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

[macfix17]

Hi there - pretty desperate here as I have work to finish for a client (audio mix) I can only open with my Yosemite system:

I have been using Yosemite with my Mac Pro 1,1 for a year or more without problems (following the method on the first post of this thread) and suddenly the Disk where it is installed doesn't appear on the "Start Up" list on Preferences.

The disk appears on the desktop fine with all the files as it was before but there is no way to startup from it to load my Yosemite system on that disk.

If I start the Mac Pro with "Alt" the disk appears as an option to start up from, but if I click on it, the mac freezes and finally starts automatically from the other disk where I have Snow Leopard (where everything works fine so it not a hardware problem with my Mac Pro).

I have been updating for a year without problems (with PIkeYoseFix I installed initially) and when this problem has occurred I hadn't updated anything for weeks and it was working fine as usual, so it broke out of the blue with no reason since I haven't installed or updated any new soft lately.

I have tested the Yosemite drive with Disk Utility and TechTool Pro 7 and they report the disk is fine.

Should I see if the boot.efi is broken for any reason to replace it?

I really have no clue what to do next and starting all over installing Yosemite would take me days due to all the Apps I have to install for my work with Audio and Video (lots of Plugins)

Would be most grateful for some help.

Thanks

 

[Ant3000]

Hi, I assume you have tried the usual NAVRAM / PRAM resets?
If it didn't break after a software update it may perhaps point to the disk failing. I think the Boot EFI files can be compared for size to check you have not had them overwritten. The Apple files are a different size to the modified version - there is info in this thread. Adding another HD and doing a fresh install is a pain but may be the easiest option if you need to be back up and running urgently. This does cost money if you don't have a spare drive but may get you out of trouble quicker than anything else. Migration Assistant would copy over your files from one system to the other as long as they can be seen. I assume you have a back-up - if not this is worth doing if the drive is failing. Hope you get sorted.

 

[macfix17]

Hi Ant3000 thanks for your help,

I have checked the 'boot.efi' on my Yosemite hard drive and it has been modified two days ago and it has Zero KB, so that should be it!?

I guess I have to download the 'boot.efi' file from the first post of this thread and that would be it or do I have to make any more modifications on Terminal or somewhere else? Should that fix the problem?

I initially used the 'PIkeYoseFix' and never had to do any other thing apart from installing it (no 'boot.efi' replacing by hand or any terminal commands).

There's a way they do it here for El Capitan (with some terminal commands) - should this do for me too using Yosemite?:

Thanks

 

[Ant3000]

I think El Capitan and Yosemite are different as El Cap implements SIP to protect things like the Boot.efi files and needs a slightly different fix. There is info on this thread early on about the way to change the Boot.efi files - I didn't do this when I ran Yosemite as I used a pre-patched installer but there is info on here on how to do it. PikeYoseFix usually fixes the problem of overwriting of the files but as yours are zero kb they don't appear to have been changed by an update so the cause is puzzling. Hopefully someone with a more in-depth knowledge can help with the diagnosis.

 

[macfix17]

Hi there again Ant3000,

Thanks a lot for your help with my problem.

Fortunately I have solved it easily after some days - I just downloaded the Boot.efi from the very first post of this thread and replaced it in the 2 locations that the video I posted above indicates (note that this video is for El Capitan and not for Yosemite).

After that my Yosemite volume is available again as a start disk and starting from it works just as it did initially with everything working perfectly fine.

I don't know what caused the boot.efi to be replaced by one with zero KB since as long as I remember I didn't update anything and the volume just stopped being available after waking up the next morning.

I have cloned my Yosemite system with Carbon Copy Cloner and the clone works just like the original (it seems so far). Is there any other thing to know about cloning one volume with the boot.efi on a Mac Pro (something that could be lost during the clone due to it being different than a normal Mac that accepts Yosemite normally?

