macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[jackluke]

They worked perfectly on both my macbooks and iMac but when I installed the Brooklyn screensaver taken from their last event they stopped working but I do like the Brooklyn screensaver

About Aerial you should have an high bandwitch connectivity because they are 1080p and 4k streaming-cached videos, while Brooklyn is fully downloaded and played offline, that's why.

Anyway I have to say that even with C2D cpu the 1080p videos are still playable enough smoothly.

 

[avz]

Finally I had a bit of an issue with my MacBook5,1, bluetooth stopped working suddenly and the icon in the menu bar was reading: not available. Deleting the bluetooth plist in a Library/Preferences and restart fixed the issue pretty quick. I actually happened to have 4-5 bluetooth plist files there, so I removed all of them. I guess this might be a general issue and not related to the unsupported Macs.

 

[Zab the Fab]

• 20' iMac
• Early 2009
• Been running Mojave patch to much satisfaction, good job everyone!

• Updating to 10.14.4 destroyed boot options
• Updated a 2010 iMac to 10.4.4 Mojave Patch without any problems.

Problem:
Updating the iMac from macOS 10.4.2 > 10.4.4 by creating a new Mojave Patch boot USB, something went wrong, now I cannot boot from any internal or external drive or USB stick and the iMac is not responding to any keyboard commands like ALT D or ALT CMD P R.

I created a High Sierra boot USB but no matter how I try to boot the machine it just shows the question folder showing that it cannot find a boot drive. I'm thinking the EFI needs a reset but how?

I spent 4 days trying every trick I could think of so please ...if you have a fix at least make it appear very complex so I don't completely loose my self confidence ))

 

[0403979]

I've added HFS update package patching support to macOS Patcher and integrated dosdude1 system restoring support into the patch tool itself.

Release notes for macOS Patcher 2.2:

• Add HFS update package patching support
• Add integrated dosdude1 system restoring support in the patch tool
• Improve patch tool file clean up
• Improve Patch Integrity Protection file structure

macOS Patcher 2.2 can be downloaded here.

Update packages from Apple to be used for patching with macOS Patcher and subsequent installation on unsupported Macs are available here.

 

[K two]

• 20' iMac
• Early 2009
• Been running Mojave patch to much satisfaction, good job everyone!

• Updating to 10.14.4 destroyed boot options
• Updated a 2010 iMac to 10.4.4 Mojave Patch without any problems.

Problem:
Updating the iMac from macOS 10.4.2 > 10.4.4 by creating a new Mojave Patch boot USB, something went wrong, now I cannot boot from any internal or external drive or USB stick and the iMac is not responding to any keyboard commands like ALT D or ALT CMD P R.

I created a High Sierra boot USB but no matter how I try to boot the machine it just shows the question folder showing that it cannot find a boot drive. I'm thinking the EFI needs a reset but how?

I spent 4 days trying every trick I could think of so please ...if you have a fix at least make it appear very complex so I don't completely loose my self confidence ))

Bluetooth or wired keyboard?

 

[Zab the Fab]

Bluetooth or wired keyboard?

Wired keyboard and mouse.

 

[dosdude1]

Wired keyboard and mouse.

Hmm, odd. I'd definitely try a different USB keyboard, as the startup key commands (boot menu, PRAM reset, etc) are completely independent from the OS. A different keyboard will more than likely work.

 

[hvds]

So yours is almost identical to my mbp 5,3 (also T9600) except for the display size.

I don't know what to say, but at this point I still suspect hardware. The AHT usually has two different memory diagnostics - one is very exhaustive (and time consuming), but you would be getting many more random KPs (not consistently GeForceTesla panics)

The different boot screen in 9400 mode is a new one.

I'm too lazy to re-read your previous posts - are you running APFS on your boot disk (after patching your ROM)?
Also, do you accept all the defaults in the post-install (for your model) or are you customizing it?
Do you usually run all of dude's software update patches? I actually haven't in a while, but my system is pretty stable.

Thank you pkouame.

The boot disk is APFS. Dosdude’s APFS ROM patch is applied to the EEPROM. At post-install, I accept all proposed patches except APFS. I didn’t run patch updater recently.

