macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[tsialex]

Sidecar requires a Mac with HEVC playback support... to enable it type
com.apple.sidecar.display allowAllDevices -bool YES

HEVC encoding, not playback. Broadwell Quicksync support playback of HEVC but not encoding, that's why only work with Macs that have Skylake or newer processors. iMac Pro have AMD HEVC encode support from the VEGA GPU.

Macs that have Catalina support but do not work with Catalina Sidecar:

iMac	MacBook	MacBook Air	MacBook Pro	Mac mini	Mac Pro
iMac13,1, iMac13,2, iMac13,3	MacBook8,1	MacBookAir5,1, MacBookAir5,2	MacBookPro9,1, MacBookPro9,2	Macmini6,1, Macmini6,2	MacPro5,1
iMac14,1, iMac14,2, iMac14,3, iMac14,4	.	MacBookAir6,1, MacBookAir6,2	MacBookPro10,1, MacBookPro10,2	Macmini7,1	MacPro6,1
iMac15,1	.	MacBookAir7,1, MacBookAir7,2	MacBookPro11,1, MacBookPro11,2, MacBookPro11,3, MacBookPro11,4, MacBookPro11,5	.	.
iMac16,1, iMac16,2	.	.	MacBookPro12,1	.	.

The interesting thing is that MP5,1 is there…

 

[LK LAW]

I haven't seen a port of KVM on Mac only Hypervisor.framework. can you point me in that direction?

My KVM statement maybe was a bit misleading, idk if QEMU already includes hypervisor.framework by default (if not build from source), and then run accel=hvf. That way you get full acceleration
[doublepost=1559813905][/doublepost]

HEVC encoding, not playback. Broadwell Quicksync support playback of HEVC but not encoding, that's why only work with Macs that have Skylake or newer processors. iMac Pro have AMD HEVC encode support from the VEGA GPU.

Macs that have Catalina support but do not work with Catalina Sidecar:

iMac	MacBook	MacBook Air	MacBook Pro	Mac mini	Mac Pro
iMac13,1, iMac13,2, iMac13,3	MacBook8,1	MacBookAir5,1, MacBookAir5,2	MacBookPro9,1, MacBookPro9,2	Macmini6,1, Macmini6,2	MacPro5,1
iMac14,1, iMac14,2, iMac14,3, iMac14,4	.	MacBookAir6,1, MacBookAir6,2	MacBookPro10,1, MacBookPro10,2	Macmini7,1	MacPro6,1
iMac15,1	.	MacBookAir7,1, MacBookAir7,2	MacBookPro11,1, MacBookPro11,2, MacBookPro11,3, MacBookPro11,4, MacBookPro11,5	.	.
iMac16,1, iMac16,2	.	.	MacBookPro12,1	.	.

The interesting thing is that MP5,1 is there…
View attachment 841185

Sure it's the GPU and not the T2 chip?
[doublepost=1559813999][/doublepost]

Don't know if people here already know this workaround but one of the macadmins I follow on twitter found a way to make Catalina work in VMWare Fusion 11:

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/611961

View attachment 841182

With this github project you'll get Catalina set up in a VM in no time:
https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM

 

[tsialex]

My KVM statement maybe was a bit misleading, idk if QEMU already includes hypervisor.framework by default (if not build from source), and then run accel=hvf. That way you get full acceleration
[doublepost=1559813905][/doublepost]
Sure it's the GPU and not the T2 chip?
[doublepost=1559813999][/doublepost]
With this github project you'll get Catalina set up in a VM in no time:
https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM

2017 and 2019 iMac don't even have a T2 chip and both are supported.

 

[donluca]

32-bit kexts have been unsupported since (I think) Lion.

Are you 100% sure about this? I'd swear that my Firewire TC Electronic Impact Twin uses 32-bit kext... I'll check this later.

 

[0403979]

It seems that due to the APFS data partition, a package install and even a patched installer install does not boot because it's missing the data partition. Even creating that partition manually before install does not work because the files aren't properly copied to it. By consequence, an HFS install is also not possible. Has anyone got Catalina to boot after installing using one of these methods?

