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macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

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I would like to ask for favor. I was searching but it gives so many results. I guess there vere more detailed info.

What steps one need to make to make Machines with old EFI like MBP 4,1 ready for APFS? I have SSD but still with N¨Mojave HFS+.

And is it true that when I have enough room om drive that is it possible to convert drive to APFS without reformatting/deleting data? I read it somewhere but never tried.

And can I use USB HDD instead of USB Flashdisk for bullding Installer drive? I have just one slash disk and want to keep Mojave on it.

Thanks in advance.
 
Frantisekj said:
I would like to ask for favor. I was searching but it gives so many results. I guess there vere more detailed info.

What steps one need to make to make Machines with old EFI like MBP 4,1 ready for APFS? I have SSD but still with N¨Mojave HFS+.

And is it true that when I have enough room om drive that is it possible to convert drive to APFS without reformatting/deleting data? I read it somewhere but never tried.

And can I use USB HDD instead of USB Flashdisk for bullding Installer drive? I have just one slash disk and want to keep Mojave on it.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

While you can convert from HFS to APFS within Disk Utility, that approach is suboptimal become it won't create all the associated partitions for the AFPS container. The best approach is to clone your internal drive to an external one, erase the internal as a single APFS partition and then use the patched usb installer to install with migration from the external drive. This will leave you with the APFS partitions looking like...

/dev/disk4 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +249.8 GB disk4
Physical Store disk3s2
1: APFS Volume Macintosh SSD 131.5 GB disk4s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 43.1 MB disk4s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 507.4 MB disk4s3
4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk4s4

The APFS conversion within Disk Utility only knows how to convert the single partition but doesn't put the other ones together in the single container scheme.
 
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iMac-Oldschool said:
Neither the Activity Monitor nor the Network Utility reports accurate information on an iMac8,1.
The iMac boots into El Capitan, Mojave and Catalina. All screenshots were taken from the same iMac, suggesting that any variations are caused by the OS, not the hardware.
Activity Monitor shows the individual Processes, but no statistics. See screen shots from Catalina and from Mojave to compare.
Network Utility shows a WiFi Link speed of 5.74 Mbit/s under Catalina, compared with 130 Mbit/s under Mojave. The lower value is not correct. The ISP charges for 100 Mbit/s but usually provides between 85 Mbit/s and 115 Mbit/s. This corresponds to the actual download time of approx. 7 minutes for "Install macOS Catalina Beta", which is a 6 GB file.
The measurements were repeated over 2-3 days with several restarts and are reasonably consistent, but consistently incorrect.
Don't know if these are core Catalina issues, relate to the patched macOS version or are specific to the iMac8,1.
Click to expand...

Hi @iMac-Oldschool
I just checked and compare Wi-Fi bitrates announced between Mojave and Catalina, I confirm on my MP5,1 with a bitrate of 300Mbit/s for Mojave and 21.6Mbit/s for Catalina. It may be a Catalina bug.
Wifi_Mojave.png Wifi_Catalina.png
 
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Hello from France,

Just installed CAT7 on my MP 3,1 and all seems to be fine !

Thanks everybody.

I have two questions :

What are exactly the two volumes created : for my example, on hybrid HDD dedicated for testing, I have a volume "XXX" and an other one named "XXX-données" (XXX-data) ?

Is it possible, right now with @dosdude patcher, to update "via" update manager (in system preference) ?

Great job !

Serviteur,
 
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olrik77 said:
Hello from France,

Just installed CAT7 on my MP 3,1 and all seems to be fine !

Thanks everybody.

I have two questions :

What are exactly the two volumes created : for my example, on hybrid HDD dedicated for testing, I have a volume "XXX" and an other one named "XXX-données" (XXX-data) ?

Is it possible, right now with @dosdude patcher, to update "via" update manager (in system preference) ?

Great job !

Serviteur,
Click to expand...

The system volume is now on a separate read-only volume to increase security.

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pr...at-could-affect-you-the-creative-professional

Actually, if that article is correct in this statement...

Kernel Extensions: Kexts (kernel extensions) are slowly being replaced with system extensions, which will exist outside of the protected system volume. Catalina will be the last macOS that will run existing kexts. Developers working on new drivers (a common use for kexts) will need to use system extensions, which run in user space instead of within the system kernel.

