Problem installing 10.13 Mac Pro upgraded to 5.1

[nbwallace]

The firmware update went fine. I tried to install 10.13.4 on and ssd connected via an Apricorn Velocity Duo. The install would get to the white screen with the Apple logo and at some point the screen would start flashing.

I have a cloned drive, but when I try to boot from it the machine boot loops. This is pretty painful. I think I can roll back using recovery and time machine. If that doesn’t work I might be hosed.
[doublepost=1522804195][/doublepost]Also I can’t restore from time machine to the drive. I think I am screwed.

 

[bsbeamer]

What GPU are you using? Is it flashed or not flashed?

APFS or HFS+ formatted SSD?

 

[nbwallace]

I have my original GT 120 in the box. The ssd was reformatted to APFS. The only way I can boot at all now is to use the recovery partition. I tried PRAM reset, too. So I am now in a boot loop with either the APFS formatted ssd (resident on the Apricorn card) or the cloned 10.12.6 hdfs hard drive.

I can’t restore the time machine backup to the SSD and I can’t reformat the ssd to hdfs.

 

[bsbeamer]

Use non APFS drive.

Can you boot into recovery?

Do you have any spare HDD you can throw in and try a clean install to get this up and running?

How many SSDs in Velocity Duo? Assume it’s the X2? Did you ever send into Apricorn for a firmware upgrade? Any other drives in the second slot?

Can you move the SSD into SATA slot?

 

[nbwallace]

Yes I can boot into recovery. I might be able to scround up a hard drive. The issue is now the installer on the recovery is asking to update the firmware, which I think I already did. Plus it’s not actually allowing me to upgrade the firmware. The shut down button on the installer doesn’t do anything.

The velocity duo has two drives. My system drive and a data drive. I didn’t know the duo could get a firmware update.

It’s befuddling I can’t boot from my backup drive.
[doublepost=1522806564][/doublepost]I just took out the Apricorn drive. It looks like the system drive is a Samsung SSD I think I recall that it is a big no no.
[doublepost=1522806612][/doublepost]Also still boot looping. Even with the backup HDD.

 

[bsbeamer]

What card do you typically have in the machine? GT120 or something else? If something else, NVIDIA or AMD?

Some people have reported putting BOTH cards in machine for firmware update. Don’t know if that’s something with GT120 or something else. Thread mentioned it few days ago.

Put the SSD from Velocity PCIe into SATA directly. Eliminate all “unnecessary” for troubleshooting.

 

[nbwallace]

I think what i’ll do is get a couple of external drive cases and retrieve the file off either the boot SSD or the clone drive. But the main issue is that the box will only boot into recovery. I’m not sure what to do. Is there a way I can check the firmware from the terminal?
[doublepost=1522809194][/doublepost]I only have the GT 120 in the machine. During my first try at installation it seemed the firmware install went fine, but I could be wrong.

 

[nbwallace]

Ok I cloned my backup drive and tried to install 10.13.4 on the backup drive using my MacBook. The install finished, but when the MacBook tried to book from the drive it went into a boot loop.

Just for kicks I installed the updated drive into my Mac Pro. I got the same issue as before, boot loop exactly like it behaved using the ssd. When I try to use the recovery partition to reinstall the system I get a request to update firmware, but the restart button is unresponsive. I’m pretty stuck, it seems like I have a firmware problem. But I can’t figure out how to check the firmware version.

 

[tsialex]

You could try to install 10.11 or 12 on another disk, download Mac App Store installer for 10.13.4 and upgrade the firmware running the installer from macOS. I had a similar problem when trying to install 10.13.4.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...nstaller-mp51-0085-b00.2112641/#post-25939374

 

[nbwallace]

I’ll give that a try. My old back up disk is at 10.12 and it won’t boot either. I really think the firmware is messed up.

 

[nbwallace]

I took it to the local Apple store. I think I spent about 1.5 hours working with a genius. We couldn’t resolve the problem. He suggested that I take to a local authorized shop. They have the machine now.

We’ll see how it goes. I don’t think the problem has an obvious answer.

 

[nbwallace]

I finally fixed this yesterday. After paying $100 to have a clean install done. When I restored from my time machine backup it went into boot loop again, so the answer should have been obvious, bad extensions. I moved the extensions to a folder called ExtensionsDisabled and when I rebooted voila stable as can be. Boots form the Apricorn Duo X2 and works natively with my rx480.

In short, I am a moron.