How to build your own iMac Pro [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[mgregrs]

Guys.. two little questions - I need response for noob (i mean very simple response) about MSR
1) What it is (in few words) and what will happened if it's locked?
2) In your opinion: (is it worth?) Should I change bios from 0702 to 0503 for unlocked MSR?

BIG thanks for patience

//edit
YEAH! I finished MY first working installation of HighSierra
It's a beautiful moment after so many hours and days of tries, tests etc...
Time for PostInstallation details
That was on first TestSSD and day after tomorrow I will reinstall all on my NVME 960Evo

 

[kgp]

Thank you, I will try with mini-tool
I had all version so when Final version did't work I tried old (not final) version
yes I shouldn't do that

What I can say about (in my opinion) one little problematic detail in this Ultra guide - it's like you said:
"ou should modify and copy VoodooTSCSync.kext to both Efi-folder of your USB flash drive and system disk before macOS installation or Update"
I'm not sure but I feel you forgot that we (almost) can't do that If we don't have any OS on our PC
My RIG with 7900X is totally new so I don't have windows or any other system on it and I this is a reason
why average users can't copy EFI or others files on both HDD/SDD and USB drive
I prepare my USB, EFI etc on old PC with El Capitan, so if you don't have 2nd PC you (almost) can't prepare everything
for perfect installation with your guide
If I missed something, please let me know

PS: In few minutes I will know if mini tool format will work
And if I didn't miss something, we can't install HS on HFS, but
only on APFS...??
//edit
PS2: Lol - Mini tool.. free version can't be used in Windows PE
so now .... I Installed Windows on 3rd SSD
and deleted all partition with that cool little tool - so now SSD is unformatted
//edit 2
reboot and... SSD is not visible in DiskUtility tool (before HS install)
this is the same situation like before - if I have unformatted disk he is not visible in Disk Utility later

//edit 3
so I'm a lucky with old PC and OS X so I had to connect my SSD and erase with Disk Utility (on my old ElCapitan)
(formatted on HFS+ and then copied EFI folder)
then reconnect to X299 PC and now my SSD is visible and I'm in installation process

What to do? I can't provide VoodooTSCSync.kext for all Skylake-X models. As you see it is core (thread) specific. I am afraid there is not other solution than to properly adopt VoodooTSCSync.kext for each specific Skylake-X CPU....

 

[mgregrs]

What to do? I can't provide VoodooTSCSync.kext for all Skylake-X models. As you see it is core (thread) specific. I am afraid there is not other solution than to properly adopt VoodooTSCSync.kext for each specific Skylake-X CPU....

No no no, that wasn't my suggestion/what I wanted to say...! Nothing about VoodooTSC etc
I wanted to mention: how it's difficult to prepare everything if you don't have more than 1 PC (in general)

Another one thing
6.) To deeply investigate your final XCPM functionality, download Piker Alpha’s AppleIntelInfo.kext from Github. To compile the
code enter the following terminal commands:

Code (Text):
cd ~/Downloads/AppleIntelInfo-master
xcodebuild ----- after that command we must install developer tools (I think it will be better to mention about that if it's necessary and we shouldn't panic when we will have additional window and few minutes of downloading and installation
..then

User-iMac:AppleIntelInfo-master redosx$ xcodebuild
xcode-select: error: tool 'xcodebuild' requires Xcode, but active developer directory '/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools' is a command line tools instance
----- so I think we need to download Xcode 8 or 9beta from apple

I will finish download and I will see...
Other things "post installation" details are OK - so I'm very happy because at this moment everything work great
last 1 hour I tested all USB ports etc... and now I want to make a little test with Geekbench

 

[mgregrs]

I didn't finish post config.. so I need a few more hours for my tests etc...
KGP you are Genius!!! Again BIG Thank you for this guide!

I never thinking it can work so great I'm very excited it's so beautiful

PS: Vega 64 works great oob



PS2: BTW
Like I said before, you are genius!
I saw and I read a little about your job and projects (I mean in real life)- it is really amazing

 

[kgp]

I didn't finish post config.. so I need a few more hours for my tests etc...
KGP you are Genius!!! Again BIG Thank you for this guide!

