macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[AphoticD]

You need to have installed High Sierra on the system previously, so it's firmware is updated to support booting from APFS volumes. Otherwise, it won't detect the volume.

Good catch and thank you for your quick response.

So, APFS support requiring High Sierra to be installed first certainly makes good sense -> perhaps this could be added to your FAQ or the APFS formatting section on the patcher page? It may be useful information for others who like myself have tried to go straight to Mojave, skipping High Sierra.

I've dropped the original (Lion) HDD back in and will download and install High Sierra. It seems the Internet's preferred method for getting a copy of High Sierra is using your Patcher tool available from dosdude1.com

I'm a little bit confused, what do you mean "128GB mSATA"? I have also a MacBook Pro early 2011, with a normal Samsung evo ssd and a conventional harddrive in a caddy. both versions of Mojave installed flawlessly. I had only to fix the bluetooth.
and I set the graphics to 1554mb.

it works like a charm!

Thanks for the feedback, that is good to know. I have preferred to buy standalone mSATA SSDs (mini-PCIe keyed) and then drop them into adapter cases e.g. "mSATA to SATA" or "mSATA to 2.5" IDE/PATA" depending on my needs. This has made good sense for me given that I have quite a range of older non-SATA Macs which I have upgraded and didn't want to get stuck with overpriced SSDs constrained to the old PATA interface.

 

[TimonCello]

Press option button (alt), then select usb key to boot.

Thank you !!

 

[jackluke]

Add this to the patcher @dosdude1? In case you missed it.
[doublepost=1541132908][/doublepost]

I agree. I don't see the necessity to patch Mojave's recovery partition. You can simply make a backup of the HS one and then restore it. The last thing you want is a glitchy recovery partition. Just stick with a supported one!

You can even just restore a BaseSystem.dmg (from a HS installer) to a small partition and it will function as a recovery system.

Then again, this thread is for Mojave on unsupported hardware. Patching the recovery partition is relevant to this topic. We should not try to stifle discussion about anything unless it's off-topic. We might not use @jackluke's work directly, but I believe he should still be able to document it here! It may prove useful in some way or another.

Any tidbit of information may pave the way to a better understanding of the inner workings of the OS

Premise that I appreciate very much what @pkouame has done with his Hybrid Mode patch, and I hope he will continue to improve that, @ASentientBot you know I respect you, but let me argument my reasons:

1) Restoring a BaseSystem.dmg requires at least 2 GB of disk space, while stock APFS Recovery is less than 600 MB, and restoring a BaseSystem.dmg (especially the HS one) requires a re-partitioning altering a bit the APFS scheme/container transforming it into an hybrid HFS/APFS;

2) Every BaseSystem.dmg (USB Installers included) is an HFS partition, while the stock APFS Recovery is a native bootable APFS partition;

3) @Sveto stated that I'm doing wrong in typing posts about using intensively Terminal commands, but I see the "wise Sveto" doesn't told nothing about that using pkouame's patch is a bit complicated and invasive to apply through advanced Terminal commands and if done in wrong way it could make the system unbootable;

4) "John Doe" had fixed APFS Recovery, then "John Doe" decides to apply the pkouame's patch but does something wrong (not because of pkouame of course), so "John Doe"'s macOS will result unbootable, but booting back with CMD+R, from the APFS Recovery is fixable; and pkouame's patch is advisable to be applied through a Recovery;

5) @Balaur stated that he wants to patch less things possible on his main system, his thought is right and shareable by most, and I explain why:

- Recovery tools are always useful to troubleshooting in general the disks (and not only);
- Without using pkouame's patch, (thanks especially to @ASentientBot's earlier patches) almost everyone will have a perfect Mojave "dark mode";
- For the "light mode" reducing transparency/translucency is not a drama, I mean pkouame's patch doesn't bring more functionality to Mojave but only a better looking in "light mode", and (actually) cuts "top-menu" translucency into the "dark mode".

 

[LarryJoe33]

I’m having trouble updating to 10.14.1 official update. I had High Sierra installed previously and my SSD is formatted as APFS. The installer installs and then has to reboot to finish. It gets to about 75% and just hangs or freezes. A hard reboot produces the same result. I’ve left it for hours there. The only option is to restore a clone of 10.14.

Any ideas?

 

[TimonCello]

Finaly I had acces to the menu, I choosen the usb patcher. But still stuck on this

 

[jackluke]

Great work @dosdude1, @parrotgeek1 and all the contributors, this is a major effort!

I have installed Mojave on a MacBook Pro 13" (Early 2011) MacBookPro8,1 and I'm having some trouble getting it going... I was able to install and run the post-install patches okay, but it seems it can't boot and doesn't see the boot volume (or Recovery) in the Option-key multi-boot selector.

