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Borak

macrumors member
Jul 18, 2019
86
23
Watch the tutorial video ... he put so much effort in this!
I acknowledge and congratulate Dosdude for all his efforts. Now the video tutorial teaches how to do the process with native and original video cards of the machine. In my case, I replace the original GPU with an Nvidia GTX 780M, I lose the boot screen. I have no way to proceed with the tutorial steps because the screen goes black.
 
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Ausdauersportler

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2019
5,007
5,826
I acknowledge and congratulate Dosdude for all his efforts. Now the video tutorial teaches how to do the process with native and original video cards of the machine. In my case, I replace the original GPU with an Nvidia GTX 780M, I lose the boot screen. I have no way to proceed with the tutorial steps because the screen goes black.
I am tired of guessing what hardware you guys are using and when exactly your screen goes black. Make a signature...

With my iMac I have video cards offering no boot screen and the @dosdude1 patcher does the full installation automatically including the reboots. You can choose the USB patcher in advance using the start object from the system preferences.
 

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,913
12,883
Not sure if this was reported already but I have a weird bug with patched Catalina on my MBP5,5 and MB5,1.

Chrome 84 often won't launch initially after a reboot. Or else it may be launching but won't bounce in the dock so I don't know it's launching.
 

Borak

macrumors member
Jul 18, 2019
86
23
I am tired of guessing what hardware you guys are using and when exactly your screen goes black. Make a signature...

With my iMac I have video cards offering no boot screen and the @dosdude1 patcher does the full installation automatically including the reboots. You can choose the USB patcher in advance using the start object from the system preferences.
Signature, ok!
It turns out that when I finish preparing the bootable USB, I select startup disk in the system preferences. It starts, stays forever and does not leave the black screen.
I do this on both iMacs and the result is the same.
I will test it now with another external hard drive to see if I can. I followed exactly as the Dosdude video shows.
 
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Ausdauersportler

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2019
5,007
5,826
Signature, ok!
It turns out that when I finish preparing the bootable USB, I select startup disk in the system preferences. It starts, stays forever and does not leave the black screen.
I do this on both iMacs and the result is the same.
I will test it now with another external hard drive to see if I can. I followed exactly as the Dosdude video shows.
Did you upgrade to the latest and greatest firmware before - 87.0.0.0.0 - if not, the Catalina installer is trying this. This can take some time and reboots with a black screen because the efi upgrader possibly cannot initialize the screen correctly with your new GPU. Did you install the latest @nikey22 780M BIOS?
 
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Borak

macrumors member
Jul 18, 2019
86
23
Did you upgrade to the latest and greatest firmware before - 87.0.0.0.0 - if not, the Catalina installer is trying this. This can take some time and reboots with a black screen because the efi upgrader possibly cannot initialize the screen correctly with your new GPU. Did you install the latest @nikey22 780M BIOS?
I didn't update Bios, because I don't have that experience there and I don't have windows installed on the iMac. From what I've been reading, to do this, I should do some procedures, with the original GPU. It turns out that the original stopped working and the iMac didn't turn on anymore and it was in an eternal loop.
I will redo the whole process of downloading the patcher again, downloading the Catalina installer, formatting it in journeled and then I will try again on both iMacs.
 
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Ausdauersportler

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2019
5,007
5,826
I didn't update Bios, because I don't have that experience there and I don't have windows installed on the iMac. From what I've been reading, to do this, I should do some procedures, with the original GPU. It turns out that the original stopped working and the iMac didn't turn on anymore and it was in an eternal loop.
I will redo the whole process of downloading the patcher again, downloading the Catalina installer, formatting it in journeled and then I will try again on both iMacs.
I was talking about the Apple iMac firmware, updates come with MacOS updates automatically. Please upgrade both iMacs to the latest High Sierra and check if you have the version 87.0.0.0.0 installed. Then proceed with Catalina

Talking about the GPU BIOS: Use the Linux USB method linked on the post in my signature.

And please get local help with some MacOS an Linux experience to come trough all this.
 
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Borak

macrumors member
Jul 18, 2019
86
23
I was talking about the Apple iMac firmware, updates come with MacOS updates automatically. Please upgrade both iMacs to the latest High Sierra and check if you have the version 87.0.0.0.0 installed. Then proceed with Catalina

Talking about the GPU BIOS: Use the Linux USB method linked on the post in my signature.

And please get local help with some MacOS an Linux experience to come trough all this.

I know, the rom version is 87.0.0.0.0. I will read the first post of the topic on the GPU ROM and in the near future I will update the GPU BIOS. Thank's!
 
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thomasonlineva

macrumors newbie
Apr 12, 2020
18
11
My iMac is Mojave. However, I just tried with my 12" MacBook under Catalina, and it sees the audio output over mini-DisplayPort too just fine (via a USB to mini-DisplayPort dongle).
how do you plug a MacBook Pro into an iMac? there dont seem to be mimidvi to mimidvi cables?
 

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,913
12,883
Minor display anomalies with MacBookPro5,5 (GeForce 9400M) connected to the 24" LED Cinema Display (mini-DisplayPort) in Catalina.

For the built-in display, the brightness slider and text are pushed slightly upwards, but close enough.

MBP55-Built-in_Display.png


However, for the secondary screen, the brightness slider is directly over top the resolution text line.

MBP55-Cinema_Display.png


The actual slider works fine though.

