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

[kgp]

Hi guys my build is Asus X299 Prime Deluxe, i9 7900x
I have everything working great following the excellent guide apart from audio.
Has anyone got CloverALC or AppleALC? I would prefer not to use voodoohda

Both approaches did not work for me... If anybody can report success I will add the related successful approach to my guide.

It's definitely not a question of preferences...

 

[kgp]

Yeah I’m finding it’s a choice between my osxwifi card or thunderbolt. I don’t have any thunderbolt devices right now, but it would be nice to have the option.

That's not true!

• I use my graphics card in PCIEX16_1
• I use the osxwifi card in PCIEX16_2
• I use the ThunderboltEX 3 in PCIEX16_3

and the BIOS does not complain at all or disables WIFI or SATA ports!

 

[send2moran]

ok guys..
everything is working great ! 1080 ti + web drivers.
method A did not work for me, i boot using 0x67, installed AGDPfix then boot again using 0x0 to install Nvidia Web Drivers.
0x0 is a bit tricky because of the memory allocation error but i managed to find a sweet spot when adding or removing slide=0 in boot param.

the next step is to install cuda drivers , adding the thunderbolt card again and the misplaced windows ssd nvme card.

thanks for all your help !! really appreciate it !

 

[gonghaobaogang]

Good to hear that!

But what do you exactly mean by "clean the kext and clover settings"?

Can you describe here for all other users what you did step by step?

Which black screen prevention worked at the end?

Can you please upload your EFI folder?

I see that you do not use SMBIOS iMac17,1 anymore but iMac18,3 instead!

Thus, you don't use ssdPRGen.sh and ssdt.aml to run XCPM?

Your Geekbench Scores are significantly lower than mine! 41244 vs.57862! I also do not use any OC!!

Your results:

View attachment 283800

My results:

View attachment 283801

I am therefore not that excited like you are!

Thanks for your feedback in advance!

KGP

Hi KGP,

Yes my problem is my build actually don't need any other kext like Lilu in EFI/Kexts/Others folder. I did a lot steps wrong yesterday because all the changes of kexts and SIS or config.plist is definitely not working because I boot from a usb installer which is not sync with the system EFI folder. When I check in the Clover Boot menu I found a lot of duplicate kext inside and I cleaned that also changed the EFI and Clover settings to the same as the system EFI Folder. Then everything works. All I need to do is install the NVWebDriverLibValFix.kext.

For the SMBIOS, actually at first I choose iMac17,1 in the USB driver but I changed to 18,3 in the system folder. That's why I found the config.plist in system folder is not working. Do you know any harm if I keep the 18,3 in this system?

For the ssdPRGen.sh, yes I tried early this day but shows permission denied. I tried use root authorization but still not working. Do you know how to fix that? For the other reason I think you are true maybe ASUS really did a great job on the Mobo than Gigabyte so the performance is really high on yours, although I want to check if mine build can improve a lot after running proper XCPM.

I'm still glad it works and then I need to learn how to improve it. As always, many thanks!

 

[kgp]

Hi KGP,

Yes my problem is my build actually don't need any other kext like Lilu in EFI/Kexts/Others folder. I did a lot steps wrong yesterday because all the changes of kexts and SIS or config.plist is definitely not working because I boot from a usb installer which is not sync with the system EFI folder. When I check in the Clover Boot menu I found a lot of duplicate kext inside and I cleaned that also changed the EFI and Clover settings to the same as the system EFI Folder. Then everything works. All I need to do is install the NVWebDriverLibValFix.kext.

For the SMBIOS, actually at first I choose iMac17,1 in the USB driver but I changed to 18,3 in the system folder. That's why I found the config.plist in system folder is not working. Do you know any harm if I keep the 18,3 in this system?

For the ssdPRGen.sh, yes I tried early this day but shows permission denied. I tried use root authorization but still not working. Do you know how to fix that? For the other reason I think you are true maybe ASUS really did a great job on the Mobo than Gigabyte so the performance is really high on yours, although I want to check if mine build can improve a lot after running proper XCPM.

I'm still glad it works and then I need to learn how to improve it. As always, many thanks!

With SMBIOS 18,3 sshPRGen.sh won't work! You need SMBIOS iMac17,1! This has nothing to do with the fact that you use a Gigabyte mainboard instead of ASUS. I was successfully running XCPM by means of ssdtPRGen.sh and ssdt.aml on the Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 9! But as I said, I use SMBIOS iMac17,1!

I guess you don't run XCPM currently at all. This also explains the significant differences in the benchmarks...

I will now have a look to your EFI folder...

By the way, are you trying to tell me that neither need FakeSMC.kext, IntelMausiEthernet.kext nor VoodooTSCSync.kext?

 

[dwhitla]

That's not true!

• I use my graphics card in PCIEX16_1
• I use the osxwifi card in PCIEX16_2
• I use the ThunderboltEX 3 in PCIEX16_3

and the BIOS does not complain at all or disables WIFI or SATA ports!

I use TB3 in PCIEX16_2. It only runs at 8x when the other PCIe slots are populated and I need 16x on slot 3 for my second GPU.
My PEG lane assignments are:
PCIEX16_1 16x 1080Ti
PCIEX1_1 1x UNUSED
PCIEX16_2 4x Thunderbolt3
PCIEX16_3 16x Titan Black
PCIEX1_2 1x UNUSED
PCIEX16_4 8x RAID Controller (to be replaced with second Titan Black)

As soon as I get My Areca ARC8050T3 the internal RAID controller will go.

 

[dwhitla]

I also figured out recently that the memory allocation error when using OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi is not only related to running out of pci lanes. On the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe, PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2, PCIEX16_3 can be populated without further issues. If however you use any of the other PCIe slots, either Wifi or SATA ports will be disabled! The latter seems to result in a error-prone configuration, which finally might lead to the memory relocation error when using OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi...

No.
It is only the 1x port that shares lanes with the 802.11ad (which can't be used in macOS anyway) and the U2 port uses the same connection as the second M.2 slot (who cares - you use one or the other anyway).
I am using both M.2 slots, every SATA port and every 16x slot and have both ethernet ports and 802.11ac wifi all working.

 

[kgp]

I use TB3 in PCIEX16_2. It only runs at 8x when the other PCIe slots are populated and I need 16x on slot 3 for my second GPU.

o.k. but the topic was the following configuration: 1 GPU, 1 osxwifi and 1 TunderboltEX 3 and that works as proposed by myself

 

[kgp]

No.
It is only the 1x port that shares lanes with the 802.11ad (which can't be used in macOS anyway) and the U2 port uses the same connection as the second M.2 slot (who cares - you use one or the other anyway).
I am using both M.2 slots, every SATA port and every 16x slot and have both ethernet ports and 802.11ac wifi all working.

Nope! PCIEX_1_1 disables 802.11ad and PCIEX_1_2 and PCIEX16_4 disable SATA ports! Give it a try yourself. Only PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2 and PCIEX16_3 can be populated without disabling either 802.11ad or SATA ports in consequence..

 

[dwhitla]

o.k. but the topic was the following configuration: 1 GPU, 1 osxwifi and 1 TunderboltEX 3 and that works as proposed by myself

Regardless the TB3 only needs 4 lanes. Putting it in slot 3 is a waste of a 16 lane slot that is meant for a GPU.