Resolved 2006/2007 Mac Pro (1,1/2,1) and OS X Yosemite

[blindpcguy]

anyways i fixed the issue i mentioned above. and on the topic you guys are discussing well my pro was having issues i took the ram cards out and re seated all my ram and it works flawlessly now even got el capitan installing its software updates then its install web drivers and off to the races. so next project get my windows drive created and figure out a way to have linux without a apple boot screen and il have a ultimate geek setup lol. but for now el cap is installing il keep u guys posted and yeah re seat that ram should help quite a bit

 

[Mastropiero]

I assumed it was a HD - have you enabled TRIM?
There is more info here... http://www.howtogeek.com/222077/how-to-enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds-on-mac-os-x/

I had Yosemite on a Crucial MX200 and enabled TRIM with no problems.

Yes, I double checked just in case but I did enable it right after installing Yosemite. For a while I had my whole pictures library in that drive, when I notices the slow start ups I moved it to another HD, expecting that to be the reason for it.

It was not, today I timed it and it took 1'15" to reach the password screen.I'd say that's way too long...

 

[Ant3000]

Do you have a spare HD? If so install a fresh copy of Yosemite (or El Capitan) and see if anything changes. If so it may point to a dodgy SSD - have you searched for issues with the brand of SSD you have?
Or do you have any other OS already installed on another HD you can boot into to see if it runs as quickly as you expect. Have you any external drives or hubs etc plugged in? if so try to strip it back to the bare Mac/keyboard/mouse and see if anything changes.

 

[rthpjm]

Yes, I double checked just in case but I did enable it right after installing Yosemite. For a while I had my whole pictures library in that drive, when I notices the slow start ups I moved it to another HD, expecting that to be the reason for it.

It was not, today I timed it and it took 1'15" to reach the password screen.I'd say that's way too long...

Try this....

Go into the System Preferences, open the startup disk panel, check if the SSD is showing "selected". If not, then select it, and reboot.

I've seen this occasionally, the selected boot disk is stored in the parameter RAM (PRAM aka nvram). Sometimes it either gets out of step, or deleted entirely. In these circumstances the firmware will try to locate the "selected" boot device, and then timeout. It will then rescan the available boot devices, and generally select the first available boot device. The end result is often a long pause before the boot sequence starts properly. Sometimes the "question mark folder" will be displayed, but not always.

The other alternative is that the boot sequence performs a quick disk check (fsck) if this reports back that the disk needs a proper check, then the full disk check will run. If my first suggestion doesn't help, try a reboot, when you hear the chime, hold down the key combination Apple V to go into verbose mode during boot, see if the log output stalls at some point....

 

[Mastropiero]

Thank you both, I'll try both your suggestions.

@Ant3000, I do have SL installed in another HD, last I tried it booted as usual. Installing Yosemite on another HD would be besides the point, I reckon, it would make better sense to try a different SSD instead. I am checking as I type for known issues with my SSD and there seems to be something, although what I am reading is more related to older EVO 840's than the EVO 850 I have. Will keep on checking.

@rthpjm, I will give it a go, thanks!

And thank you, guys, for helping out!

 

[Ant3000]

FWIW, I have a 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO running El Capitan without any issue. I only suggested installing on another HD as you may have had one lying around rather than a spare SSD.

 

[Mastropiero]

FWIW, I have a its Samsung 850 EVO running El Capitan without any issue. I only suggested installing on another HD as you may have had one lying around rather than a spare SSD.

I do, but filled to the brim. In any case, I can get my hands on one so if everything fails, I'll try that too. If I get a faster boot on it than on the SSD, then I'll probably have my answer.

 

[Ant3000]

I do, but filled to the brim. In any case, I can get my hands on one so if everything fails, I'll try that too. If I get a faster boot on it than on the SSD, then I'll probably have my answer.

Could the fact that the other drives are 'full to the brim' cause a slow down? Have you tried pulling all drives except your boot SSD and seeing how it runs? Just a thought.

 

[Mastropiero]

Could the fact that the other drives are 'full to the brim' cause a slow down? Have you tried pulling all drives except your boot SSD and seeing how it runs? Just a thought.

Will give it a go, I'll unplug everything and report back.

