macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[hvds]

Still stuck here. Tried every way I can think of. Any thoughts?

I had that recently when upgrading from 10.15.5b3 to .5b4. First I made a mistake, and it booted back to .5b3 (see post #10732 pg 430).
I did the update with jackluke's CatalinaOTAswufix.app, step Software Update Fix, and had forgotten to execute it again for step OTA Update Fix while downloading the update. I then did this step much later after several reboots to .5b3, and it was still early enough to get the OTA Fix done, and the update process proceeded OK then.

 

[Lucky736]

I had that recently when upgrading from 10.15.5b3 to .5b4. First I made a mistake, and it booted back to .5b3 (see post #10732 pg 430).
I did the update with jackluke's CatalinaOTAswufix.app, step Software Update Fix, and had forgotten to execute it again for step OTA Update Fix while downloading the update. I then did this step much later after several reboots to .5b3, and it was still early enough to get the OTA Fix done, and the update process proceeded OK then.

Took a look at the post and downloaded the alternate. Same.

So first I did the .app. Software fix, no issue, OTA fix.... tried at 1%, 3%, 10%, and later.... same.

Tried the alternate in that post, same.

Machine downloads, fix appears to take place, restarts to a black screen with apple logo and progress bar. Get's maybe 1/6th the way thru, restarts into the normal boot sequence. No install of any kind. Mid 2009. Core 2. 9400M. 10.15.4 currently trying to goto latest dev version.

 

[hyne]

Hey everyone, I honestly think I made a mistake while updating my friend's trusty old MacBook Pro 5,1 (2008 model) from 10.6 Snow Leopard straight to 10.15 Catalina using Dosdude1's patcher tool.

The MBP did install Catalina despite a freeze during installation and another freeze during the post-install patch installation. Catalina seems to work fine, too. However, I didn't install the High Sierra era BootROM prior to installing Catalina, as advised on Dosdude1's website.

The MBP shows hacker-y command line stuff during its boot into Catalina. The OS seems to work OK but I can't shake the feeling I should go back an reformat everything - because the BootROM is so ancient.

Now I flashed my USB thumb stick with a bootable copy of High Sierra but the MBP will show me a "prohibited" sign after I try booting off of the High Sierra stick.

Any hints on how I can "downgrade" from Catalina to High Sierra again using my USB thumb drive?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Lucky736]

Hey everyone, I honestly think I made a mistake while updating my friend's trusty old MacBook Pro 5,1 (2008 model) from 10.6 Snow Leopard straight to 10.15 Catalina using Dosdude1's patcher tool.

The MBP did install Catalina despite a freeze during installation and another freeze during the post-install patch installation. Catalina seems to work fine, too. However, I didn't install the High Sierra era BootROM prior to installing Catalina, as advised on Dosdude1's website.

The MBP shows hacker-y command line stuff during its boot into Catalina. The OS seems to work OK but I can't shake the feeling I should go back an reformat everything - because the BootROM is so ancient.

Now I flashed my USB thumb stick with a bootable copy of High Sierra but the MBP will show me a "prohibited" sign after I try booting off of the High Sierra stick.

Any hints on how I can "downgrade" from Catalina to High Sierra again using my USB thumb drive?

Thanks a lot!

Ahhhh... is that why I get the command line stuff at startup on my 2009?

 

[joergz]

Ahhhh... is that why I get the command line stuff at startup on my 2009?

That 'stuff' is dosdude's APFS driver for Macs without native APFS support in their Boot ROM.

 

[mazdaspeed]

Newcomer, here. I just used latest macOS Catalina Patcher on a Macmini4,1 8GB, 256GB Samsung SSD, GeForce 320M 256. Install went without issue but slower than expected. After running all patches (nightshift) I find this running unacceptably slow.

I was running High Sierra 10.13.6 and it was performing as efficient (maybe better) as my MacBook Pro (Early 2015 Retina) runs Catalina. I'm doing this for the sake of keeping up security patching because I'm donating my MacBook Pro to nonprofit, and really don't want to just turn around and replace it. I would rather run a security-patched PC that an unpatched MacOS.

Mac is not my OS of choice. I primarily use it for managing our iPhones, though I did try to make the leap from Windows in 2016. I just didn't find OSX that well integrated with iOS at that time, so didn't even get my head around the Mac keyboard. For desktop work I will always be on a Windows machine.

