Hi Macscgrauber. I cannot launch the "Download the Dumper" app my OS (Monterey) asks me "do I want to open it" once I confirm yes then nothing happens. What must I do to get this working thanks. Sajin
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MP 1,1-5,1 Healthy NVRAM normal behaviour on 4,1->5,1 machines
- Thread starter Warrington
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just did a quick test from the dropbox download, downloaded from Macrumors, startet, worked:
try another browser, try in Terminal:
xattr -cr ~/Downloads/Download\ the\ Dumper\ from\ dropbox.appOne more thing. I was recently told that dumping a ROM should be done outside of Open Core like in Mojave instead of in Monterey, my current OS. Also should I flash my RX580 Sapphire be flashed "enable GOP" in Mojave before rebooting into Monterey. Thank you for giving me feedback on this. Truly appreciated.
If one has a native system available it's to prefer.
But that's no need at all, in my experience.
Tho, the system should run stable. Never flash on an OS or with a hardware what tends to crash. If it crashes during the flashing process it give's a brick.
A word about your sentence: should I flash my RX580 Sapphire be flashed "enable GOP" in Mojave - You don't flash the GPU when you insert EnableGop in the Mac firmware. It adds a firmware module what loads GOP from the GPU's firmware.
There is an EnableGop thread in Macrumors where those questions match better:
iM 4,1-14,4 Pre-OpenCore GOP support for EFI-era iMacs and Mac Pros
Hi Macschrauber, sorry to use a reply to get your attention on here (felt rude to me, idk).
I have a MacPro5,1 (Mid 2012) that uses the MX25L3205D
(Please forgive the pubes as I've yet to really dig into the machine and I got it from FreeGeek like a week ago
Sorry if at any point I sound pretentions, I've been struggling for hours to merely upgrade the firmware to latest and its wayyyyyy too late. Thanks!!
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In my experience (I flashed more than 100 different Mac Pros), it really makes no difference, with those 2 MX versions.
But if you feel better with it, you rename the file to match your chip version.
The Dumper checks first for the chip in the filename. For those who have not the expected chip in, or for those what swapped it with another variant.
and, btw. The tools (DosDude Romtool, my Dumper, and the tool in the background what does the real job (Flashrom) do zero changes to the bootrom.
The Dumper just reads it and scans a lot of stuff, using tools and functions from Syncretic, from Uefiextract, from joevt and from me.
Thank you very much for your reply, I renamed the file as you mentioned (for the added security [even if it exists]) and the flash was successful; computer boots, shows the entire boot process, and the NVRAM still tests nice and clean.
Update from 23-1-2024
-> Dumps and logfiles get their own folder for every dump
Like ~"/Downloads/Macschrauber's Rom Dump 23.01.2024_00-43-43/"
-> Revisited most of the ESP Tools and done a new tool: Preboot fixer and renamer
This is for the mess unprotected High Sierra boots does with Catalina and newer.
It can also be used to just rename the icons shown in Boot Picker and OpenCore. Even with multiple lines.
Thanks to @joevt, here for the help with building the icons.
link to the Macrumors thread high-sierra-booting-possibly-corrupts-newer-systems-fix-and-description: #1
link to the Dumper:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
-> Dumps and logfiles get their own folder for every dump
Like ~"/Downloads/Macschrauber's Rom Dump 23.01.2024_00-43-43/"
-> Revisited most of the ESP Tools and done a new tool: Preboot fixer and renamer
This is for the mess unprotected High Sierra boots does with Catalina and newer.
It can also be used to just rename the icons shown in Boot Picker and OpenCore. Even with multiple lines.
Thanks to @joevt, here for the help with building the icons.
link to the Macrumors thread high-sierra-booting-possibly-corrupts-newer-systems-fix-and-description: #1
link to the Dumper:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
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Update from 4-2-2024
-> polished the user interface, up to 4 buttons, one scrollable analyze dialog with fixed monospaced font
-> ESP / Preboot tools got polished
-> more logging / conditions for insuffizient user privileges
link to the Dumper: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
-> polished the user interface, up to 4 buttons, one scrollable analyze dialog with fixed monospaced font
-> ESP / Preboot tools got polished
-> more logging / conditions for insuffizient user privileges
link to the Dumper: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
Dumper Update 17-2-2024
-> checking the Fsys store for missing items or wrong order
This is the store where the hardware descriptor, the serial number, the sales order number, hardware code and some other data is stored (Mac Pro server personality for example).