Thanks again

 

[Ant3000]

Good to know you have sorted the issue. I have not used CCC but cannot see any reason there should be a problem. There may always be a bit of tinkering running an unsupported OS on a Mac of this age but in my experience it is fine and there is a lot of support on here, for which I am very grateful.

 

[macfix17]

Well, all is working fine now. CCC is covering my back (as it seems to work fine) in case I have problem with the original installation. Cheers!

 

[yoshimoon]

People were having issues with Copy so it is now on Mega:

https://mega.nz/#!q1IRFJzK!GUinePUGF3jAAu3oUym-GHBC9doWRTU1p6nnkXkJFdQ

Hi there. So this file is linked from page 1 of the thread, with a hyperlink suggesting it's a pre-patched OS install for Yosemite.

Could you clarify if that's the case, and if so, what does that mean as far as the update process for a MP 1,1?

Cheers!

 

[yoshimoon]

Hi there. So this file is linked from page 1 of the thread, with a hyperlink suggesting it's a pre-patched OS install for Yosemite.

Could you clarify if that's the case, and if so, what does that mean as far as the update process for a MP 1,1?

Cheers!

UPDATE* - For anyone else wondering, the link I was asking about is in fact all good to go. Just Restored to 8MB USB drive, selected USB as startup drive, and voila, now running 10.10 on my 2006 Mac 1,1 Happiness!

Now, off to make a donation to Piker Alpha. Thanks all you tech geniuses for making this possible.

 

[me.home]

Thank you all here @MacRumors !

Did it with my "new" old MacPro 1.1 updated to 2.1 from 10.7.5 Lion which was rather old even Firefox abandoned it
I'll keep Yosemite on my SSD and maybe dig in to update later to a newer OSX.

 

[aquaregia27]

I've followed these steps but when I run the USB installer I created I get the message "Could not find installation information from this machine. Contact AppleCare." after it tries to contact Apple to verify. When I called AppleCare they said the machine wasn't in their system and I should reinstall the current OS. Is this reasonable?

 

[Ant3000]

Apple will not say anything different as your Mac officially doesn't support Yosemite - Apple will always take this line.
Yosemite and El Capitan run well though despite what Apple say. I had issues making a USB installer that would function so I used the pre-patched Yosemite installer and then installed the PikeYoseFix to ensure the boot.efi files were not overwritten in an update. Even though Yosemite isn't updated, it may have updates available from the version you actually install.

 

[brianbrook]

I have run Yosemite fine but now I need El Capitan for my 1,1...is there a pre-patched for El Capitan that anyone can recommend like the Yosemite installer I found in this thread?

 

[aquaregia27]

Apple will not say anything different as your Mac officially doesn't support Yosemite - Apple will always take this line.
Yosemite and El Capitan run well though despite what Apple say. I had issues making a USB installer that would function so I used the pre-patched Yosemite installer and then installed the PikeYoseFix to ensure the boot.efi files were not overwritten in an update. Even though Yosemite isn't updated, it may have updates available from the version you actually install.

So does that mean the USB installer I made didn't work properly? Is the patched installer not meant to contact Apple's servers?

 

[Ant3000]

I have run Yosemite fine but now I need El Capitan for my 1,1...is there a pre-patched for El Capitan that anyone can recommend like the Yosemite installer I found in this thread?

There is no patched installer but there is a huge thread with a clear, proven method to do this. If following the guide by rthpjm to create an installer there is a need for 12gb of RAM and for the RAM not to be made up of 512 or 1mb modules - it will fail to work if this isn't followed. Good luck. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capitan.1890435/
[doublepost=1497827011][/doublepost]

So does that mean the USB installer I made didn't work properly? Is the patched installer not meant to contact Apple's servers?

I'm not clear why it was contacting Apple but it sounds like the installer didn't get created correctly. You could trying do it again in case you missed anything. It is a long while since I installed Yosemite and I can't recall all of the steps. Check back through his thread as there is lots of info - six posts back there is some detail on an installer that works. Once installed it will contact Apple for updates and download them - this is where the PikeYoseFix comes in as it protects the files that have to be changed to allow it to boot onto a Mac Pro 1.1. If you do not do this the boot.efi files will be/can be overwritten and stop the machine booting.
Any reason you are needing Yosemite over El Capitan?

