OS X El Capitan on Unsupported Macs

[MacVidCards]

Good news. The real geniuses behind Mac Pro packages have written a boot.efi that allows recovery boot and the use or SIP disable. Will at least allow you to run in a mode where older/modified kexts have a chance of booting.

Simple facts:

1. As of today the ONLY older Mac that has been shown to work in El Cap is the 1,1/2,1 Mac Pro.

2. By using the work of the Mac Pro team you can install El Cap on the other older Macs that have supported CPU but wrong EFI. You will have no USB or BT until someone finds a fix. Only way to use machine is an external USB card or screen sharing.

3. The 1,1/2,1 Mac Pro will remain the only machines that can run this perfectly. Since the oft promised GPU fixes have never materialized for 10.9 or 10.10 there is little reason to believe they will for 10.11. No other unsupported Mac will gain actual graphics acceleration unless they use a means of connecting external GPU. (Possible to use Mini PCIE slot as shown in Mini)

 

[VAGDesign]

Good news. The real geniuses behind Mac Pro packages have written a boot.efi that allows recovery boot and the use or SIP disable. Will at least allow you to run in a mode where older/modified kexts have a chance of booting.........

I believe you should put the credits with names.

The geniuses are:
Tiamo for the core idea since back in Mavericks.
PikerAlpha for the "continuity" in Yosemite, Tiamo's idea.
@PeterHolbrook for countless compilations of Pike's code.
@mikeboss for countless tries of Peter's boot.efi versions.
@splifingate for those 2 compilations he made with the last (today Sept. 26) to succeed on disabling csrutil on Recovery HD partition.

So yeah, it's good to be excited of the news since you're going to sell more flashed cards now on those who want to install El Capitan on their Mac Pros 1,1 and 2,1, but I believe you've made a foul not to mention the "real geniuses" by name.
If I'm wrong, correct me

PS: BTW here is the link to the working boot.efi that allows you disable SIP

 

[MacVidCards]

You misunderstood my intent. This entire thread has created the impression that the linked software package is running El Capitan on a variety of older Macs. The reality is that it has not done any such thing. Any and all ability to do so is linked back to Tiamo, in my mind. If not for the boot.efi package, none of these machines would have run anything after 10.7.

I am trying to clear the idea that anyone has gotten El Cap on anything other then a MP 1,1 or 2,1 to run properly. Until the developer of the Johnson Package posts that he has it running, I think it is rather disingenuous that he has been creating the impression that it is running. In effect, he is looking for guinea pigs to test, and thus far it hasn't worked. They may very well find a fix for USB issue, but there is no doubt that the central core will be the fixed boot.efi done by the people you mentioned.

Here is specifically what I have been trying to clarify:

Prerequisites:
Tested Macs listed below. Here are the minimum requirements:


-MacBook2,x
-MacBook3,x
-MacBook4,x
-MacBookPro2,x
-MacBookAir1,1
-MacMini1,x (C2D upgraded)
-MacMini2,x
-iMac4,x (C2D can be upgraded)
-iMac5,x (Issues have been occurring with this specific model)

The use of the word "tested" implies that the software has been in fact run on those machines. In point of fact, it has not. The Yosemite fix has run on them, but thus far the only machines on that list to run El Cap have only done it via screen sharing or a PCMCIA card for USB that was describes as unusable.

I have been plenty supportive of the real workers. If you search my posts for "Tiamo" I am certain that you will see that I credited him multiple times. I also sent one of the early developers an EFI card FOR FREE to continue work on Yosemite boot.efi as he had a 1,1 but no EFI card.

And I think you should also mention Blacksheep666. His pikeryosefix [ackage is the simplest way BY FAR to install El Cap on a 1,1, provided you have a newer machine.

1. Install on newer machine
2. Run pikeryosefix from sheep666
3. Reboot until it won't boot in EFI64 machine anymore.
4. Move drive to 1,1 and boot up to El Cap

If you read my prior posts in this thread, I have multiple times tried to get the truth out that NOBODY had this working yet except MP 1,1 and 2,1. And as another point of fact, most 1,1 users don't buy cards from us, and about that I don't care. I am more pleased to see these older machines still churning ahead whilst Apple has successfully churned the others into landfill material. I use the fact that the 1,1 is still useable with modern OS as proof that the 6,1 with bolted in GPUs is going to have a much shorter life then we are used to from these machines.

