macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[Alpha Centauri]

Ok this is driving me crazy:

I had a perfect running catalina 10.15.7(19H2) system.
Then i had some repair done (liquid dmg) and after that i reinstalled catalina (dos dude) again and now every ### time i have wifi for about 5 minutes and then it drops - wifi symbol goes empty and cant get it to work again.
50% of the time when i delete wifi preferences and restart it comes back … but just for 5 minutes.

Have reinstalled OS now x- times /ran post-patches …. Going insane here.

Unsure if similar to my issue or not, but here it goes. Recently (no SW updates though) mid YT I suddenly lost WiFi. AP card didn't show in System Prefs, only as not connected. Menu bar symbol simply greyed out (no exclamation mark either). I've had a WiFi card replaced in the past so was sure it was hardware again. In my case a PRAM reset brought it back.

 

[queenev11l]

Update Catalina ?

isnt this the current ( most up to date ) version ?

 

[makra]

Update Catalina ?
View attachment 2049712

isnt this the current ( most up to date ) version ?

Nope: 19H2026 is your friend. The over-the-air-updates via system preferences are broken by Catalina Patcher. Please read the first post how to update your computer - hardware matters, as you can see there (pre-2009 machines need an extra hand).

 

[Bobpeace]

AirDrop Catalina pre-patched (only for Broadcom cards) to those interested you should post the output of these Catalina Terminal commands:

ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk '{print $4}'
ioreg -r -n ARPT | grep IOName
system_profiler -detailLevel mini | grep "Card Type"
system_profiler -detailLevel basic | grep "Model Identifier"

Meanwhile here are some Wifi kext that I've pre-patched (tested and working) to AirDrop on Catalina unsupported Mac, they are hyperlinks so just click the one for your machine to download:

AirDrop Catalina MacBook7,1 and MacBookPro6,2.zip

AirDrop Catalina patched MacBook6,1.zip

AirDrop Catalina patched MacBookAir2011 4,2.zip

MacBookPro8,3 AirDrop Catalina.zip

AirDrop fix Catalina MacBookAir4,1.zip

MacBookPro8,1 Airdrop Catalina.zip (This machine has two different board-id)

Macmini4,1 AirDrop Catalina.zip

Macmini5,1 AirDrop Catalina.zip

MacBookPro8,2 AirDrop Catalina.zip


After downloaded, open a Catalina terminal and copy/paste:

sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

Then from Catalina Finder replace (do not merge) them inside your Catalina /System/Library/Extensions/

after from a Catalina terminal send these commands copy/paste one at once:

sudo chown -R 0:0 /S*/L*/E*/
sudo chmod -R 755 /S*/L*/E*/
sudo kextcache -i /

(the "kextcache" takes some minutes to complete)

At next reboot you should have AirDrop in Catalina Finder.

After you have a working AirDrop, I suggest to apply this additional fix to enable an extra AirDrop feature that apple removed from Catalina: "AirDrop Search for older Mac"

After a working AirDrop on Catalina, if you have also a Bluetooth 4.0 card (or BT4.0 usb dongle), to add Continuity (Handoff, hotspot, etc.) you can directly apply this script: catalinacontinuityfix.command.zip

Or check this other example: enable continuity from terminal

jackluke,

Thank you for your continuous work on Catalina. May I humbly request a patched kext for a Macbook Pro 13" Mid-2010?

Here is the output from the Terminal commands:

MBP-de-Thiago:~ thiago$ ioreg -r -n ARPT | grep IOName

| "IOName" = "pci14e4,432b"

MBP-de-Thiago:~ thiago$ system_profiler -detailLevel mini | grep "Card Type"

2022-09-01 15:20:07.040 system_profiler[9293:85127] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - Galaxy Buds Pro (1152): no firmware version info available

2022-09-01 15:20:07.040 system_profiler[9293:85127] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - Galaxy S20 de Thiago: no firmware version info available

2022-09-01 15:20:07.041 system_profiler[9293:85127] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - Gisele ’s Mouse: no firmware version info available

2022-09-01 15:20:07.041 system_profiler[9293:85127] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - JBL Charge 3: no firmware version info available

system_profiler -detailLevel basic | grep "Model Identifier"

2022-09-01 15:20:40.784 system_profiler[9324:85826] SPUSBDevice: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed 0xe00002be

2022-09-01 15:20:40.785 system_profiler[9324:85826] SPUSBDevice: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed 0xe00002be

Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8D)

MBP-de-Thiago:~ thiago$ system_profiler -detailLevel basic | grep "Model Identifier"

2022-09-01 15:20:45.807 system_profiler[9333:86028] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - Galaxy Buds Pro (1152): no firmware version info available

2022-09-01 15:20:45.808 system_profiler[9333:86028] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - Galaxy S20 de Thiago: no firmware version info available

2022-09-01 15:20:45.808 system_profiler[9333:86028] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - Gisele ’s Mouse: no firmware version info available

2022-09-01 15:20:45.808 system_profiler[9333:86028] SystemInfo-AccessoryFW - JBL Charge 3: no firmware version info available

Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1

2022-09-01 15:21:15.933 system_profiler[9365:86679] SPUSBDevice: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed 0xe00002be

2022-09-01 15:21:15.934 system_profiler[9365:86679] SPUSBDevice: IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService failed 0xe00002be

 

[Ausdauersportler]

jackluke,

Thank you for your continuous work on Catalina. May I humbly request a patched kext for a Macbook Pro 13" Mid-2010?

@jackluke has not been online for nearly a year.

You need to go back to his post and follow the manual hex editing approach he described in detail in the attached PDF.

 

[queenev11l]

Ok i wanted to try what was previously mentioned by makra and im stuck.

I downloaded otaupdate and followed instructions -> the Security update was shown and installed, Mac restarted.

Then i clicked OTA Update fix -> opened System Preferences -> and no matter how often i open and close this is where im stuck

According to the manual the sam Update should show up now but as you can see nothing shows up, its searching indefinatly

 

[makra]

Ok i wanted to try what was previously mentioned by makra and im stuck.

I downloaded otaupdate and followed instructions -> the Security update was shown and installed, Mac restarted.

Then i clicked OTA Update fix -> opened System Preferences -> and no matter how often i open and close this is where im stuck View attachment 2050251

According to the manual the sam Update should show up now but as you can see nothing shows up, its searching indefinatly

Have you checked whether you're really on 19H2026 now?

I haven't seen before, that the update check gets stuck. But the update doesn't always work out - please search this thread for CatalinaOTAswufix: In order to start the update process properly again, please delete the content of this folder: /Library/Updates/. And: I always hit Update fix after ca. 3% of the download was done.

Good luck.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Does MacBookPro5,3 have apfs support in ROM? If not then using Startup Disk shouldn't work. If it does, then you don't need the dosdude APFS patch in EFI.


Differentiate "EFI Boot" on old Macs but giving each one a different volume icon. Use Finder -> Get Info on each EFI partition, click the icon and paste a new icon. Make your own icon or copy an icon from some other file or app.
You can use the bless command to create a disk label, but the label doesn't appear on older Macs for EFI volumes. I don't know if your Mac is too old to show the label.
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/EFI870/EFI --label EFI870
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/EFI850/EFI --label EFI850

That's one reason I use separate HFS+ volume "Catalina Boot" - so the disk label appears in Startup Manager (when you hold Option key at boot).


Not sure why the SSD870 would be behaving badly if it boots ok. Maybe check Console.app.


Probably not. You can check UUIDs use diskutil info -all

In BBEdit.app, you can copy the contents of the startup.nsh file to a new window and try saving that to the EFI volume as a new file. If that works, then you can use the finder to remove the old startup.nsh and rename the new one.


This is not a problem. Disk numbers can change after every reboot depending on what gets booted or what other disks are connected or what order the disks are detected. You need to recheck everything after each boot.


You have startup.nsh pointing at the System role volume of the 870. I believe that's correct. What startup.nsh does is check every disk and looks for a path
83DFED56-8CAB-4238-8DC7-8296986CB7A8/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi which should only exist on the Preboot volume.
Mount the Preboot volume and check.

In later versions of macOS, the UUID that gets used in the Preboot volume belongs to the UUID of the Data role.

Hi @joevt, apologies for the late reply. Sick for a while and just couldn't deal with this issue also. I'm now a few days away from the return period of the SSD and tried couple more things re diagnostic:

1. Swapped bays between the 2 SSD's to take SATA cable issues out of the equation.
2. Removed SSD's to only try one at the time.
3. Loaded latest Samsung Firmware using unetbootin on the new drive (was up to date).
4. Reinstalled dosdude Catalina patch on the offending 870Evo.


