macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[olrik77]

It's the @chris1111 Wireless usb driver that made it to work, since from Catalina AFAIK there is no available third party driver for external usb wifi dongles, instead it is "emulated" through an "ethernet adapter" and a third party "Wifi.app" for network wireless scan.

Yes !
I think so.
My Linksys "WUSB6400M" is connected to a Sonnet USB3 PCIe card in my MP 3,1.
I had to connect the Belkin BT4 dongle to an other USB port because of problems with the Linksys and the BT4 dongle connected on the same USB3 card (BT4 disconnections...keyboard, mouse, trackpad).

Many thanks @chris1111 and @jackluke.

And...il really have in my mind to buy a Broadcom combo internal card (like Broadcom BCM94360CD BCM4360CD 802.11ac WiFi WLAN Bluetooth 4.0 Card with Mini PCI-E to Mini PCI-E Interface Wifi Converter OS X (BCM94360CD module include))...but the wire seems to be very difficult to plug on a so little card...

Serviteur

 

[Dilli]

I have two partitions High sierra & Mojave. When I press option key to boot to efi screen I see another hdd icon showing Mac OS Installer.
I dont have this in my partition map and want to get rid of it. How do I delete it. It just only shows on the boot screen. It happened after installing mojave from usb bootable drive.

i want to install Catalina as 3rd partition and dont want to see this installer icon.

 

[TimothyR734]

That macOS Installer might be from installing Catalina that didn't finish

 

[Dilli]

So how do i remove it. It just shows on the efi boot screen. Also I dont have any recovery partition

 

[TimothyR734]

So how do i remove it. It just shows on the efi boot screen. Also I dont have any recovery partition

restart your Mac press the option key and click on the macOS installer it should go into macOS or you might have to erase you hdd/ssd

 

[lljfk]

So I seen this issue a couple times now.. not sure I resolved it initially but it came back after I did a recent format.

I had everything working on a fresh install. I applied the night shift patch instead the OS when I was prompted, I rebooted into recovery and did post install patches which I never initially did.

Now when I reboot, all I get is the apple logo with the grey loading bar. It goes to full and nothing happens.

I have tried using the latest patcher to re-apply the post install patches, doesn't seem to work. Also tried PR reset, setting default boot/startup device.

Any idea what might be causing this issue and what the fix would be? I am on Mac5,3

 

[nekton1]

Bought a Kingston 500 GB m.2 NVMe PCIe 3 x 4 lane SSD on Cyber Monday (for only $65) and installed in a Highpoint PCIe card. Installed in MP 3,1 running Catalina 10.15.1 and used CCC to clone from SATA SSD in slot 3 to NVMe card. Set boot disk to new NVMe and it booted straight up. Did it this way because dosdude1 patcher no longer sees NVMe SSD in Highpoint card as a valid OS install destination. Guess it's a driver issue. It used to work with a direct install in Mojave but no longer on Catalina.

 

[jhowarth]

Bought a Kingston 500 GB m.2 NVMe PCIe 3 x 4 lane SSD on Cyber Monday (for only $65) and installed in a Highpoint PCIe card. Installed in MP 3,1 running Catalina 10.15.1 and used CCC to clone from SATA SSD in slot 3 to NVMe card. Set boot disk to new NVMe and it booted straight up. Did it this way because dosdude1 patcher no longer sees NVMe SSD in Highpoint card as a valid OS install destination. Guess it's a driver issue. It used to work with a direct install in Mojave but no longer on Catalina.

I doubt it is a driver issue as that would prohibit you from booting the cloned NVMe. Rather I suspect this is a change in the behavior of the installer similar to Apple's dropping Firewire devices as an installable target. Also, unless I am mistaken, SSD PCIe cards are no longer installable targets under Catalina as well.

 

[Macbookprodude]

@Syncretic is that of any value?

So can this make the AMD Radeon work with acceleration ?
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So I seen this issue a couple times now.. not sure I resolved it initially but it came back after I did a recent format.

I had everything working on a fresh install. I applied the night shift patch instead the OS when I was prompted, I rebooted into recovery and did post install patches which I never initially did.

Now when I reboot, all I get is the apple logo with the grey loading bar. It goes to full and nothing happens.

I have tried using the latest patcher to re-apply the post install patches, doesn't seem to work. Also tried PR reset, setting default boot/startup device.

Any idea what might be causing this issue and what the fix would be? I am on Mac5,3

night shift has not been worked out for Catalina yet and installing the one for Mojave causes system preferences and Siri to not work. When you click on keyboard preference or Siri it does not work.

 

[Ludacrisvp]

So can this make the AMD Radeon work with acceleration ?

there is a sse 4.2 limited emulator already released written by syncretic that lets the modern AMD GPU work in the Mac Pro 3,1. MouSSE.kext.

