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MP 1,1-5,1 Manually Configured OpenCore on the Mac Pro
- Thread starter cdf
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There are different ways to go about your upgrade. But the most important thing is to make sure that Windows doesn't try to boot without OpenCore. Therefore, the first thing to do is to remove the Windows disk. The rest of the procedure goes something like this: Set RequestBootVarRouting to false and reboot. Then, select the Mojave disk in Startup Disk and reboot again. In Mojave, confirm that you are booted natively (without OpenCore), delete OpenCore after making a copy of the files (the files should be on the EFI partition of the Catalina disk if you followed the guide), copy the Mojave and Catalina installations over to the new disks (Carbon Copy Cloner certainly makes this task easy) and copy the OpenCore files to the EFI partition of the new Catalina disk. Next, use recovery to rebless OpenCore (see the guide). Finally, after making sure that you are really booting through OpenCore again put your Windows disk back.
Thank you very much! I'll try it on the weekend!
I have another small question to ask you: today I had to delete OC and reinstall it but a strange thing happened ... in practice when I mounted (through the Terminal) the EFI volume (on Catalina SSD, disk0s1), when I opened the volume to copy the OpenCore EFI folder, it was completely empty! Previously I have always found an EFI folder with an Apple folder inside, and EFI. I reset the NVRAM, the SMC and SIP but nothing .... always empty! Why do you think?
The disk identifier can change from one boot to the next. I suspect that you actually mounted the EFI volume of another disk.
MaikPfaffenrath created a tool for easy swapping OC's config
forums.macrumors.com
If anyone have time and skill, please check it out and see if you can help for further development (e.g. provide options for multiple drives system)
Activate AMD hardware acceleration
I wrote a little script in order to change my OpenCore configuration between h9826790s config for hardware acceleration (from Post 1314) and cdfs config for macOS updates (from the OpenCore on the Mac Pro thread). The script just mounts the EFI partition and copy one of two config.plist files...
forums.macrumors.com
If anyone have time and skill, please check it out and see if you can help for further development (e.g. provide options for multiple drives system)
I use a HighPoint SSD7101A PCIe x16 to quad M.2 adapter with two Samsung 970 PRO NVMe drives installed (Catalina and Mojave respectively), OpenCore has been installed to EFI partition of Catalina drive exactly by this guide, and everything works perfectly.
Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone both Mojave and Catalina to the respective NVME drives. CCC will make them bootable. I'd suggest doing the cloning from Catalina since it has the protected system partition. You don't specify which drive has the OC EFI, but I assume it is on either SATA1 or 2. Power down, pull SATA2 and install your first video archive drive. On reboot reset your NVRAM so that Mojave boots from SATA1. Reinstall your implementation of OC on that drive's EFI (or alternatively you could put it on a removable USB). Power down, and pull SATA1 and install your other video archive drive. On reboot you should have your OC picker with Mojave & Catalina from your NVME rail.
Thanks! It's reassuring!
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Thanks! I will try to follow these steps!
I keep opencore EFI partition in a usb flash drive (only to boot, the OSs are in other internal drivers - NVMe, ssd, HDD). So when I need to boot from pure Mojave, I remove it.
IMHO this is way much better than keep it on a HDD/ssd.
I even may change the usb thumb drive in order to boot on a different opencore config, like when I want to update Catalina. No need to mount Efi and edit (or drag an drop) config.list twice every time I need to do that.
IMHO this is way much better than keep it on a HDD/ssd.
I even may change the usb thumb drive in order to boot on a different opencore config, like when I want to update Catalina. No need to mount Efi and edit (or drag an drop) config.list twice every time I need to do that.
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Not me. I never use Mojave, unless there is an issue and I have to do an NVRAM reset. I prefer the stability of a SSD, vs an USB drive.
A Cautionary Tale
I have been using OpenCore 0.5.8 and OpenCanopy with my Nehalem processor W3530 and High Sierra 10.13.6 on my MacPro 5,1 with Boot ROM Version: 144.0.0.0.0. I have used CDF's basic config.plist and HW acceleration config.plist.
I just upgraded my CPU from the Nehelam W3530 to Westmere X5677 in order to be able to use Catalina with OpenCore.
In the process of trying to install Catalina to a new hard drive I encountered the odd error message seen below.
"Your Mac needs a firmware update in order to install to this volume. Please select a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume instead."
My Boot ROM Version is the latest so I was puzzled. Then I realized that I was using the OpenCore config file that was set up for Hardware Acceleration. I checked my config | PlatformInfo | SMBIOS | BoardProduct identifier string and removed the Board Product number used for hardware acceleration.
I rebooted and tried the Catalina installation again and the error message was gone. The BoardProduct identifier spoof was responsible for the error message. Perhaps there is a BoardProduct identifier string that will not trigger this error but is still works to enable Hardware Acceleration.
I concluded that it is best to use CDF's Basic Installation config.plist when making OS installations or changes.
Does anyone know of an identifier which will not trigger this error yet enable HW acceleration?
I have been using OpenCore 0.5.8 and OpenCanopy with my Nehalem processor W3530 and High Sierra 10.13.6 on my MacPro 5,1 with Boot ROM Version: 144.0.0.0.0. I have used CDF's basic config.plist and HW acceleration config.plist.