Here's the process I took;

1. Created Mojave installation USB (16GB) using macOS Mojave Patcher v1.2.3, downloading macOS 10.14.1 directly from within the app.
2. Booted from the USB drive.
3. Used Disk Utility to format a new 128GB mSATA SSD as APFS (GUID partition map).
4. Clicked to install Mojave.
5. After a minute or so, received a "No packages were eligible for install" error.
6. Read the FAQ on dosdude1's server and used the 'date' command to set to today's date.
7. Rebooted from USB and successfully installed Mojave.
8. Ran the macOS Post Install tool and set the default MacBookPro8,1 patches.
9. Ticked the "Rebuild caches" checkbox and clicked Restart.
10. On reboot, the SSD was not recognised and the USB installer started up again.
11. Removed the USB and rebooted, same result.
12. Rebooted back into the Mojave installer via the USB drive.
13. Checked the output of 'diskutil list' to confirm the APFS partition map is setup correctly. I don't know much about APFS, but it looks reasonably okay to me ....
    View attachment 800448
    
    
14. I then did some further reading about manually blessing a volume in case this step was somehow skipped.
15. I executed the following commands;
    

    diskutil apfs updatePreboot disk1s2
    bless --folder /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi
    update_dyld_shared_cache -root /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD -force

16. Choosing Quit from the Installer and choosing Startup Disk, I was able to see "Macintosh HD" 10.14.1 as bootable. It is selected, so I clicked Restart.
17. The MacBook Pro still can't see the APFS volume as bootable at boot time.

From what I understand, the MacBookPro8,1 model will natively support APFS booting.

What should I try next? Do I ditch APFS and try a fresh HFS+ install instead? Or should I try using the APFS booting patch on this Mac, even though it should be supported?

My apologies if this has already been covered in one of the 398 earlier pages

-AphoticD

If you have installed last time at least Sierra 10.12.6 , then your machine is APFS-ready, looking at your pic, I see that it's an incomplete APFS Scheme you should have the disk1s4 VM, then when you want to update the Preboot it should be done on the first partition that is: diskutil apfs updatePreboot disk1s1

because even if they point to other partition their coordinates are stored locally here:
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/

The bless command seems don't work more on a native APFS structure but its task is done by the updatePreboot subcommand.

 

[AphoticD]

If you have installed last time at least Sierra 10.12.6 , then your machine is APFS-ready, looking at your pic, I see that it's an incomplete APFS Scheme you should have the disk1s4 VM, then when you want to update the Preboot it should be done on the first partition that is: diskutil apfs updatePreboot disk1s1

because even if they point to other partition their coordinates are stored locally here:
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/

The bless command seems don't work more on a native APFS structure but its task is done by the updatePreboot subcommand.

Thanks for the response. The MBP had Lion on it and the High Sierra installer requires at least OS X 10.8.
So I am currently going through the stages of upgrading Lion -> El Capitan -> High Sierra -> Mojave.

Surely Apple could have just released a simple SMC/BootROM/[EFI] updater instead of this long-winded process, but it's slowly getting there

 

[jackluke]

Thanks for the response. The MBP had Lion on it and the High Sierra installer requires at least OS X 10.8.
So I am currently going through the stages of upgrading Lion -> El Capitan -> High Sierra -> Mojave.

Surely Apple could have just released a simple SMC/BootROM/[EFI] updater instead of this long-winded process, but it's slowly getting there

It's really weird that since OSX Lion release your macbookpro hasn't been updated for 7 years.

I mean probably something went wrong during your previous Mojave install, the VM partition was missing, you should had done other attempts before of re-installing all these legacy OSXs.

edit:
Theorically the SMC/BootROM updaters if you have an HighSierra Installer (or mounting the InstallESD.dmg from the Installer.app) are located here:
/System/Installation/Packages/FirmwareUpdate.pkg
but honestly is a bit risky doing from there, so probably better following the regular updating OSX versions.

 

[Macschrauber]

4) "John Doe" had fixed APFS Recovery, then "John Doe" decides to apply the pkouame's patch but does something wrong (not because of pkouame of course), so "John Doe"'s macOS will result unbootable, but booting back with CMD+R, from the APFS Recovery is fixable; and pkouame's patch is advisable to be applied through a Recovery

Also accessing the Recovery by cmd-R helps with people with GPUs what lacks bootscreen. I feel almost helpless without boot picker, verbose mode and single user mode. So at least booting in recovery gives access by Terminal.

 

[yeiyei0891]

with version 10.14 I did not have any problem in creating the USB with Mojave Patch Tool but with version 10.14.1 and 1.2.3 of Movaje Patch Tool it says: mounting failed please check your macos mojave installer app.

