Hi everyone, yup another noob. The last 24hours has been crazy trying to install ClearOs 7, particularly on a Mac Pro 1.1 (Tower). I posted yesterday via my iPhone, however, all that never showed up here - though think I had it posted for Other Network.
So, I could never install ClearOs or any other Linux distro directly on the Mac Pro either via USB or CD/DVD. For USB I tried Unetbootin and Etcher. For DVD I tried Verbatim and Memorex - don't think Mac's particularly like those brands. I also tried other Linux distros too to see if ClearOs was a bad download (some mirrors were not working) and that did not work either.
Finally went with the option to take the HDD out of the Mac Pro and used one of the kids Chromebook - no luck because it kept asking for the ChromeOS. So got a laptop with windows on it and replaced the HDD's. First I tried CentOs since it was the last OS I tried on Mac Pro - which by the way installing via VirtualBox on that Mac Pro did work, however it is not what I was looking to do. So the install went well, then I removed the HDD from the Win laptop and back to the Mac Pro.
At this point, the Mac Pro was setup as no firewall and connected to one of my routers and on the desk with my Mac Mini.
So the first issue I had was trying to figure out how to get to the Webconfig/UI setup, which I kept getting the error message, then a blank screen, could not get the address bar at the top to show up. This was an issue all day yesterday until I found this post this morning: Dashboard does not appear
Kinda frustrating as it does not say that on the screen (would be helpful). Luckily I had my Mac Mini next to it and was able to login with it. I was able to make updates, add content, reboot.....I was excited....then...
I took the Mac Pro to the basement to try to set it up as a Gateway - 2 NIC's and that is where the possible glitch started.
I was able to setup the External NIC and was able to reach the internet. I have future Network setup issues, but for now, the setup is: several Aiport Extreme routers (new ones) via LAN (MOCA) connected to the Mac Pro (firewall) to the Modem.
So I was trying to figure out the whole no address bar issue, and now trying to get the internet to the internal network and something happened, it logged me out to the area where you select: Launch Graphics-mode Console, so I selected it again and this time something like [Sudo] enter your password: showed up on the top right, so I did, then several seconds later, another but more to the middle and several lines down, then again and again....I clicked Control + Q back to the previous options and tried back to the Console and same password request. I Rebooted and got me back to that same spot with the password request. I hard shutdown the Mac Pro. Restarted after a few minutes and same thing. Not knowing much I press several (okay all) buttons w/ Control, Option, Shift and Command and nothing.
So, I reinstalled ClearOS 7 again, again via laptop because Mac Pro still could not read USB. This time, the install was done in the basement, so I could not access the Web UI (at first). I was able to reach the internet again. Somehow (pressing buttons) I was able to get to the Web UI to make some modifications. However, when I went back to the Network settings part, I lost access to the Web UI - though I found out if I right click, a back arrow appeared. So again I was trying to figure out how to get the Internet back to the Network side. I even took the Router out of the equation and just connected the second NIC to a Chromebook to access the Web UI, nothing. I started to give static IP's to the NIC's and to a VLAN (Chromebook) that connected NIC #2, then it happened again, this time though just a blank screen. By Control + (either - forget which) B or N or M I could get Firefox to show up (again no address bar) and would press those combos again and normally I would get back to the Network settings page, but this time like the previous password issue, just a blank screen. I have rebooted, hard shutdown...it all comes back to that blank screen and that is where it sits now, not about to reinstall again - attachment 7197.
What I have noticed on both occasions when this happened is that it created another boot option shows up - attachment 7199.
I have gone with both and both have the same issue, blank screen= no Network settings.
I know, a lot, but that has been my last 24hours trying to get a firewall up for my house.
Thank you for your help, as I don't know what to do now and do NOT want to install another one.
Update: So I have been able to get my Apple Aiport Extreme's(AE), including one that is Wifi only, access to the internet: in each AE the Internet tab is set to DHCP and the Network tab - Router Mode is set to Off (Bridge Mode).
My issue still continues that I cannot access anything via physically (still blank screen on actual Mac Pro) or from the Mac mini. I am using the Configuration URL displayed on the Mac Pro and the message I get on the Mac mini using Chrome:
The 10.0.1.1 page isn’t working
10.0.1.1 is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500
Using Safari and Firefox: blank screen
So, I could never install ClearOs or any other Linux distro directly on the Mac Pro either via USB or CD/DVD. For USB I tried Unetbootin and Etcher. For DVD I tried Verbatim and Memorex - don't think Mac's particularly like those brands. I also tried other Linux distros too to see if ClearOs was a bad download (some mirrors were not working) and that did not work either.
