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Can I tweak the version of my Mac OS in order to install unsupported apps?

Q

qqurioustiger8945

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2017
115
2
I cannot install a newer version of Mac OS on my MacBook because it's unsupported by anything newer than Lion.

However, there's certain apps that are obviously lightweight, yet I'm unable to install them because they require Yosemite or newer versions of Mac OS.

Can I make an unsupported app perceive the version of my Mac OS as a newer one in order to install it?
 
chrfr

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,702
7,264
jdocdp said:
I cannot install a newer version of Mac OS on my MacBook because it's unsupported by anything newer than Lion.

However, there's certain apps that are obviously lightweight, yet I'm unable to install them because they require Yosemite or newer versions of Mac OS.

Can I make an unsupported app perceive the version of my Mac OS as a newer one in order to install it?
Click to expand...
In general, if apps require a newer operating system, they depend on features that are actually in that newer version, so just changing the reported version of operating system won't solve your problem.
 
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Q

qqurioustiger8945

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2017
115
2
wicknix said:
That's not always entirely true. For instance i have gotten "unsupported" web browsers like Firefox 56 and Tor Browser working on Lion by editing the apps plist file and changing the "minimum version" string in the app. These were only supposed to work on 10.9 and up. See this thread:
Firefox Quantum is out - could be great for TFF users

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yep, that's exactly what I was talking about, buddy, thank you for this one. :)

According to this post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...at-for-tff-users.2088472/page-2#post-25476612
"this will disable the multi-process".

I don't know what "multi-process" is, but do we need it, or we can sacrifice it for the sake of having a newer version of Firefox?

Also, since you're on Lion as well, does version 56/57 feel better than the last "legit" installable version on Lion? What's your experience with it so far?

How did you install a newer version of Tor? Do you have a link for a guide?

Any other apps' versions you tweak-installed this way? Maybe Chrome or Google Drive? Or hopefully Dropbox which recently dropped support for Lion? sigh.. :/

Again, thank you.
 
wicknix

wicknix

macrumors 68030
Jun 4, 2017
2,621
5,304
Wisconsin, USA
I'm not sure what "multi-process" is either, but honestly i haven't noticed any weird behavior by having it disabled. My guess would be say you have Pandora streaming in one tab, and you open a new tab that wants to play audio/video, i think it'd kill the stream in the other tab, but that's just a guess. It has no effect on having 15 tabs open on normal web pages in my experience.

Sadly firefox 56 will be the last version to run on Lion. I tried with 57 and it bombed. 56 still feels and works the same as the last "legit" release (48 i believe) for Lion and we get a bit better security with it. Also we can still run current releases of TorBrowser and Seamonkey by editing the plist file, and Palemoon still supports down to 10.6 without any modifications.

As for Tor, i just used the tor browser bundle which is a mozilla/firefox based browser with tor built in. See here:
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

I really haven't tried with much other software as all i really needed was an up to date browser, and i use google drive via the web page interface. I think maybe it worked with a newer Spotify version however. Your milage will vary, but even if 2 out of 10 apps you try work, it's still worth the few minutes it takes to experiment.

Cheers
 
Q

qqurioustiger8945

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2017
115
2
wicknix said:
I'm not sure what "multi-process" is either, but honestly i haven't noticed any weird behavior by having it disabled. My guess would be say you have Pandora streaming in one tab, and you open a new tab that wants to play audio/video, i think it'd kill the stream in the other tab, but that's just a guess. It has no effect on having 15 tabs open on normal web pages in my experience.

Sadly firefox 56 will be the last version to run on Lion. I tried with 57 and it bombed. 56 still feels and works the same as the last "legit" release (48 i believe) for Lion and we get a bit better security with it. Also we can still run current releases of TorBrowser and Seamonkey by editing the plist file, and Palemoon still supports down to 10.6 without any modifications.

As for Tor, i just used the tor browser bundle which is a mozilla/firefox based browser with tor built in. See here:
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

I really haven't tried with much other software as all i really needed was an up to date browser, and i use google drive via the web page interface. I think maybe it worked with a newer Spotify version however. Your milage will vary, but even if 2 out of 10 apps you try work, it's still worth the few minutes it takes to experiment.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Oh, I see, so I can basically just go ahead and experiment with every app I feel like it, the exact same way we tweak Firefox (plist file etc.), and see which one works for me, right?

By the way, how do you backup and/or restore a previous version of an app, in case a newer one doesn't work for you? I know I can replace the actual .app file with the older one but what about all the other app related files (like preferences, cache and the other ones that one might usually find in the Library directory)?

Thanks.
 
wicknix

wicknix

macrumors 68030
Jun 4, 2017
2,621
5,304
Wisconsin, USA
Yep. I wouldn't worry too much about app preferences/cache etc because either the tweaked app will launch and work, or it will bounce the tray icon, crash, and give you a crash report.

I suppose however if you really want to be safe, create another user account to do the testing with. Then once you find out what works or doesn't, just delete that account.

Cheers.
 
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