MP5,1: Return of the microcodes (MP51.0089.B00) **OBSOLETE**

[MisterAndrew]

Is anyone else having trouble booting Boot Camp from macOS after the firmware update? I can select the Windows drive manually at startup holding the option key with an EFI GPU installed and it boots, but I can't start it using Startup Disk or the BootChamp app. It just goes to a black screen and says "No bootable device." It appears the wrong partition is being blessed. I can bless the Windows EFI partition manually in Terminal like shown in this post: #10, but then Startup Disk and the BootChamp app still aren't working after that.

 

[crjackson2134]

I haven’t tried that, but if it turns out that way for me too, I’ll revert to 0085.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Is anyone else having trouble booting Boot Camp from macOS after the firmware update? I can select the Windows drive manually at startup holding the option key with an EFI GPU installed and it boots, but I can't start it using Startup Disk or the BootChamp app. It just goes to a black screen and says "No bootable device." It appears the wrong partition is being blessed. I can bless the Windows EFI partition manually in Terminal like shown in this post: #10, but then Startup Disk and the BootChamp app still aren't working after that.

im running an EFI GUID install of windows 10 and boot champ still works perfectly fine for me with the 0089 BootROM

remember that if your at the boot picker and want to set a disk as the start up disk so it auto-boots etc you can hold down the ALT/Option key and the arrow will change to a circular arrow, then while holding alt/option click that circular arrow it will set that disk as the start up disk

 

[adam9c1]

Can someone explain to me what these microcode posts are about?

 

[Demigod Mac]

Would the installer try to mess with a W3690 which isn't going to get updated?

Worried it would just assume I've got a W3680 which shipped with the Mac Pro and screw it up, or fail to update and refuse to install macOS.

 

[crjackson2134]

Is anyone else having trouble booting Boot Camp from macOS after the firmware update? I can select the Windows drive manually at startup holding the option key with an EFI GPU installed and it boots, but I can't start it using Startup Disk or the BootChamp app. It just goes to a black screen and says "No bootable device." It appears the wrong partition is being blessed. I can bless the Windows EFI partition manually in Terminal like shown in this post: #10, but then Startup Disk and the BootChamp app still aren't working after that.

Windows/Bootcamp are alive and well after the 0089 BootROM update on my machine. I used the startup disk applet, I used the Boot Picker (Alt/Option Key boot), I used the bootcamp control panel to boot back to macOS on an HFS+ drive.

I find it's working well so far...

 

[tsialex]

Would the installer try to mess with a W3690 which isn't going to get updated?

Worried it would just assume I've got a W3680 which shipped with the Mac Pro and screw it up, or fail to update and refuse to install macOS.

Not yet tested, but seems that W3690 will work with the same 206C2 microcode as X5690.

@LightBulbFun may confirm this.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Can someone explain to me what these microcode posts are about?

Fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in the Intel CPUs.

https://meltdownattack.com/

 

[tsialex]

Can someone explain to me what these microcode posts are about?

Microcode it's the code that configures the workings of a modern processor. It's loaded at the startup onto the processor itself.

Since the discovery that almost all modern processors are susceptible to attacks, Spectre/Meltdown and friends, keeping the microcode updated it's of utmost importance for security.

Apple messed with MP51.0087 BootROM totally excluding the microcodes from the firmware. This caused a lot of trouble, like not booting Windows/Linux on some circumstances.

High Sierra 10.13.6 updated the BootROM firmware with April 2 Microcode Update Guidance. Intel revised this at July 3. So we already behind security wise.

 

[h9826790]

LOL, man after years of nada we've had... what, like 4? 5? updates in the last 12 months?

Actually, I hope Apple takes their time with the next one, and in addition to the newest microcode, figures out how to get us boot screens with Mojave. NVMe and USB3 booting would be great too, but the boot screen thing is my biggest obstacle going forward (because I use FileVault on all my Macs).

May be it’s time to file some bug reports / suggestion. If no one request that “officially”, why they need to “fix” that?

 

[kasuja00]

After the firmware updated i have microcode = 30 (my cpu is x5690)

 

[h9826790]

Would the installer try to mess with a W3690 which isn't going to get updated?

Worried it would just assume I've got a W3680 which shipped with the Mac Pro and screw it up, or fail to update and refuse to install macOS.

Don't worry, 0089.B00 is fine for W3690. Microcode update to version 30.

