macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[jackluke]

Ok thanks a lot. Tonight I’ll try.....

I’m pretty sure the system is installed over Mojave but something breaks out at the last reboot.

If I can disable SIP via Recovery From HS what do you suggest?

Trying to “fix” the installed Catalina over USB boot (wondering is all correct) and (re)apply the post install patchs or is better to perform a full installation (from HS or USB) ?

In this case is better to wipe out the exMojave/Catalina partition?

And the new one should be APFS right?

Thanks

If you don't have important datas on your previous Mojave (I guess it was HFS+), probably something went wrong during the auto-conversion to APFS while the postinstall (the apple stock one not the dosdude1 one) auto-migrating "Users and Library" to the Catalina new installation has corrupted something in /private/var/ or elsewhere. Hence better if you can erase the previous Mojave Volume and make a fresh Catalina installation without the "Video Patch".

Then I'd advise (also extended to all those who have a non-EFI/non-apple GPU) to use an USB flash drive with a LED light on it, in this way even without a bootscreen you can really notice (using alt-option apple startup manager) if there are activities during a boot from there, if not surely you are booting from the internal disk.

 

[Flacko]

I have used this to make a fully operational recovery partition: Catalina Recovery HD Partition

Thank you for testing and confirm the good work of the program
[/QUOTE]
I should be thanking you! Works well on unpatched cMP4.1>5.1 with Catalina 15.0.

 

[haralds]

Is there a way to download Catalina 15.1 beta using the Patcher?

 

[Starplayr]

You could try a SMBIOS to point to a newer Mac Pro, in order to avoid some issues regarding updates and downloading the Catalina install app from App Store. But if this configuration seems to work, I guess you can stick to it. Do you also use FakeSMC?

I am currently using Clover, but if there is an easier way I'll try it. I am using the Mac Pro 3,1 profile to match my system and I'm just changing the board ID to an iMac 10,1 which enables the DisplayPort. My system has troubles if I take it to Mac Pro 5,1 6,1 etc. I've only been able to use the Mac mini or some iMac profiles with Clover and get a successful boot. I try not to mess with it a whole lot as I don't want to fry anything.

I checked out FakeSMC and VirtualSMC and both seem to be a little complex. Clover for me seems to be easier to use at this point. I am gonna try to find a fix that eliminates having to use a boot loader or SMC emulator. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time. Traveling this week and I work two programming jobs now.

 

[TimothyR734]

Is there a way to download Catalina 15.1 beta using the Patcher?

right click on your macOS Catalina Patcher in the application folder then open Show Package Contents/Contents/Resources and https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz and using a text editor replace that link in the DownloadSettings.plist I wasn't successful at it as mine got corrupted but I was successful at replacing that link in the Dosdude's macOS Downloader but it downloaded Catalina 15.0.31

 

[StuBFrost]

Hello

I installed Catalina over an existing Mojave installation on a MacBook 5,1 and it all seems to be running ok (although a little slow due to indexing) except that my network WiFi keeps timing out and not loading web pages. Anybody else have the issue or is it due to the indexing?

Thanks

Stuart

 

[MichelAngeloX]

I'm also using the romaji-input. And it's working just fine.
Try something that refresh input sources, like remove and re-add the input source.

I've done that multiple times already and it didn't change the fact that when selecting hiragana for instance, only romajis appear on screen and they never change to hiraganas. I don't know what machine you are using but it would seem looking at this thread that I am not the only one with a very old mac having issues with japanese romaji input

I can use it without any problem...it is another case if you can not working on it...so interesting....

What mac are you running ?

 

[MichelAngeloX]

Hello

I installed Catalina over an existing Mojave installation on a MacBook 5,1 and it all seems to be running ok (although a little slow due to indexing) except that my network WiFi keeps timing out and not loading web pages. Anybody else have the issue or is it due to the indexing?

Thanks

Stuart

I have a 5,5 macbook pro and the wifi acted a bit at first, was saying that there was no internet connection and looking for network every 5 seconds, but after a few minutes it settled down and works fine now

 

[StuBFrost]

I have a 5,5 macbook pro and the wifi acted a bit at first, was saying that there was no internet connection and looking for network every 5 seconds, but after a few minutes it settled down and works fine now

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to settle down.

