Mac Pro 2013 Reboots on attempted install

English Install/Boot/Login
1

My Mac Pro 2013 won’t boot openSUSE 13.1 (64-bit) very far. (Any version I’ve tried: full DVD, Gnome live image, Net install, all fail the same way.)

Computer: Mac Pro 2013 (“trash can”) maxed out. Report from “About this Mac” says:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro6,1
Processor Name: 12-Core Intel Xeon E5
Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 12
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 30 MB
Memory: 64 GB
Boot ROM Version: MP61.0116.B05
SMC Version (system): 2.20f18
Illumineation Version: 1.4a6
Serial Number (system): ****
Hardware UUID: ****
** Graphics** AMD FirePro D700 6144 MB

(there are two D700’s).

Monitor: 4K Sanyo (so the default terminal is a pain to read).

disk: Promise RAID 5 array, 4x4GB; 1TB SSD; 4GB Firewire 800.

I’ve partitioned both the Promise RAID and the 1TB SSD (native to the machine) using Disk Utility, but I never get far enough in the boot process to see the effect. The Promise is not SEEN as a RAID, of course, just as a single monolithic disk at the end of a Thunderbolt 2 cable. The RAID controller is in the Promise box.

I have reFIND installed (an EFI os selector), but that is never involved either, since I boot the machine holding down the “c” key to start from the CD.

Symptoms: After selecting “Install”—the arrow keys work fine, moving up and down the list of options—I get the terminal window and Grub prompt. (This is an EFI machine, so I’m HOPING this is grub-efi. If not, how do I boot with that?) Then, mysteriously, “c”'s slowly start to auto-appear following the prompt. It IGNORES anything I type. After awhile, it starts backspacing over the c’s. Then it reboots. Clearly Terminal doesn’t see the keyboard.

I can either hold down the “c” key to reboot from the CD (of course, the whole process repeats); or reboot in reFIND.

One other thing: I can’t install Windows 8.1 either. When I try to install it on the second (actually third or fourth, because Macintosh hides the EFI partition, and probably a recovery partition too, because of Apple’s decision not to show the “mystery” partitions). I get as far as the option to reformat the partition as NTSF, but it doesn’t actually DO anything.

Finally: I thought maybe it wasn’t seeing my keyboard, which is wireless. But it understood the up-down arrows when selecting options; anyway, I thought this was recognized at a very low level in the boot process (before SUSE even starts). When I plugged in a USB keyboard anyway, nothing changed.

I’ve installed both Ubuntu and Windows 8.1 using Parallels, but I want a native implementation of openSUSE, which I’m used to. I suppose next I’ll try Ubuntu. Does ANYBODY know what’s wrong? Is there a special version of the installer I need for EFI? (But it DOES put me into GRUB.)

–Ron Bruck

2

I suspect the 4K monitor. I doubt there is a vesa compatible mode at the moment which would be needed to drive that beasty. That probably leads to a kernel panic. the initial graphics is vesa based.

3

But it did display the terminal window and the gecko beneath it (just very VERY small!). But to be sure, I attached a 1920x1080 LG monitor instead of the 4K.

Still no go. But it was a lot easier to read before it rebooted :slight_smile:

I got a little more info from reFIND: secure boot is inactive. AFAIK only Microsloth uses that, anyway (not e.g. Apple).

Another peculiarity: when I try to install Windows 8.1, it creates and formats a partition as NtFS (as well as three other system partitions). When I reboot into Mac OS X, THIS PARTITION APPEARS ON THE DESKTOP. When I do “Get Info” on it, Mac OS X admits it IS an NTFS partition; but I can’t write to it. I didn’t realize Mac OS X could recognize NTFS partitions (even in such a useless way). I thought it took extra software (e.g. from Paragon).

4

There is a FAT format partition used in EFI boot situations to hold the boot code for each installed OS. Don’t know that there is a NTFS partition.Sorry I don’t know a thing about Apple and it’s boot is just a little different from the generic Windows machine.