How to Install/Run OS X El Capitan on an unsupported Mac Pro
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- This is how to install Mac OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" on an unsupported Mac Pro. In this video, I use a Mac Pro 1,1 (that has been flashed to 2,1 firmware). To do this, you'll need another Mac that supports El Capitan, an upgraded graphics card for your Mac Pro, and an 8 GB or larger USB drive to use as the El Capitan installer. You'll also need a modified version of boot.efi, which you can download here:
github.com/Pik...
Mac OS X Bootable USB Drive Creator: dosdude1.com/ap...
The command you need to run in Terminal to make the bootable El Capitan USB drive is:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/elcap --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app --nointeraction
(You'll need to make sure that "Install OS X El Capitan.app" is located in your Applications folder for this command to work.)
This was just awesome!
I followed your instructions explicitly, and did not have a single complication.
Followed the 2,1 upgrade with 32GB of ram, and am now migrating my old data and apps using Migration Assistant and a Time Machine backup.
What an excellent use of my venerable Mac Pro. We've given it a new lease on life, and I love how fast it boots, and it is absolutely silent now...no fans, now drive whirr, just silence.
Thanks a million!!!!
Drift
It works! I placed the El Capitan hard drive in the Mac Pro, removed the internal drive with OS X 10.7.5 and the internal backup drive and BOOM, it booted into 10.11.5 like a charm.
hey, i've got a backup drive with actually Mavericks already installed, any idea on how to gett that to work?
Out of the many video's I've watched, yours by far is the best in getting it done.. Awesome job at explaining. Thank you!
Thanks for the Bootable USB Drive Creator! Came in handy as well as installing OS X on my MacBook and putting the SATA disk on the Mac Pro. Thanks for taking the time to make the video with Pike's bootloader!
Did everything you told to do and it works very well! I have tested it and works with the apple x1900xt and a gtx 260, didn’t have to flash the gtx 260 at all either. Thank you!!
This is the easiest way to do it. I have encounter a problem, every time i upgrade the system software i have to add the efi. file again. So far everyting works up to the latest mac os 10.11.6. Thanks to all the people involved.
Just got a 2,1 today myself and am in the process of getting it to work.Cheers!
I want to thank you for your video. I used a 3.1 Mac Pro to set up the drive. My only issue were the two boot.efi files. I had permission issues in 10.6 trying to get rid of them and replace. But I also have 10.7 and 10.11 running on the box as well. I went into 10.7 for one of them and 10.11 for the other. Now the drive for my Mac Pro 1.1 is ready. I have not tried it yet but I'll let you know. Thanks again!
You are the man!!! Saved my a$$!! I was looking everywhere and no one was able to show how to do this. You explained it perfectly! Thanks man, you’re awesome . Keep up the great work!
It's alive!! You are a life saver otherwise the Mac Pro 1,1 I picked up would be a huge paper weight with Lion installed. UGH!!!
Just wanted to publish my way of working around the security update boot issue: I just updated and replaced the boot.efi file again with pikers boot.efi and it worked!
thanks Dude!! had an old mac pro lying around and had never used it nor been able to..till now!!! its amazing "when" you follow directions
Thanks for sharing. I followed your instructions using a Firewire connection to my old 2007 Mac Pro and it seems to have worked perfectly! It had an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB in it and that graphics card worked fine. No need for me to get another one. That was a relief.
Of course after I installed the security update and restarted it wouldn't boot up... I had to replace the boot.efi file again, but after I did that it worked fine.
Yeah, you'll have to do that with every Security Update or 10.11.x update.
Thanks. Hopefully I remember that... :P
Thanks for the GREAT tutorial. My Mac Pro 1,1 with 16gb memory and 2x dual core Xeons runs El Capitan and Logic Pro X BETTER than my late 2012 Mac Mini with 16gb memory and dual core i5. Sound actually works. Go into system preferences/sound and choose sound output.
Grad, glad you got it going!
