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

[rthpjm]

Awesome will read about this. Still can't get my system to restart. Everytime I restart it just stays in loop and won't boot. Any solutions for this?

Typically, the first things to try are PRAM reset and SMC reset. You can also try a reboot in verbose mode to see the startup logging in real time. This can give you an indication of how far your Mac gets into the boot sequence... (Reboot, hold Apple-V when you hear the chime)

A PRAM reset is pretty simple, reboot, at the chime hold down ALT-APPLE-P-R (four keys). Keep them held down until your MacPro restarts and you hear a second chime. This clears the non-volatile parameter RAM. It will clear the boot disk selection, and look for the first bootable partition (if you have more than one bootable partition).

If your graphics card shows boot screens, then a second thing to try is booting from the Recovery HD. If you used my Pikify install method, then the Recovery HD should be functional. Reboot, when you hear the chime hold down the ALT key to enter the boot selector. There should be a Recovery HD (your El Capitan partition name) entry. Select that to boot from. If you can boot from this then great, but it means your main El Capitan partition is having trouble. If you get the same reboot cycle then maybe you need to perform an SMC reset.

SMC reset: Power down your Mac Pro. Remove the mains lead from the back. Open the case. Remove the drive sled from position 4 (rear). Take a look at the motherboard underneath the sled 4 position, you should be able to see a small push button. Using your finger, pencil, or pen, press the button for a few seconds, then release. Re-assemble. Power on.

If you can boot from the Recovery HD, but not the main El Capitan partition, then try a safe boot into your main El Capitan partition. Reboot, at the chime hold down the SHIFT key, wait until the Apple logo appears and the progress bar shows, then you can let go of the shift key.

If you can boot into your main El Capitan partition in safe mode, but not in "normal" mode, then this indicates that you may have a 3rd party kernel extension (kext) that is causing trouble. You'll need to look in:

• /Library/Extensions
• /System/Library/Extensions (although this location should contain only Apple-supplied extensions)

I have also read elsewhere that RAM issues can cause symptoms similar to yours. If you are still having issues after performing a PRAM reset, and an SMC reset, then open the case whilst running (and experiencing the reboot cycle). Take a look at your memory riser cards. Are any of the LEDs illuminated? If so, shutdown your Mac Pro, remove the riser(s) with illuminated LEDs, and then one-by-one eject the RAM and refit it firmly back into the riser card to re-seat each RAM module. Return the riser(s) to the motherboard, firmly pressing home. Leave the side door off and power up again. If the LEDs extinguish after the power-on-test, then hopefully the Mac Pro will boot okay. If the LEDs remain lit, then you may have a faulty RAM module. Power off, remove the riser with the lit LEDs, remove one pair of RAM modules (you should be able to figure out which pair from the LEDs), return the riser, and power on. Repeat until you find a combination with no lit LEDs after the power-on-test.

 

[EpiV1988]

I finally had time to reinstall and test whether importing caused any of my problems. It does not.

I don't have usb support though the light indicator on the flash drives show power. I understand that I'll have to get a new wifi or Bluetooth card or both, but I have no idea why USB will not work on my machine.
[doublepost=1466345842][/doublepost]

I finally had time to reinstall and test whether importing caused any of my problems. It does not.

I don't have usb support though the light indicator on the flash drives show power. I understand that I'll have to get a new wifi or Bluetooth card or both, but I have no idea why USB will not work on my machine.

Smc and PRAM reset didn't help

 

[Ant3000]

I assume you have tested all USB ports - front and back?
Have you looked up what is reported in "About this Mac" about USB bus? I guess this may be difficult if USB isn't working though. I can't understand why USB works in Yosemite but not El Capitan - unless someone has messed with the hardware before you bought it.

 

[EpiV1988]

I assume you have tested all USB ports - front and back?
Have you looked up what is reported in "About this Mac" about USB bus? I guess this may be difficult if USB isn't working though. I can't understand why USB works in Yosemite but not El Capitan - unless someone has messed with the hardware before you bought it.

