macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[DuncanGarp]

Well, I did try another boot drive to install Catalina using @dosdude1's 1.0b11 Catalina patcher. It did work albeit very slow since the boot drive is now USB, with my previous attempts to install on a SSD.

View attachment 848924

Steps followed:

1. Booted into @dosdude1's Catalina Patcher 1.0b11 (which is formatted HFS by the way)
2. Reinstall OS from the patcher utilities selection into a freshly created USB partition formated APFS.
3. Took a while but finished installation.
4. Booted to said USB/APFS attached to my MacbookPro5,3.
5. Upon boot and setup for the "new" Mac with Catalina, got prompt to reinstall NightShift.
6. Rebooted and everything looks fine.

Additional Observation:

• After initial install, did not go into the Catalina patcher to execute patch updates.
• After step 6 above, I viewed the Patch Updater and it did not list the APFS patch as being installed as I know this macbookpro5,3 requires it. @dosdude1 is this right?
• Graphics acceleration accomplished, thank again to @ASentientBot. Question, will your other fixes, such as "auto mount" need to be applied?

Thanks again everyone and most especially to @dosdude1 and @ASentientBot !!!

An update .... now it will not boot back to my USB based Catalina boot drive. It used to be fine (see my attached screenshot).

I think there is some anomaly on my USB ports on my MacbookPro5,3. Is there a way to verify if the ports are ok or not?

Thanks.

 

[TimothyR734]

An update .... now it will not boot back to my USB based Catalina boot drive. It used to be fine (see my attached screenshot).

I think there is some anomaly on my USB ports on my MacbookPro5,3. Is there a way to verify if the ports are ok or not?

Thanks.

Maybe try booting off your Catalina Patcher then click on the Apple Logo on the menu bar and select your USB Catalina drive as the start up disk as I had to do that I was running High Sierra on my internal hdd and Mojave on my external usb hdd

 

[thatsmeonlyme]

@dosdude1 cMP is working without problems. But I noticed that after upgrading to beta 4 continuity does not work correctly. Finally after giving terminal command (for cmp 5.1):
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-F221BEC8:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"
all is working again.
I am not the great one in developping therefore my question: Is it possible to integrate the command to your patcher? There should be variations of the machine number.

Thanks to all for your great work

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Got some of the dashboard widgets to run on the desktop weather widget is still not working

I think the weather widget has stopped working altogether. For instance, it stopped working in Mojave on a supported computer roughly two weeks ago. Can you document how you run widgets on Catalina's desktop?

 

[Hunterkillz123]

Catalina first beta ran through a slow down issue on my iMac 12,1. Updated it to the new DP4? Which ever is the most current and working very smoothly now. Thanks for everything yall did to get this amazing patcher going! I even got audio back on my iMac speakers! @dosdude1 You are amazing. Is there anyway to donate/Buy y'all some coffee? Thanks.

 

[jackluke]

I think the weather widget has stopped working altogether. For instance, it stopped working in Mojave on a supported computer roughly two weeks ago. Can you document how you run widgets on Catalina's desktop?

Yes, Weather widget recently, since a couple of weeks, has been stopped by apple on all the supported Dashboard OSX (Mojave, HighSierra and earlier till SnowLeopard).

I analyzed it a bit (Dashboard Widgets on Catalina) and noticed that the previous Weather widget was based on Yahoo-weather, and even if it is still currently active:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather/united-states/cupertino/cupertino-2388327
probably they have disabled the Weather API for apple

The new Weather API for apple used for the notification center is this "from an IBM business Cloud": http://www.weather.com

Instead for "Stocks" either "notification center" and "old widget" they still use the Yahoo API , infact it works for both.

 

[TimothyR734]

I think the weather widget has stopped working altogether. For instance, it stopped working in Mojave on a supported computer roughly two weeks ago. Can you document how you run widgets on Catalina's desktop?