Nicely done. Followed your video instructions to get an old backup clone of a 10.8.5 laptop's HDD to boot on my Mac Pro 1,1 (2,1 flashed). Worked flawlessly. Crashed the system when I messed around with the App Store and the upgrade to El Capitan stuff.
I'm actually leaving towards running Linux (Ubuntu-Mate) as primary OS on this machine. Only issue there is getting a 64-bit install disk to run. 32-bit installed and runs great.
I have another video on my channel detailing the El Capitan installation process.
+dosdude1 That's this one isn't it? I was just testing the boot.efi file and locations. I'll be upgrading this drive to 10.11 for fun following your guide. Good stuff!
daveaultman Oh, my bad, I thought this comment was on a different video. Yeah, this is it.
still doing a great job in 2020 thanks so much dosdude
I've also got a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter that's just a USB type-A male connection to SATA connection for 2.5" HDDs or SSDs. Best tech friend ever. :) For 3.5" drives, I've got a Yottamaster drive dock. It has also served me well. :) Both of these tools are highly reccomended. ;)
What made this easy peasy for me (after MANY failures with flash drives) is two things which cost me just $23:
1) a cheap 120GB SSD drive plugged into my Mac Mini as an external drive rather than using a flash drive and messing around swapping out hard disks.
2) A cheap as chips USB-to-SATA connector off eBay which plugs onto any 2.5" SSD/SATA-HDD (no drivers needed) it has two USB connectors which plug into your Mac USB ports (one provides power to disk drive the other data connection).
This method is quicker because your SSD/SATA drive serves as both boot installer drive and also installation drive if you make a small 16-20GB install partition on it and use the rest of drives space for your MacOS installation partition. It''s very fast to do and install using an SSD as both your install media and installation target rather than using a flash drive.
One drive, one cable, and the 32-bit EFI bot.efi file copied onto it after. job done.
This method is a LOT quicker and far less hassle/risk of wrecking your Mac taking out hard disks. The USB-to-SATA connectors ONLY work with the lower-powered 5v 2.5" disks not a full-size SATA disk which need 12V so go for a 2.5" disk and SSD is a hell of a lot faster and more reliable than SATA magnetic and they're very cheap now anyway.
Can I use this thing with MacBook 2007 (OS X 10.7.5)?
Ok finally had everything running correctly but i left and came back to a green screen with black vertical lines what do I do?
Many may Thanks, this was a very clear guide, updated to el Capitan my Mac pro from 2006 - 2,1, i needed to use zoom and ameba rogue loopback to do some routing with the audio, this guide was a life saver. It was unusable with Lion OSX. like to have a big paperweight at my living room.
at 5:21 mark, how long did it take for the install drive to boot up? During this period, is the Apple logo the only thing you will see?
You save my life!!!! I followed your video and it works like a charm :)
where did you download OSX El Capitan?.. can you please send the link thanks
@@miygellorenzgamuedasy9935 drive.google.com/file/d/0B4wuh1-MGP4yUHdFM3U2WEdoRzQ/edit
Where do I download captain from
drive.google.com/file/d/0B4wuh1-MGP4yUHdFM3U2WEdoRzQ/edit
One curious thing...
Like the guy who made the video I have an old Mac Pro 1,1 2006 tower unit (high spec, 8-core CPU 32GB RAM, 5 HDD's in it about 6TB).. the guy who sold it me clearly patched the bootloader with the 32-bit boot.efi as it came running Yosemite. Interesting it had all the drives working in it and one of them had El Capitan on (the seller told me ran both MacOS versions because of some music app only supported on El Capitan). He would change the boot disk using the 'Target Disk' feature in MacOS. It's interesting how he managed to have it booting with drives in every bay but yours only seems to boot with one drive in.
I have noticed my Mac Pro since it hasn't been able to run MacOS for a while until I saw your video due to disk failure seems to have the same problem, it will not boot ANY OS off a hard disk while there's multiple disks in. It will however boot Linux or Windows from a USB bootloader TO a specific hard disk drive! Mac's seem to be very restrictive on the EFI firmware and how they boot and what they'll boot! Older Mac's and new Mac's which even have the security chip to check MacOS supported versions! Built-in redundancy by Apple to get folks buying newer machines I guess..bit cheeky really given the price of Mac hardware and fact old Mac's are often future-proof and can run for decades with plenty of upgrade options.
