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

[macnrolla]

Hey there,

when i upgraded to the current version 0.7.1, i had to change `Misc -> Boot -> PickerAttributes` to `17` and `Misc -> Boot -> PickerVariant` to `Acidanthera\GoldenGate` to get the modern boot picker back.

OpenCore beauty treatment | OpenCore Post-Install

PS: Thanks for keeping the old but beloved cheese grater alive. If only macOS greater 10.3 would work reliable, that would be great.

 

[mode11]

I've successfully updated OC to 0.7.1. The only issue I have is that I don't seem to be able to bless the EFI Catalina volume. If I put in a Windows SSD into SATA bay 1, it always boots to that instead (I then have to remove it, boot into Mojave and re-flash my Bootrom in case Windows had corrupted it).

Using the verbose version of the command given in the guide, I get a message that ends in 'nvram args not set'. Has anyone encountered this?

 

[h9826790]

I've successfully updated OC to 0.7.1. The only issue I have is that I don't seem to be able to bless the EFI Catalina volume. If I put in a Windows SSD into SATA bay 1, it always boots to that instead (I then have to remove it, boot into Mojave and re-flash my Bootrom in case Windows had corrupted it).

Using the verbose version of the command given in the guide, I get a message that ends in 'nvram args not set'. Has anyone encountered this?

Disable SIP, boot to desktop, mount the EFI partition, and bless OC again.

Another work around is to install OC onto the Windows drive’s EFI partition. So that, it will always work even after NVRAM reset.

 

[basslik]

Martin let's say I install OC just to update to Big Sur 11.2.3. I know it's great to have Video acceleration but I'm only doing audio. Can I remove OC after updating to Big Sur ?
thank you for your hard work, as well as many others here.

 

[mode11]

Disable SIP, boot to desktop, mount the EFI partition, and bless OC again.

Another work around is to install OC onto the Windows drive’s EFI partition. So that, it will always work even after NVRAM reset.

I had been doing this whilst in recovery, so will try booted into the full OS. Is there a way of determining which disk, if any, has been blessed?

Moving OC to the Windows drive is an interesting idea, as it would prevent accidental Windows booting without OC. Is it as simple as mounting both EFI’s and dragging the OC folder across? And bootx64.EFI I believe too.

Can OC be in the EFIs of multiple disks? Would be useful to be able to remove the Windows disk if necessary, without leaving Catalina unbootable.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Martin let's say I install OC just to update to Big Sur 11.2.3. I know it's great to have Video acceleration but I'm only doing audio. Can I remove OC after updating to Big Sur ?
thank you for your hard work, as well as many others here.

Without OC you cannot boot unsupported macOS versions like Big Sur (unless you are using completely different approaches to install such unsupported versions).

You cannot (OTA) update to 11.2.3, Apple offers only an update to the latest available version 11.4. You will need an 11.2.3 USB installer prepared.

 

[sfalatko]

Without OC you cannot boot unsupported macOS versions like Big Sur (unless you are using completely different approaches to install such unsupported versions).

You cannot (OTA) update to 11.2.3, Apple offers only an update to the latest available version 11.4. You will need an 11.2.3 USB installer prepared.

Actually you can boot Catalina and Big Sur with _no_compat_check. I do this by changing the PlatformSupport.plist in the Preboot Partition of the Catalina/Big Sur disk to "spoof" the MacPro be considered a supported system for booting. I do the same in the Recovery partition to allow booting into recovery without OC (I use OC on a USB stick to boot for updates).

 

[basslik]

Man I would like to see a video on exactly how you install that approach.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Actually you can boot Catalina and Big Sur with _no_compat_check. I do this by changing the PlatformSupport.plist in the Preboot Partition of the Catalina/Big Sur disk to "spoof" the MacPro be considered a supported system for booting. I do the same in the Recovery partition to allow booting into recovery without OC (I use OC on a USB stick to boot for updates).

It needs all hardware parts updated to supported ones like Ethernet, BT, WiFi, GPU. But most of you have done this anyway. You can possibly use the @dosdude1 Catalina installer or Big Sur micropatcher to install both macOS versions without any post install patching.

