macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[KennyW]

Thanks, I've added my signature (hopefully it shows). If not, I'm running a 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 with 32gb RAM and a Radeon 7950. My boot drive is a 1TB SSD. The other 3 internal drives are mechanical 1TB units with one being dedicated solely to TM.

So far, everything works great however I did an upgrade vs. clean install from HS. The things I've noticed I can't do:

1. Install security updates; it just reboots back into Cat without the update installer starting;
2. Restore from my most recent Cat backups in TM. I get that message I mentioned in my previous post.

At this point, I'd like to do a clean install but I have quite a few applications and this PC is used for work everyday. I am on Christmas vacation at the moment, so I don't have to worry about office work, but if I can avoid potentially losing files and data, that'd be preferred.

I suppose I could do a clean install then use TM from within the desktop to restore certain files/folders not stored on my other internal, non-boot hard disks?

I'm just finding this inability to do a TM restore from Recovery absolutely mind blowing... has anyone else encountered the message "You can't restore this backup because this Mac does not support booting from APFS"? I can't even do a snapshot recovery from the boot SSD because it tells me that the computer is in an unknown/unstable state. What's the point of all these fall back mechanisms if I can't use them?

1. To install Catalina OTA system updates, you need the CatalinaOTAswufix.

2. That's the price to pay when running unsupported OS in your Mac, unless some others figure out a way to bypass the issue.

 

[KennyW]

Thank you for the very concise description and instructions. It's much appreciated.

I've done everything you've described, more than three times in fact (including deleting the downloaded update from the /Library/Updates folder and starting over. Everytime I do, I reboot then restart the download again. At that time, I'll click the OTA fix button and receive a long window showing successful changes. I let the Mac reboot after download completes but it's at that point that the security update installer never starts. Instead, the Mac will just boot right back into Catalina with no software changes taking place.

I encountered the same problem initially, and then I check my SIP status and it is enabled. So, I disabled it again and everything went smoothly. Other than that, I have no further clues to solve this issue of failed OTA update.

 

[amstel78]

1. To install Catalina OTA system updates, you need the CatalinaOTAswufix.

2. That's the price to pay when running unsupported OS in your Mac, unless some others figure out a way to bypass the issue.

So wait, are you saying that TM as far as a full restore within Recovery doesn't work at all when running Catalina on an unsupported Mac?

 

[amstel78]

I encountered the same problem initially, and then I check my SIP status and it is enabled. So, I disabled it again and everything went smoothly. Other than that, I have no further clues to solve this issue of failed OTA update.

That was one of the first things I checked. Typing 'csrutil status' in a terminal window shows that it's disabled on my machine.

 

[amstel78]

So I reinstalled Catalina from the USB patcher. I didn't do a clean install, but elected to just copy over the current installation hoping that if there were some messed up files, that would have sorted out the update issue. Unfortunately it did not. I did check console and saw some interesting entries, although I'm not sure what to make of them. I'm posting it below hoping that someone better versed in troubleshooting can help figure out why the security OTA updates aren't initializing after reboot.

2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro softwareupdated[900]: Scan (f=1, d=0) completed
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro softwareupdated[900]: 3 updates found:
001-73001(R) | macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update
001-77516 | MRTConfigData 1.72
001-88090 | Security Update 2020-001 10.15.7
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro SoftwareUpdateNotificationManager[1071]: Controller: Received availableUpdatesChanged notification; new updates: [001-88090]; new major updates: [001-86606, 001-68446, 001-57224, 001-51042, 001-36801, 001-36735, 001-15219, 001-04366, 061-86291, 061-26589, 061-26578, 041-88800, 041-91758]
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.remoteservice[1349]: Controller: Received availableUpdatesChanged notification; new updates: [001-88090]; new major updates: [001-86606, 001-68446, 001-57224, 001-51042, 001-36801, 001-36735, 001-15219, 001-04366, 061-86291, 061-26589, 061-26578, 041-88800, 041-91758]
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro softwareupdated[900]: Removing client SUUpdateServiceClient pid=1349, uid=501, installAuth=NO rights=(), transactions=0 (/System/Library/PreferencePanes/SoftwareUpdate.prefPane/Contents/XPCServices/com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.remoteservice.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.remoteservice)
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro softwareupdated[900]: Removing client SUUpdateServiceClient pid=1349, uid=501, installAuth=NO rights=(), transactions=0 (/System/Library/PreferencePanes/SoftwareUpdate.prefPane/Contents/XPCServices/com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.remoteservice.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.remoteservice)
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro SoftwareUpdateNotificationManager[1071]: Controller: Skipping MajorOSInfo fetch as there is already a cached copy of the product key:<SUOSUMajorProduct: 001-86606>(Title:macOS Big Sur Version:11.1, Identifier:com.apple.InstallAssistant.macOSBigSur, IconSize:6941084, Deferred:0, Deferred Untilnull))
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro SoftwareUpdateNotificationManager[1071]: osUpdateDaemonConnection: <NSXPCConnection: 0x7fa94ec33300> connection to service on pid 0 named com.apple.softwareupdated.OSUpdate
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro SoftwareUpdateNotificationManager[1071]: SUOSUUpdateController：Service connection invalidated w/ scheduler!
2020-12-25 02:18:25-05 Jamess-Mac-Pro SoftwareUpdateNotificationManager[1071]: SUOSUUpdateController: Error making connection to softwareupdated: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service on pid 0 named com.apple.softwareupdated.OSUpdate was invalidated." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service on pid 0 named com.apple.softwareupdated.OSUpdate was invalidated.}

