macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[Squatting Hen]

If you create a OpenCoreAPFSLoader usb, install the up dates one at a time(works for me) then install the Catalina security update once it reboots hold your option button selected the OpenCoreAPFSLoader usb from the list choose macOS installer as the it what your HD/SSD is temporarily named then let the update do its thing then when its down and reboots hold the option button select your usb you install Catlina with and apply the pos install patches

Thanks. Any way to do it without adding another boot such as OpenCoreAPFSLoader. I am not familiar with that and thought there was a way with the jackluke ota app.

 

[TimothyR734]

Thanks. Any way to do it without adding another boot such as OpenCoreAPFSLoader. I am not familiar with that and thought there was a way with the jackluke ota app.

 

[TimothyR734]

those are 2 terminal patches I used on my mid 2009 iMac for the Catalina updates

 

[Squatting Hen]

looks like I got it!!!

 

[TimmuJapan]

To update dosdude1 patched Catalina properly, please read the first post of this thread about “enabling Ota updates.” Its right at the top.

You must follow the steps outlined in post #13,956 very carefully.

THIS POST IS THE LAW
there is no room for improvisation.

Read it a few times slowly and go through the process slowly and follow the steps exactly as they are written.

Reposted again below. If you have trouble, follow K two’s advice about deleting files in post # 15,270.

 

[Squatting Hen]

Thanks. I have that pinned and followed it the fist time but must have missed a step. All seems good now. Thank you.

 

[ps866mker]

I had to reinstall the OS from the Catalina dosdude1 usb

Thanks. I know I have taken up a lot of posts lately but I appreciate all the help. I was worried, and nothing I did would work, so I reinstalled Catalina from the dosdude1 boot I had and I have it back.

Can someone hold my hand here and explain what I am supposed to do to get the updates? I thought I followed all the instructions but it didn’t work last time.

Do I get out of beta? I did that this last time, but messed up somewhere.

Screenshot is where I am.

Basically I just followed the sequence in the instructions in the script and wait for this: CatalinaOTAswufix. I don't pre-empt the process by making the mistake of pressing the option key before its done. I wait until it boot loops (#4) and then I know I can boot into the usb with patched Catalina and install the post install scripts.

 

[pwm86]

I have a Macbook Air 4.2 2011 running Catalina and I want to prepare it for selling via Phobio: I have to install High Sierra again. Even preparing the USB stick with High Sierra installer via the dosdude1 patcher does not finish.
The SSD is APFS, and Disk utility cannot erase it to Mac OS extended (Journaled). Are there other problems like date? Please help.

 

[ps866mker]

I have a Macbook Air 4.2 2011 running Catalina and I want to prepare it for selling via Phobio: I have to install High Sierra again. Even preparing the USB stick with High Sierra installer via the dosdude1 patcher does not finish.
The SSD is APFS, and Disk utility cannot erase it to Mac OS extended (Journaled). Are there other problems like date? Please help.

Whenever I do a clean install I use the terminal on the installer and:

diskutil listdisk
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ DiskName /dev/DiskNodeID

This may not be necessary in your case and more experienced users may chime in. Good luck!

 

[TimothyR734]

https://mothersruin.com/software/Apparency/use.html. some may find this useful

 

[smnbldwn]

Is anyone else having trouble with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers? I have been using a patched 2011 15" MacBook Pro with Catalina for a couple of years. I just deal with the issue of Chrome and some Microsoft apps not opening the first few attempts but now when I use Chrome the tabs keep displaying an error message a few seconds after opening fine. This issue also happens on Edge but Safari and Firefox still work fine. The issue began in the last week or so. I have re-installed Catalina and Chrome but it didn't fix the issue.

 

[TimothyR734]

you might try these opener apps and see if they work

 

[Macbook_catalina]

Sorry, it took me a while. I recently bought a new M1 13" Macbook and I do not start the old one so often anymore.
Thanks to all of you - Everything worked smoothly as usual for the installation (incl. the latest version of SilentKnight 1.18).

 

[pwm86]

I have a Macbook Air 4.2 2011 running Catalina and I want to prepare it for selling via Phobio: I have to install High Sierra again. Even preparing the USB stick with High Sierra installer via the dosdude1 patcher does not finish.
The SSD is APFS, and Disk utility cannot erase it to Mac OS extended (Journaled). Are there other problems like date? Please help.

Whenever I do a clean install I use the terminal on the installer and:

diskutil listdisk
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ DiskName /dev/DiskNodeID

This may not be necessary in your case and more experienced users may chime in. Good luck!

Many thanks to ps866mker for his help. I did the following.
date 010112002019
then I prepared the USB stick with dosdude1 High Sierra patcher which worked now without problem, then booted from the stick and did:
diskutil list
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ DiskName /dev/DiskNodeID
Then installed High Sierra, stopped with command Q. Checked that the laptop started. Sent it off.

 

[jimis]

Hi, I installed Catalina on a Mac Mini 4,1 (2010 model) using dosdude's patches.

Unfortunately kernel_task is now consuming one of the two cores, the machine feels warm and the CPU runs always at 100% frequency (2.4GHz).

I am reading that kernel_task is not the cause of my problem, but the result of the machine running hot. It's a kernel task that takes execution time so that the CPU doesn't overheat. Could it be that Catalina can't put the CPU to sleep since MacMini4,1 is unsupported? Or maybe that it can't measure the temperatures?

