macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[spacebiscuit]

Currently I am using version 15.5.5 installed via the DosDude patcher just under a year ago. I have only recently upgraded my GPU (having persisted with the sluggish performance of the original AMD card). Now that the upgrade is complete I want to patch the latest version of Catalina.

I have downlaoded and setup my usb, I have rebooted into the setup and I am presented with the macOS Utilities prompt. Should I select "Reinstall macOS" or "macOS Post Install"? I want to just update my imac and retain my home directory and apps etc

Thanks in advance.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Currently I am using version 15.5.5 installed via the DosDude patcher just under a yea ago. I have only recently upgraded my GPU (having persisted with the sluggish performance of the original AMD card). Now that the upgrade is complete I want to patch the latest version of Catalina.

I have downlaoded and setup my usb, I have rebooted into the setup and I am presented with the macOS Utilities prompt. Should I select "Reinstall macOS" or "macOS Post Install"? I want to just update my imac and retain my home directory and apps etc

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can install over your current setup without losing configuration, home/user folders, programs etc. with the option "Reinstall macOS". If you are already at the latest 10.15.7 build, then re-patching for OpenGL ("legacy video cards") should be sufficient.
If you have a metal capable card now, then you´ll have to really re-install macOS freshly because imho there is no easy way to get rid of the patches, even when re-installing over previous system.

 

[K two]

Yes, you can install over your current setup without losing configuration, home/user folders, programs etc. with the option "Reinstall macOS". If you are already at the latest 10.15.7 build, then re-patching for OpenGL ("legacy video cards") should be sufficient.
If you have a metal capable card now, then you´ll have to really re-install macOS freshly because imho there is no easy way to get rid of the patches, even when re-installing over previous system.

There is an uninstaller - use with caution.

 

[mantekkerz]

Could anyone help me out? This is driving me crazy and I’ve read so many people tell me how easy it is, but I’m stuck. It’s a Mac book pro 8,1 early 2011.

The furthest I’ve managed to get is after booting from USB, I get the progress bar. Then after 5 mins or so I get the “macOS could not be installed on your machine” error that mentions diagnostics.

Ive been using dos dudes 1.4.4 patcher. I’ve tried two USB sticks. Ive tried both USB ports. I’ve tried downloading Catalina via the patcher and also via gibMac to get v 19H524. I’ve tried preparing the USB on High Sierra and a Mac Mini and a Mac book pro, both running Catalina - fresh downloads each time.

I’ve reset NVRAM. I’ve reset SMC. I’ve disabled SIP. I’ve checked date and time is set correctly.

Today I installed a SSD and removed the old mechanical drive as I’d read about potentially old HDDs being too long in the tooth for AFPS. The install was successful and the drive is recognised when trying to install but the results are the same.

Ive read loads of posts and watched tonnes of YouTube videos. But I can’t figure it out.

Any ideas much appreciated. It’s driving me crazy!

 

[0134168]

Deleted

 

[0134168]

Could anyone help me out? This is driving me crazy and I’ve read so many people tell me how easy it is, but I’m stuck. It’s a Mac book pro 8,1 early 2011.

The furthest I’ve managed to get is after booting from USB, I get the progress bar. Then after 5 mins or so I get the “macOS could not be installed on your machine” error that mentions diagnostics.

Ive been using dos dudes 1.4.4 patcher. I’ve tried two USB sticks. Ive tried both USB ports. I’ve tried downloading Catalina via the patcher and also via gibMac to get v 19H524. I’ve tried preparing the USB on High Sierra and a Mac Mini and a Mac book pro, both running Catalina - fresh downloads each time.

I’ve reset NVRAM. I’ve reset SMC. I’ve disabled SIP. I’ve checked date and time is set correctly.

Today I installed a SSD and removed the old mechanical drive as I’d read about potentially old HDDs being too long in the tooth for AFPS. The install was successful and the drive is recognised when trying to install but the results are the same.

Ive read loads of posts and watched tonnes of YouTube videos. But I can’t figure it out.

Any ideas much appreciated. It’s driving me crazy!

I suppose the date in the mac is correct. Right?

 

[breakout8]

I received the replacement Broadcom card and adapter on Friday and installed them today.
Everything works perfectly now for Bluetooth and WiFi. Very happy as you can imagine.
Thanks for the tips.

 

[0134168]

I received the replacement Broadcom card and adapter on Friday and installed them today.
Everything works perfectly now for Bluetooth and WiFi. Very happy as you can imagine.
Thanks for the tips.

Nice!

 

[mantekkerz]

I suppose the date in the mac is correct. Right?

