MP 1,1-5,1 Corrupted opencore on cMP5.1 ?

[tek.prabu]

Hei!
I purchased a used cMP5.1 (2010) with Vega64, OpenCore and BigSur on it. Both OC and BS are installed on an NVMe drive (currently the sole storage on it). It is booting and running fine. I installed the latest Hackintool and found that it autodetects Clover but shows version 0 and when I switch to OpenCore in the patch window, it shows version 0.0.0. NVRAM read of opencore version from commandline returns the dreaded UNK-00-*-00. Clearly something is wrong ?

1. Would it be safe to update to the current versions directly from Hackintool ? (the jump from 0 -> 5515 clover or 0.0.0 -> 0.9.5 opencore feels scary!)
2. I do not want opencore on the NVMe drive but on a SATA disk, while still keeping the OS on an NVMe drive (I will be using the OWC 4M2 and will install two NVMe drives with HighSierra (would like to see if I can salvage my old Adobe CS5) and Monterey respectively, and boot from either of them depending on the task in hand.
   • I read in the forum that it is best to keep OpenCore on the main boot drive, but does it mean I _have to_ boot from SATA ? Will there be a noticeable slowing down of the boot (which I do not mind) and applications (which I do not want) ?
3. Is a clean/fresh install of opencore the only option now ? If so, would it be ok to have two drives with opencore/efi for the dont-know-how-long-while I need to get the second proper OS setup and running ?
4. Would you recommend installing OC directly to a SATA drive, or it is best to do it all on a USB drive first ?
5. Given Hackintool shows both Clover and OpenCore, what is the safest way to install cleanly now ? OCLP or Clover or vanilla OC ?
6. I am reasonably familiar with using a mac/*nix (terminal, admin cmds, etc), but have not done something like this at a system level - wondering how much time must I plan for this all ? (I am aware this is a very "it depends" question and no one can answer on my behalf, but there are few arrangements coming up, so just wondering if I am looking at something which is going to take 2 weeks of my time - maybe it is my anxiety speaking, but please do bear with me here !)

Greatly appreciate your help,

advTHANKSance!!

-Prabu

 

[Macschrauber]

most important of all: Don't use clover on a real Mac, it's the easiest option to brick the firmware.

 

[tek.prabu]

Goodness me! Thanks for the big warning sign post right at the entry!

Would you advice that I try patching opencore with Hackintool ? I am not even sure which one was used in the first place to get the EFI on the drive (is there a way to find out ?).

 

[h9826790]

1) NO. Do NOT touch the existing bootloader. Especially if you have no idea what's happening.

2) You can install a new copy of OpenCore onto a SATA drive. That's not a problem at all. "Best to keep OC on the main boot drive" is an opinion, not a fact. The fact is you can install OC onto any bootable drive, not necessary on your main boot drive. And different user has different need / preference. If you prefer to install OC onto a SATA drive, you are safe to do that.

No, you shouldn't feel any speed difference of booting.

3) Not the only option, but may be the safest option. You don't need to touch the existing boot loader. And then you can install a clean OC onto another drive. Once you bless the new OC copy, the existing bootloader won't do anything anymore, but just standby. This is why I believe it's a safer approach.

If your new OC doesn't work as expected, you can simply remove the SATA drive, then your cMP should revert back to the original state (boot from NVME bootloader, then you can bridge boot Big Sur).

4) By considering your OS is on the NVMe, install OC onto the SATA drive / USB drive won't make huge difference. I personally prefer to put OC onto SATA drive (my current OC drive is also not my primary boot drive). And so far, it works really well.

5) Don't use OCLP if you really want something "clean". Clover is not for genuine Mac (it can work, but may brick the cMPs firmware). I recommend you go to study cdf's OC thread if you really want to learn how to do it properly.

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

If you want a "lazy approach", you may consider to use my pre-configured OC packaged for cMP. For Big Sur with Vega64. This package should work reasonably well.

Activate AMD hardware acceleration

I created a new "easy to install package" as per many requested (based on the official OpenCore). [The attached package updated to 0.7.9] For those who only need HWAccel, post #594 has everything you need. This new package mainly offer HWAccel + boot screen. Also, this package should work in...

forums.macrumors.com

6) OC install can be done within 10 minutes. However, I highly recommend you read though the cdf's OC thread first. That may cost you a few days (to fully understand it, and may need to re-read a few times).

 

[tek.prabu]

Hei @h9826790 !

Thanks a bunch for the reply and helping me with a pragmatic plan!

