macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[Speedstar]

I don't think this is an accurate statement. Apple does not support NVIDIA, but certainly not preventing them from developing drivers. They did not revoke the certificates, otherwise, NVIDIA would not be able to develop updates for 10.13.6 because they would not be signed. Plus the old drivers would be revoked.
"Actually, the most recent macOS driver Nvidia released was a few weeks ago, January 24th. Here it is:

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/142147/

It's signed with Nvidia's developer certificate, meaning Apple has granted Nvidia's developer account the permission to sign kexts. Apple doesn't sign individual kexts/drivers, they simply enable the ability for a developer's certificate to sign kexts.

And just in case there is still any doubt, I actually checked how the kexts in that link were signed:

$ codesign -d -vv /Library/Extensions/NVDAResmanWeb.kext
Executable=/Library/Extensions/NVDAResmanWeb.kext/Contents/MacOS/NVDAResmanWeb
Identifier=com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb
Format=bundle with Mach-O thin (x86_64)
CodeDirectory v=20200 size=53564 flags=0x0(none) hashes=1668+3 location=embedded
Signature size=4746
Authority=Developer ID Application: NVIDIA Corporation (6KR3T733EC)
Authority=Developer ID Certification Authority
Authority=Apple Root CA
Signed Time=Jan 24, 2019 at 12:25:18 PM
Info.plist entries=14
TeamIdentifier=6KR3T733EC
Sealed Resources version=2 rules=13 files=0
Internal requirements count=1 size=188

It was signed by NVIDIA's developer certificate, and NVIDIA's developer certificate is signed by Apple's Developer ID CA. When an SSL certificate is signed by a CA, it means that that certificate can sign on its behalf. In other words, NVIDIA's signing certificate can codesign for Apple. This isn't special or anything, this is what it looks like for any developer account with kext signing enabled. But I am just saying, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever here - Apple has enabled kext signing on NVIDIA's certificate, and it is still enabled as a revocation would invalidate past signatures as well, rendering previous kexts no longer valid.

In other words, we can say with absolute certainty that no, Apple is not blocking anything. Cryptographic signatures aren't backed by human power. They are not backed by a higher power. They are backed by the highest power - mathematics. If God himself were to declare this signature to be invalid, then that wouldn't make it so - it would simply mean God was wrong.

Now, it is still possible that Apple might be withholding access to certain closed-source parts of macOS that NVIDIA needs to finish drivers for newer cards. That seems extremely unlikely, given that they aren't withholding anything for every macOS prior to 10.14, and that it would go against their own best interests as a company.

Regardless, even if that is the case, that is very different from 'blocking' a finished driver."
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/...rivers-be-released-for-macos-mojave-10-14-/56

Ahead of a modular Mac Pro, Apple said to ready a dedicated API for writing device drivers

Nvidia has stated it will not release its third party Mojave drivers unless Apple approves them which Apple has not. These are the ones from their website not was is approved to be on the OS itself.

To be extra clear: I am talking about Metal Third Party Nvidia drivers here. This includes Maxwell chipsets and above, not the Kepler only ones that Apple has included in its OS.

The only reason they are there any Nvidia drivers on Mojave is for the Mac Pro 5,1. This was when Apple said Mojave would be compatible with the 2012 Mac Pro. Apple only approved two of Nvidia's video cards for the Mac Pro 5,1 and Mojave which is the EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition and one other card more expensive card by Nvidia.

Here is Forbes take on it:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcoc...rs-and-nvidia-with-macos-mojave/#976eb1637e9f

Mac Pro 5,1 and Mojave:
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/09/24/mojave-2010-2012-mac-pro-metal-graphics-cards/

The last time I checked, there are no official third party Nvidia drivers from Nvidia on Nvidia's website for Mojave that user's can download like they can for High Sierra and older.

This means without some hacking / patching you cannot use a newer Nvidia video card that would support Metal.

All of MacVidCards cards for Mojave are Kepler based. And users can use non-flashed Kepler cards except for the Titan Black. Or they can used flashed GTX 680 cards or one of the new Mac Edition cards from Nvidia that are also Kepler based.

And those drivers that you mentioned that were just released are for High Sierra not Mojave or Catalina.

Nice to have this discussion again about support of Nvidia in the newest Apple operating system.
I think it is important to mention that there is a difference between low level video-chip hardware driver Beyond Kepler :Maxwell/Pascal/Volta/Touring
and CUDA support for Mojave and Catalina.
Machine learning based on metal (family 2 set X) provided by Apple
is a competitor to nV CUDA’s 6.5-10.1 solutions...

