After install you need to overwrite boot.efi in /usr/standalone/i386 and /System/Library/CoreServices/ with your downloaded boot.efi
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2006/2007 Mac Pro (1,1/2,1) and OS X El Capitan
- Thread starter Mr. Zarniwoop
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That's what I did. I'm looking at them right now, both are the correct file (314 ko instead of 605). I took my HD and connected it to my mini, reinstalled 10.11 from there with the official installer, replaced the boot.efi after install, still same result, grey screen on the MacPro. As this is an upgrade and not a clean install, I'm in a crappy situation right now...
[edit] before replacing the boot.efi, I let the installation finish and even booted from this disk on the mini, everything was fine. I'm sure I have to correct boot.efi file.
[edit2] Maybe I should try a clean install, at this point I don't know what to try next. I was able to install Mavericks and Yosemite with absolutely no problem whatsoever before. The most frustrating part is that this El Capitan installation works perfectly fine on a different Mac.
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MacVid,
Thanks for that, I should have thought of it!
It boots to Recovery HD with the option key. What would you suggest at this point?
I've been tempted to get my SFOTT key out and install the legacy Yosemite, run the PikeYoseFix pkg, update to final Yosemite and give El Cap another go.
Unless there's a better way...
I appreciate all the advice and hard work everyone puts in here!
Thank you, ALL!
Someone told me that they have a GTX 650 Ti working fine w/o drivers. While it DOES have a fan (something I don't want), it may be a good alternative to my weak Radeon 6450. I'm sure the 650 isn't anywhere as good as your current card, but it may be worth-it if you want to bypass this issue; or you could flash your current card.
So I guess my only option now is to try a clean install... I already repartitioned my drive to reinstall Yosemite. I was able to mount the El Capitan recovery and copy the boot.efi, I verified numerous times that I had the other 2 at their proper place, but nothing works. grey screen and/or question mark. 
Thank you this is by far the easiest upgrade so far for my oldy but goodie Mac Pro. Works great with a flashed R9 280X.
Sweet spud, if recovery boots up that is a good sign. I would verify that all 3 of the boot.efi files are exactly, to the last decimal, the same size, same creation/modification dates, etc.
Also make sure they are in the correct place. (I.e., not up or down one level in the path)
And for those who have replaced these in a newer machine but it won't boot in the 1,1 go ahead and move back to the EFI 64 machine, if it will boot there good indication you missed at least one. (Should No longer work in EFI64)
Also make sure they are in the correct place. (I.e., not up or down one level in the path)
And for those who have replaced these in a newer machine but it won't boot in the 1,1 go ahead and move back to the EFI 64 machine, if it will boot there good indication you missed at least one. (Should No longer work in EFI64)
This is what is so confusing for me. I have made 10 or so EFI32 El Cap installs, was very easy. Trying to figure out how so many end up with grey screen/flashing question mark, etc.
Hello to all. In 2013, I successfully installed Tiamo's Maverick's hack and .efi bootloader on a Mac Pro 2, 1 and have been using it ever since without incident. However, since I installed it before the original ecovery partition fix was created, I never did go back and get that running, and have just been using Maverick's on this machine without that failsafe option.
Now it's time to install El Capitan. I've already downloaded the v10.11 Installer, as well as PikerAlpha's latest revision of the grey background and logo .efi boot loader file from here: https://github.com/Piker-Alpha/macosxbootloader
I've backed up my Maverick installation to a SuperDuper sparse bundle and plan to install El Cap from My MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode, which already is running the update. Since I never did get the Maverick's recovery partition running on my Mac Pro, what are the best steps to follow now?
1. Fix the Mavericks Recovery Partition once and for all, and then install El Cap as an update to Maverick's?
2. Wipe my SSD and do a clean install of El Cap, and then use Migration Assist to restore my data to this update?
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks to everyone in this community who has shared their collective knowledge and worked so hard to keep this project going. I plan to make a donation too.
Now it's time to install El Capitan. I've already downloaded the v10.11 Installer, as well as PikerAlpha's latest revision of the grey background and logo .efi boot loader file from here: https://github.com/Piker-Alpha/macosxbootloader
I've backed up my Maverick installation to a SuperDuper sparse bundle and plan to install El Cap from My MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode, which already is running the update. Since I never did get the Maverick's recovery partition running on my Mac Pro, what are the best steps to follow now?
