Edit: to answer your actual question, you can't do it from anywhere except Recovery Mode, so anything you do must be done from there.

Tested on a similar 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 [but I have a flashed graphics card so I could see what I was doing]

Reboot & at the chimes hold Cmd ⌘ R for about 10s.
Wait until you get to Recovery Mode, which for me took approx 45s from the chimes [I'm on SSD but I think it may have chosen a Recovery on another HD to actually boot from] Give it a minute or so just to be safe.

Fn Ctrl ⌃ F2 will switch focus to the menu bar, specifically the Apple logo, top left.

It appears that whatever you have set in System Prefs > Keyboard for "Use all F1, F2 keys as standard function keys" that this option is disabled in Recovery, so even though just Ctrl ⌃ F2 works for me in a running OS, in Recovery I needed the added Fn key.

From there, you can navigate using the arrow keys

Pic from https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/254167/85275

From that you can see that Terminal is 4 to the right, then 4 down.
It's 4 not 3 because the first down arrow opens the menu.

Hit Enter & Terminal will launch.
Type csrutil disable & hit Enter
Type reboot & hit Enter.

If it reboots, you got it right - otherwise you'll have to have another guess.

BTW, golden rule, as you have discovered, is keep your crappy old stock Apple card somewhere safe, for occasions such as this ;-)

Additional note: Fn Ctrl ⌃ F2 is a toggle. First will select the menu bar, second will deselect, so make sure to only do it once.

Answer from Tetsujin on Stack Exchange
Top answer
1 of 4
11

Edit: to answer your actual question, you can't do it from anywhere except Recovery Mode, so anything you do must be done from there.

Tested on a similar 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 [but I have a flashed graphics card so I could see what I was doing]

Reboot & at the chimes hold Cmd ⌘ R for about 10s.
Wait until you get to Recovery Mode, which for me took approx 45s from the chimes [I'm on SSD but I think it may have chosen a Recovery on another HD to actually boot from] Give it a minute or so just to be safe.

Fn Ctrl ⌃ F2 will switch focus to the menu bar, specifically the Apple logo, top left.

It appears that whatever you have set in System Prefs > Keyboard for "Use all F1, F2 keys as standard function keys" that this option is disabled in Recovery, so even though just Ctrl ⌃ F2 works for me in a running OS, in Recovery I needed the added Fn key.

From there, you can navigate using the arrow keys

Pic from https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/254167/85275

From that you can see that Terminal is 4 to the right, then 4 down.
It's 4 not 3 because the first down arrow opens the menu.

Hit Enter & Terminal will launch.
Type csrutil disable & hit Enter
Type reboot & hit Enter.

If it reboots, you got it right - otherwise you'll have to have another guess.

BTW, golden rule, as you have discovered, is keep your crappy old stock Apple card somewhere safe, for occasions such as this ;-)

Additional note: Fn Ctrl ⌃ F2 is a toggle. First will select the menu bar, second will deselect, so make sure to only do it once.

2 of 4
8

This blind method worked for me:

In order to disable or enable SIP (System Integrity Protection) without being able to see recovery mode and launch the terminal, you can use single-user recovery mode which takes you right into a command prompt.

Reboot Mac holding down CmdRS

Wait 30-60 seconds depending on how fast your boot disk is.

Then hit ENTER a few times to get to the command prompt

To DISABLE SIP: type csrutil disable; reboot and press Enter

To ENABLE SIP: type csrutil enable; reboot and press Enter

Once back in macOS you can check the status of SIP with the following command: csrutil status

Note: This will only work if the recovery OS is =>10.11 (El Cap). If you upgraded (chances are as we are talking a 2011 Mac, the recovery partition will be @ Lion or some such and will not have csrutil in it. Work around is to "recover"from a boot USB with =>10.11 on it.

Discussions

Enable/Disable SIP on unflashed cards | MacRumors Forums
How to enable/disable SIP by using single-user recovery mode when using unflashed video cards in a Mac Pro (cMP). In order to disable or enable SIP (System Integrity Protection) without being able to see recovery mode and launch the terminal, you can use single-user recovery mode which takes... More on forums.macrumors.com
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After I update to High Sierra 10.13, I can't find the "csrutil" command in Recovery mode so I'm unable to disable SIP. ... Not recommend unless you have a very specific reason. Re-enabling is import part of security protection · Restart your Mac. More on discussions.apple.com
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Disable System Integrity Protection (SIP)… - Apple Community
I am running a MacBook Pro mid-2009 (Mac OS El Capitan 10.11.6) and have recently upgraded my internal hard drive to a SSD. I have done a fresh install of the macOS. I am trying to disable the SIP. More on discussions.apple.com
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Disable sip
am using external ssd for boot drive and want to disable sip. When command+r is used the recovery drive comes up for the internal drive, the internal drive is not being used except for storage, how do i get into terminal for the external drive to disable sip........Sierra 10.12 late 2015 21.5 imac More on mac-help.com
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January 10, 2019
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