You need to download the widgets folder twice one goes in your library folder then install amnesty open the app then click on show in finder once it sows the widgets folder drop the widgets from the second downloaded into the amnesty widget folder then open each one and you will have to authorize each in security then close amnesty then reboot then open amnesty you see them listed in then menubar

 

[jackluke]

You need to download the widgets folder twice one goes in your library folder then install amnesty open the app then click on show in finder once it sows the widgets folder drop the widgets from the second downloaded into the amnesty widget folder then open each one and you will have to authorize each in security then close amnesty then reboot then open amnesty you see them listed in then menubar

An important part that amnesty app is unaware of, is that to make a widget completely functional and customisable with the little "i" at the bottom-right of it, is to copy this folder (I attached) inside this Catalina path: /System/Library/

 

[jhowarth]

@dosdude1 cMP is working without problems. But I noticed that after upgrading to beta 4 continuity does not work correctly. Finally after giving terminal command (for cmp 5.1):
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-F221BEC8:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"
all is working again.
I am not the great one in developping therefore my question: Is it possible to integrate the command to your patcher? There should be variations of the machine number.

Thanks to all for your great work

While I didn't click through on the Safari continuity icon in the dock yesterday, after upgrading from DP3 to DP4, playing a Periscope on the iPhone produced the expected Safari continuity icon. This was on a MacPro 3,1 with an iMac BCM94360CD wifi card.

 

[Minh_Ton]

@TimothyR734 I found this might help: https://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/

 

[timjan74]

Hi,

I am trying to install Catalina Beta with latest dosdude1 patcher version 1.0b11.
(Also tried before with earlier patcher 1.0b9 with same problem)

I have tried to install on two different Mac Pro 3,1 and both installations stops as the same time (3 or 4min left). Nothing happens and I need to cancel installation. The installation is not completed.

One Mac Pro is patched with dosdude1 APFS ROM Patcher and one is original boot rom.
Tried with both graphic card GT120 and also with GTX 680. Nothing works.
New empty 128GB SSD (have tried different SSD:s and HDD:s also).

I attach the log from installation.

Anyone knows what the problem could be?
Any help is appreciated.

(If I install Catalina on the SSD on my Mac Pro 5,1 and moves it over to my Mac Pro 3,1 and patch it, it works fine. But the installation on the Mac Pro 3,1 fails)

 

[Hindrik1997]

Newest Beta works flawlessly on my Mac Pro 3,1 with GTX 670. Thanks!

 

[jhowarth]

Hi,

I am trying to install Catalina Beta with latest dosdude1 patcher version 1.0b11.
(Also tried before with earlier patcher 1.0b9 with same problem)

I have tried to install on two different Mac Pro 3,1 and both installations stops as the same time (3 or 4min left). Nothing happens and I need to cancel installation. The installation is not completed.

One Mac Pro is patched with dosdude1 APFS ROM Patcher and one is original boot rom.
Tried with both graphic card GT120 and also with GTX 680. Nothing works.
New empty 128GB SSD (have tried different SSD:s and HDD:s also).

I attach the log from installation.

Anyone knows what the problem could be?
Any help is appreciated.

(If I install Catalina on the SSD on my Mac Pro 5,1 and moves it over to my Mac Pro 3,1 and patch it, it works fine. But the installation on the Mac Pro 3,1 fails)

It looks like you are trying to install Catalina using a HFS volume as the target. Dosdude1 has the automatic conversion disabled in the patched installer so you have to manually convert or erase that volume as APFS.

 

[timjan74]

It looks like you are trying to install Catalina using a HFS volume as the target. Dosdude1 has the automatic conversion disabled in the patched installer so you have to manually convert or erase that volume as APFS.

Sorry for missing that and many thanks for your fast help!
Installation worked fine this time.

