macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[arqueox]

If you replace your previous AppleIntelHD3000 kexts, and your VRAM size is 384 MB then you have to use ONLY this script from your Mojave Terminal:

cd /S*/L*/Ext*/AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext/C*/M*

sudo cp AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.backup

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\xC7\x45\xC4\x00\x00\x00\x18|\xC7\x45\xC4\x00\x00\x00\x60|g' AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB

sudo touch /S*/L*/Extensions

sudo reboot

edit:
instead of 60 if you use 80 you will have 2048 MB VRAM

Just replace the 2 kext files, and we have to use kext utility to rebuild cache. If we don't do that, we don't have acceleration and only 3 Mb available.
Done that and all fine with 512 MB available again. Gonna try your patch and see if works well.

 

[jackluke]

Just replace the 2 kext files, and we have to use kext utility to rebuild cache. If we don't do that, we don't have acceleration and only 3 Mb available.
Done that and all fine with 512 MB available again. Gonna try your patch and see if works well.

If your stock VRAM size is 512 MB then you have to use this adjusted script from your Mojave Terminal:

cd /S*/L*/Ext*/AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext/C*/M*

sudo cp AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.backup

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\xC7\x45\xC4\x00\x00\x00\x20|\xC7\x45\xC4\x00\x00\x00\x60|g' AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB

sudo touch /S*/L*/Extensions

sudo reboot

edit:
instead of 60 if you use 80 you will have 2048 MB VRAM

 

[arqueox]

If you replace your previous AppleIntelHD3000 kexts, and your VRAM size is 384 MB then you have to use ONLY this script from your Mojave Terminal:

cd /S*/L*/Ext*/AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext/C*/M*

sudo cp AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.backup

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\xC7\x45\xC4\x00\x00\x00\x18|\xC7\x45\xC4\x00\x00\x00\x60|g' AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB

sudo touch /S*/L*/Extensions

sudo reboot

edit:
instead of 60 if you use 80 you will have 2048 MB VRAM

tried your patch and it didn't work. Still with 512 MB.. Am I missing something?

 

[jackluke]

tried your patch and it didn't work. Still with 512 MB.. Am I missing something?

Check my adjusted script for IntelHD3000 with 512 MB VRAM stock: Here
The previous one was for IntelHD3000 with 384 MB VRAM stock.

Maybe before retry you should replace again your unpatched AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

 

[arqueox]

Check my adjusted script for IntelHD3000 with 512 MB VRAM stock: Here
The previous one was for IntelHD3000 with 384 MB VRAM stock.

Maybe before retry you should replace again your unpatched AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

Done that.... still doesn't work. Still 512 MB...

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

View attachment 774456

In this thread, advancements in running macOS 10.14 Mojave on unsupported systems will be discussed.
​

Links:

• macOS Mojave
• macOS Mojave Patcher
• macOS Mojave Patcher Demo Video
• Apple Beta Software Program

Current Hardware Support Status:

• Machine Support
  • Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro:
    • MacPro3,1
    • MacPro4,1
    • iMac8,1
    • iMac9,1
    • iMac10,x
    • iMac11,x
    • iMac12,x
    • MacBookPro4,1
    • MacBookPro5,x
    • MacBookPro6,x
    • MacBookPro7,1
    • MacBookPro8,x
  • Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook:
    • MacBookAir2,1
    • MacBookAir3,x
    • MacBookAir4,x
    • MacBook5,1
  • Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook:
    • Macmini3,1
    • Macmini4,1
    • Macmini5,x
    • MacBook5,2
    • MacBook6,1
    • MacBook7,1
  • Early-2008 or newer Xserve:
    • Xserve2,1
    • Xserve3,1

• Video Card Support
  • Pre-Metal AMD video cards (Radeon HD 6xxx series and older)
  • Pre-Metal nVidia video cards (GeForce 5xx series and older)
  • Pre-Metal Intel video cards (Intel HD Graphics 3000 and Intel HD Graphics Arrandale)