 

[MacVidCards]

If someone is interested in working on the USB issue, I got El Cap up and running in a 2,1 Mini Core 2 Duo.

I used screen sharing and was able to see that it sees nothing on USB bus, but oddly it sees that there is a USB 2 bus. (Does Mini 2,1 have USB 2?)

Anyhow, I also attached the Extensions report, note that most USB extensions aren't loaded. I'll try the ones from 10.10.5, but seems like this will need some fiddling.

I will alert the guys doing the boot.efi work, they may take pity, they may not.

 

[MacVidCards]

Good news : Got El Cap running normally on Mini 2,1. Smooth USB, keyboard, mouse, etc. I was able to boot to Recovery partition and turn SIP off, which will allow testing unsigned, modded kexts, etc.

Bad news: Way I did it isn't going to make many happy. I extended the MiniPCIE slot outside the case, then used a Mini PCIE to PCIE adapter, then an Inatek USB 3.0 card to create USB ports. Plugged mouse, and keyboard in and worked fine once it got to desktop, but no WiFi anymore. The MINI PCIE adapter needed a power adapter to work. In short, a giant mess.

So, Apple has created an interesting puzzle. You can't use USB with onboard USB, you can't hack drivers until you turn off csrutil, to even get to Recovery I had to move USB to onboard, which work in EFI environment but quit at desktop. So I had to move USB to onboard, hold option, choose Recovery, then move USB to Inatek to disable csrutil in Terminal on Recovery. Don't think you can do this via screen sharing. Would be a major pain on iMac or MB. Or even Mini I guess. I happen to have a Mini with Mini PCIE run outside to test the AC WiFI and BT 4.0 cards easily, so just needed $40 of parts to do this.

Apple has put up some serious roadblocks. But at least now I can test USB kexts if a serious developer comes along with some.

I'll put up screenshots later. Pretty sure this is first Mini 2,1 to run it smoothly.

 

[atvusr]

Pretty sure this is first Mini 2,1 to run it smoothly.

Nice idea - that's what I wanted to suggest: replacing the WIFI-card with an miniPCIe-to-USB adapter.

Were you able with SIP=off to install the GMA950 Kexts to run the Mac mini even smoother?

 

[MacVidCards]

Haven't tried yet. I'll look for a link after I get final on and running.

 

[thingi]

Interesting, I have a MacMini 1,1 (with 64bit c2d upgrade) and flashed firmware to 1,2. I also have an Nvidia GTX750 connected to my airport slot > mpci-e to pcie x1 > a bitcoin mining x1 to x16 adaptor > GTX750 (working in Windoze 10

I'm using Clover on my hackintosh which is virtually identical to real old mac-mini hardware (the usb south bridge is ich9 same as my mini and works perfectly) zero USB issues.

With my upgraded gfx and cpu + Clover boot loader and MacPostFactor 32-to-64 boot.efi it should run. I can get Clover to sucessfully boot Yosemite already but El Cap is a real pain to get working with Clover even on a hackintosh.

When I've got a working Clover booting El Cap on my mini I have a strong feeling the usb issues are going to go away....

Good news : Got El Cap running normally on Mini 2,1. Smooth USB, keyboard, mouse, etc. I was able to boot to Recovery partition and turn SIP off, which will allow testing unsigned, modded kexts, etc.

Bad news: Way I did it isn't going to make many happy. I extended the MiniPCIE slot outside the case, then used a Mini PCIE to PCIE adapter, then an Inatek USB 3.0 card to create USB ports. Plugged mouse, and keyboard in and worked fine once it got to desktop, but no WiFi anymore. The MINI PCIE adapter needed a power adapter to work. In short, a giant mess.

So, Apple has created an interesting puzzle. You can't use USB with onboard USB, you can't hack drivers until you turn off csrutil, to even get to Recovery I had to move USB to onboard, which work in EFI environment but quit at desktop. So I had to move USB to onboard, hold option, choose Recovery, then move USB to Inatek to disable csrutil in Terminal on Recovery. Don't think you can do this via screen sharing. Would be a major pain on iMac or MB. Or even Mini I guess. I happen to have a Mini with Mini PCIE run outside to test the AC WiFI and BT 4.0 cards easily, so just needed $40 of parts to do this.

