Key Notes:
As Apple has decided to not support Sierra on the MacPro 3,1 , there needs to be modifications performed to allow Sierra to be installed on the Mac Pro 3,1
This installation guide ONLY applies for the Mac Pro 3,1.
I performed these steps on El Capitan - I have no idea if they will work on OS’s prior to that.
Note that the only way you’ll be able to install Sierra is to create a boot partition of the Sierra install - you won’t be able to simply double click on the install from a running OS.
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WARNING:
This could bork your machine. Do this at your own risk. I offer no guarantees or any sort of assurance that this will even work.
Ensure you have a full backup of your drive and also have an El Capitan (or whatever OS) install disk available in the event you need to roll back and restore.
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Known issues in Sierra for Mac Pro 3,1
WIFI does not work and therefore location services does not work.
Fix: Purchase one of these
http://www.osxwifi.com/apple-broadc...-4-0-with-adapter-for-imac-2007-and-imac-2008 and install it. It is natively supported by OSX and will give you Wifi AC and Bluetooth 4.0. All the functionality shown at WWDC should (can’t promise it will) work with that card.Without it, a lot of the functionality shown at WWDC will not work (such as auto unlock / universal clipboard / apple pay).
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THINGS YOU WILL NEED BEFORE YOU START
1. A copy of Sierra OSX - save it on your DESKTOP
2. A partition on your SATA hard drive – minimum 10 gig – that will be your initial boot / install drive for OSX - this will also be your recovery drive so its something you’ll need to keep on an ongoing basis to maintain the system. This hard drive must be plugged into your SATA port. Note that this CANNOT be a USB Stick or USB drive – I tried this and it failed. I could only get this to work using a partition on my hard drive plugged into my SATA port.
3. A copy of this file OSInstall.mpkg (save it somewhere as you’ll need it later in the steps listed below) -
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=09475824704156756445
4. A copy of this file IORegistryExplorer 3.0 - can be downloaded from here. Save it and keep it in a safe place as we’ll need it in the steps below later.
http://www.osx86.net/files/file/3600-ioregistryexplorer/
5. THIS ONLY APPLIES IF YOU HAVE A PC BASED NVIDIA CARD: NVIDIA Web Driver for Sierra MacOS - save this file for later - do not run it now.
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...ver-updates-for-macos-sierra-update-06132016/
6. A Mac EFI supported card that does not require the NVIDIA web driver
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1. Open Disk Utility
2. Select the SATA partition you are going to use for the initial install / boot drive (note that this is NOT the same drive as the DESTINATION drive you’ll actually install Sierra on - this is your initial boot drive that you’ll use purely to install Sierra onto your main boot drive). You will need a minimum of 10 gig - I set mine to 20 gig to be safe. Select a volume name. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll assume you set the VOLUME name to BOOTIE - I will refer everything going forward as BOOTIE but if you call it something else, then replace my BOOTIE name with whatever you called it.
3. Format this partition using OSX Extended Journaled and GUID Partition
4. When this has completed, open up terminal.
5. Type this command into terminal and hit enter: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE (you do not need to use SUDO)
6. Type this command into terminal and hit enter: killall Finder (you do not need to use SUDO)
7. Leave the terminal window open but go back to your desktop.
8. Right click on the OSX Sierra Installer App and select “SHOW PACKAGE CONTENTS". Mine is called Install 10.12 Developer Preview.
9. Browse to the folder /Contents/SharedSupport
10. Double-click to mount “InstallESD.dmg”
11. Within the InstallESD image, you’ll find in the root directory a file called “BaseSystem.dmg”. Double-click to mount “BaseSystem.dmg”
[NOTE] these next steps, in theory, can be replicated a different way using the restore method on disk utility - I tried that and it failed on me twice, so I did not use disk utility to do this, but rather the way I describe next - so I suggest you follow exactly what I did to get it working
12. Go back to terminal
13. Switch to root user by typing sudo su -
14. Enter your password when prompted from typing in sudo su -
15. Type this command into terminal and hit enter: cp -a /Volumes/"OS X Base System"/ /Volumes/BOOTIE/
16. Wait until copy is complete - you won’t get any sort of progress bar or verbose output - but it is working - just give it time. It took mine about 5 minutes.
17. Go back to your desktop
18. Using Finder, click on your BOOTIE partition
19. Go to the folder /System/Installation and delete the "Packages" alias file.
20. Now go back to the mounted InstallESD.dmg and drag the "Packages" folder into the BOOTIE partition folder of /System/Installation where the alias file called “Packages" used to be (i.e., the one you just deleted in step 19).
21. Still in InstallESD.dmg, copy the files “BaseSystem.dmg” and “BaseSystem.chunklist” to the root directory of the BOOTIE partition.
