MP 1,1-5,1 Manually Configured OpenCore on the Mac Pro

[Macschrauber]

Maybe I got you totally wrong but you can also hold ctrl in Apple Boot Picker (with an UGA/Bootscreen GPU) outside OC to bless OC.

… and other Systems of course. This is one of the last remaining advantages of having an UGA Bootscreen GPU. I always have a GT120 in the drawer for such reasons. They are pretty cheap (and useless for much cases).

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Maybe I got you totally wrong but you can also hold ctrl in Apple Boot Picker (with an UGA/Bootscreen GPU) outside OC to bless OC.

I didn't know that. Thank you for the heads-up. If that is the case, please, disregard my previous request.

 

[haralds]

There is a way to disable SIP from the OC bootloader - modify your config.plist and you will have a toggle at the OC Bootpicker

Thank you. My AllowToggleSip is set to true, but I do not see any UX to switch it.

 

[dataid]

I didn't know that. Thank you for the heads-up. If that is the case, please, disregard my previous request.

I think your request is quite reasonable, as we get further away from native Apple booting and obsolete graphics cards the idea of a way of blessing an OpenCore disk while booting is very attractive. Do you really want to shutdown, open your machine and install an old graphics card to bless a disk when needed? The blessing option perhaps could be implemented as the ToggleAllowSip feature is currently implemented as an exe that appears in the boot picker or a tool made available to use in the UEFI environment like OpenShell.

 

[cdf]

A request for self-bless functionality for Macs with a functional Boot Manager

The blessing option perhaps could be implemented as the ToggleAllowSip feature is currently implemented as an exe that appears in the boot picker or a tool made available to use in the UEFI environment like OpenShell.

Unfortunately this isn't possible: while there are measures for boot-selection persistence, OpenCore needs to be selected before it can actually do anything.

Properly blessing OC can be a major hurdle on a Mac Pro 5,1. If no boot volume is blessed, the Mac will just try to boot something. Unfortunately, that could be an unsupported installation, which will cause the Mac to hang and then shutdown. Luckily, there are several options to get out of this predicament.

One option is to physically separate supported from unsupported installations. By removing the disks with unsupported installations, the Mac should be able to boot natively. To bless OC, it is then just a matter of restarting into recovery as described in part 1 of the guide (see "First Boot").

I couldn't figure out how to re-bless it using Mojave's Terminal (it seems Mojave can't see Big Sur's system volumes).

If OC is installed to an EFI partition, then there should be no problem blessing it from Mojave's recovery mode.

As @Macschrauber pointed out, another option is to use an EFI (flashed) graphics card to bless OC from the native boot picker. In fact, blessing OC like this is the standard approach for all Macs except for the Mac Pro.

A third option is to create an emergency OC CD. Yes, a CD. The reason for a CD is that holding "c" at boot tells the Mac to boot from the CD. Unfortunately, OC hides any instances of itself, so blessing OC directly from the OC boot picker isn't possible. However, it is still possible to boot into recovery and bless OC from there. Note that the OC CD should be configured with RequestBootVarRouting turned off, otherwise the main instance of OC will not be blessed properly.

 

[dataid]

Thank you. My AllowToggleSip is set to true, but I do not see any UX to switch it.

Unfortunately this isn't possible: while there are measures for boot-selection persistence, OpenCore needs to be selected before it can actually do anything.

Properly blessing OC can be a major hurdle on a Mac Pro 5,1. If no boot volume is blessed, the Mac will just try to boot something. Unfortunately, that could be an unsupported installation, which will cause the Mac to hang and then shutdown. Luckily, there are several options to get out of this predicament.

One option is to physically separate supported from unsupported installations. By removing the disks with unsupported installations, the Mac should be able to boot natively. To bless OC, it is then just a matter of restarting into recovery as described in part 1 of the guide (see "First Boot").



If OC is installed to an EFI partition, then there should be no problem blessing it from Mojave's recovery mode.

As @Macschrauber pointed out, another option is to use an EFI (flashed) graphics card to bless OC from the native boot picker. In fact, blessing OC like this is the standard approach for all Macs except for the Mac Pro.

A third option is to create an emergency OC CD. Yes, a CD. The reason for a CD is that holding "c" at boot tells the Mac to boot from the CD. Unfortunately, OC hides any instances of itself, so blessing OC directly from the OC boot picker isn't possible. However, it is still possible to boot into recovery and bless OC from there. Note that the OC CD should be configured with RequestBootVarRouting turned off, otherwise the main instance of OC will not be blessed properly.

Thank you for clearly outlining the possible options for blessing OC.

 

[macnrolla]

Updated: July 5, 2021

OpenCore on Legacy Apple Hardware

PART II
Advanced Configuration​

@cdf Many thanks for maintaining this great config. I have the following comment or improvement for `For Big Sur style icons (as depicted in the first image of this guide), find PickerVariant and change Auto to Modern`.

I think to get the Big Sur style picker, you have to change the value to `Acidanthera\GoldenGate` instead of `Modern`. This changed with OpenCore 0.7.x and OcBinaryData master.

