iMac4,1 and iMac5,1 Firmware Tool Released

[nowy889]

Hi. I've got a solution if you can't install lion after upgrade of firmware.
The best and fastest way to install lion is to install it or open a clean install on VMware workstation.
Than you can make a back up by   Carbon copy cloner. Link below.
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
After you make a backup , simply move it to snow leopard and clon it to clean partition.
And that's It.

It should work

Just renember to copy "All Files" , don't make the normal backup.

Another thing is that imac 4.1 upgraded to 5.1 cam run with addressing full 4gb of ram.

In both snow leopard and lion, you have to run it with 64bit kernel.

Here is a solution.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3773

Another way to install lion on unsuported mac:
http://jeremyjbowman.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/install-mac-osx-10-7-lion-on-unsupported-processors/

[matacao]

Thank you for this tool !

[busker]

Just like to say massive thanks for this...I didnt know much about imacs when I bought a second hand one, and was a bit cheesed off when I found out the memory limitations of 41. Just done the flash and its worked perfectly...gonna stick my extra memory in now
Many thanks again!!!

[cborjon]

As for installing OS X 10.7 Lion after you do the firmware upgrade.

Here is the procedure I used:

Step 1: Create a new partition for the installer. 
I used an 8Gb USB flash drive.

Using Disk Utility, create a new partition to install Lion from
• Name: LionInstaller
• Size: 7.0 GB (or bigger)
• Format: Mac OS X Extended
• Partitions: Single partition - GUID Partition Map

Step 2: Mount the Lion installer image.
The installer image is inside the 'Install Mac OS X Lion' app.  Right-Click on the the app and select "Show Package Contents".   In the Contents:SharedSupport folder is the InstallESD.dmg image file.  Double-Click on the InstallESD.dmg image, and it will mount as 'Mac OS X Install ESD'.

Step 3: Mount the Base System image.
The Lion installer image contains some hidden files, to get to them you'll need to use the Terminal, from the terminal prompt you can give the following command ($ is the shell prompt):
$ defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
After the command is executed, RELAUNCH the Finder (Choose Force Quit from the Apple menu; select Force Quit...; select Finder and click Relaunch)

From the mounted 'Mac OS X Install ESD' image (it looks like a disk on your desktop).  Find the the hidden file BaseSystem.dmg.  This is the system that will be used to boot the installer.  Double-click on BaseSystem.dmg and it will mount as 'Mac OS X Base System'. 

Step 4: Copy the base system.
The entire contents of the base system need to be copied to your 'LionInstaller' partition. You will use the 'Restore' feature in Disk Utility to do the copy.
If it is not already there, drag 'Mac OS X Base System' mounted image to the left-hand sidebar in the Disk Utility.  Select it from the sidebar.  Click on the Restore tab-button at the center-top of the Disk Utility window.  If you selected 'Mac OS X Base System' it should be listed as the Source. For Destination, from the upper portion of Disk Utility sidebar, drag the 'LionInstaller' partition you created in step 1 to the Destination field. 

Once the Source and Destination are set, click the actual Restore button (say yes to the "Erase destination" prompt).  Disk Utility will do a block copy that will take a few minutes.  (Once it is finished, you can eject the BaseSystem image, it is no longer needed.) You will notice that your LionInstaller partition is now named 'Mac OS X Base System'. Rename it back to 'LionInstaller'.

Step 5: Copy the installation Packages.
Before the packages can be copied from the Lion installer image, there's a symbolic link in your 'LionInstaller' partition that needs to be deleted.
$ sudo rm /Volumes/LionInstaller/System/Installation/Packages


$ sudo cp -R /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install ESD/Packages /Volumes/LionInstaller/System/Installation/Packages
The copy (cp) command will take a few minutes since it's copying 3.2Gb of data to your LionInstaller partition.


Step 6: Delete the PlatformSupport.plist file
This needs to be done to allow the 'LionInstaller' partition to boot properly
$ sudo rm /Volumes/LionInstaller/System/Library/CoreServices/com.apple.recovery.boot/PlatformSupport.plist

Step 7: Copy the OSInstall.mpkg to your 'LionInstaller' partition.
Unzip the attached file (see note at end of Step 11) and then replace the OSInstall.mpkg in "/Volumes/LionInstaller/System/Installation/Packages".  You can simply drag and drop the file to the System:Installation:Packages folder of your 'LionInstaller' partition.

Step 8: Install Lion
Reboot your machine and hold down the 'option' key and choose to boot from 'LionInstaller' (it might be called "Mac OS X Base System" depending on if you mounted and then remounted your partition or not).  When system comes up, it should automatically launch the Lion Installer.  Go ahead and go through the Install.  This installation is an UPGRADE, and it will install Lion over Snow Leopard thus saving all your settings, applications, data, etc.  [However, be safe and make sure you have a backup of your important data - Murphy's Law and all!!!!!].