 

[mode11]

Disable SIP, boot to desktop, mount the EFI partition, and bless OC again.

Another work around is to install OC onto the Windows drive’s EFI partition. So that, it will always work even after NVRAM reset.

When trying to bless from the Catalina desktop, I get the error message "Could not set boot device property: 0xe00002bc". This occurs using either the simple or verbose method, from the guide on page 1. Csrutil confirms SIP is disabled.

Edit: D'oh! Had forgotten to add 'sudo' to 'bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot'. Keep doing that when copying commands from the guide that are intended to be run in Recovery! When doing so, it asked for the password, so seems to have blessed OK.

Edit: After reinserting my Win 10 SSD into bay 1, it booted straight into that. So the bless didn't take after all. In future I'll test with a Mojave disk is bay 1, to avoid risking my firmware. Having another go at blessing (with sudo) had no response this time - it didn't ask for my password. Using --verbose shows that no 'boot-args' are set...

 

[sfalatko]

It needs all hardware parts updated to supported ones like Ethernet, BT, WiFi, GPU. But most of you have done this anyway. You can possibly use the @dosdude1 Catalina installer or Big Sur micropatcher to install both macOS versions without any post install patching.

I used OC on a USB stick to install Catalina and then Big Sur (with appropriate mods to the config.plist). I do have an updated WiFi/BT (see my sig). When I want to use OC for any reason I boot from the USB stick. At some point I may put OC on one of my drives but for now I'm keeping it on the USB stick.

Once I completed the macOS install I mounted the Preboot volume from Catalina (or Big Sur) and edited the PlatformSupport.plist to include the BoardID and Model number of my cMP (Mac-F221BEC8, MacPro5,1). I did the same for the Recovery partition.

With that done I can boot into either Catalina or Big Sur (or the respective recovery partitions) without OC though for Big Sur I need OC to enable continuity features (I have patched my Catalina to support continuity without OC).

With most every version update and some security patches I need to redo the patches to PlatformSupport.plist as the files are replaced by the update.

As I have a NVIDIA GPU hardware acceleration does not apply for me so right now I only use OC for updates (Catalina) or updates and continuity (Big Sur).

Regards

 

[mode11]

If I enter sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --verbose, the response ends with 'NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set'.

However, when entering bless --getBoot, the response is '/dev/disk0s1', which is the correct EFI partition. Yet the Mac will still automatically boot from a drive in bay 1, if present. Why would this be?

 

[cdf]

If I enter sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --verbose, the response ends with 'NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set'.

However, when entering bless --getBoot, the response is '/dev/disk0s1', which is the correct EFI partition. Yet the Mac will still automatically boot from a drive in bay 1, if present. Why would this be?

When you bless your EFI, make sure that you're booting Mojave outside of OpenCore or that you've turned off RequestBootVarRouting. Also note that a blessing that doesn't work could indicate a failing SPI.

 

[mode11]

@cdf I'm actually blessing the EFI from Catalina's desktop. OC is on the same NVMe drive that Catalina is on.

RequestBootVarRouting is set to true in config.plist.

I recently got my Bootrom rebuilt / upgraded by Alex, and flashed it to the SPI. ROMTool didn't report any errors in doing so (would it?), and the machine seems fine otherwise. The rebuild was a preemptive action, rather than in response to any particular problem.

I have read on this forum that failure to bless is the first sign of a failing SPI - but would getBoot report the correct partition in that case?

 

[tsialex]

I'm actually blessing the EFI from Catalina's desktop. OC is on the same NVMe drive that Catalina is on.

RequestBootVarRouting is set to true in config.plist.

Try blessing booted from a non-OC disk before anything.

I recently got my Bootrom rebuilt by Alex, and flashed it to the SPI. ROMTool didn't report any errors in doing so (would it?), and the machine seems fine otherwise. The rebuild was a preemptive action, rather than in response to any particular problem. I have read on this forum though that failure to bless is the first sign of a failing SPI.

