Resolved Updated to Mojave... now I can't boot into my Windows volume

[Nessdufrat]

No, I haven’t checked it yet. It’s past midnight at my place, I’m in bed with the iPad looking for solutions but I’ll get back to the computer tomorrow morning.
I was also thinking I could try taking the drive out and booting from my Mac mini, I think it’s still on Sierra. Or if it’s already on high Sierra, I’ll use the MacBook Pro, it’s on El Capitan. That way I might be able to access windows, convert the partition to legacy and voilà. Provided that was the problem, of course.

edit : ok, got out of bed and got the infos. I did a firmware upgrade recently but it might have been on the other mac pro (or was it this one? It did ask me for a firmware update because upgrading to high sierra... and I did that less than a month ago).
Bootrom version is
MP51.0085.B00

High Sierra version is
macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)

 

[danlivas]

Nope, i have a Nvidia GTX980, unflashed.

Apparently I can change a UEFI install into a legacy once... just need to convert the partition using a program running from windows... ahahah.

You can use Winclone yet again from within macOS for converting EFI to Legacy Boot. It's a very simple option in the Tools menubar item.

By the way, if you want to update your BootRom for booting macOS from the NVMe, you are probably going to need a Polaris or Vega AMD graphics card. Your GTX 980 MIGHT WORK for this process but I worry it could remove your Nvidia Web Drivers from the NVRAM configuration, leaving you with a blank screen, as the GTX 980 is not supported by High Sierra's default Nvidia drivers as far as I know. The old graphics card that came with your Mac (GT 120?) won't let you install this Boot ROM either. An AMD card is your safest bet.

With that said, you can update to version 144.0.0.0.0 by temporarily downloading the full Mojave 10.14.5 installer from the App Store, then run it only once. This will commence the BootRoom update process and it won't install Mojave. You will be asked to shut down the Mac and turn it back on, then hold the power button until the beep (very important as the light blinking is not enough). Once the BootRom update is complete and you see version 144.0.0.0.0 in the System Profiler, you can use your NVMe drives properly.

 

[Nessdufrat]

Oh, thanks a lot, I didn’t see your post! I’ll definitely do that. I had planned on reinstalling everything anyway so it might be a good solution. The updated ROM won’t give me troubles later for installing high Sierra again or for my cuda nvidia card?

And yes, I have the old GT 120. I gave away the Radeon that came with the Mac Pro 2010 when I sold the 2009 so the guy who bought it would have a better graphic card. Since I had the GTX, I didn’t care about the basic graphic card, I figured I would only use it for emergencies. Besides, whenever I have troubles with the drivers, if I’m lucky and it happens after Mac OS is loaded, I access the Mac from my other Mac and do a screen sharing to download or activate the nvidia drivers.

I ended up deciding to keep the NVMe (I wanted to sell it first, but I’ve no way of knowing how long it was used for, and the smart state doesn’t appear on windows 7 because the card is not supported either on my super old PC, even though I finally managed to make it work. Can’t boot on it either). I’ll create a Windows and a Mac partition on it and put some applications there. That way it still remains useful in a way.

I bought a new SSD to be able to have windows and Mac on physically separate drives. Still waiting to reinstall everything though because I’m so lazy and also I might be getting a new transfo for m’y cinema display this week and it will be so much better to do it on the CD than on the cintiq.

 

[Nessdufrat]

So, it’s actually unclear, if I do the bootrom upgrade, can I do it from the GT120? Will i still be able to use the GTX980 after the drivers are installed?
Right now, I know I can make the NVMe work in the machine, I decided not to boot from it, so I’m pondering whether it’s wise or not to do that bootrom upgrade...

 

[tsialex]

So, it’s actually unclear, if I do the bootrom upgrade, can I do it from the GT120? Will i still be able to use the GTX980 after the drivers are installed?
Right now, I know I can make the NVMe work in the machine, I decided not to boot from it, so I’m pondering whether it’s wise or not to do that bootrom upgrade...

You need to upgrade, microcodes are only updated with the last High Sierra firmware upgrade. NVMe support only with Mojave BootROMs. Read here MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions), the first half of the post (MP51.0089.B00) is valid for you.

