[Guide] Installing 10.9 Mavericks on older Macs. -HackerWayne

[flydd]

Thank you, Hennesie2000

Dear Hennesie2000,

I just created a MacRumors account just to say thank you for your brilliantly written Mavericks installation guide!

Your guide works like a charm, all functions work 100% flawlessly (Mac Pro 2,1 8x3GHz; Apple Radeon HD 5770) - including sleep, audio and messaging.

I even dared to use the Migration Assistant after installing Mavericks to copy all applications and settings from my Lion partition (which had been upgraded all the way from 10.4) --> no problem at all.

Just two tiny remarks, which you might want to add in your guide:
- Chameleon's screen resolution can be adapted by changing the "Graphics Mode" key in the org.chameleon.Boot.plist file (Extra folder) and the screen_height and screen_width in the theme.plist file (Extra/themes/Default folder)

- I think the Default Partition key expects hd(x,y) instead of the partition name

So, thanks again, best,
flydd

 

[gpatpandp]

Hi gpatpandp,

You mentioned you found a way of running 10.8.5 without mlpostfactor and about 99.8% functionality..... I've got four imac 5,1's that I would like to upgrade to 10.8.5. Could you point me to a tutorial for your method? I would like to try it out. Many Thanks. Charles

First and foremost in constructing/compiling your system, remember that google is your friend. Given that this is a Mavericks forum and while not wanting to "step on any toes”, I will provide a brief outline though I highly recommend that anyone performing this procedure head over to the original 10.8 forum https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1325709/ for answers to questions, file acquisition etc.

While admittedly a somewhat redundant step, installing MLPF initially will provide you all the files needed in order to complete this successfully. Otherwise, I believe there are active links abound in the original https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1325709/ forum where you can acquire the necessary files (specifically/importantly the patched Open GL/CL framework file folders). Use the app “Kext Wizzard” or the appropriate terminal commands for installing additional/needed kext files. It is also necessary to have another bootable OS system (Snow Leopard/Lion) so that you can mount your Mountain Lion system on it and have access to it while building it. I would recommend OS X 10.7.5 Lion as all the kexts files needed (except VoodooHDA.kext) are contained in that OS X system and therefore one would be "killing two birds with one stone" in that respect.

Starting with using the full OS X 10.8.4 (app store).app follow this excellent guide by dead.xx
in creating your installer: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1404548/

Once created, install OS X 10.8.4. Once completed (remember that when using the patched EFI, the install will always announce that it failed at the very end…this is normal), restart though restart to your supported OS system and not your Mountain Lion drive/partition at this point.

Using the .app “Kext Wizzard” and with your Mountain Lion drive/partition mounted on the desktop, select the appropriate mounted mountain lion drive/partition in the pull down tab, and install the following kexts:

ATI1600Controller
ATIFramebuffer
ATIRadeonX1000
ATIRadeonX1000GA
ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver
ATIRadeonX1000VADriver
ATISupport
*VoodooHDA .pkg 2.8.4 (While installing the default OS X 10.7.5 Lion AppleHDA.kext will enable audio in OS X 10.8.4, my findings were that it does not work in OS X 10.8.5). Also and once the VoodooHDA.kext is installed, you will need to delete the supplied AppleHDA.kext in order for the system to instead load/use the VoodooHDA.kext.

Also and again while having the Mountain Lion drive/partition mounted, open the following folders in this sequence: System/Library/Frameworks and locate both the OpenGL & OpenCL folders and move them both to the trash and delete them. Once deleted, copy both patched versions of the same namesake into the same System/Library/Frameworks folder.

That basically should get anyone with an unsupported Mac possessing ATI X1600 graphics a “non MLPF” OS X 10.8.4 64 bit OS system that I have estimated @ 99.8% full functionality.

To update that to OS X 10.8.5, head on over to: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1325709/ AND ON page 139 of that forum refer to the following specific post and dialogue between myself and Rastafabi # 3456, 3457, & 3459 to update your OS X 10.8.4 to OS X 10.8.5. Done.

