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macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

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Good news for the old CCFL backlit machines (i.e. MB5,2 / MBP4,1) - 10.15.0 beta 5

I successfully applied @dosdude1´s old Mojave CCFL patch (latest version from 10.14.2 times if I recall correctly).
After struggling a bit with the read-only volume of the boot drive, I did the patches manually from a second mac connected to the MB5,2 in target (firewire) mode. Should work also when drive is taken out of the MB and connected as external shuttle drive to a helper mac.
Then copied kexts and framework to the right places and corrected attributes and ownership of the files according to the install.sh script, also manually. Reboot at first resulted in non-working USB/keybd/trackpad. Then rebooted into single user mode, (did nothing there), exited to login - keys and trackpad working again, but still no luck with the backlight. Function keys worked, but not the backlight-related two. No symbol even showed up as overlay.
Then re-patched the backlight function with the Catalina version of the patch updater (only that one, select with ctrl key).
Reboot, and -voila!- backlight control working again fully!

Bildschirmfoto 2019-08-01 um 11.43.51.png


Also good news for SIRI on unsupported systems (also with graphics accel.):
Seems to work again in the latest beta, just without animated soundwave. Not crashing any more.

Bildschirmfoto 2019-08-01 um 11.44.03.png
 
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Installed macOS 10.15 beta 5 with @dosdude1 patcher 1.0.3 on Macmini mid 2010 (Macmini4.1)
Now:
- Photo app works fine!!
- Wired Pc usb keyboard works fine (was losing connection everytime with beta 4) excepting Caps Lock key and his led.
- Maps still crashing
- External usb webcam mic audio still missing, video ok (working with Mojave)
- CPU very hot! 70° Celsius with 5500 rpm fan
 

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Yojx21 said:
Hello, i don't understand the interest of this loader over the patcher tool in the case of a MacPro5,1. What is the difference between this loader and the patcher tool please ?

Thanks !
Click to expand...

Spoofing as a compatible Mac could be potentially dangerous as you might accidentally get an incompatible firmware update applied at some point.
 
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Yesterday I downloaded the latest patcher and a beta from the patcher. I am not sure which Beta I have as when I search for upgrade it says latest. Here is a screenshot.
 

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Larsvonhier said:
Good news for the old CCFL backlit machines (i.e. MB5,2 / MBP4,1) - 10.15.0 beta 5

I successfully applied @dosdude1´s old Mojave CCFL patch (latest version from 10.14.2 times if I recall correctly).
After struggling a bit with the read-only volume of the boot drive, I did the patches manually from a second mac connected to the MB5,2 in target (firewire) mode. Should work also when drive is taken out of the MB and connected as external shuttle drive to a helper mac.
Then copied kexts and framework to the right places and corrected attributes and ownership of the files according to the install.sh script, also manually. Reboot at first resulted in non-working USB/keybd/trackpad. Then rebooted into single user mode, (did nothing there), exited to login - keys and trackpad working again, but still no luck with the backlight. Function keys worked, but not the backlight-related two. No symbol even showed up as overlay.
Then re-patched the backlight function with the Catalina version of the patch updater (only that one, select with ctrl key).
Reboot, and -voila!- backlight control working again fully!

View attachment 850953

Also good news for SIRI on unsupported systems (also with graphics accel.):
Seems to work again in the latest beta, just without animated soundwave. Not crashing any more.

View attachment 850954
Click to expand...

Firewire is an underrated port but still very useful between older Mac and newer too, since apple still sells the "Thunderbolt to firewire adapter".
 
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******* said:
I have one of those. Is it bidirectional?
Click to expand...

the 800-800 or 400-400 or 800-400 IEEE 1394 cables are bidirectional, probably TBolt adapter has that limitation.

You can test plugging it to an older Mac and power on holding "T" key, and checking if the disk is shown in the recent Mac (with ThunderBolt port) apple boot manager, and vice versa.
 
