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

[rthpjm]

Hey Guys,

I got the gtx 570, installed it after I did the El Capitan installation. I see an initial gray screen, but it goes to black. I can still see the cursor sometimes and move it, but I get nothing else. Any help is appreciated. I had to put radeons back in to run the mac off of another Snow Leopard boot volume. I did the installation after booting from a Lion volume BTW.

thanks, G

Has the card got multiple connectors, two of the same kind?
If so try swapping to the other connector.
A few users have encountered something similar, it is to do with the way a Mac routes the video signal.
You could be looking at monitor 2, which is often just black until you login. This also explains why you occasionally see the cursor. If you scoot to one side (or the other) you'll probably see the cursor appear at one edge and traverse across the screen. Scoot the other way, and the cursor will disappear off one side (onto the other screen that you cannot see - yet)

 

[GibbyNLA]

I have to switch video cards when I go from one OS to the other. Anyone know if I can get lion to boot up with the gtx 570 so that I could manually download any driver/info and and manually install into the El Cap volume?

Hey rthpjm, the card has 2 dvi connectors. I am using 2 dell monitors, a 21 inch and 15 inch. I will try again this evening. I didn't pick a clean volume to install, I am in process of wiping and trying again. What was I thinking--duhhhhh.

Also, should I be able to see anything if still running off x1900's before I swap the 2 of them for the gtx 570?

 

[GibbyNLA]

Here's an idea I'd like to inquire about. I have a 2011 Mac Pro with ATI 5770 HD and GTX 285 (flashed). Can I swap, and install that 5770 in the 2006 mac pro and just use the gtx 570 in the 2011? I just read that the 5770 supports 3 monitors, and I'd be removing 2 x1900's for just one more powerful card. I need at least 3 monitor connections for both machines. But the gtx 570 only supports 2 monitors and this wouldn't be an issue on the newer mac with the gtx 285. My only concern is the power connectors.

 

[rthpjm]

Here's an idea I'd like to inquire about. I have a 2011 Mac Pro with ATI 5770 HD and GTX 285 (flashed). Can I swap, and install that 5770 in the 2006 mac pro and just use the gtx 570 in the 2011? I just read that the 5770 supports 3 monitors, and I'd be removing 2 x1900's for just one more powerful card. I need at least 3 monitor connections for both machines. But the gtx 570 only supports 2 monitors and this wouldn't be an issue on the newer mac with the gtx 285. My only concern is the power connectors.

You might be better to put the 5770 into the older MacPro as you suggest.
I'm not sure if it will drive 3 monitors. My 5770 will drive 2 out of 3 digital outputs, but not all three. I can get 2 digital and 1 analogue (vga) driven at once. Every platform is different, try yours, just bear in mind that you may get the same results as me...

In your current configuration, with the "black" screen, can you move the cursor over the two monitor surfaces that you can see? Can you also move the cursor off one edge as well? If so you've probably got a phantom 3rd monitor, and the login window is being displayed there.

Many months ago I posted an item to this thread with some instructions to login blind, then use keyboard shortcuts to open the system preferences, displays panel. From here you can set the desktop for one of your monitors. That would hopefully get things moving for you.

#2703

 

[GibbyNLA]

Hey rthpjm, the reinstall WORKED!!!! It even works with the old x1900s, BUT I can only use one monitor right now. The smaller Dell monitor has one digital and and one analog, so I guess it's not going to work, but I am surprised that it doesn't recognize my LG TV (1080p). I will continue noodling around to figure this out, if any of you guys have possible remedies, I'd appreciate any info. I will probably still swap the graphics cards. I didn't expect see anything booting from the x1900 at all... Wow.

Update. So all seems to be running smoothly, I read online how to get HD5770 to work with 3 monitors via active mini display port to vga connectors, so I ordered some connectors.

Wanted to know if anyone knows if a 2011 mac pro can handle 2 graphics cards with 2 x6pin power connectors. I had one power cable split into 2, so 3 connectors, for 2011, but wondering if both could be split to power 2 powerful cards, the GTX 285 and GTX 570, so 4 connectors total. OR if its possible, was wondering to use one splitter on the 2006 mac pro to run the GTX 285 and ATI HD5770, like I had previously running in the 2011 Mac Pro.

