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

[macguyincali]

You "should" still be able to do this with El Capitan's Disk Utility, the GUI changed a bit but it should still be possible.
It would best be performed from another disk/partition/OS that is not on the same disk that you are trying to modify.
(You could do it from the active partition/disk but it carries that extra risk, and might also explain why it says you can't perform the operations). Try booting from the Installer Thumb drive, then start Disk Utility from there...

Which brings me to ( b ), try the command from post #1521, then reboot. I think that once you successfully run the installer, it blesses the installer drive as well as the OS drive, which results in the installer drive not being usable a second time.

Start Disk Utility, select your El Capitan disk, click the partition button.

The next bit depends upon what else you have in the other partition on that disk. If it's free space you should be good to go. Simply type the full disk size into the Size box, and then hit apply.

If you have another partition, but no data on it, you could click on that partition to select it from the disk icon on the left, then click the minus button to remove it. I'm not sure if the remaining partition will automatically expand into the space, but you could then repeat the above with your remaining El Capitan partition.

If you have data on the other partition, try to just move the divider, grab the spot on the circumference and move it to give your El Capitan as much space as you can. Hit Apply.

So, here's where I am so far:

a) I've used Chronosync to create a clone disk (install 2), but it won't boot. It starts up, loads little progress bar, then shuts down.

b) I've booted into my old Mavericks install, gone to disk utility and weirdly, it will let me decrease the size of the install partition, but will not let me expand it, despite there being 200G of empty space on the disk. (see picture, attached). I've reduced the size of Install 2 (which won't boot) and it creates empty space, but Install 1 will not expand beyond its original size. I can reduce it slightly, but not expand it. Usually, in the partition diagram, there is a little dot on the divider that allows you to slide the divider up or down to allocate more or less to each partition. This divider between the partitions 1 and 2 is solid and without a dot to grab.

c) Capitan Install 1 blessing says:

finderinfo[0]: 443 => Blessed System Folder is /Volumes/El Capitan Install/System/Library/CoreServices
finderinfo[1]: 424627 => Blessed System File is /Volumes/El Capitan Install/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

d) Cap Intall 2 blessing says:

finderinfo[0]: 232814 => Blessed System Folder is /Volumes/El Capitan Install 2/System/Library/CoreServices
finderinfo[1]: 255406 => Blessed System File is /Volumes/El Capitan Install 2/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

Does that mean anything to you?

 

[rthpjm]

So, here's where I am so far:

a) I've used Chronosync to create a clone disk (install 2), but it won't boot. It starts up, loads little progress bar, then shuts down.

b) I've booted into my old Mavericks install, gone to disk utility and weirdly, it will let me decrease the size of the install partition, but will not let me expand it, despite there being 200G of empty space on the disk. (see picture, attached). I've reduced the size of Install 2 (which won't boot) and it creates empty space, but Install 1 will not expand beyond its original size. I can reduce it slightly, but not expand it. Usually, in the partition diagram, there is a little dot on the divider that allows you to slide the divider up or down to allocate more or less to each partition. This divider between the partitions 1 and 2 is solid and without a dot to grab.

c) Capitan Install 1 blessing says:

finderinfo[0]: 443 => Blessed System Folder is /Volumes/El Capitan Install/System/Library/CoreServices
finderinfo[1]: 424627 => Blessed System File is /Volumes/El Capitan Install/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

d) Cap Intall 2 blessing says:

finderinfo[0]: 232814 => Blessed System Folder is /Volumes/El Capitan Install 2/System/Library/CoreServices
finderinfo[1]: 255406 => Blessed System File is /Volumes/El Capitan Install 2/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

Does that mean anything to you?

Oops, I made a mistake. Sorry. The command I wanted you to run was in post #1525. My mistake. Oh, and run it on your Installer thumb drive, not your El Capitan OS partition. You were wondering why you could not use the installer a second time, this should fix that.

As for your disk partitioning. I think the recent changes to Disk Utility are non-intuitive. Maybe it is just because I have become used to the "old" method, and the "new" method in Disk Utility does not sit well with me....

In pictures:
Here's one of my drives. I have partitioned it into two roughly equal volumes (Untitled on the left, El Capitan on the right)


From here I can move the slider to make the El Capitan volume smaller but I can't make it bigger



In order to make the El Capitan partition bigger, I have to make space for it by deleting the Untitled partition
Click the left-hand half segment, then click the minus button.
Deleting the partition will delete any data stored there, make sure the volume is empty or that you can afford to lose that data



The El Capitan volume will increase to occupy the remaining space



If you want to retain some portion of the disk for a second smaller partition (let us say a quarter, or 500GB in my example)

Click the left-hand half segment, drag its slider



Apply it - I now have El Capitan, Untitled, and Untitled1
at this point, copy/move any data off Untitled onto Untitled1, because I'm going to delete Untitled

Now with Untitled selected



Delete it by clicking the minus button, El Capitan will expand into that space.