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Larsvonhier said:
After installing the latest image that the patcher tool finds you should get build 19A526h - that´s (dev.) beta 5 then. Check the installer version - see page #1 in this thread.
Click to expand...
Well I am downloading the latest image from the patcher tool but still beta 4. I just booted from the patcher and asked it to install a copy of Catalina to my disk. Then I will patch and see if that method will work.
 
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joelw135 said:
Well I am downloading the latest image from the patcher tool but still beta 4. I just booted from the patcher and asked it to install a copy of Catalina to my disk. Then I will patch and see if that method will work.
Click to expand...
The installer app version of DP5 is 15.0.21. Just ensure that's the version of the installer app you have before installing.
 
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jackluke said:
the 800-800 or 400-400 or 800-400 IEEE 1394 cables are bidirectional, probably TBolt adapter has that limitation.

You can test plugging it to an older Mac and power on holding "T" key, and checking if the disk is shown in the recent Mac (with ThunderBolt port) apple boot manager, and vice versa.
Click to expand...

It will works fine. The TB-Firewire adapter contains the same PCI Express Firewire controller thats are in the Thunderbolt Display or what it in the 2011 and 2012 series of Mac's.
 
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Larsvonhier said:
File info(rmation) is your friend... ;-)
Use it on the downloaded image that dosdude´s tool saves on your drive.
Click to expand...
OK it downloaded the correct version. I then created a boot SD card. Now I booted from the SD and said install new coipy of Catalina Beta. I did that and patched from the SD but still same version. I then tried to install it directly from the patcher to the Main Catalina HD it patched the files then rebooted to the same old version. What am i doing wrong?
 
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joelw135 said:
OK it downloaded the correct version. I then created a boot SD card. Now I booted from the SD and said install new coipy of Catalina Beta. I did that and patched from the SD but still same version. I then tried to install it directly from the patcher to the Main Catalina HD it patched the files then rebooted to the same old version. What am i doing wrong?
Click to expand...
That´s strange. What build does macOS "About this Mac" show?
 
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@dosdude1 : is there a release note that outlines what is patched? I used the installer to update my 5,1 and then spent 45 min rolling back the IO80211Family.kext patches without success. Something else was patched.
I cannot run with SIP because disabling it disables TRIM on my system. trimforce has no impact.
Ideally it would be possible to disable automatic patching and do it your old fashioned way after install.
 
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@dosdude1 @ASentientBot I don't know if it could be related to macOS 10.15 beta 5 installation with patcher 1.0.3 and I report it only to let you know (I always have, on the external HD, a recent 1:1 backup of Mojave to restore, so no problem :) ) but, after installing Catalina Beta5 on external HD, I was not able to reboot to Mojave 10.14.6 patched on internal HD (System stuck on Apple logo & loading 60%+ progress bar on gray background forever) I have tried removing all USB devices and started to recovery for a full system check (no errors found) , useless. Since it is not the first time that this happens to me while patching/installing macOS (I'm sure to have patched Catalina :) ) is there a workaround for avoiiding to reinstall the whole system next time?
 
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Alex-Microsmeta said:
@dosdude1 @ASentientBot I don't know if it could be related to macOS 10.15 beta 5 installation with patcher 1.0.3 and I report it only to let you know (I always have, on the external HD, a recent 1:1 backup of Mojave to restore, so no problem :) ) but, after installing Catalina Beta5 on external HD, I was not able to reboot to Mojave 10.14.6 patched on internal HD (System stuck on Apple logo & loading 60%+ progress bar on gray background forever) I have tried removing all USB devices and started to recovery for a full system check (no errors found) , useless. Since it is not the first time that this happens to me while patching/installing macOS (I'm sure to have patched Catalina :) ) is there a workaround for avoiiding to reinstall the whole system next time?
Click to expand...

If you are using the APFS Boot Patch instead of the APFS ROM patch, try reinstalling the patches only from your patched Mojave 10.14.6 usb installer onto the Mojave drive. It may be that somehow both the Catalina and Mojave drives APFS Boot patch ended up placing their files on the same drive in its EFI partition.
 
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