[Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac

[Heshion]

RV-ABZ - offline contact for specific questions on sound?

Not for some (extended?) time because Wayne advised a couple of days ago that all work on MLPF was temporarily suspended (he actually used the word "terminated").

I'd like some further details about the Chameleon/Jabberwock type of install. But the primary use of my machine is for CoreAudio work. Can I contact you via the OSXL site or some other way to ask you some direct questions about this method?

 

[RV-ABZ]

Heshion, not owning one of the targeted Mac models and, therefore, having never used it, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the full details of the Chameleon/Jabberwork method, except knowing it's allowed MacPro1,1 owners to install full Vanilla ML and Mavericks (i.e. the RollsRoyce to me).

I would advise you to contact those people who posted about it in successful terms, that'd be more much more valuable to you. You'll find many references to the method in the Mavericks-equivalent post in OS X Mavericks (10.9) section. It's a lot easier to read as the thread is "only" about 18pages long at the moment.

 

[RV-ABZ]

[...] How to recognize 5770 and continue boot?
It only shows bootscreen, ring is spinning… Can i edit anything?

Thanks in advance!

If you search the web, you'll probably find mixed reports about that card and ML. The original card fitted to Apple Macs does not seem to work well. You'd probably be much better off swapping for a known supported card and, if it's for installing ML on a MacPro1,1, use the Chameleon solution instead of MLPF to keep a full Vanilla installation.

 

[dakwar]

Go to advanced options in chrome and disable hardware acceleration.

and I don't know about finder but to me works fine, in any case I use Pathfinder instead since leopard. 100x better than even the mavericks finder

and windows samba shares don't work at the moment. only apple file shares. personally I don't have a need to ever connect to a windows computer thank god. but there might be a work around I'm not sure.

Thanks Eweie. I deactivated hardware acceleration in Chrome and now its stable. Finder has been stable too.


Guys, now I have a new problem. iMessages (MLPF v3.0, OS 10.8.5) says "Your Apple ID xxxx Can't be used to set up iMessage at this time. If this is a new Apple ID, you do not need to create another one. To use this Apple ID with iMessage, contact iMessage support with the code below. Customer Code: xxxx"

xxxx = redacted info

I have two Parallels virtual machines too (one mountain lion, one mavericks) running on this same laptop that now also give me the same error and won't let me use iMessages on them.

iMessages on my iPad and iPhone works fine - I can log in and out no problems, and can send and receive imessages. Any ideas?

 

[cmaus]

iMessage Hack

Have you tried using this in Terminal:

Open Terminal and type
sudo nvram 4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14:MLB=(SN + 6 random digits)

3. After the "=" in the command copy and paste your Mac's serial from System Profiler and add 6 random digits to the end of it
4. Press Enter
5. Type in password
6. Press Enter
7. Reboot

?

 

[gpatpandp]

Well, it's finally official from Wayne himself:

• there will be no MVPF support for GMA950 systems
• MVPF support for GMA X3100 systems will remain buggy (so not worth it in my opinion - can't imagine anyone seriously running 10.9 on X3100 for the sake of it)
• MVPF will support ATI X1600 models (and that's pretty much about it)

Here is to hoping that MVPF will offer a more thorough/comprehensive range of full functionality then MLPF did now that it will focus on one unsupported inboard graphic chip. While I possess the utmost respect for what MLPF accomplished and fully understand that it provided a viable option for those with no other alternative available to them, personally it just never made sense to me to swap out one 32 bit system for a hacked version of another. When testing Lion OS X 10.7.5 with any MLPF Mountain Lion version on our iMac with ATI X1600 graphics, the "bump up" was so negligible compared to what was lost in applying the "upgrade" that it simply was never worth it too me.

The best 10.8 hack for the iMac with ATI X1600 graphics that I have found currently is the utilization of the appropriate OS X 10.7.5 ATI kexts coupled with both the patched GL/CL frameworks. This set up provides an OS X 10.8.4 64 bit system (the patched framework won't work in OS X 10.8.5) that I would estimate @ 99.8 % full functionality. Repairing permissions, Little Snitch are among several key components that fully operate in this set-up. And while nvram is not supported on this system, I have found that porting over an account from an OS X 10.7.5 Lion system coupled with the addition of the "PlatformUUID.kext" gets FaceTime to work. I look forward to trying out MVPF when it becomes available.