Yup.

Always fails at the same point. Boot from USB -> begin install -> auto reboot -> next progress screen for around 5 minutes and then bam - macOS couldn’t being installed error.

 

[0134168]

Yup.

Always fails at the same point. Boot from USB -> begin install -> auto reboot -> next progress screen for around 5 minutes and then bam - macOS couldn’t being installed error.

Maybe you could try installing High Sierra, that is supported, and update from there, not from an USB drive.

 

[K two]

Could anyone help me out? This is driving me crazy and I’ve read so many people tell me how easy it is, but I’m stuck. It’s a Mac book pro 8,1 early 2011.

The furthest I’ve managed to get is after booting from USB, I get the progress bar. Then after 5 mins or so I get the “macOS could not be installed on your machine” error that mentions diagnostics.

Ive been using dos dudes 1.4.4 patcher. I’ve tried two USB sticks. Ive tried both USB ports. I’ve tried downloading Catalina via the patcher and also via gibMac to get v 19H524. I’ve tried preparing the USB on High Sierra and a Mac Mini and a Mac book pro, both running Catalina - fresh downloads each time.

I’ve reset NVRAM. I’ve reset SMC. I’ve disabled SIP. I’ve checked date and time is set correctly.

Today I installed a SSD and removed the old mechanical drive as I’d read about potentially old HDDs being too long in the tooth for AFPS. The install was successful and the drive is recognised when trying to install but the results are the same.

Ive read loads of posts and watched tonnes of YouTube videos. But I can’t figure it out.

Any ideas much appreciated. It’s driving me crazy!

Just checked gibMacOS and the latest version avail is 19H15, 19H524 is the Supplemental Update avail via Software Update CP not on gibMacOS. What installer are you attempting?

 

[mantekkerz]

Maybe you could try installing High Sierra, that is supported, and update from there, not from an USB drive.

I'm trying this now. One thing I have just noticed, might be nothing, but the High Sierra installer option said "Install macOS". But each bootable USB stick I've tried has said "Reinstall macOS" - even when the SSD had no operating system at all.

Just checked gibMacOS and the latest version avail is 19H15, 19H524 is the Supplemental Update avail via Software Update CP not on gibMacOS. What installer are you attempting?

Ah, that could be me just getting muddled with version numbers. The version I got from gibMac was 10.15.7. That was out of desperation really rather than anything else. I'd tried the patcher's direct download and saw no harm trying other versions from gibMac.

 

[windrider42]

I’m attempting to install Catalina on my mid 2009 MacBook Pro using the dosdude tool, I’ve even using my M1 MacBook Pro to create the USB thumb drive. I’ve let the installer run overnight. When I attempt to boot it displays a 0 with a slash through it, powering on and pressing the option key presents the name of the installed disk icon, recovery-10.14.6 icon, or the installer icon if it’s plug in.
Seeing how many others successfully install on this platform makes me wonder if building The image on the M1 is the underlying problem.
I guessing the dosdude patcher will run on el capitan so I can or should I’ll the image.

looking for guidance on what to do to get this working
Thanks for all everybody does to keep old hardware in service.

Jack

Try using a different USB

 

[0134168]

I'm trying this now. One thing I have just noticed, might be nothing, but the High Sierra installer option said "Install macOS". But each bootable USB stick I've tried has said "Reinstall macOS" - even when the SSD had no operating system at all.


Ah, that could be me just getting muddled with version numbers. The version I got from gibMac was 10.15.7. That was out of desperation really rather than anything else. I'd tried the patcher's direct download and saw no harm trying other versions from gibMac.

"Reinstall…" is normal. Always appears like that.

 

[Omega Mac]

I should not have to post her because I have not used the patcher in this instance, but I might have too, here goes.

...Ive been running Catalina off an external SSD drive for ages now with a later 2012 mac-mini server. No patcher or anything required. Needed to upgrade for Xcode.

So I clone the existing external Catalina boot SSD to new external SSD using CCC.

Great I now have 2 copies of my boot, some disaster recovery in place.

My plan was too nightly clone back onto the original boot SSD and have it as a back up. No longer able to use spinning HDD's as APFS is a disaster here.

Now the new cloned SSD will not boot!

Nor will the old SSD either! - Here I stupidly ran a clone back over this original copy to test , make sure it woudl boot, because I thought it worked and switch to the new SSD and never hit this issue before.

I managed to run the internet recovery and re-install macOS on each SSD, both on the same machine and now also on separate machines, I have a couple extra server laying around. So that will get them to boot once,.

If they are shut down or restart they will do the same thing, Apple Logo screen simply hangs.

