Dosdude's Catalina patcher not working on two different imacs

[GraphicHealer]

Hello there!

I am trying to install Catalina on two different iMacs. Both are 21.5, but one is a mid 2009 and the other is a late 2011. Both have had High Sierra installed, that is where I started from. Neither will complete installation, both get to the (as dosdude himself described) "During installation, the installer reports that 'An error occurred during installation', and mentions running diagnostics". I have recreated the installer several times and it still fails. The strange part is after it fails, the install USB somehow gets corrupted and will no longer mount APFS volumes OR run the installer correctly ("The installer is damaged, and can't be used to install macOS"). I then went and borrowed my sister's 2012 MBP and re-downloaded both the installer and MacOS Catalina and re-created the USB. Still fails the same way. I think I have tried this like 5 times now. Any ideas or help? I am stuck and really need to fix these.

Thanks,
GH

 

[BrianBaughn]

Have you tried it with more than one USB stick?

 

[K two]

Hello there!

I am trying to install Catalina on two different iMacs. Both are 21.5, but one is a mid 2009 and the other is a late 2011. Both have had High Sierra installed, that is where I started from. Neither will complete installation, both get to the (as dosdude himself described) "During installation, the installer reports that 'An error occurred during installation', and mentions running diagnostics". I have recreated the installer several times and it still fails. The strange part is after it fails, the install USB somehow gets corrupted and will no longer mount APFS volumes OR run the installer correctly ("The installer is damaged, and can't be used to install macOS"). I then went and borrowed my sister's 2012 MBP and re-downloaded both the installer and MacOS Catalina and re-created the USB. Still fails the same way. I think I have tried this like 5 times now. Any ideas or help? I am stuck and really need to fix these.

Thanks,
GH

A common issue fixed by using a properly prepared USB2 plug (HP and SanDisk USB2 16 or 32GB+ are proven). Also correctly disable SIP on the iMacs before commencing. The USB installer issue has been extensively covered here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-15-catalina-on-unsupported-macs.2183772/page-607 and on Discord>unsupported Macs. Post your query. You'll get plenty of help. ??

Additional - We have 2ea. mid-10 iMacs upped to Catalina, initially no progress could be made on either iMac until SMC and NVRAM>3 bongs were reset as well as while in macOSRecovery SIP was disabled in the Terminal. Also, check the bootROM version, High Sierra should have brought it up to date. FWIW

 

[GraphicHealer]

A common issue fixed by using a properly prepared USB2 plug (HP and SanDisk USB2 16 or 32GB+ are proven). Also correctly disable SIP on the iMacs before commencing. The USB installer issue has been extensively covered here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-10-15-catalina-on-unsupported-macs.2183772/page-607 and on Discord>unsupported Macs. Post your query. You'll get plenty of help. ??

Wait, there is a discord??? I couldn't find it. Also yes I have tried several USB drives including a 16gb Sandisk. I think I got it, the 2011 is working now. I had to disable the automatic post install patches and do them myself manually. I still cant get the 2009 working though. Do you have the discord link?

Edit: Where is SIP mentioned? Can you link a tutorial? I think it might be disabled already, IDK.

 

[K two]

Wait, there is a discord??? I couldn't find it. Also yes I have tried several USB drives including a 16gb Sandisk. I think I got it, the 2011 is working now. I had to disable the automatic post install patches and do them myself manually. I still cant get the 2009 working though. Do you have the discord link?

Edit: Where is SIP mentioned? Can you link a tutorial? I think it might be disabled already, IDK.

https://discord.com/ create an account and head to>unsupported Macs. One of the Patcher settings disables SIP - so the 2011 is good. The 2009 is a ElCap vintage and may require using the default patcher settings and Force Cache Rebuild upon completion. Disabling SIP requires <option> booting into macOSRecovery>Terminal input <csrutil disable> to confirm <csrutil status>. Holding R during a restart might also get you there? ?

 

[GraphicHealer]

https://discord.com/ create an account and head to>unsupported Macs. One of the Patcher settings disables SIP - so the 2011 is good. The 2009 is a ElCap vintage and may require using the default patcher settings and Force Cache Rebuild upon completion. Disabling SIP requires <option> booting into macOSRecovery>Terminal input <csrutil disable> to confirm <csrutil status>. Holding R during a restart might also get you there? ?

It is actually a late 2009 imac, so it will install High Sierra natively. I did that already, maybe SIP is the issue. Ill try that.