macOS High Sierra (10.13) Unsupported Macs Thread

[dosdude1]

@dosdude1 i am totally ignorant about what is APFS support i have a mac pro 3,1 ...do i need to be concerned with this ?

Not necessarily... Unless you boot using an APFS volume (and have the verbose EFI booting method), than you don't have to worry about patching your firmware. Patching the firmware will allow your system to boot from APFS volumes natively, and not need the APFS booting implementation.

 

[MiloPGurd]

I'm running 10.13.4 on a Late 2008 15" MBP (5,1) with HFS.

What's the short story on how to proceed to 10.13.5?

Update from macOS High Sierra Patcher 10.13.5, or will I have to do a full install?

If I update, will there be problems with the recovery partition?

 

[Hack5190]

@dosdude1 i am totally ignorant about what is APFS support i have a mac pro 3,1 ...do i need to be concerned with this ?

APFS = Apple's File System. A search of the internet will revel all you could care to know. In short its faster and saves space over the legacy HFS+ and HFS file systems. The 3.1 does not support APFS unless you modify the ROM. However ROM modifications carry the risk of bricking your machine if something goes wrong during the update. Also important to note is that there have been no reports that USB booting works after applying the APFS patch, only reports that booting from a USB drive prepared w/dosdude's HS patch tool does not work.

Hopefully this is a brief overview so you can decide if its something you want to research / pursue further or not.

UPDATE: To be clear I am a user of dosdude1's tool to run HS on my 3.1 and very grateful of his work. My comments above are based on my own desire to boot my 3.1 from APFS. Seeing no responses to the postings from @nekton1 about USB booting issues I contacted him and 2 others from this forum via private message asking about their experiences with booting from USB. After our initial conversation @nekton1 was able to get USB booting working (see the next post). The other 2 people have not responded to my inquiry.

UPDATE II: Another person has advised me that they are able to boot from USB with the APFS patch.

 

[nekton1]

APFS = Apple's File System. A search of the internet will revel all you could care to know. In short its faster and saves space over the legacy HFS+ and HFS file systems. The 3.1 does not support APFS unless you modify the ROM. However ROM modifications carry the risk of bricking your machine if something goes wrong during the update. Also important to note is that there have been no reports that USB booting works after applying the APFS patch, only reports that booting from a USB drive prepared w/dosdude's HS patch tool does not work.

Hopefully this is a brief overview so you can decide if its something you want to research / pursue further or not.

[doublepost=1529008301][/doublepost]I'm likely the person who could not get a dosdude1 patched USB installer to show in the EFI boot screen after applying the native APFS boot-rom patch (see post #3690 about 3 pages back). I decided to give it another go yesterday with another "USB" media—a 32 GB XDSC. It took the dosdude1 patched High Sierra installer OK and I was able to boot the MP3,1 and install the patched system with no problem. I've no idea why two previously OK conventional USB sticks suddenly decided not to be bootable but at least it seems it is not the native APFS patched boot rom causing a problem.
Thanks for your work on this dosdude1 and others.

 

[nekton1]

I had a failed install and now have an OWC SSD in APFS format and a MacPro in Sierra using a conventional drive (Restored from Time machine). Is there a way to reformat the SSD back to standard (older) Mac format so I can restore it from Time Machine to Sierra and try again?

Of course, since the failed attempts, I have no recovery partition ...

Try this:

https://www.macobserver.com/tips/deep-dive/macos-sierra-delete-apfs-partition-right-way/

 

[L Caputo]

I'm running 10.13.4 on a Late 2008 15" MBP (5,1) with HFS.

What's the short story on how to proceed to 10.13.5?

Update from macOS High Sierra Patcher 10.13.5, or will I have to do a full install?

If I update, will there be problems with the recovery partition?

You should be able to update via Updates in the App Store, it may report an error where it fails to update the Recovery HD but all other updates will have been installed.
Updating via a modified version of the standalone updates, either the Delta or the Combo will result in failure notice towards the end. This is a failure to update the Recovery HD, but all other updates in the package will have been applied.
When you reboot your Mac will be on 10.13.5. You will still be able to use the Recovery HD as long as the platformsupport.plist has been modified to include your Macs boardID and model identifier. It is not necessary to have the Recovery HD updated or if you cannot boot to it as the patcher app contains everything the Recovery HD does.
You can of course download the full 10.13.5 installer via the patcher app and install that over your 10.13.4 install, this way the Recovery HD will be updated.

 

[Stin17]

I have a mbp mid 2009 running 10.13.3 and my driver or something is messed up for my audio. i tried installing voodoo it worked my internal speakers played(they were really low & cracking) but then my mic broke bc i had to switch from output to input for my internal speakers to work.when i start up my mac the chime works correctly at the normal volume once it boots up i get no sound. does anyone know how i could fix this problem. Is there any hacks out there that could get the audio back?

 

[EugW]

I have a mbp mid 2009 running 10.13.3 and my driver or something is messed up for my audio. i tried installing voodoo it worked my internal speakers played(they were really low & cracking) but then my mic broke bc i had to switch from output to input for my internal speakers to work.when i start up my mac the chime works correctly at the normal volume once it boots up i get no sound. does anyone know how i could fix this problem. Is there any hacks out there that could get the audio back?

