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

[danielaaron94]

Ok I assume from another install/partition of OSX you delete the old kernel & drop in the DL you linked to earlier?

Appreciate the help!

This is the EASIEST way to do it. I have an extra HDD sitting around with lion installed for these exact types of situations.

The most important step in this process is the touch command. It cannot be left out, or atleast it didn’t work for me until I ran the command through terminal. Then it started up no problem. Just remember when you run the touch command, you have to link it to whatever drive your El Capitan is on.

I THINK it should be something like : “ sudo touch /Volunes/Volume/Macintosh\ HD /System/Library/Kernels/Kernel “

Assuming El Capitan is installed on “Macintosh HD”

A quick google search should confirm this for you.

 

[Rocketman83]

Damn

But does that mean that El Capitan won't run at all on a 5770 or will it run fine unless you wanna do stuff that requires Metal?

I'm running an AMD Radeon HD 5770 on a Mac Pro 2,1 (firmware updated from 1,1). Works fine on my Pikified El Capitan system.

 

[danielaaron94]

cool i'll have a look at that as i just made a fix for mine but different all together from
rthpjm
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...s-x-el-capitan.1890435/page-156#post-25753970
but what i did as known that there was a fault i did make a carbon copy clone but tried this linked method an it failed on me so then i booted off of the clone an then went to the /System/Library/Kernels/ removed the 2018 version an replaced it with from the cloned copy an used kext wizard to repair permissions reboot an now back on

Yeah, that works too!

I'm running an AMD Radeon HD 5770 on a Mac Pro 2,1 (firmware updated from 1,1). Works fine on my Pikified El Capitan system.

I'm running an AMD Radeon HD 5770 on a Mac Pro 2,1 (firmware updated from 1,1). Works fine on my Pikified El Capitan system.

I’m running it on a Apple 5870 and it’s great.

 

[7lusus4]

After reading a good half of this thread, I had to deal with the better part of an hour, maybe two, of waiting for things to install. Most of that was playing with the cats and looking out the window. The actual dickering with typing and copying boots and efi’s was... what, five minutes tops? Now I’m getting down to the real problems of the Good Video Card (AMD 5770 1gig) and the Bad Video Card (nVidia 580). Once I finally give up on the 580, I turn my attention to figuring out Win7 64bit...

Thanks to all for providing so much information, time, help, advice, and the fact the beloved 1/2,1 boxen are still valid and useful.

 

[rthpjm]

cool i'll have a look at that as i just made a fix for mine but different all together from
rthpjm
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...s-x-el-capitan.1890435/page-156#post-25753970
but what i did as known that there was a fault i did make a carbon copy clone but tried this linked method an it failed on me so then i booted off of the clone an then went to the /System/Library/Kernels/ removed the 2018 version an replaced it with from the cloned copy an used kext wizard to repair permissions reboot an now back on

Hello all,

Apologies from me. I really didn’t think through the use of a hard linking the kernel. A hard link shares the same data, so when the Apple update overwrites the kernel file, it is also effectively overwriting the 2017 copy because of the hard link.

I have changed the instructions to copy rather than hard link. That keeps two distinctly separate files. When the Apple update overwrites the kernel, the 2017 version remains intact. You can then re-copy the 2017 version into place.

 

[Dkelly811]

So I can’t find a El Capitan installer. On my new MacBook Pro it doesn’t show under purchases even though I know I had El Capitan way back in the day. On the Mac Pro 1.1 it shows under purchases but the download button doesn’t work. Does anyone have a link to get the installer. I have a DMG but I’m not sure if they are the same.

Please help!

 

[flygbuss]

So I can’t find a El Capitan installer. On my new MacBook Pro it doesn’t show under purchases even though I know I had El Capitan way back in the day. On the Mac Pro 1.1 it shows under purchases but the download button doesn’t work. Does anyone have a link to get the installer. I have a DMG but I’m not sure if they are the same.

Please help!

Since Mojave it’s no longer possible to download any version of macOS within the purchased tab. Do you have a working copy of 10.12 or 10.13 you could boot from?
I just checked on my cMP 2,1 (10.11.6) I can download the El Capitan installer without any problems. How do you mean the button doesn’t work?

 

[Dkelly811]

Since Mojave it’s no longer possible to download any version of macOS within the purchased tab. Do you have a working copy of 10.12 or 10.13 you could boot from?
I just checked on my cMP 2,1 (10.11.6) I can download the El Capitan installer without any problems. How do you mean the button doesn’t work?

All my person and business owned computer now run Mojave except for the Mac Pro 1,1 which runs snow leopard. On my leopard, i go to purchases and hit download but nothing occurs. I can find a DMG for El Cap Online but im not sure if it is different from the installer.app that I need for the pikify app to bring the Mac Pro 1,1 to El Cap.

