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

[rokkun]

Hi guys, I got a problem with my mac pro and el capitan 10.11.0. I installed it restoring a dmg image and then replacing the efi. The system works good but, every time I start an update (from appstore or dmg from the apple website), the update starts but after one second it says the mac reboots on 10.11.0. Any tips?

Trying a bit later, I noticed on the installer.log that my combo update is untrusted. The installer came directly from apple website.

P.S.
Recovery partition creator doesn't work as well, It doesn't make me choose wich OSX version I want to use

 

[newflomo]

Hello!

I'm running a Mac Pro 1,1 (recently updated firmware to 2,1) with OS X 10.6.8. My entire HDD was cloned from a colleague's MacBook Pro years ago using Carbon Copy Cloner, and I turned off automatic updates at that time to avoid losing any of my software or compromising my OS.

Here's what I'm working with in terms of hardware:

- 2.66 GHz Dual-core Xeon CPU
- 4GB DDR2 RAM (four sticks of 512GB, two sticks of 1GB)
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU

It's gotten to the point where I'm getting notifications from Chrome & Firefox saying even they will no longer be updating their software for 10.6.8, so I've been researching ways to upgrade my system for the last month or so.

I haven't been able to find a copy of Mountain Lion, Mavericks, or Yosemite from a source I trust, but I just got my hands on a clean copy of the most recent version of the El Capitan installer straight from the App store yesterday. I found a step-by-step walkthrough (attached to this thread) for working around Apple's safeguards, but it's several months old, so I'm skeptical about its relevance today. I've already backed up my HDD with Time Machine, but before I begin making big changes, I want to make sure I'm not endangering my system or creating more work for myself down the road.

Here's what I need help with:

1) Can the original process outlined here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-el-capitan-on-unsupported-macs.1889851/ still be used with the current version of El Capitan Installer?

2) If not, is there another reliable set of up-to-date instructions available somewhere?

3) Does the fact that I'm upgrading from a significantly older version of OS X mean I should change the upgrade procedure in any way?

Any relevant feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[rthpjm]

Hello!

I'm running a Mac Pro 1,1 (recently updated firmware to 2,1) with OS X 10.6.8. My entire HDD was cloned from a colleague's MacBook Pro years ago using Carbon Copy Cloner, and I turned off automatic updates at that time to avoid losing any of my software or compromising my OS.

Here's what I'm working with in terms of hardware:

- 2.66 GHz Dual-core Xeon CPU
- 4GB DDR2 RAM (four sticks of 512GB, two sticks of 1GB)
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU

It's gotten to the point where I'm getting notifications from Chrome & Firefox saying even they will no longer be updating their software for 10.6.8, so I've been researching ways to upgrade my system for the last month or so.

I haven't been able to find a copy of Mountain Lion, Mavericks, or Yosemite from a source I trust, but I just got my hands on a clean copy of the most recent version of the El Capitan installer straight from the App store yesterday. I found a step-by-step walkthrough (attached to this thread) for working around Apple's safeguards, but it's several months old, so I'm skeptical about its relevance today. I've already backed up my HDD with Time Machine, but before I begin making big changes, I want to make sure I'm not endangering my system or creating more work for myself down the road.

Here's what I need help with:

1) Can the original process outlined here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-el-capitan-on-unsupported-macs.1889851/ still be used with the current version of El Capitan Installer?

2) If not, is there another reliable set of up-to-date instructions available somewhere?

3) Does the fact that I'm upgrading from a significantly older version of OS X mean I should change the upgrade procedure in any way?

Any relevant feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello newflomo,

It's funny you are the second person to show up here to reference that thread. It's a great thread, but if you read it carefully it's crafted for every older Mac except MacPros!

If your only Mac is your MacPro then see my posts on page 56 post #1390. Installing this way has a limitation, it needs somewhere between 10 and 12GB of RAM to succeed. More is better. However, it is reliable and has the added benefit of both a working Mac OS X partition and a working Recovery HD partition.

There appears to be an issue with MacPro 1,1 /2,1s, Pike boot.efi files, El Capitan, and using original 512MB memory sticks. A few people seem to get away with using 512MB memory sticks, but most sooner or later discover that their MacPros become unstable, randomly reboot or kernel panic. Everybody who reported instability has been advised to buy RAM, as much as you can afford of 2GB or better RAM sticks. Remove the 512s entirely. Those that have done so have reported back that their system has stabilised, and runs fast and well.

