Linux on Mac Pro

Has anyone had any success installing Linux on the Mac Pro under Parallels? If you have been able to do it without any extensive "under the hood" tinkering, please post the name and version of distro that works. I've tried and failed with Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 6.06 and 6.10. I haven't tried on my MBP yet, but I don't have enough space there to waste on a Linux distro.
P.S. I know this is sort of off-topic, but the Parallels forums are not helpful on this and whatever I've been able to Google parallels (no pun) my experience.
Thanks.

Hang on shutdown is a known ACPI bug with Parallels. They promise a fix in the next point release.
This is similar to what happens when you run a modern linux distro on a non-acpi motherboard. The system doesn't respond correctly to the power off request, so it hangs. No big deal; filesystems have been re-mounted RO and all disk caches are flushed at this point, just wait a few seconds (for paranoia's sake) and power off. If you're REALLY bothered by this, you could build a custom kernel without ACPI and use APM instead; it would probably work. Maybe. Haven't tried it, so I can't be sure
BTW, I just installed FC6 without much hassle; the video works differently than ubuntu (different x build or different build options perhaps?), only a problem if you want to support multiple resolution switching within the VM (changing from primary resolution causes a garbled display). I'm not too worried about it, as I typically run full screen on 2nd monitor.
Ubuntu installs much less cruft by default than FC, IMHO - I'm an old Debian hack, so I prefer apt over yum. Personal preference.

Similar Messages

Redhat Ent. Linux on Mac Pro

Greetings,
This is my first time posting to the Apple forums. I had a interesting request today at work. An employee asked if I could install RedHat on a Mac Pro.. We recently received the Mac Pro in the last month. Has anyone had any experience installing RedHat Ent. Linux 5 Desktop or server on this HW platform? I've searched for more information but everything points more to the MacBooks only.
thanks

Red Hat (server or desktop) will most definitely run just fine in a VM using either VMWare's Fusion product or Parallels. In this way, RH Linux would run simultaneously on the MacPro. Trust me, there is PLENTY of horsepower on a MacPro to run both simultaneously no problem. You most likely could also utilize BootCamp and run RedHat directly from boot. I would poke around on the Bootcamp threads and Apple documentation on that. I happen to believe strongly in VM's, they provide the greatest flexibility by running multiple OS's in parallel at the same time, and in cases like Red Hat, with no degradation of performance. Fusion is around 70 dollars for the software btw...not a big investment.
Good luck on whatever you decide.

Mac Pro Dual Quad Core won't boot OS/X, but plays fine with Linux/Windows

I've got a Mac Pro Dual Quad Core won't boot OS/X, but plays fine with Linux/Windows. I've tried all of the following initial tests as suggested on forums:
-Ram swaps
-Alternating video card in PCIe slots
-Trying alternate video card
-resetting pram and smc
-Multiple tests with memtest86+ over 26hrs and no failed ram
-Multiple tests (8-12 cycles) with apple HW diagnostics and no problems
-Firmware is approved firmware for early 2008 model...no new updates.
Gentoo livecd works fine and I even installed to hard drive and it boots fine with it. In addition to above tests I also ran a linux stress test putting all 8 cores at a load of 22 for 2.5hrs with no problems.
Memtest86+ for 24hrs+ yields no problems.
Where problems occur:
Booting off hard drive, DVD or firewire yields an immediate curtain of death and booting off a new snow leopard DVD dies about 25% into the install.
Looking at error log and a quick dmesg shows "Package 0 didn't get an HPET" and complains about AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext. Google turns up illegal uses of this, so doesn't apply to my use case.
I'm a bit stumped since all was working well until one day it was non-stop curtains of death and can't get them to go away.
A logic board replacement at $1100 is not a feasible option for something that works on linux and windows, but not OS/X, is a bit disappointing and somewhat surprising.
Thanks for your help and advice.
Regards,
Marcos

Someone here once thought they knew EFI and Open Firmware a little, and used some commands from OF library that an Intel EFI Apple system didn't like. New logicboard.
Of course to run or boot OS X and see video you need EFI based card. The presence of some PC cards can block OS X from booting.
The fact you get part way through SL DVD, pull all the drives, put in a new drive and format it from SL DVD.
Most of the things you tried are what are more common with PC hardware. Including where people have tried and failed to install OS X on unsupported hardware.
I suppose it is possible something tried and failed to modify the Mac's firmware.
If you have Windows running, and you have WD drives, WD just posted new Lifeguard utility which is what I use to do a good job of stripping a drive down and recertify it for reuse, works wonders. Maybe same for other makes with vendor utility.

