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

[tsialex]

That would be a dream come true. That can't be achieved by any tool. I wish we had some kind of a firmware emulator thing, a virtual machine we can load the firmware into and run it like a real Mac Pro.

I'd recommend the use of Uefi Tool to check at least the checksums after injecting a DXE. The Dumper verifies checksums in the FSys Stream, but that's not touched by injecting DXEs, it's more a firmware reconstruction thing.


EnableGOP Basic check by Uefi Tool:

View attachment 2158712

Over the years I've tinkered with flashrom maps to have segmented dumps, to make it easier to create validation checksums, but it's no easy task, there are too much possible combinations of EFI/BootBlock versions.

Even if we completely ignore the NVRAM volume to make it easier, it's still probably hundreds of possible combinations. That's one of the reasons that I've always documented each BootBlock/EFI version that I've found.

 

[tsialex]

Also it identifies the GUID of the enable_gop injection DXE.

Sorry for the off topic, but since we are talking about it here already, @Bmju can you implement a way that the EnableGOP has a version, like a header field? To facilitate identifying the version of the module?

This will be important in the future.

 

[tsialex]

Also it identifies the GUID of the enable_gop injection DXE.

If you accept suggestions, the text would be better as "EnableGOP EFI module identified"

 

[Bmju]

To get an accurate dump that is not influenced by OpenCore, a native booting system is the system of choice. But not everyone has the possibility to quickly boot an old system. Or he doesn't have the compatible hardware for it.

I could tentatively (because it goes against something like received wisdom) say that I did a lot of flashing within OpenCore (and also a lot not within it), while developing this driver, and I did not have any problems at all. There is not anything in OpenCore which should affect the completely different (MMIO) way in which DirectHW.kext accesses the firmware.

 

[Bmju]

Sorry for the off topic, but since we are talking about it here already, @Bmju can you implement a way that the EnableGOP has a version, like a header field? To facilitate identifying the version of the module?

This will be important in the future.

I guess if there is a significant update, it might make sense to update the UI Section text. That said, since I'm trying to make it 'like' the existing firmware modules in this era Macs, and since it won't change often, any sort of reasonable (MD5? SHA1?) checksum should do the trick.

 

[tsialex]

I guess if there is a significant update, it might make sense to update the UI Section text. That said, since I'm trying to make it 'like' the existing firmware modules in this era Macs, and since it won't change often, any sort of reasonable (MD5? SHA1?) checksum should do the trick.

I've checked exactly this, with last week artifacts (20230203) and yesterday's final release and there are thousands of changes when comparing with hexedit. There is a way to do it that I'm not seeing?

 

[Macschrauber]

I could tentatively (because it goes against something like received wisdom) say that I did a lot of flashing within OpenCore (and also a lot not within it), while developing this driver, and I did not have any problems at all. There is not anything in OpenCore which should affect the completely different (MMIO) way in which DirectHW.kext accesses the firmware.

I, for myself, had no problems receiving dumps from OpenCore driven dumps. Of course there are some NVRAM variables in.

But as I (and Alex) receive those dumps to clean / rebuild firmwares the NVRAM content does not really count as we wipe it anyway.

I had no brick (knock on wood) rebuilding or flashing thru OpenCore driven systems. But, whenever possible I boot Mavericks to be safe.

 

[flaubert]

Yes. Since Monterey, this message appears ever so often, even on supported Macs. I’m not convinced it should be ignored, though: During the beta of 12.6.2, I saw more and more of these messages accompanied by frequent hanging until the installation became totally unusable!

As far as I know, the exact cause is unknown. One hypothesis is that user-space patching aggravates the problem. Therefore, to keep user-space patching to a minimum, I’m currently testing with NightShiftEnabler (which is sufficient for Night Shift) instead of FeatureUnlock.


I did a fresh install and moved my data over. But what you’re proposing should probably be fine, too. Just make sure to always have backups of your data!

(regarding Volume Hash Mismatch warning)

Sorry to bring this up again... I still haven't dealt with this situation. 🙄 In the "supported Macs" world I would simply boot into Recovery Mode, and choose the installer, pointing it toward my existing disk without doing a reformat first. This would write a fresh copy of the OS over the old one, leaving all my data intact. However, as far as I recall, in Recovery Mode you only get two options: install the original OS that the machine came with (Snow Leopard?), or the very latest OS supported (which it thinks is Ventura). I don't think there is an option to choose an intermediate OS (like 12.6.3).