 

[haralds]

right click on your macOS Catalina Patcher in the application folder then open Show Package Contents/Contents/Resources and https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz and using a text editor replace that link in the DownloadSettings.plist I wasn't successful at it as mine got corrupted but I was successful at replacing that link in the Dosdude's macOS Downloader but it downloaded Catalina 15.0.31

15.0.32 was the beta GM Candidate and release. I am looking for the next version.

 

[TimothyR734]

15.0.32 was the beta GM Candidate and release. I am looking for the next version.

I ended up switching from the dev beta to the public beta and tried download macOS Catalina from the macOS downloader this time it downloaded Cat versions 15.0.32 where on the dev profile it downloaded Cat version 15.0.31
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This is the one I downloaded from 1.1.7 of the Catalina Patcher now notice the difference between both of them the first screenshot says install macOS Catalina Beta downloaded from the macOS downloader and this screenshot it says install macOS Catalina from the macOS Catalina Patcher it could be possible Apple forgot to change the version number like the did from the GM to full public release and notice the size of each
[automerge]1571078915[/automerge]

 

[lamerz78]

If you need to disable SIP without a bootscreen, try this from your iMac HighSierra (assuming that is an HFS+ installation), open HighSierra Terminal and type:
sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
(this should also allow to boot Catalina without patches)

Then from your HighSierra, open System Preferences - Startup Disk - pick your HighSierra Volume label, and let system reboot, right after the "power-on chime" hold CMD+R for 20 seconds, then wait at least 5 minutes, after that timeframe you should land on the official HighSierra Recovery and from there disable SIP with recovery terminal: csrutil disable

Hs is in APFS.....so was MOJAVE....

Terminal said: error setting variable....

 

[Vyzantion]

right click on your macOS Catalina Patcher in the application folder then open Show Package Contents/Contents/Resources and https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz and using a text editor replace that link in the DownloadSettings.plist I wasn't successful at it as mine got corrupted but I was successful at replacing that link in the Dosdude's macOS Downloader but it downloaded Catalina 15.0.31

It is pretty simple. FakeSMC is a SMC configurator kext, essential for boot. You can just copy paste it into the EFI partition of the installation pen drive (I assume you have also installed Clover on the pen drive), on Clover-Kexts-Other. Apple has into macOS and iOS (and also its OSs) a kext called DSMOS, short for Do Not Steal Mac OS. This kext prevents the use of the OS into a machine that they do not want to: Hackintosh, unsupported Macs, Macs for which OS X was not bought for (back in the day when you actually had to buy a license to upgrade your OS X version) and, on smartphones and tablets the same, altought there a are more serious means to stop the OS into working on that unwanted hardware. FakeSMC configures the SMC in a way that the OS is usable. It is a mandatory kext for Hackintosh and recommended into some unsupported Macs configurations, altought many do not recommend this, like dosdude1. It is not included by default into Clover only in the iso version due to the fact that it can be installed either into an EFI partition or into the OS itself. On my Hackintosh, I place it into the EFI of the pen drive and then, after the first boot of the installed OS via Clover on the pen drive, after I install Clover, I place it into the EFI partition for Macintosh HD. You do not need to bother to configure FakeSMC if you do not need it, it works out of the box, so to speak, most of the time. Unfortunately, FakeSMC it is not actually developed anymore for about a year, since RehabMan, the main developer of it, has stoped working on macOS, as it seems.

 

[jackluke]

Hs is in APFS.....so was MOJAVE....

Terminal said: error setting variable....

You're right, since also HighSierra is in APFS you should set that nvram value from a Recovery Environment, then try this, open System Preferences - Startup Disk - select your HighSierra label

System reboot, after "power-on chime" hold and keep holding CMD+R for about 15-20 seconds, then wait (without bootscreen) at least 5 minutes, it should lead to the HighSierra APFS Recovery (that is supported for your iMac 2011), from there open a terminal and type:

nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable

 

[Arapaima]

Hi ya'll,
Can someone give me few hint on why my MBP late 2008(5,1) has a slow boot time? The system it self runs smooth and fast due to the SSD. It's only start-up
Compared to my iMac 9,1 with SSD as well, the difference is night and day.

I've already selected my SSD disc in system properties and also selected APFS disc as well.

I've tried looking for answers in this thread and didn't find any helpful tips.

