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

[Sko]

... The only problem I had is that I had to copy again the boot.efi file on the El Capitan partition, since my computer didn't boot after the installation. I guess they weren't copied during the install process. Could I have forgotten something on my usb key?

No, this is expected behaviour. The development is not finished, so there are still some blocks on the road. I'm glad you made it.

 

[tdatsmrad]

Use diskutil list to list the volumes. Then find the recovery volume and mount it with diskutil mount /dev/diskXsX.

Thank you for you response. I was able to replace boot.efi in all three locations. Thank you, and also to OGNerd. I have enclosed photos of my screen showing the three locations with the correct boot.efi I restarted the computer just after these photos were taken, and the OSX utilities screen came up. When I chose Reinstall OSX, it went to the Yosemite installer. I have the El Capitan installer in my Applications folder also. I went to Disk Utility and repaired Permissions. It continues to reboot into the OS X Utlities screen. I have a Carbon Copy Cloner copy on another drive, so I was able to reboot into Yosemite on that drive. Any suggestions?

 

[OGNerd]

Thank you for you response. I was able to replace boot.efi in all three locations. Thank you, and also to OGNerd. I have enclosed photos of my screen showing the three locations with the correct boot.efi I restarted the computer just after these photos were taken, and the OSX utilities screen came up. When I chose Reinstall OSX, it went to the Yosemite installer. I have the El Capitan installer in my Applications folder also. I went to Disk Utility and repaired Permissions. It continues to reboot into the OS X Utlities screen. I have a Carbon Copy Cloner copy on another drive, so I was able to reboot into Yosemite on that drive. Any suggestions? View attachment 593926 View attachment 593927

I no longer have any idea of what you are attempting to do.

 

[Pike R. Alpha]

I no longer have any idea of what you are attempting to do.

He is either booting into the Yosemite RecoveryHD, since that hasn't been replaced yet by the Installer, or launched the Yosemite installer instead of the El Capitan installer.

@tdatsmrad,

In case you have a "/.IABootFiles" folder, then remove that and launch the Install OS X El Capitan.app.
In case you have a "/OS X Install Data" folder, then remove that and launch the Install OS X El Capitan.app.

Note: You have to replace ./IABootFiles/boot.efi with boot.efi v3.0 before it restarts, or from your Yosemite drive, before you can continue with the installation.

 

[xabierot]

After many difficulties and several PRAM resets I got install El Capitan and start up my Mac 1,1, but It is extremely unstable. From time to time, suddenly it restarts. Most of the time when trying to restart hangs and its necesary to force shutdown, wait a few seconds and turn on again.
I was forced to go back to Yosemite.
Someone whit the same problem? Any help ?
S O S

 

[tdatsmrad]

I no longer have any idea of what you are attempting to do.

OGNerd, Sorry for the confusion. I am a doctor, and I can talk all day in a language many would not understand, so please understand that I do not yet understand some of what is said in this chat. But I am working to understand, and I admire those of you who speak Mac Pro. I have been following this thread for weeks now, but I waited until this past weekend to attempt an upgrade, when Pike posted his "final" version of the boot.efi. What I have done so far is this:
1) There is a Mac Pro 4,1 at my office. I used this machine and DiskMaker to create a bootable OS X El Capitan USB installer. I tested it on that machine and it worked. I then used this USB installer to install OS X El Capitan into my Applications folder and onto my desktop.
2) I used the Macrosxbootloader by Pike R Alpha to download the latest version of boot.efi onto my desktop.
3) I replaced the boot.efi in my computer in the CoreServices, i386 and Recovery files. I was having a problem previously unlocking and replacing the boot.efi in the Recovery disk, thus a previous post, but I was able to resolve that thanks to all of your help. My last post shows a picture of all three locations with the correct boot.efi file in place, just in case there was a question.
4) I then used the OS X El Capitan installer that was on my desktop to attempt to download El Capitan onto my computer. When the computer rebooted, it was into the OS X Disk Utilities screen. I tried to Reinstall OS X from that screen, but it chose Yosemite rather than El Capitan. A second reboot resulted in the same situation.
5) I used a second drive on my computer with Carbon Copy Cloner to boot back into Yosemite.
6) That is where I am currently stuck.