Sometimes they get into the wrong order or items are missing. This could lead to problems with machine identification.
example output:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
-> checking the Fsys store for missing items or wrong order
This is the store where the hardware descriptor, the serial number, the sales order number, hardware code and some other data is stored (Mac Pro server personality for example).
Sometimes they get into the wrong order or items are missing. This could lead to problems with machine identification.
example output:
Fsys: 0 overrides, 1 override-version, 2 ssn, 3 EOF (son, hwc is missing)https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
Hallo McSchrauber!
Vielen danke Schönn for your contributions!
I am about to flash my BootRom With your tool.
Everything came OK except at the end this message appeared:
”You got missing items in your Fsys stream.
(son is missing)“
Is this a real problem for flashing the BootROM?
Thanks in advance!
@Macschrauber, first of all, thanks for the great utility and some of the info posted. I got a used Mac 5,1 to resurrect mine with a clobbered CPU tray connector. The machines had been used with EFI Windows and had garbage in them. I was able to diagnose it with your utilities and did five NVRAM resets in a row, ending with a pristine NVRAM. I periodically monitor the NVRAM, and it validates your statements about free RAM shrinking and then resetting.
BTW, do you really need that warning dialog about entering your password, followed by a dialog requesting the password entry? You could ad a hint to the dialog loading the KEXT.
BTW, do you really need that warning dialog about entering your password, followed by a dialog requesting the password entry? You could ad a hint to the dialog loading the KEXT.
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The dialog comes from the OS, I can not control it.
That's why I set a dialog before to tell why one needs to enter his password.
I won't feel comfortable to enter my admin password without knowing why.
I care about the user's privacy and store as little as technically needed user data, to change that I would need the use to enter his password into one of my dialogs, that would be the last I wanted.
If someone don't want to enter the admin password, there is an encrypted storage option to store the password, its in the other tools folder.
And no, I dont want to touch the keychain with my tools, as stated above.
Not for flashing the bootrom, it worked before
But it might cause a problem, for some, to log into the Apple services, like iCloud, iMessage, Facetime, FindMyMac.
Perfect.Not for flashing the bootrom, it worked before
But it might cause a problem, for some, to log into the Apple services, like iCloud, iMessage, Facetime, FindMyMac.
I did the flashing with no problems at all! (The message about the missing son still persisted, but that was all.)
BTW: I tried iMessages, and other services with no problem.
So, I just want to say again Vielen Dank Schönn mein freund!
Now it’s time to move from HighSierra to Monterey.
Any suggestions regarding EnableGOP?
Does the latest Martin Lo OpenCore overwrite something here?
Martin's approach does work perfectly for EnableGop, he is using it also. So go for it.
The Dumper is now also on Github: https://github.com/Macschrauber/Macschrauber-s-Rom-Dump
Update from 22-3-2024
-> analysing .dump files eficheck creates for sending them without user data (Fsys strean) to Apple
My Mac Mini 7,1 creates a 6 MB file, I would need more examples of other sizes
-> the stop button of the progress window works now in the Dumper and most of the tools
-> worked over a handler to process sudo cli tool calls, so more precise logging
-> added <download from github> to the downloaders
Also error correction in the <Is damaged fix> tool due to a typo in a version comment.
Update from 22-3-2024
-> analysing .dump files eficheck creates for sending them without user data (Fsys strean) to Apple
My Mac Mini 7,1 creates a 6 MB file, I would need more examples of other sizes
-> the stop button of the progress window works now in the Dumper and most of the tools
-> worked over a handler to process sudo cli tool calls, so more precise logging
-> added <download from github> to the downloaders
Also error correction in the <Is damaged fix> tool due to a typo in a version comment.
Update from 21-4-2024
-> analyzing `.scap`files
Those are proprietary firmware capsules used by Apple to securely package and distribute firmware updates.
