macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[joergz]

@dosdude1 Strange issue. Used the Patcher 1.2 and my Mac (MBA 2013) downloaded Catalina Beta 15.0.15 instead of the GM. I'm not enrolled to the Beta program. Anyone has an idea (besides downloading via AppStore)? I want to create a stick for my MP3,1.

Seems to be solved. Downloaded 15.0.34 now.

 

[zephar42]

Airdrop Support on Mac Pro 2008 (3,1)

I have been able to enable Airdrop Support on my Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) running Catalina using the following:

fenvi 1200M WiFi & BT PCI-E card $39.99

PCI-E WiFi Card BT4.0 for MacOS Windows 7/8/10/11 802.11a/g/n/ac PCI-E PCI Network Adapter mac-Compatible Wi-Fi AirDrop Handoff Instant Hotspot macOS MIMO Mac OS X natively Supported BCM4360 AC1200

Specifications Model: Connector interface: PCI Express 1X, 4X, 8X, 16X Speed: 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz

www.amazon.com

CRJ 9-Pin USB IDC Dupont Male Header to Single USB 2.0 Type A Male Cable $7.99

CRJ 9-Pin USB IDC Dupont Male Header to Single USB 2.0 Type A Male Cable

Many USB devices typically intended to be used inside of a PC case come with a motherboard header connector. This cable gives you the opportunity to use any of these accessories with a standard USB port. Only the bottom 5 Pin row is electrically wired to the USB connector in accordance with USB h...

www.amazon.com

The Mac Pro 2008 doesn't have an onboard USB connection to the motherboard, so I used the USB cable to convert the cable from the card to standard USB Type A and ran the the cable out though an empty PCI slot and plugged it into the external USB port on the back of the Mac.

I also needed to remove the original bluetooth card behind drive bays 1 and 2.

I haven't been able to get Handoff working yet, but Airdrop works now from my iPhone and iPad to my Mac Pro.

 

[TimothyR734]

For those having issues creating macOS Catalina Patcher make sure you have th current versions which is 1.2.0. Make sure you format your usb as extend journaled and you can download the current macOS Catliana using the patcher if that fail you can also try using the install to this machine method which I sometimes use and it also works. sometimes if the progress bar gets stuck at near or complete sometimes you can boot into the Catalina Patcher and apply the post install patches as this sometimes works
[automerge]1571941013[/automerge]

The battery is important for performance, but it has nothing to do with the trackpad, unless it’s still in place and swollen to the point where it pushed against the trackpador associated components. It has worked fine without a battery for the past three years except for CPU speed being slow. It also worked fine the first time I installed Catalina, but then for some reason it didn’t. Now I’m running El Capitan again and the trackpad is fine.

I really appreaciate and respect the people who work hard to let us run macOS on unsupported systems. It was a fun project for me to try, but in the end it didn’t live up to the standard I want from a computer. It’s not for me, but I know a lot of people are happy with it. Great stuff 👍🏻

I have a MacBook 5,2 as well and my trackpad stopped work after High Sierra which no work around has been achieved

 

[jackluke]

Airdrop Support on Mac Pro 2008 (3,1)

I have been able to enable Airdrop Support on my Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) running Catalina using the following:

fenvi 1200M WiFi & BT PCI-E card $39.99

PCI-E WiFi Card BT4.0 for MacOS Windows 7/8/10/11 802.11a/g/n/ac PCI-E PCI Network Adapter mac-Compatible Wi-Fi AirDrop Handoff Instant Hotspot macOS MIMO Mac OS X natively Supported BCM4360 AC1200

Specifications Model: Connector interface: PCI Express 1X, 4X, 8X, 16X Speed: 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz

www.amazon.com

CRJ 9-Pin USB IDC Dupont Male Header to Single USB 2.0 Type A Male Cable $7.99

CRJ 9-Pin USB IDC Dupont Male Header to Single USB 2.0 Type A Male Cable

Many USB devices typically intended to be used inside of a PC case come with a motherboard header connector. This cable gives you the opportunity to use any of these accessories with a standard USB port. Only the bottom 5 Pin row is electrically wired to the USB connector in accordance with USB h...

www.amazon.com

The Mac Pro 2008 doesn't have an onboard USB connection to the motherboard, so I used the USB cable to convert the cable from the card to standard USB Type A and ran the the cable out though an empty PCI slot and plugged it into the external USB port on the back of the Mac.

