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RobertJB

macrumors member
Mar 14, 2013
60
1
Netherlands
Does one of you know if a ATI Radeon HD 5870 has a issue with the installer.
This is the GPU I have in my MP 2.1

thanks,

I have done the installation now 5 times and for some reason i'm not getting what is needed.

I have tried it on a external USB hard disk, boot problem.
I have done it on a internal black HD with two partitions. With the option key boot slect the partition, get a grey screen and then a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left.

Some thing that I see when dooing the prep work.

All the files that are taken out of the installation pack are white (boot.efi) the once I put back are black!
In the platformSupport.plist below the board ID's a list of supported systems is available this does not contain MacPro 1,1 and 2,1 do I need to add them as well?

I hope this does help in solving this.

thanks,
 

Hennesie2000

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2007
1,514
42
Maryland
I have done the installation now 5 times and for some reason i'm not getting what is needed.



I have tried it on a external USB hard disk, boot problem.

I have done it on a internal black HD with two partitions. With the option key boot slect the partition, get a grey screen and then a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left.



Some thing that I see when dooing the prep work.



All the files that are taken out of the installation pack are white (boot.efi) the once I put back are black!

In the platformSupport.plist below the board ID's a list of supported systems is available this does not contain MacPro 1,1 and 2,1 do I need to add them as well?



I hope this does help in solving this.



thanks,


I never added anything to the platformsupport.plist.
 

RobertJB

macrumors member
Mar 14, 2013
60
1
Netherlands
I never added anything to the platformsupport.plist.

intresting :eek:

In you instructions as item 17 it is written that this needs to be done?

In the past I have used your installation guide for installing 10.9 to my system and that one work like a charm so for sure what you have written must be correct:)

But for the hack of it I can not find out what i'm dooing wrong.
I will copy the standard platformsupport.plist back and see what happens.
 

sweetspud

macrumors member
Jan 29, 2015
76
6
Boot Disc

Guys!

Is there a way to get our hacked Mac Pros to boot to Recovery Mode, an "Opt"/Startup disc...dvd/cd etc, etc...??
 

Hennesie2000

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2007
1,514
42
Maryland
Guys!

Is there a way to get our hacked Mac Pros to boot to Recovery Mode, an "Opt"/Startup disc...dvd/cd etc, etc...??

If you want to boot to the Recovery HD you have to replace the boot.efi file on there as well. You have to use CMD+R to boot to the Recover HD, selecting it by holding option does not work properly. Alternatively, if you have built a working USB installer then you can burn an image of that to a DVD and hold C after the startup chime to boot to the disc. The later is my choice because then you can still boot if the HDD is failing.

----------

intresting :eek:

In you instructions as item 17 it is written that this needs to be done?

In the past I have used your installation guide for installing 10.9 to my system and that one work like a charm so for sure what you have written must be correct:)

But for the hack of it I can not find out what i'm dooing wrong.
I will copy the standard platformsupport.plist back and see what happens.

If it is in the guide then maybe I did. I honestly haven't messed with it in a long time now so I was just going based on memory, which isn't very good, lol.
 

macprobuffalo

macrumors member
Feb 27, 2015
52
9
Guys!

Is there a way to get our hacked Mac Pros to boot to Recovery Mode, an "Opt"/Startup disc...dvd/cd etc, etc...??

There is a way to get it working buried somewhere in this thread.

It wasn't worth the hassle for me so in my case I created a 8gb partition on my backup disk that contains the Yosemite installer. Included with the installer is a startup disk selector and disk utility. If there was an issue with my boot drive the computer would boot to the installer partition
 

Hennesie2000

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2007
1,514
42
Maryland
There is a way to get it working buried somewhere in this thread.

It wasn't worth the hassle for me so in my case I created a 8gb partition on my backup disk that contains the Yosemite installer. Included with the installer is a startup disk selector and disk utility. If there was an issue with my boot drive the computer would boot to the installer partition

Recovery HD stuff starts at post #1475.
 

RobertJB

macrumors member
Mar 14, 2013
60
1
Netherlands
I never added anything to the platformsupport.plist.

Does one of you know what would be the result of having the boot.efi switch from a white icon to a black icon.

I know some where in the past when I was working on some hack I needed to do some terminal work to get the replaced match-kernel to be in the right icon form and color. I believe it has to do with the file beeing in a state as write protected or somthing like that.

To mee it looks like as if the system will not get in to the boot screen that would probabaly be the boot.efi as I have selected the black one it gives me a grey screen with no Apple icon and then it goos to a black screen with only a cursor blinking.
 

sumer

macrumors regular
Mar 2, 2015
130
0
Toronto
Does one of you know what would be the result of having the boot.efi switch from a white icon to a black icon.

I know some where in the past when I was working on some hack I needed to do some terminal work to get the replaced match-kernel to be in the right icon form and color. I believe it has to do with the file beeing in a state as write protected or somthing like that.