So that leaves me with two choices, both involving running the app store installer from the Desktop; the only question is whether to do a backup - - reformat - install - migration assistant session, or a backup and install over the top of the problematic OS copy (no clean format, no migration assistant). My question is, does anyone know if the stock, full 12.6.3 installer can do an install over the top of the problematic OS copy?

 

[Dochartaigh]

I have a metal-compatible PC/Windows HP GeForce GT 630 card which I can't see the EFI boot screen on (since I assume it's flashed for PC/Windows). Since I can't see the EFI screen, I can't do my very first reboot (after having OCLP make my Big Sur bootable USB) and can't move forward with my openCore Big Sur install. ...even tried writing down the exact keystrokes so I could do it blind, but does NOT work.

I also tried installing the stock card (ALONG with the new metal card), and using that's DVI output, where I CAN then see the EFI screen, seems to brick the install too (just freezes, loading bar NEVER moves... was told the initial install HAS to be with the EXACT hardware you made the USB with)...

So I looked and seems like OCLP can do "NVIDIA Kepler GOP injection", and flash my card during the installation. Literally ZERO hits on google about how to do this... but was briefly mentioned on the Discord... but it's not working for me.

I do what was said: checked the "NVIDIA Kepler GOP injection" box, re-made the bootable USB and STILL can't see the boot selection screen (so I can't actually get this install going still)... WHEN does it actually do this injection? I assumed BEFORE the EFI window loads so I can actually see it... but seems that's not the case?

 

[h9826790]

(regarding Volume Hash Mismatch warning)

Sorry to bring this up again... I still haven't dealt with this situation. 🙄 In the "supported Macs" world I would simply boot into Recovery Mode, and choose the installer, pointing it toward my existing disk without doing a reformat first. This would write a fresh copy of the OS over the old one, leaving all my data intact. However, as far as I recall, in Recovery Mode you only get two options: install the original OS that the machine came with (Snow Leopard?), or the very latest OS supported (which it thinks is Ventura). I don't think there is an option to choose an intermediate OS (like 12.6.3).

So that leaves me with two choices, both involving running the app store installer from the Desktop; the only question is whether to do a backup - - reformat - install - migration assistant session, or a backup and install over the top of the problematic OS copy (no clean format, no migration assistant). My question is, does anyone know if the stock, full 12.6.3 installer can do an install over the top of the problematic OS copy?

Recovery partition will download and install the latest version of that generation's macOS.

e.g. If that's a Monterey recovery partition, then it will download and install 12.6.3 for you. It won't upgrade the OS to Ventura for you, and it has no function allow you to go back Snow Leopard.

 

[machineryman]

Hello all, I have installed windows 10 on my 5.1 mac pro following the guide in this thread. It works great, I have 2 isues however. There seems to be a missing driver for: brcm 2046 bluetooth usb host. As well as not being asble to get any sound from any output. I tried a realtek audio driver and can now get audio from the mac pro speaker but nowhere else. I would really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction to solve these issues.

thanks

 

[machineryman]

Hello all, I have installed windows 10 on my 5.1 mac pro following the guide in this thread. It works great, I have 2 isues however. There seems to be a missing driver for: brcm 2046 bluetooth usb host. As well as not being asble to get any sound from any output. I tried a realtek audio driver and can now get audio from the mac pro speaker but nowhere else. I would really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction to solve these issues.

thanks

gpu driver resolved the sound problem. still not sure what to do about the bluetooth usb host controller

 

[machineryman]

gpu driver resolved the sound problem. still not sure what to do about the bluetooth usb host controller

I got the driver through brigadier, bluetooth works. what a great machine. Thanks for all the info in this thread.

Is there any reason i couldnt put a modern gpu in this and run windows? Aside from the power issues of course.

 

[hwojtek]

Is there any reason i couldnt put a modern gpu in this and run windows? Aside from the power issues of course.