I also needed to remove the original bluetooth card behind drive bays 1 and 2.

I haven't been able to get Handoff working yet, but Airdrop works now from my iPhone and iPad to my Mac Pro.

For Handoff (that is a Continuity feature) try this: enable continuity from terminal

After the script, if still can't get handoff, try to sign-out and sign-in again from the Catalina System Preferences - "iCloud prefane"

 

[DK-Webentwicklung]

Hello. I have a problem with my MacBook Air Mid 2011, I can't install Catalina with Catalina patcher because when I try to install it the window opens and says ''an error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.'' Please help me, thanks

Installation has worked now. Delete the downloaded .dmg and restart the patcher, reload the .dmg and everything works.

 

[jhowarth]

Airdrop Support on Mac Pro 2008 (3,1)

I have been able to enable Airdrop Support on my Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) running Catalina using the following:

fenvi 1200M WiFi & BT PCI-E card $39.99

PCI-E WiFi Card BT4.0 for MacOS Windows 7/8/10/11 802.11a/g/n/ac PCI-E PCI Network Adapter mac-Compatible Wi-Fi AirDrop Handoff Instant Hotspot macOS MIMO Mac OS X natively Supported BCM4360 AC1200

Specifications Model: Connector interface: PCI Express 1X, 4X, 8X, 16X Speed: 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz

www.amazon.com

CRJ 9-Pin USB IDC Dupont Male Header to Single USB 2.0 Type A Male Cable $7.99

CRJ 9-Pin USB IDC Dupont Male Header to Single USB 2.0 Type A Male Cable

Many USB devices typically intended to be used inside of a PC case come with a motherboard header connector. This cable gives you the opportunity to use any of these accessories with a standard USB port. Only the bottom 5 Pin row is electrically wired to the USB connector in accordance with USB h...

www.amazon.com

The Mac Pro 2008 doesn't have an onboard USB connection to the motherboard, so I used the USB cable to convert the cable from the card to standard USB Type A and ran the the cable out though an empty PCI slot and plugged it into the external USB port on the back of the Mac.

I also needed to remove the original bluetooth card behind drive bays 1 and 2.

I haven't been able to get Handoff working yet, but Airdrop works now from my iPhone and iPad to my Mac Pro.

What worked here on my MacPro was...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E...303760?hash=item362c781f10:g:t4QAAOSwofxUbzDF

and iMac A1419 card such as

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac...jIAAOSwW2RdNbQ8:sc:USPSFirstClass!45208!US!-1

The MacPro 3,1 can communicate the usb through its miniPCI slot. Handoff and Airdrop works out of the box once this combo is installed.

 

[Funghoz]

Installation has worked now. Delete the downloaded .dmg and restart the patcher, reload the .dmg and everything works.

yes it worked!
but now I have this problem,
the menu bar is too dark but I have light theme selected
any advice?

 

[avz]

Trackpad preferences is NOT WORKING without the battery in High Sierra and newest.
It’s a weird bug, but if you think about this all the High Sierra compatibles MB have a non removable battery, so it’s thinking there is a mismatch and show this error.

I have a MacBook 5,2 as well and my trackpad stopped work after High Sierra which no work around has been achieved
[/QUOTE]

You don't really need a functional trackpad preference pane as you can use terminal commands instead but it is obviously a pain.

 

[oliveira131]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post for this project.
I started a "research" to modify a Intel HD 3000 kext with Metal support.

The idea is simple: HD 3000 is very close to HD 4000 in VA Driver and GL driver (GL not much, but still some shared features). Based on this, I modify the HD 4000 Metal driver to HD 3000.

Is very primary with few hex modifications but I think this is possible.

