High Sierra on cMP (4,1 flashed to 5,1)

[LightBulbFun]

Hey Just figured id make a quick post showing High Sierra on the cMP and a couple things i noticed about it

first one is cMP did not see a APFS drive as bootable when i tried to install High Sierra to it but HFS+ worked fine

second thing I noticed is a couple new/changed text fields to do with the GPU

1 is that VRAM is now reported in GBs instead of MBs (surprised it took them this long)

2 there is now a new "VBIOS" field thats currently blank on my Machine (it would be interesting to see what this reports on other macs, it looks a lot like AMDs BIOS version string format) and the metal field has changed

quick look in the extensions folder shows

no sign of Maxwell/pascal nvidia drivers sadly
few new intel and AMD drivers tho it seems ill update this thread if i come across anything else if it has not been documented by then

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Ah looks like mobo firmware is so old it can't recognise APFS as a bootable volume

 

[LightBulbFun]

while checking the logs I did see mention of a kind of helper/booter partition but evidently its not doing its Job LOL (or its for something else)


@Fl0r!an and @netkas might wanna check out the new AMD drivers in High Sierra

 

[adam9c1]

I thought APFS was standard file format.

 

[pigsyn]

I did a clean install on a ssd from my mac mini late 2012. It works with APFS.
But when connecting the ssd into the cMP, it kernel panics and reboots.

No problem with mac mini.

 

[mikeboss]

I read somewhere that APFS support for cMP will come in a later beta. no, I don't remember where I read that

 

[LightBulbFun]

indeed @mikeboss the release note for High Sierra say "APFS support for Mid 2012 Mac Pro will be included in an upcoming seed." curiosely it dosent mention the Mid 2010 Mac Pro but i suspect thats it a simple oversight

I do have to say that i noticed most macs upgrading to High Sierra have been getting boot rom updates and from what I can tell those updates are to do with APFS and booting it... so it might mean for the first time in 7 years the 5,1 could be getting a boot rom update (I wish apple would tell you more about the boot rom updates)

 

[h9826790]

If they update the boot rom, I hope they will give the cMP a way to boot from NVMe as well.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Considering a normal NVME Drive wont work in any machine running OS X without patching of the NVME kext i doubt that would happen. but it would be nice (granted I dont know if the drive thing has changed with High Sierra)

 

[chrfr]

first one is cMP did not see a APFS drive as bootable

There's no APFS driver for the Mac Pro 5,1 in this build of 10.13. This is why it's worth reading the release notes.

 

[haralds]

Hey Just figured id make a quick post showing High Sierra on the cMP and a couple things i noticed about it

first one is cMP did not see a APFS drive as bootable when i tried to install High Sierra to it but HFS+ worked fine

...
View attachment 702347

Read the Release Notes - APFS not supported on Mac Pro in this first release.

 

[0488568]

Boot rom update would mean end of road for us with 4,1 flashed to 5,1.

Unless netkas updates his patcher...

 

[pertusis1]

I'm curious to know whether this will work with XP941 Boot drives In a 5,1.

 

[pigsyn]

indeed @mikeboss the release note for High Sierra say "APFS support for Mid 2012 Mac Pro will be included in an upcoming seed."

Could you link that ?

 

[chrfr]

Could you link that ?

The release notes are behind the login page for the Developer download. I'm sure you can search and find them elsewhere, but that sort of thing can't be linked here.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Boot rom update would mean end of road for us with 4,1 flashed to 5,1.

Unless netkas updates his patcher...

im not sure that would be the case

because the Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 share the exact same BoardID of Mac-F221BEC8

I believe its one of if not the only 2 Macs to share the same BoardID. because of this there is no real way to tell a Flashed 4,1 apart from a Real 5,1 without looking at the serial number or the SMC version but those are things that are subject to change where as

the Model ID and Board ID are meant to be static things hence why Apple only uses those during compatibility checks when it comes to say software updates/installers. (a Prime example of this is how MacOS Sierra and High Sierra will install just fine on a 4,1 thats been flashed to a 5,1)

so if there is a future BootROM update for the 5,1 Id expect it to install just fine on a 4,1 Flashed to 5,1 Mac Pro unless apple Specifically looks at the Serial number and or the SMC version. (or if they have some other unknown trick up there sleeve LOL)

 

[LightBulbFun]

If they update the boot rom, I hope they will give the cMP a way to boot from NVMe as well.

Looks like High Sierra supports all NVME drives/devices out of the box now with no patching...

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/324306-nvme-support-in-1013

 

[flowrider]

^^^^I've started a thread on that:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/nvme-support.2049962/

Lou

 

[Prince134]

I should post it here:

RX580 natively works in Mac Pro 5.1. Running BruceX test at 16 seconds.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Looks like High Sierra supports all NVME drives/devices out of the box now with no patching...

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/324306-nvme-support-in-1013

On compatible motherboards

 

[LightBulbFun]

I should post it here:

RX580 natively works in Mac Pro 5.1. Running BruceX test at 16 seconds.
View attachment 703281

did it show up with that Name OOB? even on eGPU in High Sierra you get the generic R9 xxx name...

On compatible motherboards

to be bootable yeah your going to need firmware support, but the drives will still work in OS X even if theres no firmware support, they just wont be bootable, the OP in that thread is using his in a 4,1-5,1 LOL (a good example of this is a AHCI PCIe Blade in a PCIe PowerMac G5 they work fine in Leopard but wont boot in the G5 because OpenFirmware lack any AHCI drivers)

 

[Prince134]

did it show up with that Name OOB? even on eGPU in High Sierra you get the generic R9 xxx name...

What name? Like this:?

 

[MarkC426]

What name? Like this:?

View attachment 703322

Wow, you have answered a question that was on my mind, thanks.
Which make 580 are you using, how many power connectors does it use and do you get boot screens.

I am wondering also whether this will enable a 5.1 Mac Pro to run a HTC Vive, as that is the recommended spec'd iMac graphics card.

 

[LightBulbFun]

What name? Like this:?

View attachment 703322

im referring to the "Radeon RX 580" did it show up like that by default/OOB or did you edit the kext to get that name? normally un flashed AMD Cards Show up with a Generic name like "AMD R9 xxx"

 

[Sharky II]

RX 580 and NVMe working in cMP right out of the box... all feels too good to be true!