2006/2007 Mac Pro (1,1/2,1) and OS X El Capitan

[drkheure]

Is there any way to upgrade the firmware without a supported graphics card ?

After upgrading to nvidia 1060, I can see that my cpu is a bottleneck for some games.
( gpu load 30% in just cause 3 but 4 cpus at close to 100% )
I have the dual core 2 ghz. ( 2006 )So I want to replace the cpus. Any links to places where to buy?
Are there 8 cores ?
This is all windows 7. No drivers out yet for el cap from nvidia.
Edit :
I don't have an apple supported gpu card. I was planning to sell my 650ti 2gb. Maybe I could flash it, but never found the proper instructions. I also don't have a vga monitor anymore .
I always thought at some point the 2006 pci bus would become to slow for new games, but to my surprise during games the pci gpu bus load is like 2%. When loading it might be a bit more. ( thought other people might like to know this )
Do I need the firmware update for windows 10 ?

 

[hwojtek]

You need to look for 4-core X5355, X5365 Xeons in matched pairs, SLAEG preferably.
Just stick ANY stock Apple card for the period of firmware upgrade.

 

[mietoslaw]

Hi guys,
I have problem with installation El Capitan on my mac pro 2.1. I installed it for testing on my extra drive - it was working fine so I decided to install it on my system SSD drive. And here is a problem: when I try install it i have message: The OS X El Capitan is already installed - so I am not able to install it. I deleted everything from SSD drive. With yosemite I dont have this problem. I also created new USB with El Capitan - the same result. Any ideas?

Thank you

 

[macmanmello]

Hey y'all! I'm new to this! but mechanically inclined! I do have el capitan up and running on my mac pro 1,1. I'm having issues with the graphics however. when i go to change the display resolution, the only one available is 800x600. i have a second bootable partition with lion on it that has multiple resolutions on there. i don't know why there not showing up in el capitan. any help would be greatly appreciated. OHH BTW my specs are

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (graphics card)
Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro1,1

Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz

Number of Processors: 2

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Processor): 4 MB

Memory: 12 GB

 

[dfritchie]

Graphics card not El Cap capatible

 

[owbp]

Hi guys,
I have problem with installation El Capitan on my mac pro 2.1. I installed it for testing on my extra drive - it was working fine so I decided to install it on my system SSD drive. And here is a problem: when I try install it i have message: The OS X El Capitan is already installed - so I am not able to install it. I deleted everything from SSD drive. With yosemite I dont have this problem. I also created new USB with El Capitan - the same result. Any ideas?

Thank you

Do you have anything connected to your MacPro that has El Capitan installed? If yes, disconnect it and try again.
You could also do PRAM and SMC reset while you are there.

 

[hwojtek]

Wild guesses won't help, I'm afraid.

I'm having issues with the graphics however. when i go to change the display resolution, the only one available is 800x600.

Buy and install a card that comes from 21st century. AMD 4850 or above is a minimum for ElCap.

I also created new USB with El Capitan - the same result.

Do you have anything connected to your MacPro that has El Capitan installed? If yes, disconnect it and try again.
You could also do PRAM and SMC reset while you are there.

Unplug the HDD, leave only SSD plugged in.

 

[regidark]

Hello everyone. I could upgrade to el Capitan and put it on a new ssd, but i´m not seeing my wifi card and my bluetooth. Graphics card work perfectly, any tip?
Thanks in advance

 

[trickbox]

Hello everyone, I've been running El Capitan on my MacPro 1,1 without issue since it's release. After updating iTunes to 12.4.3, iTunes failed to launch and crashed on startup. I tried ditching the pref.plist and even created a new iTunes Library to no avail. Just uninstalled it with AppZapper and installed 12.4.1 and that worked like a charm. Updated to 12.4.3 again and the same issue. Is anyone else having the same trouble and how have you fixed it?

Thanks in advance for any help.

**UPDATE** Turns out it was a problem with my latest update of TunesKit for Mac, updated to the latest version fixed the problem.

 

[Nati-Yolie]

I just snagged a 2006 Mac Pro 2 X 2.66 Dual with 4GB of RAM for $100. I have a spare 750ti laying around that I can throw in it.

According to Apple, 4gb is enough to run El Capitan, but I'm reading in multiple places that to do the somewhat wonky upgrade by changing the boot.efi, etc, the computer best have at least 12gb for it to go well. Is this true?

 

[owbp]

4gb is enough if you don't use 512mb sticks and install El Capitan on HDD from a supported Mac.
In any other case you'll get kernel panics.

 

[Nati-Yolie]

Oh maybe I've been misunderstanding these tutorials. The OS needs to be installed on an HDD while the HDD is connected to a different Mac? That will be a struggle as I only have access to MacBook Airs.

 

[owbp]

The OS needs to be installed on an HDD while the HDD is connected to a different Mac?

Only in case that you don't have 12GB of RAM (although some users managed to go through the install with 8-10GB of RAM, AFAIK).

That will be a struggle as I only have access to MacBook Airs.

You can boot into target disk mode and install it from your Air, but i would buy USB to SATA adapter (w/ power, depends on your HDD) for a few bucks and install it that way.

 

[Nati-Yolie]

Only in case that you don't have 12GB of RAM (although some users managed to go through the install with 8-10GB of RAM, AFAIK).

