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Mac Pro 2,1 and OS X Mavericks

Earl Urly said:
SFOTT does all that stuff and I've used it to create boot media for Mac Mini 1,1's as well as Mac Pro 1,1s.

http://oemden.com/?page_id=585

BTW, in my experience get the most RAM you can, I have two Mac Pro 1,1's, one I bought 8 GB of NEMIX RAM (4 X 2 GB FBDIMMs) and the other is using the crappy 5 GB of RAM it came with (2 X 1 GB FBDIMMs, 6 X 512 MB FBDIMMs) and the 8 GB oMP runs BOINC jobs about 20% faster than the 5 GB one.
Click to expand...


I came across the SFOTT stuff while Web surfing from another machine too late (my 10.9.2 Installer already was running). Is it a full replacement for all the boot.efi manual installation steps that I just did (AFTER you've created the USB thumb drive installer)?

20GB of RAM and an Apple ATI Radeon 5770 video card attached to an Eizo pre-press display are installed on this Mac Pro (2,1) machine. I had to update the Color Navigator calibration software, but like everything else, it just works! I may swap out the four 1GB modules to 4GB modules later, but I opted to add a 480GB SSD drive for the OS to start (I wish I'd added a second SSD for a Photoshop scratch disk, but I did use a dual-drive sled and ran an extra eSATA cable into the optical bay to do this later. I'm getting ready to run GeekBench, but I expect a hearty speed bump. Already, OS operations like launching Apps are much faster and scrolling is buttery smooth.

I also have an OWC Mercury Elite Pro QX2 external hardware RAID 5 cabled to a Newer Tech MAXPower eSATA, PCIe card.

Before installing this boot.efi update, I upgraded that original Qx2 RAID case to the new QX2 model with eSATA and USB 3, and replaced the unreliable PCIe card with another NewerTech MAX Power model that is made just for these older Mac Pro's (it uses Newer Tech's own driver, which already is 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9-compatible). I hated to step back to a manufacturer-supplied driver, but it seemed to be the best solution for my budget and circumstances. I then moved over my 2TB array drives (four drives with parity + 6GB of storage) into the new case.

The Qx2 RAID array appears to be working fine with this installation and is waking from sleep fine. The old RAID model crashed often under 10.7 because of a "wake from sleep bug" (which was caused by the Apple eSATA drivers and never fixed in OS X v10.7). I had it almost four years and it crashed enough that the Firewire and the eSATA controllers on the RAID died (though the USB 2 port continued to work until the end).
 
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HD Boy said:
The AppleScript mentioned automatically creates a 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9 Recovery Partition after the fact — and it worked perfectly.

I am about to replace the boot.efi on the new recovery partition, but before doing that, I first installed Apple's 10.9.3 Software Update. I figured this 2,1 machine would not boot after running that updater, but it did and I thought I was going to have re-install the boot.efi files onto the two, hidden OS X folders where it resides.

What's up with this? Is it possible that the boot.efi file is not touched by minor OS X updates?
Click to expand...

Delta updates do not seem to get overwritten. If you use a combo update, then you'll have to copy the boot.efi files again.
 
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HD Boy said:
The AppleScript mentioned automatically creates a 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9 Recovery Partition after the fact — and it worked perfectly.

I am about to replace the boot.efi on the new recovery partition, but before doing that, I first installed Apple's 10.9.3 Software Update. I figured this 2,1 machine would not boot after running that updater, but it did and I thought I was going to have re-install the boot.efi files onto the two, hidden OS X folders where it resides.

What's up with this? Is it possible that the boot.efi file is not touched by minor OS X updates?
Click to expand...

It seems like that's the case. The combo update replaces the boot.efi
 
tripmusic said:
Delta updates do not seem to get overwritten. If you use a combo update, then you'll have to copy the boot.efi files again. Tiamo has a script for this
Click to expand...

Absolute nonsense. That boot.efi should get overwritten does NOT depend on whether you use a delta or a combo update, but on whether such updates contain a newer boot.efi. Admittedly, the 10.9.x combo updates (after 10.9.2) DO contain a newer boot.efi, but so did the 10.9.2 delta update. All future 10.9.x combo updates will contain the current, bone fide, boot.efi or a newer one, but, again, future delta updated might contain a newer version of that file.

And, by the way, the script to re-copy tiamo's boot.efi on top of whatever updated boot.efi there is was NOT created by Tiamo. Please, read this thread and don't just imagine things.
 