Current Issues

• Graphics anomalies: Currently, pre-metal video cards used in Mojave will produce a weird darkish grey Menu Bar and Finder sidebar when using the light theme. In the dark theme, however, these anomalies are not present. A workaround for graphics anomalies in light mode is to enable Reduce Transparency in System Preferences > Accessibility > Display. This is not a fix, this is a workaround. A solution for this issue is currently being investigated.
• AMD Radeon HD 5xxx/6xxx series GPU acceleration: Currently, it is not possible to get full graphics acceleration when running Mojave on a system with a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU. This includes 2010 and 2011 iMacs and 15" and 17" MacBook Pro systems (MacBookPro8,2 and 8,3). If you want to enable GPU acceleration on these MacBook Pro systems, you'll need to disable the AMD GPU.
• Early-2008 Mac Pro (MacPro3,1) GPU support: When running Mojave, you CANNOT use a newer AMD video card EVEN IF it is a Metal-comptible card and is supported in Mojave. The newer AMD drivers used in Mojave require the SSE4.2 instruction set, which the MacPro3,1 does not support. There is no way around this at this time. Your only GPU upgrade options for MacPro3,1 systems are nVidia cards, which work perfectly fine.
• Built-in iSight cameras: Currently, built-in iSight cameras do not work correctly on some machines. It seems to be hit or miss, but when installing, expect your iSight camera to be non-functional.
• Trackpad (MacBook5,2 affected only). The trackpad in the MacBook5,2 isn't fully supported in Mojave. While it works and is fully usable, Mojave detects it as just a standard mouse, preventing you from changing some trackpad-oriented settings.
• Unsupported WiFi modules in some systems. Macs that use the Broadcom BCM4321 WiFi module will not have functional WiFi when running Mojave. A fix for this is to open up your machine and install a compatible WiFi card. Machines affected include some MacPro3,1, MacBook5,2, MacBookPro4,1, iMac8,1, Macmini3,1, and MacBookAir2,1 systems. Please note that not all these machines will have an unsupported card, this is just a list of machines known to have shipped with that card in some configurations.
• App Store Crashing: Some users have reported crashing upon opening the App Store. This is caused by App Store videos and can be worked around by disabling video autoplay and not viewing App Store videos. This is not a fix, this is a workaround.

Current Issues by Model

• Graphics anomalies:
  • All machines
• AMD GPU acceleration:
  • All machines with a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU
• GPU support:
  • MacPro3,1
• Built-in iSight cameras:
  • All machines, hit or miss
• Trackpad:
  • MacBook5,2
• Unsupported WiFi modules:
  • All machines that use the Broadcom BCM4321 WiFi module
• App Store Crashing:
  • Machines with accelerated pre-metal Radeon HD GPUs (like Radeon HD 4xxx series GPUs)

Installing for Testing:
To install on your machine, you can download and run my macOS Mojave Patcher application, which will let you download a copy of the latest Developer Preview from Apple, and create a bootable USB installer for use on unsupported systems. It contains all the patches necessary to achieve the hardware support listed above. At this point, it is recommended that you install Mojave on one of these unsupported systems for testing only, and NOT as your main/daily use OS. Older versions of the patcher can be found here, the changelog here, and the official installation guide here.

Video Demo:
A video demo of Mojave running on various unsupported Macs can be found here.

Mojave Builds and Installer Versions (Developer Preview, Public Beta):
2018/06/04 DP1, build 18A293u, installer 14.0.08
2018/06/19 DP2, build 18A314h, installer 14.0.11
2018/06/26 PB1, build 18A314k, installer 14.0.11
2018/07/03 DP3, build 18A326g, installer 14.0.12
2018/07/06 PB2, build 18A326h, installer 14.0.12
2018/07/16 DP4, 2018/07/17 PB3, build 18A336e, installer 14.0.14
2018/07/30 DP5, 2018/07/31 PB4, build 18A347e, installer 14.0.15
2018/08/06 DP6, 2018/08/06 PB5, build 18A353d, installer 14.0.16

Special Thanks:
@Badruzeus - Discovered that 10.12 OpenGL drivers work in 10.14.
@ASentientBot - Fixed nVidia kernel panic, Core 2 Duo kernel panic, and iSight.
@jackluke - Narrowed down cause of Core 2 Duo kernel panic to the telemetry plugin, noticed that IOAccelerator framework from 10.14 beta 1 fixes some nVidia glitches.
@dosdude1 - Develops macOS Mojave Patcher.

Moderator Note:
Please do not ask for, or provide help getting developers profile information to access unauthorised beta software on MacRumors. If you are not a developer, sign up to the Apple Beta Software Program to get the official public beta releases.

