MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Not Booting After Installation Issue — 3 Days of Frustration, Please Help (5,1)

[jc.farley]

Hello,

I recently decided to move both of my working MacPro 5,1 machines from Monterey to Sequoia, using OCLP. At first, I installed Sequoia over Monterey, then I decided to do a full wipe.

That full wipe worked.

Where I messed up is I thought it would be faster to use the Inateck SA02003 to clone that working drive, which sort of worked, but also didn't. The cloned drive booted fine, but the original no longer booted.

I tried to do a cloning process in terminal to get the cloned drive onto the original master drive. In the process, I lost both copies.

So, I tried to boot the USB and install. At one point, I had it installed, but it was a white background and didn't render right.

For the most part, I have done all of this on one machine, which I'll call machine A. The specs are almost identical for both:

2009 (4,1 > 5,1) & 2012 (5,1) MacPros
12 Cores (3.46 & 3.33)
128gb RAM
8gb vRAM 570 (Saphire & MSI)
1tb SDD

I'm also using a working version of OCLP Monterey, so I can get the boot screens.

On both Macs, I unplugged them, pulled the CMOS batteries and left them for an hour, and held the power button for 10-20 seconds.

– – – – – – –

On machine A, I have tried to get the install to run multiple times (10? 15?). I have tried installs with both SSDs.

I even tried installing Monterey back on it to see if to would go.

Last night, I took the disk, put it in the Inateck, which was attached to my MacBook, and ran bash commands to zero it out, change it from APFS to ms-dos, to journaled, and finally back to APFS. I was thinking there might be some boot info that wasn't getting cleared in a basic erase with Disk Utility.

Then, I rewrote the USB for Sequoia.

I put the SSD back into machine, tried to run it, and still couldn't get it to work.

In fact, at this point, I can't even get it to make a chime. It doesn't respond to an EFI clear (holding down the power button at startup). SMC resets seem to be doing nothing. NVRAM resets do nothing.

I have also replaced the CMOS battery on this one.

– – – – – – –

On machine B, I used the main SSD I want to use, I used the SSD with Monterey (boot EFI), and the same GPU, same install USB (OCLP).

After EFI and PRAM resets, the screen loaded. I was able to select the boot loader.

I ran the install and left it. When I came back, nothing happened. The computer was on, the screen was off, and I couldn't seem to get it to just boot normally. But, I had left it for about 20 minutes to see if it was just lagging in the install process. The caps lock key was not lighting up in this process.

So, I did the EFI/NVRAM resets, finally got the boot screen again, then ran it a second time.

This time, I stayed with the computer.

It restarts during install, like it usually does, then it boots back to the installer. But, later it tries to boot to the newly installed OS. This seems to fail multiple times, until it will not longer boot, and it just stays in the black-screen state (no data from GPU, monitor in standby).

– – – – – – –

With the backstory out of the way, I can get to my actual questions:

1. What do you all feel the issue is with machine B? What do you recommend? What can I check?

2. With machine A, I've never heard of a Mac that is this unresponsive. Is it bricked? Can I clear any data on the motherboard? What would you all do in this situation?

Any assistance with this is much appreciated, in advance!

 

[reader50]

Do your GPUs have Mac firmware? This is needed for the firmware boot picker.

Have you ever run Win10 or Win11 on either machine? They're known to write security certs to cMP firmware if installed bare-metal in EFI mode. Which can lead to cMP firmware corruption.

Did you use a wired keyboard + mouse, with a USB2 or USB3 hub between devices and Mac? Ventura and later omit the USB1 drivers. OCLP puts them back during the root patching process, but your Mac will not see or respond to a USB1 device until the root patching completes at the end. Until then, using a USB2/3 hub causes your keyboard & mouse to appear as a 2/3 device during the OS install.

The Inateck is this one - a USB dock station with 2 bays. I wouldn't trust it to duplicate a Mac boot drive without testing first. With something unimportant. I use SuperDuper!, and CarbonCopyCloner is also good.

Machine A sounds like crashed firmware, or a hardware failure. Maybe a drive, GPU, or RAM stick blew during all the fooling around. I'd set it aside until Machine B is stable again. Then pull or swap some components during further testing.

