macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[Pluda]

Usually the link in the patcher is to the latest release.

So answering your question I believe the patcher doesn't work with the latest release (just downloaded again right now). Trying to make the bootable usb I get this (Note that my Startup disk has about 100GB free.

Error Log:

Mounting BaseSystem.dmg...

/dev/disk3 GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1 Apple_HFS /private/tmp/basesystem


Patching BaseSystem.dmg...

hdiutil: couldn't unmount "disk3" - Resource busy

 

[Syncretic]

@nekton1 @antony34 I know absolutely nothing about Japanese, but I took a brief look into your issue and I was able to reproduce it.

I think I know why this only happens on unsupported Macs, even if they have Metal GPUs: a dependency of the Japanese Input Method process requires AVX, which will obviously be a problem on a Penryn-based computer like a MacPro3,1 or my MacBook7,1.

Evidence
See the crash report:

When I find that address in the executable...

That instruction doesn't exist in our CPUs, hence the Illegal Instruction error.

Perhaps someone else has some insight. I hope this helped!

That's interesting - in your code snippet snapshot, they're effectively using AVX instructions to perform SSE operations (the code uses only xmm registers; they use ymm0 for two loads, but then zero out the high bits before return). If that's the case throughout (perhaps the compiler defaults to using AVX but there are no operands longer than 128 bits), there are at least two possible avenues of recourse: (1) patch the offending instructions in place with equivalent SSE instructions, or (2) add the offending instructions to my SSE emulator. #1 is workable if there aren't a huge number of instances (and could possibly even be automated to patch future versions with the same issue), while #2 becomes attractive if there aren't a huge number of instructions that need to be emulated (implementing the entire AVX instruction set is way beyond the scope of my little project).

If/when (mostly a big if) I can find some time, I'll look at this some more. If anyone else is slogging through disassemblies of /usr/lib/libmecabra.dylib, please try to note how many different AVX instructions you encounter.

OK, I've had a few minutes to look further into this (not very long, but long enough). In libmecabra.dylib, there are at least 2500 AVX instructions peppered throughout, and nearly 500 uses of 256-bit registers (which don't exist in Penryn CPUs). Some quick analysis reveals that not all of these are really just 128-bit operations needlessly using 256-bit instructions; they really are using 256-bit data and instructions. That pretty much obviates my hypothetical avenues of recourse, since #1 won't work on 256-bit data, and #2 becomes a much larger-scale project if the emulator needs to add additional registers (per-CPU!) that don't physically exist.

Realistically, the only alternative I see is to find an older version of the library that seems to work and doesn't use AVX instructions (which is possibly quite a tall order). Sorry if I got anybody's hopes up with my original post, but that's the way the cookie crumbles when it comes to reverse-engineering - you never know what you're going to find.

(On a tenuously-related note, I plan to publicly release my SSE4.2 emulator soon, hopefully sometime in the coming week, once I hear back from a few more testers. The long delays aren't due to bugs, but rather to my currently-hectic life.)

 

[joelw135]

So answering your question I believe the patcher doesn't work with the latest release (just downloaded again right now). Trying to make the bootable usb I get this (Note that my Startup disk has about 100GB free.

View attachment 868929

Error Log:

Mounting BaseSystem.dmg...

/dev/disk3 GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1 Apple_HFS /private/tmp/basesystem


Patching BaseSystem.dmg...

hdiutil: couldn't unmount "disk3" - Resource busy

I am using the install to this machine and so far it has 9 min to go. UPDATE I guess it didn't download the latest OS as after the install to machine it still says 10.15 not beta.

 

[Pluda]

EDIT: Firewall was ON, with firewall OFF it goes ahead.

I am using the install to this machine and so far it has 9 min to go. UPDATE I guess it didn't download the latest OS as after the install to machine it still says 10.15 not beta.

