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OK, I'll partially answer my own question. The problem with the stall halfway was found by looking at the system log file in var/log/system.log. There were two launch agents that weren't loading and were respawning every 10 seconds for infinity. They were both located in System/Library/LaunchAgents/ and one was called com.Apple.cvmsCompAgent_x86_64, I forgot the other, something like mdworker. I deleted these and the boot completed, but, the Setup Assistant was running asking for "Time Zone" but wouldn't respond to any input. I copied the Time Zone preferences from the old system, and also copied .applesetupdone to private/var/db. Now it booted to the login window, but stalled when the password was entered with eternal spinning. The system.log wasn't helpful for the cause of this stall, so I wiped and reinstalled a fresh system, but instead of using Migration Assistant for another 7 hours of wait, I made a new user which was perfect. I installed PikeYoseFix and rebooted, then ran Software Update and it updated to 10.10.2, and never booted successfully again. The correct boot.efi files were present, but in System/Library/CoreServices/ the PlatformSupport.plist was missing the board & model #'s, and so was the InstallableMachines.plist, so it appears that PikeYoseFix did NOT work for upgrading from 10.10.1 which was perfect, to 10.10.2. Even after I manually checked all the files I knew about, it still never booted, and I blessed the System manually also, which was shown in Startup Disk as bootable, so that didn't appear to be the issue. Now I'm going to "start over" a 3rd time.

Are you formatting the installation drive/volume when the installer starts, using disk utility? I'm no expert but it sounds like it's just overwriting itself or something.
 
Xserve 2006 & Xserve 2008

Hi it would be nice to get some help.

I followed the manual to the letter to create a bootable USB to install Yosemite on a Xserve 2006 and 2008. I have added the ID's : for Xserve 2006 : Mac-F4208AC8 and Xserve 2008 : Mac-F42289C8. Everything went smoothly but when it comes to booting the xserve with the bootable USB i am getting the blinking folder with the question mark. I got myself a new USB stick and went through the whole procedure again but without any luck, the system will not boot from the usb drive and i am still getting the blinking folder.

Any help would be highly appreciated.
 
Hi it would be nice to get some help.

I followed the manual to the letter to create a bootable USB to install Yosemite on a Xserve 2006 and 2008. I have added the ID's : for Xserve 2006 : Mac-F4208AC8 and Xserve 2008 : Mac-F42289C8. Everything went smoothly but when it comes to booting the xserve with the bootable USB i am getting the blinking folder with the question mark. I got myself a new USB stick and went through the whole procedure again but without any luck, the system will not boot from the usb drive and i am still getting the blinking folder.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Make sure you key unlock your Xserve. There is a small Hex bolt on the front of the Xserve that allows you to remove drives. This also enables a restriction where it will only boot from an internal drive when the lock is engaged. Just disengage the lock and you'll be able to boot from USB.

Believe me, I had the same problem.
 
Make sure you key unlock your Xserve. There is a small Hex bolt on the front of the Xserve that allows you to remove drives. This also enables a restriction where it will only boot from an internal drive when the lock is engaged. Just disengage the lock and you'll be able to boot from USB.

Believe me, I had the same problem.

No it is not locked, that was the first thing i looked at.
 
Hello,

I have a Mac Pro 2006 rev 1,1 running Yosemite thanks to Piker-Alpha boot loader boot.efi. I'd like to install Linux on a partition with dual boot. Will I still be able to start my computer with Yosemite if I install The rEFInd Boot Manager which is required to have a dual boot Mac OS X / Linux ?

Thank you
 
I instantly regret my decision

I'm a moron and here's why,

I recently stumbled here looking for advice on installing Windows 7 on my 2006 1,1 Mac Pro as I was having a whole heap of issues with Bootcamp. After a couple of days of dead ends I'd pretty much given up on the idea, when I happened across this thread offering advice on running Yosemite on my elderly system -

This is the part where I'm a moron, I decided that it would be a good idea to blindly throw myself into upgrading to Yosemite while doing no research whatsoever.

So I downloaded PikeYoseFix-black.pkg.zip from this post and ran it, before vaguely reading somewhere that I simply needed to reboot twice and I would then be able to upgrade.

My system now won't boot, I can't enter any boot menus, recovery mode, I can't even boot to my original Snow Leaopard install disk? I understand it might well be a graphics card issue, I have a Radeon HD5770 in there and somewhere in the darkness a formerly working install of 10.6.8

Can someone please tell me what I've actually broken by running that PikeYoseFix pkg? I'd also welcome any possible solutions of how to get it working again. I'm happy to do a clean install of Snow Leapord as I have the disks and there's an empty drive in there that I was going to put Windows 7 on.

And yes, I'm embarrassed.
 
I'm a moron and here's why,



I recently stumbled here looking for advice on installing Windows 7 on my 2006 1,1 Mac Pro as I was having a whole heap of issues with Bootcamp. After a couple of days of dead ends I'd pretty much given up on the idea, when I happened across this thread offering advice on running Yosemite on my elderly system -



This is the part where I'm a moron, I decided that it would be a good idea to blindly throw myself into upgrading to Yosemite while doing no research whatsoever.



So I downloaded PikeYoseFix-black.pkg.zip from this post and ran it, before vaguely reading somewhere that I simply needed to reboot twice and I would then be able to upgrade.



My system now won't boot, I can't enter any boot menus, recovery mode, I can't even boot to my original Snow Leaopard install disk? I understand it might well be a graphics card issue, I have a Radeon HD5770 in there and somewhere in the darkness a formerly working install of 10.6.8



Can someone please tell me what I've actually broken by running that PikeYoseFix pkg? I'd also welcome any possible solutions of how to get it working again. I'm happy to do a clean install of Snow Leapord as I have the disks and there's an empty drive in there that I was going to put Windows 7 on.



