[Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac

[Vo3Dyx]

Using macbook 4.1 x3100 without correctly working graphics is absolutely awful ;( Problems with switching screens, notification center etc. And for me system crushes while launching Launchpad

 

[BakaAlex]

If i pass for linux first could i install ML GM in a macbook late 2006? ( gma950, macbook 2,1)

 

[CA3iR0]

As i mentioned in the guide, Apple has either completely removed 32 bit kernel or locked it up. (it was present in DP1) Because holding down "3" and "2" on start up and adding arch=i386 does nothing. I couldn't get it to boot in 32 bit mode, therefore non LP64 version of the kexts cannot be used. Eg: all GMA 950 kexts and ATI1600Controller.kext. Unless one can find a way to reenable/reinstall 32bit kernel OR force load 32bit kexts in 64bit mode.

I see...

Thank you for the explanation!

 

[jimjohn]

Hi,
as I see it there is no 32bit mode because mach_kernel is 64bit only. This is what I get on Lion:

computer:~ me$ file /mach_kernel 
/mach_kernel: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/mach_kernel (for architecture x86_64):	Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
/mach_kernel (for architecture i386):	Mach-O executable i386
computer:~ me$

while on ML I get

computer:~ me$ file /mach_kernel 
/mach_kernel: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
computer:~ me$

To confirm my idea, I simply copied the mach_kernel from Lion to Mountain Lion: Now the system started booting but stopped with a kernel panic. If we get a booting system, we might at least be able to profit from user-space improvements. Any volunteers trying to go this route?

Otherwise, I suspect we have to wait for the xnu kernel sources and build them with i386 support compiled in. Does anyone knows how to do this? I could only find instructions for the dated SL kernel.

 

[jimjohn]

Oh and it's not just the kernel. Digging in /System/Library/Extensions, I noticed that kexts like IOACPIFamily are also x86_64 only...
Looks like 32bit mode is really a little further away than I (and probably others) would have thought...

 

[fheusel]

To confirm my idea, I simply copied the mach_kernel from Lion to Mountain Lion: Now the system started booting but stopped with a kernel panic. If we get a booting system, we might at least be able to profit from user-space improvements. Any volunteers trying to go this route?

Maybe you could try using the Kernel from ML Developer Preview 1 (includes i386 binary) and the corresponding System.kext (could be found in Mac OS X Install ESD/Packages/BaseSystemBinaries.pkg using Pacifist).

 

[CA3iR0]

Maybe you could try using the Kernel from ML Developer Preview 1 (includes i386 binary) and the corresponding System.kext (could be found in Mac OS X Install ESD/Packages/BaseSystemBinaries.pkg using Pacifist).

I'll second this!

 

[hackerwayne]

Hi,
as I see it there is no 32bit mode because mach_kernel is 64bit only. This is what I get on Lion:

computer:~ me$ file /mach_kernel 
/mach_kernel: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/mach_kernel (for architecture x86_64):	Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
/mach_kernel (for architecture i386):	Mach-O executable i386
computer:~ me$

while on ML I get

computer:~ me$ file /mach_kernel 
/mach_kernel: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
computer:~ me$

To confirm my idea, I simply copied the mach_kernel from Lion to Mountain Lion: Now the system started booting but stopped with a kernel panic. If we get a booting system, we might at least be able to profit from user-space improvements. Any volunteers trying to go this route?

Otherwise, I suspect we have to wait for the xnu kernel sources and build them with i386 support compiled in. Does anyone knows how to do this? I could only find instructions for the dated SL kernel.

BRILLIANT! Have you tried replacing Kextcache as well? Try and report back! Can you please post the KP message?
Im trying this method, as well as the method fheusel suggest, kernel and kexts from DP1 The question now is, can LP64bit kexts work in i386? If no, that explains why it kernel panic

----------

If i pass for linux first could i install ML GM in a macbook late 2006? ( gma950, macbook 2,1)

Should be able to, you must erase Linux and have a copy of Lion installed before installing ML.

----------

Oh and it's not just the kernel. Digging in /System/Library/Extensions, I noticed that kexts like IOACPIFamily are also x86_64 only...
Looks like 32bit mode is really a little further away than I (and probably others) would have thought...

To complete the picture, i think i can see why replacing mach_kernel ends up with a kernel panic. Simple, when you try to load i386, kexts like IOACPIFamily is in LP64, and not compatible to i386 so important kexts and dependencies can't be loaded so it ended up with a kernel panic.