Edit: pinging @jackluke as nothing I try with CatalinaOTAswufix works. Quite simply, everything looks fine until reboot. After reboot, the security update installer never starts, and the Mac reboots back to Catalina login screen.

 

[trifero]

So I reinstalled Catalina from the USB patcher. I didn't do a clean install, but elected to just copy over the current installation hoping that if there were some messed up files, that would have sorted out the update issue. Unfortunately it did not. I did check console and saw some interesting entries, although I'm not sure what to make of them. I'm posting it below hoping that someone better versed in troubleshooting can help figure out why the security OTA updates aren't initializing after reboot.

Just one advice. Never use Time Machine for backups. Use cloning software. I use carbon copy cloner and never had a single problem. When I ineed it , i boot from tjhe cloned drive and clone again to the usual drive.

 

[KennyW]

Just one advice. Never use Time Machine for backups. Use cloning software. I use carbon copy cloner and never had a single problem. When I ineed it , i boot from tjhe cloned drive and clone again to the usual drive.

Time Machine allows incremental backup. I have very few experience with it since I don't use it, apart from my office iMac installed by company.

I also use CCC for complete cloning of my Catalina volume. It is free (for 30 days) and easy to use.

 

[KennyW]

So wait, are you saying that TM as far as a full restore within Recovery doesn't work at all when running Catalina on an unsupported Mac?

I have very limited experience with TM and used it for once or twice only.

According to other users, TM doesn't work across major system version upgrade for Catalina:

Time Machine and backing up in Catalina

Time Machine has changed in Catalina, but details haven’t been provided. How best to prepare to upgrade, and how to address its problems.

eclecticlight.co

 

[amstel78]

Well, FWIW, time machine allowed me to save my patched HS install a few times when software updates basically bricked the computer. I was able to restore from the last full backup point without any fuss.

It seems like that functionality is no longer present, at least on patched Catalina machines. I hope this can be remedied eventually.

As for CCC, I am familiar as I use it extensively with my Windows 10 machines. For Mac OS though, does CCC allow you to create rescue media that can be used to boot and restore a patched install?

 

[amstel78]

I have very limited experience with TM and used it for once or twice only.

According to other users, TM doesn't work across major system version upgrade for Catalina:

Time Machine and backing up in Catalina

Time Machine has changed in Catalina, but details haven’t been provided. How best to prepare to upgrade, and how to address its problems.

eclecticlight.co

I can backup from an APFS Catalina boot drive just fine. It will not let me restore from recovery mode. I can however restore individual files and folders from within the OS.

The message that I get when trying to restore in recovery makes no sense. It basically says I cannot restore since my Mac is incapable of booting from APFS even though it does. Granted, it can only do so because of @dosdude1 APFS patcher for unsupported Macs, so I'm assuming this error message is based on Recovery looking at actual machine firmware.

 

[amstel78]

For those who used CatalinaOTAswufix (it requires "csrutil disable") during the OTA update downloading, you should relaunch the app and apply the "OTA update fix", if you already did that and still reboot to previous Catalina version, then means you are using a non-APFS Mac, so you should use USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3 to continue the hidden stage2 "macOS Installer", then after update completes reapply dosdude1 post install patches, you can even continue booting through USBopencore .