 

[lamerz78]

You're right, since also HighSierra is in APFS you should set that nvram value from a Recovery Environment, then try this, open System Preferences - Startup Disk - select your HighSierra label

System reboot, after "power-on chime" hold and keep holding CMD+R for about 15-20 seconds, then wait (without bootscreen) at least 5 minutes, it should lead to the HighSierra APFS Recovery (that is supported for your iMac 2011), from there open a terminal and type:

nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable

Nothing.....after 10 minutes the screen is still black.....

 

[ctaylora1231]

Does anyone have issues with the home app ? On Catalina no switches show, they are all blank.
Microsoft Word, highlighting has some major graphical glitches, any workaround would be great.

im having same problem with the home app, similar issue in mojave. Also effects news app for me. I remember it working correctly briefly during Mojave beta days but stop working again once final release. I

its gotta be possible. We would appreciate any help. @dosdude1 @ASentientBot @TimothyR734 @0403979

 

[satbox]

Yeah, all you really need to do is set your Startup Disk in System Preferences. If you want to completely get rid of the files, you can mount your ESP, and remove the EFI/BOOT directory.

Hi, Please can you explain how I can mount my ESP and remove the EFI/BOOT? Thank you!

 

[jackluke]

Nothing.....after 10 minutes the screen is still black.....

Recovery usually takes around 3-5 minutes to boot, so in your case it doesn't worked, you can press power button and keep it 10-15 second until iMac power-off, then power-on to reach again HighSierra. You need a recovery environment to set nvram and disable SIP from an APFS container, can't do it with "sudo" and without a bootscreen it's not simple to guess from where you are booting.

edit:

seems your swapped non-EFI GPU K2000m Nvidia Kepler (they share the same driver with K5000) even if Metal supported those GPUs have some known issues with OSX Installer (or OSX recovery).

But if you read here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp5-1-what-you-have-to-do-to-upgrade-to-mojave-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418

"Quadro K5000 you can't do a USB clean install with it at the moment. The USB installer don't detect that the GPU is a Metal supported card and don't continue the install, it's a bug with Nvidia Kepler GPUs."

 

[jowaju]

Anyone else having issues with Safe Mode after installing 10.15 GM? It hasn't worked on the last 3 machines I tried it on. To wit, the machine boots normally into Mac OS 10.15, holding down the shift key while booting simply results in a prohibitory symbol. I tried clearing NVRAM, fixing the Recovery partition with the script from above (which DID work to fix the recovery partition, but Safe Mode still won't work) Note these tests were all on machines that needed the APFS software patch. Is there something with APFS containers that is different when booting into Safe Mode?

Verbose mode says "This version of the Mac OS X is not supported on this Platform!" Reason Mac-F22587C8

This is with or without the nvram -no_compat_check" argument.
[automerge]1571089699[/automerge]

Hs is in APFS.....so was MOJAVE....

Terminal said: error setting variable....

View attachment 869497

Do you have an actual password set for the account? You can't do sudo from terminal with a blank password.

 

[TimothyR734]

im having same problem with the home app, similar issue in mojave. Also effects news app for me. I remember it working correctly briefly during Mojave beta days but stop working again once final release. IView attachment 869523View attachment 869524

its gotta be possible. We would appreciate any help. @dosdude1 @ASentientBot @TimothyR734 @0403979

go to the macOS Mojave for Unsupported Macs forum try post 15432 I believe page 614
[automerge]1571090983[/automerge]

15.0.32 was the beta GM Candidate and release. I am looking for the next version.

I installed the version of Catalina that I downloaded from the macOS Downloader and it installed the GM thank goodness I have the Catalina Final patcher

 

[Starplayr]

It is pretty simple. FakeSMC is a SMC configurator kext, essential for boot. You can just copy paste it into the EFI partition of the installation pen drive (I assume you have also installed Clover on the pen drive), on Clover-Kexts-Other. Apple has into macOS and iOS (and also its OSs) a kext called DSMOS, short for Do Not Steal Mac OS. This kext prevents the use of the OS into a machine that they do not want to: Hackintosh, unsupported Macs, Macs for which OS X was not bought for (back in the day when you actually had to buy a license to upgrade your OS X version) and, on smartphones and tablets the same, altought there a are more serious means to stop the OS into working on that unwanted hardware. FakeSMC configures the SMC in a way that the OS is usable. It is a mandatory kext for Hackintosh and recommended into some unsupported Macs configurations, altought many do not recommend this, like dosdude1. It is not included by default into Clover only in the iso version due to the fact that it can be installed either into an EFI partition or into the OS itself. On my Hackintosh, I place it into the EFI of the pen drive and then, after the first boot of the installed OS via Clover on the pen drive, after I install Clover, I place it into the EFI partition for Macintosh HD. You do not need to bother to configure FakeSMC if you do not need it, it works out of the box, so to speak, most of the time. Unfortunately, FakeSMC it is not actually developed anymore for about a year, since RehabMan, the main developer of it, has stoped working on macOS, as it seems.