I've done CCC's many many time over the last decade. Never had this issue. Ever. That's why I ran the new SSD and cloned over the old SSD which was original source.

Now I find this after reading up on CCC help and I seriously hope this is not the reason. Seriously.

Is it possible via the internet recovery Apple has borked my setup because the late MM 2012 has been classed vintage and borked my production machine behind my back?

I mean if this is true, one day it boots happy as larry next day Apple have sabotage it, well this is beyond crazy if true and yet they state they support the operating system on late 2012, that's how it was possibly to upgrade normally, i.e. no need to patch this machine.

2012-vintage Macs can't boot macOS Catalina from an encrypted USB device
We have received several reports that the 2012 Mac mini and the 2012 MacBook Pro can initially boot from a non-encrypted external USB device, but then will fail to boot from that device when FileVault is enabled on the external device. This issue is not specific to CCC, we have confirmation that this occurs when installing Catalina directly onto an external device as well. This problem does not appear to be specific to any particular enclosure, rather it appears to be specific to the 2012 models of Mac mini and MacBook Pro. If you require an encrypted backup, we recommend that you erase your destination as APFS or HFS+ encrypted, then create a data-only backup to that volume.

We reported this issue to Apple (FB7433465) in November 2019 and we are currently awaiting a response.

Apple no longer supports booting Macs from RAID devices​

Starting in macOS Mojave, Apple no longer supports installing macOS onto a RAID device(link is external). Some people have found that cloning Mojave to a RAID array can work, however this is not a supported configuration, and does not appear to be a viable option for macOS Catalina.

The crazy thing also here is I always ran Catalina as encrypted. As you know, when you clone you need to re-run the firevault, so that is exactly what I did, because the new cloned copy of the old SSD boot no problem, so why wouldn't you assume everything is fine... had to do this and this could be the issue.

Any ideas here where to go next?

 

[Omega Mac]

Ok my solution was to test one of the SSD drives internally fitted, after some fiddling with the late MM 2012, original EVO 850 installed and it booted up nice and quick. Problem solved!

 

[mantekkerz]

May have found the issue. I couldn’t even get High Sierra installed which is supported. Install got stuck, tried resetting, file exists error, tried again from scratch and got all sorts of weirdness - disk utility wouldn’t let me erase the SSD, install would fail before even the first restart with a installation preparation failed error. Ran diagnostics and it’s showing a RAM error: 4MEM/60/4000000.

Machine did run previously without any major issues so does seem strange.

 

[wire_]

This post is a followup on problems with Security and Privacy list permissions in System Preferences, regarding screen and microphone access.

The basic problem is that an app like Zoom may request access to Screen and Microphone, but not appear in the System Preferences > Security & Privacy pane.

The lore is that SIP needs to be enabled, but that's impossible for patched unsupported Macs.

(For some reason I am unable to search the thread right now so I can't refer to specific posts, but if you can search for posts involving the use of "tccutil" this will provide the context)

The solution that works for me is in the use of the posted utility "tccplus" which is a wrapper for MacOS tccutil:

See: Tccplus (previously posted)

GitHub - jslegendre/tccplus: tccutil with extended capabilities. Grant/remove accessibility permissions to any app.

tccutil with extended capabilities. Grant/remove accessibility permissions to any app. - jslegendre/tccplus

github.com

This solution requires the ability to run Xcode to build the command. If you want to proceed, the following hints may help:

1. You need to get the project code into a local folder. Download the .zip (Green button)
2. Install Xcode and open the project file from the folder
3. You DO NOT need an Apple Developer account to build the tool — to avoid an error regarding a Developer account, configure code-signing for local system only and it will run. See "Signing and Capabiities"
4. Choose Produce > Build, or enter cmd-B
5. The output will appear immediately in a an Xcode default Debug folder: right-click on the executable in the Xcode navigation window > Show in Finder
6. Copy the executable or run it where it lies

Once you have the tccplus command available

• Get the bundle ID for the app you wish to enable in Privacy & Security, e.g.:
  mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier -r /Applications/SomeApp.app
  It will report something like "com.creator.app-id"
• Use tccplus to add allow the privacy exception:
  tccplus add ScreenCapture com.creator.app-id

The app should appear in System Preferences > Security & Privacy under Screen Recording.
Do the same for Microphone.

This can allow a product like Zoon to get needed access.

While not user friendly, it allows the system to work.

You may need to reset the whole security and privacy permissions using tccutil reset. You can find detailed reports on the use of this command elsewhere on the web.

HTH

 

[0134168]

I should not have to post her because I have not used the patcher in this instance, but I might have too, here goes.