Oh and just an F.Y.I...there was bit of a minor break through over at the 10.9 on older macs forum where it has been discovered that it is now possible to install/boot Chameleon on a HFS+/GUID partition. I installed Chameleon on the iMac with ATI X1600 graphics yesterday just to see if it would afford me better results then I achieved earlier this past summer when I attempted the same accept then it was formatting the entire hard drive in MBR. While the latest version of Chameleon did indeed boot Mountain Lion from a hfs+/GUID partition, it still will not load the appropriate ATI graphic kexts and made absolutely no difference from my earlier findings.

 

[Rastafabi]

[...]
The best 10.8 hack for the iMac with ATI X1600 graphics that I have found currently is the utilization of the appropriate OS X 10.7.5 ATI kexts coupled with both the patched GL/CL frameworks. This set up provides an OS X 10.8.4 64 bit system (the patched framework won't work in OS X 10.8.5) that I would estimate @ 99.8 % full functionality.
[...]

Actually it works with 10.8.5 (currently using it). As MLPF works with 10.8.5 (using 10.8.4 settings) obviously 10.8.5 works with 64bit, too.
You can update using the combo update installer and before rebooting replacing the boot efi files with the hacked one as well as replacing the frameworks and The PlatformSupport.plist afterwards you can install the Appstore's supplemental 10.8.5 update without any edits. This technique worked for me.

Could you explain what your actual edits in the PlatformUUID.kext were?
I tried using SnowLeopards FaceTime Version and got it to Launch, but this workaround didn't work.

 

[dakwar]

Have you tried using this in Terminal:

Open Terminal and type
sudo nvram 4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14:MLB=(SN + 6 random digits)

3. After the "=" in the command copy and paste your Mac's serial from System Profiler and add 6 random digits to the end of it
4. Press Enter
5. Type in password
6. Press Enter
7. Reboot

?

Tried it. Same error. Tried it again using my UUID. Same error.

 

[gpatpandp]

Actually it works with 10.8.5 (currently using it). As MLPF works with 10.8.5 (using 10.8.4 settings) obviously 10.8.5 works with 64bit, too.
You can update using the combo update installer and before rebooting replacing the boot efi files with the hacked one as well as replacing the frameworks and The PlatformSupport.plist afterwards you can install the Appstore's supplemental 10.8.5 update without any edits. This technique worked for me.

Could you explain what your actual edits in the PlatformUUID.kext were?
I tried using SnowLeopards FaceTime Version and got it to Launch, but this workaround didn't work.

Thanks for the heads up regarding OS X 10.8.5. Everything eventually aligned and is working but as usual, my install was not as straight forward and required some additional tweaking. Specifically and for those attempting the same, both the ATISupport.kext and the ATIFramebuffer.kext needed to be rolled back to the versions used in OS X 10.8.4. And most the puzzling was that absolutely no version of the AppleHDA.kext enabled audio. I no matter what version I tried, from 2.2.0 to 2.4.7 and EVERYONE in between, I just couldn't get my OS X 10.8.5 system to recognize the kext. Finally I deleted the AppleHDA.kext all together and installed the VoodooHDA.kext v2.8.4 and I now have system audio.

Regarding the PlatformUUID.kext, I do not exactly remember entirely however I do not think I needed to adjust and/or edit it at all. I recall installing it while porting over a working FaceTime account from either a OS X 10.7.5 Lion account or it might have even been a OS X 10.8.4 MLPF account. Also though I do not believe this to have made the difference in getting FaceTime to work as my understanding is that it is the logic board ID and not the machines serial that is communicated back to Apple's servers, a few weeks ago, I was searching around on any mac forum I could find while just reading what folks are generally reporting etc and stumbled one where a guy had taken his intel mac in for repair and the technician working on his machine left behind the boot cd that flashes the motherboard and changes a mac serial number to whatever you want it to be. He offered it up for download and I swooped it up and changed the iMac's serial to the closest model up that is Mountain Lion supported. But like I mentioned, I do not believe that made any difference as only FaceTime is working and not iMessages but you never know.

Such a busy week hacking the household Macs

1.) MacBook Pro 15" 3,1 A1226 supposedly both Mountain Lion OSX 10.8.5/Mavericks OS X 10.9 supported...NOT...now running OS X 10.9 (13A603) as it should have been without me having to mess with it.

2.) Mac Pro 2,1 now running OS X 10.9 (13A603) on one (1) hard drive with Chimera 2.2.1 installed and booting from a HFS+/GUID partition

and now lastly

3.) iMac with ATI X1600 graphics now running OS X 10.8.5 (12F45) in 64 bit mode

whew !!!

 

[bidwellian]

I have been trying to get Mavericks/ML working on my Mac pro for months. I had MLPF working but the graphics were laggy and unusable as a 3D graphics workstation. I'm about ready to make my mac pro a windoze box...

