[Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac

[AppDevMag]

Yep, I can see the partition and everything. Whatever I do I can't get the MB to boot from the partition -

 

[Needleroozer]

I've followed the tutorial pretty well (a couple of times actually). I'm running a Macbook 5,1 with Lion 10.7.5 and when I Install MLPostFactor and ML (in the applications folder) to the Install partition it works fine, but the next step of rebooting and holding option will not bring up the newly installed "install" partition as an option to boot from, even though I've verified the MLPostFactor install was successful.

I believe that the MacBook5,1 is compatible with Mountain Lion without MLPF...

 

[Magarif]

I believe that the MacBook5,1 is compatible with Mountain Lion without MLPF...

Once*again , you are right

 

[AppDevMag]

I thought so too, but every time I try to purchase it from the app store it says "this software is incompatible with your macbook"..

 

[Magarif]

I thought so too, but every time I try to purchase it from the app store it says "this software is incompatible with your macbook"..

Try to download it trough parallels or on some other supported mac and try to install it on your mac......
What GPU is in MB 5.1? is it nvidia 9400 series?

 

[AppDevMag]

I actually did download it from my MBP 9,2 and put it on a thumbdrive and tried to install - didn't work. I'm not sure of the GPU this morning as I ended up taking the machine home last night after having the "upgrade lab" setup in my office for days lol. I'll check the GPU tonight, but what does that really matter (just asking)..

 

[gpatpandp]

Gave it go, unfortunately no go...

I received so many pm about this, that I finally decided to provide some (basic) help.

IMPORTANT: maybe hackerwayne is already far beyond and his technic is much more straight forward, so you probably should wait until his next big release!

advanced users ONLY, you may damage your system (possibly hardware?) => your OWN risk … read EVERYTHING and prepare yourself when trying - this is only basic advice, you may need to look up how to do things; it's good to have a bootable LION on USBImage
this only appeared using Clover!, could not get Chameleon to work with X1600 at all. no issues when apple-efi booted.
This ONLY makes sense for some MacBook Pro or iMac using X1600 GPU, and MacPro with upgraded/64bit driver enabled GPU! - any other system won't work for daily usage (no graphic acceleration)
(Works with FUSION DRIVE. No disk encryption unless you create a (fake) Recovery HD. NO ADVICE HERE - google)
Opposed to all the warnings. If you have some (advanced) os x knowledge and don't mind using the terminal, google for How-Toos it's fairly easy. (I started from close to zero, too.)
The Bios way using a single drive configuration (like most macs):
should work using LION/SL; jump to 3 when having BOOTCAMP

1. add partition (as small as possible [50mb+], best using terminal.app
2. sudo diskutil eraseVolume MS-DOS "BOOT" /dev/disk0sX !!!be carefull, run diskutil list to check what X stands for (possibly 3 or 4)
3. Clover: install to BOOT using options: "to esd", "boot first founded EFI partition" (you may replace complete content of ESD with Chameleon/chimera files - included)
4. rudimentary config.plist edits (SMBIOS MacBook Pro 3.1 ~best) edit using "Clover Configurator.app" (OSX86.net) - further edits: test yourself (probably graphics section)
5. possibly you need to bless the "BOOT" partition (search web)
6. boot SL/LION using Clover (option key, efi boot menu entry "Windows")
7. purchase ML
8. make stock USB-ML-installer (not user whether it works by running the app)
9. boot install USB, install (to USB, over Lion, partition)
10. boot ML
11. (modify GL/CL - X1600 only, add kext) may be extracted from (kext from LION, GL/CL may be extracted from MLPF.app) when you do not have sound install latest VoodooHDA (OSX86.net)
12. don't know about older MacPro GPU! - no edits for ML-compatible ones, some pc ones may work with the right Clover/Chameleon config
13. (not necessary)mod boot.efi/PlatformSupport.plist etc. for non-bios boot (hackerwayne ones provided those files in the past; if you have them your good to go)

Graphic issues are related to the BIOS rom of my GPU (same on Windows XP-7 and Linux Ubuntu). NO hardware fault/damage. I have them ever since.

You may replace the content of the EFI partition with my preconfigured files: They are supposed to work (only deleted some custom hardware settings, unnecessary files).
If you want to try them later/modify the config.plist the EFI can be mounted using the "Clover Configurator.app".

I hope it will help at least some of you.
RastaFabi

Firstly, I must say that is was fun watching/getting Clover to boot on both my iMac and Mac Pro. Unfortunately I am having to report that the fun stopped there as in either case, this fix did not work for me. In all honesty I whole heartedly agree with the author of this post in the respect that once one does his/her own "homework", the process in its entirety is relatively straight forward. As far as the iMac with X1600 graphics goes, this is the second time now that he and I have implemented the same "fix" yet the results have turned out quite differently. I am not entirely certain why exactly this is the case however my hunch is that this might be due to the subtle but seemingly significant difference in the vram between our two X1600 in board graphics chips (mine being 128 mb and I believe his is 256 mb). At any rate when booting up the iMac in Clover, Clover failed right from the get go with loading the appropriate graphic kexts even in Lion. No matter what version of Clover I tried, the result was the same. The graphics were quite distorted and gave a sort of washed out appearance like something Andy Warhol might have painted back in the day. And frankly that was all it took for me to effectively pull the plug on that little experiment.