I've not tried Yosemite. I've only tried el cap. If you go back to page 95 I think. I posted a pic of system information usb tab

 

[Ant3000]

That info looks the same as mine. Have you tried another keyboard? Noticed yours is a Dell and might be worth checking if another works? I thought you were running Yosemite before - but whatever OS these USB devices worked OK I guess. Sorry if this sounds a stupid question, but have you tried a HD or other USB devices to see if they work and that it isn't just the keyboard.

 

[SignalFlow562]

Well I have 1 boot drive with Yosemite working and another with el cap both working exactly as they should however I always have to shut down instead of restart as restarting won't boot either one of the drives. It's a very strange anomaly. I'll have to try the pram and smc reset but doubt this will fix the restart issue.

 

[PhilippSilvo]

Well, I got some issues with my Mac Pro (2006, 1.1) aswell...
I now got El Capitan running perfectly thanks to netkas, and I'd like to upgrade to firmware 2.1 in order to use Windows 10 64-Bit as my Bootcamp partition. Because of SIP, I'd need to use csrutil in the recovery mode's terminal, but even with perfectly fine El Capitan installation flash drives, I'm not able to start it (Recovery Mode). Everytime I selected it with holding Alt at the start, the Mac just ignores it and boots the regular Hard drive.. Can anybody help me with that?

 

[Ant3000]

You could boot into an earlier version of OSX and install the firmware update from there. There is also a script from rthpjm to fix booting into recovery somewhere on this thread. Not sure what the firmware does other than report upgraded CPUs correctly - but there may be something else. I installed it after my CPU upgrade when running Snow Leopard (I think) maybe Mavericks.

 

[PhilippSilvo]

Thanks! Let me see about that...

UPDATE: Everything worked perfectly! I used my OS X Lion disk to install lion on another partition of the HD and used the tool there. After some attempts everything worked. I now got a Mac Pro 2.1!
Thanks for your help!

 

[qu1j0t3]

Hi, I successfully and smoothly installed El Capitan with pikify on a Mac Pro 2,1.

Just one question: Is it possible to get VT-X support (e.g. in Virtualbox)? Is that related to the EFI functionality?

Thanks

 

[cdmawolf]

Hi, I successfully and smoothly installed El Capitan with pikify on a Mac Pro 2,1.

Just one question: Is it possible to get VT-X support (e.g. in Virtualbox)? Is that related to the EFI functionality?

Thanks

I have it working....Windows an some Unixs work.

 

[mateo107]

Bless --info /Volumes/Install\ Mac\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan

Hello mateo07,

I know it can be annoying to have to confirm things. Unfortunately this is the only way I know when we're miles apart and working across time zones. Stay with me though....

You say you can't hear the startup chime, and you wait for the Apple logo. That's the only difference I can see.

Try this:
Reboot your MacPro
Since you can't hear chimes, try to time the following key presses with the point where your monitor first shows activity ( my monitor has an LED that illuminates when it gets activity)
Press and hold
Alt-Apple-P-R
Keep them down until the Mac reboots again, to reset the parameter RAM (PRAM)

You might now hear the chimes.
(FYI if the last time the Mac was used the volume was set to zero for the internal speakers, this value is typically held in the PRAM and persists, hence you get no chime. Resetting the PRAM will set the volume back to the out-of-the-box value which is non-zero)

If you see the Apple logo then the system is already booting from some partition.

Try again.

If it still fails, can you connect the USB stick to your MacBook, using the terminal

bless --info /Volumes/Install*

Post the result here please

Sorry I've been busy with *real* work for the last few days. Here's the result when I run bless on my "Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD" (USB key)

finderinfo[0]: 0 => No Blessed System Folder
finderinfo[1]: 0 => No Blessed System File
finderinfo[2]: 2 => 1st dir in open-folder list is /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/
finderinfo[3]: 0 => No alternate OS blessed file/folder
finderinfo[4]: 0 => Unused field unset
finderinfo[5]: 0 => No OS 9 + X blessed X folder
64-bit VSDB volume id: 0x2B6CCA6DC257B620