 

[flygbuss]

All my person and business owned computer now run Mojave except for the Mac Pro 1,1 which runs snow leopard. On my leopard, i go to purchases and hit download but nothing occurs. I can find a DMG for El Cap Online but im not sure if it is different from the installer.app that I need for the pikify app to bring the Mac Pro 1,1 to El Cap.

If your installer is from a legit source I don’t see a problem. You can update it afterwards. Just be careful with the known problems of the latest security updates. Good luck!

 

[Dkelly811]

If your installer is from a legit source I don’t see a problem. You can update it afterwards. Just be careful with the known problems of the latest security updates. Good luck!

So it doesn’t matter if it is a DMG file or an installer file? Correct? I am just trying to clarify that a DMG can be used when doing the pikify app process?

 

[flygbuss]

So it doesn’t matter if it is a DMG file or an installer file? Correct? I am just trying to clarify that a DMG can be used when doing the pikify app process?

Sorry, I didn’t use the app. I installed 10.11 on a different machine and used the scripts afterwards.

 

[rthpjm]

So it doesn’t matter if it is a DMG file or an installer file? Correct? I am just trying to clarify that a DMG can be used when doing the pikify app process?

On my main Pikify post #1390 there’s an Apple Support link. Have you tried that? I think it works from leopard, but you might need to upgrade to snow leopard first..,

 

[mnn00b]

Did I brick it?

I started with OS X Lion. Was able to 'pikify' up to El Capitan 10.11. Connected it to the Internet, wasn't thinking it through, and allowed it to update to 10.11.16. Wouldn't reboot properly after that. Thought I was doing the right thing by erasing the HDD and trying to do a fresh install of OS X Lion, but now it won't let me. Even tried doing a fresh install of El Cap.

Log message:

Thank in advance for help/assistance.

 

[Machac]

Can I put a hard drive into my Mac Pro 3.1 and install El Capitan, and after the installation put the hard drive back to the Mac Pro 1.1?

 

[owbp]

Can I put a hard drive into my Mac Pro 3.1 and install El Capitan, and after the installation put the hard drive back to the Mac Pro 1.1?

You can, but before putting it to 1,1 you have to replace boot.efi files or it won't work.

 

[Machac]

You can, but before putting it to 1,1 you have to replace boot.efi files or it won't work.

Only the two efi files on the drive or do I need also replace the efi file on the recovery partition?
Where is the efi file on the recovery located and how can I make this partition visible?

 

[owbp]

Only the two efi files on the drive or do I need also replace the efi file on the recovery partition?
Where is the efi file on the recovery located and how can I make this partition visible?

Replace boot.efi in Recovery only if you're gonna boot into it. Otherwise there is no need for that (but since it is a one minute job i don't see why you shouldn't).

Here is the location and how to get to it.

 

[Machac]

Replace boot.efi in Recovery only if you're gonna boot into it. Otherwise there is no need for that (but since it is a one minute job i don't see why you shouldn't).

Here is the location and how to get to it.
View attachment 836081

Thank you, the 1,1 run fine now.

 

[alphascorp]

Hi everybody,

I'm back, following my posts #4299 of July 20, 2018, #4419 of September 16, 2018, #4430 of October 3, 2018, #4464 of December 4 2018 and #4578 of March 10 2019, regarding the operation of the update "SecUpd2018-004ElCapitan" with Kernel 2017-005.

After 10 months EVERYTHING IS STILL STABLE !!!

New record, 39 days without rebooting ... and no instability! (I had to turn off before going on a weekend)


Fix SecUpdate ElCapitan Mac Pro 1.1-2.1 Start Loop.dmg

 

[BicycleGuy]

Why the "12Gb or more of RAM" requirement? El Capitan only requires 2Gb, yes? I'm currently running a boot.efi of Yosemite 10.10 with only 6Gb on the MacPro 1,1. Is it possible to replace my Yosemite boot with this El Capitan install while keeping all my data on the drive intact?

Thx,
BG

• You must have a unmodified copy of the Apple 'Install OS X El Capitan' app in your Applications folder.
  • See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886 if you are having difficulty finding a copy of El Capitan.
• If you are running from a MacPro, you must have 12Gb of RAM or more.

12Gb or more of RAM is required

 

[rthpjm]

Why the "12Gb or more of RAM" requirement? El Capitan only requires 2Gb, yes? I'm currently running a boot.efi of Yosemite 10.10 with only 6Gb on the MacPro 1,1. Is it possible to replace my Yosemite boot with this El Capitan install while keeping all my data on the drive intact?

Thx,
BG

• You must have a unmodified copy of the Apple 'Install OS X El Capitan' app in your Applications folder.
  • See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886 if you are having difficulty finding a copy of El Capitan.
• If you are running from a MacPro, you must have 12Gb of RAM or more.

12Gb or more of RAM is required

Because the method relies on RAM-disks, and one of the compressed files from Apple expands to just over 11Gb

There are other methods.

