Step by step Mavericks Installation Guide for MacPro1,1 or MacPro2,1, using 'boot.efi' by 'tiamo'. ANY HARM OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS GUIDE HAPPENED UNDER YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY! THE PROCESS IN A NUTSHELL ________________ First of all: - Remember that you need a Mavericks compatible GPU like Apple's ATI 5770, which can still be bought in the Apple Store. - You can complete the steps below on a different Mac than the actual Mac Pro you're going to install this on. - You will need a compatible Mac - or a friend - to get the 'Install OS X Mavericks.app' from the App Store. So what's the basic idea of the steps below: - We take the 'Install OS X Mavericks' app, then copy the basic installer out from the app to create a new Installer disk/stick. - We then copy all the original Packages over from the app to this disk/stick. This will create a fully working Installer disk/stick. - We then replace the 'boot.efi' on the disk/stick with the new one from this package. - We then customise a number of files on the disk/stick to make sure that your Mac Pro is included in the list of installable machines. That's it! Now let's go and do this. A: PREPARING STUFF ________________ Step 0: The basics: make a backup if you don't like living dangerously. Step 1: Get a copy of the Mavericks Installer app. Use another Mac for this. Step 2: Know the board-ID of your Mac. Here's how: Go to Terminal, type the following command: ioreg -p IODeviceTree -r -n / -d 1 In the resulting output, find a line that says "board-ID" = <"something"> Write down the string that shows in place of "something". Step 3: Enable the display of hidden files in Finder. Here's how: Go to Terminal, type the following command: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE Then type this command: killall Finder The last command is necessary to shut Finder down so it will re-read its settings. Simply click on Finder to start it again. Step 4: Know the machine identifier of your Mac. This is either MacPro1,1 or MacPro2,1 - if it's something else, stop now. Step 5: Get a USB-stick or some other external (or internal) drive with at least 8GB of space. Everything on it will be erased! B: PREPARING THE INSTALLER DISK OR USB STICK ________________ Step 6: Insert the USB stick or other external drive. Step 7: Open Disk Utility, then click on the drive - it should be listed in the upper left pane. Step 8: In the right pane, select 'Partition' tab. In this tab, choose '1 Partition'. The 'Options' button is now available. Click it. Make sure 'GUID' is selected as the type. Click OK. Now give your partition a name - it will be overwritten, so anything goes. Select HFS+ (the first option in the list) as the format. Click 'Apply' and let Disk Utility do its thing. Step 9: Check: You now have a Mac-formatted disk or stick with 1 partition on it with at least 8GB of free space. From now on, these instructions will refer to this disk as 'Installer'. C: PUTTING STUFF ON THE INSTALLER DISK OR USB STICK ________________ Step 10: Locate the 'Install OS X Mavericks.app' - usually in Finder under Programs, or somewhere else if a friend copied it for you. Step 11: Right-click the app, select 'Show Package Contents'. Step 12: Navigate to '/Contents/Resources/SharedSupport' - there's an 'InstallESD.dmg' there. Double-click it. Step 13: You now have a new InstallESD drive mounted in Finder. Navigate to it, and find 'BaseSystem.dmg' in its main folder. If there is no 'BaseSystem.dmg', you haven't properly enabled the showing of hidden files in Finder (Step 3). Step 14: Now drag-and-drop BaseSystem.dmg to the lower left pane of Disk Utility. This will result in 'BaseSystem.dmg' being listed there; nothing else will happen. Step 15: We will now 'Restore' this BaseSystem.dmg to your Installer disk/stick. Select the Installer disk/stick you created. In the right pane, select the 'Restore' tab. Drag the BaseSystem.dmg to the field 'Source' in this tab. Click 'Restore'. This will take a while. When done, the Installer disk/stick will have a new name. You can rename it 'Installer' if you want. Step 16: Go back to the Finder, and navigate to the InstallESD drive that is still mounted. Step 17: Copy the 'Packages' folder from this InstallESD drive to your Installer disk/stick in the folder '/System/Installation'. You will find that there is already a shortcut/alias in this folder called 'Packages'. Your drag and drop of the real 'Packages' folder will replace this shortcut; you can also delete it first. Again, this will take a while as the folder contains most of the resources (several GBs). D: CUSTOMISE THE INSTALLER DISK FURTHER ________________ Step 18: You will now need to copy and replace some files on the Installer disk/stick you created. Go to the 'Installation 10.9' folder that is part of the package these instructions come from. Copy and replace the files in the proper folders on your Installer drive. Easiest way to do it: open two Finder windows, select the proper folder on your Installer drive, move the files across. Always replace the original files on the Installer disk/stick! Step 19: Tip: editing '.plist' files is easy with an app called TextWrangler - free download in App Store. Now, open /System/Installation/Packages/InstallableMachines.plist on your Installer disk/stick -> search for the last entry and replace it. Step 20: Now, open /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist on your Installer disk/stick -> -> search for the last entry of board-ids and replace it with your own (written down in Step 2). -> search for the last entry of Macs and insert yours (written down in Step 4). Step 21: Disable the display of hidden files in Finder. Here's how: Go to Terminal, type the following command: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE Then type this command: killall Finder The last command is necessary to shut Finder down so it will re-read its settings. Simply click on Finder to start it again. E: GO AND INSTALL! _________________ Step 22: Reboot your Mac holding the option key. You will need a wired keyboard for best results. Step 23: Select the Installer stick/disk (either called BaseSystem or whatever you renamed it to) and press Enter. Step 24: Install Mavericks as normal. You can either try to upgrade an existing install or start from scratch. Step 25: The install process will seem to hang at the very last moment, when the system claims there's less than a minute remaining. It's not hanging, but will take several minutes to complete. Don't interrupt it too soon! Have fun with Mavericks! Tip: Should the Installer fail within a few seconds while trying to upgrade an existing installation (like Mountain Lion), then don't reboot yet but open 'Terminal' from the Utilities menu and copy the PlatformSupport.plist file over to your target drive. To do this, type: cp /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist "/Volumes/[Your Target Drive Name]/System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist" Then reboot and try again. CONGRATULATIONS!