HT1349 hi Mmm ive been told that installing linux on mac book pro retina 15 and even others and using it as my first sofware will make the mac heaqt up and burn from inside!!!!! true??????????

hi Mmm ive been told that installing linux on mac book pro retina 15 and even others and using it as my first sofware will make the mac heaqt up and burn from inside!!!!! true??????????

Hi shldr2thewheel,
it has been a while since we have last spoke, I would like to let you know, I am still working on getting used to the switch from windows to a Mac/Apple system. I do have a new question for you, I did purchase In Design CS5.5 through journeyed.com through Cuyahoga Community College of which I attend as a student, is there a way to purchase an online book through iTunes to learn that as well? Also, you know me, the struggling student, I would also, when and if the book can be purchased through the iTunes, would need to know if you do know of a much easier book for struggling students like myself and at a reasonable price as well for the In Design CS5.5 program. Our campus bookstore had closed early, and, so did the colleges library and our local library here where I do live, so, I cannot go to either place to purchase a book or to take out a book, plus cash funds are low at this moment as well but, I do have money left on the iTunes account to use, if it can be used. So, can it be used, the iTunes money, towards finding a low priced online book? I am in great need of assistance as I have a project due for my one course for this Tuesday, September 4, 2012.
Sincerely in need of help once again,
Kim

Hi Mmm ive been told that installing linux on mac book pro retina 15 and even others and using it as my first sofware will make the mac heaqt up and burn from inside!!!!! true??????????

hi Mmm ive been told that installing linux on mac book pro retina 15 and even others and using it as my first sofware will make the mac heaqt up and burn from inside!!!!! true??????????

hi Mmm ive been told that installing linux on mac book pro retina 15 and even others and using it as my first sofware will make the mac heaqt up and burn from inside!!!!! true??????????

How to install linux on the mac pro. is it cause warranty issues?

Dear Users,
I want to install linux os on my mac pro notebook. Any suggestion is welcomed. is it cause the warranty issues?

Not a cause for warranty issues. Go to the Ubuntu.com site to learn everything you need to install Linux on a Mac (or any other computer.)

Dual Boot Mac Pro 10.6 + Linux

I have snow leopard + centos 5 dual-boot setup on a new Mac Pro. There is one problem --- when a user logs onto the mac side, they are prompted to initialize, or ignore the ext3 partitions. This is because snow leopard can't read the ext3 partition. If the user clicks initialize, it will attempt to destroy the linux partition.
I tried adding the partition UUID to /etc/fstab with the noauto flag but that does not work probably because 10.6 can't see the UUID.
diskutil info /dev/diskXsY does not output any UUID for the linux partitions so I can't specify the partitions in fstab.
I also tried specifying /dev/disk[X]sY noauto but [X] changes after each reboot. It 'fixes' the problem for approximately 50% of the time.
Any suggestions? Thanks for any input.

My son the debian geek insists that rEFIt is the only way to get this to work on one drive. It is not an accident it has "EFI" in the middle of its name.
I understand it keeps up the GUID illusion Mac OS X wants and also maintains the old-fashioned partition tables unix wants to see.

Mac Pro compatibility with linux 64x / visa 64x

I purchased a Mac Pro for the power because I am an Architecture graduate student and I spend a lot of time modeling and rendering large and complex structures. Sadly, Maya, which I use a lot is only scripted for 32x on the Mac OSX. I have the options of installing 64x edition of Maya in either Linux or Windows. My question is which 64x operating system would be most compatible with my mac pro? I have five hard drives so its not a big deal to me where the OS goes as long as it will allow me to make the most use out of the system. My hope is that AutoDesk will get on the ball and release a 64x OSX edition of Maya but in the mean time I'm going to have to use an alternate OS... I'm also hoping the next addition of the mac OSX will integrate GPGPUs so that I can drop in another video card to bump up its processing power but that might be too much wishful thinking.

