MP 1,1-5,1 Obsolete, Use OpenCore instead | What you need to do to make Catalina work with MacPro5,1

[seek3r]

All Macs after 2013 have and require GOP pre-boot support environment, while MP5,1 requires UGA. Any MP7,1 pre-boot support EFI module will be useless for using with MP5,1 BootROM. Btw, with T2, you can't just dump the BootROM.

All AMD GPUs released after R9-280X are GOP too. R9-280X is the last card that have UGA pre-boot support, except MVC flashed RX 580.

Fair enough, hadnt really dug into that end of things too much outside of making sure I used a card that had support

 

[Macschrauber]

wanted to fiddle a bit with Catalina VMware Fusion

Disk ID changed

last time disk9, this time disk11

so edit the file rawdisk.vmdk with hexEdit or any other Editor and change the Disk ID is all to do

 

[Lycestra]

Is there a secret to loading the AirPortBrcm4331.kext that I'm missing?

I've already learned I shouldn't copy the kext to the same place on Catalina as on Mojave (/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4331.kext). This is inside another kext's plugins directory, which counts as modifying that bundle, fubaring the signature/notarization, so Catalina refuses to load IO80211Family.kext.
If I put it in /System/Library/Extensions, and make sure the ownership is right, it will at least try to load it and its dependencies. The issue now is it fails with a linking error. There were two symbols, which exactly I don't recall, but they had "P2P" in the symbol name. Do I need to replace the IO80211Family.kext in its entirety?

-- edit --
The specific errors are here. It prints this twice. Also has a "KextAudit didn't find a bridge: audit=F"
The vtable '__ZTV16AirPort_Brcm4331' is malformed. Make sure your kext has been built against the correct headers.
The vtable '__ZTV29AirPort_Brcm4331_P2PInterface' is malformed. Make sure your kext has been built against the correct headers

 

[Farravi]

Btw, a new way to run un-patched is being developed that is very promising, using OpenCore as a boot loader, and will make things easier when it's ready. This will probably make us finally have software updates, Continuity and HEIVC acceleration natively with Catalina. Until OpenCore is ready for prime time, direct hardware VMs are still the best option to install and update.

Do we know approximately when this is expected, as I rather sit tight and wait for this, I'm not in a great hurry to upgrade from High Sierra just as yet.

 

[cdf]

Do we know approximately when this is expected, as I rather sit tight and wait for this, I'm not in a great hurry to upgrade from High Sierra just as yet.

It's coming. I've repeated the process a few times with my setup, confirming that installs and updates work by altering the system identifier. However, the approach is somewhat naive.

Just today I managed to spoof the VMM flag. This is the better approach. Hopefully, installs and updates will work as expected. Stay tuned.

 

[Synchro3]

With VMware 11.5 Fusion its even a bit easier.

Could get the whole installation of 10.15 sup. Update 19A602 thru in VMware, System was a MP5.1 running Mojave

Did the real disc method, (SSD connected in an USB Adapter in USB 3 Card)

Setting was 10.15, no changes for Keyboard Mouse etc.

Did complete installation in VMware with USB Stick loaded with bootable Catalina installer

Plugged the SSD in a MP5.1 on Southbridge Sata2, Boot-Arg -no_compat_check, and Catalina booted fine vanilla and natively

VMware Screenshots:

Does that mean that the VMare real disk method is only working when the ssd is connected via USB ?

So for each macOS update one has to put the ssd in an USB enclosure again?

 

[tsialex]

Does that mean that the VMare real disk method is only working when the ssd is connected via USB ?

So for each macOS update one has to put the ssd in an USB enclosure again?

No, you just need two separate disks, one for Catalina and another for 10.13/10.14 with VMware Fusion. With earlier Fusion releases, USB raw disk support didn't even work.

I use internal SATA disks, some people used NVMe. Fusion supports IDE, SATA, NVMe and SCSI raw disks (I really don't know if IDE and SCSI still works, some things Fusion theoretically still supports are not maintained anymore, one example is 10.9 support, 11.5 VMware Tools for it has a signing certificate expired in 2018)

 

[Macschrauber]

in my case I was using 2 Mac Pros, one for running Fusion, one to put the ssd in. It was just more handy to use that way.

