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I was still on Catalina beta 5, and jumped to beta 11, and since I had necessity to keep many things unpatched, I used this method to upgrade and it again worked great:


only addition is to replace the "SystemVersion.plist" on the install target /S/L/CoreServices/ with a previous HighSierra (or El Capitan) version, in order to upgrade an existent installation and for keeping all Datas and Library settings.
Still using your method for updates as well! I like being able to do things by hand.

As far as I know, you can just delete SystemVersion.plist rather than finding an old copy.
 
I finally got macOS Catalina installed on my MacBookPro5,3 (It took me a while since my internet was slow). Using "Install on this Machine" produced a weird error (I can attach the log later if you'd like, I saved it) so I created a 16GB partition on my hard drive and used 'create a bootable install disk' to install. It worked perfectly.

Screen Shot 2019-10-05 at 1.30.29 AM.png


Now at this point, I have OSX El Capitain, Windows 7, and macOS Catalina all on my Mid 2009! :D
Thanks for all of your help. I will let you know if I find anything peculiar.
 
Somehow, the main reason I installed Catalina was for the Sidecar feature, but I failed to remember that the MacBook Pro 2009 doesn't support airplay. Oh well, at least I can get some of the other cool features
 
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Arduino: the remedy that ASentientBot found for Mojave, still works for Catalina (DP11)! See post #9229 of the Mojave thread.

Replaced the AppleUSBACM.kext in /System/Library/Extensions with the one from High Sierra.

Catalina needs the sudo /sbin/mount -uw / before. Afterwards sudo kextcache -system-caches; sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel and reboot. No need for single-user mode in this case.

Also had to use the latest Arduino version 1.8.10. I'm using an Arduino UNO.
 
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Installation doubts.

I haven't installed Catalina on a physical computer yet, but I think I know how to install it on top of my current Mojave on my Mac Pro 5,1. However, the specific steps that should be followed for an installation from scratch (like, from a newly formatted APFS spinning disk) are somewhat fuzzy to me at this time. Let's say I want to install Catalina on an old iMac 7,1 (with SSE 4.1 support) to which dosdude1's APFS ROM Patcher has been previously applied. The iMac is currently running El Capitan, but I want to completely erase its disk and reformat it as APFS. How exactly do I do that? How can Catalina Patcher run without a previous operating system that will run it so that Catalina and all the relevant patches can be installed?
 
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Arduino: the remedy that ASentientBot found for Mojave, still works for Catalina (DP11)! See post #9229 of the Mojave thread.

Replaced the AppleUSBACM.kext in /System/Library/Extensions with the one from High Sierra.

Catalina needs the sudo /sbin/mount -uw / before. Afterwards sudo kextcache -system-caches; sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel and reboot. No need for single-user mode in this case.

Also had to use the latest Arduino version 1.8.10. I'm using an Arduino UNO.

Also starting from Catalina "single-user mode" (CMD+S) doesn't allow more to rebuild the kextcache due to a security framework, from there that would have been very useful in many cases.
 
Hi all. Just wanted to ask @dosdude1, or anyone else who knows, a question. I successfully installed Catalina 10.15 and it runs beautifully on my MacBook Pro 8,2. My question is, when I installed Catalina, I added an APFS container (called it Catalina). I left the Movaje installation on Macintosh HD. Can I now safely remove Macintosh HD to free up space as Catalina was installed to check it worked? Disk utility shows Catalina : Catalina - Data : Macintosh HD. As it does work, flawlessly I might add, I no longer need Mojave. Many thanks in anticipation and also for the brilliant work you have all done to breathe new life into old machines.
Further to my post above I would add that under Mojave I did not have any sleep functioning, either by using the Apple logo or closing the lid nor any brightness control either. However under Catalina all those functions now work and I have a useful laptop again!
 
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Installation doubts.

I haven't installed Catalina on a physical computer yet, but I think I know how to install it on top of my current Mojave on my Mac Pro 5,1. However, the specific steps that should be followed for an installation from scratch (like, from a newly formatted APFS spinning disk) are somewhat fuzzy to me at this time. Let's say I want to install Catalina on an old iMac 7,1 (with SSE 4.1 support) to which dosdude1's APFS ROM Patcher has been previously applied. The iMac is currently running El Capitan, but I want to completely erase its disk and reformat it as APFS. How exactly do I do that? How can Catalina Patcher run without a previous operating system that will run it so that Catalina and all the relevant patches can be installed?

As far as I understand the Catalina Patcher has BaseSystem.dmg which IS the operating system that allows you to install Catalina and all the relevant patches.
 
Anyone else had a graphics glitch with about the Mac, it’s no displaying the installed GPU
 

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Installation doubts.

