Dell Precision Tower 5810 need help installing Sierra / High Sierra / Mojave / Catalina

[Matte82]

Thanks MaLdOn. That worked brilliantly. It shows that my CPU is scaling up and down in freq and watts. However while running a geekbench pass, it never "maxed out". Seemed to just jump up and down in frequency. But I did get a score of around 4k single core and 13.5k multi-core. Which for my E5-1620v3 seems about right. The max is around 15k multi-core.

 

However when booting I still see the errors about the TSC sync. I don't have the VoodooTSCSync kext installed right now. But when I have, it doesn't seem to fix it. I've went in and made sure cpus was set to "7" in the plist. Which is what I believe it should be for a quad-core with hyperthreading. Is there something else I need to do? Or maybe a different version I need? And just to double check, does it need to be in S/L/E, or can it be in the clover kext folder?

 

Next up is graphics. This computer came with a NVS310, which probably isn't ideal for a hackintosh. Should I just go ahead and get a different card? I don't need a super powerful one, but do game on occasion, along with the occasional  video editing. But nothing super serious. Any recommendations?

 

Also I know the MacPro 6.1 uses custom AMD cards. But they're supposedly quite similar to their W7000 and up cards. Would going AMD help anything? Make my life easier in any way? Or make it harder?

 

I do plan on installing Windows 10 and either AVLinux or Ubuntu Studio at some point also, if that makes any difference. But they will be on seperate hard drives.

 

Anyway here is my current EFI folder. If someone would look around and make sure I'm not doing something unnecessary, or see anything I'm not but should be doing, please let me know. This things is coming along nicely. Just a few more kinks to work out. Thanks again for the help.

 

Edit: well I can't upload my EFI.zip. It's apparently around 20MB, but that due to a "Firmware.scap" file in EFI/APPLE/EXTENSIONS, that is almost 16MB. What is this file? Do I need it? Headed off to do some googling.

 

Edit 2: Okay from what I can tell that's an Firmware update for a real MacPro 6.1. So I should be able to delete it? Going to back it up first just in case, but think I can.

 

I also forgot to mention, I found a guide that had some commands to run to make sure power management is working, and it seemed to pass them all. So aside from the TSCSync thing, which could be irrelevant and I'm just being paranoid, I think the cpu is pretty much done. However it just says "3.49ghz quad-core Intel Xeon" in about this mac. Is that correct or should it say E5-1620v3 or something?

2017-6-1 CPU optimized -firmware.scap EFI.zip

[Matte82]

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure if it would show exactly what processor or not. And by plist, I meant the one inside the TSCSync.kext. You're suppose to make sure it matches your processor. Most I've found were set for 6-core processors, with a setting of "11". And I could still be doing that wrong too. Haha.

[Matte82]

Okay I'm struggling with video. :-/ I've tried quite a few boot options. I can get to the desktop with nv_disable=1. But pretty much any other combination either gets me a black screen. Or this overly white, super bright, really glaring look. This is a nvidia nvs 310 card. Let me know if there's a guide or something. I've been searching but not finding anything that seems to apply. Or probably more accurately, that I can figure out how to apply to my rig.

[MaLd0n]

try a simple "InjectNvidia" in config.plist

how many threads ur processor have?8

[Matte82]

Making sure I did it right. I took out any nvidia flags of any kind and told clover to inject nvidia. And the screen went black instead of going to the desktop. Also there seems to be two nvidia webdriver flags in clover configurator. Under the "boot" tab there is a tickbox for nvda_drv=1, and then under "system parameters", there is a tickbox next to "NvidiaWeb". I had both unchecked.

 

I also I downloaded the newest version of CCV (4.43.0) yesterday and it's got some changes. I just noticed under SMBIOS there's a "mobile" tickbox. It's set to [-]. Is this right? I would think it would be unticked. But as I click it I get 3 settings. No tick, - , and ticked. So not sure what the middle setting means.

 

And yes this is a quad-core w/hyperthreading, so 8 threads.

[MaLd0n]

post ur clover folder here, extract tables too

RunMe.app.zip

[Matte82]

When you say extract tables too, are you asking for the DSDT and SSDT? I had extracted those earlier by pressing F4 in clover, if those are okay. Still trying to understand the details of how all this works. Anyway I will attach those also. Let me know if you meant something else.

 

FWIW I went ahead and just zipped the entire origin folder from clover.

 

Thanks a million times over for helping me. I definitely owe you big time.

