macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[GDMSR]

I'm getting the following error with dosdude1's macos catalina installer version 1.3.0:

Mounting BaseSystem.dmg...
/dev/disk16 GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk16s1 Apple_HFS /private/tmp/basesystem
Patching BaseSystem.dmg...
hdiutil: couldn't unmount "disk16" - Resource busy

where disk16 is incremental.

This occurs whichever option is chosen 'Install to this machine', 'Create a Bootable Installer' or 'Create an ISO image'.

Others have written that it was solved for them by either turning OFF the Firewall, or making 2 partitions in the USB - neither of these has worked for me.

Although this happened with Catalina 10.15 and 10.15.1, somehow I was able to get past it, but did not understand how. With 10.15.2 I am unable to continue, and am stuck.

The computer is a cMP early 2009 was 4,1 flashed to 5,1. GPU is Radeon RX 580 8 GB from MacVidCards.

Could somebody please help me to resolve this?

 

[eddiek2000]

I'm getting the following error with dosdude1's macos catalina installer version 1.3.0:

Mounting BaseSystem.dmg...
/dev/disk16 GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk16s1 Apple_HFS /private/tmp/basesystem
Patching BaseSystem.dmg...
hdiutil: couldn't unmount "disk16" - Resource busy

where disk16 is incremental.

This occurs whichever option is chosen 'Install to this machine', 'Create a Bootable Installer' or 'Create an ISO image'.

Others have written that it was solved for them by either turning OFF the Firewall, or making 2 partitions in the USB - neither of these has worked for me.

Although this happened with Catalina 10.15 and 10.15.1, somehow I was able to get past it, but did not understand how. With 10.15.2 I am unable to continue, and am stuck.

The computer is a cMP early 2009 was 4,1 flashed to 5,1. GPU is Radeon RX 580 8 GB from MacVidCards.

Could somebody please help me to resolve this?

Had same issue on 2 macs. Redownloaded patcher several times and finally worked. Try re-downloading and make sure your using latest 1.3 version.

 

[GDMSR]

Had same issue on 2 macs. Redownloaded patcher several times and finally worked. Try re-downloading and make sure your using latest 1.3 version.

Thanks - will try that.

 

[BigSmileMan]

This is normal.

So prohibitory sign on MRT app is normal too? I ask because have some patched apps and want to be sure that system is clean.
I know that it can't be launched directly as a normal app
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I'm working on a solution.
I did some progress...like this:

Already looks awesome!

 

[zephar42]

Successfully updated to 10.15.2 using @dosdude1's v1.3.0 macOS Catalina Patcher on my MacPro 3,1.

 

[cwfalconfootbal]

i figured that. Worth a shot? I also have a better airport card in the tower than the macbook. It doesnt even see it in preferences but the option is there. not sure what’s involved for sidecar just know that was my issue on the tower.

I highly doubt this will fix Sidecar, but for video decoding acceleration in general: have you looked at my post here? I'm not sure if it really does anything, but it might be a step in the right direction. (I also do not have a good way to test video decode acceleration other than that command line tool, since playing videos has always worked fine for me. Any ideas?)
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It should work well as long as you have a Metal-supported GPU.

 

[Jeff1casey]

Dosdude, thanks for all your hard work.

Running into issues trying to install on a Mac Pro 3,1. I actually had it installed and running, but I rebooted and it never came back up after that. Gets about halfway through startup, toward the end of the progress bar, and reboots, then keeps cycling like this. The odd thing is, after installing, when I boot to the install drive, several things are amiss: The post install patch doesn’t load at all when selected, disk utility lists all my drives but they are all greyed out except for the install drive, reinstalling Catalina fails with the error that the installer is corrupted, startup disk only lists the current install drive although I have several bootable drives, and the time machine option opens a window quickly and then closes. This only happened after the install. In other words, everything was working when I first booted the install drive, it was only after running the installer that these quirks appeared. I've repeated this process with several different internal and external drives all with the same end result. I even tried an ISO burned to DVD but that never fully loaded; got about 3/4 of the way and then stopped. Going back to Mojave for now, just wanted to throw my experience out there.

Tried install again with 1.3.0 version. Created a bootable USB drive, downloaded fresh Catalina install from Apple through patcher installer. When I reboot, I get the Recovery panel, and the selection to reinstall OS yields the “This version of Catalina is damaged and cannot be used” dialog. I reformatted USB drive, re-downloaded Catalina... twice... with same result. Any ideas?

 

[jeffhalmos]

Tried install again with 1.3.0 version. Created a bootable USB drive, downloaded fresh Catalina install from Apple through patcher installer. When I reboot, I get the Recovery panel, and the selection to reinstall OS yields the “This version of Catalina is damaged and cannot be used” dialog. I reformatted USB drive, re-downloaded Catalina... twice... with same result. Any ideas?

