MP 1,1-5,1 No Boot Drive Selector Screen?

[Timedent]

Hey all,
I am trying to install really any version of OS on a Mac Pro 5,1 I picked up with an erased drive. When I hold down option on startup, I seem to be taken to what should be the boot selection menu but instead am met with a blank white screen with a mouse cursor on it. When I don't hold it down, it defaults to the flashing folder thingy as you'd expect. I've tried to install both High Sierra and El Capitan from a USB drive, but no luck getting the computer to recognize it. It's worth mentioning that I'm working with entirely stock hardware, also no extra anything plugged in other than a (Windows layout) keyboard and display cable.

I only have a Windows computer and a friends MacBook Pro (running Ventura) at my disposal to get the USB drive loaded, but have had seemingly no luck with either. I've looked up several different tutorials using TransMac and HFS+ to get the .dmg file loaded, all of them seem to be for MacBooks though. The USB drive is a 64gb 3.1 stick, if that makes any difference at all. I'm also using a cheap DVI to HDMI adapter for the display output, again not sure if that matters or not.

Thanks for the help!

 

[tsialex]

If your GPU is not an AppleOEM one, or not a PC GPU flashed with a Mac EFI, you will not have pre-boot configuration support. Btw, if the drive is really erased and you are get a flashing folder on the screen, you have a GPU with pre-boot configuration support.

Since the Mac Pro firmware will scan for bootable disks connected when you have an erased/new harddisk/SSD with no macOS installed, make a createinstallmedia USB installer (try El Capitan or Sierra, since High Sierra and Mojave require firmware updates and you at this moment don't know if the firmware is updated) and then try again.

Another thing to note, some USB drives are not recognized by the MacPro firmware, try a different one, a 8GB one is sufficient for ElCapitan/Sierra.

Edit:

Forgot to write, some PC keyboards (several Microsoft and Logitech ones, to write about two commonly used brands, specially if it's a wireless/BT/etc KB) do not work correctly with the BootPicker, maybe try with a different one.

 

[DeltaMac]

Be sure to also try both possible positions for the Alt key, as it is usually backwards, compared to the expected Mac keyboard positions. For example, the Alt/Option key for Mac is #2 to the left of the spacebar.
So, despite where the Alt key is positioned, try the Windows key instead.

 

[Timedent]

Back again, thanks for the advice, but nothing has worked so far. Been troubleshooting almost every day for over a week now.

Just to clarify, I'm using a single stock 5770, and it definitely has the pre-boot config. I get the flashing folder when I don't press any keys, and get a blank screen with a mouse cursor when I hold ALT on startup (what it looks like in the picture). I'm guessing that's where the boot selector screen is supposed to be. When I plug in a mouse I'm able to move the cursor around the screen, but there's nothing to click on (I spent like 15 minutes clicking everywhere on the screen). I am having to use my TV as an output as my other monitors are gaming monitors and both gave sync rate errors when I tried to plug in the DVI to HDMI adapter.

So far I have gone through 3 USB drives, a 64 GB USB 3.2, a 16 GB 2.0 (which actually turned out to be 29 GB), and most recently I was able to find an 8 GB 2.0, none of which have done anything differently. As a side note that USB on the stand is the 64 GB, I had the 16 GB plugged into the front IO at the time. I also tried installing onto a USB via a MacBook Pro, but since it was a newer model and running Ventura I discovered that Apple restricts you from running old installers or doing the Terminal method. In order to get a bootable USB of Sierra or El Capitan, I would need another Mac running that version from what I can tell :/

The one thing I haven't been able to test was using an Apple keyboard, I have tried both a cheap Logitech wireless keyboard and my SteelSeries gaming one. Could be a point of failure as the SteelSeries keyboard relies on external software to configure the RGB, but the Mac recognizes the keystrokes so I'm not sure if that would matter or not. Both of them were able to reach the blank white screen with the mouse cursor though. I have tried other key combos, but all of them just boot to the flashing folder.

If you guys need any more pictures or information about anything to help just let me know!

 

[Thirio2]

Have you tried a different USB slot? I recently went through that on my MBP.

