[Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac

[boldan28]

Please forgive (and educate) me if this question has been asked, or if I am misunderstanding how MLPostFactor works.

Is it conceivable that a 64-bit version of MLPostFactor will be released at some future point for the GMA x3100 computers that utilizes the 64-bit graphics kext that was included with the 10.6.2 SL update? I'm sure there must be some significant hurdles there, otherwise the 64-bit version would already support the x3100 chip, I'm curious as to what those obstacles are and whether anyone can give some insight as to whether it's possible those obstacles may be overcome at some point, or if there are significant advantages to doing so. As someone with a x3100 macbook myself, I would also be 100% willing to engage in some beta testing or experimenting if that would help.

Oh, and thanks for all your efforts in this endeavour, its a great thing!

 

[boldan28]

Just checked my macbook 4,1 and it does in fact have EFI64 firmware according to terminal. So if the x3100 kext could be made 64 bit, then it should be possible.

 

[mishendr]

Don't flame mate. Its alright, he didn't use it for commercial purpose either. Im saying he could have worked with us to centralize everything in a single thread. & not creating another thread and talk about it there with our files here. He has good intention too, to simplify the method for general public.

You're right, and I sorry to 53Kyle. I just see so many postings from people dropping in and making demands, while I know you guys are trying the best you can, and I can only hope on your continuing efforts to make it better. I can also imagine it must be frustrating sometimes for you having people left and right demanding stuff and "stealing" your idea (not in this case apparently). I also reacted too soon, didn't saw your post either, about your apology either, 53kyle.

As you said, enough of this, I'll be waiting for the next version. Keep up the good work!

 

[Rastafabi]

This could be interesting - especially for the iSight/Keyboard LED issue. I just realized that also external keyboards (at least my Apple PowerMac G4 keyboard) are effected, so there might be a higher interest to see this being solved and not only by the MacBook Pro owners (like me).

I know, that a similar link has been posted earlier but this one is for 10.8.3.

Anyway: Although there's nothing said about this issue (I hope MLforAll is still on track resolving this, like he posted on twitter.) the release notes of 0.3 sound great. Thanks for keeping developing. (By the way; What about 64bit, which was not mentioned? And OpenGL/CL for the upcoming 10.8.4 release?)

 

[minsu]

This is great. I manually installed Mountain Lion on my first generation MacBook Air before you guys made the app, it was usable but still had errors with graphic card, luminosity and sleep mode and it run a little bit slow, but now, with version 10.8.3, it runs perfect, flawlessly, much better than it used to with Lion. Thank you very much

Btw, I like Apple and its enviorement pretty much, but it's a shame it doesnt support computes that obviously are capable to run Mountain Lion...

 

[bidwellian]

Support for Mac Pro with maxed out RAM?

Has anyone been able to figure out how to get over the 8GB RAM limit?

I have a mac pro with maxed out RAM and hoping to see this in the future?

also, if I use the updated BootCamp for Windows 8, will the 8GB limit still be a problem?

thanks for all your work!

 

[dougyy]

ML partition

Thanks hackerwayne for the great fix, the test install I tried worked perfectly.

But now I'm going for a final install and am still confused about the the 3 partitions. I have a MacPro 2,1 x1900 with a drive in each bay. My normal setup is boot drive, time machine, storage and then a Windows drive. What I'd like to do is
1) substitute a new drive for the time machine
2) clone the boot drive to it
3) restart into the cloned drive
4) format and partition the boot drive with 2 partitions, Install and ML
5) run your normal installation sequence
6) migrate everything from the clone back to the boot drive.

Will it work this way or does the ML.app need to be on the same physical drive as the ML partition it will be installed on?

