[Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac

[hackerwayne]

That's really helps
I would try this later, it seems my problem could probably solved in 64 bit.
原來這麼多華人在這，我是台灣台北人

64-bit slow start-up & no iCloud, iMessage & FaceTime thou.. Unless you got a supported Mac's serial number and put it in NVRAM.

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My file wasn't a pirated file, I followed the instructions on the apple website on how to back up my install app, to burn a bootable disk or usb drive. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4302239?start=0&tstart=0

I was able to go back and just transfer the actual file, not back it up, and the app file is 4.37GB.

Your instructions were clear on page 1 - * Get a supported Mac and buy it directly from the App Store, copy it to a thumb drive (8GB or larger) and transfer it back to the unsupported Mac.

I assumed that a burned disk or usb drive of the file for backup would work. No where does it say to transfer just the app file, not the backup dmg.

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I was able to run MLPostFactor to the INSTALL drive. When I rebooted, I am able to see EFIBOOT drive, which brings up Mountain Lion installer. I ran through the install and got a failed message just like the instructions said, when I reboot, I get a grey screen with just circle and a line thru it.

That is all I see. I tried to reboot again, and held the option key down and I can see my OSX, EFIBOOT, EFIBOOT, and RECOVERY DRIVE.

Did I miss a step?

Thank you for your help.

Please read & read & read the thread again & again.

1. I mentioned you will need the .app file more then twice on post #1 and #2.
2. You clearly did not read the instructions, I said go to Utilities to apply MLPostFactor. You didnt. I want you to read the thread from top to bottom 3 times before posting another question.

Post #1

Once completed, buy Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store inside Parallel Desktop and copy it to your Applications folder.

Whatever it is, you must have the 4.xxGB Install OSX Mountain Lion.app in your Applications Folder.

5. You will get "Installation Failed" at the end of the installation, its normal.
6. Go to Utilities and select MLPostFactor apply it to the partition "ML"
7. Reboot into Mountain Lion

Post #2

2. 4.XXGB Mountain Lion.app is REQUIRED to be in the Applications Folder.

If thats not clear enough, im not sure what is.

 

[Casiotone]

yep! With the bugs remaining as stated above. Nothing major tbh lol! Bonjour fix coming in 0.3. Keyboard & iSight issue does not affect Mac Minis

Thanks for your answer, and thanks for all of your work! I will donate soon when I can.

 

[Commandor]

I found another page about turning off the LED by software.

http://googlemac.blogspot.tw/2008/04/manipulating-keyboard-leds-through.html

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter10/kbdleds/download/keyboard_leds.c

If anyone interested or can make it useable

 

[AndrewPistachio]

I found another page about turning off the LED by software.

http://googlemac.blogspot.tw/2008/04/manipulating-keyboard-leds-through.html

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter10/kbdleds/download/keyboard_leds.c

If anyone interested or can make it useable

How do you use this though?

 

[eep357]

I found another page about turning off the LED by software.

http://googlemac.blogspot.tw/2008/04/manipulating-keyboard-leds-through.html

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter10/kbdleds/download/keyboard_leds.c

If anyone interested or can make it useable

That works....kinda. When turning numlock led off, caps lock led turns on and vice versa. I even tried piping (using | )caps lock led off with numlock led off, can't seem to make both go off at same time.

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How do you use this though?

You need xcode command line tools, use gcc to compile it and then terminal commands to do toggles. Info is on the page. For the page with the code, just RT click the link and do "save file to downloads" rather than copy and pasting all the text from web page into text edit.

 

[Needleroozer]

I found another page about turning off the LED by software.

http://googlemac.blogspot.tw/2008/04/manipulating-keyboard-leds-through.html

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter10/kbdleds/download/keyboard_leds.c

If anyone interested or can make it useable

Just a note: this is the same code as the maclight terminal command used. If you go to the bottom of the GitHub page, it gives credit to the above link...

 

[H2SO4]

I am also getting the same error on my MacBookPro2,2.
However, when I used

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

on my Snow Leopard partition to set the computer to verbose boot, it worked just fine. Perhaps this has something to do with the methods we use to install 10.8 on these "unsupported" computers?
Thanks for the idea, though, eep357.

So are you saying that you booted into 10.6, ran the above terminal command and then booted back to ML and ran the MLB command?

 

[ilboso]

Installed and partially tested last night on a 2007 Mac Mini (macmini2,1). Most everything I tried off the bat worked just fine - iMessage, DVD playback, etc.

The only issue I note is that when I try to select a Startup Disk, I get an error which reads 'You cannot change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot partition failed.'

I haven't had time to look into the failure any further so it could be that I did all the updates on an external FW drive. Also, the installation process does not create the repair partition - could this be part of the problem?

I thank you guys for taking the time to make 10.8 on the unsupported Macs a reality. I can now extended the life of this mini a little bit longer. Was going to see what breaks if I install 10.8 server...