Well, a more powerful Mac Pro should come out sometime in mid-2009.
Snow 10.6 will probably require 64-bit drivers and updates to any applications, 3rd party controllers, plug-ins and the works.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/10/17/nvidia.quadro.cx.for.cs4/
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/06/15/snow-leopards-grand-central-and-opencl-detai ls/
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16080
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/10/28/roadto_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bit_to_thekernel.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/opengl-directx,2019-7.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper19.html
Unless there is a seachange, and graphics changes quickly while Apple stays a generation behind the curve.

How is the performance of Mac Pro if i use it as host for windows and linux virtual machines.

How is the performance of Mac Pro if i use it as host for windows and linux virtual machines.
I am planning to buy a high performance PC to run my Windows and Linux servers as vitrual machines for my testing purposes.
Initially i planned to build my own computer with recommended configurations but considering space constaints and cooling factors i think Mac Pro can be a choice. But need some inputs if Mac pro (Intel Xeon E5, 12 GB RAM) is good for running virtual Machines.

You could even run Windows natively and still run your VM servers.
I have seen reports and such on MacRumors and elsewhere - run Windows natively as well as VMs (can also do testing and run Mavericks in a VM under Mavericks)
The fast internal PCIe-SSD, plus 6 or 8 cores, and 32-64GB RAM. Of course for $5,000 for 8-core, some Thunderbolt storage and 32GB/64GB RAM you can buy some serious hardware.

How to allow multiple users login to a MAC PRO without interruption?

I have a mac pro, which runs Yosemite, (2013 module) to be used as a server. However, I have difficult to let multiple users to use the mac simultaneously.
Objective:
    One person uses the mac directly on his desktop, while the others to login remotely though VNC from PC (win 7/Linux).
    The users have their own workspace, and they will not interrupt each other.
What I tried:
    I created two mange accounts on the MAC.
    Account 1 was used to directly login on the mac desktop.
    Account 2 was used to login to the mac from a PC though VNC. (I also tried this from a Centos workstation with the Tiger VNC viewer)
Problem:
When account 2 is login, the location monitor will automatically change to that account as well. Both accounts shared exactly the same screen, mouse & keyboard actions. It is impossible to let multiple users to use the MAC pro simultaneously without interruptions.
If I use "hdiutil attach" to mount a dmg file though SSH with account 2, the folder will automatically show in the local desktop login with account 1.
Question:
I read something about the "Per-user screen sharing". It says, "You can remotely log into a Mac with any user account on that computer and control it, without interrupting someone else who might be using the computer under a different login." Is it possible to do this from a PC or Linux client?
If the problem is simply due to the poor functionality of the build-in VNC service in Yosemite, I appreciate your help to suggest some other decent VNC server for Yosemite. I know the Vine Server (OSXvnc), but I failed to install it on the mac because it is incompatible with the Yosemite.
Does the SSH is supposed to work in this way in OSX? I mean the local account can see the folder mounted by another account though SSH.
If any specific version of Yosemite is required to allow multiple users to access a mac simultaneously? Just as the win 7 professional allow only one user to login in at each time. But with the remote desktop server of windows, multiple users are able to use the same computer at the same time without any problem.
If you familiar with any of the above questions, please help. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated.
I know the best way to get the solution is to direct call the apple support. However, it is really not easy to call them. Because it always results with long waiting time and then the people pick up the phone will transfer my call to an expert who will make me to describe the problem again.
Since I'm not interested in the technique details of all the problems, it is also grateful if you would provide a direct instruction to let me setup the computer for the purpose.
Thanks you very much for your kindly help.

