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

[h9826790]

For anyone else troubleshooting - this didn't do anything for me.

Unfortunately, sudo bless didn't work either - apparently it's because my copy of windows 10 is installed in EFI mode.

Resetting the NVRAM (command-option-P-R) got my Mac to boot directly into windows 10. Unfortunately, I forgot this also resets SIP and disables the NVIDIA web driver. Once I managed to get SIP re-disabled and the NVIDIA drivers reinstalled, I found out that restarting via Bootchamp still makes the Mac boot from the wrong volume (no boot device found screen).

On top of that, all of my sound devices except my c-media USB device have disappeared. That's... unfortunate.

So I think my next course of action is to wipe my boot drive clean and reinstall MacOS, then look into using rEFInd as my boot manager. Overall though, keeping these things running is such a pain in the butt I might as well be running a hackintosh

My Windows 10 also installed in EFI mode.

Did you bless the correct partition?

 

[Synchro3]

That means if one didn't download last week before Sunday the full 10.13.6 installer, one can no more upgrade to MP51.0089.B00 at the moment?

 

[h9826790]

That means if one didn't download last week before Sunday the full 10.13.6 installer, one can no more upgrade to MP51.0089.B00 at the moment?

I bet the 10.13.6 on the Appstore still the same 17G65, but just another version now is also online, which looks like for the new MacBook Pro only.

 

[crjackson2134]

I just downloaded and checked the App Store version. It still has the 0089 firmware. I didn't check anything else, I suspect there is no change.

 

[Squuiid]

Anyone check Mojave beta 4 for firmware yet?

 

[Kris Kelvin]

Anyone check Mojave beta 4 for firmware yet?

MP51.0089.B00 in the full installer from the App Store (14.0.14).

 

[thomasthegps]

Things look grim. Apple is probably not going to fix bootscreen or 2,5gt/sec or add NVME. Normally companies have a feature freeze pretty early on In order to fix issues. I'd be surprised if things changed before the Mojave release.

Mac Pro 4.1 - 5.1 R.I.P.

 

[tsialex]

Things look grim. Apple is probably not going to fix bootscreen or 2,5gt/sec or add NVME. Normally companies have a feature freeze pretty early on In order to fix issues. I'd be surprised if things changed before the Mojave release.

Mac Pro 4.1 - 5.1 R.I.P.

Did you really expected those? I never really expected that Apple will completely change EFI for a 6/8 year old Mac.

I'd be surprised if Cupertino create new support articles specifying what to do with bootscreens/FV2/firmware updates from now on with the suggested GPUs. If they just document what to do and what not, it will be nice.

MP4,1/5,1 are alive because it's users, not Apple.

 

[thomasthegps]

To a certain extent users are keeping the Mac Pro alive but, it's being crippled for no understanble reason. Next year Apple will compile Mac OS with an extension westmere CPUS do not have. So I guess it's the end of the road.

I Wasn't expecting anything like a new EFI to arrive but I sincerely hoped it would.

"Oh no, planned obsolescence is terrible, we would never slow down your phones to entice you to buy the newer model..."
"Oh no, we would never intentionally disable key features to prevent you from upgrading your GPU in a 5000$ machine"
"Oh no, we would never flash custom firmware on your iMac SSD so that its irreplaceable."
"Oh no, we love the environment, could you upgrade every year to the latest product ?..."


I love Apple but sometimes I feel like I shouldn't.



LOL ENOUGH DRAMA. We already gained HEVC decoding with Mojave and hopefully with a bit of luck we might get encoding!

 

[bookemdano]

I was not expecting nvme nor the 2.5gt/sec fix. I was hopeful for a bootscreen fix simply because I didn't think Apple would actually recommend GPUs that:

1. Prevent firmware updates from installing (some of which could be for major yet-to-be-discovered vulnerabilities). Remember the 2012 cMP was sold up until December of 2013. That's less than five years ago.
2. Prevent FileVault2 encryption from working--a major feature of MacOS
3. Prevent debugging of issues due to not being able to see the boot text in verbose mode

I mean they've obviously known many people over the years have replaced their GPUs with PC models that also eliminate those things, but that was never done with Apple's blessing. It just seems out-of-character for Apple to recommend third party hardware purchases that disable key functionality of one of their pro-level (but really, any of their) products.

I agree time is starting to get short with no new guidance announced. I'm not going to completely give up hope, but no one should be expecting anything additional at this point.

That said, I think anyone running the beta on a cMP should report those things as bugs. If no one is complaining about these things via official channels Apple may feel there's no demand to come up with a solution for cMPs & Mojave.