I never thinking it can work so great I'm very excited it's so beautiful

PS: Vega 64 works great oob

View attachment 277882View attachment 277883

PS2: BTW
Like I said before, you are genius!
I saw and I read a little about your job and projects (I mean in real life)- it is really amazing

Back from mini-holidays and happy to see you content and satisfied. I already tried to implement most of your suggestions and comments apparently popping up during your macOS Installation. Many thanks for all your feedback which hopefully further improved the readability and applicability of this guide.

Cheers,

KGP

 

[mgregrs]

Back from mini-holidays and happy to see you content and satisfied. I already tried to implement most of your suggestions and comments apparently popping up during your macOS Installation. Many thanks for all your feedback which hopefully further improved the readability and applicability of this guide.

Cheers,

KGP

Cool Everyone need holidays
I'm happy if I can sometimes help with something so...

So after 1 day of use I can Say: It's ultra cool and beautiful :-D
MB audio work great, Bluetooth-ok,
and 2 Lan work great too I'm very very happy


without one little detail found few minutes ago

My PC work almost 19h/24 and yesterday night when I sleep
he reboots alone, and today when I tried install some programs (like opera or some video player), the same thing - reboot,

3 Times my session was closed alone crazy:) and after that (sometimes) without any reason PC reboot alone,
even if I do nothing.... only web browser opened without video music or stuff like that.

And 5min ago I could't even boot, I was stuck on:'' look screen below''


And sometimes it boots ok, and go further, or sometimes go further and at last screen, it reboot again...

its something very weird, I checked all post installation things, everything was ok... (like you wrote in guide)

I will show last page ... maybe it will help....

Settings:

------------------------------------------

logMSRs..................................: 1

logIGPU..................................: 0

logCStates...............................: 1

logIPGStyle..............................: 1

InitialTSC...............................: 0x6ffa45b340c (233 MHz)

MWAIT C-States...........................: 8224


Processor Brandstring....................: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-7900X CPU @ 3.30GHz


Processor Signature..................... : 0x50654

------------------------------------------

- Family............................... : 6

- Stepping............................. : 4

- Model................................ : 0x55 (85)


Model Specific Registers (MSRs)

------------------------------------------


MSR_IA32_PLATFORM_ID.............(0x17) : 0x8000000000000

------------------------------------------

- Processor Flags...................... : 2


MSR_CORE_THREAD_COUNT............(0x35) : 0xA0014

------------------------------------------

- Core Count........................... : 10

- Thread Count......................... : 20


MSR_PLATFORM_INFO................(0xCE) : 0x70C2CF3012100

------------------------------------------

- Maximum Non-Turbo Ratio.............. : 0x21 (3300 MHz)

- Ratio Limit for Turbo Mode........... : 1 (programmable)

- TDP Limit for Turbo Mode............. : 1 (programmable)

- Low Power Mode Support............... : 0 (LMP not supported)

- Number of ConfigTDP Levels........... : 2 (additional TDP level(s) available)

- Maximum Efficiency Ratio............. : 12

- Minimum Operating Ratio.............. : 7


MSR_PMG_CST_CONFIG_CONTROL.......(0xE2) : 0x8402

------------------------------------------

- I/O MWAIT Redirection Enable......... : 1 (enabled, IO read of MSR(0xE4) mapped to MWAIT)

- CFG Lock............................. : 1 (MSR locked until next reset)

- C3 State Auto Demotion............... : 0 (disabled/unsupported)

- C1 State Auto Demotion............... : 0 (disabled/unsupported)

- C3 State Undemotion.................. : 0 (disabled/unsupported)

- C1 State Undemotion.................. : 0 (disabled/unsupported)

- Package C-State Auto Demotion........ : 0 (disabled/unsupported)

- Package C-State Undemotion........... : 0 (disabled/unsupported)


MSR_PMG_IO_CAPTURE_BASE..........(0xE4) : 0x11814

------------------------------------------

- LVL_2 Base Address................... : 0x1814

- C-state Range........................ : 1 (C6 is the max C-State to include)