I cannot help with the screen sharing, although I have just tried it with a RealVNC client on an iPad and it seemed to work OK.
However on the disk showing on all users desk tops have you unchecked the "ignore ownership on this volume" check box? You can check the drives permissions with CMD i command.

Will the late 2013 Mac Pro boot from an external drive (4Tb, USB 3) with a cloned Win7 x64 partition on it?

Hello all,
I ordered a CTO Mac Pro for heavy rendering and animating work, and I am planning on using bootcamp to install a windows partition (for 3DsMax). As I am now using a HP Elitebook 8770W that has several valuable files and projects on it, I have bought a Seagate 4Tb external Desktop Drive that uses USB 3.0 to use as a backup drive. Now, as I saw that Bootcamp Assistant only supports installing a x64 version of Windows 8, my question is:
Will a late 2013 Mac Pro using bootcamp assistant boot from an external USB drive with a cloned partition running x64 win7? Or do I really have to buy Windows 8 and install that to my internal SSD, and then use the migration assistant to copy over my projects?
Thanks!

Posted? or found in new builds?
BCA should really just pull whatever the latest drivers are when run.
If it is with how it partitions and sets up nMP and its partition for Windows that is another matter and makes sense.
Some people want UEFI native booting in Windows, and my experieince with that on PCs has been that it boots faster and runs well, but has different partitions that it wants. For one thing, there is now a backup "system reserved" partition, just as Apple GUID has some volume information blocks and backup and areas that were once optional (and if format erase was not able to, it would not create one) are now mandatory.
Windows 8.1 is req'd, reason a backup should be a big must - is it might overwrite and use another OS's partition table entries. Especially when doing UEFI install.
There was something about which linux OS was safe and how they would each add entries in the table, but one would not place nice. That one had to be done first or not at all.

Never owned a Mac, thinking of buying a Mac Pro, could use some advice...

Hey guys,
I know this was a lot to read, but I sincerely hope someone will take the time to answer my questions:
As the title of my post implies I've never owned a Mac in my life. I've always built my own desktops and usually gone to HP or Dell for my laptops. I'm approaching that time again where my custom-built desktop is looking outdated and I'm getting the upgrade itch. I'm looking at all the parts I need to order to build a computer and I can't help but think I'm older now with a full-time job and a one year old daughter in the house. Do I really want to go through the hassle of building a desktop from scratch again? Not really. So I started evaluating things a bit. As I get older I’m really just getting sick and tired of Microsoft’s antics (Vista was a huge disappointment for me) so I decided this could be the year for me to take the Mac plunge.
Now I’m an IT guy, so I have a pretty atypical setup at home. I’m currently running both Windows and Linux on all my computers. Rather than dual boot or use virtualization software I have a pretty intricate system in which I use a product called Acronis Trueimage to experiment with operating systems. What I do is perform a a clean install on an operating system, tweak it as needed for security and to use resources on my LAN than back up the customized OS install to a server a an image file. I have pre-built images for XP, Vista, Ubuntu and OpenSuSE that I can roll out to one of my machines in an average of 15 minutes whenever I get the urge to switch operating systems. I also serve all my data off a NAS box, so since data and OS are kept separate on the network I don’t have to worry about erasing something when I swap between Linux and Windows (as loading an image literally destroys the previous OS install).
So you can see I’m pretty highly specialized. I even have things down to the point to where I have custom images for specific purposes. For instance I have one XP image customized for development, one XP image customized for gaming, etc. Naturally if I got the Mac Pro I’d like to have the freedom to create a similar set of custom OS deployment images (Windows, Linux and OSX) for it as well. In researching the Mac Pro I have some concerns my current system might not work if I go that route. Am I correct in assuming that in order to run an alternative operating system on a Mac I’ll have to run boot camp or something like it? Or upon unboxing my Mac and tweaking Leopard will I be able to use disk imaging software to make a backup image of my preinstalled Leopard hard drive and then do a clean install of Windows XP or Ubuntu and set it up to function like a PC? I guess I’m asking if it’s possible (now that Macs are Intel-based) to run Windows or Linux exclusively on the Mac hardware?
Also I have some concerns about the proprietary nature of the Mac platform. From what I can gather in my research it seems the hardware is pretty locked in. One area that has me really concerned is gaming. I pretty much use Ubuntu exclusively at home for productivity and web surfing. However I still like to load that XP image every now and then to play some games on the LAN with my buddies. I’m not a fan of virtualizing for gaming because of the obvious performance hit you take, so I’d have to be able to run Windows XP free and clear. Also I checked Nvidia’s site and I see no OSX drivers listed there for their cards. Under the Windows platform they are always releasing driver updates to squeeze more game performance out of your card. What if I want to upgrade my video card? How do drivers work on OSX? Does Apple just integrate drivers for just a few specific video cards into the OS? Will I be stuck only able to pick from a handful of video cards approved by Apple?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice!
Message was edited by: ZeusABJ

