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

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Would it be possible to get a video of this entire guide ? Some of the steps in the guide are confusing.
 
Update - First version of my Skylake-X/X299 macOS Sierra 10.12 and macOS High Sierra 10.13 Desktop Guides finished and released

Enjoy! Happy to receive your feedback and suggestions!

View attachment 272939

Would it be possible to get a video of the entire process ? Seems like it'd be a bit easier to see when you move from computer to computer.
 
Which build of 10.13.3 have yoo installed? There is two. One for the iMacPro, and one for everything else. Only the special iMacPro build can boot with an iMacPro board-id. Do you boot verbose? If not, do so. AptioMemoryFix should output at least something.

I downloaded the installer via createInstaller.sh.zip script, I guess it should be the iMacPro. Or not? How can I check the installer build number? I boot verbose yes! The AptioMemoryFix gave me slide number error, something like "slide number has to be between 128-256" I don't clearly remember... Would like to see the full message?
 
Sure I would. Also, do you have a slide value set? If so, unset it.
If i remember right, @kgp 's EFI folder contain slide=0

Should I uncheck it? I do it in a few minutes for you!
 
Hi guys!

I need a little help, yesterday I tried to fresh install 10.3.3 with iMacPro SMBIOS. I just made the installer disk, everything went fine, every step was OK. I disconnected every single SSD, HDD, only attached the USB installer and the final SSD which had Windows 10 previously. The USB installer disk simply doesn't show up in the Clover screen! I tried to reboot many times, but nothing. Anyway I grabbed my previous USB installer disk (10.3.0) and I just installed the system with iMac 17,1 SMBIOS. Then I updated to 10.3.3 via App Store, went fine. Then I tried to change the whole EFI folder for @kgp 's EFI, but oviously I changed the voodootscsync.kext (8 core, 16 thread, I put 15) and generated a new serial and SMUUID. Reboot and nothing. EFI is working, I can choose disk but after that, black screen, then the system shut down. I thought it has to be AptioMemoryFIX.efi problem, (I couldn't crate my own with the script, I attach the terminal message)

Code:
Last login: Sun Jan 28 23:48:50 on ttys000
Attilas-iMac:~ bagi1992$ rm -rf AptioMemFix
Attilas-iMac:~ bagi1992$ git clone https://github.com/Pavo-IM/AptioMemFix
Cloning into 'AptioMemFix'...
remote: Counting objects: 59, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (39/39), done.
remote: Total 59 (delta 22), reused 56 (delta 20), pack-reused 0
Unpacking objects: 100% (59/59), done.
Attilas-iMac:~ bagi1992$ rm -rf ~/Desktop/AptioMemFix/
Attilas-iMac:~ bagi1992$ rm -rf ~/Desktop/AptioFix/
Attilas-iMac:~ bagi1992$ mv AptioMemFix/ ~/Desktop/
Attilas-iMac:~ bagi1992$ chmod +x ~/Desktop/AptioMemFix/AptioMemory_Builder.sh
Attilas-iMac:~ bagi1992$ ~/Desktop/AptioMemFix/AptioMemory_Builder.sh
Build script version 1.2
Missing or incompatible nasm!
Download nasm 2.13.02 from http://www.nasm.us/pub/nasm/releasebuilds/ and install it automatically?
Enter [Y]es to continue: y
Downloading NASM 2.13.02                                               -  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 2262k  100 2262k    0     0  1006k      0  0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:-- 1005k
-Password/
[DONE]
Missing mtoc or mtoc.NEW!
Install prebuilt mtoc and mtoc.NEW automatically?
Enter [Y]es to continue: y
Installing MTOC                                                        |unzip:  cannot find or open external/mtoc-mac64.zip, external/mtoc-mac64.zip.zip or external/mtoc-mac64.zip.ZIP.

so I tried to change for OsxAptioFix3Drv-64.efi. Doesn't work. Then I tried so many various of these efi files but I couldn't find any good. Even with my current system's OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi + Test2.efi doesn't work on this system. So I don't really have idea now what to do, I can't boot this system with iMacPro SMBIOS, only with iMac 17,1 SMBIOS.

If someone could check my EFI folder, that would be nicely appreciate! I attach my current, working system's EFI too!

@Bagi1992 ,

To start with the MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) USB Flash Drive installer, I guess you forgot about D.3.3):

Screen Shot 2018-01-29 at 09.06.41.png

Thus I would recommend again a clean install of MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047), after carefully revising Section D.)

The other thing:

When updating from 10.13.0 with SMBIOS iMac17,1 to MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) with SMBIOS iMacPro1,1, it is not sufficient to just replace your SMBIOS iMac17,1 EFI-Folder with my SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 EFI-Folder and you can't just update to MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) via the App-Store.