The disks are Samsung SSDs 500GB, 860 EVO and 840 EVO, resp.

I was also suspecting the hardware. However these observations rather speak against this assumption:
- running extended AHT finds no errors
- 10.14.3 is running without problems: Safari fine, GPU switching fine.

Regarding the different boot screen in 9400M mode, I had that from 10.14.4 onwards. Resetting NVRAM cured it for a while but it came back.
(BTW I see no parameter in the NVRAM with nvram -p that would indicate a GPU selection. Is the gMUX itself storing it, and also gets reset with NVRAM reset?)

----

Importantly however, the file system got hurt during one of the many KPs.

I am pretty sure it happened when trying to switch from 9400 back to 9600 (sys settings, logout/in, shutdown). This shutdown ended in a KP, and like last time (edit: post #14760) the system got barely usable after that. Unfortunately, the system didn't (or couldn't) record the KP, neither on disk nor even in the NVRAM.
This time, fsck found an error with an xattr_key, and it couldn't repair it. Screenshot attached (disk utility run when booted from a different disk).

So with an MBP5,2, 17", 2.8GHz, running 10.14.5bx, switching between GPUs can hurt the file system, and did twice in my case.

I'm back to 10.14.3 for now on both disks. The internal disk with the broken file system I've erased, and now cloning the external disk to it (CCC). Nothing lost of course! Not even time, because testing is the purpose. I'll continue testing 10.14.5 soon on the external disk.

 

[jackluke]

• 20' iMac
• Early 2009
• Been running Mojave patch to much satisfaction, good job everyone!

• Updating to 10.14.4 destroyed boot options
• Updated a 2010 iMac to 10.4.4 Mojave Patch without any problems.

Problem:
Updating the iMac from macOS 10.4.2 > 10.4.4 by creating a new Mojave Patch boot USB, something went wrong, now I cannot boot from any internal or external drive or USB stick and the iMac is not responding to any keyboard commands like ALT D or ALT CMD P R.

I created a High Sierra boot USB but no matter how I try to boot the machine it just shows the question folder showing that it cannot find a boot drive. I'm thinking the EFI needs a reset but how?

I spent 4 days trying every trick I could think of so please ...if you have a fix at least make it appear very complex so I don't completely loose my self confidence ))

Only with an original apple keyboard either usb or bluetooth you can type any apple-keys-combination after the power-on, the third party keyboards won't work in any way, they only work after a correct OSX reboot but not from a power-off state.

Try an original apple keyboard (also a very old one at least USB) and you will fix at 99%.

 

[Flacko]

Wired keyboard and mouse.

I had a similar problem with a usb apple keyboard and was unable to get the boot screen or reset pram etc with Mojave. I was connecting the keyboard via a usb hub in an apple display. I found Mojave was not powering up the hub until it was loaded. Connecting keyboard directly to the Mac solved the problem. So just in case you are using a usb hub try to connect the keyboard direct to the Mac.

 

[DaniloGeekDude]

Successfully updated to Mojave 10.14.5 Beta 5 on unsupported MacBook Air Mid 2011 (MacBookAir4,2)



Same steps as before using @dosdude1's mojave Patcher 1.3.1 exclusively.
Graphics acceleration achieved and no KPs so far.

Thank You.

EDIT: regarding the steps, I followed the ones listed on post #14826
macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

 

[pkouame]

Thank you pkouame.

The boot disk is APFS. Dosdude’s APFS ROM patch is applied to the EEPROM. At post-install, I accept all proposed patches except APFS. I didn’t run patch updater recently.

I was also suspecting the hardware. However these observations rather speak against this assumption:
- running extended AHT finds no errors
- 10.14.3 is running without problems: Safari fine, GPU switching fine.

Regarding the different boot screen in 9400M mode, I had that from 10.14.4 onwards. Resetting NVRAM cured it for a while but it came back.
(BTW I see no parameter in the NVRAM with nvram -p that would indicate a GPU selection. Is the gMUX itself storing it, and also gets reset with NVRAM reset?)

----

Importantly however, the file system got hurt during one of the many KPs!