 

[Hennesie2000]

Dear Hennesie2000,

I just created a MacRumors account just to say thank you for your brilliantly written Mavericks installation guide!

Your guide works like a charm, all functions work 100% flawlessly (Mac Pro 2,1 8x3GHz; Apple Radeon HD 5770) - including sleep, audio and messaging.

I even dared to use the Migration Assistant after installing Mavericks to copy all applications and settings from my Lion partition (which had been upgraded all the way from 10.4) --> no problem at all.

Just two tiny remarks, which you might want to add in your guide:
- Chameleon's screen resolution can be adapted by changing the "Graphics Mode" key in the org.chameleon.Boot.plist file (Extra folder) and the screen_height and screen_width in the theme.plist file (Extra/themes/Default folder)

- I think the Default Partition key expects hd(x,y) instead of the partition name

So, thanks again, best,
flydd

Thanks and I am glad it worked for you. You are correct the screen resolution can be changed. The 1280x800 is the highest VESA resolution that my card supports without trying to patch it. The default partition can be done either way. A volume name or the HDD identifier.

 

[Treksdot]

- I think the Default Partition key expects hd(x,y) instead of the partition name

The location, name or UUID can be used for identifying the default partition.

 

[NotLordXenu]

Early 2006 Mini 1,1 working.

Ok, I got Mavericks running on Early 2006 MacMini1,1 flashed to MacMini2,1 and C2D upgrade. I've been reading this forum for 2 days on this, this is my first post. Here is what I found.

Got audio Working. Used kexts from earlier post for macpro. Works great. Also used the same file for the 32bit boot.efi.

Wifi works. I copied my kexts from a 10.8.4 MLPostFacto install, Although it will not join any network that is encrypted, it only works with open networks.

GMA 950 works with 64bit drivers from Snow Leopard. Although there is no QE/CI, but the driver does load, and works very well aside from OpenGL.

I do have to hold OPTION key and select hard drive to boot, as it doesn't like to bless the 32bit boot.efi for some reason.

I do think there is great potential here with the GMA 950. Its not sluggish at all, other than the fact QE/CI won't turn on.

EDIT: Holding down OPTION key is fixed for 32bit boot.efi. Zapped PRAM, and it works without issue now. COMMAND+OPTION+P+R after boot chime.

 

[pembyfrank]

iMac 5,1 x1600 (128mB), 10.6.8 to 10.9

Wow, just read this whole thread from the start, had to sign up to respond as just in the last days been researching Mavericks support .. thought bad news given the x1600 and how its not removable like the cards in the Mac Pros but appears there is hope! Looking forward to testing the MVPF when it arrives!

One question I have is specifically about kexts for the x1600, are there ones for Mavericks? Or folks are using ones from earlier releases? Meaning one can't go the guid single disk install approach with chameleon on these i-Macs and as such must be patient and wait for the MVPF? Face time, i-Message, would be necessary for my setup if not i would try Rastafabis install mentioned near the end, but then again on page 12 there is mention from Rastafabis of kexts for x1600.

Apologies if I am missing the obvious, I really tried to search this thread before posting a redundant question (my brain hurts after so much reading/scanning), and have definitely learned a lot just by seeing what Mac Pro folks have been succeeding with.

One last question is in regards to Hennesies post 315 - can't one boot the i-Mac to a Mavericks install on a usb stick and do the install from the stick thus not needing an installation partition (ie. two partitions needed instead of three)? This worked for SL, just wondering if perhaps its different with Mavericks.

Just glad to hear that on account of the x1600 card this Mac will still have a future I thought that was going to be the game ender today, like the other two syles of cards in machines around this era (mid to late 2006) but now I am anxious to try out the install! Might even see if I can find a used Mac Pro gathering dust too

 

[RV-ABZ]

.

 

[Hennesie2000]

One last question is in regards to Hennesies post 315 - can't one boot the i-Mac to a Mavericks install on a usb stick and do the install from the stick thus not needing an installation partition (ie. two partitions needed instead of three)? This worked for SL, just wondering if perhaps its different with Mavericks.