Same here. JUST tried again.

 

[Michael Mrak]

Yeah, I successfully updated to 10.15.2 using @dosdude1's v1.3.0 macOS Catalina Patcher and MacOS on an USB Stick on my MacMini 3,1.

 

[zfrogman]

🙄
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That method is hell. Why don´t you permanently disable it?

Yeah, that would be a great permanent method detailed with excellent detail by dosdude but entails buying equipment to implement and from what I Understand if, for a newbie like me, risk bricking the system permanently or paying someone to do it. Either way it is an "investment" I would rather make elsewhere. Yeah, it's a hassle but it's not that big of a deal. What I was asking in my last post was since the system seems to work after Catalina install using dosdude 1.3.0 patcher whether it is still necessary or "better" to disable the dGPU thru the "force-iGPU-boot.sh" which automates the tedious process.

 

[Yiorlis59]

OK, I was able to install OS 10.15.2 successfully on both of my Macs yesterday, and so far, all my third party apps are working fine. Not noticing anything "vastly" different from Mojave, even in terms of speed. Here is what I did.

1. I had already downloaded the full OS 10.15.2 installer via dosdude1's patcher, and had it saved in another location on each of my Macs.

2. Ran Onyx and TechTool Pro on both machines for one final "Mojave" cleanup.

3. Made a SuperDuper! (SD) backup for each machine to separate external SSDs.

4. Booted each machine from the just completed SD backup.

5. Launched Disk Utility there to Erase and Format (as APFS) each internal SSD.

6. Navigated to the OS 10.15.2 full installer file, launched it, and did a fresh, clean, "virgin" installation onto each Mac's internal SSD.

7. Via the installer, migrated/copied needed items from the just completed SD backup.

8. Rebooted each Mac "into" Catalina.

9. For my particular case, needed to do 2 more tasks:

A. Removed the Mojave version of Onyx, and installed the Catalina version of it.
B. Created TechTool Pro's eDrive.

10. Finally, removed "old" 32 bit software I had, along with V10.x of Adobe Acrobat Pro.

All is good.

WOW!!!👍

 

[HDMC]

Hi !
Is the problem with 10.15 and the Displayport on a Mac Pro (3,1) solved ??
Thanks !
Cheers

 

[eVasilis]

Hi all,
Another question, if you please. Can security updates be installed over the patched version of Catalina or does one have to download the full 10.15.x installer, the one including the latest security updates, and install through dosdude's patcher?

Thanks!

 

[gbecattini]

Ehi, guys could you please help me?
I am using a Mac Pro 3.1 with 15.1 and a GTX 660 card. OK, I know that 660 is not supported and, as suggested by *******, I bought on eBay a GTX 680, mac version. But they will deliver it only in 15 days...

So I ask for your help. The board runs rather well, but from time to time it begins to clobber the screen (see below the image) and I have to shut down and restart. I did the same test with patched High Sierra, Mojave, and 15.2: same problem (by the way: the patcher is very good and I can install with no problem and repeatedly all those patched OSs). The board has no problem with El Capitan.

Any idea? Mille grazie...

 

[chrisrm9208]

Same here. JUST tried again.

Try disabling SIP (csrutil disable) before you run the Patcher...

 

[GDMSR]

Had same issue on 2 macs. Redownloaded patcher several times and finally worked. Try re-downloading and make sure your using latest 1.3 version.

Have re-downloaded several more times - even checked the SHA1 - still no joy except for 1 try which looked like it was going to work but finally failed:

Mounting BaseSystem.dmg...
/dev/disk9 GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk9s1 Apple_HFS /private/tmp/basesystem
Patching BaseSystem.dmg...
"disk9" ejected.
Preparing imaging engine…
Reading Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
(CRC32 $85F2869B: Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0))
Reading GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1)…
(CRC32 $EC4F759A: GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1))
Reading GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2)…
(CRC32 $6BA79614: GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2))
Reading (Apple_Free : 3)…
(CRC32 $00000000: (Apple_Free : 3))
Reading disk image (Apple_HFS : 4)…
(CRC32 $13B5DC1C: disk image (Apple_HFS : 4))
Reading (Apple_Free : 5)…
(CRC32 $00000000: (Apple_Free : 5))
Reading GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 6)…
(CRC32 $6BA79614: GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 6))
Reading GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 7)…
(CRC32 $F237E698: GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 7))
Adding resources…
Elapsed Time: 10.929s
File size: 693332257 bytes, Checksum: CRC32 $873BD6DA
Sectors processed: 4193472, 3546788 compressed
Speed: 158.5Mbytes/sec
Savings: 67.7%
created: /private/tmp/BaseSystem.dmg
Restoring BaseSystem.dmg...
Validating target...done
Validating source...done
Could not unmount volume "/Volumes/Mini 64GB Mac" (Resource busy)

So this time it was a different volume it couldn't unmount. Since that unique case, it's been back to the original error.