BTW, I was surprised to learn that the brightness slider is dependent upon USB. If you don't plug in the USB, the slider disappears completely. This was a pain on my Catalina 12" MacBook since I didn't have a dongle to give me both mini-DisplayPort and USB at the same time.
 

trifero

macrumors 68030
May 21, 2009
2,958
2,800
Minor display anomalies with MacBookPro5,5 (GeForce 9400M) connected to the 24" LED Cinema Display (mini-DisplayPort) in Catalina.

For the built-in display, the brightness slider and text are pushed slightly upwards, but close enough.

View attachment 948434

However, for the secondary screen, the brightness slider is directly over top the resolution text line.

View attachment 948433

The actual slider works fine though.

BTW, I was surprised to learn that the brightness slider is dependent upon USB. If you don't plug in the USB, the slider disappears completely. This was a pain on my Catalina 12" MacBook since I didn't have a dongle to give me both mini-DisplayPort and USB at the same time.
I use this one with the Macbook 12” and an Apple Led Cinema Display 27. Works like a charm.

 
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EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
14,913
12,883
I use this one with the Macbook 12” and an Apple Led Cinema Display 27. Works like a charm.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, but it's OK, as I bought the older 30" Cinema HD Display instead. :D On that monitor there are brightness buttons on the side.

maxresdefault.jpg


To use the monitor with my 12" MacBook, I need an active mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter, but I got an Apple one at the same time. The only thing with this combo is that I need external USB power to power the active mini-DP adapter, but any USB power source (like an iPhone charger) would probably be fine. However, I'm using it mainly with my Mac Pro anyway.
 
Last edited:
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pyedog

macrumors member
Jul 7, 2020
38
54
Hi Everyone,

Attempting to install Catalina on 5,1 MacPro, currently running latest Mojave, no issues, other than the NVIDIA graphics card (Quadro K5000) insisting on a CUDA driver update that can never happen. Running the Catalina Patcher, I'm encountering "Error Saving BaseSystem Image"...."ensure there is at least 10GB of free space on your startup disk...."

Not sure this helps you, but just in case ... I had to use a usb stick that was 32GB in order to get the patcher to work. I would get similar errors if I tried anything larger.

Good Luck!
 

SETIBBIG

macrumors newbie
Aug 3, 2010
4
0
I wanted to keep some of my older Macs in my collection usable, so I upgraded both my 2009 MacBook Pro as well as well as my 2010 MacMini with a Crucial MX500 SSD. I installed high Sierra, verified everything was working, and then installed Catalina on both machines with the same bootable installer.

This is where the MacMini started to run into problems. Under High Sierra, Write/Read speeds were around 200/250MBs for both machines.
After the Catalina patch, the MacBook is performing the same (Trim enabled) but the MacMini is stuck at 100/150MBs respectively. I have enabled trim, that did not make a difference. If anything I get the impression that logging in from boot now takes a bit longer.

I have no idea even where to begin figuring this out.
 

SETIBBIG

macrumors newbie
Aug 3, 2010
4
0
First thing to try is an NVRAM reset
Well, it seems to have resolved itself. I left the machine running for a couple of days. HAven't touched a thing on it... 200/250MBs in black magic now. I dunno. A small thank you to the APFS gods?
 

Henk Poley

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2008
349
118
Did anybody install Homebrew successfully on Catalina patched OS? Some things do not work for me on MacBookPro5,2: for example, it complains test failed (probably on openssl) when I try to install python - but rest packages are installable and runnable. I install Homebrew in home directory.
Some hints here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....2121473/page-466?post=27026470#post-27026470

You will basically need to flip that setting and then build everything from source (brew install/upgrade --build-from-source).
 
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jowaju

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2019
251
333
I wanted to keep some of my older Macs in my collection usable, so I upgraded both my 2009 MacBook Pro as well as well as my 2010 MacMini with a Crucial MX500 SSD. I installed high Sierra, verified everything was working, and then installed Catalina on both machines with the same bootable installer.

This is where the MacMini started to run into problems. Under High Sierra, Write/Read speeds were around 200/250MBs for both machines.
After the Catalina patch, the MacBook is performing the same (Trim enabled) but the MacMini is stuck at 100/150MBs respectively. I have enabled trim, that did not make a difference. If anything I get the impression that logging in from boot now takes a bit longer.

I have no idea even where to begin figuring this out.


This is entirely expected behavior on ANY new macOS install. This is the drive indexing for the first time, which causes the computer to appear sluggish on mechanical drives and not quite as awesome as we expect on SSD drives. Depending on the amount of data you have, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours of screen on/logged in/letting it run in the background for the drive indexing to complete and the machine to return to its expected IO performance state. No amount of rebooting, installing, maintenance, or settings changes will fix this, just let it run once and be done with it.
 

godzfire

macrumors regular
May 20, 2013
108
16
Not sure if this was reported already but I have a weird bug with patched Catalina on my MBP5,5 and MB5,1.

Chrome 84 often won't launch initially after a reboot. Or else it may be launching but won't bounce in the dock so I don't know it's launching.

Came here JUST to report this exact same issue. Fairly recent development:

MacBook Pro 5.1, running 10.15.5 (19F101). Chrome 85.0.4183.83.

Upon an initial boot, clicking Chrome will cause it to look like it's going to open for about 15-20 seconds, and then quit unexpectedly. Subsequent opening of the program works, but is slow.

Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (Code Signature Invalid)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY
Termination Reason: Namespace CODESIGNING, Code 0x1

Full log here: https://pastebin.com/raw/v64vp5W7
 
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