My Mac Pro faired significantly better though its major flaw was that while booted in Clover, the system just would not recognize the SATA Blu ray optical drive that I have plugged into the SATA port on my Mac Pro's logic board. And while it was nice to be able to boot using only one Hard Drive, I also cut that experiment short as there is no reason to settle for less considering how flawless the Chameleon method has worked for me right from the very beginning.

Oh well, thanks anyway.

 

[daveness123]

iMessage

Hello all. Thanks for the great work thats been done. i have a macbook white late 2006 running ml 10.8.4 flawlessly except i can not for the life of me to get imessage to work. Ive seen someone mention the Chameleon method could someone please explain to me exactly how they did that please. Ive tried installing it but it never worked there was no smbios on my mac.

Thanks for any help its greatly appreciated

 

[AppDevMag]

The macbook I'm trying to get to work (the one that won't boot to the MLPF Install partition) has the GPU Intel GMA x3100 144MB

I'm still unable to get it to boot into my install partition btw even though I've destroyed and created the install partition and installed MLPF successfully on it multiple times - it simple doesn't show up as an optional drive to boot from when holding down option..

 

[Magarif]

The macbook I'm trying to get to work (the one that won't boot to the MLPF Install partition) has the GPU Intel GMA x3100 144MB

I'm still unable to get it to boot into my install partition btw even though I've destroyed and created the install partition and installed MLPF successfully on it multiple times - it simple doesn't show up as an optional drive to boot from when holding down option..

i am sure you know that "install" partition sometimes have another name when you hold the option key like efi or uefi? (just checking)


Developers made success once again with 10.9 MVPF......

 

[AppDevMag]

Yep, just the macbook drive shows up, and the recovery drive - which trying the recovery drive just puts me into a recovery menu..

 

[grizzlayleslay]

Hello everyone. First off, THANK YOU to HackerWayne and ML4All for making this program. Without running into any problems whatsoever, I have it up and running on my Mac Mini.

It's a 2006 Intel Core Solo Mac Mini. Chugged along at 1.5Ghz, with 512MB RAM and a 60GB 5400RPM hard drive. Xbench gave it a paltry score of 47.18.

I've since upgraded it with the following:

1. T7200 chip, 2.0Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
2. SanDisk 120GB SSD SATAIII (yes I know it'll only use SATA1, whatever)
3. Flashed the firmware from MacMini1,1 to MacMini2,1
4. After flashing the firmware, upgraded RAM to 4GB (though it will only see 3 and that's fine)

With Mountain Lion running on it with absolutely zero issues, Xbench gave it a score of 179.54. Talk about getting your money's worth!

Unsurprisingly, some apps hate my configuration, mainly the graphics card. Final Cut Pro X and Photoshop CS6 both gave me nagging windows, and ScreenFlow 4.0 won't record the screen, but by and large everything works fine.

Once MVPostFactor comes out I'd be more than willing to give it a go, provided I can split my partition and do an upgrade from 10.8.4 MLPostFactor.

 

[m33x]

First of all thank you very much!

Today I upgraded my iMac 4,1 and inserted a Core 2 Duo T7200 Merom CPU. The process took a long time and was not quite easy, but I had success and now everything is running just fine.

After installing 10.8.4 via MLPFv0.3 two things do not work:

1. iMessage is not working, I can't login.
2. SMB (Samba) Network Shares can't be accessed. (CMD + K and than smb://192.168.1.10), AFP is working

Is there a fix for this too?

Thank you very much again!

 

[Magarif]

First of all thank you very much!

Today I upgraded my iMac 4,1 and inserted a Core 2 Duo T7200 Merom CPU. The process took a long time and was not quite easy, but I had success and now everything is running just fine.

After installing 10.8.4 via MLPFv0.3 two things do not work:

1. iMessage is not working, I can't login.
2. SMB (Samba) Network Shares can't be accessed. (CMD + K and than smb://192.168.1.10), AFP is working

Is there a fix for this too?

Thank you very much again!

Nice to see that you did it well....

iMessage works for me, but SMB is not working.....

 

[burnout8488]

First of all thank you very much!

Today I upgraded my iMac 4,1 and inserted a Core 2 Duo T7200 Merom CPU. The process took a long time and was not quite easy, but I had success and now everything is running just fine.

After installing 10.8.4 via MLPFv0.3 two things do not work:

1. iMessage is not working, I can't login.
2. SMB (Samba) Network Shares can't be accessed. (CMD + K and than smb://192.168.1.10), AFP is working

Is there a fix for this too?

Thank you very much again!

