macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[jackluke]

I also can't enable Safari extensions after clean install of 10.15.3 on a MacBook 6,1.

From Catalina App Store, after apple id login, you can download almost any adblocker and they work on Catalina, if the Safari extension you used is not present in App Store, I guess you can't use it more on Catalina, maybe was some kind of hybrid 32/64 bit extension.

 

[Subeffect]

From Catalina App Store, after apple id login, you can download almost any adblocker and they work on Catalina, if the Safari extension you used is not present in App Store, I guess you can't use it more on Catalina, maybe was some kind of hybrid 32/64 bit extension.

Thanks for the reply. I did download AdBlock for Safari from the App Store from my purchases. Also tried Pocket extension as well with no luck.

 

[ASentientBot]

Yes, and thanks, I am aware of that, I just tried to have the kext as a fallback for situations where nvram is cleared.
But I´ll try it on my MBP4,1 now. Keep fingers crossed for next boot without the kext ;-)

Set the flag in Preboot's com.apple.Boot.plist --> Kernel Flags and it will persist across PRAM resets

 

[Pluda]

macOS and iOS for their GUI should use the default system font "San Francisco", that is labelled SF* and is located here /System/Library/Fonts/SF*.otf

I guess if the custom font is renamed as SF* and replaced in for example SFCompactDisplay-Regular , after reboot it should work, but the fact is that the apple display system font use this format oft while the custom fonts that downloaded are typically ttf , so I don't think it will work.

Thanks @jackluke , some years ago I did replace the default font on my super cool iPhone 3gs with a custom one and it worked quite well. Now I can’t even rename it on the system/library/fonts, they are protected and I don’t know terminal commands.
I’m going to try @******* sugestion TinkerToll (even if it’s bad idea, I need to be more confortable using my mac).
Thanks!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks for the reply. I did download AdBlock for Safari from the App Store from my purchases. Also tried Pocket extension as well with no luck.

The Adblock story is more than two years old, probably back when Mojave has been introduced? Apple closed the way the most Adblock software worked for security reason, the web is full of explanations. I changed to ADGUARD then, works like a charme, but they changed to a monthly paid subscription model, lately.

 

[joesev]

it looks like there is a big problem with AMFI in the DP1. I once looked at the link to AMFI and read through it, so much can be changed by Apple.

I come after installation level 2 and do not run the patches (graphics) with dosdude1 patcher 1.3.0 to the graphical desktop.

Also not with exchanging the corresponding files that @ASentientBot has attached, plus OpenGL and GPUSupport.
No chance to see the graphical desktop on my Medion Akoya P8610 laptop (hack book),
No problems on my native hackintosh 1 and 2.

Stupid question, but what is AMFI?

 

[Pinarek]

deleted

 

[K two]

Stupid question, but what is AMFI?

This will help. https://eclecticlight.co/2018/12/29/amfi-checking-file-integrity-on-your-mac/

 

[chris1111]

DisableLibraryValidation.kext on Clover works good here on 10.15.4 DP1

 

[avz]

A bit of a random question with regards to what happens with the Gatekeeper, XProtect, MRT and other critical updates after you "refresh" your install by re-installing the OS?

I recently re-installed Mavericks on top of my existing Mavericks installation(just wanted to get the Recovery back as I deleted it previously) and while I kept all my data the Gatekeeper version is showing version 140 in the Software/Installations, meaning that it was overwritten by my refresh install (version 181 was installed previously)?

I tried to trigger critical updates manually by running "sudo softwareupdate --background-critical" but nothing seems to happen. Any insight? I know @jackluke was mentioning at some stage and is very familiar with the "refreshing" your existing installation while keeping the data.

 

[meberhart]

Whats goin on, I have an '08 cMP 3,1 w Dual 2.8 Xeons, 32Gb ram, 1Tb ssd and an HD5770...I recently installed the patch relatively easy, the only issue I am having is that I cannot get a second display to be recognized. Anyone else have this issue? I installed windows through BC, and the display was recognized and worked no problem. So I know its not the graphics card. thoughts?