Tonight I will try the things Pike R. Alpha (thank you for the honor of your direct response) suggested.

Steve

 

[tdatsmrad]

He is either booting into the Yosemite RecoveryHD, since that hasn't been replaced yet by the Installer, or launched the Yosemite installer instead of the El Capitan installer.

@tdatsmrad,

In case you have a "/.IABootFiles" folder, then remove that and launch the Install OS X El Capitan.app.
In case you have a "/OS X Install Data" folder, then remove that and launch the Install OS X El Capitan.app.

Note: You have to replace ./IABootFiles/boot.efi with boot.efi v3.0 before it restarts, or from your Yosemite drive, before you can continue with the installation.

Thank you so much for your reply - I am honored. I did not find a /.IABootFiles folder. I did find a /OSX Install Data folder. I removed that. I re-installed the current 316 KB boot.efi in the three locations just to be sure. I then used the OS X El Capitan USB installer I created on a Mac Pro 4,1 machine. I received a screen that said "This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer."

Note: The boot.efi file that I download from the Macrosxbootloader site is 316 KB. After I restart the computer, or attempt to install OS X El Capitan, the boot.efi folder that is now in the three locations has changed to 313 KB.

 

[roneyg]

After many difficulties and several PRAM resets I got install El Capitan and start up my Mac 1,1, but It is extremely unstable. From time to time, suddenly it restarts. Most of the time when trying to restart hangs and its necesary to force shutdown, wait a few seconds and turn on again.
I was forced to go back to Yosemite.
Someone whit the same problem? Any help ?
S O S

Not quite as bad here, but still not satisfactory. Installation went fine, but the machine is crashing about once a day since. Usually just ceasing to respond, one spontaneous restart, one weird incremental crash with one app after the other ceasing to respond while the GUI remained partly operational. Tried "touching" extensions cache, did not help; tried to fix permissions while booted from the Mavericks backup drive, but couldn't; applied all cleanup and repair options offered by Onyx, including permissions fix, can't tell if it helped yet. FWIW...

 

[Pike R. Alpha]

Not quite as bad here, but still not satisfactory. Installation went fine, but the machine is crashing about once a day since. Usually just ceasing to respond, one spontaneous restart, one weird incremental crash with one app after the other ceasing to respond while the GUI remained partly operational. Tried "touching" extensions cache, did not help; tried to fix permissions while booted from the Mavericks backup drive, but couldn't; applied all cleanup and repair options offered by Onyx, including permissions fix, can't tell if it helped yet. FWIW...

What build are you using? The official release of El Capitan or the 10.11.1 upgrade?

 

[Pike R. Alpha]

Thank you so much for your reply - I am honored. I did not find a /.IABootFiles folder. I did find a /OSX Install Data folder. I removed that. I re-installed the current 316 KB boot.efi in the three locations just to be sure. I then used the OS X El Capitan USB installer I created on a Mac Pro 4,1 machine. I received a screen that said "This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer."

Note: The boot.efi file that I download from the Macrosxbootloader site is 316 KB. After I restart the computer, or attempt to install OS X El Capitan, the boot.efi folder that is now in the three locations has changed to 313 KB.

You may still have the good old PikeYoseFix Launch Daemon in action, which should no longer be used. Can't recall the exact name, but perhaps someone else here can chime in on this. Thanks!

 

[Postalk]

You may still have the good old PikeYoseFix Launch Daemon in action, which should no longer be used. Can't recall the exact name, but perhaps someone else here can chime in on this. Thanks!

How do we uninstall the PikeYoseFix Launch Daemon?

Do we just remove com.pike.yosefix.plist from the Library/LaunchDaemon folder?

 

[helmer]

Check the boot.efi files again. I'll bet one is still original. Past modded boot.efi wouldn't boot in 64bit machines so I always used that as a test. When it stopped working in my 5,1 I knew it was ready for 1,1

Hi MacVidCards,
I have verified the boot.efi files and, effectively they are not the good files.
Then I have downloaded again the boot.efi files, copy to my HD, checked the MD5 and SHA1 (correct) and... it works, great.
The difference is that before I have, in each folder, a boot.efi.old file. I think that there was somethning wrong with this.
Anyway, now it works perfectly, no KP, everything is ok.
Thanks again to you, Pike and the community.