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

I'm experiencing problems on Catalina B4 with USB too, on macmini4,1 . My wired keyboard (which now I'm using to write on Mojave and was working on B3) has disconnected while renaming a System 1:1 Cloned Recovery icon on desktop (saved on an external USB drive) . Also the microphone (ok with Mojave) of an USB webcam doesn't work (video is fine), so I have repatched Catatalina with installer forcing clearing cache, but still keyboard suddenly disconnects while typing on Cat (using same usb port working on Mojave 10.14.5) Removing and re-inserting the cable works for a while, then stops.

Also, I still have crashes with Maps and Photos, all other native apps are stables, including Music e Apple TV.

 

[TimothyR734]

An important part that amnesty app is unaware of, is that to make a widget completely functional and customisable with the little "i" at the bottom-right of it, is to copy this folder (I attached) inside this Catalina path: /System/Library/

Just to clarify the widget resources goes in the System/Library folder
[doublepost=1563553829][/doublepost]

I'm experiencing problems on Catalina B4 with USB too, on macmini4,1 . My wired keyboard (which now I'm using to write on Mojave and was working on B3) has disconnected while renaming a System 1:1 Cloned Recovery icon on desktop (saved on an external USB drive) . Also the microphone (ok with Mojave) of an USB webcam doesn't work (video is fine), so I have repatched Catatalina with installer forcing clearing cache, but still keyboard suddenly disconnects while typing on Cat (using same usb port working on Mojave 10.14.5) Removing and re-inserting the cable works for a while, then stops.

Also, I still have crashes with Maps and Photos, all other native apps are stables, including Music e Apple TV.

Maps and Photo's rely on Metal so there is a possibility that we might no get them working but maybe an openCL patch might work like the news app in Mojave since that was the first test using metal

 

[Nedstah]

I think the weather widget has stopped working altogether. For instance, it stopped working in Mojave on a supported computer roughly two weeks ago. Can you document how you run widgets on Catalina's desktop?

There's a couple of Weather Widget threads in the forums. The Weather Widget still works in OSX10.4.11 Tiger as it used Accuweather instead of Weather Channel/Yahoo. I have it running on every MacOS up to Sierra just fine, a little wiggy on Mojave - only shows five days of the six day forecast.

 

[jhowarth]

Does anyone know how close we are to being able to unset the boot-args?

 

[Minh_Ton]

Does anyone know how close we are to being able to unset the boot-args?

May be resetting NVRAM might help.

Link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

 

[startergo]

May be resetting NVRAM might help.

Link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

My guess is he means patching the plist to make the models supported (or remove them from unsupported list) rather than applying a boot argument

 

[dosdude1]

Does anyone know how close we are to being able to unset the boot-args?

With Beta 11 of my Patcher, having boot-args set in NVRAM shouldn't be necessary. I have not fully tested the whole process without this yet (so it is still set by the patcher just as a precaution), but I think I've implemented enough boot.plist changes to make it work smoothly without relying on NVRAM.

 

[totaltoney]

What boot time is everyone getting? from power on to login screen? I was getting 21 seconds on 2009 MBP with SSD on HFS. With same SSD on a APFS partition I get 1minute 10 seconds.
I was wondering if I reformated the same SSD to full APFS if i'd get much better speeds atleast 30 seconds?

 

[jhowarth]

What boot time is everyone getting? from power on to login screen? I was getting 21 seconds on 2009 MBP with SSD on HFS. With same SSD on a APFS partition I get 1minute 10 seconds.
I was wondering if I reformated the same SSD to full APFS if i'd get much better speeds atleast 30 seconds?

Is this using the APFS ROM patch or the APFS Boot patch? I believe the latter probably has significantly more overhead than the former.

 

[dosdude1]

Is this using the APFS ROM patch or the APFS Boot patch? I believe the latter probably has significantly more overhead than the former.

Either one, both methods have been taken care of in that regard, as far as I can tell. I will be testing this later, though, and will be completely removing the NVRAM set function in the next release most likely.

 

[kral84]

ahhh i am stupid ... you must format your usb stick to GPD format (no mbr) other side , startup option under settings can see your usb stick . thank for beta 4 !! all working fine here imac 2011 nvidia 860m, with apfs