MP 1,1-5,1 Seeking OpenCore Guidance - 5,1 Mac Pro

[dataharvested]

Greetings all.

I have been searching for the best way to approach a OpenCore Legacy Patcher installation on my Mac Pro 5,1. The scenario is as follows:

I have been running High Sierra up until this point and would really like to go the OpenCore route to gain a boot selection menu with my RX 580 graphics card. I also want to upgrade the operating system to the newest and most stable version compatible with OpenCore and the 5,1. I have read that Monterey is possible, but do not want to install that version if it is not reliable just yet.

- HD 5770 Graphics Card (I have it, not currently installed though)
- Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB Graphics Card (not flashed for Apple boot menu/loading screen)
- Updated to current Boot ROM version 144.XXX already by launching Mojave installer (did not install Mojave though)

So, my questions are:

Is it best to perform a clean installation on a new SSD of High Sierra -> install OpenCore -> then upgrade to a newer operating system version (Big Sur, Monterey, etc.)?

Or, should I just create the OpenCore bootable flash drive and install to a freshly formatted SSD?

Also, from others experience, what is the most stable release of macOS for the 5,1 and OpenCore Legacy Patcher?

My thoughts were that if I did an installation of High Sierra first and got OpenCore installed I could utilize my HD 5770 for a boot screen until OpenCore was up and running. Then I would upgrade to the newer version of macOS, keeping the OpenCore boot menu functionality intact along the way with my RX 580 card installed at that point.

I already tried to install Monterey via the OpenCore created bootable USB drive, but doing it "blind" so to speak was not working so well. I followed the instructions on the OpenCore Legacy Patcher web page by Dortania. I did eventually get Monterey to boot, but no boot option screen came up (just black screen). Then, after I restored my data from a Time Machine backup the installation got stuck in a boot loop. I stopped at that point and formatted that SSD and set it aside for now. Currently I have my original High Sierra SSD back in the computer and it's running fine.

Also, is it possible for me to have both of my graphic cards in the computer to accommodate having a boot selection screen and meeting the metal requirement for the newer operating system versions?

Any guidance would be helpful. Thank you in advance.

 

[MacHosehead]

I have a similar system to you and I am running Monterey well with OCLP. I did do the full install of Mojave first but if you did the firmware update then I suppose you might not need to. You have to remember when running Monterey that any boots/reboots have to be to the EFI partition of the disk you have installed OC on. I had to use the terminal commands provided by Dortania to bless the EFI partition since I lost the Apple bootpicker with my RX 570. Once you are booting from EFI partition you should see the OCLP bootpicker with your GPU.

 

[dataharvested]

I have a similar system to you and I am running Monterey well with OCLP. I did do the full install of Mojave first but if you did the firmware update then I suppose you might not need to. You have to remember when running Monterey that any boots/reboots have to be to the EFI partition of the disk you have installed OC on. I had to use the terminal commands provided by Dortania to bless the EFI partition since I lost the Apple bootpicker with my RX 570. Once you are booting from EFI partition you should see the OCLP bootpicker with your GPU.

Thanks for the insight into your configuration.

 

[dataharvested]

I installed Monterey once again on a freshly formatted SSD (typing from there now). I started with my HD 5770 and blessed the EFI boot option for OpenCore launcher on the Monterey installer flash drive. The OpenCore boot selection menu loaded and it then started the Monterey installation menu (stopped there). I shut down the computer and put my RX 580 back into the computer and started it again. The Monterey installer launched once again (presuming from the USB EFI boot that I blessed previously as I cannot see anything at this point) and I proceeded with the installation. After the installation I ran the OpenCore Legacy patcher tool again and installed OpenCore on the SSD. I blessed the EFI on the SSD post installation via Dortania's instruction (via recovery mode and terminal command). I also ran the post installation patcher which restored WiFi functionality, bluetooth still does not work however, but I expected that to be the case. Monterey boots just fine but I have not once seen the boot selection menu since installing my RX 580 card again. I'm not sure where to go from here to see the boot selection screen as that was mostly why I installed OpenCore in the first place.

 

[dalhtek]

Check the BIOS switch (Game/compute) on the RX 580, its a small switch on the end of the card.
Mine was set to compute mode, as soon as I changed it and started up I got the boot screen

Sapphire RX580 Pulse with Dual BIOS?

I just purchased the above card and noticed that it stated on the box the card has Dual BIOS, one setting is for Gaming and the other for Compute. The included manual doesn't reference anything at all regarding this (there is only a small piece of paper included detailing where the switch is), I...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[dataharvested]

Check the BIOS switch (Game/compute) on the RX 580, its a small switch on the end of the card.
Mine was set to compute mode, as soon as I changed it and started up I got the boot screen

Sapphire RX580 Pulse with Dual BIOS?

