Installing Displaylink driver on another system HD
 

Hi,
I need to open / view the package contents of the display link installer (2.2) dmg so that I can copy the necessary files to a system HD of a mac pro running Lion (10.7.5), that I have mounted on my mac mini desktop, which is running Mavericks (10.9.5).
This is because I think the Video card on the mac pro has died and I want to verify this and also get on with some urgent work that I was in the middle of.
However, the Lion system disk for the Mac pro will need the DisplayLink driver installed before the USB to video adapter out will work.
The Mac pro seems to still be starting up ok, but with no video, it's hard to tell.
The DisplayLink installer will only allow me to install the driver on the host mac mini start up disk, not on the externally mounted mac pro one.
So any work arounds to somehow get the Display link driver onto the mac pro start up disk would be much appreciated.

Still stuck with no way to install on another system drive
 

Is there no one out there who can help me with this?
I should be able to install the driver on another start up drive but it just won't let me. I've even tried going back to display link 1.7 because I saw a post saying that 1.7 will allow this, but I tried it and it won't.
I've tried starting the blind mac (no video card) in target mode but all the displaylink versions only allow you to install on the disk you used to start up on.
Surely there must be a way?:confused:

Try using target mode and booting from the other machine's drive. If that works then you should be able to install the driver "directly". See http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/answe...acs-hard-drive for details.

hope that helps,

Mark

Hi Mark,
thanks, but I already tried that.
The problem is that the OSX version on the early quadcore Mac pro (Lion 10.7.5) isn't compatible with the CPU of the 2014 Mac Mini so I cant boot the mac mini from the Mac pro's HD.
It seems like the only way will be to somehow hack into the package contents of the displaylink installer file, extract all the necessary files, playlists etc. and manually copy them over to the correct directories of the Mac pro's drive.
Some of the locations for these files will also probably be hidden and I could really mess things up if not done properly.
So if there is a real tech freak out there who could give me precise instructions, on how to do this, I would really appreciate it.
Many thanks again for trying to help,
Dave.

Ouch, I'm sure you've also considered it but using screen sharing would be a nice way to work around this to. Assuming you don't have it enabled it may still be easier to figure out how to enable that on a remote disk then to do a full driver install.

good luck,

mark

Indeed the screen sharing option is activated on the Mac mini but unfortunately, not on the Mac Pro. If I could find the screen sharing prefs file on the Mac Pro system HD and somehow change the script to active for all users?. But I'm more of a hardware man and for any terminal commands etc, I would need precise instructions. In fact I'm not even sure if Terminal can be used from one computer to another.
Many thanks for your suggestions and any further ideas from anyone would be greatly appreciated :)

is upgrading lion to mavericks not an option? Mavericks, at least in my opinion is magnitudes better due to its much nicer memory management, better use of spaces, etc. (plus rosetta was dropped since lion so i doubt you're relying on that... i think)

As for upgrading, a possible route would be to plug in the hard drive into the mini (either by USB or target mode), boot from a mavericks USB and install over the lion HD

Don't get your answer, my issue is trying to install a driver on a Macpro with no working video card, nothing to do with OS upgrade :o

But if you can upgrade your mac pro to mavericks, you can put the disk inside your mac mini (and the CPU will be supported). At that point, install the displaylink drivers like normal. Then take the disk out, put it back in your mac pro.

Ahh, ok now I get it, thanks for the idea Saudor.
But.... the drive is an old style SATA and won't fit in the Mac mini.
Do you know If I would be able to install /upgrade the OS via firewire?
Also I think it now has to be done via the Apple store /internet, so not sure if at all possible and it might turn out that the Mac Pro wont boot from the Mac Mini / Mavericks install.
I will do some research, but if you already know how, then you could save me some time :)

Ok, so seems like I can.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202796
But I'm not sure that my old early Mac Pro will boot from a Mac mini installed Mavericks, so I will do do a test install of both Mavericks and the displaylink driver on a spare drive to see if it will.

you may be right in that the mac mini might use a 2.5 inch SATA laptop drive vs the 3.5inch desktop in the mac pro.

If that is the case (I think it is), you'll end up needing a 3.5 inch SATA to USB enclosure

On the other hand, you can put in your mac mini drive into the mac pro AFTER you install the driver onto your mac mini if all you need to do is access files on the mac pro. this assumes that your mac mini uses a standard laptop drive and not something that is soldered onto the motherboard

Yep, I already have a SATA to USB device, which is what I will be using.
Later today I will have a go and post my results.
Many thanks for the input.

Install displaylink driver on external drive
 

hi Saudor,
so I managed to install Mavericks on an external drive via the Mac Mini by booting up while holding shift + option +command +R and logging into my apple account, which installed the mavericks OS via the internet.
However as I suspected, it installed the software specific to the 2014 Mac Mini hardware and the 2006 MacPro would not boot from that disk.
Actually I find it rather silly that Displaylink installer won't allow the driver to be installed on an externally mounted boot / OS drive.
I wish the developers would do an upgrade to allow this as it must be a common problem.

That's really odd. There's a ton of cloning software like CarbonCopy, SuperDuper (i use this one) that can be used to boot a mac from an external drive despite it being from another computer.
I guess at this point, your option might be to plug in the mac pro disk into your mini and access files that way

Actually...
http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...2.0-specs.html

If that is the one you have, that explains it. 2006 mac Pros are only supported till 10.7.5 and of course Mac minis dont run 10.7.5. But i'd go for a new GPU if you can find it. DL hardware while nice for basic reading and light internet, it's not so good for heavy duty work. Your mac mini will likely provide better performance over the 2006 under those conditions.

Yes that was the issue - OS / hardware incompatibility that I suspected would happen.
And indeed, getting the DL to work on the Macpro was only to confirm that it is indeed a video card problem, before I splash out on a replacement.
I will just go through the exact symptoms below to get any opinions if my diagnosis of faulty video card is correct:

1.Press start button and familiar chime
2.Apple logo appears.
3.Rotating progress ring for about a minute or two below apple logo.
4.Progress ring stops, screen flashes and goes totally white, then nothing more.

I have also verified the HD, no problem there, and the above also happens even if i try booting/re-installing from a bootable pendrive installer.

My theory is that the video ram on the video card is burned, but as I said I wanted to eliminate all other possibilities before buying an new card and the DL option was one way of doing so, if I could only get the driver on to the Macpro's boot drive!
I wish the developers at DL would find a way to allow installing the DL driver on to an external boot HD.
Once again, thanks for your input!

There are guides out there that should force installation of OS X on unsupported hardware. After all, I even got Mavericks running on an AMD windows PC. I think there is an ongoing thread on macrumors concerning the mac Pro 2006 and El Capitan. (Mavericks should definitely be possible)

The hackintosh forums are a good resource to get non Mac graphics card working with OSx. (These tend to be cheaper). I hear the ATI 5770 (I picked one up for $20 used a year ago) is pretty easy as macs actually use the card.

Do you have access to a PC that you could place the card in? Or even another Mac. The former might prove difficult if the firmware on the card pertains to a mac

Do you get the same symptoms from a snow Leopard installer? But sounds like a graphics issue.

Is the mac seen on the network? Can you ping it or see the machine from another mac? If not, then I would say it is more then your video card. From step number 4, I can't tell if it has finished booting or not, but I suspect it has not and you have either corruption on your hard drive or some other hardware failure.

If it were video card, I would expect to see no display at all. Try rebooting in verbose mode and/or single user mode to see what is loading and where it fails.