BTW I tried myself to read the temperatures, but the system commands report "unsupported". It seems temperature readings are not supported. I tried the following system commands but none work:

• powermetrics --samplers smc (This system doesn't support display of c-state info. unable to get smc values)
• thermal levels (Thermal levels are unsupported on this machine)

I also re-applied the dosdude patches from a boot drive. Didn't help unfortunately.

Any ideas?

 

[up1234]

Hi!

I have a late 2008 Mac Book Pro (unibody)with Mountain Lion last running. I tried to update to Catalina with dosdude patch. However, an error message keeps popping up, saying that something went wrong in preparing the installation. Any ideas how to overcome it? Or is it no longer working? I did convert the ssd to APFS. Many thanks for your help

 

[K two]

Sorry, it took me a while. I recently bought a new M1 13" Macbook and I do not start the old one so often anymore.
Thanks to all of you - Everything worked smoothly as usual for the installation (incl. the latest version of SilentKnight 1.18).
View attachment 1953824 View attachment 1953825

Sleep/Wake functions OK? Temps?? Have an Aluminum MacBook on Mojave, so curious 👀

 

[K two]

Hi!

I have a late 2008 Mac Book Pro (unibody)with Mountain Lion last running. I tried to update to Catalina with dosdude patch. However, an error message keeps popping up, saying that something went wrong in preparing the installation. Any ideas how to overcome it? Or is it no longer working? I did convert the ssd to APFS. Many thanks for your help

Try a different USB. This a common issue.

 

[K two]

Hi, I installed Catalina on a Mac Mini 4,1 (2010 model) using dosdude's patches.

Unfortunately kernel_task is now consuming one of the two cores, the machine feels warm and the CPU runs always at 100% frequency (2.4GHz).

I am reading that kernel_task is not the cause of my problem, but the result of the machine running hot. It's a kernel task that takes execution time so that the CPU doesn't overheat. Could it be that Catalina can't put the CPU to sleep since MacMini4,1 is unsupported? Or maybe that it can't measure the temperatures?

BTW I tried myself to read the temperatures, but the system commands report "unsupported". It seems temperature readings are not supported. I tried the following system commands but none work:

• powermetrics --samplers smc (This system doesn't support display of c-state info. unable to get smc values)
• thermal levels (Thermal levels are unsupported on this machine)

I also re-applied the dosdude patches from a boot drive. Didn't help unfortunately.

Any ideas?

When re-installing the Catalina Patcher post-install patches ALWAYS Force Cache Rebuild. Run Onyx/Maintenance.🤞

 

[amgff84]

Was the Photos bug ever fixed? I just checked DosDudes website and I don't see the issue listed anymore. Basically, in Photos, you could not view all photos and had to make a Smart Album. It was a workaround, but one that prevented me from staying on Catalina on my old a$$ machine.

 

[K two]

Was the Photos bug ever fixed? I just checked DosDudes website and I don't see the issue listed anymore. Basically, in Photos, you could not view all photos and had to make a Smart Album. It was a workaround, but one that prevented me from staying on Catalina on my old a$$ machine.

Try it and publish your results, not all Macs are created equal.

 

[amgff84]

Try it and publish your results, not all Macs are created equal.

Actually, this was a known issue listed under known issues that Colin addresses for all. However, I suspect it was a metal compatibility issue. I no longer see it on his known issues, which would lead me to believe that it’s fixed. I was hoping someone with this installed could check their machine and go to photos and see if the option for all photos is there.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Actually, this was a known issue listed under known issues that Colin addresses for all. However, I suspect it was a metal compatibility issue. I no longer see it on his known issues, which would lead me to believe that it’s fixed. I was hoping someone with this installed could check their machine and go to photos and see if the option for all photos is there.

AFAIK there have been no updates to patches for at least a year, if not longer. So you can bet to have the broken all photos tab on non metal systems. On the first post of this thread you can still find a recipe to get around it…

Two years ago I changed my GPU and all these nasty bugs went away. Even with OCLP on non metal Macs the recipe is to use the old High Sierra non metal apps because there is rarely a way to patch the metal usage out of every Apple app (@dosdude1 did this for Zoom, so in theory it may be possible in some cases).

 

[Squatting Hen]

Just checking…the only “important” software updates are the Security Updates at this point correct? Those probably won’t happen very often either.

Once they stop, is there truly any concerns about continuing to use Catalina? Say I stick with edge or chrome, and use the internet safely.

 

[ps866mker]

Just checking…the only “important” software updates are the Security Updates at this point correct? Those probably won’t happen very often either.

Once they stop, is there truly any concerns about continuing to use Catalina? Say I stick with edge or chrome, and use the internet safely.

I don't think there's a real answer to this. Some users are still using High Sierra. IMO, if its a home machine then I think one can minimize risk if:

• as you said, keep using the latest Chrome or Firefox (since Safari will no longer get updates)
• Use Thunderbird instead of Mail since Thunderbird is still being updated down to Sierra
• Use secure dns like Cloudflare, Quad9..etc
• Maybe install a paid for malware program like Bitdefender. Now I don't think this is necessary but like I said minimize risk

If its a laptop and you use it outside the house I would then include:

• Don't trust free access points. Use you own or pay for a personal hotspot on your phone or a standalone device
• VPN like Proton VPN, Mozilla VPN, Private Internet Access..etc

The best would be to update to Big Sur (or the next) but then that's not always possible or convenient. I can't use my 2011 MBP on Big Sur and above via OCLP. They will run but there's just too many compromises that I'm not comfortable using it. Another advice would be to buy the next step old mac like a 2015 MBP which is Monterey supported. Good luck to you and to all of us who use Catalina.