macOS 10.14 Mojave on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Dayo]

It doesn't seem like it's possible to boot a MacPro 3,1 from APFS using dosdude's Mojave Patcher, ... So frustrating.

Installing Mojave with the patcher is an integral step of using the patcher but you have not done that. (Well, not clear whether you have)

If not, you need to rectify this omission.

In other words, install Mojave on a different disk following the instructions on the DosDude website and then transfer your data across.

 

[brian.tully]

One of the most frustrating things for developers is that they develop stuff, take time to do the most difficult bit, which is to write instructions and people just plain refuse to follow them but are somehow surprised when things don't work.

Installing Mojave with the patcher is an integral step of using the patcher but you have not done that. Rectify this omission to join the tens of thousands running DosDude Mojave Installations on their 3,1 units.

In other words, install Mojave on a different disk following the instructions on the DosDude website and then transfer your data across.

Not so kind or gentle but should get you out of the hole!

Now I'm even more confused I actually did install Mojave with the patcher, twice! Just so I can improve my poor communication skills, can you tell me what led you to believe I didn't install Mojave with dosdude's patcher? It's a MacPro 3,1 so unless I used Mojave Patcher I'd still be stuck on El Capitan.

The point is that I've installed Mojave via the Mojave Patcher four times now, twice in my attempt to get APFS support, then twice again when it didn't boot and I had to reformat my drive back to HFS+.

At this point I think I'd sacrifice a limb to actually get a clear, concise set of steps to follow. But maybe my setup is a rare edge case?

 

[Dayo]

At this point I think I'd sacrifice a limb to actually get a clear, concise set of steps to follow. But maybe my setup is a rare edge case?

Might be my poor comprehension skills. I suppose you didn't explicitly say it was with the patcher.
Especially since you said you have Mojave running on HFS+

Just thinking about my progression to Mojave on my 3,1, I think I went El Capitan -> HiSierra -> Mojave.
No idea whether that had an impact and upgraded somethings that helped as I think while HiSierra was used as HFS+, it may have put some drivers in place.

Sorry, seems you have followed all the instructions afterall. The HiSierra angle is something I don't know whether had any impact.

 

[brian.tully]

Might be my poor comprehension skills. I suppose you didn't explicitly say it was with the patcher.
Especially since you said you have Mojave running on HFS+

Just thinking about my progression to Mojave on my 3,1, I think I went El Capitan -> HiSierra -> Mojave.
No idea whether that had an impact and upgraded somethings that helped as I think while HiSierra was used as HFS+, it may have put some drivers in place.

Sorry, seems you have followed all the instructions afterall. The HiSierra angle is something I don't know whether had any impact.

No worries, mate! I appreciate all your help As someone with one foot in software development and the other in testing/QA, I know all too well that as developers we are not very good at documenting our own stuff Too many assumptions. Lord knows I am the worst offender, LOL.

Indeed I think you're onto something when you mention the High Sierra step, and the fact that it's the natural progression. I didn't learn about dosdude's patchers until last year, so I'm definitely late to the party. Perhaps it is my edge case where I am skipping over High Sierra and going directly from El Capitan to Mojave (via Mojave Patcher) that is causing me all this APFS grief -- especially since APFS was introduced in High Sierra. So it's quite possible that dosdude's Mojave Patcher assumes that a user has already upgraded to High Sierra (either natively or via his High Sierra Patcher), and the Mojave Patcher is missing a key APFS step that the "APFS Patch" doesn't perform. The more I read about APFS booting it seems that a Preboot volume needs to be created that contains the proper EFI. Mojave Patcher doesn't seem to do any of that, so I'm not really sure what his "APFS patch" does at all.

Oh well, only 11 more hours until my MacPro3,1 is restored back to HFS+ from a Time Machine Backup, after which I think I'm just gonna cross APFS off my wishlist. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

 

[K two]

The main reason to cling to HFS+ is attempting to convert to APFS twice, and both times the boot screen shows "Boot file not found, exiting..."

I am literally slamming my head against the wall because I thought that I'd be successful this time around. What a waste of time.

It doesn't seem like it's possible to boot a MacPro 3,1 from APFS using dosdude's Mojave Patcher, so I'm not really sure what that "APFS patch" checkbox is for. So frustrating. Here are the steps I followed in case anyone wants to enlighten me as to what I am doing wrong:

