macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[jackluke]

As to the theory that the boot rom is being overwritten/duplicated to cause the double ram post. I doubt it very much.
First, when a boot rom is rewritten, you'll see the much thicker boot progress bar and I don't think anyone has. Second, the HS/Mojave OSes do not have boot-rom patch code for Macs earlier than models that could run HS with APFS, so any model earlier than that (about late 2009/early 210) cannot get an update without a lot of non-Apple effort. If your Mac is a model that never supported APFS with HS, there is no boot rom code that can be patched to it, so no double patch.
In summary, I think the double chime is due to something else, but I'm open to being proven wrong.
BTW, there is also a patch to the boot rom code for the Mac Pro 3,1, 4,1 and 5,1 that adds NVMe booting with the right card and NVMe SSD.

In Mac laptop during an EFI firmware update there isn't a progress bar but a couple of reboot (from a turned off LCD) with only a blinking white led or a delayed boot POST followed sometime by beeps sound.

Those MacBooks that suffer of double chime doesn't use the NVMe controller, but an AHCI 1.3 SATA II interface, even if being used a SATA III SSD design that inside uses some kind of those chips controllers, they are overridden by the main SATA interface I guess.

edit:

Maybe you are right but to prove this to those that occurred on double boot chime startup sound a simple test:
disconnect any internal bootable SATA HDD/SSD and any other connected USB booting device then power on the machine, if boot with only a startup chime landing to the question mark folder, then you are totally right, else if still getting a twice startup chime in my opinion a forced version upgrade from unsupported Mac has "altered" original EFI CHIP ROM.

edit2:

Or they could try use one at once or to swap the two SO-DIMM DDR3, maybe this could fix double chime too.

 

[Macschrauber]

Latest

You need a raspberry pi, a Pegasus clip for the SOIC8 chip and some patience.

in some cases this didnt work because you are urged to supply a whole load of chips with current just from the programmer. I tried the clip method with a gpu recently and it didnt worked. It was a pita clipping this thing on properly - and than it didnt worked. Getting the chip off the board worked of course.

 

[jackluke]

Latest


in some cases this didnt work because you are urged to supply a whole load of chips with current just from the programmer. I tried the clip method with a gpu recently and it didnt worked. It was a pita clipping this thing on properly - and than it didnt worked. Getting the chip off the board worked of course.

Infact the MBA2,1 EFI MX Chip is very welded with the minimum thickness, hardly noticeable the 8 PINs contacts.

 

[0403979]

@dosdude1 please remove ui glitches from website bug list, because DP4 fixed them

also:

• you can put airportatheros40 in just extensions, it won't get overwritten by updates that way
• you forgot legacyplatform and legacygpu for xserve3,1
• you should put legacywifi on by default because of atheros replacement or pci cards
• I think we can switch back to no_compat_check now
• PLEASE add 10.11 trackpad pref pane for macbook5,2. I don't know why you don't want to do that

P.S. we should update all kexts from 10.13.6

They were magically gone? Was there a patch or a Mojave update or something?
[doublepost=1532179188][/doublepost]

@dosdude1 please remove ui glitches from website bug list, because DP4 fixed them

also:

• you can put airportatheros40 in just extensions, it won't get overwritten by updates that way
• you forgot legacyplatform and legacygpu for xserve3,1
• you should put legacywifi on by default because of atheros replacement or pci cards
• I think we can switch back to no_compat_check now
• PLEASE add 10.11 trackpad pref pane for macbook5,2. I don't know why you don't want to do that

P.S. we should update all kexts from 10.13.6

They were magically gone? Was there a patch or a Mojave update or something?

I’m on beta 4 and the glitches are still there.

 

[waydabber]

@dosdude1 please remove ui glitches from website bug list, because DP4 fixed them

Are the UI glitches solved? I still have them (iMac 2009, HD 4850, build 18A336e). Am I missing something?

 

[dosdude1]

@dosdude1 please remove ui glitches from website bug list, because DP4 fixed them

also:

• you can put airportatheros40 in just extensions, it won't get overwritten by updates that way
• you forgot legacyplatform and legacygpu for xserve3,1
• you should put legacywifi on by default because of atheros replacement or pci cards
• I think we can switch back to no_compat_check now
• PLEASE add 10.11 trackpad pref pane for macbook5,2. I don't know why you don't want to do that

P.S. we should update all kexts from 10.13.6

The UI glitches are still present in Beta 4... Also, Xserve3,1 is equivalent to the Mac Pro 4,1/5,1, and doesn't need Legacy Platform. I also don't apply Legacy GPU on machines that have upgrade able GPUs (I will actually implement video card detection and only install it as necessary in a later release).