 

[tsialex]

Just a tease, from OpenCore, with a totally vanilla/unpatched Catalina install

VMM flag support for updates, see at the end:

machdep.cpu.features: FPU VME DE PSE TSC MSR PAE MCE CX8 APIC SEP MTRR PGE MCA CMOV PAT PSE36 CLFSH DS ACPI MMX FXSR SSE SSE2 SS HTT TM PBE SSE3 PCLMULQDQ DTES64 MON DSCPL VMX SMX EST TM2 SSSE3 CX16 TPR PDCM SSE4.1 SSE4.2 POPCNT AES VMM PCID

Edit: Just to be clear, when you spoof a newer Mac, like iMacPro1,1 or MacPro7,1, VMM flag spoofing is not needed for install or updates at all.

Unfortunately, HEVC Polaris/VEGA/NAVI acceleration is not done yet, something that Catalina checks/test to enable x265 is still missing. H264 decode and encoding are working fine with Polaris/VEGA/NAVI.

Sidecar already showing, but depends on HEVC to correctly work:

 

[macRit]

Hello,

I have been following this post for a while now, it all appears to be straight forward and easy!

Having said that, I am at loss of why I can not make the transition to Catalina work for my MacPro.

The following is a synopsis of what I have and what I have tried to do:

System#1: MacPro5,1 (late 2012) 3.46GHz 6-core, 32GB memory, 4 HD 3&4TB, 500GB Samsung SSD and RX470
System#2: MacMini7,1 (late 2014) 3.00GHz i7, 16GB memory, 250GB SSD and Iris graphics
System#3: MacBook Pro Retina, 1.8GHz i7, 8GB memory, 250GB SSD and Iris graphics

Installing Catalina on both the MacMini and MacBrook Pro has been uneventful and both work as expected.

I would like to install Catalina on the MAcPro5,1 and I have not, yet, succeeded. I have tried a few avenues to gat it working without success.

My first attempt was as follows:
With disk utility on the MacPro, running Mojave, I split the APFS formatted SSD into two (2) 250GB partitions. One partition has Mojave installed and the other was named "Catalina". As a precaution I have set the nvram to ignore compatibility check. Checkin the status, I verified with "nvram -p" that the compatibility check is indeed off - as shown with nvram -p --- "boot-args -no_comp_check".

Took the 500GB SSD out of the MacPro5,1 and installed it in an external USB3 case and attached it to the MacMini.
Installed Catalina on the SSD partition with the Apple "Install Catalina" utility. No problems, rebooted the MacMini and Catalina appears fully functional in the Mac mini.

Installed the SSD back in the MAcPro5,1 and booted Mojave (default), checked Catalina with "Disk Utility" and it all looks good. Selected the Catalina partition as the startup disk and rebooted the system - NO-GO! Tried to boot several times without success. Of course there is NO boot screen and the MacPro powered down shortly each time I tried the reboot. I have an old GTX120 card and installed that to see what is going on. The boot screen came up each time with the "Stop sign" Icon and the MacPro powered down.

My second attempt was: Redid all the above with an external 1TB Hard HD, thinking the SSD behaved funny - with the same results.

I am sure I am missing something and any or all suggestions are welcome.

I checked the nvram status and it remains unchanged - no comp check.

Thank you - George.

 

[cdf]

"boot-args -no_comp_check"

The correct argument is "-no_compat_check"

 

[tsialex]

Checkin the status, I verified with "nvram -p" that the compatibility check is indeed off - as shown with nvram -p --- "boot-args -no_comp_check".

sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

 

[macRit]

sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

Hello: cdf and tsialex

What can I say besides "A great big thank you" to you both!

Thank you very much. I was sure I was missing something, but no matter haw I tried I did not spot the error I made with setting the "nvram" variable. Just two little characters "at" - goes to show that one needs an other set of eyes to look at what was done to spot the/an error!

Please keep up the good work, you guys are admirable and provide a great and valuable insight for all!

Best Regards - George.

 

[macRit]

Further to my earlier message:

of course it works after correcting the nvram variable!

Regards - George.

 

[ses2008]

Now that 10.15.1 is out, how can one update a MacPro 5,1 with Metal Card, no Patch installed just the nvram command applied?
Remove the SSD card an update it on a supported machine?
Thanks for any help.

 

[bsbeamer]

Now that 10.15.1 is out, how can one update a MacPro 5,1 with Metal Card, no Patch installed just the nvram command applied?
Remove the SSD card an update it on a supported machine?
Thanks for any help.