Finally went with the option to take the HDD out of the Mac Pro and used one of the kids Chromebook - no luck because it kept asking for the ChromeOS. So got a laptop with windows on it and replaced the HDD's. First I tried CentOs since it was the last OS I tried on Mac Pro - which by the way installing via VirtualBox on that Mac Pro did work, however it is not what I was looking to do. So the install went well, then I removed the HDD from the Win laptop and back to the Mac Pro.
At this point, the Mac Pro was setup as no firewall and connected to one of my routers and on the desk with my Mac Mini.
So the first issue I had was trying to figure out how to get to the Webconfig/UI setup, which I kept getting the error message, then a blank screen, could not get the address bar at the top to show up. This was an issue all day yesterday until I found this post this morning: Dashboard does not appear
Kinda frustrating as it does not say that on the screen (would be helpful). Luckily I had my Mac Mini next to it and was able to login with it. I was able to make updates, add content, reboot.....I was excited....then...
I took the Mac Pro to the basement to try to set it up as a Gateway - 2 NIC's and that is where the possible glitch started.
I was able to setup the External NIC and was able to reach the internet. I have future Network setup issues, but for now, the setup is: several Aiport Extreme routers (new ones) via LAN (MOCA) connected to the Mac Pro (firewall) to the Modem.
So I was trying to figure out the whole no address bar issue, and now trying to get the internet to the internal network and something happened, it logged me out to the area where you select: Launch Graphics-mode Console, so I selected it again and this time something like [Sudo] enter your password: showed up on the top right, so I did, then several seconds later, another but more to the middle and several lines down, then again and again....I clicked Control + Q back to the previous options and tried back to the Console and same password request. I Rebooted and got me back to that same spot with the password request. I hard shutdown the Mac Pro. Restarted after a few minutes and same thing. Not knowing much I press several (okay all) buttons w/ Control, Option, Shift and Command and nothing.
So, I reinstalled ClearOS 7 again, again via laptop because Mac Pro still could not read USB. This time, the install was done in the basement, so I could not access the Web UI (at first). I was able to reach the internet again. Somehow (pressing buttons) I was able to get to the Web UI to make some modifications. However, when I went back to the Network settings part, I lost access to the Web UI - though I found out if I right click, a back arrow appeared. So again I was trying to figure out how to get the Internet back to the Network side. I even took the Router out of the equation and just connected the second NIC to a Chromebook to access the Web UI, nothing. I started to give static IP's to the NIC's and to a VLAN (Chromebook) that connected NIC #2, then it happened again, this time though just a blank screen. By Control + (either - forget which) B or N or M I could get Firefox to show up (again no address bar) and would press those combos again and normally I would get back to the Network settings page, but this time like the previous password issue, just a blank screen. I have rebooted, hard shutdown...it all comes back to that blank screen and that is where it sits now, not about to reinstall again - attachment 7197.
What I have noticed on both occasions when this happened is that it created another boot option shows up - attachment 7199.
I have gone with both and both have the same issue, blank screen= no Network settings.
I know, a lot, but that has been my last 24hours trying to get a firewall up for my house.
Thank you for your help, as I don't know what to do now and do NOT want to install another one.
Update: So I have been able to get my Apple Aiport Extreme's(AE), including one that is Wifi only, access to the internet: in each AE the Internet tab is set to DHCP and the Network tab - Router Mode is set to Off (Bridge Mode).
My issue still continues that I cannot access anything via physically (still blank screen on actual Mac Pro) or from the Mac mini. I am using the Configuration URL displayed on the Mac Pro and the message I get on the Mac mini using Chrome:
The 10.0.1.1 page isn’t working
10.0.1.1 is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500
Using Safari and Firefox: blank screen
Attachments:
In Installation
Share this post:
Responses (10)
-
Accepted Answer
Mac Pro 1.1 is a really really picky system when it comes to boot OS: It uses a 32 bit EFI for a 64 bit system. It is really picky with boot USBs, and it also doesn't like standard boot cds. You can get the ClearOS bootcd and convert it to a bootable disk on the Mac Pro 1.1 with the instructions in this site: https://mattgadient.com/2016/07/11/linux-dvd-images-and-how-to-for-32-bit-efi-macs-late-2006-models/
It have a second problem, minor or gigantic depending on your use case scenario: there are two additional SATA ports on the motherboard that aren't enabled if a OS or OS installer is booted in BIOS compatibility mode. At the moment the only ISO that I got to properly detect and install to a disk in that ports is Debian multiarch as explained here:
https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Support_for_mixed-mode_systems:_64-bit_system_with_32-bit_UEFI
All the other ones I've found, including ClearOS, doesn't seem to provide an EFI bootloader in the install media.
