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

[startergo]

Just a quick question, I've been reading a lot of Catalina on unsupported Macs threads and I'm not sure if i summarize them correctly.

I am on a Mac Pro 5.1. If I upgrade my GPU to a RX 580, will I be able to *hackily* run Catalina?

Yes. All the requirements for Mojave + a hack

 

[Darkvader75]

Yes. All the requirements for Mojave + a hack

Minus wifi. Possibly Bluetooth. I am trying to verify with anyone if the old Bluetooth onboard chip still works.

 

[zemaker]

are there any firmware updates that come with Catalina that I could install on 5,1 Mac Pro? I don't care about the OS itself.

 

[roobarb!]

are there any firmware updates that come with Catalina that I could install on 5,1 Mac Pro? I don't care about the OS itself.

Not in DP1, there's not even a firmware update framework in there for the 5,1.

 

[tsialex]

Minus wifi. Possibly Bluetooth. I am trying to verify with anyone if the old Bluetooth onboard chip still works.

MP5,1 Bluetooth original module works with Catalina.
[doublepost=1560032714][/doublepost]

Just a quick question, I've been reading a lot of Catalina on unsupported Macs threads and I'm not sure if i summarize them correctly.

I am on a Mac Pro 5.1. If I upgrade my GPU to a RX 580, will I be able to *hackily* run Catalina?

Don't spend money thinking that Catalina will run, that's not certain. Apple can easily enable AVX support and adios. If you want two years of Mojave security updates, go for it.

 

[tsialex]

Another item for the Apple won't support MP5,1 with Catalina:

 

[LightBulbFun]

I think those things have been in Mojave as well, you can see them at the end of the verbose log just before the GUI loads

I have seen it on other Macs as well so I dont think its a 5,1 thing specifically

 

[tsialex]

I think those things have been in Mojave as well, you can see them at the end of the verbose log just before the GUI loads

I have seen it on other Macs as well so I dont think its a 5,1 thing specifically

Yep, you are correct. I remember seeing this with MP3,1, don't remember ever seeing this with MP5,1 until now.

 

[Darkvader75]

Yep, you are correct. I remember seeing this with MP3,1, don't remember ever seeing this with MP5,1 until now.
View attachment 842045

Any clue what impact this will have?

 

[tsialex]

Any clue what impact this will have?

With Penryn CPUs the telemetry plugin make the CPU to KP, with Nehalem/Westmere seems to just warn about unsupported CPU/PCH.

 

[roto1231]

This is a thread dedicated to what is needed to make Catalina work with the now unsupported MP5,1 + METAL supported GPU. If you want to discuss about why Apple removed support, please go to this thread 10.15 won't support MP5,1 anymore, support starts with MP6,1.

View attachment 840579

If you install Catalina with a supported Mac then move the drive to your MP5,1 (with a METAL supported GPU) or use Target Disk Mode, or use VMWare Fusion to install to a disk you just need -no_compat_check added to the Mac Pro NVRAM boot-args, after that 10.15 "works" with a MP5,1.

It's a little slower than Mojave, not unusual for a beta with all the debug settings activated, and have some problems, but you really just need -no_compat_check when you install the Catalina Developer Preview with a supported Mac.

You need SIP disabled to change boot-args and you need to do it before installing your Catalina drive. No need to keep SIP disabled, it's just needed to set the boot-args. Btw, you can set NVRAM boot-args directly from the Recovery partition without disabling SIP. If you do it from Recovery, no need to use sudo.

sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

Problems found so far:

- Apple removed the drivers for BCM94322MC from Catalina, the original AirPort Extreme card from both mid-2010/mid2012 Mac Pro. If you updated to BCM94360CD and BCM943602CD, both models work with Catalina. The original Bluetooth module works, Ethernet works.

View attachment 840582

- Apple NVIDIA native drivers are buggier than the usual, with black bars on the Safari tab bar all the time - screen capture don't show it, I had to take a photo. Lots of black blocks on Finder file lists too. I'm using a flashed eVGA GT 640 2GB with this Mac Pro:

View attachment 840585

Notes:

1. Catalina Sidecar is blocked on MP5,1, read post #59.
2. Before anyone asks again, Catalina is not supported (actively blocked) on a MP5,1:

View attachment 840834

The block showed above is in the distribution file, InstallESD.DMG/OSInstall.mpkg/Distribution. It's a double block, since you need to add the boardID to the list of supported ones.