Apple has put up some serious roadblocks. But at least now I can test USB kexts if a serious developer comes along with some.

I'll put up screenshots later. Pretty sure this is first Mini 2,1 to run it smoothly.

 

[JTCGiants56]

When El Cap officially gets released today, will the steps in the first post still work?

 

[TMRJIJ]

When El Cap officially gets released today, will the steps in the first post still work?

Nope, post 1 for both the Yosemite and El Capitan will have to be updated to make use of the new changes in OSXE 1.3 and other scripts. Disappear.app is going to be replace with our own Hidden Toggle in System Preferences, A PlatformSupport.plist copy will be available with all unsupported Mac Models and we will address the chipset issue, a new script installer similar to pikeryosefix has been made for El Capitan, and all Graphical Kexts are in installation packages that no longer require Kext Utility or manual mean to installing. The Kext Installer will clear out the cache by itself and install all plugins and preferences needed including Quicktime plugins, Safari Extensions, and the NoSleep Extension. A software update patch that everyone in the Yosemite Thread begged about is finally made and it will include a Daemon that will check for the PlatformSupport.plist
OS X Extractor 1.3.~ will be mostly web based. It is a 4 MB pkg that will download only what you actually need from the OS X Hackers Server (Innovation! Our Installer is 97% thinner than previous versions - Jony Ive Parody). This means that most updates are done on the server side. You can keep the 4 MB pkg to update with. Basically an Internet Connection is required for the Installer to collaborate with the server.
In later builds, it will come with new apps like OSXE Control Center (to check on patches, kexts, and Daemons), cDock integration, etc.
Developers can see new beta builds of both 64 and 32bit Boot.efi for El Capitan in the hidden Developers folder. In later builds will see early scripts that we are working on to convert OS X Installers into a prepatched Installation Package.


Until we figure out the chipset issue (which MLforAll has replied about today), the only other workaround, known to disable SIP without using the recovery partition is to use the hackintosh bootloader clover, which may backfire and cause other issues of old macs with EFI32.

 

[JTCGiants56]

Nope, post 1 for both the Yosemite and El Capitan will have to be updated to make use of the new changes in OSXE 1.3 and other scripts. Disappear.app is going to be replace with our own Hidden Toggle in System Preferences, A PlatformSupport.plist copy will be available with all unsupported Mac Models and we will address the chipset issue, a new script installer similar to pikeryosefix has been made for El Capitan, and all Graphical Kexts are in installation packages that no longer require Kext Utility or manual mean to installing. The Kext Installer will clear out the cache by itself and install all plugins and preferences needed including Quicktime plugins, Safari Extensions, and the NoSleep Extension. A software update patch that everyone in the Yosemite Thread begged about is finally made and it will include a Daemon that will check for the PlatformSupport.plist
OS X Extractor 1.3.~ will be mostly web based. It is a 4 MB pkg that will download only what you actually need from the OS X Hackers Server (Innovation! Our Installer is 97% thinner than previous versions - Jony Ive Parody). This means that most updates are done on the server side. You can keep the 4 MB pkg to update with. Basically an Internet Connection is required for the Installer to collaborate with the server.
In later builds, it will come with new apps like OSXE Control Center (to check on patches, kexts, and Daemons), cDock integration, etc.
Developers can see new beta builds of both 64 and 32bit Boot.efi for El Capitan in the hidden Developers folder. In later builds will see early scripts that we are working on to convert OS X Installers into a prepatched Installation Package.


Until we figure out the chipset issue (which MLforAll has replied about today), the only other workaround, known to disable SIP without using the recovery partition is to use the hackintosh bootloader clover, which may backfire and cause other issues of old macs with EFI32.

Sounds good to me. Any idea on when this updated tutorial will be out? No rush!

Thanks for all your work.

 

[TMRJIJ]

Sounds good to me. Any idea on when this updated tutorial will be out? No rush!

Thanks for all your work.

OSXE 1.3 will hopefully be released tomorrow (barring nothing breaks inside it or looks sketchy. It is a little tedious right now checking all these scripts, file permissions, and resources ), The tutorial will change either Friday or Saturday.
Full release notes go out tonight.