Maxon promised GPU Pro Render Radeon stuff to be continued in cinema4d (based on Metal GPU rendering)

I think Redshift will be not ported to Metal soon, but Otoy promised that
with Octane which was always CUDA optimized only.

Autodesk well, Arnold GPU denoiser on Apple in Catalina on AMD ? well...

Pixar’s RenderMan ...(no one knows how many Dell and HP’s are there since...Steve...)

Adobe still provides 3d Nvidia CUDA’s Optix in After Effects ...as a render option.

Mercury Transmitt was extended from CUDA to OpenCL and Metal but OpenCL is faster then metal and CUDA still wins

And Black magic design has still
CUDA in da Vinci resolve 16 and Fusion 16

Apple will sell their hyper expensive acceleration card for RED to Mac Pro customers.

(This year a CUDA accelerated workflow with RED was demonstrated)


nvidia’s RTX fits in new MacPro 7.1

and now rethink Catalina’s future without Nvidia,CUDA,RTX extensions or Vulcan (please no comments on “wrap-ers” VK it is a competitor to ios on android and never will have place on mac)

next Release after Catalina Apple will either drop kepler and Metal1 completely,

or drop it entirely with new support
for new nvidia RTX hardware only under the circumstances that apple is forced by market and software developers.

Users are last on the Apple’s list to be heard...

now how can it be possible to satisfy any people who wants to buy older Nvidia video-cards and use them in eGPU or new MacPro to use them on Catalina and Mojave if profits for Nvidia and Apple can be made elsewhere...

 

[jackluke]

Hi everybody

I follow "your achievements" with 10.15 from the beginning even though I have not yet had the time to install it to help you test.
At first we all were a little afraid that "the adventure" stops.
I wanted to once again say a big thank you to all those who make things happen from near and far @dosdude1 @ASentientBot @pkouame @jackluke @0403979... sorry for those I forgot

Now I'm going to be a bit off topic but I have a question:
Does the dynamic wallpaper work under 10.15?

I tried to put "Catalina.heic" in Mojave's Library/Desktop Pictures/?

After having realized it, it appears in System Preferences ▸ Desktop & Screensaver ▸ Desktop but with the preview of "Mojave.heic" and in spite of the dynamic mode selected the wallpaper stays on Catalina night whatever the time of the day (although Catalina.heic contains only 2 wallpapers unlike Mojave which contains 16... in dynamic mode it should change for a few hours of the day, isn't it?)
Is this a "Catalina.heic" file bug? the hours may not have been filled in for both wallpapers when creating the .heic file?
Yet when you switch from Dynamic mode to Light (still) or Dark (still) operation is consistent.

View attachment 845271

It's not a bug, "Catalina.heic" at the current beta only contains two hires wallpapers: day and night, probably they'll release the Dynamic ones in later beta along with the other new wallpapers.

While "Mojave.heic" (and solar gradient) with "16 transition wallpapers" is still present and working in Catalina here:
System Preferences - Desktop and ScreenSaver - Apple - Desktop pictures, select the Mojave picture and choose "Dynamic". It works fine on Catalina.

Hence clearly the Catalina.heic is still incomplete.

The "Auto" mode together with the "Dynamic" wallpaper should automatically switch also the Finder "light/dark".

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

I have installed Catalina beta 2 in a iMac 8,1 with dosdude1 patcher, when trying to install it, in a external HDD usb, is impossible...someone has happened?
Thanks!

Yes, me too on Macmini 2010 (Macmini 4,1) [EDIT] It works fine again with @dosdude1 macOS patcher 3.0 beta 4 Very nice and functional new graphic interface, too!!!!

 

[alphascorp]

It's not a bug, "Catalina.heic" at the current beta only contains two hires wallpapers: day and night, probably they'll release the Dynamic ones in later beta along with the other new wallpapers.

While "Mojave.heic" (and solar gradient) with "16 transition wallpapers" is still present and working in Catalina here:
System Preferences - Desktop and ScreenSaver - Apple - Desktop pictures, select the Mojave picture and choose "Dynamic". It works fine on Catalina.

Hence clearly the Catalina.heic is still incomplete.

The "Auto" mode together with the "Dynamic" wallpaper should automatically switch also the Finder "light/dark".

Thanks @jackluke
Yes I suspected that is because of the beta version that there are only 2 wallpapers. I think the others will come with the final version.
What interests me to know is: does the wallpaper change automatically to the hours of the day in your systems under 10.15?
For info under Mojave the wallpaper turn to day/night when changing light/dark mode at the same time as the Finder.