 

[joevt]

This is my board id Mac-942B59F58194171B, will the integer value change accordingly. But after applying my board id and giving following cmd in terminal:

iMac:~ dilli$ sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-942B59F58194171B:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"
Password:
Encountered non-empty <true> on line 604
Error Reading File: /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

The plist command works. I think it's complaining about a preexisting error. Did you edit the plist manually before? Non-empty <true> means you have something like this in the plist file:

<true>hello</true>

You can verify a plist without changing it using the plutil command:

plutil /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

If it doesn't say ":OK" then you need to open the file and fix it manually. Go to line 604 and change "<true>...</true>" to "<true/>"

 

[Dilli]

The plist command works. I think it's complaining about a preexisting error. Did you edit the plist manually before? Non-empty <true> means you have something like this in the plist file:

<true>hello</true>

You can verify a plist without changing it using the plutil command:

plutil /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

If it doesn't say ":OK" then you need to open the file and fix it manually. Go to line 604 and change "<true>...</true>" to "<true/>"

Thanks I will try again. You mean line 604 is to be changed to <true/>

actually i did edit the parameters.plist file on the desktop and dropped it back in the same folder and restarted but got no luck. I have imac mid 2011 and it doesnot have 4.0 bt so will it work
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restart your Mac press the option key and click on the macOS installer it should go into macOS or you might have to erase you hdd/ssd

Any terminal command to hide/ delete it.

 

[joergz]

To those interested in Catalina OTA updates, using the @Pinarek method, I just wrote a little script that automatically whitelist the unsupported machine, note that this script must be launched after applied the dosdude1/Czo Software Update patch and when at least about 3% of OTA downloading is done, to allow apple to create your XXX-XXXXX unique product ID language updates folder.

This script should work without issues.

I repeat the steps:

- Launch the Sierra's Software Update patch by @dosdude1/@Czo (swupatch.zip)
- Detect the Catalina OTA update from System Preferences and click "Update Now"
- When downloading progress bar is ≥ 3% , launch my attached script (catalinaswufix2.zip), for safety you can also re-apply the script before OTA update invites to Restart.

Let the OTA update to autocomplete, and after re-apply the Catalina post patches.

Thanks so much! That worked great on my MP3,1 when updating from 10.15.0 to 10.15.2b4. For the next updates will the same procedure to be done each time?

 

[serafin79]

The Catalina OTA update using the @Pinarek method worked for me on 8,1 other than I had issues with wifi not working when running @dosdude1 1.22 patcher after install.
The solution for me was plug in ethernet and run the patch updater, once the new video patch and the night shift patch was installed everything worked good.

Also you need to add this step first

sudo mount -uw /

before you run the script or you won't have access to the read only partition.

Thanks again for everyone's efforts

 

[0134168]

I doubt it is a driver issue as that would prohibit you from booting the cloned NVMe. Rather I suspect this is a change in the behavior of the installer similar to Apple's dropping Firewire devices as an installable target. Also, unless I am mistaken, SSD PCIe cards are no longer installable targets under Catalina as well.

That is wrong. I can install Catalina in a PCI express module like a charm.

 

[gbecattini]

HINT FOR GEFORCE GTX 660 AND OTHER NOT FULLY SUPPORTED BOARDS
I eventually succeeded installing Catalina on Mac Pro 3.1 with GTX660, when you cannot see the startup manager page.

1. prepare the target disc formatting it APFS and insert it to Mac bay 3
2. prepare the installer / patcher disc and insert it to bay 1
3. start the Mac and start install
4. when you believe the installation crashed (black screen), just wait
5. after about half an hour the system is rebooted and the first Catalina config page is shown
6. shut off the Mac
7. dismount the target drive and mount it with an USB/SATA adapter on a USB port of the Mac
8. start again, the patcher is booted
9. apply the post install patches on the target disc on the USB port
10. when the system reboot, switch off the Mac, remove the patcher disc and insert the target disc
11. reboot and configure your Catalina system
12. perhaps with GTX660 it is not running full performances but it works (in Photoshop I had to set the GPU acceleration mode to "Normal" instead of "Advanced")

Million thanks to Developers!

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Another install fully succeeded: MacBook Pro 5.1 2010. Easy and straightforward!

Thanks again!

 

[nekton1]

That is wrong. I can install Catalina in a PCI express module like a charm.

Hmmm. Strange, so why does an install attempt to the Highpoint 7101-A with NVMe m.2 blade SSD(s) not see the board and SSD(s) at the dosdude1 booter/imstaller stage? The MP3,1 does have the NVMe dosdude1 patch and does boot from the card when the SSDs have an OS.
Anyhow, the CCC workaround gets the job done.

 

[joevt]

Thanks I will try again. You mean line 604 is to be changed to <true/>

Maybe, if that's what the problem is.

actually i did edit the parameters.plist file on the desktop and dropped it back in the same folder and restarted but got no luck.

You can post the plist here and we can see what's wrong with it.

Any terminal command to hide/ delete it.

I don't know what you're asking. I haven't been following along very closely.

 

[0134168]

HINT FOR GEFORCE GTX 660 AND OTHER NOT FULLY SUPPORTED BOARDS
I eventually succeeded installing Catalina on Mac Pro 3.1 with GTX660, when you cannot see the startup manager page.

