Unsupported Catalina Install - but specific questions.

[iRabbit]

My system:
- MacPro 5,1 2 x2.66 6-core intel Xeon
- 64 Gb ram
- Radeon rx580 8gb
- 4 SSDs in standard HD sled Bays

- installed OpenCore… I did this because I was having computer issues last week…. trying to debug and test things I got to a point where I thought a boot picker screen would be helpful (since the rx580 unflashed can’t do that).

- installed the dosdude Catalina patcher… I was at my wits end with the computer problems and felt an OS reinstall was my next step. Decided to just try to go for the upgrade so I could also bring photoshop completely up to date. I went the dosdude route because he was a trustworthy source of Catalina and I couldn’t find it on Apples site (their link doesn’t work anymore).

Okay, all that said, so far everything is running great. Haven’t seen any issues. I even did two updates through the normal Apple way (before I considered it might not be a good idea) and they seemed to work fine.

Here’s my questions so far:

1. How can I tell for sure I added the dosdude patch files? i watched the dosdude video again and it said it detects automatically what your system needs (and can even be used in supported Macs). No idea how my system was seen since I did opencore first…
2. what’s the best way to keep opencore up to date? (Keeping in mind I didn’t start with OCLP).
3. is it okay to do normal Apple updates? I’ve read that some say yes and some say no… there’s conflicting info out there about it. I did do two already (device update and safari update), but I turned automatic updates off for now.
4. When I decide I want to try to jump up to BigSur what’s the best route?

I’m not a hardcore “hacking” fool myself, but I know enough to get around… but I’m a newbie in the “unsupported Mac” territories. I need a guide or guru. Everything is running really well but I want to be prepared moving forward.

 

[iRabbit]

I would not recommend mixing OpenCore with a hard-patched install. Moving forward, I would do a clean install of macOS Catalina or later (using a full installer on a freshly formatted drive) and then confidently apply OTA updates. Take a look at the first post here for how to obtain a full installer.

Thanks. I actually went the route I did because I read other people had successfully done it and dosdudes video said it could even be used on supported macs.

If your solution is my only recourse, it’s certainly the way I’ll go. Was hoping to avoid that, but I can hope for the best and prepare for the worst … I have a spare 2tb SSD, so I can install BigSur to that and see how it goes.

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@cdf replied in another thread so I thought I’d share it and my reply here for anyone else following.

I’d still love to hear from others with this combination / similar upgrade path… or even @dosdude1 himself if he has the time. I did reach out to some people on Reddit who said they went this route, but so far haven’t heard back.

Thanks all…