1. Fix the Mavericks Recovery Partition once and for all, and then install El Cap as an update to Maverick's?
2. Wipe my SSD and do a clean install of El Cap, and then use Migration Assist to restore my data to this update?
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks to everyone in this community who has shared their collective knowledge and worked so hard to keep this project going. I plan to make a donation too.
MacVid,
Okay, I never really considered myself a noob until now...
The two boot files (i368 & CoreServices) seem to be identical and correct. The third, Recovery HD is 605kb(!?) - see attached. The thing is, I could have sworn that I replaced ALL three with the EXACT same file! The other curious thing is; the Recovery HD is the only one of the three that actually works.
A few other hints:
1) I had a Tiamo boot in the i368 file before I started the process that I was suspicious about (see attached). It's no longer there.
2) I'm not sure if I ever ran the PikeYoseFix pkg on my Yosemite despite having been up to date before attempting El Cap.
3) The current El Cap install will not run on a current MBP via firewire.
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Even worse, I just updated to El Capitan running a flashed 4870. Seems the same as Yosemite.
Looks to me like you have misidentified your machine or are still not connected with what you have done wrong
You may have a 3,1 Mac Pro, doesn't make sense that your recovery would boot with 64bit EFI and your main install would NOT boot with 32 bit EFI. This would indicate that you have a 64bit machine
Or, you need to remove the boot up Tiamo thing, I don't recall exactly where the startup item is located.
It has a startup launcher somewhere, as well as supply the boot up EFI. But the things you are typing don't make any sense, please further evaluate your situation.
BTW, the one in the usr folder should be locked.
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That's confusing for me too!
With the original boot.efi (605 KB) I can boot from this disk on my 2009 mini. With the modified boot.efi (314 KB) I cannot boot on the Mac Pro. I have replaced the boot.efi in System/Library/CoreServices and /usr/standalone/i386, and the Recovery HD. All 3 are the correct file. I'm still not sure I want to clean install El Cap on this disk (would it even work?), I'd have so many apps to reinstall. This is really pissing me off since I started this installation yesterday morning.
Naw, definitely a 1,1 flashed to 2,1 2.66 dual quad core.
I'm definitely not connected to what I've done wrong, that's why I'm here. I think if it made sense, I wouldn't have a problem.
Thanks for trying. I appreciate the effort.
I made an El Capitan USB Installer following the Yosemite Instructions, and then did an upgrade install. The installer ended up using the original boot.efi files, so I booted off my Yosemite USB to copy the Pike's El Captan boot.efi files the proper locations on the boot drive as well as the recovery drive. My Mac Pro 1,1 (2,1 firmware) then booted up into El Capitan and I was in business.
I did however run into one problem. I tried upgrading from Paragon NTFS from v12 to v14 and after restart it just kernel panics even before a progess bar appears. I did a clean install onto a spare drive to make sure it was Paragon NTFS which caused the problem and not leftover cruft from an upgrade install, but the results were still a kernel panic.
I had to re-upgrade install El Capitan over my previous install and it booted back up. Luckily I also have Tuxera NTFS, which works fine.
I did however run into one problem. I tried upgrading from Paragon NTFS from v12 to v14 and after restart it just kernel panics even before a progess bar appears. I did a clean install onto a spare drive to make sure it was Paragon NTFS which caused the problem and not leftover cruft from an upgrade install, but the results were still a kernel panic.
I had to re-upgrade install El Capitan over my previous install and it booted back up. Luckily I also have Tuxera NTFS, which works fine.
I just finished installing as well... here's how it went and my question...
I've got a 1,1 flashed to a 2,1 and I'm running an Apple ATI 5770 video card . I was running Yosemite (with PikeYoseFix) on an SSD.
Took the SSD out my Pro and used a USB adapter to connect it to my MBP. Booted the MBP which is running Yosemite and downloaded El Capitan from the app store. Copied it to the applications folder of the Yosemite install on the SDD. Opened the El Cap installer from that location and let it do its thing... It also took around 30 minutes for me as well, give or take.
1st attempt - I followed the directions posted by RX2904. Thanks for posting your directions, they did eventually work and I don't know what went wrong the first time.
At step 4 of his guide, I accessed Terminal (and followed the guide) from my MBP's Yosemite install, not while booted to the El Capitan install on the SSD connected to the MBP. You type in Terminal defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES and then hold the option key and right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch
Move along to step 5. You access those locations on the El Capitan install. The two folder/locations that you are looking for are /usr/standalone/i386/ and /System/Library/Coreservices/ which are very easy to view once you've put the command into Terminal to show hidden files/folders. As stated in the guide and by many others here, you must take a few extra seconds and verify that the file sizes in order to make sure you've actually changed/replaced them. Don't be lazy or too sure of yourself...
