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

[rthpjm]

Nope I have all matched pairs of 2GB RAM modules.

Okay,

Have you opened the side panel with the MacPro running?
Are there any red LEDs illuminated on either of the two Memory daughter boards?

Has it been stable since, or are you still experiencing random restarts?
Please open the Console app, from Applications:Utilities, check for crash logs.
If you find the most recent crash log, you could attach it here and I’ll take a look through it with you...

 

[jabbo5150]

So I am getting ready to finally install El Capitan on my 1,1

I have 32 GB of Ram now and the 5770 video card.

I already have my Lion drive backed up, though i is from a long time ago and I'd like to update it (I use Carbon copy Cloner)

However, I want to have my OS on one of the new hard drives I bought (I decided on a 2TB hybrid drive)

I am assuming my new hard drive needs to be named Macintosh HD. Will I be able to name the new drive that and clone the old drive to it or will OS 10.7.5 not allow me to have two drives named Macintosh HD?

Then what I would do is use the current 10.7.5 disc as a backup fail safe in case anything goes wrong with the El Capitan system and back up El Capitan on my old backup drive (Currently labeled with the very original name Backup) so I would have:

Macintosh HD with El Capitan and apps
My current drive, which has 10.7.5 on it (Would I need to rename this?) Would I be able to boot from it if I do? If I were to put this drive into an enclosure, would I be able to boot from that if need be?
A backup drive for El capitan

Getting closer!

 

[MacUser2525]

I am assuming my new hard drive needs to be named Macintosh HD. Will I be able to name the new drive that and clone the old drive to it or will OS 10.7.5 not allow me to have two drives named Macintosh HD?

Then what I would do is use the current 10.7.5 disc as a backup fail safe in case anything goes wrong with the El Capitan system and back up El Capitan on my old backup drive (Currently labeled with the very original name Backup) so I would have:

Macintosh HD with El Capitan and apps
My current drive, which has 10.7.5 on it (Would I need to rename this?) Would I be able to boot from it if I do? If I were to put this drive into an enclosure, would I be able to boot from that if need be?
A backup drive for El capitan

You can name the drive whatever you want OSX does not care it will boot fine as long as the machine sees a boot volume there. If identically named then the system sees the drives as Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD 1 it putting the 1 on the end to distinguish between the two. Really best bet is to name the drives differently to lessen the confusion something like OldLion for the old drive NewLion for new but I fail to see the point in cloning the old drive to new anyways. Drive put into an enclosure assuming the enclosure will be a bootable one then yes you can boot from it, if not supported as such then no only way to be sure is to test.

 

[jabbo5150]

Thanks for the info. The reason I would clone it is when I install El Capitan, I want to do it as an upgrade so I don't have to install all my software again. Plus the drive I want to use as my boot drive is faster than the one i have currently (And bigger)

 

[Ema5035]

Hi, I have found a Mac Pro 2006 in the trash, but it didn't have RAM and GPU. I bought 4gb of fb ddr2 ram and put in the gtx 960 from my hackintosh. If I turn it on, it makes the mac bootup sound, and it seems to go to sleep if I press the power button, but I don't get video on the screen because the gtx 960 is not supported. Now, can I install this to get the mac to work, or do I have to do something else?

 

[MacUser2525]

Thanks for the info. The reason I would clone it is when I install El Capitan, I want to do it as an upgrade so I don't have to install all my software again. Plus the drive I want to use as my boot drive is faster than the one i have currently (And bigger)

You get the options of either during final part of install to transfer them along with the user or after completing install in the Utilities folder Migration Assistant to do the same thing.

 

[jabbo5150]

So when I do install El Capitan, should i not register it or is that OK?

 

[MacUser2525]

So when I do install El Capitan, should i not register it or is that OK?

Register?? If you mean sign in with your AppleID that is fine to do the system seems not to care when testing the Recovery volume on mine it was going to allow me to do an internet recovery install after checking with Apple's servers to see if it was okay having requested my ID. Hopefully you are using the 10.11.6 installer as a couple of the earlier point releases overwrite the boot.efi even then it will tell you that the 2017-003 security update I think it was, safari and remote desktop were upgraded without problems.

 

[jabbo5150]

Register?? If you mean sign in with your AppleID that is fine to do the system seems not to care when testing the Recovery volume on mine it was going to allow me to do an internet recovery install after checking with Apple's servers to see if it was okay having requested my ID. Hopefully you are using the 10.11.6 installer as a couple of the earlier point releases overwrite the boot.efi even then it will tell you that the 2017-003 security update I think it was, safari and remote desktop were upgraded without problems.

I have the most recent installer I'd assume as I just downloaded it from the app store. I always thought when you installed any Mac OS it connected to Apple.

 

[MacUser2525]

I have the most recent installer I'd assume as I just downloaded it from the app store. I always thought when you installed any Mac OS it connected to Apple.