1. prepare the target disc formatting it APFS and insert it to Mac bay 3
2. prepare the installer / patcher disc and insert it to bay 1
3. start the Mac and start install
4. when you believe the installation crashed (black screen), just wait
5. after about half an hour the system is rebooted and the first Catalina config page is shown
6. shut off the Mac
7. dismount the target drive and mount it with an USB/SATA adapter on a USB port of the Mac
8. start again, the patcher is booted
9. apply the post install patches on the target disc on the USB port
10. when the system reboot, switch off the Mac, remove the patcher disc and insert the target disc
11. reboot and configure your Catalina system
12. perhaps with GTX660 it is not running full performances but it works (in Photoshop I had to set the GPU acceleration mode to "Normal" instead of "Advanced")

Million thanks to Developers!

View attachment 881450
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Another install fully succeeded: MacBook Pro 5.1 2010. Easy and straightforward!

Thanks again!

Easy peasy. xD
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Hmmm. Strange, so why does an install attempt to the Highpoint 7101-A with NVMe m.2 blade SSD(s) not see the board and SSD(s) at the dosdude1 booter/imstaller stage? The MP3,1 does have the NVMe dosdude1 patch and does boot from the card when the SSDs have an OS.
Anyhow, the CCC workaround gets the job done.

7101-A is not a aimple bridge por Nvme modules. Not at all.

 

[Dilli]

Maybe, if that's what the problem is.


You can post the plist here and we can see what's wrong with it.

I don't know what you're asking. I haven't been following along very closely.

I have attached the plist file.

 

[jackluke]

The plist command works. I think it's complaining about a preexisting error. Did you edit the plist manually before? Non-empty <true> means you have something like this in the plist file:

<true>hello</true>

You can verify a plist without changing it using the plutil command:

plutil /System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist

If it doesn't say ":OK" then you need to open the file and fix it manually. Go to line 604 and change "<true>...</true>" to "<true/>"

Not exactly, apple in their IOBluetooth framework's SystemParameters.plist use only this xml tag

<true/> or <false/> there is no </something> or <something> tag to open the boolean.
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I have attached the plist file.

You need a BT 4.0 dongle for BLE function needed for Continuity features, but first the output of this terminal command: system_profiler -detailLevel mini | grep "Card Type"

To use continuity you need also that "Allow Handoff between" is showed as submenu in System Preferences / General settings: macos-catalina-system-prefs-general-dark-mode.jpg

and to enable this (either on Mojave and Catalina) you need a patched AirDrop Broadcom 4360 driver.

 

[Dilli]

As I wrote earlier, AirDrop patch is needed to use continuity features, so for @Dilli from your attached you have enabled continuity on this unsupported board-id : Mac-942B59F58194171B

that should match an iMac12,2 so you need AirDrop, and to check if a patch is possible I need the output from your iMac12,2 Catalina Terminal: system_profiler -detailLevel mini | grep "Card Type"

if the output string is "0x14E4 , 0x9* " or higher, then a patch is possible, otherwise no.

I got following result

So can I use a cheap BT 4.0 usb dongle with my iMac

 

[jackluke]

I got following result

View attachment 881456

So can I use a cheap BT 4.0 usb dongle with my iMac

0x168C is an "Qualcomm Atheros" Wifi card, for continuity features on Mojave/Catalina apple allow only the 0x14E4 Broadcom Wifi cards, so you need an upgraded wifi/bt4 combo card.

 

[Paolo-Sp]

I have Mac pro 5.1 to with update the wi-fi / BT card a Brodcom BCM94360CD with WI-Fi AC and BT 4.
Untile same time ago, with Mojave + Continuity Activation Tool and manual modifications to the SystemParameters.plist file, everything worked perfectly.
After upgrading to Catalina with macOS Catalina Patcher no works the unlocking after stop with Apple Watch (4).
With it I can unlock Notes, Panels and enter passes for other things but the Mac doesn't restart after the stop, I must insert the pass by hand. First with Mojave it worked.

 

[Dilli]

0x168C is an Atheros Wifi card, for continuity features on Mojave/Catalina apple allow only the 0x14E4 Broadcom Wifi cards, so you need an upgraded wifi/bt4 card.

That finally sums up . @jackluke tsk. It seems another expense haha. The dead iMac seems to be asking for more. I rather just use Catalina without continuity /handoff feature. It isn't that important. As far as speed goes for a old machine I think the existing hardware should suffice. Tks mate for all help and inputs. 👍
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I have Mac pro 5.1 to with update the wi-fi / BT card a Brodcom BCM94360CD with WI-Fi AC and BT 4.
Untile same time ago, with Mojave + Continuity Activation Tool and manual modifications to the SystemParameters.plist file, everything worked perfectly.
After upgrading to Catalina with macOS Catalina Patcher no works the unlocking after stop with Apple Watch (4).
With it I can unlock Notes, Panels and enter passes for other things but the Mac doesn't restart after the stop, I must insert the pass by hand. First with Mojave it worked.

Could you tell me how much the card cost any link from where you got it? Can just inserting this card into existing wifi card slot will make it work or do I require to do more adjustments