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Mac Pro 2,1 and OS X Mavericks

there is a homebrew bootloader for OS X 10.9

1. following those steps to make an install drive
http://www.tips-and-tricks-in-mavericks.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-install-drive/

2. replace boot.efi
boot.efi can be found at System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi and usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi

3.insert your board-id into OSInstall.mpkg(please google it)

4.insert your board-id into InstallableMachine.plist(please google it)

5.reboot from the usb drive.

===================
this is a native efi32 bootloader, instead of a CSM loader
it built a thunk between EFI64 and EFI32, forwarding EFI64 call from kernel to EFI32 firmware.
so those programs using EFI runtime services, such as bless, nvram will be run without any problem.

this is a full version bootloader, hibernation, filevault2 are also supported out of box.
===================
source code: http://code.google.com/p/macosxbootloader/
it is built with visual studio 2013 and nasm
 

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tiamo, you are the man!! incredible work, well done! I did a fresh install of mavericks using my MacPro3,1. pulled the drive and just replaced both boot.efi files, then I put the disk back into the MacPro2,1. boom, done, boots, everything works. just WOW!

PERFECT, YOU DID IT!

edit:
I even was able to update to Mavericks 10.9.1 Build 13B35 with no problems at all.

sound: works
Messages.app: works
 
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tiamo said:
[…]
this is a native efi32 bootloader, instead of a CSM loader
it built a thunk between EFI64 and EFI32, forwarding EFI64 call from kernel to EFI32 firmware.
so those programs using EFI runtime services, such as bless, nvram will be run without any problem.

this is a full version bootloader, hibernation, filevault2 are also supported out of box.
===================
source code: http://code.google.com/p/macosxbootloader/
it is built with visual studio 2013 and nasm
Click to expand...

You are awesome! It's working great even on different hardware. I'm currently using it on a FusionDrive equipped MacBook Pro 2,2 running Mountain Lion (Latest official supported OS is Lion).
Thank you very much for your great work!

This might be interesting for anybody of you who wants to try it out. It enables you to download Mountain Lion/Mavericks on unsupported hardware.

And from this guide you might extract the prehacked OSInstall.mpkg. It also includes a guide how to "hack" the other files. Remember to use tiamo's custom boot.efi instead of the included semi-working one (no bless/nvram, etc. - only allows the 64bit kernel to be loaded).
 
Last edited:
tiamo said:
this is a native efi32 bootloader, instead of a CSM loader
it built a thunk between EFI64 and EFI32, forwarding EFI64 call from kernel to EFI32 firmware.
so those programs using EFI runtime services, such as bless, nvram will be run without any problem.

this is a full version bootloader, hibernation, filevault2 are also supported out of box.
===================
source code: http://code.google.com/p/macosxbootloader/
it is built with visual studio 2013 and nasm
Click to expand...

You sir should be burned as a witch are a miracle worker. I dropped your custom EFI into my current Mavericks install and it booted right up.(For some reason the other EFI boot loader that had been posted in another thread never worked for me.) Audio works, GPU is correctly identified and nvram is properly populated. It's as if Apple themselves released this because of how smoothly it works. Thank you kindly good sir. With this option now available many of us will no longer need to bother with Chameleon at all. One small caveat though, when booting using this EFI it always boots up in verbose mode, is this normal?

P.S. I can even go back to using BootChamp for quickly rebooting into Windows.
 
Alright, I've done everything. No matter what, it keeps stalling at "Still waiting for…" and all that, which it repeats every 1 or so minutes. I followed the instructions to the letter, and replaced the OSInstall with the "hacked" one from the link, and everything else is as instructed.


What is not occurring? I'm running a 1,1 Mac Pro, will try updating it to a 2,1.

Aggravated beyond belief; don't know how you all got it work; does NOT work, not for me.
 
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tiamo said:
[…]
this is a full version bootloader, hibernation, filevault2 are also supported out of box.
[…]
Click to expand...
Very nice, indeed.
Some users still have found a single, minor issue. The system always boots into verbose mode, no matter whether "-v" is set in nvram or com.apple.boot.plist or not. May you investigate the issue?
 