Mac Pro 2,1 now running OS X 10.9 (13A603) on one (1) hard drive with Chimera 2.2.1 installed and booting from a HFS+/GUID partition

Hey gpatpandp, Did you install chimera and OSX on same partition? Did you fake a 3.1 serial number? Did you have to use hacked boot and mach_kernal? How did you get chameleon to boot off the USB installer? I get "No Bootable Devices"

Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro 1.1 (flashed as 2.1)
Oct-core 2.66ghz
Nvidia 8800GT
16GB Ram

 

[Carlanga]

Just updated my mid 2007 Mac Mini a few days ago and it works like a charm! Most of the time it feels faster than 10.7.
Just a few little bugs I've noted so far are Pixelmator 3 and jDownloader not working….

JDownloader is working with me, I have a mid 2007macbook so GMA 950 card.
At first the official DMG didn't want to open in it (same w/ Azureus; these are the only two dmgs that have not worked). I opened the dmg in Lion extracted and copied the installer to ML and ran it inside ML. The installation went fine and has been working perfectly ever since. Maybe try to get the official dog from the dev.


---------

FYI: If anyone had Skype crashing on them, find the next older version, the one before october. That one has not crashed while the latests one (oct) crashes my mac while on a call around 10mins in.

So far my ML has been working great and way faster than Lion, again thanks a ton Wayne!

 

[asmb77]

iMessage Hack worked for me

Have you tried using this in Terminal:

Open Terminal and type
sudo nvram 4D1EDE05-38C7-4A6A-9CC6-4BCCA8B38C14:MLB=(SN + 6 random digits)

3. After the "=" in the command copy and paste your Mac's serial from System Profiler and add 6 random digits to the end of it
4. Press Enter
5. Type in password
6. Press Enter
7. Reboot

?

This worked for me on a Macbook 2,1 when iMessage randomly stopped working, thanks so much!

 

[hackerwayne]

Just so you guys know. I didn't abandon MLPF, just made it whole lot better.

First, we're testing the possibility of having 32-bit running on Mavericks (not gonna go into detail since this thread is about ML). If its possible, then GMA 950 will run Mavericks.

Second, MLPF V3.1 is scrapped, it will be integrated into MacPostFactor along with all the bug fixes, "10.8 only" beta version of MacPostFactor will be released for 10.8 once i completed the UI of the app.

Third, we're still thinking whether we should combine 10.8 and 10.9 installer under the same roof as it will make the installer quite big (400MB+)

 

[Doritez]

Awesome!!!

Just so you guys know. I didn't abandon MLPF, just made it whole lot better.

Image

First, we're testing the possibility of having 32-bit running on Mavericks (not gonna go into detail since this thread is about ML). If its possible, then GMA 950 will run Mavericks.

Second, MLPF V3.1 is scrapped, it will be integrated into MacPostFactor along with all the bug fixes, "10.8 only" beta version of MacPostFactor will be released for 10.8 once i completed the UI of the app.

Third, we're still thinking whether we should combine 10.8 and 10.9 installer under the same roof as it will make the installer quite big (400MB+)

I for one am amazed at how far this project has reached and a big supporter of it. I think even though the combination of both 10.8/9 installer would be big maybe it would be better to combine hence less work in developing each program installer separately. In any case great Job you guys are like the Cyanogenmod/Jailbreak nation of OS X, Keep it up

 

[gpatpandp]

I have been trying to get Mavericks/ML working on my Mac pro for months. I had MLPF working but the graphics were laggy and unusable as a 3D graphics workstation. I'm about ready to make my mac pro a windoze box...



Hey gpatpandp, Did you install chimera and OSX on same partition? Did you fake a 3.1 serial number? Did you have to use hacked boot and mach_kernal? How did you get chameleon to boot off the USB installer? I get "No Bootable Devices"

Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro 1.1 (flashed as 2.1)
Oct-core 2.66ghz
Nvidia 8800GT
16GB Ram

Firstly, I would not recommend utilizing a BOOT/Chameleon and OS X set-up on the same hard drive. Since applying it and posting here the other day that I had done so, I have since tested it out found it to be an unstable, buggy, gimmick of concept despite the fact that the dude who came up with it (I think he wants to be anointed king and equates this trick similarly with finding a cure for cancer) will tell you otherwise. The two (2) drive set-up described here in detail: http://www.jabbawok.net/?p=47 is still the best way to go for any unsupported Mac Pro.

The only thing that you might need to test out is how well your nVidia 8800GT graphics card will do. Note that "jabbawok" states, "my 8800GT did odd things on DP1 but may be OK on newer builds" (of OS X 10.8 he is referring to).