Hi Zeus
I may be able to answer some of your questions. And sorry in advance if this sounds like yet another of those "religious conversion" stories
I'm a software developer/architect, mostly doing Microsoft .NET/C#/Web Services coding. I'd been a loyal Microsoft guy since I started on the original IBM PC back in the 80's. Like a lot of people (or so it seems) I just got fed up with Microsoft's high-handed and self-important ways. More importantly, the company always seemed to be lagging behind technically. Looking at beta versions of Vista did not bode well for the future - it just seemed awful. When Vista came out it it was the last straw - I just could not get enthusiastic about this bloated, slow, mess of an operating system. I really hated it. Still do. Even with a top-spec machine, Vista didn't run in the snappy, responsive way it I thought it should. Nothing seemed well thought out.. yuck!
Then, by chance, I was staying for a few days with somebody who had a Mac. Now, for years and years I not even considered Macs as remotely serious machines. My only experience of them was in the late 80's when somebody at work had one. He took delight in pushing a floppy disc into the machine so that it would respond "Ah, it's so big!". Great, just a toy. Not for serious programming work. So, encountering Mac OS X Tiger on my friend's iMac was something of a shock. It was so responsive, clean and elegant. When you turned it on it only took about 30 seconds or so for the thing to be ready for use, etc, etc.
Long story short, I bought an iMac, then a newer, bigger, faster iMac, then a MacBook Pro and now I have a Mac Pro. I still have to work with Windows to do my .NET-related day job. But 95% of the time I work on the Mac using various VMWare virtual machines. I can switch between Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP in a few seconds and still be working in a Mac environment. And the performance of running Windows inside VMWare is even better than on my dedicated top-spec Windows laptop! I have a selection of virtual machines to choose from and, because these virtual machines are just files, I can back them up, revert to saved copies, etc. I've tried Bootcamp but it's much less convenient and performance inside the virtual machines is never an issue (although I don't do any gaming). So, you could keep virtual machines on your NAS box or local Mac hard drive.
With regard to graphics drives, etc. I've never had any problems whatever in this respect. For example, when I installed Windows XP on VMWare it automatically recognised all my hardware (including some obscure audio interfaces, USB-based MIDI interfaces, etc.) and made it available. I must admit that when I was new to the Mac I expected to have driver issues, but never have had... So, my guess is that you'll be able to run all your Windows and Linux distros on the Mac without too many problems.
You mention Apple's hardware as being "locked-in". I don't think that's the case. Certainly the consumer Mac models like the iMac can't be upgraded (by you or me) internally, expect for memory. The Mac Pro though is very easy to upgrade - though there may be some limitations with regard graphics cards.
Re your questions about graphics card drivers. Yes, these come with OS X in just the same as as with Windows. Because I've also used the card that comes "with the box" this has not been an issue for me. However, unless you get a Mac Pro you can't swap-in your existing graphics card. And even then I think you may find restrictions. However, other, more knowledgeable Mac users on this forum may have other thoughts.
Overall though, the experience of using the Mac in terms of software is very much the reverse of Windows - the OS is very open and well documented. It really is an IT person's dream machine - so much to fiddle around with (particularly if you know anything about Unix!). Unlike Microsoft who charge a FORTUNE for their development tools, Apple give them to you for free. And very good they are too!
Finally, one bit of advice. If you are considering buying a new Mac, join the Apple Developer Connection scheme as a Select member. It'll cost you around $400 to join but they give you a hardware discount for Apple-store purchased items that will save you a ton of $$$'s - absolutely definitely worth doing.
Hope this helps (and good luck)!
Russ

Has anybody gotten a RocketRAID 640 working in a Mac Pro?