Hi Dosdude. i have an issue with SIP. on a mac pro 2.1. i need to disable it. (linux Elementary/ZorinOS install reports NVRAM error during install)
and as SIP was introduced in el capitan, there is no way to disable it on my piker alfa el capitan (no recovery partition.
as always i resort to OCLP or YOU for my hardcore mac stuff. :) been using your solutions for years...care to help me out?
i have a MacBook Mid 2007 (2,1) with Mavericks Installed (via SFOTT method) could I use your App on my unsupported Mac to Upgrade to El Capitan? i have the El capitan installer .app on my App folder
I dont have the Install OS X El Capitan.app in the applications folder, how do i install it?
I partially installed El Capitan (on my iMac 6,1) and after startup, the mice and keyboard are not working. Do I need to use a patcher? I've used RMC Patcher but after applying that one, the system will only boot into recovery mode
I have replaced both boot.efi files as you note in the video. I'm booting the Mac Pro from a firewire drive because it won't recognize USB sticks as bootable for some reason. I'm waiting for 16GB ram (on order) and could have my hands on an ATI Radeon HD 5780 tomorrow. Would these get rid of the blinking question mark? I'm at my whit's end.
Thanks so much I was able to upgrade my Mac Pro 1,1 front Lion to El Capitan
I have done all that but in a SSD, and it still does not boot. all I need is the ?? icon.
I did not replace the video card, do you think maybe the Mac Pro wont work with SSD or is it because the video card.
thanks your time
Hold down the Option key at boot and make sure the drive shows as a boot option. If not, you may need to re-install.
Amazing video! I got it all to work on many drives and a few macpro 1,1 - my only question is how to flash the firmware to 2,1 before the elcapitan install - as the firmware will NOT work or update after elcapitan is installed on the 1,1 - so it must have to be done "before". But as I think of this, the drive is formatted before installation....so my question to you is -how? and when is the firmware flashed before the elcapitan install?
Thanks!
It should flash just fine within El Capitan. Are you using the Mac Pro 2006-2007 firmware tool for flashing?
Thanks for your reply - I "JUST" found out just this very second that the flashing is NOT done to the drive but to perhaps the logic board somewhere! I thought the flash had to be done to the hard drive! I put in a Lion OS drive and flashed the firmware update and have been trying to copy it over..but it was totally unnecessary ...as I just put my el cap drive in and it shows 2,1 ..ALL GOOD!!!!! Thanks!
dosdude1 i just get an mac pro 1.1 with 32GB ram for under 40buks! any chance that i get higher the El Capitan or other methods atm to install? thanks
Hello , I try to do that with an IMac 2006 and it’s booting, go on the session but the keyboard and mouse it’s not working.
Do you ave a solution for this ?
Tanks .
Great Job on all your work! I have an Early 2008 Macbook white core 2 duo 4,1 can I install El Capitan onto it?
your room is so clean
Thanks very much for taking the time to make these videos and to help others, greatly appreciated.
Assuming we're working with the said 2006 Mac Pro, 1,1 could you share your thoughts on;
1. Will USB, Bluetooth and wireless work as previous - or will they need to be upgraded?
2. Is it possible to flash an ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 5870 - or any 'non mac' GPU in order to get the boot screen / startup manager?
3. Will the installed El Cap load If you have other OS's on say two or three internal hard drives, (and you've selected it as the startup disk) or will you need to disconnect these first?
Again, thanks a lot.
i have a 2006 macbook pro with mac os x lion on it i can pretty much surf do all . but i at least want to get el cap on it its 2,2 firmware is there any way i can upgrade it it has 3 gigs of ram stock , iv tired mavricks dosent work .... any idears all help would be greated
I have a question, will you be able to install el capitan onto the hard drive through a usb to sata connector?