The solution:

- Create a hacked version of mach_kernel. (Im on it)
- Use kexts from ML DP1 or Lion 10.7.4.

The outcome:

- Kernel is i386 again if above method works.
- Will be able to kextload ATI1600Controller.kext and all the GMA950 kexts bringing full graphics acceleration to all unsupported system.

Also, can anyone list out a full list of kexts thats only 64bit? All 64bit kext need to be replaced because i386 does not support 64bit kext. I will replace them with DP1's kext & see how it goes.

 

[jimjohn]

Have you tried replacing Kextcache as well? Try and report back!

Actually, I decided to delete the kextcache entirely since OSX should be able to boot anyhow (albeit slowly). Instead I opted for replacing the whole /S/L/E directory with the Lion version.
In this way, the kernel started but it died stating

panic(cpu 0 caller 0x561b6a): "Process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed, errno85"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1699.26.8/bsd/kern/kern_exec.c:3546

Either it cannot find it's boot device or does not want to launch the existing launchd for some reason. From my understanding, it should not make a difference for OSX that /sbin/launchd is x86_64 only: for OSX, user-mode processes are allowed to be 64bit even if the kernel is 32bit.

Also, can anyone list out a full list of kexts thats only 64bit? All 64bit kext need to be replaced because i386 does not support 64bit kext. I will replace them with DP1's kext & see how it goes.

I will do the list, but I don't have access to DP1.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

1. Get a copy of Mountain Lion, please purchase the retail version of ML from the Mac App Store. Seriously, buy it, its only $19.99

If I could do this I wouldn't need this guide. I am unable to purchase ML on my Macbook, because it isn't compatible.

 

[jimjohn]

Also, can anyone list out a full list of kexts thats only 64bit? All 64bit kext need to be replaced because i386 does not support 64bit kext. I will replace them with DP1's kext & see how it goes.

The list is pretty long: of the 209 installed kexts, I found 158 that would need to be replaced. Here is only the perl script to keep this post terse. If you don't know what to do with it, I can post the list as well.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

my $dir = '/Volumes/Mountain Lion/System/Library/Extensions';

my $file;
opendir(DIR, $dir);
while($file = readdir(DIR))
{
	next if ($file =~ /^\./);
	my $path = "$dir/$file";

	my $print = 0;
	my @executables = split(/\n/, qx#find "$path" -type f -perm -0111#);
	foreach my $executable (@executables)
	{
		my $output = qx#file "$executable"#;
		if ($output !~ /i386/)
		{
			$print = 1;
			last;
		}
	}

	print("$file\n") if ($print);
}
closedir(DIR);

exit;

 

[BakaAlex]

BRILLIANT! Have you tried replacing Kextcache as well? Try and report back! Can you please post the KP message?
Im trying this method, as well as the method fheusel suggest, kernel and kexts from DP1 The question now is, can LP64bit kexts work in i386? If no, that explains why it kernel panic

----------



Should be able to, you must erase Linux and have a copy of Lion installed before installing ML.

----------



To complete the picture, i think i can see why replacing mach_kernel ends up with a kernel panic. Simple, when you try to load i386, kexts like IOACPIFamily is in LP64, and not compatible to i386 so important kexts and dependencies can't be loaded so it ended up with a kernel panic.

The solution:

- Create a hacked version of mach_kernel. (Im on it)
- Use kexts from ML DP1 or Lion 10.7.4.

The outcome:

- Kernel is i386 again if above method works.
- Will be able to kextload ATI1600Controller.kext and all the GMA950 kexts bringing full graphics acceleration to all unsupported system.

Also, can anyone list out a full list of kexts thats only 64bit? All 64bit kext need to be replaced because i386 does not support 64bit kext. I will replace them with DP1's kext & see how it goes.

Should be able to, you must erase Linux and have a copy of Lion installed before installing ML.

So could it works good?

 

[jimjohn]

Instead I opted for replacing the whole /S/L/E directory with the Lion version.
In this way, the kernel started but it died stating

panic(cpu 0 caller 0x561b6a): "Process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed, errno85"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1699.26.8/bsd/kern/kern_exec.c:3546

Ok, if you try to launch a ML program on Lion (simply type /Volumes/Mountain Lion/sbin/md5 in Terminal.app), you get a segmentation fault/illegal instruction/abort trap.
Guessing blindly, that is because of unavailable kernel features (Gatekeeper or - more probable - improved ASLR comes to my mind...).