[doublepost=1531324997][/doublepost]

I managed to grab the 10.13.6 full installer finally and got my Mac Pro updated

can confirm the new microcodes I was also able to Boot windows (an EFI installation of windows 10) with no issues with this update so I wonder why windows breaks when we manually insert the microcode. Apple must of tweaked more then Just the microcode...

the InSpectre app was also reporting that I was fully patched as above. @h9826790 it would be interesting to see what your W3690 Mac Pro does with this Firmware update and if windows boot and if the inSpectre app reports your machine as fully protected or not?

http://valid.x86.fr/3h452f here is a CPU-Z validation of the newest 0089.B00 BootROM notice the updated Microcode

and just for reference heres a validation done while on 0087.B00 http://valid.x86.fr/s4hsqq

Update completed without issue. Microcode version 30 for W3690.

But I also hit the "no bootable device" bug when try to use BootChamp to boot EFI Windows 10.

I am sure I can make a clean Windows installation, may try to fix that by the Windows installation disc later.

 

[LightBulbFun]

glad to see the W3690 is still playing ball it will be interesting to see what inSpectre in windows makes of it edit: interesting that your also having issues with BootChamp, mines been working perfectly fine, It seems like BootChamp on your end is trying to Bless your EFI install as if it was an MBR BIOS one. (BootChamp on my end is still correctly blessing my Windows 10 EFI install even on the 0089 BootROM)

speaking of microcodes:

Stuffs getting quite interesting

I Just got contacted by Apples developer relations team asking if my "issue" was fixed in 10.13.6

I let them know that indeed it is but that also intel has since put out even newer microcodes (Rev 31 for Westmere and Rev 29 for Nehalem) so it will be interesting to see what happens there

 

[Synchro3]

The Mac App store indicates '10.13.5' full installer, but the downloaded file is indeed the 10.13.6 installer.

I compared it with the installer in this thread.

 

[tsialex]

The Mac App store indicates '10.13.5' full installer, but the downloaded file is indeed the 10.13.6 installer.

I compared it with the installer in this thread.

Maybe the Mac App Store intern needs to be replaced, LOL.

Late last night download was the parcial 22,7MB one, so they're updated it today - at least it's the full one that I'm downloading now.

 

[Synchro3]

Yes, it's definitely the full 10.13.6 installer. Just upgraded the firmware.

 

[tsialex]

Yes, it definitely the full 10.13.6 installer. Just upgraded the firmware.

Taking a look on the SUcatalog, I've noticed that Apple reissued Mojave DP3 too, from 18A326g to 18A326h. I've downloaded it and take a look on the Firmware folder, still the same MP51.0085.B00.

 

[crjackson2134]

Is there a Mac app that can do a byte/byte comparison of files/container files?

I also downloaded the full installer from MAS which the product page indicates as 10.13.5, but looking at the contents, it does indeed have the newest firmware.

 

[tsialex]

Is there a Mac app that can do a byte/byte comparison of files/container files?

Maybe shasum, on the InstallESD.dmg? Doing it now, btw.

 

[Synchro3]

Both installer have 5’233’568’296 Byte.

 

[tsialex]

Is there a Mac app that can do a byte/byte comparison of files/container files?

I also downloaded the full installer from MAS which the product page indicates as 10.13.5, but looking at the contents, it does indeed of the newest firmware.

It's the same.

Edit: rechecked again, this time all DMGs on both SharedSupport folders.

 

[crjackson2134]

Great, now someone at Apple needs to pull their head out...

I filed a bug report through the web interface.

 

[bookemdano]

Has anyone tried to downgrade from 89 back to 85 (to re-enable the NVMe booting hack, etc) yet? I was going to flash up to 89, but want to make sure I can get back to 85 if problems are discovered in 89 or it's determined 89 can't be modded. Just being overly cautious!

 

[tsialex]

Has anyone tried to downgrade from 89 back to 85 (to re-enable the NVMe booting hack, etc) yet? I was going to flash up to 89, but want to make sure I can get back to 85 if problems are discovered in 89 or it's determined 89 can't be modded. Just being overly cautious!

Yes, I've downgraded to take the screenshots of the sysctl and check the microcode on 0085 to do the first post. It's safe.

Open Mojave betas Firmware folder, rename 0085 to 0090, copy 0090 renamed file and MP51.crc32 to the 10.13.6 Firmware folder. Now you can run the 10.13.6 Installer.app and "upgrade to a lesser version".

Stupid Mac Pro firmware flasher.

Btw, my stash:

 

[bookemdano]

Yes, I've downgraded to take the screenshots of the sysctl and check the microcode on 0085 to do the first post. It's safe.

Open Mojave betas Firmware folder, rename 0085 to 0090, copy 0090 renamed file and MP51.crc32 to the 10.13.6 Firmware folder. Now you can run the 10.13.6 Installer.app and "upgrade to a lesser version".

Stupid Mac Pro firmware flasher.

Btw, my stash: View attachment 770141

Nice! Thanks for the reassurance. I also just dumped my 0085 ROM using dosdude1's ROMDump so I think I'm extra safe to go ahead and flash it.