What graphics card did you use dosdude, I can see it is a 2gb card, I want to also get something like yours
It's a Radeon HD 6670, but you can use pretty much any PC graphics card.
Hello, what's up?
I'm trying to install El Capitan on a unibody MacBook from the end of 2009.
From an iMac 22 "from mid-2014 with High Sierra.
I take out the MacBook hard drive and insert it into a dock (sata - Usb 3.0) I boot the iMac from the El Capitan boot usb and install it on the hard drive of the laptop connected to the dock. Once the installation is complete, it restarts and the iMac starts from this unit with El Capitan and everything works correctly. So I reboot, I start from the internal hard disk of the iMac with saw and I put the files that you indicate in the tutorial in the corresponding sites.
With the hard drive already on the MacBook I turn on and I get the signal that indicates that the system is not compatible.
What can I do to get El Capitan on my MacBook?
Can this be done to enable a Mac Pro 2,1 to get to high Sierra? My Mac Pro had maxed out everything spec wise but I would love to be able to get to the top os.
now u can try to install macos 14 to the mac pro 2007
Can I install OS X El Capitan on a white Macbook late 2006? A long time ago I installed 10.9 Mavericks on it. All is ok but the audio is a bit weird and Safari glitches. I'll probably need a graphics card like your video says? But these MacBooks have an integrated GPU so it's not possible right?
Finally I was be able to put the istaller on a USB pendrive (16gb) but now it is not available for booting when i press "option" key or when I want to set "Startup disk" control panel. The volume simply doesn't appears on the list. Any idea what could be happen here? Also would like to know if only is needed to put "boot.efi" from Piker-Alpha into ".JABootFiles" (hidden folder) of the USB drive by drag & drop, or it should be done in some other way. And want to know which is the role of a "another Mac that supports El Capitan" you mentioned in the text. There are some other step I'm not doing? Thank you!
+Julio Ferraresi You can't boot the El Capitan installer drive on the Mac Pro, that's the point when you need a supported Mac. If you noticed in the video, I explain how you need to use a supported Mac to actually do the install, and then make modifications to the fully installed copy of El Capitan to allow that install to boot on the Mac Pro.
The instruction was easy to follow and worked well. I used an ssd for the boot drive and added memory to improve performance. The Apple released a "security update 2018-001 10.11.6" that stopped El Cap from booting. Reinstalling the "boot.efi" file didn't work to recover. I had to make a new El Cap boot drive. Is there any way to apply the security update?
Nope, that update is known to make the custom boot.efi stop working. I'd recommend hiding the update, so you don't install it again.
how to use the USB Drive Creator
is the latest version of mac OS that you would use on this machine?
hi thx for your time.i hev a prblm with the instalation i cannot instaling nothing version yoasm or mavr or el capitan. i dont now whay i hev a macbook white dual core in end of 2008 2g ram 2.1 ghz grafic intel gmax3100 144mb.realy i go crazy.i hav a bootloader in sb but if i restart i go with alt i enter the usb boot and nothing doing get started normaly can u pleas help meee thank i hev one instaling the os x lion 10.7.5
hi, thanks it worked for me and I thank you for that. I have installed El Capitan on my Mac Pro 1.1 . But will I be able to install any farther ( System updates or iTunes ) updates ? and should I have to replace the boot.efi every time I update ? thanks.
You can install updates just fine. You may need to replace the boot.efi file again, but only after installing security updates or 10.11.x updates (which there probably won't be any more of).
thanks.very helpfull. thanks again.
the only problem I have I can't get the key broad and mouse to work does it have a patcher
Thank you dosdude1 for the video tutorial. I created an El Capitan bootable drive on a supported iMac. When connecting it via ESATA externally to my Mac Pro (2.1) and tried to start it up from it, the Mac Pro will default to its internal (10.7.5) start up disk. I hope that when placing it internally as solo start up disk it will work!
You did the El Capitan install on the iMac?