IA32_MPERF.......................(0xE7) : 0x132FB713894

IA32_APERF.......................(0xE8) : 0x83676A3A08


MSR_FLEX_RATIO...................(0x194) : 0xE0000

------------------------------------------


MSR_IA32_PERF_STATUS.............(0x198) : 0x169500000C00

------------------------------------------

- Current Performance State Value...... : 0xC00 (1200 MHz)


MSR_IA32_PERF_CONTROL............(0x199) : 0xC00

------------------------------------------

- Target performance State Value....... : 0xC00 (1200 MHz)

- Intel Dynamic Acceleration........... : 0 (IDA engaged)


IA32_CLOCK_MODULATION............(0x19A) : 0x0


IA32_THERM_INTERRUPT.............(0x19B) : 0x0


IA32_THERM_STATUS................(0x19C) : 0x884C0800

------------------------------------------

- Thermal Status....................... : 0

- Thermal Log.......................... : 0

- PROCHOT # or FORCEPR# event.......... : 0

- PROCHOT # or FORCEPR# log............ : 0

- Critical Temperature Status.......... : 0

- Critical Temperature log............. : 0

- Thermal Threshold #1 Status.......... : 0

- Thermal Threshold #1 log............. : 0

- Thermal Threshold #2 Status.......... : 0

- Thermal Threshold #2 log............. : 0

- Power Limitation Status.............. : 0

- Power Limitation log................. : 1

- Current Limit Status................. : 0

- Current Limit log.................... : 0

- Cross Domain Limit Status............ : 0

- Cross Domain Limit log............... : 0

- Digital Readout...................... : 76

- Resolution in Degrees Celsius........ : 1

- Reading Valid........................ : 1 (valid)


MSR_THERM2_CTL...................(0x19D) : 0x0


IA32_MISC_ENABLES................(0x1A0) : 0x850089

------------------------------------------

- Fast-Strings......................... : 1 (enabled)

- FOPCODE compatibility mode Enable.... : 0

- Automatic Thermal Control Circuit.... : 1 (enabled)

- Split-lock Disable................... : 0

- Performance Monitoring............... : 1 (available)

- Bus Lock On Cache Line Splits Disable : 0

- Hardware prefetch Disable............ : 0

- Processor Event Based Sampling....... : 0 (PEBS supported)

- GV1/2 legacy Enable.................. : 0

- Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology.. : 1 (enabled)

- MONITOR FSM.......................... : 1 (MONITOR/MWAIT supported)

- Adjacent sector prefetch Disable..... : 0

- CFG Lock............................. : 0 (MSR not locked)

- xTPR Message Disable................. : 1 (disabled)


MSR_TEMPERATURE_TARGET...........(0x1A2) : 0x690A00

------------------------------------------

- Turbo Attenuation Units.............. : 0

- Temperature Target................... : 105

- TCC Activation Offset................ : 0


MSR_MISC_PWR_MGMT................(0x1AA) : 0x403040

------------------------------------------

- EIST Hardware Coordination........... : 0 (hardware coordination enabled)

- Energy/Performance Bias support...... : 1

- Energy/Performance Bias.............. : 0 (disabled/MSR not visible to software)

- Thermal Interrupt Coordination Enable : 1 (thermal interrupt routed to all cores)

- SpeedShift Technology Enable......... : 1 (enabled)

- SpeedShift Interrupt Coordination.... : 0 (disabled)

- SpeedShift Energy Efficient Perf..... : 1 (enabled)

- SpeedShift Technology Setup for HWP.. : Yes (setup for HWP)


MSR_TURBO_RATIO_LIMIT............(0x1AD) : 0x2D2D2D2D2D2D2D2D

------------------------------------------

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C01.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C02.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C03.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C04.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C05.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C06.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C07.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C08.......... : 2D (4500 MHz)


MSR_TURBO_RATIO_LIMIT1...........(0x1AE) : 0x1C1814100A080402

------------------------------------------

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C09.......... : 2 (200 MHz)

- Maximum Ratio Limit for C10.......... : 4 (400 MHz)


IA32_ENERGY_PERF_BIAS............(0x1B0) : 0x1

------------------------------------------

- Power Policy Preference...............: 1 (highest performance)


