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X299 Big Sur Support

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You're using MacPro 7,1 SMBIOS, right? That's a standard problem with that SMBIOS.

In Catalina and earlier it could be fixed with a special kext, MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext.

But unfortunately this kext currently no longer works in Big Sur, because some of Big Sur's changes broke a certain method of injection used by Lilu.

Last week I tried an alternative method to fix this - using OpenCore's CustomMemory setup to specifically define all of my RAM chips. This works in the sense that the configuration you specify does show up in About This Mac -> Memory. But no matter what I tried, I could not get rid of that error and its notification.

So currently the only solution I know of is to use the iMacPro 1,1 SMBIOS instead, which I think a lot of users in this thread are already using? Personally I would prefer to use MacPro 7,1 as I feel it fits my hardware better (Comet Lake X), however given this annoying memory notification, maybe I too will move to iMacPro 1,1.

It's possible that in time the developers of Lilu will find another way to run these patches on Big Sur, which could make MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext work again. But I don't know if that's likely or not.

You're using MacPro 7,1 SMBIOS, right? That's a standard problem with that SMBIOS.

In Catalina it could be fixed with a special kext, MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext.

But unfortunately this kext currently no longer works in Big Sur, because some of Big Sur's changes broke a certain method of injection used by Lilu.

Last week I tried an alternative method to fix this - using OpenCore's CustomMemory setup to specifically define all of my RAM chips. This works in the sense that the configuration you specify does show up in About This Mac -> Memory. But no matter what I tried, I could not get rid of that error and its notification.

So currently the only solution I know of is to use the iMacPro 1,1 SMBIOS instead, which I think a lot of users in this thread are already using? Personally I would prefer to use MacPro 7,1 as I feel it fits my hardware better (Cascade Lake X), however given this annoying memory notification, maybe I too will move to iMacPro 1,1.

It's possible that in time the developers of Lilu will find another way to run these patches on Big Sur, which could make MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext work again. But I don't know if that's likely or not.

thanks for the clarification @TheBloke . I am indeed on MacPro 7,1 - however, when I try any other SMBIOS (eg: iMacPro 1,1), my display doesn't render when booting. In other words, I can then only get the display to render on MacPro 7,1 - weird.. because that memory info is annoying when not displaying correct!

Next issue to fix.. Audio. Thanks for the help :)
 
Ok :

Disconnect Windows disk, reboot on Catalina, format your Big Sur install disk, reboot on USB installer , when you come at macOS gui screen , choose disk utility, format another time your Big Sur Install disk (APFS) name it Big Sur and restart the installation , take a screen shot each time you boot the installer and at the end of verbose process.
( I will come back at end of afternoon)

So same thing happens, pictures attached - this time I left installer log on errors only and got some clearer pictures of what's happening before it reboots at 12 minutes as well but these are the screen shots as requested, Windows drive removed:

  1. First boot from USB installer - select Install MacOS Big Sur
  2. Reformat Big Sur drive from the booted installer
  3. Select Big Sur disk to install onto
  4. Installer log begins OK
  5. Installer log errors about "EFI builder // cannot find resource"
  6. Verbose output at installer crash at 12 minutes remaining (camera wouldn't focus but its the same as 9)
  7. Opencore screen at second reboot - no Preboot volume but "MacOS Installer" appears and is selected for boot
  8. Begins to boot, progress bar and mouse cursor before blank screen and reboot
  9. Verbose output screen - same as 6, reboot.

The verbose screens seem to indicate that some disks are write protected? Something preventing the installer from creating Preboot volume correctly?
 

