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[Guide] Installing 10.9 Mavericks on older Macs. -HackerWayne

star-affinity said:
The thing is I was installing OS X 10.9.2 from scratch from a MacBook Pro (Mid 2010). But I guess that also makes altering the PlatformSupport.plist pointless.

The thing is that I have a ”PC ROM:ed” Radeon HD 4890 so there's no video until actually booting into the desktop. I have applied a patch for these cards that's been released from the Hackintosh community and that has wokred before, so I'm not sure what's wrong here.

Anyway, thanks for trying to help!
Click to expand...

Correct you still don't need to modify the plist. I am also using a PC GTX 570 card. However, being an Nvidia card I don't have to pacth it, I just don't get the grey apple logo boot screen or the boot selection screen if I hold option at boot. If the computer is restarting after 15 seconds that would most likely be a KP. It could be caused by a video card issue but frankly I don't know. I wish I could help you more.
 
In reference to Hennesie2000 Post:

"Here is my exact process:
Start update via AppStore
Restart the computer when it tells me to
Computer won't boot so I shutdown and put in my 10.7 HDD
Boot to 10.7 and mount the 10.9.2 drive
Replace the boot.efi files in both locations
Shutdown and remove 10.7 HDD
Boot up computer to 10.9.2.
Computer boots and finishes the update process (~10mins)
Computer goes to desktop, done."

Did that - worked without any problems, update process was not ~10mins, I guess it doing the update before it shutdown/restart.

Here is how I replaced the boot.efi files.

su (enter my passwd)

chflags nouchg /Volumes/[your install/media]/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

cp /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi /[your backup/folder]/boot.efi.orig

cp /[your download/folder]/boot.efi /System/Library/CoreServices/

cp /[your download/folder]/boot.efi /usr/standalone/i386

chown root:wheel /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

chflags uchg /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

chown root:wheel /usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi


THANKS TO ALL OF YOU TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE :p
 
Couldn't get Tiamo's method to work :(

I had a working 10.9.1 install on a Mac Pro 1,1 (installed using the BatmanOfZurenarh method, which uses the Chameleon bootloader and a separate partition, on a FAT32 volume).

I should have waited to do the 10.9.2 update, but I went ahead and then borked the system. D'oh!

Today I tried the Tiamo installer method, but even after editing the files and substituting the boot.efi where required, it doesn't work. I got it to boot successfully from the USB disk, but then the OS X Mavericks installer still flags my Mac as not supported. Is there another hidden .plist we need to edit, or a script we need to comment out, etc?

I did it twice just to make sure I wasn't missing any steps, so I'm at a loss for what to do next. Since the only working OS I have is 10.7.5 Lion, I can't use Time Machine to restore my old Mavericks system either.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Downloaded 10.9.2 into my Mac pro 1,1 which was running Mavericks usin Tiamos workaround,,, I replaced the boot.EFI file in /usr/standalone/i386 with Tiamos original Boot.EFI but I am having problems replacing the boot.EFI in core services, I get the following messages:

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “boot.efi” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)

The operation can’t be completed because the item “boot.efi” is locked.

Would appreciate some help...
 
lumo60 said:
Downloaded 10.9.2 into my Mac pro 1,1 which was running Mavericks usin Tiamos workaround,,, I replaced the boot.EFI file in /usr/standalone/i386 with Tiamos original Boot.EFI but I am having problems replacing the boot.EFI in core services, I get the following messages:

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “boot.efi” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)

The operation can’t be completed because the item “boot.efi” is locked.

Would appreciate some help...
Click to expand...

Disregard above message, I got Mavericks 10.9.2 to boot with just replacing the boot.EFI file in the directory /usr/standalone/i386 and leaving the one in core services alone since I could not replace it. I will be sweating it out on the next update again..
 
lumo60 said:
Downloaded 10.9.2 into my Mac pro 1,1 which was running Mavericks usin Tiamos workaround,,, I replaced the boot.EFI file in /usr/standalone/i386 with Tiamos original Boot.EFI but I am having problems replacing the boot.EFI in core services, I get the following messages:

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “boot.efi” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)

The operation can’t be completed because the item “boot.efi” is locked.