And yes, I'm embarrassed.


Remove all HDDs, and put in the Snow Leopard disc. After the boot chime hold C. See if the disc will boot. If it does set the startup disk to the DVD. Shut down and install a HDD, see if it boots. You may or may not need to hold C.
 
Remove all HDDs, and put in the Snow Leopard disc. After the boot chime hold C. See if the disc will boot. If it does set the startup disk to the DVD. Shut down and install a HDD, see if it boots. You may or may not need to hold C.

Hi and thanks for the reply, I've removed all 4 internal drives and it won't boot from the DVD, I also tried just installing the drive with the working OS on, and also just a clean formatted drive to no avail.

I get chimes and the DVD is spinning up, caps-lock is responding but no keystrokes made at the chimes seem to make a difference, also I can't eject the DVD either by holding eject, or f12 or the mouse button.

I'm bamboozled, is there a chance I've fried my video card? It seems like an awfully harsh punishment even though I have been incredibly dim.
 

I did, I've tried two different flavours of SMC reset too, combined with an NVRAM reset, multiple times, it doesn't make any difference.

It would appear boot.efi is screwed, with the added possibility that my firmware password may have become activated in the process, and I can't get involved in fixing these because my graphics card doesn't offer me a boot screen.

I'm in a hole way over my head here so I'm going to read up as much as I can now, I'll be investigating if it's possible to reset my boot.efi to factory settings, if you know that's possible, or impossible I'd love to hear from you.
 
It would appear boot.efi is screwed, with the added possibility that my firmware password may have become activated in the process, and I can't get involved in fixing these because my graphics card doesn't offer me a boot screen.

The boot.efi file on your install CD/DVD is unchanged. Pike's boot.efi that got installed with that PikeYose script is a single file that gets replaced on your hard disk in two locations, it doesn't do anything to your actual EFI firmware itself.

Do you have your old graphics card somewhere for a boot screen to see why you can't boot from a CD/DVD?
 
The boot.efi file on your install CD/DVD is unchanged. Pike's boot.efi that got installed with that PikeYose script is a single file that gets replaced on your hard disk in two locations, it doesn't do anything to your actual EFI firmware itself.

Do you have your old graphics card somewhere for a boot screen to see why you can't boot from a CD/DVD?

Ah, well that's good news then, that the firmware is unchanged.

What happened to my old graphics card is so painfully ironic I can't even bring myself to type it here. I do however know someone who can lend me something suitable so i can investigate further, thanks both for your help so far, I genuinely appreciate it, I'll be back with an update.
 
Booting Yosemite on Xserve 2,1

Make sure you key unlock your Xserve. There is a small Hex bolt on the front of the Xserve that allows you to remove drives. This also enables a restriction where it will only boot from an internal drive when the lock is engaged. Just disengage the lock and you'll be able to boot from USB.

Believe me, I had the same problem.

I have the same problem here with a xserve 2,1… Have you solve it yet?
 
ah, well that's good news then, that the firmware is unchanged.

What happened to my old graphics card is so painfully ironic i can't even bring myself to type it here. I do however know someone who can lend me something suitable so i can investigate further, thanks both for your help so far, i genuinely appreciate it, i'll be back with an update.

keep a working lion partition
 
Hm, my next guess is to check your boot.efi files and make sure they are replaced on the drive.

I followed the hennessie2000 guide in the first post of this thread, that is where i get my boot.efi from. I replaced the files on both locations. is there a difference in boot.efi besides black or grey screen?

Even with the prepared image it doesn't work.

I also tried the sfott methode also with no success still won't boot from the usb drive.

Next thing i tried was to install sfott on a drive in the xserve, pointed that one to boot from and shutdown the system, then i took out the drive with lion on it and booted the system and again the blinking folder.
 
I also tried the sfott methode also with no success still won't boot from the usb drive.

Have you tried a different usb stick? On one of mine I tried to build an installer that could never boot properly, although everything had been done to the letter - I took another one and this time it booted with no problem.

I think I'll use an actual, external drive instead of these damn sticks from now on.
 
Have you tried a different usb stick? On one of mine I tried to build an installer that could never boot properly, although everything had been done to the letter - I took another one and this time it booted with no problem.

I think I'll use an actual, external drive instead of these damn sticks from now on.

yes i tried three new ones (kingston) all same result, i am going to try the external drive see what happens i will keep you posted.
 
yes i tried three new ones (kingston) all same result, i am going to try the external drive see what happens i will keep you posted.


I have two SanDisk Cruzer drives and they have always booted fine. Also have a Leef USB 3.0 micro thumb drive that boots fine and is very fast.
 
yes i tried three new ones (kingston) all same result, i am going to try the external drive see what happens i will keep you posted.
I have two Kingston drives, neither would boot from USB for this purpose or to boot to jailbreak an old original Apple TV.

I have an inexpensive generic 8GB USB drive and a SanDisk one that could do USB boot. No idea what the difference is.
 
I'm out of suggestions for you guys. :(

I've had issues with getting Yosemite on my Xserve - maybe it was just not meant to be. I gave up and installed Lion a while ago. :cool:
 
I'm out of suggestions for you guys. :(

I've had issues with getting Yosemite on my Xserve - maybe it was just not meant to be. I gave up and installed Lion a while ago. :cool:

thank you for your efford. Did you have issues with the bootdrive or the install itself or running yosemite on the xserve?
 
thank you for your efford. Did you have issues with the bootdrive or the install itself or running yosemite on the xserve?

I didn't use a boot drive on the Xserve. I have a 1,1 already running the modified Yosemite, I just cloned the drive. The issue I had was that the system wouldn't boot with a PCIe GPU, which apparently a few others saw as well. Fortunately, Lion does as much as I need.
 
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