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iM 4,1-14,4 Am I stuck on high Sierra?

K

kingbacana

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2020
4
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I have upgraded my iMac to:


I7, 32gb ram, 880m 8gb with Apple bios by Nickey and a 1tb ssd sata.

Installed el Capitan to high Sierra 10.13.6
Installed web drivers Nvidia.
Edited a plist to include my Mac serial id.

When I try to install latest Mac os apps like discord, vs code I get a message I need to upgrade my os , but there is no update.

Also I notice very often wifi drops and Ethernet dropping and freezing in the os but never a real crash.

Could I use open legacy patcher to upgrade to newer os? Or will it not work cause Nvidia 880m?

And if the os update successful will it work better and can I use more apps ?

Or,
Would it be better to reformat all and install Linux ubuntu latest version and be able to use modern apps and dev tools for docker and vs code and ai?

What's wise to do?
 
Ive been running MX linux from an external SSD for a while now on my iMac 10,1.
I mainly go into 10.13.6 on the internal HD to run EyeTV as my regular tv.

With this and my 17 inch iMac 5,1 I had probs with the display using most other linux distros..but MX has a preboot menu that allows Xorg to run in safe mode.
 
Ah thanks,

I think I have this one?
github.com

Legacy Non-Metal GPUs and macOS Big Sur - Sequoia · Issue #108 · dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher

Thanks to recent developments in the community and great work from @asentientbot and the Moraea team, we've made great progress on GPU Acceleration support. GPU Acceleration Hardware Support NVIDIA...
github.com github.com

I have the late 2009 iMac 27 inch paired with a Nvidia 880m is that the Tesla? GPU or?

So I can upgrade to big sur and maybe Sequoia?
Or what you think?
 
kingbacana said:
Ah thanks,

I think I have this one?
github.com

Legacy Non-Metal GPUs and macOS Big Sur - Sequoia · Issue #108 · dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher

Thanks to recent developments in the community and great work from @asentientbot and the Moraea team, we've made great progress on GPU Acceleration support. GPU Acceleration Hardware Support NVIDIA...
github.com github.com

I have the late 2009 iMac 27 inch paired with a Nvidia 880m is that the Tesla? GPU or?

So I can upgrade to big sur and maybe Sequoia?
Or what you think?
Click to expand...

Kepler

www.techpowerup.com

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M Specs

NVIDIA GK104, 993 MHz, 1536 Cores, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 8192 MB GDDR5, 1250 MHz, 256 bit
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com
 
Well is your iMac model number listed? That's the first thing to check.
"Any Intel-based Mac listed below can install and make use of OpenCore Legacy Patcher. To check your hardware model, open System Information and look for the Model Identifier key."

 
I have two old iMacs: Late 2009 model 10,1 and a Late 2013 model 14,3. On the 10,1 the ram was easy to get to so for about $25 I upgraded from 4GB ram to 16GB ram. The extra ram on this 10,1 made a huge performance difference.

I currently have both of these computers running SEQUOIA 15.5 with aid of OCLP (Open Core Legacy Patcher).
Both of these computers are both running Windows 11. I originally installed Windows 10 with aid of BOOTCAMP. I just recently upgraded both to Windows 11. Both have registered copies of Windows 11.

The model 14,3 runs both iOS and Windows just fine. SEQUOIA is a bit slow on the model 10,1 but it is still quite useable. Windows 11 runs quite good. I run dual boot systems on each computer. The 10,1 boots to Windows 11 by default and the 14,3 boots to SEQUOIA by default.

These old iMacs are great. I am a 78 yr old retired person with a lot of time to figure this all out. It's a lot better than sitting in front of the tv all day.
 
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bevo47 said:
I have two old iMacs: Late 2009 model 10,1 and a Late 2013 model 14,3. On the 10,1 the ram was easy to get to so for about $25 I upgraded from 4GB ram to 16GB ram. The extra ram on this 10,1 made a huge performance difference.

I currently have both of these computers running SEQUOIA 15.5 with aid of OCLP (Open Core Legacy Patcher).
Both of these computers are both running Windows 11. I originally installed Windows 10 with aid of BOOTCAMP. I just recently upgraded both to Windows 11. Both have registered copies of Windows 11.

The model 14,3 runs both iOS and Windows just fine. SEQUOIA is a bit slow on the model 10,1 but it is still quite useable. Windows 11 runs quite good. I run dual boot systems on each computer. The 10,1 boots to Windows 11 by default and the 14,3 boots to SEQUOIA by default.

These old iMacs are great. I am a 78 yr old retired person with a lot of time to figure this all out. It's a lot better than sitting in front of the tv all day.
Click to expand...
Have you had a look at REVIos..it's meant to tidy up win10 or win11 to run faster. I've not tried it.
The current Linux I'm trying on a netbook is Q4os..and thinking of trying on my iMac 10,1 or my iMac 5,1 17 inch.

Here's a not recent review of REVIos:
 
Actually being 'stuck' in an older Mac OS may not be such a bad thing.
Looking at software in Macintosh Garden from say, the year 2009 on there's a range of still quite magnificent software ..that runs on Intel Mac's.

Certainly lots for retired folks in their 70s like you and I, bevo.
 
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If you aren't married to macos, MX and Ubuntu would crush on a machine like that. My preference of the two would probably be MX because installation was faster than and just as easy as macos with zero issues out of the gate and the UI is snappy and intuitive. Im pretty sure MX has a geforece 880m driver too. Newest Ubuntu while alot more resource hungry, on a system spec'd like yours, I think it would fly and be awesome once you get everything up n running (I almost always had to reinstall wifi drivers for example using mac+Ubuntu and its kin).

If you do want macos, I have been aok being stuck on the likes of Tiger/Leopard/SL/Lion up through El Cap because there are supported browsers that work well, even a nifty Legacy AI app that gives you access to chat gpt. With the added plus of oodles of old (now free) but still great softwares, it's not necessarily a bad place to be if thats all you have.
 
Certificate of Excellence said:
If you aren't married to macos, MX and Ubuntu would crush on a machine like that. My preference of the two would probably be MX because installation was faster than and just as easy as macos with zero issues out of the gate and the UI is snappy and intuitive. Im pretty sure MX has a geforece 880m driver too. Newest Ubuntu while alot more resource hungry, on a system spec'd like yours, I think it would fly and be awesome once you get everything up n running (I almost always had to reinstall wifi drivers for example using mac+Ubuntu and its kin).

If you do want macos, I have been aok being stuck on the likes of Tiger/Leopard/SL/Lion up through El Cap because there are supported browsers that work well, even a nifty Legacy AI app that gives you access to chat gpt. With the added plus of oodles of old (now free) but still great softwares, it's not necessarily a bad place to be if thats all you have.
Click to expand...
I like MX but had a couple of 'mishaps':
1. When watching streaming video I cooked the graphics card..so after that I made a point of installing two items of software - one is to ensure the iMac fans are working and the 2nd was to display temperatures of all sensors on the desktop.

Ive not tried EndeavourOS, but I read somewhere the fan software is included to sort the iMac factor.

2. The second mishap Im not sure why but in running MX from an external SSD (Sandisk which works well with older iMacs) after an update, the formatting changed to the mac format rendering the SSD unbootable. This may well be 'operator error' but Im puzzled as to why, and this has happened twice.

Lesson learnt - to have human files (docs, pics, movies) saved to a separate exFat storage area or device. Im still working on that and have recently been learning about Volumes.


Volumes are an option with OSX 10.13 ..but have yet to have a play with that.

The two items I would look at including:

MacFanControl

mbpFan
 
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