 

[0403979]

Hi @0403979 !
I have almost your hardware on my Macmini 2010 (Macmini 4,1, Core 2 duo Penryn P8600, NVIDIA 320M, 8 GB RAM) and I'd like to use your patch. Since it doesn't support APFS and I'm a newbie, could you explain me easily how to install it? I will provide an accurate feedback for all other users. Until now I Have used only @dosdude1 graphical interface (perfect on my obsolete macmini until macOS 10.4.5). Now I cannot patch installer using his preliminary tool (I get an error patching the official Catalina beta 2 installer on a usb 2.0 16 GB pendrive, probably due to APFS not natively supported) Thank you and congratulations to the whole RMC Team, @dosdude1 & @ASentientBot !

You have to patch your system with the APFS ROM Patcher before you can use my tool or @dosdude1’s if your machine doesn’t have native APFS support. A guide is available on the RMC website on how to use macOS Patcher. The installation steps are slightly different but it’s mostly the same. Be sure to use MP3.0 beta and run sudo nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check” before installing. Btw, I’m pretty much the only member of RMC.

 

[haralds]

I haven't even been able to update my mid-2011 Macbook Air to High Sierra, so I am afraid my machine will become obsolete, even though it still works fine.

High Sierra should just install. But run the full installer to update EFI for APFS. Mine has no trouble.
I am also running DosDue1's path installed Mojave. With my upgrade BLE card I have pretty much full functionality including Watch Unlock.

 

[thicla01]

@thicla01 , for two simple reasons, apple "LG Display" for Night Shift supported:

1) Both the "apple LG" (4k and 5k) have different inches (rather than your LG 34" inch), example: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210105
2) Apple don't use typically as their displays standards the " ultrawidescreen 21:9 " aspect ratio, but 16:10 in past and from 2010 (and currently) 16:9 widescreen .

So I guess, your issue is not the Metal GPU or the patched CoreBrightness , but incompatible external Display with Night Shift.

Hello jackluke,

Thank you for the explanation. If I remember correctly, I had to apply a patch in Mojave to allow Night Shift to work with the same monitors and it still working with 10.14.5. I suppose there was some changes between Mojave and Catalina for Night Shift. Do you think it would be possible to import some components from Mojave to allow Night Shift to work in Catalina?

 

[jackluke]

Hello jackluke,

Thank you for the explanation. If I remember correctly, I had to apply a patch in Mojave to allow Night Shift to work with the same monitors and it still working with 10.14.5. I suppose there was some changes between Mojave and Catalina for Night Shift. Do you think it would be possible to import some components from Mojave to allow Night Shift to work in Catalina?

Don't know, surely the Mojave CoreBrightness won't work on Catalina, but in CoreBrightness (that is the main framework required for Night Shift) there are some references to Displays/DisplayServices.framework, not sure if replacing it from Mojave, but do you have the F1-F2 backlight brightness control ?

Because having F1-F2 working is another element useful for night shift, and another is that in System Preferences - Displays - Color, you should have many "display profiles", that means monitor is correctly detected in many combinations.

Maybe wait for a better patch.

 

[jackluke]

Thanks @jackluke
Yes I suspected that is because of the beta version that there are only 2 wallpapers. I think the others will come with the final version.
What interests me to know is: does the wallpaper change automatically to the hours of the day in your systems under 10.15?
For info under Mojave the wallpaper turn to day/night when changing light/dark mode at the same time as the Finder.

The Catalina island wallpaper day/night changes automatically, the Finder dark/light doesn't change automatically.

 

[TimothyR734]

The Catalina island wallpaper day/night changes automatically, the Finder dark/light doesn't change automatically.

https://nightowl.kramser.xyz/# this still works in Cat

 

[GSXB]

Has anyone tried lilu , innie and what evergreen for pci fix hdmi audio fix

 

[Althiometer]

Dynamic switching does not work, checking the boot and rebooting has no effect. Similarly GFXStatus changing to integrated only has no effect. Brightness controls work via function keys. Facetime says no camera connected.

I know, I had that too, on dosdude’s macOS Mojave patcher website there is a link to disable the and gpu on mbp...run it and see how it w

 

[esmith1966]

Was able to install using 1.0b13 Partial Patcher...

NOW with released version, I never get to the initial install screen.
It seems to just load the installer, time out, and then reboot...

Using a metal compatible video card on hackintosh set as mac pro 5,1

You need an EFI-flashed or stock Apple video card to perform the installation at this time. This will be rectified with later versions of the Catalina Patcher, once I implement full automation.