You and me both. The creator of this has not patched this for our odd CPU swapped machines. Seems like it works on any other C2D iMac though. (Non swapped CPU)

 

[m33x]

I investigated a little bit further

05.10.13 01:37:49,162 com.apple.kextd[12]: Request from non-root process 'NetAuthSysAgent' (euid 501) to load /System/Library/Extensions/smbfs.kext - not allowed.
05.10.13 01:37:49,164 NetAuthSysAgent[2492]: Loading com.apple.filesystems.smbfs status = -603947004
05.10.13 01:37:49,164 NetAuthSysAgent[2492]: SMB_CreateSessionRef: creating smb handle failed, syserr = Input/output error

How to fix this, seems easy to fix by just copying old kext files. But I don't have them...

And does anyone know how to get rid of this iMessage problem. Seems like that apple checks my Serial of my iMac and replies a non-valid token, so I can't use iMessage ...

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Is there a beta of 0.3.1 available with 10.8.5 support?

 

[Danyapple1]

I simply Love it!... Please help me on a few problems.

Hello, I have recently tried out your software tweak on my macbook2,1 with the GMA 950 64mb card, and i upgraded the ram to 2*2gb, also its a late 2006 model. Im actually using it right now! For the most part it runs great (a lil lag here and there).... But when i try to use launchpad my hole computer freezes up and it takes around 40 seconds for it to open, once it is I can not scroll through the apps... the only way out is to hit esc. Another thing is i cant watch videos, i still here the sound though. Okay, pretty much anything with animations is EXTREMELY Slow. Please help me on my few problems.

 

[gpatpandp]

"Mavericks" OS X 10.9 (13A598) Gold Master on Mac Pro 2,1

As expected, OS X 10.9 "Mavericks" Final runs perfectly booting w/ Chimera...64 bit and all

 

[Eweie]

Hi. first of all thank you to everyone involved in this project, you're awesome.

second, I installed ML that I purchased from the app store but it's 10.8.5 since you cant download but the most recent version of an app.
anyway I installed it with MLpostfactor 32bit and everything is working great. (macbook 4,1 early 2008 with GMA X3100, 4.5gb ram.)
I just wanted to ask that since MLPF doesn't have the option for 10.8.5 only .4

if anyone knows if there would be any problems int he future. the system tells me it's 10.8.4 though. been using it all day, feels faster than lion 10.7.5
Many thanks.

oh there is one other problem. file sharing and screen sharing between my desktop seems to be wonky. when I try to file share sometimes it will not connect and the server will stop showing up on the side bar. seems to connect only once per session Im not sure. my desktop is SL.

I just saw that there might be a problem with AFP file shares? Im not sure if it has been solved. if anyone knows any other way of sharing files over lan that works with MLPF please let me know thank you.

 

[ferreguetti]

As expected, OS X 10.9 "Mavericks" Final runs perfectly booting w/ Chimera...64 bit and all

Hi, can you please post it on mavs forum, it may help or give hope for some os us searching their...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1593194/;)

 

[dpfenninger]

Seems like this project has stalled. What is the status on 10.8.5 (and the supplemental update) compatibility? Haven't heard or seen anything posted about an update to MLPF that allows for those of us with 10.8.4 installs to make the move to 10.8.5.

 

[Eweie]

a followup to my first post.
10.8.5 worked fine for me with MLPF but it crashed when I tried to instal little snitch. and I get a kernel panic on startup when it tries to load up the little snitch kext I guess.

I didn't try to fix it but I probably could've just deleted the kext with my lion HD but i decided to not use ML and MLPF because if this happens with little snitch, with what more will it happen. I don't want to thread carefully using my computer, my computer has to be rock solid.

also the afp and screensharing were probably my network's problem, as I had the same issues when I went back to lion. restarting my modem fixed it.

thanks again for the awesome work.

 

[pgrif]

little snitch

a followup to my first post.
10.8.5 worked fine for me with MLPF but it crashed when I tried to instal little snitch. and I get a kernel panic on startup when it tries to load up the little snitch kext I guess.

I didn't try to fix it but I probably could've just deleted the kext with my lion HD but i decided to not use ML and MLPF because if this happens with little snitch, with what more will it happen. I don't want to thread carefully using my computer, my computer has to be rock solid.

also the afp and screensharing were probably my network's problem, as I had the same issues when I went back to lion. restarting my modem fixed it.

thanks again for the awesome work.

Little Snitch is one of several apps that crash ML when it's installed by MLPF. There is no fix. If you want a ROCK SOLID computer i'd suggest that you stay with Lion. Just my opinion, I've been fooling with this 10.8.xx on Macbooks for a year

 

[Eweie]

Little Snitch is one of several apps that crash ML when it's installed by MLPF. There is no fix. If you want a ROCK SOLID computer i'd suggest that you stay with Lion. Just my opinion, I've been fooling with this 10.8.xx on Macbooks for a year

Thats probably a wise suggestion but maybe I'll give MLPF another chance sometime soon.

Is there a list of these applications that are known to either crash or cause kernel panics? especially those on bootup. thank you.

I dont need little snitch as much as I need my work applications. I used ML for a whole day and tested a bunch of apps and some games form the app store it worked pretty nicely but I did not test my work apps.