macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[thewebgal]

W A

So now I got a copy of Mojave, the question is, how do I bypass the model check to install it on my 3,1?

W A I T!
10.14 is currently a WAY EARLY Beta version - give the Apple developers a chance to get closer to a working version before you insist on the super geeks here making it more portable so you can break your unsupported machine

 

[chrono1081]

Interesting new development. All the posters who have tried to argue that it's impossible for Apple to keep supporting OpenGL, and now we find out it's still there but intentionally disabled.

Well, there you have it. In reality, it would have been easier for Apple to keep supporting 2011 Macs than even I thought.

Not to sound rude, but you really don't know what you're talking about. You're not worth my time to argue with because its apparent you're not familiar with software development, or graphics APIs. No on is saying its impossible to support OpenGL, we, the people who know what we're talking about, are saying its stupid to keep supporting OpenGL. OpenGL's writing has been on the wall since the bandaid known as the fragment shader pipeline was introduced.

The last thing I'll say to you is again, you're completely misunderstanding what is going on. Apple is trimming the OS and moving forward with new, superior technology, they're stripping the cruft out of a future OS (the cruft being OpenGL and other legacy technologies). If you like supporting ancient legacy technologies, move to Windows, simple as that, but even Microsoft has been stripping out legacy support as of late because it creates enormous code bloat and numerous other problems.

 

[jacky19_tech]

Okay noob who love tech and apple here,
Is it currently possible to install macOS 10.14 with the installer patched with 10.13 patcher?
or is there anything beta/alpha i can help test out?

im using an iMac 2008 (c2duo, 2600pro) btw

 

[mnsiw]

Best thing noob(like me)/new comer can do is to read few post to get idea about the topic and status, instead of repeatedly asking same questions ;-p

 

[bookemdano]

Okay noob who love tech and apple here,
Is it currently possible to install macOS 10.14 with the installer patched with 10.13 patcher?
or is there anything beta/alpha i can help test out?

im using an iMac 2008 (c2duo, 2600pro) btw

noobs and DPs don't go well together, I'm afraid. Put another way, anyone who needs handholding to install a Developer Preview probably shouldn't be running it in the first place. It's one thing to install it on a supported device, but none of the machines Apple axed from the compatibility list for Mojave can run it at present without major problems and compromises.

Maybe (hopefully) that situation will improve as the beta cycle moves along, but if you are a self-professed noob then it's way too early for you to be installing this on an old Mac. Just wait and keep up with the developments in this thread. Maybe in the future they'll come up with a way to run it on your old iMac (but don't get your hopes up).

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

We need more posts by random people who are too lazy to read the OP, and ask for instructions which doesn't exist, on how their highly specific setup can be running something they shouldn't mess with.

 

[Qwertyasaui]

Okay noob who love tech and apple here,
Is it currently possible to install macOS 10.14 with the installer patched with 10.13 patcher?
or is there anything beta/alpha i can help test out?

im using an iMac 2008 (c2duo, 2600pro) btw

That would not work because even if you were able to use the patcher, it would not work since the patcher does not support the OS and does not fix any problems with metal. Also, a tip for next time is to see if there is anything beta/alpha that you could use is see if anyone mentions it working, but with some bugs in it .

 

[iphone2g&3gfan]

Stop asking for tutorials. We're nowhere close to being done yet.

Update:

Atheros WiFi driver added from 10.13, and fixed (iMacs)
USB 1.1 driver on Core 2 duo fixed (the OHCI driver was just gone) (maybe the source of kernel panic? not 100% sure)
Sound fixed on all computers

Started:
loading Nvidia gpu drivers (it's possible!)
AMD OpenGL (big breakthrough- Nvidia Fermi cards work natively without Metal already, so that is a big clue)
new LegacyUSBInjector (almost done)

Not done:
Nvidia OpenGL
instructions/installer/etc...
software update patch
Testing for bugs on all unsupported computers

Not yet:
Support for any computer which can't run High Sierra natively (i.e. that need High Sierra Patcher), including no AMD gpu patch for macpro3,1/etc, no backlight/sound/etc fixes, ...