Also here you missed D.5.2), which is to modify the PlatformSupport.plist on your System Disk before the update,

Screen Shot 2018-01-29 at 09.16.06.png

and it seems that you also missed D.5.3) and D.5.4), Where I clearly state that you have to update to MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) directly from disk by means of the MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) Base System.dmg, which you have to previously download form the Apple Server by means of a specific terminal command.

Screen Shot 2018-01-29 at 09.19.08.png


In any case, I recommend to redo the clean install by means of your now hopefully working MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) USB Flash Drive installer. Don forget to implement previously also my SMBIOS iMacPro EFI-Folder on both USB Flash Drive Installer and System Disk after adding the adopted VoodooTSCSync..

I guess I am not that wrong with my suspicion, am I? ;)

What you did will never work and I don't think that your issue is down to AptioMemoryFix at first place... By the way, AptioMemoryFix is part of Clover_v2.4k_r4392, no need to compile it separately. And it is also now by default part of my latest EFI-Folder distribution.
 
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AHCI should be fine. If you had a bootable installation, you should have try to fix that instead of reformatting.

If you have lag, the most obvious culprit is a bad voodootscsync.kext. Re-check that part of the guide and try it with a proper one, that matches your core count.

I love you. I just wasted 20+ hours because my dumb butt didn't put in the voodootscsync.kext (and modify the correct core count) in the EFI folder.

Thank you!

Things are working ok now and I'm customizing the OS as usual :)
 
@Bagi1992 ,

To start with the MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) USB Flash Drive installer, I guess you forgot about D.3.3):

View attachment 309274
Thus I would recommend again a clean install of MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047), after carefully revising Section D.)

The other thing:

When updating from 10.13.0 with SMBIOS iMac17,1 to MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) with SMBIOS iMacPro1,1, it is not sufficient to just replace your SMBIOS iMac17,1 EFI-Folder with my SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 EFI-Folder and you can't just update to MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) via the App-Store.

Also here you missed D.5.2), which is to modify the PlatformSupport.plist on your System Disk before the update,

View attachment 309275
and it seems that you also missed D.5.3) and D.5.4), Where I clearly state that you have to update to MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) directly from disk by means of the MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) Base System.dmg, which you have to previously download form the Apple Server by means of a specific terminal command.

View attachment 309276

In any case, I recommend to redo the clean install by means of your now hopefully working MacOS 10.13.3 (17D2047) USB Flash Drive installer. Don forget to implement previously also my SMBIOS iMacPro EFI-Folder on both USB Flash Drive Installer and System Disk after adding the adopted VoodooTSCSync..

I guess I am not that wrong with my suspicion, am I? ;)

Yes you have right in some point, I missed some point... I did D.3.3, It should give me 2 lines in the terminal when it's done?

I redo the installer, because this updated imac pro system maybe not the best option :lol:
 
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If i remember right, @kgp 's EFI folder contain slide=0

Should I uncheck it? I do it in a few minutes for you!

Opposite to ancient versions, my most actual EFI-Folder distributions do not have the slide boot flag checked anymore, in line with the latest AptioMemoryFix development. AptioMemoryFix is part of my most actual EFI-Folder distribution once more attached below.
 

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Regarding the TSC issue with our builds:

I have done extensive research on this issue, and it turns out, we should not need VoodooTSCSync kext since full cpu support was added in the iMacPro special build. The kernel does not corrects out-of-sync TSCs, it expects them to be in sync.

x299/Skylake-X cpus have a bug either in the bios or in the cpu that makes them start and/or restart with non zero TSC values. I tried to pinpoint the location in the bios where the TSC is written to, but I only found one occurrence, and patching that did not solve the issue. What that write does, I have no idea.

So I believe the cpu microcode itself is to blame. Until Asus does not provide a bios that fixes this, we are stuck with this issue.

Happily, this kext really does not do too much, so using it has no real downside (apart from the fact that you can forget it and then scratch your head what's wrong).

I even created a modified kext that does even less then VoodooTSCSync, here:
https://github.com/interferenc/TSCAdjustReset

This does not synchronises the TSCs by writing the same value to all of them, but by resetting the adjustments accumulated until the point where the kext loads. After this, the kext can even be unloaded, there is no other need for it.

BUT, this is just for my learning, there is no real observable benefit compared to the 5 year old VoodooTSCSync kext, so I am only sharing this hoping someone else is even more knowledgeable regarding the TSC and maybe come up with a better fix.

I totally agree.

@interferenc, would it be possible that you contact the US ASUS customer support and report about your suspicion? Maybe they would be able to change the cpu microcode directly another time?

Many thanks in advance,

KGP
 
Sure I would. Also, do you have a slide value set? If so, unset it.

I get this, If i boot with AptioMemoryFix and unchecked slide=0

Today I try to redo the installer and the whole install process!
 

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