I recommend you buy enough high capacity RAM to bring your system to 12GB or more. This way you can use the install method above....

If you have access to a "supported Mac" (Newer MacBooks, iMacs etc) then you can put your MacPro into Target Disk mode, attach it to the newer "supported" Mac, and install from there. When complete, manually replace the boot.efi files. You will also need to "fix" the Recovery HD partition if you take this route (search this thread for rrhd it's a derivative script that fixes the Recovery HD partition).

If you jump back to page 82, you will find a post from me with instructions based on using a Lion partition to replace the boot.efi files on an El Capitan partition, there's even a video! Those techniques can be used in the same way if you are using target disk mode from a supported Mac....

You don't need the 12GB of RAM as described above for this method, but I would still recommend removing the 512s, and buying at least 8GB of high capacity RAM, Mac OS X will run better.

 

[ewheat]

Hi,
I have been following this thread for awhile and just tried to update my Mac Pro 1,1. I have the prerequisites (Dual Upgraded CPUs, 32gb RAM, Radeon R9 280x GPU, Firmware Update to 2,1) and have created a successful pikified usb (using 10.11.4 install download), but when trying to install it to a blank SSD connected to my MBP 9,1 running OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 I get this error(attached). When I try to boot from the usb the installer appears as an option but when clicked boots me back into to my usual install. Am I missing something? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rthpjm]

Hi,
I have been following this thread for awhile and just tried to update my Mac Pro 1,1. I have the prerequisites (Dual Upgraded CPUs, 32gb RAM, Radeon R9 280x GPU, Firmware Update to 2,1) and have created a successful pikified usb (using 10.11.4 install download), but when trying to install it to a blank SSD connected to my MBP 9,1 running OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 I get this error(attached). When I try to boot from the usb the installer appears as an option but when clicked boots me back into to my usual install. Am I missing something? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi ewheat,

You appear to be mixing and matching I think you have just double-clicked the installer app from the USB key whilst booted into the MBP. Sorry, that will not work, as you have discovered.

You have two options:

1. Install from the MacPro
   • connect your SSD to the MacPro, preferably in an internal bay
   • connect your pikify created USB key to the MacPro
   • reboot, hold the ALT key when you hear the chime
   • Select the USB key (Install OS X El Capitan) to boot from
   • (I'm assuming your Radeon 280x will show you the EFI boot screen)
2. Install from your MBP
   • connect your SSD to the MBP
   • There is no need to use to use a pikify created USB key. Just use an unmodified Install OS X El Capitan app (from your MBP).
   • Once the install has finished you will need to manually replace the /Volumes/[SSD]/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi and /Volumes/[SSD]/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi files. Do this from the MBP whilst the SSD is still connected.
   • Move the SSD to your MacPro, check that it boots
   • I recommend you also fix the Recovery HD partition on the SSD. (See above)

I would recommend option 1 because it "just works". There is no need for manual intervention after the install, you will have a working El Capitan installation, and a working Recovery HD. Option 2 means you have to perform the fix-ups yourself after the install completes.

==== edit ====

You could try a variant of option 1.

I don't know if it will work, because your MBP is a 64-bit EFI machine, and the USB key has a 32-bit hybrid Pike efi file, I'm unsure if your MBP will boot from the USB key. Hey give it a try and let me know

• connect your SSD to the MBP
• connect your pikify created USB key to the MBP
• reboot, hold the ALT key when you hear the chime
• Select the USB key (Install OS X El Capitan) to boot from

 

[cdmawolf]

Hi,
I have been following this thread for awhile and just tried to update my Mac Pro 1,1. I have the prerequisites (Dual Upgraded CPUs, 32gb RAM, Radeon R9 280x GPU, Firmware Update to 2,1) and have created a successful pikified usb (using 10.11.4 install download), but when trying to install it to a blank SSD connected to my MBP 9,1 running OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 I get this error(attached). When I try to boot from the usb the installer appears as an option but when clicked boots me back into to my usual install. Am I missing something? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Download a fresh copy of El Cap from the app store. In the last month or so the Certificates expired for the old Installers and that is the error you are getting.

