macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[kautame]

If your Mojave APFS volume is on disk1, that indicates that your main disk is disk0... APFS makes a second "virtual" disk (AKA container), which is actually on disk0... Kind of strange. The fact that it doesn't detect a BOOTX64 file indicates that you most likely did not apply the APFS patch to that volume in the post-install tool. Try doing that, and see if that helps.

I just booted from the Mojave Patcher USB disk and applied the post-install patches again, with the APFS patch (with and without rebuilding cache). After that, I launched the ESP Bless Tool 1.1 but the result is the same: in the BSD names list the internal disk with Mojave (disk1s1) is not detected and trying to bless the disk0s1 gives an error. That's crazy (because I'm writing this on that same iMac with Mojave 10.14.1), and I booted from that disk. See attached screenshots.

 

[L Caputo]

Hello,

I read some posts and I want to be sure. I have a MacPro 3.1 and I have made a firmware update to support the APFS Boot. My Mac run (very well) with Mojave 10.14. I want to update it to 10.14.1 but the update is not in the software update. What can I do ?
Thanks

Can I ask you a question about your Mac Pro 3.1. As you have installed Mojave on an APFS formatted SSD do you also have any other drives on your MP that are HFS+ and can your Mac boot between the two successfully.
My MP 3.1 has an SSD with High Sierra on it and when booting will go through the APFS verbose boot but then just switch back to booting to Sierra on my HFS+ formatted disk.

 

[TimonCello]

@TimonCello your mbp is work? Read post #10054

Oh sorry I forget to reply and thanks you for your help, yes finaly it works

 

[jackluke]

I chose to leave out the step for manually adding the VM volume on the most recent reinstall of Mojave 10.14.1 (Unsupported).

It appears that the formatting process in Disk Utility doesn't create the Preboot, Recovery and VM APFS volumes automatically, however the Mojave installer does the job of adding Preboot and Recovery. On my system, the VM volume is not added during installation and my only guess is that it will be added on first boot.

I ran Disk Utility First Aid separately on the device, the container and the Mojave volume, repeated by the updatePreboot (again). However, this results in the same no-boot behaviour again. ("Error loading kernel cache (0x7)" at boot time with -v boot).

No, the APFS patch is disabled for MacBookPro8,1.

It is an SSD.

I had installed High Sierra on a HDD (HFS+), then removed the HDD and dropped in the SSD (APFS), so maybe the Mac needs me to install High Sierra onto the SSD and then upgrade to Mojave? (instead of trying to install Mojave on a fresh system)

Your main issue is not "Error loading kernel cache (0x7)" but the efiboot file path that doesn't match \System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi instead you have "long-number-letters pre-folder" before your root disk that should not be there. Because your APFS bootloader tries to load your kernelcache from this path \long-numbers-letters\System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel that doesn't exist, but instead this is the correct path \System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel


So agree, at this point you should install HighSierra (HFS or APFS) and try to upgrade that installation.

 

[TimonCello]

Oh sorry I forget to reply and thanks you for your help, yes finaly it works

Now, I'm thinking to instal the hybrid patch from Pkouame, but I'm very not familiar with the terminal.

 

[AphoticD]

So agree, at this point you should install HighSierra (HFS or APFS) and try to upgrade that installation.

Thanks @jackluke I appreciate your insight. I’ll try the HiSi -> Mojave route and report back shortly.

Just quickly, I think it might be easiest to image the HiSi HDD (HFS+) and restore it straight onto the SSD with Disk Utility (Instead of recreating the USB again and again).

If I format the SSD fresh as APFS and restore the HiSi system onto Volume 1, would updatePreboot automatically setup the Preboot volume? Or is there some other trickery the installer does?

 

[jackluke]

Thanks @jackluke I appreciate your insight. I’ll try the HiSi -> Mojave route and report back shortly.

Just quickly, I think it might be easiest to image the HiSi HDD (HFS+) and restore it straight onto the SSD with Disk Utility (Instead of recreating the USB again and again).

If I format the SSD fresh as APFS and restore the HiSi system onto Volume 1, would updatePreboot automatically setup the Preboot volume? Or is there some other trickery the installer does?

Yes you can image the HiSi spinning HFS disk onto the SSD, but without formatting the SSD as APFS instead in DiskUtility "Show all devices list" (CMD+2) highlight your SSD vendor and erase as GUID MacOS Extended Journaled, then you have two routes:

1) Restore your HiSi SSD manually through DiskUtility, after done, rebooting from HiSi Recovery (or USB Installer) convert it through DiskUtility clicking "edit" menu and selecting "Convert to APFS", then try HiSi in APFS see how it goes, and after install Mojave over it;

2) You can install Mojave on SSD (even without imaging the HiSi first) but keeping the HFS+ (MacOS Extended Journaled), then it's not a priority you can convert later to APFS through DiskUtility or Terminal commands.

 

[L Caputo]

How many boot.efi files should I have in the System/Library/CoreServices folder my APFS install of High Sierra has four, one boot.efi and then three with further extension with letters and numbers (boot.efi.j680ap.im4m for example). My HFS+ Mojave install has five. My Sierra installation has one.