Got any spare drives to work with? I'd set aside your important drives and install to a blank. Get Monterey working again at a minimum. You're likely to have better luck doing a blank install from scratch.

If a clean install is working, use Migration Assistant to import from your suspect drives. Get back to where you were, with a working machine. Then clone (with Mac software) to yet another drive, and do installation tests on that 3rd drive. That way you don't risk a working install. I wouldn't do anything further to the original drives at this point - especially if they're your only backup. You are backed up, right? Time Machine is your friend.

Note: to use Migration Assistant reliably with OCLP, you must use it before root patching has been done. If the install process already installed root patches, you can use the utility to remove them and reboot. Use MA, get your install working again, and reapply root patches.

Oh, another question. Your USB installer. Did you create it on one of your cMPs, or on another Mac, like a laptop? OCLP customizes the installer for the target machine. And defaults to whatever machine it's running on. You can switch the target machine in the OCLP app's Settings menu.

 

[jc.farley]

"Do your GPUs have Mac firmware? This is needed for the firmware boot picker."

The GPU has not been flashed. I am using a second disk, which is running OCLP Monterey in order to see the boot screen.

Is this not effective?

— — —

"Have you ever run Win10 or Win11 on either machine? They're known to write security certs to cMP firmware if installed bare-metal in EFI mode. Which can lead to cMP firmware corruption."

I have never ran Windows on either of them.

— — —

"Did you use a wired keyboard + mouse, with a USB2 or USB3 hub between devices and Mac? Ventura and later omit the USB1 drivers. OCLP puts them back during the root patching process, but your Mac will not see or respond to a USB1 device until the root patching completes at the end. Until then, using a USB2/3 hub causes your keyboard & mouse to appear as a 2/3 device during the OS install."

Yeah, I'm using a genuine Apple wired keyboard and a wired mouse plugged into either the back of the machine (standard ports), or into the USB PCI. That PCI is set for 2 or 3, I don't remember, but it's only a few years old.

— — —

"The Inateck is this one - a USB dock station with 2 bays. I wouldn't trust it to duplicate a Mac boot drive without testing first. With something unimportant. I use SuperDuper!, and CarbonCopyCloner is also good."

Yeah, this is the one I used. It's probably fine for a data drive, but the OS cloning has been a nightmare. Thanks, I'll check out SuperDuper and CarbonCopyCloner.

— — —

"Machine A sounds like crashed firmware, or a hardware failure. Maybe a drive, GPU, or RAM stick blew during all the fooling around. I'd set it aside until Machine B is stable again. Then pull or swap some components during further testing."

Sounds good, I'll give that a go, once things are back to normal.

— — —

"Got any spare drives to work with? I'd set aside your important drives and install to a blank. Get Monterey working again at a minimum. You're likely to have better luck doing a blank install from scratch."

Yeah, those drives are already wiped. I basically back up my main folders from MacOS into data drives, which I usually keep in bays 2-4. Then, once I have the install done, I can copy stuff back over, if I want.

I have a 512 SSD, but it's not registering, and I'm not seeing it in Disk Utility. I do have some HDD's, but I don't know what all is on them, except for my main 3x.

I can order another SSD to give that a shot.

The main reason I haven't is that I am not getting errors in Disk Utility checks. Not on even in terminal.
diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk1 >> The partition map appears to be OK.

diskutil info /dev/disk3 >> SMART Status: Verified

If it's passing all of these tests, shouldn't it good?

— — —

"If a clean install is working, use Migration Assistant to import from your suspect drives. Get back to where you were, with a working machine. Then clone (with Mac software) to yet another drive, and do installation tests on that 3rd drive. That way you don't risk a working install. I wouldn't do anything further to the original drives at this point - especially if they're your only backup. You are backed up, right? Time Machine is your friend."

I have a clean OS, but only one, other than my MacBook...I used the Inateck last night to run diagnostics on one drive...I could do the same to clone it...

— — —

"Note: to use Migration Assistant reliably with OCLP, you must use it before root patching has been done. If the install process already installed root patches, you can use the utility to remove them and reboot. Use MA, get your install working again, and reapply root patches."

Thanks, I appreciate the heads up!

