macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[haralds]

I have not been able to find instruction on installing updates to Catalina on unsupported Mac. The last couple of updates (.6,.7) I have redownloaded the full installer and created a USB drive and reinstalled Catalina. Isn't there an easier way? Can someone point me to instructions?

I have mucked around with mods described on this board to enable updates. But I am finding it simpler and safer to just create another USB stick and let it trundle through a reinstall.
In my book the fewer the changes to the OS the better.

 

[hanzS]

Well I guess that's the price of running on an unsupported mac

 

[coasterOneEightThree]

I have mucked around with mods described on this board to enable updates. But I am finding it simpler and safer to just create another USB stick and let it trundle through a reinstall.
In my book the fewer the changes to the OS the better.

It doesn't seem to work with the supplemental update this time. I'm on 10.15.7 (19H2), the version number after update should be 10.15.7 (19H15). I also created a fresh USB stick with macOS Catalina Patcher 1.4.4, but after a new installation my macOS version number is still 10.15.7 (19H2).

 

[hanzS]

but after a new installation my macOS version number is still 10.15.7 (19H2).

That's what I was afraid of. I will wait until it's updated.

 

[nobullone1964]

I have not been able to find instruction on installing updates to Catalina on unsupported Mac. The last couple of updates (.6,.7) I have redownloaded the full installer and created a USB drive and reinstalled Catalina. Isn't there an easier way? Can someone point me to instructions?

As with any @dosdude1 update, you must either do a clean install or full install over the top of the last. Check with him to see if he has updated his installation to include the latest security updates.

 

[Allistah]

What is your hardware ID?
You can disable SIP and then enable the continuity flag for your board.
First you need to mount rw:
mount -uw /
For my cMP 5,1 the line to enable Continuity would be:
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set:Mac-F221BEC8:ContinuitySupport true" "/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist"
Substitute your board ID for "Mac-F221BEC8" and try it.
You can enable SIP after that.
You might also have to set the whitelist in one of the plugins. But that is not reqired on all boards.
sudo -E perl -pi -e "s/\Mac-00BE6ED71E35EB86/\Mac-F221BEC8\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0/" /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortBrcm4360.kext/Contents/MacOS/AirPortBrcm4360

I've tried this multiple times and it doesn't work for me. I haven't seen anyone that has said they've got AWatch System Unlock to work after upgrading their BT module. All the other stuff works great, and AWatch System Unlock works in Mojave just fine as well. My hardware ID is Mac-942B59F58194171B. I do both mods and still doesn't work. I also updated to Watch OS 7.1 this morning as well and that didn't make any difference either.

There must be some other piece of the puzzle that we're missing in Catalina.

If anyone has Apple Watch System Unlock working on Catalina, please let us know!

 

[MrPopman]

For the 10.15.7 supplemental update, Apple appears to not have created a full update. Due to dosdude's system requiring the full update, there is nothing to be done. Monitor Mr Macintosh's Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update (19H15) Released! blog post to see if one is released.

 

[MrPopman]

I have mucked around with mods described on this board to enable updates. But I am finding it simpler and safer to just create another USB stick and let it trundle through a reinstall.
In my book the fewer the changes to the OS the better.

Just an FYI that once you have macOS installed, when you do an update you do not have to wipe the drive again, you can just select the drive with macOS installed on it and the installer will update it in-place. I've never seen any instructions stating this, they all assume a fresh install not an update. Also, when your drives are formatted as APFS you can select "Install to This Machine" in place of using a USB. This is quicker as it creates the modified installer on a temporary drive volume and runs it from there. The downside is you don't have the current OS on your USB drive (which is you recovery drive.)

 

[Allistah]

Just saw on other forums there is a thread where people are having the same issue. Came across a post from someone that just quoted this: "I did notice, oddly enough, if I remove my graphics card (RX 570) that Apple Watch unlocks as expected. Is anyone else able to see if that works for them?"

Then another post replied with "I also am having similar problems with Watch unlock. However after seeing a post online another person with the problem mentioned that it started working flawlessly when they removed their graphics card. So what the heck I tried that and sure enough my Watch unlock worked great. From sleep and from the lock screen no problems. Reinserted graphics card and unlock failed again. Now I know next to nothing about the inner workings of graphics cards on Hackintosh and how that would affect this issue."

Something else that people are saying is that when they disable the serial ports on their Hackintosh machines that suddenly AWatch System Unlock works for them in Catalina. So maybe something with my video card upgrade is conflicting with something as people above remove the video card and it starts to work.

I have upgraded the video card in my system to a K4100M.. I wonder if that is having something to do with AWatch System Unlock not working.

 

[ae2664]

Looking forward to such feedback as well as I don't use Photoshop, or any other Adobe products, myself.

In any case, this test will only confirm that some SSE4.2 items not provided by MouSSE is needed by Photoshop which is just one specific program. The need for extending the coverage would still remain either way.

At the moment however, Mac OS is not choking on the spoofing when using other tools. That is, it is not suddenly deciding to use SSE4.2 for everything.

This is as expected since it was not actually checking before. This might change in the future as noted but that's a problem for later if it does happen. One option would be to run two instances of OpenCore with and without the spoofing. Something to look into later if it ever crops up.

Ideal would be to have full emulation coverage though. This seems to buy some time at the least and with using unsupported computers, kicking the can of total obsolescence down the road is the name of the game.