Just for s's and G's I also see a Volume titled "Image Volume/" and another "OS X Base System/"

and for what it's worth, I just noticed that the installer launches asks me for a language for installation and only after I select English to I get the error "OS X could not be installed on your computer OS X El Capitan is already installed on this Mac. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again".

thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

I performed all of this with a brand new pikified installer. Deleted the old one in Applications, re-downloaded from the App store and then re-ran pikify to create this installer

 

[rthpjm]

Sorry I've been busy with *real* work for the last few days. Here's the result when I run bless on my "Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD" (USB key)


Just for s's and G's I also see a Volume titled "Image Volume/" and another "OS X Base System/"

and for what it's worth, I just noticed that the installer launches asks me for a language for installation and only after I select English to I get the error "OS X could not be installed on your computer OS X El Capitan is already installed on this Mac. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again".

thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

I performed all of this with a brand new pikified installer. Deleted the old one in Applications, re-downloaded from the App store and then re-ran pikify to create this installer

I made a video, it's posted a page back or so, and it's also posted on the main thread pikify post at #1390

From what you have written above (and to paraphrase the journalists that mis-quoted Steve Jobs) you might be doing it wrong

 

[mateo107]

I followed your video to a "T"... i'll take another look to see if or where I mightv'ed forked, and I'll let you know.

 

[rthpjm]

I followed your video to a "T"... i'll take another look to see if or where I mightv'ed forked, and I'll let you know.

Mac OS X Install DVD never shows up unless you then mount the the DMGs from the built installer. You should never get that deep into it.

Are you launching the Install OS X El Capitan app from the pikify-built USB memory stick? If you are, don't do that.

Once the install media is built, you need to boot the MacPro from it....

 

[mateo107]

Yah, that's the odd thing.

So, after I build with Pikify, I see just what you see on the USB drive "Install Mac OS X El Capitan". I 'eject it' and then put it back in, then eject again. Then I reboot the mac pro - this time - no longer with OS 10.7.5, but with the USB drive I just created and I see get these errors. Just followed the video again... I'm going to upload a video in a moment so you can see what I see...
[doublepost=1466712122][/doublepost]Here's the link to me booting my MacPro off the freshly created USB drive...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tnszhv5yihvi269/MacPro-Pikify.mov?dl=0

 

[rthpjm]

Yah, that's the odd thing.

So, after I build with Pikify, I see just what you see on the USB drive "Install Mac OS X El Capitan". I 'eject it' and then put it back in, then eject again. Then I reboot the mac pro - this time - no longer with OS 10.7.5, but with the USB drive I just created and I see get these errors. Just followed the video again... I'm going to upload a video in a moment so you can see what I see...
[doublepost=1466712122][/doublepost]Here's the link to me booting my MacPro off the freshly created USB drive...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tnszhv5yihvi269/MacPro-Pikify.mov?dl=0

Hey Mateo107,

The video really, really helps....

So, the good news is that you are not doing anything wrong! The bad news is, that I don't understand why it's not working for you!

To answer the questions you posed in the video:
The two images do load, and are expected. When you boot off the installer, there is an outer-image file and an inner-image file. The boot sequence is a two stage process, stage 1 boots and opens up the InstallESD.dmg from the 'Install OS X El Capitan.app" found in the root of the USB stick. At this point the OS is operating from the USB stick. The OS then creates multiple RAM-disks, and populates them with the data from the BaseSystem.dmg from within the mounted InstallESD.dmg. The OS then performs a warm-reboot into the newly created RAM-Disks, it does this so that none of the disks are then 'in use' by the OS and therefore any disk can be a candidate for the installation. This is the point in the video that you noted when the progress bar starts again.
So Stage 2 is the warm-boot and we are now operating from the RAM disks, which in turn now runs the installer.
The Language Chooser launches if the Parameter RAM (aka NVRAM) on your machine does not yet have a setting.
Then the Install environment appears. At this point things go wrong for you - weird!

