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

[Thireus]

no current solution ..

Ok, so it seems there are solutions to eject the drives before going to sleep, but that's not good solutions. Anyway, sleep isn't working properly from my side: When the system goes to sleep for more than 30 seconds it seems to crash when waking up (screen stays black + USB not waking up + KP), this isn't always happening, sometimes it wakes up just fine but it does happen. Do you have the same issue @kgp?

 

[paulotex]

When the system goes to sleep for more than 30 seconds it seems to crash when waking up (screen stays black + USB not waking up + KP)?

I'm not sure if this helps, but do you have PowerNap disabled? PowerNap enabled can cause strange problems while sleeping, so perhaps disabling it might help.

 

[kgp]

awesome!!! also good info to have in the guide maybe @kgp

If you have a look at this thread, you will se that I was currently involved in the entire discussion also recently handled in this thread above with respect to both, memory allocation errors and the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe BIOS patching. I simply did not find any time so far to react here. Others did for me...

 

[shael]

If you have a look at this thread, you will se that I was currently involved in the entire discussion also recently handled in this thread above with respect to both, memory allocation errors and the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe BIOS patching. I simply did not find any time so far to react here. Others did for me...

i know, im following that thread as well.

 

[Thireus]

I'm not sure if this helps, but do you have PowerNap disabled? PowerNap enabled can cause strange problems while sleeping, so perhaps disabling it might help.

Tried that, still the same issue. After 2 or 3 consecutive good sleep/wake it crashes and can't wake up anymore.

 

[shael]

Can you provide a link to VoltageShift.kext and explain how to apply? With kextload?

I guess the first patch is for Skylake:

# SiInit | Skylake
299D6F8B-2EC9-4E40-9EC6-DDAA7EBF5FD9 10 P:75080D00800000:EB080D00800000
299D6F8B-2EC9-4E40-9EC6-DDAA7EBF5FD9 12 P:75080D00800000:EB080D00800000

# SiInit | Kaby Lake
299D6F8B-2EC9-4E40-9EC6-DDAA7EBF5FD9 10 P:81E10080000033C1:9090909090909090
299D6F8B-2EC9-4E40-9EC6-DDAA7EBF5FD9 12 P:81E10080000033C1:9090909090909090

Your two Skylake-X patches are missing in the patches.txt of the UEFI patch author.

Can somebody figure out which patch is indeed necessary? I am overloaded with current analysis and investigations of my overall system. Any help would be appreciated.

you might be overloaded but you are doing fantastic things for our systems and we are greatly appreciative.

 

[codeguru]

Tried that, still the same issue. After 2 or 3 consecutive good sleep/wake it crashes and can't wake up anymore.

After disabling SVID from BIOS, sleep/wake is working more stable for me.

 

[Thireus]

Hey @kgp,

You mention the following:

Unfortunately I still did not clarify yet if both "Multi Core Enhancement" (auto) and "Sync All Cores" (enabled) BIOS implementations cause the random reboots with the i9-7980 XE, which are unfortunately also persistent under 10.13.1. But it rather looks like that unfortunately the random reboots are rather solely caused by "Sync All Cores" when "enabled" instead of set to "auto". Which further means, that for now we have to live with significantly reduced i9-7980XE CPU performance, until the problem is hopefully fixed by ASUS. I am also in contact with the ASUS support hotline concerning this issue and I am currently awaiting detailed response.

I'm afraid to report that I am encountering the same issue. I have "Sync All Cores" enabled (left everything else default) and I get random reboots, which doesn't seem to happen on Windows. How did you resolve this issue please?

Edit: Ok, you replied to yourself in a later post. @kgp, I'm really struggling with your posts that are all over the place on this thread... :'(

I am in the process of overclocking the CPU, and just found your answer to my question somewhere in this thread:

3.) System Reboots and Freezes with CPU Core Ratio set to "sync all cores"

[...]

ad 3.)
Note that with CPU Core Ratio set to "Sync All Cores", the AVX Instruction Core Ratio Negative Offset must be set to "3" and the AVX-512 Instruction Core Ratio Negative Offset must be set to "2". Without the correct core ratio offsets, your system might become unstable with CPU Core Ratio set to "Sync All Cores"!

It indeed causes the system to be completely unstable and randomly reboot.

I will try this and will report back if success. And since you mention it, I remember that on Windows when I ran AVX tasks there was no negative ratio applied! So I guess Asus "Auto" settings doesn't apply any negative ratio to AVX.

 

[shael]

Unfortunately the direct download of 10.13.2 special build 17C2120 (iMacPro) from the Appstore just works for a few users with special system configurations.

So far I found some intermediate solution to implement 10.13.2 special build 17C2120 (iMacPro) on our Skylake-X/X299 systems.

1.) Download http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/49/07/091-
33271/a0p216ukywyxia77i36ujq0bq91ghcyyaf/BaseSystem.dmg (public link)

This BaseSystem.dmg does have by default the iMacPro BoardID implemented in the respective PlatfromSupport.plist

View attachment 304518

Thus, the macOS 10.13.2 iMac Pro Build 17C2120 update process can be directly performed with SMBIOS iMacPro1,1.

2.) Install 10.13.2 iMac Pro Build 17C2120 with SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 from your 10.13 system disk by means of the downloaded and unmodified public 10.13.2 iMac Pro Build 17C2120 BaseSystem.dmg.

a.) Double click on the BaseSystem.dmg to mount the installer

b.) Double click on the "Install macOS High Sierra.app" to start the installation

c.) After reboot, boot the "Install MacOs ..." Partition created by the MacOS Installer

d.) After another reboot, boot the "MacOS High Sierra" partition.

e.) You are done..​

View attachment 304531

The above approach has already been approved by "Contact Us" and is in line with the board rules.

Special note for all Nvidia users:

Note that the currently distributed Nvidia Web Drivers for build 17C88 and 17C89 are not compatible with build 17C2120..

I already asked Nvidia to provide asap a Web Driver also compatible with special build 17C2120...

In the meanwhile perform the following approach with WebDriver-378.10.10.10.25.102 or WebDriver-378.10.10.10.25.103 already installed:

1.) Copy /L/E/ NVDAStartupWeb.kext to your Desktop.

2.) Right- click on NVDAStartupWeb.kext and select show package content.

3.) Change to Contents and edit the Info.plist with Xcode.

4.) Go to IOKitPersonalities -> NVDAStartup and change NVDARequiredOS from "17C88 " or "17C89" to "17C2120".

5.) Save Info.plist and copy the modified NVDAStartupWeb.kext to /L/E/ with root permission.

6.) Open a terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Extensions/NVDAStartupWeb.kext

sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Extensions/NVDAStartupWeb.kext

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions && sudo kextcache -u /

sudo touch /Library/Extensions && sudo kextcache -u /

7.) Reboot

8.) If the Web Driver is not yet active, open the Nvidia Driver Manager and select "Nvidia Web Driver"

9.) Reboot and you are done

Enjoy and have fun

View attachment 304532

just as an fyi this didnt work for allowing me to boot with imacpro 1,1.....

infact upon reboot, the build number is the same as it was prior. seems like the update isnt being applied.... oh well. ill just manually add in the board-id

EDIT: for anyone else looking to do this update..... the imacpro smbios must be in place prior to doing the update.

 

[Thireus]

After disabling SVID from BIOS, sleep/wake is working more stable for me.

Thanks for the report. I will try this eventually. When you say "more stable" do you mean that you were having the same issues and they got partially resolved? If so, what is the current behaviour that is still problematic? Do you still get random failed wake from sleep?