Does connect now for sure older DVD/USB method do not think so until you updated. If you just downloaded then you have the 10.11.6 so you will be good that is what I got couple of weeks ago just as High Sierra was released in the next day or so.

 

[rthpjm]

Does connect now for sure older DVD/USB method do not think so until you updated. If you just downloaded then you have the 10.11.6 so you will be good that is what I got couple of weeks ago just as High Sierra was released in the next day or so.

The “Install OS X El Capitan.app” contains all the data needed for the install. The App itself (when used on a supported Mac) will perform some pre-installation checks, one or more will check with Apple servers to see if the make/model is supported. Hence, if you try to run the (unmodified) installer directly from your MacPro you will not be able to proceed, with a “cannot install” dialog box.

If you use the Pikify tools, the “Install OS X El Capitan” app is not used other than to act as a “donor”. Apple has always shipped an installer with the ability to create a “bootable” installer. The original intention was to allow users with many machines (think school admin or work admin) to download one copy of the App installer and then use it to create a DVD or memory stick that they could tote around to the other machines. Pikify makes use of this ability to create a bootable installer and “slipstreams” some of the necessary modifications for classic MacPros. In essence it takes the downloadable copy of “Install OS X El Capitan” and creates a modified version that will run on a classic MacPro, with the design goal that the resulting installation is already prepared (no need to copy the boot.efi files manually post-install). The Classic MacPro will simply boot after install. The side effect is that the actual App (Install OS X El Capitan) is never executed, therefore any checks that the app would perform are not run.

As for disk cloning as a preparation step, sure you can do that.
You can also simply build a fresh copy of El Capitan on the new disk drive formatted with the GUID partition scheme and HFS+ Journalled (blank). After the install, reboot, and during the first-time-use setup one of the steps includes the Apple Migration Assitant. If you use the AMA at this point it will transfer over your logins and data including apps. If you skip past it here, you can run it later with the proviso that you may need to respond to and resolve a duplicate user name warning.

 

[alpha1r]

Okay,

Have you opened the side panel with the MacPro running?
Are there any red LEDs illuminated on either of the two Memory daughter boards?

Has it been stable since, or are you still experiencing random restarts?
Please open the Console app, from Applications:Utilities, check for crash logs.
If you find the most recent crash log, you could attach it here and I’ll take a look through it with you...

Thanks was able to grab the console log after after it restarted this morning. Log file: https://cl.ly/2P01052E1D1V

 

[spoonie1972]

So, I just installed 10.11.6 - one pass, it's the latest version I had from Apple.

Is it ok to update whatever needs to update, without running turning off SIP in csrutil? After doing so in recovery mode, the machine just stalls upon restart. Could be a bad, old drive, or, has this happened to anyone else here?

 

[rthpjm]

So, I just installed 10.11.6 - one pass, it's the latest version I had from Apple.

Is it ok to update whatever needs to update, without running turning off SIP in csrutil? After doing so in recovery mode, the machine just stalls upon restart. Could be a bad, old drive, or, has this happened to anyone else here?

Do you mean that you have used the combo updater downloaded from the Apple Support Web site, or do you mean that you used the App Store Upgrade process?
What version did you start with, before you upgraded to 10.11.6?

The most likely effect is that you have upgraded and the boot.efi files have been replaced by the Apple versions.
You should be able to boot from your Recovery HD.
From the Utilities menu start a Terminal

If I assume your normal boot volume is named "Macintosh HD" (change this to suit your machine)

ls -lh /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

and

ls -lh /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

Both of those files should report a file size around 330Kb. If either of them is larger (most typically around 600KB) then you have the Apple boot.efi files.

If your boot.efi files are okay, the other possibility is that your "blessed" status has gone bad. Fix this by running the Startup Disk selection (from the apple menu , or cmd-q everything in the Recovery screen, you should get a sheet with the option to choose the startup disk)

If your boot.efi files are the wrong size, copy the version from the Recovery HD,

ls -lh /Volumes/Image\ Volume/com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi

should be around 300Kb

cp -f /Volumes/Image\ Volume/com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
cp -f /Volumes/Image\ Volume/com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

Then ensure you select the correct Startup Disk as above
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Thanks was able to grab the console log after after it restarted this morning. Log file: https://cl.ly/2P01052E1D1V

Okay.

Two things:

1. That's not the file I was asking for, you need to find the file that details the crash...
2. Log files are text, there's no need to copy and paste into a Word/OpenOffice document.

• Start the Console app
• In the left hand pane, scroll (or look for) the section headed DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION
• Open the section labelled System Diagnostic Reports (it toggles open/collapsed)
• Look for a crash report, probably labelled kernel..., dated around the time of the last crash
• Right click that report, choose Reveal in Finder (cmd-R)
• Right click the actual file (highlighted)
• Choose "Compress..."
• The Finder will compress the file and create a new file on your Desktop with the same name and a .zip extension
• Upload that file to a post here

 

[spoonie1972]

Thanks for the terminal codes, looks like somehow i did it right - all the files are 315k.

