MP 1,1-5,1 OWC Accelsior No Workie in my 5,1

[xxcfdrr]

I bought a mid 2010 5,1 from a computer recycler and they had wiped the machine clean and put Catalina on it somehow. It has the 256GB Apple SSD as the main drive, clean install. I put a GTX 680 (non mac bios) in the box and the video and performance seem fine.

I've purchased an OWC Accelsior 1M2 1TB PCIe card and installed it in the machine. I did a Carbon Copy Clone (several times now) and set the start up disk as the new Aura drive. The Mac restarts but is still using the Apple SSD. When I hold the option key during boot, I do not see the 1TB Aura drive. The firmware on this box is MP51.007F.B03, is this the problem? I also temporarily put this card in my High Sierra 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) and it did the same thing, not able to boot from it. The firmware on my 4,1 is 138.0.0.0.0.

One thing that is odd. If the blade is in slot2 the performance is ~700 mb/s. If the blade is in slot 3 or slot 4 it is ~1500 mb/s.

Thank you for any help.

 

[goMac]

I think you need the firmware that comes with Mojave. If the recycler skipped to Catalina it may not have installed the firmware.

It looks like there is an existing thread on how to get onto that firmware here:

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[joevt]

The Accelsior might do weird stuff to the Apple Startup Manager (hold option at boot).
You should select it as the boot drive from the Startup Disk preferences panel. But you said you already tried that?
In any case, you should update the firmware first.

The slot 2/slot 3 problem is strange. The new firmware might fix it. If not, then check the PCIe link rate using pcitree.sh or FixPCIeLinkRate.efi. Report the results here.

 

[KeesMacPro]

NVMe boot is not supported with the current BootROMs of both Mac Pros you have.
The MP with MP51.007F.B03 must be updated (with a Mac-EFI/flashed GPU installed) to High Sierra first to get Mojave (=latest BootROM) installed.

The link posted by @goMac is an excellent thread with all FAQ answered.

Basically the only way to get a bootscreen with a non-Mac EFI GPU is through OpenCore, so before upgrading/installing the Mojave BootROM, I would recommend to remove the SSD with Catalina and do a NVRAM reset.
Perhaps I misunderstood because you only mentioned the option key (which doesnt work with non-Mac EFI GPU and a natively installed OS)...
One way or another Catalina is installed with a patch or through OpenCore, in both cases I would remove/erase the drive and reset NVRAM before upgrading.

 

[xxcfdrr]

Thanks for the advise. I used an AMD 5870 and installed High Sierra from USB stick. Then installed GTX 680 and installed Mojave from macOS (the High Sierra). Then I cloned the Catalina that came on the Apple SSD drive (from the computer recycler) to the OWC 1M2 blade, changed the start up disk to the NVME and then did migration assistant to move all files and settings to new Mac. Typing on my new rig as we speak! All for dark mode....

 

[h9826790]

You need to run the latest 10.14.6 installer on your cMP in order to upgrade the firmware to 144.0.0.0.0. Which is the latest, also give you NVMe bootability.

No matter how many times you clone the OS, it won't update the firmware.

One thing that is odd. If the blade is in slot2 the performance is ~700 mb/s. If the blade is in slot 3 or slot 4 it is ~1500 mb/s.

Nothing odd, your firmware is too old. Whenever lack of PCIe switch in the circuit, all PCIe 3.0 device can only populate at PCIe 1.0 speed. That's why your NVMe can only work at PCIe 1.0 x4, which max at about ~700MB/s in real world.

144.0.0.0.0 also fix this issue.

 

[startergo]

Basically the only way to get a bootscreen with a non-Mac EFI GPU is through OpenCore,

This is not correct. RefindPlus can provide the boot screen too. If only Mojave is going to be installed this is enough to enable bootpicker.

 

[KeesMacPro]

This is not correct. RefindPlus can provide the boot screen too. If only Mojave is going to be installed this is enough to enable bootpicker.

You're absolutely right, I should have mentioned that too.