 

[ScreenSavers]

Whats goin on, I have an '08 cMP 3,1 w Dual 2.8 Xeons, 32Gb ram, 1Tb ssd and an HD5770...I recently installed the patch relatively easy, the only issue I am having is that I cannot get a second display to be recognized. Anyone else have this issue? I installed windows through BC, and the display was recognized and worked no problem. So I know its not the graphics card. thoughts?

I didn't even think you could use a 5770 in Catalina. Does it give you any acceleration at all?

 

[meberhart]

I didn't even think you could use a 5770 in Catalina. Does it give you any acceleration at all?

Not really sure what you mean by acceleration, sorry. The HD 5770 worked and the original 8800GT worked. I didnt use it long with the 8800GT, but as far as the HD 5770 goes, im having no real issues other than the lack of the second operational display. The second display also didnt work with the 8800GT. It gets a little laggy here and there but thats only when im on the internet. Runs Adobe CC, will crash if you load it up too much. Able to play Fallout 4 on ultra settings on the windows side. No transparency settings.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Not really sure what you mean by acceleration, sorry. The HD 5770 worked and the original 8800GT worked. I didnt use it long with the 8800GT, but as far as the HD 5770 goes, im having no real issues other than the lack of the second operational display. The second display also didnt work with the 8800GT. It gets a little laggy here and there but thats only when im on the internet. Runs Adobe CC, will crash if you load it up too much. Able to play Fallout 4 on ultra settings on the windows side. No transparency settings.

Interesting. AMD 5xxx series cards aren’t supposed to work at all. I’m using the 8800GT in mine while I wait for the more modern AMD GPU to arrive. I have a 5770 here but I haven’t tried it because I thought it wouldn’t work.

 

[rdfincher]

I have successfully installed Catalina 10.15.2 on my cMP5.1 and 15in MBP 8.2, using dosdude's patcher. I have also successfully installed Ableton Live 10 Lite (a music composing and MIDI sequencer app) on the cMP5.1, but the same app won't fully launch when downloaded to the MBP8.2.

Dose anyone know which log from each device I should be comparing to discover why the app is not launching on the MBP?

Ableton are keen to help, but need more info. They say that their app will not run on an "unsupported" mac.

Any ideas much appreciated.

 

[w1z]

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

Thanks Chris - your recovery repair program is the only one I know of that fixes the unbootable recoveries created by the catalina patcher.

@dosdude1 Hi Collin! Hope you are well. The catalina patcher is creating unbootable recovery partitions. I am testing using 10.15.3, cMP 5,1, several flash drives.

For some reason, the patcher creates a recovery parition that is larger by 200MB ie. 7xxMB. The correct (bootable) partition sizes are:

2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 23.6 MB    disk1s2
3:                APFS Volume Recovery                523.5 MB   disk1s3

Thanks!

 

[hvds]

As I wrote about my Hackintosh MacBook Pro 5.2 in my last post, I no longer need a bootarg entry for AMFI. I can't explain why that was the first time I tried to update from Catalina 10.15.3 DP4 to 10.15.4 DP1, I probably made a mistake when installing the update.

As I wrote, everything is as error-free in the 10.15.4 DP1 as in the last 10.15.3 DP4 without any changes.
Can be different with an original MacBook Pro 5.2.

Thanks to Clover Bootloader, Hackintosh is probably easier to maintain.

Different behaviour on my Apple MBP5,2: I didn't get beyond the point where booting stalls with ad-hoc-signed messages (post #8226). This happens also when placing the two amfi options in nvram. Didn't use the DisableLibraryValidation.kext.

I then made a fresh attempt (fresh clone of my working SSD with 10.15.3, updating the clone OTA to 10.15.4 DP1).
- before post-install patching with patcher 1.3.0 boot doesn't stall but fails (boot loop)
- after post-install booting stalls as before, both without, or with either or both of the two amfi options in nvram. Didn't put ASentientBot's new CoreDisplay and SkyLight versions in place yet.
-- there is the adhoc-signed message for SkyLight during the Early Boot phase, and the one for CoreDisplay at the begin of System Boot, see attached photos 1+2.