 

[RocksIRC]

Hi i installed el captain 10.11 with macpostfactor but i get no audio when i use pikify's installer script to install audio is fine. how can i get a working el captain 10.11.6 applehda to work with macpostfactor installed os x?

 

[rthpjm]

Hi i installed el captain 10.11 with macpostfactor but i get no audio when i use pikify's installer script to install audio is fine. how can i get a working el captain 10.11.6 applehda to work with macpostfactor installed os x?

What model of Mac are you installing on?

Pikify is targeted at MacPro original 1,1 and 1,2 (2006 and 2007) models. It is not really suitable for MacMini, and MacBooks.

Macpostfactor is the opposite. It is targeted at the MacBooks and MacMinis (and possibly iMacs), it is not suitable for the MacPro.

The difference is due to the nature and type of components used by the platforms. Whilst MacPros can effectively run El Capitan by simply using the Pike version of boot.efi, the same cannot be said for the Books and Minis. The Books and Minis use very platform specific chip sets, usually on the motherboard, these require very specific drivers (kernel extension = kext). Macpostfactor usually includes a number of community modified kexts. These modified kexts are usually not compatible with the MacPro.

In short, if you are installing on a MacPro you should use pikify (or follow the step by step guides on which Pikify is based). If however, you're installing on a MacBook, MacMini, or an iMac, then you should consider using Macpostfactor.

If you are on a MacPro, and you used MacPostFactor, you could try turning off SIP, and then set the boot-args NVRAM variable to allow unsigned kexts, see if that helps. If not then you should figure out which kexts MPF has replaced, and restore the Apple versions. Honestly, you'd fair better to start again with pikify....

If you're on a MacPro, you could ask for help from the MPF team, but their main post on this site refers to some bad blood between themselves and unnamed users who concentrated on the MacPro. They say "if you're on a MacPro" don't ask them for help, and they refer you to these MacPro threads. Your mileage might vary....

 

[juanxer]

Hi all,
I ran into an issue running MacPro2,1 using El Capitan with Pike R Alpha boot.efi.

On my MacPro2,1 I was running the latest El Capitan version without any particular problem, using an ADSL connection with a download speed of about 16 Mbit/s.
Then I switched to a 1 Gbit/s fiber connection.
…
From that time on I noticed that, on the MacPro2,1, as soon as I had "high" bandwidth traffic (say over 30 MByte/s) a crash soon followed (generally under a minute).

Hi, I followed the correspondence between you and hwojtek on this matter, as I'm finding myself in the very same case (save for my Mac Pro being a v1.1 version). I wished to ask if you had managed to solve the issue in some manner other than going back to Yosemite.

 

[rthpjm]

Hi, I followed the correspondence between you and hwojtek on this matter, as I'm finding myself in the very same case (save for my Mac Pro being a v1.1 version). I wished to ask if you had managed to solve the issue in some manner other than going back to Yosemite.

Do you have any 512MB or 1GB RAM modules in your system?

 

[juanxer]

Do you have any 512MB or 1GB RAM modules in your system?

I've got several 1 GB ones (plus a couple of 4 GB modules). No 512 MB units at all. The setup was checked with both Memtest and Apple's diagnostics CD, passing all tests at the time.

Would you suggest getting all 1GB modules out anyway and seeing if the problem keeps on happening?

(I should note that, similarly to pascalxvi's case, the problem started manifesting when, months after having transitioned to El Capitan, I switched from low cable speed to symmetric 200Mb fiber service)

[doublepost=1502157882][/doublepost]

I just read that the 5770 supports 3 monitors, and I'd be removing 2 x1900's for just one more powerful card. I need at least 3 monitor connections for both machines.

Myself I'm using a 5770 HD on my Mac Pro 2006 with three monitors at once: A 2560x1440 one via DVI, and a 1920x1200 and 1280x1024 couple through DP-to-DVI adapters).

 

[GibbyNLA]

Holy Cow, I got 2 active mdp to vga connectors, and connected my 2 Dells at 1920x1200 and 1280x1024 and they both work in addition to the DVI to LG TV working too. I'm stoked. Gonna go back and install GTX 285 in 2011 MPro, and crank up the ole Cintiq.