 

[jackluke]

How many boot.efi files should I have in the System/Library/CoreServices folder my APFS install of High Sierra has four, one boot.efi and then three with further extension with letters and numbers (boot.efi.j680ap.im4m for example). My HFS+ Mojave install has five. My Sierra installation has one.

Yes I have same too, but I think only boot.efi matters.

 

[L Caputo]

Yes I have same too, but I think only boot.efi matters.

Ok so I have deleted them but still having the issue where the APFS High Sierra will not boot when other disks are installed in my MacPro 3.1, it defaults to booting to my Sierra installation. If the SSD is the only disk installed then High Sierra will boot.

 

[jackluke]

Ok so I have deleted them but still having the issue where the APFS High Sierra will not boot when other disks are installed in my MacPro 3.1, it defaults to booting to my Sierra installation. If the SSD is the only disk installed then High Sierra will boot.

Yes, really weird.
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Try this version.

Does your "ESP Bless tool" work also on native APFS ? Or is it only suited for the APFS software patch-ed systems ?

 

[Project Alice]

I am unable to upgrade to 10.14.1. MacBook 5,2. I'm using the final build 18A391, no updates in software update, and downloading the package manually gives me the unsupported system error. I've reinstalled the patches and still no updates.

 

[flygbuss]

I think my dGPU inside my MBP 8,2 just died again. I had it replaced one year ago with a new chip and now I get red horizontal stripes during boot and it stays grey so I cant log in.
Can I use dosdude's Mojave patcher do disable the dGPU?
It's just frustrating.. Yes, it's an old device, but until that it worked perfectly fine. Even the battery is still alright.
Everybody is talking about sustainability nowadays and what would be a better thing to do then using technical equipment as long as it is up for the task? It's not about the money, that machine paid off years ago.. I just like it and didn't see any reason to replace it. Damn!

Short update:
Since every solution I tried only worked temporarily, I decided to replace the logic board with a used one from a MBP 15, 9,1. It's a bit of work but almost everything is compatible.
I did some research before and couldn't find much. Some say not possible at all, some say it would work.
A small issue is the display connector, the flap to secure the connector is a little tight for the socket on the new board.
But with care, slightly applied force and a lot of patience it worked.
The USB controller on the board of the 8,2 is originally covered with a heat sink but the 9,1 board doesn't have any mounting points on the board, so I just left it out. I also replaced the bluetooth board with a compatible one.
I kept the RAM and it's recognized though it would support faster RAM (1333 MHz PC3-10600 vs. 1600 MHz PC3-12800)

So far everything works like a charm. It's more quiet (Could be the new thermal paste and the dust cleaning), supports mojave natively and I got USB 3 and handoff + I don't have to worry about the AMD chip dying again anytime soon.

I don't know if its worth it.. I paid 250,- for the board, its a lot of money for such an old device. But I thought it was worth a try and honestly the book got everything I need.

Now I have the 8,1 running mojave thanks to the great work behind the patcher and I revived my 8,2 by using new hardware..

Sorry if this is a little off topic, I thought it might be interesting since I realized it's not just me having issues with the 8,2!

 

[L Caputo]

I am unable to upgrade to 10.14.1. MacBook 5,2. I'm using the final build 18A391, no updates in software update, and downloading the package manually gives me the unsupported system error. I've reinstalled the patches and still no updates.

Yes because you have an unsupported machine you cannot directly install the downloaded update from the Apple Support site, you need to modify the Distribution file before your the install will be accepted. So click on this link,
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-high-sierra-10-13-unsupported-macs-thread.2048478/ and scroll down to Security and standalone OS updates for the method to do that.

 

[Hindrik1997]

I just updates my mac pro 3,1 (APFS flashed) to 10.14.1, but now it doesn’t boot anymore... should I have reinstalled it with 10.14.1?

 

[Flacko]

Can I ask you a question about your Mac Pro 3.1. As you have installed Mojave on an APFS formatted SSD do you also have any other drives on your MP that are HFS+ and can your Mac boot between the two successfully.
My MP 3.1 has an SSD with High Sierra on it and when booting will go through the APFS verbose boot but then just switch back to booting to Sierra on my HFS+ formatted disk.

Hi L Caputo. I have a Mac Pro 3.1 with 2 x SSD (both APFS) and 2 x HD (both HFS). I have no problem getting the Mac Pro booting to any of them. This is either by using the option key at start up or selecting boot drive from preferences. I am using the boot rom fix from dosdude that I applied when High Sierra was the current system.

 

[16v]

I just updates my mac pro 3,1 (APFS flashed) to 10.14.1, but now it doesn’t boot anymore... should I have reinstalled it with 10.14.1?

Same here...

Haven't used my mbp 5.4 since official mojave release.
Today it said a new update is available.
First i made a new bootstuck using dosdudes 1.2.3 and applied patches.
Also forced rebuildig caches.
No boot.
Stucks on white screen with apple logo, loading bar is at 75%

 

[joelw135]

I checked and it does work on Mojave. By deleting prefs. you probably fixed a corrupt setting.

