macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[BeatCrazy]

Mine was NOT the 2020-005 Security Update version of 10.13.6, just the original installer version. Try loading 10.13.6 without the newest updates and run the command and see if that solves it.

Ugh, still no luck. I tried:

1) Reinstalling 10.13.6 (17G66) from official Apple download, on top of (17G14033). Ran command, no change.
2) Erased SSD, completely new install of 10.13.6 (17G66). Ran command, no change.

To be clear, I do get the same "acknowledgment" from my terminal command, and I do hear the long firmware update beep upon initial power on. So I dunno what else to do.

Should I erase my SSD and go back all the way to El Capitan? Can you verify that the .scap that you attached in post #18,892 does actually contain the 63.0.0.0 BootROM?

 

[BeatCrazy]

Mine was NOT the 2020-005 Security Update version of 10.13.6, just the original installer version. Try loading 10.13.6 without the newest updates and run the command and see if that solves it.

After some digging, I thought I found a key piece of evidence to my problem. According to this site, the newest BootROM for High Sierra (and others?) seemed to come as part of the 30 October 2018 Security Updates.

I figured I would just backtrack to a High Sierra point release earlier than Oct 2018. But that is not so easy! So I had to do the nuclear option, which was to go all the way back to El Capitan initial release. Ran the .scap command, no luck. Figured I would try to go from El Cap to High Sierra 10.13.2. That won't install! I get a message that says I must be on 10.13 as a minimum to update.

I thought I'd at least try to get the latest/last El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G22010) 2018-004 Supp Update. Which I imagined was kinda close, but still before, the 30 Oct 2018 update that pushed the 63.0.0.0 EFI. Ran the .scap command, no luck

So now here I sit, on 10.11.6 (15G22010) 2018-004 Supp Update. Still with IM111.0039.B00. Where to go from here? Keeping in mind, I've already tried a 100% fresh install of 10.13.6 (17G66) from 9 July 2018, then run the .scap command, but I wasn't successful.

 

[jowaju]

After some digging, I thought I found a key piece of evidence to my problem. According to this site, the newest BootROM for High Sierra (and others?) seemed to come as part of the 30 October 2018 Security Updates.

I figured I would just backtrack to a High Sierra point release earlier than Oct 2018. But that is not so easy! So I had to do the nuclear option, which was to go all the way back to El Capitan initial release. Ran the .scap command, no luck. Figured I would try to go from El Cap to High Sierra 10.13.2. That won't install! I get a message that says I must be on 10.13 as a minimum to update.

I thought I'd at least try to get the latest/last El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G22010) 2018-004 Supp Update. Which I imagined was kinda close, but still before, the 30 Oct 2018 update that pushed the 63.0.0.0 EFI. Ran the .scap command, no luck

So now here I sit, on 10.11.6 (15G22010) 2018-004 Supp Update. Still with IM111.0039.B00. Where to go from here? Keeping in mind, I've already tried a 100% fresh install of 10.13.6 (17G66) from 9 July 2018, then run the .scap command, but I wasn't successful.

I'm beginning to think it might be the replacement video card itself causing issues. Mine was with the stock video card. Can you put the stock card back in and see if that allows you to update?

 

[BeatCrazy]

I'm beginning to think it might be the replacement video card itself causing issues. Mine was with the stock video card. Can you put the stock card back in and see if that allows you to update?

I could, but I had already went all the way up to the latest/last 10.13.6 2020-005 update when I was on the stock card. I never tried your "forced" .scap method with the original video card, however.

It's a bit of a pain to swap out cards... Is there something I should try with that FirmwareUpdate.pkg that you referenced earlier?

Or, is there a way to do the .scap Terminal method by just disconnecting the GPU temporarily and run it headless? As opposed to ripping everything out, swapping cards, mounts, etc.

 

[jdmc]

Having some trouble with my 2011 Mac mini (Macmini5,1) w/Intel HD3000 graphics. High Sierra is natively supported and runs fine; I've installed Catalina with the DD1 patcher, and it seems to run fine as well… but I keep having problems with Mojave. I just erased the Mojave partition and started from scratch with Patcher 1.3.7 and a fresh Mojave installer. That seemed to go fine. Then booted to it, and ran "macOS Post Install", selected "Macmini5,1", left the default set of extensions checked, selected the appropriate system volume, and clicked "Patch". Within ten seconds, the message "Complete!" appeared, along with a "Reboot" button and a checkbox labeled "Force cache rebuild". I checked the box, then clicked "Reboot". The little spinning progress indicator appeared, and it was still spinning sixty-eight minutes later. Ridiculous. I quit the app and manually restarted.