Edit: I re-download Mojave and now I can do it, but can't I use a USB partition of my Pendrive to do it? Is it necessary to use the full pendrive?

 

[jackluke]

Also accessing the Recovery by cmd-R helps with people with GPUs what lacks bootscreen. I feel almost helpless without boot picker, verbose mode and single user mode. So at least booting in recovery gives access by Terminal.

I don't have GPUs which lacks bootscreen, and sincerely I was curios to know if it needed the full GPU kext loaded, instead I read from you that only the base GPU kext is suffice for the GUI Recovery (using GPU without Mac EFI ROM), and as you know from there launching Terminal is equivalent to use "single user mode" and you have also the "Startup Disk" Utility equivalent for "boot picker", so really thanks for your feedback!

 

[tchek]

View attachment 800527 Finaly I had acces to the menu, I choosen the usb patcher. But still stuck on this

Same here , iMac 10.1

 

[jhowarth]

I’m having trouble updating to 10.14.1 official update. I had High Sierra installed previously and my SSD is formatted as APFS. The installer installs and then has to reboot to finish. It gets to about 75% and just hangs or freezes. A hard reboot produces the same result. I’ve left it for hours there. The only option is to restore a clone of 10.14.

Any ideas?

Updating to 10.14.1 via Software Update won't work on most machines due to the boot rom firmware updates bundled in it. You will have download Mojave Patcher 1.2.3 and recreate the usb installer from the Mojave 10.14.1 full installer. With any luck, we are at the end of firmware updates for Mojave so future Software Updates won't have this problem (as long as you avoid the Combo installers).

 

[AphoticD]

It's really weird that since OSX Lion release your macbookpro hasn't been updated for 7 years.

Yes. I only received this MacBook Pro the day before yesterday. It was a decommissioned unit, which appears to have been last used sometime during 2013.

I mean probably something went wrong during your previous Mojave install, the VM partition was missing, you should had done other attempts before of re-installing all these legacy OSXs.

Well I haven't wiped the Mojave install, which was on a brand new SSD. I pulled the SSD back out of the Mac and reinstalled the original HDD before stepping through the legacy OS upgrades.

It's currently (still) upgrading from Lion to El Capitan. It failed on the first attempt through (after 1hr+ of installation)

edit:
Theorically the SMC/BootROM updaters if you have an HighSierra Installer (or mounting the InstallESD.dmg from the Installer.app) are located here:
/System/Installation/Packages/FirmwareUpdate.pkg
but honestly is a bit risky doing from there, so probably better following the regular updating OSX versions.

Great! At least then in theory, it can be manually updated.

 

[jhowarth]

Good catch and thank you for your quick response.

So, APFS support requiring High Sierra to be installed first certainly makes good sense -> perhaps this could be added to your FAQ or the APFS formatting section on the patcher page? It may be useful information for others who like myself have tried to go straight to Mojave, skipping High Sierra.

I've dropped the original (Lion) HDD back in and will download and install High Sierra. It seems the Internet's preferred method for getting a copy of High Sierra is using your Patcher tool available from dosdude1.com



Thanks for the feedback, that is good to know. I have preferred to buy standalone mSATA SSDs (mini-PCIe keyed) and then drop them into adapter cases e.g. "mSATA to SATA" or "mSATA to 2.5" IDE/PATA" depending on my needs. This has made good sense for me given that I have quite a range of older non-SATA Macs which I have upgraded and didn't want to get stuck with overpriced SSDs constrained to the old PATA interface.

I assume that you are already explicitly disabling the APFS patch otherwise your machine should have booted with the text mode. You will want to keep doing that after applying the firmware updates via High Sierra.

 

[tchek]

Hi

finally it's done !
(after dozens of different tests (thanks to my ssd clone)

And you know what ?
The "guilty party"was Little Snitch, wooooo

I decide to uninstall Little Snitch from my original 10.14 Internal SSD, and then boot on the USB key made with 1.2.3 Patch and 10.14.1. Then i update my internal SSD 10.14 (not erased) reboot and run post install, reboot and Boom ! Done

I really do not know what the problem was with LS
I reinstalled LS afterwards and everything is ok (a nightly one because they have some
massive boot delay (Mojave 10.14) with the current)


Is there anyone can confirm please, the last "Patch Updater" in utility folder is version 2.0.1 ?

anyway, thanks again dosdude1

 

[jackluke]

with version 10.14 I did not have any problem in creating the USB with Mojave Patch Tool but with version 10.14.1 and 1.2.3 of Movaje Patch Tool it says: mounting failed please check your macos mojave installer app.

Edit: I re-download Mojave and now I can do it, but can't I use a USB partition of my Pendrive to do it? Is it necessary to use the full pendrive?

