[Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac

[Luigi222]

Please I need some help, I used the latest macpostfactor to install mountain lion on my firmware flashed Macmini 2.1 late 2006, But I dont have graphics aceleration. Only one screen resolution even tho it installed 32bit, and if I click lauchpad it freezes the mac... I use the os x ml 10.8.5 app store... i also saw that it says the intel gma 950 kext didnt load...

Some please help me... i am newbie at these things...

 

[creativetags]

I've tried all 3 methods to install 10.8 on my MacBook 2,1

macOS Extractor got to autopatch - Installer fails and log says: Feb 21 21:40:32 installd[487]: ./preinstall: Could not recognize "/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg" as an image file. Even though OS X Install ESD is mounted and there is a BaseSystem.dmg there.

MLPostFactor won't let me install on a USB drive saying "Network disks aren't supported". If I install on a partition the mac won't let me boot from anything other than the primary partition (is that a limitation of this model?)

MacPostFactor made a USB Installer but when I boot from it it freezes on the grey apple logo during startup.

Ideas?

 

[Luigi222]

I've tried all 3 methods to install 10.8 on my MacBook 2,1

macOS Extractor got to autopatch - Installer fails and log says: Feb 21 21:40:32 installd[487]: ./preinstall: Could not recognize "/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg" as an image file. Even though OS X Install ESD is mounted and there is a BaseSystem.dmg there.

MLPostFactor won't let me install on a USB drive saying "Network disks aren't supported". If I install on a partition the mac won't let me boot from anything other than the primary partition (is that a limitation of this model?)

MacPostFactor made a USB Installer but when I boot from it it freezes on the grey apple logo during startup.

Ideas?

Well here is what I did and it worked perfect... But in my case I have a Mac mini late 2006...

Don't use the latest macpostfactor tool 2.0.1 I believe.... I used that one first and for some odd reason everything worked good except I had no graphics acceleration... But I saw a video of dosdude1 installing OS X ML on the Mac mini running perfectly... Because ML was the last system that they were able to bundle a Developer release of ML that allowed 32bit kexts to load, because if you install Mavericks or Yosemite in my case in the Mac mini you lose wifi and graphics acceleration, because there are no 64bit kexts for graphics, at least any that work for that matter, so for me in my case I could live without wifi but no graphics is a deal breaker for me, you can't watch videos...

So what I did is, I downloaded the version that dosdude1 used on his youtube video which was Macpostfactor 1.0, went on my regular Mac on macOS Sierra with SIP disabled and used Macpostfactor to create an installer on a pendrive, ran that sucker on my Mac mini and boom! Everthing is running like butter...

It is sad to see that people stoped working on these old Macs... But even on OS X ML on my Mac mini, flashed from 1.1 to 2.1, with an sad and 4 gb of ram is still a very usable adorable tiny little beautiful machine, I can still even iMessage from it

Hope it helps

 

[Brainzyy]

Well here is what I did and it worked perfect... But in my case I have a Mac mini late 2006...

Don't use the latest macpostfactor tool 2.0.1 I believe.... I used that one first and for some odd reason everything worked good except I had no graphics acceleration... But I saw a video of dosdude1 installing OS X ML on the Mac mini running perfectly... Because ML was the last system that they were able to bundle a Developer release of ML that allowed 32bit kexts to load, because if you install Mavericks or Yosemite in my case in the Mac mini you lose wifi and graphics acceleration, because there are no 64bit kexts for graphics, at least any that work for that matter, so for me in my case I could live without wifi but no graphics is a deal breaker for me, you can't watch videos...

So what I did is, I downloaded the version that dosdude1 used on his youtube video which was Macpostfactor 1.0, went on my regular Mac on macOS Sierra with SIP disabled and used Macpostfactor to create an installer on a pendrive, ran that sucker on my Mac mini and boom! Everthing is running like butter...

It is sad to see that people stoped working on these old Macs... But even on OS X ML on my Mac mini, flashed from 1.1 to 2.1, with an sad and 4 gb of ram is still a very usable adorable tiny little beautiful machine, I can still even iMessage from it

Hope it helps

I can confirm that this method worked for me too on a macbook4.1 (early 2008). You HAVE to make the usb drive on a supported mac. The only problem I had was that I couldn't connect to networks that are WPA2 enterprise (using TTLS or PEAP together with mschapv2) encrypted (like my school's network).
EDIT: MacPostFactor 1.0.1 works fine too (that's the one I used).

