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

[cdf]

After getting Catalina installed with OC, would it still boot without it? Thats the thing that confused me a little regarding step 9.

Yes. But before booting without OC, make sure to add the no_compat_check boot argument in recovery.

 

[h9826790]

OC developers are working on their own GUI Bootliquor.efi.
It is still in development and it is not in the manual from what I understand. Those of you who already tested NdkBootPicker.efi may test easily BootLiquor.efi. All you have to do is:

<key>UEFI</key>
    <dict>
        <key>ConnectDrivers</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Drivers</key>
        <array>
            <string>FwRuntimeServices.efi</string>
            <string>NTFS.efi</string>
            <string>#NdkBootPicker.efi</string>
            <string>BootLiquor.efi</string>

Of course you need to put BootLiquor.efi in the drivers folder and the "Resources" folder inside the OC folder. Generate the "Resources" folder with Pavo's OC builder
If you want to compile it from master you may need to issue this command (if you have errors compiling):

# Change the path if you installed Xcode somewhere else.
sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

View attachment 899188
After pressing spacebar I got some icons getting out of the screen. There is no secondary raw like in NDK's bootlicker:
View attachment 899190

Yeah, I am waiting for the Documents update to make sure I can use it correctly (same as NdkBootPicker 0.1.8)

I am working on something now, can't run the test at this moment. Just wonder if you can set the background colour to 0x70 to make it more "Apple Sytle"?

 

[zozomester]

My Mac Pro 5.1/Vega 64 with Opencore.

 

[Pressure]

My Mac Pro 5.1/Vega 64 with Opencore.

How did you set proper resolution in OpenCore?

 

[zozomester]

How did you set proper resolution in OpenCore?

The video includes:

 

[JeDiGM]

How did you set proper resolution in OpenCore?

I'm finding with mine that it seems to be related to the monitor Pressure. Maybe that's the case with you too?

 

[joot]

My cMP has several partitions with various OSes. It also has a RX 580. I installed OC with the help of h9826790 and his work on HW acceleration. Problem is, one of my partition has High Sierra and won't boot if I disable Lilu/WhateverGreen for this OS in my config. If I don't disable it, then High Sierra boots but HW is activated and if an app uses it, it crashes the system.
I read that WhateverGreen has a "don't activate HW acceleration" boot argument. Which could be a solution to my problem. Is there a way to add this boot argument only for when I boot High Sierra? Can that be done in the config.plist?

Do you have a solution for this issue? I have the same issue as you. I have High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina. I can select boot option using Open Core. However, High Sierra will NOT boot. Mojave and Catalina boots fines.

 

[eksu]

Verifying Mac board-id... NOT OK. Board id length is not compatible. Expected 12 or 20 characters. Board id:Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94

I imagine that the way to get Handoff working with OpenCore / Hardware Acceleration is going to be the following command:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"

I'm going to try this out, as this single command usually does it for me in Mojave except with the board ID of Mac-F221BEC8. I should add that I've upgraded my card to an BCM943602CDP, which I believe is from a 2015 iMac.

EDIT: seems to me this didn't insert anything into the plist, because that Mac was not yet an entry in it. I'll look around at some other options.

EDIT #2: I airdropped a photo from my iPhone to my Mac Pro, and after 20 minutes or it came through and Handoff now just works. Didn't have to make any changes. I guess it 'just works' with BCM943602CDP.

 

[JeDiGM]

I imagine that the way to get Handoff working with OpenCore / Hardware Acceleration is going to be the following command:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-7BA5B2D9E42DDD94:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"

I'm going to try this out, as this single command usually does it for me in Mojave except with the board ID of Mac-F221BEC8. I should add that I've upgraded my card to an BCM943602CDP, which I believe is from a 2015 iMac.

EDIT: seems to me this didn't insert anything into the plist, because that Mac was not yet an entry in it. I'll look around at some other options.

EDIT #2: I airdropped a photo from my iPhone to my Mac Pro, and after 20 minutes or it came through and Handoff now just works. Didn't have to make any changes. I guess it 'just works' with BCM943602CDP.

