MP 1,1-5,1 OpenCore to upgrade from Mojave...still worth it? Is there a "safe" OS?

[AppleDrank]

HI all. A few years ago, some great people from this forum helped me upgrade my 2010 5,1 dual proc to Mojave, booting from NVME, with RX580. This has been a GREAT machine, apart from the fan noise, and I would see no need to upgrade it, but recently I've had compatibility and upgrade problems with more and more programs, and I concluded I would need to upgrade, notwithstanding my affinity for Mojave, which has been described her by others as the Last Great Mac Desktop OS.

So I bought a 10GB drive, carved out a 20GB partition, and did a clean install of Mojave to try out OpenCore. About an hour into my preliminary research, I noted several users reporting issues with OpenCore. See e.g. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...en-support-for-older-mac-pros.2289056/page-52

It appears that the oldest OS Apple still supports is Monterey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_version_history
It appears based on Tsialex' post here, that manually configured OpenCore may still be doable. But, is this really still a viable upgrade path for a daily driver? Is there any other strategy I should be entertaining?

Thanks

 

[MacHeritage]

I think only you could really know whether it is worth it or not at this time. If you really want or need to, it is worth a shot. Just have a plan B.

Otherwise, here is one strategy I have implemented. If on a budget of very little, that is. Aquire a newer Mac that can run Monterey or higher and use that, in addition to your Mac Pro 2010. That is what I am doing at present. This way, you can run the newer apps that you need, while still using the Mac Pro as the heavy lifter and running all the older programs that only will work in Mojave or are stable on that OS.

I choose not to go with OpenCore since I need stability and I don't think the little chip on the board, that can wear out from rebooting etc. (totally forgot the name of it) is up for the task either. And I need it to work right now and not end up with a dead Mac Pro from trying to install OpenCore, fix the garbage collection on the chip etc. Therefore, I went with this route.

I choose a 2015 MBP from eBay and installed both Mojave and Monterey. This helps me figure out what will work and what won't work on the newer macOS without compromising my main setup, while also seeing how a laptop workflow works vs the desktop one. I've learned a lot with this way of doing it.

It really depends on your needs and I don't know what that is. But hopefully what I have shared can help in some way.

Edit: One more thing, there is no safe OS unless it is one detached from the Internet. But Apple says the safest is only the latest one they ship that gets all the security updates. That means Sonoma is the only fully safe macOS, except for all the holes that are not known by Apple yet.

 

[tsialex]

HI all. A few years ago, some great people from this forum helped me upgrade my 2010 5,1 dual proc to Mojave, booting from NVME, with RX580. This has been a GREAT machine, apart from the fan noise, and I would see no need to upgrade it, but recently I've had compatibility and upgrade problems with more and more programs, and I concluded I would need to upgrade, notwithstanding my affinity for Mojave, which has been described her by others as the Last Great Mac Desktop OS.

So I bought a 10GB drive, carved out a 20GB partition, and did a clean install of Mojave to try out OpenCore. About an hour into my preliminary research, I noted several users reporting issues with OpenCore. See e.g. https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...en-support-for-older-mac-pros.2289056/page-52

It appears that the oldest OS Apple still supports is Monterey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_version_history
It appears based on Tsialex' post here, that manually configured OpenCore may still be doable. But, is this really still a viable upgrade path for a daily driver? Is there any other strategy I should be entertaining?

Thanks

Monterey works fine with MacPro5,1, installed via OC manually or via OCLP, if is something that will be easier for you. My advice is for you to install to a spare disk and keep your Mojave disk as is.

If you are going the OCLP route, you'll need a flashed GPU since BootScreens/BootPicker is practically a major requirement with OCLP.

If your RX 580 is not flashed, EnableGop injected to the Mac Pro BootROM works beautifully, thx to @Bmju. If injecting EnableGop to the Mac Pro is not something that you are capable of doing yourself, my BootROM reconstruction service always provice an additional reconstructed BootROM image with EnableGop injected.

