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

[Dewdman42]

So I kind of tuned out of the BigSur boot up late bloom discussion...what is the news...have clever people solved a work around that we are just waiting to see formalized at this point, or is it still in the experimental phase?

 

[Ludacrisvp]

I believe @vit9696 suggested at some point integrating the patches in Lilu. You already released the latebloom code on github.

I’m suspecting the patch to be done and latebloom likely aren’t the same. Like latebloom provided the bandaid to diagnose things and the fix is something else.

 

[startergo]

I’m suspecting the patch to be done and latebloom likely aren’t the same. Like latebloom provided the bandaid to diagnose things and the fix is something else.

Sure. But they are kernel patches which Lilu is.

 

[cdf]

With SurPlus, macOS Big Sur 11.3 and higher is now viable on the Mac Pro 5,1! Many thanks @Syncretic!

The guide has been updated with instructions for adding the patch.

 

[0134168]

With SurPlus, macOS Big Sur 11.3 and higher is now viable on the Mac Pro 5,1! Many thanks @Syncretic!

The guide has been updated with instructions for adding the patch.

Well, been running Big Sur last and Monterey last in my Mac Pro 5,1 for months. What am i missing?

 

[quad121]

Can you upgrade to Big Sur etc straight from Catalina by modifying OC with the Surplus and install the installation onto a new drive?

 

[tsialex]

Well, been running Big Sur last and MKonterey last in my Mac Pro 5,1 for months. What am i missing?

Now we have a definitive solution with SurPlus, latebloom was a hackish workaround that was good enough, but far from perfect.

 

[0134168]

Now we have a definitive solution with SurPlus, latebloom was a hackish workaround that was good enough, but far from perfect.

Thanks, Alexandre. Reading it now. Amazing work.

 

[cdf]

Can you upgrade to Big Sur etc straight from Catalina by modifying OC with the Surplus and install the installation onto a new drive?

This should work, but there's no definitive confirmation yet. See the FAQ:

SurPlus - The Big Sur/Monterey fix you've been waiting for.

Frequently Asked Questions Does the patch work with the MacOS installer? While I have not personally tested it, I have received reports that SurPlus does work during the installation process (assuming, obviously, that you're using OpenCore). Does the patch work during an upgrade from below 11.3...

forums.macrumors.com

If you try it, please let us know how it goes.

 

[quad121]

So, it would be ‘safer’ to upgrade ‘normally’ to Big Sur 11.2 then install the ‘SurPlus’ to upgrade further?

 

[tsialex]

So, it would be ‘safer’ to upgrade ‘normally’ to Big Sur 11.2 then install the ‘SurPlus’ to upgrade further?

There are several reports of software upgrades 11.2.3->11.6 not working, some of the reports were just user error applying the SurPlus patch or removing the latebloom config, but some are not yet explained.

Clean installs are working perfectly and is the recommended method. You can also use today's OCLP nightly (0.3.0), with SurPlus support baked in, it's working fine.

 

[quad121]

Thanks for all your help.
I’ve got OpenCore installed with os Mojave on a SSD
And os Catalina on a NVME drive which is working great.
What I was looking to do is install Big Sur on a drive of its own and also have a Windows install also on a SSD

 

[ZNDK]

I was running macOS 11.6 on a Mac Pro 2009(5.1) with OCLP 0.3.0 and Latebloom, and when SurPlus was released I moved to it. When I changed from Latebloom to SurPlus I did a PRAM clear (3 times sound). Since then the behavior has gone crazy. The success rate of Mac startup is also higher with Latebloom than SurPlus.

In Latebloom, the apple mark and progress bar appeared when the Mac started up, but with the SurPlus, everything is hidden until the desktop appears.

What I did after PRAM Clear:

• Boot Mac with a USB flash drive (Mojave). *If I use Big Sur, I can't start it because it displays a prohibited icon.
• I launched the utility and ran the "nvram boot-args='-no_compat_check'" command. *On my Mac, I have to intentionally do boot-args="-no_compat_check" in Terminal ahead of time. I can't start my Mac by specifying it in OpenCore.
• Specify the relevant EFI volume with the bless command. *Currently, it specifies the EFI area that exists in the boot disk volume.
• OpenCore configuration is already set up and installed. The configuration of SurPlus itself is also fine.
• Currently I have SIP disabled.

