macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[alphascorp]

@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...

Hi @Alex-Microsmeta
If it is the indexing of Spotlight that takes the resources of your CPU, have you thought to disable it permanently with Terminal:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

And if you want to go back and reactivate Spotlight:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

I never use Spotlight and disable it after each new install/update

Editing:
SIP must be disable before

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Hi @Alex-Microsmeta
If it is the indexing of Spotlight that takes the resources of your CPU, have you thought to disable it permanently with Terminal:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

And if you want to go back and reactivate Spotlight:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

I never use Spotlight and disable it after each new install/update

Thank you, very useful.

 

[nekton1]

Thanks for your work Syncretic. I'll just remove Japanese on those old machines and use them in English.

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.)

 

[dosdude1]

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.

Is that a Hackintosh? If so, that's why. I've seen this a lot with Intel graphics and Hackintoshes.

 

[F150Terp]

I have just two minor issues:

1) Feedback Assistant keeps popping up after a few starts. I remove it from the dock but it returns after a few starts.
2) I get an empty recovery file folder in my trash after each reboot.

My machine a MacPro 3,1, the rest everything work fine as I can tell.

 

[avz]

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/

This is great news as this was my main plan for doing Catalina updates(you explained it quite well back in Mojave thread).

 

[Oxygeneralist]

How can I uninstall the dosdude patch? I recently bought a MacBook Pro and loaded a Time Machine backup from my MacBook, which was running patched High Sierra. I've since updated my MacBook Pro to Mojave and now Catalina and I still get the white-on-black boot screen and can't re-enable SIP.

 

[avz]

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

As a matter of fact having Xcode installed actually prevented me from successfully running codesign -f -s - /path/to/binary when I tried to codesign manually patched CoreBrightness binary(to enable NightShift). After I removed Xcode, I was able to successfully complete the operation. For some reason Xcode seems to clash with my previously installed Command Line Tools.

 

[nijhawank]

Is that a Hackintosh? If so, that's why. I've seen this a lot with Intel graphics and Hackintoshes.

Yes, Its a hackintosh Lenovo T410i with Corei3 1st Gen. Arrandale chipset. I use statically patched kexts with information from https://github.com/Goldfish64/ArrandaleGraphicsHackintosh

With Mojave 10.14.3 there is absolutely smooth transition but of course Mojave 10.14.3 is not comparable to Catalina as, in fact, we are using some of the 10.14.3 frameworks in Catalina and other patches to Skylight and CoreDisplay frameworks.

With your patcher, the only patch that I enable is the one for legacy intel graphics.

 

[TimothyR734]

Since I am having issues replacing the link to replace in the macOS Catalina Patcher to download 10.15.1 I was however successful editing the one in dosdude1's macOS downloader its downloading Catalina now this is in reference to my post 5293

 

[the.burn]

Hey there

Can someone please summarize which limitations unsupported machines will have with Photos.app?
I’ve just read some post in this thread that „All photos“ is not shown/clickable,
but I’ve not read something like this in the „Known issues“ in the first wiki post here or on @dosdude1 s webpage, where one downloads the patcher...

If photos is not completely useable, this is - in my opinion - a large downside and worth mentioning before upgrading 😞

Thanks!

 

[telepati]

Yes, I use it for Hackintosh. But you need to be careful with System Definitions (SMBIOS). Unlike Mojave, on the dosdude1 patched Catalina Clover does not select the correct definition automatically.

Thank you. Did you create an installer with dosdude1 patcher then install the clover this installer USB right?

 

[ColdnFrosty]

Hey there

Can someone please summarize which limitations unsupported machines will have with Photos.app?
I’ve just read some post in this thread that „All photos“ is not shown/clickable,
but I’ve not read something like this in the „Known issues“ in the first wiki post here or on @dosdude1 s webpage, where one downloads the patcher...

If photos is not completely useable, this is - in my opinion - a large downside and worth mentioning before upgrading 😞

Thanks!

There is no tab for "All Photos." However, if you right-click any photo, you can choose, "Show in All Photos" and the expected "All Photos" functionality with images sorted by date is displayed. Not much works when "Edit" is selected. Crop doesn't work, and none of the "Adjust" features appear to work either. Running a Mini 5,1 here. You can still right click and "Edit with Preview" which gives some limited editing capability.

 

[TimothyR734]

Hey there

Can someone please summarize which limitations unsupported machines will have with Photos.app?
I’ve just read some post in this thread that „All photos“ is not shown/clickable,
but I’ve not read something like this in the „Known issues“ in the first wiki post here or on @dosdude1 s webpage, where one downloads the patcher...

If photos is not completely useable, this is - in my opinion - a large downside and worth mentioning before upgrading 😞

Thanks!

Photo's works only the photo's tab is missing you can right click and show in all photo's that is the only work around for now

 

[Glujaz]

@dosdude1 , anything about the missing brightness patch on a 5,2 white MacBook ?

macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

Hello, thanks for the patchers guys ! :) I have some issues though, with my 5,2 (5.2) white MacBook. I can't just the screen brightness. No patcher update solves this like it did before when the Mac was running on High Sierra. Any Idea where I might come from ? By the way, you should add...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[nandor690]

Pretty crazy that it is installable on older iMacs ad not on mine, isn't it? Has anyone tried on my machine?