...Ive been running Catalina off an external SSD drive for ages now with a later 2012 mac-mini server. No patcher or anything required. Needed to upgrade for Xcode.

So I clone the existing external Catalina boot SSD to new external SSD using CCC.

Great I now have 2 copies of my boot, some disaster recovery in place.

My plan was too nightly clone back onto the original boot SSD and have it as a back up. No longer able to use spinning HDD's as APFS is a disaster here.

Now the new cloned SSD will not boot!

Nor will the old SSD either! - Here I stupidly ran a clone back over this original copy to test , make sure it woudl boot, because I thought it worked and switch to the new SSD and never hit this issue before.

I managed to run the internet recovery and re-install macOS on each SSD, both on the same machine and now also on separate machines, I have a couple extra server laying around. So that will get them to boot once,.

If they are shut down or restart they will do the same thing, Apple Logo screen simply hangs.

I've done CCC's many many time over the last decade. Never had this issue. Ever. That's why I ran the new SSD and cloned over the old SSD which was original source.

Now I find this after reading up on CCC help and I seriously hope this is not the reason. Seriously.

Is it possible via the internet recovery Apple has borked my setup because the late MM 2012 has been classed vintage and borked my production machine behind my back?

I mean if this is true, one day it boots happy as larry next day Apple have sabotage it, well this is beyond crazy if true and yet they state they support the operating system on late 2012, that's how it was possibly to upgrade normally, i.e. no need to patch this machine.



The crazy thing also here is I always ran Catalina as encrypted. As you know, when you clone you need to re-run the firevault, so that is exactly what I did, because the new cloned copy of the old SSD boot no problem, so why wouldn't you assume everything is fine... had to do this and this could be the issue.

Any ideas here where to go next?

As you, I run CCC everyday since many many years ago. Never had a a failure. Odd.

 

[Larsvonhier]

There is an uninstaller - use with caution.

At a quick glance into the script, I do not see any copy-back action for the modified Skylight and other frameworks, so the OpenGL patches still stick, no way back to clean metal from a patched machine...

 

[K two]

At a quick glance into the script, I do not see any copy-back action for the modified Skylight and other frameworks, so the OpenGL patches still stick, no way back to clean metal from a patched machine...

@dosdude1 posted that script before Nov 2019 so it must be out-of-date? Good catch, tho. Thank you.

 

[roysterdoyster]

MBP4,1 MacOS 10.15.7 (19H1024):

After a system crash, I ran Disk Utility from the macOS Base System (EFI boot) and got a dispenser error.
I did a clean install (19H15), then successfully updated via CatalinaOTAswufix.app and USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3.app to 19H1024. The system runs fast and stable, and I got Time Machine back!


The System Pref Panel "Trackpad" is only about Bluetooth trackpads. Where dd my trackpad go?
I can scroll with 2 fingers gesture and two-finger double-tap on the trackpad zooms in and out. Clicking doesn't work.

Please advise, help is highly appreciated!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

At a quick glance into the script, I do not see any copy-back action for the modified Skylight and other frameworks, so the OpenGL patches still stick, no way back to clean metal from a patched machine...

Take a look here, but honestly reinstalling is more easy and less error prone....

 

[mantekkerz]

May have found the issue. I couldn’t even get High Sierra installed which is supported. Install got stuck, tried resetting, file exists error, tried again from scratch and got all sorts of weirdness - disk utility wouldn’t let me erase the SSD, install would fail before even the first restart with a installation preparation failed error. Ran diagnostics and it’s showing a RAM error: 4MEM/60/4000000.

Machine did run previously without any major issues so does seem strange.

So today 16GB of RAM turned up. Installed it. High Sierra went straight on. Decided to try my Catalina USB stick again and it worked! The SSD and RAM have really turned this machine around. 11 years old but it's not e-waste yet. Thanks to the updated OS I can use it on the go for Xcode or other little bits. I've been putting this off since Mojave came out and I couldn't get it installed. It had bad RAM all that time!

Thanks to everyone who had suggestions and to everyone who contributes to keeping old hardware going!

 

[0134168]

So today 16GB of RAM turned up. Installed it. High Sierra went straight on. Decided to try my Catalina USB stick again and it worked! The SSD and RAM have really turned this machine around. 11 years old but it's not e-waste yet. Thanks to the updated OS I can use it on the go for Xcode or other little bits. I've been putting this off since Mojave came out and I couldn't get it installed. It had bad RAM all that time!

Thanks to everyone who had suggestions and to everyone who contributes to keeping old hardware going!

It´s a great machine!