[Guide] Mac Pro 1,1 and Mavericks using TDM

[gavinstubbs09]

Update: Some people think this is causing confusion. This is specific to Mac Pro 1,1 and 2, as the same tricks may not work under other Mac models. This method is for people that cannot get a flash drive working, but have a Mavericks supported mac and would like a nice workaround. There has been some debate about the boot.efi file and not giving proper credit. When I wrote this up there was a post that I got my intro from that didn't mention Tiamo at all but it's all fixed now.

I thought I should write this up for two reasons. One it is way easier than I thought, and second is I had issues with making a flags drive work multiple times. I was attempting to install 10.8.5 on my MP which previously had MLPostFactor but as soon as this got messed up I decided to go clean with Mavericks. This method uses Target Disk Mode with another mac to install.

You can leave your stock 7300GT in your MP and it will work, however it is detected as 7MB so graphics in almost everything will be having issues. The desktop and finder didn't seem to have an issue. Over time this guide will get clearer, just wanted to get it out there for now and build upon it!

What you'll need:
Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1 (Referred as MPb in this guide)
Upgraded Graphics Card (Preferably a official Apple Card)
Another Mac (one that can support 10.9 natively, referred as MPa)
Install OS X Mavericks.app
8GB USB Flash Drive
FireWire cable (FW400/FW800)

Method 1: Install using TDM
To start out, you need to have the "Install OS X Mavericks.app" file in your applications folder of the MPa mac (the mac that can natively run MV). Go ahead and follow this guide to make a flash drive. http://www.tips-and-tricks-in-mavericks.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-install-drive/

As soon as you are done with this you need to throw MPb into TDM (Target Disk Mode) and do this by holding down T as soon as you turn on the machine. When a firewire logo shows up you are set! Make sure your FireWire cable is plugged into your MPa and the MPb mac.

Reboot MPa mac and hold down Alt/Option until a list of hard drives appear. Select your flash drive which will be called "OS X Install ESD" and wait for it to boot up.

Select your language, and go to disk utility and make sure your proper MPb drive is formatted to the way you like (this will have a FW logo on it, be sure not to select your internal MPa mac HDD!). Then when you are done go ahead and install Mavericks to your MPb Hard Drive.

When the install finishes, reboot MPa and hold Alt/Option then select the newly installed Mavericks drive. The First Run assistant will appear, so go ahead and configure it to your liking. Once done, reboot once again back to your native MPa hard drive.

Once booted, download boot.efi file from here: https://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=448666&d=1385188522 (big thanks to Tiamo for the custom boot.efi). Make sure that MPb is still in TDM and the hard drives are accessible. Then copy boot.efi to these locations on the MPb hard drive:
System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi


You are now OK to reboot your MP and boot into Mavericks! Good luck and enjoy!
PS: 10.9.1 update will install without an issue. Download it from the Apple Site or App Store and install!

Issues & Bugs:
Internet Accounts - Unable to sign into Twitter
iCloud - Contacts & Calendars seem to have issues syncing
iPhoto 9.2.1 - Crashes upon Opening
Messages - Not being able to see recent messages

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Method 2: Install Mavericks without TDM

This method is for people who don't have a mac natively capable of running Mavericks, or if their Mac Pro is their only machine. This method we will be using a USB Flash drive with some modifications so that you can install it on your Mac Pro without the use of another mac or TDM.

What we Need:
Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1
Upgraded Graphics card (if it's a card with no boot screen, find your old 7300GT)*
8GB USB Flash Drive
Install OS X Mavericks.app
Custom Files: Download Here

Steps Coming soon!


*You will need a card in your Mac that allows you to view and install Operating Systems. Once the install is done and everything is the way we like it, you can reinstall your PC graphics card and be ready to go.

 

[fredr500]

This is great, thank you.

One question though. You said there will be problems with graphics using the old card. Can you elaborate?

I have 2 7300GTs in my machine, am hoping to not have to replace them. I just want to limp along with this MP until the new mini comes out.

 

[adam9c1]

Can you rewrite this and call
MPa (3,1 4,1 5,1)?
MPb (1,1 2,1)
TDM - which machine will be the target to the other?

