MP51.0084.B00 Rom Dump Request

[rippiedoos]

@dosdude1
Any chance of porting the DXEInject-app to Linux? I was hoping on creating a USB-stick with a Linux-version on it to inject the NVMe-driver, after a suspected Firmware Update from Apple. The idea is to just boot into a small Linux-OS with flashrom on it, dump the BIOS, inject the NVMe-driver and put it back with the same flashrom. That way I don't need to maintain 2 OSX-installations for only injecting the NVMe-driver after a bootROM-update.

Or is there a way the inject the NVMe-driver in the stock firmware image so the Mac OS X update app can be update to flash a NVMe-enabled bootROM?

 

[dvbcheck]

Success,

Firmware flashed to 089 with NVME Support. SSD cloned from the old SATA Samsung 850GB drive, reboot, everything looks fine.

By the way, has anyone found the correct EFI USB 3 driver for AppleUSBXHCIFL1100 compatible PCIE cards?

Thanks to the members of this incredible forum.

 

[dosdude1]

@dosdude1
Any chance of porting the DXEInject-app to Linux? I was hoping on creating a USB-stick with a Linux-version on it to inject the NVMe-driver, after a suspected Firmware Update from Apple. The idea is to just boot into a small Linux-OS with flashrom on it, dump the BIOS, inject the NVMe-driver and put it back with the same flashrom. That way I don't need to maintain 2 OSX-installations for only injecting the NVMe-driver after a bootROM-update.

Or is there a way the inject the NVMe-driver in the stock firmware image so the Mac OS X update app can be update to flash a NVMe-enabled bootROM?

Yeah, I can definitely compile a version for Linux. I'll post here when that's complete.

 

[thomasthegps]

is anyone else getting the SUErrorCodeNone error while trying to update to public beta 4 ?

 

[MIKX]

EDIT 1 : Now that I have finally succeeded in being able to boot my 960 EVO M.2 I strongly feel that we need a Mac Pro sticky perhaps titled " BOOTING from M.2 NVMe SSD successes". To encourage any of our timid ( 4,1 > 5,1 ) cMP owners ( I'm not sure about 3,1 cMPs regarding NVMe M.2 ) to at least get some useful information re M.2 NVMe booting
I must admit that my initial attempts were nerve wracking but in hindsight .. no more so than making GPU EFI roms. Practice makes perfect. I'm confident that definitive M.2 NVM3 boot guides will eventuate.

Gilles first posts stated that 4k formatted M.2 blades work but he suspected that 512k formatted drives ( like amsung 960 - 970 EV's would not work .. but . . they DO work !

EDIT 2.
I offer my wholehearted thanks and admiration to Gilles, dosdude1 and all of the others whom have had the insatiable curiosity, patience, persistence and let's face it . the sheer b%%lls to even attempt something that Apple left unfinished - Also a big "Thank You" to Per (Sweden ) and " bossman ( Switzerland ) for their selfless PM assistance.


===============================

Tonight I finally had a success in being able to boot my Samsung 960 EVO 250gb M.2 NVMe into High Sierra 10.13.6 in my 4,1>5,1 cMP

I'm using an Ainex AIF-08 which comes with a niceheatsink . You can see all about it here in Post 160 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pcie-m-2-nvme-on-macpro.2030791/page-7.

=========

Method.

1.
I installed 10.13.6 full installer which demanded the MP51.0089.B00 update to a SanDisk Z-410 250gb SATA II SSD 2,5"

2.
After the MP51.0089.B00 update and HS 10.13.6 install to the Z-410 250 gb SSD I used dosdude1's ROMTool to download my new '89 bootrom. I then using dosdude1's DXEinject injected the MBP114_0182_B00.ffs ( the MBP114_0183_B00.ffs simply would not work.

3.
I formatted the 960 to APFS and then did a Carbon Copy Clone of teh existing 10.13.6 install on the Sandisk Z-410 to the Samsung 960 EVO.

4.
I then again used dosdude1's ROMTool to flash my new '89 DXE injected ootrom.

5.
Shutdown the cMP

6.
Powered ON holding down teh power button for around 15 seconds until I saw the power LED flashing.

7.
Did the cold boot up holding down the P + R + Option + Apple-Command keys to do the PRAM reset TWICE

8.
( I had already disconnected the SanDisk Z-410 and left only one SSD SATA II drive with Sierra 10.12.6 on it. )
Was greeted with the 960 EVO 10.13.6 listed next to the Sierra SSD.