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PeterHolbrook said:
Absolute nonsense. That boot.efi should get overwritten does NOT depend on whether you use a delta or a combo update, but on whether such updates contain a newer boot.efi. Admittedly, the 10.9.x combo updates (after 10.9.2) DO contain a newer boot.efi, but so did the 10.9.2 delta update. All future 10.9.x combo updates will contain the current, bone fide, boot.efi or a newer one, but, again, future delta updated might contain a newer version of that file.

And, by the way, the script to re-copy tiamo's boot.efi on top of whatever updated boot.efi there is was NOT created by Tiamo. Please, read this thread and don't just imagine things.
Click to expand...

I haven't had an issue with any of the Delta updates, Only combos

My mistake... I saw his name about the script in a post. I probably was skimming the posts too quickly. No need for sarcasm, we all make mistakes. I'll try and delete them from my other posts
 
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tripmusic said:
No need for sarcasm, we all make mistakes. I'll try and delete them from my other posts
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I don't think I was sarcastic, and there's no need for you to delete anything. I merely stated the obvious. The delta update to 10.9.2 contained a newer boot.efi which, if allowed, would render old Mac Pros unbootable. The delta updates of 10.9.1 and 10.9.3 did not contain such a file. The first combo update of Mavericks was that of 10.9.2 and, naturally, it included the boot.efi that appeared in the delta update of 10.9.2. All later combo updates of Mavericks will contain the 10.9.2 boot.efi or a newer one.
 
PeterHolbrook said:
I don't think I was sarcastic, and there's no need for you to delete anything. I merely stated the obvious. The delta update to 10.9.2 contained a newer boot.efi which, if allowed, would render old Mac Pros unbootable. The delta updates of 10.9.1 and 10.9.3 did not contain such a file. The first combo update of Mavericks was that of 10.9.2 and, naturally, it included the boot.efi that appeared in the delta update of 10.9.2. All later combo updates of Mavericks will contain the 10.9.2 boot.efi or a newer one.
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So basically Apple is screwing with Mac Pro 1,1 owners and it's a crap shoot? :rolleyes:
 
tripmusic said:
So basically Apple is screwing with Mac Pro 1,1 owners and it's a crap shoot? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The early Mac Pros (1,1 and 2,1) stopped being supported after Lion. Now, ingenious people managed to make Mountain Lion and Mavericks run on such machines via Chameleon and, as of the last year or so, via Tiamo's boot.efi. Now, with Yosemite, Tiamo's boot.efi will need to be revised, or Mac Pros will need to resort to Clover or Chameleon (these two are known to be working). People successfully booted Yosemite on early Mac Pros, via Clover, one or two days after the 2014 WWDC event. And yesterday appeared the first Chameleon bootloader that can successfully do the same. As for Tiamo's revising his boot.efi, only he knows, or perhaps some other developer can try to do the same magic.
 
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tripmusic said:
So basically Apple is screwing with Mac Pro 1,1 owners and it's a crap shoot? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

YES - You got it Right. But, we're talking about machines that are 7 and 8 years old. The OS is still supporting the 3,1 Mac Pro that is 6 years old. I don't think machines designed for other platforms last that long with current OS's. But, IMO, Apple is impeding machines from working with the latest OS that could run and handle it well. And again, IMO, that is just plain WRONG:mad:

Lou
 
flowrider said:
YES - You got it Right. But, we're talking about machines that are 7 and 8 years old. The OS is still supporting the 3,1 Mac Pro that is 6 years old. I don't think machines designed for other platforms last that long with current OS's. But, IMO, Apple is impeding machines from working with the latest OS that could run and handle it well. And again, IMO, that is just plain WRONG:mad:

Lou
Click to expand...

I agree. Apple must have a completely different idea of what 'running well' is. My 1,1 seems fine on Mavericks.
Remember with iOS they actively stop signing older versions too to discourage a downgrade.
 
Successfully installed Mavericks on Mac Pro 1.1 (2.1 flashed)

I have successfully installed Mavericks on my Mac Pro 1.1 (2.1 fw flashed machine).

If you had issues like "still waiting for root device", read below. You need to working dvd-rom drive and os x lion install dvd for these steps.

