MP 1,1-5,1 Preferred option of the experienced community to get my Mac Pro to Catalina?

[Angelus]

I've currently got a flashed single CPU 4.1 to 5.1 with BootRom 144.0.0.0.0, Radeon Rx580 and Mojave installed.
With the recent announcement of transition to ARM processors, I know that my Mac Pro's days are numbered.

That being said it suits my needs right now and with an SSD installed is still very responsive. The only thing I've noticed is that it now doesn't sync reminders with my iOS devices. I imagine this incompatability will get worse once I upgrade my iPhone and Ipad Pro to iOS14 later in the year.

I'd like to give my Mac Pro one last hoorah and try to get to Catalina. I would however keep my SSD with Mojave installed as a backup OS.
I've tried to read through the various threads here but right now I find Opencore confusing. I'm not sure which one would give me the most trouble free solution.

I'm not very technical but was able to upgrade my CPU a few years ago and install a new AC Bluetooth card when I first got my Mac Pro.
It currently has a W3580 but if needed I could put in a Westmere/Gulftown CPU to be compatible with the OpenCore solution.
On the flip side I could forget Opencore and probably find a cheap used compatible mac mini (2012 or 2014) to perform an installation of Catalina and then transfer the drive to the Mac Pro.

My question is essentially if you could freely choose, what option would you pick in order to have the least amount of headaches with compatibility?
1. Buy a cheap Mac Mini used and use it to install Catalina. Then transfer drive to Mac Pro. Pro for me would be easy ability to update Catalina myself and I don't need to figure out Opencore.
2. Go with the Opencore route. I'd need to obtain an X5690 and try to get my head around the Opencore method. Potential pro might be that if Ican figure out Opencore, I could try for another hoorah to Big Sur

Thanks in advance.

 

[KeesMacPro]

There's a third option:
Install Catalina (Big Sur) with the DosDude patcher.

 

[Angelus]

There's a third option:
Install Catalina (Big Sur) with the DosDude patcher.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I’m not so keen on the DosDude option as I’d like to pursue a vanilla install that’s unpatched.

 

[t8er8]

I recommend the Opencore route, I just got done with it myself and the process is surprisingly easy if you follow the very detailed guide on this forum to set up and install catalina with opencore. Not only that but you gain very much tinkering ability and quality of life Improvements that come with opencore, not only does it offer the update TO catalina it also gives the ability to update catalina from system preferences. it gives you a bootloader you can customize yourself, HEVC and h.264 video encoding and decoding (optional), and best of all, if you dont end up liking it the uninstall process is quite simple as well. Opencore does look intimidating but you’ve got your firmware up to date so installing opencore itself is a 15 minute job, just be prepared ensure you meet all the prerequisites and it'll be smooth sailing.

 

[Angelus]

I recommend the Opencore route, I just got done with it myself and the process is surprisingly easy if you follow the very detailed guide on this forum to set up and install catalina with opencore. Not only that but you gain very much tinkering ability and quality of life Improvements that come with opencore, not only does it offer the update TO catalina it also gives the ability to update catalina from system preferences. it gives you a bootloader you can customize yourself, HEVC and h.264 video encoding and decoding (optional), and best of all, if you dont end up liking it the uninstall process is quite simple as well. Opencore does look intimidating but you’ve got your firmware up to date so installing opencore itself is a 15 minute job, just be prepared ensure you meet all the prerequisites and it'll be smooth sailing.

Thanks for your message. I must admit I read the first post of the Open Core thread a few times and it just didn’t click. I thought I’d have to do a lot of work in terminal which made me uncomfortable.

I found a video last night after I started this thread and the process does seem like it’ll be straightforward if I take my time. I hadn’t realised that the installation of Opencore was achieved with an app and a GUI.

 

[mangombia]

Thanks for your message. I must admit I read the first post of the Open Core thread a few times and it just didn’t click. I thought I’d have to do a lot of work in terminal which made me uncomfortable.