This has been reported to Redhat here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1404858
As ClearOS is Redhat based, I hope it will get that support someday. That and lack of niu kernel drivers are the things preventing me to use ClearOS.
Hope this info is useful to other ClearOS users
-
Accepted Answer
I'd keep clear of Samba Directory for the moment as it is still beta and some apps do not work with it.
I'd doubt very much if ClearOS could read your Mac formatted disks as it would not know the encryption/decryption keys. You'd therefore probably need to reformat them. If you used the LVM when you installed ClearOS then it should be quite easy to add the disks to the storage pool, but it is command line work. You can slao set them up as a storage pool then use the Storage Manager app to map them into various storage locations, but it is worth reading the Storage Manager Technical Guide.
I don't use LVM's. They have their advantages - they are flexible and easy to extend, but they have a disadvantage in that you don't know which disk your data lies on and it adds a layer of complexity. -
Accepted Answer
Just thought of it....the majority of the info on the HDD is just personal files, music (iTunes), photos (iPhoto) and videos.
I have used Plex (videos for the kids) and now I am looking to expand and share photos w/ family members around the country. So, not utilize iPhoto's anymore.
For what is worth too, just because I am moving our main environment to Linux does not mean the kids will not be using other OS: Win8, MacOs...as well. So they will have to have access to those files, yup going to play around and create an Active directory (Samba vs. OpenLDAP) and learn all of that too. -
Accepted Answer
Thank you all for the feedback, but seems the third time is a charm. Re-installed, did not mess too much w/ network settings and now have my Mac Pro 1.1(MP) running smoothly, even headless too. I did not add or do anything else like I have read with other systems.
Tony, I did read the user guide (well most of it) and watched various videos and at the end of the day, the 3 problems were still an issue because I could not see anything on the server nor get access to the server from another system, so I still believe there is an issue somewhere. I have been around tech for a long time (Apple IIc), but never got to the nitty-gritty of computer systems. I have taken classes/videos on Linux and really like it and in the process of changing my environment to it but at the same time keep up to date on Win/Apple.
So now that I am diving in more, and not sure if I should add this elsewhere the forums:
My Mac Pro 1.1 has 4 bays and I have several other external hard drives (WD My Book Essentials - SATA), they are all of various sizes (500GB to 6TB) and are formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted), do I have to reformat them? IF so, then will ClearOS auto seem them or I have add them, I am guessing from the Command Line?
More importantly though is IF I were to add the 3 HDD's to the MP, since it is acting as my firewall, am I putting those hard drives at risk?
I have a SATABoy that I got from our local University for cheap, however the limit on that is 1GB HDD's. -
Accepted Answer
Interesting - my current Ivy Bridge i7 is connected to a KVM swith to together with 3 other ClearOS servers and using a tiny ex cash register CRT colour display, 9 inch diagonal, that only does 800x600. Appending video=800x600 sorted that on 6.x. When it came time to upgrade one of those machines to ClearOS 7.3 decided not to mess with the graphics graphics. Instead tried a text-mode only install. To my delight it worked - a bit fiddly and requires a bit of patience - but got there at the end managing to do a custom install with normal partitioning rather than using the default lvm.
I could have done this to change resolution at boot time...
http://www.itechlounge.net/2016/10/linux-change-installation-and-boot-video-resolution-on-centos-rhel-7/
and make permanent changes
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/sec-Making_Persistent_Changes_to_a_GRUB_2_Menu_Using_the_grubby_Tool.html
This seemed more work and no guarantee of success with such a low resolution screen, and as I don't use the console screens (Do a "yum remove tconsole gconsole clearos-console app-graphical-console) so it boot directly to the CLI, there seemed little point enabling the lower resolution graphics. However, these commands might be of use to Matt. -
Accepted Answer
One other issue I had in the 6.x days was the installation not knowing how to handle my graphics - actually an on-board basic intel chipset, which surprised me. It meant that the command prompt screen, and possibly the red password screen, went blank. I don't have record of it now, but I had to override the boot line in the kernel to display at 1024*768 by passing the parameter "vga=792" to it. Other modes can be found in places like here. I don't know how you do the equivalent with grub2. If you succeed at the command line try this doc for ideas on how to make it permanent. -
Accepted Answer
One small point - I installed 7.3 just a few days ago - and actually as part of the process was shown a screen which instructed me to go https://192.168.1.89:81/ wonder whether you didn't see this as your hardware displayed that page as a blank screen... It contained a lot of other useful information as well.