Not reading enough may be the reason https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/amd-radeon-rx-6800-xt-6900-xt-for-macos.2262295/post-31039294

 

[machineryman]

Not reading enough may be the reason https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/amd-radeon-rx-6800-xt-6900-xt-for-macos.2262295/post-31039294

I understand that Mac OS does not support the majority of available video cards, but what if I just ran windows? I do not have the best grasp on how the open core software works. Does open core still need a Mac driver to use a gpu to run windows or show the bootpicker or something like that? I'd appreciate just a laymen explanation.

 

[prefuse07]

I understand that Mac OS does not support the majority of available video cards, but what if I just ran windows? I do not have the best grasp on how the open core software works. Does open core still need a Mac driver to use a gpu to run windows or show the bootpicker or something like that? I'd appreciate just a laymen explanation.

No. You can install Nvidia GPUs and run Windows on the cMP (no problem, and a few people do this actually) -- the GPU just won't work as well (if at all?) when you try to come back into macOS -- this depends on which Nvidia GPU you are interested in.

Please search and read some more as this question is asked almost daily here and there are countless threads explaining in detail.

The majority of AMD cards are supported, there just is no support for more recent Nvidia cards. Look at my sig for an example of a very powerful AMD card working flawlessly in the cMP by the aid of OpenCore and Syncretic's patch (as @hwojtek linked you).

After flashing, it works without issue in any OS within my cMP, but I would not be stupid enough to install an Nvidia card and then lock myself down to Windows only within a macintosh computer -- for if I was to decide on locking myself to one OS, I would have just built a PC instead.

 

[machineryman]

thank you very much

 

[prefuse07]

thank you very much

Do note that if you are thinking of putting something like a 3090 or 4090 in your cMP to run in Windows only -- you will absolutely need to perform the Pixlas mod, otherwise you will fry your backplane.

Also, I believe the Nvidia drivers on macOS only exist for Kepler and before cards, and even then I think that would behold you to Mojave, so OpenCore is useless for this since Mojave doesn't require it.

Create a thread if you have more questions, because we are steering this thread far away from OpenCore.

edit: see tsialex's explanation below, only RTX 2xxx series work on the cMP. Crossing off what I said above, so as to not create any confusion for anyone else reading this in the future. Thanks for explaining, tsialex!

 

[tsialex]

Do note that if you are thinking of putting something like a 3090 or 4090 in your cMP to run in Windows only

Not even possible, the most recent NVIDIA GPU that can be installed with a MacPro5,1 is the RTX 2xxx series (only will work with Windows, btw).

RTX 3xxx and RTX 4xxx require UEFI 2.3.1, while MacPro5,1 is EFI v1.10. If you install a RTX 3xxx or a RTX 4xxx in a MacPro5,1, it will not even power up.

 

[startergo]

Not even possible, the most recent NVIDIA GPU that can be installed with a MacPro5,1 is the RTX 2xxx series (only will work with Windows, btw).

RTX 3xxx and RTX 4xxx require UEFI 2.3.1, while MacPro5,1 is EFI v1.10. If you install a RTX 3xxx or a RTX 4xxx in a MacPro5,1, it will not even power up.

Here is a project that can fake some services before boot time drivers are loaded https://github.com/SamuelTulach/rainbow
Maybe similar approach could be used to spoof UEFI 2.3 version @joevt?

 

[tsialex]

Here is a project that can fake some services before boot time drivers are loaded https://github.com/SamuelTulach/rainbow
Maybe similar approach could be used to spoof UEFI 2.3 version @joevt?

Spoofing is not enough, you really need to add missing HII support for RTX 3xxx/4xxx cards.

 

[startergo]

Spoofing is not enough, you really need to add missing HII support for RTX 3xxx/4xxx cards.

Maybe HII can be added to the GOP driver?

b. Edit Driver for adding HII · UEFI_Driver_HII_Win_Lab_Guide

laurie0131.gitbooks.io

 

[flang]

anyone know how far I can take a stock MacPro3,1? Monty or just Big Sur?

 

[joevt]

anyone know how far I can take a stock MacPro3,1? Monty or just Big Sur?

I currently use Monterey. Some websites don't work (egpu.io, etc.) unless I disable javascript in the Safari preferences.
I also have Ventura installed.
I'm using a NVidia GTX 680 Mac Edition.

 

[LordeOurMother]

I've successfully migrated to Monterey from Mojave using OCLP and migration assistant. My Fenvi T919 combo card and the front USB ports however no longer work. Are there any solutions to this?