I have a RocketRAID 640 I purchased, based on the fact that it "had OS X drivers". Unfortunately l'm running into a bit of a snafu here.
The English website (www.highpoint-tech.com) shows for the RR640 drivers that "Mac drivers are available at http://hptmac.com/cn". This is their Chinese website of all places (why, if it has Mac drivers are they not listed on the English site?). I recently was contacted by their tech support, and they appear to be totally clueless why their driver isn't working.
Ya see, the one they link to is this one:
http://www.hptmac.com/US/productfiles/HPT-Quad-eSATA-mac-v100-100120.dmg
But it's on the Chinese website. Yay?
So here's the issue: The .kext file's info.plist shows an IOPCIPrimaryMatch entry of "6441103". Breaking that down, the 1103 is the Marvell 9128 SATA controller (there are two on the card, oddly at x1 link width). The 644 is the ID of the card the driver is looking for in order to load. In other words, the driver (RR64x.kext), from the installer packaged labeled "RR644M" (for RocketRAID 644 Mac), will only see the RR644, but not the RR640 which I have. Unfortunately, injecting the proper IOPCIPrimaryMatch entry into the .kext file renders the .kext useless as it becomes a file that has "been installed incorrectly and cannot be used", because a user (me) modified it.
Has anybody gotten this card to work in a Mac Pro in OS X (it works fine in Windows on a Mac Pro) other than the inability to use CTRL-H to activate its BIOS configuration utility at bootup)? And if so, what driver are you using?
I've lost three days worth of work/"fun time" to trying to figure this out. I don't know why the card is so hard to get working, since functionally it's identical to the 644, only instead of eSATA ports they're all internal. Even the controllers used are the same, as is the link width of the card itself (but apparently not the firmware?).
I knew HighPoint had ridiculously bad support, but their hardware in general is rock solid (once you get it up and running). I kind of want my Vertex 3s to finally run speedy. I'd really hate to have to get a 6Gbps SAS card instead (and it'd have to be bootable which is EXPENSIVE) in order to plug into my Mac Pro 1,1's SAS cable that it uses to control the four internal HD bays (though that would give the HD bays native 6Gbps speed!).

Highpoint RR Quad eSATA for Mac is sold on Apple Store
http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1113LL/A
with 4 favorable comments, from one that flashed the firmware for EFI32 to be bootable (odd, as they said they had "Early 2008" which does not jive), a few with 2010 models.
Sonnet, FirmTek or other with 6G PCIe controller IF it does not need to be bootable (you said you wanted that); and, you aren’t going to be pushing for really high performance with a single SSD.
If you want to stay with Highpoint (exchange?) HPT links to Apple product page -
RocketRAID Quad eSATA 6Gb/s for Mac $249
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=65
What I did find were these Highpoint downloads:
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=download
Driver version 1.0 - which you already have
http://www.hptmac.com/US/productfiles/bios_driver/HPT-Quad-eSATA-mac-v100-100120 .dmg
There is an EFI zip file, maybe you need to flash yours.
Highpoint Mac support page: from 9/2009
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=download
Lion compatible products page:
http://www.hptmac.com/US/categories.php?compatibility=18
Highpoint Lion Support Mac
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=reviews
Amazon (USA) also sells the same card carried by Apple Store -
http://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Quad-SATA-6Gb-Mac/dp/B003MXCZMI/
Barefeats 6G SSD (ATTO Express R644, RocketRAID 2721) support for 6G SSD
http://www.barefeats.com/ssd6g02.html
Barefeats older 3G RocketRAID
http://www.hptmac.com/PDF/RocketRAID_eSATA_For_Mac_Barefeats_Review.pdf
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=reviews
And what I found about RR640 (I have 620s in my PC but the extra 40 seconds to the boot time and stability were a no-go for me)
The Highpoint RocketRAID 640 is a PC card (only).
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/01/04/high-point-rocketraid-640-review/1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115077
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr600.htm
Windows – Linux – FreeBSD driver support (only)
Apple Community –
Has anybody gotten a RocketRAID 640 working in a Mac Pro?
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15909237#15909237