 

[rthpjm]

Would you suggest getting all 1GB modules out anyway and seeing if the problem keeps on happening?

Hello juanxer

All I can say is that my system is also connected to 200mbit/s (asymmetric) and I have not experienced any issues. I have 8 4GB modules and have never had any issues with kernel panics.

It's worth trying with just your 4GB modules (remove the 1GB modules). At least it will test a theory....

Other than that, my LAN is at 1Gbit/s. It might be worth checking the Network System Preference panel, Advanced, Hardware especially the speed and MTU. It's possible that you are encountering a lot of fragmented data over the network....

 

[RocksIRC]

i tried installing voodoohda.kext file but have not found one to work with macpro 1,1 2006 where can I get a compatible voodoohda.kext or applehda.kext that works with el captain 10.11.6 installed os x on a unsupported mac?

 

[rthpjm]

i tried installing voodoohda.kext file but have not found one to work with macpro 1,1 2006 where can I get a compatible voodoohda.kext or applehda.kext that works with el captain 10.11.6 installed os x on a unsupported mac?

Did you read my reply?

I think you answered your own question

when i use pikify's installer script to install audio is fine.

You should not use MacPostFactor to install El Capitan on a MacPro 1,1. (for the reasons outlined above)...

Why? Why? Why are you messing around with voodoohda? It is a Hackintosh community built driver????? It's very good for its target "market" of commodity Intel based PC motherboards (Hackintosh). You have Apple hardware, you should be using Apple drivers.

If you really want to try and fix it yourself, put the stock Apple kexts back (and remove any non-Apple kexts)

 

[Sandleford]

I replaced the motherboard on my 1,1 and upgraded the cpus and since then Ive not had any problems. I think some problems people have are possibly the board is going out.

A truly great machine for these last 11 yrs but much better now. The northbridge chip was reading super hot.. 80c at idle before replacing the motherboard and cpus, now I dont even need to run the smc fan control as it stays plenty cool.

 

[juanxer]

Interesting: As I was about to check again my Mac Pro 2006's RAM and remove all 1GB or lower FB-DIMMs, I checked the About my Mac's memory report for any module placement silliness, and it reported 2x4GB modules and 6x1GB ones. OK.

So I get the trays out and begin removing the 1GB ones and I notice that one of the pairs are actually 2GB ones! It had been so long since I upgraded this Mac that I had forgotten I have those there. But the mystery here is why the OS was reporting them as 1GB each.

Getting out all the 1GB modules and leaving the 4GB and 2GB ones (each pair in each tray in the deeper slots) they now report themselves correctly. I had a kernel panic in the very first stage of booting up, though (although I was moving HDs out and around, so who knows).

I'll try to reproduce the conditions that usually lead to a flurry of kernel panics (some high speed lengthly download usually suffices) and see what happens.

 

[Ant3000]

There is a pic on the inside of the side panel to show which slots to use to place RAM if not filling all the slots with equal size modules. If not followed this may cause some oddness. The misreporting of size may be common but hardly anyone sees it as it can be difficult to install El Capitan without removing them first. Presumably as El Capitan expects to see a minimum size module as it was written when perhaps no supported Macs would have been running such small modules, it may assume a min of 1gb is present. Just a guess though. Just re-read your post and realise you had 2gb reporting as 1gb - perhaps one of the pair is faulty but it reports both the same as it expect 2 of the same size? You could swap them around to see if the issue changes. Have you any lights on on the riser boards indicating bad RAM?

 

[juanxer]

Yesterday everything showed as OK, but this morning I discovered the 2GB modules reporting themselves as 1GB ones again, and yes, now the riser board has a red LED light on.

I'll try switching their position around and see how they react, just in case, but it looks like they must be the source of my kernel panics if they are behaving like that.

 

[Ant3000]

Sometimes just reseating the modules can fix them - I found this worked - but only for a short time. I had a pair of 4gb not working but they didn't report back as a lower value - I just noticed I had 8gb short.
Now 4gb modules are quite cheap so if you have to replace them it isn't too painful.