 

[53kyle]

Could just be my luck, but I found an app that won't work: Xcode. I got it from the app store and opened it and it told me to install stuff and I hit OK. When it failed, the console said this:

Apr 25 20:33:04 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: ./preinstall: nothing found to unload
Apr 25 20:33:04 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: ./preinstall: Can't open CFBundle for //System/Library/Extensions/RemoteVirtualInterface.kext.
Apr 25 20:33:04 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: ./preinstall: Can't create //System/Library/Extensions/RemoteVirtualInterface.kext.
Apr 25 20:33:04 Kyles-MacBook.local _securityagent[559]: End script: rpmuxdpre
Apr 25 20:33:04 Kyles-MacBook.local _securityagent[560]: 1 Install Scripts run.
Apr 25 20:33:04 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: PackageKit: Shoving /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/Cleanup At Startup/PKInstallSandboxManager/1.sandbox/Root (2 items) to /
Apr 25 20:33:05 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: PackageKit: kextcache -system-caches
Apr 25 20:33:20 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: PackageKit: kextcache -update-volume / -Installer
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: kextcache: kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXHCI]: The super class vtable 'vtable for IOUSBControllerV3' for vtable 'vtable for AppleUSBXHCI' is out of date. Make sure your kext has been built against the correct headers.
Apr 25 20:33:55 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: kextcache: Link failed (error code 5).
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: kextcache: Prelink failed for com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXHCI; aborting prelink.
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: kextcache: Failed to generate prelinked kernel.
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: kextcache: Child process /usr/sbin/kextcache[564] exited with status 71.
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: kextcache: Error 107 rebuilding /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/kernelcache.
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local install_monitor[548]: Re-included: /Applications, /Library, /System, /bin, /private, /sbin, /usr
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: PackageKit: releasing backupd
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: PackageKit: allow user idle system sleep
Apr 25 20:33:55 Kyles-MacBook.local installd[539]: PackageKit: Install Failed: Error Domain=PKInstallErrorDomain Code=121 "An error occurred while updating system extension information." UserInfo=0x103e264e0 {NSUnderlyingError=0x103e24570 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (kextcache error 71.)", NSLocalizedDescription=An error occurred while updating system extension information., arguments=(
"-update-volume",
"/",
"-Installer"
)} {
NSLocalizedDescription = "An error occurred while updating system extension information.";
NSUnderlyingError = "Error Domain=kextcache Code=71 \"The operation couldn\U2019t be completed. (kextcache error 71.)\"";
arguments = (
"-update-volume",
"/",
"-Installer"
);
}



----------

Could this be because of hacked kexts? It said a lot about kextcache.

 

[Rastafabi]

Could just be my luck, but I found an app that won't work: Xcode. I got it from the app store and opened it and it told me to install stuff and I hit OK. When it failed, the console said this:

[...]

Could this be because of hacked kexts? It said a lot about kextcache.

Actually my answer is nothing more than a guess, but I don't I think the issue is just about kextcache. Xcode as well as it's install scripts heavily relies on OS X' underlying UNIX system, more than consumer apps do (executing kind of low level binary files).
Installing an OS the unsupported way always comes with a bunch of drawbacks (else it wouldn't be unsupported) and hackerwayne and MLforAll did a bunch of digging to sort them out on by one. As announced by hackerwayne the other day they are also about resolving the kextcache issue, but sadly that's not all. If so, the chances may rise to see Xcode and other unix leveled operations, like the rather simple "purge" command (apple confirmed it's not working but it actually was solved with 10.8.3 on "standard systems"), be running as they are supposed to be, but I don't think so. Although your error report hints to be a kextcache issue, there's still the possibility that there's nothing abut to change.
The driver being used are beta software, thats a fact so you can make the best out of it, but that's it. And by far they aren't the only parts of the OS which need to be kernel compatible.
This leads to the fact that the best (not the easiest) way to go is manipulating as little as possible to get the best user experience, which in this case would be using the releases native kext files and make the system run 64bit. Apart from the OpenGL/CL issue this would also improve the reliability of system (altought I only had one kernel panic right now) as well as strengthening the "simpleness" of updating to future releases.
Else you would have to dig far deeper to replace any not fully working binary in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin (like MDNSResponder; there may be other locations) until you can be sure that your system will act like it is supposed to be in any situation.