9. First boot was little slow but subsequent boots are a little faster than the SATA II SSD.
TRIM is auto on my 960 EVO M.2.

10. CONCLUSION

Definitely DOABLE. Go slowly and carefully. Write down your particular procedure steps - tick off each one as it is completed. Drink lots of coffee.

PS : I'm using my flashed HIS HD 5870 because here in Japan we have had 39°c > 40°C temperatures where I live ( Kyoto ) for the past 10 days. My recently flashed HD 7970 can wait 'til cooler weather

 

[rippiedoos]

...

Gilles first posts stated that 4k formatted M.2 blades work but he suspected that 512k formatted drives ( like amsung 960 - 970 EV's would not work .. but . . they DO work !

...

Not true.

In macOS 10.12 the NVMe driver only has support for 4K drives.

macOS 10.13 and newer has support for both 512b and 4K drives.

So the newer SSD, like any Samsung everybody uses, only work in 10.13 and newer. The Toshiba SSDs however work in 10.12 and newer if formatted as 4K drives.

It didn’t work for you at first because you used macOS 10.12 in the beginning where everybody else already used 10.13.

 

[MIKX]

rippledos

I stand corrected. Thank you.

 

[MIKX]

Now that the terror and anguish at the fear of bricking my cMP has subsided I realize that booting from NVMe M.2 is not that scary yet so far it seems that very few of us ( IMHO) have actually gone through with the upgrade.

From my point of view I can now confidently remove all spinner HDD's from the cMP ( too hot & slow ) and that will yield a cooler internal case with as a bonus . .much, much faster in-case transfers.

As I stated in my post above, it would be encouraging for those cMP owners who are fearful of bricking their machines
if there was a "Boot from M.2 NVMe " sticky that starts with what we know works and what doesn't.

dosdude1 has really & truly paved the way with his RomTool and it would be easier for the non-terminal savvy people if DXEInject had a GUI.

From the first revelation from Gilles that M.2 NVMe booting is even possible we now have several threads related to NVMe booting but the word "BOOT" doesn't appear in the thread titles. One single BOOT from NVMe sticky thread could concentrate everyone's experiences, successes & failures etc.

Anyone else agree ?

At least now that High Sierra is final we ( most probably ) don't have to worry about bootrom updates for this OS X version at least. Personally, I'm happy with NVMe M.2 booting High Sierra & my recently purchased ( & now flashed ) HD 7970.

Apple has been upgrading yearly almost without finessing OS releases like El Capitan & Sierra. By comparison Snow Leopard 10.16.8 was a triumph in it's time . I'm OK with High Sierra 10.13.6 for the next two years.

 

[dosdude1]

Now that the terror and anguish at the fear of bricking my cMP has subsided I realize that booting from NVMe M.2 is not that scary yet so far it seems that very few of us ( IMHO) have actually gone through with the upgrade.

From my point of view I can now confidently remove all spinner HDD's from the cMP ( too hot & slow ) and that will yield a cooler internal case with as a bonus . .much, much faster in-case transfers.

As I stated in my post above, it would be encouraging for those cMP owners who are fearful of bricking their machines
if there was a "Boot from M.2 NVMe " sticky that starts with what we know works and what doesn't.

dosdude1 has really & truly paved the way with his RomTool and it would be easier for the non-terminal savvy people if DXEInject had a GUI.

From the first revelation from Gilles that M.2 NVMe booting is even possible we now have several threads related to NVMe booting but the word "BOOT" doesn't appear in the thread titles. One single BOOT from NVMe sticky thread could concentrate everyone's experiences, successes & failures etc.

Anyone else agree ?

At least now that High Sierra is final we ( most probably ) don't have to worry about bootrom updates for this OS X version at least. Personally, I'm happy with NVMe M.2 booting High Sierra & my recently purchased ( & now flashed ) HD 7970.

Apple has been upgrading yearly almost without finessing OS releases like El Capitan & Sierra. By comparison Snow Leopard 10.16.8 was a triumph in it's time . I'm OK with High Sierra 10.13.6 for the next two years.

I can make a GUI for DXEInject... Shouldn't take too long at all.

 

[crjackson2134]

Now that the terror and anguish at the fear of bricking my cMP has subsided I realize that booting from NVMe M.2 is not that scary yet so far it seems that very few of us ( IMHO) have actually gone through with the upgrade.

From my point of view I can now confidently remove all spinner HDD's from the cMP ( too hot & slow ) and that will yield a cooler internal case with as a bonus . .much, much faster in-case transfers.