 

[humann]

So I guess I screwed this up trying to use Pikify to install El Capitan over an existing Yosemite install on a raid 0 made from two 240M SSDs. I was booted from a separate single drive with Yosemite and the modified boot.fi also installed. I got as far as the Yes to reboot but then the OS X installer in the Applications folder never launched. Option key wouldn't work on restarts either until I zapped the PRAM.

This is an original 2,1 octocore with a flashed Radeon R9 280x in it but I'm guessing that the raid is the problem. I also wasn't sure if the createpikeinstallmedia script had already modified the El Capitan installer app so I tried to launch that after I managed to get it rebooted from the single drive but I got the "can't install on this mac" dialog.

 

[resian]

Just Built my First macPro, Dual 2.6 32g ram and SSD, awaiting the GT710 for video. The fan is a littel loud whatsa decent replacement has any found one?

 

[rthpjm]

So I guess I screwed this up trying to use Pikify to install El Capitan over an existing Yosemite install on a raid 0 made from two 240M SSDs. I was booted from a separate single drive with Yosemite and the modified boot.fi also installed. I got as far as the Yes to reboot but then the OS X installer in the Applications folder never launched. Option key wouldn't work on restarts either until I zapped the PRAM.

This is an original 2,1 octocore with a flashed Radeon R9 280x in it but I'm guessing that the raid is the problem. I also wasn't sure if the createpikeinstallmedia script had already modified the El Capitan installer app so I tried to launch that after I managed to get it rebooted from the single drive but I got the "can't install on this mac" dialog.

Did you use V14?

Look for the folder /OS X Install Data on your target volume, that's where pikify builds the modified installer (actually in the same way Apple does it).
The target volume should have been "blessed" and be set as the boot volume. The blessed location is the /OS X Install Data. When the machine reboots it should reboot using those files, and go straight into the Installer.

If you did not choose to reboot, do that now.
If you did choose to reboot, and it didn't do as I describe, then something got messed up.
Try rebooting, when you hear the chime hold down the alt key. Assuming your graphics card shows boot screens, look for the obvious volume (I think I gave it an obvious label).

If that doesn't work, reboot back into another volume (Yosemite?)
Open a terminal
Type:

bless --info /Volumes/your-target-volume

It should say /Volumes/your-target-volume/OS X Install Data (and a second entry for the boot file as the same-path/boot.efi

Pikify does not alter the Install OS X El Capitan.app located in your /Applications folder. If you try to run that you will get "cannot...."

If you want to try again, and you can locate the /OS X Install Data folder, delete that folder, then try again.
Watch the video.
Make sure you type y when asked if you want to reboot.

Might I suggest that you go into the Disk Utility and add a partition to your Yosemite volume. If you've got the free space make that partition big enough to take a clone of the original.

Or

If you have a spare HDD, use that as your target.

I have a question for you... you say you have the disks in RAID. I haven't tested against RAID 0. I would like to know if you have used a hardware raid controller, or Apple's software RAID?

 

[humann]

Did you use V14?

Yes, V14.

If you did choose to reboot, and it didn't do as I describe, then something got messed up.

Yes, I did type Y then Enter at the reboot prompt.

bless --info /Volumes/your-target-volume

It should say /Volumes/your-target-volume/OS X Install Data (and a second entry for the boot file as the same-path/boot.efi

I didn't get /Volumes/your-target-volume/OS X Install Data (and a second entry for the boot file as the same-path/boot.efi. I got that the blessed system was the Yosemite install on the RAID I was trying to install over. I think that's my mistake? That I'm trying to install in place while booted from another volume? I'm starting to understand that Pikify was only made to install on a fresh blank volume? If so I apologize for wasting your time.