For the locked boot.efi file - I followed what RX2904 put in his guide and I had no trouble. All I did was highlight the locked boot.efi file and then hit CMD+I and then uncheck/tick the LOCKED box under General.
Now... the first attempt, this is where I stopped following the guide. I didn't try to access the recovery partition and replace that boot.efi located in com.apple.recovery.boot folder of the Recovery partition. Instead I just ejected the El Cap SSD and popped it into my Mac Pro and attempted to boot. I was greeted with a kernel panic and some error message about not being able to find/load drivers for ACHI or something, someone else in this thread has had the same issue. I tried multiple times to reboot and got the same thing each time. So I connected the SSD back to MBP and attempted to copy/inject the Extensions folder from my Yosemite install on the MBP to the El Capitan SSD install and reboot again once I put the SSD back in the Mac Pro. Well, that didn't work either. I still got the same crappy error message. I then tried to repair permissions, verify the disk and all that wonderful jazz that we all know we either should do or should try. Still no luck... So at this point I started to have a kernel panic of my own and was thankful I do regular daily Time Machine backups except I didn't know where my Yosemite installer was that Hennesie was nice enough to share. By the way guys - donate to these guys who accept donations - without them, you'd probably have to pony up way more cash for a new Mac or at least a used one that would run these new OS X versions.
So... freaking out at this point... I decide to just re-install El Cap once more onto the SSD. I don't think you have to do a clean install by formatting the drive you chose to use. In fact, if you don't it makes it easier cause all your stuff will still be there once you get it booted and running again. So I went through all the steps in the guide (again)... at step 6 this time, I let the MBP boot the El Cap install. I did this mostly to just verify that the install did work, which it did and I don't know much about all this except how to duplicate what someone else has already done. I then rebooted my MBP to its Yosemite install, accessed the recovery partition of the El Capitan install and replaced the boot.efi file there as well.
To access the hidden partitions, open Terminal and type
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1 then relaunch disk utility and click on the debug tab and then choose show every partition and then highlight the Recovery HD partition and then click Mount. You'll see it on the desktop and with hidden files still showing, you'll see the folder location to change the 3rd boot.efi file that you need to change.
So, after all this, I put it back into my Mac Pro and surprisingly it booted and worked. I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong the first time, I followed the same directions both times and used the same boot.efi files both times as well.
---------------------
Now, my question... I too want to know if we can use PikeYoseFix to make sure the replaced boot.efi file(s) doesn't get overwritten somehow. I've seen it asked several times throughout this thread and haven't seen anyone answer yet.
Once you get to El Capitan I have no idea how to access hidden partitions cause Disk Utility is totally different and the Terminal command to show it doesn't seem to work in El Capitan... So at this point, I'm considering either going back to Yosemite OR making a partition to install it on and restore a recent TM backup so I can have a somewhat more functional Disk Utility. I've also read that you can't resize partitions with the new Disk Utility like you could before... anything I'm wrong on in this post, please someone correct me so I don't confuse other users. Thanks to RX2904 for the guide. Thanks to everyone else for their input and time, thanks to Pike and Hennesie also and remember guys - Please donate to these guys - especially if you use anything they post/upload.
I've got a 1,1 flashed to a 2,1 and I'm running an Apple ATI 5770 video card . I was running Yosemite (with PikeYoseFix) on an SSD.
Took the SSD out my Pro and used a USB adapter to connect it to my MBP. Booted the MBP which is running Yosemite and downloaded El Capitan from the app store. Copied it to the applications folder of the Yosemite install on the SDD. Opened the El Cap installer from that location and let it do its thing... It also took around 30 minutes for me as well, give or take.
1st attempt - I followed the directions posted by RX2904. Thanks for posting your directions, they did eventually work and I don't know what went wrong the first time.
At step 4 of his guide, I accessed Terminal (and followed the guide) from my MBP's Yosemite install, not while booted to the El Capitan install on the SSD connected to the MBP. You type in Terminal defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES and then hold the option key and right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch
Move along to step 5. You access those locations on the El Capitan install. The two folder/locations that you are looking for are /usr/standalone/i386/ and /System/Library/Coreservices/ which are very easy to view once you've put the command into Terminal to show hidden files/folders. As stated in the guide and by many others here, you must take a few extra seconds and verify that the file sizes in order to make sure you've actually changed/replaced them. Don't be lazy or too sure of yourself...
