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Mac Pro 2,1 and OS X Mavericks

Robert Davies said:
My machine when faced with a non-functioning boot choice, automatically cascades to the next working one.

Or install from the standalone installer:

http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1726/en_US/OSXUpdCombo10.9.2.dmg

…and do the update before rebooting.
Click to expand...

Really? I did not know this. That makes the matter pretty simple, then.

Standalone installer and patch before reboot sounds like the cleaner option, though.

Two viable options. A truly informative response! Thanks again.

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Hennesie2000 said:
Same here. If it finds a working boot.efi it will boot that, the one on the non 10.9.2 drive. Replace the boot.efi files on the main hdd and then boot to that drive. Once booted it will continue the 10.9.2 install for about another 10 mins.
Click to expand...

Perfect. Thank you.
 
10.9.2

MacPro 1.1 successfully updated to 10.9.2

Dual boot 10.7.5 / 10.9.1 machine

Booted into Mavericks 10.9.1, set startup disk to Lion 10.7.5, ran update, let machine boot back into Lion 10.7.5, replaced boot.efi in two locations mentioned above (file in system/library/coreservices needed unlocking - search for "unlock file Mac OS X" to fix that). Set startup disk back to Mavericks 10.9.2 and rebooted fine. I switch startup disks in System Preferences as I cannot easily switch boot volumes on startup as I have a PC graphics card so nothing on display until OS loads, just wait for chime and pray....
 
10.9.2 WARNING! Read BEFORE updating!

A word of advice BEFORE you start updating your computer with 10.9.2 and brick it in the process.

10.9.2 update REMOVES tiamo's boot.efi files and renders the Mac Pro unbootable.

In order to properly update your Mac Pro (or any computer that has Mavericks installed with tiamo's boot.efi as detailed in the 1st post of the thread):

1. Do not use Software Update to apply 10.9.2
2. Backup your boot.efi to a safe location (use Terminal, su, enter password then navigate to either System/Library/CoreServices/ or usr/standalone/i386/ and cp boot.efi /Users/yourname/ or where'd you like it)
3. Download the combo updater from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1726
4. Apply the updater, do not restart the computer at the very end.
5. Do not click RESTART, instead copy your backed up boot.efi (the tiamo's one) to the BOTH locations: System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi and usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
6. Restart now, you're OK to go.
 
Thanks Wojtek!

There are a ton of people that found Tiamo's boot.efi a godsend. Included in the ton are people who would never ever go the way of the Chameleon boot loader or have multi OSs on their MacPros. Regular users who normally shy away from Terminal or the non-standard.

So, when some said that 10.9.2 has been discussed, it really hasn't, in the sense of Software Update.

The question that is going to be asked is...

If I update with Software Update will it give me a chance to replace the boot.efi files in the two locations before it reboots?

Or is http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1726/en_US/OSXUpdCombo10.9.2.dmg the only way....

So far it is....
 
Updated to 10.9.2 here, as well.

I tried the method with the downloaded installer, and it didn't work for whatever reason. I was lucky to have had a mirror of my Mavericks partition available that the system defaulted to and booted from. Perhaps one of my terminal commands was not correct in the initial process? Not sure...

In any case, it seems prudent to have a backup partition available that will boot when you make these updates.
 
RalphATHome said:
If I update with Software Update will it give me a chance to replace the boot.efi files in the two locations before it reboots?
Click to expand...

(EDIT) The paragraph below is no longer valid!!!
Robert has tested this and the actual update process (moving files around) is slightly different when using SU. The SU scenario fires the update automatically after the desktop is deactivated and the computer is no longer interactive. Instead you just watch the progress bar after the computer actually started shutting down. No way to get out of this procedure and you end up with an incompatible boot.efi installed in those two crucial locations.