I've downloaded USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3 but how do I use this in conjunction with the OTA fix? Every time I try to run the update, it reboots back to 19H2.

 

[trifero]

Well, FWIW, time machine allowed me to save my patched HS install a few times when software updates basically bricked the computer. I was able to restore from the last full backup point without any fuss.

It seems like that functionality is no longer present, at least on patched Catalina machines. I hope this can be remedied eventually.

As for CCC, I am familiar as I use it extensively with my Windows 10 machines. For Mac OS though, does CCC allow you to create rescue media that can be used to boot and restore a patched install?

You can bet your ass. I have done that dozens of times. Works like a charm. It´s bercause that I´m not afraid of try new things. I can restore in minutes. Use SSD for cloning.

 

[amstel78]

I've downloaded USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3 but how do I use this in conjunction with the OTA fix? Every time I try to run the update, it reboots back to 19H2.

Ok, I think I have this figured out. After downloading the security update and applying OTA fix, right after the system reboots, hold alt-opt and select the USB OpenCore EFI thumb drive. After it loads, select the hidden Mac OS installer option. After that happens, the security update installer begins.

It's currently doing its thing as I write this. Hopefully this works now.

 

[trifero]

Ok, I think I have this figured out. After downloading the security update and applying OTA fix, right after the system reboots, hold alt-opt and select the USB OpenCore EFI thumb drive. After it loads, select the hidden Mac OS installer option. After that happens, the security update installer begins.

It's currently doing its thing as I write this. Hopefully this works now.

It´s really being a pain in the ass ☹️ . Wish you luck.

 

[amstel78]

It´s really being a pain in the ass . Wish you luck.

It worked! Booted into H114. Now just have to apply post-install patches.

 

[trifero]

It worked! Booted into H114. Now just have to apply post-install patches.

??? Yes! Just only that! I could boot without applying, but many things were not working. After applying the patch again, everything works right.

 

[gw463]

Ok, penso di aver capito. Dopo aver scaricato l'aggiornamento di sicurezza e applicato la correzione OTA, subito dopo il riavvio del sistema, tieni premuto alt-opt e seleziona la chiavetta USB OpenCore EFI. Dopo il caricamento, seleziona l'opzione di installazione nascosta di Mac OS. Dopodiché, inizia il programma di installazione dell'aggiornamento della sicurezza.

Attualmente sta facendo le sue cose mentre scrivo questo. Spero che funzioni ora.

Wow all Security update run fine with this method on my MacPro 3.1 now i've 19H505....Merry Xmas

 

[amstel78]

Wow all Security update run fine with this method on my MacPro 3.1 now i've 19H505....Merry Xmas

How did you get 19H505? Are you running developer beta updates?

 

[gw463]

Come hai ottenuto 19H505? Stai eseguendo aggiornamenti beta per sviluppatori?

Yes with CatalinaOTAswufix now only upgrade to BigSur i see on software update but for now i don't upgrade...

 

[borgo1971]

Good evening and merry Xmas to all. Having time to spend on it, I tried to update my old 2008 iMac (8,1) form macOS 10.15.6 (19G73) to macOS 10.15.7 with newly downloaded patcher and Installer. Everything seems to work normally, but after reboot I'm again on macOS 10.15.6. I tried to update in both ways: booting form internal drive and launching installer or booting with USB flash drive, but in both case Install seems to went well but with no results. Did anyone other have the same issue? Is there some workaround to update the computer?

 

[trifero]

How did you get 19H505? Are you running developer beta updates?

Updated again in the beta channel. 19H505 installed like a charm...

 

[trifero]

@jackluke This appears every time I boot new. Is it important?

 

[amstel78]

@jackluke This appears every time I boot new. Is it important? View attachment 1700945

Did that only appear after installing the H505 beta update?

Also, any way to disable the Big Sur availability notification?

 

[poiihy]

It seems homebrew compiles packages on newer hardware. youtube-dl with python 3.9 from homebrew crashes on illegal hardware instruction. You have to use the official python.org build instead. (Also don't forget to run `Install Certificates.command`)

 

[Henry_Lee]

Did that only appear after installing the H505 beta update?

Also, any way to disable the Big Sur availability notification?

About the first question: I don't know but I'd like to know as well.
About the second question: this command worked for me (in terminal):

defaults delete com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate LatestMajorOSSeenByUserBundleIdentifier && softwareupdate --list