And still, the mystery memory pressure persists. Screenshot of all Apps closed, post indexing, Activity Monitor showing only system relevant stuff in the <100MB range. What is using all this memory?




So here a screenshot of my old Evo 850, post indexing, FF even using 1GB+, clamX also 1GB, but no issues and again in the low "green" pressure area.



Really starting to believe that either there's a fault with this SSD or the controller is just failing to support my 2009 hardware. Been trying to avoid returning it also having had all my data on it but at a cost of €200 for a new drive that's misbehaving, that's a lot of wasted money. It will potentially and unfortunately be on-sold as an open ware product once returned.

Any last minute ideas before I seven-pass erase and return this thing?

 

[psu7276]

Hi all,

I have not written here in a long time. Today I received a patch updater notice. (See attached). I have had no issues with video. Early 2009 iMac 10.15.7 (19H2). No luck getting beyond 19H2. The patch update appears to want to modify the video somehow. Is this safe? As I said, my video has been fine. Suggestions to also get beyond 19H2 would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[makra]

Hi all,

I have not written here in a long time. Today I received a patch updater notice. (See attached). I have had no issues with video. Early 2009 iMac 10.15.7 (19H2). No luck getting beyond 19H2. The patch update appears to want to modify the video somehow. Is this safe? As I said, my video has been fine. Suggestions to also get beyond 19H2 would be appreciated. Thanks.

View attachment 2052700

Don't have Catalina Patcher running anymore, so I can't tell you anything about the patch updates. Getting beyond 19H2: Please read the first post carefully.

 

[Mac_tech]

Hi all,

I have not written here in a long time. Today I received a patch updater notice. (See attached). I have had no issues with video. Early 2009 iMac 10.15.7 (19H2). No luck getting beyond 19H2. The patch update appears to want to modify the video somehow. Is this safe? As I said, my video has been fine. Suggestions to also get beyond 19H2 would be appreciated. Thanks.

View attachment 2052700

I received the same updates on a Late 2009 iMac (Version 10.15.7 (19H1232) but wasn't able to install Legacy Video Card Patch due to an error installing. I was able to install the Library Validation Disabler patch though and rebooted and tried the video card patch again and same error. Were you able to install both? Video seems to be fine as well.

According to DosDude1's Changelog for Catalina, he released an update today, 1.4.5.

Can someone remind me how to update to 19H2 as it's been a while.

@dosdude1 any help would be appreciated.

 

[psu7276]

Were you able to install both?

I didn't even attempt. Will wait for more input here. Sorry.

 

[TigerA]

I've just updated to the latest DD1 patches on my 2009 iMac (non-metal running 19H2026, the latest version) and all went well. There is no obvious issues except a force power off during the restart required by the patch update, followed with a NOVRAM reset.
Much appreciated for DD1's excellent work and continuing support to this project.

 

[dosdude1]

Hi all,

I have not written here in a long time. Today I received a patch updater notice. (See attached). I have had no issues with video. Early 2009 iMac 10.15.7 (19H2). No luck getting beyond 19H2. The patch update appears to want to modify the video somehow. Is this safe? As I said, my video has been fine. Suggestions to also get beyond 19H2 would be appreciated. Thanks.

View attachment 2052700

The latest non-Metal video card patch adds many visual improvements, such as better-looking window and menu edges, and also improves performance greatly by utilizing QuartzCore.framework from Mojave. All improvements based off the work of @educovas and @ASentientBot. It is safe to install, but may require a force-reboot upon completion.

The new Library Validation Disabler patch utilizes "DisableLibraryValidation.kext" now, instead of relying on the entry in "com.apple.security.libraryvalidation.plist". This should finally take care of the issue where some applications may crash upon initial launch.

 

[Mac_tech]

This is the error I receive when trying to install the Legacy Video Card Patch. The Library Validation Disabler patch installed just fine and was able to reboot. The machine is a Late 2009 iMac (Version 10.15.7 (19H1232).

Any help would be appreciated, @dosdude1. Also how to update to 19H2026 or the latest version as it's been a while since I last applied an update.

Also, somehow internet sharing isn't working, anyway to get it to work using DosDude1's patcher.

Thanks

 

[AphoticD]

Great work as always @dosdude1 - Hello smooth window corners! (+ no more failure to launch on some 3rd party apps - Thank you.)