However the following computers probably work OK because they didn't need patches in 10.13


MacBook5,1 = MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)
MacBookPro5,1 = MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)
MacBookPro5,2 = MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)
MacBookPro5,3 = MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBookPro5,4 = MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009)
MacBookPro5,5 = MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)
MacPro4,1 [don't even need legacyusb]
Xserve3,1 [except network activity lights, but Apple broke that in 10.8]

All issues fixable by drivers (later)
=============================
iMac9,1 [backlight]

That's awesome, a BIG, BIG thank you for the enormous effort put in to it! About the tutorials thing, the devs are busy working on actual reverse engineering, and when someone said if you need to be helped installing macOS mojave itself then you prob shouldn't mess around with it, I agree... It's not for everyone ATM, and the chances of messing something up are very high. For everyone's own good, the tutorials will come later...

So Fermi has OpenGL acceleration on Mojave without metal? Like, fermi launches most apps except the new UIKit ports from iOS (which require metal)? That's pretty interesting. WindowServer even loads GLDriver.bundle?

"(big breakthrough- Nvidia Fermi cards work natively without Metal already, so that is a big clue)"

I suppose that's what you mean, that Fermi has OpenGL based UI acceleration without a MTLDriver... If so, that's great news for us old timers. It means we can hook onto the OpenGL code!

I wonder what apple says about that, i.e including Fermi support NATIVELY in Mojave but not being able to launch the UIKit apps/no metal for new apps... I feel like Apple will release some info on graphics cards compatibility soon, before GM...

Apple has done stuff like this in the past, like supporting old macs in newer macOS but without Handoff, continuity, etc... I smell a documentation release soon, explaining what features will and will not work. I'm sure Apple is aware of the confusion...

The WiFI drivers loading and working + the audio drivers still working are good, unlike sierra, where the wifi drivers wouldn't load... SO far, very promising indeed!

Now all that's left is for Apple to continue including OpenGL in WindowServer!

 

[Czo]

That's awesome, a BIG, BIG thank you for the enormous effort put in to it! About the tutorials thing, the devs are busy working on actual reverse engineering, and when someone said if you need to be helped installing macOS mojave itself then you prob shouldn't mess around with it, I agree... It's not for everyone ATM, and the chances of messing something up are very high. For everyone's own good, the tutorials will come later...

So Fermi has OpenGL acceleration on Mojave without metal? Like, fermi launches most apps except the new UIKit ports from iOS (which require metal)? That's pretty interesting. WindowServer even loads GLDriver.bundle?

"(big breakthrough- Nvidia Fermi cards work natively without Metal already, so that is a big clue)"

I suppose that's what you mean, that Fermi has OpenGL based UI acceleration without a MTLDriver... If so, that's great news for us old timers. It means we can hook onto the OpenGL code!

I wonder what apple says about that, i.e including Fermi support NATIVELY in Mojave but not being able to launch the UIKit apps/no metal for new apps... I feel like Apple will release some info on graphics cards compatibility soon, before GM...

Apple has done stuff like this in the past, like supporting old macs in newer macOS but without Handoff, continuity, etc... I smell a documentation release soon, explaining what features will and will not work. I'm sure Apple is aware of the confusion...

The WiFI drivers loading and working + the audio drivers still working are good, unlike sierra, where the wifi drivers wouldn't load... SO far, very promising indeed!

Now all that's left is for Apple to continue including OpenGL in WindowServer!

I need to test something. What happens when i put a GTS 450 to my Thunderbolt - PCI-E case? Maybe the internal Radeon will start to working with acceleration? Rx480 worked fine with a Thunderbolt - PCI-E box on my iMac 2011. Btw, maybe Fermi support is something like a luck? Apple never used Fermi the only thing that contains it is a Quadro 4000 Mac Edition card.

 

[stormxeron]

I wonder what apple says about that, i.e including Fermi support NATIVELY in Mojave but not being able to launch the UIKit apps/no metal for new apps... I feel like Apple will release some info on graphics cards compatibility soon, before GM...