One of the most common failures of SPI flash memories that have a very high number of cycles of erase/writing is to take a lot of time for the erase/write cycle. You can successfully program one of those using relaxed timings, but not with the normal settings defined by Apple when designing the backplane.

ROMTool is just a GUI for flashrom, flashrom is very conservative with timings when writing to the SPI, so some errors only really happen when you are using the backplane normally. The same thing happens with cheap external programmers and that's why I always recommend the replacement of the SPI flash memory when you brick the backplane even if the external programmer can write to all sectors successfully.

 

[mode11]

Tried blessing from Mojave (desktop) and still get the "NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set." message when using --verbose to bless the Catalina EFI. Tried the version with --file BOOTx64.efi with the same result.

 

[tsialex]

Tried blessing from Mojave (desktop) and still get the "NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set." message when using --verbose. Tried the version with --file BOOTx64.efi with the same result.

When booted from Mojave without OC running, you can change your default boot disk via Preferences/StartupDisk to another SATA disk?

If so, it's not a SPI or BootROM issue, but something else, like an error somewhere with your OC config or even an incompatibility with your NVMe drive.

 

[mode11]

I don’t have another bootable SATA drive to test with, but choosing the Catalina NVMe from Mojave’s Startup Disk panel did successfully cause the Mac to reboot into Catalina. If it would help testing, I could create another Mojave disk on a spare SATA HDD.

It was booting OK from the correct disk before the Bootrom re-flash / wiped NVRAM, so the NVMe should be compatible? It’s quite possible there’s an issue somewhere with the OC setup - though this issue was occurring before I made my recent changes to OC (0.5.9 > 0.7.1).

 

[h9826790]

Moving OC to the Windows drive is an interesting idea, as it would prevent accidental Windows booting without OC. Is it as simple as mounting both EFI’s and dragging the OC folder across? And bootx64.EFI I believe too.

You can do this in Windows if required. But in general, do this in macOS is easier.

1) Mount the EFI partition on the Windows drive
2) rename that "NO NAME" partition to "EFI"
3) keep the Microsoft folder
4) replace the BOOT folder
5) install the OC folder

This will give you better protection, and your cMP can never boot to the UEFI Windows without via OpenCore (I assume you have a functional OC boot picker).

 

[h9826790]

Can OC be in the EFIs of multiple disks?

Can. This is what I have to ensure there is always a working OC on my cMP.

 

[roobarb!]

You can do this in Windows if required. But in general, do this in macOS is easier.

1) Mount the EFI partition on the Windows drive
2) rename that "NO NAME" partition to "EFI"
3) keep the Microsoft folder
4) replace the BOOT folder
5) install the OC folder

This will give you better protection, and your cMP can never boot to the UEFI Windows without via OpenCore (I assume you have a functional OC boot picker).

I like this very much. When I next need to reinstall Windows, I'll probably do it this way.

 

[joevt]

When blessing the EFI partition you should also specify with the --file argument the full path of the efi file that you want to boot.

The response 'NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set' probably just means that the bless command does not include anything that requires modifying the boot-args nvram variable - but other nvram variables may have been modified.
Use the dumpallbootvars command (one of the commands from https://gist.github.com/joevt/477fe842d16095c2bfd839e2ab4794ff ) to see some of the nvram boot variables.

 

[mode11]

When blessing the EFI partition you should also specify with the --file argument the full path of the efi file that you want to boot.

I tried the following with the same result:

sudo bless --mount /Volumes/EFI --setBoot --file /Volumes/EFI/EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi --verbose

 

[mode11]

Can. This is what I have to ensure there is always a working OC on my cMP.

Makes a lot of sense. I'm running OC 0.7.1, so will copy the relevant folders to my Win 10 disk when I put it back in the Mac.

Would still like to get my boot selection working properly though.

 

[basslik]

Without OC you cannot boot unsupported macOS versions like Big Sur (unless you are using completely different approaches to install such unsupported versions).

You cannot (OTA) update to 11.2.3, Apple offers only an update to the latest available version 11.4. You will need an 11.2.3 USB installer prepared.

I think I read a post here that you can actually do a search on apple store or something and with OC installed it will find Catalina or Big Sur 11.2.3 ?