I just upgraded my CPU from the Nehelam W3530 to Westmere X5677 in order to be able to use Catalina with OpenCore.
In the process of trying to install Catalina to a new hard drive I encountered the odd error message seen below.
"Your Mac needs a firmware update in order to install to this volume. Please select a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume instead."
My Boot ROM Version is the latest so I was puzzled. Then I realized that I was using the OpenCore config file that was set up for Hardware Acceleration. I checked my config | PlatformInfo | SMBIOS | BoardProduct identifier string and removed the Board Product number used for hardware acceleration.
I rebooted and tried the Catalina installation again and the error message was gone. The BoardProduct identifier spoof was responsible for the error message. Perhaps there is a BoardProduct identifier string that will not trigger this error but is still works to enable Hardware Acceleration.
I concluded that it is best to use CDF's Basic Installation config.plist when making OS installations or changes.
Does anyone know of an identifier which will not trigger this error yet enable HW acceleration?
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This was already known. When you fake the iMacPro product ID, it thinks you need to update your firmware because of it when you try to do an OS update. Just change it so you are not updating the smbios when you change your cpu flags when you are doing an OS update. You don't have to remove the identifier from your config file. Change:
Code:
<key>UpdateSMBIOS</key>
<true/>to:
Code:
<key>UpdateSMBIOS</key>
<false/>when you change:
Code:
<key>Cpuid1Mask</key>
<data>AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==</data>to
Code:
<key>Cpuid1Mask</key>
<data>AAAAAAAAAAAAAACAAAAAAA==</data>Then change them both back after the update.
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Okay, I enabled today OpenCanopy with BootPiker disabled. The Apple Magic Keyboard works but not the Magic Mouse 2. Also, external drives connected through USB are not showing. I added the OcBinaryData, OpenCanopy uses OC built-in USB keyboard and mouse drivers. A regular USB wired mouse works fine, anyone else has issues with a Bluetooth mouse?
Sorry for terrible pictures taken at night on my iPhone X, this is a 4K screen and OpenCanopy is just beautiful. The interface experience is much better, compared to NdkBootPicker.
Sorry for terrible pictures taken at night on my iPhone X, this is a 4K screen and OpenCanopy is just beautiful. The interface experience is much better, compared to NdkBootPicker.
But then how is it possible that it still works!?
Yet I have always first verified with diskutil list from Terminal (as described in your guide) and also with Clover Configurator.
But at this point, since I would like to delete OC and reinstall correctly, how do I understand which EFI partition of which drive is OC in?
Thanks in advance!
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Could you describe the steps to activate OpenCanopy?
Did you still install OC 0.5.8 and the config.plist attached to the guide of post # 1?
Thanks in advance!
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UEFI booting does not depend on knowing ID of EFI Partition. In simplistic terms, it will boot up using the first valid application it finds in any EFI partition.
By knowing which disk you installed it on and checking the current ID of the EFI partition on that disk in terminal if you need to mount it.
You basically need to stop thinking of EFI partition in terms of your typical file system volume.
Btw, if you are struggling with the concept, you can create a volume and install to this. Just make a "EFI" folder there such that you have /Volumes/WHATEVER_NAME_YOU_CHOOSE/EFI/OC etc.
This will also work but these are designed for EFI partitions.
If you are installing from Catalina and disable board spoofing, you'll also have to make sure to have the -no_compat_check boot argument to actually boot into Catalina in the first place. I haven't tried such an installation, but it might be enough to keep the spoofing and just turn on the VMM flag to disable the firmware update message.
Since enabling the revised OC config.plist for HW acceleration using the DeviceProperties for the GPU (in my case a Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX580 8GB) rather than the boot-args method, I have lost HEVC HW acceleration as per the attached. I eliminated the RadeonBoost.kext (ineffective for the RX580 in any case) and NightShift kext (which apparently my display won't support, a 40" Samsung 4k TV). Same result. I had full HW acceleration using the boot-args method. Any insight?
Device properties enable all the same fixes as the boot arguments, so there must be a slip in your config. Double check rebuild-device-tree and BoardProduct and make sure that UpdateSMBIOS is set to true.
There are a few discrepancies between your configuration and the sample with hardware acceleration. I would just use the sample and enable hardware acceleration by following the guide. Once that works add any other customizations.
I followed the extremely easy steps into documentation. You need to understand OpenCanopy is still experimental, for example, there is no automated timeout for drive selection, but I don't mind because I have the ShowPicker set to False. I personally use Appple's Python plistlib library to dynamically generate my custom configuration, here it is what my misc dictionary looks like:
Code:
misc = {
'BlessOverride': [],
'Boot': {
'ConsoleAttributes': 0,
'HibernateMode': 'None',
'HideAuxiliary': True,
'HideSelf': True,
'PickerAttributes': 1,
'PickerAudioAssist': False,
'PickerMode': 'External',
'PollAppleHotKeys': True,
'ShowPicker': False,
'TakeoffDelay': 0,
'Timeout': 10
},To quote @cdf: "Each user's configuration eventually becomes very specific to their system." I've personally chosen to learn everything so I can configure my system the way I like and also make use of new features while actually understanding what they do.
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Hmm... I might have to try that again. The last time I just changed the cpu flag it still gave me the firmware update required message.