As for hardware compatibility, ClearOS states this...
The base ClearOS system is built on code from CentOS® and the Open Source community. We are not affiliated with CentOS® or Red Hat® in any way, but are part of an Open Source ecosystem. For the most part, hardware that is compatible with the Red Hat® Enterprise Linux product will be compatible with ClearOS.
Last time I checked the Red Hat list - there were no Macs listed :-) - just servers. Much of you frustration comes from using unsuitable hardware. I know a lot of us, mysef included, are installing on desktops - but they are NOT officially supported if you check the Red Hat list. Here is a quote from some earlier documentation...
Here are some tips when selecting hardware:
● Avoid the latest technologies and chipsets. This will reduce the likelihood of compatibility
issues and the possible reliability issues that might come with unproven hardware.
● Avoid desktop systems. You may save a few hundred dollars on a desktop system, but they
are more likely to fail when used as a server/gateway.
In case you missed the previous bullet point, avoid desktop systems.
● Check the vendors web site for Linux compatibility. If you can purchase ServerXYZ with a
version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux pre-installed, then the system is very likely compatible
So... sorry but inadvertently you brought this upon yourself including the frustration about not knowing about port 81. However, even with this drawback, had you followed the installation instructions at https://www.clearos.com/resources/documentation/clearos/index:userguide7 - this would have saved you much grief. Too often nowadays we all fail to read any documentation, or only do so as a last resort when things go awry instead of carefully planning and researching what-ever project we are about to embark upon... We assume we will instinctively know all that is required. -
Accepted Answer
Nick Howitt wrote:
I'm really not sure how to advise because I can't really work out what you've done and where you are. I have a few ideas/thoughts.
- The text console should be Ctl+Alt+F2
- Accessing the webconfig remotely should be to https://your_server_ip:81. Note the https and the port number
- When I installed on one PC and moved the disk to another, I could not get ClearOS to do anything until both NIC's were connected. It may be easiest to install ClearOS as Standalone, no firewall just to get it up and running. If you can set it up as DHCP and connect it to your router and can determine its IP address either from the router or from ClearOS then that may be the easiest way of connecting.
- If you can connect in to the webconfig, it is possible to stop the first-run wizard by navigating to https://your_clearos_lan_ip:81/app/base/wizard/stop
- If you've managed to get any distro running from a live CD (I use Porteus which can boot from USB), can you give the output to "lspci -k" or "lspci -k | grep Eth -A 3"?
Thank you, however, the problems are these:
1) Cannot access the console (Network Settings page) AFTER the red box (password) - it is blank, per attachment. When the system reboots/restarts it goes right to it and bypasses the red box password screen.
2) Cannot access command line/terminal (Ctl Alt F2)- it goes right to blank page, per attachment.
3) Cannot access webconfig remotely- attachment --screenshot
I do have access to the internet at least.Attachments:
- The text console should be Ctl+Alt+F2
-
Accepted Answer
I'm really not sure how to advise because I can't really work out what you've done and where you are. I have a few ideas/thoughts.
- The text console should be Ctl+Alt+F2
- Accessing the webconfig remotely should be to https://your_server_ip:81. Note the https and the port number
- When I installed on one PC and moved the disk to another, I could not get ClearOS to do anything until both NIC's were connected. It may be easiest to install ClearOS as Standalone, no firewall just to get it up and running. If you can set it up as DHCP and connect it to your router and can determine its IP address either from the router or from ClearOS then that may be the easiest way of connecting.
- If you can connect in to the webconfig, it is possible to stop the first-run wizard by navigating to https://your_clearos_lan_ip:81/app/base/wizard/stop
- If you've managed to get any distro running from a live CD (I use Porteus which can boot from USB), can you give the output to "lspci -k" or "lspci -k | grep Eth -A 3"?
- The text console should be Ctl+Alt+F2
-
Accepted Answer
Update (adding in reply since I read about not editing current comment
):
Still can't get in and what is odd is that after I select one of the boot logins (to include rescue), it says Starting ClearOS API. However, it proceeds to the blank screen and by-passes the password red box. I can bring up the folders, print, and Firefox by pressing Control + whatever, but not the network settings section. I quit by Control-Q and gets me to the PW red box. I Control N/M and it gets me back to blank screen. I have tried Control Alt F7/F1 and cannot switch to command-line. I have done that at the option to Launch Graphics mode and start to type something like "killall X" (from another post) and quickly goes back to blank screen.
Please login to post a reply
You will need to be logged in to be able to post a reply. Login using the form on the right or register an account if you are new here.
Register Here »