Seriously? Did you first read post #1 in this thread?

macOS updates work? There are two types of updates, macOS point releases and Security updates have the same blocks as full installs while Apple app updates like Safari or iTunes (it's a example, iTunes is dead with Catalina), usually don't have the same checks as macOS updates. For the blocked updates, you can use a VM with raw disk support to update Catalina or use a Catalina supported Mac to do the updates. A new way to spoof the VMM flag, to make Catalina think that is running in a VM, is being developed by OpenCore, but no release dates.

 

[tsialex]

Now that 10.15.1 is out, how can one update a MacPro 5,1 with Metal Card, no Patch installed just the nvram command applied?
Remove the SSD card an update it on a supported machine?
Thanks for any help.

No, you can’t update a MP5,1 by himself. Apple blocks MP5,1 board-id inside the update distribution file

You can use another Mac, a VM with raw disk support or OpenCore VMM spoof.

 

[cdf]

Did the update to 10.15.1 with OpenCore VMM spoofing. It just works.

 

[Digital Nomad]

Wanted to reach out to the group to see if anyone had luck in booting into Catalina from an NVMe Raid 0 drive. I tried two methods

• Installed Catalina in an external SSD and then move it to my MacPro 5,1. I then used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the drive to my Raid 0 (that had been formatted to APFS) and
• Use the rawDisk method, installing Catalina on a VMware Virtual Machine. The installation worked and I was able to upgrade to the latest version of Catalina. In this case I used my Raid drive as the raw disk for Fusion

In either case, when I tried to select my Raid as the startup drive I got the following message:

You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk
Running bless to place boot files failed.​

Any ideas would be very much appreciated

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Did the update to 10.15.1 with OpenCore VMM spoofing. It just works.

Is VMM spoofing possible without altering the boot process itself (such as by OpenCore)?

 

[tsialex]

Is VMM spoofing possible without altering the boot process itself (such as by OpenCore)?

Unless CZO patch is updated to 10.15, the answer is no. CZO already announced that he won’t update it, btw.

 

[macRit]

Hello again,

In my earlier message I indicated that using the above compatibility argument method, as devised, and works as intended.

I have downloaded the Catalina "10.15.1 recommended update" but when I try to install this update the running Catalina 10.15 tells me that the software is up to date..... ???

The premise of this thread is to use the "official Apple released" software without patches etc. - the Apple installer must be evaluating the system further than to check for compatibility, otherwise it would allow the update of the running Catalina software.

Is anyone aware of what the installer is looking for, in addition of the compatibility check? Would it be as simple as enabling an other variable at boot time?

Thoughts? Thank you - George.

 

[tsialex]

Hello again,

In my earlier message I indicated that using the above compatibility argument method, as devised, and works as intended.

I have downloaded the Catalina "10.15.1 recommended update" but when I try to install this update the running Catalina 10.15 tells me that the software is up to date..... ???

The premise of this thread is to use the "official Apple released" software without patches etc. - the Apple installer must be evaluating the system further than to check for compatibility, otherwise it would allow the update of the running Catalina software.

Is anyone aware of what the installer is looking for, in addition of the compatibility check? Would it be as simple as enabling an other variable at boot time?

Thoughts? Thank you - George

1) It’s exactly the same mechanism that blocks Catalina installs with MP5,1. So many people ask this before looking at the first post, the answer to this recurrent question is on the FAQ since the WWDC.
2) No, it’s not. Apple devised just one way to workaround the check for a supported Mac/block, VMM flag (flag that shows to macOS that it’s running inside a virtual machine). Only using a raw disk VM, another supported Mac or OpenCore VMM flag spoofing you can update Catalina.

Edit: added VMM flag spoofing to differentiate from Catalina supported Mac spoofing, since we don’t know yet if it’s safe. With what I saw up to now, unfortunately I’m inclined to say that it’s not safe, since OpenCore or drivers write binary blobs to the private part of the MP5,1 NVRAM where we can’t erase.

 

[macRit]

Thank you "tsialex",

I guess moving my ssd disk to and from a supported mac will become routine. May just stay on Mojave for now and wait for Catalina to become more mainstream before using it on my main system.

 

[Coyote2006]

Am I right that the VMdisk installation means that, with every update, we have to make a complete new installation of the updated Catalina and load the data from a backup?