 

[haroldcnew]

Hello,

Just to report the update from 10.11.3 to 10.11.4 was a bit shaky on my Mac Pro 2.1
Had to replace the files manually, which is weird because I thought the daemon was effective.
The folder Boot64 in /Library/Application Support was modified.

 

[rthpjm]

Download a fresh copy of El Cap from the app store. In the last month or so the Certificates expired for the old Installers and that is the error you are getting.

Hi cdmawolf,

It could be the expired certificate, or it could be that ewheat has simply double clicked the installer. I think it's the latter because if you take a close look at the image file, there appears to be a number of overlapping Windows on the right hand side. This doesn't happen if using a pikify USB stick correctly, meaning boot from it. (And I'm not sure you can take screenshot when booted from the USB key - I've never tried, but there's no Finder when booted from the USB, and the folders are all in RAM disk, so even if you can take a screen shot, the image would be saved to a RAMdisk volatile folder)
[doublepost=1461347228][/doublepost]

Hello,

Just to report the update from 10.11.3 to 10.11.4 was a bit shaky on my Mac Pro 2.1
Had to replace the files manually, which is weird because I thought the daemon was effective.
The folder Boot64 in /Library/Application Support was modified.

SIP gets a bit more aggressive with each release from my experience. I personally had SIP completely turned off when I upgraded from 10.11.3 to 10.11.4 so it all worked. It's possible that 10.11.3 was preventing BOOT64 from working seamlessly... If I get chance I'll try to build a spare disk to 10.11.3 again and test it.

Don't hold your breath though.

 

[haroldcnew]

It's all right, I don't mind doing it manually.
Thanks already for the amazing job you make.

 

[ducman916]

I have a 2006 1,1 Mac Pro updated to 2,1 firmware. I have Yosemite installed and would like to upgrade to El Capitan. When I go to download the El Capitan app I get this error "This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer." I only have access to this Mac. Is there a way I can download El Capitan?

 

[albertogutim]

Hi!
Need help guys. I'm following all the instructions at post 1390 on a MBP2,1 and all I get on reboot is a Prohibited icon. My MBP is a Spanish version. I don't know if that makes any difference. I tried the whole process twice but no dice. Ty!

 

[albertogutim]

I'm trying it with Lion which is the latest supported OS X on my MBP. I wonder if the kernel panic I'm getting (the prohibited icon) has something to do with not trying a fresh intall over a totally wiped out hard drive. Could it be the case? I want a fresh install of ELC so I wouldn't mind erasing the MBP hard drive if that could be related to the kernel panic. Ty

 

[dphotog]

Hi everyone,
I have been following the threads on how to install El Capitan on unsupported MacPro. And has been stuck, so here I am looking for help.

My MacPro is still very capable for what I am using it too (photo and video editing) and I need the latest version of those Adobe softwares for my work. Hence, rather that buying new machine, I am trying my luck to follow the instructions here to give it a new life.

My current system:
- MacPro 2006 1,1
- 2 x 3 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon
- 32 GB RAM
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
- OS X Lion 10.7.5
- Samsung monitor S27B970

I followed the steps mentioned in that famous #1390 thread.
I used a USB thumb drive (Toshiba 16GB) to create the bootable USB drive and had seen the message at the end
### DONE PIKIFYING ###

Then I rebooted the machine, press and held the Alt (Option) key, but the boot chooser did not show up. Just black screen. I could see the machine was reading the USB thumb drive as its light was flashing, but nothing else happened.

Curious, I then used a partition on one my internal hard drives. 80GB partition.
Followed the same steps, saw the ### DONE PIKIFYING ###.
But still the boot chooser did not show up. Only black screen showed up.

May I know what else I need to check / do?
Thank you everyone. Appreciate all the helps.

 

[rthpjm]

Hi everyone,
I have been following the threads on how to install El Capitan on unsupported MacPro. And has been stuck, so here I am looking for help.

My MacPro is still very capable for what I am using it too (photo and video editing) and I need the latest version of those Adobe softwares for my work. Hence, rather that buying new machine, I am trying my luck to follow the instructions here to give it a new life.

