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Only boots with cpus=1/cpus=31 and freezes at PCI Configuration Begin when GTX 980 Ti installed

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Sep 18, 2013
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Motherboard
ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS Clover 10.11.1
CPU
XEON 2x2650 v2
Graphics
2X Gigabyte GTX 980 Ti 6G, PNY 780 Ti
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
  2. Mac Pro
Classic Mac
  1. Power Mac
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
I've had an excellent system running Mavericks with everything running. I know I need to upgrade soon and I had been using a GTX 770 4gb and GTX 780 Ti. In order for the GTX 980 Ti to work I need at least Yosemite. Right now, I'm really running Yosemite and I've encountered the same errors in El Capitan too. I will move to El Capitan once this is figured out.

Specs are listed in my profile. Situation:

I used an unlocked MSR on my BIOS to enable full speed stepping with an ssdt generated from Pike-Alpha's ssdtPRgen file. I generated a new ssdt and installed it in EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched and Drop OEM in Clover Configurator.

I'm using Clover UEFI boot and did a native install. I could only get into the installer by adding cpus=1 flag. My normal flags are npci=0x2000 PCIRootUID=1. So adding the cpu flag and using my built in VGA output got me and through the install with no problems.

I followed TonyMac's guide and removed the extra kexts and put them into the 10.10 folder or 10.11 when I was doing that. I had 3rd party SATA, Intel Generic SATA, ElliottForceLegacyRTC, EvOreboot, FakeSMC, and VoodooTSCSync in this folder. After reading how some have had success with disabling SIP (for 10.10 I have the kext-dev-mode=1 flag) and still installing the kexts into S/L/E I tried that. Still produced the same result: a kernel panic that I'm not sure what it's traced to but using the cpus=31 flag works.

20151011_000004.jpg


Running Geekbench also reveals that it's only using 31 threads instead of 32, which is what was running without the cpus flag in Mavericks. So that's the first issue.

Next, I install either my GTX 770 or GTX 980 Ti or 780 Ti and it's always the same. It stalls at PCIConfiguration Begin.

What hardware does this relate to? I mean what can I change that might have effect on this boot up error? I figure it has something to do with the video card. I have it in pci slot 3 where I've not had issues ever before.

So thoughts?
 
Most times I've seen EvOreboot.kext mentioned, it's been because it crashed El Capitan. So I would avoid that one.

With a Nvidia card with no native support, you'll need to boot with nv_disable=1 until you can install the latest Web drivers.

If that doesn't help, some people have reported needing to disable USB3 in BIOS to get past PCI Config Begin, though that's on an H61 board so not necessarily applicable.
 
Yeah, I've seen the EvOreboot.kext problem too. But I've also tried taking that out previously and it hasn't helped. However, I'll try it again and I'll see what disabling the USB 3 does.

I also already have the new drivers installed for NVIDIA. Even if I tried booting with the nv_disable flag it still freezes at PCI configuration begin.

Update: Disabling USB 3 didn't work.

I might restore my original Mavericks and then do the upgrade to El Capitan because I didn't have issues with the cpu configuration last time, just the PCI configuration. Better to avoid one extra problem.
 
So this is interesting. Out of curiosity I decided to use my Unibeast Clover USB which I actually had setup as a Legacy drive instead of UEFI. I entered -v npci=0x2000 PCIRootUID=1 cpus=31 and it goes through and boots right into the OS. However, it doesn't read the GPU as the 980 Ti, so no resolution greater than 1024x768.

Well, I checked first the difference between my hard drive EFI clover plist against the legacy USB Clover plist. It added FixHPET and AddDTGP. So, I added that to my plist and tried booting with that. It still froze at PCI Cofiguration Begin.

I checked my kexts in both the Clover folder and each system extension folders. As near as I can tell, when my I use my USB stick to boot into the system, it's actually using all of the USB extension files and not my HD extension files.

I made sure that I had all the extra files removed (EvOreboot, ElliotLegacyRTC, etc) from my kext library and matched the kexts in both Clover folders. It still won't get past PCI configuration begins. I can't find any other difference. Is it possible that this is a SMBIOS definition problem? The USB loads a MacBook Pro profile and mine is the MacPro 6,1 profile.
 