It's OK from now on:
There is a cure, however. If anyone screws up like this, either:
- use ANY computer to download tiamo's boot.efi file. Put it on an USB stick. Boot the computer from ANY OS X DVD/USB, it may even be the original Tiger DVD bundled with the Mac Pro 1,1/2,1. Once at the installer, select "English" (obviously), connect the USB stick and head to Tools → Disk Utility. Mount the USB stick using left pane and "mount" icon above. Now exit Disk Utility, open Tools → Terminal. cd /Volumes/name_of_the_usb_stick and then cp boot.efi /System/Library/CoreServices/ and cp boot.efi /usr/standalone/i386/ Restart the computer and you should be OK

or:

- if you have another Mac at home, connect it using a firewire cable to the Mac Pro, start the MP with "T" pressed (firewire target mode), the boot disk of the Pro will pop on your desktop, now you're comfortable to copy tiamo's boot.efi files to their respective places as listed above.
 
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hwojtek said:
Robert has tested this and the actual update process (moving files around) is slightly different when using SU. The SU scenario fires the update automatically after the desktop is deactivated and the computer is no longer interactive. Instead you just watch the progress bar after the computer actually started shutting down. No way to get out of this procedure and you end up with an incompatible boot.efi installed in those two crucial locations.
Click to expand...

The combo updater does exactly the same, I mean it updates after desktop deactivated.
I have checked right now and I ended with an unbootable Mac Pro. I ended replacing the files attaching the Mac Pro boot drive to a mbp.

Javi
 
javimontero said:
The combo updater does exactly the same, I mean it updates after desktop deactivated.
I have checked right now and I ended with an unbootable Mac Pro. I ended replacing the files attaching the Mac Pro boot drive to a mbp.

Javi
Click to expand...

Same issue with the combo updater for me. It first asks to restart to apply the standalone update, once rebooted, I am not given a chance to cancel restart. Of course, it reboots to the flashing question mark folder. :)

Thankfully, I have a Carbon Copy Clone of the drive before I updated. Booted from that and copied the 2 files over to the updated drive. Shutdown the Mac and it rebooted properly.

Thanks everyone!
 
Somewhat delightfully Apple have changed the installation mechanism of the combo updaters in this release - I have just retested it - it doesn't work like we need it to - as reported in the posts above.

I am re-grabbing a copy of the normal standalone updater to see if that still works for our purposes - watch this space.

It does not work with the non- combo updater either NOW - somewhat oddly, it did earlier on, because that's how I did my update - I just tested it again now - no dice :(
 
Last edited:
Robert Davies said:
Somewhat delightfully Apple have changed the installation mechanism of the combo updaters in this release - I have just retested it - it doesn't work like we need it to - as reported in the posts above.

I am re-grabbing a copy of the normal standalone updater to see if that still works for our purposes - watch this space.
Click to expand...

Is there a way to modify the boot.efi that is part of the update package?
 
Interesting point to note:

I downloaded a copy of the non combo update as soon as it became available.

I just re-downloaded another copy, this one's 200kb larger - from what I can tell, the payload is identical, but the installer is different.

I knew I wasn't going mad!! :)

But I do apologise unconditionally for unintentionally misleading anyone - it was due to circumstances beyond my control - apparently….
 
Messages screwed up again by 10.9.2 Update

I had messages working. After the update, it has trouble connecting and does not update the message history. Some messages get through after long delays.

Downloading Combo update to try that. Disappointing...
 
Robert Davies said:
At a guess you'd have to unpack the package, insert the new boot.efi workout and alter the installer checksum, repack - and hope for the best!
Click to expand...
I was thinking of creating such a package with Pacifist and some tools, the main point, however, is that it would need to be digitally signed with Apple's key, which won't happen.
I do believe, however, that a wrapper, which keeps the boot.efi in check and replaces files if necessary on each reboot (fired as the last command before actual shutdown) is possible. Shell Ninjas, you're next!
 
hwojtek said:
I was thinking of creating such a package with Pacifist and some tools, the main point, however, is that it would need to be digitally signed with Apple's key, which won't happen.
I do believe, however, that a wrapper, which keeps the boot.efi in check and replaces files if necessary on each reboot (fired as the last command before actual shutdown) is possible. Shell Ninjas, you're next!
Click to expand...