To mee it looks like as if the system will not get in to the boot screen that would probabaly be the boot.efi as I have selected the black one it gives me a grey screen with no Apple icon and then it goos to a black screen with only a cursor blinking.

I thought it was cosmetic. I believe with some systems like macbooks the boot screen is black to match the frame of the screen and on others it's grey. So it depends on the model of laptop you have.

Are you getting a boot screen? on the posts above you mention a Radeon card unless it's a mac card or flashed-PC cards won't show a boot screen.
 

Hennesie2000

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2007
1,514
42
Maryland
I thought it was cosmetic. I believe with some systems like macbooks the boot screen is black to match the frame of the screen and on others it's grey. So it depends on the model of laptop you have.

Are you getting a boot screen? on the posts above you mention a Radeon card unless it's a mac card or flashed-PC cards won't show a boot screen.

The black boot screen is on machines from 2011 and newer. Older MacBook Pros that have the black screen surround just like the newer ones, have the gray boot screen.

There is a script that you can run on a real Mac to change to the black boot screen on older machines. I used it for a while on my 2010 MBP but when I reset the PRAM on it, it would no longer boot. I was forced to reinstall Yosemite.
 

RobertJB

macrumors member
Mar 14, 2013
60
1
Netherlands
The black boot screen is on machines from 2011 and newer. Older MacBook Pros that have the black screen surround just like the newer ones, have the gray boot screen.

There is a script that you can run on a real Mac to change to the black boot screen on older machines. I used it for a while on my 2010 MBP but when I reset the PRAM on it, it would no longer boot. I was forced to reinstall Yosemite.

I probably was not clear enough.

I'm not talking about the boot screen color. one efi has a black boot screen and the other has a grey boot screen.


When I open the BaseSystem.dng with Pacifist the Permissions of the boot.efi original are -rw-r-r-.
The icon with these permissions is like a A4 paper with a folded corner.
The icon of the boot.efi that is downloaded is a black one with green letters "exec".

The file permissions on the downloaded boot.efi are -rwxr-xr-x@

could this be a issue?


What i'm talking about is when i follow the instruction and replace the boot.efi. The boot.efi that is standard in the 10.10 installation have a white icon. the boot.efi that I replace it with has a black ico.

I believe the color of the icon has somthing the do with the state of the file. Is it read only, write protected, blessed some of these things.

I could be wrong but this is what I notice when I do the pre installation work.
 
Last edited:

RobertJB

macrumors member
Mar 14, 2013
60
1
Netherlands
I just found out that the Yosemite version i'm installing is a 10.10.3 version will that be a issue?

where to download a 10.10.1 version in the app store?

thanks,
 

F1Mac

macrumors 65816
Feb 26, 2014
1,283
1,604
I just found out that the Yosemite version i'm installing is a 10.10.3 version will that be a issue?

No it doesn't matter. Go ahead with 10.10.3.

The boot.efi file labeled as an executable or a document is no issue either.
 

opresco

macrumors newbie
May 14, 2015
3
0
I have tried 2 times with 2 different USB key and I got this empty grey screen !!. does any one give us some advice of what we did wrong !

I'm also having the same problem: grey screen - nothing happens, even when booting the prepatched Yosemite from an internal HDD in a Mac Pro 1,1.

----------

I have read all 120+ threads looking for a solution to my problem with no luck.
I have a 2.1 with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB running 10.9.5 very smoothly and without issue. I followed the instructions back in the original post to load Mavericks on it and all went just as outlined. Let me say I am very grateful to all for a great install package and written install procedure.

My issue is that when I follow the same process to do a clean install of Yosemite on the same 2.1 all I get is a blank white screen when I choose to boot the USB drive installer. I used the pre-patched Piker-Alpha bootable Yosemite installer to restore the USB installer. What am I doing wrong?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

Hi, californian, I have also spent countless hours reading about it and I'm still not successful in using the prepatched Yosemite on Mega, even after booting from an internal HDD, instead of the USB stick.
 

Hennesie2000

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2007
1,514
42
Maryland
I'm also having the same problem: grey screen - nothing happens, even when booting the prepatched Yosemite from an internal HDD in a Mac Pro 1,1.

----------



Hi, californian, I have also spent countless hours reading about it and I'm still not successful in using the prepatched Yosemite on Mega, even after booting from an internal HDD, instead of the USB stick.


Try building one from scratch on a 8GB partition on an internal hdd.
 

RobertJB

macrumors member
Mar 14, 2013
60
1
Netherlands
I full day with 8 new attempts but still no luck :(
normally I would see progress but in this case i'm all out off luck.