 

[Starplayr]

Safe mode I mean.

Don't know if people here already know this workaround but one of the macadmins I follow on twitter found a way to make Catalina work in VMWare Fusion 11:

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/611961

View attachment 841182

I got it running on Parallels on 2008 Mac Pro. And Anka Build by Veertu but only on a supported Mac. Tried QeMU seems complex.

I failed miserably on sound and WiFi for my 3,1 Mac Pro. Gonna get an Ethernet Cable and a usb sound card til I get the drivers up. I sorta want an unpatched version l so updates and backups will be easier. Having data on a separate volume may make updating easier. May just be able to clone the boot drive especially if it’s patch free.
[doublepost=1559823093][/doublepost]

It seems that due to the APFS data partition, a package install and even a patched installer install does not boot because it's missing the data partition. Even creating that partition manually before install does not work because the files aren't properly copied to it. By consequence, an HFS install is also not possible. Has anyone got Catalina to boot after installing using one of these methods?

If you install on an unsupported Mac and move the drive, you’ll have the data partition. Not ideal until we have a patched installer. Ever since downloading 10.15, I haven’t been able to create a mojave patches installer disk. One time it took 10.25 installer app another time it just did mojave with no dmg’s and just did the Apple stuff. It was really weird.

 

[nandor690]

Disk utility in Catalina only supports APFS.
[doublepost=1559793878][/doublepost]
Installed on a supported Mac.

Moved the installed copy from my SSD ro the unsupported Mac.

Used nvram hack to boot system that removes compatibility check.

Also removed that requirement from my installer just in case in OSInstall.mkpg/Distrobution but I don’t think that mattered.

SSD helped a lot getting it up and running.
[doublepost=1559794044][/doublepost]Previously installed APFS firmware patch
[doublepost=1559794536][/doublepost]I’m so glad I don’t need that awesome 2019 Mac Pro to develop software in 2019. 2008 Mac Pro wins again.

Boot without cmd x is still slow though. Must rebuild cache every time. Might just add x to the nvram flag because it still runs full user mode at the GUI stage.

Sorry Iv been out of the loop for awhile or normally I would know exactly what to do.
So with the nvram hack, after I create my install usb for 10.15 how where do I add that at?

Disk utility in Catalina only supports APFS.
[doublepost=1559793878][/doublepost]
Installed on a supported Mac.

Moved the installed copy from my SSD ro the unsupported Mac.

Used nvram hack to boot system that removes compatibility check.

Also removed that requirement from my installer just in case in OSInstall.mkpg/Distrobution but I don’t think that mattered.

SSD helped a lot getting it up and running.
[doublepost=1559794044][/doublepost]Previously installed APFS firmware patch
[doublepost=1559794536][/doublepost]I’m so glad I don’t need that awesome 2019 Mac Pro to develop software in 2019. 2008 Mac Pro wins again.

Boot without cmd x is still slow though. Must rebuild cache every time. Might just add x to the nvram flag because it still runs full user mode at the GUI stage.

From doing hackintoshes all the time I understand that the nvram hack is probably something that is added to the boot args. But where do I change that for a real Mac? I think I remember using a APFS firmware patch on my 2007 iMac to get Mojave running. Is that patch included in the post install. Or is that a patch that was posted in one of the threads?

 

[Starplayr]

Sorry Iv been out of the loop for awhile or normally I would know exactly what to do.
So with the nvram hack, after I create my install usb for 10.15 how where do I add that at?

From doing hackintoshes all the time I understand that the nvram hack is probably something that is added to the boot args. But where do I change that for a real Mac? I think I remember using a APFS firmware patch on my 2007 iMac to get Mojave running. Is that patch included in the post install. Or is that a patch that was posted in one of the threads?

I’ve added it to the boot arcs on the data drive to where it was moved to and no dice. It appears it needs to be set for the ‘preboot’

 

[nandor690]

I’ve added it to the boot arcs on the data drive to where it was moved to and no dice. It appears it needs to be set for the ‘preboot’

That makes since. I know clover wasn't installed on the data drive. I’m pretty sure that it needed to be I stalled on the preboot imagine.

