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

[kgp]

I use an Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt card.
I've tried the new version already.
Unfortunatly it doesnt solve my issues, I think I messed something totally up.

Do you need BIOS Settings of thunderbolt or what do you mean ?
Dont get me wrong but I dont think that it is a BIOS issue since my thunderbolt Hardware works in MacOS and aswell under Windows perfect. I am still connected from thunderbolt Header to thunderbolt 3 Card. My Problem is that No PCI entries for thunderbolt are there and aswell no UPSB nhi etc in ioreg can be found

Then very likely, SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml is still not properly adopted to your system and likely ignored during boot. Don't take me bad either, but if you are not willing to provide the information is asked for I am also not able to help. I am not a visionary, my friend, and just talking about problem does not resolve the problem, as one does not know the root of the problem. I hope you are able to understand.

 

[kgp]

I followed this excellent guide a while back now to install High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D2047) using identifier iMacPro1,1
Everything has been working fine, but it takes around a minute or more to boot, but I understand that is because of something to do with APFS on the Samsung 960 PRO V-NAND M.2 2880 2TB PCI Express 3.0 x4 (NVMe) which is my main drive. I never restart the machine, so its not too much of a problem though.

However, now I am trying to upgrade to HS 10.13.6 and I just cannot make it work.

I download and run the installer - it reboots, I choose the new Install Mac OS option in Clover and it comes up with the apple logo, then the grey screen, but instead of starting an installation it then pops up a message:

macOS could not be installed on your computer.
The installer resources were not found.
Quit the installer, restart your computer and try again.

I have tried downloading from the App Store upgrade tab, I have also tried downloading macOSUpd10.13.6 and macOSUpdCombo10.13.6 from tonymacx86, but its the same each time.

I don't have a recovery partition on my NVM drive, as far as I can see its just the EFI partition and the APFS one.

Does anybody have any ideas please? I'd love to get 10.13.6 on as it has a couple of features I really like on my other Mac.

Kind regards,

Rob

Same answer here like in the previous post above. Please provide Screenshots of your BIOS settings and upload your EFI-Folder.
Based on your current information, I am not able to help. I do not know at all what you are doing wrong to cause such issues.

 

[kgp]

I dont say that I dont provide them I just shared my thoughts with you about the thunderbolt settings in the BIOS. Will provide the Files for you asap.

Based on my personal experience, TB BIOS settings are not crucial. Basically it is sufficient to enable TB properties in the Mainbaord BIOS. What else happens on your system that causes the NHI and XHC5 PCI drivers failing to load, we will likely know as soon you provide the necessary information.

Once more nothing for bad, man... But most requests I am receiving here lately are simply a nightmare..

They are similar to: "@kgp, I am living somewhere in China and my roof is burning.. can you help me please?" This definitely has become a no-go already and I am wasting hours in permanently requesting the same information for providing my help, which is btw fully voluntarily.

 

[kgp]

Vega 64 is between GTX1070 and GTX1080, sometimes trading blows with GTX1080 and winning in certain Game titles.

The GTX1080Ti is about 20-35% faster than the Vega 64, which may be significant for you if you are gaming at 1440p and above.

But yes you can keep both cards in the system. Uninstall the WebDrivers in macOS and use Input 1 for Vega 64 and Input 2 for GTX1080Ti on your monitor, so you have to switch it every time for different OS's.

But in my opinion, it's not the cleanest system imaginable, changing inputs etc...but if it works for you, sure..

I do not see any noticeable difference with respect to my former GTX 1080Ti even under 4K UWHD Windows gaming. I would say that it rather depends on the particular game and if the latter requires special Nvidia features or a 20% higher GPU performance.

In any case, exotic dual brand GPU implementations can easily result in system errors, thus I rather discourage from opting for such critical system implementations.

 

[kgp]

Sorry had to try to fix some stuff first... Here are the files @kgp

Alright..

Following issues, which are not TB related:

1.) I recommend to you use my XHC USB kext for the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe instead of USBInjectAll.kext.
2.) I do not understand the necessity for the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy KexToPatch entry, currently implemented in your config.plist

Now to your supposed TB issue:

Following your current IOREG ACPI information, you did neither properly adopt ACPI path nor ACPI replacements within SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml, in concordance with your TB ACPI table (apparent in IOREG) or system DSDT.aml (which is still missing and has not been attached to your previous post).

Due to the missing DSDT.aml, the revised SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml, which I attach below, remains a guess. If it does not work, please complete the respective ACPI replacements by means of your DSDT.aml information. However, my guess is that it will work now.

Note in general, that a working SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml yields by default the following TB ACPI table and "PCI" driver information, which actually so far was definitely not the case on your system:

Good luck,

KGP

 

[Loloflatsix]

I do not see any noticeable difference with respect to my former GTX 1080Ti even under 4K UWHD Windows gaming. I would say that it rather depends on the particular game and if the latter requires special Nvidia features or a 20% higher GPU performance.

In any case, exotic dual brand GPU implementations can easily result in system errors, thus I rather discourage from opting for such critical system implementations.

I'm agree.
Basically Vega 56 with a Softpowerplaytable (GPU Frequency set to 1663 Mhz and Memory set to 945 Mhz) added in Windows registry playing games under 4K UWHD with settings adjusted in middle is quite good ( about 50/60 fps).

So High End GPUs like RTX 2080 or 2080i will be better...

 

[robham]

Same answer here like in the previous post above. Please provide Screenshots of your BIOS settings and upload your EFI-Folder.
Based on your current information, I am not able to help. I do not know at all what you are doing wrong to cause such issues.

Thanks for the offer of help kgp, in the end it has started working. I followed another thread in which the op suggested continue rebooting, on the third or fourth attempt it would work.

I wasn't overly optimistic, but it does seem he is correct. I am not sure if the multiple tries made it work, if it was one thing I did differently. On the final attempt when it worked, in setup when I received the error message, I opened disk utilitiy from the menu at the top. I mounted my OS-X partition (that is the one with my operating system installed on it). I couldn't find anything else useful in there so I then exited disk utility and was about to start gathering information to see if I could get help as you suggested - came back and realised the installer had actually started working - I am now on 10.13.6!

I opened a separate thread detailing the problem as I see a lot of people with NVMe M.2 drives seem to get this error - I will detail all the steps I took in there in case it helps anyone else solve their issues, but I am not exactly sure which particular thing I did which made it work, unless it was just repeatedly trying the boot to installer like the other post suggested.

Rob

 

[flmmkr]

I use an Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt card.

I am still connected from thunderbolt Header to thunderbolt 3 Card.

Well for one, with the Alpine Ridge card, for hot plug to work in MacOS, you have to disconnect the header cable. Not necessary for Titan Ridge, but for Alpine Ridge it won’t work while connected.

 

[kgp]

@kgp thx for your help.

Unfortunatly I Use on my second build the Prime X299-A and not the deluxe, so thats why I Use usbinjectall instead of your usb kext.

The applegraphicsdevice Patch fixes an Output issue with my Vega.

I thought that an ioreg File would be enough thats why I did Not include the unmodified dsdt.

Never mind, hope the modified SSDT-X299-TB3HP.aml now properly works..

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Well for one, with the Alpine Ridge card, for hot plug to work in MacOS, you have to disconnect the header cable. Not necessary for Titan Ridge, but for Alpine Ridge it won’t work while connected.

For you maybe. I always got hotplug to works with the THB_C cable plugged in with either the ASRock, Gigabyte or Asus motherboard. It really varies.