My current system:
- MacPro 2006 1,1
- 2 x 3 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon
- 32 GB RAM
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
- OS X Lion 10.7.5
- Samsung monitor S27B970

I followed the steps mentioned in that famous #1390 thread.
I used a USB thumb drive (Toshiba 16GB) to create the bootable USB drive and had seen the message at the end
### DONE PIKIFYING ###

Then I rebooted the machine, press and held the Alt (Option) key, but the boot chooser did not show up. Just black screen. I could see the machine was reading the USB thumb drive as its light was flashing, but nothing else happened.

Curious, I then used a partition on one my internal hard drives. 80GB partition.
Followed the same steps, saw the ### DONE PIKIFYING ###.
But still the boot chooser did not show up. Only black screen showed up.

May I know what else I need to check / do?
Thank you everyone. Appreciate all the helps.

Hello dphotog,

Have you flashed your 5770 graphics card with the additional EFI part, and does it give you boot screens?
I have an XFX brand 5770 which initially I flashed with the additional EFI part but it would not show boot screens. A little later over at the Netkas forums, a user called Florian (Fl0r!an I think) put some great work into the connection mappings and managed to get my 5770 to show boot screens.

What I'm saying... some 5770s will show boot screens, others will not. What state is yours in?

 

[dphotog]

Hello dphotog,

Have you flashed your 5770 graphics card with the additional EFI part, and does it give you boot screens?
I have an XFX brand 5770 which initially I flashed with the additional EFI part but it would not show boot screens. A little later over at the Netkas forums, a user called Florian (Fl0r!an I think) put some great work into the connection mappings and managed to get my 5770 to show boot screens.

What I'm saying... some 5770s will show boot screens, others will not. What state is yours in?

Hi rthpjm, thanks for responding.
Sorry ... how do I flash the graphics card with this additional EFI?

My current graphics card does not show anything at all after I pressed and held the ALT key during the reboot (after the chime sound).

 

[rthpjm]

Hi rthpjm, thanks for responding.
Sorry ... how do I flash the graphics card with this additional EFI?

My current graphics card does not show anything at all after I pressed and held the ALT key during the reboot (after the chime sound).

Good question!

That's a whole new ball game. I worked through the Netkas.org forums. Here's where I started....
The thread that Fl0r!an started where we got my 5770 to display boot screens is here....


An easier alternative might be to temporarily revert back your original graphics card (that does show boot screens, my MacPro had an Nvidia GTX 7300). Once you can see the boot screens, when you hold down the ALT key after the boot chime, you should get to a grey background boot selector. There will be some icons, you need to select the Install OS X El Capitan disk drive to boot from. Once you have completed the install, shutdown and re-insert your 5770....

----------- edit. ----------

I completely forgot to mention. Even an un-flashed 5770 will be able to display boot screens, using a DVI-to-VGA adaptor. If your display has a VGA port, and you can put your hands on a DVI-VGA adaptor, you should be able to get boot screens without the need to swap to another card.

5770---DVI/VGA------VGA-cable--------VGA-input---monitor

 

[owbp]

Also you could choose installation USB from Startup Disk in System Preferences and reboot to it that way.
But i think it is better to do it with 7300GT - you won't get GPU acceleration, but its much easier for troubleshooting things.

 

[dphotog]

Good question!

That's a whole new ball game. I worked through the Netkas.org forums. Here's where I started....
The thread that Fl0r!an started where we got my 5770 to display boot screens is here....


An easier alternative might be to temporarily revert back your original graphics card (that does show boot screens, my MacPro had an Nvidia GTX 7300). Once you can see the boot screens, when you hold down the ALT key after the boot chime, you should get to a grey background boot selector. There will be some icons you need to select the Install OS X El Capitan disk drive to boot from. Once you have completed the install, shutdown and re-insert your 5770....

Thanks for the links. I will check it out.

Unfortunately my old graphics card is no longer working. That was the reason why I bought the ATI Radeon 5770 couple years ago.
[doublepost=1461511590][/doublepost]

Also you could choose installation USB from Startup Disk in System Preferences and reboot to it that way.
But i think it is better to do it with 7300GT - you won't get GPU acceleration, but its much easier for troubleshooting things.