Windows community already found the solution:

“Despite what Adobe is saying officially, Photoshop 2021 does NOT require support of SSE4.2 to run.
The real problem is that:
- IPP libraries optimized for SSE3 are missing from distribution (they are available from Intel)
- OpenCV library was build with SSE4.2 requirement
To fix this download this pack of libs from any source below (it's the same):
https://www113.zippyshare.com/v/cqtznzt2/file.html
https://www.sendspace.com/file/vh0wjm
Unpack archive and copy libs to Photoshop 2021 installation directory (overwrite opencv_world440.dll when requested).

This fixes the problem and PS runs just fine.
But disclaimer as usual – all this at your own risk.

Please note that this is not a hack or something like this – this is official libraries from official sources.
Intel IPP libraries was taken from Intel Parallels Studio XE 2020.1.0 and contains valid signature from Intel.
OpenCV library was taken from official release of OpenCV 4.4.0 on GitHUB (https://github.com/opencv/opencv, build by VC15)”.

Is there any chance for us? Please, help!

 

[K two]

Just an FYI that once you have macOS installed, when you do an update you do not have to wipe the drive again, you can just select the drive with macOS installed on it and the installer will update it in-place. I've never seen any instructions stating this, they all assume a fresh install not an update. Also, when your drives are formatted as APFS you can select "Install to This Machine" in place of using a USB. This is quicker as it creates the modified installer on a temporary drive volume and runs it from there. The downside is you don't have the current OS on your USB drive (which is you recovery drive.)

Can't be repeated enough - The v. 1.4.4 USB installer is the Recovery Disk. One should always be made w/ unsupported MacOS installs.

 

[ghost82]

I have redownloaded the full installer and created a USB drive and reinstalled Catalina. Isn't there an easier way?

On my macbookpro4,1 I'm using CatalinaOTAswufix:

macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

I have just re-implemented "catalinaswufix5amfi.command" with a GUI to allow, download and install the Catalina Beta Software Update (and public too) on any Catalina unsupported Mac, I have tested it and seems to work enough good. I used the @Czo SUVMMFaker.dylib , @Pinarek method of OTA .dist...

forums.macrumors.com

Never failed with updates and it worked with 19H15.

 

[Dayo]

Is there any chance for us?

Have you tried the OpenCore thing?

 

[trifero]

On my macbookpro4,1 I'm using CatalinaOTAswufix:

macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

I have just re-implemented "catalinaswufix5amfi.command" with a GUI to allow, download and install the Catalina Beta Software Update (and public too) on any Catalina unsupported Mac, I have tested it and seems to work enough good. I used the @Czo SUVMMFaker.dylib , @Pinarek method of OTA .dist...

forums.macrumors.com

Never failed with updates and it worked with 19H15.

Thank you so much. Will try later.

 

[ghost82]

Thank you so much. Will try later.

Just to clarify, once you run the OTA fix (first step) and you open the update panel, you need to click on more info.., since it will be shown bigsur update in the main panel; once the new window pop up you can select the catalina update.
Then proceed with OTA fix step 2, let the installation to proceed, then apply patches with dosdude tool latest version (If you will have a not bootable system apply again the patches); I needed to apply 2 times the patches and choose the mac os boot disk from the patcher to make it bootable again.

 

[trifero]

Just to clarify, once you run the OTA fix (first step) and you open the update panel, you need to click on more info.., since it will be shown bigsur update in the main panel; once the new window pop up you can select the catalina update.
Then proceed with OTA fix step 2, let the installation to proceed, then apply patches with dosdude tool latest version (If you will have a not bootable system apply again the patches); I needed to apply 2 times the patches and choose the mac os boot disk from the patcher to make it bootable again.

Thanks. Will try in a few hours.

 

[trifero]

Just to clarify, once you run the OTA fix (first step) and you open the update panel, you need to click on more info.., since it will be shown bigsur update in the main panel; once the new window pop up you can select the catalina update.
Then proceed with OTA fix step 2, let the installation to proceed, then apply patches with dosdude tool latest version (If you will have a not bootable system apply again the patches); I needed to apply 2 times the patches and choose the mac os boot disk from the patcher to make it bootable again.

I have two hard drives. The one for my regular use, with Mojave, and the catalina one, booting external. Is it posible that the fix mess up with the Mojave one? Better to remove the Mojave and leave only the Catalina before apply the fix? Thanks.

 

[ghost82]

Is it posible that the fix mess up with the Mojave one?

I really don't know...but if you want to be 100% sure yes, leave only the catalina hd attached.

 

[trifero]

I really don't know...but if you want to be 100% sure yes, leave only the catalina hd attached.

Thanks for the advice. I will do so.

 

[trifero]

I really don't know...but if you want to be 100% sure yes, leave only the catalina hd attached.

 

[trifero]

sweating...

 

[K two]

Using the @jackluke patch the Supplemental Update downloaded and ended up in the Library/Updatesƒ but failed to install. Here are the contents:

 

[haralds]

I've tried this multiple times and it doesn't work for me. I haven't seen anyone that has said they've got AWatch System Unlock to work after upgrading their BT module. All the other stuff works great, and AWatch System Unlock works in Mojave just fine as well. My hardware ID is Mac-942B59F58194171B. I do both mods and still doesn't work. I also updated to Watch OS 7.1 this morning as well and that didn't make any difference either.

There must be some other piece of the puzzle that we're missing in Catalina.

If anyone has Apple Watch System Unlock working on Catalina, please let us know!

You might want to check out the old Continuity Activation Tool and see, what it does for your platform.

 

[Allistah]

You might want to check out the old Continuity Activation Tool and see, what it does for your platform.

Since all the other Continuity works on Catalina, not sure if would do anything but I'll give it a shot.

Does AWatch System Unlock work for you on Catalina on a system installed via a Dos Dudes patch install?

 

[trifero]

It doesn´t work. Unrebootable system.