MSR_POWER_CTL....................(0x1FC) : 0x292C005B

------------------------------------------

- Bi-Directional Processor Hot..........: 1 (enabled)

- C1E Enable............................: 1 (enabled)


MSR_RAPL_POWER_UNIT..............(0x606) : 0xA0E03

------------------------------------------

- Power Units.......................... : 3 (1/8 Watt)

- Energy Status Units.................. : 14 (61 micro-Joules)

- Time Units .......................... : 10 (976.6 micro-Seconds)


MSR_PKG_POWER_LIMIT..............(0x610) : 0x3FFF80014FFF8

------------------------------------------

- Package Power Limit #1............... : 4095 Watt

- Enable Power Limit #1................ : 1 (enabled)

- Package Clamping Limitation #1....... : 0 (disabled)

- Time Window for Power Limit #1....... : 10 (2560 milli-Seconds)

- Package Power Limit #2............... : 4095 Watt

- Enable Power Limit #2................ : 1 (enabled)

- Package Clamping Limitation #2....... : 1 (allow going below OS-requested P/T state setting Time Window for Power Limit #2)

- Time Window for Power Limit #2....... : 1 (5 milli-Seconds)

- Lock................................. : 0 (MSR not locked)


MSR_PKG_ENERGY_STATUS............(0x611) : 0x2B62C06

------------------------------------------

- Total Energy Consumed................ : 2776 Joules (Watt = Joules / seconds)


MSR_CONFIG_TDP_NOMINAL...........(0x648) : 0x21

MSR_CONFIG_TDP_LEVEL1............(0x649) : 0xE4000000190460

MSR_CONFIG_TDP_LEVEL2............(0x64a) : 0xE4000000190460

MSR_CONFIG_TDP_CONTROL...........(0x64b) : 0x80000000

MSR_TURBO_ACTIVATION_RATIO.......(0x64c) : 0x0

MSR_PKGC3_IRTL...................(0x60a) : 0x0

MSR_PKGC6_IRTL...................(0x60b) : 0x0

MSR_PKG_C2_RESIDENCY.............(0x60d) : 0x117F0711075

MSR_PKG_C3_RESIDENCY.............(0x3f8) : 0x0

MSR_PKG_C2_RESIDENCY.............(0x60d) : 0x117F0711075

MSR_PKG_C6_RESIDENCY.............(0x3f9) : 0x7BEEAAB37


IA32_TSC_DEADLINE................(0x6E0) : 0x6FFAB5D931A


IA32_PM_ENABLE...................(0x770) : 0x1 (HWP Supported and Enabled)


IA32_HWP_CAPABILITIES............(0x771) : 0x70C212D

-----------------------------------------

- Highest Performance.................. : 45

- Guaranteed Performance............... : 33

- Most Efficient Performance........... : 12

- Lowest Performance................... : 7


IA32_HWP_REQUEST_PKG.............(0x772) : 0x8000FF00

-----------------------------------------

- Minimum Performance.................. : 0

- Maximum Performance.................. : 255

- Desired Performance.................. : 0

- Energy Efficient Performance......... : 128

- Activity Window...................... : 0, 0


IA32_HWP_REQUEST................(0x774) : 0x8000FF00

-----------------------------------------

- Minimum Performance................. : 0

- Maximum Performance................. : 255

- Desired Performance................. : 0

- Energy Efficient Performance........ : 128

- Activity Window..................... : 0, 0

- Package Control..................... : 0


IA32_HWP_STATUS..................(0x777) : 0x0

-----------------------------------------

- Guaranteed Performance Change....... : 0 (has not occured)

- Excursion To Minimum................ : 0 (has not occured)


CPU Ratio Info:

------------------------------------------

Base Clock Frequency (BLCK)............. : 100 MHz

Maximum Efficiency Ratio/Frequency.......: 12 (1200 MHz)

Maximum non-Turbo Ratio/Frequency........: 33 (3300 MHz)

Maximum Turbo Ratio/Frequency............: 45 (4500 MHz)

P-State ratio * 100 = Frequency in MHz

------------------------------------------

CPU P-States [ (12) 14 ]

CPU C6-Cores [ 0 2 4 7 8 10 12 14 17 18 ]

CPU C6-Cores [ 0 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 16 17 18 ]

CPU C6-Cores [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 ]

CPU P-States [ (12) 14 ]

CPU P-States [ 12 14 (20) ]

I was thinking, maybe Opera is not compatible with HSierra
again after opened I had freeze and reboot, ten after 5 PC restarts i could boot properly
but the same freeze and reboot was after Google Chrome installation and 3 secs of configuration.