I haven't installed Catalina on a physical computer yet, but I think I know how to install it on top of my current Mojave on my Mac Pro 5,1. However, the specific steps that should be followed for an installation from scratch (like, from a newly formatted APFS spinning disk) are somewhat fuzzy to me at this time. Let's say I want to install Catalina on an old iMac 7,1 (with SSE 4.1 support) to which dosdude1's APFS ROM Patcher has been previously applied. The iMac is currently running El Capitan, but I want to completely erase its disk and reformat it as APFS. How exactly do I do that? How can Catalina Patcher run without a previous operating system that will run it so that Catalina and all the relevant patches can be installed?
Hi, I had Mojave installed using @dosdude1 patcher on a MacbookPro 8,2. I wanted to test Catalina. I used Disk Utility and selected 'Partition'. When you do this an option to ADD an APFS volume is offered. I selected this and choose a size and let it create it. I then restarted and booted from a USB with the Catalina patcher. I selected my 'Catalina' volume as the destination and it worked flawlessly. Catalina runs better than Mojave on my laptop and has restored sleep and brightness controls missing from Mojave.
 
Use the "Install to This Machine" option instead to update from DP8 to DP10.
Thank you for clarification. I need the legacy WiFi patch. Will the patch be automatically applied? Since I won't have a USB installer disk to boot from and start your patcher tool from there, I don't dare update until I have your expertise. Would you be able to instruct, please? Thanks alot in advance.
 
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For those who want a basic working APFS Recovery (Terminal, DiskUtility, TimeMachine, Firmware password, Safari) with CMD+R here is the updated script, since apple just changed its "APFS Recovery url" for Catalina beta 11 GM seed.

Launch it directly from a Catalina Finder, if you get a warning "unidentified developer", press and hold "ctrl" key and keep it to run the script till clicking "open".

The little advantage to have a basic CMD+R "APFS Recovery" is that it will load also "offline" providing very essentials stuffs as: Terminal, DiskUtility and TimeMachine.
 

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As far as I understand the Catalina Patcher has BaseSystem.dmg which IS the operating system that allows you to install Catalina and all the relevant patches.

Agree, from a BaseSystem.dmg you will get a full working minimal OSX GUI environment with very essentials apps: Terminal (shell), DiskUtility (partitioning), internet browser ("Get Help Online" aka Safari), Time machine (to restore a snapshot or even a full system backup).
 
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Installation doubts.

I haven't installed Catalina on a physical computer yet, but I think I know how to install it on top of my current Mojave on my Mac Pro 5,1. However, the specific steps that should be followed for an installation from scratch (like, from a newly formatted APFS spinning disk) are somewhat fuzzy to me at this time. Let's say I want to install Catalina on an old iMac 7,1 (with SSE 4.1 support) to which dosdude1's APFS ROM Patcher has been previously applied. The iMac is currently running El Capitan, but I want to completely erase its disk and reformat it as APFS. How exactly do I do that? How can Catalina Patcher run without a previous operating system that will run it so that Catalina and all the relevant patches can be installed?

My suggestion would be: Use the Catalina Patcher to create a bootable USB drive first. Be sure to check “Disable APFS Booter” from options menu, since you said you have the ROM patched to boot APFS natively. Then boot to your USB drive, and open Disk Utility. Erase the disk you want to erase, and be sure to reformat as APFS. Then quit Disk Utility and continue with the installation. It is a full installer so it can either install a full new OS or update an already in-place OS.

One other note is you can convert your HFS+ drive to APFS without erasing if you wanted to. Use the same process as above but in Disk Utility instead of erasing, choose “Convert to APFS...” under edit. Note the disk has to be Unmounted to do this.
 
I have a Mac mini 5.2 (mid 2011) with AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256 MB. Can I use the method described by Dosdude to deactivate the dedicated GPU. I have an APFS container with High Sierra and Catalina volumes installed. By deactivating the dedicated GPU, is it going to affect High Sierra?
 
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I have a Mac mini 5.2 (mid 2011) with AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256 MB. Can I use the method described by Dosdude to deactivate the dedicated GPU. I have an APFS container with High Sierra and Catalina volumes installed. By deactivating the dedicated GPU, is it going to affect High Sierra?
You can't disable the dGPU on a Mac Mini, it doesn't have graphics switching like the 2011 MacBook Pro systems. I'd advise staying on High Sierra, as running macOS without graphics acceleration is not worth doing at all.
 
Now i have make an usb installer for.my friend on my imac beta 11 say its broken (in recovery) ... Hmm on my.friend imac catalina install.via.usb works ...
 
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