Thanks again so much for your hard work, genius, and support!

edit: the version i installed was the "Install El Capitan.app" from the app store, but since i downloaded it recently, it was 10.11.6.

 

[rthpjm]

Thanks for the terminal codes, looks like somehow i did it right - all the files are 315k.

Thanks again so much for your hard work, genius, and support!

edit: the version i installed was the "Install El Capitan.app" from the app store, but since i downloaded it recently, it was 10.11.6.

Ah,
So you were asking questions for future reference (not because you were experiencing issues)!

Read back a few pages. I’ve written a few replies that I think cover the “future”...

 

[spoonie1972]

So, everything is awesome except my system fans. The main intake and exhaust run fairly high (1600-1700) to keep the ram cool.

Is this a common thing when there's 8x 4gb sticks in there? They are pretty darn hot. One riser reads hotter than the other (typically, 79-81°C at idle, fans running as above). I've done all the SMC/PRAM stuff.

 

[rthpjm]

So, everything is awesome except my system fans. The main intake and exhaust run fairly high (1600-1700) to keep the ram cool.

Is this a common thing when there's 8x 4gb sticks in there? They are pretty darn hot. One riser reads hotter than the other (typically, 79-81°C at idle, fans running as above). I've done all the SMC/PRAM stuff.

That’s one of the reasons that Apple specified RAM with large-finned heat sinks. My fans seem normal to me (although I do not measure their speeds regularly) and I have a mixed estate of RAM heat sink types. Some with large fins, some with flat heat spreaders.

Have you cleaned the front-side of the CPU heat sinks? They often get clogged with dust/fibres and disrupt the airflow over RAM bay. Go back a number of pages here, someone posted a picture of their CPU heat sinks before cleaning... (page 137 user @chrisrm9208 )

Lastly, check that both the front and rear fans are working.

 

[spoonie1972]

So I took a look, they're *GROSS*. I'll be giving them a proper cleaning when I pop in the 5355's.

The ram has the big-honkin' heatsinks, so it could be lack of airflow – they do get down to 55-60°C when the case sounds like a jet

 

[VanneDC]

quick question, i have 2 cMP1,1's maxed out running yosemite nicely, thought i have a bit of screen distortion that i can't put my finger on. (has the same effect when swapping between a 4870, gtx 570 and a gtx 580..

besides that, it runs pretty happily.. seeing as the cards i have don't support Metal, should i upgrade to el Capt? is the OS any faster? any features that are AWESOME? anyways, just wondering?

 

[spoonie1972]

Well, I can't answer if it's better/faster, but I have noticed no glitches anywhere, other than my "komputerbay" ram running hot (even with big apple-style heatsinks) - it's thus far rock solid.

 

[neosho]

hi guys!

Just upgraded some macpro 1,1 with radeon 5770 and got install capitan 10.11.6 on it with both boot.efi swaped, my problem is when i try to update from appstore to security update 2017-003.. always crashes midway of update and "problem found" screen appears on reboot.. any way to update this security update?? (using boot.efi 3.1)

 

[rthpjm]

hi guys!

Just upgraded some macpro 1,1 with radeon 5770 and got install capitan 10.11.6 on it with both boot.efi swaped, my problem is when i try to update from appstore to security update 2017-003.. always crashes midway of update and "problem found" screen appears on reboot.. any way to update this security update?? (using boot.efi 3.1)

It sounds like a RAM issue.
What RAM do you have (number of modules, size of each module, total)?

 

[neosho]

It sounds like a RAM issue.
What RAM do you have (number of modules, size of each module, total)?

Hi 5GB in total, 5 dimms, but its totally stable out of capitan..

 

[rthpjm]

Hi 5GB in total, 5 dimms, but its totally stable out of capitan..

Interesting!

MacPros must have DIMMs installed as pairs, so 5 DIMMs might be the cause of your issue.

There is only one configuration where an odd number of DIMMs is acceptable, and that is one (single DIMM).
Once you go beyond one DIMM, you must install in pairs. This is because the MacPro motherboard will activate dual memory busses (dual channel) once you have more than 1 DIMM. The dual memory channels feed the dual physical CPUs! El Capitan makes much more extensive use of multi-processor, multi-core processing.

My advice:
Pop one of your DIMMs out and put it to one side.
Then MAKE SURE the remaining DIMMs are installed in the correct slots. There is a diagram on the inside of the removable side panel..

Or see this article from Apple’s Support site https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205043

With 4 DIMMs you should have top riser card slots 1 and 2, bottom riser card slots 1 and 2.

I’m assuming they are all 1GB capacity. Is that correct?

The bad news is that El Capitan definitely does not like 512Mb DIMMs, and there have been a few reports from users with problems using 1GB DIMMs.

Try the advice above. If you still have random crashes, my advice would be to purchase some 2GB or 4GB modules (even number, pairs of course), discard/sell the 1GB modules. Run your MacPro with at least 8Gb or more of total RAM.