Sierra on Mid-2009 MacBook Pro, Tested, Working, Recovery Partition Fails

[ac2334]

Hello,

I got everything up and running on a Mid-2009 Macbook Pro, 3.06 Ghz w/ 8 GB RAM and the Nvidia 9400/9600m card. I used Dosdude's method and only injected the 2 default kexts (boot.plist and legacy USB options)

The only problem is that the recovery partition is giving me the grey circle and slash symbol.

I have tried resetting the SMC and PRAM and attempted with System Integrity Protection both enabled and disabled but nothing is allowing me in.

Audio, wifi, bluetooth all work fine. I should mention that I do have a USB 3.0 card in the PCI card slot but it is recognized in Sierra and I don't think it would be an issue. It is of a brand that requires no special drivers to work on Macs or Windows - never had one issue with it.

Any ideas?

 

[maflynn]

Sounds like the recovery partition is hosed, and being a 2009 mac, I don't think the internet recovery is open to you. You'll need to reinstall OS X from a system disc, and then upgrade that to El Cap to get your recovery partition fixed.

Perhaps its too late, but if you use Carbon Copy Cloner, you can clone your drive (including the recovery partition) to an external drive, so if need be, you can get it back.

You don't have to reinstall the older version of OS X, if you want to remain in Sierra, but right now, you have non-functioning recovery partition

 

[ac2334]

Sounds like the recovery partition is hosed, and being a 2009 mac, I don't think the internet recovery is open to you. You'll need to reinstall OS X from a system disc, and then upgrade that to El Cap to get your recovery partition fixed.

Perhaps its too late, but if you use Carbon Copy Cloner, you can clone your drive (including the recovery partition) to an external drive, so if need be, you can get it back.

You don't have to reinstall the older version of OS X, if you want to remain in Sierra, but right now, you have non-functioning recovery partition

Thank you for your reply maflynn.

I do have an El Capitan CCC backup complete with recovery partition... but wouldn't the recovery partition just break again when I go to install Sierra? Or if I keep the partitions intact it should work?

Also, can I just copy the recovery partition from my CCC backup and overwrite the current recovery partition and it will work? It would be an outdated El Capitan recovery partition i would assume...

 

[maflynn]

but wouldn't the recovery partition just break again when I go to install Sierra?

I would assume so, but it seemed like you wanted the recovery partition and the ability to go back to el cap, perhaps I assumed too much

 

[ac2334]

I would assume so, but it seemed like you wanted the recovery partition and the ability to go back to el cap, perhaps I assumed too much

No, I want to stay on Sierra - it's working great - just seeking a solution to get an operational recovery partition.

 

[gsmornot]

Hello,

I got everything up and running on a Mid-2009 Macbook Pro, 3.06 Ghz w/ 8 GB RAM and the Nvidia 9400/9600m card. I used Dosdude's method and only injected the 2 default kexts (boot.plist and legacy USB options)

The only problem is that the recovery partition is giving me the grey circle and slash symbol.

I have tried resetting the SMC and PRAM and attempted with System Integrity Protection both enabled and disabled but nothing is allowing me in.

Audio, wifi, bluetooth all work fine. I should mention that I do have a USB 3.0 card in the PCI card slot but it is recognized in Sierra and I don't think it would be an issue. It is of a brand that requires no special drivers to work on Macs or Windows - never had one issue with it.

Any ideas?

Last time I lost my recovery partition I just installed the OS again. It retained my user data and settings but with the reinstall of the OS it rebuilt the partition for me.

Side note, I thought about following this same path with my 2009 MacBook Pro but decided to skip it for now. I could not think of a good reason to move forward other than wanting newer software. This is not a knock but a question, what do you hope to have by running Sierra on this older machine?

 

[ac2334]

Last time I lost my recovery partition I just installed the OS again. It retained my user data and settings but with the reinstall of the OS it rebuilt the partition for me.

Side note, I thought about following this same path with my 2009 MacBook Pro but decided to skip it for now. I could not think of a good reason to move forward other than wanting newer software. This is not a knock but a question, what do you have to have by running Sierra on this older machine?

Siri turns me on

You are right, normally you just reinstall the OS to get the recovery partition working again... but as this is a clean install I think there is something else preventing it from loading and I am looking for someone with the know-how to figure it out. There is such thing as a recovery partition rebuilder but I am not sure if it would work with Sierra.

Maybe the injected kexts are causing an issue or maybe it's my USB 3.0 PCI card....not sure..

 

[elf69]

Sounds good.

I will upgrade my 2009 macbook soon.

In first post you say you have a usb 3.0 card fitted?
In a macbook pro?

They do not have pci slots?

 

[gsmornot]

Siri turns me on

Not too worried about Siri but heck, maybe I will upgrade just for the fun. Any idea if you can upgrade upon the next beta release or will you have to patch and go though the extra work for every update? Trying to decide if I do indeed want to do it.

I'm off topic, but curious since you're already there with it loaded.