 

[kgp]

Cool Everyone need holidays
I'm happy if I can sometimes help with something so...

So after 1 day of use I can Say: It's ultra cool and beautiful :-D
MB audio work great, Bluetooth-ok,
and 2 Lan work great too I'm very very happy

without one little detail found few minutes ago

My PC work almost 19h/24 and yesterday night when I sleep
he reboots alone, and today when I tried install some programs (like opera or some video player), the same thing - reboot,

3 Times my session was closed alone crazy:) and after that (sometimes) without any reason PC reboot alone,
even if I do nothing.... only web browser opened without video music or stuff like that.

And 5min ago I could't even boot, I was stuck on:'' look screen below''
View attachment 278031

And sometimes it boots ok, and go further, or sometimes go further and at last screen, it reboot again...

its something very weird, I checked all post installation things, everything was ok... (like you wrote in guide)

I will show last page ... maybe it will help....



I was thinking, maybe Opera is not compatible with HSierra
again after opened I had freeze and reboot, ten after 5 PC restarts i could boot properly
but the same freeze and reboot was after Google Chrome installation and 3 secs of configuration.


View attachment 278031 View attachment 278038

I don't know what is the reason for your reboots. Did you check if your RAM is compatible with your board? Deviating BIOS settings? Is your XCPM properly configured? Are you still using the correct VoodooTSC? Energy Saver settings? ... you errors rather seem CPU related with some kernel panic..

Chrome was not working for long under 10.13. With Opera I have no experience. I definitely use Safari and Firefox for now.

I cannot confirm reboots. My system runs absolutlely stable for several weeks already. Not even one reboot in all these weeks..

 

[dk1306]

o.k. I found the solution... in fact I never tried the easy workaround I implemented here.... but now I did

You have to do it exactly in the following order, do it precisely like this and exactly in this order!

1.) Backup the 10.13 AppleGraphicsControl.kext
2.) Install the patched WebDriver-378.05.05.25f01[up_17A315i].pkg
3.) Reboot
4.) Patch the the "NVDAStartupWeb.kext" with the Nvidia Web Driver Updater v1.5 to the actual OS X version, i.e. "17A330h"

(PB4/DP5) or "17A344b" (PB5/DP6)​

5.) Install the 10.12.6 AppleGraphicsControl.kext to /S/L/E with the accurate permission using Kext Utility or any other kext utility

of your choice.​

6.) Apply the AGDPfix (Don't forget to apply this last step!!! otherwise you will end up with a black screen which you cannot

circumvent!)​

And wooooow, it works!

If you again mistake, you have to remove all NVDA*.kext files from /S/L/E and start from the beginning with the workaround

I updated the guide correspondingly!

Cheers,

KGP

Do we have do enable nvda_drv=1 and check NvidiaWeb and also apply additional flags -ngfxbeta -lilubeta after doing those 6 steps?

 

[kgp]

Do we have do enable nvda_drv=1 and check NvidiaWeb and also apply additional flags -ngfxbeta -lilubeta after doing those 6 steps?

nvda_drv=1 should be obsolete with latest clover boot loader. You can check Nvidia Web. Likely you neither need NvidiaGraphicsFixup.kext nor Lilu.kext nor -ngfxbeta nor -lilubeta boot flags...
Only add these helpers in case your web driver workaround does not work after step 1.) to 6.)

 

[dk1306]

nvda_drv=1 should be obsolete with latest clover boot loader. You can check Nvidia Web. Likely you neither need NvidiaGraphicsFixup.kext nor Lilu.kext nor -ngfxbeta nor -lilubeta boot flags...
Only add these helpers in case your web driver workaround does not work after step 1.) to 6.)

When should I check NvidiaWeb in clover, after applying AGDPfix, but before rebooting?