RAM was cheap and plentiful. You’ll get a better experience day-to-day with lots of RAM. El Capitan is predominately 64-bit, more RAM helps

 

[BicycleGuy]

I see. Thank you. Is it true that smaller RAM modules, such as 1gb or 512mb DIMMs, will cause El Capitan to crash? Or will I be okay as long as I have more than 12gb of RAM?

Because the method relies on RAM-disks, and one of the compressed files from Apple expands to just over 11Gb

There are other methods.

RAM was cheap and plentiful. You’ll get a better experience day-to-day with lots of RAM. El Capitan is predominately 64-bit, more RAM helps

 

[rthpjm]

I see. Thank you. Is it true that smaller RAM modules, such as 1gb or 512mb DIMMs, will cause El Capitan to crash? Or will I be okay as long as I have more than 12gb of RAM?

There is “something” in El Capitan that does not like the original 512Mb ram sticks. We don’t know what it is, but we can speculate that it is something to do with contiguous memory allocation. Our classic MacPros are very old in comparison with the OS we’re using. Apple probably (and quite rightly) made an assumption that the smallest RAM module they needed to support was 1GB The supported machine list for the El Capitan will have all shipped with 1GB or higher RAM modules. It is much more likely that the memory allocation (malloc type) libraries will be asked to assign a memory region, and with 512Mb modules that allocation may unexpectedly traverse physical memory module boundaries that are unaccounted for, thus causing a crash. As I said, that’s speculation on my part, but fits the symptoms and remedies.

Remove (and if you’re lucky, sell) your 512MB RAM modules.

There were some reports of problem 1GB modules. However, these were not as widespread and could be due to other issues. Anecdotally we found that everyone who had random crashes and who took advice to move to 2GB or 4GB RAM modules then reported back complete stability.

Remember to buy/install RAM modules in pairs. Each module in a pair should be the same size/spec.
If you have a pair of 2GB modules, and a pair of 4GB modules it is recommended practice to put the higher value modules in the first slot positions. Apple’s support web site has articles about RAM installation sequence, and there’s a graphic printed on the inside of the removable side panel.

In my opinion, it’s good practice to fit RAM with the same size/spec, in other words just use all 4GB modules if you can...

Tip: if you keep the CPU heat sinks clean (free from dust clogging), the air flow over the RAM will be sufficient to use Dell or IBM or 3rd party RAM modules with simple heat-spreaders. You can buy RAM with the larger finned Apple-style heat sinks but you’ll pay a premium for those... I just did a quick search on the U.K. eBay site. I found an 8x 4GB kit fully buffered RAM with heat spreader for under 20UKP (Chinese seller)....

 

[Argyboy]

There is “something” in El Capitan that does not like the original 512Mb ram sticks. We don’t know what it is, but we can speculate that it is something to do with contiguous memory allocation. Our classic MacPros are very old in comparison with the OS we’re using. Apple probably (and quite rightly) made an assumption that the smallest RAM module they needed to support was 1GB The supported machine list for the El Capitan will have all shipped with 1GB or higher RAM modules. It is much more likely that the memory allocation (malloc type) libraries will be asked to assign a memory region, and with 512Mb modules that allocation may unexpectedly traverse physical memory module boundaries that are unaccounted for, thus causing a crash. As I said, that’s speculation on my part, but fits the symptoms and remedies.

Remove (and if you’re lucky, sell) your 512MB RAM modules.

There were some reports of problem 1GB modules. However, these were not as widespread and could be due to other issues. Anecdotally we found that everyone who had random crashes and who took advice to move to 2GB or 4GB RAM modules then reported back complete stability.

Remember to buy/install RAM modules in pairs. Each module in a pair should be the same size/spec.
If you have a pair of 2GB modules, and a pair of 4GB modules it is recommended practice to put the higher value modules in the first slot positions. Apple’s support web site has articles about RAM installation sequence, and there’s a graphic printed on the inside of the removable side panel.

In my opinion, it’s good practice to fit RAM with the same size/spec, in other words just use all 4GB modules if you can...

Tip: if you keep the CPU heat sinks clean (free from dust clogging), the air flow over the RAM will be sufficient to use Dell or IBM or 3rd party RAM modules with simple heat-spreaders. You can buy RAM with the larger finned Apple-style heat sinks but you’ll pay a premium for those... I just did a quick search on the U.K. eBay site. I found an 8x 4GB kit fully buffered RAM with heat spreader for under 20UKP (Chinese seller)....

As informative as ever. No idea what people in this thread would do without your insights!

 

[Eddie_go]

Greetings.
Is it 'safe' to update to the latest iTunes version (post 12.8.2.3)? Updating requires a restart and I really don't want to go through the whole "pikified-El-Capitan" reinstall process if something goes wrong.
Thanks.
Edmond