I'm using a bcm4360cd broadcom of some sort. VID 0x05AC PID 0x828D. Airdrop I think is working but I haven't tried transferring a file yet. Will try that. Thanks for your feedback eksu.

EDIT: No joy. Which config are you using with Opencore?

 

[eksu]

I'm using the 'easy install package' from here.

I have found with handoff, you always have to airdrop a file or something to get it started, and that on a fresh install or after configuring it can take some minutes before it starts working.

If you are not changing your smbios / board id, then it should be the following:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-F221BEC8:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"

I'm not sure if anything else is needed for your card vs mine. Sorry.

 

[Nick_P]

Has anyone gotten Win10 to install, with h9826790's YouTube EFI link? I have open core 0.5.6 working, bootmenu, 10.14, 10.15, gpu hardware acceleration, nvme as internal, etc. Also turned VMM back off, and SMPIOS back on. In other words, all seems ok.

When I put in my Win10 flash drive on the USB2 OEM ports, I get the BOOTCAMP Windows (external) option on the bootpicker.

I proceed through the installation, delete all the patitions for my Win installation until its all unallocated space, hit next on that, and then get the error: "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation".

I did have win 10 on this machine running before trying open core using the DVD install method. (ALL drives have since been wiped clean).

Everything is on its own drive. SSD1 is open core only. SSD2 is 10.14. SSD3 is Win10. NVMe is 10.15. I also tried pulling out all the MacOS drives, that did not help.

Thanks.

Edit: PS, the bootcamp option showing up on the bootmenu seems very picky. I think it only shows up if I boot into one of the MacOS systems, so it is mounted on my desktop, and then reboot.

 

[h9826790]

Has anyone gotten Win10 to install, with h9826790's YouTube EFI link? I have open core 0.5.6 working, bootmenu, 10.14, 10.15, gpu hardware acceleration, nvme as internal, etc. Also turned VMM back off, and SMPIOS back on. In other words, all seems ok.

When I put in my Win10 flash drive on the USB2 OEM ports, I get the BOOTCAMP Windows (external) option on the bootpicker.

I proceed through the installation, delete all the patitions for my Win installation until its all unallocated space, hit next on that, and then get the error: "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation".

I did have win 10 on this machine running before trying open core using the DVD install method. (ALL drives have since been wiped clean).

Everything is on its own drive. SSD1 is open core only. SSD2 is 10.14. SSD3 is Win10. NVMe is 10.15. I also tried pulling out all the MacOS drives, that did not help.

Thanks.

Edit: PS, the bootcamp option showing up on the bootmenu seems very picky. I think it only shows up if I boot into one of the MacOS systems, so it is mounted on my desktop, and then reboot.

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

Here's a quick write-up of the process I took to get OpenCore (OC) booting macOS and Windows in UEFI mode on the MacPro5,1. I don't recommend doing this right now. There's something flakey in either OC, my configuration of OC, or Windows itself which will eventually result in your Windows...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[jameslmoser]

Has anyone gotten Win10 to install, with h9826790's YouTube EFI link? I have open core 0.5.6 working, bootmenu, 10.14, 10.15, gpu hardware acceleration, nvme as internal, etc. Also turned VMM back off, and SMPIOS back on. In other words, all seems ok.

When I put in my Win10 flash drive on the USB2 OEM ports, I get the BOOTCAMP Windows (external) option on the bootpicker.

I proceed through the installation, delete all the patitions for my Win installation until its all unallocated space, hit next on that, and then get the error: "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation".

I did have win 10 on this machine running before trying open core using the DVD install method. (ALL drives have since been wiped clean).

Everything is on its own drive. SSD1 is open core only. SSD2 is 10.14. SSD3 is Win10. NVMe is 10.15. I also tried pulling out all the MacOS drives, that did not help.

Thanks.

Edit: PS, the bootcamp option showing up on the bootmenu seems very picky. I think it only shows up if I boot into one of the MacOS systems, so it is mounted on my desktop, and then reboot.

I removed all drives except for the one that I intended on installing two, then used two usb thumb drives. I put windows installer on one, and my OC EFI partition on the other.