In attachment is the modifications, is not functional yet (load the desktop but Finder not load). Have issues with signature for MTL Driver and I don't have test on the originals macOS Frameworks (only in patched). Also have in attachment the patched kext for MacbookPro8,1 AirDrop support, if anyone needs for this model (MacBook Pro 2011).

If anyone have this original files for macOS Catalina (without patch) and can send to this post, I will appreciate (I know, I can extract of the pkgs files in macOS installer, is only for more speed and less work to me.. 😅). These files are:

• CoreDisplay.framework
• OpenGL.framework
• GPUSupport.framework
• SkyLight.framework

In the coming days I will continue with the research and testing in this kext.

Updating about Metal for HD3000

Seems possible, not function but screen capture and transparency works, but any app load yet.

Still in progress...

 

[BigSmileMan]

Updating about Metal for HD3000

It will be AWESOME! Many of us is willing a working solution!! Wish you a good luck in this research!

 

[Maxxyjunior]

Hi guys!

on my Macbook Pro 8,1 with Catalina with your help i enable Airdrop, Handoff and through Terminal, writing on ntfs hdd and activate the recovery partition too!.

Now i have a little question....

on Intel Hd 3000 i can't set automatic on light or dark select screen.....if i select light ok! if i select dark it's ok!
but if i try to set auto, when i exit and re enter on that selection screen, he set the function at the last used...in my case dark.

any help?

Thank you!
Max

 

[zephar42]

For Handoff (that is a Continuity feature) try this: enable continuity from terminal

After the script, if still can't get handoff, try to sign-out and sign-in again from the Catalina System Preferences - "iCloud prefane"

All I had to do was sign-out and sign-in again from iCloud and now Handoff is working fine!!

Thanks for the help!

 

[TimothyR734]

yes it worked!
but now I have this problem,
the menu bar is too dark but I have light theme selected
any advice?
View attachment 872207

https://github.com/rmc-team/bluesky/releases/tag/1.4.4 follow the instructions here and don't forget when using the terminal to use sudo sh

 

[s.ruizpe]

I made some kind of patch that should work but only on 2010 and 2011 machines (maybe 2009 too), what's the output of these terminal commands on your Catalina:

ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'

ioreg -r -n ARPT | grep IOName

system_profiler -detailLevel mini | grep "Card Type"

Mine are:

Mac-F22C89C8

"IOName" = "pci14e4,4353"

Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x93)

The attached patch for enabling AirDrop on Catalina is only for MacBook7,1 and MacBookPro6,2


edit: I made an AirDrop patch (using a previous stock Catalina IO80211Family.kext) for MacBook Air 4,2 and JusVan reported that works correctly

Works like a charm for the Macbook Air 4,2, thanks a lot for your help and definitely really appreciated.

I'm looking for a similar solution now by modifying IO80211Family.kext to fix my Hackintosh that I can use Wifi and Airdrop with my Mac Pro (Early 2008) system definition.
The IO8021Family.kext I downloaded from internet doesn't work really well with my Belkin F8T017 Bluetooth 2.1 USB Network Adapter & TL-WDN4800 N900 Dual Band Wireless PCI Express Adapter. Totally random, sometimes just one work, others both.

 

[alexcorpse]

I can say that bluesky 1.4.4 with the scrip does not work it must be installed directly and that hitoolbox does not work for me always booting with bluescreen, blackscreen I have installed it more than 5 times always the same just skylight but hitoolbox always blue screen

 

[JorgKe]

Hi. I'm running Catalina on a Mac mini Server Late 2009. All seems to be working fine, however I do not have the "All Photos" option in the sidebar of the Photos app. I have seen this issue reported before in this thread, however I have not seen a solution for it.

Do any of you see the"All Photos" option? Is it somehow related to video acceleration/Metal and is the option disabled because the system requires some video-related frameworks that might not function correctly on my Mac mini?

Thanks.