Step 9: After the installer has completed reboot your machine back into the 'LionInstaller'
At the end of the installation your Mac will reboot and your machine will refuse to boot into the Lion.  Don't worry you just need to delete one file to get it to finish the install and get it to boot into Lion.  When the installation fails, hold down the power button to do a hard re-boot.   Once again hold down 'option' and choose to boot from 'LionInstaller'.  This time instead of starting the install process choose to run Terminal from the Utilities menu.

From terminal you need to delete the following file: "/Volumes/'name of your new lion partition'/System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist".  For example I installed Lion to a drive named Macintosh HD, thus I issued the following command:
$ sudo rm /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist

Step 11: Reboot your machine into Lion 

Giving credit where it is due... 
Most of the above comes from post #8 on the follow page:
 http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/249877-how-to-install-lion-on-any-coreduo-mac-upgraded-to-a-core2duo/
I clarified some the explanations as well as fixed the quotes in the Unix commands so you could just cut and paste the commands to Terminal.
[Edit]: You will have to visit the above credited site to get the file.  At 544kb it was too big to upload here.

[Oneflewoverthecoocoosnest]

I was asked by a couple of fellow forum members to write a firmware tool for the iMac4,1 and iMac5,1. This model was the first iMac introduced with an Intel processor in 2006, and they later updated the platform with Core 2 Duo CPUs. The iMac4,1 came with the Core Duo processor, which was limited to 2GB of RAM, and was only a 32 bit CPU. The iMac5,1 came with a Core 2 Duo CPU, and can take 4GB of RAM, and is a 64 bit platform, even though the kernel can only boot in 32 bit due to 32 bit EFI. A lot of people have upgraded their CPUs, but are still stuck with the 2GB RAM limit and have to hack Lion to get it to run. This firmware upgrade removes the 2GB RAM limit, properly identifies the Core 2 Duo CPUs, and Lion will install and run just fine. The core file set has been tested by a forum member (Thanks Martin), and while I don't have an actual iMac to test on, the files created for the firmware upgrade perfectly match the core file set that has already been tested. As usual, you can upgrade or downgrade at will. If you have a CPU in an iMac5,1 that isn't supported in the iMac4,1, the system will not boot after the update until a compatible CPU is installed. The program checks the iMac model and will only install the iMac5,1 firmware on an iMac4,1, or the iMac4,1 firmware on an iMac5,1, whichever is appropriate. If you have an iMac5,1 the program will warn you about downgrading, but will still allow the firmware update. The download does not contain any firmware updater files or image files. The program creates a small RAM disk, downloads the needed files, copies all of the scripts to the RAM disk, and then runs the scripts. Everything is left on the RAM disk for you to look at and study, if needed.

There have also been requests for a MacMini1,1 and MacMini2,1 firmware tool, and although there doesn't appear to be a MacMini2,1 firmware image in any of the Apple provided downloads, I'm looking into the feasibility of extracting an image using a tool in the rEFIt package, so stay tuned.

I hope you enjoy the benefits of extending the value of your iMac4,1, or being able to change your system back and forth for development purposes.

Does the OSX version matter to apply this firmware upgrade?  What is the procedure to apply it as double clicking it doesn't work.  I'm a little lost on how to apply.  Can anyone assist?  I just upgraded to a new Samsung SSD and new 2.33Ghz CPU, reloaded the original operating system, let it download and install all of its updates to Tiger 10.4.11.

Figured it out.  I had to launch the tool in Snow Leopard as Tiger wouldn't do it.  iMac now showing 5,1 with 4 gigs ram. New SSD, CPU and Optical drive installed.  First time to tear one apart.  For the inexperienced at this DO NOT believe the "it can be done in a hour BS", ain't gonna happen in that time frame!  LOL

[cborjon]

Wholeheartedly agree that this will take more than an hour.  Even using iFixit's tear down guide, it is quite a process to take apart one of these old iMac's.  First the clips holding the case together are a serious pain to get to (if you have never done it before).  Then there is the whole issue of the dual heat sink (covers both the CPU and the graphics chip...if you have one of these, you are going to need a second set of hands when reattaching the heat sink w/thermal paste). 

It is definitely a doable upgrade for a newbie, but you will need some time (a free afternoon at least) and some patience.
However, the application of the Firmware upgrade is breeze (make sure you have upgraded to Snow Leopard first). 
Thanks again MacEFIRom for providing the Firmware Tool!

[faded_memories]

Can a 4,1 iMac be upgraded to Mavericks?

At the moment I am running 4,1 with a 2Ghz processor.  (I can't remember which chip I bought.)
Did not use the firmware update, didn't increase the RAM.

I had a friend install Lion for me with some variant of the target disk firewire method.