 

[jackluke]

Done that.... still doesn't work. Still 512 MB...

Are you sure using IntelHD3000 from Sierra and not from El Capitan?

Anyway retry you should replace again your unpatched AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

then after repeat this : Patch 512 MB to 1536 MB VRAM

before "sudo reboot" instead type (or copy/paste) from Mojave Terminal:

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions && sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions

sudo kextcache -i /

sudo reboot

edit:
I've checked the file you uploaded Here
it seems contains AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext binary patch from El Capitan, so maybe there is been a mismatch, anyway if my method still not work for you, I will upload already patched 1536 MB and 2048 MB VRAM for IntelHD3000.

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

@dosdude1 @ASentientBot OK macOS Mojave beta 6 patched with Mojave Patcher 1.1.2 on Macmini 2010 (Macmini4.1) Impossible to change date format to long on Preferences and Active corner do not let me to switch off monitor moving mouse, but I think they are normal Mojave beta bugs. Thank you again and forever

 

[dosdude1]

Are you sure using IntelHD3000 from Sierra and not from El Capitan?

Anyway retry you should replace again your unpatched AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

then after repeat this : Patch 512 MB to 1536 MB VRAM

before "sudo reboot" instead type (or copy/paste) from Mojave Terminal:

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions && sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions

sudo kextcache -i /

sudo reboot

edit:
I've checked the file you uploaded Here
it seems contains AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext binary patch from El Capitan, so maybe there is been a mismatch, anyway if my method still not work for you, I will upload already patched 1536 MB and 2048 MB VRAM for IntelHD3000.

You should be using the kexts from 10.13, NOT 10.12! My patch utilizes graphics kexts from 10.13.6.

 

[jackluke]

You should be using the kexts from 10.13, NOT 10.12! My patch utilizes graphics kexts from 10.13.6.

But to achieve QE/CI Mojave didn't "IntelHD3000 Sierra 10.12.x" were mandatory?

Do "IntelHD3000 HSierra 10.13.6" bring QE/CI on Mojave?

edit:
Of course if arqueox uses 10.13.x the VRAM patch won't work on HS uses another offset.
But I can assure arqueox replaced 2 IntelHD3000 kexts from El Capitan, so made a mismatch between 10.11.x and 10.13.x IntelHD3000 kexts, but that to him worked too.

 

[dosdude1]

But to achieve QE/CI Mojave didn't "IntelHD3000 Sierra 10.12.x" were mandatory?

edit:
Of course if arqueox uses 10.13.x the VRAM patch won't work on HS uses another offset.
But I can assure arqueox replaced 2 IntelHD3000 kexts from El Capitan, so he made a mismatch between 10.12.x (or 10.13.x) kexts, but that worked too.

Nah, I got acceleration working with the 10.13 kexts. So just make sure to use those when patching.

 

[jackluke]

Nah, I got acceleration working with the 10.13 kexts. So just make sure to use those when patching.

Oh my fault, didn't know sorry.

@arqueox try these steps they 100% work this time to increase from stock 512 MB to 1536 MB VRAM:

cd /S*/L*/Ext*/AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext/C*/M*

sudo cp AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.backup

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x20|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x60|g' AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB

sudo touch /S*/L*/Extensions


edit:
thanks to @arqueox for having tested the Info.plist
before reboot/restart you have to edit this file:

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelHD3000Graphics.kext/Contents/Info.plist

Adding after these strings, this part:

<key>VRAMMethod</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>VRAMOverride</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>VRAMSize</key>
<integer>1536</integer>

after edited the plist from Terminal type:

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions && sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions

sudo kextcache -i /

sudo reboot

 

[0403979]

Oh my fault, didn't know sorry.

@arqueox try these steps they 100% work this time:

cd /S*/L*/Ext*/AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext/C*/M*

sudo cp AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.backup

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x20|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x60|g' AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB

sudo touch /S*/L*/Extensions

sudo reboot

What is the perl command? I can’t find it on SS64.

 

[jackluke]

What is the perl command? I can’t find it on SS64.

