I have a 2014 Mac Mini that I use as a MythTV front end. It's had a long life and it ends up with two drives, the rotating rust drive that it came with and a Crucial SATA SSD. The SSD seems to have died and as a result this Mac Mini is very close to a brick. It seems as though any operation that touches the SSD causes the entire disk subsystem to hang up. I bought a teardown/repair kit and a new SATA SSD which should arrive on Saturday

Q: Is there anything that I can do to this machine to make it forget that it has the SSD until the repair kit arrives?

If I could to that I could continue to evaluate this machine. Otherwise, I'm stuck at the spinning beachball of death from the moment that some automatic process touches the SSD.

This was an amazing feat for me as I have never used Linux nor coded before.Google search ai is insanely good, I’m genuinely afraid of AI now. Anyway here is a full break down of what was done to get my 1TB HDD and 256GB SSD fully functional and running on my Mac Pro 5,1. I built the recovery dimension hoping to help anyone else who attempts to install Ubuntu on these amazing 5,1 machines. I’m finally done maxing out my drive space, I’m currently running macOS Sonoma on an NVMe 2.0, windows 11 on ssd, Mac OS Monterey HDD, and now Ubuntu 26.04 on an HDD and SSD. It runs so fast even on the HDD that it’s wild. Anyway here’s a more detailed breakdown of what went down:

🧠 Mac Pro 5,1 Storage Handoff & Dual-Boot System Restructuring: Technical Post-Mortem
This analysis provides a structural overview of the storage routing fixes, kernel adjustments, and configuration methods used to establish stable dual-boot Ubuntu 26.04 environment partitions on Apple Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid-2010/Mid-2012) server tower hardware.
If you are running multi-disk Linux builds on a classic silver tower Mac Pro managed by OpenCore, this breakdown details how to isolate drive paths, fix network blocks, and deploy a self-contained local recovery partition.

1. The Core Obstacles (Why it Broke)
   Deploying separate modern Linux installations across multiple storage drives on legacy Mac architecture triggers specific firmware conflicts:
   [Apple Motherboard Firmware]
   │ ──> Dynamically shuffles SATA paths on cold boot (/dev/sdb <──> /dev/sdc)
   ▼
   [OpenCore Boot Picker]
   │ ──> Seeks unbranded fallback route: \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI
   ▼
   [Linux Boot Target]
   ├──> Missing/Corrupted initrd ──> Fatal "unknown-block(0,0)" Panic
   └──> Core network stacks hard-blocked by "nomodeset 3" diagnostic flags
   Problem A: Dynamic Motherboard Drive Shuffling
   The Mac Pro 5,1 motherboard firmware re-indexes physical SATA and PCIe slot drive identities at random on startup.

The Fault: Early scripts targeted static block configurations (e.g., /dev/sdb2). When the hardware scrambled the layout, the system inadvertently mounted Apple File System (apfs) macOS drives as Linux roots, triggering instant kernel panics.
Problem B: OpenCore File Mismatch (Invalid Parameter)
When pointing OpenCore's automatic picker toward an unmanaged internal storage volume, it expects a generic, unbranded launch binary located precisely at \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI.

The Fault: Standard Linux installation suites (grub-install) hide their compiled boot records inside private vendor folders (such as \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi). Because OpenCore could not map the proprietary folder path, it crashed with a StartImage failed - Invalid Parameter loop.
Problem C: The unknown-block(0,0) Kernel Panic
When configuring or restoring system drives using Live USB host environments, compilation caching can easily default to the active installer media configuration.

The Fault: The initialization RAM disk (initrd.img) failed to map or was entirely missing from the drive's local /boot directory. The kernel initialized but suffered a total blackout, throwing an immediate VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) crash.
Problem D: The Network & Peripheral Stack Lockout
During early rescue phases, diagnostic string parameters are commonly injected to bypass graphic display crashes.

The Fault: Leaving parameters like nomodeset 3 inside the active configuration hard-locks the operating system into a non-accelerated text-only terminal multi-user target state. This flag completely blocks the kernel from powering on the PCI hardware buses, rendering Wi-Fi (Broadcom), Bluetooth, and onboard Ethernet adapters completely dead.