Attachments

  • 1 first boot USB installer.JPG
    1 first boot USB installer.JPG
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  • 2 reformat Big Sur disk.JPG
    2 reformat Big Sur disk.JPG
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  • 3 Select Big Sur disk to install.JPG
    3 Select Big Sur disk to install.JPG
    165.9 KB · Views: 41
  • 4 Installer log.JPG
    4 Installer log.JPG
    238.4 KB · Views: 39
  • 5 Installer log errors at 12 minutes.JPG
    5 Installer log errors at 12 minutes.JPG
    394.4 KB · Views: 47
  • 6 verbose crash prior to reboot.JPG
    6 verbose crash prior to reboot.JPG
    212.9 KB · Views: 46
  • 7 Second boot after installer crash.JPG
    7 Second boot after installer crash.JPG
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  • 8 Second boot progress bar.JPG
    8 Second boot progress bar.JPG
    223.7 KB · Views: 51
  • 9 Second boot verbose crash.JPG
    9 Second boot verbose crash.JPG
    355.9 KB · Views: 41
Here what happen
I boot on the USB installer
I format the SSD (APFS)
I launch the installation on the formatted SSD
A reboot take place around "12 min remaining" - Not a good sign isn't it ?
I boot on "MacOS Installer" from Opencore GUI
The progress bar get bigger and bigger
The display resolution change
2 seconds after it reboots - it's an infinite loop

Hope this help you to Help me :crazy:
I have very similiar issue. Pretty much reboot at the same place, 12 min remaining. Available options in OpenCore are same as they are when first launching USB. I select MacOS Installer as well. I get verbose output, within moments there is a reboot and infinite loop. The output is too quick to get anything out of it. There seems to be no logs on Big Sur partition. OpenCore log on USB isn't very helpful, since it stops logging when I get to OpenCore Bootloader, right?

Any ideas?
 
So same thing happens, pictures attached - this time I left installer log on errors only and got some clearer pictures of what's happening before it reboots at 12 minutes as well but these are the screen shots as requested, Windows drive removed:

  1. First boot from USB installer - select Install MacOS Big Sur
  2. Reformat Big Sur drive from the booted installer
  3. Select Big Sur disk to install onto
  4. Installer log begins OK
  5. Installer log errors about "EFI builder // cannot find resource"
  6. Verbose output at installer crash at 12 minutes remaining (camera wouldn't focus but its the same as 9)
  7. Opencore screen at second reboot - no Preboot volume but "MacOS Installer" appears and is selected for boot
  8. Begins to boot, progress bar and mouse cursor before blank screen and reboot
  9. Verbose output screen - same as 6, reboot.

The verbose screens seem to indicate that some disks are write protected? Something preventing the installer from creating Preboot volume correctly?

I don’t think that #6 is a crash. I think it’s a normal advance to the next step. Catalina does the same thing for me when I reinstalled it recently. I have the same bootloop in Big Sur (also MSI X299, just different variant) from that point on.
 
@rustEswan I have the exact problem as you do with my Asrock X299 Creator:( Catalina works fine with my OC 063. I also tried @Loloflatsix's EFI... but with the same problem
 
thanks for the clarification @TheBloke . I am indeed on MacPro 7,1 - however, when I try any other SMBIOS (eg: iMacPro 1,1), my display doesn't render when booting. In other words, I can then only get the display to render on MacPro 7,1 - weird.. because that memory info is annoying when not displaying correct!
Ah, interesting. Have you tried agdpmod=pikera boot argument? I think this is needed for the RX580 GPU you have, but I heard it is not needed on MacPro7,1 - which could explain why that SMBIOS works for you?

Since I wrote to you earlier I have been doing some investigation on the MacPro 7,1 memory notification issue, and I have made some theoretical progress:

In Catalina, I have successfully removed the "invalid memory" notification, without using MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext.

The method used was not pretty :) In order to do this, I had to manually patch a file on the write-protected /System partition: /System/Library/CoreServices/MemorySlotNotification

What I did was look at the source code for MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext to see what kind of binary patch the author was making, and to which file. Then I manually made the same patch to the same file, direct on disk. In other words, I made a static, permanent version of the same patch that MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext makes dynamically via Lilu's patching facilities.

In order to do this on Catalina, I only had to mount the / partition read-write (mount -uw /). Possibly I needed to disable SIP as well, but I always have that disabled anyway via OpenCore.