Legacy boot does not load USB drivers so you can't boot to a USB stick installer. You can get rid of the installer partition if you have a supported Mac and use that to install Mavericks on the drive. The installer partition kind of acts like a recovery partition however. If something happens to your Mavericks install then you can boot to that and use disk utility or terminal to try and fix the problem.

 

[gpatpandp]

Wow, just read this whole thread from the start, had to sign up to respond as just in the last days been researching Mavericks support .. thought bad news given the x1600 and how its not removable like the cards in the Mac Pros but appears there is hope! Looking forward to testing the MVPF when it arrives!

One question I have is specifically about kexts for the x1600, are there ones for Mavericks? Or folks are using ones from earlier releases? Meaning one can't go the guid single disk install approach with chameleon on these i-Macs and as such must be patient and wait for the MVPF? Face time, i-Message, would be necessary for my setup if not i would try Rastafabis install mentioned near the end, but then again on page 12 there is mention from Rastafabis of kexts for x1600.

Apologies if I am missing the obvious, I really tried to search this thread before posting a redundant question (my brain hurts after so much reading/scanning), and have definitely learned a lot just by seeing what Mac Pro folks have been succeeding with.

One last question is in regards to Hennesies post 315 - can't one boot the i-Mac to a Mavericks install on a usb stick and do the install from the stick thus not needing an installation partition (ie. two partitions needed instead of three)? This worked for SL, just wondering if perhaps its different with Mavericks.

Just glad to hear that on account of the x1600 card this Mac will still have a future I thought that was going to be the game ender today, like the other two syles of cards in machines around this era (mid to late 2006) but now I am anxious to try out the install! Might even see if I can find a used Mac Pro gathering dust too

Frankly I am beginning to observe a lot of confusion brewing within this forum concerning the various methods and there applications. Since I own both a unsupported Mac Pro AND an unsupported iMac with ATI X1600 inboard graphics and have applied many methods to both machines in my attempt to achieve the best functionality possible with either OS X 10.8 and/or OS X 10.9, I felt it prudent to make this distinction. In the realm of installing either Mountain Lion or Mavericks and in a nutshell, an unsupported Mac Pro and the 2006 iMac w/ ATI X1600 graphics and 128 MB of VRAM are entirely different animals. A boot loader (Chameleon, Chimera, Clover) has NEVER once loaded the appropriate/required graphic kext files with ANY measure of effectiveness or competency ever. I have tried what I believe to be every method, combination, and/or technique possible on our 2006 iMac and absolutely nothing has ever worked. Therefore and unless someone can provide concrete, indisputable, bonafide proof to the contrary specifically regarding the 2006 iMac with ATI X1600 inboard graphics and 128 MB of VRAM, I will save anyone the trouble in letting you that installing any boot loader on this machine is a complete waste of time and produces nothing but an utterly worthless operating system.

PS. Despite my current findings, I will always hold out hope that a boot loader will be created to accomplish what none have done so far on our 2006 iMac.

 

[LightBulbFun]

thank you

Hey I just want to thank you guys for getting OS X 10.8&10.9 to work on unsupported macintoshes I hope for more development in getting 10.9 working properly on X1600 macs (i have a cople of shots of my imac running 10.8.4(MLpostfactor its my main OS and 10.9 on a USB drive for testing installed using the mac pro guide with modifide boot.efi etc i tride installing the gpu kexts from ML to mavricks but it dident work for me if some one can provide the needed kexts and how to install em then i will be very happy indeed ) MLpostfactor works perfect for me havent ran into a singel isue and much better then loin and i cant wate for macpostfactor

 

[pembyfrank]

I will always hold out hope that a boot loader will be created to accomplish what none have done so far on our 2006 iMac.

Thanks for your input, gpatandp, just to clarify don't the Clover and Chameleon boot loaders boot Mavericks on X1600 iMacs, its simply that no 64 bit x1600 kext(s) for MV exist, correct? ie. the issue is graphics support not the boot loader per se?