I would suggest doing a full re-install (using dosdude1's patch) over the current install (after a full backup). You'll keep your data, but the install be a more proper one. You can jump straight from 10.13.3 to 10.13.5 this way.

 

[Stin17]

I would suggest doing a full re-install (using dosdude1's patch) over the current install (after a full backup). You'll keep your data, but the install be a more proper one. You can jump straight from 10.13.3 to 10.13.5 this way.

I have done the reinstall several time and still nothing.

 

[Schnegg]

Yes, IMHO it is.

Adhering to the recommendations I updated my 3,1 and it runs great. Thanks to @dosdude1 and everybody contributing!

 

[P15-D24]

Anyone get VMware to work? 8.5.10 works fine on El Cap, but after installing and trying to start a VM I get a an "Internal Error" every time. Any hints would be appreciated.

 

[thewebgal]

[doublepost=1528373141][/doublepost]If you

If you have a MacPro 4.1 flashed to 5.1 you do not need the patcher tool to install High Sierra, the MacPro 5.1 is supported by Apple and High Sierra. Just double-click the Install macOS High Sierra.app. And Kingston USBs can tend to be a bit temperamental, they seem to have slower read/write speeds than other makes of USBs I have used.

Suposedly - yet I have tried repeatedly and been unable to get High Sierra installed when using the App Store, when trying from a Thumb drive copy, or trying from DosDude's install kit ...

[doublepost=1529103569][/doublepost]

Try this:

https://www.macobserver.com/tips/deep-dive/macos-sierra-delete-apfs-partition-right-way/

Got it done, and restored to Sierra 10.12.6 - thank you very much!
I'l making it as bone stock as possible before I try (again) to do the upgrade to High Sierra.
I have pulled as much of the nonStock parts out as I can - removed the 3.33gHz Hex core processor board and swapped a 2.66gHz Quad core memory board back into the machine, with 24gB of Ram (1066 DDR3). I do have an NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB video card in place, and an OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD to speed things up.

 

[L Caputo]

Suposedly - yet I have tried repeatedly and been unable to get High Sierra installed when using the App Store, when trying from a Thumb drive copy, or trying from DosDude's install kit ...

[doublepost=1529103569][/doublepost]
Got it done, and restored to Sierra 10.12.6 - thank you very much!
I'l making it as bone stock as possible before I try (again) to do the upgrade to High Sierra.
I have pulled as much of the nonStock parts out as I can - removed the 3.33gHz Hex core processor board and swapped a 2.66gHz Quad core memory board back into the machine, with 24gB of Ram (1066 DDR3). I do have an NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB video card in place, and an OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD to speed things up.

So was it an APFS container on your disk that was preventing the install of High Sierra, there is no need to format a drive as APFS before installing High Sierra, if the drive is an SSD the install will format it automatically to APFS, if it is a conventional spinner it will stay as HFS+.

 

[thewebgal]

So was it an APFS container on your disk that was preventing the install of High Sierra, there is no need to format a drive as APFS before installing High Sierra, if the drive is an SSD the install will format it automatically to APFS, if it is a conventional spinner it will stay as HFS+.

(Like I said, I put a Mac 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor card, 24 gB of DDR3 ram, and a newer WiFi card, to make it as compatible with orginal specs as possible)

I had restored the 480GB SSD from APFS back to HFS+ yesterday, and did a restore via time machine to Sierra 10.12.6
Last evening I started a fresh Install High Sierra (From a fresh dload copy in my Applications folder) - scheduled to take 2 hrs. so I walked away, had dinner, etc. Came back later & the machine was off - restarted and it looks like it had formatted automatically to APFS and gotten hung some time after that - Bad drive symbol. Did a reformat back to HFS+ and restored from Time Machine. Running Sierra 10.12.6 again.

This is pretty much what happens every time I try to upgrade to High Sierra -
it happened during the Beta period, happens now with the final release.
I've tried with a Seagate SSHD [1000 GB hybrid drive], and it happens with the OWC 480gB SSD.

I've no idea how to proceed now - and technically, this machine as mac Pro 5.1, should be a simple upgrade.

And - Mojave is on the way !!

 

[dosdude1]

(Like I said, I put a Mac 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor card, 24 gB of DDR3 ram, and a newer WiFi card, to make it as compatible with orginal specs as possible)

I had restored the 480GB SSD from APFS back to HFS+ yesterday, and did a restore via time machine to Sierra 10.12.6
Last evening I started a fresh Install High Sierra (From a fresh dload copy in my Applications folder) - scheduled to take 2 hrs. so I walked away, had dinner, etc. Came back later & the machine was off - restarted and it looks like it had formatted automatically to APFS and gotten hung some time after that - Bad drive symbol. Did a reformat back to HFS+ and restored from Time Machine. Running Sierra 10.12.6 again.