Thanks again.

Hi,
I have the same Mini (upgraded to 4GB of RAM): can you tell me how (if) OSX 10.8 affects the performances compared to Leopard (10.5)?

=)

 

[hackerwayne]

Hi,
I have the same Mini (upgraded to 4GB of RAM): can you tell me how (if) OSX 10.8 affects the performances compared to Leopard (10.5)?

=)

Whuaatttt?? COMPARED TO LEOPARD? Mate, thats like comparing BMW E46 & F30 LOL! You'll enjoy Mountain Lion (which is a WHOLE LOT better! In terms of performance & features). Trust me.

 

[pgrif]

boot Cache problems

i'm having this problem.

The only issue I note is that when I try to select a Startup Disk, I get an error which reads 'You cannot change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot partition failed.'

It happens every time I do this install.

 

[QuarterSwede]

I used v0.1 to install 10.8.2 perfectly. However, when I use v0.2 to install 10.8.3 it overwrites my primary Lion installation even though I made sure (thrice) to select the Install partition. Thank goodness for backups!

Not a huge deal for me as I'm looking at getting a new MacBook Air within the year anyway.

 

[hackerwayne]

I used v0.1 to install 10.8.2 perfectly. However, when I use v0.2 to install 10.8.3 it overwrites my primary Lion installation even though I made sure (thrice) to select the Install partition. Thank goodness for backups!

Not a huge deal for me as I'm looking at getting a new MacBook Air within the year anyway.

It will never do that unless you selected the wrong partition.

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i'm having this problem.

The only issue I note is that when I try to select a Startup Disk, I get an error which reads 'You cannot change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot partition failed.'

It happens every time I do this install.

Press "Option" when start up to select the drive.

 

[QuarterSwede]

It will never do that unless you selected the wrong partition.

I know, that's why I ran it THREE times. Each time it started overwriting my Lion install and hence, crashing it resulting in a non-bootable drive.

I couldn't get any logs of what it was actually doing either as Console would load but said there were no logs (even with Show All selected).

Odd right?

 

[hackerwayne]

I know, that's why I ran it THREE times. Each time it started overwriting my Lion install and hence, crashing it resulting in a non-bootable drive.

I couldn't get any logs of what it was actually doing either as Console would load but said there were no logs (even with Show All selected).

Odd right?

Strange. Where did the overwriting occurs? When installing MLPostFactor or when actually installing ML? When you reboot and install ML, point it to the partition named "ML" not "Install". Theres no "logs" because the whole process is actually done using AppleScript unlike 0.1 which was a installer. Advantage is the naming is not compulsory.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Strange. Where did the overwriting occurs? When installing MLPostFactor or when actually installing ML? When you reboot and install ML, point it to the partition named "ML" not "Install". Theres no "logs" because the whole process is actually done using AppleScript unlike 0.1 which was a installer. Advantage is the naming is not compulsory.

When running MLPostFactor within Lion (the guide's Step 2).

I choose Install as in the picture and click the radio button for 10.8.3. I've got the Mountain Lion app in my Applications folder (system's not the user's) just like I had when using v0.1. The only thing that may affect things is that I dropped the InstallESD.dmg into the app to make my life a bit easier. I thought it may not work at all if MLPostFactor didn't like that but from reading the thread it looked like it was unofficially supported to upgrade. I'd prefer not to use the combo updater method as I like clean installs especially for hacks like this. That and I need the changes in v0.2.2 to get my magic trackpad working (ML is a bear to use without the gestures IMO).

ps. you can take cleaner screenshots by using Cmd+Shift+4 then when you see the crosshairs tap the spacebar. The icon will turn into a camera and you can then select whatever window (or element) you want. It'll only save that window with a nice drop shadow.

 

[hackerwayne]

When running MLPostFactor within Lion (the guide's Step 2).

I choose Install as in the picture and click the radio button for 10.8.3. I've got the Mountain Lion app in my Applications folder (system's not the user's) just like I had when using v0.1. The only thing that may affect things is that I dropped the InstallESD.dmg into the app to make my life a bit easier. I thought it may not work at all if MLPostFactor didn't like that but from reading the thread it looked like it was unofficially supported to upgrade. I'd prefer not to use the combo updater method as I like clean installs especially for hacks like this. That and I need the changes in v0.2.2 to get my magic trackpad working (ML is a bear to use without the gestures IMO).

ps. you can take cleaner screenshots by using Cmd+Shift+4 then when you see the crosshairs tap the spacebar. The icon will turn into a camera and you can then select whatever window (or element) you want. It'll only save that window with a nice drop shadow.

Thanks for that tip mate. Didn't know that. Normally i just CMD+Shift+4 then use trackpad to select the area i want to snapshot. The spacebar trick makes it way easier. . So the issue still presents? As in when you select Install it installs it to the Lion's partition?

