Forcing MacPro 1,1 to run Mountain Lion?

[James Steele]

I've heard this is possible. Normally I'd shy away from this, but ever since I demoted my MacPro 1,1 to office duty in favor of a used MacPro 4,1 a while back, I've been frustrated that I can't sent text messages to and from iPhones because the MacPro 1,1 only runs Lion. Apparently Apple had a version of the Messages app that worked on Lion, but then it broke. Having that text message capability on my MacPro 1,1 is the missing piece that would really make this machine worthwhile in my office. That's the only reason I'd consider hacking it to run ML... for Messages.

Anybody know if this is a royal PITA, or not so tough? Thanks in advance.

[cgs]

Hello James, yes it is certainly possible to boot ML or Mavericks from the 1.1 (though I never researched Messages functionality specifically). The easiest way seems to be to install 10.8 or 10.9 to a drive from an officially supported 10.8/10.9 machine, overwrite the boot.efi, then you're good to go (use the newly installed 10.8/10.9 drive w/boot.efi to boot the Mac Pro 1.1). A few links that describe the process (these articles link to the original threads for the boot.efi you'll need):

http://retrocosm.net/2014/01/04/mac-pro ... mavericks/

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread. ... 176&page=2

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.ph ... tcount=388

Some of these articles reference the Mac Pro 2.1, but the process is the same for the 1.1.

[James Steele]

Thanks! Great info. I'm assuming it works the same for Mountain Lion. I don't want to go to Mavericks because Now Contact still works in ML. I'm curious if you must do a complete reformat before putting it in Target mode, or you can upgrade an existing Lion installation and then immediately replace the boot EFI? Hmmmm.

[corbo-billy]

Hi James _

I already know if it can help you, the graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT) included in the MacPro 1.1 is not accepted by Montain Lion.
It is therefore necessary to change there for another compatible model with Mountain Lion .

[cgs]

Good point on the video card - I picked up an ATI Radeon HD 5770 in case I ever do this.

James - yes this process should work for both Mountain Lion & Mavericks.

[James Steele]

Hi James _

I already know if it can help you, the graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT) included in the MacPro 1.1 is not accepted by Montain Lion.
It is therefore necessary to change there for another compatible model with Mountain Lion .

Right. I have an ATI Radeon HD 3870 in it. I think it is probably okay? I'll have to look.

[James Steele]

Good point on the video card - I picked up an ATI Radeon HD 5770 in case I ever do this.

That's the card I have in my MacPro 4,1. Unfortunately, it's been problematic with 30" monitors, but I'm able to live with it.

James - yes this process should work for both Mountain Lion & Mavericks.

Cool. I'm going to backup and see if I can't get lucky and do an upgrade of the existing Lion install.

[bayswater]

Maybe you resolved this, but I noticed that CSeye, who is or was a member here, and is very active at LUG, reports in his signature that he/she is using 10.9.3 on a Mac Pro 1,1.

[James Steele]

Maybe you resolved this, but I noticed that CSeye, who is or was a member here, and is very active at LUG, reports in his signature that he/she is using 10.9.3 on a Mac Pro 1,1.

Thanks... I haven't had the time to attempt this. I need to make a full disc backup first before I attempt it. Also, I don't want to go all the way to Mavericks, but I want to stop at Mountain Lion if possible. Why? Because my Now Contact and Now Up-To-Date last worked in that version. Honesty, one of the biggest tragedies for me was when that suite died. It was so powerful, yet the user interface was a breeze. IMHO, best contact manager software for the Mac ever. What a pity what happened to it.

[rickorick]

I'm looking forward to hearing how it works out for you. I also have a 1,1 Mac Pro and I would like to go to 10.8.5. Native Instruments is having a sale until 8 31 2014 but Kontakt doesn't run on 10.6.8. I already have Mountain Lion on my iMac and Macbook Pro so it would be a free upgrade I just need to know what video card I would need to make it work. Let us know how it
works out.

Thanks Rick

[James Steele]

I'll let you know how it goes once I back up and then work up the courage to attempt it!

[wvandyck]

The process is relatively painless compared to the mind-bending methods required to install ML, and Lion.

Read the post #1391 here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread. ... 94&page=56
Don't bother reading the thread from the start as it addresses the older and much more complicated methods to install ML and Lion. Tiamo has side-stepped the pain.

No need to insert board-id or other code. Just place the modified boot efi as instructed.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/202 ... fi%202.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/202 ... dalone.png

[wvandyck]

I'm looking forward to hearing how it works out for you. I also have a 1,1 Mac Pro and I would like to go to 10.8.5. Native Instruments is having a sale until 8 31 2014 but Kontakt doesn't run on 10.6.8. I already have Mountain Lion on my iMac and Macbook Pro so it would be a free upgrade I just need to know what video card I would need to make it work. Let us know how it
works out.

Thanks Rick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUh0uvUHn68

I followed this tutorial to install the recommended ATI Radeon HD 5770. No problem. Except I couldn't get the music out of my head for days!

[ronjams]

<I followed this tutorial to install the recommended ATI Radeon HD 5770. No problem. Except I couldn't get the music out of my head for days!>

DO NOT under any circumstances put that ATI Radeon HD 5770 in a MacPro 1.1 or
2.1 build machine. It will burn up your video slot and mess with your memory slots or damage your power supply. It draws too much power for those machines in 6 to 8 months you will experience the machine cutting off for no reason at all and rebooting itself. Another symptom is the machine will over heat!! I have this on very good authority because my machine died. After spending about $450.00 trying to have the machine repaired, 1st going through apple who told me they would not repair the machine and then a place called Mac Head Quarters who took my money only to tell me that they did not have what they needed to properly test the machine because it was no longer supported and finally going to a unnamed third party who absolutely did his best to try to save my machine explained the truth about this video card and the about the macpro line. A word to the wise stay with the stock video card and have your machine cleaned [in other words get the dust out!!]at least every 6 months and yes there is a lot more to this story. Someone else is experience this same problem I think in another thread. Please refer them to this explanation. If you're trying to hold on to your aging machine follow these above mentioned steps and your machine will last.

[James Steele]

<I followed this tutorial to install the recommended ATI Radeon HD 5770. No problem. Except I couldn't get the music out of my head for days!>

DO NOT under any circumstances put that ATI Radeon HD 5770 in a MacPro 1.1 or
2.1 build machine. It will burn up your video slot and mess with your memory slots or damage your power supply. It draws too much power for those machines in 6 to 8 months you will experience the machine cutting off for no reason at all and rebooting itself. Another symptom is the machine will over heat!! I have this on very good authority because my machine died. After spending about $450.00 trying to have the machine repaired, 1st going through apple who told me they would not repair the machine and then a place called Mac Head Quarters who took my money only to tell me that they did not have what they needed to properly test the machine because it was no longer supported and finally going to a unnamed third party who absolutely did his best to try to save my machine explained the truth about this video card and the about the macpro line. A word to the wise stay with the stock video card and have your machine cleaned [in other words get the dust out!!]at least every 6 months and yes there is a lot more to this story. Someone else is experience this same problem I think in another thread. Please refer them to this explanation. If you're trying to hold on to your aging machine follow these above mentioned steps and your machine will last.

Interesting stuff. I had my ATI-5770 in my MacPro 1,1 for a while with no ill effects. I was probably lucky then. I moved it over to my MacPro 4,1 nowadays.

I want to install ML on my MacPro 1,1. I don't want to go to Mavericks because I want to be able to use Now Contact on it, and Mavericks breaks that legacy app for good. I'm pretty sure my MacPro currently has an ATI-3870 which is specifically made for Macs. I think it's compatible with ML.