Thank you.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

This is great, thank you.

One question though. You said there will be problems with graphics using the old card. Can you elaborate?

I have 2 7300GTs in my machine, am hoping to not have to replace them. I just want to limp along with this MP until the new mini comes out.

The graphics card will have just little things that are annoying. I only opened safari and that was all I noticed before I replaced the graphics card on the next reboot. Things like the address bar would be missing but would flash back with it there and back off again. Shadows would be all over the place in the window too.

Next time I put the 7300GT in it I'll be sure to take a picture to show the Safari!

Can you rewrite this and call
MPa (3,1 4,1 5,1)?
MPb (1,1 2,1)
TDM - which machine will be the target to the other?

Thank you.

Hey Adam,
Just updated the post some more with what you specified. Hope this helps you out!

 

[fredr500]

Thanks, I guess I need to start looking for a couple new graphics cards, or break down and buy a 27" display and cut back to 2.

 

[adam9c1]

I think you lost me on this:

Upon rebooting on MPa, hold down Alt/Option again and this time select the HDD you just installed Mavericks to. Wait for it to boot and set it up the way you would like. When you are done with that, reboot once again, and hold Alt/Option till you get the hard drives. Select your normal HDD and boot from that.

Once booted, download boot.efi file from here: https://forums.macrumors.com/attachme...6&d=1385188522 and go into your HDD from MPb then replace the boot.efi in these 2 locations:
System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
-----------------
Do you mean when the Mavericks installer restarts the computer on it's own?
I imagine to copy the files over I need to boot MPb in TDM too, right?

 

[gavinstubbs09]

I think you lost me on this:

Upon rebooting on MPa, hold down Alt/Option again and this time select the HDD you just installed Mavericks to. Wait for it to boot and set it up the way you would like. When you are done with that, reboot once again, and hold Alt/Option till you get the hard drives. Select your normal HDD and boot from that.

Once booted, download boot.efi file from here: https://forums.macrumors.com/attachme...6&d=1385188522 and go into your HDD from MPb then replace the boot.efi in these 2 locations:
System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
-----------------
Do you mean when the Mavericks installer restarts the computer on it's own?
I imagine to copy the files over I need to boot MPb in TDM too, right?

What I mean is that you need to boot the freshly installed Mavericks drive. Set it up the way you like, then reboot once again back into your MPa normal HDD. With MPb still in TDM, copy the boot.efi file into the locations.

 

[oemden]

Use Sfott

Hey !

if you want a use the Tiamo's boot.efi (and you should , really )
Just use my Sfott script.

you'll need USB key and a Mavericks installer App in your Applications Folder

then launch my Sfott script and in 25 min you'll have a perfect bootable key using the Tiamo's boot.efi and you'll be good to go and install mavericks on your Macpro1,1.

no terminal commands just answers questions.

I did it on MacPro1,1 and MacMini2,1.

Still working on enhancements… on the script itself.

Tiamo did a really good job.

Read the How-to before if you like.

I have good feedbacks from people who downloaded it

bye…

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Hey !

if you want a use the Tiamo's boot.efi (and you should , really )
Just use my Sfott script.

you'll need USB key and a Mavericks installer App in your Applications Folder

then launch my Sfott script and in 25 min you'll have a perfect bootable key using the Tiamo's boot.efi and you'll be good to go and install mavericks on your Macpro1,1.

no terminal commands just answers questions.

I did it on MacPro1,1 and MacMini2,1.

Still working on enhancements… on the script itself.

Tiamo did a really good job.

Read the How-to before if you like.

I have good feedbacks from people who downloaded it

bye…

Thank you Oemden for trying to hijack my thread and way to go with making a post today (12/19/2013) after my thread was created. However with my method you get to learn a bit about TDM, which is an awesome tool.

 

[Sko]

Thank you Oemden for trying to hijack my thread and way to go with making a post today (12/19/2013) after my thread was created. However with my method you get to learn a bit about TDM, which is an awesome tool.

I'm not quite sure how's who's hijacking what as you direct-link to tiamo's boot.efi download without even mentioning it, or him.