Click Apply

 

[Rick W.]

Some of the guys that were working with Pike split off into a new thread to concentrate on just the development and testing of Pike's frequent changes, "the developer thread". As these things go, the volunteers that were testing Pike's changes found that they needed to frequently wipe and re-install, me included, so I developed a bundle of scripts and items to ease the install of a new El Capitan. My innovation (if you want to call it that) was to find a way to patch the fresh install with Pike's efi files during the install. I called my bundle of scripts and items 'pikify3.1.zip'.

Since it is now well used and tested, I'll cross post here. The latest version pikify3.1.v5.zip will build install media with all the fixes in (but not including my Boot64 update protector, nor the equivalent pikeyosfix derivative CapitanPikeFix - see the next post). This version also excludes the boot.efi files from SIP-control (meaning SIP is running and protecting everything else, just not the boot.efi files).

So with pikify3.1 you will build an installer onto media, typically a USB memory stick, or a small disk partition.
You will then boot off the installer, to run the installation process. Once the installer finishes, you will have a working copy of El Capitan with no further need for changes. You can then choose to install the updated version of pikeyosfix now called CapitanPikeFix, or my Boot64 (both do pretty much the same thing), to allow you to run the Apple updates from either the App Store or from the DMG downloads.

READ ALL THE CAVEATS - memory, backup, fresh install, migration assistant, etc...

Use this if you have not yet installed El Capitan - this is the installer (starting point)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORIGINAL POST WAS AT POST #807 of the 'boot.efi developer's thread'

============= Edit =====================

It appears that MacPro1,1 and 2,1 need a lot of memory to achieve a successful install by this method. Others have kindly tested with varying configurations of RAM. See the later posts in the developers thread and my post at #855

A minimum of 12GB seems to be required...

============ end edit ====================

Hi @Inspector42, I'm glad you were able to use my script. I like your rsync idea!

Here is a new script and accompanying files. This one is based around Apple's createinstallmedia script.

The unique feature of this script is that it builds an installer which will pre-patch the resulting El Capitan volume. What this means is that the installer can be run, and then the reboot will work without any further modification. You have a working installation of El Capitan directly from the installer.

Download the zip file.
Unzip it.
You should have a folder named pikify3.1 (possibly with the version number pikify3.1.v2 etc)
In that folder should be a number of files, the script is createpikeinstallmedia

Pre-requisites:

• As per Peter's guide, you will need a volume that can be overwritten by the installer
  • This could be a USB memory stick
  • A small disk partition from one of your hard drives (not the disk that you intend to use for El Capitan)
    • You need to be able to boot from this volume
• The installer volume needs to be at least 8GB
• Your copy of 'Install OS X El Capitan.app' should be located in your /Applications folder

Usage:

• Open a terminal window
• Change directory to the pikify3.1 folder from the zip file
• You need to run the script as the root user
  • sudo -s
  • [your password]
  • ./createpikeinstallmedia /Volumes/[InstallerVolumeName]
• or
  • sudo ./createpikeinstallmedia /Volumes/[InstallerVolumeName]
  • [your password]

Once the script competes you should have an installer volume named 'Install OS X El Capitan'

• Reboot your machine
• Hold the ALT key down immediately after the startup chime to enter the boot chooser
• Choose the Install OS X El Capitan volume
  • For those people with graphics cards that don't show the boot screens
    • Get to the boot chooser as above then press the right-arrow key once, followed by the return/enter key). If you have just your main disk and the installer volume this should work. If you have more than just those two, experiment pressing the arrow key more than once until you find the installer volume!
    • OR, consider getting hold of a DVI-vga adaptor. You should be able to find one of your DVI ports that will send out a VGA signal (to a VGA connected monitor) and show you the boot screen.

Your machine should boot into the Installer, run the installer
You may need to click the Reboot button at the end of the install (for some reason, the 10 second countdown doesn't seem to automatically start)

Your machine should reboot into the new El Capitan Installation and begin the OS X setup procedure.

I have only tested this script as a clean install onto an erased destination disk. I don't know if it will work for an upgrade. I have successfully updated a Yosemite clean install to El Capitan.
If you are upgrading I would suggest a clean install of El Capitan onto a spare disk, then use the Apple Migration Assistant to migrate your previous system and user files.
If you are brave and want to try an in-place upgrade, make sure you backup your current system first...

