Looking for a copy of Catalina to install with OpenCore LegacyPatcher

[lkar]

Hello,

I was suggested by a member to start a new thread instead if posting in an old one. So here it is:

I am looking for a copy of Catalina to install with OpenCore Legacy patcher, the "download a macos installer" button in the OCLP only reaches to 11.5, i need to go lower to 10.15, how do I get a copy?

 

[haralds]

OCLP is not recommended for Catalina. The highest version supporting it was 0.4.3.

The recommended solution is DosDude Catalina patcher. If you still want to use OCLP, do this:
1. Use DosDude's app to download the Catalina installer.
2. Use DosDude's app to create the installer selecting the "Do No Patch" installer option option.
3. Install Catalina from the USB.
4. Install OCLP 0.4.3

If you want to switch to using DosDudes's patches, you can boot into the install USB you created and run the Post Install app.

It works. I have done this.

 

[lkar]

OCLP is not recommended for Catalina. The highest version supporting it was 0.4.3.

The recommended solution is DosDude Catalina patcher. If you still want to use OCLP, do this:
1. Use DosDude's app to download the Catalina installer.
2. Use DosDude's app to create the installer selecting the "Do No Patch" installer option option.
3. Install Catalina from the USB.
4. Install OCLP 0.4.3

If you want to switch to using DosDudes's patches, you can boot into the install USB you created and run the Post Install app.

It works. I have done this.

The reason I wanted to try OCLP for catalina is because I have a 2010 iMac 27" and dosdude1 catalina patcher says it does not support the video card that I have, so I was wondering does OCLP support it for catalina? If yes then I can install catalina on my 2010 imac, else I would have to try jumping to big sur or montery.

macOS Catalina Patcher

See known issues dropdown tab:

• AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series graphics acceleration: Currently, it is not possible to achieve full graphics acceleration under Catalina on any machines that use a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU. If you have a machine with one of these GPUs installed, I'd advise upgrading it if possible (can be done in 2010/2011 iMacs, iMac11,x-12,x), disabling the dedicated GPU if using a 2011 15" or 17" MacBook Pro (MacBookPro8,2/8,3, instructions to do so can be found here), or not installing Catalina. Running Catalina without full graphics acceleration will result in extremely poor system performance.

 

[haralds]

The reason I wanted to try OCLP for catalina is because I have a 2010 iMac 27" and dosdude1 catalina patcher says it does not support the video card that I have, so I was wondering does OCLP support it for catalina? If yes then I can install catalina on my 2010 imac, else I would have to try jumping to big sur or montery.

macOS Catalina Patcher

See known issues dropdown tab:

• AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series graphics acceleration: Currently, it is not possible to achieve full graphics acceleration under Catalina on any machines that use a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU. If you have a machine with one of these GPUs installed, I'd advise upgrading it if possible (can be done in 2010/2011 iMacs, iMac11,x-12,x), disabling the dedicated GPU if using a 2011 15" or 17" MacBook Pro (MacBookPro8,2/8,3, instructions to do so can be found here), or not installing Catalina. Running Catalina without full graphics acceleration will result in extremely poor system performance.

I doubt, OCLP will. But it does not hurt to try

 

[DarkPremiumCho]

Ways to get the Catalina installer:

• download from the App Store: macOS 10.15 Catalina
• in the Terminal app of a Mac that runs Catalina or newer, execute softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.7

 

[jackin6]

Ways to get the Catalina installer:

Third option - run the DosDude Catalina patcher and follow the prompts to download a fresh copy. Works well.

 

[foo2]

Did you ever find out how your graphics were in OCLP with 10.14 / 10.15 ? I’m in the same boat with an iMac 12,1 — I expect it to work better in 10.15 rather than 11.x or 12.x or 13.x or 14.x, and Photos will still work, and not having a metal GPU isn’t an issue….

 

[sdfox7]

Did you ever find out how your graphics were in OCLP with 10.14 / 10.15 ? I’m in the same boat with an iMac 12,1 — I expect it to work better in 10.15 rather than 11.x or 12.x or 13.x or 14.x, and Photos will still work, and not having a metal GPU isn’t an issue….

I have used 10.14/10.15 on iMac 12,1 before, it worked fine. I believe these were some of the best machines Apple ever made due to the simple upgradability (magnetic screen attachment, modular components, etc.) Watch out for the education models (MC978LL/A); they have inferior processors, video cards, and RAM capacity (only 8GB). They also lack Bluetooth.

Currently running OCLP OS 12 Monterey on 3 of these machines, with 512GB SSD and 32GB RAM. Metal apps don't work but there are alternatives such as Google Maps. You can also use icloud.com for Photos.

There's a tradeoff whichever route you go: 1) you run an older no-longer-supported OS like Catalina with these Metal features (which will eventually stop connecting to Apple servers) or 2) running a newer "unsupported" setup like OCLP which I would argue gives you an overall longer useful life with these machines.