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

[eVasilis]

Hi guys

Is there a new config.plist for OC 7.0?

 

[Dewdman42]

I'm sure CDF is working on it. Patience.

 

[eVasilis]

I'm sure CDF is working on it. Patience.

Just curiosity!

 

[TECK]

Plistlib Generator 1.1.2 was released with support for OC 0.7.0 (see notable changes), you will need to perform one minor change to your current setup.py file, prior executing the usual upgrade process.

Please note the OCBinaryData files structure changed, see PickerVariant documentation. The Plistlib generator will build the proper EFI.

@cdf, for once I release before you.

 

[cdf]

The guide has been updated to OpenCore version 0.7.0.

This update requires a few changes to the sample configuration file (see Part 3 of the guide). You will also need to update OcBinaryData (see Part 2).

This release of OC introduces the new Content Flavours system. This addition enhances support for OpenCanopy themes.

Another notable addition to 0.7.0 is the new Toggle SIP option. When enabled, this option allows you to safely toggle SIP from the OC boot menu, avoiding the frustratingly long boot time into recovery. (Note that it is still possible to "hardwire" SIP in your configuration, but such an approach is not recommended for most users.)

 

[cdf]

because the part of the tutorial :

curl -O -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/munki/macadmin-scripts/main/installinstallmacos.py && sudo python installinstallmacos.py

doesn't work.

Seems to still work here...

 

[eVasilis]

The guide has been updated to OpenCore version 0.7.0.

Thank you!

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Can one of the experts clarify a couple of changes I've noticed in OC 0.7.0?

1. Are there any advantages involved in using the new AdviseFeatures parameter? I haven't included that in config.plist and everything seems to be working fine. In case this is relevant, I have a legacy installation of the latest Windows 10 residing in its own MBR disk. Big Sur 11.2.3 also has an entire spinner for itself. So, would I be better off by including AdviseFeatures?
2. /EFI/OC/Resources/Image used to have a lot of icons at its root level. Now, such icons are included in three folders that are located within an Acidanthera folder. What's up with all this? Are we supposed the delete the old icons at /EFI/OC/Resources/Image and leave the new Acidanthera folder (along with its three subfolders) in place? Are we supposed to choose only one set of icons (GoldenGate?), move them to /EFI/OC/Resources/Image and get rid of the rest?

 

[Alex-IN]

 

[haralds]

View attachment 1790268

Not working on my system with Monterey installed on a drive on another system. Hangs early in the boot process.
I do have PCIe based eSATA and NVME drives.

 

[Alex-IN]

Not working on my system with Monterey installed on a drive on another system. Hangs early in the boot process.
I do have PCIe based eSATA and NVME drives.

Try with my EFI

 

[TECK]

View attachment 1790268

Not sure what you mean by that screenshot but if you see improvements to current issues experienced with 11.3+ on Mac Pro, you should report them into dedicated thread, not here.

 

[TECK]

Can one of the experts clarify a couple of changes I've noticed in OC 0.7.0?

I'm leaving AdviseFeatures to its failsafe value, for the second question, look at PickerVariant documentation. You should not modify the new OcBinaryData files structure, it was changed in purpose. Delete your old OcBinaryData directory and replace it with the new one. If you are not sure how, run the Plistlib Generator, it will build the EFI for you correctly.

 

[0134168]

Not sure what you mean by that screenshot but if you see improvements to current issues experienced with 11.3+ on Mac Pro, you should report them into dedicated thread, not here.

Why? This is OpenCore on the Mac Pro thread.

 

[Dewdman42]

Anyone know how to get OC ScanPolicy to pickup APFS volumes that are located on a PCI SSD card? I'm using the Sonnet Tempo with two drives on it. I mainly use them as data drives, but recently I added an APFS volume to one of them in order to hold my CCC backup. However, OC is not displaying this volume as a mountable volume. Neither is RefindPlus I might add as a side-note.

I tried setting OC ScanPolicy to zero, but still doesn't show up in the OC Picker (not using OpenCanopy).

 

[z0Nker]

My boot drive is on an Apricorn PCIe card, so this may not boot under 11.3.

No worries, I have 11.2.3 already downloaded as I was about to use OCLP to install it, then I came across these threads...

However, since it's a standard SATA SSD, I could install it in a regular bay via a 2.5" sled that I already have...