Also I read from your post 468, "just this morning I outlined the basic procedure for a OS X 10.8.5 64 bit mode install for my iMac with X1600 graphics. That would be a OS X 10.8.5 system that does not utilize MLPF" so you have found useable non-boot loader way(s) to get up and running on an X1600 iMac in your testing, correct? Just clarifying for folks searching this thread.

So it does seem pretty cut and dry that without proper kext(s) and/or MVPF, your above stated method, MLPF, and a method Rastafabis mentions are workable options for ML and MV as of -today- for x1600 iMacs (emphasis added, sorry if I missing other or folks who deserve credit, I am sure there are lots), and I understand they have certain limitations.

In post #308, hackerwayne, the starter of this thread states, "Development on X1600 has completed." I can't read into this any other way than to mean that hes got something for us X1600 folks that works, we just have to wait. This is further mentioned his two posts 476, and 479:

"64-bit method will be included (For X1600, upgraded graphics on Mac Pro, this is based on Clover or Chameleon)"

(Originally Posted by Hennesie2000 View Post)
Will the 64bit method support updating as the Chameleon method does?

(answer)
Yes.

So I don't think at this point we need to hold out hope that a boot loader will be created. It clearly has been created, unless I am mis-understanding what hackerwayne says when he mentions in post 476 that a 64 bit method exists based on Clover or Chameleon. He uses the word or, that leads me to believe what you seek is in the pipeline. We just have to wait until hackerwayne unleashes the goodness. And if my understanding is wrong please correct, I am merely trying to summarize a lot of info that I scraped from making notes last night while reading this whole thread.

Btw part of the reason I am writing this (and thanks for your mention of all the iMac 5,1 work you have done) is to clear things up for folks who aren't patient enough to read this whole thread or search it properly, and just go to the end. If your iMac or MBP has ATI Radeon X1600, you are not obsoleted. I don't know how many posts I read in this thread of iMac and MBP folks asking whether their machine is supported without even searching the thread. Ok nuff said, I wait ... ahem... patiently

 

[gpatpandp]

Thanks for your input, gpatandp, just to clarify don't the Clover and Chameleon boot loaders boot Mavericks on X1600 iMacs, its simply that no 64 bit x1600 kext(s) for MV exist, correct? ie. the issue is graphics support not the boot loader per se?

Yes in my experience, while implementing/installing the following boot loaders: Chameleon/Chimera & Clover, all booted the unsupported OS X system on my 2006 iMac with ATI X1600 inboard graphics all day long. They would not however load the graphic kexts in any shape or form hence my assessing the operating system to be utterly useless in each case.

Also I read from your post 468, "just this morning I outlined the basic procedure for a OS X 10.8.5 64 bit mode install for my iMac with X1600 graphics. That would be a OS X 10.8.5 system that does not utilize MLPF" so you have found useable non-boot loader way(s) to get up and running on an X1600 iMac in your testing, correct? Just clarifying for folks searching this thread.

Correct, the standard long ago patched EFI that I believe Netkas/MacEFIRom created almost 3 years ago is still golden to this very day and enables (with a few other additions/adjustments) an installer to be created. The patched Open GL/CL frameworks coupled with the required kexts finishes off the procedure quite nicely and will result in an OS X 10.8.5 64 bit (non MLPF) system. Suffice it to say, I believe that it is an absolute given at this juncture that no updated ATI kexts will ever be created.

So it does seem pretty cut and dry that without proper kext(s) and/or MVPF, your above stated method, MLPF, and a method Rastafabis mentions are workable options for ML and MV as of -today- for x1600 iMacs (emphasis added, sorry if I missing other or folks who deserve credit, I am sure there are lots), and I understand they have certain limitations.

Right a 64 bit system, repairing permissions, Little Snitch are among features you will acquire in doing it this way however it is as stated, not perfect.

In post #308, hackerwayne, the starter of this thread states, "Development on X1600 has completed." I can't read into this any other way than to mean that hes got something for us X1600 folks that works, we just have to wait. This is further mentioned his two posts 476, and 479:

"64-bit method will be included (For X1600, upgraded graphics on Mac Pro, this is based on Clover or Chameleon)"

(Originally Posted by Hennesie2000 View Post)
Will the 64bit method support updating as the Chameleon method does?