Anyway, is this degree of performance hit to be expected? Is there anything I can do to get a different outcome? For example, Safari takes 15-20 sec. to open, and another 30 seconds to get all the shortcut images fully displayed. Seems like a video issue to me. Any help is appreciated,

 

[hyne]

That 'stuff' is dosdude's APFS driver for Macs without native APFS support in their Boot ROM.

Hey joergz, do you know how I can "unlock" my MBP to be able to boot from USB again? I could of course live with seeing the "stuff" (the custom APFS driver) each time I boot the MBP - however, not being able to boot off a macOS USB install thumb drive worries me.

 

[avz]

Hey everyone, I honestly think I made a mistake while updating my friend's trusty old MacBook Pro 5,1 (2008 model) from 10.6 Snow Leopard straight to 10.15 Catalina using Dosdude1's patcher tool.

The MBP did install Catalina despite a freeze during installation and another freeze during the post-install patch installation. Catalina seems to work fine, too. However, I didn't install the High Sierra era BootROM prior to installing Catalina, as advised on Dosdude1's website.

The MBP shows hacker-y command line stuff during its boot into Catalina. The OS seems to work OK but I can't shake the feeling I should go back an reformat everything - because the BootROM is so ancient.

Now I flashed my USB thumb stick with a bootable copy of High Sierra but the MBP will show me a "prohibited" sign after I try booting off of the High Sierra stick.

Any hints on how I can "downgrade" from Catalina to High Sierra again using my USB thumb drive?

Thanks a lot!

This is not what dosdude1's instructions are saying. Read more carefully, 20 times if you must.

 

[dosdude1]

Hey joergz, do you know how I can "unlock" my MBP to be able to boot from USB again? I could of course live with seeing the "stuff" (the custom APFS driver) each time I boot the MBP - however, not being able to boot off a macOS USB install thumb drive worries me.

Just hold down Option on startup and select the drive. The boot picker is part of the system firmware, and is unaffected by anything installed.

 

[avz]

Just hold down Option on startup and select the drive. The boot picker is part of the system firmware, and is unaffected by anything installed.

It is possible that he refers to the firmware password which can be removed by removing one of the RAM modules on his Mac?

 

[K two]

Any help with the above??

You can try resetting NVRAM to get back the SD card reader. Turn off the Mac. Turn it back on while depressing the option + command+p+r keys until it chimes three times then let it boot. Airdrop is another issue as discussed here previous, I don't have the reference, sorry. If all else fails re-install the patches and rebuild the cache. Good luck.

 

[Tandy Virdee]

Hello- does anyone have a fix for iMovie as it keeping crashing...

 

[dosdude1]

Hello- does anyone have a fix for iMovie as it keeping crashing...

Download an older version, found here: http://12.216.84.174/CasperDist/Packages/iMovie_10.1.12.pkg

 

[Tandy Virdee]

Anybody now why I have only seeing the Airdrop icon and can not access Airdrop. I have a MacBook Pro (Mid 2010) ?

 

[hyne]

Just hold down Option on startup and select the drive. The boot picker is part of the system firmware, and is unaffected by anything installed.

Hey, first of all I wanted to say thank you for developing the patchers! I think it's a huge contribution to Mac owners.

Regarding my issue with my ancient MacBook Pro 5,1 (2008) with Catalina:

I'm of course aware of holding down Option on startup to select my USB thumb drive with High Sierra on it. However, AFTER selecting the USB stick as a boot device, I'm greeted with a "prohibited" sign. How can this be fixed?

 

[TimothyR734]

For those who are having issues with installing 10.15.4 and up have tried using the OpenCoreAPFSloader, create one with a spare usb or you can install it on the same one as your Catalina Patcher just type OpenCoreAPFloader then jackluke then this thread in the search for instructions on how to put it on the same usb as your CatalinaPatcher once you start the Catalina update with black screen and Apple logo when it reboots hold the option button then select OpenCoreAPFSloader2 usb then a menu appears if it shows macOS install choose that then your Mac should reboot and finish installing then apply the post install patches
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Hey, first of all I wanted to say thank you for developing the patchers! I think it's a huge contribution to Mac owners.

