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

[rthpjm]

HELP!!! ATI Original HD4870 Mac Pro 1.1 / 2.1 Yosemite 10.5.5 Tiamo FOSS 12GB Ram

I've got this from a friend who upgraded long ago and was having issues with this system. I upgraded it to Yosemite reaching the top of my skills (meaning by that that I'm a newbie and that it was "advanced" for my technical level). I used the Tiamo loader and FOSS. I have no graphics acceleration with the ATI HD4870 that's in this machine which is made for the Mac (it has a MDP port and all so it is not a flashed card). Originally I was able to select the resolution and all but there was quite a bit of flickering. Then I installed "QE_CI Exotic patch OS X Yosemite 10.10.0" from a post on insanelyMac in an effort to bring hardware acceleration to it. The patch was a couple of zipped kexts: AMD8400Controller.kext and ATIRadeonX2000.kext I used an utility called "Easy Kext Utility" version 2.0 in order to install the two kexts. Now, not only I do not have hardware acceleration but I cannot even change the resolution. Matters are now worse. I wonder if those kexts and the installer were meant for hackintoshes and therefore might not play well with reall MACs. Nevertheless, Can anyone please help me get hardware acceleration on my HD4870? I will be forever grateful.

Quick Parenthesis
I am resisting upgrading to "El Capitan" as my understanding is that "El Capitan" isn't themeable and I've read there are some utilities for theming Yosemite back to Snow Leopard (lol, sorry I have a serious problem with the aesthetics of most recent iterations of OSX).

Regards!!!

Hello qazqaz,

To begin, you are probably posting in the wrong forum thread, this thread is specific to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan along with the Pike R Alpha version of the boot.efi file. There are other threads dedicated to Yosemite 10.10 where you will probably find willing and knowledgeable people who can help you. Perhaps try's post on the Yosemite thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-yosemite.1740775/

I know very little about the QE/CI patch that you mention. From the little that I have read about it, it seems to me to be intended for the Hackintosh community (not for Apple hardware). It also seems to require one of the alternative boot loaders favoured by the Hackintosh community (Clover is mentioned in the tutorials).

The user Netkas is mentioned as a contributor to the patch, have you tried asking over at the Netkas forums? http://forum.netkas.org

--------- edit ---------

If you have a MacPro and your card is an original Apple 4870 version, then it "should just work!". I think you are mixing up the fixes for different platforms, Apple introduced support for their version of the 4870 back with Mac OS X 10.5.7 (http://www.macworld.com/article/1140595/radeon.html)

Try to uninstall the patch.....

(With the Pike version of boot.efi, you get to boot Yosemite/El Capitan on a MacPro 1,1 or 2,1. With an Apple supplied graphics card you should find the drivers are present already, the patch is probably designed to match the vendor/platform IDs of non-Apple 48xx cards, this isn't a problem if your card comes from Apple).

Your worst-case scenario is that the previous owner may have flashed the Apple card with a non-Apple (PC) ROM. This might explain why you appear to be getting no acceleration. Check to see what vendor name appears for the card.....

 

[Centrino]

Hola Centrino,

Can you move the cursor off the screen on the left edge or the right edge? If you can (make the cursor go off an edge), then disconnect your DVI cable from the card and reconnect it to the other DVI port (assuming your card has at least 2 ports)....

That's not the problem, I try erasing login user window plist, but the result is the same, I have to reinstall all system and time machine again. Love my macpro 1.1, but it's very unstable with this kind of issues, the last was a problem with blackmagic drivers, and the same result. Thanks.

 

[qazqaz]

If you have a MacPro and your card is an original Apple 4870 version, then it "should just work!

