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

[flyinmac]

I've come across an issue and cannot seem to find anyone else whose had it. When running terminal, I do everything like it says to on the video and then I get this message.

=================================================================================================================================
==
== ERROR
==
=================================================================================================================================
==
== A problem occurred when replacing the boot.efi files for the installer volume
== This is very odd and does not usually happen. I don't know what to do!
== Close all other windows (especially terminal windows) and try again
==
=================================================================================================================================




Any help would be greatly appreciated. `

I haven't seen that one before either. Sometimes with weird errors, I'll copy and paste a sentence or the weirdest sentence from the error into google. Using quotations " or the apostaphe ' on both ends of the string of text.

Google can surprise you sometimes.

The apostrophe on both ends makes google look for a result that has all the words. Quotes on both ends makes google look for the exact phrase.

See if that gets any results.

On the plus side: don't feel too bad. It sounds like your computer is more confused than you are.

 

[rthpjm]

I've come across an issue and cannot seem to find anyone else whose had it. When running terminal, I do everything like it says to on the video and then I get this message.

=================================================================================================================================
==
== ERROR
==
=================================================================================================================================
==
== A problem occurred when replacing the boot.efi files for the installer volume
== This is very odd and does not usually happen. I don't know what to do!
== Close all other windows (especially terminal windows) and try again
==
=================================================================================================================================




Any help would be greatly appreciated. `

Hello Ron,

I've had a look at the code, where that message occurs. It is the first point after the Apple version of createinstallmedia is run. Therefore it is the first time it tries to interact with the newly created volume named Install OS X El Capitan.

With this in mind, there are two possibilities:
1. Apple's createinstallmedia program failed
OR
2. You already have a volume called Install OS X El Capitan on your system (so the newly created one will mount as Install OS X El Capitan2)

Can you eject and remove your USB memory stick please.
Is there a volume named Install OS X El Capitan still showing on your desktop? (Depending on your Finder preferences, you may not be showing all volumes on your desktop, please also navigate to /Volumes and have a look there).
If there is please rename it to something else, then reconnect your USB stick and try again...

The intent is to make sure that only the newly created Install OS X El Capitan volume exists.

If so, and you still get the error message can you please scroll up in the terminal and look at the lines above the error message. Look to see if Apple's createinstallmedia completed successfully or failed...

 

[ron.durst]

Here's what's currently on my terminal.


Saving an original copy of the Install OS X El Capitan InstallESD.dmg....


Open the InstallESD disk image

Piking the OSInstall collection
Saving the original copy of the BaseSystem.dmg....

Open the BaseSystem disk image

Piking the Base System
Adding the missing fonts...

Close the BaseSystem disk image

Put the modified BaseSystem back into the InstallESD disk image
Preparing imaging engine…
Reading Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
(CRC32 $EFFA939E: Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0))
Reading GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1)…
(CRC32 $29CC3900: GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1))
Reading GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2)…
(CRC32 $9F14DF31: GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2))
Reading (Apple_Free : 3)…
(CRC32 $00000000: (Apple_Free : 3))
Reading disk image (Apple_HFS : 4)…
..................................................
(CRC32 $24CE7C3A: disk image (Apple_HFS : 4))
Reading (Apple_Free : 5)…
................................................................................
(CRC32 $00000000: (Apple_Free : 5))
Reading GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 6)…
................................................................................
(CRC32 $9F14DF31: GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 6))
Reading GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 7)…
.................................................................................
(CRC32 $37F5C3C9: GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 7))
Adding resources…
.................................................................................
Elapsed Time: 1m 18.932s
File size: 488604374 bytes, Checksum: CRC32 $E4CC2C6D
Sectors processed: 4144184, 2562708 compressed
Speed: 15.9Mbytes/sec
Savings: 77.0%
created: /Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg

Close the InstallESD disk image

Rebuild the InstallESD
Preparing imaging engine…
Reading Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
(CRC32 $CD2DD671: Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0))
Reading GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1)…
(CRC32 $9418AD42: GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1))
Reading GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2)…
(CRC32 $D43195C8: GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2))
Reading (Apple_Free : 3)…
(CRC32 $00000000: (Apple_Free : 3))
Reading EFI System Partition (Windows_NTFS : 4)…
..
(CRC32 $3966551F: EFI System Partition (Windows_NTFS : 4))
Reading disk image (Apple_HFS : 5)…
...............................................................................
(CRC32 $F361E196: disk image (Apple_HFS : 5))
Reading (Apple_Free : 6)…
................................................................................
(CRC32 $00000000: (Apple_Free : 6))
Reading GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 7)…
................................................................................
(CRC32 $D43195C8: GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 7))
Reading GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 8)…
.................................................................................
(CRC32 $04990E82: GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 8))
Adding resources…
.................................................................................
Elapsed Time: 2m 0.271s
File size: 6079574914 bytes, Checksum: CRC32 $404C7FE3
Sectors processed: 13037600, 12153739 compressed
Speed: 49.3Mbytes/sec
Savings: 8.9%
created: /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg

Running Apple's createinstallmedia tool...
Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%...100%...
Copying installer files to disk...
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable...
Copying boot files...
Copy complete.
Done.
Piking the .IABootFiles directory
cp: /Volumes/Install OS X El Capitan/.IABootFiles/boot.efi: Read-only file system
cp: /Volumes/Install OS X El Capitan/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi: Read-only file system
cp: /Volumes/Install OS X El Capitan/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi: Read-only file system



=================================================================================================================================
==
== ERROR
==
=================================================================================================================================
==
== A problem occurred when replacing the boot.efi files for the installer volume
== This is very odd and does not usually happen. I don't know what to do!
== Close all other windows (especially terminal windows) and try again
==
=================================================================================================================================



Rons-Mac-Proikify3.1 rondurst$ .
[doublepost=1474382231][/doublepost]I should mention that even though it says that it failed, the drive still comes up when holding the options button down during startup. It just boots me right back to my current OS x.

 

[BenFFP]

Hello, This is my first post, so sorry for my formatting faults and readibility issues...
If you don't have other Mac than your MP1,1 skip this guide because it may be useless for you.
For those who updated their unofficial El Capitan Mac Pro 1,1 (2,1) Machine from 10.11.5 or lower to 10.11.6 and were not able to boot up even after swapping piker's boot.efi files (this happened to me), you need to create another working El Capitan hard drive. I tried a lot of boot.efi files and .pkg's but nothing seemed to work. My Snow Leopard partition was somehow not willing to let El Capitan partition (on that same disk) boot up It wasn't showing El Capitan drive as bootable in System Preferences -> Startup Disk. After hours of trials and errors I've been able to finaly boot up my older El Capitan os.
So Here's how I made it work again:

You will need: Another Mac, a spare HDD, and a 12 gb of free space

1.) Download Macintosh HD.dmg image from this link. (It is big as f* - 10GB, I downloaded it overnight, but it will work right outside the "box", of course you will have to change piker's boot.efi files later) OS X El Capitan version you'll download is 10.11(.0).

2.) My luck was that I recently bought my MP 1,1 a MP 3,1 companion. If you have any device running OS X El Capitan Or Yosemite (I Also have yosemite on my hackintosh, but I highly doubt you will run apple official OS without major adjustments on a hackintosh. You can still do this on hackintosh, but you won't be able to do the step 3), put a spare HDD in and follow this tutorial to put the system on that drive.

2.5.) If you can create the spare recovery OS drive from your Lion or Snow Leopard partition, you can save yourself a bit of time and also this way you don't need that another mac. But again, I faced Invalid Argument error on Snow leopard and weren't able to create it there. Looks like Snow Leopard was sabotaging El Capitan

3.) If you want to update to OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 without a hassle, then boot up El Capitan drive you created earlier, set up the OS (just some adjustments when you first start your mac) and download this combo update, then install it. Still on machine capable of running el capitan. You can skip this step if you only want your old os back! I did this because I thought my old OS X was damaged from failed update.

4.) Boot back to your El Capitan or Yosemite OS and replace apple original boot.efi files with piker's ones. (This step was explained in many posts before, and is also shown in tutorial above)

5.) Then put that HDD in your Mac Pro 1,1, start the Mac up with Alt or Option Key pressed and select the drive you put in earlier, boot El Capitan up and if you wanna fresh start, start utilizing it, otherwise go to system preferences -> Startup Disk and hopefully your old system partition will be detected as bootable and with fingers crossed you should be able to boot your old El Capitan OS again!

Then, all of the steps above can be considered a bit useless, because you can wipe the HDD you created... Also, this update may be the last these macs will ever see. If anyone has a better workaround, don't hesitate to post it
Good luck,
and
Out

 

[rthpjm]

cp: /Volumes/Install OS X El Capitan/.IABootFiles/boot.efi: Read-only file system
cp: /Volumes/Install OS X El Capitan/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi: Read-only file system
cp: /Volumes/Install OS X El Capitan/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi: Read-only file system

Hello Ron,

That's the issue.

I suspect you have two volumes named Install OS X El Capitan.

If you still have everything connected, open a terminal, type:

diskutil list

paste the results

 

[zazaki]

After successfully I have been installed El Capitan 10.11, I updated to 10.11.6, through Boot64.v3.

But it fails. It's impossible to boot. What should I do?

 

[flyinmac]

If you're talking about USB PCIe card, nobody had problems with Inateck KT4004 in 10.11.6 (AFAIK).

I'll confirm that the Inateck KT4004 works in my Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) with El Capitan also. Didn't have to install any drivers, just plugged it in, and was instantly recognized and working. Working great for me.