@@dosdude1 hello I just got a macbook 3,1 2006.
its 32 bits,,2.2GHZ processor speed,,, Intel core 2 duo and 4GB ram,, the chipset is GMA X3100.... Also its currently on snow leopard 10.6.8.
Can I use this method to install el Capitan?
Thanks
@@Tech.Library It would be painfully slow past mountain Lion, wouldn’t have accel did to the 32bit gpu drivers.
@@nathantaylor2026 I have changed the mother board to macbook mid 2009.... I am currently running Catalina
@@Tech.Library Nice! With the new board you could push it even further to big Sur if you are fine with graphics bugs!
so if I don't have mine flashed to firmware 2,1. Do I need to flash it to 2,1. Can I flash it if I didn't change the processors? Or lastly can I just run the 64 on 32 patch, or is that what installing that new boot.efi does for me?
Hi dosdude1, would this work on a MacBook Air 1.1? Is there any way to go beyond 10.7.5 on a macbook air 1.1? Thank you very much.
+dosdude1 did your USB ports worked? mine only work in the boot menu and the strange thing is that the USB receiver for the mouse and keyboard is working fine.
Yeah, I haven't had any issues with them.
Lol when I removed the Airport card the USB ports are functional again, strange.
Mike Hortulanus The AirPort card could be bad.
I think it is not compatible with el Capitan because in Lion it was working fine.
btw enjoying a couple of your video's!
Mike Hortulanus The card in mine works fine in El Capitan.
thank you so much...it works like a charm with your boot APP.i can't thank you enough for this.
Thanks for the vid. great job. but why do you need to create a bootable drive? you can directly instal it on the target drive using the OSX app and then take it over to your mac pro and apply the patch. can't you?
I guess you could, the USB drive is more reliable.
will u create a more simple installer such as the ones you did with Mojave?
I am unable to delete the boot.efi because it is locked and it will not let me unlock it. Any ideas?
Can't delete boot.efi even when holding option, could this be the reason why I only get a grey screen and it doesn't load el capitan?
dosdude1 gratefull for your stuff.... i have mac pro 2 tower and have a sad that i loaded up per your instructions... i get a chime on start but never anything to the display... the little blu light on display never flashes blue like it supposed to... the video card is a nvidia quadro fx 380.... any ideas
Thanks for the very easy and clear instructions. This worked for me until I applied the update from April 2018. Now my MacPro 1,1 is on a reboot loop. It does the boot-up ding, apple logo, the progress bar, flashes a black screen, then reboots again. Any tips?
I'm having a tough time ... have followed your instructions but when i hold option dawn and boot never get tone or screen to come back up... just black screen. Does graphics card need to be in certain slot?
You can't use the Option menu if you don't get a boot screen/are using an unflashed PC graphics card.
Great video. I followed your instructions with the only difference that I used an OWC PCIe adapter to plug my new SSD drive into the PCI bus for more speed. I got El Capitan to run in a supported mac off the drive in a PCIe slot, rebooted under the old OS, Installed the boot.efi file in both locations on the El Capitan drive. The video card I am using is an XFX R7950 Ghost based on the ATI Radeon 7950. When I install the video card and drive and try to boot, the chime comes out of the mac pro's internal speaker instead of my table top speakers. I never see anything on my monitor. I've swapped the cards around the different PCI slots and even tried connecting the drive directly to a SATA connector where the drives normally go with zero luck. Got any ideas? Mac Pro 1,1, 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon, 13GB Ram
+Lindy Turner If you have a stock video card, try installing that just to verify that it boots. If not, then ensure your drive is formatted correctly (Mac OS Extended (Journaled), GPT partition scheme.)
+dosdude1 I'm assuming you are talking about 64 bit cards out of a Mavericks supported Mac. I have a pair of video cards in that supported Mac I used to install El Capitan on the new SSD. I'll load those in my 1,1 Mac and give it a try.
bugger. got the folder with ? flashing. thought i did it right. any idea why that occurred? I used 10.11.5
Hi - I got El Capitan installed on the drive, and I can boot fine from a supported mac. When I put the El Capitan drive in my Mac Pro 1,1, it boots fine, but within a couple of minutes, it shuts down and restarts. Then it just keeps doing this. Any thoughts?