I have 11.4 working good on a NVMe on 1 of my 4,1’s (dual cpu) than I read “Don’t install on a NVMe, install on a SATA. Another of my 4,1’s (single cpu) does not run as well and the cpu shows up as a i3 cpu instead of a Xeon ? Also I ran the terminal command to compare the OC versions and it shows data, but not 5.9 or 6.0 or whatever ver of OC just a string ??? Pleas tell me am I just lucky w/ 11.4 running ? What versions of Open Core should I be running on a 2 CPU Mac Pro & what version for a single CPU Xeon 4,1 ? Is Big Sur 11.4 Ok ? Or should I use a different version ? Of corse I want the “pre built files” just to drop in the EUFI folder.. I do use Mojave on my main 4,1 but I want the single core Big Sur 4,1 running better…thanks

 

[z0Nker]

I don't know where to post question, i post it here sorry.
I have OC 066-2021-02-02 Big Sur 11.4 on a 4,1 flashed > 5,1
after set up - ok so far thanks to You Folks. CSRUTIL on or off ? it is off now, should i turn it back on ? Why ?
I think i know what it does, but in a modified CMP i don't know the Pros & Cons for Every Day Running ? Thanks and God Bless You All !

 

[Bmju]

2. /EFI/OC/Resources/Image used to have a lot of icons at its root level. Now, such icons are included in three folders that are located within an Acidanthera folder. What's up with all this? Are we supposed the delete the old icons at /EFI/OC/Resources/Image and leave the new Acidanthera folder (along with its three subfolders) in place? Are we supposed to choose only one set of icons (GoldenGate?), move them to /EFI/OC/Resources/Image and get rid of the rest?

You are supposed to leave the icons in the directory structure which they have in `OcBinaryData`. Config `PickerVariant` selects which icon set you will actually use. The default `Auto` will use `Acidanthera/GoldenGate`, so that's the only subdirectory of `Images` which you strictly need. (Unless you set the specific Mac gray background colour `0x00BFBFBF`, in which case it triggers an older style set, `Acidanthera/Chardonnay`.)

The main idea is that, as before, the entire contents of `OcBinaryData/Resources` (without having to change layout, or add or remove anything) are compatible with current OC binary and config - you can just copy the whole lot into `/EFI/OC/Resources`.

EDIT: So yes, if upgrading, you can and should delete any older `.icns` files left directly under `Images` in your OC install.

 

[juliovg]

Updated: June 9, 2021

OpenCore on Legacy Apple Hardware

This guide explains how to use the excellent OpenCore bootloader on a Mac Pro 5,1 to install, run and update macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur, resulting in a clean, unpatched operating system no different than on a supported Mac.

🚫 macOS Big Sur 11.3 and higher is currently not viable for the Mac Pro 5,1. See the dedicated thread for updates.​

Why OpenCore?

There are several advantages to using OpenCore on a classic Mac Pro:

Boot picker screen (even with a standard graphics card)
View attachment 1723702
Software Update (just like on a supported Mac)
View attachment 1723703
Hardware acceleration (and DRM for Netflix on Safari)View attachment 1723704
Another approach to installing and running macOS on unsupported Macs consist of applying a series of rigid patches. Although effective, this strategy may be considered undesirable, because it alters system files—a potential problem for updates. With OpenCore, macOS remains entirely untouched. Necessary modifications take place cleanly in memory.

Why this Guide?

The purpose of this guide is to provide step-by-step hands-on instructions to using OpenCore on the Mac Pro 5,1. Included with the instructions is a basic sample configuration to get you started. Guidelines for creating a more advanced configuration customized to your machine are also detailed.

👍 The included sample configuration is about as minimal of a configuration as possible for using OpenCore on a Mac.​

Additional Resources

Since this guide appeared, other solutions to OpenCore on Apple hardware have been proposed. Here on MacRumors, you have a few options:

1. This guide (step-by-step hands-on instructions)
2. Martin's Package (very popular easy-to-install one-package-fits-all solution provided by @h9826790 with emphasis on hardware acceleration)
3. MyBootMgr (great multi-boot solution provided by @Dayo with a rich suite of helper apps for setting up and maintaining RefindPlus and OpenCore)
4. OC Plistlib Generator (diligent programmatic solution provided by @TECK for automating OpenCore updates)

Another great solution is the OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) provided by the Dortania team. This solution, which applies not only to the Mac Pro 5,1, probes your hardware to dynamically configure OpenCore for your Mac.