 

[QuarterSwede]

I was just rereading your instructions and am thinking I was installing it incorrectly. Is the radio button for 10.8.3 only for combo updaters!? I was thinking it would use the 10.8.3 full app as the source. Maybe I should be using the 10.8.0 > 10.8.2 radio button instead? If the 10.8.3 button is only for the updater it would make sense that it would be overwriting my primary Lion install (I'd imagine it just does a delta update of the OS your using without checking for the version).

Once my Time Machine backup is done in 3 hours I'll try again using the 10.8.0 > 10.8.2 button instead. Worse that can happen is that I'll have to restore for the fourth time.

 

[IrishJedi07]

Unable to mount DMG's

I got everything set up and was able to follow the steps on Post 1710 (now 1709). I repaired my permissions but i keep getting this error while trying to install software:

"No mountable file systems."

Any help with that?

 

[hackerwayne]

I was just rereading your instructions and am thinking I was installing it incorrectly. Is the radio button for 10.8.3 only for combo updaters!? I was thinking it would use the 10.8.3 full app as the source. Maybe I should be using the 10.8.0 > 10.8.2 radio button instead? If the 10.8.3 button is only for the updater it would make sense that it would be overwriting my primary Lion install (I'd imagine it just does a delta update of the OS your using without checking for the version).

Once my Time Machine backup is done in 3 hours I'll try again using the 10.8.0 > 10.8.2 button instead. Worse that can happen is that I'll have to restore for the fourth time.

No, 10.8.3 is for new installs as well. Not sure what went wrong on your side. Sounds like a software bug to me. Check 2 things. 1, make sure the Install partition is formatted as Extended Journaled. 2, Did any of the files get copied to the Install partition?

 

[chaliwang]

Dear hackerwayne:

See in front of you wrote Apple_iSight.kext DP1, there will be a keyboard light and sleep issues.

I just tested 10.8 DP1, 10.7.5,10.6.8,10.5.6 kext

But still low refresh

Sleep, I want use refresh to exchange function of the camera, the keyboard light (MacBook2 was no keyboard light)

Please inform whether to give up sleep, can have to take the normal use of the camera (FaceTime)?

Thanks

 

[QuarterSwede]

No, 10.8.3 is for new installs as well. Not sure what went wrong on your side. Sounds like a software bug to me. Check 2 things. 1, make sure the Install partition is formatted as Extended Journaled. 2, Did any of the files get copied to the Install partition?

1. Yes
2. Nope. I had hidden files showing and nothing ever appeared.

The only thing I changed when going from the successful 10.8.2 install to trying to install 10.8.3 is erasing the Install and ML drives with the same settings used for the 10.8.2 install.

 

[hackerwayne]

1. Yes
2. Nope. I had hidden files showing and nothing ever appeared.

The only thing I changed when going from the successful 10.8.2 install to trying to install 10.8.3 is erasing the Install and ML drives with the same settings used for the 10.8.2 install.

Right, so some how the app copied the files to the primary drive instead of the assigned "Install" drive. That can't happen actually. Ill try to check my codes again & if so, why didnt it happen to other users.

 

[pgrif]

Boot Cache problems

This has happened every time I tried this install. After "Startup Disk" refuses to boot from ML I boot from my Lion partition and restart with Option/Boot and select ML. I get a prohibited sign.


The only issue I note is that when I try to select a Startup Disk, I get an error which reads 'You cannot change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot partition failed.'

It is not simply a matter of selecting ML as the boot partition. The install fails for me repeatedly.

 

[Mercy2011]

Could someone who have managed to get bonjour / network share to work, give me a hint to the solution? I really need this feature, but I cannot get it to work.

I have manually copied mDNSResponder from "Install" to "ML". I then repaired permissions via Terminal. I just could not do the permissions repair in Single User Mode for some reason. I then rebooted my Macbook, but bonjour / Network share still does not work.

So I must obviously doing something wrong, since it does not work.
I know it will be fixed in V0.3, but if I could managed to get it work right away it would be so cool.

Hope someone is able to help me out... Thanks in advance.

 

[IrishJedi07]

Could someone who have managed to get bonjour / network share to work, give me a hint to the solution? I really need this feature, but I cannot get it to work.

I have manually copied mDNSResponder from "Install" to "ML". I then repaired permissions via Terminal. I just could not do the permissions repair in Single User Mode for some reason. I then rebooted my Macbook, but bonjour / Network share still does not work.

So I must obviously doing something wrong, since it does not work.
I know it will be fixed in V0.3, but if I could managed to get it work right away it would be so cool.

Hope someone is able to help me out... Thanks in advance.

Be sure to read the middle part of post 1709 regarding permissions also make sure that you replaced the mDNSresponder not just copied it in there. A restart is crucial to cement the changes. Hacker Wayne has express that a how to would create too many problems and distract form the main post.

I hope that helps!