macOS High Sierra (10.13) Unsupported Macs Thread

[nekton1]

Tried the post-install a second time and did not work again. I don't see a helper partition at efi boot screen.
When I quit the Utilities Launcher and select Startup Disk under the Apple icon, there is an unknown partition called Empty 2—no idea what it is and where it came from. I tried selecting it and the same thing happened again—it just defaults back to my HFS+ boot disk called CCloned. At the efi boot screen there is only two disks (not including recovery partitions) called CCloned which is my 10.13 HFS+ SSD, and FileBackups, which is my Sierra SSD. Both of these work fine but I cannot see any boot SSD called Spare or any helper partition from which to boot APFS. No idea why but Spare is a clean APFS formatted SSD formatted from DU in 10.13 beta 7. And I did select the APFS option in the post install.
I'll be interested to see what others experience or what I am doing wrong.

Just got this working on my iMac 2007! Thanks

I did have to run the APFS patcher twice, then rebooted from the efi disk, that's all.

[doublepost=1503569278][/doublepost]No fusion drives; all drives in my MP 3,1 are pure SSD only.

Is this with a SSD or a Fusion drive? Currently High Sierra doesn't support booting from APFS volumes on hard drives yet.

 

[Luigi222]

Is this with a SSD or a Fusion drive? Currently High Sierra doesn't support booting from APFS volumes on hard drives yet.

256 kingston SSD

 

[lostmyshoe123]

256 kingston SSD

500 Samsung 850 Evo SSD on mine.

 

[roziek]

Currently High Sierra doesn't support booting from APFS volumes on hard drives yet.

@jhowarth I don’t think that’s true. Got High Sierra running on officially supported MacBook Pro with two drives, one of them is a straight old spinning HDD, and that’s where my High Sierra beta installation lives. Boots perfectly fine. Don’t know how it is with Fusion Drives in the betas.

@nekton1 Sporting a 3,1 Mac Pro here also and I’m currently in the process of installing latest APFS HS beta on it with @dosdude1 patcher. Will let you know how it goes.

 

[karesake]

Runs perfectly on my old iMac 24" 7,1 2007 in the office.

 

[roziek]

Runs perfectly on my old iMac 24" 7,1 2007 in the office.

Booting into APFS? HDD or SSD ?

 

[roziek]

@nekton1 @dosdude1 I can confirm that it works (with caveats, more below) on a Mac Pro 3,1. I'm using the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT just to be safe, because I wanted to make sure that if any problems occur, they're not related to graphics.

@nekton1 That "Spare" you talked about is not the helper boot partition that @dosdude1's patcher tool creates. Looking at your diskutil list screenshot I can see that the patch did not work for you. When it does, it resizes the APFS container and creates the helper boot partition there, with a _BOOT suffix. In other words, if it would have worked, you would see something like this:

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:           GUID_partition_scheme                   *50.0 GB    disk1
   1:                         EFI EFI                    209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                      Apple_APFS Container disk2    49.8 GB    disk1s2
   3:                       Apple_HFS Spare_BOOT         209.7 MB   disk1s3

Instead of your:

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:           GUID_partition_scheme                   *50.0 GB    disk1
   1:                         EFI EFI                    209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                      Apple_APFS Container disk2    49.8 GB    disk1s2

You're missing the "Spare_BOOT" of type Apple_HFS.

This happened to me too at first, but I think the culprit is the Recovery Volume patch. If you select both the Recovery Volume and the APFS patch - it will simply not work. Fortunately you can fix that without repeating the OS installation process. Simply reboot into the installer created with @dosdude1's patcher tool, choose the Post Install Tool, select your Mac, and check the APFS Patch, but make sure that Recovery Volume patch is not selected. It should work.

You'll know it worked because you'll also see a message below saying it's applying the APFS patch and it might take a minute. I assume you did not see that message before, right?

@dosdude1 It would be nice if the Post Install was smart enough to not let you choose the APFS Patch if you have the Recovery Volume patch checked and vice versa (at least until you figure out how to make them both work).

Also, you said "[...] Hides the helper partition, so it is not apparently visible when running macOS". That's not the case for me. The helper partition is clearly visible, both in Disk Utility and in Finder's sidebar, when booted into High Sierra.

 

[jhowarth]

@jhowarth I don’t think that’s true. Got High Sierra running on officially supported MacBook Pro with two drives, one of them is a straight old spinning HDD, and that’s where my High Sierra beta installation lives. Boots perfectly fine. Don’t know how it is with Fusion Drives in the betas.

@nekton1 Sporting a 3,1 Mac Pro here also and I’m currently in the process of installing latest APFS HS beta on it with @dosdude1 patcher. Will let you know how it goes.

