MP 1,1-5,1 MP5,1: Boot screens/UGA/GOP/HEVC GPU support and GPU SMC problems discussion

[LightBulbFun]

What?????! How did you manage to put non-emulated Win10 on Xserve 3,1? I've read all over the place that the bootrom doesn't have EFI support for windows hence the need for an emulator. I'd like to try this as well.

it was actually relatively simple in the fact that

despite what people say every intel mac can EFI boot windows but there is 1 thing, the older Mac EFI implantations lack some sort of EFI display protocol that the windows Boot loader uses so if you try and boot windows in EFI mode on those older macs it will look like the Boot picker has simply frozen

but what people dont know is the fact windows is still booting but just without any picture, so if you take a windows EFI install set it up enable screen sharing/remote desktop you can EFI boot windows on a lot of macs, including Xserve3,1 (I have also EFI booted windows 10 on a MP1,1-2,1 MB2,1 and MBP3,1 this way I have also Booted Windows 10 in EFI mode my Mid 2009 MB5,2 but that is one of the later macs that will work with the windows 10 boot loader properly and display a picture)

then what you can do is install a modern video card and then install the drivers for that card and boot blind and with any luck once the drivers kick in the connected monitor will light-up with the windows login screen exactly like booting OS X with a PC video card, I recommend pulling any Older NVIDIA Tesla architecture based EFI video card as the drivers for those dont play ball with Windows in EFI mode on any Mac. (in my above windows screen shot i had the GT 120 disabled in device manager)

this is one of the reasons I wanted to get an Xserve3,1 as i knew i should be able to do this and boot windows 10 (sadly windows 10 BSODs on my Xserve1,1 during the boot processes and I dont know what on as of course im booting without any picture effectively)

(the interesting this is for macs from about mid 2009 onwards apple updated the EFI so the protocol the windows 10 boot loader calls upon is there and on those macs you get a picture in windows before the display drivers kick in, im curious if the MP4,1 B08 and XS3,1 B09 firmwares incorporate those changes.)



speaking of Xserve I just finished upgrading the CPUs in mine using the Dual X5570s I pulled out of my MP4,1-5,1 when I upgraded that to Dual X5677s

(for those wondering 5GTs PCIe 2.0 is enabled by the NVIDIA drivers for the GT 740 Mojave was installed using @dosdude1 awesome utility )

 

[XserveJunkie]

it was actually relatively simple in the fact that

despite what people say every intel mac can EFI boot windows but there is 1 thing, the older Mac EFI implantations lack some sort of EFI display protocol that the windows Boot loader uses so if you try and boot windows in EFI mode on those older macs it will look like the Boot picker has simply frozen

but what people dont know is the fact windows is still booting but just without any picture, so if you take a windows EFI install set it up enable screen sharing/remote desktop you can EFI boot windows on a lot of macs, including Xserve3,1 (I have also EFI booted windows 10 on a MP1,1-2,1 MB2,1 and MBP3,1 this way I have also Booted Windows 10 in EFI mode my Mid 2009 MB5,2 but that is one of the later macs that will work with the windows 10 boot loader properly and display a picture)

then what you can do is install a modern video card and then install the drivers for that card and boot blind and with any luck once the drivers kick in the connected monitor will light-up with the windows login screen exactly like booting OS X with a PC video card, I recommend pulling any Older NVIDIA Tesla architecture based EFI video card as the drivers for those dont play ball with Windows in EFI mode on any Mac. (in my above windows screen shot i had the GT 120 disabled in device manager)

this is one of the reasons I wanted to get an Xserve3,1 as i knew i should be able to do this and boot windows 10 (sadly windows 10 BSODs on my Xserve1,1 during the boot processes and I dont know what on as of course im booting without any picture effectively)

(the interesting this is for macs from about mid 2009 onwards apple updated the EFI so the protocol the windows 10 boot loader calls upon is there and on those macs you get a picture in windows before the display drivers kick in, im curious if the MP4,1 B08 and XS3,1 B09 firmwares incorporate those changes.)



speaking of Xserve I just finished upgrading the CPUs in mine using the Dual X5570s I pulled out of my MP4,1-5,1 when I upgraded that to Dual X5677s

View attachment 807212

View attachment 807213

(for those wondering 5GTs PCIe 2.0 is enabled by the NVIDIA drivers for the GT 740 Mojave was installed using @dosdude1 awesome utility )

That’s amazing man! It wasn’t until after I acquired my XServe 3,1 that I read windows wasn’t supported so I never bothered to try.