1. I will go through cdf's OC thread for sure and start from there.
2. In case I choose to go your pre-configured OC way, I had one question: I notice that most of the functions mention Mojave (f.eks. viewing DRM content) - does it mean functions in HighSierra will be extremely limited?
   • f.eks. Would I be able to use Premiere Pro (or Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop) ?
   • And work with Vimeo kind of web playbacks from HighSierra?
   • (of course I am assuming I can get CS5 to work at all, in the first place, but hoping I can, at this point of time)
3. Thanks also for mentioning that the real time investment would be in fully understanding cdf's OC thread. That sort of bursts my unsurety/anxiety about this whole thing and take a more practical approach!

 

[sfalatko]

Some other things to consider
1. If you have a CD drive then create a recovery CD as detailed in post #1 of @cdf 's thread. You can boot with this by holding the "C" key down - it will boot before any hard drive based OS/Bootloader.
2. I would definitely create a HS or a Mojave install to have a natively booting OS as a backup.
3. If you haven't yet - dump your bootrom and save it. I would also consider paying @tsialex for a bootrom reconstruction so you have a clean, fully updated bootrom
4. Once you have a backup/reconstructed bootrom add EnableGop to allow a native Apple boot menu with your Vega GPU. If you get a reconstructed bootrom @tsialex can insert EnableGop for you.

Enjoy - there are a lot of really helpful people here helping to keep our cMP's alive.

 

[h9826790]

Hei @h9826790 !

Thanks a bunch for the reply and helping me with a pragmatic plan!

1. I will go through cdf's OC thread for sure and start from there.
2. In case I choose to go your pre-configured OC way, I had one question: I notice that most of the functions mention Mojave (f.eks. viewing DRM content) - does it mean functions in HighSierra will be extremely limited?
   • f.eks. Would I be able to use Premiere Pro (or Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop) ?
   • And work with Vimeo kind of web playbacks from HighSierra?
   • (of course I am assuming I can get CS5 to work at all, in the first place, but hoping I can, at this point of time)
3. Thanks also for mentioning that the real time investment would be in fully understanding cdf's OC thread. That sort of bursts my unsurety/anxiety about this whole thing and take a more practical approach!

Don't use my OC package in High Sierra.

The original goal of that OC package is to enable HWAccel for AMD GPU on cMP. This function only stable in late Mojave (up to latest Monterey).

I suggest you consider to use my OC package simply because your current OS is Big Sur.

 

[tek.prabu]

Hei sfalatko!

1. That would be very nice. The machine does have a disk drive, though I have not tested it. I also have a usb-superdrive, and might have access to a BD-RW if the one installed does not work.

2. When u say "natively booting", do you mean HS and/or Mojave installed directly on to a drive and not via opencore? That would be an install from web browser for HS, right?

3. I have not taken a bootrom dump, and i do not even know how to do it. This is going to be a long evening for me! ..

3 & 4. I see how much I do not know at this point of time. I will be more than happy to pay @tsialex for the bootrom reconstruction and everything he has and so many here have done to, borrowing your words, indeep keep cMP-s alive!

Thanks a bunch!

 

[tsialex]

Native means fully supported install - without OpenCore or any patches/hacks.

You should install Sierra (10.12.6) from a createinstallmedia installer, check if you already have BootROM release 144.0.0.0.0 and see if your Mac Pro works correctly - Sierra is the last macOS release that works with a MacPro5,1 that does not have firmware updates yet.

At this moment you known nothing about it, so, be conservative and double check everything.

After that, make a Mojave rescue/flashing disk (where you will dump/flash your BootROM and repair your OC woes) to a spare disk (or even better a small SSD) and only then you can start with unsupported macOS releases.

 

[tsialex]

Also, use a spare SATA drive for your Sierra install. Only NVMe blades that have 4K sectorization work with Sierra.

 

[Macschrauber]

Hei sfalatko!


3. I have not taken a bootrom dump, and i do not even know how to do it.

The tool in my signature does a bootrom dump and checks it for the most known problems. Checks all CRC32 checksums and displays the real version even if spoofed via OpenCore.

 

[tek.prabu]

Don't use my OC package in High Sierra.

The original goal of that OC package is to enable HWAccel for AMD GPU on cMP. This function only stable in late Mojave (up to latest Monterey).

I suggest you consider to use my OC package simply because your current OS is Big Sur.

ok, jepp will pause on that till I have a base HS first!