 

[testheit]

@jackluke, @ASentientBot replacing either "AppleGraphicsControl.kext" or "IOAcceleratorFamily2.kext" with the versions from @dosdude1 's patcher breaks acceleration (or at least transparency) on a supported machine. Was this also the case with mojave?

EDIT: It's just "IOAcceleratorFamily2.kext" that breaks it on a supported machine

 

[jhowarth]

Have Catalina running on my Mac Pro 3,1 natively.

With metal. Just missing WiFi.

Have Bluetooth. 3 screens.

Booted with cmd x and v.

Trying without x and v options. Crawling at boot. With x and v boot was instant.

Looks like safe mode still loads extensions?

Screen is gorgeous.

No WiFi yet.

Gonna see if it boots normal.well it did. No WiFi. Will track that down from mojave.

So is that a confirmation that the Nvidia drivers shipping with the initial developer seed indeed run on a GTX680 without major issues?

 

[tsialex]

So is that a confirmation that the Nvidia drivers shipping with the initial developer seed indeed run on a GTX680 without major issues?

Nope, read my post here: MP5,1: Catalina Developer Preview works, more or less… Netkas posted down the page about the drivers being the same as Mojave.

 

[jhowarth]

Nope, read my post here: MP5,1: Catalina Developer Preview works, more or less… Netkas posted down the page about the drivers being the same as Mojave.

I read that to mean buggy drivers as opposed to unsupported drivers since they are loading against a GTX-680. At least that is a positive.

 

[tsialex]

I read that to mean buggy drivers as opposed to unsupported drivers since they are loading against a GTX-680. At least that is a positive.

Works, but it's worse than usual with more black bars on Finder file lists and now Safari had one over the tab bar too.

 

[Starplayr]

With this github project you'll get Catalina set up in a VM in no time:
https://github.com/foxlet/macOS-Simple-KVM

Foxlet's instructions aren't as simple as it says and doesn't have exactly if you have a Mac host running QEMU, even a prebuilt QEMU which is the easiest to fire up, but gets confusing in a hurry after that point. I tried to compiler QEMU and failed. I have a prebuilt binary and it has tons of BIOS', but it's got so much it's overwhelming.

In my opinion Anka Build, a commercial product, is way simpler to setup than QEMU. Just 2-3 lines in the command line and that's it. NO messing with BIOS or tweaking a lot of settings. Note: I could not get it to install Catalina on 2008 Mac Pro. I did get it to install Catalina on a 2016 MacBook Pro and it was snappy and the developer is working on Metal support.

I got Parallels to work it's just slow. I would like to get QEMU running, but since I got Catalina running natively on my 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 after a few nights messing around with it, I probably won't be messing with the VM route for long.

I would like to see a more straight forward guide of QEMU and Catalina. Fotlet, no offense, has a good bit of scripts, but the instructions do not seem to have all the steps a Mac host would need and that was my first impression. QEMU is mainly a Linux product and there is just something to be desired on how to get it running on Mac. I am not poo pooing it, I just think it could be even simpler to setup. Granted, I haven to spent any time on QEMU as of yet just from outside looking in, it has a few barriers to entry for those who aren not familiar. Take a look at Veetu's Anka Build instructions and compare it to QEMU and it's night and day difference.

I am still very interested in QEMU and a guide for Mac users would be awesome.

 

[testheit]

@jackluke, @ASentientBot, @pkouame Maps always crashes with the following:

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.vectorkit.dispatch.renderqueue

0 com.apple.VectorKit 0x00007fff638b695e ggl::GLCoreContext::setupRenderBufferAttachment(ggl::RenderBuffer*, unsigned int) + 62

1 com.apple.VectorKit 0x00007fff638b6f8e ggl::GLCoreContext:rocessCopyItems(std::__1::vector<ggl::CopyItem, geo::StdAllocator<ggl::CopyItem, ggl::Allocator> > const&) + 522

2 com.apple.VectorKit 0x00007fff633f49b9 ggl::GLRenderer::_processQueue(ggl::RenderTarget*, ggl::RenderQueue*) + 257



Maybe some hint to a problem with acceleration....