How much probability do you see about apple implementing OpenGL for UIKit apps in next betas?

 

[scrub10rd]

How much probability do you see about apple implementing OpenGL for UIKit apps in next betas?

I feel like they are too new to be able to rely on OpenGL but then again for safe mode and the minority of supported hardware, it may be possible

 

[dogslobber]

I took Mojave beta 1 for a spin on my 2011 iMac which isn't supported. The WIFI card isn't found and the graphics driver are not loaded probably due to the Metal requirement. Otherwise, it didn't look too bad. The stocks.app using UIKit(?) loaded with a blank window only but the menus were functional.

 

[Czo]

I feel like they are too new to be able to rely on OpenGL but then again for safe mode and the minority of supported hardware, it may be possible

For safe mode?! UIKit apps are not required for safe mode. Supported hardware? All hardware that Apple currently support are Metal compatible. Apple newer sold Macs with Fermi.

 

[dlfgma]

@dosdude1

If I use your APFS ROM tool to convert my 5,4 to APFS, will the High Sierra Patcher still work if I have to do a reinstall (for say 10.13.6?)

 

[dosdude1]

@dosdude1

If I use your APFS ROM tool to convert my 5,4 to APFS, will the High Sierra Patcher still work if I have to do a reinstall (for say 10.13.6?)

Yes.

 

[Hindrik1997]

W A

W A I T!
10.14 is currently a WAY EARLY Beta version - give the Apple developers a chance to get closer to a working version before you insist on the super geeks here making it more portable so you can break your unsupported machine

It was more so I can test what works and what doesn't and maybe figure out what's causing problems on mac pro 3,1's. I fully understand the fact it's a very early release and bugs and problems are to be expected.
In fact, i'm a dev myself too, although I don't do macOS and don't know it all that well.
It's mostly C++ what I do. Although I do have experience developing apps for iOS. So I fully understand how hard a lot of the stuff is what you guys do, I was only wondering how to bypass the model id check so I can get some idea of what too look at.

 

[dosdude1]

It was more so I can test what works and what doesn't and maybe figure out what's causing problems on mac pro 3,1's. I fully understand the fact it's a very early release and bugs and problems are to be expected.
In fact, i'm a dev myself too, although I don't do macOS and don't know it all that well.
It's mostly C++ what I do. Although I do have experience developing apps for iOS. So I fully understand how hard a lot of the stuff is what you guys do, I was only wondering how to bypass the model id check so I can get some idea of what too look at.

Just add "-no_compat_check" to your kernel boot arguments. (sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check")

 

[parrotgeek1]

So Fermi has OpenGL acceleration on Mojave without metal? Like, fermi launches most apps except the new UIKit ports from iOS (which require metal)? That's pretty interesting. WindowServer even loads GLDriver.bundle?

"(big breakthrough- Nvidia Fermi cards work natively without Metal already, so that is a big clue)"

I suppose that's what you mean, that Fermi has OpenGL based UI acceleration without a MTLDriver... If so, that's great news for us old timers. It means we can hook onto the OpenGL code!

Yes that is what I mean (ignore model; It's a hackintosh)

 

[Qwertyasaui]

Just add "-no_compat_check" to your kernel boot arguments. (sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check")

Thats it? I thought it would require like 10 system changes in C or something to make it just start up without using OpenGL.

 

[visberry]

Yes that is what I mean (ignore model; It's a hackintosh)

Yes that is what I mean (ignore model; It's a hackintosh)

That's very cool. What are the updates though on forcing an install? Is it possible, or not?
[doublepost=1528591874][/doublepost]

Thats it? I thought it would require like 10 system changes in C or something to make it just start up without using OpenGL.

It says in the Developer Release notes that "OpenCL and OpenGL remain present for compatibility purposes. If your app uses OpenCL or OpenGL, transition to Metal."