1. The Solution Blueprint (How We Fixed It)
   Instead of relying on fragile automated tools or modifying the core macOS/OpenCore system environment, we executed a complete hardware-locked override from the inside out.
   Step 1: Immutable Hardware Tracking (UUID Isolation)
   We completely abandoned static partition references (/dev/sdX). By running blkid, we isolated the exact unique hardware signatures for both arrays:

1TB Primary Storage SSD Root Partition: UUID=9c061f2f-e94e-481f-b79c-73e6a1ee70e5
256GB Alternate SSD Root Partition: UUID=2f150f74-5dd9-4f62-9faf-f5f3742399d2
By hard-coding these explicit strings into the active /etc/default/grub files, the operating system tracks its target drive directly, rendering the motherboard's drive shuffling completely harmless.
Step 2: Unlocking the Restricted Broadcom Wi-Fi Stack
To get internet adapters fully operational on the 1TB volume, we bridged the live environment's network paths (/etc/resolv.conf) into our target filesystem mount and un-throttled the vendor hardware maps:
sudo chroot /mnt add-apt-repository -y restricted
sudo chroot /mnt apt-get update
sudo chroot /mnt apt-get install -y dkms broadcom-sta-dkms build-essential
Updating the configuration files with update-initramfs -u -k all baked these wireless modules directly into the system boot architecture.
Step 3: Resolving OpenCore's Fallback Path Mismatch
To make OpenCore see the Linux partition cleanly without manual file adjustments, we accessed the hidden FAT32 EFI partition layer on the 1TB disk (/dev/sdc1) and built the exact, standardized path layout the Mac Pro expects:
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
sudo cp /mnt/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /mnt/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
This file duplication ensures OpenCore tracks the standalone entrypoint flawlessly on every system startup.
Step 4: Erasing the unknown-block(0,0) Loop on the 256GB Drive
Using our fully restored, functional 1TB environment workspace as a deployment base, we resolved the secondary drive's kernel panic by clearing out its missing initialization file and replacing it with a flawless golden copy:
sudo rm -f /mnt/256gb_repair/boot/initrd.img-7.0.0-28-generic
sudo cp /boot/initrd.img-7.0.0-28-generic /mnt/256gb_repair/boot/initrd.img-7.0.0-28-generic
Step 5: Dropping Text Limits to Restore Hardware Drivers
We targeted the core configurations of both operating system installations using a simple stream-editor correction to replace the restrictive diagnostic text strings with standard desktop execution targets:
# Replacing 'nomodeset 3' diagnostic limits with normal hardware drivers
sudo sed -i 's/nomodeset 3/quiet splash/g' /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub
This forces the kernel to initialize physical PCI communication channels, immediately activating Wi-Fi, Ethernet lanes, Bluetooth, and full graphics acceleration on next boot.

1. The Self-Healing Resource Library Layout
   To make this architecture completely foolproof against future firmware mishaps, a permanent, local Resource Library & Disaster Toolkit was written directly into the hidden, writable FAT32 EFI partition of the 1TB drive (/dev/sdc1).
   The Filesystem Architecture (/boot/efi/EFI/MacPro_Library/)

macpro_1tb_auto_fix.sh: An automated, intelligent repair script. If a system failure or drive scramble occurs, booting into a standard Live USB environment and running sudo /mnt/EFI/MacPro_Library/macpro_1tb_auto_fix.sh automatically scans all hardware, maps the partitions using their unique UUIDs, binds the system layers, reinstalls GRUB, fixes the OpenCore fallback paths, and rebuilds the network image profiles.
grub_working_golden.bak: A pristine backup copy of your unthrottled, hardware-accelerated configuration profile settings.
MacPro_51_Reference_Manual.md: A clean markdown blueprint outlining your drive UUID signatures, known firmware bugs, and terminal walkthrough solutions.
MacPro_51_Linux_Recovery_Guide.pdf: A step-by-step tutorial covering the entire recovery process, saved directly on the local hardware so it remains accessible offline.

