New install Thinkstation P920, 2 x Xeon Gold 6144 (8c x 2), 512GB, Vega 56, NVME. Moved from P910 (2667v4 (8c x 2), 512GB, Vega56, NVME)

[xAyiDe]

New install Thinkstation P920, 2 x Xeon Gold 6144 (8c x 2), 512GB, Vega 56, NVME. Moved from P910 (2667v4 (8c x 2), 512GB, Vega56, NVME)

 

Got some CPU off a project and bought a P920 chassi moved the videocard over and few more networkcards and stuff. The P910 was a bit hard getting Mac OS to work since it reported more cores than it actually had so had to fix number of cores to get MacOS to load. I think the message was a long the lines of one Thread was executed on a core not physically there in some cryptic words. So had to make SSDT to remove cores a lot like the issues with newer BIOS in Xeon Scalable although this was a few years ago.

 

So with the new machine and everything moved over, I made the initial EFI folder with ProperTree and all kexts needed. Went through the whole guide but is still missing a few important steps like the OS will not boot without CPUExtraMSRS and such. ProperTree also placed Lilu a bit down the Kext-loading prio so had to move it on top.

 

Booted the computer but bam stopped at ACPI-tables with KP. Read up on it remembering the old P910 about number of cores. Found out the P920 had actually SCK0,1,2 AND 3 in the DSDT, all withe placeholders for 64 cores each. Don't know what to do with that so googled around and found the tread from "etorix" about MacOS SSDT-CPU-WRAP for newer BIOSes. Actually the trick here is related to CPU cores, ie with the wrong device-name-type there are no cores to run MacOS on instead of like the P910 with too many cores which are simply not there.

 

I adjusted the SSDT-CPU-WRAP.aml for my dual CPU and also edited the SSDT-PLUG-DRTNIA.aml for pointing to the new WRAPed cores. Now it boots, I believe, until just before "PCI Configuration Begins". At least thats the next step from what I can tell from others screenshots. It still counts all the 64 x 4 cpu-cores but they seem to be set to disabled by the XNU-core.  I have attached full EFI, bootlog from serial, screenshots and full DSDT/ACPI tables dump. Tbh the DSDT is really strange with all those cores and sockets. So now it hangs here, any pointers?:

 

 

<code>

0270006/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleSSE/AppleSSE/AppleSSE.cpp, line: 49

7 ACPI AML tables successfullcpu_data_alloc(1) 0xffffff800acafb40 desc_table: 0xffffff8009d2c320 ldt: 0xffffffa212d07000 int_stack: 0xfffffffa8286f000-0xfffffffa82873000

y acquired and loaded

pci (build 22:14:09 Jul  5 2023), flags 0xc3080

VirtualSMC     efend: @ authenticated restacpu_data_alloc(2) 0xffffff800acb0d40 desc_table: 0xffffff8009d2c640 ldt: 0xffffffa212d17000 int_stack: 0xfffffffa8285f000-0xfffffffa82863000

rt support is unavailable (800000000000000E, 😎

AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=0 LocalApicId=0 Enabled

AppleACPICPU: Pcpu_data_alloc(3) 0xffffff800acb1f40 desc_table: 0xffffff8009d2c960 ldt: 0xffffffa212d27000 int_stack: 0xfffffffa8283f000-0xfffffffa82843000

...

...

...

AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=255 LocalApicId=255 Disabled

AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=255 LocalApicId=255 Disabled

no external trust caches found (segment length is zero)

....

....

....

....

TSC sync for cpu 15: 0x000009599dbb5db8 delta 0x96 (150)

Started cpu 15 (lapic id 0000002d)

</code>

 

EFI.zip

[khe91]

Until last year I had an P920 here. Worked well with 13.x

Sold it already, maybe the EFI can help you.

efi.p920.zip

[xAyiDe]

45 minutes ago, khe91 said:

Until last year I had an P920 here. Worked well with 13.x

Sold it already, maybe the EFI can help you.

efi.p920.zip 3.1 MB · 0 downloads

 

WOW, it actually booted up now. I weasn't sure all the sockets in the BIOS was a good thing but I need to compare and see why yours is loading but not mine. Initialy could it be the GPU SSDT somehow. I get back here when I know.

[xAyiDe]

So I now know what made it not boot. A simple misstake here. I thought I was reading VT-X in the BIOS and knew it should be on to use MacOS and do not need dart=0, since some software uses VT-X. BUT the thing is, it didn't say VT-X but rather VT-D on the option, I turned that off yesterday before I made this post and forgot about it. mSo when I turn that on it stops at that AppleACPICPU spot even with your config so that must be my mistake. Confirmed by turning it on and off with my own config. So whats the latest on VT-D, still off right? (or are there quirks to let it be on, since this machine also runs other OS like Vmware ESXi and sometimes Hyper-V for lab.

 

By the way, what did you trade the P920 for? P50?

[khe91]

VT-D should be on.

P920 was to noisy.

[xAyiDe]

I was able to quiet it with more quiet fans from thermaltake I believe it was. It doesnt have the same MAX flow but not much different. The issue for me was the idle noise of the stock fans.