 

[crjackson2134]

That said, I think anyone running the beta on a cMP should report those things as bugs. If no one is complaining about these things via official channels Apple may feel there's no demand to come up with a solution for cMPs & Mojave.

This can’t be overstated. EVERYONE needs to flood Apple with bug reports/requests. Bloggers need to flood the Internet with harsh criticism over the boot screen / FileVault (security issue). If it makes them look bad and waives people off, to be cautious about their products, they may at least acknowledge it’s an issue.

 

[goMac]

I was not expecting nvme nor the 2.5gt/sec fix. I was hopeful for a bootscreen fix simply because I didn't think Apple would actually recommend GPUs that:

1. Prevent firmware updates from installing (some of which could be for major yet-to-be-discovered vulnerabilities). Remember the 2012 cMP was sold up until December of 2013. That's less than five years ago.
2. Prevent FileVault2 encryption from working--a major feature of MacOS
3. Prevent debugging of issues due to not being able to see the boot text in verbose mode

Things aren't looking super great, but it's also too soon to tell. Mojave is just an incomplete beta.

Still, bug reports can't hurt.

 

[h9826790]

Hello!

I downloaded BootChamp once more and installed it over the old BootChamp (Drag and drop it into the program folder.) Now my BootChamp works again. Ofcourse do I have SIP disable.

BootChamp v 1,7

HS 10.13.6 MP51_0089_B00_NVMe.bin


/Per

Tested, nil help in my case.

 

[cococheaf]

Does someone know if there is the possibility to disable the RAM check at POST in the bootrom?
It isn't really necessary to me, and it would bring the benefints of faster boot times before the chime...
My Machine chimes ~30secs after i pressed the power button.

 

[expede]

Sad to hear! Still works for me. But BootChamp even works better now than before. Now BootChamp get loaded at startup.

/Per

Tested, nil help in my case.

 

[thomasthegps]

I was not expecting nvme nor the 2.5gt/sec fix. I was hopeful for a bootscreen fix simply because I didn't think Apple would actually recommend GPUs that:

1. Prevent firmware updates from installing (some of which could be for major yet-to-be-discovered vulnerabilities). Remember the 2012 cMP was sold up until December of 2013. That's less than five years ago.
2. Prevent FileVault2 encryption from working--a major feature of MacOS
3. Prevent debugging of issues due to not being able to see the boot text in verbose mode

I mean they've obviously known many people over the years have replaced their GPUs with PC models that also eliminate those things, but that was never done with Apple's blessing. It just seems out-of-character for Apple to recommend third party hardware purchases that disable key functionality of one of their pro-level (but really, any of their) products.

I agree time is starting to get short with no new guidance announced. I'm not going to completely give up hope, but no one should be expecting anything additional at this point.

That said, I think anyone running the beta on a cMP should report those things as bugs. If no one is complaining about these things via official channels Apple may feel there's no demand to come up with a solution for cMPs & Mojave.

Ok I sent a bug repport.

 

[minifridge1138]

My system was running perfectly fine before the last FW and OS update. Now It locks up whenever the screensaver starts. I have to hold the power button to kill it.

Anyone else seen that?

MP4,1 -> 5,1
Mac HD7950
SSD in a Tempo Sonnet PCIE SATA card

 

[h9826790]

Sad to hear! Still works for me.

/Per

No worries. If it works in your cMP, that means the hope still there

Also, I can simply use the bless command to replace BootChamp. Anyway, I rarely boot to Windows on my cMP now, my 8700K 1080Ti Hackintosh is already in use.

 

[minifridge1138]

I re-installed 10.13.4 (I don't have a full installer for 10.13.5, but will combo-update to it) and have no more locking / freezing problems. So the problem is in the OS, not the firmware.

 

[tu2thepoo]

My Windows 10 also installed in EFI mode.

Did you bless the correct partition?

I thought I did but who knows Also, I re-discovered that Refind doesn't actually help with the lack of boot screen (I learned this the last time I tried it, and apparently forgot).

However, downgrading to 10.13.5 solved the reboot/bootchamp/bless problem, so seems to be an issue with 10.13.6. Specifically, I did a clean installation of 10.13.5 and bootchamped to the same EFI installation of Windows 10 I've been using, and it's all working as expected.

(I'm still on MP51.0089.B00, so it's not a firmware problem.)

I'm planning to test further by reinstalling windows 10 in legacy/BIOS mode (I bought some DL DVD+RWs to burn an install disc). I've been meaning to try this anyway since my EFI Win10 has some weird behavior (laggy windows, crashes on shutdown, etc). Once Win10 is installed in BIOS mode, I'll:

1. clone my 10.13.5 installation
2. Upgrade the clone to 10.13.6
3. Try bootcamp/bless and see if the bad reboot behavior returns.