 

[zazaki]

After successfully I have been installed El Capitan 10.11, I updated to 10.11.6, through Boot64.v3.

But it fails. It's impossible to boot. What should I do?

I did it the old way. Replacing boot.efi files by plugging the drive on another Mac Pro. So 10.11.6 is booting.

I was encountering problem with my GTX 750TI on slot 1 ; and bad or mixed result on slot 2 under 10.11. It is the cause that lead me to update El Capitan, in order to have the latest Nvidia webdriver manager...

Now the GTX 750 TI on slot 1 seems to allow the system to boot and recognize the 750 TI. Hard work... But it is stable on a x8 PCI-e config. In my Mac Pro it seems definitely impossible to plug both a 750 TI and an old 7300 GT. I might say it is a self powered Gigabyte GTX 750 TI.

 

[fakedane]

I realize I'm a little late to the game, but still wanted to get in the el cap upgrade. I've been going over and over this thread, and a couple other things, and I'm stumped. The problem for me seems to be loading the restoring the dmg file into the new blank SSD. I've formatted the SSD (and verified and repaired the disk, it's working). I've also mounted the DMG and tried using the mounted file as the source. No dice. Every single time it just keeps saying "Could not restore - invalid argument." Any thoughts? I've made myself a root user, and also tried it in terminal...

 

[Ant3000]

What OS are you currently running? How much RAM do you have and in what configuration? There is a video and instructions by rthpjm that I have successfully used twice and in my opinion is the easiest option. There is a need for 12gb of RAM and no 512mb modules using this method. Or you can install using Target Disk from a supported Mac and swap out the boot.efi files manually. You need a supported Mac to be able to download the installer from the Mac App Store.

 

[fakedane]

I have 13 GB - 512MB, 512MB, 2 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 4 GB -- 2 dimms empty. I'm on 10.6.8. I'll search for that video and give it a shot! Thanks for the help!

 

[rthpjm]

I have 13 GB - 512MB, 512MB, 2 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 4 GB -- 2 dimms empty. I'm on 10.6.8. I'll search for that video and give it a shot! Thanks for the help!

Page 56, post 1390
Hint, click into the address bar and change the last part of the address to just page-56

Or there's a link on page 1 post 1. It takes you to a different thread (which was where I first posted the tools). I later moved it to this thread, so there's a second link there....


I strongly advise that you remove the 512M sticks entirely, put them to one side and do not be tempted to put them back in. Try to sell them maybe?

 

[kidjake28]

I'm a real nube when it comes to this.

I hope someone will be kind in answering.

I followed all the steps as described using v11. The mac boots and I can select the Install EL CAPITAN USB Drive. It gives me the grey logo with the scrolling bar.

Once the bar is complete I just get a gray screen and the computer is frozen.

What should I be looking to do?

I should mention that I have a Pro 2,1 and 8GB of RAM.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Ant3000]

You need 12gb of RAM with no 512mb sticks if using the USB installer method. The posts referred to above have all the info you need. If installing from another Mac via Target Disk you can get away with less but still remove the 512s as they are known to cause issues.

 

[kidjake28]

You need 12gb of RAM with no 512mb sticks if using the USB installer method. The posts referred to above have all the info you need. If installing from another Mac via Target Disk you can get away with less but still remove the 512s as they are known to cause issues.

Thanks so much for the reply Ant. I really appreciate it.

Now having said that you gotta be patient with me because I've really try to understand all the instructions but its a bit confusing for me.

First off. I don't have any 512MB modules. Only 1GB. I guess that's good.
When you say to install from another MAC (which I can do) via Target Disk are you referring to creating a small partition on a drive and then follow the instructions. Is this the drive I plan on using in the machine or do I need a second drive?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ant3000]

With Target Disk mode, you can connect the Mac Pro to another Mac with a Firewire cable and treat the Mac Pro as though it is just another HD connected to the supported Mac. If you search for Target Disk you will find the instructions of how to do it. (basically boot holding T). You could then install El Cap onto the Mac Pro's HD from the supported Mac. You would then need to swap out the Boot.efi files manually on the fresh install of El Capitan. Post 1 has a lot of info on the principle of what needs to be done to make this work.

If you don't fancy this than I would recommend buying some more RAM and then build the installer and follow the instructions by rthpjm. It is a bit easier and does work well. Check your graphics card too - not all work with El Cap - the standard X1900 for example is not compatible. There is a lot of info on here as to which GPU to use - Radeon 5770 or 7950 are cards that will work but there are plenty of others - only Mac cards (or flashed versions) will give a boot screen though.