+Mark Miller That's really strange, not exactly sure what could be causing that. Maybe try installing it on a different drive?
I was wondering, I have OS X Snow Leopard 2009 with install disk for MacBook new in the box, and a MAC PRO A1186 Dual Quad Xenon Tower, Will your auto loader help me just load the Leopard on it;s own? and if Not can you tell me how to rewrite the code in the open list you so very kindly shared to us beginners? Or is there another solution? Poor as a church moue trying to get a MAC up and running for my granddaughter to run Final Cut HD. Thank you so very much for what you do. Best Dale.
Just put the disc in, hold down Option, select it, and install. They copy for the MacBook may not install, so if that's the case, just download a copy and restore it to a USB drive using Disk Utility.
Your loader fired up nicely on the screen from my thumb drive. I put in the installer disk and ist said that O S x could not be installed on this machine. Bummer, then I just tried to OS X Snow lep.. disk itself, and the loader kicked it out. So were can I download a copy from? confused, and a pot of coffee on the burner.
I had to csrutil disable to get rid of it now up and running! thanks a bunch!
Here you fit the drive into the laptop to install El Capitan onto it, I only have an iMac and I can't get into it, will it allow me to install El Capitan to a drive thats connected via SATA to USB?
+Andy Russell Yeah, you can just connect the drive with a SATA to USB adapter.
+dosdude1 spot on thanks 😉
great idea, my Mac Mini 2,1 is showing just an folder with a ? on it when i boot it... Any reason why ?
Either a bad hard drive or there's simply no OS on it.
I had the same thing happen when I didn't have the first EFI file replaced.
I'm installing El Capitan on a MBP 6,2 I used diskmaker 6 to create the USB installer when I go install it on the unsupported MBP it call home and tells me this software can not be installed on this computer. Where did I go wrong? Any help will be appreciated.
This method is for a Mac Pro only. You cannot run El Capitan on an unsupported MacBook Pro.
After install on my Mac Pro 1.1 (flashed to 2.1) with 2xquad 3.0, 12gb RAM and 512mb Nvidia, everything works fine except USB ports. Only work keyboard an mouse, but only if are connected before turn on the computer. If I unplug and plug in again, doesn't work anymore until I reboot. No other USB stuff work(hard drives, printers, pendrives), also doesnt show on system report. Any clue? Thanks
FIXED!! After weeks of trying all kind of things, pulling my hair out, and thinking of throw out the window mi old MP, a few minutes after asking you, i read a guy saying it was a hardware issue with old airport chips, so I pulled off mine... AND ALL USB FINALLY WORKED!!! I post here for other people having same issue :)
"...drive somewhat ghetto mounted" - heh.
The only problem is that I don't have a supported Mac to start working with.
That's why I was using MLPostfactor on my unsupported Mac.
Can I take the Piker-Alpha Boot EFI file and use it with the M. Lion drive I created earlier - would that work at all?
Thanks
+adamjg4 You'll have to use the version for 10.8 and 10.9. I wouldn't recommend using MLPostFactor though.
+dosdude1 ...But Mac PostFactor is OK?
adamjg4 No, you shouldn't use either of those. Use SFOTT.
Hello..
Quel carte graphique non flashé pour Mac pro 3.1.qui fonctionne ?
Merci
How long it will take to boot up the first time??
I followed the instructions and it is still on the load boot screen on my Mac Pro 1,1. Are things different for El Capitan 10.11.2? I changed the boot.efi files and installed onto a HD via fire from my MacBook. Thanks
+Luke Swanson It shouldn't be any different for the later updates of El Capitan...
Thanks Man, it works for me on my mac pro 1.1. is it possible to install the updates in the app store ?
Does you MP 1,1 run hot with the 3 GHz chips? Being 150 watts I wonder about the power supply, too.
Nope, they don't run hot at all, and the PSU is fine while running them.
