Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.2

I got weird issues too after upgrading to 1.2.

1) bootcamp 1.4 won't work (or better, during the OS isntallation the screen stays on the "wait while the software recognize your hardware" for 10 minutes and then i see the "ntldr failed" message)

2) one of the drives became invisible (fixed using the console and changing the invisible attribute)

3) the machine seems slower than the last week (i got it less than a month ago, and now seems slower while using the OS)

I have no idea why this update seems to be more a bad thing than a good thing....anyone here got issues after the update?

Works fine. Assuming your system needed it and wasn't so new as to already be at 1.2 (it can take weeks at least between testing and release).

works fine for me. And my 'main' system is Vista x64 (which is/will have more support for EFI than older or 32-bit versions).

Sometimes it might take an SMC Reset button to get things back, but that is about it I think. I would never use BootCamp to install Windows on a Mac Pro, I'd just format a 2nd hdd and let Windows do the format (GUID preferably)

See this on 4GB memory in Vista:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/

Oh well, i work as SW engineer...i know the pain of doing tests and hide bugs because the product must be ready no matter what 😀

Anyway; why do you not suggest to put Xp with bootcamp on the MP? i was not able to find any other solution to install windoes on a Mac except bootcamp (i need Windows for the games, since they do not work under parallels).

I wonder why they didn't put a EIDE interface in the MP...i have 5 EIDE drives that i need to swap in an external USB enclosure...that of course won't work as boot device on a Mac 🙂

EIDE is EOL. USB is bootable (once you change the partition table).
I really like the 'no cables' design of SATA in Mac Pro.
And EIDE should be backup. FireWire works better, usually, on Macs, while USB2 is/was more Windows.

I am suggesting that BootCamp Assistant isn't needed to partition, only for BootCamp Time Services and other patches (for sound, BlueTooth support).

Then you also know that there are always the "no known bugs" -- until 10.X.0 ships and we get to learn the dirty truth. This year, I plan to sit it out. Too old for another 1.0 release to go through.

EOL? means end of the life cyce? 🙂

Would love to learn how to boot windows from an external USB enclosure...i got my mac less than a month ago, and there is very little that i know about how it works (can you tell that i came from PC world? 😀 if Macs would still have PPC and no chance to use Windows I would never switch to a Mac Pro)

Could you help me to figure out where to look for more info? (thanks in advance)

10.5 has still a long way to go; hoping that it will not be like the first release of Vista 😀

Sometimes you don't want to see a bug...and you let it go until somebody figure it out and start to complain 🙂 this is what i've noticed working in the IT world, so many times you send out a bios update without having the time to test everything, so you hope for the best, because the 1% of the risk that somebody can have issues is less than the 98% that ask for a fix for an issue 😉

I didn't know you want to boot Windows from an external USB drive.

Macs can, and can install on more than just one disk drive.

I would start with "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual" and go from there, as well as web site with "www.mac*.com" macsurfer, macintouch, macfixit....

Shrink-wrap beta.

Well, since seems that booting form the internal drive using bootcamp does not work (can't even install windows, while on my macbook it works just fine; but i didn't updated yet the firmaware to 1.2 there...is still in the upgrade list) , the only alternative is to boot from an external drive to see if the issue can be resolved 🙂

I was told that a Mac can boot only from a firewire device, but reading what you said seems that there is a way to boot from a USB external drive

Will check these books, gotta go to B&N after work 🙂 thanks for the suggestions!

the only issue is installing x64 Vista, and to do that, as (I) have said multiple times (BootCamp forum more oftenly)...

Is remove your OS X drive while you format and install Vista.

And no, BootCamp doesn't help with 64-bit Vista - yet.
(I probably won't be testing that again, as I've put 5 months into installing and using Vista now.)

Was not aware of a bootcamp forum 🙂 i got an issue so i came to the Apple site, support forum/Mac Pro 😀

I decided to leave Vista to his destiny, until the second Servce Pack 🙂 Vista is a rip-off of Leopard, so why you want the clone when you can have the original? 🙂 except for games and few other applications, I have no reasons to use Windows... i can run parallels and code in Visual Studio .Net without any problem:D

Thanks for the info Hatter, you opened an entire new world in front of my eyes

darshie76 wrote:

I was told that a Mac can boot only from a firewire device, but reading what you said seems that there is a way to boot from a USB external drive

Will check these books, gotta go to B&N after work 🙂 thanks for the suggestions!

The partition map has to be GUID. Go to Disk Utility, select "partition" and "options" and chose GUID to make the USB drive bootable. Only applies to Intel macs.

Actually based on MacFixit article, people can boot from non-GUID but that was preventing them from applying the recent EFI firmware update. you can't install OS X on Intel mac unless it is GUID, and I would use it regardless because it fixes some problems and bugs in the older APL partition scheme.

The hatter wrote:
Actually based on MacFixit article, people can boot from non-GUID but that was preventing them from applying the recent EFI firmware update. you can't install OS X on Intel mac unless it is GUID.

A bit puzzled by that....if you can't install OSX except on GUID, how can you boot from a non-GUID? (All relating only to Intel macs of course)

Mike,

that'll be your "homework assignment" to fathom - or google if you want to.

I'm sure you know, maybe just don't "know" that you do.

The hatter wrote:
Mike,

that'll be your "homework assignment" to fathom - or google if you want to.

I'm sure you know, maybe just don't "know" that you do.

If I know, I know that I am sure that I don't know that I hnow ....unless you mean you could get the OS onto a non GUID by cloning with CCC or Superduper and boot. I am sure I tried that once and it didn't work.

Is fun to see that is necessary to look on google or somewhere else to find info instead of looking on this forum, like Hatter suggested :P

Anyway i've tried almost everything to get XP on an external drive (included installing the efi boot called rEFIt, but even making a custom disk of XP that support the USB was not a solution, since the mac was not able to even see the USB drive at startup 🙂

I installed bootcamp in the end; had to fight a little, reinstalling the OS , since seems that the format of the disk shipped from apple was not ble to let me install bootcamp 🙂 after a repartitioning and a fresh installation of the os i was finally able to install bootcamp 😀 but is still a taboo to boot from an external USB drive....need to do my homework on google :P (would be nice to boot leopard or XP from an external disk keeping tiger on the main drive...maybe....)