 

[alphee]

Hello I have a Macbook 4.1 (early 2008) and want to install Mountain Lion on it using MacPostFactor. No matter what i do it won't boot from the partition created, instead it gets me back to the old system. Anyone can help me out about this?

 

[creativetags]

Now I've tried MacPostFactor 1.0.1 and MacPostFactor 1.0 on the MacBook and on my more recent iMac. I now get to a screen like this booting from the USB created.

 

[jimN]

Now I've tried MacPostFactor 1.0.1 and MacPostFactor 1.0 on the MacBook and on my more recent iMac. I now get to a screen like this booting from the USB created. View attachment 689636

I have exactly the same problem. I think I saw one suggestion somewhere to try a different USB stick. Sadly I have got a decent sized one lying around. I look forward to hearing any solution you might find.

 

[TMRJIJ]

I've tried all 3 methods to install 10.8 on my MacBook 2,1

macOS Extractor got to autopatch - Installer fails and log says: Feb 21 21:40:32 installd[487]: ./preinstall: Could not recognize "/Volumes/OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg" as an image file. Even though OS X Install ESD is mounted and there is a BaseSystem.dmg there.

MLPostFactor won't let me install on a USB drive saying "Network disks aren't supported". If I install on a partition the mac won't let me boot from anything other than the primary partition (is that a limitation of this model?)

MacPostFactor made a USB Installer but when I boot from it it freezes on the grey apple logo during startup.

Ideas?

'OS X Install ESD' or 'Mac OS X Install ESD'? I don't think the AutoPatch recognized the image names for this OS.

 

[ebkesq]

On my MacBook 4,1, with 10.8.5 Update 1 (why they didn't call the most recent version 10.8.6 is anybody's guess), everything seems to be working fine except for occasional graphics anomalies AND broken SMB. Has anyone been able to replace Apple's SMB stack with something that works, like SAMBA or DAVE? I have tried both, but out of the box neither allowed me to access Windows and Linux network drives through the finder. I guess I don't know how to configure them. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Brainzyy]

On my MacBook 4,1, with 10.8.5 Update 1 (why they didn't call the most recent version 10.8.6 is anybody's guess), everything seems to be working fine except for occasional graphics anomalies AND broken SMB. Has anyone been able to replace Apple's SMB stack with something that works, like SAMBA or DAVE? I have tried both, but out of the box neither allowed me to access Windows and Linux network drives through the finder. I guess I don't know how to configure them. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Have you tried SMBUp?

 

[ebkesq]

Have you tried SMBUp?

I tried SMBUp and I still cannot access the server via the SMBUp utility, Finder sidebar, Go To Folder, or Connect To Server. It's a linux-based music server (an Auralic Aries Mini). Any other ideas?
[doublepost=1488395894][/doublepost]Maybe I am not typing in the right address. I'll look more deeply into SMB commands and usage, etc,

 

[jimN]

Got it working on my Mac and not sure what actually changed. Ended up completely wiping mac, clean installing Lion and then copying MacPostFactor 1.01 and ML installer on to MacBook and running a clean install onto the local drive. All seems to be working fine.

Frustratingly I can't run Office 2016 which would have been nice, that requires 10.10 and don't really want to go therewith graphics acceleration. So far Mountain Lion works as well as Lion ever did, if not better.

 

[slingc]

Hi there, I think I messed up the installation via MacPostFactor and can't get my MacBookPro from 2006 to work again. I run it twice because the first time I tried to get Mountain Lion to work, it didn't - it showed a message that "Something went wrong". And after that I repeated the process with Mavericks, but it also didn't work.

After I tried installing Mavericks I can't get back to my normal Mac system. When I hold down the alt key to see the possible boot I get HD recovery and Install recovery, but when I choose any of them it just tries to continue with the installation of either Mavericks or Mountain. It's stuck.

I tried using a USB bootable stick with Lion on it, but it doesn't see it
Also tried Ubuntu stick, it doesn't work

I know I messed something up with the installation. Is there anyway to get it to run from USB stick, so I can install plain old Lion?

Please, any help? Or did I brick my Mac?