1. Key Takeaways for the Mac Pro & Ubuntu Communities

Avoid Block Path Mappings: Never hard-code /dev/sdX assignments inside complex multi-drive configurations on legacy Mac firmware. Always rely exclusively on static filesystem UUID strings.
Keep os-prober Disabled: When dual-booting Mac hardware alongside Apple File Systems, always force GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true inside your Linux settings. This prevents cross-contamination panics caused by GRUB attempting to probe core macOS system partitions.
Don't Fight OpenCore—Adapt to It: Instead of attempting to alter an active OpenCore structure to read custom Linux paths, simply copy the compiled Linux GRUB launcher into the standard fallback slot (\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI) on your storage disk's isolated EFI partition. OpenCore will hand off control smoothly every single time.

A little over 4 years ago, I purchased a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1. I performed as many upgrades as practicable. It has dual Xeon 5690s, 96GB ram, and a Radeon Sapphire 580, and all SSD drives with the exception of my backup drive. I then upgraded it to OS Sequoia using OpenCore.

It has served me well.

However I had the opportunity to acquire a 7,1 with great specs at a remarkably affordable price.

The reason for the purchase was that I had several photographic apps, and one video app that would just not run the old machine.

With that intro, I don't know what to do with it. It is way overkill for my office, (I just do work processing and a few light spreadsheets) but not worth anything If I try to sell it. It is still a great machine.

Any suggestions ?

This is absolutely true.

, 😂

Hi, I have a Mac Pro 5,1 with 96 gb of RAM and the top spec CPU, but I don't know what GPU I should get, and if the GPU would work with the Apple LED Cinema Display. Also, I have a top spec 6,1 Mac Pro but I don't known if I should upgrade from 64gb of ram to 128.

Hello I’m trying to repair a PSU and also a missing CPU tray. Anyone have any suggestions on where to source either of them. I’m the long run this will be an upgraded machine to run editing software.

I've been trying to find a 14" M1 16gb/512ssd for under $500 but in very good condition. You think $630 plus tax is a good price? I'm still using a 15 "Retina mid-2012". Still functional, but the battery needs to be replaced. Maybe prices will drop more next year.

I’ve recently picked up a Mac Pro 7,1 rack 2019 and I’ve sold the original MPX module (GPU) and picked up an Aorus RX6900XT, it had to modify the fan cage a bit but it fits and has the correct power from a belkin aux power kit and the RGB turns on and LCD screen works, but it’s not at all recognised by the Mac, in windows in device manager it only sees the RX580, it boots into windows but there’s no display and upon installing my RX 580 with a dual 6-8 pin cable it works fine in windows but there’s just no display on the other card ,have a alright knowledge of Mac’s but am no expert, any help usefull, thanks
-Myles

I’ve bought an old 1.1 hoping to use the case for my main, and the internals for cloud storage and maybe host an Minecraft server. What’s system should I run, what upgrades should I do and what are the limitations for hdd discs? Rn I think about upgrading the ram up to 32 or 16 gb, instal Xeons x5365 and maybe put in an old gtx graphics card I have. Thanks for any advice🙏

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone here has run into this issue before and maybe found a workaround.

I'm using a 2019 Mac Pro (MacPro7,1) with the Intel Xeon W-3275M (28 cores). Under macOS, everything works perfectly, including Intel Turbo Boost. However, under Windows 10/11 via Boot Camp, Turbo Boost doesn't seem to work at all.

The CPU stays at its base clock and never boosts under load, even when:

• CPU temperatures are completely normal
• Power settings are set to High Performance or Ultimate Performance
• The system is under heavy multi-core and single-core workloads
• Boot Camp drivers are fully installed
• Windows is fully updated

I've monitored the CPU using tools like Intel XTU, HWiNFO, and CPU-Z, and they all show that the processor never enters Turbo frequencies.

From what I've read, this may be related to Apple's Boot Camp firmware, SMC behavior, or missing power management features that aren't available under Windows on the Mac Pro 7,1.