 

[Starplayr]

I am just missing Audio and WiFi on my Mac Pro 3,1 with Catalina.

Without any patches have working:

USB
Bluetooth

Metal and 4k running a NVIDIA Galaxy 2GB 680. I love this card, dual fan small and quiet. Easy to clean. Got it brand new. unopened box. Flashed fine.

Ethernet
Firewire

Boot can be slow at times. Command X safe boot can sometimes speed it up. No Kernel Panics yet.
I tired the Broadcom patch and Audio patch from Mojave but failed. Ended uo with IOUSBSurface I think it was timing out many times for 60 seconds.

I also cannot create a good Mojave patcher anymore. It put the 10.15 installer in once. It then put Mojave installer with no install DMGs. Just really weird behavior with dosdude patch tool even when booted from Mojave. It's just downloading 10.15 changed things on how OSInstaller and CreateBootMedia works for some strange reason. It was 1 AM too, so who knows.

So I am going back to a stock, unpatched install with just Telemetry removed and running an Ethernet Cable to another Mac like a 2006 Mac mini I have lying around or my iMac as long as my dog doesn't eat the cable. (she chews on everything). And I am gonna try a USB sound card. that way I can run Catalina virtually unpatched.

 

[pkouame]

@jackluke, @ASentientBot, @pkouame Maps always crashes with the following:

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.vectorkit.dispatch.renderqueue

0 com.apple.VectorKit 0x00007fff638b695e ggl::GLCoreContext::setupRenderBufferAttachment(ggl::RenderBuffer*, unsigned int) + 62

1 com.apple.VectorKit 0x00007fff638b6f8e ggl::GLCoreContext:rocessCopyItems(std::__1::vector<ggl::CopyItem, geo::StdAllocator<ggl::CopyItem, ggl::Allocator> > const&) + 522

2 com.apple.VectorKit 0x00007fff633f49b9 ggl::GLRenderer::_processQueue(ggl::RenderTarget*, ggl::RenderQueue*) + 257



Maybe some hint to a problem with acceleration....

Yes definitely smells like an OpenGL issue. Is this Maps a new Marzipan based app (ie in IOSSupport) ?
[doublepost=1559836603][/doublepost]

Foxlet's instructions aren't as simple as it says and doesn't have exactly if you have a Mac host running QEMU, even a prebuilt QEMU which is the easiest to fire up, but gets confusing in a hurry after that point. I tried to compiler QEMU and failed. I have a prebuilt binary and it has tons of BIOS', but it's got so much it's overwhelming.

In my opinion Anka Build, a commercial product, is way simpler to setup than QEMU. Just 2-3 lines in the command line and that's it. NO messing with BIOS or tweaking a lot of settings. Note: I could not get it to install Catalina on 2008 Mac Pro. I did get it to install Catalina on a 2016 MacBook Pro and it was snappy and the developer is working on Metal support.

I got Parallels to work it's just slow. I would like to get QEMU running, but since I got Catalina running natively on my 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 after a few nights messing around with it, I probably won't be messing with the VM route for long.

I would like to see a more straight forward guide of QEMU and Catalina. Fotlet, no offense, has a good bit of scripts, but the instructions do not seem to have all the steps a Mac host would need and that was my first impression. QEMU is mainly a Linux product and there is just something to be desired on how to get it running on Mac. I am not poo pooing it, I just think it could be even simpler to setup. Granted, I haven to spent any time on QEMU as of yet just from outside looking in, it has a few barriers to entry for those who aren not familiar. Take a look at Veetu's Anka Build instructions and compare it to QEMU and it's night and day difference.

I am still very interested in QEMU and a guide for Mac users would be awesome.

You guys are doing excellent work on the VM approach. The issue is almost begging for its own separate thread...

Just sayin... No one should take this personally...

 

[Starplayr]

I read that to mean buggy drivers as opposed to unsupported drivers since they are loading against a GTX-680. At least that is a positive.