 

[Sko]

Do we just remove com.pike.yosefix.plist from the Library/LaunchDaemon folder?

That would be the main part. You should also remove the boot.efi.pike (and/or boot.efi.tiamo and ._boot.efi.tiamo while you're at it) in /usr/standalone/i386. It doesn't do anything without the .plist, but you may get confused by its existence some time later.

 

[roneyg]

What build are you using? The official release of El Capitan or the 10.11.1 upgrade?

Just the standard 10.11. No crash for 22 hours (mostly idling).

 

[xabierot]

What build are you using? The official release of El Capitan or the 10.11.1 upgrade?

In my case I'm using the official release of El Capitan 10.11, from App Store.

 

[rkanaga]

Sorry for the OT hijack, but....


Does anyone know whether installing the newly released El Capitan 10.11.1 update will overwrite the boot EFi files or if it is safe to run on an Mac Pro 1,1 with modified boot EFi files? (If it does overwrite the boot EFi then I will have to run the update on a clone of my HD on an external HD, and then connect it to another mac to copy the modified boot EFi files back I suppose!)

Many thanks


Robin

 

[Hendrik94]

10.11.1 no Problem just replace the Efi's

 

[dfritchie]

updated to 10.11.1 no problems, it rebooted to the recovery drive. Replaced boot.fi's and booted just fine.

 

[Cloro]

Hi, guys!
I'm asking myself if I can update directly from the appStore as if I had a compatible Mac and then if my MP 2,1 did not boot, to take my SSD out and put it in an USB from where I could switch the boot.ini files in the three locations using a Macbook Pro with El Capitan already installed. What do you think?

At the moment my MP 2,1 works fine with a fresh installation from my MacBookPro in a USB Dock, switching the boot.ini files and make the SSD bootable.

 

[Hendrik94]

Yep should work.... or put the Pro in Tartget Disk Mode and connect MacPro and MacBook via FW800

 

[dfritchie]

I upgraded from the Appstore, the boot.efi on the recovery partition was not changed so I only had to replace two.

 

[OGNerd]

Sorry for the OT hijack, but....


Does anyone know whether installing the newly released El Capitan 10.11.1 update will overwrite the boot EFi files or if it is safe to run on an Mac Pro 1,1 with modified boot EFi files? (If it does overwrite the boot EFi then I will have to run the update on a clone of my HD on an external HD, and then connect it to another mac to copy the modified boot EFi files back I suppose!)

Yes it does, and overwriting the copy in /System/Library/CoreServices no longer appears to be trivial (at least not for me). Even with SIP disabled via the Recovery HD, I have been unable to unlock the boot.efi contained in S/L/C.

 

[Postalk]

That would be the main part. You should also remove the boot.efi.pike (and/or boot.efi.tiamo and ._boot.efi.tiamo while you're at it) in /usr/standalone/i386. It doesn't do anything without the .plist, but you may get confused by its existence some time later.

Thanks, that worked. Just wanted to be certain.

 

[rkanaga]

Yes it does, and overwriting the copy in /System/Library/CoreServices no longer appears to be trivial (at least not for me). Even with SIP disabled via the Recovery HD, I have been unable to unlock the boot.efi contained in S/L/C.

ok thanks.

My problem is that I am running a non Apple GPU (ATI 5770) and so I can't boot into the recovery drive as I can't see the boot screen. My main boot drive is an SSD in the optical bay so a pain to remove.

I think that the safest way for me to proceed would be as follows

clone the internal SSD onto a USB HD
boot from this and update it
When the mac fails to restart (because the Efi's have been swapped), disconnect the USB and restart it so the mac will boot from the previous version on the SSD
Then reconnect the USB drive and swap the boot Efi files
reboot from the USB drive and clone it back to the SSD
then reboot from the SSD!

Does that sound like a reasonable plan?

If I have another working system (i.e. 10.11.0 with the modified EFi's) on another hard drive in my Mac Pro will the machine after failing to boot from the newly updated 10.11.1 try to boot from one of those? or will it just hang?

This is getting to be a pain!

Thanks


Robin

 

[rkanaga]

PS if I clone my 10.11.0 system with the modified Efi's onto a USB HD, will my iMac (2010) boot from that and allow me to update it or would I have to replace the original Efi's 1st?

thanks