Yes I realize that now, but like I mentioned that Xfinity had a problem with DNS poisoning and I wanted to make sure.

 

[Flacko]

I just updates my mac pro 3,1 (APFS flashed) to 10.14.1, but now it doesn’t boot anymore... should I have reinstalled it with 10.14.1?

Hi Hindrik1997, I presume you have an SSD and tried the update via system preferences ( referred to an OTA update). I think you will find this does not work properly due to a firmware update that cannot be done on our MP3.1s. Some have managed to rescue this by booting into the usb installer and applying the patches to the required drive. However, for us the most reliable update is to use the usb installer (v1.2.3) and do a full reinstallation. This worked well for my 3.1 moving from 14.0 to 14.1. I installed over the top of my 14.0. Hopefully we can use The preferences method from 14.1 to 14.2 once the experts here say it works (no firmware gremlins!).

 

[OGNerd]

Try this version.

Can this tool be modified so as to recognize and bless external volumes?

 

[jhowarth]

Can I ask you a question about your Mac Pro 3.1. As you have installed Mojave on an APFS formatted SSD do you also have any other drives on your MP that are HFS+ and can your Mac boot between the two successfully.
My MP 3.1 has an SSD with High Sierra on it and when booting will go through the APFS verbose boot but then just switch back to booting to Sierra on my HFS+ formatted disk.

I have a MacPro 3,1 here with the APFS ROM patched boot firmware and patched High Sierra on one drive formatted as jHFS and patched Mojave on another drive formatted as APFS with no booting issues other than the option boot selector showing a phantom boot efi icon for the APFS volume in addition to the normal volume icon. The Startup Disk system preference panel is unaffected by that glitch and only shows the single expected APFS volume.

Note that dosdude1 hasn't reposted the APFS ROM patcher application yet.

 

[Flacko]

Well done, just to add a tip to this, a kext bundle can be also detected through Terminal:
kextlibs /System/Library/Extensions/IOBluetoothFamily.kext

Honestly I am a bit afraid of replacing a kext like "IOACPIFamily.kext" and in general any *ACPI*.kext, but @Flacko I really appreciate your good fix.
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Now I'm far from that machine, laptops are ok, will give a try next days.

Hi Jackluke. Just a final update. Hoping all ok until 14.2! Just updated my main drive to 14.1. Used usb installer over the 14.0 instead of a clean install. Sure enough everything fine except BT. Replacing IOBluetooth kexts did not work on their own but also replacing IOACPIFamily.kext as well got the BT up and running as before. Thanks for your advice and help. So far all running very well so hopefully replacing that ACPI kext will be ok. In fact Mojave runs better than HS on my MP3.1.

 

[danielp]

I have an iMac 11,1 with a modified internal SSD in place of the multidrive. The patch worked fine to install 10.14.0, but now I don't get any updates through the "Software Update" system. I have tried reinstalling the patcher as per the instructions on http://dosdude1.com/mojave/ but it didn't change anything.

What should I try next?

 

[OGNerd]

I tried to update my Mid-2009 13" MacBook 5,2 with a 10.14.1 installation on an external APFS formatted SSD to 10.14.2 Beta 1 since I had successfully done so with my 2011 15' MBP 8,2. Note: I have not updated the boot ROM of the 5,2 to support APFS, thus it relies on the software APFS post-install patch to boot.

I allowed the OTA process to download an install the update, then returned to drive to the 8,2 to apply the appropriate post-install patches for the 5,2 (especially the post-install APFS patch). The verbose boot process proceeded as normal until approximately 2 seconds into the Apple logo screen, whereupon the machine spontaneously rebooted. Update failed.

 

[jackluke]

I tried to update my Mid-2009 13" MacBook 5,2 with a 10.14.1 installation on an external APFS formatted SSD to 10.14.2 Beta 1 since I had successfully done so with my 2011 15' MBP 8,2. Note: I have not updated the boot ROM of the 5,2 to support APFS, thus it relies on the software APFS post-install patch to boot.

I allowed the OTA process to download an install the update, then returned to drive to the 8,2 to apply the appropriate post-install patches for the 5,2 (especially the post-install APFS patch). The verbose boot process proceeded as normal until approximately 2 seconds into the Apple logo screen, whereupon the machine spontaneously rebooted. Update failed.

You know, I've reason to think that a mac machine that support natively until HighSierra, was APFS ready since Sierra 10.12.6 , so if you updated at least 10.12.6 you should try without the APFS patch post-install, because APFS patch follows another route in booting the APFS Volumes pointing to another different place, that's why some quick reboot issues, you can have only a boot.efi and prelinkedkernel and the bootloader will load until 1/3 of a generic "macOS complete booting" then will crash because can't find root paths for sbin, frameworks and so on, I have explained bad but I think it's so.
And it seems that "bless" command doesn't have more effect on APFS scheme, but only effective on HFS.