When I booted I always held down the option key to get the apple boot picker (used a Mac EFI video card). Choose the thumb drive with opencore to boot into OC boot menu, then picked the windows bootcamp external to install. When you get to the point of partitioning, pull out the USB drive with OpenCore on it, but after it gets past that part (copying files, etc) put the drive back in. Every time windows setup reboots I held down the option key and made sure I booted through OpenCore and then to windows.

Once it was all installed I just put all my original drives back in including the one with the OC, then in recovery I blessed it again and everything just worked.

I would like to find a way to make sure I boot windows through opencore to make sure it never writes a secure boot cert to my system... but I haven't really got that far yet. I am using the RequestBootVarFallback option to prevent windows from changing the boot priority and booting directly.

 

[h9826790]

Quite like the combination of OpenCore 0.5.7 beta and NdkBootPicker 0.1.8 beta.

All bootable volumes' name will show up by default, and no more "Bootcamp", but just Windows.

 

[pierrox]

Do you have a solution for this issue? I have the same issue as you. I have High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina. I can select boot option using Open Core. However, High Sierra will NOT boot. Mojave and Catalina boots fines.

Have a read in this thread:

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

I played a bit with the various Displayports of the GPU to no luck, swapping, using only one, all combinations I could think of. Didn't make a difference. I changed min Kernel to 17.0.0 (High Sierra) and I was able to boot into my High Sierra partition! Of course I couldn't help but try...

forums.macrumors.com

Basically, I allowed OC to load the kexts that will provide HW for High Sierra. It works fine except if I boot an app that's going to use HW since the system can't deal with it.

 

[Dayo]

... no more "Bootcamp", but just Windows.

From the commits, this is a change made in OC and independent of the External BootPicker:

OcBootManagementLib: Rename BOOTCAMP Windows to Windows · acidanthera/OpenCorePkg@eceb36f

OpenCore bootloader. Contribute to acidanthera/OpenCorePkg development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[joot]

Have a read in this thread:

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

I played a bit with the various Displayports of the GPU to no luck, swapping, using only one, all combinations I could think of. Didn't make a difference. I changed min Kernel to 17.0.0 (High Sierra) and I was able to boot into my High Sierra partition! Of course I couldn't help but try...

forums.macrumors.com

Basically, I allowed OC to load the kexts that will provide HW for High Sierra. It works fine except if I boot an app that's going to use HW since the system can't deal with it.

So basically, HS is useless at the moment if running an app crashes the computer...

 

[h9826790]

From the commits, this is a change made in OC and independent of the External BootPicker:

OcBootManagementLib: Rename BOOTCAMP Windows to Windows · acidanthera/OpenCorePkg@eceb36f

OpenCore bootloader. Contribute to acidanthera/OpenCorePkg development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Thanks, I've read that before, and this is why I emphasised the OC version is 0.5.7 beta.

 

[h9826790]

So basically, HS is useless at the moment if running an app crashes the computer...

I really can't think about any simply solution yet.

I tried boot another OC (on disk 2) copy inside the OC boot picker (on disk 1). It still use the config.plist that from disk 1.

I am not 100% sure if I did that test right, but I can't spot what I did wrong.

What I want to test is "install 2 copies of OpenCore", first one on the Mojave drive (default boot drive), which has a config.plist that good for Mojave (or later, with HWAccel activated by using board-id injection). And install another copy of OpenCore onto the High Sierra drive, with a config.plist that good for HS (or earlier, without any kext injection or SMBIOS spoofing).

So, when we want to boot HS, we select "EFI" in the OC boot picker, which will boot another OC with its own config.plist that is good for HS, then further select HS inside that boot picker.

I only spent about 5min to try it once, not working yet.

I believe this is the best work around if we need multiple config for different usage (rather than have few config.plist ready, and install the one that we need for next boot), because we can practically select which config to use at boot. And we can easily identify which config is loaded by using different background colour (or wallpaper) in the boot picker.

It's nothing more than an idea at this moment, but you guys may go this direction if there is no better option.

Also, if boot from OC (config 1) to OC (config 2) won't help, we may also try OC (config 1) -> NextLoader (or reEFInd) -> OC (config 2). It sounds complicated, but if setup correctly, and can work, then we only need to press few keys at boot (or even select what we need by mouse) in the boot picker to run any OSX / macOS we need flawlessly.

