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

[shael]

BTW, despite the APFS File Format of my 10.13.2 SA (17C2205) System Disk (at present SSD and not even NVMe) and having TRIM enabled, the time for booting my Skylake-X/X299 iMac Pro System reduced from 50 sec. to now 5-8 sec. after the clean install.

Absolutely no issues with apsf.efi and the APSF SSD

Cheers,

KGP

hmmm interesting, i am not using an NVME SSD and my boot times have been long since installing this way. might just be an NVME fix.

 

[seby-the-drummer]

First of all awesome/mindblowing stuff in this thread!!!

I'm planning on a future skylake x build for music production and run my Motu1248 Audio Interface currently via AVB Stream on a MacMini Server. So the question: Is the ASUS PRIME X299-Deluxe able to run Motu's AVB Stream over Ethernet?

(Can a X299-Deluxe owner get Motu's Pro Audio installer and check if there's an entry called: "Launch Virtual Mac Entity"?)

thx in advance,

Sebastian

 

[paulotex]

(Can a X299-Deluxe owner get Motu's Pro Audio installer and check if there's an entry called: "Launch Virtual Mac Entity"?)

I am assuming this is an installer available from their web site? Perhaps a bit more help (direct link) would be nice. I went to their site and got the first thing I found, "Driver and Software for Mac". The installer only shows the drivers:

Edit: I just realized you wanted a specific motherboard, not mine. So perhaps it is not relevant what I posted.

 

[cristibest]

Next significant Guide Update

New EFI-Folder distributions have been attached at the bottom of the originating post/guide of this thread and are once more attached here below.

EFI-Folder related changes:

• XHCI -> XHC1 ACPI DSDT Replacment Patch removed from config plist contained in EFI-X299-10.13.2-Release-iMac17,1-120118.zip and EFI-X299-10.13.2-Release-iMacPro1,1-120118.zip

• EmuVariableUefi-64.efi removed from EFI-X299-10.13.2-Release-iMacPro1,1-120118.zip

Guide related changes:

• New SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml implemented and attached at the bottom of the originating post of this thread/guide as well as here below. The new SSDT-X299-iMacPro considers the above change of variables XHC1 to XHCI.

Amazing news and conclusions:

With AptioMemoryFix.efi, SMBIOS iMacPro1,1 under 10.13.2 (17C2120) and 10.13.2 SA (17C2205), we reached native NVRAM implementation, thus EmuVariableUefi-64.efi has been removed from the /EFI/Clover/drivers64UEFI/ directory contained in EFI-X299-10.13.2-Release-iMacPro1,1-120118.zip! Thanks to @Menno87 for confirming the expectations

With the removal of the XHCI -> XHC1 ACPI DSDT Replacment Patch and the XHC1 to XHCI variable replacement in the SSDT-X299-iMacPro.aml, we finally reached fully native flawless XHC USB port implementation for ALL X299 mainboards. Top USB speeds not only at USB3.1 Type-A and Type-C but also at USB3.0 level. All USB2.0, USB3.0 and USB3.1 Type-A and Type-C ports on the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe are fully functional and work as expected. Many thanks to @shael for his extensive verifications and tests

The guide has been updated with respected to this new implementations and findings.

Enjoy and have fun

View attachment 305549

With this it doesnt matter in which port plug the external hdd drive it will show internal )

 

[kgp]

With this it doesnt matter in which port plug the external hdd drive it will show internal )

What I said: the remaining problem is that all external USB devices are recognised as internal. USB sticks still appear on the Desktop but with the wrong Icon .. HDD's and SSDs only appear in the Finder.. However, everything can be properly accessed, used and unmounted at any time.

It just requires a slightly different handling than on a normal Mac....

I don't see the point why one needs to smile about this remaining cosmetic issue...

Along this thread there seems plenty of people being perfect in permanently releasing stupid tor provocative statements and comments...

However, solutions are found here by very few people, in fact less people then the fingers I can count on one hand...

Think where we reached so far and think what we are missing.. don't be always that picky and demanding but a little bit more grateful and respectful with others...

Cheers!

 

[cristibest]

It wasn't a smile, was a " ) ". The mean that the build is almost perfect, just little things to fix. This thing is funny.

Never mind. I very satisfied with the build and with the achieved performance.

 

[TheOfficialGypsy]

BTW, despite the APFS File Format of my 10.13.2 SA (17C2205) System Disk (at present SSD and not even NVMe) and having TRIM enabled, the time for booting my Skylake-X/X299 iMac Pro System reduced from 50 sec. to now 5-8 sec. after the clean install.

Absolutely no issues with apsf.efi and the APSF SSD

Cheers,

KGP

I have been very hesitant switching to the new APFS filesystem due to the lack of support in Windows 10 and the relatively new nature of the filesystem. Recently Paragon released a APFS driver which means the first concern is partly resolved... However there is no write support just yet.

Do you believe the filesystem is matured enough to warrant switching to the APFS filesystem or should I remain on HFS?
I'm tempted to stay with HFS until proper AFPS write support is available on Windows 10.

 

[kgp]

I have been very hesitant switching to the new APFS filesystem due to the lack of support in Windows 10 and the relatively new nature of the filesystem. Recently Paragon released a APFS driver which means the first concern is partly resolved... However there is no write support just yet.

Do you believe the filesystem is matured enough to warrant switching to the APFS filesystem or should I remain on HFS?
I'm tempted to stay with HFS until proper AFPS write support is available on Windows 10.

I am on APFS since the very beginning... But don't blame on me if your don't like it

 

[shael]

I have been very hesitant switching to the new APFS filesystem due to the lack of support in Windows 10 and the relatively new nature of the filesystem. Recently Paragon released a APFS driver which means the first concern is partly resolved... However there is no write support just yet.

Do you believe the filesystem is matured enough to warrant switching to the APFS filesystem or should I remain on HFS?
I'm tempted to stay with HFS until proper AFPS write support is available on Windows 10.

ive been on apfs with previous builds since it was implemented and on this build since the beginning. again its personal preference.

the reason i chose this route is because of the file structure advantages it has as well as the ssd advantages when combined with trim. plus the bonus is that you are one step closer to being a real mac.

 

[ccozmo]

I have tried patching the 1004 bios using two different 'patches.txt' files. I have attached both files below.

After flashing both patched bioses they both allow me to boot without using the MSR clover patch.
However the computer will restart when I try to wakeup from sleep..

All bios settings were kept constant.

The only way for me to get reliable sleep is to keep the original 1004 bios and use the clover MSR patch

Sorry if I missed the answer for this. Did you find the fix for wake ?

I have the same problem, once I flash the patched BIOS I can boot with MSR clover patch disabled, but computer restarts if wake from sleep. If I then enable the MSR patch, sleep & wake works fine.

bdmesg | grep MSR
0:101 0:000 MSR 0x35 A0014
0:101 0:000 MSR 0xE2 before patch 00000402
0:101 0:000 MSR 0xCE 00070C2C_F3012100
0:101 0:000 MSR 0x1B0 00000000