New MacPro

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing that. So far I've kept it on the 10.15.2 that came installed. No kernel panics or restarts. But I haven't started running PT yet. I'm still installing stuff.

When did your kernel panics happen? While running pro tools? or just with the computer sitting, doing nothing special?

Yes mine came with 10.5.2. The kernel panics were totally random. I’ve not even installed PT yet. From downloading in Safari, running Blackmagic Speed Test, leaving the room with just Finder running, the random restarts have happened. It was happening at least once per hour. Since installing 10.5.4 I’ve gone eight hours with no issues so fingers crossed.

[lucienpalmer]

Wow, really weird. I’ve had mine 3 days now. I’ve rebooted dozens of times, but otherwise have kept it running the entire time. No crashes or kernel panics.

What are your other specs? Pci cards installed?

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

Wow, really weird. I’ve had mine 3 days now. I’ve rebooted dozens of times, but otherwise have kept it running the entire time. No crashes or kernel panics.

What are your other specs? Pci cards installed?

Yep weird and a little worrying at first. Until today the only PCIe card was the Sonnet but the kernel panics were happening before I put that in. 10.15.4 has fixed them though - 36 hours rock solid now. I’ve now done a factory fresh install of 10.15.4 from Recovery mode.

HDX card is now in and worked from the get go.

[lucienpalmer]

You mentioned a possible firmware update for W5700X included with 10.15.4. Do you have any info in that?

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

You mentioned a possible firmware update for W5700X included with 10.15.4. Do you have any info in that?

Nothing official, just anecdotal stuff like this post.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads.../post-28421551

The Thunderbolt Accessory Firmware Update is for the Thunderbolt/USB-C controllers inside the W5700X. Mine updated from 49.04 to 55.02.

I have an LG 4K display connected via USB-C so I’m wondering if that was the issue.

[nedd]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

Agreed. I popped for the 2TB, because it wasn't that much more. and for another $600, you get the W5700X graphics which adds two more thunderbolt 3 busses.

I decided not to do additional internal storage. Since the MacPro comes with dual 10GB, I combined them with link aggregation to get a 20 GB pipeline to my files server. Going to attempt to run sessions and fx libraries over that.

I just got it two days ago, so still in install/testing mode.

Hi Lucien, just to share my experience on link aggregation: I did it with my 5.1 mp and network was working great by EUCON stopt completely. Then I found some old answers here on duc where was told by Avid that LAG is not supported. As soon as I got it back to regular ethernet, Eucon wake up. Your set up is different then mine, I use dock and control up, you have S6 so perhaps it might work well in your situation.
Cheers, Nenad

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by nedd

Hi Lucien, just to share my experience on link aggregation: I did it with my 5.1 mp and network was working great by EUCON stopt completely. Then I found some old answers here on duc where was told by Avid that LAG is not supported. As soon as I got it back to regular ethernet, Eucon wake up. Your set up is different then mine, I use dock and control up, you have S6 so perhaps it might work well in your situation.
Cheers, Nenad

Thanks, very useful! I plan to test the S6/eucon this morning. I'm expecting it not to work well over LAG. But I never had good luck running it over my regular 1GB switch either. Probably because the switch is already busy with Dante, Q-Sys QLAN, and regular internet device traffic.

On my old MacPro, I had one of the ethernet ports in a direct connection to the S6. It uses its own switch internally for DHCP. Since the two 10GB ports are busy, I'll probably pick up a Thunderbolt to 1GB ethernet for a direct connection to the S6.

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by lucienpalmer

Thanks, very useful! I plan to test the S6/eucon this morning. I'm expecting it not to work well over LAG. But I never had good luck running it over my regular 1GB switch either. Probably because the switch is already busy with Dante, Q-Sys QLAN, and regular internet device traffic.

On my old MacPro, I had one of the ethernet ports in a direct connection to the S6. It uses its own switch internally for DHCP. Since the two 10GB ports are busy, I'll probably pick up a Thunderbolt to 1GB ethernet for a direct connection to the S6.

Just to follow up on my earlier post, I can confirm that Link Aggregation is not compatible with the S6. Also, Dante Controller could not see the MTRX.

I switched back to straight 10Gbps without LAG, and the S6 and MTRX are both working fine.

The only thing that seems to not work on the new Mac w/ Catalina is Dante Virtual Soundcard. I don't get audio through it. And strangely, it incorrectly reports the network connection on the Mac as 100Mbps.