 

[0403979]

Are the UI glitches solved? I still have them (iMac 2009, HD 4850, build 18A336e). Am I missing something?

Same here. Build 18A336e, MacBook7,1.

 

[jackluke]

They were magically gone? Was there a patch or a Mojave update or something?
[doublepost=1532179188][/doublepost]

I’m on beta 4 and the glitches are still there.

I guess parrotgeek1 referred to the fact that starting from Mojave beta 4 the graphical glitches encountered (like any black/white Dashboard's Widgets borders) are very minimal or are the same both for a supported/unsupported Mac beta system.

Anyway I still use IOAccelerator from beta 1.

edit:
Of course apart the greyed Finder bar and transparencies in "light mode", in dark mode to me using a MB7,1 with Nvidia is equivalent to a Mojave beta 4 booted from an Intel Metal supported MacBook Pro.

 

[0403979]

The UI glitches are still present in Beta 4... Also, Xserve3,1 is equivalent to the Mac Pro 4,1/5,1, and doesn't need Legacy Platform. I also don't apply Legacy GPU on machines that have upgrade able GPUs (I will actually implement video card detection and only install it as necessary in a later release).

Huh. Thanks for confirming that.

 

[dosdude1]

Same here. Build 18A336e, MacBook7,1.

Yeah, they're still present in light mode. Dark mode seems perfect.

 

[0403979]

Yeah, they're still present in light mode. Dark mode seems perfect.

Wait a minute. If the patcher replaces IOAccelerator with the one from beta 1 then perhaps the new IOAccelerator has fixed the glitches.

 

[dosdude1]

Wait a minute. If the patcher replaces IOAccelerator with the one from beta 1 then perhaps the new IOAccelerator has fixed the glitches.

No acceleration with newer IOAccelerator.

 

[0403979]

No acceleration with newer IOAccelerator.

Well that’s a bummer. What’s the reason for that? I thought it was only a speed improvement and that it was separate from acceleration.

 

[dosdude1]

Well that’s a bummer. What’s the reason for that? I thought it was only a speed improvement and that it was separate from acceleration.

Oh, wait I'm sorry. No, the patcher doesn't replace IOAccelerator at all, so it will be the version native to the OS.

 

[0403979]

Oh, wait I'm sorry. No, the patcher doesn't replace IOAccelerator at all, so it will be the version native to the OS.

Oh. So I should have the beta 4 version right?

 

[FlorisVN]

for all iMac 2011 users here,
macvidcards is maybay offering GPU upgrade solutions in the future.

Please let then know if you want one to, and post a comment here !
http://www.macvidcards.com/blog/imac-cards-coming

 

[0403979]

Oh, wait I'm sorry. No, the patcher doesn't replace IOAccelerator at all, so it will be the version native to the OS.

Perhaps it’s another file that was replaced but said replacement wasn’t integral to the system actually functioning like a graphics driver or something. Perhaps @parrotgeek1 patched manually.

 

[FlorisVN]

for all iMac 2011 users here,
macvidcards is maybay offering GPU upgrade solutions in the future.

Please let then know if you want one to, and post a comment here !
http://www.macvidcards.com/blog/imac-cards-coming

This upgrade would be great, for example a Mojave compatible Metal GPU, aswell as a more reliable GPU than the stock ATI HD6XXX cards...

 

[waydabber]

The UI glitches I am experiencing:

- Light mode: system wide transparency issues.
- Dark mode: There is a slight unsmoothed black frame around the windows (most visible at the corners, especially in front of light background - I checked this on a supported machine, it should look a bit more refined). Some built in apps have visible artifacts (like the left upper and lower left corners of the Messages app). Also, some non-native apps which use transparency but does not support dark mode (1Password 6 for example) will exhibit the transparency issues.

So neither light mode, nor dark mode is perfect. I'd say dark mode is absolutely usable, but there are constant subtle reminders here and there that the system is in fact not supported.

 

[Badruzeus]

Congrats for Tesla users, that aren't Metal capable graphics.. but luckily (forced) Mojave-Supported #LoL
I hope, you won't get a same issue as my Fermi graphics since Beta 2 upto 4. Let's have fun together.

 

[therealflexage]

I have a mac pro 3,1 that I have just installed Mojave on using the tool.

I posted on here a couple of days ago about upgrading the graphics card from the GT 120 that it currently has, as it seems to be running without hardware acceleration, web browsers are really juddery, etc....

It was suggested I could pick up and EVGA 680 and flash it, as I said I was quite happy to flash - but after further reading I'm not sure I'm ready for flashing, quite yet, I'd want to do a bit more reading up before I go ahead and make a choice on that.

So I thought that in the interim I have a couple of PC graphics cards lying around, that should be supported (without boot screen) and work much better than this GT 120.

