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I tried to install several unsupported versions of OS X on my Mac Pro 1,1 but no matter which method I use, after choosing the usb device in the boot manager the mac would just boot into os x lion as normally. I even tried sudo bless and using another usb port but it still won't work. Can anybody help me with?

tober

tober
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5 Answers5

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I think whichever way you force the newer firmware, you're going to have to have the installer on HD or DVD. I've never been able to boot a pre-09 Mac from USB & I've tried pretty much everything the interwebz has to offer in that regard - though my oldest Mac Pro was an Early 08 so I've never needed to force it quite so hard, as I don't need to push the firmware upgrade too.

Here is a guide on how to get Yosemite onto a 1,1 They reckon it can be done from USB, but I'd say YMMV & be prepared to have to run it from a spare hard drive instead.
I'm not certain if the investment in a newer Graphics card is compulsory for functionality, or whether it's just to get the machine to be as fast as possible after the upgrade, same as the CPU swap at the end.
I've an old GT 120 I have knocking around that I occasionally use for troubleshooting & it has no problems on 3,1 4,1 or 5,1 machines.

The longevity of this particular method will depend on how long mega.nz has the patched files, I guess - & also whether you have any particular reason to trust or distrust a non-Apple source. On the latter I really cannot comment, though I can see no reason anyone would go to all this effort in order to be able to botnet the few remaining Mac Pro 1,1s out there ;-)

http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2015/3/2/how-to-resurrect-a-2006-mac-pro-11-so-it-can-run-osx-yosemit.html

Precis:-

Things that you will need:

  1. A Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1 Cheese grater desktop with OSX Lion 10.7.5 system drive
  2. 8GB USB drive
  3. A graphics card better than a GT120, I used a Radeon HD 5770, original mac version with its appropriate power cable. There are flashed PC cards out there, but they won’t display a boot screen. I like a boot screen, so I purchased a proper Apple card (2nd hand)
  4. A download of a pre patched version of OSX Yosemite 10.10 https://mega.co.nz/#!SoAgnKqI!GUinePUGF3jAAu3oUym-GHBC9doWRTU1p6nnkXkJFdQ
  5. Either boot.efi file downloadable here. Black is a white Apple on a black background and Grey is the traditional Apple boot screen:
    Black: https://mega.co.nz/#!G9oimYaK!38dBEPUwPb2y8Inh0w-REL6MH-9K90vZjpMSzazNy-E
    Grey: https://mega.co.nz/#!j1hWFSIS!4zFpN9f3L6zV_D5wXJ1KMT40KkLlXKQ901-eQaRaLTA
    I chose the black screen as I dual boot into OSX Lion 10.8.5 or Yosemite 10.10.2. The black screen tells me instantly that I’m booting into Yosemite.
  6. A spare hard drive, mechanical or SSD for the new system drive. You could partition your old Lion drive, but I prefer to build on drive that’s minty fresh. If I stuff anything up, I can always boot back to my untouched Lion system drive. Contingency plan…
  7. A download of Yosemite 10.10.1 or 10.10.2 Combo updaters http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1786?locale=en_US
    [That would now be 10.10.5 - see http://www.apple.com/us/search/combo-update?src=globalnav_support]
  8. A download of Diskmaker X http://liondiskmaker.com/

Open up Lion Diskmaker X and follow the instructions to create a bootable USB “special” Yosemite installer from the big Yosemite image you download before. This is the patched version of Yosemite.

Don’t install the Apple App store version as this does not have ze patch…

http://www.cultofmac.com/313198/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-yosemite-drive/

  • Install Yosemite from USB drive to your new “Yosemite HD” system drive. Bay 4, remember?? Hold down the Mac option key to choose your boot drive after start up chime.

  • Install the boot.efi patch, I used the black version. Restart the mac, hold down the mac option key to choose your boot drive after start up chime You should now be able to boot into either OSX Lion or Yosemite 10.10 flat. Woo Hoo!

  • Install the Combo updater

Edit
All the mega links are already gone, I'm hunting for replacements & will post as I find them.
I've asked a dev friend of mine who has a post-Lion 1,1 if she has a source. Will add to info if we can findone]

New bootloader here - https://github.com/Piker-Alpha/macosxbootloader

Tetsujin
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I think you answered your own question, "unsupported". The Mac Pro 1,1 (Not to be confused with the MacBook Pro 1,1) supports OS X 10.7.5 maximum.

