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

[ADDvanced]

Worked! Cap installed perfectly. Turned off auto updates as well.

 

[scribling]

I went for months without my old system and it was all just because of the date. Now I finally have my stuff organized again since I don't have to keep ripping drives out.

I'm glad it worked for you.

 

[Mytlemeboy]

Hi, newbie to this and may as a result, be even on an incorrect thread, but here goes:

I've a old MacPro desktop on which I utilise apps such as Logic Pro/Band In A Box for music production. I'm using the installed 10.7.5 which won't allow me to upgrade certain things (Logic Pro X most importantly). Cutting this as precise as I can, I have followed the Piky script method and video with interest (I believe to the letter in Terminal), but as yet El Capitan simply will not install. I've downloaded the Installer via another machine from the Apple Store and everything seems fine until the final stage to load up the El Cap image from my applications mac_OS_ X_El_Capitan.10.11.1dmg whereby I'm told that it cannot be found.

As mentioned, I'm a muso, not a follower or indeed understander of the 'Terminal Rules of Combat' so apologies for a somewhat neanderthal post, however any assistance anyone is able to offer would be most gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

Mytlemeboy

 

[scribling]

It has to be named properly. "Install OSX El Capitan.app" No underscores, actual spaces between words and as far as I know it should not have the version in the name. It sounds to me like you have an update there not a full installer. The size of mine is 6.22 gigs.

 

[Mytlemeboy]

It has to be named properly. "Install OSX El Capitan.app" No underscores, actual spaces between words and as far as I know it should not have the version in the name. It sounds to me like you have an update there not a full installer. The size of mine is 6.22 gigs.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes indeed, the size is around 6+gigs but I'll check on the underscore bits although I'm pretty sure it's the real McCoy as a 'download El Capitan' from Apple store as per suggested. Visually, its the 'X' logo/image, so how do I determine whether its update or full install?

 

[scribling]

If it's called "Install ..." and it's 6+ gigs ... I think you've got an installer.
The Piked installer is called, "Install Piked OSX El Capitan.app" and it's 2.9 mb. I received it in a tarball call "PikifyApp-1-8.tar.zip"

 

[Mytlemeboy]

If it's called "Install ..." and it's 6+ gigs ... I think you've got an installer.
The Piked installer is called, "Install Piked OSX El Capitan.app" and it's 2.9 mb. I received it in a tarball call "PikifyApp-1-8.tar.zip"

Tarball - wassat? So, are you saying I should be looking for a Piked OSX app instead? That said, if mine is the full install, I'm presumably not following the Pikey procedure correctly or not supplying the full install somehow as I hit the buffers at his final stage in Terminal. I use all the download Pikey pkg 3.1 (is that correct?). The only part of the video which I find confusing is that the actual image of the El Cap HD image on his desktop is from where? Presumably that is something created but at what stage? I can copy the 'Install El Cap image into my App folder but where is the icon/image from on the video? Am I missing something here? . .

 

[scribling]

Yes. Get the piked installer. Put it where ever you want. The real El Cap installer has to be in /Applications
Open the piked installer and it does a few things and tricks the machine into running the real installer. The machine will reboot into the real installer. That's when you need to check the date on the machine, before you hit continue.
The machine should reboot on it's own when it's done and start from the drive El Cap was installed on.

 

[rthpjm]

I'd try changing the battery. As I remember it's just a 2032 battery that's about $1. If you haven't changed it before that thing is ~13 years old.

...and try a PRAM reset
...and try a SMC reset

It‘s probably the SMC being a little out of step...

 

[Mytlemeboy]

Thanks to you both, most appreciated. I will try all your suggestions and get back with furthers and betters if I may - all I wish to do essentially is to upgrade the music software on what is basicially a decent m/c and not have to shell out unnecessarily if there's a workaround. Ah, but that's Apple for ya . . .

 

[Mytlemeboy]

One other thing re the date change - should I do this in Terminal FIRST, before any of the further tasks (Pikey, OSX installation into Applications, PRAM/SMC resets, whatever) commence? Again, forgive the probably obvious but thanks are in order needless to say for your patience . . .

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

One other thing re the date change - should I do this in Terminal FIRST, before any of the further tasks (Pikey, OSX installation into Applications, PRAM/SMC resets, whatever) commence? Again, forgive the probably obvious but thanks are in order needless to say for your patience . . .

If you are a muso, as I'm a newbie to Mac OS from last month, you should view the following video and follow it exactly. The guy in that video has prepared everything in the disk image. Just restore it to a blank HDD/SSD and it's done. No fuss, no huss...
Remember: You need a blank HDD or SSD in one of the 6 SATA ports of your MP to install El Capitan.