I hope this again underlines the hard work done by hackerwayne, MLforAll and all the other contributors to the project.

As well this should be an impulse to focus on 64bit (as apple want Mountain Lion to be...) to make it a (more closely) 100% working "reverse engineering" and porting back project.

I hope this is less confusing than being helpful.

 

[hackerwayne]

Just checked my macbook 4,1 and it does in fact have EFI64 firmware according to terminal. So if the x3100 kext could be made 64 bit, then it should be possible.

We've already done it. Just see which version is more stable and we'll go for it.

----------

Actually my answer is nothing more than a guess, but I don't I think the issue is just about kextcache. Xcode as well as it's install scripts heavily relies on OS X' underlying UNIX system, more than consumer apps do (executing kind of low level binary files).
Installing an OS the unsupported way always comes with a bunch of drawbacks (else it wouldn't be unsupported) and hackerwayne and MLforAll did a bunch of digging to sort them out on by one. As announced by hackerwayne the other day they are also about resolving the kextcache issue, but sadly that's not all. If so, the chances may rise to see Xcode and other unix leveled operations, like the rather simple "purge" command (apple confirmed it's not working but it actually was solved with 10.8.3 on "standard systems"), be running as they are supposed to be, but I don't think so. Although your error report hints to be a kextcache issue, there's still the possibility that there's nothing abut to change.
The driver being used are beta software, thats a fact so you can make the best out of it, but that's it. And by far they aren't the only parts of the OS which need to be kernel compatible.
This leads to the fact that the best (not the easiest) way to go is manipulating as little as possible to get the best user experience, which in this case would be using the releases native kext files and make the system run 64bit. Apart from the OpenGL/CL issue this would also improve the reliability of system (altought I only had one kernel panic right now) as well as strengthening the "simpleness" of updating to future releases.
Else you would have to dig far deeper to replace any not fully working binary in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin (like MDNSResponder; there may be other locations) until you can be sure that your system will act like it is supposed to be in any situation.

I hope this again underlines the hard work done by hackerwayne, MLforAll and all the other contributors to the project.

As well this should be an impulse to focus on 64bit (as apple want Mountain Lion to be...) to make it a (more closely) 100% working "reverse engineering" and porting back project.

I hope this is less confusing than being helpful.

Thats exactly what we're discussing here. We discovered its more then just a simple "kextcache" issue when we we're fixing the Installation Failed problems. Theres bunch of bugs everywhere in the kernel level. On the surface, it looks everything was fixed. Im thinking to abandon 32-bit based and put all of our effort into the 64-bit version. However, this approach does come at cost. Many things that works now doesn't work in 64-bit. For example:
1. Start-up time is very very slow (we experienced it on the 64-bit X1600 earlier)
2. FaceTime, iMessage, iCloud & all other related Apple services doesn't work.
3. Expect a few other "surface" bugs.

 

[Rastafabi]

Thats exactly what we're discussing here. We discovered its more then just a simple "kextcache" issue when we we're fixing the Installation Failed problems. Theres bunch of bugs everywhere in the kernel level. On the surface, it looks everything was fixed. Im thinking to abandon 32-bit based and put all of our effort into the 64-bit version. However, this approach does come at cost. Many things that works now doesn't work in 64-bit. For example:
1. Start-up time is very very slow (we experienced it on the 64-bit X1600 earlier)
2. FaceTime, iMessage, iCloud & all other related Apple services doesn't work.
3. Expect a few other "surface" bugs.

This sounds good to me although it's a great task which has to be done (again).

 

[mutantst]

After installing, I cannot reboot into "Install" partition

After installing, I cannot reboot into "Install" partition

This Partition does not show up on the target screen

Any thoughts?

 

[monwentworth]

After installing, I cannot reboot into "Install" partition

This Partition does not show up on the target screen

Any thoughts?

Check the Mountain Lion install App is the real deal (4.37 GB) I once installed with one app that only installed like 30 Mb of the OS on the install partition and it wouldn't show up either.