I did also receive the above error (-1) when initially trying to install these 1.4.5 updates. But it was fine after a 2nd attempt with this sequence;
1. Installed Library Validation Disabler Patch and restarted OK.
2. Relaunched Patch Updater from the recent apps in the dock.
3. Installed Legacy Video Card Patch and allowed to install and attempt to restart.
4. All three units I installed this on hung at the shutting down stage here, so I held down the power button to power off.
5. Power on to boot.
6. Relaunch Patch Updater and confirmed all updates are installed A OK.

This process was repeated on:
1. iMac8,1 / 2008 iMac 20"
2. iMac10,1 / 2009 iMac 21.5"
3. MacBookPro8,1 / Early 2011 MBP 13"

All on 10.15.7 (19H2)

I've sent you a donation and hope others might feel the same way to show appreciation for your continued efforts to keep these older Macs relevant.

Catalina is a great OS. It runs smooth on the above unsupported Macs and will continue to be supported by app developers for some time.

Thanks again!

 

[TigerA]

I've sent you a donation and hope others might feel the same way to show appreciation for your continued efforts to keep these older Macs relevant.

I've Just sent a donation as well. Thanks again to CollinMistr for the excellent work and ongoing support, much appreciated.
And I'd also like to concur that DD1-Catalina is the best patch for unsupported Macs, particularly for the non-Metal ones.

 

[chrstphrchvz]

Thanks @dosdude1 for the 1.4.5 update. I notice that when running Tcl/Tk there are now NSLog() messages coming from Skylight. I first encountered this with a development Tcl/Tk version, however this also occurs for macOS’ bundled Tcl/Tk 8.5.9 (wish8.5 command, or "/System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Resources/Wish.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish"). Example message:

2022-09-08 00:45:19.206 Wish[9783:126958] ASB: LNW <TKApplication: 0x7fcc00541f30> <TKWindow: 0x7fcc004082a0> <NSThemeFrame: 0x7fcc0056b690> (null)

Example LLDB backtrace:

  * frame #0: 0x00007fff329a48ee Foundation`NSLog
    frame #1: 0x000000010012797b SkyLight`trace + 443
    frame #2: 0x000000010012919c SkyLight`layerNewWay + 252
    frame #3: 0x00000001001292c3 SkyLight`removeFakeRim + 19
    frame #4: 0x0000000100129389 SkyLight`SLSWindowSetShadowProperties + 153
    frame #5: 0x00007fff2d73bc5a AppKit`__NSCGSWindowMark__block_invoke_2 + 1061
    frame #6: 0x00007fff2d73b80e AppKit`_NSCGSWindowEnumerateForCommit + 463
    frame #7: 0x00007fff2d73b5ca AppKit`__NSCGSWindowMark__block_invoke + 285
    frame #8: 0x00007fff2d73b01e AppKit`NSCGSTransactionRunPreCommitActionsForOrder_ + 247
    frame #9: 0x00007fff2d73aefc AppKit`NSCGSTransactionRunPreCommitActions_ + 21
    frame #10: 0x00007fff2d880127 AppKit`-[_NSCGSTransaction synchronize] + 33
    frame #11: 0x00007fff2d8800f1 AppKit`NSCGSTransactionSynchronize + 76
    frame #12: 0x00007fff2de474ef AppKit`-[NSWindow(NSWindow_Carbon) windowRefWithCompositedAttribute:andFrameworkScaledAttribute:] + 116
    frame #13: 0x00007fff3dce574d Tk`XMapWindow + 172
    frame #14: 0x00007fff3dc5c19a Tk`Tk_MapWindow + 155
    frame #15: 0x00007fff3dc6428e Tk`___lldb_unnamed_symbol270$$Tk + 59
    frame #16: 0x00007fff3dbf69d1 Tcl`TclServiceIdle + 75
    frame #17: 0x00007fff3dbde2a1 Tcl`Tcl_DoOneEvent + 340
    frame #18: 0x00007fff3dc43f48 Tk`Tk_MainLoop + 45
    frame #19: 0x00007fff3dc4f502 Tk`Tk_MainEx + 1549
    frame #20: 0x00000001000034c7 Wish`___lldb_unnamed_symbol1$$Wish + 94
    frame #21: 0x00007fff6a030cc9 libdyld.dylib`start + 1
    frame #22: 0x00007fff6a030cc9 libdyld.dylib`start + 1

Could this be due to debugging output left on by accident, or does this indicate an issue?