Looks very similar to the way you had to hand build the installer for El Capitan on a 1,1. Once I figured out all you had to do was clone an El Cap drive and drop the appropriate files in the right places it was dead simple. I forget but I think you did the same thing with Leopard on G4’s below 700MHz. Cloned the drive and then dropped it into the machine.
If all you need to do is drop in the board ID and get rid of the MacPro 5,1 comment on the MPKG all you’re going to need to do is edit the plist file on the MPKG. You’re going to have to do it as a root user though or as “System”.

Thoughts?

 

[tsialex]

Looks very similar to the way you had to hand build the installer for El Capitan on a 1,1. Once I figured out all you had to do was clone an El Cap drive and drop the appropriate files in the right places it was dead simple. I forget but I think you did the same thing with Leopard on G4’s below 700MHz. Cloned the drive and then dropped it into the machine.
If all you need to do is drop in the board ID and get rid of the MacPro 5,1 comment on the MPKG all you’re going to need to do is edit the plist file on the MPKG. You’re going to have to do it as a root user though or as “System”.

Thoughts?

Installer is not working with the edited OSInstall.mpkg, no one seems to know why yet.

The best result is obtained using VMWare Fusion, or other virtualisation solutions, to install from scratch directly to the raw disk, shutdown when InstallAssistant appears and end the install process with your MP5,1. If you upgrade over a previous install, some Mac App Store apps don't work anymore.

 

[Peet_B]

I'm really really hoping that I'll be able to run Catalina on my 5,1. Bought it 3 weeks ago, and spent about $1200 in total, including a RX580. Since I read that it would be Mojave supported, but with a Metal supported GPU I thought I'd be fine... Nevertheless I'm willing to install a new airport card. (since I'm still rocking the original one), and do a bit of hacking, and im sure someone here will be providing a step by step guide to help noobs like me

 

[Darkvader75]

I'm really really hoping that I'll be able to run Catalina on my 5,1. Bought it 3 weeks ago, and spent about $1200 in total, including a RX580. Since I read that it would be Mojave supported, but with a Metal supported GPU I thought I'd be fine... Nevertheless I'm willing to install a new airport card. (since I'm still rocking the original one), and do a bit of hacking, and im sure someone here will be providing a step by step guide to help noobs like me

There will be a tool to run where it’s ready to install on rebooting once we get past beta.

 

[joot]

Catalina support on my 5,1 will help me determine whether a i9-9900K hackintosh build will be my next computer. The new Mac Pro is out of my league...

 

[tsialex]

When I have free time, I've been doing installs of Catalina DP1 with VMWare Fusion to a SATA SSD to check the pitfalls and found workarounds for every one I had.

One thing that I noticed is if you run vmware-rawdiskCreator with a disk with data, sometimes you can't boot the second stage of the install. If I remove the GPT from the disk before running vmware-rawdiskCreator, no problem. But then I have a different problem, the keyboard don't work with the installer and I can't partition the disk. Mouse works, btw.

So after running vmware-rawdiskCreator, we have to partition the the disk with one HFS+ partition and then unmount the disk before creating the VM. After that, everything works as expected.

 

[melvinlusk]

I thought I'd share my experience with this. I didn't want to start with a fresh install of Catalina, and instead opted to try to upgrade my Mojave install. I have a mid-2012 Mac Pro with Mojave installed on a NVM.2 card.

I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the Mojave install on the M.2 card to a spare SATA SSD. I then took that SSD out of the Mac Pro and hooked it up to my MacBook Air using a USB-SATA adapter. I set that up as the startup disk, rebooted, and ran the Catalina installer. It upgraded as it should, and I then put the SATA SSD back in the Mac Pro and set it as the startup disk, and rebooted.