Would appreciate some help...
Click to expand...

You can drag that file to the Trash (the right-click menu command will not work here), it may ask you to authenticate, but then you can Option-Empty Trash to delete it.
 
JayKay514 said:
You can drag that file to the Trash (the right-click menu command will not work here), it may ask you to authenticate, but then you can Option-Empty Trash to delete it.
Click to expand...

The file is locked. I cannot move it to the trash. I replaced the one in the i386 folder successfully. Not able to boot.

// I got it to work using this method updated from -texan- //

Unhide Finder files

su (enter my passwd)

chflags nouchg /Volumes/[your mavericks volume]/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

cp /[your mavericks volume]/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi /[your backup/folder]/boot.efi.orig

cp /[your download/folder]/boot.efi /Volumes/[your mavericks volume]/System/Library/CoreServices/

cp /[your download/folder]/boot.efi /Volumes/[your mavericks volume]/usr/standalone/i386

chown root:wheel /Volumes/[your mavericks volume]/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

chflags uchg /Volumes/[your mavericks volume]/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

chown root:wheel /Volumes/[your mavericks volume]/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

Hide Finder files

// The only nuance is that the apple screen no longer appears and I see the EFI boot process. Interesting to watch. Wait -- I started using Macs so I wouldn't tool around like I always did with my PC //
 
Last edited:
eglynn said:
The file is locked. I cannot move it to the trash. I replaced the one in the i386 folder successfully. Not able to boot.
Click to expand...

I successfully moved "locked" boot.efi files, but your mileage may vary. As others have mentioned you can use Terminal and sudo commands to unlock it. Wish you luck.

At the moment, I've given up on trying to fix my broken 10.9.1 install. Tried using the Tiamo and BatmanOfZurenarh methods and at most, I can get the installer to boot, but it still says my Mac is unsupported. I suppose it's time to relegate my MacPro 1,1 to secondary / file server duty. A shame, because Mavericks worked really well on it. Now I have some newer apps I can't run until I get a new Mac... sigh.
 
JayKay514 said:
I had a working 10.9.1 install on a Mac Pro 1,1 (installed using the BatmanOfZurenarh method, which uses the Chameleon bootloader and a separate partition, on a FAT32 volume).

I should have waited to do the 10.9.2 update, but I went ahead and then borked the system. D'oh!

Today I tried the Tiamo installer method, but even after editing the files and substituting the boot.efi where required, it doesn't work. I got it to boot successfully from the USB disk, but then the OS X Mavericks installer still flags my Mac as not supported. Is there another hidden .plist we need to edit, or a script we need to comment out, etc?

I did it twice just to make sure I wasn't missing any steps, so I'm at a loss for what to do next. Since the only working OS I have is 10.7.5 Lion, I can't use Time Machine to restore my old Mavericks system either.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Are you saying you made a new USB stick with a complete 10.9.2 install? Why?

After an unsucccessful attempt last week here's what I did yesterday (I was running 10.9.1 from tiamo's method):

- dowload update from the app store
- install update and let the mac restart
- wouldn't boot properly because of the new boot.efi
- shut down the mac
- plug an OS X 10.6 install I have on an external usb drive
- boot with option pressed so I can manually choose to boot into 10.6
- log as root (because locked files are irrelevant when you're root...)
- replace boot.efi in both /System/Library/CoreServices and /usr/standalone/i386
- restart with option pressed, select my 10.9.2 disc
- smooth sailing since then. :)
 
Morpheo said:
Are you saying you made a new USB stick with a complete 10.9.2 install? Why?

After an unsucccessful attempt last week here's what I did yesterday (I was running 10.9.1 from tiamo's method):

- dowload update from the app store
- install update and let the mac restart
- wouldn't boot properly because of the new boot.efi
- shut down the mac
- plug an OS X 10.6 install I have on an external usb drive
- boot with option pressed so I can manually choose to boot into 10.6
- log as root (because locked files are irrelevant when you're root...)
- replace boot.efi in both /System/Library/CoreServices and /usr/standalone/i386
- restart with option pressed, select my 10.9.2 disc
- smooth sailing since then. :)
Click to expand...

