MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0

[tsialex]

I have a question that has almost certainly been posed and answered a number of times but 20 minutes with the search tool has failed to turn it up; sorry to be redundant.

@tsialex rebuilt the BootROM file for my 5,1 (2011, 2x3.46GHz, 32GB) back in 2022 and, lamentably, I am just getting around to doing my first BootROM reflash; time just seems to flow like water through a millrace. My question:

When starting ROMTool, it admonishes me to turn off SIP and explicitly instructs me to boot using the Recovery partition or an installer USB drive in order to access Terminal and issue the "csrutil disable" command. I am wondering why this is necessary, rather than issuing the command from Terminal, while booted normally, and then rebooting.

Again, sorry to be redundant; I will, of course, go ahead as instructed but I would like to know why. As Rudyard Kipling said, "The motto of the mongoose family is 'Run and find out' ...

Thanks and Best Wishes to All

You can only disable SIP from Recovery or booted from macOS installers. Apple way to enforce security.

 

[Valdaquendë]

I appreciate your time and energy, Borowski; thanks. But what I wanted to know was "why?".

Thanks, tsialex; I appreciate it. And thanks for the excellent work rebuilding my BootROM file and the files of so many others, as well as your invaluable help with so many other issues.

 

[Macschrauber]

You can also run flashrom from linux or use my Dumper from Mavericks or earlier.
Or Yosemite with setting just a boot-arg.

No sip, so DirectHW.kext can load without fiddling.

 

[Bmju]

When starting ROMTool, it admonishes me to turn off SIP and explicitly instructs me to boot using the Recovery partition or an installer USB drive in order to access Terminal and issue the "csrutil disable" command. I am wondering why this is necessary, rather than issuing the command from Terminal, while booted normally, and then rebooting.

Again, sorry to be redundant; I will, of course, go ahead as instructed but I would like to know why. As Rudyard Kipling said, "The motto of the mongoose family is 'Run and find out' ...

@Borowski has a point. csrutil status shows you the status of SIP. Try doing it your way first, and check what csrutil status shows. Then try the way suggested in the instructions. It is good to understand what you are doing and why. (Basically, SIP disables disabling SIP. EDIT: As @tsialex said.)

 

[Valdaquendë]

Thanks, Bmju, for that advice. You are right; I should have (and now have) tried it myself. Doing so actually took less time than posing the question; I could have saved your (plural) time and learned more comprehensively. My apologies.

 

[mattyboy_downunder]

Sure, PM sent with instructions/files required/service fee/turnaround time.

Hi @tsialex I am also interested in this service. Can you please provide this info? Thank you in advance!

 

[tsialex]

Hi @tsialex I am also interested in this service. Can you please provide this info? Thank you in advance!

I've sent you a PM with instructions/files required/service fee/turnaround time.

 

[psd87]

Hi everyone,
I have a Mac Pro (Early 2009, A1289) that got bricked recently.
I’d like to recover it using a CH341A programmer, but I don’t have the MacPro41_0081_B00.bin EFI dump.
My system originally had the GT120 GPU.
Could anyone share a verified copy of the original 4,1 firmware or point me to a safe source?
Thanks in advance!

 

[tsialex]

Hi everyone,
I have a Mac Pro (Early 2009, A1289) that got bricked recently.
I’d like to recover it using a CH341A programmer, but I don’t have the MacPro41_0081_B00.bin EFI dump.

Not available anywhere, internal version. The oldest that you can still get from Apple is MP41.0081.B07, but is a very dumb move to flash it, flash 144.0.0.0.0 instead and avoid a lot of work.

Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.4 - Apple Support

This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of Mac Pro (Early 2009) computers.

support.apple.com

Do not forget that you need the bricked dump to make a fully working BootROM image, the BootROM image from Apple is incomplete/unserialized and your Mac Pro won't login with iCloud/Messages/FaceTime or work with any apps that require serialization, like some Adobe and other apps.

My system originally had the GT120 GPU.
Could anyone share a verified copy of the original 4,1 firmware or point me to a safe source?
Thanks in advance!