 

[kobzee]

GMA950 HW Acc

Hi All,

Wayne, I really appreciate your effort in this whole ML compat fight, good to know that there is a chance that we can run ML on our older book.

I have a similar mid 2007 macbook and I had installed DP1 with the folder changing technique and works well - except the hw acc but it's even faster than my Lion. Really fast. No crashes, no panics, nothing.

First, without the Lion GMA950 kext, the system handled only one display and anims like the launchpad were choppy. Using the Lion kexts made it better, but still no videos, QWARTZ or any more acceleration - even if I'm loaded the 32bit kernel with the 32bit kexts which works well on Lion. I don't understand... Why?

CA3iR0: still no hw acc on GMA950 with that method, right?

 

[IllmasterMath]

I've followed the instructions on the first page precisely, but my MacBook 4,1 gets stuck at the Apple screen with the progress wheel when I try to boot from the installation drive

 

[Sveto]

Here on a MacBook3.1
All done as per instructions, the 8Gb drive boots up successfully,+ but when the installer application opens it gives a small window saying "MacOS can not be installed on this computer" and 2 options "recover form Backup" or "Restart". So basically there must be one more thing into the installer app of the BaseSystem drive that needs to be changed to include the unsupported machines.

 

[sevimli]

Image

UPDATE: 7/26/2012 The guide has been modified to support the retail version of Mountain Lion.

A little note:
Unfortunately, either Apple has completely removed 32bit kernel, or locked it up. I tried to start it by holding down "3" and "2" and by typing arch=i386 in com.apple.boot.plist did nothing. (Kernel is still LP64) And because of that, I can't get 32bit kexts started such as ATI1600Controller.kext and all the Intel GMA950 kexts.


What works what doesn't (to avoid confusion)
- Mac Minis with X3100 > Perfect
- Mac Pros with upgraded graphics > Perfect
- MacBooks with X3100 > Works, display brightness issue
- MacBookAir with X3100 > Works, display brightness issue
- MacBookPros with X1600 > Graphics Issue (Frame buffer mode with Core Image lacks Quartz Extreme)
- iMacs with X1900 > Graphics Issue (Frame buffer mode with Core Image lacks Quartz Extreme)
- MacBooks with GMA 950 > Graphics (doesn't work at all)
- iMacs with GMA 950 >Graphics (Doesn't work at all)
- Mac Pros with 7300GT and X1900XT >Graphics (Doesn't work at all)
- Mac Minis with GMA 950 > Graphics (Doesn't work at all)


For education purpose only. Try at your own risk, please back up everything before installing or install it on a second partition.

Requirements:
- a Mac with Core 2 Duo processor and with Lion installed.
- At least 2GB of RAM.
- A copy of Mountain Lion.
- 8GB USB Thumb drive
- A second partition with at least 20GB free. Name it Mountain Lion.

Full instructions:

1. Get a copy of Mountain Lion, please purchase the retail version of ML from the Mac App Store. Seriously, buy it, its only $19.99

2. Boot up to the Lion partition, show hidden file in Finder. Google it if you're unsure.

3. Right click on OS X Mountain Lion.app and click "show all content" Navigate to Shared Support and drag "InstallESD.dmg" to your desktop.

4. Enable hidden files if you haven't. You should see a file called BaseSystem.dmg, open it and mount it.

5. Plug in your 8GB thumb drive and bring up Disk Utility. Click on the 8GB drive and select "Restore" tab, next, drag BaseSystem.dmg from the sidebar to "Source" and the thumb drive to "Destination". The process should take approximately 10 to 20 minutes, when its done, go to the newly restored 8GB drive, navigate to System>Installation and replace the file "Packages" with the one in InstallESD. The file should be 4.xGB.

6. Once the copying is done we have to replace some files, download this modified 1.14MB zip file.

7. Open up the ZIP file. You should get a folder called MountainLionHack, and it contains 2 folder, which is CoreServices and i386. Open up the 8GB thumb drive, navigate to /System/Library and MERGE the patched CoreServices folder in, when it ask about files replacement, click replace. Next, on the same 8GB drive, navigate to /usr/standalone and MERGE the patched i386 folder in. Replace files when asked.