 

[JTCGiants56]

OSXE 1.3 will hopefully be released tomorrow (barring nothing breaks inside it or looks sketchy. It is a little tedious right now checking all these scripts, file permissions, and resources ), The tutorial will change either Friday or Saturday.
Full release notes go out tonight.

Sounds good!

 

[thingi]

Until we figure out the chipset issue (which MLforAll has replied about today), the only other workaround, known to disable SIP without using the recovery partition is to use the hackintosh bootloader clover, which may backfire and cause other issues of old macs with EFI32.

Definitely true, my cpu speedstep acting wonky via Clover. Getting head round SSDT's now (replacement for coolbook that's been a pain since 10.7) only upgraded mini.

My intention is to workout how to disable most of Clover's workarounds leaving just the interesting bits (or more for nutters) available to real mac users since many are incredibly useful. I like the idea of the least amount of OS patching as possible) and OS upgrade friendly 'pre-code'. The way Clover is structured makes this incredibly easy. Wish your code bases were more closely related.

rEFInd and rEFIt and Clover are all closely related too. All have useful bits for old mac users, I can see why some wouldn't use clover on a real mac though, things could easily go seriously pear shaped if you don't know what your doing.

 

[MacVidCards]

and we will address the chipset issue


Until we figure out the chipset issue (which MLforAll has replied about today), the only other workaround, known to disable SIP without using the recovery partition is to use the hackintosh bootloader clover, which may backfire and cause other issues of old macs with EFI32.

It's great that MLforAll has replied today, will you share what he actually said? I am still curious if his iMac screenshot was done via screen sharing or if he has working kexts for USB. Since you said "until we figure out the chipset issue" I'm guessing that means he created the screenshot via Screen Sharing. It's a simple question, and yet you have dodged it. If he was able to get USB working in one of the earlier versions where "rootless" worked, then there is hope.

If that is the case, I am the only person on the planet with a EFI32 Mac (other then the Pro models) that can run El Capitan normally and access Recovery partition and run with SIP turned off. (as shown in previous post)

That being the case, it would seem likely that you will need me to test some kexts, if and when you get them finished.

Some suggestions, since the USB works during boot it must be enabled via EFI drivers. The curious thing is it gets turned off once the OS loads. It may very well be that by removing certain USB kexts you could retain the EFI drivers and at least navigate the screen and use keyboard. As a "for instance", with our Maxwell cards the EFI can run the screen, but the OS X default drivers crash when they load. The way to use those cards in OS X default is to run with the Nvidia drivers disabled. It seems backwards, but the key to making the cards useable sometimes is to keep the OS X drivers from supplanting the EFI ones that were loaded prior to boot.

Also, I have no idea how you can test anything if SIP is stuck on. Before I had to correct you when you thought that this setting was kept on the OS install. Since it is in NVRAM, it is much more difficult to turn off. The guys who developed the latest El Cap boot.efi may very well know what property in NVRAM needs to be set, and they may know how to set it without Recovery. They also may not know, but they certainly know better then anyone outside 1 Infinite Loop.

To avoid confusion, I think that you should update the first post in this thread to reflect the following:

A. The only Macs from EFI32 era that are currently able to run El Capitan are 1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pros. (And my 2007 Mini ) There are no other Macs from this group that have working USB, and certainly no other ones with Recovery Partition. Until the USB issue gets figured out, it is likely that everyone else who tries will find no ability to move mouse, enter with keyboard, or use Bluetooth. Only workarounds found so far:

1. Screen sharing, very laggy.
2. PCMCIA card, also apparently very laggy
3. Put USB card in via Mini PCIE (working great in my 2007 Mini, but an ugly kludge until better fix found)

B. It is possible that a model that has not been tested yet may have working USB. So maybe good idea to check each one off as it gets confirmed that USB works or doesn't. This is why you need people with those other machines to try it out.

C. To encourage more to test, maybe offer a shortcut method? That list of instructions terrified me, and I do this stuff all the time. Easy route is to create the install on a supported machine, boot into an earlier OS, switch the 2 boot.efi files and try in the EFI32 machine. Your other refinements won't be important if USB doesn't work.

 

[TMRJIJ]

It's great that MLforAll has replied today, will you share what he actually said? I am still curious if his iMac screenshot was done via screen sharing or if he has working kexts for USB. Since you said "until we figure out the chipset issue" I'm guessing that means he created the screenshot via Screen Sharing. It's a simple question, and yet you have dodged it. If he was able to get USB working in one of the earlier versions where "rootless" worked, then there is hope.