 

[creativetags]

I managed to get access to a 2009 MacBook that was old enough to run Mountain Lion but new enough to also run 10.11 and was able to successfully make a USB installer using MacPostFactor 1.0.1 to upgrade my MacBook 2,1

So I'm guessing newer Macs that shipped with 10.9 or later won't run MacPostFactor to upgrade an older machine to 10.8

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

I’m getting the infinite loop of “creating a repair partition” whenever I try to update using MacPostFactor 2.0.1. Late 2006 iMac, going from 10.5.6 to Mountain Lion. Sorry if this has been covered somewhere or if there’s a newer thread.

Every setting and combination of settings I’ve tried do the same thing, and I have to do a Lion reinstall between every setting change, so that’s ****ing annoying.

EDIT: And now my Lion reinstalls no longer work. Hooray.

 

[ArrowFC]

I’m getting the infinite loop of “creating a repair partition” whenever I try to update using MacPostFactor 2.0.1. Late 2006 iMac, going from 10.5.6 to Mountain Lion. Sorry if this has been covered somewhere or if there’s a newer thread.

Every setting and combination of settings I’ve tried do the same thing, and I have to do a Lion reinstall between every setting change, so that’s ****ing annoying.

EDIT: And now my Lion reinstalls no longer work. Hooray.

Hi i have the exactly same problem i think is due to the graphic card, do you have the 7300gt one ?

 

[Cave Man]

I'm curious, what are the speed differences between Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard on a Mac Mini 2,1 with 2. gHz Core 2 Duo? I've read that SL is probably the fastest OS for this machine. Any personal experience?

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

Hi i have the exactly same problem i think is due to the graphic card, do you have the 7300gt one ?

No, it’s a 17”, so the X1600. Is the 7300 model the only one supported or something?

 

[redheeler]

I'm curious, what are the speed differences between Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard on a Mac Mini 2,1 with 2. gHz Core 2 Duo? I've read that SL is probably the fastest OS for this machine. Any personal experience?

Not sure about your Mac mini, but with my 2006 iMac 6,1 Snow Leopard does feel faster compared to Mountain Lion (and Mountain Lion is no slower than Mac OS X Lion, which shows what a performance downgrade that actually was). I have an SSD coming soon for this Mac and that should bring Mountain Lion closer to Snow Leopard in terms of speed.

 

[yoli]

Hey guys, I'm pondering to install 10.8 on my mom's Macbook 2,1. I read I should use MacPostFactor 1.0.1 with an USB installer made on a supported Mac. So my question is to the ones who are actually using this same setup:

Does 10.8 run absolutely 100% flawlessly on a Macbook 2,1 and everything working natively? I'm asking because my mom cannot tinker with it all the time with this and that not working. So if it is like a hackintosh with let's say 95% of the original functionality then I would rather skip it.
What is your experience?

 

[Brainzyy]

Hey guys, I'm pondering to install 10.8 on my mom's Macbook 2,1. I read I should use MacPostFactor 1.0.1 with an USB installer made on a supported Mac. So my question is to the ones who are actually using this same setup:

Does 10.8 run absolutely 100% flawlessly on a Macbook 2,1 and everything working natively? I'm asking because my mom cannot tinker with it all the time with this and that not working. So if it is like a hackintosh with let's say 95% of the original functionality then I would rather skip it.
What is your experience?

For me everything worked perfectly like it does in Lion. The only thing that didn't work was WPA2 Enterprise networks (like business & school networks).

 

[ArrowFC]

No, it’s a 17”, so the X1600. Is the 7300 model the only one supported or something?

The only model who have problems is the iMac 24" 6,1 7300gt due to this graphic card, i can only install mlpostfactor 0.3. I need to upgrade for a 7600gt to make it work...
[doublepost=1493211678][/doublepost]

No, it’s a 17”, so the X1600. Is the 7300 model the only one supported or something?

The x1600 model can support all the versions of macpostfactor

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

Well, I wonder where this thing dumps its logs, then, because every combination of settings I tried hasn’t worked…

 

[ArrowFC]

Well, I wonder where this thing dumps its logs, then, because every combination of settings I tried hasn’t worked…

How many ram did u have in ur mac ?

 

[jackyu]

hello sir,

where is the guide to install 10.8?cannt find the install method,which post no?

where is the link for 3 methods?