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Installed it last night and works great. Thank you for creating this solution. Please post it also in the Jabbawok site - There are many people out there that would benefit greatly from your work.
 
douglasgoodall said:
I have a Mac Pro 2,1 and I am stuck on Snow Leopard. The reason is that for a while Apple shipped the operating systems with both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of the kernel. The Mac Pro 2,1 will never be able to run the 64-bit kernel because the EFFI32 boot rom just won't do it.

What I want to know though is where I can buy a USB3 adapter that will work in the Mac Pro 2,1.
Click to expand...

I thought they let you download lion in the app store? that's how I got it and created a usb..
 
verbose mode is enabled for debug purpose

use this one if you prefer graph mode.

PS: system update may overwrite boot.efi, you should replace it after system update.

PS2: the bootloader is dedicated to 10.9, it DOSE NOT support 10.7's kernel, because 10.8+ kernel use a new version boot_arg. AND it will bypass drvier cache(mkext) in 10.8, because 10.9 does not use driver cache, please make sure kernel cache is always enabled if you want use it in 10.8. AND in 10.8 the bootloader will ALWAYS load 64bits kernel(the only one 10.9 has) even if you set arch=i386 in boot_args or press 32 on startup.
 

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Hi,

Will the MacBookPro 2,2 get full graphic acceleration with this method under 10.9?

Any kext to be copied required?

Thanks in advance!!
Rastafabi said:
You are awesome! It's working great even on different hardware. I'm currently using it on a FusionDrive equipped MacBook Pro 2,2 running Mountain Lion (Latest official supported OS is Lion).
Thank you very much for your great work!

This might be interesting for anybody of you who wants to try it out. It enables you to download Mountain Lion/Mavericks on unsupported hardware.

And from this guide you might extract the prehacked OSInstall.mpkg. It also includes a guide how to "hack" the other files. Remember to use tiamo's custom boot.efi instead of the included semi-working one (no bless/nvram, etc. - only allows the 64bit kernel to be loaded).
Click to expand...
 
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This is awesome!

Apple released EFI32 Mac Pro after going all 64-bit with PowerPC G5.

Until now, we had a few choices to work around this unacceptable engineering error, all with side effects.

Then, tiamo made it with an innovative approach, just like Apple should have done.

Many thanks for sharing this awesome work with the community, you rocks.
 
Last edited:
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tiamo said:
use this one if you prefer graph mode.

PS: system update may overwrite boot.efi, you should replace it after system update.

PS2: the bootloader is dedicated to 10.9, it DOSE NOT support 10.7's kernel, because 10.8+ kernel use a new version boot_arg. AND it will bypass drvier cache(mkext) in 10.8, because 10.9 does not use driver cache, please make sure kernel cache is always enabled if you want use it in 10.8. AND in 10.8 the bootloader will ALWAYS load 64bits kernel(the only one 10.9 has) even if you set arch=i386 in boot_args or press 32 on startup.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much.

Commandor said:
Hi,

Will the MacBookPro 2,2 get full graphic acceleration with this method under 10.9?

Any kext to be copied required?

Thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...

No. Not yet. Also the boot.efi file has nothing to do with graphics. (in our case)
Therefore you need to wait for patched graphic files which should released by the developers of MLPF in the foreseeable future.
 
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Sko said:
Excellent work. Thanks a ton. I wouldn't be too surprised if Apple delivered an official solution now that the gates are open.
Click to expand...

Never ever. Apple dropped those machines science two major releases. They on't pick them up ever again. Also they deploy some of the best developers in the world - do you really think they won't have been able to release such a file or give a similar workaround? However now we are good to go even with our old machines so who cares whether apple even waste a single though about old hardware. Also they dropped support due to the fact that the stock GPU of those machines does not support any OpenGL version higher than 2.1. They even dropped support for some machines that have a 64bit efi.
 
tiamo said:
use this one if you prefer graph mode.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the work you've done.

I tried your latest boot.efi on my Mac Pro 1,1 (2006 model). It works perfectly, and without FileVault2 its indistinguishable from a fully supported Mac.

However with FileVault2 enabled the login screen displays a text based login rather than the graphical one (maybe verbose mode), I'm just wondering whether this can be fixed?
 
Dark Dragoon said:
Thanks for the work you've done.

I tried your latest boot.efi on my Mac Pro 1,1 (2006 model). It works perfectly, and without FileVault2 its indistinguishable from a fully supported Mac.

