TrueNAS on a Mac pro 2008

[chris2306]

Hi

I'm new to TrueNAS I used to run everything before off of free Nas but it's been a long time since using it I've got a 2008 Mac Pro it's two Xeon processor and 32Gb of RAM.

My graphics card is an AMD sapphire Radeon R9 270 x OC and around 12 Tb of storage

I'm curious to see if I can install trueNAS on it and i can see that there's instances of FreeNAS being installed but was seeing if I can run that OS

Thanks in advance

 

[sretalla]

Likely that you can... Darwin OS (which MacOS is based on) shares a common ancestor with TrueNAS: FreeBSD.

The FreeBSD bootloader is likely to work as a result, so good chances to get there... you may or may not need an additional bootloader in front of that to get around the funky Apple BIOS boot process though. (clover or something like that).

Disclaimer: I have not tried this (since I don't have a Mac Pro of that vintage), so can't be 100% sure.

 

[golek]

It could probably run. I actually may give it a try for the sake of it. I have a 2009 updated to 2010 MP with 48GB and a Radeon X5600XT running MacOS (opencore) and Windows 10 for gaming. I just started learning trueNAS this week on an old G3220T mini PC. The MP is unfortunately very energy inefficient by todays standards.

 

[golek]

I made it work today on my 2009/2010 MacPro. No problems with fans (I do not know how to stress test within TrueNAS so I cannot say for sure).
I heard others on 2008 MacPro got it installed but their fans run at full speed, with some turnarounds.Check this thread Mac Pro (2008) - Fan's Stay At Full Speed

 

[davidbdeath]

I've been using TrueNAS on my 2010 MacPro for years now. The latest version requried a GPU to be installed and that fan is loud. Wish I could get it to boot without the GPU.

 

[Arwen]

I've been using TrueNAS on my 2010 MacPro for years now. The latest version requried a GPU to be installed and that fan is loud. Wish I could get it to boot without the GPU.

It may be possible with a fake GPU monitor dongle. I don't remember the name, but I vaguely recall these being needed, especially on Apple Macs where they tried to run them them without a monitor. I can probably dig up a product if you want to give that a try.

If the 2010 MacPro has built-in video, it may require a monitor be plugged in to boot. Thus, your work around to use a graphics card that has no such limitation.

Edit: Fixed GPU -> monitor

 

[ChrisRJ]

Do you mean fake GPU dongle or fake monitor dongle? I only know about the latter and it requires a true GPU ...

 

[Arwen]

Do you mean fake GPU dongle or fake monitor dongle? I only know about the latter and it requires a true GPU ...

You are right, fake monitor dongle.

 

[davidbdeath]

It may be possible with a fake GPU monitor dongle. I don't remember the name, but I vaguely recall these being needed, especially on Apple Macs where they tried to run them them without a monitor. I can probably dig up a product if you want to give that a try.

If the 2010 MacPro has built-in video, it may require a monitor be plugged in to boot. Thus, your work around to use a graphics card that has no such limitation.

Edit: Fixed GPU -> monitor

I'm a bit of a Mac Expert, having administered with them for over 20yrs in a lab environment. The monitor dongles were never required to boot, only to accelerate the desktop environment when accessing remotely using Apple Remote Desktop or VNC. The Mac Pro will boot fine without a GPU into Mac OS.

My issue is TrueNAS 13.x won't boot without a GPU, and the GPU fan is loud. Using a dongle wouldn't quiet the GPU or negative it's necessity to boot. I a not a TrueNAS expert and don't know how to fix the bug introduced in version 13.x.

 

[Arwen]

Understood.

My comment was that with a fake monitor dongle on the built in video, you may be able to do away with the PCIe GPU. It is possible that TrueNAS requires some console access, which means video out.

 

[davidbdeath]

Understood.

My comment was that with a fake monitor dongle on the built in video, you may be able to do away with the PCIe GPU. It is possible that TrueNAS requires some console access, which means video out.

Version 11 and 12 didn't require a GPU for my Mac Pro to boot TrueNAS/FreeNAS. I'm not sure what changed. I have aquired another system to try and transfer my drives and data to at some point. I have been procrastinating because I have never tried moving a pool from one system to another before.