Seems hit and miss. I can't help thinking there's some software setting I need to change.

 

[jeffhalmos]

Try disabling SIP (csrutil disable) before you run the Patcher...

It had been disabled since 10.15.1 when I lost my recovery disk. Some patch found here I applied a few days ago, and on a whim tried recovery mode again, successfully for the first time in a month or so, and enabled it. Will wait for someone to succeed after getting the "corrupted" error when using the USB stick method before disabling it again and experiencing joy.

 

[olrik77]

Any MP3.1 with Catalina here? Would you let me know how it goes?

Bonjour,
All running fine with a GTX680 (2Gb).
@dosdude1 & friends really did a great job !

Serviteur

 

[Marty56]

Update to Catalina 10.15.2 worked flawlessly on a MacBook Pro 2009 and a MacBook Air 2011.
On the MacBook Air though I was not able to get airdrop and handover working using the procedure described in this thread.

 

[olrik77]

Bonsoir,

Update to Catalina 10.15.2 (with @dosdude1 1.3.0 patcher and "install to this machine").

All running fine on my MP3,1.

Thank's again !

Serviteur

 

[0134168]

Ehi, guys could you please help me?
I am using a Mac Pro 3.1 with 15.1 and a GTX 660 card. OK, I know that 660 is not supported and, as suggested by *******, I bought on eBay a GTX 680, mac version. But they will deliver it only in 15 days...

So I ask for your help. The board runs rather well, but from time to time it begins to clobber the screen (see below the image) and I have to shut down and restart. I did the same test with patched High Sierra, Mojave, and 15.2: same problem (by the way: the patcher is very good and I can install with no problem and repeatedly all those patched OSs). The board has no problem with El Capitan.

Any idea? Mille grazie...

View attachment 882722

I´m glad you could find a GTX-680. You´ll see, everything will work like a charm.

 

[bubbleboy76]

Installed 10.15.2 with patcher 1.3.0 on an iMac 27" late 2009 (model 10,1).
Problems in Photo app: Some photos, especially older ones, and screenshots from iPhones, are distorted (grainy and crazy inverted colours) when clicked on for full view of single photo. Thumbnails are shown correct. Also shown correct if the same picture is dragged to the desktop and then previewed.
Problems in Preview app: RAW-files in format .NEF taken with Nikon D700 distorted in a similar kind of way when previewed. They are officially supported according to Apple webpage.
Seems like there is some graphic driver problem?
I had similar problem in Mojave, but only for some iPhone screenshots, both affecting thumbnail and full picture.
Otherwise everything seems to work.
Any suggestion what I could try to do to fix it? I tried both dark and bright mode. I tried with and without font smoothing.

 

[gbecattini]

Any MP3.1 with Catalina here? Would you let me know how it goes?

Besides some problem with an unsupported video card that you can see above, it goes exceptionally well.
The installer is very easy to use and absolutely reliable. I am using it since some days to do my real work, in parallel with a MacBook Pro, with full and perfect integration in the Apple account, email, iDrive and OneDrive. I only have still to test my company VPN connection.

If I may give you a suggestion, benefit from the Mac Pro capability to easily substitute the hard discs and use an old extra hard disc to train yourself in the process.

Furthermore, be sure having a supported video card capable of showing you the startup manager (******* posted it helping me few days ago). I am not too smart and had to lose much time before I understood everything and succeeded installing with no startup manager menu. But when you have understood, it is really wonderful how easy and reliable is it.

Another suggestion: be sure you are using the latest patcher / OS image (currently 15.2).

 

[K two]

Sixth try was a charm.🥴 The patcher v1.3.0 which finally made an "un-damaged" USB installer had a generic icon. Dot 2 now runs fine on this barefoot late 09 Mini3,1 as did dot 1. The successful patcher ran from the D/L ƒ and the installer resided on a HFS+ partition with no OS installed. Also, I quit the patcher and ejected the USB installer prior to reboot>option. YMMV and don't give up.

 

[kraca]

Writing this on my cMP5,1 running Mojave10.14.6; I have installed Catalina on a separate drive using Dosdude1's patcher but I'm somewhat chary of switching to it. Instead, I've just set Parallels busy installing Catalina as a VM, and it's simply doing that with a stock Apple install image downloaded by Parallels. No patches, no special install scripts, just running as if it's on a fully-supported Mac. I've done nothing special to the Parallels setup, no tuning, nothing, and it's just installing.

And there it is. Catalina, running in a window on a MP5,1. Beats me...

Can't believe that. Parallels isn't supposed to install only windows? Did you just choose Catalina as installer and it was accepted?
Can you post a step by step manual here?
I will appreciate it
Thanks!