10.11 will NOT boot up on a 980ti with a stock driver. Even with boot args, I actually have to swap my 780 in, update drivers, THEN put the 980ti back in, because it won't boot with a 980ti without web drivers, regardless of boot args I tried. the fact you got to desktop with USB is pretty good though. If you installed latest web drivers while you were there, you'd probably be good to go.
 
I feel like someone also told me that MacPro6,1 expects ECC RAM and may fail if you don't have it. I'm not positive of that, and what you're describing doesn't sound like a memory error, but it may be worth trying a different SMBIOS definition if MysticalOS's advice to install Web Drivers without the 980ti in and then put it in doesn't fix everything.

Update: more knowledgeable people recommend only using MacPro6,1 for an X99 board, and also not using 4,1 or 5,1. But since it seems you have a workstation/server board, if you really need MacPro6,1 try removing AppleTyMCEDriver.kext if you don't have ECC RAM.
 
Well my suspicions were right. Changing SMBIOS definitions didn't help, despite the fact that my Clover USB injects a different one and it works just fine.

As soon as I got in to 10.10 or 10.11 I was able to update my NVIDIA web drivers, even with the VGA connection. But, something isn't identifying the card enough so that it loads the card with the drivers. A while ago I did find an annoying buy with the MacPro 6,1 definition that would put the display to sleep and I found a fix that works well on my previous version OS but when I boot with the nvda_drv=1 it puts the display to sleep. So, before I post what I'm going to do, I'll try it tomorrow and see if by including boot flag I can get the display part to work. Read this for what I'm talking about. http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/...idia-graphic-card-problem-monitor-sleeps.html This was amazing and it worked every time. And seeing as how I just upgraded the OS it probably replaced the file I had and I need to reinstall it. We'll see.

Now this is all still booting through the USB and the goal is to get it to work on the HDD. It still freezes at PCI configuration.

I still have yet to figure out why my cpus aren't read correctly and why I can't boot using my UEFI Clover install on the HDD. I'm even using the same options in my config.plist from both the USB and my UEFI version. I had no problems booting in Mavericks with my UEFI Clover. So, I'm left wondering what the difference is between the installs on the USB for legacy vs EFI. Could it be that the Macbook Air definition loaded by Clover automatically skips the AppleTyMCEDriver.kext and that's why I can get past the PCI configuration freeze?

ammulder, I'll give that kext a try and see what happens.

P.S. Thanks guys for the help. I really appreciate it.
 
Alright, first some things. I think the focus of the problem has been lost or not clearly identified. The main problem is that I can't boot from my HD once a video card is inserted. Whether it's my GTX 770, GTX 780 Ti or the GTX 980 Ti, on any slot. I CAN boot without the GPUS and use my onboard VGA. I had no issues booting with those cards (except the 980 Ti obviously) in 10.9.5.

The reason I can't boot in, is because it gets stuck at PCI Configuration Begin, on both El Capitan and Yosemite.:banghead:

So possible fixes I've tried: (all with the GTX 780 Ti installed and booting UEFI from HD)

I used a different SMBIOS on my HD (the same that successfully boots the mac from the USB) and no go.
I checked my Clover Kext folders and all are empty except 10.10 (the version I'm testing but happens in El Capitan as well) which contains FakeSMC (for Yosemite), VoodooTSCSync and NullCPUManagement. Then I took one by one out until I just have FakeSMC. No change.

But I can boot into my HD off the Legacy USB. Even though the settings in the plist are identical to my UEFI one, I can't get past PCI configuration.

So, what's different between the two (USB and HD Clover) that gets it past the PCI configuration begin?
Is the USB using the kext library on the HD to boot the volume, or is it using the ones on the USB?
 
Right now, I'm restoring back to Mavericks, so that I can look at some original configurations and make some notes, then do an upgrade to El Capitan. At least in El Capitan I don't remember having issues with the CPU flag and having it recognize that. We'll see.
 
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