Upon restart, I don't see that anything has changed from the previous startup: certain aspects of my wired-USB keyboard aren't behaving as they should, and when I attempt to apply system updates, none are found, even though I know they're available:

I get the same "can't find anything new" result if I try to update via the "Software Update" panel in System Preferences.

Here's the set of options I installed from "macOS Post Install":

Any ideas about what's wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks,
~ Justin
_ _ _

UPDATE #0: I forgot to mention earlier that, yes, the volume where my Mojave installation lives is formatted as APFS, case-insensitive, ownership enabled.
_ _ _

UPDATE #1: I downloaded the Mojave version of Titanium Software's venerable system utility, OnyX; installed and launched it; and executed the default set of Maintenance tasks, culminating in a restart. After rebooting, it appears that nothing has changed; I still get the same "nothing new" results with Howard Oakley's SilentKnight utility, or with Software Update.
_ _ _

UPDATE #2: After running OnyX and restarting, I tried the "macOS Post Install" utility again, just as before. This time, I did not check the "Force Cache Rebuild" box, but when I clicked the "Reboot" button, it started rebuilding the kext cache anyway. That was an hour and 47 minutes ago, and the little progress wheel is still spinning. I feel pretty sure that it'll go on forever until interrupted. ~ In case it matters, the disk (actually SSD) partition in which the Mojave install resides is 80 GB in size, of which about 13 GB is used, and 67 GB is free, according to Disk Utility. The partition contains only one APFS container, which in turn contains only one APFS volume; there are no other volumes sharing space within that partition.

 

[jowaju]

Having some trouble with my 2011 Mac mini (Macmini5,1) w/Intel HD3000 graphics. High Sierra is natively supported and runs fine; I've installed Catalina with the DD1 patcher, and it seems to run fine as well… but I keep having problems with Mojave. I just erased the Mojave partition and started from scratch with Patcher 1.3.7 and a fresh Mojave installer. That seemed to go fine. Then booted to it, and ran "macOS Post Install", selected "Macmini5,1", left the default set of extensions checked, selected the appropriate system volume, and clicked "Patch". Within ten seconds, the message "Complete!" appeared, along with a "Reboot" button and a checkbox labeled "Force cache rebuild". I checked the box, then clicked "Reboot". The little spinning progress indicator appeared, and it was still spinning sixty-eight minutes later. Ridiculous. I quit the app and manually restarted.

Upon restart, I don't see that anything has changed from the previous startup: certain aspects of my wired-USB keyboard aren't behaving as they should, and when I attempt to apply system updates, none are found, even though I know they're available:

View attachment 975024
I get the same "can't find anything new" result if I try to update via the "Software Update" panel in System Preferences.

Here's the set of options I installed from "macOS Post Install":

View attachment 975025
Any ideas about what's wrong and how to fix it?

UPDATE: I downloaded the Mojave version of Onyx, installed and launched it, and executed the default set of Maintenance tasks, culminating in a restart. After rebooting, it appears that nothing has changed; I still get the same results with Howard Oakley's SilentKnight utility, or with Software Update.

Thanks,
~ Justin

Did you format the hard drive APFS or HFS+ ???

 

[jdmc]

Did you format the hard drive APFS or HFS+ ???

APFS. Good question, thanks for asking.

 

[jowaju]

I could, but I had already went all the way up to the latest/last 10.13.6 2020-005 update when I was on the stock card. I never tried your "forced" .scap method with the original video card, however.

It's a bit of a pain to swap out cards... Is there something I should try with that FirmwareUpdate.pkg that you referenced earlier?

Or, is there a way to do the .scap Terminal method by just disconnecting the GPU temporarily and run it headless? As opposed to ripping everything out, swapping cards, mounts, etc.

Like I said, I'm just about out of ideas, we are at the end of our choices here.