Detail:

I created an additional package (pikify.pkg) which handles the post-install modification of the boot.efi files on the destination volume. The script puts pikify.pkg into the InstallESD.dmg, along with OSInstall.collection.
OSInstall.collection overrides the default behaviour of the Installer Assistant, it calls the default OSInstall.mpkg and appends pikify.pkg to the install chain.

In effect I'm running the exact same installation as an unmodified Apple install with the addition of my pikify.pkg.

Because the default behaviour has been overridden, there are a few differences:

• An unmodified Apple installer will open with the /System/Installation/CDIS/OS X Utilities.app
  • The modified installer goes straight into the Installer
• An unmodified Apple installer will automatically reboot 10 seconds after the installation completes
  • The modified installer doesn't, you will have to click the Reboot button

I've included both versions (black and grey) of Pike's 3.1 boot.efi file. If you want to change the colour, overwrite the boot.efi file in the pikify3.1 folder with the coloured version of your choice. The zip file unpacks with the grey version in place.

Enjoy...

======================== UPDATE ================================

The original Apple BaseSystem.dmg appears to be missing a number of fonts. This causes the installer log file to fill up with thousands of unnecessary lines complaining about the missing fonts. I've updated the installer creation script to fix the missing fonts. It just makes the log file smaller and easier to read and follow.

See pikify3.1.v2.zip in the attachments...

==================== ANOTHER UPDATE =============================

I figured out how to set up El Capitan so that we can make it survive an Apple update. See my post at post #1391

I've modified the pikify3.1 set so that those changes are automatically applied.

I'll leave v2 here in case anyone is paranoid, and doesn't want the slight lowering of SIP's security blanket!

==================== Version 5 ===================================

V5 includes some mods to the SIP exclusion paths file

 

[Rick W.]

I've now tried twice to install on a blank spare disc using pikify3.1. All that gets installed is a folder "Private" and a bunch of invisible files. I've followed directions to the letter and even started from scratch using pikify again. No luck so far. Any ideas?

 

[macguyincali]

Thanks for the detailed response. So I opened the partition dialogue in El Capitan and I am getting the same results: Interestingly, the partition dialog will not let me delete the other partition. The minus sign is dimmed out. I erased the data on that 2nd partition, so now I have two partitions: El Cap Install (can't expand, though I can contract it) and Empty which is an actual partition (not just empty space)


.

The working El Cap install is the small sliver. Note that when smaller sliver is selected, the dot is on the right side, but not the left. This only allows it to contract the partition but it won't expand (into the other side).



I can contract the larger partition fine, but that results in creating a third partition (Untitled) automatically, not empty space. Note that the dots are on both slides of the sliver, meaning it can be expand in either direction (though it won't expand INTO the El Cap sliver).




This is maddening and I can't understand why it is doing this. To further complicate matters, I can no longer boot off the Install USB. I select it on the Boot screen, it shows the progress bar, but then boots into my El Capitan drive.

In addition, I've tried to boot off the recovery drive 11.2 and the same thing happens. Booting of the Lion recovery drive takes me to the Recovery screen, but then it seems to freeze up. Right now, I can boot into Mavericks install, El Cap Install. I cannot boot into the El Cap clone I created using Chronosync.

Next steps:

a) currently, using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the El Cap install into the larger partition. Will report back on the results / bootability of that. If that works, it solves my problem.

b) if that doesn't work, will try to create another install disk using the methods mentioned earlier and simply install El Cap on the larger partition. Transfer whatever preferences and system files I need from the first install. Confirm that it reboots correctly multiple times. Then delete the original install.

c) not sure what is going on with the recovery partitions. odd.

 

[rthpjm]

I've now tried twice to install on a blank spare disc using pikify3.1. All that gets installed is a folder "Private" and a bunch of invisible files. I've followed directions to the letter and even started from scratch using pikify again. No luck so far. Any ideas?

Hello Rick,

Let us check the fundamentals.

1. You have built an installer on a USB thumb drive, or a small partition, using the pikify3.1 collection. Yes?
   • You were patient when you built the installer using createpikeinstallmedia, and it ran through to completion. Yes?
   • You unpacked the zip file into a folder, the folder contains a number of files, you have not moved or modified any of the files in this folder. Yes?
   • You run createpikeinstallmedia from this folder. Yes?
2. You have rebooted your Mac and selected the installer volume. It booted into the installer. Yes?
3. Your Mac has 12GB of RAM or more. Yes?

Can you take a look inside the /private folder that you mentioned, is there a log folder? Is there a file inside the log folder called install.log? If so can you post it and I'll take a look.