It's here /usr/bin/perl is a unix command in this scope to replace an hexadecimal memory address, same thing could be done through an Hex Editor, but let's say from Terminal is quicker with copy/paste.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl

https://www.perl.com/pub/2004/08/09/commandline.html

 

[Michael Filipan]

Hi. I am not getting the updates. Does someone know what I can do to fix it?

 

[saudor]

does increasing HD3000 vram to 1gb even bring any benefits? that GPU is so weak i’m thinking it;s going to choke up before even coming close to 512 mb usage

 

[jackluke]

does increasing HD3000 vram to 1gb even bring any benefits? that GPU is so weak i’m thinking it;s going to choke up before even coming close to 512 mb usage

Yes, let's say is faster in animation rendering, Safari streaming videos, and overall graphically using is smoother, only thing I've noticed a bit more glitches, negligible I would say. If anything give it a try, you can revert easily to stock VRAM replacing the AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext

follow these steps: here

instead of 60 type 40 to obtain 1024 MB VRAM.

And you have to edit the plist setting this value:

<key>VRAMSize</key>
<integer>1024</integer>

 

[thewebgal]

Takes a few hours to work through this so I decided to try again today - Last night I pulled the SoldState Drives and time-machine restored Sierra 10.12.6 to a seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200rpm drive. This morning I figured maybe I should not try to skip past HS to Mojave, so I planned to update to High Sierra, and THEN do the Mojave upgrade.

I did the Firmware Update and the reboot. Then into Terminal and csrutil disable- reboot.
Downloaded a fresh copy of HS Installer util from Dosdude site.
Downloaded a fresh copy of HS Install from Apple. (Yep, my machine looks compatible to them)
created HS Install Thumbdrive (Kingston 8GB drive) and reboot into installer
"A Firmware Update is required" - clicked restart, did the restart as suggested,
reboot- option and selected Installer Thumb, and into installer.
"A Firmware Update is required" - got this screen AGAIN.
Again, clicked "restart" on the screen itself. Nothing happened - so I waited -
15 mins later and still, no visible change, so I clicked the Restart option from the drop down,
and did the technique again (hold power until tone, let it reset and
THIS TIME was different - CD tray opened, and a kind of a lower resolution screen came up wit the fatter progress bar.
I let it run and it restarted on its own.

went to the current system start screen, so I rebooted, option-restart,
and selected the Install thumb again.
Got a progress bar, ran for 6 mins, restarted at around 2 minutes,
it went back to the install process on its own, with a 49 minute progress bar.
That ran uninterrupted - I came back after it completed and saw a grey circle with slash in it - Bad disc!
Tried to restart it a couple times, same result.
So I powered down, pulled the new HDD, put last night's working Sierra OWC SSD drive back in, just to get it going again, and restarted successfully in Sierra again. And here I am.

Been working with it all day now and I am no further along.

There is one thing -
Before I did this install, when I ran "About this mac" this morning, I got

Boot ROM Version: MP51.0087.B00

After all the work, when I run About this Mac now, I get this:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 6
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Memory: 24 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MP51.0089.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

(Everything else is the same, only the Boot Rom number changed)

So, the Firmware Update part of the install DID work this time, at least ...

But I'm at a complete loss as to why a theoretically supported machine cannot be updated to High Sierra,
I do want to upgrade to Mojave real soon now!

(as I said, its a late 2009 MacPro 4.1 that was updated to 5.1 a few years back, and has been running Sierra no problem for a few years)
The leap to High Sierra should have been equally painless on a supported machine - unless somehow something got cobbled up on one of the early Sierra betas that is still causing problems at upgrade time ??

I am open to suggestions!

Ah I see. Details are good. You have a 4,1 and upgraded to 5,1 firmware. Explains a lot.

The fact that you had problems upgrading to HS and you're getting all those nasty KPs indicates (strongly) that you're having bootrom issues with respect to hardware (and their drivers) installed. This probably has nothing to do with the patcher itself.

Don't know if you caught this a few posts behind, but certain OWC SSDs have issues with 5.1 bootroms and HS in particular. Here are some references that should really help :

5.1 bootrom + issues with OWC SSD:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8376628

Someone who managed to get their upgraded 4,1->5,1 machine running in HS:

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View...ate+from+4,1+to+5,1+for+Sierra+Upgrade+Solved

All this will most likely help, but will require some effort.