That is interesting because the current release notes still claim that HDD aren't supported yet. I am torn about installing under APFS as its fine granularity (nanoseconds on APFS vs seconds on HFS) appears to be tickling race conditions in make.

https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=81797

 

[roziek]

@jhowarth I know. But like I said, it works fine (check my post just above yours). I can confirm that it works fine with spinning HDDs both on officially supported Macs (tested on two MacBook Pros) and officially unsupported Macs (tested on Early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1).

Unfortunately, I don't have a Fusion Drive anymore, so can't test that.

 

[jhowarth]

So what does the current workaround for booting APFS volumes look like in the option-key boot selector? I assume we see a new volume for the shim partition that boots the APFS volume as well as the non-bootable APFS volume in the option-key boot selector.
[doublepost=1503585297][/doublepost]

@jhowarth I know. But like I said, it works fine (check my post just above yours). I can confirm that it works fine with spinning HDDs both on officially supported Macs (tested on two MacBook Pros) and officially unsupported Macs (tested on Early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1).

Unfortunately, I don't have a Fusion Drive anymore, so can't test that.

Wouldn't be the first time that their release notes lagged the current changes.

 

[roziek]

If you have, say, an APFS boot volume named MyHighSierra with High Sierra installed on it, then when applying the APFS Patch via @dosdude1's patcher tool the APFS container gets resized and a new partition is created there, with a _BOOT suffix, so in this case it would be MyHighSierra_BOOT.

After that, it boots into APFS High Sierra volume using that helper partition (which is HFS+). If you just power on the machine, it looks seamless, Apple logo shows up and the system starts to boot (it's faster then the workaround using Clover). If you hold option/alt key when powering on the machine, you'll see the MyHighSierra_BOOT volume on the list (no MyHighSierra there, as the EFI on unsupported Macs don't know about APFS volumes).

Other than that, the installation process is simple. Create the USB installer with @dosdude1's patcher tool. Boot into it, format the drive to APFS, install the system on it. That's it. Of course you won't be able to boot into it until you apply the APFS Patch (boot into the installer again, chose Post Install Tool, choose your Mac and make sure to check the APFS Patch, but do not check the Recovery Volume patch in that case). After that, you'll be good to go.

 

[Luigi222]

Well, I've been testing with this all day, and I have found some issues...

On APFS I am not able to sign in my iCloud account, it says my Mac is not eligible to create a Apple ID, right at the second part of the setup. I continue the setup anyway and I try to log in iCloud on the settings but it keeps giving erros either on FaceTime and iMessage, again only on APFS... Seems weird...

But on HFS it logs in fine...

I have tested this with Developer beta 5 and 7, thought It was a bug of the latest beta but it's not...

Has anyone else had this problem?

@dosdude1 does this make any sense?

 

[jhowarth]

If you have, say, an APFS boot volume named MyHighSierra with High Sierra installed on it, then when applying the APFS Patch via @dosdude1's patcher tool the APFS container gets resized and a new partition is created there, with a _BOOT suffix, so in this case it would be MyHighSierra_BOOT.

After that, it boots into APFS High Sierra volume using that helper partition (which is HFS+). If you just power on the machine, it looks seamless, Apple logo shows up and the system starts to boot (it's faster then the workaround using Clover). If you hold option/alt key when powering on the machine, you'll see the MyHighSierra_BOOT volume on the list (no MyHighSierra there, as the EFI on unsupported Macs don't know about APFS volumes).

Other than that, the installation process is simple. Create the USB installer with @dosdude1's patcher tool. Boot into it, format the drive to APFS, install the system on it. That's it. Of course you won't be able to boot into it until you apply the APFS Patch (boot into the installer again, chose Post Install Tool, choose your Mac and make sure to check the APFS Patch, but do not check the Recovery Volume patch in that case). After that, you'll be good to go.

I assumed that the APFS volumes were showing up in the boot selector because my patched 10.13 recovery partition is unbootable and the proposed explanation here seemed to be that those were automatically formatted to APFS volumes under 10.13.

Actually, the release notes don't say that APFS volumes on HDDs won't boot but rather that conversion of HDD volumes from HFS to APFS is not available yet.

 

[roziek]

@jhowarth Are you talking about conversion during the installation or conversion after the installation via Disk Utility?
[doublepost=1503588878][/doublepost]@Luigi222 Yes, other people seem to run into this problem also.

I would recommend not trying to sign in into iCloud on the beta, just to be on the safe side. Unless, of course, you have a second iCloud account with different data than your main account you’re using with your day-to-day devices.

People have been known to irreversibly lose data and run into major syncing problems.