My thoughts would be that there is a boot.efi file somewhere in the payload, maybe hidden. I'll dig around tomorrow. Also, I don't think it would need to be signed if you have your preferences to allow software installation from anywhere. I am certainly no expert though.
 
Robert Davies said:
Somewhat delightfully Apple have changed the installation mechanism of the combo updaters in this release - I have just retested it - it doesn't work like we need it to - as reported in the posts above.

I am re-grabbing a copy of the normal standalone updater to see if that still works for our purposes - watch this space.

It does not work with the non- combo updater either NOW - somewhat oddly, it did earlier on, because that's how I did my update - I just tested it again now - no dice :(
Click to expand...

Robert, seems that apple is subscribed to this thread. :)

Javi
 
Hennesie2000 said:
My thoughts would be that there is a boot.efi file somewhere in the payload, maybe hidden.
Click to expand...
It's not even hidden, it's clearly visible in Pacifist.app. You can even replace it in the package, but it would destroy both the checksum and Apple's digital signature and the whole update is screwed.
 
I had bricked my Mac Pro 2.1 lol I had followed the steps to change the Boot files on both areas. My only choice was to take the hard drive out and put it in a caddy and I booted it up from my MacBook Pro. To my surprise it booted I went into the folders and the Boot.efi on both ends had went back to default. So I changed them and I turned off my computer and put it back in my desktop and it booted to 10.9.2 :)
 
Can report that I did the following successfully:
1) Placed a harddrive with 10.7 installed into my Mac Pro.
3) Copied the BIOS.EFI from my 10.9 installation to the desktop of my 10.7 installation, and the two paths in a text document (for reference):
/usr/standalone/i386/
/System/Library/CoreServices/

2) Set the startup disk to the 10.7 disk.
3) Ran the 10.9.2 Combo Updater on my 10.9.1 (The system will reboot after updating, into 10.7).
4) I opened the terminal, drilled down to the two folders and did "sudo rm bios.efi" to remove the files, then copied my hacked bios.efi into those two folders.
5) Set the startup disk to 10.9.2 and rebooted.
6) It worked! Now running 10.9.2.
 
Nicely done kuglepen!

That is the way I would currently recommend anyone else to use.

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hwojtek said:
I was thinking of creating such a package with Pacifist and some tools, the main point, however, is that it would need to be digitally signed with Apple's key, which won't happen.
I do believe, however, that a wrapper, which keeps the boot.efi in check and replaces files if necessary on each reboot (fired as the last command before actual shutdown) is possible. Shell Ninjas, you're next!
Click to expand...

Does it need to be digitally signed?

Technically a repacked unsigned installer would just be from an unsigned developer, whose packages you can install if you make the switch in the Security control panel….

Or am I talking rubbish again?!? :p
 
Robert Davies said:
Or am I talking rubbish again?!? :p
Click to expand...

Probably not. The question should be: Does Apple allow System Updaters, that are not signed by Apple, to update the system?
I can imagine, that it won't let one simply update the system, not respecting your user settings.
 
I believe it would actually run, write the files etc. However I also expect havoc in Software Update, which will insist on updating to 10.9.2 (I believe something WILL be screwed with the software receipt, namely it will not identify 10.9.2 as properly installed despite all the files from the update being in the proper locations).
I will try to create such a package with the tiamo's boot.efi tonight.
 
hwojtek said:
I believe it would actually run, write the files etc. However I also expect havoc in Software Update, which will insist on updating to 10.9.2 (I believe something WILL be screwed with the software receipt, namely it will not identify 10.9.2 as properly installed despite all the files from the update being in the proper locations).
I will try to create such a package with the tiamo's boot.efi tonight.
Click to expand...

Generally the system updater just looks for the proper strings in the corresponding plist file. Using chameleon to boot if you change the value for the firmware it will tell you that you need to update it, even though it's already up to date on the system. I have a feeling it would just look for the proper build number and say ok.

I have a few spare hdds and I can install a fresh copy of Mavericks and test. I'll try it later today.
 
Why is the update removing the EFI? Would it also remove a non Tiamo EFI because it generally updates any EFI?
 
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