Image: Import new locations for OC 0.7.0 · acidanthera/OcBinaryData@7e6e9de

Contribute to acidanthera/OcBinaryData development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

OpenCore beauty treatment | OpenCore Post-Install

 

[cdf]

@cdf Many thanks for maintaining this great config. I have the following comment or improvement for `For Big Sur style icons (as depicted in the first image of this guide), find PickerVariant and change Auto to Modern`.

I think to get the Big Sur style picker, you have to change the value to `Acidanthera\GoldenGate` instead of `Modern`. This changed with OpenCore 0.7.x and OcBinaryData master.

Thanks! That part was indeed outdated. The simplest way is actually to just keep Auto, which now automatically uses the Big Sur theme when the background is set to black. I've updated the guide.

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Thanks! That part was indeed outdated. The simplest way is actually to just keep Auto, which now automatically uses the Big Sur theme when the background is set to black. I've updated the guide.

I don't think I actually need to change anything in my config.plist, but I've been unable to identify where the update is located in the guide. Which section or spoiler should I read?

 

[cdf]

I don't think I actually need to change anything in my config.plist, but I've been unable to identify where the update is located in the guide. Which section or spoiler should I read?

See part 2 Enabing the Graphical Boot Picker. The previous procedure for enabling the graphical boot picker from the sample config involved the following three steps:

• Find PickerMode and change Builtin to External
• For Big Sur style icons (as depicted in the first image of this guide), find PickerVariant and change Auto to Modern
• Locate the Drivers key and add

<string>OpenCanopy.efi</string>

to the array​

Now the second step above can be omitted:

• Find PickerMode and change Builtin to External
• Locate the Drivers key and add

<string>OpenCanopy.efi</string>

to the array​

 

[KeesMacPro]

See part 2 Enabing the Graphical Boot Picker. The previous procedure for enabling the graphical boot picker from the sample config involved the following three steps:

Now the second step above can be omitted:

After taking my time to get into OpenCore (=reading) , I recently installed it as in Post #1.

I like the approach to keep all kinds of options open and set them to one's preferences.
This is a Swiss Army Knife , excellent!

TBH i did notice that Pickervariant in the sample plist was set to default.
When set to Modern , the bootpicker remained a text .
After setting it to Auto, all was good.
So IMO perhaps it's an idea to mention this in the guide...

Thx a lot for this great guide and all the work involved !

 

[cdf]

TBH i did notice that Pickervariant in the sample plist was set to default.
When set to Modern , the bootpicker remained a text .
After setting it to Auto, all was good.
So IMO perhaps it's an idea to mention this in the guide...

Correct. The Modern option was removed in OpenCore. Both Default (Big Sur theme) and Auto (theme based on the background color) should work fine. The next sample config will probably use Auto for more flexibility...

 

[David403]

Is the 11.4 causing all hackintoshes to fail?

Mine is running well - My motherboard is an old one, no longer available, but was marketed as being suitable for AOS (Any Other System). I have had numerous cold boots and warm boots over 25 of each without any problem. (I am not using 'LateBloom'. You will see from my signature that my 'Hackintosh' is a 2013 Z77MX-QUO-AOS board, I'm using the H40-OpenCore Boot ROM and now have the config.plist set up as a iMac 16,1. I have not added an additional Graphics Card but simply use the built-in capabilities on the MB (Intel HD 4000)

I ran 11.4 for over a week then a few days ago installed 11.5 beta RC. It's now booting superfast - Safari Video playback is smooth. Apple TV playback and Quicktime playback smooth with no trace of any artifacts.

HOWEVER, from my reading through the posts on this and other forums - most Hackintosh users are reporting the same or similar problems as those with cMP 4,1>5,1 and cMP 5,1 although not so frequently.

(When I find a reliable PCIe WiFi card for Monterey and the prices of graphics cards return to 'normal' I'll add them to it and upgrade to Monterey.)

 

[splaquet]

My apologies if this has already been posted (haven't found that it has, but also cannot find the post I read on how the network ports stopped working... so, maybe i'm a bad searcher)... but, I just had an interesting experience. i was having some network issues (new house, very confusing wifi mesh setup) and stumbled upon a few notes (randomly, while trying to fix my MacMail app)

anyhow, long story short, i was able to get my network adapters working again! i'd been using the network port on an external USB hub until now.

worth noting, i missed the updates on how to NOT update Big Sur past .3. at that point, i figured why not keep moving forward and install Monterey (currently on the latest beta channel)

so, i ran the first set of commands to wipe my network settings. i then ran the final 2 commands to bring everything back up (lan & wifi, if i have the correct order).

low and behold, the Ethernet 1 & 2 ports popped back up!!! hoping this helps someone out there 😁

sudo rm -rf com.apple.airport.preferences.plist; \
sudo rm -rf com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist; \
sudo rm -rf com.apple.wifi.messsage-tracer.plist; \
sudo rm -rf NetworkInterfaces.plist; \
sudo rm -rf preferences.plist ; \

sudo ifconfig en0 down ;\
sudo ifconfig en0 up

hopefully this helps those other folks who plunged into the Big Sur 11.3+ realm... and hoping this might shed some light for those who might be able to do something for the community with this info.

