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lovecd

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 14, 2022
165
14
Hello every one,

I’m trying to do a fresh installation of lion (10.7.5) on my 2005/2006 Mac Pro, but so far no luck. Here is what I did:

1. Download 10.7.5 online and burn it into a dvd bootable disk.
2. Boot the machine from dvd media I just created.
3. Erase the hard drive and format it as macOS journal version.
4. Start installation.

The installation is finished successfully, but when machine is rebooted, the welcome setup menu never shows up, instead, a mouse cursor is there forever (it can be moved around when touching the mouse, and it never hangs), but screen background is remained black. Tried to do this installation on a separate hard drive, samething.

Does anyone know what could be wrong here?

Many thanks!
 
How long did you wait? Install from DVD might take an hour or so to complete.
I did see screen showing “installation finished successfully”, but the issue I mentioned is when system is trying to reboot to setup stage.
 
Hmmm... I don't remember such a screen as "Installation finished successfully"... (?)
The installer just - installs, then, when complete, it reboots to complete the installation (just a progress bar, doesn't tell you it is complete - then reboots again to to the new user setup (which first brings up a screen showing some choices to copy files from a backup, etc. If you cancel that screen, then you get the new user setup.

Where, exactly, did you get the Lion installer download?
This is the best Apple link to use now - https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2077?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
That gets you a disk image file, which opens to an installer package. That is NOT the installer app for Lion. Run the installer package, which will "install" the installer app (copying the files in place) that is the actual installer for the Lion system. By default, that installer app will be in the Mac's Applications folder. The name of that app will be "Install Mac OS X Lion", with a file extension .app
If you have a different name, or a .pkg extension, not .app, then you are simply installing the app itself, and not actually installing the Mac system.
What file is actually on the DVD that you burned?
(You may be OK, with the right file, I'm just saying that the installation of Lion is not quite as straightforward as some users might expect.
 
Hmmm... I don't remember such a screen as "Installation finished successfully"... (?)
The installer just - installs, then, when complete, it reboots to complete the installation (just a progress bar, doesn't tell you it is complete - then reboots again to to the new user setup (which first brings up a screen showing some choices to copy files from a backup, etc. If you cancel that screen, then you get the new user setup.

Where, exactly, did you get the Lion installer download?
This is the best Apple link to use now - https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2077?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
That gets you a disk image file, which opens to an installer package. That is NOT the installer app for Lion. Run the installer package, which will "install" the installer app (copying the files in place) that is the actual installer for the Lion system. By default, that installer app will be in the Mac's Applications folder. The name of that app will be "Install Mac OS X Lion", with a file extension .app
If you have a different name, or a .pkg extension, not .app, then you are simply installing the app itself, and not actually installing the Mac system.
What file is actually on the DVD that you burned?
(You may be OK, with the right file, I'm just saying that the installation of Lion is not quite as straightforward as some users might expect.
Thanks for your comments! By the way, how to create the DVD disk image after downloaded that file? The only working machine I have now is macbook pro 15" 2017, but I do have a portable USB DVD burner available. Thanks again!
 
I might need several attempts, but I think I would eventually figure it out.
But, then I have a range of Macs that I can use, and several support the install easily. (bootable installers are a hobby for me...)
 
Have you tried restarting with extensions off? It does sound like a video driver issue. Do you have a video card in there not supported by Lion?
 
@lovecd This procedure should still work, but there might be some minor differences on a newer Mac:


I recommend using a USB drive for the installer instead of a DVD, if possible. Lion was notorious for taking an extremely long time to install from DVD media.
 
I just tried that with a Mojave system. The restore process was very slow, and took more than an hour to complete on a USB 2.0 flash drive. I didn't test it yet to see if it actually will boot, but it appears to be properly made.
 
Have you tried restarting with extensions off? It does sound like a video driver issue. Do you have a video card in there not supported by Lion?
What do you mean restarting with extensions off? The GPU card is the original one came with this Mac Pro, and it worked fine before reinstallation.
 