 

[Mytlemeboy]

If you are a muso, as I'm a newbie to Mac OS from last month, you should view the following video and follow it exactly. The guy in that video has prepared everything in the disk image. Just restore it to a blank HDD/SSD and it's done. No fuss, no huss...
Remember: You need a blank HDD or SSD in one of the 6 SATA ports of your MP to install El Capitan.

Hi, that's interesting also. My question here would be; I see this ifor installing as a 32-bit, correct? Would this not compromise any 64-bit software (ie Logic Pro X) or similar . . . ? Recognising I'm getting assisted here in many ways and mucho gracias to all. I just want to be sure before I dive in once more, that's all . . .

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi, that's interesting also. My question here would be; I see this ifor installing as a 32-bit, correct? Would this not compromise any 64-bit software (ie Logic Pro X) or similar . . . ? Recognising I'm getting assisted here in many ways and mucho gracias to all. I just want to be sure before I dive in once more, that's all . . .

If you have the classic Mac Pro 1,1/2,1, then EFI 32-bit on 64bit OS (El Capitan) is the only way.
Maybe Logic Pro X refuses to upgrade on El Capitan, and require newer OSX. Then you have to get newer Mac Pro (4,1 or 5,1) because El Capitan is the last installable OSX on Mac Pro 1,1/2,1.
Anyway, install it on a blank HDD/SSD to try. You have nothing to lose. If it does not work, you still have your current OS to boot and work with.
And tell us if it works for you.
In my opinion, there's no need to consider. Just a blank HDD/SSD and 1 hour of your time to know. Less time than waiting for answers here.

 

[Mytlemeboy]

Hi, Nguyen, yes its a Mac Pro 1,1 2x3GHz Dual-core Intel Xeon/16GB Ram with 1x 250 SSD plus 2x 2TB HHD extra internal drives. You're right, of course, I'll see how far this thing will go once more. I've a Macbook Pro running High Sierra 10.13.6 for support so I'll crack on. Big thanks to all in any event for helping/assisting. I'll certainly post (hopefully) my celebratory salutations in due course . . . . M

 

[myndex]

snip....

Problems occur with the 2018-001 and newer Security Updates. These security updates contain fixes for the Meltdown and Spectre hardware flaws, implemented in the “kernel”. The kernel file is replaced by these updates and causes our old MacPros to crash, going into a boot-loop.

You can pretty much install everything up to Security Update 2017-005, and all app updates, you just shouldn’t install Security Update 2018-001 or 2018-xxx.

Most owners of MacPro 1,1 or 2,1 machines who follow this thread will likely be at 10.11.6, Security Update 2017-005, and all Apps up to date.

Some owners are also choosing to install the 2018-xxx Security Updates and then downgrading the kernel file. I wrote a lot about it in this thread.... (p.s. I don’t recommend this approach)

Unfortunately, the recently dowloaded ElCapitan installer includes security updates through 2018-003.

Deleted, misunderstanding regarding Apple's current security upgrade numbering scheme.

 

[myndex]

Did you perform my suggestion of going to the System Preferences > Startup Disk control panel?
Make sure the volume on your SSD is the item that is selected...

If you delete the boot.efi file (to replace it), even when attached to an external USB caddy, it will destroy the reference stored in the EFI stub. In effect the data in the EFI stub is pointing to a file reference that no longer exists. It depends on the method you use to “replace the boot.efi file”.

You need to re-bless the drive in these circumstances. You can do this from the Terminal (search this thread), or use the Startup Disk control panel....

This is golden important information... does this mean that the the only way to replace is an overwrite? OR just that you always have to re-bless? Is it necessary to bless using --file and the full path to the boot.efi?

 

[myndex]

Yes, Startup Disk was showing 10.11.6, but GOOD NEWS! I did exactly as you suggested and repeated the same steps again and BOOM, it installed and finally booted right back into El Capitan on my own account with everything intact. I was scared that I may have needed to do a clean install and reinstall all my apps.

Thank you SO MUCH for your help. I noticed some people upgraded their MacPro1,1 to report MacPro1,2. Should I do this?

Only do this if you are upgrading the CPUs and need the 2.1 firmware to support, otherwise don't. I've noticed on some the machines I've done this with (and also notice it here as a common complaint) 2,1 but without the associated SMC upgrade causes a hang on warm restart.

 

[myndex]

The Pikify tools (script or app) build a “modified” installer. The installer is then expected to run on a MacPro 1,1 or 2,1.