 

[thicla01]

Don't know, surely the Mojave CoreBrightness won't work on Catalina, but in CoreBrightness (that is the main framework required for Night Shift) there are some references to Displays/DisplayServices.framework, not sure if replacing it from Mojave, but do you have the F1-F2 backlight brightness control ?

Because having F1-F2 working is another element useful for night shift, and another is that in System Preferences - Displays - Color, you should have many "display profiles", that means monitor is correctly detected in many combinations.

Maybe wait for a better patch.

Hello jackluke,

I just checked in Mojave and Catalina: in both OS, F1 and F2 are not working. I can see several profiles in System Preferences - Displays - Color in both OS. But in Catalina there is a problem. The list is empty at first, but if I select the option «Show profiles for this display only» the profile of the monitor appears. If I deselect this option all the profiles appears.

Maybe beta 3 will help.

 

[wheels824]

hey everyone I got Catalina running on my Mac mini 4,1 everything is working except photos it crashes when you open it

 

[eurasian]

Hi!..i need developer beta 2 (Catalina) someone can help me , please.

 

[webg3]

@dosdude1 rules, Thank You very much, my friend!

 

[TimothyR734]

Hi!..i need developer beta 2 (Catalina) someone can help me , please.

Doddude1's Catalina Patcher downloads Cat dev beta 3

 

[jhowarth]

The Catalina island wallpaper day/night changes automatically, the Finder dark/light doesn't change automatically.

I suspect that a Metal compatible graphics card may be required for the Finder dark/light feature to work. When I accidentally applied the non-metal patches on my MacPro 3,1 with GTX-680, I noticed that the setup dialog for that feature wouldn't allow it to be selected. Only light and dark Finder modes could be chosen.

 

[Sacredsoul]

Dosdude actually helped me out on Discord,. I didn't have the lates firmware installed. Im now running Catalina on my MacBook pro 8,2!! Thanks @dosdude1

[doublepost=1561674281][/doublepost]How do I install the latest firmware on the MacBook Pro I have the latest Mac OS Mojave, but when I use the patch it starts to install Mac OS Catalina but when it gets down to 4 min. Remaining the Mac shuts down then it won’t come up at all.

 

[saltyboat]

how can I upgrade my macOS Catalina version to the newest beta version as I am running beta 1

 

[dosdude1]

[doublepost=1561674281][/doublepost]
How do I install the latest firmware on the MacBook Pro I have the latest Mac OS Mojave, but when I use the patch it starts to install Mac OS Catalina but when it gets down to 4 min. Remaining the Mac shuts down then it won’t come up at all.

What machine do you have? If it supported High Sierra natively, you can install the package found here. Ensure you system is plugged in or it will not update the firmware.

 

[Sacredsoul]

It was originally native to Mac OS X Lion but have upgraded hard drive to a sshd drive which supports APFS and have had High Sierra and Mojave’s unsupportable with your patcher and it’s an early 2011 MacBook Pro 8.2.

 

[TimothyR734]

how can I upgrade my macOS Catalina version to the newest beta version as I am running beta 1

are you signed up with the Apple Beta software Program

 

[DaniloGeekDude]

My first post on Catalina Forum (been posting mostly on Mojave forum)

I installed Catalina developer beta 2 on an external SSD hosted by a MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 (MacbookAir4,2).

View attachment 845045

I used the excellent @dosdude1's macOS Catalina Patcher 1.0b2 (awesome as always and I like the new gui display).
It worked great - graphics acceleration accomplished, etc.
Several observations/issues:

• System Preferences | Desktop | Appearance | Auto does not work or cannot be selected
• Night Shift does not work either.
• Light mode (same as in Mojave) still problematic (although I used @pkoume's latest hybrid patches). Not really an issue for me since Dark mode is my preference.
• Cannot disable or move files from the /usr/bin even if I logged in as root.
• If I use Time Machine backup, it states that I have 2 "host drive - data" so I have to exclude the " - data" folder.
• Related to the above, if I boot up to my Mojave host and attach the external Catalina SSD drive, I do see 2 " - data" folders.

For now my preference is still Mojave.

Appreciate the excellent work of @dosdude1 and @ASentientBot. Apologies to those I failed to mention who should deserve it as well.

Followup on these.

First of all, a big thank you to @TimothyR734 and @jackluke for the responses on steps to fix the night shift and "system volume" usr/bin changes capability. The latter helped me install the latest nano editor 4.3 and disable the default nano 2.098 version.

The multiple volume mounts for "- data" is driving me crazy. See screenshot below:



As you can see, I do have multiple volumes relating to data. This also prevents me or rather causes a TM backup issue.

Again, Thanks to all the experts here for their contributions.

Kind Regards.