 

[joot]

I really can't think about any simply solution yet.

I tried boot another OC (on disk 2) copy inside the OC boot picker (on disk 1). It still use the config.plist that from disk 1.

I am not 100% sure if I did that test right, but I can't spot what I did wrong.

What I want to test is "install 2 copies of OpenCore", first one on the Mojave drive (default boot drive), which has a config.plist that good for Mojave (or later, with HWAccel activated by using board-id injection). And install another copy of OpenCore onto the High Sierra drive, with a config.plist that good for HS (or earlier, without any kext injection or SMBIOS spoofing).

So, when we want to boot HS, we select "EFI" in the OC boot picker, which will boot another OC with its own config.plist that is good for HS, then further select HS inside that boot picker.

I only spent about 5min to try it once, not working yet.

I believe this is the best work around if we need multiple config for different usage (rather than have few config.plist ready, and install the one that we need for next boot), because we can practically select which config to use at boot. And we can easily identify which config is loaded by using different background colour (or wallpaper) in the boot picker.

It's nothing more than an idea at this moment, but you guys may go this direction if there is no better option.

Also, if boot from OC (config 1) to OC (config 2) won't help, we may also try OC (config 1) -> NextLoader (or reEFInd) -> OC (config 2). It sounds complicated, but if setup correctly, and can work, then we only need to press few keys at boot (or even select what we need by mouse) in the boot picker to run any OSX / macOS we need flawlessly.

This is an excellent idea. Thanks for your time and experiments. I need HS for Premiere Pro.

 

[jameslmoser]

This is an excellent idea. Thanks for your time and experiments. I need HS for Premiere Pro.

It would be awesome if there were a set of options we could choose from in the boot menu... that way we could turn on/off things for like when we wanted to update catalina.

 

[startergo]

So, when we want to boot HS, we select "EFI" in the OC boot picker, which will boot another OC with its own config.plist that is good for HS, then further select HS inside that boot picker.

There might be another way, but it requires probably EFI GPU:

BootKicker* Enter Apple BootPicker menu (exclusive for Macs with compatible GPUs).

BootKicker needs to be copied to tools menu and may be invoked from the OC menu. Supposedly it should "kick" you back to the Apple boot picker and you can boot HS normally. Needs to be tested.
Also OpenCanopy (formerly BootLiquor) is in the manual:

11.4 OpenCanopy
OpenCanopy is a graphical OpenCore user interface that runs in External PickerMode and relies on OpenCorePkg
OcBootManagementLib similar to the builtin text interface.
OpenCanopy requires graphical resources located in Resources directory to run. Sample resources (fonts and images)
can be found in OcBinaryData repository.
Note: OpenCanopy is currently considered experimental and is not recommended for everyday use. Refer to acidanthera/
bugtracker#759 for more details regarding the current limitations.

 

[pierrox]

So basically, HS is useless at the moment if running an app crashes the computer...

Not necessarily since Hardware Acceleration doesn't exist in 10.12 and probably didn't exist with your version of Premiere (it's using the GPU, not necessarily the Hardware Acceleration provided by it). Worth a try before dissing it as a useless solution.

 

[Dayo]

Also, if boot from OC (config 1) to OC (config 2) won't help, we may also try OC (config 1) -> NextLoader (or reEFInd) -> OC (config 2). It sounds complicated, but if setup correctly, and can work, then we only need to press few keys at boot (or even select what we need by mouse) in the boot picker to run any OSX / macOS we need flawlessly.

My default setup is to chainload OC from Refind and have one observation that might be a problem with your chain for someone that wants HWAccel as an option.

Basically, I can get Refind to present me with different OC options but HWAccel only works when booting directly from OC. I.E., when chainloaded from Refind, it will boot up just fine and run OK but without HWAccel (all other features run fine).

I suspect the reason is that the patches (as different to Kext Injection) applied in the HWAccel config file are skipped with this arrangement. Perhaps they are applied early in the bootup process and that by the time OC is booted from Refind, it is too late to apply these.

