Xserve 2,1 will not install oclp…..all has failed

Just as the title says. I am trying to put big sur on an xserve I was gifted without any HDDs installed. I have the oclp usb, boot into recovery, mount and bless the EFI folder on the USB drive, erased my new HDD and formatted as APFS, restart and click “install mac os big sur,” load goes ok through this.

NOW after this step, either one of two things happen. 1) It will show “mac os installer” properly and I click it only to go through the process and come back to a boot screen with just the “install mac os big sur” option and just have me repeat that over and over.

2) It restarts and seems as if nothing I did in the “install mac os big sur” step ever worked in the first place.

The Xserve is all original to my knowledge and I have not changed out the internal gpu. I am using a 250 WD platter at the moment just trying to see if the thing will work. I did borrow a MacOS X server hdd and boot off it without issue, but the drive is a friend’s drive and it’s pw protected, so I don’t want to accidentally trash his drive.

Does anyone know of a “secret step” I’m missing or something? I can provide answers to any questions if you ask. I am new to this and following the github page seems a bit of a challenge. Thank you all in advance!

submitted by /u/Nit2wynit
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