 

[Luigi222]

@jhowarth Are you talking about conversion during the installation or conversion after the installation via Disk Utility?
[doublepost=1503588878][/doublepost]@Luigi222 Yes, other people seem to run into this problem also.

I would recommend not trying to sign in into iCloud on the beta, just to be on the safe side. Unless, of course, you have a second iCloud account with different data than your main account you’re using with your day-to-day devices.

People have been known to irreversibly lose data and run into major syncing problems.

Good to know Im not the only one having that issue... I wonder why tho...

Guess we have to wait what @dosdude1 says about it, he probably knows what's going on...

 

[roziek]

@Luigi222 Sounds like a bug on Apple’s part to me. I would be very surprised if it turned out to be something with @dosdude1’s patcher.

 

[Luigi222]

@Luigi222 Sounds like a bug on Apple’s part to me. I would be very surprised if it turned out to be something with @dosdude1’s patcher.

Nah I don't think so... If it happened on HFS too I would definitely believe it would be an apple bug, but I have tried this on different installers, I even tried it with a public beta, same thing...

So either there is some weird way that when a macOS setup know's it on APFS it has some crazy why to know what Macs it actually supports, or it has something to do with the method that @dosdude1 created for us to boot APFS...

My hunch says it's the first reason... But who am I kidding I don't understand any of this technically, Im just an enthusiast.

 

[dosdude1]

@nekton1, can you run the post-install patch using Terminal? That will give you output, which should give me an idea of what's happening. When booted in your High Sierra installer, run "/Applications/Utilities/macOS\ Post\ Install.app/Contents/MacOS/macOS\ Post\ Install" in Terminal, and then apply the APFS patch. Get resulting Terminal output.

 

[roziek]

@Luigi222 I wouldn’t be so sure. I think it might have happened to me even on an officially supported MacBook Pro, when doing an APFS install (memory’s a bit foggy). It happening only on APFS install but not on HFS+ doesn’t rule out a bug on Apple’s side.

 

[subcritical71]

I just installed DP7 on a MacPro 3,1 using @dosdude1 patcher (2.1.0) with no issues related to the patcher. I choose to install using the APFS patch. I normally run my system headless with my video card pulled (saves energy and heat!). Its the ATI 5870 so I knew going into this that it may not work. The install and post-install both went great, but as expected the system would not boot with the ATI installed. So I removed the boot drive and installed it in an external enclosure attached to an iMac, booted from the enclosure and finished the setup process (it was a clean install). I then changed my sharing settings to allow a remote connection into the MacPro. Re-installed drive into the MacPro and pulled the video card. Everything works great.

 

[Brale]

I need some help guys. What im doing wrong?


MacBook 5,2 mid 2009

1.Created USB HS with @dosdude1's latest patcher.
2. Boot from USB HS
3. Format partition to APSF using Disk Utility.
4. After installation booted to USB HS and applied APSF patch.
5. Reboot

6. In boot menu there is no APSF partition to boot from.

Am I missing something?

 

[roziek]

@Brale Are using the latest version of the patcher (2.1.0 or 2.1.1) ? Have you also checked the Recovery Volume patch? If that, it will not work (reboot into the HS installer, apply patches again, but make sure the Recovery Volume patch is unchecked if you want to apply the APFS patch). Could you also provide dump from

diskutil list

? Run it in Terminal while booted into HS installer.

 

[Brale]

@Brale Are using the latest version of the patcher (2.1.0 or 2.1.1) ? Have you also checked the Recovery Volume patch? If that, it will not work (reboot into the HS installer, apply patches again, but make sure the Recovery Volume patch is unchecked if you want to apply the APFS patch). Could you also provide dump from

diskutil list

? Run it in Terminal while booted into HS installer.

hi bud,

I saw your earlier post so i haven't checked Recovery Volume patch. APFS patch only.
Here is how it looks in Disk Util.

 

[dosdude1]

hi bud,

I saw your earlier post so i haven't checked Recovery Volume patch. APFS patch only.
Here is how it looks in Disk Util.
View attachment 714349

That doesn't look like the High Sierra Disk Utility... Are you sure you're using the latest version of the High Sierra installer? If not, you can just use to "Download macOS High Sierra" option in the Tools menu of the tool to download the latest version. Also, in the boot menu, the volume should be named "<High Sierra APFS Volume Name>_BOOT". It may also just show up as "EFI Boot".

 

[roziek]

He's probably booted into working Sierra or something, since he can't boot into HS.

@Brale There's a "High Sierra_BOOT" visible on your screenshot - that's the HFS+ helper partition that handles booting into an APFS volume, so it looks like the patcher did what it should.

Try going into Startup Disk in System Preferences and see if you can see "High Sierra_BOOT" there. If you can, select it as the startup disk and reboot (or select it and click Restart).