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

[Dayo]

I will test with OCLP v0.3.1. I believe the Firmware problem is due to the fact that the Martins package is configured in Hybrid mode (iMac Pro). OCLP has set my SMBIOS to Mac Pro 7.1

The OCLP should work but the issue is not SMBIOS related.

There are some changes required to some settings which are not present in the current version of Martin's plist (about a month old). He will presumably update these on his next release.

In the interim, if you cannot wait for his update, you can use the already amended version someone posted here: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/30494187

 

[chrisrm9208]

Has anyone any thoughts on getting the original cMP5,1 2010 wifi card up and running via OpenCore? If it does run for you, how?

 

[PeterHolbrook]

I upgraded my original Wi-Fi card long ago in order to prevent the kind of trouble you seem to be experiencing.

 

[MacRumors3590]

Have you performed an OTA upgrade or a clean install ?? Did someone do a clean install??

Couldn't get OTA so I downloaded full 12.0.1 made USB stick and installed. All 4 of my cMP's 5,1 lost BT.
I have stock cards and these worked perfect in Beta 10.

Update:
All works fine in 12.0.1. I forgot the "sudo kill -9 $(pgrep bluetoothd)" trick.

 

[PeterHolbrook]

At least OpenCore & MyBootMgr, OC Plistlib generator & OCLP are relevant. As I said before, the method in this thread using OpenCore to get unsupported Mac Pro's running latest macOS. There are other methods of using OpenCore to achieve the same goals. Just because someone, heaven forbid, dare mention they may try another method here, does not give anyone a right to "insist" they desist.

I beg to strongy differ. There IS a specific OCLP support thread. Guess what, this ISN'T it. Besides, I didn't insist anyone should desist. I merely pointed out an obvious fact: This isn't an OCLP support thread. Any objections?

 

[micropitt]

I upgraded my original Wi-Fi card long ago in order to prevent the kind of trouble you seem to be experiencing.

Which one do you use? BCM94331CD?

 

[chrisrm9208]

Has anyone any thoughts on getting the original cMP5,1 2010 wifi card up and running via OpenCore? If it does run for you, how?

Turns out that I should read the OCLP notes more fully and not get confused by other texts... The 0.3.1 version has the kexts for the older Broadcom chips in the 'Post-Install Volume Patch' area, so I have duly patched and rebooted and now I have wifi without dismembering the cMP. That makes Monterey a genuinely useful thing again and the BCM94360CD card in front of me will remain a thing to clutter my desk with.

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Which one do you use? BCM94331CD?

A BCM943602CDP, but there are others that will work just fine.

 

[Dayo]

Turns out that I should read the OCLP notes more fully and not get confused by other texts

Well, despite the overabundance of mouth frothing and barking going on about this, there is a question to be asked as to why in heaven one would implement something using one procedure, ignore the documentation there and decide to go read up on other procedures instead.

 

[tsialex]

Turns out that I should read the OCLP notes more fully and not get confused by other texts... The 0.3.1 version has the kexts for the older Broadcom chips in the 'Post-Install Volume Patch' area, so I have duly patched and rebooted and now I have wifi without dismembering the cMP. That makes Monterey a genuinely useful thing again and the BCM94360CD card in front of me will remain a thing to clutter my desk with.

After the 3rd or 4th time you have to patch your root volume when updates are released, you will think again about installing a supported AirPort Extreme…

 

[tsialex]

Hi Alex,

I made the appropriate changes but it just keeps booting once into Macintosh HD and then goes into Big Sur without doing the actual update. Is it possible to do a clean install from Mojave to Monterey?

To another disk? Works, but the installer will fail to do the first required restart and you need to close it and reboot manually.

 

[orangepop]

Based on the release candidates:

1. Set SecureBootModel to Default
2. Under PlatformNVRAM:
   

   <key>FirmwareFeatures</key>
   <data>A1QMwAgAAAA=</data>
   <key>FirmwareFeaturesMask</key>
   <data>P/8f/wgAAAA=</data>

3. Set UpdateNVRAM to true

Also, make sure not to enable the VMM flag.

The promised revision to the guide is still under testing, so I've added the information to the current guide.

I was wondering, in my config.plist I can make the changes in #1 and #3 but when I do a search for #2 it seems my config.plist does not have the PlatformNVRAM flag.
Any thoughts?