-> revisited the display of the NVRAM variables to
example: 1 (5 deleted) MemoryConfigg
-> showing some more NVRAM variables:
recover-boot-mode
sleepwake_diagxx
SleepWakeFailureString
StartupMute and SystemAudioVolume for detecting no audible boot chime
-> wildcards for the test_nvram_shell script. Like [test_nvram *.bin -showallvars]
-> multiple CRC32 errors got all UUIDs displayed
GitHub - Macschrauber/Macschrauber-s-Rom-Dump: A tool for dumping and analysing Mac firmwares. Plus flashing for Mac Pro 4.1 / 5.1
A tool for dumping and analysing Mac firmwares. Plus flashing for Mac Pro 4.1 / 5.1 - Macschrauber/Macschrauber-s-Rom-Dump
github.com
new Dumper version:
Update from 5-5-2024
-> presenting CSR values for s.i.p / rootless flags
like: csr_Allow_Untrusted_Kexts, Unrestricted_FS, Task_For_Pid, Apple_Internal, Unrestricted_Dtrace, Unrestricted_NVRAM (0x77)
-> warn for unusual var headers
like state: 0x00 or 0xff and size: 0xff
-> presenting nvda_drv=1 variable
-> presenting efi-boot-device-data variable
-> the log shows a platform compatibility test for the helper tools
fixed: security mode=none presented an alarm, tho this setting is useless it must not show a warning
Screenshot of the GUI tool:
Screenshot of the CLI usage with more details:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
github.com
Update from 5-5-2024
-> presenting CSR values for s.i.p / rootless flags
like: csr_Allow_Untrusted_Kexts, Unrestricted_FS, Task_For_Pid, Apple_Internal, Unrestricted_Dtrace, Unrestricted_NVRAM (0x77)
-> warn for unusual var headers
like state: 0x00 or 0xff and size: 0xff
-> presenting nvda_drv=1 variable
-> presenting efi-boot-device-data variable
-> the log shows a platform compatibility test for the helper tools
fixed: security mode=none presented an alarm, tho this setting is useless it must not show a warning
Screenshot of the GUI tool:
Screenshot of the CLI usage with more details:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2333460/page-4?post=32055801#post-32055801
GitHub - Macschrauber/Macschrauber-s-Rom-Dump: A tool for dumping and analysing Mac firmwares. Plus flashing for Mac Pro 4.1 / 5.1
A tool for dumping and analysing Mac firmwares. Plus flashing for Mac Pro 4.1 / 5.1 - Macschrauber/Macschrauber-s-Rom-Dump
github.com
First off, thank you, Macschrauber for helping us keep these old macs alive and capable!
I'm trying to flash my ROM with EnableGOP. My system works great right now and has been very stable for years. My log showed a problem:
You got unusual order in your Fsys stream.
Fsys: 0 override-version, 1 ssn, 2 hwc, 3 son, 4 overrides, 5 EOF (unusual)
Do I need to rebuild? Or can I proceed?
I also saw listed:
-2 firmware boots since last garbage collection, MTC counter: 563 - 564
-1 Kernel Panic dumps type A: Pointer type
-37136 bytes free space of 65464
Any reason not to proceed?
I'm trying to flash my ROM with EnableGOP. My system works great right now and has been very stable for years. My log showed a problem:
You got unusual order in your Fsys stream.
Fsys: 0 override-version, 1 ssn, 2 hwc, 3 son, 4 overrides, 5 EOF (unusual)
Do I need to rebuild? Or can I proceed?
I also saw listed:
-2 firmware boots since last garbage collection, MTC counter: 563 - 564
-1 Kernel Panic dumps type A: Pointer type
-37136 bytes free space of 65464
Any reason not to proceed?
If the CRC32 of Fsys is valid, you can proceed. If entries change their position by mistake, corruption or got partly overwritten, CRC32 is invalid and needs to be recalculated.
Seems Apple or their service providers didn't always follow the same rules. I've also seen interchanged "override-version" and "overrides". It is only informational, seems it doesn't affect function.
Seems Apple or their service providers didn't always follow the same rules. I've also seen interchanged "override-version" and "overrides". It is only informational, seems it doesn't affect function.
The machine is working with this shuffled Fsys variables order (your machine booted, so it worked, of course)
But as it is an unusual order, with overrides at the end I'd fix / let it fix it.
Some time, in the process of various firmware updates, it could have been messed up. If you have rom dumps from older versions, it would be interesting to compare it.
overrides / override-version are swapping positions, this is something I tolerate and do not warn.
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As it is technically ok (CRC32 checksum is correct) it is logically unusual. I tolerate overrides and overrides-version swapping as this is very usual.
I have hundreds of Dumps for MP4,1 and MP5,1 and I do often mass tests where I scan thru all of them. To study such data points (and to test my test_nvram analyze part of the Dumper)
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I have a different take, if anything is out of expected inside the Fsys store besides hardware descriptor blob/overrides swap with early-2009s, the BootROM warrants deep investigation and validation of hardwareIDs with ESN/MLB labels.
95% of the time I found other things wrong and while most are just backplane replacements gone wrong or botched third repairs, sometimes there are user tampering.