8. Reboot your Mac and hold down "Option" while booting. Select the thumb drive and hit enter. Once you're at the installation screen, click next till you reach the destination drive, click show all drives and select the 20GB partition you made for Mountain Lion, hit next to install. Once installation is completed system will restart, DO NOT try to boot into Mountain Lion. While restarting, hold down "Option" and boot back into Lion 10.7. Bring up Finder, open Mountain Lion drive and navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices and replace PlatformSupport.plist with the one in MountainLionHack folder.

9. Reboot into Mountain Lion drive and set up your Mac. (Guide is not done yet, please continue reading)

10. You will realize that sound and graphics will not work.
Note: Fix sound guide will be up in a bit.

UPDATE: 8.55PM GMT+8
Sound guide
- First download this zip file, it contains 2 file, 1 hacked AppleHDA kext by me, and Kext Utility by Cvad-Mac.
- You will need to install the hacked kext. Launch Kext Utility and drag AppleHDA.kext into Kext Utility. Type in your password and wait. Once its done, reboot and you should get sound now.

11. Working Mountain Lion on not supported system. (Except graphics, for now)

12. Profit$$

Give it a thumbs up if it helped you =) Good luck!

I followed exactly your instructions; with my macbook air1,1 I am getting "MAC OS X Can't be installed on this computer" error. Tried 2 times.

What would be the problem?

 

[hackerwayne]

I followed exactly your instructions; with my macbook air1,1 I am getting "MAC OS X Can't be installed on this computer" error. Tried 2 times.

What would be the problem?

Could you post the installation log? (When it says failed, hit, CMD+L) and see whats the problem.

----------

Here on a MacBook3.1
All done as per instructions, the 8Gb drive boots up successfully,+ but when the installer application opens it gives a small window saying "MacOS can not be installed on this computer" and 2 options "recover form Backup" or "Restart". So basically there must be one more thing into the installer app of the BaseSystem drive that needs to be changed to include the unsupported machines.

Please post installation log. When it says failed, hit cmd+L

----------

Ok, if you try to launch a ML program on Lion (simply type /Volumes/Mountain Lion/sbin/md5 in Terminal.app), you get a segmentation fault/illegal instruction/abort trap.
Guessing blindly, that is because of unavailable kernel features (Gatekeeper or - more probable - improved ASLR comes to my mind...).

yeah, that means we need a patched kernel, not just a vanilla kernel from Lion. First things first, if thats the case, is Gatekeeper and the required components in 64? If yes, it would be a big issue.

 

[aNILEator]

Clean install?

Hi wayne, having a little trouble following your instuctions from #22.

I have a white macbook 3,1 late 2007 with x3100, 4GB ram and 2.2GHZ Intel core 2 duo

I wish to do a format and clean install of the whole system. Have purchased a 16GB USB flash drive, reformated the flash stick to GUID partition map with Mac OS journaled format.

reading down the tutorial you say I should make a 20GB partition and then install mountain lion to that so as to overwrite a .plist later on from 10.7 -> 10.8 can this not be put onto the USB drive and a whole clean system installed at the dialogue screen?

I've not been in the osx86 scene since 2008 (when I got my macbook) but I remember a lot of installer discs being modified to include options for specific kexts etc back then (and then I think auto selecting scripts for what your system needed if you didn't know yourself), could this not be applied here?

Just need a bit more instruction (maybe a new clean thread with screenshots/video?) as can get a bit lost, especially at the dragging volumes around in disk utility restore panel.

 

[Juventino]

I really appreciate what you're doing here! thank you hackerwayne
the purpose of making a new partition to install ML on it is only to not mess with our current OS, right?
I have a MacBook 3,1 and if the only issue is the screen brightness (according to post #22), I can live with it (since I use an external display most of the time anyway)
so can I use the same method and just upgrade Lion to Mountain Lion?

 

[Sveto]