I will assume yes to the above, when you are in the installer, you can view the log file by pressing Apple-L ( or picking View Log ) from the menus. You can select "show all" in the log window. You can also choose to save the log file to any available volume.

 

[macguyincali]

Thanks for the detailed response. So I opened the partition dialogue in El Capitan and I am getting the same results: Interestingly, the partition dialog will not let me delete the other partition. The minus sign is dimmed out. I erased the data on that 2nd partition, so now I have two partitions: El Cap Install (can't expand, though I can contract it) and Empty which is an actual partition (not just empty space)


View attachment 606591 .

The working El Cap install is the small sliver. Note that when smaller sliver is selected, the dot is on the right side, but not the left. This only allows it to contract the partition but it won't expand (into the other side).

View attachment 606592

I can contract the larger partition fine, but that results in creating a third partition (Untitled) automatically, not empty space. Note that the dots are on both slides of the sliver, meaning it can be expand in either direction (though it won't expand INTO the El Cap sliver).

View attachment 606593


This is maddening and I can't understand why it is doing this. To further complicate matters, I can no longer boot off the Install USB. I select it on the Boot screen, it shows the progress bar, but then boots into my El Capitan drive.

In addition, I've tried to boot off the recovery drive 11.2 and the same thing happens. Booting of the Lion recovery drive takes me to the Recovery screen, but then it seems to freeze up. Right now, I can boot into Mavericks install, El Cap Install. I cannot boot into the El Cap clone I created using Chronosync.

Next steps:

a) currently, using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the El Cap install into the larger partition. Will report back on the results / bootability of that. If that works, it solves my problem.

b) if that doesn't work, will try to create another install disk using the methods mentioned earlier and simply install El Cap on the larger partition. Transfer whatever preferences and system files I need from the first install. Confirm that it reboots correctly multiple times. Then delete the original install.

c) not sure what is going on with the recovery partitions. odd.

OK. Looks like Carbon Copy Cloner was the way to go. Have cloned the drive to the other partition and it is functional (am working on if as we speak). I have plenty of space to work with now. Once I am satisfied, I will delete the original partition. Seems like we're back in business.

Just want to take time out to say how much I appreciate people like rthpjm on these forums. You took a lot of time to help so many different people in fixing their problems. Not friends of yours, or family, but complete strangers. A tremendous service to a community of people and, mostly thankless. I think everyone has some sort of special skill set that can be invaluable to others and it really furthers our progress in this world when we share these special skills. It is incumbent upon all of us to find out what that skill is and help others. Thanks for reminding us!

rthpjm thanks for your service!

 

[rthpjm]

Thanks for the detailed response. So I opened the partition dialogue in El Capitan and I am getting the same results: Interestingly, the partition dialog will not let me delete the other partition. The minus sign is dimmed out. I erased the data on that 2nd partition, so now I have two partitions: El Cap Install (can't expand, though I can contract it) and Empty which is an actual partition (not just empty space)


View attachment 606591 .

The working El Cap install is the small sliver. Note that when smaller sliver is selected, the dot is on the right side, but not the left. This only allows it to contract the partition but it won't expand (into the other side).

View attachment 606592

I can contract the larger partition fine, but that results in creating a third partition (Untitled) automatically, not empty space. Note that the dots are on both slides of the sliver, meaning it can be expand in either direction (though it won't expand INTO the El Cap sliver).

View attachment 606593


This is maddening and I can't understand why it is doing this. To further complicate matters, I can no longer boot off the Install USB. I select it on the Boot screen, it shows the progress bar, but then boots into my El Capitan drive.

In addition, I've tried to boot off the recovery drive 11.2 and the same thing happens. Booting of the Lion recovery drive takes me to the Recovery screen, but then it seems to freeze up. Right now, I can boot into Mavericks install, El Cap Install. I cannot boot into the El Cap clone I created using Chronosync.

Next steps:

a) currently, using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the El Cap install into the larger partition. Will report back on the results / bootability of that. If that works, it solves my problem.

b) if that doesn't work, will try to create another install disk using the methods mentioned earlier and simply install El Cap on the larger partition. Transfer whatever preferences and system files I need from the first install. Confirm that it reboots correctly multiple times. Then delete the original install.

c) not sure what is going on with the recovery partitions. odd.

Your problem with the partition map is due to the El Capitan Install partition being "second" in terms of the partition table (your first screenshot shows the "Empty" volume as the first partition). Your problem is occurring because of the ordering. The start of a partition is typically fixed and can't be "moved". You can shrink a partition boundary and create a "new partition boundary". Once you commit the change the start of the partition is effectively fixed. The only way to change the start of a partition is to delete the partition.

