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

[stevelucky]

@stevelucky, @jaraheel ,

You opted for the ASRock X299 PROFESSIONAL GAMING I9 LGA 2066 and ASUS Rampage VI Extreme instead of the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe...

Don't expect my guide, incl. BIOS settings and EFI-Folder to be 100% compatible with these mainboards!

The baseline for my guide, BIOS settings and EFI-Folder is the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe.

I think I did not only mention once that it is your personal responsibility to account for deviations from the guide, BIOS settings and EFI-Folder, when opting for mainboards different from the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe.

I am not a magician, and I cannot provided support for boards I don't own or I have no experience with.

Good luck and enjoy,

KGP

Don't sell yourself short, you're pretty magical! Yeah, unfortunately I came across your guide after I had my hardware. Fortunately I can still return the mobo. I've already placed a new order for the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe and it should be here in a couple days. REALLY looking forward to starting over. Thank you SOOOO much for all you've done here.

 

[kgp]

Don't sell yourself short, you're pretty magical! Yeah, unfortunately I came across your guide after I had my hardware. Fortunately I can still return the mobo. I've already placed a new order for the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe and it should be here in a couple days. REALLY looking forward to starting over. Thank you SOOOO much for all you've done here.

Thanks for your comprehension, Steve!

 

[rauan1]

It blinks while updating. Takes several minutes.
It took me a few go before the MSR register showed up as unlocked.

I did it about three times now and it is still giving me this:
RDMSR e2 returns value 0x402

I will get another USB drive and try again.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

RDMSR e2 returns value 0x402

this is the value you want...

your MSR is unlocked.
The guide about what value should be returned using RDMSR is incorrect.

if you go into clover and start the bdmesg.efi or look at the log, you'll see:
MSR 0xE2 before patch 00000402

 

[rauan1]

this is the value you want...

your MSR is unlocked.
The guide about what value should be returned using RDMSR is incorrect.

if you go into clover and start the bdmesg.efi or look at the log, you'll see:
MSR 0xE2 before patch 00000402

That's a good news! So now I should remove TSCAdjustReset.kext/VoodooTSCSync.kext from kexts/other folder, right?

 

[RuleBreaker01]

That's a good news! So now I should remove TSCAdjustReset.kext/VoodooTSCSync.kext from kexts/other folder, right?

Yes, it's not needed with the patched bios. Are you seeing the imac pro image during POST?

 

[rauan1]

Yes, it's not needed with the patched bios. Are you seeing the imac pro image during POST?

Yes, I see iMac Pro image on power on

 

[henrychic]

Thank You for this great guide. One question regarding USB. I have the USB Limit patch active and tried to disable unused USB Ports via USB-SSDT.aml, using a script from https://github.com/cnrd/OSX-USB-SSDT. However, nothing happens when the resulting USB-SSDT.aml is placed into EFI/Clover/ACPI/patched. Should I worry about the 15 Port Limitation or not? Kind regards.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Hi.
For those with a GA-X299 board (or at least a DESIGNARE). I can use @kgp EFI folder almost as-is the only changes required to the tutorial are:
In Clover Configuration, you must check ncpi=0x2000 (otherwise you will get a hang during boot after a message about PCI configuration)
if editing the config.plist manually

    <key>Boot</key>
   <dict>
       <key>Arguments</key>
       <string>-v dart=0 darkwake=0 npci=0x2000</string>
....

Make sure the text npci=0x2000 is added.

In the ACPI section, the replacement

Comment:             Find*[Hex]       Replace [Hex]
GBE1 -> ETH0        47424531         45544830
D0A4  -> ETH1        44304134         45544831

isn't applicable for the DESIGNARE, the 2nd network card is at a different location.

it should be:

Comment:             Find*[Hex]       Replace [Hex]
GBE1 -> ETH0        47424531         45544830
D0A8  -> ETH1        44304138         45544831

There are a few other entities that do not match, I'm in the middle of updating the aml file for this board, so you'll get similar results with it.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

@kgp
question related to power management, in your guide you wrote:

g.) The PMC1 -> PMCR ACPI DSDT patch replacement is Power Management Controller (PMC) related and applied forconsistency with the PMC naming on real Macs.

Is PMC1 (or PMCR once patched) supposed to show in the IORegistryExplorer?

I'm wondering as I'm not seeing this on my GA board, and what to do to find the equivalent.
Thanks