Yes. Put the SSD into your 2,1. Power on. When you hear the startup chime hold down the Alt key. It should detect the installer.

It’s a bit of a left-field way of installing.


====== alternative =========

Most users who start with a 3,1 (or other El Capitan supported Mac, like a newer MacBook/pro) will simply connect the external drive to the host then run the unmodified Apple-original “Install OS X El Capitan” app directly. Choose the donor SSD as the install target.

You then have to “make it compatible” with the 1,1 or 2,1.
At a minimum this means replacing a few files on the SSD. If I assume your SSD has the volume name “SSD” (change it to suit your name)

• Replace /Volumes/SSD/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
• Replace /Volumes/SSD/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

There are two versions of Pike’s boot.efi file. One has a black background for the Apple logo on the boot screens, the other has a grey background. There’s no other difference. Pick your preference and use that file as the replacement. You can find the grey/black versions in the Pikify toolset. If you’re using the app, right click and choose “Show contents”, go into Contents, then Resources. The files are boot_color_3_1.efi, pick one.

You should also replace the PlatformSupport.plist file located at

• Replace /Volumes/SSD/System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist

You can find the PlatformSupport.plist in the Pikify toolset.




As extra steps, you can fix up the Recovery HD too. There are a few more steps for this.

Locate the Recovery partition associated with the SSD

diskutil list

This will list all the connected disks. Look for the disk that contains the volume “SSD”. It’s likely to be disk1s2, (disk0s2 is usually your host machine’s boot volume).

If we assume disk1 (change it to match the disk number on your machine), then the associated Recovery HD is going to be disk1s3. Let’s use diskutil to mount it

diskutil mount disk1s3

This should mount the Recovery HD as “/Volumes/Recovery HD”

You need to replace the boot.efi file located at “/Volumes/Recovery HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi”

You also need to replace the PlatformSupport.plist file located at “/Volumes/Recovery HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/PlatformSupport.plist”

Finally, you should replace the BaseSystem.dmg file located at “/Volumes/Recovery HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg”

The BaseSystem.dmg is a little trickier, it’s the modified disk image. You can get this from the built installer at “/Volumes/SSD/OS X Install Data”, but again it’s not that simple because it’s embedded in the InstallESD.dmg! (I won't go through the steps of actually modifying the BaseSystem image!)

Let's open up the InstallESD

hdiutil attach -noverify "/Volumes/SSD/OS X Install Data/InstallESD.dmg"

That should open the volume named "OS X Install ESD", in here you will find the modified BaseSystem.dmg. Copy this to the Recovery HD...

sudo cp -rf "/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg" "/Volumes/Recovery HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg"

Force the MacPro 2,1 to rebuild the extensions cache when you boot it

sudo touch /Volumes/SSD/System/Library/Extensions

Bless the SSD so it will boot when you put it into the MacPro 2,1

bless --folder /Volumes/SSD/System/Library/CoreServices

You should now be good to go. Unhook your SSD from your host Mac, refit it to your MacPro 2,1
Cross your fingers
Power on your 2,1!

============== end Alternative ==============

And that's why I developed the pikify toolset!

This is really the best tutorial in the thread — it would be a great text file attached to post #1 !

 

[myndex]

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!

I don't believe the app store will show you anything that is not compatible —if you MacBook is NEW, older OSes are not compatible.

 

[rthpjm]

Unfortunately, the recently dowloaded ElCapitan installer includes security updates through 2018-003.

Hello myndex,

Can I ask you to please edit/delete the statement above?

I have just followed the link I posted at post #1390 to the Apple Support web page. From here you can download the Apple version of "Install OS X El Capitan" app. When you download this file it is an Apple Disk Image (InstallMacOSX.dmg).

When you open this disk image, it will mount and open a window that contains an Apple Package file (InstallMacOSX.pkg).

When you double-click the package, the installer will start. Don't get too exited, this "installer" simply unpacks the data as "Install OS X El Capitan" app into your Applications folder. You now have the Apple-supplied El Capitan installer app.





As I said I have just downloaded using this method, and I have double-checked what version of El Capitan it contains, as well as which kernel file it contains.