Assuming:

1. OC (Config 1) -> Standard Config
2. OC (Config 2) -> HWAccel Config

Scenarios:

• OC (Config 1) -> rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 2) would fail because HWAccel would not work in the rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 2) part
• OC (Config 2) -> rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 1) would likely fail because HWAccel config actions from OC (Config 2) would propagate to boot

I'm on a cMP 3,1 and my rEFIt Variant is Refind as modified to work by @DearthnVader but I believe this doesn't quite work for cMP 4,1 / 5,1. Next Loader on the other hand, which apparently works on cMP 4,1/5,1, seems not compatible with cMP 3,1 from the requirements listed but perhaps someone could test it on a cMP 4,1 / 5,1 as it might behave differently to Refind. Unlikely but needs confirmation.

EDIT: 2020-04-03
@h9826790
@joot

Correction/Update:

• OC (Config 1) -> rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 2) would work as long as the rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 2) part triggers EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi and not EFI/OC/OpenCore.efi.

I have managed to get a setup that boots into Refind. This then gives me two OC variants I can chainload into. One with HWAccel and the other without.

I believe the reason the HWAccel did not work when chainloading from Refind before was that I had the setup Refind to boot the "Basic" OC using EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi (I considered this my default) and the "HWAccel" OC using EFI/OC_Accel/OpenCore.efi.

The "HWAccel" OC booted from an "OC_Accel" folder booted just fine but without HWAccel.

Swapping the folders as below so that the "HWAccel" OC sat in EFI/OC and booted from Refind with the standard EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi while putting the "Basic" OC into an "OC_Basic" folder and booting from EFI/OC_Basic/OpenCore.efi resolves the issue.

FOLDER STRUCTURE:
DISK

|--EFI​

|--BOOT​

|--OC - Contains OC with HWAccel Config Setup​

|--OC_BASIC - Contains OC with Standard Config Setup​

|--Refind - Set up using manual stanzas to show both OC Options​

"OpenCore Basic" Maunal Stanza loads /EFI/OC_BASIC/OpenCore.efi (Default)​

"OpenCore Accel" Maunal Stanza loads /EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi​

I have 4 secs to override default and choose "OpenCore Accel" if required otherwise will chainload "OpenCore Basic"​

 

[h9826790]

It would be awesome if there were a set of options we could choose from in the boot menu... that way we could turn on/off things for like when we wanted to update catalina.

May be submit a request to the OC developer team?

I believe it should be relatively simple to programme that allow for rebooting with another config in the boot picker. It's 100% controlled by them, no need to reverse engineer anything from macOS.

My default setup is to chainload OC from Refind and have one observation that might be a problem with your chain for someone that wants HWAccel as an option.

Basically, I can get Refind to present me with different OC options but HWAccel only works when booting directly from OC. I.E., when chainloaded from Refind, it will boot up just fine and run OK but without HWAccel (all other features run fine).

I suspect the reason is that the patches (as different to Kext Injection) applied in the HWAccel config file are skipped with this arrangement. Perhaps they are applied early in the bootup process and that by the time OC is booted from Refind, it is too late to apply these.

Assuming:

1. OC (Config 1) -> Standard Config
2. OC (Config 2) -> HWAccel Config

Scenarios:

• OC (Config 1) -> rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 2) would fail because HWAccel would not work in the rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 2) part
• OC (Config 2) -> rEFIt Variant -> OC (Config 1) would likely fail because HWAccel config actions from OC (Config 2) would propagate to boot

I'm on a cMP 3,1 and my rEFIt Variant is Refind as modified to work by @DearthnVader but I believe this doesn't quite work for cMP 4,1 / 5,1. Next Loader on the other hand, which apparently works on cMP 4,1/5,1, seems not compatible with cMP 3,1 from the requirements listed but perhaps someone could test it on a cMP 4,1 / 5,1 as it might behave differently to Refind. Unlikely but needs confirmation.

If this is the case, then we may have a solution.

1) When we want boot Mojave of above - boot OpenCore config 2 (the default config to boot which provide HWAccel) -> further boot Mojave / Catalina from OC boot picker.

2) When we want to boot HS or earlier - boot OpenCore config 2 -> rEFInd -> further boot HS / Sierra (HWAccel will be disabled)