 

[aquaregia27]

No major reason. Only had 10GB and I was hoping to make sure the OS install was going to work before sinking more money in. I'm in a similar place with the video card situation, also trying to figure out whether its worth the hassle for NVidia/CUDA or just go the easier AMD route, etc. Just ordered the RAM, will give the El Cap route a shot.

 

[glassblower]

I'm using the PIkeYoseFix and it is working well. However, not being one to leave well enough alone, does anyone know if something similar is available for Sierra?

Update - Found my answer here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...nsupported-macs-thread.1977128/#post-23002862 and the answer is pretty much a no workie.

 

[jbarley]

My issue is sort of the reverse of this threads topic.
I have a MacPro1,1 running El-Capitan which serves me well, I'm about to get a MacPro3,1 and would like to transfer the whole system, OS X + data to the MP3,1.
Just exactly which system files need to be replaced so it will boot properly,(the files which fake the 64bit thingy)

 

[JedNZ]

I transferred my SSD from my cMP 1,1>2,1 to my cMP 4,1>5,1 by doing the following:
1. I installed macOS 10.12 onto a spinner on the 4,1 .
2. I booted from the spinner and used the macOS Installer to re-install macOS 10.12 onto the SSD (which had the modified boot.efi files on it). Re-installing the OS updated the boot.efi files (which in turns breaks compatibility with 1,1 and 2,1 cMPs), so when I next booted from the SSD everything was fine.

 

[jbarley]

I transferred my SSD from my cMP 1,1>2,1 to my cMP 4,1>5,1 by doing the following:
1. I installed macOS 10.12 onto a spinner on the 4,1 .
2. I booted from the spinner and used the macOS Installer to re-install macOS 10.12 onto the SSD (which had the modified boot.efi files on it). Re-installing the OS updated the boot.efi files (which in turns breaks compatibility with 1,1 and 2,1 cMPs), so when I next booted from the SSD everything was fine.

Sounds like a plan, and thanks.

 

[Onward42]

So--let me start by saying I'm an idiot.

After 1 year of enjoying my Mac Pro 2,1 running Yosemite thanks to all of you--I updated the software and am hosed.

Specifically, I'm stuck with a flashing question mark at start up.

I have restarted with option key pressed (to try to boot from my usb) results in:
-bong sound
-white apple on black background transiently interrupted by white text about kernels that fades out so fast I can't read it
-choice of main hard drive or recovery (but not usb)
-if I click normal/main hard drive, then normal hard drive whirr and light gray screen--but...20 minutes later...nothing.

PRAM reset resulted in "bong" but no fix.

The USB itself seems to be working and has all files it has had since it was set up (as far as I can tell).

Having wasted 2 days trying to get back to my beautiful working old Mac Pro--I'm now appealing to you all.

Help?

Thanks!

 

[Ant3000]

What as the update you did - presumably not just a security update? Did you update without having PikeYosFix running? If so you have probably overwritten the boot.efi files. You should be able to manually swap them out following the instructions earlier in this thread. PikeYosFix protects the boot.efi files from being updated and should be run to try and prevent this scenario. Not sure if this is your issue but it could be.

 

[Onward42]

What as the update you did - presumably not just a security update? Did you update without having PikeYosFix running? If so you have probably overwritten the boot.efi files. You should be able to manually swap them out following the instructions earlier in this thread. PikeYosFix protects the boot.efi files from being updated and should be run to try and prevent this scenario. Not sure if this is your issue but it could be.

Not sure what the update was--but I hate it.

On my usb--the boot.efi file was about 313kb (which was same size/date as another copy I have saved on another/newer Mac).

But--following your suggestion/video above--I copy/pasted boot.efi from my original install (saved on different computer) into my boot usb in 2 locations:

a) System/Library/Core Services

b) usr/standalone/i386

Then, ejected usb, plugged it into Mac Pro 2,1.