A few things you can try if you have the stamina:

- The best way to "peek" behind the KPs is to switch kernel verbose mode to capture the text. But unless you can boot to recovery or single user and [dmesg] you won't have much time to read the fast scrolling text.

- switch to a non-SSD main/boot hardrive (using the built-in controller) and install HS (or even Mojave).

- A 5.1 is a "supported" Apple Mojave configuration, but I don't know if just flashing the bootrom is good enough to spoof entirely for HS and Mojave. If it is, you shouldn't need to patch anything! From Sierra is your macpro upgrade compatible ie. can you download a legitimate copy of HS from the AppStore for example?

 

[arqueox]

Oh my fault, didn't know sorry.

@arqueox try these steps they 100% work this time:

cd /S*/L*/Ext*/AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext/C*/M*

sudo cp AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.backup

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x20|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x60|g' AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB

sudo touch /S*/L*/Extensions

sudo reboot

Done it. 1536 MB with the commands above. But I noticed something. In Photoshop, now indicates 500 Mb available... With the other patch files indicated 1024 Mb... That is something to do with plist and those 2 lines they say to include? Maybe it is something cosmetic, though... What do you think?

 

[jackluke]

Done it. 1536 MB with the commands above. But I noticed something. In Photoshop, now indicates 500 Mb available... With the other patch files indicated 1024 Mb... That is something to do with plist and those 2 lines they say to include? Maybe it is something cosmetic, though... What do you think?

Ok try to add those lines in Info.plist inside AppleIntelHD3000Graphics.kext with VRAMSize 1536 MB

after edited the plist you need to type from Terminal:

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions && sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions
sudo kextcache -i /
sudo reboot

 

[arqueox]

Ok try to add those lines in Info.plist inside AppleIntelHD3000Graphics.kext with VRAMSize 1536 MB

after edited the plist you need to type from Terminal:

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions && sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions
sudo kextcache -i /
sudo reboot

Done it and worked.
Conclusions?

 

[TimothyR734]

Hi. I am not getting the updates. Does someone know what I can do to fix it?

what are you trying to update
[doublepost=1534023248][/doublepost]

Takes a few hours to work through this so I decided to try again today - Last night I pulled the SoldState Drives and time-machine restored Sierra 10.12.6 to a seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200rpm drive. This morning I figured maybe I should not try to skip past HS to Mojave, so I planned to update to High Sierra, and THEN do the Mojave upgrade.

I did the Firmware Update and the reboot. Then into Terminal and csrutil disable- reboot.
Downloaded a fresh copy of HS Installer util from Dosdude site.
Downloaded a fresh copy of HS Install from Apple. (Yep, my machine looks compatible to them)
created HS Install Thumbdrive (Kingston 8GB drive) and reboot into installer
"A Firmware Update is required" - clicked restart, did the restart as suggested,
reboot- option and selected Installer Thumb, and into installer.
"A Firmware Update is required" - got this screen AGAIN.
Again, clicked "restart" on the screen itself. Nothing happened - so I waited -
15 mins later and still, no visible change, so I clicked the Restart option from the drop down,
and did the technique again (hold power until tone, let it reset and
THIS TIME was different - CD tray opened, and a kind of a lower resolution screen came up wit the fatter progress bar.
I let it run and it restarted on its own.

went to the current system start screen, so I rebooted, option-restart,
and selected the Install thumb again.
Got a progress bar, ran for 6 mins, restarted at around 2 minutes,
it went back to the install process on its own, with a 49 minute progress bar.
That ran uninterrupted - I came back after it completed and saw a grey circle with slash in it - Bad disc!
Tried to restart it a couple times, same result.
So I powered down, pulled the new HDD, put last night's working Sierra OWC SSD drive back in, just to get it going again, and restarted successfully in Sierra again. And here I am.

Been working with it all day now and I am no further along.

There is one thing -
Before I did this install, when I ran "About this mac" this morning, I got

Boot ROM Version: MP51.0087.B00

After all the work, when I run About this Mac now, I get this:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 6
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Memory: 24 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MP51.0089.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

(Everything else is the same, only the Boot Rom number changed)

So, the Firmware Update part of the install DID work this time, at least ...

But I'm at a complete loss as to why a theoretically supported machine cannot be updated to High Sierra,
I do want to upgrade to Mojave real soon now!