No, the FirmwareUpdate.pkg does not apply to you, the BootRom versions in that package are OLDER than what you currently have on the machine. It will NEVER do anything, regardless of how often you run it or from what macOS version. Your ONLY way forward is to load the Security update for High Sierra that contains the updated BootRom or manually force the BootRom with the scap file as noted previously. Since neither of those are working, there must be something blocking the update, hence the "let's take it back to stock and try again".

 

[jowaju]

APFS. Good question, thanks for asking.

Reboot back to the patcher USB and re-run the post install patches. Don't click Force Cache Rebuild this time and see what happens. Sometimes (often-ish) it just takes several times of applying them before they "stick".

 

[BeatCrazy]

Like I said, I'm just about out of ideas, we are at the end of our choices here.

No, the FirmwareUpdate.pkg does not apply to you, the BootRom versions in that package are OLDER than what you currently have on the machine. It will NEVER do anything, regardless of how often you run it or from what macOS version. Your ONLY way forward is to load the Security update for High Sierra that contains the updated BootRom or manually force the BootRom with the scap file as noted previously. Since neither of those are working, there must be something blocking the update, hence the "let's take it back to stock and try again".

I see. Thanks for confirming. Let's say I never get my BootROM updated. I can still use Mojave/Catalina per the DOSdude Patcher, right? I got Catalina working, once. But I was experiencing a few GPU glitches with the K2100M. Not sure if that had to do with lack of using OpenCore.

I have a few more things I will try, and will report back with my results. Thanks again for your guidance.

 

[jdmc]

Reboot back to the patcher USB and re-run the post install patches.

I gather that you mean to boot from the patched installer volume, do not re-install the OS from scratch, but do run the "macOS Post Install" utility while booted from the installer volume — as opposed to running it while booted into the installed-and-patched OS itself, which is what I was doing before. That sounds promising… stand by for a report.

UPDATE: That seems to have done the trick! Thank you, sir. ?

 

[jowaju]

I see. Thanks for confirming. Let's say I never get my BootROM updated. I can still use Mojave/Catalina per the DOSdude Patcher, right? I got Catalina working, once. But I was experiencing a few GPU glitches with the K2100M. Not sure if that had to do with lack of using OpenCore.

I have a few more things I will try, and will report back with my results. Thanks again for your guidance.

Yes you can still use the machine with the non-updated BootRom with both Mojave and Catalina with the DosDude patcher.

 

[jowaju]

I gather that you mean to boot from the patched installer volume, do not re-install the OS from scratch, but do run the "macOS Post Install" utility while booted from the installer volume — as opposed to running it while booted into the installed-and-patched OS itself, which is what I was doing before. That sounds promising… stand by for a report.

UPDATE: That seems to have done the trick! Thank you, sir. ?

Yes, sorry. I should have been clearer. Boot back to your already created Mojave patched USB installer volume. Do not do anything else besides click the macOS Post Install and allow the patches to run again, then reboot the machine and see if all is well. This is what you should try 2-3 times anytime there is an issue BEFORE moving on to the next step. This fixes almost all post install problems, especially ones that leave the system non-bootable. I usually give it the first time without checking the Force Cache rebuild, then if it needs it again check the box the 2nd time around.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Like I said, I'm just about out of ideas, we are at the end of our choices here.

No, the FirmwareUpdate.pkg does not apply to you, the BootRom versions in that package are OLDER than what you currently have on the machine. It will NEVER do anything, regardless of how often you run it or from what macOS version. Your ONLY way forward is to load the Security update for High Sierra that contains the updated BootRom or manually force the BootRom with the scap file as noted previously. Since neither of those are working, there must be something blocking the update, hence the "let's take it back to stock and try again".

WOW WOW WOW I got it to work!

You were right, it was my "new" GPU that was holding up the BootROM update. I put the original one in there, ran the sudo command and used the file you attached (much thanks!) and it worked immediately. Now I'm on 63.0.0.0.

I had really given up hope on this. Thanks for your patience and engagement, problem solved!! Whoooohooo!

 

[jowaju]

WOW WOW WOW I got it to work!

You were right, it was my "new" GPU that was holding up the BootROM update. I put the original one in there, ran the sudo command and used the file you attached (much thanks!) and it worked immediately. Now I'm on 63.0.0.0.