I got a question so I want to get a new graphics card for my 2,1 Mac Pro can I use any type of graphics card like the titan x?
Great tutorial... i ran into the wrong video card issue... I have the list of officially compatible cards as 1. nvidia geforce GT 2. ati radeon x1900 XT 3. nvidia quardo fx 4500 4. nvidia geforce 8800 gt. i know the first two wont work with el capitan, what about the last two? or should i purchase the radeon hd 5770?
Cool tutorial works perfect still working in2020 thanks a lot bro
Hi dosdude1, I just followed your instructions (thank you for this) and installed El Cap on my Evo 860 SSD and reinstalled the drive in my Mac Pro 1,1 (2x 2.66ghz, 15GB ram, Radeon 5870) and El Capitan boots but it take a long time (like 5 minutes) and then it's glitchy having varying issues like the mouse won't connect some times and it won't fully load (past the background) some times.
My GPU is a PC flashed one currently.
Do you have any idea of the cause or what I should try to fix it?
Yours didn't stay booting super slow did it?
Thanks!
See if your video card is on the "metal" supported cards list - it sounds like you have no graphics hardware acceleration.
@@stevearkwright Where would I find that info? Is it a list for Mac Pro 1.1's or a list for El Cap?
Have you managed to get this to install using only the Mac Pro and an already downloaded El Capitan installer app? I was able to install Mavericks without Target Disk Mode or hard drive swapping on my 2006 Mac Pro, by creating a bootable installer and making a few modifications to it. I haven't yet succeeded in doing this with El Capitan.
+Timur Tripp I'm not sure, I tried placing the modified boot.efi file on the installer drive, but it still wouldn't boot.
+dosdude1 Yeah, when I tried I couldn't get it to boot past the Apple logo with progress bar. I have just now installed over Target Disk Mode using a supported 27" 2010 iMac, and it seems to work just fine, in fact it runs faster than the iMac due to having an SSD while the iMac still has an HDD, LOL.
I would probably upgrade the primary Mavericks install to El Capitan, but the Server version costs $20 and I have no need to use the newer version.
Hi...macbook mid 2007 it's also supported for this guide or only macbook pro? thanks
This only works on the Mac Pro.
Hello, which graphics card did you put into your computer? i was thinking of getting a geforce gtx 650ti since it has the kepler architecture, but what do i do about the driver's?
+Joe Kim I use an AMD Radeon HD 6670 graphics card in my machine, but as I mention in the video, any PC card will work just fine. The GTX 650 Ti will work perfectly fine, no extra modifications necessary.
+dosdude1 Thank you, I don't need to install any drivers or anything correct?
Joe Kim No, it should just work right out of the box.
what graphics card are you using in your mac pro? I'm searching for a good one. Tried 2 nvidea cards but didn't get them to work. gt710 I think I need one with external powersupply?
Just get a Radeon HD 5770 or 5870. You can flash those to get a boot screen, so those are probably the best options.
I found out my ethernet ports don't work anymore with el capitan... Is this a known issue? Can't find anything about it so probably not. They work in yosemity....
I'll get the 5870 tomorrow! :-)
Can I do the firmware update also before I install my new 8core xeons? Or would that be a bad idea? Thanks in advance!
Yes, you can do the firmware update before, it shouldn't make any difference. As for the Ethernet ports, I've never seen that happen before... They work fine on mine, and work fine on my Xserve under El Capitan, which is essentially the exact same machine.
Hello dosdud1, just want to let you know that I installed El Capitan in my 2006 mac pro and works flawlessly until I update to El Capitan 10.11.4. the boot.efi file doesn't work with the update. the best solution, for now, is not to update. Any suggestion? Thanks
+Omar F You should be able to replace the boot.efi file once again, and it should work fine.
+dosdude1
thanks for the reply.