The other question you posed about the point of 'bless'. You are right, not here/there in the video. The bless command is done from your (now removed) 10.7.5 HDD - you only need to do this if you have successfully used the USB installer - at the end of the install sequence the Apple Install Assistant blesses the USB stick to the 'regular' locations, which perversely renders the USB stick un-bootable.

So here is what we can do.
1. Boot again off the USB stick, get the 'OS X could not be installed on your computer' screen.
2. Launch a Terminal from the Utilities menu
3. cd /var/log
4. ls
5. Locate the install.log file (I'm hoping there is going to be one present)
6. cp install.log /Volumes/[YourBlankHDD]
7. Shutdown
8. Put your 10.7.5 HDD back in and boot off that (keep the blank HDD drive in too)
9. You should have a copy of the install.log file on /Volumes/[YourBlankHDD]
10. Post it here and I will take a look

I have a feeling that your blank HDD does not have a valid GUID-based partition map with at least 1 Volume. Hence the installer can't find a candidate location onto which it will install. (if I'm right, you may not be able to do step 6 above)

If you watch my video, you will see that I boot from the USB stick, and I launch the Disk Utility to format my blank Samsung drive. You might want to try that step too...

If my theory is correct, try going through the sequence again with both the 10.7.5 HDD and the blank one installed. When you get to the installer, see if the 'could not be installed' has gone away and it will progress further....

 

[mateo107]

Here's my log file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/raitwfmzmn555xj/install.log?dl=0

Hey Mateo107,

The video really, really helps....

So, the good news is that you are not doing anything wrong! The bad news is, that I don't understand why it's not working for you!

To answer the questions you posed in the video:
The two images do load, and are expected. When you boot off the installer, there is an outer-image file and an inner-image file. The boot sequence is a two stage process, stage 1 boots and opens up the InstallESD.dmg from the 'Install OS X El Capitan.app" found in the root of the USB stick. At this point the OS is operating from the USB stick. The OS then creates multiple RAM-disks, and populates them with the data from the BaseSystem.dmg from within the mounted InstallESD.dmg. The OS then performs a warm-reboot into the newly created RAM-Disks, it does this so that none of the disks are then 'in use' by the OS and therefore any disk can be a candidate for the installation. This is the point in the video that you noted when the progress bar starts again.
So Stage 2 is the warm-boot and we are now operating from the RAM disks, which in turn now runs the installer.
The Language Chooser launches if the Parameter RAM (aka NVRAM) on your machine does not yet have a setting.
Then the Install environment appears. At this point things go wrong for you - weird!

The other question you posed about the point of 'bless'. You are right, not here/there in the video. The bless command is done from your (now removed) 10.7.5 HDD - you only need to do this if you have successfully used the USB installer - at the end of the install sequence the Apple Install Assistant blesses the USB stick to the 'regular' locations, which perversely renders the USB stick un-bootable.

So here is what we can do.
1. Boot again off the USB stick, get the 'OS X could not be installed on your computer' screen.
2. Launch a Terminal from the Utilities menu
3. cd /var/log
4. ls
5. Locate the install.log file (I'm hoping there is going to be one present)
6. cp install.log /Volumes/[YourBlankHDD]
7. Shutdown
8. Put your 10.7.5 HDD back in and boot off that (keep the blank HDD drive in too)
9. You should have a copy of the install.log file on /Volumes/[YourBlankHDD]
10. Post it here and I will take a look

I have a feeling that your blank HDD does not have a valid GUID-based partition map with at least 1 Volume. Hence the installer can't find a candidate location onto which it will install. (if I'm right, you may not be able to do step 6 above)

If you watch my video, you will see that I boot from the USB stick, and I launch the Disk Utility to format my blank Samsung drive. You might want to try that step too...

If my theory is correct, try going through the sequence again with both the 10.7.5 HDD and the blank one installed. When you get to the installer, see if the 'could not be installed' has gone away and it will progress further....

 

[mateo107]

If my theory is correct, try going through the sequence again with both the 10.7.5 HDD and the blank one installed. When you get to the installer, see if the 'could not be installed' has gone away and it will progress further....