Mac Pro 1,1

From MacTracker:

  • Original OS - Mac OS X 10.4.7 (8K1079)
  • Later OS - Mac OS X 10.4.8 (8N1430, 8N1250), 10.4.9 (8P4037), 10.4.10 (8R3032, 8R3041), 10.5 (9A581, 9A3129)
  • Maximum OS Mac OS X 10.7.5

The latest Firmware update is Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.2

bjbk
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You need to replace the boot.efi from the hard drive. I have El capitan running on my mac pro 2,1. I upgraded the graphics card which is a must and the ram. From here you need to install the os from a supported computer either internally or externally it wont matter as long as its from a supported computer. From here you will have to go online and search for a patched boot.efi that will allow you to boot your hard drive from that newer OS. Once you do, it should be running smoothly. Just take note that if you update it you will have to update the boot.efi again in your other computer. You can find step by step videos on youtube. Just make sure to be prepared if you want to tackle this task. Constantine Archfiend

Constantine Archfiend
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There's a much simpler way...

  1. Download a preinstalled El Capitan disk image such as this one
  2. Set your Mac Pro to target mode, by holding T while booting, then connect to another Mac
  3. On the second Mac, mount disk image
  4. Run disk utility, select restore from the mounted drive (not the image file), and to Mac Pro

That's it, after restoring you'll be able to boot directly from that dive.

p.s. Instead of using target mode, you can also boot from a recovery partition and mount the disk image from a usb drive.

BlueVisor
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  • Btw if your video card has less than 512M of VRAM, El Capitan will run extremely slow, so... be warned... – BlueVisor Apr 24 '20 at 03:08
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Versions of OS X after Lion (OS X 10.7) are no longer supported on the early Mac Pro versions, as the 32-bit bootloaders on these legacy systems don't support the newer, 64-bit only OS X releases. This is for comparability reasons, as newer software will definitely require more resources than your Mac can provide (I expect RAM to be the major limiting factor).

I don't recommend the upgrade, as your computer will certainly run better with older software designed an optimized for it. If you're truly set on it though, instructions can be found here. Note that I've not tried this method, it looks fairly safe but be aware you may permanently brick your Mac.

I'll add I'm extremely happy with my MacBook 1,1 which I upgraded to 2 GiB of RAM and an SSD, which makes it perfectly quick enough for every day use, hardware will make your computer faster, newer software will only really slow it down.

agentroadkill
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  • Different machine entirely. The Mac Pro can take 32GB RAM so that's hardly going to be a limiting factor. – Tetsujin Sep 06 '15 at 08:56
  • It appears you are correct. I need to invest in one of these suckers. Regardless, the 32 bit bootloader will complicate things. Have you looked at the linked webpage? – agentroadkill Sep 06 '15 at 11:51
  • Yes - though I've never owned a 1,1 - I've had 3 4 & 5,1s which are all still fine on Yosemite & will be on El Capitan too without 'hacking'. Currently a 3,1 with 32GB & a 5,1 with 64GB, fully uprated dual 6-core 3.47GHz Xeons, SSD & uprated GPU, HD 7950 - it really flies... & cost me about 2 grand, a fifth of what a fully-loaded new one would be. – Tetsujin Sep 06 '15 at 12:19
  • Currently deciding if a Mac Pro with 4 drives will work well for my home NAS box, I had no idea they used ECC RAM! Seems like a waste though, I'll have to come up with some other awesome plan. I always loved the big aluminum Macs. – agentroadkill Sep 06 '15 at 12:27
  • Seems overkill for a NAS - I'd just make it into your prime machine ;) – Tetsujin Sep 06 '15 at 12:31
  • My thought was an SSD for OS then three drives in ZFS for my shares, but I'd like a more distributed data volume with redundancy. Still tempting. Not a lot of ways to get into the big boy ECC stuff for less that $1k these days. – agentroadkill Sep 06 '15 at 12:35
  • You can put the SSD in place of one of the opticals & still have room for one optical & 4 regular HDs ;) Or you can get PCIe SSD. – Tetsujin Sep 06 '15 at 12:48
  • PCIe drives are big money; I was hoping for 6 days drives, there aren't any PCI SATA adapters for Mac, are there? – agentroadkill Sep 06 '15 at 12:51
  • idk, never looked for one – Tetsujin Sep 06 '15 at 16:01