Boot--white apple on black screen--"progress bar" frozen ~1 inch x 20 minutes.


Other suggestions?

 

[rthpjm]

So--let me start by saying I'm an idiot.

After 1 year of enjoying my Mac Pro 2,1 running Yosemite thanks to all of you--I updated the software and am hosed.

Specifically, I'm stuck with a flashing question mark at start up.

I have restarted with option key pressed (to try to boot from my usb) results in:
-bong sound
-white apple on black background transiently interrupted by white text about kernels that fades out so fast I can't read it
-choice of main hard drive or recovery (but not usb)
-if I click normal/main hard drive, then normal hard drive whirr and light gray screen--but...20 minutes later...nothing.

PRAM reset resulted in "bong" but no fix.

The USB itself seems to be working and has all files it has had since it was set up (as far as I can tell).

Having wasted 2 days trying to get back to my beautiful working old Mac Pro--I'm now appealing to you all.

Help?

Thanks!

Hmm, sounds tricky.

You need to boot from "something" in order to fix this.
Try this...

Plug your USB stick in, then power on (or force reboot - however you are doing that)
Wait until you hear the chime (bong), then hold down the alt key.
You should see a grey background, then after a few seconds a row of bootable disks.
The right hand disk should be your USB stick, if it is bootable...

Fingers crossed, it boots. It will probably show an installer window. Ignore that. Look at the top menu, there should be a utilities menu, from there start a Terminal.

You're going to need a copy of the Yosemite version of Pike's boot.efi. Hopefully you have a copy somewhere on your hard drive (actually, you've probably got a copy on your USB)

If you want to check out the theory that your upgrade has simply overwritten the custom boot.efi files, type

ls -alh /Volumes/your-HDD-name/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
ls -alh /Volumes/your-HDD-name/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

Replace your-HDD-name to suit your sŷstem.
The result should show you the size of the files, the Apple versions are nearly 600kb in size, the Pike versions are about half that size.

Now check the versions on your USB.

ls -alh /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
ls -alh /usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

These should be Pike versions.

The fix...

cp /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi /Volumes/your-HDD-name/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
cp /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi /Volumes/your-HDD-name/use/standalone/i386/boot.efi

Reboot
Hold the alt key when you hear the chime
Choose your HDD

Hold your breath....!

 

[Onward42]

Hmm, sounds tricky.

You need to boot from "something" in order to fix this.
Try this...

Plug your USB stick in, then power on (or force reboot - however you are doing that)
Wait until you hear the chime (bong), then hold down the alt key.
You should see a grey background, then after a few seconds a row of bootable disks.
The right hand disk should be your USB stick, if it is bootable...

Fingers crossed, it boots. It will probably show an installer window. Ignore that. Look at the top menu, there should be a utilities menu, from there start a Terminal.

You're going to need a copy of the Yosemite version of Pike's boot.efi. Hopefully you have a copy somewhere on your hard drive (actually, you've probably got a copy on your USB)

If you want to check out the theory that your upgrade has simply overwritten the custom boot.efi files, type

ls -alh /Volumes/your-HDD-name/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
ls -alh /Volumes/your-HDD-name/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

Replace your-HDD-name to suit your sŷstem.
The result should show you the size of the files, the Apple versions are nearly 600kb in size, the Pike versions are about half that size.

Now check the versions on your USB.

ls -alh /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
ls -alh /usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

These should be Pike versions.

The fix...

cp /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi /Volumes/your-HDD-name/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
cp /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi /Volumes/your-HDD-name/use/standalone/i386/boot.efi

Reboot
Hold the alt key when you hear the chime
Choose your HDD

Hold your breath....!

Power--bong--alt--2 disks (one main hard drive, one recovery 10.10)--no usb icon anywhere.

Click recovery 10.10--gray screen.......that never ends


Thoughts?

Do I have to remake the USB installer by following complete instructions?