 

[Mastropiero]

Hmmmmm..... The latest development in this little saga of mine is that today - having yet to try any of the above, it was on my to-do list -, I turned on the computer and it booted just fine, in less than 20 seconds after the chime up sound I was already at the password screen. Worked a bit on it, switched it off and on two more times over a 30 minutes period and so far so good.


Beats me. In any case, if it decides to play stupid again anytime soon, I have here a list of good advice to try. Many thanks for your time and patience.

 

[Ant3000]

Good to know it seems to be working. Spotlight wasn't indexing the drives was it? I know this can sometimes cause weird behaviour and can take a long while to complete - but would have shown up in Activity Monitor I would have thought.

 

[Hungnguyen999]

The purpose of the script is to replace the boot.efi files right before every reboot. That is how it works and why it works. When you install 10.10.2 and it replaces the boot.efi file with a non working one and then it ask you to reboot. Right before you reboot the script puts back the working Pike boot.efi file. This way the system continues to boot.

I am newbie with mac and need help. I am follow those steps in this forum to download Yosemite os edit to add my mac model in into 2 location, download boot.efi in one of the link in this forum and replaced it to 2 location on the USB bootable flash drive then upgrade my Mac OS, after login it hang at login screen, hold power button to reboot then it boot to Yosemite OS but computer run slow, reboot again after popup say need to reboot for new update, then now it hang at warning with yellow triangle. now I can not do any thing, it still hang after login. Thanks


He was messing with it because he installed the TobyG script instead of the PikeYoseFix as described in my post before 666Sheep had posted the PikeYoseFix.

 

[jbarley]

Hungnguyen999

Is there a question here I missed?

 

[Mastropiero]

Good to know it seems to be working. Spotlight wasn't indexing the drives was it? I know this can sometimes cause weird behaviour and can take a long while to complete - but would have shown up in Activity Monitor I would have thought.

I did check the monitor activity and can't recall Spotlight messing around. Will keep an eye on that too.

 

[leo-666]

Tried to download this file
https://mega.co.nz/#!q1IRFJzK!GUinePUGF3jAAu3oUym-GHBC9doWRTU1p6nnkXkJFdQ
through Chrome. But the archive is damaged.
I redownloaded it a few time. The same issue.
What's happened ?

 

[AshokanKid]

Tried to download this file
https://mega.co.nz/#!q1IRFJzK!GUinePUGF3jAAu3oUym-GHBC9doWRTU1p6nnkXkJFdQ
through Chrome. But the archive is damaged.
I redownloaded it a few time. The same issue.
What's happened ?

I just did the same and got a similar error while trying to unzip the file.
What might be REALLY helpful is if someone has or could create a bittorrent of this install?
(For my own purposes, I still prefer Mavericks, even in Oct of 2016, but whatever 64 bit OS is fine.)

The simplest install on a 2006/2007 Mac Pro is a pre-patched Piker-Alpha bootable Yosemite installer

I'd be happy to host a bittorrent version of this installer if someone wants to provide me with a good copy!?!?!

 

[archtopshop]

I just did the same and got a similar error while trying to unzip the file.
What might be REALLY helpful is if someone has or could create a bittorrent of this install?
(For my own purposes, I still prefer Mavericks, even in Oct of 2016, but whatever 64 bit OS is fine.)




I'd be happy to host a bittorrent version of this installer if someone wants to provide me with a good copy!?!?!

I just downloaded it using Firefox with the Mega Browser extension. It unzipped OK for me. The dmg also mounted OK.

 

[AshokanKid]

I just downloaded it using Firefox with the Mega Browser extension. It unzipped OK for me. The dmg also mounted OK.

Hmm, I was in Google Chrome, no "browser extension", so perhaps that was / is the issue. (I also hate installing unknowns, such as Mega whatever, on my systems!).
Maybe I'll give this a try here and see how it goes, thanks!

 

[rthpjm]

Hmm, I was in Google Chrome, no "browser extension", so perhaps that was / is the issue. (I also hate installing unknowns, such as Mega whatever, on my systems!).
Maybe I'll give this a try here and see how it goes, thanks!

Hello AshokanKid,

I also hate unknown Mega whatever.

Have you considered moving to El Capitan directly, rather than moving to Yosemite?

