is acting very much like a rootkit.

P.S. If it is a virus, I have no desire to back that up as well.

 

[amstel78]

I've been reading various posts throughout this thread, and I'm not fully comprehending the concept of hybridization as of yet. What I'd like to do is simply update my version of Big Sur on my MP5,1 in as safe a manner as possible. My understanding is that I can still do so by ensuring the VMM flag is set by. Once the installation of the update has completed, I can turn VMM back off. Does this logic still apply, or must I do something different at this stage (v066 currently in use)?

 

[hwojtek]

My understanding is that I can still do so by ensuring the VMM flag is set by. Once the installation of the update has completed, I can turn VMM back off.

No need with 0.6.6 and firmware set to 999. See this post.

 

[amstel78]

No need with 0.6.6 and firmware set to 999. See this post.

So this needs to be changed to 999.0.0.0.0? It's presently set to what you see here:

And this will also prevent BS from attempting errant firmware updates?

 

[sfalatko]

So this needs to be changed to 999.0.0.0.0? It's presently set to what you see here: View attachment 1733175
And this will also prevent BS from attempting errant firmware updates?

For 11.2.1 you need to also spoof the Board ID. Here is the section from the first post -

Hybridization and related settings

iMacPro hybridization, a strategy originally due to @h9826790, is integral to successful hardware acceleration.
Find the SMBIOS key
Replace
XML:
<key>SMBIOS</key>
<dict/>

by

XML:
<key>SMBIOS</key>
<dict>

<key>BIOSVersion</key>
<string>9999.0.0.0.0</string>
<key>BoardProduct</key>
<string>Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94</string>
<key>FirmwareFeatures</key>
<data>A1QM4A==</data>
<key>FirmwareFeaturesMask</key>
<data>P/8f/w==</data>
</dict>



Find UpdateSMBIOS and change false to true

I was able to see and install 11.2.1 without the Firmware features set. VMM doesn't have an affect for 11.2.1

 

[amstel78]

For 11.2.1 you need to also spoof the Board ID. Here is the section from the first post -

Hybridization and related settings

iMacPro hybridization, a strategy originally due to @h9826790, is integral to successful hardware acceleration.
Find the SMBIOS key
Replace
XML:
<key>SMBIOS</key>
<dict/>

by

XML:
<key>SMBIOS</key>
<dict>

<key>BIOSVersion</key>
<string>9999.0.0.0.0</string>
<key>BoardProduct</key>
<string>Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94</string>
<key>FirmwareFeatures</key>
<data>A1QM4A==</data>
<key>FirmwareFeaturesMask</key>
<data>P/8f/w==</data>
</dict>



Find UpdateSMBIOS and change false to true

I was able to see and install 11.2.1 without the Firmware features set. VMM doesn't have an affect for 11.2.1

Thanks for the info. I actually have something quite similar configured for my alternate OC instance. The differences are with BoardProduct, FirmwareFeatures, and FirmwareFeaturesMask. These were set by MyBootMgr. I'd like to ping @Dayo for his feedback and see if those three keys need to be updated to reflect the key data provided above. Additionally, the alternate instance turns VMM on as well.

 

[Dayo]

The 'Alternate' OC setup is minimalised setup and has your regular board-id (Would actually be empty in the next release).
The main thing that does is to switches VMM on.

The BIOSVersion change was just added as a additional safety net to make sure no firmware writes are done.

Firmware features are fine (Although slightly different to the version in Post 1).

I have not yet jumped into the Big Sewer (don't intend to for as long as I can avoid it) but from what I have been reading, you may want to use the 'Default' OC setup for BS updates and the 'Alternate' OC setup for Catalina and earlier for now although it seems this may yet change and all updates can be done with one setup.

As with all such changes, take a backup first and have a clear recovery strategy in place in case it doesn't work.

I would personally hold off updating BS with OC until the lie of the land is even more clearer myself but then, I am one of those overly cautious types.

 

[amstel78]

I have not yet jumped into the Big Sewer (don't intend to for as long as I can avoid it) but from what I have been reading, you may want to use the 'Default' OC setup for BS updates and the 'Alternate' OC setup for Catalina and earlier for now although it seems this may yet change and all updates can be done with one setup.

Looking at the default OC setup, nothing is present under BIOSVersion, although the other keys are populated. I'm a little confused because from what I'm reading, if VMM is off, then 9999.0.0.0.0 should be inserted to prevent erroneous BIOS updates.

Fortunately, BS is more of a test bed for me. I still rely on Mojave for actual work so if BS gets borked, it's no big deal. What is a big deal though is if BS tries to overwrite my BootROM during an OS update. I do have one of Alex's never-booted ROM files as a backup, but I'd prefer to avoid any such nastiness to begin with.

P.S. BoardProduct key differs between regular and alternate. If alternate has my actual board ID, what is entered in regular?

 

[Jonathan50]

Can I use Opencore Legacy Patcher on my MacPro3,1 only for its graphical boot picker so there is a boot screen with a non-EFI graphics card and then proceed to safely load a supported osx version? If you say it can be done then I'd like to ask some questions after having studied the first page of this thread and the oclp readme.

 

[Dayo]

Looking at the default OC setup, nothing is present under BIOSVersion, although the other keys are populated.

When current release came out, you were supposed to use the alt instance for updates and that is still how things are set up. As said, hold off BS updates until the lie of the land is clearer. Things should be progressed in the next release.