Requirements

This guide is aimed at systems with the following specifications:

Mac Pro model	Early 2009 with MacPro5,1 firmware,* Mid 2010 or Mid 2012
Processor architecture	Westmere (E56xx, L56xx, X56xx) / Gulftown (W36xx)
Boot ROM version	144.0.0.0.0
Graphics	EFI (flashed) or a standard UEFI card (PC GPU) supported in Catalina or Big Sur
Wireless	Chipset supported in Catalina or Big Sur (BCM943224, BCM9435x, BCM9436x)

Spoiler: More details

Need to upgrade your boot ROM? See the upgrade instructions.

Regarding Graphics: Several GPUs supported in macOS High Sierra are not supported in macOS Mojave or later. This includes all non-Kepler generation NVIDIA GPUs as well as AMD GPUs earlier than HD 7950. Several HD 78xx GPUs (Pitcairn) were rebadged as R9 2xx and are not supported in macOS Mojave or later. All classic Mac Pro factory GPUs had support removed with Mojave.

Acknowledgements

A big thank you to @vit9696 and the other talented developers of Acidanthera for making all of this possible. Special gratitude goes to @h9826790 for spearheading the hardware acceleration study and @startergo for the relentless testing that led to boot screen support. And thanks to all those that have contributed to this thread!

PART I
Basic Installation



PART II
Advanced Configuration




PART III
Maintenance




PART IV
Installing and Updating macOS




APPENDIX
Installing Windows and Linux​

hello guys , I'm following the tutorial... and on this step:


Confirm the installation

• In macOS, open Terminal
• Confirm that OpenCore has booted the system by entering: nvram 4D1FDA02-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B30102pencore-version

You should see REL-070-2021-06-07.


i have the next error - see image, what could be wrong?

regards

 

[Bmju]

hello guys , I'm following the tutorial... and on this step:


Confirm the installation

• In macOS, open Terminal
• Confirm that OpenCore has booted the system by entering: nvram 4D1FDA02-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B30102pencore-version

You should see REL-070-2021-06-07.


i have the next error - see image, what could be wrong?

regards

If you see that result, OpenCore has _not_ booted the system. That's why the instructions get you to double-check at that point. Instead it looks like you've gone directly into Mojave - not via OpenCore, but just directly, i.e. as you would have done before OpenCore was even there.

You probably need to go back a few steps - you're looking to see the "simple text-based bootpicker" which it mentions just before that, in the instructions. Until you see that, you're not starting OpenCore.

 

[juliovg]

Hello guys, i have a problem, i will explain first what i did:
1- clean install Mojave - all was ok
2- install openCore 0.7.0 (follow the tutorial) - all was ok
3- i wan to update mojave to Catalina - ERROR

i don't know what is wrong i'm just update mojave to catalina, but my mac shutdown.
i upload the screens

after this scree , my mac turnoff.

i also upload my config.plist file





can somebody help me?

 

[hwojtek]

Please remove the config from the posting and attach it as a file instead. It pollutes the search results in forums.

 

[startergo]

Hello guys, i have a problem, i will explain first what i did:
1- clean install Mojave - all was ok
2- install openCore 0.7.0 (follow the tutorial) - all was ok
3- i wan to update mojave to Catalina - ERROR

i don't know what is wrong i'm just update mojave to catalina, but my mac shutdown.
i upload the screens

View attachment 1791273

View attachment 1791276View attachment 1791278


after this scree , my mac turnoff.
View attachment 1791280
i also upload my config.plist file





can somebody help me?

Check your config file with this:
Verify and load the configuration

• Close config.plist
• In Terminal, enter: plutil -convert xml1 config.plist && plutil config.plist

 

[cdf]

i also upload my config.plist file

You have to keep no_compat_check or enable hybridization. Also, remember to turn off the VMM flag after the installation.

 

[juliovg]

Check your config file with this:
Verify and load the configuration

• Close config.plist
• In Terminal, enter: plutil -convert xml1 config.plist && plutil config.plist

The same ... my config file is OK

and I copy to EFI folder ... start the update process (catalina) but is the same ... the same error, here are the screenshots about the process

what is wrong?

regards