...that would suggest Catalina is the end of the line with patching for unsupported Macs (at least until the unsupported Macs are on the other side of that change).
 
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tarasis said:
Just messed my system up so it won’t boot. Have a MacBookPro5,5 running an install of 10.13.x via DosDude’s patcher.

discovered today that I could put Catalina on this system, so downloaded the new patcher, downloaded the Catalina Image and (stupidly) patched the installer and started the install. (I _really_ should have created a USB install stick)

after it boots through the EFI boot loader (from the install for 10.13.x), I get the circle with a line through it.

is there a command I can issue in the EFI shell to get passed this, or do I need to generate a new installer on a different computer?
Click to expand...

I know you don't want to hear this, but I did the same with the last beta and I ended up having to use a macOS virtual machine inside Windows to make another Usb installer.
 
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jhowarth said:
The system volume is now on a separate read-only volume to increase security.

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pr...at-could-affect-you-the-creative-professional

Actually, if that article is correct in this statement...

Kernel Extensions: Kexts (kernel extensions) are slowly being replaced with system extensions, which will exist outside of the protected system volume. Catalina will be the last macOS that will run existing kexts. Developers working on new drivers (a common use for kexts) will need to use system extensions, which run in user space instead of within the system kernel.

...that would suggest Catalina is the end of the line with patching for unsupported Macs (at least until the unsupported Macs are on the other side of that change).
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply.

Now, I clearly understand why CAT need two separates volumes and I agree with you to say that Catalina is probably the end of the line.

It means that our "unsupported Macs" may need to be relegated with the next OS ! Too bad...my MP 3,1 (bought in 2008) is still a amazing machine...

By the way, my actual "diskutil" configuration is :

Capture d’écran 2019-09-03 à 02.00.20.png


Correct ?

Mojave on disk 2
Catalina on disk 0
Time Machine (for Mojave) on disk 1

...and one more thing : what is the APFS Boot in systems pref ? :

Capture d’écran 2019-09-03 à 11.38.52.png




Serviteur,
 
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alphascorp said:
Hi @iMac-Oldschool
I just checked and compare Wi-Fi bitrates announced between Mojave and Catalina, I confirm on my MP5,1 with a bitrate of 300Mbit/s for Mojave and 21.6Mbit/s for Catalina. It may be a Catalina bug.
View attachment 855812 View attachment 855813
Click to expand...
Does look like a Catalina bug in the network utilities. Unpatched cMP5.1 using BCM94360CD reports 1300Mbits/s for both Mojave and Catalina using the wifi icon in the menu bar. Using Network Utility Mojave reports 1300Mbits/s but Catalina 304Mbits/s.
 
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olrik77 said:
Thank you for your reply.

Now, I clearly understand why CAT need two separates volumes and I agree with you to say that Catalina is probably the end of the line.

It means that our "unsupported Macs" may need to be relegated with the next OS ! Too bad...my MP 3,1 (bought in 2008) is still a amazing machine...

By the way, my actual "diskutil" configuration is :

View attachment 855865

Correct ?

Mojave on disk 2
Catalina on disk 0
Time Machine (for Mojave) on disk 1

...and one more thing : what is the APFS Boot in systems pref ? :

View attachment 855866

Serviteur,
Click to expand...

APFS Boot in System Preferences allows booting from multiple APFS partitions on a machine that does not natively support APFS.
 
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Flacko said:
Does look like a Catalina bug in the network utilities. Unpatched cMP5.1 using BCM94360CD reports 1300Mbits/s for both Mojave and Catalina using the wifi icon in the menu bar. Using Network Utility Mojave reports 1300Mbits/s but Catalina 304Mbits/s.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, how close is that to your wireless router? At about six feet (and through a wall), I don't get better than 584 Mbps from a TP-Link A7.
 
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I remember with the patched version of Mojave, there was a special updater that was also installed. I don't recall seeing anything like that for the Catalina software, and was wondering how I can get up beta updates, etc as they come out. Any help would be most appreciated!
 
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gbrot001 said:
I remember with the patched version of Mojave, there was a special updater that was also installed. I don't recall seeing anything like that for the Catalina software, and was wondering how I can get up beta updates, etc as they come out. Any help would be most appreciated!
Click to expand...

That's because there is no software update patch available for Catalina at the moment. You have to download the full installer every time. Mind you, this is a very small price to pay for running Catalina on unsupported Macs.
 
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