If that is the case, I am the only person on the planet with a EFI32 Mac (other then the Pro models) that can run El Capitan normally and access Recovery partition and run with SIP turned off. (as shown in previous post)

That being the case, it would seem likely that you will need me to test some kexts, if and when you get them finished.

Some suggestions, since the USB works during boot it must be enabled via EFI drivers. The curious thing is it gets turned off once the OS loads. It may very well be that by removing certain USB kexts you could retain the EFI drivers and at least navigate the screen and use keyboard. As a "for instance", with our Maxwell cards the EFI can run the screen, but the OS X default drivers crash when they load. The way to use those cards in OS X default is to run with the Nvidia drivers disabled. It seems backwards, but the key to making the cards useable sometimes is to keep the OS X drivers from supplanting the EFI ones that were loaded prior to boot.

Also, I have no idea how you can test anything if SIP is stuck on. Before I had to correct you when you thought that this setting was kept on the OS install. Since it is in NVRAM, it is much more difficult to turn off. The guys who developed the latest El Cap boot.efi may very well know what property in NVRAM needs to be set, and they may know how to set it without Recovery. They also may not know, but they certainly know better then anyone outside 1 Infinite Loop.

To avoid confusion, I think that you should update the first post in this thread to reflect the following:

A. The only Macs from EFI32 era that are currently able to run El Capitan are 1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pros. (And my 2007 Mini ) There are no other Macs from this group that have working USB, and certainly no other ones with Recovery Partition. Until the USB issue gets figured out, it is likely that everyone else who tries will find no ability to move mouse, enter with keyboard, or use Bluetooth. Only workarounds found so far:

1. Screen sharing, very laggy.
2. PCMCIA card, also apparently very laggy
3. Put USB card in via Mini PCIE (working great in my 2007 Mini, but an ugly kludge until better fix found)

B. It is possible that a model that has not been tested yet may have working USB. So maybe good idea to check each one off as it gets confirmed that USB works or doesn't. This is why you need people with those other machines to try it out.

C. To encourage more to test, maybe offer a shortcut method? That list of instructions terrified me, and I do this stuff all the time. Easy route is to create the install on a supported machine, boot into an earlier OS, switch the 2 boot.efi files and try in the EFI32 machine. Your other refinements won't be important if USB doesn't work.

Here was our most recent conversation before we went back into MCPF issues:

[9/30/15, 9:48:36 AM] MLforAll: I didn't worked on this yet and I'm not sure if it is possible to do it without using the recovery HD as the nvram is protected as well by sip
[9/30/15, 9:50:51 AM] MLforAll: I think I'll disable sip using the recovery. The only other way I know to disable sip without using the recovery partition is to use the hackintosh bootloader clover, which causes other issues of old macs with efi32
[9/30/15, 9:52:03 AM] MLforAll: And speaking of clover, it is what I'm using to disable sip on my hackintosh as the tool inside the recovery doesn't work on hackintoshes (at least mine)
[9/30/15, 11:27:14 AM] MLforAll: The Extra extension folder is used by the hackintosh boot loader chameleon

So basically he was just working detest workarounds to whole time. I still know very little about his current configuration and my hope sort of faded a little. His testing method are weird though. He doesn't have any EFI64 Macs yet his progress in MCPF support for these models were always amazing. I'll try to get a hold of him more often this week now that I got my life in order (College sucks sometimes).

I been running some comparisons between the original kexts and the ones Kelian made and I will start on some adjustments. I'm a little limited right now and only really have limited access to one Macbook 4,1 and Mac Pro 2,1 with my main coding work in my Macbook Pro mid 2010. There may be some people in my Cyber Security Club that have some older Mac models as well (or at least better knowledge of EFI than me that can help as well)

 

[MacVidCards]

Here was our most recent conversation before we went back into MCPF issues:

[9/30/15, 9:48:36 AM] MLforAll: I didn't worked on this yet and I'm not sure if it is possible to do it without using the recovery HD as the nvram is protected as well by sip
[9/30/15, 9:50:51 AM] MLforAll: I think I'll disable sip using the recovery. The only other way I know to disable sip without using the recovery partition is to use the hackintosh bootloader clover, which causes other issues of old macs with efi32
[9/30/15, 9:52:03 AM] MLforAll: And speaking of clover, it is what I'm using to disable sip on my hackintosh as the tool inside the recovery doesn't work on hackintoshes (at least mine)
[9/30/15, 11:27:14 AM] MLforAll: The Extra extension folder is used by the hackintosh boot loader chameleon

So basically he was just working detest workarounds to whole time. I still know very little about his current configuration and my hope sort of faded a little. His testing method are weird though. He doesn't have any EFI64 Macs yet his progress in MCPF support for these models were always amazing. I'll try to get a hold of him more often this week now that I got my life in order (College sucks sometimes).

I been running some comparisons between the original kexts and the ones Kelian made and I will start on some adjustments. I'm a little limited right now and only really have limited access to one Macbook 4,1 and Mac Pro 2,1 with my main coding work in my Macbook Pro mid 2010. There may be some people in my Cyber Security Club that have some older Mac models as well (or at least better knowledge of EFI than me that can help as well)

Thank you for this. This is exactly what was needed to be known. So, he is in fact very far from anything resembling an answer, and if he doesn't have machines from the list, not easy for him to work on the issue.

Here is your list of machines, when people try the machines they could copy and paste this so we complete the list, we will at least know then which machines have the issue, which don't. If one is found to not have issue, we have valuable info. I have a white early Macbook, will see if it is Core Duo or Core 2, it is used as a print server so may or may not be right one.

-MacBook2,x
-MacBook3,x
-MacBook4,x
-MacBookPro2,x
-MacBookAir1,1
-MacMini1,x (C2D upgraded) - TESTED, BAD USB
-MacMini2,x (I think mine is a 1,1 flashed to 2,1 so would cover this as well)
-iMac4,x (C2D can be upgraded)
-iMac5,x (Issues have been occurring with this specific model)

From what i see, the boot.efi is done by the guys in other thread. So, for these other machines, biggest thing in the way is USB. (And will never have smooth GPU)

Only workarounds found so far:

1. Screen sharing, very laggy.
2. PCMCIA card, also apparently very laggy. My test with #3 gives hope that different PCMCIA card may work better.
3. Put USB card in via Mini PCIE (working great in my 2007 Mini, but an ugly kludge until better fix found)

 

[thingi]

Thank you for this. This is exactly what was needed to be known. So, he is in fact very far from anything resembling an answer, and if he doesn't have machines from the list, not easy for him to work on the issue.

Here is your list of machines, when people try the machines they could copy and paste this so we complete the list, we will at least know then which machines have the issue, which don't. If one is found to not have issue, we have valuable info. I have a white early Macbook, will see if it is Core Duo or Core 2, it is used as a print server so may or may not be right one.

-MacBook2,x
-MacBook3,x
-MacBook4,x
-MacBookPro2,x
-MacBookAir1,1
-MacMini1,x (C2D upgraded) - TESTED, BAD USB
-MacMini2,x (I think mine is a 1,1 flashed to 2,1 so would cover this as well)
-iMac4,x (C2D can be upgraded)
-iMac5,x (Issues have been occurring with this specific model)

From what i see, the boot.efi is done by the guys in other thread. So, for these other machines, biggest thing in the way is USB. (And will never have smooth GPU)

Only workarounds found so far:

1. Screen sharing, very laggy.
2. PCMCIA card, also apparently very laggy. My test with #3 gives hope that different PCMCIA card may work better.
3. Put USB card in via Mini PCIE (working great in my 2007 Mini, but an ugly kludge until better fix found)

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

I don't know if this helps at all, but I just updated my Hackintosh to El Capitan. My boot flags for clover were kext-dev-mode=1, rootless=0, -v, dart=0, cpus=1, -F. When I switched to Chameleon (it reads intelHD4000 better) The flags changed to ncpi=0x2000 rootless=0 GraphicsEnabler=Yes USBBusFix=Yes -v -F. Do you guys think we could make a hacked clover to work on these old Macs? The GitHub stuff is accessible for free. Heck maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree by even thinking about the Hackintosh stuff. But, no one has mentioned it yet.