There are two methods in common use to install El Capitan on classic MacPros, both use the "official" Apple Installer as their starting point. That being said, it means you need access to a "supported" Mac so that you can download a copy of "Install OS X El Capitan.app" from the Mac App Store...

 

[AshokanKid]

Hello AshokanKid,

I also hate unknown Mega whatever.
Have you considered moving to El Capitan directly, rather than moving to Yosemite?
There are two methods in common use to install El Capitan on classic MacPros, both use the "official" Apple Installer as their starting point. That being said, it means you need access to a "supported" Mac so that you can download a copy of "Install OS X El Capitan.app" from the Mac App Store...

OK, well I did as suggested, DLed the pre-patched Yosemite installer from Mega (this time to a Mac Pro, instead of my previous attempts to a Windows machine, which had issues) and once unzipped, did a "restore" of the dmg / installer to a spare drive, then used that drive to boot into my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 (8 GBs RAM & original crappy 256 MB video card).

Then proceeded to install Yosemite onto a separate blank drive in the Mac Pro, which seemed to go (relatively) smoothly. In my opinion, it "runs OK", though a bit glitchy and was hanging on re-boot (hardly loads log-in screen).

I've been dreaming about and messing with this for a while, partly because there are a plethora of cheap(ish) 2006 / 2007 machines out there and partly because I just enjoy this kind of thing (re-cycle, re-purpose, etc.).

At this point, I am going to be happy with running Lion (or, even better, Snow Leopard!) on these older machines ("support" be damned) and here is why;
This is obviously a kluge / hack that does "work" and perhaps back when they first (sadly and abruptly) deprecated the 2006 / 2007 machines to leave them in the dust, many were quite rightly dismayed and looking for alternatives.
These days (2016) I see no compelling reason to run The Latest & Greatest OS simply for the sake of seeing it "run". For me, it is (and always has been) about pure and simple functionality and SPEED.

I would MUCH rather run Snow Leopard on a given piece of hardware if it allows me to run my APPS (my main reason for even having a computer, haha) like Logic Pro, Protools, Final Cut, etc, than to run The Latest & Greatest OS that gives me "features", eye candy, Visual Effects or embedded apps that I could not care less about and otherwise poor overall performance. Seriously.
Now, if one has a certain software that will only run on a full 64 bit OS after 7.5 (AND only has a 2006 / 2007 machine), then of course, this may be a good reason to go this route IF the machine runs the software smoothly and quickly.

If it is sketchy (my experience here, even the OS alone was a bit dodgy) then what is really the point? Now, to be honest, MY personal preference for an OS is something MINIMAL, like some of the Linux variants, Windows XP (still running great on most of my own home & office machines here), Snow Leopard / Mavericks or anything that is sleek and FAST.
I basically want / need (and always have wanted) a simple server type functional platform OS that runs my desired APPS solidly.

I'm not into putting lipstick on a pig, LOL, so to speak. Just being able to "run" El Cap, Sierra or whatever, gives me no satisfaction if most of my RAM & processors power go to simply running the OS... ;-)

/rant

AK

 

[savetheplatypi]

MY personal preference for an OS is something MINIMAL, like some of the Linux variants, Windows XP (still running great on most of my own home & office machines here), Snow Leopard / Mavericks or anything that is sleek and FAST.

Careful with that thinking, there are a lot of needed security updates in these newest OS's which you're missing out on which are leaving your computers vulnerable if they access the internet; I get what you're saying about the new features slowing down the OS's but security is the primary reason I keep up to date.

On an unrelated note, can anyone advise on the best budget graphics card for a 1,1 mac pro running el cap? I see the ATI Radeon 5770 mentioned, but am wondering if a GTX 750 Ti will work, just not having the boot screen like mentioned in initial post? Might do some light after effects work on the machine, no gaming.

 

[AshokanKid]

Careful with that thinking, there are a lot of needed security updates in these newest OS's which you're missing out on which are leaving your computers vulnerable if they access the internet; I get what you're saying about the new features slowing down the OS's but security is the primary reason I keep up to date.

Not to be too cavalier about "security", but as my post mentions, I'm running Windows XP on MANY machines here, and some have no anti-virus even installed. They all connect to the internet (various levels of use).

That being said (I also use Snow Leopard on quite few machines as well), my connected on-line use is measured, thoughtful and mature. I am not slogging around in potentially muddy waters, as it were.