1. My boot volume was HFS+. I booted from the Mojave Patcher USB
2. Opened Disk Utility and unmounted my boot volume "Macintosh HD"
3. Selected my unmounted boot volume and chose "Edit -> Convert to APFS"
4. After a few minutes, the drive was converted and mounted
5. Reinstalled Mojave (probably unnecessary, but just in case Mojave would add apfs.efi when installing)
6. After install complete, rebooted into Mojave Patcher again and opened "Post Install Patcher"
7. Selected my model (MacPro 3,1) and this time when I selected my boot volume, the "APFS Patch" was not greyed out, so I was able to select it.
8. I ran the post install patcher, and when complete, chose force cache rebuild and restart
9. Mac boots up into weird terminal screen, showing a bunch of commands, the end of which states "Boot file not found, exiting"
10. Redo steps 6 - 8 to make sure the APFS patch get applied
11. Same error message on reboot
12. Try several methods of manually creating a Preboot volume directory and copying the contents of /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices to /Volumes/Preboot/[UUID]/System/Library/CoreServices, but any time I try doing the copy command I get errors saying file doesn't exist on the target and all sorts of file attr errors, so it's like the Preboot volume isn't mounted or read/writeable

Am I farked again and forced to reformat my boot volume back to HFS+ and do another 14 hour restore from Time Machine backup?

Or is there some kind soul who can help me get out of this hole with a gentle hand?

If a cMP try swapping drive bays? Use Disk Utilty to APFS format the SSD. It's on the patcher.

 

[brian.tully]

If a cMP try swapping drive bays? Use Disk Utilty to APFS format the SSD.

Yeah I used Disk Utility to convert the SSD drive from HFS+ to APFS, then applied all patches from Mojave Patcher. But I think there's an extra step I'm missing that creates a Preboot volume on the SSD and installs the APFS EFI so that the volume is bootable. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, and pardon my naivete but what's a "cMP"?

edit: disregard. Google says it's a "classic Mac Pro".

 

[Dayo]

I'm just gonna cross APFS off my wishlist.

Actually, I think I remember now.

HiSierra is the key as it supports both APFS and HFS+ natively. Install this with the relevant patcher in HFS+.
You will be then able to run this fine with your 3,1. Critically however, You will be able to format a disk in APFS from HiSierra and then install Mojave to this.

This was the progression I had and it was smooth. Didn't know what I was doing then but on reflection, that seems to have been the reason why.

Unless you can format another disk as APFS from your HFS+ Mojave. In which case my hypothesis is blown out of the water. Pretty sure though. A clean install to a disk already formatted as APFS while running OS with APFS. That must be it.

 

[brian.tully]

Actually, I think I remember now.

HiSierra is the key as it supports both APFS and HFS+ natively. Install this with the relevant patcher in HFS+.
You will be then able to run this fine with your 3,1. Critically however, You will be able to format a disk in APFS from HiSierra and then install Mojave to this.

Interesting. Do you think there's any way for me to do this without doing a clean install? I have TONS of music software that would take me for the rest of my life to reinstall, which is why I was hoping I could convert to APFS "in-place" without having to reinstall everything. I mean, if i wiped my drive and installed High Sierra Patcher, could I then install Mojave Patcher, and then restore from a Time Machine Backup? Wouldn't the restore from Time Machine undo all the APFS magic?

 

[Dayo]

No idea but you shouldn't need to reinstall. Just point Migration Assistant to the old disk and it should pull them all in.
Shouldn't be worse than the time machine restorations. You only do this at the end when installing Mojave. HiSierra would be be something you pass through.

 

[K two]

Yeah I used Disk Utility to convert the SSD drive from HFS+ to APFS, then applied all patches from Mojave Patcher. But I think there's an extra step I'm missing that creates a Preboot volume on the SSD and installs the APFS EFI so that the volume is bootable. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, and pardon my naivete but what's a "cMP"?

edit: disregard. Google says it's a "classic Mac Pro".

Right, a cMP3,1. If APFS and unpatched boot ROM, the APFS Patch is needed. Otherwise, no.

Further - When initially running the patcher was a setting in the Options menu, changed? Disk Utility will report whether the disk is actually APFS or no.

 

[brian.tully]

Right, a cMP3,1. If APFS and unpatched boot ROM, the APFS Patch is needed. Otherwise, no.

The problem I'm having is that I actually HAVE the APFS Patch applied, via Mojave Patcher, but yet I still get the "boot file not found, exiting..." error at the startup screen. So it's definitely not Mojave Patcher's "APFS Patch" alone that is required.

 

[K two]

The problem I'm having is that I actually HAVE the APFS Patch applied, via Mojave Patcher, but yet I still get the "boot file not found, exiting..." error at the startup screen. So it's definitely not Mojave Patcher's "APFS Patch" alone that is required.

Does an EFI Boot show up in the Startup Manager <option/alt>, boot? If so, boot it.

 

[brian.tully]

Does an EFI Boot show up in the Startup Manager <option/alt>, boot? If so, boot it.

Yes, an EFI Boot shows up in Startup Manager and is selected by default, but when I boot into it I get a terminal screen with scrolling text, and the last line of the text is "boot file not found, exiting..." Rebooting the machine the same thing happens.