 

[psejcf]

I have a Mac mini Core 2 Duo (mid 2007) running OS X Lion. I have looked at past OS X threads on unsupported Macs (for ML, M and Y) but they have always appeared to be quite complex and not complete (in the sense that I'm not sure if they would work for my configuration). I'm hoping I can upgrade my mini to something recent with decent performance and El Capitan seems like a good choice. It would be great if the "tested on" list is really tested on and there's a way to get this done well (seeing the USB issues). Keeping fingers crossed!

P.S.: I would also appreciate any suggestions on other well performing OS X releases I should look at, preferably with a complete list of instructions (I'm not afraid of the command line and can handle it well).

 

[MacVidCards]

I have a Mac mini Core 2 Duo (mid 2007) running OS X Lion. I have looked at past OS X threads on unsupported Macs (for ML, M and Y) but they have always appeared to be quite complex and not complete (in the sense that I'm not sure if they would work for my configuration). I'm hoping I can upgrade my mini to something recent with decent performance and El Capitan seems like a good choice. It would be great if the "tested on" list is really tested on and there's a way to get this done well (seeing the USB issues). Keeping fingers crossed!

P.S.: I would also appreciate any suggestions on other well performing OS X releases I should look at, preferably with a complete list of instructions (I'm not afraid of the command line and can handle it well).

Now would not be a good time to put El Cap on a 2007 Mini. No solution has been found for USB issue.

Best option would be to creat a complete disk image of your boot drive so that you can get back to it no matter what.

There are ways to make or download installers that work on an EFI32 machine, but I have no experience with those.

After you have a complete image of your current OS drive you can try out Yosemite. You will need access to a newer Mac and use FireWire mode. Or a USB to Sata adapter and a 2.5" drive. The newer Mac will be the one to install onto your chosen drive, then replace the boot.efi files (2 total in Yosemite) and boot Mini from it. You will quickly realize the graphics are horrendously slow. Oddly, there are GMA950 kexts from 10.6.2 that give some, but not all, relief.

I have a 2007 Mini set up like this. It is primarily for testing ax Wifi and BT 4.0 cards, but it got more useable once I put those 10.6.2 kexts in. As I don't use it as a daily driver I can't speak to its every day usefulness, it may very well have FaceTime or sleep issues.

Important point here is that having the full image of your working Lion install will allow you to get back to what worked before if you decide the trade offs aren't worth it.

There are ways to run 10.8+ with a bunch of jiggery pokery and end up with better graphics, I think. There is a thread in the 10.8 section detailing that, I have no experience with it.

But whatever you do, MAKE A FULL RESTORE IMAGE FIRST, and all you stand to lose is some time.

 

[TMRJIJ]

OS X Extractor 1.3 Final Build

Download/Installs might be slow due to heavy traffic.
Release Notes here.

 

[JTCGiants56]

With the release of OSX Extractor 1.3 and the updated tutorial will I be able to follow the steps on the first page and upgrade my early 2008 macbook, 4,1 to el cap without issue?

Is there any huge remaining bugs that I will encounter after the install (I heard there were USB issues?).

Thanks

 

[Pike R. Alpha]

OS X Extractor 1.3 Final Build

Download/Installs might be slow due to heavy traffic.
Release Note will come over the weekend along with new ongoing tutorial updates.

This is the official download page and I like to remind everyone here to read and respect the License!

 

[TMRJIJ]

This is the official download page and I like to remind everyone here to read and respect the License!

Hi Pike,

Thank you for all of your hard work on the new bootloader for OS X El Capitan. Your License is respected and your 32 bit boot.efi will be removed from ESXE builds. This official download link will be in post 1 later today.
That being said, this is not the primary function of OS X Extractor. This is the manual alternative to MacPostFsctor created by our partners Kelian Dumarais (MLforAll) and Wayne Wong (HackerWayne / Former). This includes several patches, modified Kexts, Daemons, custom built apps, and OpenGL frameworks provided by Isiah Johnson (TMRJIJ), Kelian Dumarais, and Nolen Johnson. All scripts are written from scratch. We try our best to design everything in a way that does not violate copyright or usage license.
If you feel that we are still violating the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License or other licenses. I can provide you access to our server's backend to check the packages that this installer is reading from. You can email me at support@osxhackers.net for more information.

Thanks,
Isiah Johnson (TMRJIJ)
Web Developer/Johnson Network Owner/ OS X Hackers Developer