However with FileVault2 enabled the login screen displays a text based login rather than the graphical one (maybe verbose mode), I'm just wondering whether this can be fixed?
Click to expand...

sorry, graphical login screen for FileVault2 is not implemented, it's too complicated, there is a lot of work to be done....

yes, ugly but works:cool:
 
tiamo said:
sorry, graphical login screen for FileVault2 is not implemented, it's too complicated, there is a lot of work to be done....

yes, ugly but works:cool:
Click to expand...

No, problem. I was just wondering whether there was an easy fix, or even whether it was possible at all.
Personally I'm surprised that FileVault2 works with this.

As you say, the main thing is that it works. :cool:
Meaning I can now run current versions of some of the programs I use, on my Mac Pro. :D


On a semi-unrelated note, when creating the installer using the manual method it doesn't create a recovery partition, so I used the instructions from this thread to add one after installing Mavericks. Maybe this will be of help to other people trying this.
I did try using the built in createinstallmedia command but I wasn't able to successfully modify the resulting installer to work on my Mac Pro.
 
tiamo said:
this is a native efi32 bootloader, instead of a CSM loader
it built a thunk between EFI64 and EFI32, forwarding EFI64 call from kernel to EFI32 firmware.
so those programs using EFI runtime services, such as bless, nvram will be run without any problem.

this is a full version bootloader, hibernation, filevault2 are also supported out of box.
===================
source code: http://code.google.com/p/macosxbootloader/
it is built with visual studio 2013 and nasm
Click to expand...

Hi tiamo,

Thanks a lot for your hard work, how long did you spend to achieve this ? :eek:

I've installed both boot.efi and it works well, my GTX670 is working when Mavericks is loaded.

From switching on Mac Pro to window loggin it's 1mn35s and 15 s to switch it off !

We shouldn't forget MacEFIRom's work and all Chameleon developers allowing us to install ML and Mavericks before you create this incredible 32 to 64 bits Rosetta boot.

Congrats tiamo.
 
tiamo said:
PS: system update may overwrite boot.efi, you should replace it after system update.
Click to expand...

Could you help clarify the process to overwrite the boot.efi? I am giving my Mac Pro away and want to give explicit instructions on what to do with Mavericks updates.

I just want to say how incredible I think this all is, Tiamo. I have a Mac Pro 1,1 and have tried in the past to update it to Mountain Lion and Mavericks, but always gave up in frustration. Yours is the first solution that I could follow successfully.

Do you have a PayPal account to accept donations for your work?
 
apple_iBoy said:
Could you help clarify the process to overwrite the boot.efi? I am giving my Mac Pro away and want to give explicit instructions on what to do with Mavericks updates.

I just want to say how incredible I think this all is, Tiamo. I have a Mac Pro 1,1 and have tried in the past to update it to Mountain Lion and Mavericks, but always gave up in frustration. Yours is the first solution that I could follow successfully.

Do you have a PayPal account to accept donations for your work?
Click to expand...

there's a possibility that a future update from Apple will overwrite the boot.efi files. if this happens you have to replace them again with the one from tiamo. the latest 10.9.1 update available for developers for example, doesn't update these files so you're save to update.
 
Great work!

Has anyone successfully made a Mavericks USB installation media that will install on a 1,1 MacPro?

I've tried and have been quite unsuccessful.
 
tobyg said:
Great work!

Has anyone successfully made a Mavericks USB installation media that will install on a 1,1 MacPro?

I've tried and have been quite unsuccessful.
Click to expand...
Yes, I used tiamo's instructions to create the installation media and install from it onto my MP 1,1.

At what point does it fail for you?
 
Dark Dragoon said:
Yes, I used tiamo's instructions to create the installation media and install from it onto my MP 1,1.

At what point does it fail for you?
Click to expand...

Do you have more information on this step:
4.insert your board-id into InstallableMachine.plist(please google it)

I think that's probably what I'm missing.
 
mikeboss said:
there's a possibility that a future update from Apple will overwrite the boot.efi files. if this happens you have to replace them again with the one from tiamo. the latest 10.9.1 update available for developers for example, doesn't update these files so you're save to update.
Click to expand...

But exactly how does one overwrite the boot.efi? And if an update were applied that overwrote this file, what would you boot into in order to restore the good copy?

Is there a way to protect that file so that updates can't touch it?
 
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