 

[Dayo]

In order to get a bootable USB of Sierra or El Capitan, I would need another Mac running that version

You can use this script I put together to create a bootable USB on any version of Mac OS:

Creates Bootable USB for Mac OS Lion to Monterey (Excluding Mavericks)

Creates Bootable USB for Mac OS Lion to Monterey (Excluding Mavericks) - Install_USB_Maker.sh

gist.github.com

It is broken for HiSierra and newer, but works for LoSierra back to Lion with the exception of Mavericks.
There is a link to the Apple site to download installers in the instructions.
Doesn't matter if running a newer version of Mac OS.

You might see that I was editing it just last month.
I just used it as part of reinstalling Tiger to Monterey.
Will fix it for the newer versions when I have the time.

 

[Macschrauber]

Not to forget: set the Mac to factory specs to troubleshoot.

Put the USB stick directly to a factory USB port, not on an USB Card or some kind of extension or hub.

Some PCIe cards prevent from a working Bootscreen. Just got a Sata Card what prevented showing some of my bootable devices.

 

[Timedent]

Have you tried a different USB slot? I recently went through that on my MBP.

Yeah, tried just about every combination of flash drive and keyboard on the 5 USB ports.

You can use this script I put together to create a bootable USB on any version of Mac OS:

Creates Bootable USB for Mac OS Lion to Monterey (Excluding Mavericks)

Creates Bootable USB for Mac OS Lion to Monterey (Excluding Mavericks) - Install_USB_Maker.sh

gist.github.com

It is broken for HiSierra and newer, but works for LoSierra back to Lion with the exception of Mavericks.
There is a link to the Apple site to download installers in the instructions.
Doesn't matter if running a newer version of Mac OS.

You might see that I was editing it just last month.
I just used it as part of reinstalling Tiger to Monterey.
Will fix it for the newer versions when I have the time.

I'll have to try this later when I have access to my friends' MacBook, seems like a super cool tool. Thanks!

Not to forget: set the Mac to factory specs to troubleshoot.

Put the USB stick directly to a factory USB port, not on an USB Card or some kind of extension or hub.

Some PCIe cards prevent from a working Bootscreen. Just got a Sata Card what prevented showing some of my bootable devices.

It should be at its stock configuration, nothing else is plugged into the PCIe slots or USB ports. Tried plugging the flash drive into every single USB port on the chassis, no dice. I have been running it with the side panel removed, but I'm not sure if that would make a difference.

I added some more photos of the inside and rear IO (front IO has keyboard cable plugged in but that's it). It is a bit dirty from whoever owned it last, I figured I should focus on getting it working before I clean it.

Should also mention that this machine is not using the graphics card I bought it with, as it came with an RX580 installed, but wouldn't boot at all since the hard drive was wiped and the card was not flashed. I ended up buying another 12-core variant with a stock 5770, which is the one in this machine currently.

To clarify this is the 6-core machine, the 12-core has a Firmware password stuck on it and I need to get an OS on the machine before I can remove it (don't worry I didn't steal it, I could show a receipt if needed). The plan is to get the 6-core up and running with the 5770, then use the drive with the OS to get the 12-core running with the RX580, and once I have both of them operational I plan to sell the 6-core.

 

[tsialex]

Did you nuked the hard disk? Sometimes "wiped" drives still have an ESP and the Mac Pro firmware tries to boot it. Connect one of the disks to another Mac, find the BSD disk name (diskXX) and then do a sudo gpt destroy diskXX.

 

[Timedent]

Did you nuked the hard disk? Sometimes "wiped" drives still have an ESP and the Mac Pro firmware tries to boot it. Connect one of the disks to another Mac, find the BSD disk name (diskXX) and then do a sudo gpt destroy diskXX.

Great suggestion, progress! I think this was somewhat of the issue, I didn't have another Mac I could plug anything SATA into so I ran the clean function on diskpart in Windows which got me here. I reformatted the hard drive back into HFS+, although I'm not sure if that was necessary or not. Also worth noting that the flash drive is still plugged in and doesn't appear to be showing up in the boot selector (unless that's normal).

Now here's a bit of a new roadblock. I'm not entirely sure what it all means, whether this machine used to run Windows or that's just the name of the drive for some reason. Now I just need to get macOS on the hard drive, but I still can't seem to get the flash drives to show up (I've tried 2 more since last time). I'll still haven't had the chance to run that script from earlier, so I guess that will be my next step unless there's something else you all think I should try in the meantime.