Not sure if that would have worked for me, because my install was using the Chameleon bootloader. If there were also modifications to mach_kernel that might have affected things too.

But even so, following the instructions to install a fresh 10.9.2 should have worked, but everything I've tried (Tiamo and again, the BatmanofZurenarh/Chameleon bootloader methods) results in disks that don't show up on option-boot, boots that freeze on the loading screen, or that at best boot into the installer and still fail the checks (i.e. it says 'Mavericks cannot be installed on this Macintosh') even though I followed the instructions to the letter.

Re: the Tiamo method, I modified every .plist that contained a list of installable boards and machine types, edited OSInstall.mpkg with Flat Package Editor, etc. (In fact there is an additional .plist that isn't mentioned, the one that is used if you want to create a Recovery Disk - good thing I searched the installer for .plists beforehand).
 
Morpheo said:
Are you saying you made a new USB stick with a complete 10.9.2 install? Why?

After an unsucccessful attempt last week here's what I did yesterday (I was running 10.9.1 from tiamo's method):

- dowload update from the app store
- install update and let the mac restart
- wouldn't boot properly because of the new boot.efi
- shut down the mac
- plug an OS X 10.6 install I have on an external usb drive
- boot with option pressed so I can manually choose to boot into 10.6
- log as root (because locked files are irrelevant when you're root...)
- replace boot.efi in both /System/Library/CoreServices and /usr/standalone/i386
- restart with option pressed, select my 10.9.2 disc
- smooth sailing since then. :)
Click to expand...

In reference to "log as root" at what point and where do you do that? is it an option on the login screen or are you talking about a terminal command? again my apologies if I seem a little clueless, I never had to mess around with my system since I purchased my original Mac pro back in 2006.

I had a hard time deleting the boot EFI file under core services I was able to delete and replace it at /usr/standalone/i386 but it kept telling me the file was locked under core services. I rebooted anyway with just the /usr/standalone/i386 file modified with Tiamos file and was surprised to see that it booted up fine into 10.9.2. now when I checked both locations for the boot.EFI file it shows Tiamos original boot.EFI on both locations..strange...
 
lumo60 said:
In reference to "log as root" at what point and where do you do that? is it an option on the login screen or are you talking about a terminal command? again my apologies if I seem a little clueless, I never had to mess around with my system since I purchased my original Mac pro back in 2006.

I had a hard time deleting the boot EFI file under core services I was able to delete and replace it at /usr/standalone/i386 but it kept telling me the file was locked under core services. I rebooted anyway with just the /usr/standalone/i386 file modified with Tiamos file and was surprised to see that it booted up fine into 10.9.2. now when I checked both locations for the boot.EFI file it shows Tiamos original boot.EFI on both locations..strange...
Click to expand...

In Unix-based operating systems (like Mac OS X) the root user, also known as the 'superuser', has total control over the system. Usually root power is reserved for the OS itself, to prevent other users from modifying or deleting critical system files. You can choose to set a root password so you can log in as the root user (at your own risk). This is also what the "superuser" command (superuser do = sudo) in the command line (Terminal) enables you to do, by logging in to temporarily accomplish superuser tasks. Root access is disabled by default. (Computer cracking is essentially exploiting a weakness in an insecure system to obtain root powers.)

Article at Apple knowledge base here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528

Regarding Tiamo's boot.efi - how do you know it replaced the other one as well? I wonder if there's an action that copies the Standalone one to the CoreServices one?
 
JayKay514 said:
In Unix-based operating systems (like Mac OS X) the root user, also known as the 'superuser', has total control over the system. Usually root power is reserved for the OS itself, to prevent other users from modifying or deleting critical system files. You can choose to set a root password so you can log in as the root user (at your own risk). This is also what the "superuser" command (superuser do = sudo) in the command line (Terminal) enables you to do, by logging in to temporarily accomplish superuser tasks. Root access is disabled by default. (Computer cracking is essentially exploiting a weakness in an insecure system to obtain root powers.)