Think of the starts as fixed, and the ends as variable.

You will probably need to start again! I would recommend a partition layout with the new or active El Capitan as the first volume...

In general you can fix the Recovery partition by mounting it and replacing the /Volumes/Recovery\ HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi file with a copy of Pike's (there is more to do for a full fix but it is too much to type here)

 

[iMattux]

OK. Looks like Carbon Copy Cloner was the way to go.

I was going to respond to your earlier post and say "a) will work." Carbon Copy Cloner is awesome for ease of use. For most users it's well worth the $40 and I can't recommend it strongly enough. If you've never experienced data loss resulting from any of a number of things, you will. Regular, automated backups are the most important thing that almost no home users do. CCC is a set-and-forget tool.

Having said that, if you don't wanna pony up the $40, you can make an exact copy of any file, folder or entire drive using the terminal:

 sudo dd if=/path/to/source of=/path/to/destination bs=(block size) count=(optional count)

This will make an exact bit-for-bit copy of the source file to the destination. You can read up on the optimum block sizes for different data types or just use 1M and the copy may by slightly larger - by a MB or two, but otherwise an exact copy.

For a one-off, dd is perfect.

If you want to read up on rsync, you can use it to schedule backups. Carbon Copy Cloner is, actually, just a very user friendly front-end that calls dd and rsync.

Cheers

 

[macguyincali]

Thanks iMattux. I'm a big fan of letting people (and apps) smarter than me handle tasks like this. The only way I use the command line is by copying and pasting code that others have writted. I don't trust myself coming up with syntax and so forth. CCC is amazing and I have just upgraded my registration to the new version. And El Cap on the 10 year old computer? Priceless.

 

[iMattux]

If he got a premium it was less than $5

If you think anyone is selling pre-loaded hard drives & SSD on eBay for a $5 premium, then you aren't aware of how cheaply you can get old hard drives and even new SSD drives in bulk:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-Lot-of...274219?hash=item3d02ff0beb:g:igoAAOxyHBBSO0oT

There's 10 for $6.50 each and that was the 2nd item on the list. I didn't even try to find better deals. Here's the 2nd listing for bulk SSDs:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-Of-3-In...136018?hash=item1a0b15ed12:g:yJQAAOSwo3pWd8ea

So I'd guess the profit is somewhere closer to $25/drive,but that's beside the point.

The point is that the jerk you bought the pre-loaded drive is profiting from someone else's work. You paying him means that you're part of the problem. It's unfortunate that you don't understand that.

And you can still come here, ask questions and get answers. Some people get it, others never will.

Peace and Merry Christmas

 

[macguyincali]

Quick question: does anyone know if there are any issues with spotlight when upgrading to El Cap using Pikefy? For some reason I'm not finding a lot of files on the disk using Spotlight (folders, documents, etc.).

 

[iMattux]

Thanks iMattux. I'm a big fan of letting people (and apps) smarter than me handle tasks like this. The only way I use the command line is by copying and pasting code that others have writted. I don't trust myself coming up with syntax and so forth. CCC is amazing and I have just upgraded my registration to the new version. And El Cap on the 10 year old computer? Priceless.

Awesome. And agreed. My total cost was $32 for ram and $150 for the GPU. Show me a PC from 2006 that can run Windows 10. Not impossible, but not likely. And definitely not thousands of them.

Cheers

 

[Rick W.]

Hello Rick,

Let us check the fundamentals.

1. You have built an installer on a USB thumb drive, or a small partition, using the pikify3.1 collection. Yes?
   • You were patient when you built the installer using createpikeinstallmedia, and it ran through to completion. Yes?
   • You unpacked the zip file into a folder, the folder contains a number of files, you have not moved or modified any of the files in this folder. Yes?
   • You run createpikeinstallmedia from this folder. Yes?
2. You have rebooted your Mac and selected the installer volume. It booted into the installer. Yes?
3. Your Mac has 12GB of RAM or more. Yes?

Can you take a look inside the /private folder that you mentioned, is there a log folder? Is there a file inside the log folder called install.log? If so can you post it and I'll take a look.

I will assume yes to the above, when you are in the installer, you can view the log file by pressing Apple-L ( or picking View Log ) from the menus. You can select "show all" in the log window. You can also choose to save the log file to any available volume.

The problem seems to be only 5GB RAM. Just ordered 16 more. Yes to everything else. Thank you for your reply.

Rick.

 

[Sandleford]

If you're lucky and/or patient, you can pick up a flashable card for $20.

Don't tell me you got the 7950 for that! BTW, not many for sale unless for a little much.