Thank you rthpjm. Both conditions are met but the result isn't what was expected. I did not get acceleration but only the ability of changing the resolution. Since it did not work I started looking for a "patch". I had the impression that the very reason it didn't work was that Apple dropped support for the computer along with the video card as they were likely equally old hardware. Now I learn by your posts that there was support for this card and that they are still supported even now. I guess i need the original kexts back. My situation is now worse than it was but it is not that I want to "go back" as I did not have hardware acceleration then either and my budget for a new card is $0.00

Try to uninstall the patch.....

I wouldn't know how to do that but my assumption is that it is just a matter of getting the original kexts back though I over wrote the files.

Your worst-case scenario is that the previous owner may have flashed the Apple card with a non-Apple (PC) ROM. This might explain why you appear to be getting no acceleration. Check to see what vendor name appears for the card

System profiler reads under Graphics/Displays:
"ATI Radeon HD 4870"
Next to the "Vendor" heading reads: "ATI (0x1002)

I knew my buddy over time would buy PC cards (as they were cheaper), would flash them and transplant them. I know he had a reason to do that (save money) but he wouldn't have any reason AFAIK to do the opposite. If I'm not mistaken this card is in fact what came originally with his Mac (at least it has an MPD port).

How can I move forward?
[doublepost=1458260189][/doublepost]I will also post this question on the Yosemite forum, thank you for the suggestion rthpjm. I had made a search for the video card model and the pike boot loader and that's how I landed here.
[doublepost=1458260477][/doublepost]Is the Tiamo and Pike the same thing? How do I know I am using the Pike EFI vs the Tiamo boot loader?
[doublepost=1458260896][/doublepost]By the way I have some extra info from the system profiler:
Device ID is : 0x9440
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.318

 

[rthpjm]

System profiler reads under Graphics/Displays:
"ATI Radeon HD 4870"
Next to the "Vendor" heading reads: "ATI (0x1002)

Oops, vendor ID will alway be 0x1002!!!

Take a look at System Profiler again. Do the details look anything like these?

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4870
  Chipset Model:    ATI Radeon HD 4870
  Type:    GPU
  Bus:    PCIe
  Slot:    Slot-1
  PCIe Lane Width:    x16
  VRAM (Total):    512 MB
  Vendor:    ATI (0x1002)
  Device ID:    0x9440
  Revision ID:    0x0000
  ROM Revision:    113-B7710F-176
  EFI Driver Version:    01.00.318

 

[qazqaz]

Once again thank you for your reply rthpjm. I'm away from that machine at the moment but on my last post I added some additional lines generated by the system profiler.

System profiler reads under Graphics/Displays:
"ATI Radeon HD 4870"
Next to the "Vendor" heading reads: "ATI (0x1002)

Device ID is : 0x9440
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.318

The following lines:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 4870 Type: GPU Bus: PCIe Slot: Slot-1 PCIe Lane Width: x16 VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Were likely there, but I'm a slow typing and figured that the Revision ID, ROM revision and EFI Driver version were the crucial items to share. Whenever I'm back in front of that machine I could take a look and confirm but considering that it seems that the first lines and the last lines of what I transcribed from the profile match yours. Could the lines in between be entirely different or could we go on the assumption that they are the same? Of course I don't mind looking but I'm away from the machine till the afternoon plus and truly puzzled as to what could have happened and about what are recommended as next steps.I'm

One thing I was going to ask is if Tiamo's and Pike's are the same thing. I remember having come across both but do not remember what I used. I do remember using FOSS because the name rings a bell too but it was months ago and I was just following a Mac Pro resuscitation guide and once I've got it booting on Yosemite I thought everything was cool except for my assumption that apple had dropped support for my HD4870 (until like yesterday when I learned from your replies to my posts that this wasn't the case). I in fact think that I even followed some guides to update it 10.10.0 to 10.10.5 or whatever it was that I posted above.

Permit me speculate about something I don't fully grasp: Could my having Pike's vs Tiamo's (or vice-versa) have an impact on the video acceleration behaviour I am experiencing?

Regards!