I've tried "Install to this machine"... same error :-(

 

[antony34]

OK, I've had a few minutes to look further into this (not very long, but long enough). In libmecabra.dylib, there are at least 2500 AVX instructions peppered throughout, and nearly 500 uses of 256-bit registers (which don't exist in Penryn CPUs). Some quick analysis reveals that not all of these are really just 128-bit operations needlessly using 256-bit instructions; they really are using 256-bit data and instructions. That pretty much obviates my hypothetical avenues of recourse, since #1 won't work on 256-bit data, and #2 becomes a much larger-scale project if the emulator needs to add additional registers (per-CPU!) that don't physically exist.

Realistically, the only alternative I see is to find an older version of the library that seems to work and doesn't use AVX instructions (which is possibly quite a tall order). Sorry if I got anybody's hopes up with my original post, but that's the way the cookie crumbles when it comes to reverse-engineering - you never know what you're going to find.

(On a tenuously-related note, I plan to publicly release my SSE4.2 emulator soon, hopefully sometime in the coming week, once I hear back from a few more testers. The long delays aren't due to bugs, but rather to my currently-hectic life.)

Thank you very much!
Like @ASentientBot said, is it means only way to replace libmecabra.dylib & Japanese_IM file from Mojave to let it work?
if yes, would you mind to share the file to me? I can try it.

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

I was able to install Catalina on my 2010 MacBook Pro 7,1 using dosdude's patcher without a hitch and it runs well. I tried to install it on my Mac Pro 2012 5,1 and kept getting the message that the installer was damaged. Looking for ideas.

Is It enabled for 3th
part applications installation? (Anywhere) It not try
sudo spctl --master-disable

 

[Fangio]

Does 10.15.1 Beta (19B68f) work with the latest patcher?

Actually there is a full 10.15.1 DP1 installer available. Patcher 1.1.7 still downloads the 10.15 release.

 

[jackluke]

Thank you very much!
Like @ASentientBot said, is it means only way to replace libmecabra.dylib & Japanese_IM file from Mojave to let it work?
if yes, would you mind to share the file to me? I can try it.

I can upload here, let me retrieve them from 10.14.6

I included both the libmecab* backup yours and try replace them in your Catalina /usr/lib/

while the JapaneseIM.app in /S/L/Input Methods/

I also checked the dependencies for JapaneseIM binary:

    /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation (compatibility version 300.0.0, current version 1570.13.0)
    /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 228.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1252.250.1)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/AppKit (compatibility version 45.0.0, current version 1671.40.104)

These instead are for libmecabra.dylib:

    /usr/lib/libDiagnosticMessagesClient.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 107.0.0)
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LinguisticData.framework/Versions/A/LinguisticData (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 238.24.0)
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Lexicon.framework/Versions/A/Lexicon (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 33.15.10)
    /usr/lib/libChineseTokenizer.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 28.15.3)
    /usr/lib/libcmph.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 62.1.0)
    /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib (compatibility version 7.0.0, current version 7.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.2.11)
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LanguageModeling.framework/Versions/A/LanguageModeling (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 159.15.15)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation (compatibility version 150.0.0, current version 1570.13.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation (compatibility version 300.0.0, current version 1570.13.0)
    /usr/lib/libsqlite3.dylib (compatibility version 9.0.0, current version 274.22.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 866.5.0)
    /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 228.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 400.9.4)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1252.250.1)

 

[joelw135]

Actually there is a full 10.15.1 DP1 installer available. Patcher 1.1.7 still downloads the 10.15 release.

So I guess we will have to wait for the update. Not sure why it isn't available.

 

[The.316]

1. So on a late 2009 27" iMac, Im just running the Catalina patcher?

2. Im currently running Mojave on it, and it gave me a software update option. Should I just discard that?

3. Will my photos and music will transfer over just fine to the new music and photos app? I have them stored on a secondary drive in my iMac.