 

[borgo1971]

So, make sure you follow what the guide tells you to do exactly and don't try to second guess it. If you need an additional Catalina instance (for backup etc), create one separately.

I'm trying to do it, adding a partition to my 2TB TM disk. The one I had a Mojave partition that I deleted (I guess it was to small for Mojave). But seems it that TM partition can't be resized. I tried with Disk Utility more times, then with Paragon HardDiskManager (trial), now with command line diskutil, and this is the response:

# diskutil resizeVolume disk5s2 1960GB JHFS+ "Emergency HD" 0
Resizing to 1960000000000 bytes and adding 1 partition
Started partitioning on disk5s2 Backup HD
Verifying the disk
Verifying file system
Volume was successfully unmounted
Performing fsck_hfs -fn -x /dev/rdisk5s2
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Checking extents overflow file
Checking catalog file
Checking multi-linked files
Checking catalog hierarchy
Checking extended attributes file
Checking multi-linked directories
Checking volume bitmap
Checking volume information
The volume Backup HD appears to be OK
File system check exit code is 0
Restoring the original state found as mounted
Resizing
Shrinking file system
Error: -69787: The partition cannot be resized; try reducing the amount of change in the size of the partition

I know it's not a OpenCore specific issue, but does someone have an idea how to come around this problem (without erasing entry disk)?

 

[Dayo]

TM partition can't be resized.

I believe TimeMachine uses a SparseBundle format which can't be shrunk as you intend.

 

[borgo1971]

I believe TimeMachine uses a SparseBundle format which can't be shrunk as you intend.

No, I don't believe. Opening the disk, I see a folder named "Backups.backupdb" with inside a folder named as my boot drive, and inside this, there are hundreds of folders named with date-hour form TM backup. No any disk image or sparsebundle.

 

[Charmandrigo]

Of the SidecarFixup.kext, has anyone on the Monterey beta tested the Airplay to Mac unlock feature? the git mentions it can be enabled on 5,1. Same for the Universal Control.

Also, it's said it's sort of now possible to enable sidecar on a mac with dedicated AMD gpu by changing the SMBIOS with some settings?

 

[donvito4ever]

Ufffff... I have the same nigthmare that other times... BLUETOOTH is missing....

I updated from OC 0.6.9 to 0.7.1 (always Martin's pack) and I lost the bluetooth... 4 PRAM's reset, 1 SMC reset and no solution...

If I look in the system information I can see the USB dongle attached, but don't recognised as bluetooth...

With OC 0.6.9 all goes perfect... update to 0.7.1 and bluetooth fails... what can I do??

 

[0134168]

Ufffff... I have the same nigthmare that other times... BLUETOOTH is missing....

I updated from OC 0.6.9 to 0.7.1 (always Martin's pack) and I lost the bluetooth... 4 PRAM's reset, 1 SMC reset and no solution...

If I look in the system information I can see the USB dongle attached, but don't recognised as bluetooth...

With OC 0.6.9 all goes perfect... update to 0.7.1 and bluetooth fails... what can I do??

Return to 0.6.9?

 

[donvito4ever]

Return to 0.6.9?

Nice shot! I'm focussed in make work with 0.7.1 and forget to go back!!! Working again with 0.6.9...

What can be the problem??

 

[borgo1971]

So, I'm back after I've erased my TM backup drive, partitioned it, installed Mojave, and started to install OpenCore (0.7.1). Alls seems to be went well, but now I've finished part II and still can't see the picker at boot. Boot seems to take a bit too long, and display seems to power on two times displaying no signal message before login screen appears. Maybe, picker is there and won't be displayed? After logged in Dosdudes pathed macOS Catalina, that I have on pci-nvme drive (disk A) and thought to overwrite (saving applications ad user data) when I'm sure the system will boot anyway, I can get confirm with the nvram command that OpenCore (REL-071-2021-07-05) has booted the system... but I don't see any picker or boot screen at all... display really power on only with login screen (as before, since I've replaced the EVGA GTX680 with a Sapphire Nitro+ RX580). Display is connected through DisplayPort but I tried DVI too... and seems it won't matter. I pretty sure I have done all the steps in the part I and part II... and I guess I should see picker, but I don't... has someone a suggestion if and what I'm doing wrong?

 

[borgo1971]

After playing around with confg.plist for a while (and no results), I tried with Martin's Package too. But even with this, I can't see any picker. No one has an idea where can be the fault?

 

[paalb]

After playing around with confg.plist for a while (and no results), I tried with Martin's Package too. But even with this, I can't see any picker. No one has an idea where can be the fault?

I am no expert, maybe this: Search Google for mining

 

[borgo1971]

I am no expert, maybe this: Search Google for mining

I'm too. But even I doubt my Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX580 is bean modified (I bought it as new on Amazon, and didn't notice any sing this wasn't true) how can I test it? And how can I eventually flash back stock or any working firmware?