Here's my bless command in the terminal's output:

Mac-Pro:~ humann$ bless --info /Volumes/Merc480r

finderinfo[0]: 171753 => Blessed System Folder is /Volumes/Merc480r/System/Library/CoreServices

finderinfo[1]: 173894 => Blessed System File is /Volumes/Merc480r/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

finderinfo[2]: 0 => Open-folder linked list empty

finderinfo[3]: 0 => No alternate OS blessed file/folder

finderinfo[4]: 0 => Unused field unset

finderinfo[5]: 171753 => OS X blessed folder is /Volumes/Merc480r/System/Library/CoreServices

64-bit VSDB volume id: 0xFFEDBC9ACB3E8087

Mac-Pro:~ humann$

If you want to try again, and you can locate the /OS X Install Data folder, delete that folder, then try again.
Watch the video.
Make sure you type y when asked if you want to reboot.

Might I suggest that you go into the Disk Utility and add a partition to your Yosemite volume. If you've got the free space make that partition big enough to take a clone of the original.

Yes, I'm trying to drag all the files off the Yosemite RAID boot volume now. Then I'll delete the original files and have enough room to make a clean partition to try again.

If you have a spare HDD, use that as your target.

I don't have room for a spare drive without going USB and I want to avoid that.

I have a question for you... you say you have the disks in RAID. I haven't tested against RAID 0. I would like to know if you have used a hardware raid controller, or Apple's software RAID?

Both of the RAIDs in this machine are Apple software RAID 0s. I know I need to add a third WD Black 4G and convert to a RAID 5 because how I have it now is just plain stupid with everything on a RAID 0. Side issue I just went through another crazy RAM dance on this box and got seriously worried that it was dying. It was working fine with 2 4G sticks and 6 1G sticks but I read here that stuff smaller than 2G was causing these machines not to boot with the modified EFI. So pulled the 1Gs and couldn't get it to boot for at least a dozen swap/resets. I have another octocore here that gave up the ghost during an extended (several weeks) RAM and flashed video card dance that was extremely frustrating for its inconsistent results. As soon as I thought I had everything running smoothly it would crash and fail reboot.

I'm super honored you took the time with my issue and I can't thank you enough. I was going to wait to reply until after I'd followed all your advice but I'm still in the process and it's been a while with all the file transfers. Once I have answers about if it works on a clean partition of the SSD Raid I'll come back and edit this post.

Thanks again!

Edit 1: had a crazy time reformatting the SSD RAID as Disk Utility wouldn't erase it or delete the slices or anything. After multiple attempts it simply said the disk was damaged and I needed to reformat it but it wouldn't allow me to reformat and failed every time. So I downloaded SoftRAID which is a 3rd-party software raid app and it made me a new RAID but it failed to mount. Finally I was able to reformat the SOftRAID partitions into a new Apple RAID. Very Odd.

So I went through Pikify steps from the video but it again failed to reboot. All the red lights came on my RAM riser boards (they weren't on before hitting Y to reboot) and finally it booted back into Yosemite, which is installed on my single drive. I'm going to try to manually bless the install drive now and reboot one more time. Maybe next I give up on the RAID and just use the SSDs separate. I was actually happy with Yosemite but there's a tool for merging Photos libraries that only works on El Capitan.

 

[rthpjm]

I'm starting to understand that Pikify was only made to install on a fresh blank volume? If so I apologize for wasting your time.

I've used pikify to do in-place upgrades. I think others have too.

I wonder if your Yosemite installation has a limitation on the bless command?

If I get chance I'll look into it...

I suspect the issue is the software RAID. Again if I get chance I'll look into it...

 

[humann]

I've used pikify to do in-place upgrades. I think others have too.

I wonder if your Yosemite installation has a limitation on the bless command?

If I get chance I'll look into it...

I suspect the issue is the software RAID. Again if I get chance I'll look into it...

Yes, I'm pretty sure it was the RAID as I've now successfully installed on a single drive from the RAID. All your hard work made it so simple. Now I'm going to bak up the fresh install with Carbon Copy, remake the RAID then CC the new install back onto the RAID. Pretty sure that'll work. One thing that you may have read elsewhere here is that in booting Pikified Yosemite on a RAID (for years) it always does this weird double boot where it chimes once then again in another 15-20 seconds. Like a PRAM zap. Maybe a clue as to why RAIDs can be an issue.

As for the bless command I tried it several ways besides the one built into your script. I even got the proper shell output listing the OS X Install Data folder in the correct volume, but no go until I went to a single drive volume.