For the locked boot.efi file - I followed what RX2904 put in his guide and I had no trouble. All I did was highlight the locked boot.efi file and then hit CMD+I and then uncheck/tick the LOCKED box under General.
Now... the first attempt, this is where I stopped following the guide. I didn't try to access the recovery partition and replace that boot.efi located in com.apple.recovery.boot folder of the Recovery partition. Instead I just ejected the El Cap SSD and popped it into my Mac Pro and attempted to boot. I was greeted with a kernel panic and some error message about not being able to find/load drivers for ACHI or something, someone else in this thread has had the same issue. I tried multiple times to reboot and got the same thing each time. So I connected the SSD back to MBP and attempted to copy/inject the Extensions folder from my Yosemite install on the MBP to the El Capitan SSD install and reboot again once I put the SSD back in the Mac Pro. Well, that didn't work either. I still got the same crappy error message. I then tried to repair permissions, verify the disk and all that wonderful jazz that we all know we either should do or should try. Still no luck... So at this point I started to have a kernel panic of my own and was thankful I do regular daily Time Machine backups except I didn't know where my Yosemite installer was that Hennesie was nice enough to share. By the way guys - donate to these guys who accept donations - without them, you'd probably have to pony up way more cash for a new Mac or at least a used one that would run these new OS X versions.
So... freaking out at this point... I decide to just re-install El Cap once more onto the SSD. I don't think you have to do a clean install by formatting the drive you chose to use. In fact, if you don't it makes it easier cause all your stuff will still be there once you get it booted and running again. So I went through all the steps in the guide (again)... at step 6 this time, I let the MBP boot the El Cap install. I did this mostly to just verify that the install did work, which it did and I don't know much about all this except how to duplicate what someone else has already done. I then rebooted my MBP to its Yosemite install, accessed the recovery partition of the El Capitan install and replaced the boot.efi file there as well.
To access the hidden partitions, open Terminal and type
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1 then relaunch disk utility and click on the debug tab and then choose show every partition and then highlight the Recovery HD partition and then click Mount. You'll see it on the desktop and with hidden files still showing, you'll see the folder location to change the 3rd boot.efi file that you need to change.
So, after all this, I put it back into my Mac Pro and surprisingly it booted and worked. I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong the first time, I followed the same directions both times and used the same boot.efi files both times as well.
---------------------
Now, my question... I too want to know if we can use PikeYoseFix to make sure the replaced boot.efi file(s) doesn't get overwritten somehow. I've seen it asked several times throughout this thread and haven't seen anyone answer yet.
Once you get to El Capitan I have no idea how to access hidden partitions cause Disk Utility is totally different and the Terminal command to show it doesn't seem to work in El Capitan... So at this point, I'm considering either going back to Yosemite OR making a partition to install it on and restore a recent TM backup so I can have a somewhat more functional Disk Utility. I've also read that you can't resize partitions with the new Disk Utility like you could before... anything I'm wrong on in this post, please someone correct me so I don't confuse other users. Thanks to RX2904 for the guide. Thanks to everyone else for their input and time, thanks to Pike and Hennesie also and remember guys - Please donate to these guys - especially if you use anything they post/upload.
PikeYoseFix needs to be updated to "PikeCapFix" otherwise it will install the wrong boot.efi. We'll see how to figure this out when 10.11.1 comes out...
It would be nice, but you can always boot into a Carbon Copy backup which you should do first before any upgrades and then copy back over the EFI files. I always backup to Carbon Copy Cloner prior to any upgrades be it OSX, Final Cut, Premiere or any of the other programs that I work on a daily basis.
On my Mac Pro 1.1 it works great. I noticed improved performance with Final Cut Pro X things were a little laggy with Yosemite. @MacVidCards yes I really don't understand why people are having issues, only thing I can think off is the graphics cards. I highly recommend purchasing at a minimum a flashed R9280X or the GTX980 some SSD's and a USB 3.0 card to extend the life of the Mac Pro 1.1/2.1.
Hey am trying to do as the steps you provided but, the zip file how do i replaced boot.efi? i made all files visible but when i get to/usr/standalone/i386/ ....i tried copy and past and drag and drop but it won't let me i get the circle with line across . thanks in advance ..
UPDATE: i got it working thanks man. no wonder i couldn't replace the boo.efi i was trying to do while running the hdd where i was i had install el capitan wich was my target.
now one question ,do i need to replace the boot.efi on hdd recovery i read some are doing it.
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