(answer)
Yes.

So I don't think at this point we need to hold out hope that a boot loader will be created. It clearly has been created, unless I am mis-understanding what hackerwayne says when he mentions in post 476 that a 64 bit method exists based on Clover or Chameleon. He uses the word or, that leads me to believe what you seek is in the pipeline. We just have to wait until hackerwayne unleashes the goodness. And if my understanding is wrong please correct, I am merely trying to summarize a lot of info that I scraped from making notes last night while reading this whole thread.

Btw part of the reason I am writing this (and thanks for your mention of all the iMac 5,1 work you have done) is to clear things up for folks who aren't patient enough to read this whole thread or search it properly, and just go to the end. If your iMac or MBP has ATI Radeon X1600, you are not obsoleted. I don't know how many posts I read in this thread of iMac and MBP folks asking whether their machine is supported without even searching the thread. Ok nuff said, I wait ... ahem... patiently

I interpret Wayne's mentioning of the boot loaders to refer to that portion of MVPF that will make it compatible/work with Mac Pro's. He and ML4ALL elected and perhaps it could be said were forced to boot MLPF in 32 bit mode as they were unable to get the graphic kexts to load otherwise. Wayne himself initiated the Mavericks project by stating that the whole process jumped to an entirely new and much more difficult level with the inclusion of OS X 10.9. While I would love to see it, with my having already performed the "grunt work' myself, I personally do not fathom those kexts loading by a boot loader version that currently exist.

 

[NotLordXenu]

How are things with Safari? What happens if you put the Mini to sleep and wake it?

I didn't try the sleep/wake, as it stays running all the time for the house's cameras. I didn't try Safari, I'm running Firefox, which works without issue, other than Flash bc of OpenGL of course.

EDIT: For the time being, I went back to 10.8.4 until some more work is done on it. But I think Mavericks has great potential on older machines.

I have a compilation saved of the Snow Kexts along with the working audio, and wifi from 10.8.x. I'm not certain if the admins allow it's postage depending on their rules/politics whatever. It is completely based on the earlier post (I forget the poster, or where it was on this thread) with the addition of the kexts for the '06 mini's hardware.

Thus I am asking,
Admins?

 

[NotLordXenu]

Ok, I went back and looked. Its based on the MacPro.7z link that Rastafabi provided. Rastafabi, Do I have your permission to repost this with the Mini modifications I made?

 

[Hennesie2000]

Has anyone with a Chameleon dual boot Mavericks/Windows managed to enable AHCI mode for Windows?

The AHCI Enabler app doesn't work in Mavericks but I booted into Lion and ran it. Afterwards I just got a blinking underscore and Chameleon wouldn't load anymore. Rebooted back into Lion, used fdisk to set the active partition to Mavericks. Reinstalled Chameleon and still got the blinking underscore. Reinstalled the MBR that I had backed up and started getting the 4K sector error. Fixed that and now I am back to my original setup but no AHCI mode for Windows 7. I would love to be able to get my Bluray drive working in Windows.

 

[RV-ABZ]

.

 

[Rastafabi]

Ok, I went back and looked. Its based on the MacPro.7z link that Rastafabi provided. Rastafabi, Do I have your permission to repost this with the Mini modifications I made?

Actually you can. It just would be nice to give some credits. Still I would not recommend it just yet, Mac Pro machines keep being the only machines that work properly. So until the graphic issues are not fixed people won't get satisfied.

 

[DaveOfNorway]

Phew just read the entire post , really interesting.
I have a late 2006 Macbook pro 2,2 that is currently running Lion and would be very happy to help out with testing if needed.

Im really looking forward to running mavericks on that machine, i am sure it will run better than Lion.
My main machine is a purpose built hackintosh that loved mavericks greatly over Mountain lion.