As I stated in my post above, it would be encouraging for those cMP owners who are fearful of bricking their machines
if there was a "Boot from M.2 NVMe " sticky that starts with what we know works and what doesn't.

dosdude1 has really & truly paved the way with his RomTool and it would be easier for the non-terminal savvy people if DXEInject had a GUI.

From the first revelation from Gilles that M.2 NVMe booting is even possible we now have several threads related to NVMe booting but the word "BOOT" doesn't appear in the thread titles. One single BOOT from NVMe sticky thread could concentrate everyone's experiences, successes & failures etc.

Anyone else agree ?

At least now that High Sierra is final we ( most probably ) don't have to worry about bootrom updates for this OS X version at least. Personally, I'm happy with NVMe M.2 booting High Sierra & my recently purchased ( & now flashed ) HD 7970.

Apple has been upgrading yearly almost without finessing OS releases like El Capitan & Sierra. By comparison Snow Leopard 10.16.8 was a triumph in it's time . I'm OK with High Sierra 10.13.6 for the next two years.

You’re going to want to upgrade to Mojave when you see how well it works with the HD7970.

IMHO Mojave has better drivers for this card than High Sierra (unless something changes before release).

 

[MIKX]

crjackson2134

You are probably very correct but it's early days with Mojave yet but what surprises does Apple have in store for us .. eg no Microcodes. And to be perfectly honest High Sierra final has only just arrived . . . I'd like some time to get acquainted with it . . .and . .. enjoy my new NVMe M.2 speed bump . . also I can now ( in HS 10.13.6 ) rename my three same brand Bluetooth headsets that I absolutely rely on ( charging schedules ) for teaching English via Skype. Apple never corrected that in Sierra nor the USB bugs in El Capitan. .

 

[expede]

Hi there MIKX and thanks for the kind words.

One reminder to all whom upgraded his/her cMP;

Keep one drive/HD with the latest OSX (non-blade SSD/HD). This because the next OSX might upgrade your Firmware before you know it and Boom-- the cMP Goes Brick (cMPGB). Just in case. And you also need a GPU that can show bootscreen. You need to be able to go into Recovery Mode (RM). This to be able to "csrutil disable" . Congrats to you for effort. A question MIKX; Do you feel the rush everytime you turn on your cMP? I do!

/Per

crjackson2134

You are probably very correct but it's early days with Mojave yet but what surprises does Apple have in store for us .. eg no Microcodes. And to be perfectly honest High Sierra final has only just arrived . . . I'd like some time to get acquainted with it . . .and . .. enjoy my new NVMe M.2 speed bump . . also I can now ( in HS 10.13.6 ) rename my three same brand Bluetooth headsets that I absolutely rely on ( charging schedules ) for teaching English via Skype. Apple never corrected that in Sierra nor the USB bugs in El Capitan. .

 

[Squuiid]

And you also need a GPU that can show bootscreen. You need to be able to go into Recovery Mode (RM). This to be able to "csrutil disable" .

Actually, not true. An RX 580 can be used for recovery mode just fine as the drivers are native.

Also, one can use ‘CMD+OPTION+R+S’ to boot into single user recovery mode and just hit enter a few times, type the csrutil command blind, then type reboot.
Both options work without a card that displays boot screen.

Flashing firmware does of course require an EFI card however, as does FileVault.

 

[dosdude1]

I've just released a new version of ROMTool. This version fixes a serious issue which could lead to a bricked system in some cases. I don't believe this was an issue on Mac Pros, but I know on some MacBooks with certain EEPROM types, it was causing machines to become bricked. When you attempt to dump or flash your ROM with this version, you may be presented with the window pictured below. If this is the case, and you're using a Mac Pro, the default selection should work fine. Of course, it is HIGHLY recommended you actually take a look at the EEPROM on your Mac's logic board and verify that. The download link is still the same.

 

[crjackson2134]

I've just released a new version of ROMTool. This version fixes a serious issue which could lead to a bricked system in some cases. I don't believe this was an issue on Mac Pros, but I know on some MacBooks with certain EEPROM types, it was causing machines to become bricked. When you attempt to dump or flash your ROM with this version, you may be presented with the window pictured below. If this is the case, and you're using a Mac Pro, the default selection should work fine. Of course, it is HIGHLY recommended you actually take a look at the EEPROM on your Mac's logic board and verify that. The download link is still the same.

View attachment 774285

Thanks for the update. Since I just ordered a High Point SSD7101A-1, I’ll need to dump, inject, and reflash my bootrom firmware for nvme.