So if Apple included the EFI display protocol in this machine in 2009 as you’ve mentioned, that would mean Windows EFI 8.1 should be able to boot-in theory.

I do have a ATI Radeon 5870 pulled from a 2010 Mac Pro laying around that actually does work on the Xserve 3,1. So I’ll use that. I also read that the internal MXM graphics slot in the XServe 3,1 is restricted in what card we can use and to 2 PCIE lanes as opposed to Xserve 2,1’s 4 lanes.

Did you need to prepare the install media with bootcamp before installing Windows 10 on the Xserve? I had to set up my Windows 8.1 usb stick with Bootcamp in order for it to work/install on my 2010 Mac Pro.

This is great. I no longer regret having the Xserve and this means with Windows, I’ve added at least 10 more years out of this machine. Thanks!

 

[LightBulbFun]

That’s amazing man! It wasn’t until after I acquired my XServe 3,1 that I read windows wasn’t supported so I never bothered to try.

So if Apple included the EFI display protocol in this machine in 2009 as you’ve mentioned, that would mean Windows EFI 8.1 should be able to boot-in theory.

I do have a ATI Radeon 5870 pulled from a 2010 Mac Pro laying around that actually does work on the Xserve 3,1. So I’ll use that. I also read that the internal MXM graphics slot in the XServe 3,1 is restricted in what card we can use and to 2 PCIE lanes as opposed to Xserve 2,1’s 4 lanes.

Did you need to prepare the install media with bootcamp before installing Windows 10 on the Xserve? I had to set up my Windows 8.1 usb stick with Bootcamp in order for it to work/install on my 2010 Mac Pro.

This is great. I no longer regret having the Xserve and this means with Windows, I’ve added at least 10 more years out of this machine. Thanks!

no sadly the Xserve3,1 does NOT have this display protocol the windows boot loader calls on, so you end up booting blind, until the display drivers kick in or if your running with no display drivers, you screen share in.

the change came in mid 2009 or so (my Mid 2009 MB5,2 will show the windows 10 pre display driver environment but interestingly my MB5,2 has a BootROM 1 version newer then whats available publicly its on B06 where as the last public MB5,2 BootROM update is B05 it would be interesting to know if anyone with a MB5,2 on B05 can EFI boot windows 10 and if they get a picture or if it just gets "stuck" at the boot picker)

I am however curious if the B09 BootROM for the XS3,1 that late XS3,1s shipped with changes this. thankfully @DNComputers provided a BootROM dump of one of his 2011 build XS3,1s which have the B09 BootROM so ill be sanitising his dump inserting my XS3,1s SSN SON etc and giving it a test

as for how i made the media, in this specific case I made a windows to go install using rufus on a USB HDD, however any pre-existing windows EFI install can be used (the SAS controller does work in windows )

the main thing is you have to setup windows before hand on another machine so you can enable screen sharing. (and get through the initial account creation etc)

 

[XserveJunkie]

no sadly the Xserve3,1 does NOT have this display protocol the windows boot loader calls on, so you end up booting blind, until the display drivers kick in or if your running with no display drivers, you screen share in.

the change came in mid 2009 or so (my Mid 2009 MB5,2 will show the windows 10 pre display driver environment but interestingly my MB5,2 has a BootROM 1 version newer then whats available publicly its on B06 where as the last public MB5,2 BootROM update is B05 it would be interesting to know if anyone with a MB5,2 on B05 can EFI boot windows 10 and if they get a picture or if it just gets "stuck" at the boot picker)

I am however curious if the B09 BootROM for the XS3,1 that late XS3,1s shipped with changes this. thankfully @DNComputers provided a BootROM dump of one of his 2011 build XS3,1s which have the B09 BootROM so ill be sanitising his dump inserting my XS3,1s SSN SON etc and giving it a test

as for how i made the media, in this specific case I made a windows to go install using rufus on a USB HDD, however any pre-existing windows EFI install can be used (the SAS controller does work in windows )

the main thing is you have to setup windows before hand on another machine so you can enable screen sharing. (and get through the initial account creation etc)

Ah ok. I can definitely install Windows on my 2010 Mac Pro and start from there for the Xserve 3,1. This was exactly what happened when I tried installing Windows 8.1 on my Mac Pro with a PC graphics adapter-no video output. I had to go back to the original stock graphics adapter, and then set up VNC before I could install the PC graphics adapter-Nvidia GTX 970. Of course no bootpicker with the PC graphics adapter.