 

[gpatpandp]

MacBook Pro (3,1) 15" 2.2 GHz A1226 w/ nVidia Geforce 8600 M GT graphics

Just an F.Y.I for owners of this particular MacBook Pro. As this happens to be the only officially "supported" machine that I own, I thought I would make mention that despite its supposedly supported status, it is common to experience a situation where after installing either OS X 10.8.5 (makes no difference if it's the incremental update, combo, or full .app install) or OS X 10.9 and while the machine will boot to various stages of start-up, the login screen, or the desktop, after installation eventually the entire system will freeze requiring a force/hard shut down and nothing of normal troubleshooting procedure will repair it.

Through extensive testing, I can assure anyone experiencing this same issue that you are not alone, there is nothing wrong with your MacBook Pro, and that it is entirely a software issue. Also whether or not your MacBook Pro had the nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics replaced/upgraded under Apple's warranty a few years back makes no difference as those folks are reporting the same. A quick google search will show that this is a fairly wide spread problem and while I was hopeful that the 10.8.5 supplemental update and/or the release of OS X 10.9 would solve the issue unfortunately for many, myself included, it did not.

As no official fix has yet been released, the vast majority of owners of this particular MacBook Pro have had to stick with OS X 10.8.4 (which runs absolutely flawlessly on this machine might I add). The oddity of this phenomena is that since this issue was reported, different solutions seem to work at random for different folks. At any rate and while I am uncertain that this can be deemed a unanimous fix that will work for everyone, after very careful analysis, I believe I have correctly identified what is problematic in the stock OS X 10.9 Mavericks version for this MacBook Pro model and upon performing the following, my MacBook Pro 3,1 now runs Mavericks as one would expect on a "supported" Mac.

Firstly, I found that both the:

AppleACPIPlatform.kext
IOPCIFamily

…installed when choosing the “Replace AppleACPIPlatform 10.8.1” in the “Standard Install” tab located in Niresh’s “PCI Configuration Begin Fix” Installer package worked better (greater system stability, faster boot up times, and better fan control/heat dispensation) then using the same kexts from my OS X 10.8.4 system.

Once the package is installed, grab these remaining kexts from your OS X 10.8.4 system and replace the same located in your newly installed OS X 10.9 Mavericks System/Library/Extension folder with “Kext Wizzard”:

AppleAHCIPort
AppleSMC
IO80211Family
IOAHCIFamily
IOPlatformPluginFamily
IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily

Hope this is helpful for those who are also effected by this issue.

 

[bosscharles]

First and foremost in constructing/compiling your system, remember that google is your friend. Given that this is a Mavericks forum and while not wanting to "step on any toes”, I will provide a brief outline though I highly recommend that anyone performing this procedure head over to the original 10.8 forum https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1325709/ for answers to questions, file acquisition etc.

While admittedly a somewhat redundant step, installing MLPF initially will provide you all the files needed in order to complete this successfully. Otherwise, I believe there are active links abound in the original https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1325709/ forum where you can acquire the necessary files (specifically/importantly the patched Open GL/CL framework file folders). Use the app “Kext Wizzard” or the appropriate terminal commands for installing additional/needed kext files. It is also necessary to have another bootable OS system (Snow Leopard/Lion) so that you can mount your Mountain Lion system on it and have access to it while building it. I would recommend OS X 10.7.5 Lion as all the kexts files needed (except VoodooHDA.kext) are contained in that OS X system and therefore one would be "killing two birds with one stone" in that respect.

Starting with using the full OS X 10.8.4 (app store).app follow this excellent guide by dead.xx
in creating your installer: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1404548/

Once created, install OS X 10.8.4. Once completed (remember that when using the patched EFI, the install will always announce that it failed at the very end…this is normal), restart though restart to your supported OS system and not your Mountain Lion drive/partition at this point.