If bootchamp/bless work fine with win10 in BIOS mode, I'm guessing it's an issue with how 10.13.6 is parsing EFI partitions. If it still acts funky even with win10 in bios mode... then I dunno.

 

[tu2thepoo]

Probably the last update from my end - it definitely seems like an issue between 10.13.6 and EFI partitions. I'm posting from my test/clone drive, updated to 10.13.6, and bootchamp works perfectly fine with my Win10 drive, which was wiped and reinstalled in legacy/BIOS mode. My guess is that 10.13.6 is incorrectly attempting to boot from the EFI/MS reserved partitions on EFI Win10 installations.

Summary: if you want to dual-boot between Win10 and High Sierra 10.13.6, it's best to install/reinstall Win10 in legacy/BIOS mode from a DVD drive.

Since Win10 is unsupported with the Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 Boot Camp software, and EFI mode already known to be buggy (missing sound, etc), I'm guessing this will be very low on Apple's list of issues to fix.

Pertinent info and screenshots below:

• Mac Pro 2009 4,1 flashed to 5,1
• Geforce GT120 for updating MacOS swapped with Geforce 1060 for regular use (PCIe slot 1)
• MacOS 10.13.6 on SATA SSD - formatted as HFS+ (installed high Sierra with --noapfs) - MacOS filesystem probably not important but figured I'd mention it.
• Win10 (latest version as of July 2018), installed in Legacy mode (MBR+NTFS), SATA SSD
• SATA ASUS BD-DVD drive

 

[Squuiid]

Since Win10 is unsupported with the Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 Boot Camp software, and EFI mode already known to be buggy (missing sound, etc), I'm guessing this will be very low on Apple's list of issues to fix.

Weird. I have Windows 10 Pro installed in UEFI mode on my 2009 5,1 and don’t have a single problem with it. Everything works perfectly, including AHCI on the disk controller. See signature for details.
I use BootCamp 6.1.7066 drivers which can be obtained using "Brigadier -m MacBookPro15,1".
Apple software update will then install the latest WiFi driver for you:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208847
(Have not yet gotten around to updating the firmware however, still on 084.)

Windows 10 has been upgraded multiple times and is currently running 1803.

What issues are people seeing with UEFI mode specifically, and are they tied to the new firmware?

 

[Pressure]

Probably the last update from my end - it definitely seems like an issue between 10.13.6 and EFI partitions. I'm posting from my test/clone drive, updated to 10.13.6, and bootchamp works perfectly fine with my Win10 drive, which was wiped and reinstalled in legacy/BIOS mode. My guess is that 10.13.6 is incorrectly attempting to boot from the EFI/MS reserved partitions on EFI Win10 installations.

Summary: if you want to dual-boot between Win10 and High Sierra 10.13.6, it's best to install/reinstall Win10 in legacy/BIOS mode from a DVD drive.

Since Win10 is unsupported with the Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 Boot Camp software, and EFI mode already known to be buggy (missing sound, etc), I'm guessing this will be very low on Apple's list of issues to fix.

Pertinent info and screenshots below:

• Mac Pro 2009 4,1 flashed to 5,1
• Geforce GT120 for updating MacOS swapped with Geforce 1060 for regular use (PCIe slot 1)
• MacOS 10.13.6 on SATA SSD - formatted as HFS+ (installed high Sierra with --noapfs) - MacOS filesystem probably not important but figured I'd mention it.
• Win10 (latest version as of July 2018), installed in Legacy mode (MBR+NTFS), SATA SSD
• SATA ASUS BD-DVD drive

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It will be low priority unless people take their time to give proper product feedback.

 

[h9826790]

Since Win10 is unsupported with the Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 Boot Camp software, and EFI mode already known to be buggy (missing sound, etc), I'm guessing this will be very low on Apple's list of issues to fix.

My EFI Windows 10 also work flawlessly.

However, I agree that's not natively supported on the 5,1 at all. And the "start up disk" selection in macOS system preferences won't work.

 

[jameslmoser]

My EFI Windows 10 also work flawlessly.

However, I agree that's not natively supported on the 5,1 at all. And the "start up disk" selection in macOS system preferences won't work.

So I have installed Windows 10 in efi mode several times, and once on a Samsung xp941. It doesn’t appear to work when I remove my efi gpu. Is this a known limitation or is there some way to get that to work? Also, how exactly do you switch between OS X and Windows without using System Preferences/Startup Disk?