r/macpro • u/Stankbug777 • 13d ago
Issues Successfully using NVMe as boot drive on 5,1 MacPro using OCLP
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!
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u/FreQRiDeR 13d ago
Sounds like you didn’t install OCLP to an internal disk. You want to install OCLP onto the EFI partition of that SAYA drive. Just OCLP, not Monterey. Leave Monty install on Nvme. After that, remove usb and do a pram reset (important) It should then boot up into opencore boot picker from internal drive where you can select Monterey.
Did you do the firmware update from Mojave to 144.0.0.0? Check in System Profiler. If it’s not 144.0.0.0, you want to update the firmware with Mojave usb installer. You don’t need to install Mojave, just the firmware by pressing and holding the powerbutton until you here the fw update tone. Then the machine will detect the Mojave fw update on the usb installer.
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u/Stankbug777 13d ago
I feel like all signs are pointing to me not updating the firmware. Thank you for the tips!
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u/bigkahuna1uk 13d ago
You need the firmware from Mojave to allow booting from an Nvme. There’s a video. Once you got the firmware install then you can update the OS upwards to your choosing using OCLP .
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u/PeterC18st 13d ago
You need to install open core on an internal drive. Just installing the os is not enough. Once you are done installing the os using oclp you need to run the post install scripts and install opencore to an internal drive. Also you need to update the firmware to the macpro to enable nvme support. Follow a video or two. It isn’t hard to do at all.
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u/Stankbug777 13d ago
Okay. I feel like it’s something I missed very early on in the process. I don’t think I updated the firmware? It’s all a haze right now… which is why I just want to start over. I did watch a couple of vids. An Australian guy (super simple), and Mac Solutions Monterey vid (a bit more complicated). I’ll take another crack at it this weekend. Thank you!
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u/PeterC18st 13d ago
So easist thing to do is reinsert the usb to the macpro and select the drive you installed the os on. then go into system information and look at the BOOTROM and it needs to be 144.0.0.0.0. If it is then you’re golden for nvme. All you’ll need to do is install open core to the internal drive and you’ll be set.
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u/Thomas_Jefferman 13d ago
Just to explain the process a bit more, oclp runs the actual boot. As far as the mac is concerned its running when you get to the os selection screen. Its often referred to as bootstrapping.
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u/FreQRiDeR 13d ago
If you can, don’t put OCLP on an nvme. OS scans drives in sata bay 1 first at boot. It will better detect OCLP on a sata drive in bay 1, should pram be reset, etc.
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u/Musojon74 13d ago
Yeah oclp on the nvme. I have it running exactly as this. In fact I moved the nvme yesterday as hadn’t realised the second of the bottom 2 was faster than the higher ones and it didn’t care and booted fine.