 

[Macula]

Could just be my luck, but I found an app that won't work: Xcode.

Devastating—this does break the deal for me, I'm afraid… Though I'm still in awe and admiration of Wayne's work.

 

[Nemesis19]

Devastating—this does break the deal for me, I'm afraid… Though I'm still in awe and admiration of Wayne's work.

unluckily...me too

 

[boldan28]

We've already done it. Just see which version is more stable and we'll go for it.

----------

Wait, so the current release of MLPostFactor x64 is currently compatible with my MacBook 4,1? Just want to be sure, since the first post only mentions compatibility with MacPros,Xserves, and x1600 chips. Or are you saying the the 32-bit version contains both a 32 bit and 64-bit driver for the x3100, and can be used with either one?

I'm sure it's frustrating to have to re-visit a lot of your work in order to make MLPostFactor 64-bit, but it sounds like the best way forward. Your efforts are definitely appreciated!

 

[53kyle]

After installing, I cannot reboot into "Install" partition

This Partition does not show up on the target screen

Any thoughts?

A partition called "efi boot" if it is there will work.

----------

I discovered something weird: the same install failed error came up on my 2012 mac also.

 

[mamema]

deleted

 

[53kyle]

Weird. When I said xcode didn't work, I tried again and it quit unexpectedly. Now after a reboot it works.

----------

I might have a lead on the kextcache issue. I used terminal and tried to rebuild it and it says errors about com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXHCI
I used these commands:

sudo chown root:admin /
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
sudo kextcache -system-caches

 

[hackerwayne]

Weird. When I said xcode didn't work, I tried again and it quit unexpectedly. Now after a reboot it works.

----------

I might have a lead on the kextcache issue. I used terminal and tried to rebuild it and it says errors about com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXHCI
I used these commands:

sudo chown root:admin /
sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
sudo kextcache -system-caches

Good lord why USBXHCI.. Ugh. But ill try to see what went wrong there.

 

[hackerwayne]

A partition called "efi boot" if it is there will work.

----------

I discovered something weird: the same install failed error came up on my 2012 mac also.

Doesn't happen on any of mine. That error doesn't come up on any "supported" macs.

 

[Dread Head]

I have an MacBook 13' White (Early 2008) and XCode installed and works fine for me. No errors have came up!

The only problems I have are with Chrome that quits constantly and graphics glitchs everywhere...
It's usable, but sometimes I have to resize windows so I can see their contents.
VMWare fusion also works with Win8 and compared to Lion there is a performance degradation, but nothing I cannot live with!
Bootcamp does not work for me but it's because a OCZ SSD 256Gb drive I installed (did not worked in Lion also).

mDNSResponder is a pain in the ass too, since I can't connect to smb shares here at home... This is the only part that's hassling me!

Can't wait for MLPostFactor v3.

Great job guys!

 

[luizot]

After installing, I cannot reboot into "Install" partition

This Partition does not show up on the target screen

Any thoughts?

I have the same problem. After installing MLPostFactor in partition "Install", this partition not show on the boot screen. I can see only Lion and Recovery disk.

Can you help me?

 

[Cryder]

I have installed 32 bits version in my iMac with X1600 card, and it works perfectly . Is it possible to change to 64 bits version without doing a clean install, just installing MLPostFactor?

Another question, what does it mean "X1600 based iMacs & MBPs (this is optional, general public is advised to download 32bit version)" in 64 bits version, does it work perfectly or are there any glitches?

 

[Dolfke]

afp on external servers not working

Hello,

I'am trying to connect to an external server via afp, such as a Time Capsule or another server, but it seems I can't reach nothing there.

Time Capsule does not lists any disks, and no shared disks from any of my servers appear to be reachable.

I even can't use Airport Utility, as it only shows "Internet" but no Airport or TimeCapsule.

Pls HELP ?

jvh@mac.com

For the rest, my black MacBook 13" is now spinning fine on Mountain Lion, and I love it, if only afp would connect to my servers ...