— — —

"Oh, another question. Your USB installer. Did you create it on one of your cMPs, or on another Mac, like a laptop? OCLP customizes the installer for the target machine. And defaults to whatever machine it's running on. You can switch the target machine in the OCLP app's Settings menu."

I didn't realize that...I had made it on the first machine. It did install that time, but that was before I lost that. Then, I made an attempt at Monterey, so I overwrote the USB. Then, I went back to trying to get Sequoia on there. For the latest attempt, I used my MacBook to make the USB.

I can boot into Monterey on the target computer, then rebuild the USB with that.

Thanks for the guidance on this!

 

[reader50]

"Do your GPUs have Mac firmware? This is needed for the firmware boot picker."

The GPU has not been flashed. I am using a second disk, which is running OCLP Monterey in order to see the boot screen.

Is this not effective?

I don't understand this answer. The firmware boot picker is what comes up normally, if you hold the Option key from the beginning of boot. You get a grey or black background, with drive icons appearing to choose from. This takes place before any disk runs.

Maybe you mean you're loading OpenCore from a 2nd disk, to get the picker for OS install to a 1st disk? This should work, but it isn't the firmware boot picker. It's the OCLP boot picker.

... Thanks, I'll check out SuperDuper and CarbonCopyCloner.

Note that with Catalina or higher, it's typical for these utilities to only duplicate the data volume. The sealed OS volume is not copied. After cloning, you install a fresh macOS on top of the clone, creating a fresh OS volume in the process. This is a good way to install a new OS, while leaving your existing bootable volume intact.

ie - assuming your disk has plenty of free space, create a new APFS volume within the existing wrapper. Then use one of the above utilities to clone your existing (data) volume to the new volume. Boot from installer USB, and install the OS over the clone volume. Afterwards, you can boot into either your old Monterey install as usual, or the new (presumably Sequoia) volume.

"Got any spare drives to work with? I'd set aside your important drives and install to a blank. Get Monterey working again at a minimum. You're likely to have better luck doing a blank install from scratch."

Yeah, those drives are already wiped.
...
If it's passing all of these tests, shouldn't it good?

I was hoping your data might still be intact, on one or both of those drives. So I advised treating it like damaged drives when you don't have another backup: leave them completely alone until you've recovered with fresh drives. Only afterwards would you wipe and reuse the original set.

If you have backups, and/or are certain your data is unrecoverable on the original drives, then go ahead and use them as blank disks. Formatting as needed. I'd personally use alternate drives for maximum safety, in case I had to try data recovery on the original drives. But I also have extra drives sitting around. Use your call, based on your circumstances.

"Oh, another question. Your USB installer. Did you create it on one of your cMPs, or on another Mac, like a laptop? OCLP customizes the installer for the target machine. And defaults to whatever machine it's running on. You can switch the target machine in the OCLP app's Settings menu."

I didn't realize that...I had made it on the first machine. It did install that time, but that was before I lost that. Then, I made an attempt at Monterey, so I overwrote the USB. Then, I went back to trying to get Sequoia on there. For the latest attempt, I used my MacBook to make the USB.

I can boot into Monterey on the target computer, then rebuild the USB with that.

Thanks for the guidance on this!

Whichever machine you create the USB installer on, click the Settings button (bottom of OCLP window) and switch the target machine to MacPro 5,1 if needed. Even for install to your 4,1 - it's been flashed to a 5,1 so that should be your target.

I have a 4,1 -> 5,1 myself, and had trouble installing an OS update at one point. Turns out I'd created the USB installer on a MacBook Pro, and had forgotten to switch the install target. My symptoms were much like yours during installation. The system installation seemed to go OK, but failed about halfway through, with a bogus error message.

I suggest creating two USB installers, and labeling them. One for Monterey, one for Sequoia. Both should have the target machine set to 5,1. That will avoid some confusion when things don't go according to plan. Frustration makes everything harder.

 

[Bigwaff]

Any assistance with this is much appreciated, in advance!

I keep a Mojave boot disk and OEM 5770 GPU around so I can test/verify my 5,1 hardware is working. Nearly impossible to troubleshoot 5,1 problems with OCLP in the mix. Need to get back to basics to determine issues.