 

[Centrino]

Hello Centrino,

My first suggestion would be to boot. If the monitor is still black once the system is up and running, then simply turn the monitor off, then turn the monitor back on again. My monitors occasionally lose their sync with the gfx card, this procedure works for me.

My second suggestion is to reboot, immediately after you hear the boot chime hold down the Alt key to enter the boot chooser. Make sure the correct volume is chosen for your intended system (when you clear the PRAM, the system will boot from the first available partition, which may not be the one you intend)

Hello again! problem solved!

I put an old HD and install snow leopard on it, reboot, and black screen..... but ..... i disconnect the dvi and reconnect..... and snow leopard start perfect (thanks "rthpjm") .... and i think.... "maybe a bios problem?".... 1-reboot snow leopard....... 2 reboot with alt and select capitan HD, andddd......... WORKS!!!!

very easy, my MAC PRO 1.1 it´s the best machine, and runs faster...

recently i bought the same ati card (mac original) 4870, what about the 512 mb of memory? maybe will be a problem in the future... but the graphic is very powerful... and have the visual boot. Thanks again!

 

[rthpjm]

Once again thank you for your reply rthpjm.

One thing I was going to ask is if Tiamo's and Pike's are the same thing. I remember having come across both but do not remember what I used. I do remember using FOSS because the name rings a bell too but it was months ago
Permit me speculate about something I don't fully grasp: Could my having Pike's vs Tiamo's (or vice-versa) have an impact on the video acceleration behaviour I am experiencing?

Regards!

Hello qazqaz

Yes I think your revised profiler info points to the card being an Apple card.

Tiamo was the original author of the replacement boot.efi files that greatly simplified running later versions of Mac OS X on our aging MacPros (32-bit efi models). Pike continued the development for Yosemite and now El Capitan. (Pike has had a serious health issue, he is recovering, but quite rightly he is focussing on himself and his family at the moment. I continue to send him my good wishes)...

The Pike and Tiamo code shares a common root, but different versions are typically required for different OSes. There are some reports of backward comparability but the timeline goes something like this:

Tiamo: Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
Pike V2: Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
Pike V3.1: Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan

I don't know what FOSS is, but I'm assuming you mean "Sixty Four on Thirty Two" SFOTT. A tool provided by Olivier over at oemden.com that built an installer for Mavericks and Yosemite.

If you are running Yosemite, I would expect that you have a copy of a Pike boot.efi file (but I also think users have reported Yosemite running with Tiamo).
My personal experience was great with Yosemite and Pike V2.

I don't know if Yosemite/Tiamo/RadeonHD4870 will have issues, sorry.

I know you said you have no budget for a new gfx card at this time, but I really encourage you to consider buying a HD5770 (or better). Speaking from experience, my rig worked great.

Again, you may get better answers for these gfx card issues from the Netkas forums.....

 

[qazqaz]

I don't know what FOSS is, but I'm assuming you mean "Sixty Four on Thirty Two" SFOTT.

You are right, SFOTT is what I meant.

I don't know if Yosemite/Tiamo/RadeonHD4870 will have issues, sorry.

Tiamo and Pike sound completely familiar. I don't remember which of the two I used though. Is there a way for me to learn which of the two tools I used to install Yosemite?

 

[spin498]

Has anyone successfully upgrade to El Capitan from Yosemite? I don't want to loose my apps or other files if at all possible.

I do have El Capitan running on a separate drive, some of my original apps will open from Finder, but others, like Photoshop will not. Otherwise I would just drag and drop from the Yosemite drive to the El Capitan drive.

 

[hwojtek]

No problem at all. Been there, done that.

 

[yellowbunny]

I upgraded with no problems other than USB sound card stopping working. Did it via a second machine.

 

[the bug]

So has any brave soul updated to 10.11.4 via the app store ?
Does the boot.efi file get replaced ?

- Jay

 

[gw463]

So has any brave soul updated to 10.11.4 via the app store ?
Does the boot.efi file get replaced ?