(as I said, its a late 2009 MacPro 4.1 that was updated to 5.1 a few years back, and has been running Sierra no problem for a few years)
The leap to High Sierra should have been equally painless on a supported machine - unless somehow something got cobbled up on one of the early Sierra betas that is still causing problems at upgrade time ??

I am open to suggestions!

when you downloaded High Sierra after the download finished did you see the popup say would you like to install now, if you can get back in Sierra find your High Sierra download and click on install High Sierra if that doesn't work try creating a new High Sierra bootable usb and do a clean install of High Sierra and use migration if that works

 

[nekton1]

Takes a few hours to work through this so I decided to try again today - Last night I pulled the SoldState Drives and time-machine restored Sierra 10.12.6 to a seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200rpm drive. This morning I figured maybe I should not try to skip past HS to Mojave, so I planned to update to High Sierra, and THEN do the Mojave upgrade.

I did the Firmware Update and the reboot. Then into Terminal and csrutil disable- reboot.
Downloaded a fresh copy of HS Installer util from Dosdude site.
Downloaded a fresh copy of HS Install from Apple. (Yep, my machine looks compatible to them)
created HS Install Thumbdrive (Kingston 8GB drive) and reboot into installer
"A Firmware Update is required" - clicked restart, did the restart as suggested,
reboot- option and selected Installer Thumb, and into installer.
"A Firmware Update is required" - got this screen AGAIN.
Again, clicked "restart" on the screen itself. Nothing happened - so I waited -
15 mins later and still, no visible change, so I clicked the Restart option from the drop down,
and did the technique again (hold power until tone, let it reset and
THIS TIME was different - CD tray opened, and a kind of a lower resolution screen came up wit the fatter progress bar.
I let it run and it restarted on its own.

went to the current system start screen, so I rebooted, option-restart,
and selected the Install thumb again.
Got a progress bar, ran for 6 mins, restarted at around 2 minutes,
it went back to the install process on its own, with a 49 minute progress bar.
That ran uninterrupted - I came back after it completed and saw a grey circle with slash in it - Bad disc!
Tried to restart it a couple times, same result.
So I powered down, pulled the new HDD, put last night's working Sierra OWC SSD drive back in, just to get it going again, and restarted successfully in Sierra again. And here I am.

Been working with it all day now and I am no further along.

There is one thing -
Before I did this install, when I ran "About this mac" this morning, I got

Boot ROM Version: MP51.0087.B00

After all the work, when I run About this Mac now, I get this:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 6
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Memory: 24 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MP51.0089.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

(Everything else is the same, only the Boot Rom number changed)

So, the Firmware Update part of the install DID work this time, at least ...

But I'm at a complete loss as to why a theoretically supported machine cannot be updated to High Sierra,
I do want to upgrade to Mojave real soon now!

(as I said, its a late 2009 MacPro 4.1 that was updated to 5.1 a few years back, and has been running Sierra no problem for a few years)
The leap to High Sierra should have been equally painless on a supported machine - unless somehow something got cobbled up on one of the early Sierra betas that is still causing problems at upgrade time ??

I am open to suggestions!

[doublepost=1534024588][/doublepost]Having got the firmware updated, now:
1. Boot from USB installer you have and set SIP back to on from terminal with csrutil enable
2. Check SIP is on with csrutil status
2a. Boot back into Sierra
3. Build a new clean HighSierra installer from terminal using the APPLE guidelines—you DO NOT need a dosdude installer
4. Put an SSD into the Mac, partition/erase it as APFS.
5. Boot from the Apple USB installer and see how the install proceeds

 

[Pinarek]

if you are trying to enable night shift use the patch updater in your utilities folder scroll to the bottom and apply the night shift patch

Yes thank you it work !

 

[thewebgal]

Having got the firmware updated, now:
1. Boot from USB installer you have and set SIP back to on from terminal with csrutil enable
2. Check SIP is on with csrutil status
2a. Boot back into Sierra
3. Build a new clean HighSierra installer from terminal using the APPLE guidelines—you DO NOT need a dosdude installer
4. Put an SSD into the Mac, partition/erase it as APFS.
5. Boot from the Apple USB installer and see how the install proceeds

Thank you - this makes more sense than some folks suggestions of just trying again
with no real variations on what has failed before. (which I have already tried, ad naseum!)