 

[jpmac1]

So I guess we will have to wait for the update. Not sure why it isn't available.

you have to be enrolled in the beta developer program for it to download beta versions

 

[antony34]

I can upload here, let me retrieve them from 10.14.6

I included both the libmecab* backup yours and try replace them in your Catalina /usr/lib/

while the JapaneseIM.app in /S/L/Input Methods/

I also checked the dependencies for JapaneseIM binary:

    /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation (compatibility version 300.0.0, current version 1570.13.0)
    /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 228.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1252.250.1)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/AppKit (compatibility version 45.0.0, current version 1671.40.104)

These instead are for libmecabra.dylib:

    /usr/lib/libDiagnosticMessagesClient.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 107.0.0)
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LinguisticData.framework/Versions/A/LinguisticData (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 238.24.0)
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Lexicon.framework/Versions/A/Lexicon (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 33.15.10)
    /usr/lib/libChineseTokenizer.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 28.15.3)
    /usr/lib/libcmph.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 62.1.0)
    /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib (compatibility version 7.0.0, current version 7.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.2.11)
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LanguageModeling.framework/Versions/A/LanguageModeling (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 159.15.15)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation (compatibility version 150.0.0, current version 1570.13.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation (compatibility version 300.0.0, current version 1570.13.0)
    /usr/lib/libsqlite3.dylib (compatibility version 9.0.0, current version 274.22.0)
    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 866.5.0)
    /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 228.0.0)
    /usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 400.9.4)
    /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1252.250.1)

Thanks!
I was replaced 3 files, Japanese IM still not working and when I change another input method, the new item (TYIM_Extension) will be popup in crash report and let cangjie input not working.

 

[ASentientBot]

Hey everybody! Am I actually the first in the thread to install this beta? I don't think this has ever happened before! Anyways, acceleration is still working in 10.15.1 DP1 with no changes required at all, yay 🙂

It's feeling a bit laggy right now, but I'm hoping that will improve after I let it settle a bit. Also, weirdly, all the photo-based screensavers seem to have disappeared.

Also, how are you guys installing beta updates that don't have a standalone installer? I ended up doing a pkgutil --expand-full and then cp -a but I feel like that might be problematic in future with the two-volume setup.

 

[Pluda]

So I finally managed to install this Catalina on my MacBook Pro 8,1 (Late 2011).
After some troubles with the usb creation I found that Firewall = ON wasn't allowing the patcher 1.7.7 to work as expected.
I just upgraded from Mojave 10.14.3 to Catalina, didn't do a clean install.
So far, so good, my Mac is working like a charm, didn't find any trouble with it, mini-display port to thunderbolt works perfectly (I have read here that some troubles may happen), my usb to via adaptor (DisplayLink) also works pretty good.

Thanks to @dosdude1 and friends for great work!

 

[jackluke]

Hey everybody! Am I actually the first in the thread to install this beta? I don't think this has ever happened before! Anyways, acceleration is still working in 10.15.1 DP1 with no changes required at all, yay 🙂

View attachment 868991

It's feeling a bit laggy right now, but I'm hoping that will improve after I let it settle a bit. Also, weirdly, all the photo-based screensavers seem to have disappeared.

Also, how are you guys installing beta updates that don't have a standalone installer? I ended up doing a pkgutil --expand-full and then cp -a but I feel like that might be problematic in future with the two-volume setup.

This time you're the first because the "OTA" 10.15.1 DP1 is tough to install, I assume you retrieved from catalogURL a "10.15.1beta1Update.pkg" , expanded to a temporary folder, and then rebooting from a Recovery environment (or another macOS with APFS support) typing "cp -a /path/source/ /path/dest/" overwritten all the target Catalina volume content.

I don't think this manual way is so problematic, considering that even if the "Catalina Data Volume" is separated from System, it is accessible always, without mounting the "Data Volume" from this fixed path: /Volumes/"Catalina"/System/Library/Templates/Data/

 

[siciov]

Hi!

