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MP 1,1-5,1 Installing Monterey on Mac Pro 5.1

P

philm001

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 29, 2018
109
5
After much consideration, I have decided to install Monterey on my old Mac pro 5.1. I will take the risk and do it. Everything is set and today I will have a USB that is ready with OpenCore Legacy patcher and Monterey ready to go. My only issue that I need to resolve is how in the world do I see the boot screen?

Here are my options:
1) Install my other GT120 alongside my RX 580 and install Monterey. The GT120 will let me see the boot screen and the RX580 will fulfill the requirement of a Metal card

2) Remove the 580, install GT120 and boot the mac to only see the screen. Memorize the boot options so that I can select my USB drive. Remove the 120 and install the RX580. Press the directional buttons to select the boot option.

So of these two options, which one is the best way for me to go? Or is there a third option that I can do?

I do have a concern for option 2 that when the OS reboots during installing of the OS, I will need to select the boot device or will the Mac auto select for me? Now the memorizing technique only works if the order of the boot devices does not change

Please let me know your thoughts
 
Do you see your USB in System Preferences >Startup Disk? In that case you can choose it there and keep yourRX580.
 
Well, I should have thought about that before I did everything.

I decided to replace the RX580 and the GT120. I was able to get it to boot on the boot screen and start installing.

However, now, I have the apple logo and a progress bar that is at 1/2 way there. I have been away from the mac and just checked. Not sure if this is normal but we will see if it is stuck.
 
I started the process about 1.5 hrs ago. Does it usually take this long?
 
What can I do if the progress bar is stuck at half way? There is no time to complete. Should I power off the machine and place in my RX580?
 
Great news everyone, I was able to fix the issue. All I had to do was to restart the machine and everything worked working.

Thank you everyone for taking their time to help me with the process and to assist in picking out a wireless card.

If I could, I would buy everyone drinks!
 
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How is the performance with Monterey on your 5.1 Pro? I just upgraded to Big Sur Using OCLP and the performance is very good. That gave me the confidence to possibly continue to Monterey.

My Specs:
Mac Pro Mid 2012
3.2 Ghz quad core Xeon
16GB RAM
Radeon RX580 8GB
 
NoahJ said:
How is the performance with Monterey on your 5.1 Pro? I just upgraded to Big Sur Using OCLP and the performance is very good. That gave me the confidence to possibly continue to Monterey.

My Specs:
Mac Pro Mid 2012
3.2 Ghz quad core Xeon
16GB RAM
Radeon RX580 8GB
Click to expand...
Monterey is working great on my 5,1 pro. Very stable, and even the standard 15.1 -> 15.2 update completed without any issue. I did use the OCLP post-install after the update, but am not even sure what that added.
 
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I am not sure about the Post-Install as when I did that under Big Sur it completely messed up my Install causing video issues and my Finder Bar went away and my user account logged out randomly. I had to reinstall over the top to get back to working.

I am more asking about performance for like everyday tasks and video specifically. It sounds like you don't have any reservations.
 
NoahJ said:
I am not sure about the Post-Install as when I did that under Big Sur it completely messed up my Install causing video issues and my Finder Bar went away and my user account logged out randomly. I had to reinstall over the top to get back to working.

I am more asking about performance for like everyday tasks and video specifically. It sounds like you don't have any reservations.
Click to expand...
Indeed, it's working fine for everyday tasks - I have 9 virtual desktops with many Firefox windows (each with many tabs) open, no lags. Netflix and Amazon video works fine, as do VCVrack, Logic Pro, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Virtualbox and pretty much everything else I've thrown at it. It's significantly more featureful than Catalina on the same machine was back in the dosdude days. As with everything, ymmv, but so far so good here.
 
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Just did the upgrade, super easy, didn't even require anything out of the ordinary, just ran the file to upgrade from the HDD and it completed. In place upgrade. So far it is working very well...
 
NoahJ said:
Spoke too Soon, WiFi is not working now. Troubleshooting.
Click to expand...
As I recall, something related to WiFi is exactly what the Post Install patch downloaded and installed. WiFi is working for me.
 
Yes, I ran the post install Patcher, it ran a WiFi piece, I rebooted, still broken. Grumble...
 
My cMP2012 SUper Normal and working fine with OCLP
 

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What to do if Post-Install button is always greyed out !?

Screen Shot 2022-02-02 at 8.38.34 AM.png
 
I'm currently on Mojave on my early MacPro 2009 with the specs in my signature. Before I go down this road toward installing Monterey with OpenCore, does anyone notice any red flags with my current hardware? On Mojave everything is mostly working (having a constant crashing problem with suggestd): bluetooth, wifi, boot screen etc. all work.
 
woodenbrain said:
I'm currently on Mojave on my early MacPro 2009 with the specs in my signature. Before I go down this road toward installing Monterey with OpenCore, does anyone notice any red flags with my current hardware? On Mojave everything is mostly working (having a constant crashing problem with suggestd): bluetooth, wifi, boot screen etc. all work.
Click to expand...
Not a "red flag" but your video card is outside my experience, but the instructions have good workarounds for that. However, that you're hesitating at all makes me think you're not confident that if you pull out your working hard drive, try to install to a fresh hard-drive, and if it doesn't work, are afraid that plugging in your original hard drive won't return you to where you are now. In my experience, it does fine. I keep at least two working, bootable backups, along with a full time machine backup, and so far haven't had any "oh cr*p" moments of losing data. With that suggestion made, "why not give it a try?" But definitely unplug and set aside your working system drives.
 
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TECK said:
What is a 15.2 update?
Click to expand...
It's a typo, I meant to type 12.1 -> 12.2. I do have to say that the 12.3 update wasn't as smooth, but I finally got it going by more-or-less starting from scratch and doing a user migration from my 12.2.1 system drive.
 
Hi all !

What is the "best" Martin Lo version of OpenCore to run Monterey 12.3.1 in the most stable and reliable way ?

My configuration:
Mac Pro 5.1 (mid 2010) | 2x 3,46GHz | RX 580 | NVMe 1TB (Big Sur with OC 0.7.6) | SATA SSD 500GB (for Monterey installation) | upgraded WiFi ac & BT 4.2 module BCM943602CDP

Thank you !
 
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