I have an XFX HD7750 Core and an Asus GT630, and I thought that either of them would be able to work ok, but when I tried fitting them in the system, I couldn't get it to boot at all - is there something else I need to do to get one of them to boot?

I used to have a pc gpu in my Mac Pro 1,1 (way back when) and it used to work fine without the boot screen.

TIA

 

[jackluke]

Congrats for Tesla users, that aren't Metal capable graphics.. but luckily (forced) Mojave-Supported #LoL
I hope, you won't get a same issue as my Fermi graphics since Beta 2 upto 4. Let's have fun together.

And if you try to replace /S/L/PF/Skylight.framework from Mojave beta 2 or High Sierra?

Another attempt could be, maybe it won't work, but try also to replace IOAccelerator from Mojave Beta 1, I notice it is a framework required mainly by Nvidia GPUs and the previous version of this other framework was smaller in size, maybe containing less new Metal coding, it's just a supposition.

I still do have a Mojave beta 2 internally on another supported machine (the one from which I upgraded my external SSD Mojave beta 4 to use on MB7,1), I will upload the previous Frameworks for you, hoping that will fix your Kernel Panic.

edit:

I'd suggest to use the technique I did for telemetry.plugin, try replacing one at once while possibly leave the other untouched. Maybe is only one of them, or both, or no one.

This is a complete untouched /S/L/PrivateFrameworks/Skylight.framework taken from Mojave beta 2. Give it a try.

Maybe also a previous Mojave beta2 /S/L/Framework/InputMethodKit.framework could be required to luckily fix Legacy Nvidia Fermi Metal API requirements.

I would exclude CoreDisplay.framework since even on a working Mojave beta 4 booted from MB7,1 Nvidia Tesla, I still get many CGXDisplayDriverInitialize errors in Console app, but it's working fine anyway.

But maybe also replacing CoreDisplay.framework could be a good attempt.

Also waiting for an ASentientBot's opinion would be very useful since he fixed the QE/CI on Legacy Nvidia Tesla.

 

[dosdude1]

I have a mac pro 3,1 that I have just installed Mojave on using the tool.

I posted on here a couple of days ago about upgrading the graphics card from the GT 120 that it currently has, as it seems to be running without hardware acceleration, web browsers are really juddery, etc....

It was suggested I could pick up and EVGA 680 and flash it, as I said I was quite happy to flash - but after further reading I'm not sure I'm ready for flashing, quite yet, I'd want to do a bit more reading up before I go ahead and make a choice on that.

So I thought that in the interim I have a couple of PC graphics cards lying around, that should be supported (without boot screen) and work much better than this GT 120.

I have an XFX HD7750 Core and an Asus GT630, and I thought that either of them would be able to work ok, but when I tried fitting them in the system, I couldn't get it to boot at all - is there something else I need to do to get one of them to boot?

I used to have a pc gpu in my Mac Pro 1,1 (way back when) and it used to work fine without the boot screen.

TIA

On the 3,1, the Legacy Video Card Patch is not installed by default, which is why you had no acceleration. If you want to use the GT120, install the Legacy Video Card Patch. If you want to upgrade, upgrade ONLY to nVidia cards. You CANNOT use newer AMD video cards on the Mac Pro 3,1 running Mojave.

 

[redheeler]

Yes I have a late 2015 21.5" 4k iMac but it still does not hold the appeal of my mid 2011 21.5" iMac the difference being I am not in denial that it is obsolete.

The definition of obsolete is vague and means something different to each person. To me, it means being incapable of performing modern or useful tasks at a usable speed.

And with that definition in mind, even my Late 2006 24" iMac is not obsolete. It can browse the web, run modern Linux applications, play 1080p YouTube videos and streams, and gets used regularly.

If I may be so bold the work should be targeted at achieving Full Dark Mode on High Sierra.

Dark mode on High Sierra will never be ideal. The built-in apps were simply not made with dark mode in mind.

 

[therealflexage]

On the 3,1, the Legacy Video Card Patch is not installed by default, which is why you had no acceleration. If you want to use the GT120, install the Legacy Video Card Patch. If you want to upgrade, upgrade ONLY to nVidia cards. You CANNOT use newer AMD video cards on the Mac Pro 3,1 running Mojave.

Thanks very much, that's some useful information! I'll give the Legacy Video Card Patch a go and report back.

If I did decide to go ahead and try to use my nvidia pc card again (the 630), is there any reason that it might not have booted the first time i tried? I just ended up with a black screen, and it looked like it had just hung, as I was unable to get the volume controls to make the 'pop' sound as they usually do when booted successfully?

I remember back in the day we had to install the nvidia web drivers to get a non-mac nvidia card to boot, but i thought that they had some support baked in now?