I just purchased the above card and noticed that it stated on the box the card has Dual BIOS, one setting is for Gaming and the other for Compute. The included manual doesn't reference anything at all regarding this (there is only a small piece of paper included detailing where the switch is), I...

forums.macrumors.com

No switch on mine.

 

[dataharvested]

I'm using a DisplayPort cable to my monitors DisplayPort input if that makes any difference.

The only other thing I've noticed other than the no boot selection screen viewable and no bluetooth is that when I change my secondary monitor to rotate 90 degrees it will revert the setting change when I restart the computer.

 

[dataharvested]

I'm going to try this again when I get home and report back. Maybe SIP wasn't disabled fully or something.

General troubleshooting | OpenCore Legacy Patcher

 

[MacHosehead]

It sure seems as if you are doing everything correctly. On my system it goes from no signal to bootpicker to booting fairly quickly so if I am not ready with an arrow key I usually miss it. Could monitor not be coming up fast enough?

I have a RX 470 with a bios switch but I don't toggle it. I have a RX 570 that looks like it has a place for a switch but it is not populated. I have always seen the bootpicker with OCLP at least briefly.

 

[sfalatko]

I would check in the OCLP discord - it is apparently very active. They should be able to help.

 

[dataharvested]

I'm going to try this again when I get home and report back. Maybe SIP wasn't disabled fully or something.

General troubleshooting | OpenCore Legacy Patcher

View attachment 2044800

Even if I run the SIP disable command from recovery mode, NVRAM protection never turns off. I'm at a loss.

 

[MacHosehead]

Even if I run the SIP disable command from recovery mode, NVRAM protection never turns off. I'm at a loss.

Gee, it seems like the bless command is working.

My thoughts were that if I did an installation of High Sierra first and got OpenCore installed I could utilize my HD 5770 for a boot screen until OpenCore was up and running. Then I would upgrade to the newer version of macOS, keeping the OpenCore boot menu functionality intact along the way with my RX 580 card installed at that point.

With my MacPro3,1, I installed Monterey with the original GT120 card and OCLP was able to patch for acceleration. I could boot to High Sierra or Monterey. Maybe you could replace the RX 580 with the old card and see what happens. I since have removed the patches, replaced it with a metal-capable card, and only boot to Monterey with the OCLP bootpicker.

I have three different machines with Polaris-based GPU cards. They behave about the same. Two I bought new awhile ago and all are a few years old. I have been suspicious of cards that maybe used for mining previously.

 

[dataharvested]

I put in my old HD 5770 card and it looks like OpenCore is doing it's thing as far as automatically showing the boot selection screen. Yes, that boot selection screen goes by very fast! So at least I know that OCLP is running, just not displaying on my RX 580 for some reason. The troubleshooting continues....

 

[dataharvested]

Gee, it seems like the bless command is working.


With my MacPro3,1, I installed Monterey with the original GT120 card and OCLP was able to patch for acceleration. I could boot to High Sierra or Monterey. Maybe you could replace the RX 580 with the old card and see what happens. I since have removed the patches, replaced it with a metal-capable card, and only boot to Monterey with the OCLP bootpicker.

I have three different machines with Polaris-based GPU cards. They behave about the same. Two I bought new awhile ago and all are a few years old. I have been suspicious of cards that maybe used for mining previously.

Yeah, my card, the HD 5770 causes Monterey not to load as it's not a metal card. It was only good to validate that OCLP was indeed installed and working as intended minus me being able to see the boot selection menu on my RX 580. Maybe my RX 580 has some kind of mods done to it or something. I did buy it used and not new, so anything is possible I suppose.

I even tried with a HDMI and not a DisplayPort cable as well as a second monitor altogether and no luck with the boot selection screen being visible.

 

[dataharvested]

I would check in the OCLP discord - it is apparently very active. They should be able to help.

I just joined, thank you.

 

[dataharvested]

Update: Success!

I followed the advice from a user in the Discord to flash the VBIOS on my RX 580. I have the OCLP boot selection screen and the full boot process as pictured.

This thread helped as well, though I had to select the correct ROM on TechPowerUp's Bios Collection site for my cards model number and not the ones recommended for the other user in said thread.

Trying to find ROM for Sapphire pulse RX580

Hi, I've been trying to find the original rom/bios for my Sapphire Pulse RX580. I bought mine used and i'm not sure if the person before me put a custom rom on it for mining.

www.techpowerup.com

TechPowerUp's Bios Collection:

TechPowerUp

Extensive repository of graphics card BIOS image files. Our database covers submissions categorized by GPU vendor, type, and board partner variant.

www.techpowerup.com