Started up with both drives installed - my blank drive and my OS 10.7.5 installed drive - same result.

Ran Disk Utility and reset 1 partition on the blank drive with GUID partition - same problem

 

[rthpjm]

Started up with both drives installed - my blank drive and my OS 10.7.5 installed drive - same result.

Ran Disk Utility and reset 1 partition on the blank drive with GUID partition - same problem

Hello mateo107

Okay so I have run through a clean install on my MacPro 1,1 (which is upgraded to a 2,1), using 10.11.5 to be a closest match to your environment. I've done a side-by-side review of my install.log and your install.log file. There are a few differences to begin with but nothing major (they look like differences because of networking differences.

We have pretty much the same log entries until here

Mine

Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Hardware: MacPro2,1 @ 2.33 GHz (x 8), 32768 MB RAM
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.11.5 (15F34)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: DYLD_NO_FIX_PREBINDING=1
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: PWD=/
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: XPC_FLAGS=0x0
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: XPC_SERVICE_NAME=0
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: SHLVL=1
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: __OSINSTALL_ENVIRONMENT=1
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: CI_DEFAULT_OPENCL_USAGE=0
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: OS_INSTALL=1
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Env: _=/System/Library/CoreServices/Language Chooser.app/Contents/MacOS/Language Chooser
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Mutable product: Looking for automation file at (null)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: No file at (null)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Install Config: Looking for automation file at (null)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: No file at /System/Installation/Packages/Extras/minstallconfig.xml
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Looking for automation file at (null)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Install will not be automated.
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Install will performed using distribution/collection at /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.collection.
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Install will be a collection install.
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Investigating path from collection: /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Investigating package: /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Investigating path from collection: /System/Installation/Packages/pikify.pkg
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Investigating package: /System/Installation/Packages/pikify.pkg
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Waiting for target evaluation.
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Starting target evaluation queue.
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: PKDistributionController: Using client-provided SystemVersion.plist: 10.11.5 (15F34)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Evaluating install check for (null)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Evaluating install check for (null)
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Install check successful.
Jun 24 00:50:15 Mac-Pro OSInstaller[500]: Evaluating 22 disks

Yours

Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Hardware: MacPro1,1 @ 3.00 GHz (x 4), 16384 MB RAM
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.11.5 (15F34)
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: DYLD_NO_FIX_PREBINDING=1
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: PWD=/
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: XPC_FLAGS=0x0
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: XPC_SERVICE_NAME=0
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: SHLVL=1
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: __OSINSTALL_ENVIRONMENT=1
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: CI_DEFAULT_OPENCL_USAGE=0
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: OS_INSTALL=1
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Env: _=/System/Library/CoreServices/Language Chooser.app/Contents/MacOS/Language Chooser
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Mutable product: Looking for automation file at (null)
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: No file at (null)
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Install Config: Looking for automation file at (null)
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: No file at /System/Installation/Packages/Extras/minstallconfig.xml
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Looking for automation file at (null)
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Install will not be automated.
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Install will performed using distribution/collection at /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.collection.
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Install will be a collection install.
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Investigating path from collection: /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg
Jun 23 17:13:49 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Investigating package: /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Investigating path from collection: /System/Installation/Packages/pikify.pkg
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Investigating package: /System/Installation/Packages/pikify.pkg
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Waiting for target evaluation.
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Starting target evaluation queue.
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: PKDistributionController: Using client-provided SystemVersion.plist: 10.11.5 (15F34)
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Evaluating install check for (null)
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: This package can not be installed for reason: (null)
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Finished target evaluation.
Jun 23 17:13:50 MacPro OSInstaller[457]: Evaluating 17 disks

So I think yours fails 3rd line up from the bottom of the excerpts, but mine is okay