 

[parrotgeek1]

SUCCESSFULLY LOADED NVIDIA DRIVER (but reimplemented needed function is not complete yet, there could be issues)

 

[Hackgallo]

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

June 6: There is still an OpenGL renderer, it's just intentionally disabled. we're trying to enable it.

June 7: Unfortunately, none of the old Nvidia Kexts load! So there is no hope for OpenGL until (if) we get them to load. There is a good chance for Nvidia (only 1 function missing, not dozens).

June 8: With replaced IOAcceleratorFamily2.kext from 10.13.5, all of the required AMD and Intel kexts can be loaded! Thanks to Czo for finding this.

June 7: The crash on MacPro3,1 is not caused by lack of SSE4.2 (because Mojave works on Hackintosh core 2 duos). But we don't know what it is caused by.

AMD GPUs won't work on MacPro3,1/Xserve2,1 until there is a SSE4.2 emulator, for technical reasons.

A possibility for some computers is a Thunderbolt external GPU.
This needs to be investigated more, and requires kext patches.

These facts leave the compatibility list as theoretically (with a Metal capable GPU, or HD Graphics whose kexts do load): This list is now inaccurate because of the AMD news above

• Xserve 2008 (if we can fix the crash; Nvidia GPUs only until SSE4.2 emulator made)
• Xserve 2009
• Mac Pro 2008 (if we can fix the crash; Nvidia GPUs only until SSE4.2 emulator made)
• Mac Pro 2009
• iMac Mid-Late 2011 (Thunderbolt GPU only)
• MacBook Air Mid 2011
• MacBook Pro i5/i7 Mid 2010-Late 2011 (only the ones with HD Graphics or Thunderbolt GPU, 320M/330M won't work, see above for why)
• Mac Mini Mid 2011 (only the ones with HD Graphics, or Thunderbolt GPU, not AMD; see above for why)

The following unsupported models are Thunderbolt capable:

• MacBook Pro (Early/Late 2011)
• MacBook Air (Mid 2011)
• Mac mini (Mid 2011)
• iMac (Mid 2011)

Yet a third possibility is to upgrade the MXM slot GPU on 2008-2011 (and maybe 2007 with an upgraded CPU?) iMacs. This has not been investigated yet.

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.

Note: the person who is editing this post is (mostly) @parrotgeek1, not @dosdude1.

[doublepost=1528600758][/doublepost]Hi everyone I have a late 2009 iMac that I hope will get sum patch , but I personally feel everyone should wait until a later version of mojave 10.14 comes out to try to install.

 

[visberry]

[doublepost=1528600758][/doublepost]Hi everyone I have a late 2009 iMac that I hope will get sum patch , but I personally feel everyone should wait until a later version of mojave 10.14 comes out to try to install.

Definitely. macOS Mojave 's full patch won't be out for at least the Public beta, or at least when mid 2010 Mac Pro's are supported.

 

[mat77_mac]

I took Mojave beta 1 for a spin on my 2011 iMac which isn't supported. The WIFI card isn't found and the graphics driver are not loaded probably due to the Metal requirement. Otherwise, it didn't look too bad. The stocks.app using UIKit(?) loaded with a blank window only but the menus were functional.

View attachment 765560
View attachment 765559

On My iMac mid 2011 i have new WiFi card and Bluetooth 4 compatibily with handoff and continuity My only problem it is amd video card solution? Please?

 

[Larsvonhier]

Yes.

Tried the ROM patcher on my MacBook Air 2,1 - and ended up with corrupted boot flash. The patcher took almost 8min. to write back the patches and finished with a success message. After restarting the machine, the power LED stayed in PWM flicker mode (dimmed) and I had to hard-reset the macbook. Next start came with one long beep and that´s it. Will have to get a new chip for the A1304 boot flash, it seems.

On a MacBook 5,2 it worked, but with one similar strangely forced re-start after rebooting...

@dosdude: Good work, though & big thanks for your ongoing efforts!
Is there a fast way to get rid of the APFS helper volumes needed before the patch and to get back to the recovery volume scenario? Step-by-step guide would be greatly appreciated. ;-)