Best practice should be to link to his post. And a thanks would be nice, too.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

I'm not quite sure how's hijacking what as you direct-link to tiamo's boot.efi download without even mentioning it, or him.

Best practice should be to link to his post. And a thanks would be nice, too.

Alright then Sko, I'll take back what I said. - Politely

I was slightly pissed because I wrote all this up and a new method was out after I spent quite a few hours writing this all up. O'well. It happens!

 

[Snowshiro]

I was slightly pissed because I wrote all this up and a new method was out, that's why.

Not being funny, but this explanation has been given a couple of dozen times already in the old mac pro mavericks discussion thread. It's not like you really did anything new, or contributed anything to it. I'm sure people appreciate the write-up and thank you for offering it, but given that write-ups are usually intended to make a process as simple as possible, Sko's script does exactly that. And what's more, you haven't even got around to writing the "how to" for those without a second Mac, so he's offering a solution before you.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Not being funny, but this explanation has been given a couple of dozen times already in the old mac pro mavericks discussion thread. It's not like you really did anything new, or contributed anything to it. I'm sure people appreciate the write-up and thank you for offering it, but given that write-ups are usually intended to make a process as simple as possible, Sko's script does exactly that. And what's more, you haven't even got around to writing the "how to" for those without a second Mac, so he's offering a solution before you.

Then why am I getting so much hatred for *attempting* to write up an alternative method? And second to that the other discussion thread, to find out any information requires digging through that entire discussion and until the past few days has any real how-to appeared that makes it easy enough to pull off. And what is more, is yeah he is providing a secondary solution, however I don't have much time to dick around with it, and I try to provide as much information with the time I do have to play around with installing operating systems and trying new methods out and whatnot. So really, don't get all uptight with what I am trying to do to help out people.

 

[daviesgeek]

I'm having issues with Messages.app not working. Any ideas why this might be?

 

[gavinstubbs09]

I'm having issues with Messages.app not working. Any ideas why this might be?

If I recall correctly, it was something Apple did back with Mountain Lion so that older macs couldn't access some core stuff in the OS. I am able to open the app however I can't see my recent messages that I send/receive on my iPhone and iPad.

Are you able to open Messages?

I went ahead and tried forcing it to use my Apple ID to no avail. It mentions that I can't sign in similar to that with Internet Accounts trying to use Twitter.

 

[666sheep]

Then why am I getting so much hatred for *attempting* to write up an alternative method?

Hatred? Much? Where?
Only 2 guys politely reminded you that you "have forgotten" to give Tiamo credit where is due.
Nothing new in here, there's no real "method" in "your method", it's just the workaround which every mac user with half a brain already knows since years...

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Hatred? Much? Where?
Only 2 guys politely reminded you that you "have forgotten" to give Tiamo credit where is due.
Nothing new in here, there's no real "method" in "your method", it's just the workaround which every mac user with half a brain already knows since years...

Well 666sheep, I found that boot.efi file for someone else's method that did however use the USB drive, and I ran into issues with that process therefore why TDM was put into effect here. They did not give credit (a reddit post) so how was I supposed to know if it was Tiamo's or not? I could hack up a boot.efi right now and you couldn't tell a difference. Yeah isn't a "How To" supposed to give people some steps in where to go in order to get it working? Some people like options, like would you rather have a Ford F250 or a Ram 2500. Options man, options.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

If I recall correctly, it was something Apple did back with Mountain Lion so that older macs couldn't access some core stuff in the OS. I am able to open the app however I can't see my recent messages that I send/receive on my iPhone and iPad.

Are you able to open Messages?

I went ahead and tried forcing it to use my Apple ID to no avail. It mentions that I can't sign in similar to that with Internet Accounts trying to use Twitter.

If you are using Tiamo's boot.efi then iMessages (also FaceTime etc...) should work ok,
have you tried removing the iMessages account then re-add it?

I had this issue on my third install of Mavericks on my Mac Pro, can't remember if I needed a reboot to fix it as well.