Where exactly do I find the EEPROM in question so that I don’t mess this up?

Thanks for sharing your expertise.

 

[tsialex]

Where exactly do I find the EEPROM in question so that I don’t mess this up?

Thanks for sharing your expertise.

It's the little 8 pin SMD chip at the left of PCIe AUX B power conector on the picture above. You will need to remove the CPU-tray cage to read it. It's a SST 25VF032B on my Mac Pro.

 

[crjackson2134]

Too bad there’s not a terminal command that can reveal the part number. I’ll have a look at it before I do the procedure.

Thanks.

Good grief that’s small. I’m not sure I could even read anything printed on that chip.

I may just trust the default and take my chances. I don’t think an incorrect chip flash on th cMP has been reported here so far.

 

[MIKX]

Hi there MIKX and thanks for the kind words.

Congrats to you for effort. A question MIKX; Do you feel the rush everytime you turn on your cMP? I do!

/Per

Yes ! ​

[doublepost=1533372586][/doublepost]

I've just released a new version of ROMTool. This version fixes a serious issue which could lead to a bricked system in some cases. I don't believe this was an issue on Mac Pros, but I know on some MacBooks with certain EEPROM types, it was causing machines to become bricked. When you attempt to dump or flash your ROM with this version, you may be presented with the window pictured below. If this is the case, and you're using a Mac Pro, the default selection should work fine. Of course, it is HIGHLY recommended you actually take a look at the EEPROM on your Mac's logic board and verify that. The download link is still the same.

View attachment 774285

Thanks so much for the RomTool update.

It struck me that your RomTool could become the definitive "Boot from NVMe Tool & Guide" if DXEInject was included.

Eg. 1. Dump your bootrom then 2. DXEINject your bootrom then 3. Flash your bootrom.

. .. all in one app.

Not wishing to appear greedy though . .

 

[expede]

Hi tsialex, sorry for being "a pain in the *s" but the picture is upside down.

/Per

View attachment 774286
It's the little 8 pin SMD chip at the right of PCIe Aux Power B, you will need to remove the CPU-tray cage to read it. It's a SST 25VF032B on my Mac Pro.

 

[tsialex]

Hi tsialex, sorry for being "a pain in the *s" but the picture is upside down.

/Per

Ok, edited my previous post =)

Reading the silk screened labels and keeping that same orientation, it’s to the right of PCIe AUX B power conector - but to the left on that picture.

 

[crjackson2134]

Just how big is the risk I'm taking on my MP51 original, if I just accept the defaults?

I assume, the original RomTool gave everyone the default settings on the MP51 without issue.

The Rom Dumped / Injected without error, It's just waiting there to be flashed now.

 

[tsialex]

Just how big is the risk I'm taking on my MP51 original, if I just accept the defaults?

I assume, the original RomTool gave everyone the default settings on the MP51 without issue.

The Rom Dumped / Injected without error, It's just waiting there to be flashed now.

If you are unsure of using ROMTool, just rename it to MP51.0090.B00.LOCKED.fd and put on the High Sierra Firmware folder, then run the 10.13.6 installer app.

Btw, do not what I did and check again if the size is the same…

 

[dosdude1]

Just how big is the risk I'm taking on my MP51 original, if I just accept the defaults?

I assume, the original RomTool gave everyone the default settings on the MP51 without issue.

The Rom Dumped / Injected without error, It's just waiting there to be flashed now.

The old version of ROMTool just use the default selection, so if it worked with that (which it did for most people), it will work with the default.

 

[crjackson2134]

Well, I did the stupid thing...

I'm the adventurous type, so I proceeded balls to the wall.

No errors, rebooted, all seems fine...

I have no nvme to test with as of yet, but it didn't hurt the machine. So it's a win for now...
[doublepost=1533397080][/doublepost]

If you are unsure of using ROMTool, just rename it to MP51.0090.B00.LOCKED.fd and put on the High Sierra Firmware folder, then run the 10.13.6 installer app.

Btw, do not what I did and check again if the size is the same…

Cool, didn't know we could do that...
[doublepost=1533397199][/doublepost]

The old version of ROMTool just use the default selection, so if it worked with that (which it did for most people), it will work with the default.

Well, the new version was just field tested, and it worked fine as far as I can tell. Flash was successful and rebooted fine.

It did scare me a little, as the 1st reboot sat at a black screen about 3 seconds longer than usual, but it may just be that I was worried and watched it more intently.

 

[crjackson2134]

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