This is pretty much what happens every time I try to upgrade to High Sierra -
it happened during the Beta period, happens now with the final release.
I've tried with a Seagate SSHD [1000 GB hybrid drive], and it happens with the OWC 480gB SSD.

I've no idea how to proceed now - and technically, this machine as mac Pro 5.1, should be a simple upgrade.

And - Mojave is on the way !!

Just use High Sierra Patcher to make a High Sierra USB installer (make sure you use the latest version of the Installer App), boot from that drive, and install. Just don't run the post-install patches after installing, as they're unnecessary on a 5,1 since it's a natively supported machine.

 

[EugW]

Just use High Sierra Patcher to make a High Sierra USB installer (make sure you use the latest version of the Installer App), boot from that drive, and install. Just don't run the post-install patches after installing, as they're unnecessary on a 5,1 since it's a natively supported machine.

When I did that for my fully supported iMac, the install was a bit wonky, IIRC for example there was no automatic APFS conversion. So I repeated the install using the official method.

 

[dosdude1]

When I did that for my fully supported iMac, the install was a bit wonky, IIRC for example there was no automatic APFS conversion. So I repeated the install using the official method.

I purposely made it NOT automatically convert to APFS. You can format a disk as APFS and install to that if you want an APFS based install. Without the post-install patches applied, the resulting install is 100% stock.

 

[thewebgal]

Just use High Sierra Patcher to make a High Sierra USB installer (make sure you use the latest version of the Installer App), boot from that drive, and install. Just don't run the post-install patches after installing, as they're unnecessary on a 5,1 since it's a natively supported machine.

Oaky, I just grabbed a fresh copy of your tool and created a fresh thumbdrive for the HS install on my late 2009 macPro (4.1 flashed to 5.1 in mid-2017). So - when I get some time [prob Sunday afternoon] I'll try again.

I bought a flashed Geforce GTX680 earlier this week when I heard it was important for metal and mojave. Installed it around 2PM today - WOW, I can tell its a significant jump in system performance!

Thanks so much for your help - trust me - this is a pain - its been failing since I started trying back in the HS Beta era!
Oh - should I wipe the macOS Install data folder?? maybe its got some details from crashed installs that are hobbling this upgrade?

 

[2008earlymacpro]

@dosdude1 i'm reading and troubleshooting issues i'm having with pro tools and i am finding that even though pro tools is for audio primarily it does a lot with the GUI processing ....and they are rightfully so saying my card is old and slow now (
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB which i replaced the stock one with after it totally went dead one day years ago)
.....im guessing since i've upgraded everything i can but the video card this past year maybe i should look for one .....can you please recommend a not super expensive option for my mac pro 3,1 i have used your tool to install it to 10.13.5 thank you sir!

 

[dosdude1]

@dosdude1 i'm reading and troubleshooting issues i'm having with pro tools and i am finding that even though pro tools is for audio primarily it does a lot with the GUI processing ....and they are rightfully so saying my card is old and slow now (
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB which i replaced the stock one with after it totally went dead one day years ago)
.....im guessing since i've upgraded everything i can but the video card this past year maybe i should look for one .....can you please recommend a not super expensive option for my mac pro 3,1 i have used your tool to install it to 10.13.5 thank you sir!

I'd recommend a GeForce GTX680. Best flashable nVidia GPU that doesn't require web drivers.

 

[2008earlymacpro]

I'd recommend a GeForce GTX680. Best flashable nVidia GPU that doesn't require web drivers.

thanks so much .... i just want to confirm before purchasing will this one work?
https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=5e58e11b-7c49-44c0-9348-bd7be168bd1b

 

[dosdude1]

thanks so much .... i just want to confirm before purchasing will this one work?
https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=5e58e11b-7c49-44c0-9348-bd7be168bd1b

Yes, any will work.

 

[thewebgal]

Just use High Sierra Patcher to make a High Sierra USB installer (make sure you use the latest version of the Installer App), boot from that drive, and install. Just don't run the post-install patches after installing, as they're unnecessary on a 5,1 since it's a natively supported machine.

So if I boot from the thumb drive - I get a fresh install and not an upgrade? Is that correct?

 

[dosdude1]

So if I boot from the thumb drive - I get a fresh install and not an upgrade? Is that correct?

No, you can just install onto the disk containing your current install to do an upgrade after booting from the drive. If you want a clean install, format the disk with Disk Utility first.

 

[skitidetdu]

Hi! Just installed the high sierra patch in my 3,1 mac pro and it worked fine until this morning I managed to figure out that when I connect it with an ethernet cable to my router it affects the ethernet and wifi internet speeds a lot! From 10Mb up & down without the cable in the router to about 2,5-3mb down and to around 7-8mb up. I rebooted the mac pro with el capitan and the problem was gone.

Just curious if someone else have had this problem, I haven't found anything about it elsewhere. And I've never heard of a computer affecting the router speed for everyone connected either.

Just to clarify: airport stops working on the mac pro so I have to use ethernet but it is terribly slow not just for my mac pro but also for everyone else connected to that router with wifi. If I remove the cable, shut down (or boot from el captain) it is back to normal again.