I had really given up hope on this. Thanks for your patience and engagement, problem solved!! Whoooohooo!

Glad you got it figured out, that’s a great data point as well for the iMac GPU crowd. Just curious what macOS version you were on when it finally worked for you?

 

[BeatCrazy]

Glad you got it figured out, that’s a great data point as well for the iMac GPU crowd. Just curious what macOS version you were on when it finally worked for you?

I was on 10.13.6 (17G66), which is the bootable version that Apple still makes available for download. After I got my BootROM update to work (never been so happy to see that thick progress bar!), I did the cumulative update including 2020-005 Security Update, directly from the App Store.

 

[trifero]

WOW WOW WOW I got it to work!

You were right, it was my "new" GPU that was holding up the BootROM update. I put the original one in there, ran the sudo command and used the file you attached (much thanks!) and it worked immediately. Now I'm on 63.0.0.0.

I had really given up hope on this. Thanks for your patience and engagement, problem solved!! Whoooohooo!

Nice!

 

[RK78]

General question:

Have been running Mojave both on iMac 10.1 (Late '09) and Mini 4.1 (2010) iMac has 12GB ram, while Mini only 8GB. Performance on Mini is noticeably inferior compared to iMac. In additon to having more ram, iMac has a more powerful CPU.

If the Mini were supported for 10.14, wondering if 8GB would be adequate, at least for most purposes?

Bottom line question is how much overhead (for want of a better term) does running the Patcher with an unsupported Mac add? Not sure how that would be quantified, but maybe in terms of extra ram needed, or processing power, above and beyond what a supported Mac would need to run Mojave?

Note: the Mini, supported natively for High Sierra 10.13.6, runs that OS well enough. Compared to High Sierra, is Mojave itself more demanding of resources, or are they about equal? Both running HDD platter drives, so understood that 10.14 will run far better with an SSD. So all things being equal...

 

[avz]

General question:

Have been running Mojave both on iMac 10.1 (Late '09) and Mini 4.1 (2010) iMac has 12GB ram, while Mini only 8GB. Performance on Mini is noticeably inferior compared to iMac. In additon to having more ram, iMac has a more powerful CPU.

If the Mini were supported for 10.14, wondering if 8GB would be adequate, at least for most purposes?

Bottom line question is how much overhead (for want of a better term) does running the Patcher with an unsupported Mac add? Not sure how that would be quantified, but maybe in terms of extra ram needed, or processing power, above and beyond what a supported Mac would need to run Mojave?

Note: the Mini, supported natively for High Sierra 10.13.6, runs that OS well enough. Compared to High Sierra, is Mojave itself more demanding of resources, or are they about equal? Both running HDD platter drives, so understood that 10.14 will run far better with an SSD. So all things being equal...

I am afraid I will have to disappoint you as there is no "overheads" in running the Patcher with an unsupported Mac. Your observation is correct: Mojave is very close to High Sierra which is officially supported on a Core 2 Duo Macs. I remember that not long ago the official minimum RAM requirements to run Mojave were only 2GB.

I just installed Mojave on my 27" Late 2012 iMac(250GB APFS formatted partition on original HDD(not even a fusion drive)) with the "faulty" SU 2020-005 and it runs absolutely great. It feels even snappier than Sierra on the same machine(HFS+ formatted HDD).

 

[Rob1n]

Hi!
I just recently installed the rom patch for native apfs support on my mac pro 3,1.

But when I start up my mac I still get the apfs patch text on my screen.
Does anyone know how to uninstall the apfs patch?
I am currently running mojave.

 

[RK78]

I am afraid I will have to disappoint you as there is no "overheads" in running the Patcher with an unsupported Mac. Your observation is correct: Mojave is very close to High Sierra which is officially supported on a Core 2 Duo Macs. I remember that not long ago the official minimum RAM requirements to run Mojave were only 2GB.

I just installed Mojave on my 27" Late 2012 iMac(250GB APFS formatted partition on original HDD(not even a fusion drive)) with the "faulty" SU 2020-005 and it runs absolutely great. It feels even snappier than Sierra on the same machine(HFS+ formatted HDD).

Since, as I said, High Sierra (supported) runs quite well on the Mini, but not Mojave via the Patcher - and you suggest that it should run equally well - where would you look, or what action would you take to remedy this?