When I tried to install Mavericks from USB drive (SFOTT or manually prepared), gave "still waiting for root device" or endless circle under the apple logo :)

So I tried other method:

  1. Use SFOTT or manually make your own USB Mavericks installer with tiamo's EFI (google it),
  2. Put usb drive on your mac pro.
  3. Enter Os X Lion installer (boot your mac with Lion DVD, with option key - google it),
  4. When welcome screen appears, choose Disk Utility,
  5. Create a empty partition on your HDD (~8 GB is enough),
  6. Restore your USB to new partition (google it),
  7. After all, remove your Lion DVD and Mavericks installer USB drive from your Mac,
  8. Enter boot menu (with option key, as step 3) and you'll see your new installer partition, choose it.
  9. And install Mavericks :)

Thanks tiamo for your hard work. Kudos!
 
flowrider said:
YES - You got it Right. But, we're talking about machines that are 7 and 8 years old. The OS is still supporting the 3,1 Mac Pro that is 6 years old. I don't think machines designed for other platforms last that long with current OS's. But, IMO, Apple is impeding machines from working with the latest OS that could run and handle it well. And again, IMO, that is just plain WRONG:mad:
Click to expand...
There's a big But! Yosemite will be the third release of MacOS X, which doesn't drop any machine from support, whereas as the releases before that (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion) all dropped support for some machines.
Yes, you can make older Macs to run Yosemite, but that's not supported by Apple.
While it's technically feasible to translate from EFI64 to EFI32 (tiamo) or just load some EFI64 (Clover/Chameleon), it's a pain to support.
Think of it that way: Would you like to support that?
 
USB key not recognised

Hi all,

I spent all yesterday wrestling with this update. It's doing my head in! I just can't get it to work.

I'm using 1,1 as the target computer. I have an SSD boot drive, an SSD home drive (with full bootable clone of the OS on it as well) that has several users on it.

I downloaded a cool little program (Mavericks Download Enabler or something) that allowed me to download Mavericks by tricking the App Store into thinking I had a supported machine. I then went through the process on oemden.com to make a USB boot drive. I admit that a lot of my wasted day was because I didn't check that my USB was GUID before I started. I eventually re-partioned it and ran it again.

Now it still won't recognise the new GUID USB stick as a bootable drive, in System Prefs or during boot up.

I thought the purpose of the oemden process is to put the right boot.efi, installablemachine.plist etc in, but I went and did it the long way anyway, and dropped those into the USB stick. Still won't read it as bootable.

The other weird thing is that if I start up holding Option, it just boots into the previous drive set in System Prefs, and doesn't bring up options.

Would it be simpler to just the pull the drive, find a newer 10.9-compatible machine, and install as an external drive (I have a voyager dock)?

I'm over it, but I need Mavericks for some software that badly needs updating (Adobe CC etc).
 
No iMessage and FaceTime. Why?

Hello All,

iMessage and FaceTime stopped working when i deleted my user account. (I had other problem, i couldn’t make screenshot, this problem solved, but since i did this my FaceTime and iMessage doesn’t working. It say call apple support, blah, blah… I tried to reinstall mavericks 10.9, same as 10.9.x. I have recovery partition, etc… blacklisted my mp 2,1? I tried this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1635984/
I used mp serial, but i tried my macbook pro serial, whatever, same effect: Nothing.

Any idea guys?

Thank you :)
 
Just reporting a successful install of Mavericks on a 2006 Mac Pro with the 2.1 FW update, 14GB RAM, x5355 SLAEG processors and an ATI 5870 flashed graphics card using the SFOTT USB stick install. First try had the install failing for some reason, as I did a "dirty" install over the existing 10.7 install on the boot SSD. I rebooted, erased the SSD and did a clean install and all went well from there.

I had done a test run using a spare drive in the MP and booting from it and all seemed to be well with the exception of graphics, as at the time I had a 7300GT. It worked, but as expected the graphics sucked and I didn't have dual monitor functions.

I bought a flashed ATI 5870 in anticipation of the update and got it installed. I have some comments about this that I will post separately, as they warrant consideration for anyone thinking about updating their graphics card.

I did not allow it to do the 10.9.2 and 10.9.3 updates, as I see they can trash the install by replacing the boot.efi file. I also see references to a script to replace the boot.eft files on reboot, but haven't been able to find it in the thread.

If someone would be kind enough to post a link to the script I would be most appreciative.

Thanks!

MacDann
 
FlyLight said:
Hi all,

I spent all yesterday wrestling with this update. It's doing my head in! I just can't get it to work.

I'm using 1,1 as the target computer. I have an SSD boot drive, an SSD home drive (with full bootable clone of the OS on it as well) that has several users on it.

