# Installing on MacPro



## sprock (Sep 30, 2015)

Hello,

I'm trying to install FreeBSD 10.0 (I will upgrade to 10.2 immediately) on a MacPro.  So far I have:

1.  Shrunk OSX to 100GB using Apple's DiskUtility and created dummy partitions on ada0 and ada1 for freebsdFreeBSD.
2.  Installed rEFInd.
2.  Followed the standard install using 'Manual partitioning'  to delete and repartition the dummy partitions for freebsdFreeBSD (UFS filesystems).
3.  I responded 'yes' when prompted by the installer to create a boot partition.  I noted an 'error writing to ada0p3' as the filesystems were created but continued the install.
4.  Following the advice here:
https://www.glenbarber.us/2011/11/12/Dual-Booting-OS-X-and-FreeBSD-9.html
I went to LiveCD at the end of the install.
5.  Running the command recommended at step 4 (having verified that freebsd-boot is on ada0p3):
`gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 3 ada0`
results in:

```
/dev/ada0p3: Input/output error
```

I appreciate any help on offer.
Thanks,
sprock


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## jrushford (Oct 3, 2015)

I don't know why you're getting that error if ada0p3 is in fact the gptzfboot(8) partition but, I recently installed 10.2-RELEASE on a 2006 Mac Pro.  I did not use REFit or REFInd.  Instead, I installed FreeBSD on it's own disks (two ZFS mirrored disks selected during FreeBSD install) and I ran the same command to load the bootcode on both drives.  My boot partition was 1.

After installing, I booted into Mac OS X on another drive, ada2, and blessed the two FreeBSD boot partitions using the Mac OS X 'bless' command, this updates the NVRAM with information on alternate bootable disk drives or volumes.  After that, I've been able to select FreeBSD or Mac OSX by holding down the option key when the machine boots or I can remove the OS X drive completely and it will boot directly into FreeBSD.  I tried REFit in the beginning but it would not work with the ZFS bootcode and I was unaware of REFInd.

This may not be a helpful post to you as I have no answer as to why you get the error.  Just wanted to share how I got FreeBSD running on an older Mac Pro.


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## sprock (Oct 7, 2015)

Interestingly, the same thing happens on an aluminum iMac.


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## vadimk (Oct 7, 2015)

Hi, sprock

    If would be nice to know output of the following command: `gpart show ada0`.


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## npaisnel (Mar 2, 2017)

Did anyone with a FreeBSD on an Intel Mac Pro ever get fan speed control / heat management working on BSD on the Mac?

I managed to get NAS4Free installed on an IDE drive on the spare IDE channel under the DVD drive, as an embedded image.
Tried both other boot loaders, (rEFIt and rEFInd and they showed a FreeBSD icon but would not boot).
Did not 'bless' any drives and it does just boot.
But sometimes it randomly fails or hangs and wondering if that is heat / hardware related.


It is a  Mac Pro 1,1 Quad Core 2.66 and after a few minutes of running it starts 'freezing' up ..and I think the issue is heat related.
The RAM gets almost too hot to touch.
Fans only run at minimum speed and never speed up, and the CPU core temps on Processor 0 go up to about 45 degC, where as the other processor cores are down to around 28degC

I know I do not have FreeBSD, but have NAS4Free, but no one has been able to help or even answered my questions over on the NAS4Free forums, so I though that maybe there is some FreeBSD fan control deamon that needs to be installed that is not natively in NAS4Free.

Anyone have any ideas?



I am going to cross post this..yes I know..bad form...on to other threads I find with Mac Pro users ..as we seem to be so few and far between.   I want to get as much coverage as possible. I have been 3-4 weeks working on this before posting any posts on any forums, and I am now starting to think I am just going to trash the Mac if I can't get it running with NAS4Free


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## jrushford (Mar 2, 2017)

I had a Mac Pro 1,1 Quad Core 2.66 machine running FreeBSD and was considering using it as a NAS.  I never got fan speed control running but, I did  buy and install these memory cooling fans to bring down the temperatures:  http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=160
The fans helped quite a bit but I never did have the freezing up issue you describe before installing them.  I installed them because I was concerned about the heat.

I ended up selling the machine and went with another I built using a low power consuming ASRock C2750D4I mother board for my NAS.


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## npaisnel (Mar 2, 2017)

OK, thanks for taking the time to reply.

I am only using this because it is a free machine ..if I have to buy a machine to do the job, then I will not be doing it.

Beginning to wonder of the machine has a hardware fault that appears randomly.


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## hlindh (Mar 14, 2017)

npaisnel said:


> OK, thanks for taking the time to reply.
> 
> I am only using this because it is a free machine ..if I have to buy a machine to do the job, then I will not be doing it.
> 
> Beginning to wonder of the machine has a hardware fault that appears randomly.