Regarding my issue with my ancient MacBook Pro 5,1 (2008) with Catalina:

I'm of course aware of holding down Option on startup to select my USB thumb drive with High Sierra on it. However, AFTER selecting the USB stick as a boot device, I'm greeted with a "prohibited" sign. How can this be fixed?

IS your SIP disabled and is your hdd/ssd formatted APFS which Catalina requires

 

[hyne]

IS your SIP disabled and is your hdd/ssd formatted APFS which Catalina requires

No, I didn't manually disable SIP yet. I don't see why that would be necessary. Again, I'm trying to boot from a USB thumb drive with a High Sierra installer on it. After selecting the USB device, I'm greeted by the "prohibited" sign and I can't continue with the install

The reason why I want to downgrade from Catalina to High Sierra is to be able to install the official Apple APFS BootROM because I forgot to install it prior to installing Catalina (my mistake).

 

[avz]

No, I didn't manually disable SIP yet. I don't see why that would be necessary. Again, I'm trying to boot from a USB thumb drive with a High Sierra installer on it. After selecting the USB device, I'm greeted by the "prohibited" sign and I can't continue with the install

The reason why I want to downgrade from Catalina to High Sierra is to be able to install the official Apple APFS BootROM because I forgot to install it prior to installing Catalina (my mistake).

Your Mac does NOT support High Sierra natively. Simple, isn't it?

 

[TimothyR734]

No, I didn't manually disable SIP yet. I don't see why that would be necessary. Again, I'm trying to boot from a USB thumb drive with a High Sierra installer on it. After selecting the USB device, I'm greeted by the "prohibited" sign and I can't continue with the install

The reason why I want to downgrade from Catalina to High Sierra is to be able to install the official Apple APFS BootROM because I forgot to install it prior to installing Catalina (my mistake).

• APFS BootROM Support: If you have a machine that supports High Sierra natively, you MUST ensure you have the latest version of the system's BootROM installed. If you have NOT previously installed High Sierra, you can download and install thispackage (if running OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later) to install the latest BootROM version (you MUST reboot after installing the package to apply the firmware update). When installing, ensure your system is plugged in to power, or the update will not be installed. From the link to the Catalina Patcher on the first page of this thread under Important Information

 

[dosdude1]

Hey, first of all I wanted to say thank you for developing the patchers! I think it's a huge contribution to Mac owners.

Regarding my issue with my ancient MacBook Pro 5,1 (2008) with Catalina:

I'm of course aware of holding down Option on startup to select my USB thumb drive with High Sierra on it. However, AFTER selecting the USB stick as a boot device, I'm greeted with a "prohibited" sign. How can this be fixed?

Probably just the USB drive you're using, a different one will most likely work.

 

[macguru9999]

Pretty happy with mojave on my 5,1..... I might just wait until the next OS comes out and try that . I have a spare 5,1 and I installed catalina on that but I cant see any real benefit over mojave.

 

[Smokey_Jack]

Now I got it. I missed this part... Thank you
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Thank you, I managed to copy the file you posted but it works exactly as before: dvd can be read only by vlc as dvd player crasher and when I put cds after some spinning I get the message: the disc is not readable by this computer. Can you help me?
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Thank you!!!

Sorry if I'm back on this issue- Does anyone have a suggestion? Still not working. Thanks

 

[redgy14]

I'm sorry to your I'm new to this. I trying to revert to high Sierra I install it on 2009 Mac Pro not very stable for would love to reinstall the high Sierra cannot boot with control R. please help me

 

[KernkraftX360]

Anyone have any success running Mac OS X Catalina 10.15.4 on Mac Pro 2008 with a graphics card without Boot EFI?

 

[kakawak]

Hi, I recently installed Catalina without any hiccups however, i've noticed that if my macbook runs out of battery/power and i plug in power cable, my mac won't boot up when i press the power button. The only way to get it to boot again is to press the power button fully for about 15-20 secs then it boots, but it does a reboot twice.... the first lasts a few seconds, like it's trying to start, then goes blank and then it reboots again and boots normally into desktop. Obviously this is not normal...is there a fix?

Also, i've noticed that when i want to connect to my shield tv through network settings it won't let me. I've tried configuring at both ends but i cannot login to my shield from macbook.

Cheers