- What to do if during the upgrade process your Mac Pro bricked:

If during the upgrade process you bricked the BootROM, you have three options:

1. Buy a replacement backplane on eBay and replace the backplane yourself, cheapest option if you can't solder SMD. Remember that you need a 2009 backplane if you have an early-2009 Mac Pro. If you have a mid-2010 or mid-2012 you can use either 2010 or 2012 backplanes. Don't mix early-2009 backplanes with mid-2010/mid-2012 CPU trays, or vice-versa - either scenario is a SMC firmware version mismatch and all your fans will run at maximum RPM, full time and without any software control.
2. Buy a Mac Pro MATT card and use it as a replacement SPI flash, this is not recommended since all MATT cards are clones and won't work for iCloud/iMessage/FaceTime. A replacement backplane is usually cheaper.
3. Desolder, reprogram and solder back the SPI flash, chip U8700 on the backplane. It's not possible to read or write to the SPI flash memory while it's soldered on the MP5,1 backplane. A cheap SPI flash programmer like ch341a will work for read/write the BootROM after the SPI flash memory is desoldered from the backplane. Start reading here, read all my posts on the subject from there. I strongly recommend that you replace your original SPI flash memory with a brand new one, don't solder it back to the backplane, it will fail soon since SPI flash memories have limited lifetime (manufacture rated for just 100.000 erase/write cycles) when used as NVRAM for a Mac Pro. Again, most hard bricks are caused by the failure of the SPI flash, it's a US$ 2 component easily available, MXIC MX25L3206E, just replace it! Btw, yes, you can use a MXIC MX25L3206E as a modern replacement for the two older models SST25VF032B and MXIC MX25L3205D used on early-2009 and mid-2010 respectively, Apple did it for mid-2012 Mac Pros.
   
   Mojave has the generic MP51.fd firmware image inside the full installer, it's enough for boot your Mac Pro again but not for iCloud/iMessage/FaceTime login.
   
   

   Install\ macOS\ Mojave/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/Firmware/MP51.fd

The whole SPI flash replacement procedure is:

• desolder the U8700 flash memory from the backplane PCB,
• use an external SPI flash programmer and it's own app (or flashrom, if it's on the supported list of programmers) to dump the contents of the SPI flash memory removed from the MacPro backplane,
• program MP51.fd, or your reconstructed never booted BootROM image or even a previously saved backup dump, to the replacement SPI flash memory (Macronix MX25L3205A/MX25L3205D/MX25L3206E, SST 25VF032B), no need to do the 3V3 mod to the ch341a to flash a brand new MXIC 25L3206E and even if you mod it, the CH341a is not really safe for the really non-5V tolerant SPI flash memories,
• verify if the flashing process was done correctly,
• solder back the SPI flash memory,
• while the backplane is outside the case, take a picture of the MLB label near the AirPort Extreme connector, also take a picture of the ESN label, the one on the case near the GPU outputs,
• reinstall the backplane in the Mac Pro case,
• test if the Mac Pro is now capable of POST and it's booting macOS with the replacement flash memory,
• if the Mac Pro is now booting macOS, ask me to do a BootROM reconstruction service based on the corrupt dump, the case ESN and the backplane MLB labels to get your Mac Pro fully working again.

 

[Borowski]

How

Hi everyone,
I have a Mac Pro (Early 2009, A1289) that got bricked recently.

How did you brick the machine?

What you also may try: Disconnect from AC, remove the battery, wait a moment and start again.

In-system-programming of the bootrom memory isn't possible w/ CH341, you must desolder the chip.

 

[Macschrauber]

Hi everyone,
I have a Mac Pro (Early 2009, A1289) that got bricked recently.
I’d like to recover it using a CH341A programmer, but I don’t have the MacPro41_0081_B00.bin EFI dump.
My system originally had the GT120 GPU.
Could anyone share a verified copy of the original 4,1 firmware or point me to a safe source?
Thanks in advance!

If you plan to upgrade the firmware to 5,1 you can take the mp51.fd from the latest Mojave full install. Read the content of the flash chip before, you will need the various data points, like serials, firmware MAC, etc.

Even if its bricked, the serials etc could eventually be recovered.

My Dumper works directly with a CH341 programmer, too, btw.