Not necessary to use the whole drive, but I guess for the Mojave Installer you must reserve at least 10 GB free, so before restoring the Mojave Installer on it, you have to erase first your (ex. 16 GB) USB drive with a GUID Scheme, then I suggest for USB universal compatibility (example using in Windows) to partition the USB Drive creating one "MacOS Extended Journaled" (10 gb size) and another MS-DOS (FAT) (the remaning GB). Then use as target for your Mojave Patcher only your 10 GB partition.

To format and partitioning a USB Drive in GUID scheme (mandatory for making it bootable) after opened Diskutility press CMD+2 to show the "hidden USB root drive", you need to select it to operate, typically has the vendor name of your USB device.

 

[skiabox]

Guys thank you all for your answers but I still need more detailed instructions (and other too as I can see) on how to proceed further from step 4 in dosdude1 tutorial when doing an update from one mojave version to the next.

 

[roronl]

Guys thank you all for your answers but I still need more detailed instructions (and other too as I can see) on how to proceed further from step 4 in dosdude1 tutorial when doing an update from one mojave version to the next.

What is it, what's holding you back? Where did you get 'stuck' exactly?
Continue with step five for a clean full install, or continue with step seven to upgrade.

 

[olad]

Guys thank you all for your answers but I still need more detailed instructions (and other too as I can see) on how to proceed further from step 4 in dosdude1 tutorial when doing an update from one mojave version to the next.

Since you don't want to do a clean install, you don't need to use disk utility for your drives (Steps 5 & 6), so you proceed to Step 7. Assuming of course that the 1.2.3 version of the patch installer is on a USB drive >=16Gb capacity. If so, select your Mojave hard drive (macOS or whatever you named it) (step 7), and install on it. I have done this repeatedly since High Sierra on a MBP4,1 (2008) - now on 10.14.1. It is HFS+ formatted of course. Ah, @roroni beat me to it - even more succintly.

 

[pkouame]

@dosdude1

Does Czo's SU still skip FirmwareUpdate and EmbeddedOSFirmware?
I'm not sure if it was updated for Mojave (or even needs one)
Could this pose a problem with the 10.14.1 system update? I just tried one and it is burping unusually...

        for ( id str in brokenByLines ) {
            if ( ( ![str containsString:@"10.13.RecoveryHDUpdate"] ) && ( ![str containsString:@"EmbeddedOSFirmware"] ) && ( ![str containsString:@"FirmwareUpdate"] ) ) {
                [new_array addObject:str];
            }
        }

Just thought I'd check with you guys before I experiment.

 

[LarryJoe33]

Updating to 10.14.1 via Software Update won't work on most machines due to the boot rom firmware updates bundled in it. You will have download Mojave Patcher 1.2.3 and recreate the usb installer from the Mojave 10.14.1 full installer. With any luck, we are at the end of firmware updates for Mojave so future Software Updates won't have this problem (as long as you avoid the Combo installers).

Thanks, question, if I do nothing and wait for an update without a boot rom firmware update, will it install? Or do I need to be on the latest release?

 

[jackluke]

Updating to 10.14.1 via Software Update won't work on most machines due to the boot rom firmware updates bundled in it. You will have download Mojave Patcher 1.2.3 and recreate the usb installer from the Mojave 10.14.1 full installer. With any luck, we are at the end of firmware updates for Mojave so future Software Updates won't have this problem (as long as you avoid the Combo installers).

I doubt, consider that apple recently announced the new macbook air with i5 8th generation beside the T2 Chip, and touch button for ApplePay, so I guess a firmware update check/push will be lurking on future minor updates.

Just to clarify (to others) the T2 Chip is not and won't be a cpu, those should be always i5/i7/i9 even on the future 10.15 and probably further.

 

[jhowarth]

Thanks, question, if I do nothing and wait for an update without a boot rom firmware update, will it install? Or do I need to be on the latest release?

No. You will have to be on 10.14.1 otherwise the next 10.14.2 software update will use a Combo installer containing the boot rom firmware instead of just the smaller Delta installer with only the changes between 10.14.1 and 10.14.2. That also brings up one additional caveat about using the software update approach. You have to keep up with it and not skip any point releases. Otherwise if you skip more than a single point release, the Combo installer will be used and you will run into the boot rom firmware changes again.

 

[LarryJoe33]

No. You will have to be on 10.14.1 otherwise the next 10.14.2 software update will use a Combo installer containing the boot rom firmware instead of just the smaller Delta installer with only the changes between 10.14.1 and 10.14.2. That also brings up one additional caveat about using the software update approach. You have to keep up with it and not skip any point releases. Otherwise if you skip more than a single point release, the Combo installer will be used and you will run into the boot rom firmware changes again.

So it looks like we are tied to the Mohave Patcher and recreating USB installers to get updates. I'll have to familiarize myself on the process.