With Clover and Clover Configurator, all I needed was to setup the SMBIOS in my config for my machine and swap out the Board ID for a Mac 10,1 only. Keeping the change at minimal and I have full control over what's being emulated in this case just the board ID. No other kexts are needed. I don't plan on using this long, when time permits, I plan on swapping out the affected files from a beta version of Catalina or do some hex editing on the IDs. Should not take long, I just ran out of time this week. The goal is a Hackintosh-free patch for the unsupported Mac Pros.

 

[TimothyR734]

Hi ya'll,
Can someone give me few hint on why my MBP late 2008(5,1) has a slow boot time? The system it self runs smooth and fast due to the SSD. It's only start-up
Compared to my iMac 9,1 with SSD as well, the difference is night and day.

I've already selected my SSD disc in system properties and also selected APFS disc as well.

I've tried looking for answers in this thread and didn't find any helpful tips.

How much ram do you have in the 2008 MBP you need at least 4GB I think 6MB is the max but not sure the difference between you iMac 9,1 and you 2008 MBP is the 2008 uses ddr2 ram where as the 2009 iMac uses ddr3

 

[antony34]

What mac are you running ?

27" iMac 10,1 Late 2009

 

[nandor690]

I was able to hack my system literally and got the DisplayPort to function.

This is not recommended, but I have some follow up stuff that may be of interest to whoever wants to create a patch.

Using Clover and Clover Configurator, selecting only a SMBIOS profile of Mac Pro 3,1 profile for my system and only changing the Board ID to the Mac 10,1 board ID of 'Mac-F2268CC8', and using the Clover boot loader, I was able to get DisplayPort to function on a Mac Pro 3,1 with an Nvidia GTX 680 Card with 4K@60Hz on the Display Port just like it did on the the early betas.

Now I did a search high and low for that 27" iMac 2009 board ID F2268CC8 and it is present in 4 files:

IOBluetoothUSBDFUTool
IOBluetooth.framework/.../SystemParameters.plist
.../PrivateFrameworks/ServerInformation.framework/ServerInformation
/private/var/db/uuidtext/dsc/7D86856A80053540B79F20A432768DAB <!-- that # may vary

I don't know if this matters but the Mac Pro 3,1 board ID is not in the two IOBluetooth files.

Now I have not tried swapping out that data from my working Catalina Beta or tried doing any hex editing yet. It spent a good bit of time all day yesterday just swapping out .kext files to no avail.

I did see an osX86 user have the same issue and he chose a Mac Pro 6,1 profile. That just KPs my system.

Again, using Clover is not recommended and once there is a proper patch, I will discontinue using it. I think for troubleshooting purposes, it does show that the DisplayPort can still be made active on Cat 10.15 GM and this does not appear to be a Video driver issue at all. I don't even think it is actually an AppleSMBIOS or System.kext issue either as I originally had thought. Just that Apple probably removed DisplayPort access on certain configurations.

Hope this information is helpful and that someone finds a fix so Clover or another bootloader does not have to be used. Attached are some screenshots of my findings.

Also several iMac profiles do not allow the DisplayPort to be used either, so this issue could be fixed by Apple, but also they may only fix it with certain board types. We shall see what .1 and .2 bring.

If no one tackles this, I may run a few more tests next weekend. I am hoping we can collaborate on this problem as I know there are better patchers on here than me.

Only caveat to swapping on a board ID is Apple may deprecate another board ID in the future. We all might be on borrowed time, but so far I am just glad to have 4k@60Hz back and can start building my 10.15 system out.

View attachment 869296View attachment 869297View attachment 869298View attachment 869299View attachment 869300

What system is this on? You could just edit the needed kext to get it working without having to use clover.