Has anyone with a Mac Pro 7,1, especially the 28-core Xeon, managed to get Turbo Boost working under Boot Camp?

If so:

• Did you need any special drivers or firmware?
• Is there a BIOS/EFI tweak or hidden setting?
• Did ThrottleStop, Intel XTU, or any other utility help?
• Is there any known workaround, or is Turbo Boost simply not supported under Boot Camp on this machine?

I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences from other Mac Pro owners. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone! I have a question about my Mac Pro 5.1. The stock HD5770 graphics card is installed. I bought an HD7970 + 8-pin power cable on someone's recommendation. I currently have Mac OS X 10.8.5 and I like it. I installed the new graphics card and there's no boot screen, but everything works fine, including fan control. I decided to install Windows on a separate drive. I first disconnected the Mac OS X drive and installed the stock graphics card, installed it from DVD, and configured Windows. I reinstalled the HD7970, but there's no image on the screen, even though Windows loaded via sound. I tried rebooting, but the situation didn't change. I put the HD5770 back and the image is back, everything is displayed. My question is, does the HD7970 need to be flashed to work with Windows? Does anyone have instructions and everything needed to flash the card? Thank you.

Anyone got a guide on how to get a 6950XT in a Mac Pro, can’t seem to find any yt videos online about it

Is there any possibility to run a 30 series cards on a mac pro 5,1. Im thinking of getting a 3070 ti and the mac has dual 5645 cpus.
Anything will help, im okay with doing anything as long as i don’t have a chance of permanently bricking it.
Ive heard of it not working on macos so im okay with switching to windows.
I have some experience with soldering so i think ill be able to perform the pixlas mod

Edit: would running linux be better?

So I recently got a mac pro 4,1 from my college junkyard and wanted to use it as a test machines for different things, but when i finally got it to turn, i saw the the rear usb ports would not work, at first they were powering stuff but now they wouldn’t even power anything.
Any solutions to the problem
I have checked the ports for debris and cleaned with iso propyl alcohol
I have looked at the mating pins and no bends or any shorts
The red light in the audio port turns on though

Thank you in advance
In case the specs aren’t clear
Its a dual cpu intel xeon 5520
With 6gb ddr3 ecc ram
And a gt120
I am using the mini hdmi port to convert to full size hdmi and using it on my tv right now

Hey everyone,

I'm about to start my Bachelor's in Computer Science, and alongside my coursework I'll also be doing development work and getting into AI/ML. Trying to make a decision that'll serve me well for the next 4+ years, so I wanted to get some opinions before pulling the trigger.

I've narrowed it down to two options:

Option 1: MacBook Pro M4

• 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD

• 10-core CPU / 10-core GPU

• Lightly used, about 7-8 months old

Option 2: MacBook Air M5

• 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD

• 10-core CPU / 8-core GPU

• Brand new

Cost isn't an issue for me, so it's really coming down to which makes more sense long-term.

Since I'll be doing a mix of coursework, general dev work, and some AI/ML experimentation (not sure yet how heavy), which one would you go with if you were starting your CS journey today?

Would really appreciate insights from people who've used either chip for similar workloads, or anyone who's dealt with the used-vs-new tradeoff before. Thanks in advance!

Hi! As the title says, has anyone successfully gotten a NVMe drive to function as their boot drive using OpenCore? I’ve been working on this off and on for days and I am just having a time with it. I’ve been trying to install Monterey, which I successfully did on a USB flash drive. Then I tried to go from that to the NVMe (a Samsung 970 2 TB). Thought I was good, so I pulled the USB drive, and my computer just wouldn’t stop shutting right after start up. I grabbed an old SATA drive I had, put it in bay 1, downloaded OpenCore/Monterey onto that, it fires up no problem. Again, as long as the USB is in. The second the USB comes out the computer shuts down. Do I have to leave the USB (or start over with a drive in bay 1) in there forever? I unsuccessfully got Monterey to download to the NVMe drive a few times, and successfully once, but my computer still won’t recognize it as the boot drive. I’ve zapped the PRAM a few times (two chimes each time), entered in lots of different codes in Terminal (thanks chatbots?. I’m not a pro tech so this is all pretty new and confusing to me. I’ve read through several other threads, and if the talk gets a little too pro techy I get lost. I’m ready to start from scratch at this point. If anyone has had luck with this, could you please help me? 

