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

[Bagi1992]

Hi guys, hi @kgp!

I am planning to build an other workstation for myself, I have a 6 core i7 6800k with Asus x99 A-II, Mac OS Sierra, works everything fine!

The plan is:

Asus X299 Prime motherboard
i7 7820X 8 core cpu
Mac os Sierra or if stable enough, Highs Sierra for further nvme ssd upgrade

everything else is going to be the same like my current bulid...

So, is it harder to install the system on this setup? on to a regular ssd drive, not nvme.
Just because it was ok for the current build, but because i am working on these machines, i don't have to much time to play with it. Does it worth the risk to go for X299 build or not much difference compare to x99? At this point, please ingore the 8 vs 6 core, I am talking about X299 vs X99 same 6 or 8 core builds.

Thanks!

 

[kgp]

... or just by typing diskutil mount /dev/disk2s1 in a terminal (where /dev/disk2s1 is the block device corresponding to your USB stick's EFI partition as shown by diskutil list).

Thanks for your feedback! I see your point!

I guess if I would implement the diskutil option, I would get many mails with questions from newbies. I better leave it like now.

However I changed the wording:

The empty EFI-partitions can be mounted by means of e.g. Clover Configurator.

 

[kgp]

That should read:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USB --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app --nointeraction

Thanks for the correction! Stupid Typo! Corrected!

 

[dwhitla]

Hi - thanks for the screenshot! I've been letting display sleep but not the computer (see screenshot).

I tried that on the dev previews and found that the screens would never return from black if the displays were allowed to sleep.

 

[ycbr]

Yes if you boot the 10.13 System Disk with the EFI from your USB Flash Drive, the boot will be executed by means of the boot files in the EFI Folder of your USB Flash Drive and not by means of the boot files fo your System Disk.

I would reformat your System disk with HFS+ and GUID Partition Table by means of Apple's Disk Utility as described in my guide and start from scratch with the macOS Installation!

Cheers,

KGP

So I've just confirmed. My RAID has mounted while plugged in to the USB port of the thunderbolt expansion card. PERFECT.

Other than sleep/wake (of computer/display) - this thing is working like a dream. I'd also ideally like to have less allocation error on boot, but I rarely restart and it's a minor headache grand scheme of things.

Also, I discovered through another thread something that applied to me. Sensors causing a kernel panic on boot. This caused me to just re-do the whole install. My old system had HWMonitor, and migrating everything brought that along with the sensors which were causing kernel panics.

I tried manually deleting them by mounting my system disk on my MacBook Pro. But it would still have the same error and the quickest way for me to get to a working install was just to re-install and just migrate files and not applications/settings/etc.

 

[dwhitla]

I'd also ideally like to have less allocation error on boot, but I rarely restart and it's a minor headache grand scheme of things.

Try using the OsxAptioFixDrv.efi instead of the one in KGP's EFI folder. The issue with version 2 of that driver and the "above 2000" version is that it tries to access memory that OSX can't read - the details are explained by the fix's author on github.
The OsxAptioFixDrv.efi driver distributed in Clover v4233 works perfectly for me - no allocation errors so far.

 

[kgp]

Hi guys, hi @kgp!

I am planning to build an other workstation for myself, I have a 6 core i7 6800k with Asus x99 A-II, Mac OS Sierra, works everything fine!

The plan is:

Asus X299 Prime motherboard
i7 7820X 8 core cpu
Mac os Sierra or if stable enough, Highs Sierra for further nvme ssd upgrade

everything else is going to be the same like my current bulid...

So, is it harder to install the system on this setup? on to a regular ssd drive, not nvme.
Just because it was ok for the current build, but because i am working on these machines, i don't have to much time to play with it. Does it worth the risk to go for X299 build or not much difference compare to x99? At this point, please ingore the 8 vs 6 core, I am talking about X299 vs X99 same 6 or 8 core builds.

Thanks!

You have my Skylake-X/X299 macOS High Sierra 10.13 Desktop Guide, so what could happen?

I am sure you will be able to manage! And you know I am always here to support!

I would directly go for macOS High Sierra 10.13 , which works absolutely stable and flawless and is fully functional!

a.) I would also directly go for the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe if you can!

b.) Note that both i7-7800X (6 cores) and i7-7820X (8 cores) just have 28 PCIe 3.0 lanes! By investing a little bit more money, you would get a Skylake-X processor with 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes and also more cores: e.g. i9-7900X (10 cores) or i9-7920X (12 cores).

I am totally in love with Skylake-X/X299!!! It is simply amazing!!!!

Time to say bye-bye to Broadwell-E/EP (Haswell-E/EP) and X99 my friend!

Welcome in this thread

Cheers,

KGP

 

[kgp]

Try using the OsxAptioFixDrv.efi instead of the one in KGP's EFI folder. The issue with version 2 of that driver and the "above 2000" version is that it tries to access memory that OSX can't read - the details are explained by the fix's author on github.
The OsxAptioFixDrv.efi driver distributed in Clover v4233 works perfectly for me - no allocation errors so far.

@dwhitla, and you do not face any random reboots by just using Clover's OsxAptioFixDrv.efi and nothing else?

That's very important, if everything works stable with OsxAptioFixDrv.efi, I will immediately distribute a new EFI-Folder with Clover_v2.4k_r4233 and OsxAptioFixDrv.efi!!!!

But we have to be totally sure, that this configuration does not cause random reboots like before!!!!!!

Thus, I really want to receive your confirmation and approval that the system remains totally stable when using Clover's OsxAptioFixDrv.efi!

I used so far the OsxAptioFix2Drv-free2000.efi for very good reason!!!!

Thanks in advance for your estimated feedback and contributions!

Cheers,

KGP

 

[ycbr]

Try using the OsxAptioFixDrv.efi instead of the one in KGP's EFI folder. The issue with version 2 of that driver and the "above 2000" version is that it tries to access memory that OSX can't read - the details are explained by the fix's author on github.
The OsxAptioFixDrv.efi driver distributed in Clover v4233 works perfectly for me - no allocation errors so far.

That sounds perfect! I want to confirm if this works, but I can't use my system as a sacrificial lamb right now because I just finished migrating some of the TV episodes that I'm working on and the reboots to remove the allocation error are more palatable to me than having a random reboot while I'm in the middle of editing. =D

EDIT: I will stay tuned though and update my EFI if this proves reliable!

 

[rudey]

Yes if you boot the 10.13 System Disk with the EFI from your USB Flash Drive, the boot will be executed by means of the boot files in the EFI Folder of your USB Flash Drive and not by means of the boot files fo your System Disk.

I would reformat your System disk with HFS+ and GUID Partition Table by means of Apple's Disk Utility as described in my guide and start from scratch with the macOS Installation!

Cheers,

KGP

Re-formatting has no effect.

I moved the data drive to a usb dock and attempted the install to it as the Target. This still failed however it takes much longer to load which gave me the chance to snag a screenshot of the kernel panic. It looks like something with fakesmc or whatevergreen.