 

[artooks]

Hi All,

I really need some help with the update to Mac OSX 10.11.2 I am already using my mac pro 2,1 with boot.efi but for updates how should I do it can I install it with no problem ?

 

[Galostro]

What are the two boot.efi i have to replace after an update again?

Thanks in advance

 

[sunnijim]

Some of the guys that were working with Pike split off into a new thread to concentrate on just the development and testing of Pike's frequent changes, "the developer thread". As these things go, the volunteers that were testing Pike's changes found that they needed to frequently wipe and re-install, me included, so I developed a bundle of scripts and items to ease the install of a new El Capitan. My innovation (if you want to call it that) was to find a way to patch the fresh install with Pike's efi files during the install. I called my bundle of scripts and items 'pikify3.1.zip'.

Since it is now well used and tested, I'll cross post here. The latest version pikify3.1.v5.zip will build install media with all the fixes in (but not including my Boot64 update protector, nor the equivalent pikeyosfix derivative CapitanPikeFix - see the next post). This version also excludes the boot.efi files from SIP-control (meaning SIP is running and protecting everything else, just not the boot.efi files).

So with pikify3.1 you will build an installer onto media, typically a USB memory stick, or a small disk partition.
You will then boot off the installer, to run the installation process. Once the installer finishes, you will have a working copy of El Capitan with no further need for changes. You can then choose to install the updated version of pikeyosfix now called CapitanPikeFix, or my Boot64 (both do pretty much the same thing), to allow you to run the Apple updates from either the App Store or from the DMG downloads.

READ ALL THE CAVEATS - memory, backup, fresh install, migration assistant, etc...

Use this if you have not yet installed El Capitan - this is the installer (starting point)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORIGINAL POST WAS AT POST #807 of the 'boot.efi developer's thread'

============= Edit =====================

It appears that MacPro1,1 and 2,1 need a lot of memory to achieve a successful install by this method. Others have kindly tested with varying configurations of RAM. See the later posts in the developers thread and my post at #855

A minimum of 12GB seems to be required...

============ end edit ====================

Hi @Inspector42, I'm glad you were able to use my script. I like your rsync idea!

Here is a new script and accompanying files. This one is based around Apple's createinstallmedia script.

The unique feature of this script is that it builds an installer which will pre-patch the resulting El Capitan volume. What this means is that the installer can be run, and then the reboot will work without any further modification. You have a working installation of El Capitan directly from the installer.

Download the zip file.
Unzip it.
You should have a folder named pikify3.1 (possibly with the version number pikify3.1.v2 etc)
In that folder should be a number of files, the script is createpikeinstallmedia

Pre-requisites:

• As per Peter's guide, you will need a volume that can be overwritten by the installer
  • This could be a USB memory stick
  • A small disk partition from one of your hard drives (not the disk that you intend to use for El Capitan)
    • You need to be able to boot from this volume
• The installer volume needs to be at least 8GB
• Your copy of 'Install OS X El Capitan.app' should be located in your /Applications folder

Usage:

• Open a terminal window
• Change directory to the pikify3.1 folder from the zip file
• You need to run the script as the root user
  • sudo -s
  • [your password]
  • ./createpikeinstallmedia /Volumes/[InstallerVolumeName]
• or
  • sudo ./createpikeinstallmedia /Volumes/[InstallerVolumeName]
  • [your password]

Once the script competes you should have an installer volume named 'Install OS X El Capitan'

• Reboot your machine
• Hold the ALT key down immediately after the startup chime to enter the boot chooser
• Choose the Install OS X El Capitan volume
  • For those people with graphics cards that don't show the boot screens
    • Get to the boot chooser as above then press the right-arrow key once, followed by the return/enter key). If you have just your main disk and the installer volume this should work. If you have more than just those two, experiment pressing the arrow key more than once until you find the installer volume!
    • OR, consider getting hold of a DVI-vga adaptor. You should be able to find one of your DVI ports that will send out a VGA signal (to a VGA connected monitor) and show you the boot screen.

Your machine should boot into the Installer, run the installer
You may need to click the Reboot button at the end of the install (for some reason, the 10 second countdown doesn't seem to automatically start)

Your machine should reboot into the new El Capitan Installation and begin the OS X setup procedure.

I have only tested this script as a clean install onto an erased destination disk. I don't know if it will work for an upgrade. I have successfully updated a Yosemite clean install to El Capitan.
If you are upgrading I would suggest a clean install of El Capitan onto a spare disk, then use the Apple Migration Assistant to migrate your previous system and user files.
If you are brave and want to try an in-place upgrade, make sure you backup your current system first...