 

[trifero]

Hi!
I just recently installed the rom patch for native apfs support on my mac pro 3,1.

But when I start up my mac I still get the apfs patch text on my screen.
Does anyone know how to uninstall the apfs patch?
I am currently running mojave.

Odd

 

[Dayo]

Hi!
I just recently installed the rom patch for native apfs support on my mac pro 3,1.

But when I start up my mac I still get the apfs patch text on my screen.
Does anyone know how to uninstall the apfs patch?

Try to restart your computer into the DosDude USB, reapply the patches and don't select the apfs patch option.
If that doesn't work, reinstall the Mac OS over the disk from the DosDude USB and don't select the apfs patch option. This will not affect your files.

 

[FarmerBob]

With all this talk of BootROMs and EFIs, I got to wondering. I installed the APFS Update successfully on my 3,1. Did get verbose start up for the first couple of startups then they went away. And now I am back to a normal boot screen.

I have been doing a lot of everything and have to reboot a lot. And in doing so I usually have boot through Startup Manager. There I see all the bootable volumes. But in with them are 3 EFI volumes that implies that they can be booted from. They are just marked "EFI".

I have never tried not knowing what they could do. But in all the pics posted I haven't seen them in other Startup Managers. I trust that there's one per OS that might need them for whatever reason.

Is there anything I should know about or can do with or to them?

 

[joevt]

Hi!
I just recently installed the rom patch for native apfs support on my mac pro 3,1.

But when I start up my mac I still get the apfs patch text on my screen.
Does anyone know how to uninstall the apfs patch?
I am currently running mojave.

The apfs patch is a set of files installed to an EFI Partition. You can remove them manually: bootx64.efi, startup.nsh, apfs.efi.
The bootx64.efi file is a copy of the EFI Shell which is compatible with EFI 1.1. It is approximately 771 KB in size.

With all this talk of BootROMs and EFIs, I got to wondering. I installed the APFS Update successfully on my 3,1. Did get verbose start up for the first couple of startups then they went away. And now I am back to a normal boot screen.

I have been doing a lot of everything and have to reboot a lot. And in doing so I usually have boot through Startup Manager. There I see all the bootable volumes. But in with them are 3 EFI volumes that implies that they can be booted from. They are just marked "EFI".

I have never tried not knowing what they could do. But in all the pics posted I haven't seen them in other Startup Managers. I trust that there's one per OS that might need them for whatever reason.

Is there anything I should know about or can do with or to them?

Mount all the EFI partitions. Give each one a different volume icon (do this using an earlier version of macOS since new versions of macOS don't include the old format icon "it32" required by MacPro3,1 Startup Manager - check for "it32" in the Info window in Preview.app). That might help you see what each "EFI Boot" option belongs to.

Actually, it might be easier if you hold the control key and press return on the "EFI Boot" item (the arrow in Startup Manager turns into a circular arrow). This will set the first nvram boot variable to the item and try to boot it. Then you can restart the computer, hold option, and select your macOS, then use the dumpallbootvars command to see what it got pointed to (the first one in the BootOrder).

macOS disk labels, mounting partitions

macOS disk labels, mounting partitions. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

macOS nvram boot variables, device properties, EFI device paths

macOS nvram boot variables, device properties, EFI device paths - gfxutil.sh

gist.github.com

When you're done looking at all the mystery items, use control key on the item you want to boot (or use the bless command in macOS).

Some of them you might be able to change the name shown in the Startup Manager from "EFI Boot" using the --label option of the bless command. If it is a bootx64.efi in a EFI partition then you may only be able to change the volume icon but try the label option anyway.

rEFInd / Discussion / General Discussion: all my Mac OSX versions do not appear

sourceforge.net

For apfs volumes, I have fixapfsbooter which creates labels for the Data (if it exists), Preboot, Recovery, and System volumes and copies the volume icon to each (removes volume icon symlink so the icon can be properly read by Startup Manager or when you booted into different macOS). It blesses the Recovery volume so it will appear in the Startup Manager (if you have the apfs driver in ROM or DriverOrder). The Data volume won't show up in Startup Manager since it doesn't have all the boot files - they are in the System volume.