Well 666sheep, I found that boot.efi file for someone else's method that did however use the USB drive, and I ran into issues with that process therefore why TDM was put into effect here. They did not give credit (a reddit post) so how was I supposed to know if it was Tiamo's or not? I could hack up a boot.efi right now and you couldn't tell a difference. Yeah isn't a "How To" supposed to give people some steps in where to go in order to get it working? Some people like options, like would you rather have a Ford F250 or a Ram 2500. Options man, options.

I don't think tiamo's boot.efi is a simple hack, rather a re-write so as to allow for the translation of 64bit EFI calls to 32bit EFI calls.

Anyway just incase you haven't seen it, here is the main thread on it, which includes various instructions, the two different boot.efi files and the automated memory stick install creator. There are a few other threads floating around as well, but it is the main one.
Mac Pro 2,1 and OS X Mavericks


EDIT:

Issues & Bugs:
Internet Accounts - Unable to sign into Twitter
iCloud - Contacts & Calendars seem to have issues syncing
iPhoto 9.2.1 - Crashes upon Opening
Messages - Not being able to see recent messages

I wonder what's caused these issues though, on my install of Mavericks on my Mac Pro 1,1 (used Tiamo's original instructions to create a usb installer) all of these things work fine, well I'm running iPhoto 9.5.1 not 9.2.1.

 

[666sheep]

I could hack up a boot.efi right now

I doubt that

Have a good day, though.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

To start out, you need to have the "Install OS X Mavericks.app" file in your applications folder of the MPa mac (the mac that can natively run MV). Go ahead and follow this guide to make a flash drive. http://www.tips-and-tricks-in-mavericks.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-install-drive/

Btw is there any reason why you are using the old method to create the installer rather than running:-

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction

Assuming the volume to create the installer on is called Untitled and the 'Install OS X Mavericks.app' is in the default location. As this would also create the recovery partition.

Or alternatively not bothering with the usb memory stick at all and just running the 'Install OS X Mavericks.app' and telling it to install onto the target disk mode shared drive (also should create a recovery partition)?

As the older method you link to there, just makes it easier to modify the installer to change the boot.efi and files that check for supported hardware, which you aren't doing.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Btw is there any reason why you are using the old method to create the installer rather than running:-

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction

Assuming the volume to create the installer on is called Untitled and the 'Install OS X Mavericks.app' is in the default location. As this would also create the recovery partition.

Or alternatively not bothering with the usb memory stick at all and just running the 'Install OS X Mavericks.app' and telling it to install onto the target disk mode shared drive (also should create a recovery partition)?

As the older method you link to there, just makes it easier to modify the installer to change the boot.efi and files that check for supported hardware, which you aren't doing.

Thanks for some actual feedback

I attempted to do that for the flash drive but gave up and followed the hundreds of steps to make one manually. The next time I go ahead and reinstall Mavericks I'll go ahead and try that script in terminal.

 

[maflynn]

[MOD NOTE]
Stay on topic.

 

[oemden]

Thank you Oemden for trying to hijack my thread and way to go with making a post today (12/19/2013) after my thread was created. However with my method you get to learn a bit about TDM, which is an awesome tool.

was not the meaning at all...

Sorry you took it like "that"
my script was first a personnal challenge.
I consider Tiamo did the trick in the first place and all credits go to him, he's the man.

Whatever the method the important here is to get Mavericks on olders Macs.

Anyway you won't see me again on your thread .

 

[gavinstubbs09]

EDIT:


I wonder what's caused these issues though, on my install of Mavericks on my Mac Pro 1,1 (used Tiamo's original instructions to create a usb installer) all of these things work fine, well I'm running iPhoto 9.5.1 not 9.2.1.

Wasn't there something with ML that did close to the same thing and there was a little workaround to do it? I can't remember what it was. I'll go ahead and update iPhoto and see if I still have issues.

----------

was not the meaning at all...

Sorry you took it like "that"
my script was first a personnal challenge.
I consider Tiamo did the trick in the first place and all credits go to him, he's the man.

Whatever the method the important here is to get Mavericks on olders Macs.

Anyway you won't see me again on your thread .

Thank you

Actually I'm not, I did look at it and even looking at other projects people have done, it is an amazing thing. I have yet to try it out - but I will at some point You were friendly about it and I just took it way to offensive. Sorry about that!