I might not recommend this for others (friends, family, clients, etc.), but for myself and my GF this works just fine, AND as a result, we get the most out of our given hardware. Maximized investment.

For the uninitiated, there may be wisdom in following the pack, listening to the manufacturers (they certainly love it) and staying mainstream in terms of hardware and software, but there are plenty of us driving around in 20 year old cars and using 10 year old computers and doing just fine, thank you very much! ;-)

 

[rthpjm]

Not to be too cavalier about "security", but as my post mentions, I'm running Windows XP on MANY machines here, and some have no anti-virus even installed. They all connect to the internet (various levels of use).

That being said (I also use Snow Leopard on quite few machines as well), my connected on-line use is measured, thoughtful and mature. I am not slogging around in potentially muddy waters, as it were.

I might not recommend this for others (friends, family, clients, etc.), but for myself and my GF this works just fine, AND as a result, we get the most out of our given hardware. Maximized investment.

For the uninitiated, there may be wisdom in following the pack, listening to the manufacturers (they certainly love it) and staying mainstream in terms of hardware and software, but there are plenty of us driving around in 20 year old cars and using 10 year old computers and doing just fine, thank you very much! ;-)

Hello AshokanKid,

I'm still amazed by my 10 year old MacPro 1,1. Over the years I have added to the basic configuration. The best investment I made was additional RAM. Thankfully there are plenty of compatible large capacity RAM sticks on the secondhand market (probably because a large number of generic servers such as those from Dell also used fully buffered DIMMs), and therefore 2 or 4G DIMMS can be purchased for relatively little cost.

The second best investment I made was buying a commodity Radeon HD 5770 (XFX branded). I was able to flash the ROM to show the boot screens with the help of great community contributors over at the Netkas forums.

I also upgraded the stock CPUs to E5345s quad cores. 8 cores really helps with my usage.

Running El Capitan has probably been the most enjoyable MacOS experience for me (I'm old enough to remember System 6 on Mac SE IIS!!!).

My son handed me his "old" GTX 680, which I've used successfully, but this card has no 32-bit EFI compatible firmware so no boot screens. I'm currently using the Radeon because I prefer the boot screen capability at the moment.

For the best experience with El Capitan (and Yosemite), I would recommend maxing out the RAM (officially 32G, 8 x 4G).

The combination of classic MacPro and the later releases of Mac OS X has problems with lower capacity DIMMs, the stock 512M cards definitely cause issues, and some users also report issues using 1G cards. If you're upgrading RAM, buy 2 or 4G DIMMs.

 

[whimsica]

I'm using the piker alpha mega pre installed yosemite on my 2,1 mac pro. I want to restore a time machine but I cannot boot into the recovery mode. I tried using command-R and choosing it directly holding down option key but it just boots up normally. How do I boot the recovery mode?

 

[rthpjm]

I'm using the piker alpha mega pre installed yosemite on my 2,1 mac pro. I want to restore a time machine but I cannot boot into the recovery mode. I tried using command-R and choosing it directly holding down option key but it just boots up normally. How do I boot the recovery mode?

You can restore from TimeMachine directly, you don't "need" to do it from a Recovery HD...

That said,

It all depends on how you initially installed Yosemite. You may not even have a Recovery HD.
If you have the ability to start a Terminal, use this command to list your disk partitions

diskutil list

The Recovery HD is usually a small partition listed as the third partition on any particular hard drive.
E.g. If you only have one hard disk, then the hard disk is given the "identifier" disk0, the first partition is disk0s1, the Recovery HD is usually found at disk0s3.

Your disk number may differ, but s3 should be where it is located.

Look for the name Recovery HD on disk<N>s3, if you don't have one, then you're a bit stuck. You should be able to build a USB pen drive as an installer. Installers often have utilities including restore from TimeMachine.

If you do have a Recovery HD, then you probably need to "patch" it by copying the pike boot.efi file into the correct location

Try the following command (adjust the disk number to suit)

diskutil mount disk0s3

That should mount the Recovery HD
Copy a Pike boot.efi into the Recovery HD/com.apple.recovery.boot folder overwriting the one that is already there.
Reboot, when you hear the chime, hold Apple+R ( or just hold Alt, you should see the boot selector )