Edit: the messages are still present in the 1.4.6 update (as no changes were made for Skylight since 1.4.5).

 

[Alpha Centauri]

@dosdude1 could you pls help.

Attempted to install Library Validation Disabler and Legacy Video Patch, that come up on updates today.

Had to force quit but after. I’m trying to boot, get chime, it runs through EFI code. White screen Apple logo, black progress bar slows 2/3 of way down, gets to the end..and that’s where it just hangs solid with fans at maximum.

Tried pram and smc reset with always same result.

Running 10.15.7 on a 5,3 MBP. Is it all now hosed?

Thanks in advance

 

[AphoticD]

pram and smc reset with always same result.

Can you hold shift to safe boot? If so, I would suggest to try running the Patch Updater again > View installed patches > Re-Install All

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Can you hold shift to safe boot? If so, I would suggest to try running the Patch Updater again > View installed patches > Re-Install All

Unfortunately not. Pressed shift until, once again progress bar is at the end. Doesn’t boot to safe mode and all hangs as previously.

 

[cantaloop]

Really great work by @dosdude et al. Helped my late 2009 iMac 27" to stay much longer.
But after the latest Legacy Video Card Patch I'm seeing problems with my Citrix workspace app. When I try to login I get a white screen. This also happened with newer versions of workspace app so I stayed at version 2108. But now I'm facing the same issue with this version and the newer ones. Any idea? Need it for my work.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

@dosdude1 and @AphoticD after quite many hours, there's some progress to report:

Luckily still had Cat patch on a usb-drive from y/day when I reinstalled the patch on a cloned, brand new SSD I was having memory pressure issues with. Last post #15558...but unrelated to this.

1. From this usb drive was able to boot into Cat EFI>Recovery>Post Install>Post Install Patches. This was the only thing that saved me, as safe mode wasn't possible during the freezing.

2. The two updates appeared after booting into SSD.

3. Having, during my initial progress bar freezing #15568 reset pram, dGPU switched to iGPU (known issue after pram reset).

4. Attempted update again, same msg of updates installed. Only Force Quit suddenly presented with graphics jumble on-screen. Hard power-off led again to initial issue.

5. Switching from iGPU to dGPU only works from SystemPrefs>Energy Saver>dGPU selection. Log out to switch doesn't work by itself. I must then select boot volume from System Prefs for it to switch. This has always been the case since my Cat patch install.

6. Tried just the Validation Patch install. This worked and normal boot run.

7. Then again tried Legacy Video Patch..same boot hang on white screen with progress bar as initially.


So for some reason the Video Patch is failing for me. It says successful update each time but prevents the complete boot progress every time also.

I wonder if I'm an isolated case with my set up, somehow, that prevents this update when rebooting.

If you've got some ideas dosdude, please let me know and I'd be happy to try them out.

Cheers

 

[Scarmelion]

Really great work by @dosdude et al. Helped my late 2009 iMac 27" to stay much longer.
But after the latest Legacy Video Card Patch I'm seeing problems with my Citrix workspace app. When I try to login I get a white screen. This also happened with newer versions of workspace app so I stayed at version 2108. But now I'm facing the same issue with this version and the newer ones. Any idea? Need it for my work.

Same issue late 2009 21.5. However I used Citrix 19.12. Reinstalling older patch from usb drive doesn’t help. Tried newer 2203 Citrix version. Also there is a glitchy log off screen after patch apply. Looks like dead overclocked gpu. For the info Citrix version 1912 was the last to support mojave as the patcher is based on mojave maybe it’s related. Looking for the way to revert this changes, as I am using my Mac as an rdp workstation.
However may be you should give 19.12 a try.
Also used
defaults write com.citrix.receiver.nomas PreferMetalRendering -bool NO
Earlier, now this parameter is not working.

 

[cantaloop]

Same issue late 2009 21.5. However I used Citrix 19.12. Reinstalling older patch from usb drive doesn’t help. Tried newer 2203 Citrix version. Also there is a glitchy log off screen after patch apply. Looks like dead overclocked gpu. For the info Citrix version 1912 was the last to support mojave as the patcher is based on mojave maybe it’s related. Looking for the way to revert this changes, as I am using my Mac as an rdp workstation.
However may be you should give 19.12 a try.
Also used
defaults write com.citrix.receiver.nomas PreferMetalRendering -bool NO
Earlier, now this parameter is not working.

1902 doesn't work for me either.