Folding Forum

Ok, so here's the solution to the old multi-xeon Mac that got stopped by apple at OSX 10.6.8.
As everyone here said, wipe it, install Linux.
Easier said than done!

So this now becomes a case of... is anyone aware, or, is anyone bored enough to try and help me do it.

This Mac, which seems to be 64bit in nature, has a 32bit EFI... and therefore will not boot a standard ISO for Ubuntu.
There are folks online who have created unique install ISOs, hacking a 32bit EFI called bootia32.efi into it, and once installed and running, it's fine apparently.

I've spent part of a day now, trying to fathom this process, and trying a number of different routes (including installing rEFInd on the Mac side, and clearing some HD space to support a dual boot).
But that's as far as I can get.

It will see efi supporting USB sticks, and CD/DVDs inserted, but then crashes when you try and boot them.

Anyone here ever got this to work?
Or bored enough to want to try with me?
Mac is dead to me at this point anyhow...

-snicker-
I think I may have it. Ubuntu live server 19.10-64, installing now... we shall see...

I gotta get a life...

well, the modified 19.10 installed successfully, however on reboot it wouldn't boot the OS. (just rEFInd) "insert bootable media" after running Linux for a while.

another re-install to try and get it clean, and the ? folder comes up at boot, with nothing to boot...

Random idea that I am just throwing it out there... have you considered to run using the LiveCD only? AFAIK, the client can run as long as it can find the files it needs. Of course, the issue is that if your system experiences a power loss, you will lose all the work.

At a first thought, try Ubuntu 18.04 and the desktop version.
That or try debian 10 instead.

Just a shot in the dark ... have you tried anything from outside the Debian/Ubuntu ecosystem? Or maybe forget Linux entirely and try one of the BSDs?

I recalled reading about this sort of problem a while back, and did some searching. There are some videos about getting 64-bit Linux up and running on Mac's with 32-bit EFIs, and a number of sites like this one - https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/64-bit- ... ters/18069.

As for one of the BSDs, the F@h software is not supported on any of them at this time. Some have reported success in the past after installing all kinds of linux support, but I have not seen anything recent.

ok, so for the sake of posterity, and anyone else searching... here's the answer.

it would appear that the EFI in the Mac Pro 1,1 that I have here, is as mentioned, 32bit.
None of the iso's of Ubuntu will boot from DVD or otherwise.

Except if you use that little bit of code hinted to above, and I have placed on my webserver in case anyone else ever wants it.
http://www.bienhaus.org/ubfix.zip
executable, on Ubuntu.

Pick whatever iso of the Ubuntu you want, place it next to this command, rename it to ub64.iso and run ubfix. (sudo ./ubfix) (rename; because the file name is hardcoded into the compiled command)
It will come back "done", and it has successfully modified the iso, and you can burn to a DVD and boot the Mac with it.

Next problem.
18, 19, and I presume 20, will install.
But they are silent about their work to put Grub on the boot disc, and from what I can find, it's actually Grub2 maybe?
At the very least, it's a 64bit Grub, and the system won't find it, load it, etc.

However!
16.04, 64bit, seems to have an older Grub, that if you recall installs right at the end of the purple screened install process.
THIS BOOTS BEAUTIFULLY!

My next challenge, was to see if I could put 19 (now for shits & giggles) on one of the other hard drives in this machine (it has 4), and get this 32bit Grub to boot it, without hurting 16.
The install went fine, and I picked the second hard drive and said don't touch the first one... sort of hoping it might update the Grub index on the first one.
No such luck.

So, anyhow -
The Mac now has 4 cores folding under 16, with success, and we're going to see if we can get the GPU running next.
But - if anyone has any expereince in editing the Grub records on the first hard drive, to allow it to let me select v19 that is installed on the second hard drive, I'd love to hear from you. (just for fun)

(Mac now requesting both CPU and GPU projects... )

Hey.... how about that smart little Linux...

after booting 16 a couple of times, the Grub now has 19 showing in the list, and it boots fine! (found it on it's own)

So, there we go. Ubuntu 19, running on a Mac Pro 1,1

AndrewBienhaus wrote:...after booting 16 a couple of times, the Grub now has 19 showing in the list, and it boots fine! (found it on it's own)...

This just popped-up in my mind:

Yes Moss, most definitely. (my reel to reel is broken, so I forgot that)

NVidia GEForce 7300GT coming up as the GPU, and enabled for Folding. (no work yet, but ready)

If you mess with the drivers to get to the GPU, here's a good article to get your video resolution on the console back to normal afterwards. (it goes bye-bye)
https://blog.samat.org/2010/11/09/High- ... nd-Debian/

The 7300GT however is too old for folding though.

ok, so on that topic... I have seen the whitelist for GPUs, but is there a list that says "it will never get work, don't enable it"?

I think there GPU list is both a white and black list - but never actually checked as I rarely if ever GPU fold (and my GPUs have always just "been there" - lucky I guess).

From what I understand it is AMD or NVIDIA and Double Precision Floating Point (FP64) essential … For the most part OpenCL 1.2 or above - but there may be a few that sneak in on OpenCL1.1 (I say this as I am sure I saw a Mod "backtrack" slightly on a statement that 1.2 was required) but I may be wrong on this last bit.

Some AMD drivers may have a bit of an issue from comments I have seen (again I am not sure on this) and NVIDIA uses OpenCL not Cuda.