 

[kidjake28]

With Target Disk mode, you can connect the Mac Pro to another Mac with a Firewire cable and treat the Mac Pro as though it is just another HD connected to the supported Mac. If you search for Target Disk you will find the instructions of how to do it. (basically boot holding T). You could then install El Cap onto the Mac Pro's HD from the supported Mac. You would then need to swap out the Boot.efi files manually on the fresh install of El Capitan. Post 1 has a lot of info on the principle of what needs to be done to make this work.

If you don't fancy this than I would recommend buying some more RAM and then build the installer and follow the instructions by rthpjm. It is a bit easier and does work well. Check your graphics card too - not all work with El Cap - the standard X1900 for example is not compatible. There is a lot of info on here as to which GPU to use - Radeon 5770 or 7950 are cards that will work but there are plenty of others - only Mac cards (or flashed versions) will give a boot screen though.

Okay so I sort of went ahead to what I thought was a TARGET DISK and I think I'm inching along. I got two hard drives, one for the El Capitan Install and the other to get actually install the OS on.

I booted from the Install drive and it everything booted up properly. I chose to install the OS onto the second drive. That also went well. It automatically rebooted once it was done.

After the reboot it now comes up to the OSX Utilities menu. I tried to REINSTALL OSX but it says that there is no internet connection.

Shouldn't it just have booted into OSX? I think I'm petty close?

I see all the boot screens so I guess my video card is okay.

BY the way if I reboot the machine and chose OPTION (after removing the Install drive) I only see a RECOVER 10.11 drive to boot to.

 

[Ant3000]

Once you install El Cap on the HD of your Mac Pro using Target Disk you will need to change the Boot.efi files manually.

 

[KernkraftX360]

Any of you guys have any idea how do I update my 2008 3,1 Mac Pro to macOS Sierra without a EFI boot screen since I'm using a non-flashed Nvidia GTX750 GPU and I cannot locate my older flashed GPU? I cannot use +dosdude1 's method so far cause I don't have a boot screen thus I cannot have access to the boot menu

 

[cdmawolf]

Any of you guys have any idea how do I update my 2008 3,1 Mac Pro to macOS Sierra without a EFI boot screen since I'm using a non-flashed Nvidia GTX750 GPU and I cannot locate my older flashed GPU? I cannot use +dosdude1 's method so far cause I don't have a boot screen thus I cannot have access to the boot menu

Try here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-12-sierra-unsupported-macs-thread.1977128/

 

[jbarley]

Any of you guys have any idea how do I update my 2008 3,1 Mac Pro to macOS Sierra without a EFI boot screen since I'm using a non-flashed Nvidia GTX750 GPU and I cannot locate my older flashed GPU? I cannot use +dosdude1 's method so far cause I don't have a boot screen thus I cannot have access to the boot menu

Any of you guys have any idea how do I update my 2008 3,1 Mac Pro to macOS Sierra without a EFI boot screen since I'm using a non-flashed Nvidia GTX750 GPU and I cannot locate my older flashed GPU? I cannot use +dosdude1 's method so far cause I don't have a boot screen thus I cannot have access to the boot menu

You might get more help with this issue if you posted it in the correct thread...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-3-1-installation-guide-for-sierra.1978005/

 

[fakedane]

Hello again. I upgraded to 10.7, and lost the matched pair of 512 ram. I've tried 2 different methods... Rth Pjm's method directs me to download the El Cap installer from the App store... which isn't possible anymore. I thought I DLd a good copy of the installer, but its showing up as damaged and the Rth Pjm's method won't acknowledge it. Any ideas on where I can find a good copy? I've also tried this method but restoring from the DMG seems to take fooorreeevvveeer and then always crashes at the last second. The DMG appears good though (I checksummed it). I'm trying a mix of the two methods right now (restoring the DMG to a USB drive -- it's got about 80 minutes left). Any other ideas?

 

[fakedane]

It worked... kind of. I booted El Capitan off of the USB drive, but now I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get El Cap to my interior drive. Tried disk utility, diskutil in terminal, and asr... It seems to have worked (after I blessed it), but then it just keeps booting to the Lion Recovery Drive. What am I missing?

 

[Ant3000]

The USB installer should install El Cap onto the HD and shouldn't need copying further - if using the method on the rthpjm video. I guess this is more difficult if you have not already downloaded El Cap as Apple have a habit of removing the older OS when a new one is released. If you did download it from the Mac App Store it should still be available to download in your downloaded / purchased items list. You will probably have to delete any copies of the installer on the Mac to allow this to happen as it seems to search for installers before downloading a new one.

The other method you have used with the Disk Image may work OK but I have not used this method. There are potential security issues using this method but others seem to have had success.

Have you tried selecting the El Cap install as your start-up drive in System Prefs?

 

[cdred]

I installed El Capitan 10.11.6 on My Mac Pro 1,1 successfully. It boots up fine but I have no sound. Where can I find sound drivers? Any help would be appreciated.