It booted right up, but there's a few weird things; the wi-fi issue that's already been mentioned (not that important to me), but I have these weird screen artifacts.....like these weird black boxes appearing all over the screen. I can sorta remedy this by moving open windows over them. The vid-card in the Mac Pro is an AMD RX580. I'm assuming that this is a driver issue with the Catalina beta.

I wanted to move the Catalina install from the SSD back to the NVM.2 card, but it looks like Carbon Copy Cloner doesn't fully support working with Catalina system files yet. There's a beta available, but it didn't work like I wanted.

I'll keep everyone posted as I try it out more.

 

[JeffPerrin]

Will be watching this thread!

Since the 2019 Mac Pro is obviously way too expensive for most pros, and the 2018 Mac Mini GPU is too underwhelming for serious graphics and video work (well documented), the 2012 Mac Pro yet again remains as the pro machine for those who desire a tower-style solution for their work station.

Thanks to all those working towards bringing Catalina to the working class pro!

 

[seek3r]

We still have at least two years of Mojave security updates, so it's not something to worry now.

I think that Apple probable decided to removed support for MP5,1 recently, after the Intel MDS debacle. If Cupertino devs don't do go crazy with AVX support everywhere, Catalina will be easy to run on MP5,1.

The main prob is going to be for people like me with an nvidia gpu unless apple starts letting nvidia write and sign drivers again since I bet Apple will pull their drivers that allow the the older supported cards to work in the GM

 

[macagain]

Thanks to all those working towards bringing Catalina to the working class pro!

Haha! the cMP might have to be renamed the wcMP!

 

[jonwatso]

Not adding anything new to this thread but can confirm the "install on a supported Mac and then move the drive" works fine with my Mac Pro 5,1 with the NVRAM argument stated in post 1. Was very disappointed to see it was dropped from the supported line up. But in saying that, I use to run my Mac Pro 1,1 on 10.11 without any issues for a few years.

In saying that, how likely is it that apple switches instructions sets before the final release?

 

[AidenShaw]

In saying that, how likely is it that apple switches instructions sets before the final release?

It probably becomes more likely with each forum post about how to bypass the cMP blocks in the Catalina installer.

 

[startergo]

It probably becomes more likely with each forum post about how to bypass the cMP blocks in the Catalina installer.

What is your point?

 

[Macschrauber]

When I have free time, I've been doing installs of Catalina DP1 with VMWare Fusion to a SATA SSD to check the pitfalls and found workarounds for every one I had.

One thing that I noticed is if you run vmware-rawdiskCreator with a disk with data, sometimes you can't boot the second stage of the install. If I remove the GPT from the disk before running vmware-rawdiskCreator, no problem. But then I have a different problem, the keyboard don't work with the installer and I can't partition the disk. Mouse works, btw.

So after running vmware-rawdiskCreator, we have to partition the the disk with one HFS+ partition and then unmount the disk before creating the VM. After that, everything works as expected.

Can you explain the vmware thing a little bit closer ?


I formatted my Disk in APFS

injected the rawDiskFile.vmdk

editied the .vmx file, added

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "rawDiskFile.vmdk"
ide0:0.deviceType = "rawDisk"
suspend.disabled = "TRUE"

as vm machine type I selected Win 10 64 bit

Uefi (?)

Added the USB Thumb Drive with Catalina Installer to VMware

it recognises the Real Hard Drive, Boots into the thumb drive,

starts the Installer but stucks at ca. 3/4

let it sit for a while but it dont gets further.

Edit: It moved, but slowly, need to get a nap, let it sit during the night, hope it moves further...

 

[tsialex]

Can you explain the vmware thing a little bit closer ?


I formatted my Disk in APFS

injected the rawDiskFile.vmdk

editied the .vmx file, added

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "rawDiskFile.vmdk"
ide0:0.deviceType = "rawDisk"
suspend.disabled = "TRUE"

as vm machine type I selected Win 10 64 bit

Uefi (?)

Added the USB Thumb Drive with Catalina Installer to VMware

it recognises the Real Hard Drive, Boots into the thumb drive,

starts the Installer but stucks at ca. 3/4


View attachment 842382

let it sit for a while but it dont gets further.

Did you change the keyboard and mouse settings too? Don’t install from a USB key, use the normal Fusion way.