EFI.zip

origin.zip

Send me Matt’s Mac Pro.zip

[Matte82]

Just realized I didn't need to include the origin folder did I? It was already in the efi folder.

[MaLd0n]

what ur chipset? c610 or c612?

Check, use full clover folder

CLOVER.zip

[Matte82]

I believe it's a c612. But not 100% for sure. Let me do some looking. Fwiw I'm about to head to bed. So I will reply asap.

[MaLd0n]

fix cosmetic c612

DSDT.c612.zip

[Matte82]

Awesome. Thanks. And from what I've read it is the c612. Can't find any info saying there was ever a version that had a c610.

[MaLd0n]

the patches is same 610, 612, just modify cosmetic

 

let me know

[Matte82]

So I got to play around for just a bit before heading to work. First of all huge thanks. Didn't get to try audio yet, but I noticed it was showing up in system profiler.

 

However I installed that clover folder and the dsdt. Rebooted. Didn't make any changes. Just what you sent me. And I think I got the same weird screen. :-/

 

So I tried the nv_drv flag. Same thing. Then I tried the nvidia web driver flag. Same thing. Then I tried both and black screen instead of desktop.

 

So I turned off injecting nvidia. This time things looked good. However nvidia preferences showed it was running the OS X driver. I'm okay with that, just something I noticed. This is when I found audio was showing up. but I noticed things were a little weird here and there. Like I would click something and it wouldn't load as fast as normal. So I tried some things to check QE/CI. DVD player showed all features enabled. Opened chess and could make moves. Then I opened screen saver picked one and hit preview. Instant freeze. Tried some commands like force quit. But nothing. Finally shut it down.

 

So I tried again without injecting nvidia but with the nvda_dvr flag. Same as before. And it shows that the OS X driver is loaded in nvidia preferences.

 

Then I tried with the NvidiaWeb option. Black screen instead of desktop. Tried both for the heck of it and black screen again.

 

If this is probably due to the video card itself being less common, let me know. I planned on getting something a little better anyway. I know these cards are meant more for workstation use and less common. I'm also open to suggestions on very compatible, super easy to get working cards. Nvidia or AMD. Just let me know what you think.

 

I also found a bootflag debug=0x100. That's suppose to give me some kind of readout on what goes wrong. Going to try no injection and no nvidia flags and see what causes the hang with screen saver.

 

Again I am grateful for all the help.

[MaLd0n]

if u dont play games e.g, a simple old card like gt9800, work with InjectNvidia in Snow Leopard to Sierra

 

if u need a video perfomance, go to GTX9xx or GTX1xxx and web driver

[Matte82]

I do some occasional gaming and mild video editing. So I'll probably go for a gtx card and the web driver. Can't thank you enough for all the help.

[MaLd0n]

Welcome!

Let me know!

[Matte82]

I ordered a GTX 1050 ti. For my needs it should be overkill, and hopefully compatible. Will I need to change anything in the DSDT you provided?

 

Also since I'm waiting on that I decided to check out the audio. Well it shows up in system profiler, but under system preferences>sound it doesn't show anything? I know there are quite a few guides out there for sound, but since you made a patched dsdt, I don't want to mess any of that up. And it's not really critical, as I'm going to use this for audio work, and have a USB interface that is showing up and working just fine. But it would be cool for it to function also.

 

This is sort of a future question, but some day I plan on upgrading the cpu, to one with more cores. Not any time soon. Just as prices come down. Anything I need to change for that? I imagine I will need to re run the ssdtPRgen script and the vector script. But aside from that anything to be aware of?

 

So far everything else seems good. I've got sleep turned off, as I don't use it anyway. I shut down when I'm done. USB 3.0 is working as expected, along with LAN. I'm about to start installing some of my software and see how it goes. I'll post back if I have any issues. But not expecting any, that aren't video related anyway.

 

Lastly I'm going to transfer this to an SSD at some point soon. I've used Carbon Copy Cloner in the the past on "real" macs to transfer the OS. Aside from making sure clover is installed correctly, is there anything else I should know?

 

Oh sorry one more. I plan also installing Windows 10 on a completely separate SSD. Anything I need to do special there? I plan on removing my Mac SSD completely. Installing Windows. Once that is done, reinstalling the Mac SSD, and making sure it's set as the boot device in BIOS. Anything else I need to worry about or install? Or will clover see it and simply add it as an option?

