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Installing 10.9 on unsupported Xserve


rabaxabel
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This is a Xserve2,1, a 64-bit-system with 64-bit EFI. Apple excluded this system from recent OSX versions because of the X1300 graphic card. Administration is mostly done remote, so I don't care about that. The Xserve is a nice box (currently running 10.6.8) and I decided to try a Mavericks install.
This system can't boot from DVD nor from USB, so I created 2 partitions on one of the disks, one as install medium, to boot from and another one for the test install.
I followed the instructions and added my board-id and system-id to the lists in PlatformSupport.plist and copied mach_kernel to root of the boot partition (using Pacifist).
The system booted but the installer brought up a panel, saying "This version of Mac OS is not support for this Platform". Unfortunately all menue items where dimmed and I could not start a terminal to find out whats going on. So I booted back into my 10.6.8 RAID.
How did the installer detect my system?
Does the name of the boot partition is important? ("OS X Base System")
Or should I better use the new utility for preparing bootable media (/Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia)?

Any hints welcome.

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Any work flow hints for none-hackintosh people welcome...

 

Download Clover EFI package

 

Select Press the Customize button.

 

In the selection screen, checkmark the following: Install for UEFI Motherboards, Metal theme

 

Clover's default SMBios is MacPro3,1, so you really don't have to specify a special SMBIOS. So forget about {censored} around with Config.plist. It should work OOB 

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I am currently writing this from an Xserve 2,1 running Mavericks. The only odd config I have, is I have an external video card (Nvidia 9600GT which works in Mac OSX oob) which is connected with a PCI-E ribbon extension cable, and powered by an external PC power supply. This gets me around the X1300 issues - which I keep in there so I can see my boot screens, but doesn't have QE once booted (I got it working in ML though using kexts). 

 

My best advice for any Hackintosh install, is get things installed on a real mac first, and then modify things to work on your unsupported rig. This worked for both the Xserve and my i7 PC. I had a junky MacBook Pro sitting around I did the Mavericks install with, and then modded the PlatformSupport.plist. Xserve boots right up, nothing else needed. I actually use the same boot drive for both my Xserve at work, and my i7 hackintosh at home by using Chameleon on a USB drive to boot the PC - I also had to recently start manually adding FakeSMC.kext for the PC and deleting it to boot the Xserve, but they both work just fine...

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Download Clover EFI package

 

Select Press the Customize button.

 

In the selection screen, checkmark the following: Install for UEFI Motherboards, Metal theme

 

Clover's default SMBios is MacPro3,1, so you really don't have to specify a special SMBIOS. So forget about {censored} around with Config.plist. It should work OOB 

This is a production server. I must make sure that the current 10.6.8 system comes up again until migration to 10.9 is complete.

Does this work after above modification?

I am currently writing this from an Xserve 2,1 running Mavericks. The only odd config I have, is I have an external video card (Nvidia 9600GT which works in Mac OSX oob) which is connected with a PCI-E ribbon extension cable, and powered by an external PC power supply. This gets me around the X1300 issues - which I keep in there so I can see my boot screens, but doesn't have QE once booted (I got it working in ML though using kexts). 

 

My best advice for any Hackintosh install, is get things installed on a real mac first, and then modify things to work on your unsupported rig. This worked for both the Xserve and my i7 PC. I had a junky MacBook Pro sitting around I did the Mavericks install with, and then modded the PlatformSupport.plist. Xserve boots right up, nothing else needed. I actually use the same boot drive for both my Xserve at work, and my i7 hackintosh at home by using Chameleon on a USB drive to boot the PC - I also had to recently start manually adding FakeSMC.kext for the PC and deleting it to boot the Xserve, but they both work just fine...

Will the Xserve work with just its X1300 if I do remote screen sharing?

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Basicly what is descibed above.

 

Install Clover on Boot Drive 

 

Install an UEFI

 

Done (No extra drivers/settings needed).

 

I am a little confused on how I might use clover on a real mac with a separate drive used for boot (32gb ssd).

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Basicly what is descibed above.

 

Install Clover on Boot Drive 

 

Install an UEFI

 

Done (No extra drivers/settings needed).

 

I am a little confused on how I might use clover on a real mac with a separate drive used for boot (32gb ssd).

 

Your Mac's nvram will remember which disk to boot from as long as it is set in System Preferences/Startup-Disk

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Alright it really was that easy…awesome. One more quick question. Since I am running on native mac hardware, under the Clover Options can I basically turn off all of the patching, injectors, etc? Is there a recommend set of things I should keep on. I am assuming that since the hardware is native I just need to ensure I am presenting the correct fake SMBBios info and  the rest of the stuff will pretty much work.

 

 

Thanks again for the help!

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Alright it really was that easy…awesome. One more quick question. Since I am running on native mac hardware, under the Clover Options can I basically turn off all of the patching, injectors, etc? Is there a recommend set of things I should keep on. I am assuming that since the hardware is native I just need to ensure I am presenting the correct fake SMBBios info and  the rest of the stuff will pretty much work.

 

 

Thanks again for the help!

 

Normally I would suggest turning them off.

 

You can if you wish. If it works with them on then its totally up to you.

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It works with them all off so i am going to leave it that way until i need to turn something on. 

 

Thanks for the help, I can't believe how easy this has become with such great tools nowadays!

 

Glad I could help.

 

One last piece of advice: when there are certain updates (such as 10.9.1 or 10.9.2) have a Clover USB disk handy. I am not too sure about it, but it is possible that the update will overwrite Clover. This doesn't normally happen on a Hackintosh, but since it is a real Mac, I don't know what will happen.

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This is a production server. I must make sure that the current 10.6.8 system comes up again until migration to 10.9 is complete.

Does this work after above modification?

Will the Xserve work with just its X1300 if I do remote screen sharing?

Ooo...never tried that one. It's possible. Also for anyone out there taking notes, the Xserve has a weird EFI where regular boot loaders like Chameleon don't work. Maybe clover would because it's EFI-based, but haven't needed to try that...

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  • 10 months later...

Hello, 

I have successfully got my 2008 xserve running 10.9 with Clover. However I am stumped getting the machine to boot automatically. 

When it boots it tries to boot the Mac OS 10.9 natively and of course gives me the prohibited symbol to tell me that the mac is not supported. Only the one volume (my native 10.9 volume) shows up in startup disk. What I have to do to get it to boot is hold down the Alt Key whereupon I get two extra options , to boot EFI, and to boot to the recovery partition. If I chose EFI then it launches Clover which in turn launches Mac OS 10.9 with the Mac Pro SMBios allowing the machine to boot. 

 

Any ideas how I can tell the Mac to always boot to the Clover EFI ? I tried some bless commands  from terminal but it wouldn't accept any. 

 

Any help gratefully accepted.

 

Thanks

Erik

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  • 3 months later...

Hello fella's.  I bricked an Xserve2,1.  It's not recognizing the SAS drives.  I put Clover on a thumb drive, the Xserve starts to the clover and the LED's are not lighting on the drives. They light for  moment when I power up, but not once more POST has completed.

 

Strangely, the SMBios selected by default when I browse Clover, is iMac10,1, which I change to MacPro3,1, but it does not make a difference. In fact, when I restart the Xserve, the SMBios has set back to iMac10,1.

 

I am also assmuming from the notes above, that if I have a 10.6.8 install already running on this Xserve, then I should select 10.6.8 in the OS part of the Clover settings.  Other than that, I am reading the above, and I have NOT changed any files on the actual drive... no plist's edited. 

 

What should I do?  :-)

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