22. You can now unmount BaseSystem.dmg and InstallESD.dmg - you won’t be needing them again
23. Time to get that file you downloaded before you started called OSInstall.mpkg and copy it to the BOOTIE partition /System/Installation/Packages - select YES to replace the file that is already there
24. Now time to load the application IORegistryExplorer 3.0 which you downloaded before you started
25. In the left hand side of the application, you’ll see it says “Root" (which by default is selected) then a drop down to -> MacPro 3,1
26. Select MacPro 3,1 by clicking on it
27. On the right hand side you’ll see a value called “board-id”. Click on the VALUE field of the board ID and copy into the clipboard the part that looks like Mac-F42C88C8 (yours might be slightly different, so that’s fine if it is - copy your one) - do not copy the quotation marks
28. Close the IORegistryExplorer 3.0 application
29. Go back to BOOTIE in finder, and browse to the directory /System/Installation/Packages/
30. Using TextEdit, edit the file InstallableMachines.plist
31. Inside the file, go down to the last entry which will look something like this:
<string>Mac-942B5BF58194151B</string>
Replace the Mac-942B5BF58194151B text with your clipboard data which is your board ID that you copied in step 27. So it should now look something like
<string>Mac-F42C88C8</string>
32. Save the file and exit
33. Now in the BOOTIE in finder, browse to the directory /System/Library/CoreServices/
34. Using TextEdit, edit the file PlatformSupport.plist
35. Repeat step 31 inside this file - but do not exit the file at this stage.
36. Whilst remaining in the same file, scroll further down (it should only be a few lines down) to where you see:
<string>MacPro6,1</string>
change this to:
<string>MacPro3,1</string>
37. Save the file and exit
38. Now go back to terminal.
39. In terminal, type these commands and hit enter after each command
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/BOOTIE --file /Volumes/BOOTIE/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder
40. THIS STEP ONLY APPLIES TO PEOPLE RUNNING THE NVIDIA OPEN WEB DRIVER DUE TO HAVING A PC BASED NVIDIA CARD INSTALLED IN THEIR MAC PRO - go to step 41 if this does not apply to you
whilst still in terminal, type this command and hit enter:
sudo nvram boot-args="nv_disable=1”
41. Reboot (SHUTDOWN IF YOU HAVE A PC BASED CARD AS NOW IS THE TIME YOU NEED TO REMOVE YOUR PC CARD WITH THE EFI MAC CARD THAT DOESN’T REQUIRE A WEB DRIVER)
42. Hold down the ALT key when you hear the chime. Select the EFI drive (which will be BOOTIE) as your boot drive. Boot and install OSX as you normally would.
43. Once installed, your computer will automatically reboot. However, you are still not ready to boot using your new, normal boot drive.
44. Once again, hold down the ALT key and select the EFI BOOTIE drive.
45. Select TERMINAL
46. type this command and hit enter: rm /Volumes/[Main Drive Name]/System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist
*note* that MAIN DRIVE NAME is the name of your new boot drive - not BOOTIE
47. THIS STEP ONLY APPLIES TO PEOPLE RUNNING THE NVIDIA OPEN WEB DRIVER DUE TO HAVING A PC BASED NVIDIA CARD INSTALLED IN THEIR MAC PRO - go to step 49 if this does not apply to you
type this command and hit enter: csrutil disable
48. NVIDIA web driver people - go to step 51, everyone else, continue.
49. Reboot and this time you are free to boot with your new boot drive with Sierra installed.
50. Finished if you don’t have a PC based Nvidia card that requires the NVIDIA web driver.
**note** if you use a SSD, you'll need to re-enable TRIM
to do this, type the following in terminal:
sudo trimforce enable
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51. Reboot and boot into your new, normal, Sierra boot drive (i.e. not BOOTIE)
52. Install the NVIDIA web driver that you downloaded before you started
53. Shutdown your computer (not reboot)
54. Pull out your EFI mac card, and put back in your NVIDIA PC card
55. Turn Mac Pro back on and boot with your normal drive which now has Sierra installed. Your card should now work
**note** if you use a SSD, you'll need to re-enable TRIM
to do this, type the following in terminal:
sudo trimforce enable
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MAINTAIN SIERRA
If you apply an update to Sierra via the App store, and you find that you are unable to boot post that update (we don’t know yet how often this boot issue will occur because there have been no updates yet), you’ll need to do the following:
1. Hold down the ALT key when you hear the chime on boot
2. Select BOOTIE EFI drive
3. Open TERMINAL
4.type this command and hit enter: rm /Volumes/[Main Drive Name]/System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist
*note* that MAIN DRIVE NAME is the name of your new boot drive - not BOOTIE
5. Reboot and you should be fixed
*note* if you have a PC based card, you are naturally going to have to swap cards back to perform these steps