I nstalled 10.15.0 GM, build 19A582a, installer 15.0.32 on apfs file system.
macbook 6.1

How fix in catalina kernel_task high loading process?
Old method via modify ioplatformpluginfamily.kext dont give to delete my model's .plist

Any solutions @dosdude1 ?

Update
Finally i find a solution on this thread

 

[CsYager]

1. So on a late 2009 27" iMac, Im just running the Catalina patcher?

2. Im currently running Mojave on it, and it gave me a software update option. Should I just discard that?

3. Will my photos and music will transfer over just fine to the new music and photos app? I have them stored on a secondary drive in my iMac.

Yes, yes, and yes. The only reason to not disregard the software update is if you wanted to download the Catalina installer through that source instead of through the patcher, but there's no need to do that. The Catalina patcher is al you need to run, though if you want light mode to work properly you will also need to install the BlueSky patch. I am able on my Mid 2009 MacBook Pro to transfer files freely between partitions on my hard drive using finder on Catalina, even though one partition is El Capitan and the other is Windows 7, so your files should transfer fine using that method.

 

[TimothyR734]

https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz I haven't been successful at getting this to work in the macOS Catalina Patcher but you replace this link provided in the macOS Catalina Patcher /Contents/Resources/DownloadSettings.plist using a text editor but every time I tried it says my patcher has been corrupted -Trash

 

[alphascorp]

https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz I haven't been successful at getting this to work in the macOS Catalina Patcher but you replace this link provided in the macOS Catalina Patcher /Contents/Resources/DownloadSettings.plist using a text editor but every time I tried it says my patcher has been corrupted -Trash

Hi @TimothyR734
I replaced the link in macOS Catalina Patcher /Contents/Resources/DownloadSettings.plist
And I was able to start the patch without any error message:



If you have this error message after the changes to the DownloadSettings.plist file have you thought about re-codesigning the Patcher?
If you have Xcode installed you must enter the following code with the Terminal:

sudo codesign --force --deep --sign - /Path_of_the_Patcher/macOS\ Catalina\ Patcher.app

 

[ASentientBot]

Hey everyone!

While 10.15.1 DP1 initially worked with no issues, I did discover a problem that's existed in my wrapped frameworks since probably day one. Essentially, running update_dyld_shared_cache on a system with them installed can render your system unbootable. This is because the wrapper binaries lack version data, causing dyld to sometimes (I'm not exactly sure under which circumstances, it doesn't always happen) reject them completely.

Since the update triggered a cache rebuild, this manifested on my MacBook as a system that worked fine at first, but then stalled early in the boot process after a restart.

I've fixed this by adding -compatibility_version 1.0.0 -current_version 1.0.0 to the linker arguments. Updated source code and wrapped frameworks are uploaded here as always, and I strongly recommend that you install them before attempting anything that might trigger a cache rebuild. @dosdude1 @0403979 please update the versions in your patchers.

Edit: @dosdude1 has reported an issue reaching the setup screen with this version, so be cautious. I haven't experienced any problems (in fact, it solved my problems) but be warned.

I'll investigate further and post an update when I figure out what's going on. My apologies for the various unstable patches I've released recently... I hope I didn't cause anyone too much trouble.

Side note: for my wrappers, you don't actually have to replace anything but the binaries. Surprisingly, the Catalina WindowServer and other resources work fine. Just like the OpenGL disaster though, there is no reason to use this yet -- just good to keep in mind for future.

Last thing (sorry, this message is rapidly becoming a text wall): it is possible to rebuild the prelinkedkernel in single-user mode or a root shell on Catalina. It's a real pain though. If anybody needs to do this (ie. recovering from a borked kext install), steps are as follows.