 

[GSXB]

I started the macOS 12 update, get all the way through the first part of the install and it reboots. Takes me to a screen saying it’s unable to install some firmware thing then forces me to reboot back to 10.14 (my other install drive) I can’t for the life of me get it past this firmware updater.

I have tried redownloading, starting over, a different drive.

I’m using martins .74 package and it worked great for 11.6

Can anyone help? I just at my wits end now

Use the config file posted in 9254 page 371
I was at the end or my tether, this helped

 

[cdf]

I was wondering, in my config.plist I can make the changes in #1 and #3 but when I do a search for #2 it seems my config.plist does not have the PlatformNVRAM flag.
Any thoughts?

Martin's config leaves the PlatformNVRAM section out because it wasn't really needed before. To fix your config, take a look at the sample config in the first post to determine where to add the missing section.

 

[zentex]

Reading through the posts on Monterey…I realize I need to get a new WiFi/BT card before I upgrade.

Are there suggestions for a PCI card that “just works”? Maybe one of those converter cards for the factory slot? I did some poking around and everything I find has reviews that there’s always something that requires extra work or doesn’t work at all. I’d like to not throw a ton of cash to solve the problem (I see the irony in AAPL hardware, trust me)

I have a 2010 MP 5,1

 

[donvito4ever]

I try to update to Monterey from 11.6.1, but don't install... don't throw any error...

I run the Monterey installer (from system update) and seems working, but when reset 3 times (one of them I can see how many minutes left), BigSur again... This is the 4th try...

This is the installer...

View attachment 1878966

The first reboot:

...and back again...
Same shít ... 5 times, always return to BigSur...
View attachment 1879359

I have OC 0.7.4 from Martin with modified the SMBIOS tags (the attached file)...

What can I do??

 

[avro707]

Reading through the posts on Monterey…I realize I need to get a new WiFi/BT card before I upgrade.

Are there suggestions for a PCI card that “just works”? Maybe one of those converter cards for the factory slot? I did some poking around and everything I find has reviews that there’s always something that requires extra work or doesn’t work at all. I’d like to not throw a ton of cash to solve the problem (I see the irony in AAPL hardware, trust me)

I have a 2010 MP 5,1

Search eBay or Amazon for the little upgrade card that replaces your original wifi and Bluetooth.

It will be called something like MP4,1/5,1 Bluetooth/ wifi upgrade and it is supposedly an Apple genuine part. It is not the one that has some big external antenna.

Nevertheless it works well and you get features like handoff and Airdrop.

You also get much faster wifi and BT4.0.

Familiarise yourself with how to disassemble the Mac Pro, you need to take out the CPU tray and the frame that holds it in place. The case fan cables are very hard to disconnect from their connectors so do those carefully. The internal speaker cable also has to be disconnected but it is easy.

That should keep you going for a few more years at least.

This is the card you want:

 

[MacNB2]

Reading through the posts on Monterey…I realize I need to get a new WiFi/BT card before I upgrade.

Are there suggestions for a PCI card that “just works”? Maybe one of those converter cards for the factory slot? I did some poking around and everything I find has reviews that there’s always something that requires extra work or doesn’t work at all. I’d like to not throw a ton of cash to solve the problem (I see the irony in AAPL hardware, trust me)

I have a 2010 MP 5,1

A while back I bought a mini-PCIe adapter and an Apple BCM943602CDPAX (MIMO 3x3, BT4.2). Requires some hardware work but worth the effort as it just works and supported in Big Sur and Monterey. There's no s/w changes. The parts & steps required are described in this post. You can buy a complete kit too but costs significantly more than doing it yourself if you have the skills. Takes 30 minutes max.

My DIY method cost me $40 in total.

 

[MacNB2]

Familiarise yourself with how to disassemble the Mac Pro, you need to take out the CPU tray and the frame that holds it in place. The case fan cables are very hard to disconnect from their connectors so do those carefully.

That's the proper way to do it but I was feeling adventurous (i.e. lazy) and managed to install the bluetooth cable and Wifi module without taking out the Frame & Case Fans. It's a bit fiddly & tight for space but can be done.

 

[Dewdman42]

Which one do you use? BCM94331CD?

I'm using this one and it seems to be working with Monterey...