I am thinking of using a Mac pro for share trading. Can anyone share their experience and suggest specs for 30 -40 monitors etc

Hi
I am thinking of using a Mac Pro for share trading.
I am proposing to start small but want to be able to expand up to 30+ monitors.
It must be super quick.
Any help with hardware would be appreciated.
Software is secondary at this point , but open to advice.
I have an iphone and ipad so feel it will better intergrate usung Apple
regards
David

There is no desktop machine that I know of that will support 30+ monitors as is.
Fill the 3 or 4 PCIe slots of any logic board with three port graphics cards and you have the physical cap without additional hardware.
Software is secondary at this point
No, without software, how can you control more than the monitor limit of the OS?
How can you set up the monitors to display the various programs that you will wish to use simultaneously?
Software is a major consideration.
Matrox (and others) have solutions for additional monitors beyond the physical capabilities of generally offered graphics cards.
The caveat here, however, is support software is typically reserved for Windows and Linux systems.
Matrox has a single 8 display card:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9188pciex16/
Matrox has solutions specifically targeting the finance market:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/solutions/trading_analyst/
Though the Mac Pro has more than adequate processing power, I think that you will find (through research) that building a solid machine capable of using several multi monitor cards is going to be what you will need to support more than 8-10 monitors with conventionally offered hardware.
Fun stuff:
http://www.digitaltigers.com/zenview.asp

Does anyone have any info re 3.5mm jack microphones on the Mac Pro?

Please, don't refer me to the manufacturer...am working on that, in the meantime i'm looking for anyone that might have OTHER information or suggestions regarding this issue...
Bought a GE PC Microphone, a very simple on with a 3.5MM jack. The package specifically says "Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems"
I plug it into the Audio Line In on the back of my Pro (just purchased barely a few weeks ago) and the nothing happens...no sound is registered or recorded.
I've gone to preferences pane and selected "Line In" as opposed to "Digital Line In", and nothing....
Is there some silly thing I'm over looking. When I read the Mac Pro User Manual regarding that particular port it refers to use of:
" Analog audio line-in port
Connect self-powered microphones, MP3 and CD players, and other devices with analog
capability"
The mic is simple, has no power source, only the 3.5MM jack...should it not work?
Any help (other than the already perfectly obvious contact the mfr of the mic, or plain old return/exchange the mic" will be greatly appreciated. If that's what i have to do ,it's what i'd have to do, but i'd like some validation that there is NOT anything I am missing before doing so.
Thanks!

Hi JamilMereck,
first of: you can edit previous posts in a time-frame of some minutes (haven't measured it ...).
After that they become non-editable.
I admit I have used microphones some years back with and without PCs (have switched to Macs 2.5 years ago).
But I always had the mics connected to a mixing desk, which provided Phantom Power.
Since I gave up my 'Singing Career' (wasn't good enough) I also abandoned the use of microphones.
To your questions:
It might be that PCs with specified Microphone-In ports are also providing power to them or the microphones themselves do not need any power.
And the 'compatible with...' refers to the usage on computers in general.
The iMic from Griffin works with OSX 10.5 (scroll down on the webpage to 'Product Compatibility' the left icon symbolizes OSX 10.5).
As said above, I am no longer up-to-date in usage of microphones, but when you want to use a microphone with the standard connector you have to get either a microphone preamp or a mixer.
If you use the mic only (really only) with your Mac Pro, you might wanna look for USB-connected mics from Samson or Audio Technica for example.
And don't get upset, I understand you fully and any kind of 'insult' is for the manufacturers and not for me
Stefan

Linux on Mac Pro

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