 

Anyway I can't thank you enough for the help. I'm one happy camper. Get the video sorted and I will be good to go. I nice vanilla install. Exactly what I was going for. If you're ever in the area let me know, I owe you at least a good dinner. And that's for anyone that helped me out here.

[Matte82]

Thought I would post a quick update. Got the 1050ti card, and it is working beautifully. I also picked up a Crucial MX300 SSD, and have transferred it all over to that. I have installed most of my software in it's working quite nice.

 

The audio is the last little issue I would like to fix though. Any ideas or suggestions on where to look MaLdOn? I know you modded my DSDT and that got it to show up in system profiler. I also see you put in the Apple ALC kext in there. I'm going to do some reading and see what I can find. Once I get this sorted I will try and make a guide, since I believe this should be a nice Mac Pro alternative for people that need lots of processing power.

 

Also, when I boot I still see the unsynchonized TSC message. Is this accurate or maybe the kext has kicked in yet? Things seem okay, I just want to make sure this rig is as stable as possible. I've noticed it doesn't do quite as well at lower buffer settings as I thought it might. And it could simply be, I need more cpu power, but want to make sure.

 

Again thanks for all the help.

 

Edit: So I think I figured out that this mobo is using the Realtek ALC3320. According to https://github.com/vit9696/AppleALC/blob/master/Changelog.md, it might be the same as/similar to the ALC280, which has 3 layout options. (3,4,11). But it also mentions something about being for Alienware alpha SPDIF only. So maybe I need to figure out how to create a new layout. I'm trying to wrap my head around that. There's also mention here https://github.com/vit9696/AppleALC/wiki/Installation-and-usage that AppleALC doesn't deal with layout-id's and expects you to provide a correct DSDT. So now I'm even more lost.

[MaLd0n]

alc280 have 3 options in AppleAlc

3, 4 and 11

confirm ur codec

i apply id 3

DSDT.id 3.zip

 

try it

getcodecid (Andy.V).zip

[Matte82]

You sir. Are awesome. Thank you so much.

 

I ran the codec script. This is the output

 

(AppleHDA)    Realtek ALC280 (10ec:0280) Rev.(00100003)
        Controller 8086:8d20 (sub-ven:1028:0617)

 

I'm about to install the DSDT and I will report back.

 

Edit: I tried it and now the front headphone port works. I would like to get the rear one going if I can. I tried looking at the DSDT in MaciASL, but I don't have clue where to start. And that's a lot of lines to look through. Been googling it though. Surely I can figure out how to change the ID.

 

Thanks again

 

Matt

Edit 2: Okay so is it in line 8368?

 

"layout-id",
                        Buffer (0x04)
                        {
                            0x03, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00
                        },

 

If so what do I change? I'm taking a wild guess that 0x03, is layout 3. But would I just change that to 0x04, or 0x011? to try the other layouts?

[MaLd0n]

search for HDEF

 

just change

"layout-id",
                        Buffer (0x04)
                        {
                            0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00
                        },

or id 11

"layout-id",
                        Buffer (0x04)
                        {
                            0x0b, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00
                        },

if u can, just remove _dsm into hdef and inject with Clover in DEvices tab in ur config.plist

[Matte82]

Cool. I will give that a shot and report back. And I forgot to mention, but yes I did find that under the hdef section.

[Matte82]

Okay so I tried the other layouts. 4 gave me the same thing. The front headphone jack works, but not the back. I think it called the output "built-in speaker". The 11 layout shows up as digital optical and I have no inputs. I'm not really worried about inputs. So I guess that note in the wiki makes sense now. Guess I will do some more reading and see what I can find.

 

However your comment about, "if u can, just remove _dsm into hdef and inject with Clover in DEvices tab in ur config.plist", intrigues me. But I'm not sure exactly what you mean. I see this in my DSDT

 

Device (HDEF)
            {
                Name (_ADR, 0x001B0000)
                Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
                {
                    If (LEqual (Arg2, Zero))
                    {
                        Return (Buffer (One)
                        {
                            0x03
                        })
                    }

 

 

Are you saying to just delete the _dsm in "Method (_DSM," ? Do literally just delete it? Or do I need to replace it with something? And then would clover auto inject or would I need to do something inside it's plist?

 

I appreciate you helping me figure this out. I can work with it as is, but I just want to get it as 100% as possible. I feel like we've come too far to not get this part done.

[MaLd0n]

Check, use it

DSDT._DSM.zip

and inject id in ur config.plist

 

good for test