 

[tek.prabu]

1. I took a quick snapshot with Macschrauber's bootrom dump tool to get started. Does it look good ? I guess I do not need to flash the rom?
2. tsialex: I was pretty surprised I found an SSD I had created long time ago with Sierra on it! It was picked up by the loader and displayed on the boot screen!
3. So tempted to take it for a spin

 

[tsialex]

You already have 144.0.0.0.0, but it´s not in good shape and even have PanicInfo.Logs/crash dumps.

You have to do the basic maintenance, like checking the RTC battery voltage, clean-up, CPU tray northbridge heatsink push pins inspection and etc.

 

[tek.prabu]

My goodness: I simply missed the 1 kernel panic listed there.
I was about to make a separate thread on it, but since we are here --

I notice that the CPU-B fan kicks off every 30-40s or so and stays full speed for around 15-20s before repeating all over again. I had a quick look inside and think northbridge is pretty dusty/dirty and needs some cleaning work.

But how were you able to tell that from the bootromdump ? Is it a general suggestion or there are markers in the dump that indicate the current shape of things ?

 

[tek.prabu]

Noticed this in the logs, too:

14.09.2023_01-49-24> (progress) running eficheck...
14.09.2023_01-49-25> (progress) running eficheck...error
14.09.2023_01-49-25> error eficheck: ReadBinaryFromKernel: No matching services found.
                     Either this system is not supported by eficheck, or you need to re-load the kext
IntegrityCheck: couldn't get EFI contents from kext

and:

14.09.2023_01-49-24> The Dumper: 31-8-2023, System Version: 11.6.3 (Big Sur)
14.09.2023_01-49-24> OpenCore: UNK-000-0000-00-00, OCLP-Version: 0.3.3%00
14.09.2023_01-49-24> CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5690 @ 3.47GHz, 24 cores
IntegrityCheck: couldn't get EFI contents from kext

 

[tek.prabu]

So guess it means OCLP 0.3.3 (which h9826790 advices against, here) was used to set this machine up ?

 

[tsialex]

My goodness: I simply missed the 1 kernel panic listed there.
I was about to make a separate thread on it, but since we are here --

I notice that the CPU-B fan kicks off every 30-40s or so and stays full speed for around 15-20s before repeating all over again. I had a quick look inside and think northbridge is pretty dusty/dirty and needs some cleaning work.

Start with the basic maintenance, then run ASD.

Mac Pro is very resilient, but it´s not indestructible.

But how were you able to tell that from the bootromdump ?

Educated guess since the most probable cause for KPs saved inside the VSS store are com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement crashing. Btw, this is not a BootROM dump, it´s just the report of Macschrauber tool that catch the most common problems.

Is it a general suggestion or there are markers in the dump that indicate the current shape of things ?

Inference based on a combination of issues, basically you have a very old BootBlock and hardware descriptor that are prone to crashing when thermals go crazy and the PanicInfo.log. When you have as much experience as I and other users here have, some clues are easy to see.

So guess it means OCLP 0.3.3 (which h9826790 advices against, here) was used to set this machine up ?

Nuke all disks/blades and install native Mojave.

Forget OpenCore/OCLP/any hacks until you have a fuly clean bill of health. You will make it worse and even brick if you continue to use anything but native macOS until you fully repair your Mac Pro.

Btw, you gonna need a full BootROM reconstruction service.

 

[tek.prabu]

That is "enlightening"

I take every step back as necessary and start with the very basic of basics! Pinning your post to the wall in front of me!

 

[Macschrauber]

Noticed this in the logs, too:

14.09.2023_01-49-24> (progress) running eficheck...
14.09.2023_01-49-25> (progress) running eficheck...error
14.09.2023_01-49-25> error eficheck: ReadBinaryFromKernel: No matching services found.
                     Either this system is not supported by eficheck, or you need to re-load the kext
IntegrityCheck: couldn't get EFI contents from kext

and:

14.09.2023_01-49-24> The Dumper: 31-8-2023, System Version: 11.6.3 (Big Sur)
14.09.2023_01-49-24> OpenCore: UNK-000-0000-00-00, OCLP-Version: 0.3.3%00
14.09.2023_01-49-24> CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5690 @ 3.47GHz, 24 cores
IntegrityCheck: couldn't get EFI contents from kext

This is just logging Eficheck does not work on a Mac Pro 5,1.

What is normal. Eficheck is another method to dump the firmware on later Macs. It does not need S.I.P. off, so I use it as another dumping method.