Hmm ... I checked that out, the USB drive was not shown as one of the startup disks to choose from. Same thing for the small partition in my internal hard drive. Both not shown as a startup disk options.

 

[owbp]

Hmm ... I checked that out, the USB drive was not shown as one of the startup disks to choose from. Same thing for the small partition in my internal hard drive. Both not shown as a startup disk options.

Don't get this question the wrong way, but did you formatted USB/Partition with GUID Partition Map, OS X Extended (Journaled)?

Now, i didn't have a chance to work with @rthpjm's script so i don't know whats the drill, but the only time the USB's weren't bootable for me was when i was restoring OS X images on drive itself instead of HFS+ partitions (Manufacturer name in Disk Utility, diskX, instead of Untitled or whatever did you named your partition diskXs2)...

 

[sarthak]

How did 10.11.4 update via MAS go? Been holding off for a while but not many posts here.

Click and install or does it require copying boot.efi again?

 

[rthpjm]

How did 10.11.4 update via MAS go? Been holding off for a while but not many posts here.

Click and install or does it require copying boot.efi again?

You will need to replace the boot.efi files after updating...

 

[dphotog]

Don't get this question the wrong way, but did you formatted USB/Partition with GUID Partition Map, OS X Extended (Journaled)?

Now, i didn't have a chance to work with @rthpjm's script so i don't know whats the drill, but the only time the USB's weren't bootable for me was when i was restoring OS X images on drive itself instead of HFS+ partitions (Manufacturer name in Disk Utility, diskX, instead of Untitled or whatever did you named your partition diskXs2)...

No problem at all. I thank you for responding.
The Partition was formatted with GUID Partition Map and OS X Extended (Journaled).
The USB drive, hmm ... I can't remember if I did that.

BUT ... DRUMS ROLL ... I am now typing this from my old trusty Mac Pro 2006 1,1 running El Capitan 10.11.4.
I was too afraid to flash my graphics card as suggested by rthpjm, worried that it may mess it up and I will not be able to use anymore with Lion 10.7.5 in case I need to go back.
So, what I did was:
- I installed El Capitan 10.11.4 on a brand new hard drive connected via USB 3 port to my modern Macbook Pro laptop
- I then followed the steps mentioned here: http://www.caradimas.org/john/?p=193 . I only followed the steps up to copying the Piker Alpha's boot.efi to usr/standalone/i386 . I have yet to digest the remaining of the steps when he said he fixed the issue of booting from Recovery Partition etc. etc.
- The first time I restarted my MacPro ... it took a lot longer than usual for the login screen to come up. I thought initially it did not work. After waiting for some good 5 minutes or so, the screen was still black, no activity, and then I started pressing some keys on the keyboard, and suddenly the El Capitan screen came on.
- The second restart was much faster. My new hard drive is not a fast hard drive, so I thought that's acceptable.

My next plan is to clone this hard drive to an SSD to benefit from its faster speed.

It's 1:27am now, time to seep with a smiling face.

I thank you all for the helps, the wonderful work you have done and shared here.
I will leave comment and contact Pike on his own blog too.

THANK YOU!!!

 

[ducman916]

I have a 2006 1,1 Mac Pro updated to 2,1 firmware. I have Yosemite installed and would like to upgrade to El Capitan. When I go to download the El Capitan app I get this error "This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer." I only have access to this Mac. Is there a way I can download El Capitan?

Any thoughts on this?

 

[cbelldina]

Running 10.10.5 via pikify happily for sometime now. Glad pikify reloads so that updates don't render my mac 1,1 dead when an update is pushed..... Question, What's the easiest way to go from Yosemite to El Cap? Is there a step by step I missed? I have new graphics card, but they are not flashed, so no boot screen. I'm running 32GB of RAM. Thanks!!

 

[rthpjm]

Any thoughts on this?

Hi ducman916,

Please try replacing your boot.efi files with the latest Pike versions. The latest Pike boot.efi files effectively hard code the machine ID to be a MacPro 3,1 which is supported, so you should then be able to download El Capitan from the Mac App Store.

Read backwards a bit, I posted a tutorial (based on Lion) but it should work for you. Replace your files on Yosemite, reboot, then try the Mac App Store...