 

[K two]

The problem I'm having is that I actually HAVE the APFS Patch applied, via Mojave Patcher, but yet I still get the "boot file not found, exiting..." error at the startup screen. So it's definitely not Mojave Patcher's "APFS Patch" alone that is required.

Does an EFI Boot show up in the Startup Manager <option/alt>, boot? If so, boo

Yes, an EFI Boot shows up in Startup Manager and is selected by default, but when I boot into it I get a terminal screen with scrolling text, and the last line of the text is "boot file not found, exiting..." Rebooting the machine the same thing happens.

Pardon the double post. Is the bootROM patched?

 

[brian.tully]

Does an EFI Boot show up in the Startup Manager <option/alt>, boot? If so, boo

Pardon the double post. Is the bootROM patched?

How would I check? I used Mojave Patcher and when booted from the Mojave Patcher USB I ran Post Install Patcher, selected my boot drive (now APFS) and in the set of patches to apply for my cMP3,1 the "APFS Patch" was checked. I clicked the button to apply all the patches and rebooted. Then I got the "boot file not found, exiting..." error on startup. So how do I patch the bootROM since it doesn't appear that Mojave Patcher's "APFS Patch" is doing that?

 

[K two]

How would I check? I used Mojave Patcher and when booted from the Mojave Patcher USB I ran Post Install Patcher, selected my boot drive (now APFS) and in the set of patches to apply for my cMP3,1 the "APFS Patch" was checked. I clicked the button to apply all the patches and rebooted. Then I got the "boot file not found, exiting..." error on startup. So how do I patch the bootROM since it doesn't appear that Mojave Patcher's "APFS Patch" is doing that?

You may need to build a new v.1.4.4 USB but in the Options menu, do not select Disable APFS Booter. You can install over the existing install and not lose everything in the process. The ROM Patcher is here: http://dosdude1.com/apps/APFS ROM Patcher.zip but rebuild and try the USB, first. There is some risk with the APFS ROM Patcher.

 

[brian.tully]

You may need to build a new v.1.4.4 USB but in the Options menu, do not select Disable APFS Booter. You can install over the existing install and not lose everything in the process. The ROM Patcher is here: http://dosdude1.com/apps/APFS ROM Patcher.zip but rebuild and try the USB, first. There is some risk with the APFS ROM Patcher.

Thanks. I have the latest version of Mojave Patcher v1.3.7 on my USB. Where are you seeing 1.4.4? Also I don’t recall seeing a “Disable APFS Booter” anywhere in the process. Is that part of the “Post Install Patcher”?

 

[joevt]

How would I check? I used Mojave Patcher and when booted from the Mojave Patcher USB I ran Post Install Patcher, selected my boot drive (now APFS) and in the set of patches to apply for my cMP3,1 the "APFS Patch" was checked. I clicked the button to apply all the patches and rebooted. Then I got the "boot file not found, exiting..." error on startup. So how do I patch the bootROM since it doesn't appear that Mojave Patcher's "APFS Patch" is doing that?

Mount all your EFI partitions.
Mount all your Preboot volumes.
Find the APFS patch files in one of the EFI partitions (probably the one containing Mojave), open the startup.nsh file in BBEdit.app, compare the UUID in the startup.nsh file with the UUIDs of your APFS partitions to see which one it's trying to boot. The UUID in the startup.nsh file is used in the name of a folder ine the Preboot volume - but I think you said you messed it up by modifying the Preboot volume manually. In that case, maybe reblessing the Mojave boot.efi file will fix the Preboot volume?

https://gist.github.com/joevt/6d7a0ede45106345a39bdfa0ac10ffd6

diskutil apfs list
diskutil list

source ~/Downloads/DiskUtil.sh
mountEFIpartitions
open /Volumes/EFI*

mountPrebootPartitions
open /Volumes/Preboot*

Or forget the APFS patch, and add apfs.efi to Driver####.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...upgrade-guide-questions.2194878/post-28956730

Reread that thread to learn about Mac booting.

 

[Rob1n]

Thanks. I have the latest version of Mojave Patcher v1.3.7 on my USB. Where are you seeing 1.4.4? Also I don’t recall seeing a “Disable APFS Booter” anywhere in the process. Is that part of the “Post Install Patcher”?

"disable apfs booter" is visible in the menu bar when creating the mojave patcher usb.

Try recreating the installer again.
Then try installing mojave on another hard drive and see if that works.

I don't think it has anything to do with high sierra, I have a cMP 3,1 as well and have never installed high sierra on it. I am now running big sur and did the apfs rom patch but I ran mojave for a long time before upgrading using the apfs patch without any problems.

If you do want to do the rom patch (which enables native apfs booting) I recommend you watch this video first:

A patched rom makes things a lot easier.
If you want to go this route, make sure to select "disable apfs booter" when creating the install disk.