What do you mean restarting with extensions off? The GPU card is the original one came with this Mac Pro, and it worked fine before reinstallation.
Pretty sure that Weckart means Safe boot mode. Just restart, while holding the Shift key. Safe Boot does not use most extensions. It's just a test boot to see if helps your issue. If there is no change, you can just restart normally.
 
What do you mean restarting with extensions off? The GPU card is the original one came with this Mac Pro, and it worked fine before reinstallation.
Fine. I wondered whether there was an GPU upgrade issue.
 
Tried booting with safe mood, it shows Apple logo at beginning with progress bar at the bottom, then just changed to white screen forever, any more thoughts?
 
Is your potential boot drive in slot 1? or one of the other slots? Move the boot drive to slot 1, if it is not there already. Might make a difference for booting.
15 year old Mac? Test the battery, make sure it is more than 3volts, or just replace the battery.
 
Did you try to reinstall using the Apple installer we linked above, or are you still using the first installer that you downloaded from unknown sources? Reinstall with the installer obtained directly from Apple and let us know if that helps.
 
Is your potential boot drive in slot 1? or one of the other slots? Move the boot drive to slot 1, if it is not there already. Might make a difference for booting.
15 year old Mac? Test the battery, make sure it is more than 3volts, or just replace the battery.
It is not in slot 1, will move it later today, and see if I can get a different result. Also, will check the battery. Thanks.
 
Did you try to reinstall using the Apple installer we linked above, or are you still using the first installer that you downloaded from unknown sources? Reinstall with the installer obtained directly from Apple and let us know if that helps.
Yes, it was downloaded from Apple. Thanks.
 
Is your potential boot drive in slot 1? or one of the other slots? Move the boot drive to slot 1, if it is not there already. Might make a difference for booting.
15 year old Mac? Test the battery, make sure it is more than 3volts, or just replace the battery.
Tried it all (move the start drive into slot 1 and also verified the battery has 3V), but still no luck. By the way, is there a way to download the lower OS version, like 10.6.6? Thanks again.
 
Tried the first version, but ended up with the following error message:

"Sorry, your OS X install app or DMG may be imcomplete. Delete your install application, then download it again from the App Store."

The install app I chose is from the download link DeltaMac gave above, any thoughts? Thanks.
 
When you downloaded the installer from that link - you have to open the download .dmg, then double-click to open the .pkg that is in the folder that mounts. That's an installer package file. The result will be an app with the name that I provided: Install Mac OS X Lion.app
That's what you use with the DiskMakerX app. If you used the first version from that download page, it can't possibly work with Lion. You have to use one of the last two on that page, either version 3.0.4 (most likely to work), or the version 5.0.3 (probably)
 
When you downloaded the installer from that link - you have to open the download .dmg, then double-click to open the .pkg that is in the folder that mounts. That's an installer package file. The result will be an app with the name that I provided: Install Mac OS X Lion.app
That's what you use with the DiskMakerX app. If you used the first version from that download page, it can't possibly work with Lion. You have to use one of the last two on that page, either version 3.0.4 (most likely to work), or the version 5.0.3 (probably)
Well, I'm unable to double-click to open the .pkg because I'm using 2017 MacBook Pro, it just give you error message like "This version of Mac OS X 10.7 cannot be installed on this computer". Any ideas how to bypass it?

Per DismakerX app, yes, I did use the version 3.0.4 (the first oldest one).
 
Tried booting with safe mood, it shows Apple logo at beginning with progress bar at the bottom, then just changed to white screen forever, any more thoughts?

How about changing the graphic output card to the second port on the video card?
Or try another port of the monitor? Or connect both monitors (1080p only) to the 2 video output ports?
From you description, I guess there are nothing wrong with the hardware, just issue with the video output port. The initial set-up screen is there, you just couldn't see it because it is projected to another non-existing monitor.

I remembered I got the same issue with my cMP 1,1, but with the login screen, not the welcome screen. When connecting 2 monitors, the login screen was displayed on the second monitor.
 
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