Booted on Macbook3.1

Ok, here how I managed to get it going.
Get 2 thumb drives. First of 8GB and another one bigger for the actual system.
1. Restore the "InstallESD.dmg" from Mountain Lion to the 8GB flash (as explained many times)
2. Find any mac that is authorized to boot in Mountain Lion and have both flash drives with you. Start that mac with option, select the 8GB drive and go through the process of installing ML onto the bigger flash drive (I suggest 32GB flash, or at least 16GB).
3.When done, boot boot from that bigger flash drive, go though the process of creating an account and so on. Once in the finder, I suggest deactivating as many things as possible not be of weight later in the process (Disable notifications, Wdgets, Autoupdates... all small little things, it is not obligatory, but makes the process faster later on.) Also connect to the wireless to have it ready.
4. Now shut down that borrowed mac you don need it anymore.
5. Plug the bigger flash drive in your Lion computer. Get the zipped file described in this thread. Replace the files in /System/Library/CoreServices and in /usr/standalone/i386
6. Get Kext Wizard and install following files into the big flash drive:
(all are located in System/Library/Extensions in your Lion installation you install them to your bigger Mountain Lion external flash drive in the corresponding place)
AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext
AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext
AppleIntelGMAX3100GA.plugin
AppleIntelGMAX3100GLDriver.bundle
AppleIntelGMAX3100VADriver.bundle
Now for the audio I installed the same way also that "hacked" audio driver from the creator of this thread and I placed it also on the Extensions together with the other .kext files, but I have no audio. It shows changes in the volume when I click on the keyboard, but no sound. In the control panel all the different alerts are dimmed out.
NOw you're ready. Restart and boot from the external bigger flash drive in Mountain Lion. Works with the following problems:
* No sound
* No brightness control (the screen is not at max as previously stated, but at a normal level)
* There is a slight graphics glitch in notifications, which is not too bad I guess a bug that no one corrected for this type of machine. Other than this graphics are smooth and accelerated. THey seem to work even better than Lion on the same machine. Mind you I have 4gb of RAM
Now you can make a bootable backup with carbonecompycloner or whatever and you're done so you could instal on your main drive at any given moment.
I would gladly accept any help in fixing audio and video, for the rest the machine works like a charm under Mountain Lion.

Ok upon further investigation I have following points to report.
1. All programs work (make sure you change in the "Security and Privacy" CP that all applications can be installed, so Gate Keeper is disabled
2. Video: kext are not loaded (checked in the sys profiler), so I guess those intel .kext in my guide are not needed so far because they don't load. The display os recognized as internal with 64mb of shared ram, where 3100 Intel chip with loaded drivers is capable of using 144mb of shared memory. So that explains the graph glitches and all, if we manage to load the drivers, video will work like a charm. I'm able to play 1080p movies now, but the refresh rate is not smooth, it lacks video memory.
3. Audio: strange enough in the sys profiler audio is recognized exactly as in Lion, it lets me change volume, but I have no sound.
4. The system reports I'm running a much earlier build of Mountain Lion than what is installed ( I think it was 26A128p) which must be because of the hacked files we installed earlier.
5. That big external flash drive you created can not be put back and booted in the original Mountain Lion capable mac that created it in the first place. Whatever changes we made, we have locked that installation only to a particular group of older hardware. I'm saying this because in Lion and before we were able to boot an external installation in any mac that supported that OS

OK FINAL EDIT
After using the tool and the hacked kext provided by hackerwayne, now I have audio too. The only remaining problem as he indicated is the video not loading the proper drivers because they must be 32bit. The rest loads in 64bit and it works really sweet. I hope for any help on the video drivers and the macbook 3.1 will be one sweet machine under Mountain Lion.
On a side note it is a real shame from apple not to support those models under ML. It would have taken them what an hour of coding. They are becoming very greedy. That's why after being so loyal to apple for over 16 years I bought Samsung Galaxy S3 and let me tell you something I'm never looking back to the iPhone that I keep in the drawer. A new king is in town and Apple better shape up their act. Fame comes and goes fast.

 

[Trunkz]

Brief update, but I've got 10.8 GM workin on a late 2006 macbook (2,1 model) with graphics. Not sure if QE/CI is working however. Full guide will be posted when I'm back home.

 

[TheGenerous]

Image

Brief update, but I've got 10.8 GM workin on a late 2006 macbook (2,1 model) with graphics. Not sure if QE/CI is working however. Full guide will be posted when I'm back home.

Mine had hiccups with Lion and I downgraded to 10.6.7. (mine has 2.5 GB in RAM)

Please report its performance. Thanks

 

[Archy]

So?

So tell me pls, what solution i must use to install on MacBook white 2006 with Intel950?
Is it possible (topic name) or NOT (first post)?

 

[BakaAlex]

Image

Brief update, but I've got 10.8 GM workin on a late 2006 macbook (2,1 model) with graphics. Not sure if QE/CI is working however. Full guide will be posted when I'm back home.

¡God! ¡you are my hero! it works good? could works with 1gb of ram my late 2006 macbook? only have 1 gb of ram