You can boot into target disk mode and install it from your Air that way, but i would buy USB to SATA adapter (w/ power, depends on your HDD) for a few bucks and install it that way.

I might have just found some spare RAM at work. I think I can get up to 12GB. If not, thank you for your quick responses in case that doesn't work out.

 

[owbp]

No problem, shout if you need anything else.
If everything fails, you can buy RAM for MP1,1/2,1 very cheap nowadays.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16GB-4x4GB-...005972?hash=item2801ce8e94:g:j2kAAOSwGIRXY~Z-
I'm sure there are cheaper options, i found this only after few seconds of search.

 

[Nati-Yolie]

No problem, shout if you need anything else.
If everything fails, you can buy RAM for MP1,1/2,1 very cheap nowadays.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/16GB-4x4GB-...005972?hash=item2801ce8e94:g:j2kAAOSwGIRXY~Z-
I'm sure there are cheaper options, i found this only after few seconds of search.

Ha! Those are the exact ones I just found at my work. I should be good then!

 

[flyinmac]

Now for the big question.....

Does the new security update Apple released today break the install of El Capitan on my Mac Pro 1,1????

Hesitant to install the security update. Currently running 10.11.6

 

[owbp]

Ill let you know in a few minutes. It's just a question will i write next message from El Cap or Lion, hahaha!

Update:
Everything went OK, fast and painless.

 

[swampy50]

Now for the big question.....

Does the new security update Apple released today break the install of El Capitan on my Mac Pro 1,1????

Hesitant to install the security update. Currently running 10.11.6

Worked.. I waited 12-15 minutes with a black screen.. (Nvidia GTX 620) It did break my Nividia driver and switched to the OSX Nvidia driver . Nvidia usually puts out a new driver in less then 24 hours after an OSX update.. So I'll just wait..

On the aside.. The last few updates broke the Nividia driver and the OSX one did not work.. This time it worked..So I did not have to pull out the old Radeon X1900.

 

[flyinmac]

Sounds like good news then. The update should work on my machine as well So, I guess I'll give it a try after I get done with my current task. Hopefully my video will be unaffected since it's an 8800 that didn't require the web drivers.

Apple has a way sometimes of restoring roadblocks, so updates can be kind of concerning sometimes.

Great to hear that it worked for both of you. I'll be trying mine soon

 

[flyinmac]

Installed today's security update on my Mac Pro 1,1, and it went smoothly. Still working

Thank you for your input. Didn't want to be the first one to blow up my install... lol..

 

[Andreaux]

Create a USB installer, remove extra drive and boot off the installer. There is no way it can then see you had a previous install....

By the way, why not cloning the extra drive onto the SSD with something like CarbonCopyCloner or Disk Utility booted off a USB stick (any system will do I'm pretty sure).

Cheers.

Hi guys,
I have problem with installation El Capitan on my mac pro 2.1. I installed it for testing on my extra drive - it was working fine so I decided to install it on my system SSD drive. And here is a problem: when I try install it i have message: The OS X El Capitan is already installed - so I am not able to install it. I deleted everything from SSD drive. With yosemite I dont have this problem. I also created new USB with El Capitan - the same result. Any ideas?

Thank you

 

[hwojtek]

Apple has a way sometimes of restoring roadblocks, so updates can be kind of concerning sometimes.

Not in a security update. They do not mess with boot.efi.

 

[rthpjm]

I just snagged a 2006 Mac Pro 2 X 2.66 Dual with 4GB of RAM for $100. I have a spare 750ti laying around that I can throw in it.

According to Apple, 4gb is enough to run El Capitan, but I'm reading in multiple places that to do the somewhat wonky upgrade by changing the boot.efi, etc, the computer best have at least 12gb for it to go well. Is this true?

Hello Nati-Yolie

The memory requirement for 12g is purely due to the method of installing once you have built an installer (USB stick - aka the pikify method).
At first I theorised that there might be a memory leak, but after many hours of looking into it, I now believe it is a side effect of the method.
When you boot off the memory stick, it will create some RAM disks, copy the necessary files to those RAM disks, and then "warm-boot" from the RAM disks.
This way, the installer environment is entirely in RAM, allowing it to have full access to any and all disk drives (compared to booting off one of the disks, which will effectively lock that disk, meaning you could not reformat it if you wanted to).

As the installer runs, it will begin to unpack the install archive files. One of those files is the Essentials package, and it is quite large. In order to unpack it, the expanded files have to go somewhere, and it looks like the installer uses the RAM disks. So if you don't have enough RAM to hold the expanded files, the install will fail.

I've contemplated trying to figure out how to start the install from the target disk (instead of the RAM disks), but to be frank, most people have got used to the statement of "you need 12Gb", and we're now at a point of deminishing returns. There aren't that many people left that have or want to upgrade/run El Capitan on Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1

Running El Capitan can be done with 4Gb (but make sure you are not using any original 512Mb RAM sticks - you will experience crashes, kernel panics if you do)

If you want to use the pikify install method, you will need 12Gb or more.

You will get a better day-to-day experience with your MacPro running El Capitan with the extra memory, so generally I believe it's worth the small expenditure to buy the extra RAM.

 

[drkheure]

Nvidia updated there drivers. No luck yet with my 1060.
Maybe next month..... Or whenever apple starts using the 1000 series ?

Tried to update the firmware from within el capitan 2006-> 2007 today. But so far no luck.
Need to check my rom version I think.