 

[amstel78]

Can I use Opencore Legacy Patcher on my MacPro3,1 only for its graphical boot picker so there is a boot screen with a non-EFI graphics card and then proceed to safely load a supported osx version? If you say it can be done then I'd like to ask some questions after having studied the first page of this thread and the oclp readme.

If all you want is a graphical boot screen and picker, then you can also use RefindPlus to achieve that goal.

 

[Jonathan50]

If all you want is a graphical boot screen and picker, then you can also use RefindPlus to achieve that goal.

Thank you for your reply. However I'd like to use oclp because in the future I might want to try an unsupported macOS version. What is the oldest osx version oclp can safely boot?

 

[Bmju]

Not sure if this is of use, and I have already posted on the other thread, but I thought this might be of use here too.

I've just been working up a tool for looking up board ids and board names. It uses ioreg -l and then hunts around in the OC .yaml files, I find it quite useful ... though I am waiting for someone to tell me there's already a well-known command line tool for just this! 🤣

Example usage:

$ myboard
Board ID: "Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC"
SystemProductName: "MacBookPro11,1"

$ myboard MacBookPro10,2
BoardProduct: "Mac-AFD8A9D944EA4843"
SystemProductName: "MacBookPro10,2"

$ myboard iMac15,1
BoardProduct: "Mac-42FD25EABCABB274"
SystemProductName: "iMac15,1"

$ myboard MacPro5,1
BoardProduct: "Mac-F221BEC8"
SystemProductName: "MacPro5,1"

$ myboard Mac-F221BEC8
./MacPro/MP41.yaml:BoardProduct: "Mac-F221BEC8"
./MacPro/MP51.yaml:BoardProduct: "Mac-F221BEC8"
./MacPro/MP41.yaml:SystemProductName: "MacPro4,1"
./MacPro/MP51.yaml:SystemProductName: "MacPro5,1"

 

[Dayo]

I am waiting for someone to tell me there's already a well-known command line tool for just this!

As requested:
BOARD ID
Query : ioreg -l | grep board-id
Response : | "board-id" = <"Mac-XYZ">

MODEL ID
Query : system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep 'Model Identifier'
Response : Model Identifier: MacProX,Y

Having said that, always easier to just run a tool than to remember commands.
Yours also does a reverse search, as opposed to just telling you what the current value is, which is great.

 

[Bmju]

Yours also does a reverse search, as opposed to just telling you what the current value is, which is great.

Indeed! And thanks.

 

[Bmju]

Deleted - forget this post for a minute! I'll do an update with the new features suggested by @Dayo's feedback, and also making clearer what the output actually is!

 

[Bmju]

I've updated my board lookup tool in response to feedback from @Dayo - the reverse lookup and general purpose lookup bits were always meant to be the key new bits of what it did!

Usage:

  myboard
    Detect installed board id, lookup corresponding product name

  myboard -n
    Detect installed product name, lookup corresponding board id

  myboard {id-text}
    Case insensitive lookup all or part of any board id or product name

E.g. On my MacBookPro10,2 hybridized (changed board-id only) to a MacBookPro11,1:

$ myboard
detected board-id: "Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC"
SystemProductName: "MacBookPro11,1"
$ myboard -n
detected product-name: "MacBookPro10,2"
BoardProduct: "Mac-AFD8A9D944EA4843"

Also quick, case-insensitive lookups of anything 🥳:

$ myboard iMac15,1
BoardProduct: "Mac-42FD25EABCABB274"
SystemProductName: "iMac15,1"
$ myboard 42fd25
BoardProduct: "Mac-42FD25EABCABB274"
SystemProductName: "iMac15,1"

 

[Dayo]

If you still have the same Mac it would be interesting to confirm if 0.6.6 still does give wrong info now with a 0 value,

Zero returns the correct information in 0.6.6.

Wasn't the case this time last year with 0.5.6:

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

Cosmetic indeed but has been a bit of a niggle for me so I went sleuthing and came across a post by @vit9696 on another site where he posted a link to part of the code used to determine the CPU types...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[SnakeCoils]

I am very happy to report that a "new" Xeon L5640 (six-core 2,26 GHz 60W) works beatifully in my MacPro 5.1 and perfectly with OpenCore and Big Sur, checked VMM flag and everything else: just a bit slower (slightly) in some operations compared to the X5690 it replaces but nothing seriously annoying. Of course all CPU intensive tasks suffer a bit (mostly emulators) but for web surfing, mailing and archiving it is almost responsive as before (a great help comes also from my NVMe boot disk). Really, really satisfied for the current consumption cut! I think it can be safely added in the list of supported cMP's CPUs.

 

[0134168]

I am very happy to report that a "new" Xeon L5640 (six-core 2,26 GHz 60W) works beatifully in my MacPro 5.1 and perfectly with OpenCore and Big Sur, checked VMM flag and everything else: just a bit slower (slightly) in some operations compared to the X5690 it replaces but nothing seriously annoying. Of course all CPU intensive tasks suffer a bit (mostly emulators) but for web surfing, mailing and archiving it is almost responsive as before (a great help comes also from my NVMe boot disk). Really, really satisfied for the current consumption cut! I think it can be safely added in the list of supported cMP's CPUs.

I can´t understand you worries about power consumption. Really.