Then another try with the boot-args in Preboot. There isn't a Preboot though on the 10.15.4 DP1 (the externel) disk, but a PreBoot. I then used this PreBoot to put the boot_args, with Xcode, while booted in the internal SSD with 10.15.3:

macbook-pro-6-~> diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 499.9 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.9 GB disk1
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume Samsung860-500GB - D... 266.4 GB disk1s1
2: APFS Volume Samsung860-500GB 11.1 GB disk1s2
3: APFS Volume Preboot 80.1 MB disk1s3
4: APFS Volume Recovery 708.8 MB disk1s4
5: APFS Volume VM 4.3 GB disk1s5

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 499.9 GB disk2s2

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.9 GB disk3
Physical Store disk2s2
1: APFS Volume Samsung840-500GB - D... 266.5 GB disk3s1
2: APFS Volume PreBoot 80.1 MB disk3s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 525.2 MB disk3s3
4: APFS Volume VM 4.3 GB disk3s4
5: APFS Volume Samsung840-500GB 11.3 GB disk3s5

macbook-pro-6-~> sudo -s
Password:
macbook-pro-6-~> diskutil mount disk3s2
macbook-pro-6-~> cd /Volumes/PreBoot/
macbook-pro-6-PreBoot> open .

See photos 3 and 4.

- the string of Kernel Flags in com.apple.Boot.plist is empty before editing.
- booted again from the external SSD, but still the same behaviour: stall during boot with same messages.

Still puzzled about this Preboot vs. PreBoot.

 

[jackluke]

A bit of a random question with regards to what happens with the Gatekeeper, XProtect, MRT and other critical updates after you "refresh" your install by re-installing the OS?

I recently re-installed Mavericks on top of my existing Mavericks installation(just wanted to get the Recovery back as I deleted it previously) and while I kept all my data the Gatekeeper version is showing version 140 in the Software/Installations, meaning that it was overwritten by my refresh install (version 181 was installed previously)?

I tried to trigger critical updates manually by running "sudo softwareupdate --background-critical" but nothing seems to happen. Any insight? I know @jackluke was mentioning at some stage and is very familiar with the "refreshing" your existing installation while keeping the data.

Refreshing install will downgrade also those system apps version, and it seems apple started to close the update channels for their previous OSX and also removed the dmg on their support site, so you should find on web some packages or dmg that contains : 10.9.5 Security Update 2016-004 (build 13F1911) .

I also still a have a copy of Mavericks (it's probably the fastest osx they developed) will try later if can fetch some update packages.
[automerge]1581415315[/automerge]

Different behaviour on my Apple MBP5,2: I didn't get beyond the point where booting stalls with ad-hoc-signed messages (post #8226). This happens also when placing the two amfi options in nvram. Didn't use the DisableLibraryValidation.kext.

I then made a fresh attempt (fresh clone of my working SSD with 10.15.3, updating the clone OTA to 10.15.4 DP1).
- before post-install patching with patcher 1.3.0 boot doesn't stall but fails (boot loop)
- after post-install booting stalls as before, both without, or with either or both of the two amfi options in nvram. Didn't put ASentientBot's new CoreDisplay and SkyLight versions in place yet.
-- there is the adhoc-signed message for SkyLight during the Early Boot phase, and the one for CoreDisplay at the begin of System Boot, see attached photos 1+2.

