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macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs
- Thread starter 0403979
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It's under the Options menu in the Menu Bar.
@dosdude1, fellow boardmembers
am currently running 10.14.5 on my MacBookPro4,1, still on an HFS+ SSD, thanks to highly esteemed @dosdude1 and all contributors of this board providing insight and solution.
Am lacking the knowledge right now, how to promote my machine to 10.15 and are asking for advice, how to proceed.
Can I install 10.15 beta4 over my existing machine, or do I have to start from scratch?
Which installation method should I choose?
Do I have to convert to APFS, how is it done?
Your assistance is highly appreciated, thanks alot in advance
am currently running 10.14.5 on my MacBookPro4,1, still on an HFS+ SSD, thanks to highly esteemed @dosdude1 and all contributors of this board providing insight and solution.
Am lacking the knowledge right now, how to promote my machine to 10.15 and are asking for advice, how to proceed.
Can I install 10.15 beta4 over my existing machine, or do I have to start from scratch?
Which installation method should I choose?
Do I have to convert to APFS, how is it done?
Your assistance is highly appreciated, thanks alot in advance
There are a couple things you can do. My best recommendation would be to create a second, APFS partition on your SSD, and install Catalina on that (as it is a beta OS after all). To perform the installation, you can use Catalina Patcher to either create a bootable USB installer drive to use for the installation, or install directly without using a USB drive at all. Just select the second partition when performing the installation. If you'd rather convert your main partition to APFS and do an upgrade, make a bootable USB installer with Catalina Patcher, boot from that, open Disk Utility, select your main partition, and select "Unmount". Then in the Edit menu of Disk Utility in the Menu Bar, select "Convert to APFS". Be aware that this is a one way operation, and cannot be undone. Once finished, close Disk Utility, and proceed with the Catalina installation on that volume. All post-install patches are handled for you automatically, so just go through the installer and you're done.
If you are talking about Time Machine system restore, then your Mac must have an Apple native APFS support.
This is great information on options available to install Catalina using your patcher. Perhaps include it as a readme file on your catalina website or the created patcher? Thanks.
@dosdude1 I found in my download folder macOS Catalina.zip or something like that can’t remember the name exactly but, I moved it to trash then tried to use your patcher tool but, I still can’t download Catalina please help! I was able to download and install macOS Mojave three or four months ago with your Mojave patcher and the mac is running Mojave now so do not know why there is a problem with Catalina. The Mac is an iMac 12,2. Please help!
successfully installed latest beta on MBPro 5,5..with apfs ROM patch applied, used DOSDUDES1 latest patcher on a brand new ssd Samsung 860 evo,usb connected.!! And samsung flash drive 64 g as installer.Latest patcher is remarkably easy to use!!for a newbie!! I installed it over beta 2! siri,NS,Trim,Maps,Ftime,messages are on!!!photos not!! Temp is stable 55-65 c!!less beachballings and very stable!!Colin!!you make me happy!!!Have a good day you ALL!!
How feasible would it be to enable the automatic HFS to APFS conversion routines in the stock Catalina installer or are there technical reasons that would prohibit that step?
@dosdude1 I have tried several combinations, on my Hackintosh. If the installer is patched with your patch, Clover does not boot it. It sees the partition, but it stops at a small line in the upper left. Not even the pluses line shows up. If the unapatched Catalina is placed on the pen drive, with Clover, Clover seems the installer and boots it to the install guy. So, something seems to cause issues on Hackintoshes with Clover of your installer.
@0403979 I have managed to download a zip from a link in your bio, but I am puzzled on how to use it. I have tried to follow this thread at least loosely since the first alpha of Catalina, but I admit I am totally lost in it.
@0403979 I have managed to download a zip from a link in your bio, but I am puzzled on how to use it. I have tried to follow this thread at least loosely since the first alpha of Catalina, but I admit I am totally lost in it.
My understanding is that dosdude1's patchers have always been just intended for real unsupported Macs.
The Mojave patch worked very well. The Catalina patch seems pretty different in conception. Anyway, there are people, not just me, who use it in Hackintoshes, to avoid unneccesary hardware upgrades. The purpose of the patches, as I see it, is to make macOS run on unsupported hardware and avoid unnecessary hardware upgrades, regarding that is about an official or a Hackintosh.
Surely you can't expect dosdude1 to support all the unsupported hardware?
This forum is not for Hackintosh. Just unsupported MACS.
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I can not seem to understand the source of the issue. What changed in the Catalina patch since the Mojave patch so much?
I would try the patcher made by 0403979 but what I have downloaded from his GitHub I do not understand at all.
The installer boots from the unpatched Catalina, as it did on Mojave. If it supported Mojave with patches, Catalina should work in a similar way.
What is a native APFS support?
The question is if it is possible to restore a backup from a HFS+ to a APFS partition, for not to start at zero.
you might find a better answer specifically Hackintosh related issues with Macosx Catalina at insanelymac. imho.
The way I see it, the patcher does not have to be entirely transparent. Most people in the unsupported threads don't really want to "understand everything" and the patcher is mostly for their use.
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I believe it is possible but will depend on your hardware. Native APFS support is when Apple officially supports APFS on your machine.
There is a major change with Catalina no 32 bit support at all its been stripped out, openGL and openCL has been mostly replace for metal support so apps like Photo's, Maps and the new drift screensaver don't work. The Catalina Patcher is far different for the Mojave Patcher as we are installing Cat from a recovery mode and remember we are still in Beta so maybe its possible clover isn't up to speed with support yet
There's a guide on my website. Also make sure to use the 3.0 download.
An installer volume created with Catalina Patcher should boot fine with Clover, the base implementation still works the same way as Mojave Patcher. Just ensure you're using the latest Clover version, and it should work. I'll test myself later and see for sure.
I use Clover for legacy firmware (BIOS). Would it make a difference?
No, running from UEFI should work fine. Make sure you boot verbose mode so you can see what it hangs on.
Where is the 3.0 download? I can not find it on GitHub, only a zip with the name master. I have got an error saying the Catalina installer is not supported.
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This machine is a legacy one, it does not have UEFI. Using the unpatched Catalina on the pen drive, if I use the standard Clover I got an error at boot that this machine is unsupported. If I use the Tonymacx86 Clover version, based on a earlier Clover (Early June) I manage to boot up to the installer, but both internal hard drives, one having an APFS partition on it (Mojave runs on it, SATA), the other a HFS+ one (ATA), are invisible to the Catalina installer.
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