My concern is that when I start OpenCore Configurator, I get the "The bootloader looks like it is not installed or your NVRAM isn't native." warning.

How can I get back to the same situation I was in before?

And I don't care much, but I am using RX580, can't I have the Mac bootloader (boot disk icon display) show up? *This did not show up when I was using Latebloom either.

 

[PeterHolbrook]

If I haven’t misunderstood your situation, chances are your predicament is the result of your destroying the blessed condition of your OC EFI volume through that ill-advised NVRAM reset. Boot to Recovery and bless your OC boot.

 

[ZNDK]

If I haven’t misunderstood your situation, chances are your predicament is the result of your destroying the blessed condition of your OC EFI volume through that ill-advised NVRAM reset. Boot to Recovery and bless your OC boot.

I installed Big Sur from a USB stick and my Mac did not create a recovery area. is there a problem with running the bless command from a USB stick with a different OS version?

 

[PeterHolbrook]

I’d think that ought to be fine.

 

[quad121]

Updated: September 27, 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.

🟢 With SurPlus, macOS Big Sur 11.3 and higher is now viable on the Mac Pro 5,1!​

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, @startergo for the relentless testing that led to boot screen support, and @Syncretic for the extraordinary accomplishment of solving the race condition in Big Sur! 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​

As anyone got any advice on why this doesn't work?
Ive followed the step by step instructions on installing Windows 10 and I got to the part 'Finish Installation' I reboot but there is NO Windows disk to select on the Boot Picker?
Is there another way to install Windows 10? safely!

 

[cdf]

As anyone got any advice on why this doesn't work?
Ive followed the step by step instructions on installing Windows 10 and I got to the part 'Finish Installation' I reboot but there is NO Windows disk to select on the Boot Picker?
Is there another way to install Windows 10? safely!

You must be doing something wrong. The approach in the guide works. OpenCore will automatically detect \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi, so you should start by verifying the presence of this file.

 

[quad121]

You must be doing something wrong. The approach in the guide works. OpenCore will automatically detect \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi, so you should start by verifying the presence of this file.

I’ve just checked ‘bootmgrfw.efi’ is in the EFI/Microsoft/Boot folder
The ExFatDxeLegacy.efi is in the EFI/OC/Drivers folder
The required command has been added to the drivers key in ‘config.plist.
The VMM flag is off
So I am at a loss of what’s a miss

 

[startergo]

Is there another way to install Windows 10? safely!

Bare Metal Windows on cMP

PART 1 of 3 This is a guide to installing Windows 10 on Classic Mac Pros without the Boot Camp Assistant. This is one of many ways to implement such a "Bare Metal" setup but is a straightforward method. This guide is for installing Legacy Windows, as opposed to UEFI Windows, but can also be...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[quad121]

Bare Metal Windows on cMP

PART 1 of 3 This is a guide to installing Windows 10 on Classic Mac Pros without the Boot Camp Assistant. This is one of many ways to implement such a "Bare Metal" setup but is a straightforward method. This guide is for installing Legacy Windows, as opposed to UEFI Windows, but can also be...

forums.macrumors.com

Many thanks for your suggestion, startergo. Ill have a look at this method many thanks

 

[quad121]

Just a quick question, in the boot picker is there a maximum number of disks which can be shown here? As I have 4 disks showing as well as there efi sections

 

[cdf]

Just a quick question, in the boot picker is there a maximum number of disks which can be shown here? As I have 4 disks showing as well as there efi sections

This shouldn't be an issue, because if you have more entries than what can be displayed, you'll see an arrow for scrolling right and left. Does your Windows disk appear in System Preferences > Startup Disk?

 

[quad121]

Yes, it does show up in the Startup disk

 

[cdf]

Yes, it does show up in the Startup disk

Making sure that RequestBootVarRouting is enabled (as well as ProtectSecureBoot), perhaps you could try selecting your Windows disk from Startup Disk and verify what ends up booting from OC...

Another possibility is to try a BlessOverride.