Article at Apple knowledge base here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528

Regarding Tiamo's boot.efi - how do you know it replaced the other one as well? I wonder if there's an action that copies the Standalone one to the CoreServices one?
Click to expand...

I never got confirmation that the boot.EFI file in core services was replaced, it just kept giving me this:The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “boot.efi” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)

The operation can’t be completed because the item “boot.efi” is locked.

and I could tell by the size of the files, the original Tiamos is a smaller file. That was the only way I could tell.
 
10.9.2 update

For those of you using the Tiamo boot.efi, you may want to check out my post in the Mac Pro forum - https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18829695/

Essentially if you're running 10.9.0 or 10.9.1 already, install this and it will put a launchdaemon out on your system so any time the system shuts down/reboots the tiamo boot.efi will be written back to the two locations it needs to be in. This includes the reboots that happen during the 10.9.2 update. (Can't guarantee it'll work for updates beyond 10.9.2, but I see no reason why it would not)

You can then freely install 10.9.2 via the AppStore or the combo update and it should reboot and work fine without having to manually go fix boot.efi files after the update.

I've only tested this on my old MacPro1,1 using a single drive. I have not tested it on any other machines or anything like raid/fusion drive.
 
eglynn said:
// The only nuance is that the apple screen no longer appears and I see the EFI boot process. Interesting to watch. Wait -- I started using Macs so I wouldn't tool around like I always did with my PC //
Click to expand...

That just means you downloaded Tiamo's initial boot.efi replacement he'd set to verbose for debug purposes. Download the one he later links in that thread for pretty booting.
 
EVERYONE with a Mac Pro looking to do the install and then update, should read up on the Tiamo thread. Here is a link to a post that installs a script that replaces the boot.efi whenever the machine reboots. So when you update OS X as soon as the machine starts to reboot it replaces the boot.efi files with Tiamo's files. You never have to worry again.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18829695/

Here is a link to the entire thread if you don't have it:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1598176/

Oops:

Didn't realize Tobyg had already posted a link.
 
tobyg said:
For those of you using the Tiamo boot.efi, you may want to check out my post in the Mac Pro forum - https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18829695/

Essentially if you're running 10.9.0 or 10.9.1 already, install this and it will put a launchdaemon out on your system so any time the system shuts down/reboots the tiamo boot.efi will be written back to the two locations it needs to be in. This includes the reboots that happen during the 10.9.2 update. (Can't guarantee it'll work for updates beyond 10.9.2, but I see no reason why it would not)

You can then freely install 10.9.2 via the AppStore or the combo update and it should reboot and work fine without having to manually go fix boot.efi files after the update.

I've only tested this on my old MacPro1,1 using a single drive. I have not tested it on any other machines or anything like raid/fusion drive.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Thanks for this. Hopefully this will work with 10.9.3 when it comes out ;)
 
Can't get 10.9.2 to work on a MacPro1,1 with ”PC” Radeon HD 4890. Worked with 10.9.1.

I have done a clean OS X installation from a MacBook Pro (Mid 2010) that I have cloned and saved as a .dmg using SuperDuper. I then start the Mac Pro holding down the T key for target disk mode so I can access its drive from the MacBook Pro and use SuperDuper to clone the .dmg onto the hard drive of the Mac Pro.

After that is done I manually replace the boot.efi files and I also run this ”QECI Exotic Patch for 10.9.2.pkg” which is needed to get full graphics acceleration and video on the ”PC flashed” graphics card once booted into OS X.

This worked fine for 10.9.1, but now on 10.9.2 it doesn't seem to boot properly. The problem is of course that I don't get any video until it does boot properly, so I can't see anything on the display. I just hear that the fans are spinning relatively much and caps-lock light for the keyboard won't light up.

Any ideas?

Edit:
Forget the above – got it working now!
 
Last edited:
Stuck trying to update 10.9.2

I'm stuck. I tried to follow the instructions but my knowledge of unix is low.
I successfully got Mavericks running on my mac 2,1 a while back.