I downloaded a cool little program (Mavericks Download Enabler or something) that allowed me to download Mavericks by tricking the App Store into thinking I had a supported machine. I then went through the process on oemden.com to make a USB boot drive. I admit that a lot of my wasted day was because I didn't check that my USB was GUID before I started. I eventually re-partioned it and ran it again.

Now it still won't recognise the new GUID USB stick as a bootable drive, in System Prefs or during boot up.

I thought the purpose of the oemden process is to put the right boot.efi, installablemachine.plist etc in, but I went and did it the long way anyway, and dropped those into the USB stick. Still won't read it as bootable.

The other weird thing is that if I start up holding Option, it just boots into the previous drive set in System Prefs, and doesn't bring up options.

Would it be simpler to just the pull the drive, find a newer 10.9-compatible machine, and install as an external drive (I have a voyager dock)?

I'm over it, but I need Mavericks for some software that badly needs updating (Adobe CC etc).
Click to expand...


i had a very similar problem and similar frustrations with my mac pro 1.1 (250gb SSD, 5770 graphics, 8GB of new memory) installing mavericks. I had exactly the same problem as you with my 16Gb usb stick. I tried manually first, but the usb key would not boot, my mac automatically booted lion instead of the installer when i selected the usb to boot, so i moved on to using the SFOTT method. Much easier might i add. But when compete and i tried booting the installer, i got the "still waiting for root device" loop. i checked the instructions, double checked the instructions, reformatted to Guild, tried again.... days wasted.

Then i gave up on the usb and used a HDD i had kicking about instead. Did exactly the same on the HDD as i did on my USB stick, and everything worked like a charm! the problem was with my usb 2 stick, although working for other uses it would not work for this particular task. clueless why, but the HDD sorted it. Maybe someone on here can suggest why my old usb2 stick didn't work, yet does for other things, but using the HDD sorted it all for me. try that.

Can i say a huge thank you to Tiamo... You sir are a hero :)
 
Ok, so after wrestling with boot keys etc, I ended up taking my boot SSD out, plugging it into a 2009 iMac as an external, and updated to Mavericks via the iMac. It worked booting the iMac into 10.9.3.

I now have the drive back in the Mac Pro (1,1 x5355 2,1 firmware) but have booted using 10.6.8 on my other SSD.

I have unlocked and replaced the boot.efi file with Tiamo's version in System/Library/coreservices and usr/standalone/i386.

Do I need to do anything else before booting from the 10.9 SSD?

thanks for everything on this amazing forum.
 
FlyLight said:
Ok, so after wrestling with boot keys etc, I ended up taking my boot SSD out, plugging it into a 2009 iMac as an external, and updated to Mavericks via the iMac. It worked booting the iMac into 10.9.3.

I now have the drive back in the Mac Pro (1,1 x5355 2,1 firmware) but have booted using 10.6.8 on my other SSD.

I have unlocked and replaced the boot.efi file with Tiamo's version in System/Library/coreservices and usr/standalone/i386.

Do I need to do anything else before booting from the 10.9 SSD?

thanks for everything on this amazing forum.
Click to expand...

The only problem I assume might exist in updating the way you've done it is related to one or two plist files that won't include your hardware among the supported platforms, which might cripple some update procedures. I don't know the names of such plist files by heart, so I suggest that you look for the relevant information (for instance, in forums dealing with the use of Chameleon for early Mac Pros running Mountain Lion and/or Mavericks).
 
Thanks for that. So it won't kill my system if I try it? The drive shows up in System Prefs "select Boot Drive" list.
 
FlyLight said:
Thanks for that. So it won't kill my system if I try it? The drive shows up in System Prefs "select Boot Drive" list.
Click to expand...

No, it shouldn't, unless there are hidden "vices". Make sure you modify the relevant plist files after you successfully boot. Before booting, it wouldn't hurt if you made sure the new Mavericks disk is "blessed", and, just to be on the safe side, it would be great if you had a Snow Leopard or a Lion partition to boot up to in case something goes wrong and you need to repair something.
 
I have another drive installed with my home folder that has a full operating system running 10.6.8 (which I'm writing this from now), plus a CCC clone of everything.

Is "blessing" a terminal command? I found this via the big G on the CCC website-
sudo bless -folder "/Volumes/Backup/System/Library/CoreServices"

Do I just replace the relevant parts of the path with my own structure? in my case volumes/SSD/System... etc ?
 
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