I am pretty sure it happened when trying to switch from 9400 back to 9600 (sys settings, logout/in, shutdown). This shutdown ended in a KP, and like last time (post #14878) the system got barely usable after that. Unfortunately, the system didn't (or couldn't) record the KP, neither on disk nor even in the NVRAM.
This time, fsck found an error with an xattr_key, and it couldn't repair it. Screenshot attached (disk utility run when booted from a different disk).

So with an MBP5,2, 17", 2.8GHz, running 10.14.5bx, switching between GPUs can hurt the file system, and did twice in my case.

I'm back to 10.14.3 for now on both disks. The internal disk with the broken file system I've erased, and now cloning the external disk to it (CCC). Nothing lost of course! Not even time, because testing is the purpose. I'll continue testing 10.14.5 soon on the external disk.

Note: I believe this is still true: you can uncheck the APFS patch during post-install after patching your ROM. @dosdude1 can confirm. I 've been doing so after something I read on this thread...

 

[naerct]

Thank so much guys! I had a look at all the threads, especially the one "Flacko" linked to and it seems, that either 14.3 is the end of the line for me or I have to go the way of the CPU upgrade, which on a normal PC I would do in a hearbeat, but where I am scared is that complicated process of delidding and also getting the torque right without breaking the CPU tray (which one cannot easily replace here in Germany - I think...).

I tried already various combinations and settings with some effect but no ultimate success.

Thanks anyway guys! Great help here!!

Your post is pretty cryptic, but I think I had the same problem with getting to 14.4 but without the bootROM update. I solverd the problem by downloading the very latest 6GB installer. Make sure it's that big or you have the mini installer that won't work. As soon as I did that, I got the screen announcing the bootROM flash before the upgrade ever gets started. It tells you it will shut down, and you have to start it in the special way described. You don't even need an EFI flashed video card. It just works and reboots. Then it asks you if you want to continue with the installation to 14.4. I actually let it reinstall the 14.4 software, and when I cloned it, it was obvious that there were differences in the versions. The hard part was the waiting for the download just after I put the slightly older version in the trash.
I am about to do the same thing to my 4-core. I discovered on this forum, in a different spot, most of the skinny on the single processor units bricking. One regular contributor caught me spreading rumors about the bricking updates, since those versions never made it to finals status. His System Report which showed he had a 6-core single processor and was at 144 with the 14.5 beta, or whatever the trials for the point upgrades are called. There is evidently one more OS upgrade 14.5 that should also be doable. I'm assuming there will be a BootRom flash to 144 as well. With a single processor, the only flash to avoid is 142 which was never a final. I'm hoping we'll get to 10.15 in the fall, but I'm not optimistic. Good Luck

 

[dosdude1]

Note: I believe this is still true: you can uncheck the APFS patch during post-install after patching your ROM. @dosdude1 can confirm. I 've been doing so after something I read on this thread...

Yes, that is correct. The APFS patch is only necessary if the machine's system firmware does not support booting from APFS volumes. The APFS ROM Patch adds native APFS support to the system firmware, so it's not necessary to apply the APFS patch.

 

[DanieleDN]

I'm running my 17" Early 2008 MacBook Pro with 6GB RAM and 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD on Mojave 10.14.3 (not 10.14.4 which sounds like it has a bunch of issues) and its running flawlessly. Performance is better than it has been on any other macOS.

I can confirm that.

 

[Zab the Fab]

Hmm, odd. I'd definitely try a different USB keyboard, as the startup key commands (boot menu, PRAM reset, etc) are completely independent from the OS. A different keyboard will more than likely work.

Hi DosDude1
Thanks for addressing this. The very same keyboard is now doing key commands on a 2012 iMac just fine. During the whole time I was running the patch, key commands was ignored on the 2009 iMac.

Could this be a ned to reset the EFI?
[doublepost=1557663195][/doublepost]

Only with an original apple keyboard either usb or bluetooth you can type any apple-keys-combination after the power-on, the third party keyboards won't work in any way, they only work after a correct OSX reboot but not from a power-off state.

Try an original apple keyboard (also a very old one at least USB) and you will fix at 99%.

Hi Jackluke

The keyboard is an original Apple keyboard. It performs key commands just fine on my new iMac 2012.