 

[ac2334]

Sounds good.

I will upgrade my 2009 macbook soon.

In first post you say you have a usb 3.0 card fitted?
In a macbook pro?

They do not have pci slots?

Express card
[doublepost=1467042889][/doublepost]

Not too worried about Siri but heck, maybe I will upgrade just for the fun. Any idea if you can upgrade upon the next beta release or will you have to patch and go though the extra work for every update? Trying to decide if I do indeed want to do it.

I'm off topic, but curious since you're already there with it loaded.

I believe from here on i will just get normal App store upgrades and run them - the injected kexts should remain but at worst I could just repatch

 

[elf69]

I did not know the pro had express slots, sorry.

That I would have liked.

How do you find sierra over your old OSX?

 

[ac2334]

I did not know the pro had express slots, sorry.

That I would have liked.

How do you find sierra over your old OSX?

So far it is very slick, runs slightly faster than El Cap and has some really great features. It's definitely a step in the right direction..
[doublepost=1467043755][/doublepost]

Sounds like the recovery partition is hosed, and being a 2009 mac, I don't think the internet recovery is open to you. You'll need to reinstall OS X from a system disc, and then upgrade that to El Cap to get your recovery partition fixed.

Perhaps its too late, but if you use Carbon Copy Cloner, you can clone your drive (including the recovery partition) to an external drive, so if need be, you can get it back.

You don't have to reinstall the older version of OS X, if you want to remain in Sierra, but right now, you have non-functioning recovery partition

Still looking for fixes for the recov partition if anyone knows any, thanks

 

[gsmornot]

So far it is very slick, runs slightly faster than El Cap and has some really great features. It's definitely a step in the right direction..
[doublepost=1467043755][/doublepost]

Still looking for fixes for the recov partition if anyone knows any, thanks

I'm waiting on everything to update so I can test for partition on my MacBook. I was able to load Sierra no issue, patch it no issue, next is to see if I have anything else appear and check to the boot partition for you.

Only issue I have see so far is Store In iCloud is giving an error but I will look into that after all else is done. I have plenty of space in iCloud and plenty of room on my drive so no rush.

 

[redheeler]

No one in this thread seems to realize the mid 2009 MBP isn't a supported Mac and the Recovery partition does not get patched to work! I have been able to mount it and edit the PlatformSupport.plist file to make it bootable, but there is still the problem of no USB while in Recovery.

 

[gsmornot]

No one in this thread seems to realize the mid 2009 MBP isn't a supported Mac and the Recovery partition does not get patched to work! I have been able to mount it and edit the PlatformSupport.plist file to make it bootable, but there is still the problem of no USB while in Recovery.

That answers that. I was not sure what was going to happen. End of the day a recovery partition is not a big deal for me. My Mini is running a DIY Fusion that is missing a recovery partition. I keep a USB drive with El Capitan on it that I boot to when I need to turn SIP on and off or whatever else. Thanks for the info.

 

[ac2334]

No one in this thread seems to realize the mid 2009 MBP isn't a supported Mac and the Recovery partition does not get patched to work! I have been able to mount it and edit the PlatformSupport.plist file to make it bootable, but there is still the problem of no USB while in Recovery.

How about firewire?

 

[redheeler]

How about firewire?

I would guess Firewire works fine (unable to test it as my MacBook Air 2,1 doesn't have Firewire), but keep in mind the built-in keyboard and trackpad are connected internally to USB, so you won't even be able to move the mouse while in Recovery. An external Bluetooth keyboard and mouse may work, but I'm not completely sure. I'll have to test it further.

 

[pistolenernie]

I am not sure what exactly you are required to patch, but if you want you can try to mount the recovery partition from your working macOS with the terminal command "diskutil mount Recovery\ HD". Maybe your recovery partition has another name, therefore look it up with "diskutil list". When you have done this and you have activated the ability to see hidden files you can search for the "/Recovery HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg" file where all files should be stored that are loaded at a start of the recovery OS. Maybe you can exchange here the respective files as you have done it for the installation of Sierra.

Oh, and probably you need to change the files with sudo rights ...

However, I have no macOS Sierra installed, so I won't be able to give you additional recommendations. (At least I have the same macbook pro model )

Hopefully this is a hint into the right direction.

 

[grahamperrin]

… isn't a supported Mac and the Recovery partition does not get patched … USB …

Is more recent Recovery OS 16A239o similarly limited?

(I guess so. Just curious.)

 

[redheeler]

Is more recent Recovery OS 16A239o similarly limited?

(I guess so. Just curious.)

Structured the same, most of the system and kexts are contained in a read-only DMG image. It may be possible to convert to read/write and drop the kexts in, but I haven't tried it yet. This would be a task for @dosdude1.

 

[Gjwilly]

After installing the public beta an update appears in the App Store to update the recovery partition.
Wonder if that would help the OP.

 

[grahamperrin]

@Gjwilly that's sort of what I asked above; 16A239o is an updated Recovery OS.