I haven't had issue with a 680 on Catalina yet. No artifacts. Acceleration is good. Galaxy card, flashed.

I don't have WiFi or Sound yet. tried Mojave drivers from Dosdude but I may need to install the Extensions elsewhere. My patched disk wasn't working either, so tried the patcher app from Mojave. I may forgo patching and get a fully operational system with $7 Ethernet cable and a $10 USB Sound card for now. Dirt cheap workarounds. And I will try cloning my system again and then try patching it manually.

Anyone else have Mac Pro 3,1 with Audio and WiFi working?
[doublepost=1559836859][/doublepost]

You guys are doing excellent work on the VM approach. The issue is almost begging for its own separate thread...

Just sayin... No one should take this personally...

Not a bad idea! That would fill in gaps and people can layout what works and what doesn't. After running some tests, I plan on getting in touch with Anka's developer on possibly supporting older Macs that are running Mojave hosts. And having an area to talk about VM findings would be great. Foxlet and others could really help on that track.

 

[pkouame]

I haven't had issue with a 680 on Catalina yet. No artifacts. Acceleration is good. Galaxy card, flashed.

I don't have WiFi or Sound yet. tried Mojave drivers from Dosdude but I may need to install the Extensions elsewhere. My patched disk wasn't working either, so tried the patcher app from Mojave. I may forgo patching and get a fully operational system with $7 Ethernet cable and a $10 USB Sound card for now. Dirt cheap workarounds. And I will try cloning my system again and then try patching it manually.

Anyone else have Mac Pro 3,1 with Audio and WiFi working?

I may have missed it, but how was your install experience on 3,1 + GTX680? I have an old one languishing but ready to be woken up...

 

[testheit]

Yes definitely smells like an OpenGL issue. Is this Maps a new Marzipan based app (ie in IOSSupport) ?
[doublepost=1559836603][/doublepost]
You guys are doing excellent work on the VM approach. The issue is almost begging for its own separate thread...

Just sayin... No one should take this personally...

I don't think it's Marzipan based. No files open from "IOSSupport"...

 

[pkouame]

I don't think it's Marzipan based. No files open from "IOSSupport"...

If your system isn't "accelerated" yet, OpenGL will surely crash on render calls like that. Odd that VectorKit is still OpenGL based...

 

[testheit]

If your system isn't "accelerated" yet, OpenGL will surely crash on render calls like that. Odd that VectorKit is still OpenGL based...

It doesn’t crash immediately, only after some time and panning/zooming around. Labeling (cities, roads,...) is only working on the initial view, but broken after panning/zooming.

 

[pkouame]

@ASentientBot and @jackluke - I have a bootable Catalina USB stick called CATUSB (created on supported machine) Getting to at least a single user prompt on my mbp 5,3 should be as simple as :

- nvram bootargs="-no_compat_check -x -v"
- move legacyusbinjector kext to /Volumes/CATUSB/S/L/E
- move SIP bypass to /Volumes/CATUSB/S/L/E (not sure if this is necessary)
- delete telemetry plugin
- kextcache -u /Volumes/CATUSB to regenerate a proper prelinkedkenel (issued from my Catalina machine)
- mount the "patched" CATUSB on unsupported mbp 5,3 - then go.

the stick boots but gets stuck on:

apfs_sysctl_register:1097: done registering sysctls. (stalls there)

Any hints? You guys are already far past login UI (just trying to catch up)

 

[Kevbasscat]

So that didn't work out to well. If I have Mojave on a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume the 10.15 beta tells me I need a APFS volume to install on. If I have Mojave on a APFS volume it tells me "Your Mac needs a firmware update in order to install to this volume. Please select a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume instead."
I think I remember there being some kind of issue when Mojave first came out. But I can't be for sure. Im assuming its the apfs.efi that it wants? Can I just take the apfs.efi from 10.15 and put it in Mojave and reboot? That doesn't seem like it would work tho

Did you upgrade from HS? There is the automatic firmware to APFS that must be done from there first, then you can use Mojave and Catalina in APFS which is required I believe in 10.15 for the new data volume.