 

[Hughmac]

Well, since I'm just about to sell my unsupported 2010 MBP, I'd like to say thanks to all the perpetrators of this fantastic thread, and duck out

Cheers

Hugh

 

[0403979]

Well, since I'm just about to sell my unsupported 2010 MBP, I'd like to say thanks to all the perpetrators of this fantastic thread, and duck out

Cheers

Hugh

Aw. Goodbye MacBook.

 

[Sveto]

I never use the screensaver, or chess so that's why I asked! I checked them both and of course they failed as you said. I have an office 2019 install and it seems to work as expected though. Maybe its just office 2016? When is 10.14.5 stable expected to release?

Enpass is another of the apps to implement native, or problematic metal calls for drawing on the screen and as a result it does not work in 10.14.4, but perfectly fine in 10.14.3 and hopefully also fine in 10.14.5 final.

 

[jackluke]

Hi DosDude1
Thanks for addressing this. The very same keyboard is now doing key commands on a 2012 iMac just fine. During the whole time I was running the patch, key commands was ignored on the 2009 iMac.

Could this be a ned to reset the EFI?
[doublepost=1557663195][/doublepost]
Hi Jackluke

The keyboard is an original Apple keyboard. It performs key commands just fine on my new iMac 2012.

I know it sounds weird but you should get and try an older apple usb keyboard for your iMac 2009 to enable the "key commands" after a cold boot (I guess the most useful you need is alt-option), if your apple keyboard was bundled with your iMac 2012 then it could be too recent and not allow "key commands" from an older iMac or maybe a bluetooth pairing issues with an older iMac from a cold boot.

 

[Dannyy]

Hello boys. I picked up old MacBook Pro mid 2009 (macbookpro5,5), installed Mojave without any issues, but right now I have problem with trackpad. It works fine, but not the way I need. First, to tap on any area on the screen I need to press on trackpad, so I need to change it for tap only. Second, when I try to open Settings/Trackpad, there's message that "trackpad is not connected". Can someone help me?
Thank you.

Found the problem. Trackpad preferences won't show without battery, which I removed recently.

 

[Zab the Fab]

I know it sounds weird but you should get and try an older apple usb keyboard for your iMac 2009 to enable the "key commands" after a cold boot (I guess the most useful you need is alt-option), if your apple keyboard was bundled with your iMac 2012 then it could be too recent and not allow "key commands" from an older iMac or maybe a bluetooth pairing issues with an older iMac from a cold boot.

I know sometimes it's the weird kinks that makes something work, and I'm very open to any idea that might fix my broken iMac however the 2012 keyboard and mouse was wireless and is currently for sale.

It's the original Apple keyboard from the 2009 iMac that used to work but stopped working after installing Mojave Patch. I just ignored it since it's very rare you need those key commands and I ran it for 3/4 of a year. Then after trying to upgrade to 10.4.4 Mojave Patch I could not get the machine to boot from any drive, internal or external.<<

The 2009 keyboard used to do key commands just fine on the 2009 iMac but stopped working after installing the Mojave Patch.

I also had a problem when installing the patch for the first time on both my 2009 iMac and a buddy's iMac 2010, where it would also not boot up after installing Mojave Patch. I then had to disconnect the internal SSD and thereby FORCE it to reboot from the USB key, then reconnect the SSD with the iMac still running, and then run the post-install. This was a problem every time on both the 2009 and 2010 iMacs. I figured it was a bug in the Mojave Patch. Interesting thing is that this was not only my machine but also a buddies where we used the same USB key.

 

[jackluke]

I know sometimes it's the weird kinks that makes something work, and I'm very open to any idea that might fix my broken iMac however the 2012 keyboard and mouse was wireless and is currently for sale.

It's the original Apple keyboard from the 2009 iMac that used to work but stopped working after installing Mojave Patch. I just ignored it since it's very rare you need those key commands and I ran it for 3/4 of a year. Then after trying to upgrade to 10.4.4 Mojave Patch I could not get the machine to boot from any drive, internal or external.<<

The 2009 keyboard used to do key commands just fine on the 2009 iMac but stopped working after installing the Mojave Patch.