Then another try with the boot-args in Preboot. There isn't a Preboot though on the 10.15.4 DP1 (the externel) disk, but a PreBoot. I then used this PreBoot to put the boot_args, with Xcode, while booted in the internal SSD with 10.15.3:

macbook-pro-6-~> diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 499.9 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.9 GB disk1
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume Samsung860-500GB - D... 266.4 GB disk1s1
2: APFS Volume Samsung860-500GB 11.1 GB disk1s2
3: APFS Volume Preboot 80.1 MB disk1s3
4: APFS Volume Recovery 708.8 MB disk1s4
5: APFS Volume VM 4.3 GB disk1s5

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 499.9 GB disk2s2

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +499.9 GB disk3
Physical Store disk2s2
1: APFS Volume Samsung840-500GB - D... 266.5 GB disk3s1
2: APFS Volume PreBoot 80.1 MB disk3s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 525.2 MB disk3s3
4: APFS Volume VM 4.3 GB disk3s4
5: APFS Volume Samsung840-500GB 11.3 GB disk3s5

macbook-pro-6-~> sudo -s
Password:
macbook-pro-6-~> diskutil mount disk3s2
macbook-pro-6-~> cd /Volumes/PreBoot/
macbook-pro-6-PreBoot> open .

See photos 3 and 4.

- the string of Kernel Flags in com.apple.Boot.plist is empty before editing.
- booted again from the external SSD, but still the same behaviour: stall during boot with same messages.

Still puzzled about this Preboot vs. PreBoot.

Your configuration is right, but from 10.15.4 beta1 there is a kind of stage4 (OTA post-scripts), that is after the Catalina logo OTA installing, you should not apply post-patches and let the apple logo loading bar to complete with "Remaining time", only then after the first bootloop you should re-apply post-install patches, with the addition to use these output wrappers: if you done this way, then try to boot from 10.15.4 single user mode and type:

mount -uw /
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreDisplay.framework/
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreDisplay.framework/
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/
reboot

 

[avz]

Refreshing install will downgrade also those system apps version, and it seems apple started to close the update channels for their previous OSX and also removed the dmg on their support site, so you should find on web some packages or dmg that contains : 10.9.5 Security Update 2016-004 (build 13F1911) .

I also still a have a copy of Mavericks (it's probably the fastest osx they developed) will try later if can fetch some update packages.

Yes, this what I was afraid of, Apple seems to be closing the update channels for older systems.

 

[jackluke]

Yes, this what I was afraid of, Apple seems to be closing the update channels for older systems.

Just tried from my Mavericks 10.9.5 install, open terminal:

softwareupdate -l

Software Update Tool
Copyright 2002-2012 Apple Inc.

Finding available software
Software Update found the following new or updated software:
   * iBooksDelta-1.0.1
    iBooks Update (1.0.1), 14354K [recommended]
   * RemoteDesktopClient-3.8.4
    Remote Desktop Client Update (3.8.4), 7113K [recommended]
   * Safari9.1.3Mavericks-9.1.3
    Safari (9.1.3), 61715K [recommended]
   * Security Update 2016-004-10.9.5
    Security Update 2016-004 (10.9.5), 362293K [recommended] [restart]
   * iTunesX-12.6.2
    iTunes (12.6.2), 277622K [recommended]

So they are still working, if might help from Mavericks app store the 2016-004 update shows this url: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

 

[avz]

Just tried from my Mavericks 10.9.5 install, open terminal:

softwareupdate -l

Software Update Tool
Copyright 2002-2012 Apple Inc.

Finding available software
Software Update found the following new or updated software:
   * iBooksDelta-1.0.1
    iBooks Update (1.0.1), 14354K [recommended]
   * RemoteDesktopClient-3.8.4
    Remote Desktop Client Update (3.8.4), 7113K [recommended]
   * Safari9.1.3Mavericks-9.1.3
    Safari (9.1.3), 61715K [recommended]
   * Security Update 2016-004-10.9.5
    Security Update 2016-004 (10.9.5), 362293K [recommended] [restart]
   * iTunesX-12.6.2
    iTunes (12.6.2), 277622K [recommended]

So they are still working, if might help from app store the 2016-004 update shows this url: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Any luck with the critical updates?

 

[jackluke]

Any luck with the critical updates?

I haven't updated for a while this install, if not contained inside this "Security Update 2016-004-10.9.5" probably can't find critical updates, but maybe try to change your Mavericks Language and Region to English US.