Today I tried to update to 10.9.2.
I ran the update.
I have a version of lion on a USB as a backup. I then boot with that -- and it gives me choices of Restore from Time Machine etc...
From there I go to the Terminal in Utilities menu.

I get to the terminal and it says
-bash-3.2#
so the first command to do su does not work.

I tried to copy tiamo's boot.efi from another drive to the correct volume using the copy command cp but instead of copying it gives me a usage list of all the correct usages for cp.

I used the format

cp -av source destination
I don't have the exact statement because I closed the terminal already.

I also can't restore a time machine backup because it says that the backup was a different computer.

So I'm stuck.
 
whimsica said:
I'm stuck. I tried to follow the instructions but my knowledge of unix is low.
I successfully got Mavericks running on my mac 2,1 a while back.

Today I tried to update to 10.9.2.
I ran the update.
I have a version of lion on a USB as a backup. I then boot with that -- and it gives me choices of Restore from Time Machine etc...
From there I go to the Terminal in Utilities menu.

I get to the terminal and it says
-bash-3.2#
so the first command to do su does not work.

I tried to copy tiamo's boot.efi from another drive to the correct volume using the copy command cp but instead of copying it gives me a usage list of all the correct usages for cp.

I used the format

cp -av source destination
I don't have the exact statement because I closed the terminal already.

I also can't restore a time machine backup because it says that the backup was a different computer.

So I'm stuck.
Click to expand...

Do you have access to another Mac? If so you can use a FireWire cable and then ”target diskmode” to the other Mac and access it's drive and fiddle with things from that.
 
My vote for the easiest permanent solution for applying/reapplying Tiamo's boot.efi

Save yourself the time, hassle, and headache and create a "root" account/allow root access on any secondary OS X partition/hard drive. The process in creating one is already familiar to anyone who has ever operated a computer. While learning terminal commands is highly recommended and extremely useful, following another persons supplied entry list can be confusing to some and it goes without saying that all of your directories and files must be in the exact same locations as the person who supplied the command entry list or it will be absolutely useless.

Creating a root account will always work no matter what road blocks exist for future versions of OS X Mavericks 10.9 and once your logged into the partition/hard drive as the root, re-applying the necessary boot.efi files cannot get any simpler as there is no terminal to have to enter into nor any locked files to have to dispose of.
 
iCloud Fix

Rastafabi said:
For all the ones having a Mac Pro and disliking legacy boot loaders.
If you can't wait, here you are!

KEEP IN MIND, that hackerwaynes/MLforAlls release will include this AND it will be automated and more advanced!
I just made some basic file modifications, while they will even support updating.
And here you are: Mavericks Install Tools.

!!! I forgot to mention in the included guide, that you (may) need to delete "/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/kernelcache"

JUST FOR CLARIFICATION:
It's designed for Mac Pros with upgraded, Mavericks compatible graphic cards.
It will work on other platforms but you won't have graphic acceleration.
If it's supposed to run as a server OS or for testing purpose your good to go.

You won't have iMessage/FaceTime.

The reason I released it is, that it will bypass the need of an legacy boot loader (Chameleon/Chimera/CloverBIOS).
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, I've been running Mavericks on my Mac Pro 1,1 for a while now using your guide and it's been working great.

The only thing that's missing is iCloud; everything that uses iCloud doesn't work, from iMessages and FaceTime to Photostream and iTunes Match...

In your guide you wrote that for an iCloud fix we should contact you, well, could you provide some guide or method to fix iCloud?

Thanks in advance!
 
shabshekan said:
Thanks for this, I've been running Mavericks on my Mac Pro 1,1 for a while now using your guide and it's been working great.

The only thing that's missing is iCloud; everything that uses iCloud doesn't work, from iMessages and FaceTime to Photostream and iTunes Match...

In your guide you wrote that for an iCloud fix we should contact you, well, could you provide some guide or method to fix iCloud?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

The information you have provided here suggest that perhaps you still might be using outdated files in some respect as a "fix" already exist. If within your current installation, you instead download and install Tiamo's boot.efi files available here: https://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=448666&d=1385188522

…iMessages, FaceTime and iCloud will all work perfectly.
 
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