Just follow his guide and you should be good to go in no time at all. Feel free to write back if you encounter any snags.

 

[redetection]

Hello everyone!

Recently I've installed mountain lion 10.8.4 to get Xcode5 working (much thanks to @hackerwayne this is possible at all!), but I got some problems with graphics acceleration. I have macbook2,1 (black mid 2007 13") with GMA950. AFAIU, graphics acceleration should work fine, but it does not. Yes, I'm able to run launchpad, but it is really slow and unusable. It seems, GMA kexts are loaded, but I have no idea why it's broken.
Can you please help me? I can provide any additional info.

"About this Mac" says "Graphics: Intel GMA 950 64 MB of Shared System Memory", is it okay?

 

[bidwellian]

thanks for the reply gpatpandp,

I tried jabbawok's method, bought a 8GB SSD and the SATA to IDE adapter... I couldn't get the SSD drive to be properly formatted. Does snow leopard need a special SSD driver? Maybe I bought a broken SSD off eBay...

I tried with a single drive and a bootcamp partition with chameleon but only got as far as boot0 error.

I'm glad MacPostFactor is still in development!!!

HackerWayne, may I suggest adding an option for adding extra tools to the Utilities menu on the installer partition? I would love to keep the installer as my 911 disk.

 

[hackerwayne]

thanks for the reply gpatpandp,

I tried jabbawok's method, bought a 8GB SSD and the SATA to IDE adapter... I couldn't get the SSD drive to be properly formatted. Does snow leopard need a special SSD driver? Maybe I bought a broken SSD off eBay...

I tried with a single drive and a bootcamp partition with chameleon but only got as far as boot0 error.

I'm glad MacPostFactor is still in development!!!

HackerWayne, may I suggest adding an option for adding extra tools to the Utilities menu on the installer partition? I would love to keep the installer as my 911 disk.

What do you want in the Utilities menu?

 

[tr43]

hackerwayne, you posted a image twitter with system requeriments for Mac Post Factor, that say iMac early 2006 & mid 2007 will be supported.
iMac 6.1 (late 2006) with 7300gt will be supported?

Thanks

 

[bidwellian]

What do you want in the Utilities menu?

I want to add utilities like Disk Warrior, Drive Genius or iPartition to the Utilities menu.

I tried to drag-drop programs to the Utilities menu (in MLPV install partition) but they don't show up. Not a big deal, just thought it would be cool to customize the Utilities pull down.

 

[Toby Goodbar]

Been watching this post for awhile now.

GREAT Work! AMAZING!

I think i may be ready to make the switch. the only reason is because having iMessages beta / messages.app canceled has been HIGHLY irritating for me with my macbook for a myriad of reasons.

if i could get messages.app working on lion, i wouldn't even bother but i don't think anyone is even trying. [are they?]

i have a macbook 4,1 x3100 graphics card and a copy of 10.8.3

Can i just upgrade my 10.7 by following the OP instructions except use a usb drive?
My understanding is that all the bugs have been worked out with sleep modes, iCloud, Messages etc?

 

[SteaKnife]

If we are taking votes, I say make 1 app, even if its a 400MB installer..

That splash screen on the MPF app looks great.

YOU GUYS ROCK!

 

[panjandrum]

Brilliant!

Just stopped back in to see what kind of progress has been made here. This is brilliant. I do part-time IT work for a school running mostly 7+ year old macs combined with a handful of newer ones. The number of problems users experience when logging into their Open Directory accounts is under Lion / ML and then back and forth between them is just absurd (and really shows how much Apple "cares" about the user-experience IMHO). Like most educational environments they have next to zero money with which to replace the aging systems with new ones. Next summer (2014) hopefully MacPostFactor will be in state where I can get ML or even Mavericks up and running on one example of each model and then re-image everything else from there, thus creating the excellent "Apple" experience that the staff and students used to have.

If we can pull that off I will insist that the school cough-up and decent donation for your project!

Thanks for all the hard work.

P.S. I vote for a single installer. Internet speeds are fast enough now that even the slowest connection usually don't have a problem with a 400mb file...

 

[swatc1h]

hello and nice work . anyways i've obtained 10.8.4 and followed each step except step #6 which i can't get pass on . i boot onto efiboot but it get's stuck on the apple logo and keeps spinning .

on q&a for mlpostfactor "3. Stuck at white screen? Boot into "Install" and repair permissions for ML." how do i do this if it relates to the above .

my machine a macpro1 1/x5355/ati5770

 

[redep]

Works MLPOSTFACTOR with osx 10.6.8?

peder