- Jay

I'm update now .....finger cross....

 

[Sevenfeet]

So has any brave soul updated to 10.11.4 via the app store ?
Does the boot.efi file get replaced ?

- Jay

Works for me but the boot.efi did get replaced. Upon the installation (I did it from the combo Installer), it failed to boot and instead booted onto my 10.7.5 partition. Then I replaced the boot.efi file via the usual published method and rebooted. My Mac Pro 1,1 then continued the installation, then I think rebooted again (it's in my basement) and now it's up with 10.11.4. All seems well.

 

[charlan7]

Done from 10.11.3 to 10.11.4 from App Store (with Capitan PikeFix). After the update, I have to restart my computer two times.

 

[Sevenfeet]

Update....things seem to be stable. No problems so far.

 

[owbp]

but the boot.efi did get replaced

Ah, good thing i checked... First things first, have to install 10.7.5 or 10.6.8 somewhere.

 

[Sko]

Works for me but the boot.efi did get replaced.

As you used combo, of course it got replaced. I've updated with delta without any problem, but I have rthpjm's boot64 installed, so I haven't checked the 10.11.4 package yet.

 

[the bug]

Well I downloaded the smaller "delta" updater since I had multiple machines to update here.
The boot.efi file does indeed get replaced (even with the delta as opposed to the combo updater).

Thanks all for the heads up, I installed a second Yosemite drive in the 2,1 before running the installer.
After running the delta installer it was easy enough to boot from the other drive and replace the boot.efi's .

Thanks again all, much quicker and easier when you know what to expect ahead of time.


- Jay

 

[chackett]

Well I downloaded the smaller "delta" updater since I had multiple machines to update here.
The boot.efi file does indeed get replaced (even with the delta as opposed to the combo updater).

Thanks all for the heads up, I installed a second Yosemite drive in the 2,1 before running the installer.
After running the delta installer it was easy enough to boot from the other drive and replace the boot.efi's .

Thanks again all, much quicker and easier when you know what to expect ahead of time.


- Jay

Yeah, same thing updating from the app store. Had replace the two new boot.efi files to get it to finish the installation, but it's running fine after that.

 

[mmonse_de]

Hi! I'm new here, but not new to the theme (Active on that issue in some german forums).
I've got an 2007 MP 2.1 and installed 10.11.3 with the help of the pikify script (v8). And afterwards I installed the CapitanPikeFix with disabled SIP.
So I assume my boot efis are safe when I update to 10.11.4 via App Store?
Any tips and tricks before updating?

P.S.: Sorry if my english is too bad, I'm from Germany....

 

[kenzoser]

Hi
The 10.11.4 update replaces boot.efi files.
What i did after the update is booting the mac from an external disk with OSX 10.6.8, then I replaced the boot.efi files using the terminal
Now it works again

So I assume my boot efis are safe when I update to 10.11.4 via App Store?
Any tips and tricks before updating?

 

[mmonse_de]

Hi
The 10.11.4 update replaces boot.efi files.
What i did after the update is booting the mac from an external disk with OSX 10.6.8, then I replaced the boot.efi files using the terminal
Now it works again

Did you install the CapitanPikeFix before the Update and disabled the SIP? If the boot efi's are replaced then, that would mean that the script doesn't work.

 

[kenzoser]

Did you install the CapitanPikeFix before the Update and disabled the SIP? If the boot efi's are replaced then, that would mean that the script doesn't work.

I actually don't use any script so I had to do it manually
If you use CapitanPikeFix probably should work but I can't help you, sorry

 

[mmonse_de]

I'll report as soon as my dl from the AppStore is ready. At the moment it is very slow, 950MB of 1,6GB... I assume it will take another 30min until the installation starts. And even if the boot efis are replaced, I'll start my MP in Target mode and replace them from my macbook. Whatever it takes to keep this wonderful machine running!