Mac Pro 2009 (4,1) and Mac Pro 2010-2012 (5,1) - Apple Broadcom BCM943602CDP - 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with Bluetooth 4.2 Upgrade Kit - Limited Edition

802.11ac, BT 4.2 and Continuity & Handoff for HACKINTOSH, Mac Pro, iMac with Native Support for Apple Broadcom BCM943602CDP for PC, HACKINTOSH, Mac Pro, iMac

www.osxwifi.com

In addition to working, it also provides BLE 4.2, which I use for bluetooth midi, and works great.

 

[MacNB2]

I try to update to Monterey from 11.6.1, but don't install... don't throw any error...

I run the Monterey installer (from system update) and seems working, but when reset 3 times (one of them I can see how many minutes left), BigSur again... This is the 4th try...

This is the installer...

View attachment 1878966

The first reboot:

...and back again...
Same shít ... 5 times, always return to BigSur...
View attachment 1879359

I have OC 0.7.4 from Martin with modified the SMBIOS tags (the attached file)...

What can I do??

In your config.plist, you have mismatch of FirmwareFeatures in PlatformNVRAM section and SMBIOS section:



That is, the value of FirmwareFeatures in PlatformNVRAM should also be copied to FirmwareFeatures in SMBIOS.

 

[Dewdman42]

I managed to install Monterey last night following CDF guide...once I set the FirmwareFeatures, SecureBootModel and UpdateNVRAM. (And don't forget SurPlus patch)

Note that CDF's earlier post on another thread

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

The best reference for this is directly at the OC source: https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/commit/1cb8490fd60f6b5f983d42e5bbf08e3d2d43d8f6 Explicitly: bit 35 (FW_FEATURE_SUPPORTS_LARGE_BASESYSTEM) of FirmwareFeatures is required for the update. The minimal approach is to preserve the...

forums.macrumors.com

......mentioned also PlatformInfo->SMBIOS, but that is not mentioned in the first post guide here now. I added it anyway and that is what is currently in place. I'm not sure whether I could have left that out or not or should remove it now or not or what...but that is what I used....and I was able to install Monterey, no problem, totally working now, except for built in USB hub is problematic, as was the case with BigSur too, I will ask about that on another thread.

So anyway my question for @cdf is, should I get rid of the PlatformInfo->SMBIOS->FirmwareFeatures values that you mentioned in that other thread, and just go with what you put in the guide?

Second question is about the UpdateNVRAM variable if that or any of these need to be set permanently, or just in order to run the Monterey updater/installer?

 

[zentex]

Search eBay or Amazon for the little upgrade card that replaces your original wifi and Bluetooth...This is the card you want:

Much appreciated, I found everything needed between amzn & ebay.

 

[cdf]

In your config.plist, you have mismatch of FirmwareFeatures in PlatformNVRAM section and SMBIOS section:

These values are actually correct. The MacPro5,1 has a mismatch between its firmware features in NVRAM and SMBIOS. What we are doing here is preserving the original values and just adding the extra bit for Monterey.

So anyway my question for @cdf is, should I get rid of the PlatformInfo->SMBIOS->FirmwareFeatures values that you mentioned in that other thread, and just go with what you put in the guide?

For minimality, that's what I do. It turns out that the NVRAM part is sufficient for installing and updating Monterey.

Second question is about the UpdateNVRAM variable if that or any of these need to be set permanently, or just in order to run the Monterey updater/installer?

Good question. If you want, you can choose to only set UpdateNVRAM to true when installing or updating (so that the required NVRAM variables are applied), but since there's no adverse effect with the extra bit in the NVRAM variables (unlike the VMM flag), it's probably more convenient to just leave it enabled.

 

[MacNB2]

These values are actually correct. The MacPro5,1 has a mismatch between its firmware features in NVRAM and SMBIOS. What we are doing here is preserving the original values and just adding the extra bit for Monterey.

Ah Ok. Got it.
OpenCore 0.7.4 has now changed AdviseFeatures and added FW_FEATURE_SUPPORTS_LARGE_BASESYSTEM for Montrey.
The manual states "Without this bit, it is not possible to install macOS versions with large BaseSystem images, such as macOS 12". Would it better to set AdviseFeatures to TRUE and "touch" only one of firmware features values either in PlatformNVRAM or SMBIOS to avoid potential issues & confusion ?