Do you think Mac Os Mojave could run on my iMac?

I run macOS Catalina (19A583) on a 2007 iMac. Im sure it will run fine on yours

 

[nandor690]

Is that a Hackintosh? If so, that's why. I've seen this a lot with Intel graphics and Hackintoshes.

This occasionally happens on my 2007 iMac with the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT. Usually only while its shutting down. But I notice it a lot more on my hackintosh that uses the intel 4000 graphics. never a problem while using the machine tho. just on shut down and sometimes boot up. not really that big of a deal

 

[nandor690]

Ok so while trying to get handoff and unlock with Apple Watch to work on my Mac Pro 5,1 I have found that for some reason it does not think that I have Bluetooth 4.0. But it is recognized in About This Mac. I am on a fresh install of Catalina (19A583) meaning I erased my ssd in disk utility and installed this version. Bluetooth and wifi are working fine. just handoff and unlock with Apple Watch won't work at all.
Im using the same combo card and the same Catalina version on my iMac and handoff and everything work fine. anyone have any suggestions?

 

[haralds]

The main board needs to be white listed. Try these:
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-F221BEC8:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"

sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

 

[telepati]

I have a problem with Safari on iMac 9,1. I am not sure this is discussed before but here it is; When I download something it is downloading, but the website turning to the white and no website address on the search bar. Does anyone know any solution for this problem?

 

[zephar42]

@dosdude1 - So I had previously had trouble installing beta 10 with 1.1.5, but I somehow managed to successfully install the official Catalina release with 1.1.7. I don't know what caused it to work, but here is what I did in case someone else has the same problem.

Originally, when I tried to install beta 10 with 1.1.5, it started to boot off the USB drive, but then showed a screen with a circle and line thru the circle.

Today, I tried to install the official Catalina release with 1.1.7 from a USB stick and it showed me the same screen with a circle and line thru the circle.

I then tried to install the official Catalina release directly to the Mac Pro 3,1 instead of the USB stick, and it appeared to start installing, but then rebooted back into beta 8 (I had skipped beta 9). Before doing the direct install to the machine, I had also pulled all the drives except the Catalina SSD drive to make sure I didn't mess up my other drives.

Here's what I have in each bay...
Bay 1 - Mojave SSD - Mac OS Extended
Bay 2 - Catalina SSD - APFS
Bay 3 - Mojave HD - Mac OS Extended
Bay 4 - Windows Bootcamp SSD - NTFS

With only one drive in Bay 2 and the others removed, I then tried booting from the USB stick and it worked!!! Maybe having those extra drives installed caused my previous problem?!?!

Anyway.. the official Catalina release is all up and running on my MacPro 3,1 with a GTX 680 card and all the drives back in their bays.

@dosdude1 - Thanks for keeping these old Mac's up and running with the latest OS!!!!

 

[nandor690]

The main board needs to be white listed. Try these:
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-F221BEC8:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"

sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

Am I just running these from terminal from the desktop or do I need to run these from terminal while booted in recovery? thanks for the help

 

[antony34]

@nekton1
Seems no solution to make Japanese IM work. In case you want to keep CAT in your old Mac, you may consider below 3rd party input until @Syncretic, @ASentientBot or other make Apple's Japanese IM back.

I tested google one is work fine. and not affect another Asian input.
Hope it helps.

Free：https://www.google.co.jp/ime/
Paid：https://atok.com, https://www.monokakido.jp/kawasemi/kawasemi2/

 

[cymorrow]

MP5,1 sapphire Radeon rx580

Some success to report.
I was getting this error when I tried to instal using the created USB installer.

After getting the same error as talkenrain no matter where/how I tried to install, I did the following:
upgrade boot rom from 141.0.0.0.0 to 144.0.0.0.0 - did not make a difference.
disabled SIP and set NVRAM to no-compat, this seemed to have done the trick.

Now running Catalina on my 2009 Mac Pro MacPro5,1!!! Thank you unsupported MAC gods!

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

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.)

(tl;dr: the AVX dependence for Japanese input goes back all the way to Catalina DP1, unfortunately)

For what it's worth, I found an external SSD installation of macOS Catalina DP1 (19A471t) that I did on an officially supported Mac back in June. On a MacBook7,1 (Penryn), I booted a USB drive of the Catalina release (19A583) with version 1.1.7 of the dosdude patch, used that to patch the DP1 external SSD, then booted off the external SSD and tried to use Japanese input. Japanese input was nonfunctional, and at one point TextEdit just crashed on me. Then I shut down, booted a MacBookPro8,1 (Sandy Bridge) off the same external SSD, and Japanese input worked fine. To be extra sure, I then booted the MacBook7,1 off the external SSD again, and again Japanese input failed to work (and I was also able to find the crash logs for JapaneseIM, showing illegal instruction crashes in MecabraQueue).