I did that but didn't work. I don't know why? I assume maybe because I have boot camp partition running windows 10 on the same hard drive? by the way windows 10 still working without any problems. I'll try few more things and I'll let you know if I succeeded. thanks again for all your tutorials. I must tell you after watching your video about flashing GeForce 8800 I purchased 10 graphic cards and successfully flashed all of them to works with mac pro 32 and 64bit. the credit goes to you. Thanks again.
i have followed you instructions and on command and this comes up - sudo: /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found (my macbook pro is currently running el capitan, and have el capitan is in applictaions but this comes up) how to i resolve this matter?
+Arran O'Neill Just ensure that the Install OS X El Capitan app is named exactly that, and is in your Applications folder... That's the only thing I can think that would prevent this from working. You also may need to make sure you have the correct app, from the Mac App Store.
+dosdude1 whatbapp is that? and its been directly downloaded from the app store.
+dosdude1 This is what it says i followed step by step and this comes up every time.
sudo: /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found
everything is spelt correct, how to i resolve this?
Can I do this on an early 2008 white MacBook?
I installed el capitan on a external usb drive. Then i changed the boot efi and put the drive in my macpro1,1 but no succes...
Any idea how to do this with a macbook pro retina as i can't put the drive in my computer....
Just install El Capitan to a hard drive connected with a SATA to USB adapter. Then modify the necessary boot.efi files, and it should boot.
I have some iMacs 7,1 is this going to work for me? I'm new to these Mac world , Thanks
Yes .. imac 7.1 you can install the normal el capitan. without the booter.
Then copy the harddisk to another in diskutillities and copy it on to the next imac 7.1.
Thanks
Hey Collin, thanks for all the work you've done this far. I was wondering if you know a solution for nvidia's pascal drivers for el cap? I still use my flashed 5770 but I have a passive GT1030 for 4K and it seams to only work with sierra+ . :( . Thanks
Why didn’t you want to just run Sierra?
Is this the same process for a MacBook Pro 2006? Like the laptop he uses in this video?
No, this will only work on 2006/2007 Mac Pros (1,1 and 2,1). The laptop I use in this video is a 2007 MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro 3,1), which supports El Capitan natively. You cannot run anything newer than 10.7 on the 2006 MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro 2,1).
Hi, I have a MacBook Pro July 2007....can I install osx El Capitan? Can you help me with an tutorial?I'm italian and the video is moore difficult for me..I would need a summary with an little email..Thanks
The 2007 MacBook Pro supports El Capitan natively... Just install it normally.
Will this guide work with a iMac 4.1?
I tryed it out but the mac stops at the mac osx bootscreen with white Logo and black background. What can I do?
+R Draxler iMac 4,1 has a 32-bit Core Duo processor. It can't run 64-bit operating systems like Lion and later. You'll have to live with Snow Leopard.
+R Draxler You can't run anything newer than Mountain Lion (using MacPostFactor) if that machine has a Core 2 Duo CPU. If it does indeed have a Core Duo, it is possible to upgrade it to a Core 2 Duo CPU. Just ensure the CPU you get is compatible with the Intel 945 chipset (I.E. T7200).
*****
4,1 is early 2006.
nelizmastr Yeah, the 4,1 came stock with a Core Duo, and the 5,1 was basically the exact same machine, just with a Core 2 Duo CPU. Both machines have the same socket and chipset, and therefore are compatible with the same processors.
Why is only Montain lion possible with a core 2 duo? (using macPostFactor)
Thanks, it works perfectly for my Mac Pro 2006 Duo Core Xeon. I think the destination drive need to bless to enable boot (--setBoot option). Also my old existing XT-1900 GPU is still working with full resolution of Apple Cinema 30 although it's sluggish.
That card's not supported in anything newer than OS X 10.7, you won't be able to do much on the machine with that card installed.
Yes, as I mentioned it's sluggish in term of screen refresh. But, at least I'm still able to play around with the system to make sure everything is working fine before I invest into a new GPU card.
HI Dosdude.....Do I need to have the OS upgraded to 10.7 on my Mac Pro 1.1? Currently it has 10.6.8.
No, you can go straight to El Capitan.
Thanks for the lightning fast reply! Have a great day and thank you for making this video.
Does this also work with a 2007 iMac