From Mavericks terminal this worked for me to download: softwareupdate -d "Security Update 2016-004-10.9.5"

The package name I just downloaded is: SecUpd2016-004Mavericks.pkg

it requires 2,64 gb to install to update. To install: softwareupdate -i "Security Update 2016-004-10.9.5"

 

[hvds]

Your configuration is right, but from 10.15.4 beta1 there is a kind of stage4 (OTA post-scripts), that is after the Catalina logo OTA installing, you should not apply post-patches and let the apple logo loading bar to complete with "Remaining time", only then after the first bootloop you should re-apply post-install patches, with the addition to use these output wrappers: if you done this way, then try to boot from 10.15.4 single user mode and type:

mount -uw /
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreDisplay.framework/
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreDisplay.framework/
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/
reboot

Thanks Jackluke.
I think I didit this way (Catalina logo OTA install phase completed, let it boot then, and auto-reboot again, then apply 1.3.0 patches with cache rebuild. I'll repeat the whole procedure later today.
I didn't apply the new wrappers yet as I thought if AMFI still gets in my way, it will also do with the new versions.
One more observation, when booting from the 10.15.4 DP1 disk in single user mode, the intended boot-args are displayed as I entered them into PreBoot (towards top of attached photo), but nvram -p then only shows the -no_compat_check.

EDIT: not sure if I had overwritten the boot-args in nvram directly before that with "blabla".

 

[joevt]

but nvram -p then only shows the -no_compat_check. I had overwritted the boot-args in nvram before that with "blabla".

One of the patches erases the nvram boot-args in the patched Catalina Installer.

You can download the Catalina Patcher source and try the following change:

-(void)setNoCompatCheckNVRAM {
    NSPipe * result = [NSPipe pipe];
    NSTask *nvramGet = [[NSTask alloc] init];
    [nvramGet setLaunchPath:@"/usr/sbin/nvram"];
    [nvramGet setArguments:@[@"boot-args"]];
    [nvramGet setStandardOutput:result];
    [nvramGet launch];
    [nvramGet waitUntilExit];
 
    NSFileHandle * read = [result fileHandleForReading];
    NSData * dataRead = [read readDataToEndOfFile];
    NSString * bootargs = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:dataRead encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

    if ([bootargs rangeOfString:@"-no_compat_check"].location == NSNotFound)
    {
        bootargs = [bootargs stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:NSMakeRange(9, 1) withString:@"="];
        bootargs = [bootargs stringByAppendingString:@" -no_compat_check"];
        NSTask *nvramSet = [[NSTask alloc] init];
        [nvramSet setLaunchPath:@"/usr/sbin/nvram"];
        [nvramSet setArguments:@[bootargs]];
        [nvramSet launch];
        [nvramSet waitUntilExit];
    }
}

 

[jackluke]

Thanks Jackluke.
I think I didit this way (Catalina logo OTA install phase completed, let it boot then, and auto-reboot again, then apply 1.3.0 patches with cache rebuild. I'll repeat the whole procedure later today.
I didn't apply the new wrappers yet as I thought if AMFI still gets in my way, it will also do with the new versions.
One more observation, when booting from the 10.15.4 DP1 disk in single user mode, the intended boot-args are displayed as I entered them into PreBoot (towards top of attached photo), but nvram -p then only shows the -no_compat_check.

EDIT: not sure if I had overwritten the boot-args in nvram directly before that with "blabla".

From 10.15.4 beta single user mode when you type "nvram -p" it should output on the boot-args line not only "-no_compat_check" but all those "amfi strings" too.

But you can set them also in this other simpler way, after the post-install patches, reload a Catalina usb installer recovery environment, open a recovery terminal and type (I know it's a long string):

nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=0x1 amfi_allow_any_signature=0x1 cs_enforcement_disable=0x1"

I haven't written to set the nvram boot-args from another OSX (installed on target machine) or directly from single user mode because (at least in my case) sometimes they don't take effect, instead from a recovery environment (that is the place also where to disable SIP) they always work.