I also had a problem when installing the patch for the first time on both my 2009 iMac and a buddy's iMac 2010, where it would also not boot up after installing Mojave Patch. I then had to disconnect the internal SSD and thereby FORCE it to reboot from the USB key, then reconnect the SSD with the iMac still running, and then run the post-install. This was a problem every time on both the 2009 and 2010 iMacs. I figured it was a bug in the Mojave Patch. Interesting thing is that this was not only my machine but also a buddies where we used the same USB key.

I had a similar issue that could not "type" from a cold boot state any CMD-combination or alt-option (startup manager), and that's occurred when I used for some time a third party usb keyboard (a one with apple key "cmd" not "win" key), since on the original was spilled liquid, the third party keyboard only worked with its CMD-combination (PRAM reset and so on) only after a complete OSX reboot.

I fixed this "issue" simply buying an old used original apple wired usb keyboard and everything worked, but it must be apple original with logo, EMC and trademarks, otherwise no dice.

And yes, even after 10 years an old apple usb original keyboard is still not cheap.

If you are sure that using an apple original keyboard right for your iMac model the "cmd-key-commands" don't worked, then your only fix is to disassemble the iMac (very tedious) take out the internal hdd and through a SATA USB cable connect to another Mac and re-install and patch your temporary external Mojave installation, then put it back to your iMac.

 

[Zab the Fab]

I had a similar issue that could not "type" from a cold boot state any CMD-combination or alt-option (startup manager), and that's occurred when I used for some time a third party usb keyboard (a one with apple key "cmd" not "win" key), since on the original was spilled liquid, the third party keyboard only worked with its CMD-combination (PRAM reset and so on) only after a complete OSX reboot.

I fixed this "issue" simply buying an old used original apple wired usb keyboard and everything worked, but it must be apple original with logo, EMC and trademarks, otherwise no dice.

And yes, even after 10 years an old apple usb original keyboard is still not cheap.

If you are sure that using an apple original keyboard right for your iMac model the "cmd-key-commands" don't worked, then your only fix is to disassemble the iMac (very tedious) take out the internal hdd and through a SATA USB cable connect to another Mac and re-install and patch your temporary external Mojave installation, then put it back to your iMac.

The keyboard could do key-commands on the 2009 iMac before the Mojave Patch.
After the Mojave Patch it could not do key-commands.
When I tried to update to 10.4.4 Mojave Patch it refused to boot.
I took out the internal SSD and connected it to a 2010 iMac with a SATA USB cable and installed Mojave Patch.
When that didn't work I deleted the SSD and installed High Sierra from the 2010 iMac and it boots fine, but when I put it back in my 2009 iMac or connects it with the SATA USB cable, the 2009 iMac refused to boot.

It just keeps showing the folder with the question mark, blinking.

Tried USB drives, internal SSD inside and outside with SATA USB cable.
[doublepost=1557681195][/doublepost]And why did both the 2009 and 2010 iMac refuse to boot back into the USB key after installing the Mojave Patch?
In both machines I had to disable the SSD to force it to boot from the Mojave Patch USB key.

 

[jackluke]

The keyboard could do key-commands on the 2009 iMac before the Mojave Patch.
After the Mojave Patch it could not do key-commands.
When I tried to update to 10.4.4 Mojave Patch it refused to boot.
I took out the internal SSD and connected it to a 2010 iMac with a SATA USB cable and installed Mojave Patch.
When that didn't work I deleted the SSD and installed High Sierra from the 2010 iMac and it boots fine, but when I put it back in my 2009 iMac or connects it with the SATA USB cable, the 2009 iMac refused to boot.

It just keeps showing the folder with the question mark, blinking.

Tried USB drives, internal SSD inside and outside with SATA USB cable.
[doublepost=1557681195][/doublepost]And why did both the 2009 and 2010 iMac refuse to boot back into the USB key after installing the Mojave Patch?
In both machines I had to disable the SSD to force it to boot from the Mojave Patch USB key.

It refuses to boot HighSierra since iMac 20" 2009 doesn't support natively HighSierra, you should put El Capitan on it or earlier OSX.

"Question mark folder" could indicate in some cases an SSD controller incompatibility especially with EFI partition.