Also, I note that when the installer gets to the disk checks, your disks seem to be showing Windows-style formats, whereas mine show Mac-style formats

mine

Jun 24 00:51:13 Mac-Pro diskmanagementd[502]: DM ->T-[DMToolPartitionDisk changeGUIDKeysToPartIDKeys:forDictionary:]: inPartitionsArr=(
            {
            Flags = 1;
            GUID = "EAA63662-C858-414C-8BBA-9A69150B71CF";
            Name = "EFI System Partition";
            Offset = 40;
            "Partition ID" = 1;
            Size = 409600;
            Type = EFI;
        },
            {
            Flags = 9;
            GUID = "EC861D6D-158A-4568-861A-31691E4B24DB";
            Name = "Macintosh HD El Capitan";
            Offset = 409640;
            "Partition ID" = 2;
            Size = 3906357344;
            Type = "Apple_HFS";
        }
    ) inoutDict(bef)={
        "EC861D6D-158A-4568-861A-31691E4B24DB" =     {
            Erase = 0;
            Existed = 0;
            FilesystemName = "Journaled HFS+";
            Name = "Macintosh HD El Capitan";
            Newfs = 1;
            Size = 0;
        };
    }

Yours

Jun 23 17:20:18 MacPro diskmanagementd[459]: DM ->T-[DMToolPartitionDisk changeGUIDKeysToPartIDKeys:forDictionary:]: inPartitionsArr=(
            {
            GUID = "B5005011-3A05-48EE-9DB6-AFA0E35922FF";
            Name = SAVE;
            Offset = 2;
            "Partition ID" = 1;
            Size = 15564798;
            Status = 1048576;
            Type = "DOS_FAT_32";
        }
    ) inoutDict(bef)={
        "B5005011-3A05-48EE-9DB6-AFA0E35922FF" =     {
            Erase = 0;
            Existed = 0;
            FilesystemName = "MS-DOS";
            Name = SAVE;
            Newfs = 1;
            Size = 0;
        };
    }

I still think the issue is that the installer can't find a candidate volume onto which it can install...

My recommendation: Format your blank drive again, make sure you select GUID partition map/scheme AND select OS X Extended (Journaled) also known as HFS+ Journeled

I'll go have a dig around to see if I can find out what 'install check' is doing... No guarantees at the moment though...

 

[macprobuffalo]

Not sure if this is a general El Captain issue or if its related to the Mac Pro but I discovered that my mac pro file sharing settings are not obeyed when using AFP.

Not matter what restrictions I set for a shared folder they can be accessed by anyone on the network as a guest. The only solution I found was to disable AFP and only share files with SMB

 

[apple_iBoy]

I'm struggling a little with this installation. I've made the USB drive a few times, and I'm pretty sure I'm doing everything right.

I suddenly got a glimmer of memory of this happening last time, when I updated to Yosemite. I seem to recall that the 16 GB Toshiba thumbs drives that I have in my desk drawer just never worked. I ended up getting some no-name 8 GB drive and it worked like magic the first try. Unfortunately, all I have at home on this long weekend are these damn Toshibas.

Anyone else find that certain flash drives just don't work?

 

[owbp]

I had problems with some sticks few years ago (when hackintoshing mainly).
Kingston's DT Micro is what I'm using, cheap and never had any problems.

 

[apple_iBoy]

Finally got my USB installation going. I'm using a 6870 with no boot screen, and no matter what, I was not having success doing any combination of left or right arrow key presses to blindly get the machine to boot from USB.

Then on a whim I tried just holding down the C key, like in the old days when booting from the optical drive.

Lo and behold, it worked! And now my installation is in progress.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who played a role in this project!!

 

[EpiV1988]

That info looks the same as mine. Have you tried another keyboard? Noticed yours is a Dell and might be worth checking if another works? I thought you were running Yosemite before - but whatever OS these USB devices worked OK I guess. Sorry if this sounds a stupid question, but have you tried a HD or other USB devices to see if they work and that it isn't just the keyboard.

Trying other brand usb keyboards show they work until I unplug them.

The USB drives get power but never initialize. I have tried multiple of different brands and formats. From boot it says they're there but it doesn't initialize the partitions.

From here I'm wondering if I could Pikify an 10.11.0 image then install it with hopes that it will have USB, OR that someone could attach their kext for USB and I install it to get it working. Whatever works, right? Worth a shot.