Of course on Catalina there is no need for all this, because Lilu's userspace patching works fine, so the MacProMemoryNotificationDisabler.kext works and is much preferable to making a permanent patch on /System.

It's on Big Sur that this method might actually be useful, at least as a last resort.

I haven't yet tested it on Big Sur, but I believe it should work there too. Unfortunately making this change on Big Sur is a lot more hassle. From what I have read, I believe the following steps will be required to make the same patch on Big Sur:
  1. Disable SIP - csrutil disable (or via OpenCore config.)
  2. Disable SSV - csrutil authenticated-root disable
  3. Reboot
  4. Make a temporary mount location: sudo mkdir /mnt
  5. Mount the / drive read-write (example command): sudo mount -o nobrowse -t apfs /dev/disk1s5 /mnt
  6. Copy the patched file to /System/Library/CoreServices/MemorySlotNotification
  7. Re-snapshot and bless the modified root partition: sudo bless --folder mnt/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot
  8. Reboot: sudo reboot
I copied these commands from a blog post linked earlier in this thread, that explains how to edit a plist file to avoid the bug/issue with Little Snitch firewall not being able to block Apple services in Big Sur: https://tinyapps.org/blog/202010210700_whose_computer_is_it.html

I don't yet have a Big Sur install, so I can't test this immediately. But I will be doing a test upgrade to Big Sur in the next few days, and will test it then.

TLDR: I believe I may have a workaround/hack for the MacPro 7,1 memory notification problem that will work on Big Sur. However, it will require patching a file direct on /System, and therefore requires disabling SIP and SSV, rebooting, and then re-snapshotting the filesystem. I believe it also requires running without SSV and SIP from then on.

It's far from ideal! Personally, if I couldn't use iMacPro SMBIOS, then I'd be happy doing these steps. I've had SIP disabled forever anyway, and I wouldn't care about also disabling SSV (which no previous macOS even had). But not everyone may be so keen on such methods.

Anyway, I'll report back once I've actually confirmed it does work on Big Sur :) Then I can explain how to do the patch, and you and others can decide if it's something you're interested to do on your system.
 
Last edited:
So same thing happens, pictures attached - this time I left installer log on errors only and got some clearer pictures of what's happening before it reboots at 12 minutes as well but these are the screen shots as requested, Windows drive removed:

  1. First boot from USB installer - select Install MacOS Big Sur
  2. Reformat Big Sur drive from the booted installer
  3. Select Big Sur disk to install onto
  4. Installer log begins OK
  5. Installer log errors about "EFI builder // cannot find resource"
  6. Verbose output at installer crash at 12 minutes remaining (camera wouldn't focus but its the same as 9)
  7. Opencore screen at second reboot - no Preboot volume but "MacOS Installer" appears and is selected for boot
  8. Begins to boot, progress bar and mouse cursor before blank screen and reboot
  9. Verbose output screen - same as 6, reboot.

The verbose screens seem to indicate that some disks are write protected? Something preventing the installer from creating Preboot volume correctly?
As mentioned earlier, I have the exact same problem with my Asrock X299 Creator hack. BTW, I just swapped out my 5700XT with a 580 card and use @Loloflatsix's EFI (that boots with my Catalina drive)... Still stuck at the same boot loop If we are having the same problem with so many X299 motherboards, I wonderful if we all miss something very simple...
 
@rustEswan ➧ MSI X299 PRO
@shutterbug168 ➧ Asrock X299 Creator
@Compact ➧ What is your mobo brand and model ?
@oli.mathieu ➧ Asrock X299 Creator
We have all the same issue:
is it an issue that the USB installer reboots when "12 min remaining" ?
I’d be interested to compare DSDT dumps from all of these to look for common things - like ours both have an AWAC and RTC for example.

also I can’t remember who but I thought I saw someone with MSI X299 A-PRO on here who was working, and someone else with MSI X299 Raider or X299 SLI so I could compare those DSDT differences to ours
 
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