Darn thing has been dragging and then it occurred to me I put in a newer OS but never more RAM.  Doubling the RAM to 4G is a no-brainer, just have to pick some up...

Here is where I'm confused...

Does the firmware updater allow for OS updates without further hacking? Can I upgrade from 10.7.4 to Mavericks?  I had read that some users of Lion hacked machines had bricked them when they tried additional updates...

Thanks!

[ahaus]

Thanks for the write-up, cborjon!  Very well done.  I am on your final step and can't remove the .plist file; the Terminal in the LionInstaller seems to be for only that partition.  Any help getting to that .plist file so I can remove it and run Lion would be great. 

This is on an iMac 4,1 that was running 10.6.8 in a 5,1 config after I upgrade to a T7600.

Thanks in advance for the guidance!

[pcenforme]

Hi everyone
i am happy found one space with really top passion of macosx.
i dont speak fine english,but with translate and my short vocabulary i understand.
In 15 days i I wish to offer you a small gift of encouragement, be little paypal is there a link?
Big thanks and espere that one days i can help users forum.

[ahaus]

BUMP

Any help will be more than appreciated, thanks!

Thanks for the write-up, cborjon!  Very well done.  I am on your final step and can't remove the .plist file; the Terminal in the LionInstaller seems to be for only that partition.  Any help getting to that .plist file so I can remove it and run Lion would be great. 

This is on an iMac 4,1 that was running 10.6.8 in a 5,1 config after I upgrade to a T7600.

Thanks in advance for the guidance!

[narftroz]

Great and easy tool. thanks for your hard work and effort to keep these cool old boxes alive.

However...... i have an issue that i think my be related. my Serial Number in about my mac now just shows SystemSerialNumb. doesn't seem to break anything, it is just weird. has anyone else seen this after the system patch?

Well, looks like it was NOT related. seems it was a refurb board i had gotten and there was no serial. so i got the apple set serial disk out and set it to match the one on the bottom.

[jbritterjr]

Has anyone tried the firmware tool with an iMac5,2?

[hatecarb4]

Imac early 2006 with Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz CPU, 1TB hard drive running Snow Leopard and work perfectly before firmware upgrade. Firmware upgrading to 5.1 went smoothly until progress bar full and imac restart but it appear only grey " do not enter" sign on the screen and soon become flashing question mark.

What I did wrong?  I read all the posts and found almost everybody happy with this upgrade, nobody got this problem, now my Imac look like junk please help.

[hatecarb4]

Don't worry, after leave it off for 24 hours now it boot into OS fine and become an IMac 5.1 as expect.

Thank you

[curtis]

I was asked by a couple of fellow forum members to write a firmware tool for the iMac4,1 and iMac5,1. This model was the first iMac introduced with an Intel processor in 2006, and they later updated the platform with Core 2 Duo CPUs. The iMac4,1 came with the Core Duo processor, which was limited to 2GB of RAM, and was only a 32 bit CPU. The iMac5,1 came with a Core 2 Duo CPU, and can take 4GB of RAM, and is a 64 bit platform, even though the kernel can only boot in 32 bit due to 32 bit EFI. A lot of people have upgraded their CPUs, but are still stuck with the 2GB RAM limit and have to hack Lion to get it to run. This firmware upgrade removes the 2GB RAM limit, properly identifies the Core 2 Duo CPUs, and Lion will install and run just fine. The core file set has been tested by a forum member (Thanks Martin), and while I don't have an actual iMac to test on, the files created for the firmware upgrade perfectly match the core file set that has already been tested. As usual, you can upgrade or downgrade at will. If you have a CPU in an iMac5,1 that isn't supported in the iMac4,1, the system will not boot after the update until a compatible CPU is installed. The program checks the iMac model and will only install the iMac5,1 firmware on an iMac4,1, or the iMac4,1 firmware on an iMac5,1, whichever is appropriate. If you have an iMac5,1 the program will warn you about downgrading, but will still allow the firmware update. The download does not contain any firmware updater files or image files. The program creates a small RAM disk, downloads the needed files, copies all of the scripts to the RAM disk, and then runs the scripts. Everything is left on the RAM disk for you to look at and study, if needed.

There have also been requests for a MacMini1,1 and MacMini2,1 firmware tool, and although there doesn't appear to be a MacMini2,1 firmware image in any of the Apple provided downloads, I'm looking into the feasibility of extracting an image using a tool in the rEFIt package, so stay tuned.

I hope you enjoy the benefits of extending the value of your iMac4,1, or being able to change your system back and forth for development purposes.

I have an iMac4,2 and upgraded the processor but wasn't able to get the iMac4,1 and iMac5,1 Firmware Tool working because I have iMac4,2 and not iMac4,1...

Can someone point me in the right direction to upgrade my iMac4,2 to iMac5,2?