Bits from my macpro1,1 setup. I'm using my own patch with the asmc driver, hence the sensor names. One of the memory card sensors is probably broken (the 129 one). The values are pretty much the same I see on OS X and Linux.


```
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_b_slot3: 67
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_b_slot2: 66
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_b_slot1: 76
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_b_slot0: 71
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_a_slot3: 59
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_a_slot2: 48
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_a_slot1: 129
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_a_slot0: 76
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_b_proximity2: 52
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_b_proximity1: 50
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_b_proximity0: 40
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_a_proximity2: 48
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_a_proximity1: 49
dev.asmc.0.temp.memory_card_a_proximity0: 40
...
dev.asmc.0.temp.cpu_core3: 0
dev.asmc.0.temp.cpu_core2: 51
dev.asmc.0.temp.cpu_core1: 0
dev.asmc.0.temp.cpu_core0: 53
dev.asmc.0.temp.cpu_a_proximity: 38
dev.asmc.0.temp.cpu_b_heatsink: 29
dev.asmc.0.temp.cpu_a_heatsink: 29
...
dev.asmc.0.fan.3.targetspeed: 600
dev.asmc.0.fan.3.maxspeed: 2800
dev.asmc.0.fan.3.minspeed: 600
dev.asmc.0.fan.3.safespeed: 1200
dev.asmc.0.fan.3.speed: 599
dev.asmc.0.fan.3.id: PS
dev.asmc.0.fan.2.targetspeed: 600
dev.asmc.0.fan.2.maxspeed: 2900
dev.asmc.0.fan.2.minspeed: 500
dev.asmc.0.fan.2.safespeed: 1200
dev.asmc.0.fan.2.speed: 599
dev.asmc.0.fan.2.id: EXHAUST
dev.asmc.0.fan.1.targetspeed: 500
dev.asmc.0.fan.1.maxspeed: 2900
dev.asmc.0.fan.1.minspeed: 500
dev.asmc.0.fan.1.safespeed: 1200
dev.asmc.0.fan.1.speed: 500
dev.asmc.0.fan.1.id: IO
dev.asmc.0.fan.0.targetspeed: 500
dev.asmc.0.fan.0.maxspeed: 2900
dev.asmc.0.fan.0.minspeed: 500
dev.asmc.0.fan.0.safespeed: 1200
dev.asmc.0.fan.0.speed: 499
dev.asmc.0.fan.0.id: CPU_MEM
```


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## npaisnel (Mar 14, 2017)

Is that broken sensor fitted to the logic /main board or the memory cards?  or is it a part of the wiring loom ?

I only ask becsuse I scrapped my Mac Pro in the end.  it just kept crashing and randomly hanging even with OSX running.  suspected a hardware fault.  I had a later 3,1 Mac Pro here to, which is my everyday machine, that I want kept as pure Mac.  As a test I fitted the MP 1,1HDD and it booted and ran fine.   

So the MP 1,1 met severe death via severe kicking.   I took off the RAM risers, fans, etc and trashed the thing

If your faulty sensor was a removable part / memory riser. or wiring part you could have it for the price of postage.


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## hlindh (Mar 14, 2017)

npaisnel said:


> Is that broken sensor fitted to the logic /main board or the memory cards?  or is it a part of the wiring loom ?
> 
> I only ask becsuse I scrapped my Mac Pro in the end.  it just kept crashing and randomly hanging even with OSX running.  suspected a hardware fault.  I had a later 3,1 Mac Pro here to, which is my everyday machine, that I want kept as pure Mac.  As a test I fitted the MP 1,1HDD and it booted and ran fine.
> 
> ...



Thanks, but I think postage would be prohibitively expensive (to Finland) considering the street value of these boxes (= next to nothing). I'm not seeing any ill effects aside from the weird value. It might actually be that Apple hasn't even wired the sensor properly because I think I saw a screenshot from someone's macpro1,1 (iStat or something) where the sensor was missing altogether. Fwiw, the fan management, as far as I know, is done by the SMC chip and the OS doesn't really take a part in it, so your machine probably was broken.


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## npaisnel (Mar 14, 2017)

I am in Europe ( Jersey) so postage probably only a couple of euros.

With OSX there was full fan control , I could ramo the speeds up/down using the app SMC Fan Control, so confident the fan control was working OK


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## hlindh (Mar 14, 2017)

npaisnel said:


> I am in Europe ( Jersey) so postage probably only a couple of euros.
> 
> With OSX there was full fan control , I could ramo the speeds up/down using the app SMC Fan Control, so confident the fan control was working OK



If you look at the above sensor dump, there are items ending with minspeed. You can set those using sysctl and it will set the minimum fan speed higher. I think the behaviour is exactly the same under OS X using the SMC Fan Control 3rd party app. For instance, I just did `sudo sysctl dev.asmc.0.fan.0.minspeed=1500` and am now enjoying my new noisy environment 

With older powerpc macs there used to be a file in OS X that related temperatures and corresponding fan speeds and you could edit that to make the system, for instance, ramp up the fans more aggressively when temperatures rise. If there's something like that in OS X for Intel macs then that part is missing from FreeBSD, but I'm still sure the SMC can control the fans by itself, though Apple has been favouring silence over low temperatures in the past.. I've seen no reports of overheating because of missing fan control under Linux or FreeBSD.

I'll PM you about the parts as it's off topic.


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