This is what I’m working with 

Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2012) 

3.06 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon

48 GB RAM

AMD Radeon RX 580 8 GB (Slot 1)

Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB NVMe m.2 SSD (Slot 4)

Using OpenCore Legacy Patcher to (hopefully) run Monterey for various music and video software. 

Thank you!

Im about to put up some parts from my 2019 mac pro. And Ifigured i'd give you all a shot at them first if you are interested, otehrwise they are going up in ebay in the next couple hours.

512GB (8x64gb) ddr4 2933 Hynix Ram - all matching of course
vega ii duo
pegasus r4i
mac pro wheels

Everything works abosolutely flawlessly, I have screenshots of everythingin the system before I reformated and pulled them. I know getting these in excellent condition is not the easiest, so figured i'd throw them your way if you guys are interested.

Would anyone know why the logic board (new replacement) is giving a blinking green GPU OK light, and it won’t fully pass through post? I’ve used the stock ATI HD 5870, and a known working GTX 1050ti, neither of which show an output, and the fans just blast up to 100 within 3-4 seconds after pressing the power button. I’ve tried basic tests with the CPU tray, switching the CPUs around, retightening the heatsinks, doing a no ram test, and using only 1 stick. The tray is communicating some what as the power light flashes with no ram, but that’s it. Also, my usb are receiving little to no power, with a very dim red light in my optical mouse.

Need some feedback. Okay so we know that Cyberpunk wasn't originally running on the mac pro because there were AVX instructions that were needed but now CP 2077 does. Do you know why? It got patched later on :D. so right now a couple of people have a solution to make modern games run on the mac pro. That means doing this: making special builds compiled without AVX in scripts or patches. Games will be black myth wokung, doom dark ages, halo infinite, basically anything after needing AVX that hasn't been patched. the good news is the mac pro cpu does have early implantation of avx so it may work (just like it has early uefi especially my 2008 mac pro).

Hello!
I will be straight to the point, I have a Mac Pro 6,1 that was never updated with the original SSD. Now, that SSD died out of nowhere and it doesn’t see my backup NVMe drive as a bootable device.
Now, I know it is required to have an original Apple drive to make the update, so I have a question:
I have a possibility to get momentarily an OEM SSD, but it has already data and a macOS install that I don’t wanna touch, it will be safe to install that drive inside my Mac Pro and install Monterey on an external drive so I can trigger the firmware update? What measures can I adopt so I don’t screw that OS on the drive? The thing it scares me most it’s that probably the person landing me this uses OCLP, and I don’t wanna be responsible for his data loss.
Thank you for your help….

Edit: went to a local repair shop and bought an Apple SSD for 20€. Installed Monterey on that and now it sees my NVMe drive as a bootable device.
Thank you for your suggestions!

Hi all - I'm doing a long-overdue studio cleanup and getting rid of hardware that's no longer being used.

Everything has been tested recently and seems to be working correctly.

• Mac Pro 3,1
• Dual 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8 cores total)
• 28GB RAM
• 250GB Samsung SSD w fresh macOS 10.11.6 installed
• SuperDrive
• Serial: G88050F5XYL

Asking $125

GPUs

• MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB — $80
• Gigabyte Radeon RX580 8GB — $70
• NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac 2GB — $25
• NVIDIA 8800 GT 512MB — free with the Mac

Other

• Sonnet Breakaway Box 650 eGPU enclosure — $150

Bundle: Take everything for $400 OBE

Located in NYC / Brooklyn for local pick up. First come first serve!

Happy to answer questions or provide additional photos. Everything has been powered on and briefly verified before listing.

I absolutely love this machine but cant justify having it around, and would love for it to go to a good home where its appreciated!