Detail:

I created an additional package (pikify.pkg) which handles the post-install modification of the boot.efi files on the destination volume. The script puts pikify.pkg into the InstallESD.dmg, along with OSInstall.collection.
OSInstall.collection overrides the default behaviour of the Installer Assistant, it calls the default OSInstall.mpkg and appends pikify.pkg to the install chain.

In effect I'm running the exact same installation as an unmodified Apple install with the addition of my pikify.pkg.

Because the default behaviour has been overridden, there are a few differences:

• An unmodified Apple installer will open with the /System/Installation/CDIS/OS X Utilities.app
  • The modified installer goes straight into the Installer
• An unmodified Apple installer will automatically reboot 10 seconds after the installation completes
  • The modified installer doesn't, you will have to click the Reboot button

I've included both versions (black and grey) of Pike's 3.1 boot.efi file. If you want to change the colour, overwrite the boot.efi file in the pikify3.1 folder with the coloured version of your choice. The zip file unpacks with the grey version in place.

Enjoy...

======================== UPDATE ================================

The original Apple BaseSystem.dmg appears to be missing a number of fonts. This causes the installer log file to fill up with thousands of unnecessary lines complaining about the missing fonts. I've updated the installer creation script to fix the missing fonts. It just makes the log file smaller and easier to read and follow.

See pikify3.1.v2.zip in the attachments...

==================== ANOTHER UPDATE =============================

I figured out how to set up El Capitan so that we can make it survive an Apple update. See my post at post #1391

I've modified the pikify3.1 set so that those changes are automatically applied.

I'll leave v2 here in case anyone is paranoid, and doesn't want the slight lowering of SIP's security blanket!

==================== Version 5 ===================================

V5 includes some mods to the SIP exclusion paths file

Thank you rthpjm For your work on making the whole process of getting El Capitan on old MacPros simple. You seem to have made it easy enough for dummies to have a go, so i did and never made it over the starting line. I failed to make the USB boot installer. I have pretty much zero experience of coding, I'm used to nice user friendly interfaces. :-( ha ha sorry

I understand in principal what needs to happen but...

I wonder if you would be kind enough to give me more idiot proof instructions?

I have an 8gb correctly formatted usb drive mounted called [Untitled]
I have apples el capitan installer in my applications folder
I have downloaded and unzipped your pikify3.1v5 folder

then i get stuck, please could explain...

"Change directory to the pikify3.1 folder from the zip file" - do i drag the "pikily.pkg" installer to the Macintosh HD? do i leave the unzipped "pikify3.1" folder in the downloads folder?

"You need to run the script as the root user" ?

I can cut and paste your script adding my password and volume name, I am sure. Once i have the installer USB i can probably go from there.

Thank you in advance.

 

[rthpjm]

Thank you rthpjm For your work on making the whole process of getting El Capitan on old MacPros simple. You seem to have made it easy enough for dummies to have a go, so i did and never made it over the starting line. I failed to make the USB boot installer. I have pretty much zero experience of coding, I'm used to nice user friendly interfaces. :-( ha ha sorry

I understand in principal what needs to happen but...

I wonder if you would be kind enough to give me more idiot proof instructions?

I have an 8gb correctly formatted usb drive mounted called [Untitled]
I have apples el capitan installer in my applications folder
I have downloaded and unzipped your pikify3.1v5 folder

then i get stuck, please could explain...

"Change directory to the pikify3.1 folder from the zip file" - do i drag the "pikily.pkg" installer to the Macintosh HD? do i leave the unzipped "pikify3.1" folder in the downloads folder?

"You need to run the script as the root user" ?

I can cut and paste your script adding my password and volume name, I am sure. Once i have the installer USB i can probably go from there.

Thank you in advance.

Hello sunnijim,

Welcome, and at least you gave it a good try

Unfortunately, we do most of this work from the command line. I have given some thought to creating a graphical User Interface for this, but so far I haven't felt the need to put it into action.

Okay, here's what you need to do.

Open a Terminal. You will find it in Applications > Utilities


When you have the terminal open, you need to elevate your privileges by typing

sudo -s
[your normal password]

This will make you the 'root user'.
Now you need to change directory to the pikify3.1 folder. You can type this in if you know where about you put it. In the Terminal there are some special meanings

cd ~[your normal login name]
e.g.
cd ~fred

will take you to your Home folder

cd ~fred/Downloads

will take you to your Downloads folder in your home directory

cd ~fred/Downloads/pikify3.1

will take you to the pikify3.1 folder if you unzipped into the Downloads folder in your home folder.

You get the idea.