 

[TimothyR734]

I can say that bluesky 1.4.4 with the scrip does not work it must be installed directly and that hitoolbox does not work for me always booting with bluescreen, blackscreen I have installed it more than 5 times always the same just skylight but hitoolbox always blue screen

[automerge]1571964756[/automerge]
Try this :
1 unzip the CatalinaAutoMount place it in /Library/LaunchDaemons folder then reboot
2.unzip put the HIToolbox in /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A folder
3. Pit the SkyLightOriginal in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A folder
4. reboot
[automerge]1571964833[/automerge]

Hi. I'm running Catalina on a Mac mini Server Late 2009. All seems to be working fine, however I do not have the "All Photos" option in the sidebar of the Photos app. I have seen this issue reported before in this thread, however I have not seen a solution for it.

Do any of you see the"All Photos" option? Is it somehow related to video acceleration/Metal and is the option disabled because the system requires some video-related frameworks that might not function correctly on my Mac mini?

Thanks.

Yes Photos requires meta to run properly you can right click on a photo and then show in all photos this is the only work around for now

 

[Dilli]

This is scary.
Read an article that Catalina has rendered many macs dead with only a folder logo on boot. This happened because of EFI firmware being corrupted by Catalina. Thank God that our patched version on unsupported macs is working pretty nice.

 

[TimothyR734]

This is scary.
Read an article that Catalina has rendered many macs dead with only a folder logo on boot. This happened because of EFI firmware being corrupted by Catalina. Thank God that our patched version on unsupported macs is working pretty nice.

usually the folder icon means you don't have a macOS installed which would suck if you had one installed and lost everything

 

[ASentientBot]

Updating about Metal for HD3000

Seems possible, not function but screen capture and transparency works, but any app load yet.

View attachment 872212


Still in progress...

Holy crap, you're making progress for sure! If you get this working fully, it will be probably the biggest advancement in this thread so far. Can't wait to see where this goes! 😁

I wonder if anything like this is possible with the nVidia kexts... unlikely, since I think that Tesla is quite different from their modern cards. But I don't know much about your method.

In other news, 10.15.1 DP3 is working on non-Metal systems with no issues (as expected).

Yay.

Edit: @oliveira131, you don't happen to have the legacy video patches installed, do you? If so, they will almost certainly interfere with your Metal project. I assume you know this, but just in case.

Again, great work!

 

[jackluke]

Updating about Metal for HD3000

Seems possible, not function but screen capture and transparency works, but any app load yet.

View attachment 872212


Still in progress...

Using your modified "IntelHD3000 Metal driver" Could you make a screen with "dark mode" selected?

Because seems you're in "light mode" but Finder top menu is not really transparent, rather is absent, I mean not loaded, so its upper-right icons take the background picture as "transparency effect", similar thing happens also with a non-Metal (OpenGL fallback) patch, but for few seconds after log-in in Catalina (or Mojave) just before the time Finder top menu being loaded.

I write this because having a Finder top menu transparent in "light mode" means that a Metal API is really loaded in a GPU driver.

 

[Vyzantion]

This is scary.
Read an article that Catalina has rendered many macs dead with only a folder logo on boot. This happened because of EFI firmware being corrupted by Catalina. Thank God that our patched version on unsupported macs is working pretty nice.

Perhaps an updated Clover+FakeSMC would substitute for the vulnerable firmware of unsupported Macs.

 

[Dilli]

Updating about Metal for HD3000

Seems possible, not function but screen capture and transparency works, but any app load yet.

View attachment 872212


Still in progress...

Wish you luck. Indeed it will be really great for those having hd3000 will be able to get metal support graphics.

 

[chrismine]

Used Catalina Patcher 1.2.0 and download Catalina image 15.0.34.
Still cannot make a bootable USB drive nor install to this machine.
Wondering if worthwhile to install High Sierra with dosdude patcher and start again?
Currently still on beta 8 (19A558d)
Have only access to this machine.
Macbook (13-inch) Aluminum, Late 2008 Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics
Macbook5,1
Thank you.

 

[Mess]

The fact you have the AirDrop icon in Finder doesn't tell much, in order to check if enabling AirDrop on your iMac 2009 is still possible with Catalina, you should post also the output of these Terminal commands (copy/paste):

ioreg -r -n ARPT | grep IOName

system_profiler -detailLevel mini | grep "Card Type"

perfect thank you. details below:

"IOName" = "pci168c,2a"

Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x8F)