Edit: This is also a possible way to boot apfs but I haven't tried it so I don't know how well it works:

joevt:
Or forget the APFS patch, and add apfs.efi to Driver####.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...upgrade-guide-questions.2194878/post-28956730

 

[Syncretic]

8. Mac boots up into weird terminal screen, showing a bunch of commands, the end of which states "Boot file not found, exiting"

The Dosdude1 APFS patcher works like this: it installs an EFI shell script (EFI/BOOT/startup.nsh) and a copy of the EFI shell (EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi). It then blesses BOOTX64.efi (rather than BOOT.efi), so BOOTX64.efi runs when EFI loads. When BOOTX64.efi runs, it locates STARTUP.NSH and runs that. STARTUP.NSH is very simple - it looks for APFS.EFI (the APFS driver), loads it, then scans the first 64 drives on the system, looking for an OS to load. When it finds one, it loads it, and you're running that OS.

STARTUP.NSH isn't very verbose, and it isn't extremely robust. If it doesn't find a bootable system, it just gives the message you saw ("Boot file not found, exiting..."). Worse, if it doesn't find APFS.EFI anywhere, it gives no indication at all - it just silently starts looking for a bootable OS without APFS. Of course, if there's no APFS EFI driver, it's not going to find anything on any APFS partition.

The fact that you see the "weird terminal screen, showing a bunch of commands" means you have applied the patch, and you're very close to being able to boot. I think all that's missing is APFS.EFI (which should be located at EFI/APFS.EFI). It's possible that the patcher simply assumes that's there from a previous installation, and in your case, it isn't.

I think if you install a copy of APFS.EFI to /EFI (/Volumes/EFI/EFI from within MacOS), you'll be able to boot. (Alternatively, you can try patching your BootROM for APFS support, although that comes with some risks.)

Please check your private messages.

 

[Dayo]

@brian.tully ... there are many ways to skin this cat and you will get them all explained.

Ultimately, your problem is basic. ... you are trying to implement APFS on a system that does not understand APFS.

The simplest way ("Simplest", not only) to get past this is what I told you ... install HiSierra, create an APFS volume with HiSierra and go on from there. Make a clean installation and use Migrate Assistant to move your data across once done.

 

[L Caputo]

Thanks. I have the latest version of Mojave Patcher v1.3.7 on my USB. Where are you seeing 1.4.4? Also I don’t recall seeing a “Disable APFS Booter” anywhere in the process. Is that part of the “Post Install Patcher”?

Arriving here a bit late on in this conversation, but have you installed the APFS ROM patch, this is different
from the APFS patch that you get with the Mojave Post install patches.
Go to the very first page of this discussion and scroll down to the APFS ROM Patch paragraph,

Click on the three blue here's for more information and the download.

 

[mrploppy]

Arriving here a bit late on in this conversation, but have you installed the APFS ROM patch, this is different
from the APFS patch that you get with the Mojave Post install patches.
Go to the very first page of this discussion and scroll down to the APFS ROM Patch paragraph,
View attachment 1727522
Click on the three blue here's for more information and the download.

He's installed the APFS post-install patch - because he gets the scrolling text at boot. I don't believe he's patched the ROM. To me, @Syncretic has given him the best clues so far. He should mount the EFI partition and check the contents. Maybe he'll find something missing.

 

[brian.tully]

Thank you all for your patience and help! I think we're getting closer. My guess is that as @Rob1n alluded to, it's quite possible that when I created the Mojave Patcher USB boot disk I left the "disable apfs booter" checked. I don't recall even seeing that option, but I created the USB boot disk back in July 2020, and I can barely remember what I did last week I'm going to try creating another Mojave Patcher USB boot disk first.

I do realize dosdude1 has the APFS ROM Patcher for native apfs booting, but at this point I'm not willing to take the risk of bricking my system.

Thank you @Syncretic for the detailed yet succinct walkthrough of what Mojave Patcher's apfs patch does, so that even an idiot like me can understand

And of course thanks to @Dayo and @joevt for your continued patience and support ?

 

[mrploppy]

Thank you all for your patience and help! I think we're getting closer. My guess is that as @Rob1n alluded to, it's quite possible that when I created the Mojave Patcher USB boot disk I left the "disable apfs booter" checked. I don't recall even seeing that option, but I created the USB boot disk back in July 2020, and I can barely remember what I did last week I'm going to try creating another Mojave Patcher USB boot disk first.

I do realize dosdude1 has the APFS ROM Patcher for native apfs booting, but at this point I'm not willing to take the risk of bricking my system.

Thank you @Syncretic for the detailed yet succinct walkthrough of what Mojave Patcher's apfs patch does, so that even an idiot like me can understand

And of course thanks to @Dayo and @joevt for your continued patience and support ?

Have you had a look at the contents of the EFI partition?