Now are you're saying that the Xserve 3,1 had another EFI revision during its reign in 2009? There was a Xserve 3,1 replacement mainboard on eBay stamped with year 2010 and one other auction stamped 2011 on the mainboard sticker. They must've cut production right after that board was made. If I remember correctly, my Xserve is also B09.

 

[XserveJunkie]

it was actually relatively simple in the fact that

despite what people say every intel mac can EFI boot windows but there is 1 thing, the older Mac EFI implantations lack some sort of EFI display protocol that the windows Boot loader uses so if you try and boot windows in EFI mode on those older macs it will look like the Boot picker has simply frozen

but what people dont know is the fact windows is still booting but just without any picture, so if you take a windows EFI install set it up enable screen sharing/remote desktop you can EFI boot windows on a lot of macs, including Xserve3,1 (I have also EFI booted windows 10 on a MP1,1-2,1 MB2,1 and MBP3,1 this way I have also Booted Windows 10 in EFI mode my Mid 2009 MB5,2 but that is one of the later macs that will work with the windows 10 boot loader properly and display a picture)

then what you can do is install a modern video card and then install the drivers for that card and boot blind and with any luck once the drivers kick in the connected monitor will light-up with the windows login screen exactly like booting OS X with a PC video card, I recommend pulling any Older NVIDIA Tesla architecture based EFI video card as the drivers for those dont play ball with Windows in EFI mode on any Mac. (in my above windows screen shot i had the GT 120 disabled in device manager)

this is one of the reasons I wanted to get an Xserve3,1 as i knew i should be able to do this and boot windows 10 (sadly windows 10 BSODs on my Xserve1,1 during the boot processes and I dont know what on as of course im booting without any picture effectively)

(the interesting this is for macs from about mid 2009 onwards apple updated the EFI so the protocol the windows 10 boot loader calls upon is there and on those macs you get a picture in windows before the display drivers kick in, im curious if the MP4,1 B08 and XS3,1 B09 firmwares incorporate those changes.)



speaking of Xserve I just finished upgrading the CPUs in mine using the Dual X5570s I pulled out of my MP4,1-5,1 when I upgraded that to Dual X5677s

View attachment 807212

View attachment 807213

(for those wondering 5GTs PCIe 2.0 is enabled by the NVIDIA drivers for the GT 740 Mojave was installed using @dosdude1 awesome utility )

Hello, finally got around to install windows 10 on a separate SSD on the Mac Pro 5,1, but wont boot on XServe 3,1 after transplant. Another look at my XServe system firmware shows I have the XS31.0081.B04, not XS31.0081.B06. I removed the geforce gt120 as you stated before trying to boot windows 10-didn't work. So I removed the windows 10 SSD and booted off the stock apple ssd on the xserve to try to update the EFI firmware and it's not going...

I've since moved the issue to a new thread so not to hijack this one:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/xserve-3-1-efi-firmware-fails-to-update-to-ver-1-2.2171966/

So far that seems to be the only difference between your Xserve mainboard and mine...

 

[LightBulbFun]

the most important thing is did you install windows 10 in EFI mode?

if you installed it in BIOS mode it wont boot on the Xserve...

(you will know its EFI, since it will show up as "EFI Boot" rather then "Windows" in the boot picker of either the Mac Pro or the Xserve)

 

[itdk92]

Hang on, what?! I'd missed this. So Apple removed RX 580 HEVC decode in 10.14.1?! Seriously?
It was definitely working in 10.14.0 as you say. Encode was not but HW decode worked fine.
That p*sses me off. It was a big part of my buying decision for the 580.

No it was *very poorly* working, unfortunately.

 

[XserveJunkie]

the most important thing is did you install windows 10 in EFI mode?

if you installed it in BIOS mode it wont boot on the Xserve...

(you will know its EFI, since it will show up as "EFI Boot" rather then "Windows" in the boot picker of either the Mac Pro or the Xserve)

I made sure to set Rufus to use UEFI Mode and GPT partition layout when installing Win10.