OR this is a Mac with drag 'n' drop after all

in the Terminal type cd followed by a space, then from the Finder drag n drop the pikify3.1 folder onto the Terminal.
You should now have on the command line

cd /Users/[yourloginname]/[path_to]/pikify3.1

simply press the return/enter key

You are now in the correct directory (folder)

now type

./createpikeinstallmedia /Volumes/Untitled

press return/enter

Sit back and wait for the script to end. Be patient, it will take a long time to complete because you are using USB.
It will print ######### DONE PIKIFYING ########### when it finishes.

I'm just going to upload version 7 of the pikify3.1 zip file. This version adds a whole lot of error checking and is more verbose. You could try that if you like by re-downloading from post #1390

Good luck

Remember to replace the [bracketed entries] with your info

 

[artooks]

Hi,

Can someone please explain I am on El Capitan 10.11.1 and did the Boot.efi modification now I want to update to 10.11.2 so how can I do it is there a simple fix for this please help.

Thanks

 

[sunnijim]

Hello sunnijim,

Welcome, and at least you gave it a good try

Unfortunately, we do most of this work from the command line. I have given some thought to creating a graphical User Interface for this, but so far I haven't felt the need to put it into action.

Okay, here's what you need to do.

Open a Terminal. You will find it in Applications > Utilities

When you have the terminal open, you need to elevate your privileges by typing

sudo -s
[your normal password]

This will make you the 'root user'.
Now you need to change directory to the pikify3.1 folder. You can type this in if you know where about you put it. In the Terminal there are some special meanings

cd ~[your normal login name]
e.g.
cd ~fred

will take you to your Home folder

cd ~fred/Downloads

will take you to your Downloads folder in your home directory

cd ~fred/Downloads/pikify3.1

will take you to the pikify3.1 folder if you unzipped into the Downloads folder in your home folder.

You get the idea.

OR this is a Mac with drag 'n' drop after all

in the Terminal type cd followed by a space, then from the Finder drag n drop the pikify3.1 folder onto the Terminal.
You should now have on the command line

cd /Users/[yourloginname]/[path_to]/pikify3.1

simply press the return/enter key

You are now in the correct directory (folder)

now type

./createpikeinstallmedia /Volumes/Untitled

press return/enter

Sit back and wait for the script to end. Be patient, it will take a long time to complete because you are using USB.
It will print ######### DONE PIKIFYING ########### when it finishes.

I'm just going to upload version 7 of the pikify3.1 zip file. This version adds a whole lot of error checking and is more verbose. You could try that if you like by re-downloading from post #1390

Good luck

Remember to replace the [bracketed entries] with your info

Wow! Thank you rthpjm so such a precise and fast response! I will let you know how i get on.

 

[rthpjm]

Hi,

Can someone please explain I am on El Capitan 10.11.1 and did the Boot.efi modification now I want to update to 10.11.2 so how can I do it is there a simple fix for this please help.

Thanks

Read backwards a few pages. All the info you need is already posted.... (especially on page 56, there are other posts between here and there)

 

[artooks]

Hi,

I am confused, as I said I have already used boot.efi 3.1 to modify and run El Capitan on my Mac Pro 2,1 now I am at 10.11.1 and is it possible just to install CaptainPikeFix and then update it automatically or should I use some additional steps I am lost here please guide me , also if I cannot do that can I boot from another partition and change the boot.efi 3.1 files in my original El capitan and run 10.11.2 ok ?

 

[rthpjm]

Hi,

I am confused, as I said I have already used boot.efi 3.1 to modify and run El Capitan on my Mac Pro 2,1 now I am at 10.11.1 and is it possible just to install CaptainPikeFix and then update it automatically or should I use some additional steps I am lost here please guide me , also if I cannot do that can I boot from another partition and change the boot.efi 3.1 files in my original El capitan and run 10.11.2 ok ?

CapitanPikeFix requires SIP to be disabled at this time. If you disable SIP and install CapitanPikeFix, then yes this will work.

OR

If you follow the procedure in my my post on page 56 at post #1391 to use my version called Boot64, SIP can remain active.

OR

Finally, you can decide not to use either CapitanPikeFix nor Boot64, just install the update and then manually copy the Pike efi files into place (it sounds like you already did this for 10.11.1)


Both CapitanPikeFix and Boot64 are effectively doing the copy of the Pike efi files for you. If you are comfortable booting from another volume and manually replacing the boot.efi files, then you don't need them, they are just for convenience.

 

[artooks]

Hi rthpjm,

Thank you very much for the info, so can I ask you if I want to use boot64 can I go and simply install it over my El Capitan or should I do the steps 1-2-3-4 you mention in terminal ? can I just install boot64 standalone and be done with that I am afraid that I make a mistake and ruin my computer ? can you please guide me about this please