# FreeBSD 12.00 on MacPro 1,1 2006



## SIGNALSOUT (Apr 6, 2019)

Hello,I recently installed FreeBSD 12.0 on a MacPro 1,1. Due to  the EFI being 32bit I had to use this website and tool to remove EFI  functions from the installer.

https://mattgadient.com/2016/07/11/linux-dvd-images-and-how-to-for-32-bit-efi-macs-late-2006-models/ Worked great for creating an ISO. Use MBR bootloader during install. Be sure to install src and ports pkg.

There's a few things I had to configure to get it to work properly and there are still some small things that need to be tuned.

*Packages/SRC/Ports (Security)*

```
Change the word quarterly to latest in /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf
Then:

pkg update
pkg upgrade
freebsd-update fetch
freebsd-update install
portsnap fetch
portsnap extract
portsnap update

Intel ucode
pkg install devcpu-data

/boot/loader.conf
cpu_microcode_load="YES"
cpu_microcode_name="/boot/firmware/intel-ucode.bin"
```

*Audio*

The default audio needs to be enabled and the port output needs to be switched which I changed.


```
/etc/sysctl.conf
hw.snd.default_unit=3
dev.hdaa.0.config="ovref"
dev.hdaa.0.gpio_config="0=set 1=set"
dev.hdaa.0.nid21_config="as=4 seq=15"
Audio output on rear.

/etc/rc.conf
sndiod_enable="YES"
```

*Video*

I was able to get the video working by installing the old nvidia driver. The 304 release worked. "Nvidia GeForce 7300GT"

```
pkg install nvidia-driver-304

/etc/rc.conf
linux_enable="YES"
linux64_enable="YES"
nvidia_load="YES"
nvidia-modeset_load="yes"
linux_load="YES"

/boot/loader.conf
linux_enable="YES"
linux64_enable="YES"
nvidia_load="YES"
nvidia-modeset_load="yes"
linux_load="YES"
agp_load="YES"
```

The video driver does act wonky in tty though. It will flash green  and pink with the text going garbled and i noticed the text is still  very large in tty. I have previous experience with drm-next-kmod on  other intel related graphics cards and know that once its install the  text gets smaller and is much more crisp. I would like to know how to do  the same on this nvidia card.

*Kernel*

I get tons of kernel related errors. Apparently it has something to do with the smart battery. You can disable them

```
/boot/loader.conf
debug.acpi.disabled="smbat"
```

System Management Controller services are not enabled by default. You will need to compile a kernel with asmc support.

```
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig-building.html

You will need to download
https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=342756
and put them in
/usr/src/sys/dev/asmc/

You want to make a copy (cp) of the GENERIC kernel. Say cp -r GENERIC MAC in /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/ and then "make buildkernel KERNCONF=MAC" when compiling.

Add the following lines to your kernel conf.

device          coretemp
device          asmc
device          smb
device          smbus
device          smbios
device          cpuctl

and add to /boot/loader.conf
asmc_load="YES"
```
*Time*
The clock is horrible off.

```
tzsetup
Select Yes. Scroll down to bottom and select UTC.
```
FreeBSD Foundation has some great tutorials on installing a working desktop environment as well.
https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/freebsd/how-to-guides/installing-a-desktop-environment-on-freebsd/


----------



## trev (Apr 7, 2019)

Previous MacPro 1,1 threads:

* https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/macpro-1-1-compatible-with-freebsd.51925/
* https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/installing-on-macpro.53408/

It doesn't sound like the results were optimal.


----------



## SIGNALSOUT (Apr 7, 2019)

trev said:


> Previous MacPro 1,1 threads:
> 
> * https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/macpro-1-1-compatible-with-freebsd.51925/
> * https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/installing-on-macpro.53408/
> ...



I'm not really having any of those issue at all. My fans appear to be doing their jobs accordingly. concordantly. vis a vis.


----------



## Phishfry (Apr 7, 2019)

For the time problem you could use ntp and its drift file:








						Chapter 31. Network Servers
					

This chapter covers some of the more frequently used network services on UNIX systems




					www.freebsd.org


----------



## ranvel (Dec 5, 2020)

I followed this guide and it worked perfectly. I'm on 12.2-RELEASE. This MacPro is mainly a headless server, so I configured the audio / video, but I really just use it remotely. I had to re-do it a couple of times before I got the right ZFS drive configuration. As a result, I had a lot of time to put this machine through its paces over the past couple of weeks. I've personally seen some issues in the past with this machine and unsupported OSs, but I'm guessing the re-compiled kernel could have something to do with more solid reliability.

These past two days, I've been trying to see how optimized I can make the poudriere builds, which can take the system load up into the the 11-12 range for hours at a time and I've never had a single issue: no halts, no panics and no failures of any kind. I don't recommend this system for a poudriere build server. It is enormously inefficient, but I thought that would be a good stress test. A full build (with llvm9 & 10, rust) takes 18 hours.

Quick update (4/24) that this system has been working well since I posted:




I couldn't be more grateful for SIGNALSOUT's guide.


----------