Checking the installation again, SSD now in MacPro, BIOS Mode in msinfo32.exe shows UEFI.

Also the GPT partition style is indeed GPT as shown under Control Panel->Computer Management->Disk Management->Disk 0->Properties->Volume

The funny thing about all this is that our Xserve 3,1 has that stock laptop MXM GeForce GT120 to which I’ve never installed the drivers and the NVIDIA software package for, but Win10 must’ve detected the hardware and somehow installed it on its own without my awareness and without any network connection. I tried to connect via TeamViewer on local network and there was no response from Xserve. The MXM graphics card has since been taken out and replaced with Apple ROM Radeon 5870.

I’m thinking the package either existed with the Win10 install or it downloaded itself from Microsoft with internet connection while booted in Mac Pro with the SSD with the same Radeon 5870. The software package it has installed is of an older version than what NVIDIA has on their site even.

I only saw the installed NVIDIA package/driver after booting SSD on the Mac Pro to see what drivers are installed. In summary, no network connection and bootpicker shows as blank screen on Xserve. Also, no Bootcamp drivers needed. Mac Pro boots Windows as any generic PC would and all hardware detected in device manager. I’m out of ideas at the moment....

 

[LightBulbFun]

you should see "EFI BOOT" in the boot picker, (if you dont theres an issue with your windows install)

you then you tell the Mac to boot from "EFI BOOT" the boot picker will seem to freeze, but windows will actually be booting (whacking caps lock from time to time and looking at if the keyboard LED responds is a good way to see what a system is doing somewhat )

you dont need to do anything special to get to EFI Boot to show up, you just need a Windows EFI install, but out of curiosity what are you booting from?

USB, SATA, SAS, or RAID back plane?

I personally booted from USB, and I think SATA and SAS should work, however I dont know/think the RAID backplane will

 

[XserveJunkie]

you should see "EFI BOOT" in the boot picker, (if you dont theres an issue with your windows install)

you then you tell the Mac to boot from "EFI BOOT" the boot picker will seem to freeze, but windows will actually be booting (whacking caps lock from time to time and looking at if the keyboard LED responds is a good way to see what a system is doing somewhat )

you dont need to do anything special to get to EFI Boot to show up, you just need a Windows EFI install, but out of curiosity what are you booting from?

USB, SATA, SAS, or RAID back plane?

I personally booted from USB, and I think SATA and SAS should work, however I dont know/think the RAID backplane will

It’s booting off of SATA on a PCIE card-the Sonnet Tempo SSD. I used that to install Win10 and it is working fine on the Mac Pro no drivers needed. I asked Sonnet support and they confirmed it’s compatible with Xserves and I was able to use the card and boot the other SSD on Xserve with Mac OS Sierra with the patch.

The Win10 SSD only has Win10, no boot camp installed. Not sure yet if I hold down Option key while booting in Mac Pro whether I’ll see EFI BOOT/Win10 in the boot picker. Computer just boots straight into the OS. I’ll have to try that Option key boot once I’m back home.

 

[edgerider]

you should see "EFI BOOT" in the boot picker, (if you dont theres an issue with your windows install)

you then you tell the Mac to boot from "EFI BOOT" the boot picker will seem to freeze, but windows will actually be booting (whacking caps lock from time to time and looking at if the keyboard LED responds is a good way to see what a system is doing somewhat )

you dont need to do anything special to get to EFI Boot to show up, you just need a Windows EFI install, but out of curiosity what are you booting from?

USB, SATA, SAS, or RAID back plane?

I personally booted from USB, and I think SATA and SAS should work, however I dont know/think the RAID backplane will

regarding raid card the areca 1880 have uefi / efi/ guid and mbr option in firmware natively... if that can help.

one last thing I want to share with xserve users :
netapp 24 bay chassis ds4246 with 2tb drive works just fine with the areca 1880. all you need is a sff-8088 to qsfp+ cable because the netapp chassis uses a qsfp+ conectors.

those chassis can be have dor a bargain since it is a widely spread to stay away from those as they are proprietary...
they are absolutely not and they rock..

you can buy them for 500$ loaded, and they are generally well abused so alway run raid 6 or 60 with 2 hotspare.

also get the netapp cable with them to chain the shelf one behind the other...

seing very consistent 1700mb/s read write in raid 60.

heck for less than 1000$ it is a steal!