Using the .app “Kext Wizzard” and with your Mountain Lion drive/partition mounted on the desktop, select the appropriate mounted mountain lion drive/partition in the pull down tab, and install the following kexts:

ATI1600Controller
ATIFramebuffer
ATIRadeonX1000
ATIRadeonX1000GA
ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver
ATIRadeonX1000VADriver
ATISupport
*VoodooHDA .pkg 2.8.4 (While installing the default OS X 10.7.5 Lion AppleHDA.kext will enable audio in OS X 10.8.4, my findings were that it does not work in OS X 10.8.5). Also and once the VoodooHDA.kext is installed, you will need to delete the supplied AppleHDA.kext in order for the system to instead load/use the VoodooHDA.kext.

Also and again while having the Mountain Lion drive/partition mounted, open the following folders in this sequence: System/Library/Frameworks and locate both the OpenGL & OpenCL folders and move them both to the trash and delete them. Once deleted, copy both patched versions of the same namesake into the same System/Library/Frameworks folder.

That basically should get anyone with an unsupported Mac possessing ATI X1600 graphics a “non MLPF” OS X 10.8.4 64 bit OS system that I have estimated @ 99.8% full functionality.

To update that to OS X 10.8.5, head on over to: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1325709/ AND ON page 139 of that forum refer to the following specific post and dialogue between myself and Rastafabi # 3456, 3457, & 3459 to update your OS X 10.8.4 to OS X 10.8.5. Done.

Thanks!!!!! very kind of you.

 

[krh67]

Hi Hennesie:

So gave this a quick try. I made a bootable Drive from the App Store OS X Mavericks download, redirected Chameleon to boot up the Mavericks installer.

However, on bootup, I get the dreaded "Can't find mach kernel"

Any thoughts?

Ok. So I got my system upgraded to 10.9. It was quite simple. I already had 10.8.5 running via chameleon. As Chameleon and the Installer were on two drives, I didn't want to go and put everything on one drive and go through the whole process or re-blessing the drive etc. I simply upgraded my Mountain Lion partition to Mavericks via target disk mode from another Mavericks compatible MAC.

I did have to update my Chameleon as the old version would not boot correctly with Maverick.

Took about 40 minutes to upgrade and everything is working well.

Thanks for the help...

 

[ricosuave]

Thanks and I am glad it worked for you. You are correct the screen resolution can be changed. The 1280x800 is the highest VESA resolution that my card supports without trying to patch it. The default partition can be done either way. A volume name or the HDD identifier.

Thank you Hennesie2000 for all your work on this thread. I have been reading almost all of the posts and still cannot find a how-to for my 2006 Mac Pro 1.1 install to Mavericks. Could you please link to the page on this thread?

 

[Hennesie2000]

Thank you Hennesie2000 for all your work on this thread. I have been reading almost all of the posts and still cannot find a how-to for my 2006 Mac Pro 1.1 install to Mavericks. Could you please link to the page on this thread?

There is a link on page 24. Also put a link as my homepage on my profile. It is a PDF file.

 

[grizzlayleslay]

Ok, I got Mavericks running on Early 2006 MacMini1,1 flashed to MacMini2,1 and C2D upgrade. I've been reading this forum for 2 days on this, this is my first post. Here is what I found.

Got audio Working. Used kexts from earlier post for macpro. Works great. Also used the same file for the 32bit boot.efi.

Wifi works. I copied my kexts from a 10.8.4 MLPostFacto install, Although it will not join any network that is encrypted, it only works with open networks.

GMA 950 works with 64bit drivers from Snow Leopard. Although there is no QE/CI, but the driver does load, and works very well aside from OpenGL.

I do have to hold OPTION key and select hard drive to boot, as it doesn't like to bless the 32bit boot.efi for some reason.

I do think there is great potential here with the GMA 950. Its not sluggish at all, other than the fact QE/CI won't turn on.

EDIT: Holding down OPTION key is fixed for 32bit boot.efi. Zapped PRAM, and it works without issue now. COMMAND+OPTION+P+R after boot chime.

I have the exact same Mac Mini and I've done the exact same modifications. I'd love to know how you managed to get 10.9 running on that machine.

 

[ricosuave]

There is a link on page 24. Also put a link as my homepage on my profile. It is a PDF file.

Thank you Hennesie.