Mount both volumes as writable (the latter is only needed in single-user mode):

mount -uw /
mount -uw /System/Volumes/Data

Delete the old prelinkedkernels (these can cause problems at times):

rm /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel
rm /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel

Rebuild and install the new one:

kextcache -i /
cp /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/

As you probably noticed, there are now two of these little bastards, one on each volume. I'm not quite sure why. kextcache only seems to update the one in the data volume, but only the system volume one is used for booting. Hence the seeming ineffectuality of rebuilding it without making both volumes writable and running the last cp step. It's a weird mess... If anybody can explain this to me, I would really really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading!

Edit: Thanks to this article for the shoutout! And fantastic work with Aperture too. I'm very impressed by your tidy solution! (Spent some time working on it myself, but never got it at all usable.)

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

@dosdude1 @ASentientBot @parrotgeek1 Finally I have found the cause of poor performance of Catalina (at least on my Macmini 2010) Spotlight is wasting half power of my old Core 2 Duo CPU. I have excluded all USB pendrives and external hardisks partitions (option in System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy) and now Catalina is as fast as Mojave, With CPU <10% IDLE. Maybe you could control Spotlight behavior to prevent full CPU usage...

 

[nijhawank]

Hey! I think the flicker is somewhat normal. It's probably just when the framebuffer/acceleration is enabled and a different process takes over drawing the Apple logo. On my MacBook there is definitely a visible change in hue when that happens. But feel free to upload a video if you think it's an issue.

To be entirely honest, I'm not exactly sure what the required kext replacements are for an Intel GPU; my only machine has an nVidia Tesla. You'll have to achieve framebuffer acceleration (see the contents of @dosdude1's patcher for the required kexts, or perhaps @jackluke can explain?) and then replace OpenGL and GPUSupport (from 10.14.3, per @dosdude1's 10.14.4 acceleration fix) and CoreDisplay and SkyLight (from 10.14.4 and 10.14.6, wrapped by me).

Sorry, I was unclear. Use the full 10.14.3 OpenGL framework, except re-replace its sub-library libCoreFSCache.dylib from Catalina. Use the full 10.14.3 GPUSupport or just the one library, it doesn't matter. Do not use the minimalist OpenGL fix. (Basically, this all happened because I was trying to decrease the necessary number of file replacements, but the minimalist replacements cause some issues with, eg. Chrome. In future we may need to revisit this, but for now, it only causes problems.)

Hope that helps!

Hi @ASentientBot, Thanks for your help. Please see the flickr / garbled screen

I was using Mojave 10.14.3 with the same patched kexts and there was smooth transition at around 70%. I will try doing a manual patching and see if that makes any differences and let this thread know.

 

[ASentientBot]

Hi @ASentientBot, Thanks for your help. Please see the flickr / garbled screen

I was using Mojave 10.14.3 with the same patched kexts and there was smooth transition at around 70%. I will try doing a manual patching and see if that makes any differences and let this thread know.

Oh man, that is weird. I have no idea what causes that and it doesn't happen on my machine or any real Mac, to my knowledge. Sorry I can't be of much help.

 

[TimothyR734]

Hi @TimothyR734
I replaced the link in macOS Catalina Patcher /Contents/Resources/DownloadSettings.plist
And I was able to start the patch without any error message:

View attachment 869027

If you have this error message after the changes to the DownloadSettings.plist file have you thought about re-codesigning the Patcher?
If you have Xcode installed you must enter the following code with the Terminal:

sudo codesign --force --deep --sign - /Path_of_the_Patcher/macOS\ Catalina\ Patcher.app

I don't have Xcode installed and I even get my patcher is corrupted please move it to the trash even with gatekeeper disables the only thing bad about having gatekeeper it ask me for my password to open safari and other apps

 

[ASentientBot]

I don't have Xcode installed and I even get my patcher is corrupted please move it to the trash even with gatekeeper disables the only thing bad about having gatekeeper it ask me for my password to open safari and other apps

You don't need Xcode to run codesign -f -s - /path/to/binary, which should be all that's needed.