You NEED the GT120 to do the BootROM upgrade, you can't go to MP51.0089.B00 without a GPU with pre-boot configuration support (aka Mac EFI).

You will use your Mac as before, nothing will change besides support for APFS and the current microcodes with Spectre/Meltdown mitigations.

You will still boot Snow Leopard with your GT120 if you ever need it.

Since you have a NVIDIA GPU not supported by Mojave native NVIDIA drivers, you have to stick to High Sierra.

 

[Nessdufrat]

I have that bootrom already, it’s the next one that I don’t have, the 144.0.0.0.0. I was wondering whether I should upgrade or not.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

waste of time asking here (question erased; found solution on my own as usual; thanks for nothing)

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

(erased)

 

[Executor]

Just a correction, ROMTool is a @dosdude1 GUI/app, based on flashrom. All the merits go to dosdude1 and people who made flashrom, not me.

Thanks for all your efforts. You truly help the Mac Pro community. I’ve been using my Mac Pro in EFI mode for many years. Lately it’s been having issues booting into Windows. No big loss but I am concerned it may be some kind of certificate corruption. How would I go about checking if it is corrupted and if so could you reconstruct it? I would be willing and happy to donate for this service. Thank you.

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for all your efforts. You truly help the Mac Pro community. I’ve been using my Mac Pro in EFI mode for many years. Lately it’s been having issues booting into Windows. No big loss but I am concerned it may be some kind of certificate corruption. How would I go about checking if it is corrupted and if so could you reconstruct it? I would be willing and happy to donate for this service. Thank you.

I sent you a PM with instructions for you gather some info about your Mac Pro and the BootROM dump, send me everything and I'll clean it for you.

 

[Executor]

I sent you a PM with instructions for you gather some info about your Mac Pro and the BootROM dump, send me everything and I'll clean it for you.

Thanks for all the help Tsialex. The system is working great with the cleaned up boot rom.

 

[nobullone1964]

I sent you a PM with instructions for you gather some info about your Mac Pro and the BootROM dump, send me everything and I'll clean it for you.

Hey. I was wondering if you could do the same for me. I suspect I may have some bad certificates in my rom since once having an EFI Windows installation on 5,1.

 

[tsialex]

Hey. I was wondering if you could do the same for me. I suspect I may have some bad certificates in my rom since once having an EFI Windows installation on 5,1.

I sent you a PM with instructions.

 

[Amorphous]

Hi Tsialex. I am having some strange issues. wondering if I can ask for your help.
My Windows boot drive will work on one cMP chasis (say Mac A), but not another (Mac B). In fact, I can't even see the window boot drive in the list of 'startup drives' in system preferences when i plug into Mac B.
To fix this, I tried using the script:
sudo bless -device /dev/diskXsX -mount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP -setBoot
But I get the error:
'Could not set boot device property: 0xe00002e2'
Mac B Machine is on bootROM 140.0.0.0, I can't tell you what bootROM is on Mac A, as Mac A is stuck booting in windows 10.
I don't know how to call out the bootROM in windows 10, and 'bootcamp control panel' in Mac A can't see the Mojave bootup drive.
Much appreciated!

 

[nobullone1964]

Hi Tsialex. I am having some strange issues. wondering if I can ask for your help.
My Windows boot drive will work on one cMP chasis (say Mac A), but not another (Mac B). In fact, I can't even see the window boot drive in the list of 'startup drives' in system preferences when i plug into Mac B.
To fix this, I tried using the script:
sudo bless -device /dev/diskXsX -mount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP -setBoot
But I get the error:
'Could not set boot device property: 0xe00002e2'
Mac B Machine is on bootROM 140.0.0.0, I can't tell you what bootROM is on Mac A, as Mac A is stuck booting in windows 10.
I don't know how to call out the bootROM in windows 10, and 'bootcamp control panel' in Mac A can't see the Mojave bootup drive.
Much appreciated!

Try removing the Windows drive after powering down and booting into macOS and getting the bootrom from Mac system info. I take it that the Windows drive is a SSD. Not NVME?