EnableGop: Pre-OpenCore GOP support for EFI-era iMacs and Mac Pros

You wait ten years for a driver to enable pre-boot graphics on unsupported GPUs in EFI era Macs, and then two come along at once... This post is to announce a firmware driver to enable the native Apple boot picker and early macOS boot progress bar (plus other parts of the firmware UI: target...

forums.macrumors.com

Send me a PM, if you need the clean-up, upgrade and reconstruction service.

 

[macguru9999]

You do not need opencore to install Catalina, just the dosdude patch. Its very stable, but the end of the line for this method and catalina is four steps behind . You would be better off getting a mac mini to run sonoma and leave the 5,1 on catalina. My main mac is an M1 pro MBP 16/1tb in clamshell mode running sonoma.

 

[flaubert]

I agree with @MacHeritage : if you run OpenCore, have a plan B and another Mac that can run Monterey natively. OpenCore works incredibly well, and has been quite stable in my experience, but you don't want to find yourself up a creek with no paddle. I have since moved most of my computing to the Mac Pro 2019, but I still dabble with my 5,1 OpenCore machines. Note that I said machines, plural; another tip is to have two OpenCore machines, one that you test with and one that is your production machine. What I do is update OpenCore and Monterey on the test machine first, then transfer the OpenCore config and updated files to the production machine.

I also want to attest to the usefulness of @tsialex 's boot rom reconstruction service, and especially the EnableGOP feature injection. It's a game changer when it comes to working with OpenCore - no more endless waits to boot into recovery mode to switch back and forth into/out of OpenCore mode. Just option-boot and select either Mojave or the EFI partition with OpenCore.

 

[AppleDrank]

Thanks all. I really appreciate it. You've given me a lot to research. Is there a page for tsialex's service?

 

[tsialex]

Thanks all. I really appreciate it. You've given me a lot to research. Is there a page for tsialex's service?

I sent you a PM with all the info, required files, service fee and turnaround time.

 

[MacHeritage]

tsialex, would you mind sending me that info as well? That would be most appreciated. Then I would have an idea of how much I need to put towards that issue since I really want to get that done in the near future.

 

[aebaileyNC4life]

Tsialex, Could you also send it to me, please?
I have a OE 5.1 with an updated gpu card only and memory upgrade.
otherwise factory fresh. I’m running Mojave.
it’s getting to where I can’t access a lot of sites and business programs because i get the “you need to update to the latest OS in order to use this Program/Site”!
so, I need to upgrade and I need your help.
thank you,
Art

 

[tsialex]

Tsialex, Could you also send it to me, please?
I have a OE 5.1 with an updated gpu card only and memory upgrade.
otherwise factory fresh. I’m running Mojave.
it’s getting to where I can’t access a lot of sites and business programs because i get the “you need to update to the latest OS in order to use this Program/Site”!
so, I need to upgrade and I need your help.
thank you,
Art

If you are talking about the BootROM reconstruction service, I've sent you all the info about required files, service fee and turn around time.

For help with Monterey upgrade, I don't recommend upgrading to anything earlier or later with a MacPro5,1 for a series of different reasons, you can start learning about the OpenCore manually configured approach:

Manually Configured OpenCore on the Mac Pro

In this guide, you'll learn how to use OpenCore to install, run and update macOS Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey on the 2009–2012 Mac Pro, ending up with a clean unaltered operating system just like on a supported Mac. The approach described in this guide is for setting up and configuring...

forums.macrumors.com

Or you can use OCLP, this is the Monterey Unsupported thread:

macOS 12 Monterey on Unsupported Macs Thread

This thread will be dedicated to the discussion of running macOS 12.0 on unsupported Macs At the time of writing, WWDC has wrapped up and Developer Seeds have been sent out. We're eagerly awaiting for all our community developers and enthusiasts to test out the new version of macOS We will...

forums.macrumors.com