The version is 10.11.6
The kernel is as per 10.11.6

I have each kernel file extracted from each update. I ran md5 to generate a signature for each file
MD5 (kernel.10.11.0) = faf80946afd28039e7de5214dcba5980
MD5 (kernel.10.11.1) = b3b830893da403c5da7a38326b52a18e
MD5 (kernel.10.11.2) = 2c7a3aeda4039dc8ff16f8337d75f1ee
MD5 (kernel.10.11.3) = b077f646ed1f3e603adc04b1cd0ad7b1
MD5 (kernel.10.11.4) = 575ee089bfe7b1fa17677339dee070f4
MD5 (kernel.10.11.5) = af34da160b2601e1166104d67df3fb6a
MD5 (kernel.10.11.6) = b704605f8dde1e918196ebf0a672d589
MD5 (kernel.10.11.6-2020-08) = b704605f8dde1e918196ebf0a672d589
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2017-001) = 3b6d1246bd345ec114f8786ff6b386c5
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2017-002) = 7cd408e832a61c52fa7e7f6654f175e3
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2017-003) = 032d2bdc7ecd23af401bd67d0acfb05b
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2017-004) = fb43a43f673703863a1321df134d7c11
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2017-005) = 5715cec47b73877cb960081775dd2c3c
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2018-001) = fa693b647577f38d73887a4212dc062e
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2018-002) = c9795839b7939cde89706ead7aefab19
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2018-003) = bb81ce95e4978cd0d9fe172fbd430d72
MD5 (kernel.secupd.2018-004) = 64e73b314d5f2f67b8046a653511840c

As you can see (in green), the kernel I extracted some time ago from the 10.11.6 distribution is the same as the version I extracted from the download today.

The official Apple download DOES NOT include security updates.

Security Updates are released AFTER a version of Mac OS goes into "maintenance" mode.

Apple distributes versions of Mac OS and provides "point release" updates.
10.11.0
10.11.1
:
10.11.5
10.11.6

Apple then puts this version of Mac OS into maintenance mode. This means Apple releases Security Updates
Security Update for El Capitan 2017-001
:
Security Update for El Capitan 2017-005
Security Update for El Capitan 2018-001
:
Security Update for El Capitan 2018-004

The difference is that the point-release updates "fix issues" AND introduce "new" items, whereas security updates are fixes only.

The point is Apple releases "full" updates up to 10.11.6. If you download the most current release of El Capitan from Apple, what you will get is 10.11.6.

You will then need to install the Security Updates after you clean install El Capitan.

You can SAFELY install Security Update 2017-005.

Security Updates 2018-* are NOT safe to install. If you allow auto updates, or if you manually choose to install a 2018 Security update, you will brick your working system. It will go into a boot loop. It starts to boot, crashes almost immediately and then tries to boot again, crashes, reboots, etc...

You CAN recover from the boot loop issue, by down-grading the kernel file to the last known good kernel (the one from SecUpd-2017-005). It's not an easy process, you need to have a copy of the 2017-005 kernel (someone posted a copy in this thread if you're not confident in getting/extracting it yourself). Then you need to boot into your recovery partition, or attach your bricked disk to a working Mac. Then replace the "bad" kernel with the "good" kernel and rebuild the extensions cache. Reconnect your drive if necessary, and reboot.

If you use my Pikify tools, you will definitely have a working Recovery HD.
If you use the DMG clone method, you might not have a working Recovery HD (it depends on the source, and how you perform the restore)!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

If you use the DMG clone method, you will not have a working Recovery HD (probably)!

If you use the DMG clone method correctly, i.e. restore it to a whole blank HDD/SSD, you WILL have a working Recovery partition.

 

[rthpjm]

This is really the best tutorial in the thread — it would be a great text file attached to post #1 !

Different methods for different scenarios:

If you only have your MacPro 1,1 / 2,1 available, then it's quick and easy to use my Pikify tools.

If you have your MacPro and another suitable Mac (any Mac that is on the El Capitan supported hardware list, and preferably has a firewire port), then you can put the MacPro 1,1 / 2,1 into target disk mode and connect it to your other Mac.

If you have a second suitable Mac but it doesn't have Firewire, you'll probably need to pull your target disk out of your MacPro 1,1 / 2,1 and connect it to your other Mac, maybe as an internal drive (MacPro 3,1 / 4,1 / 5,1) or in a USB caddy.

Some users have reported using my Pikify Tools on a newer Mac works too (with your MacPro 1,1 / 2,1 disk connected some way)

 

[rthpjm]

If you use the DMG clone method correctly, i.e. restore it to a whole blank HDD/SSD, you WILL have a working Recovery partition.

Fair enough. Maybe they changed the DMG from the last time I took a look. Previously it was only the OS partition.

 

[myndex]

Hello myndex,

Can I ask you to please edit/delete the statement above?

I stand corrected, edited initial statement, but moreover wanted to thank you for the detailed listing of md5 and detailed info...