I have tried with a extren USB stick and HD.
with a 2 partition internal hd in target mode from a MBP to the MP
and a internal 2 partition hd on the MP running mav

in all the cases it is the same.

when I run mav 10.9.5 and I check in terminal my board ID I get F42C88C8.
this would be the ID of a MacPro 3,1 !

it could be that this is something that is in the Mav installation instruction that I followed from Hennesie2000 in 2013 (wow where did the time go)

but I found it worth mentioning.

So if one of you top hackers have some more guidance and advise for me it is appreciated.

thanks,
 

PeterHolbrook

macrumors 68000
Sep 23, 2009
1,625
441
when I run mav 10.9.5 and I check in terminal my board ID I get F42C88C8.
this would be the ID of a MacPro 3,1 !

This would definitely be wrong if you want to create an installer for a Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1. You need to include the board IDs for these models, not for a Mac Pro 3,1. If you deviate from the proven procedure in such a simple thing, it's no wonder you get nowhere.
 

Hennesie2000

macrumors 68000
Sep 29, 2007
1,514
42
Maryland
I full day with 8 new attempts but still no luck :(
normally I would see progress but in this case i'm all out off luck.

I have tried with a extren USB stick and HD.
with a 2 partition internal hd in target mode from a MBP to the MP
and a internal 2 partition hd on the MP running mav

in all the cases it is the same.

when I run mav 10.9.5 and I check in terminal my board ID I get F42C88C8.
this would be the ID of a MacPro 3,1 !

it could be that this is something that is in the Mav installation instruction that I followed from Hennesie2000 in 2013 (wow where did the time go)

but I found it worth mentioning.

So if one of you top hackers have some more guidance and advise for me it is appreciated.

thanks,

Nothing in the installation guide does anything to change your boardID. You are simply adding to the accepted boardIDs in the check process so it passes and allows the installation. If this were the case then everyone who followed my guide would be having issues, which they aren't.

99% of the time, and for unknown reasons, people decide not to follow the instructions exactly and then have issues. The other 1% of the time it is issues with the smart quotes but once those are corrected the installer works fine. I upgraded to Mavericks and Yosemite without ever even needing a boot screen so this really isn't hard.
 

MacVidCards

Suspended
Nov 17, 2008
6,096
1,056
Hollywood, CA
when I run mav 10.9.5 and I check in terminal my board ID I get F42C88C8.
this would be the ID of a MacPro 3,1 !

One of 2 possibilities:

1. You actually have a 3,1 and have wasted a vast amount of time

2. You are doing terminal commands wrong and have a 1,1 or a 2,1

Easy enough, hit "about this mac" then command, shift and 4 key to get a cursor to drag over the window, will save to png on desktop

post that and the terminal input and output text, we'll know right away
 

californian

macrumors newbie
Sep 22, 2005
12
0
I have read all 120+ threads looking for a solution to my problem with no luck.
I have a 2.1 with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB running 10.9.5 very smoothly and without issue. I followed the instructions back in the original post to load Mavericks on it and all went just as outlined. Let me say I am very grateful to all for a great install package and written install procedure.

My issue is that when I follow the same process to do a clean install of Yosemite on the same 2.1 all I get is a blank white screen when I choose to boot the USB drive installer. I used the pre-patched Piker-Alpha bootable Yosemite installer to restore the USB installer. What am I doing wrong?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

Just wanted to let everyone know that after easily installing Mavericks via the boot.efi method last year on my 2.1 I decided to give Yosemite a try. No mater what I did I could not get Yosemite to install. Then one of the board members suggested that I try the install from an internal drive instead of a USB stick. Worked like a charm! All is good in the world again. Thanks MacProBuffalo
 

californian

macrumors newbie
Sep 22, 2005
12
0
I'm also having the same problem: grey screen - nothing happens, even when booting the prepatched Yosemite from an internal HDD in a Mac Pro 1,1.

----------



Hi, californian, I have also spent countless hours reading about it and I'm still not successful in using the prepatched Yosemite on Mega, even after booting from an internal HDD, instead of the USB stick.

Here is what I did:
1 drive bay/sled in bay 1 had my Mavericks OS on it
2 drive in bay 2 was a clean HPS formatted drive
2a bay 4 was my Time Machines Mavericks BU
3 with the machine booted up in Mavericks I downloaded the prepached Yosemite from Mega
4 I also downloaded the YoseFix file at this time just because the timing was convienent
5 while still running Mavericks I restored the Yosemite Installer to the blank drive in bay 2
6 I then shut the machine down and replaced the Mavericks start up drive with a freshly HPS partitioned drive
7 I booted the machine up with the Yosemite Installer that was in bay 2
8 the Installer ran and I told it to install Yosemite on the blank drive in bay 1
When it was done I ran the migration assistant from my time machine BU which was in bay 4 all this time.
That's it. I now have a clean install of Yosemite running on my 2.1 with all my data and apps migrated over.
It may have been a little longer than some in this forum have experience but it worked for me and I'm a happy camper! Don't forget to run the YoseFix BEFORE you run any OS updates.

Good Luck
 
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