I found a video last night after I started this thread and the process does seem like it’ll be straightforward if I take my time. I hadn’t realised that the installation of Opencore was achieved with an app and a GUI.

There not much Terminal work with OC except disabling/enabling SIP from Recovery Mode. There is a bit of config file editing involved though to suit your environment but nothing that is irrevocable or that will damage your system. One bit of advice, if you have Mojave on a SATA drive, keep it in position 1. If you're going to install Catalina or Windows, put them on NVME drives, or in SATA2-4. Reason: if you have to dump OC, you can simply delete the EFI folder where you put it and do an NVRAM reset (CMD-R + OPT-P) on reboot. Keeping Mojave in SATA1 ensures your cMP will boot right back to it, rather than stop on an incompatible Catalina, or worse, boot Windows and get Microsoft's security certificates written to your BootROM and possibly corrupting it.

 

[Angelus]

There not much Terminal work with OC except disabling/enabling SIP from Recovery Mode. There is a bit of config file editing involved though to suit your environment but nothing that is irrevocable or that will damage your system. One bit of advice, if you have Mojave on a SATA drive, keep it in position 1. If you're going to install Catalina or Windows, put them on NVME drives, or in SATA2-4. Reason: if you have to dump OC, you can simply delete the EFI folder where you put it and do an NVRAM reset (CMD-R + OPT-P) on reboot. Keeping Mojave in SATA1 ensures your cMP will boot right back to it, rather than stop on an incompatible Catalina, or worse, boot Windows and get Microsoft's security certificates written to your BootROM and possibly corrupting it.

Thanks for the tip. I'm waiting for my new CPU to arrive so I'll use the time to plan and decide how to manage the upgrade.
Currently, I have Mojave installed on a DIY Fusion drive which is getting a bit long in the tooth.
I think I'll use the next few weeks to do a fresh install of Mojave onto an SSD, migrate my data over and that can live in Sata 1. I have some 32-bit apps and games that can live there for when I want to run them.

Then I'll install the CPU and prep another SSD in Sata 2 for OpenCore and Catalina. If all goes well, I'll migrate my data to that installation and use it as my primary system.

Setup should then be:
-Sata 1 Mojave SSD
-Sata2 Catalina and Opencore SSD

Will I then be able to use Sata 3-4 for Time machine backups, additional storage drives?

 

[mangombia]

Thanks for the tip. I'm waiting for my new CPU to arrive so I'll use the time to plan and decide how to manage the upgrade.
Currently, I have Mojave installed on a DIY Fusion drive which is getting a bit long in the tooth.
I think I'll use the next few weeks to do a fresh install of Mojave onto an SSD, migrate my data over and that can live in Sata 1. I have some 32-bit apps and games that can live there for when I want to run them.

Then I'll install the CPU and prep another SSD in Sata 2 for OpenCore and Catalina. If all goes well, I'll migrate my data to that installation and use it as my primary system.

Setup should then be:
-Sata 1 Mojave SSD
-Sata2 Catalina and Opencore SSD

Will I then be able to use Sata 3-4 for Time machine backups, additional storage drives?

You should be able to use the other open SATA slots (including the open Optical bay slot) for anything. Just make sure that Mojave is first in the boot order in SATA or NVME drives. If you ever switch to NMVE and have Windows (or Catalina) in any SATA slot, make sure you pull that Windows (or Catalina) drive if you ever uninstall OC. The reason is that when you do an NVRAM reset the cMP will boot from the first bootable SATA drive it finds. If Windows (or Catalina) is ahead of anything it will boot from that and Windows will end up writing security certificates to your BootROM (Catalina will just fail without the "-no_compat_check" loaded in NVRAM).

My Workstation has 2 NVME (the first Mojave, the second Catalina), and Win10 on an SSD in SATA2, with OC on the EFI of a USB. If I need to uninstall OC, all I need to do is pull the USB and Win10, on reboot do an NVRAM reset, and it will boot to Mojave. I can do whatever I need to do to OC, disable SIP and rebless the USB EFI.