macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[jbiser361]

On non-Metal video cards, it looks like that isn't going to happen. A Mac Pro with an upgraded Metal-compatible video card will run Catalina just fine.

ok so a MacBook pro from ‘09 isn’t going to work, anyway possible that we can trick the OS to thinking it is metal compatible like the ID or the firmware

 

[Starplayr]

Well, regardless of whether or not they do, it's extremely easy to get running on one. It requires no patches outside of disabling the compatibility check on boot, and it runs perfectly fine.

And Mac Pro 3,1 is about the same (just minus Telemetry). WiFi and Sound need patches, but I've been able to use Ethernet network and Firewire. And USB sound.. Bluetooth sound should also work.
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ok so a MacBook pro from ‘09 isn’t going to work, anyway possible that we can trick the OS to thinking it is metal compatible like the ID or the firmware

Doubtful.

 

[LionNz]

Oh dear. We might have a big problem here. "macOS Catalina runs in its own read-only volume, so it’s separate from all other data on your Mac, and nothing can accidentally overwrite your system files." https://www.apple.com/macos/catalina-preview/

For wall paper they can use scoth towell toilet paper lol

 

[mhorsley121]

On non-Metal video cards, it looks like that isn't going to happen. A Mac Pro with an upgraded Metal-compatible video card will run Catalina just fine.

Sorry for the noobish question but does this mean their will be no Catalina for 2011 MacBook Pro patch. I’m hoping this is not the case as apart from software machine runs like a dream.

 

[jbiser361]

And Mac Pro 3,1 is about the same (just minus Telemetry). WiFi and Sound need patches, but I've been able to use Ethernet network and Firewire. And USB sound.. Bluetooth sound should also work.
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Doubtful.

that is a huge bummer, any cheap metal compatible MacBooks u guys recommend
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Sorry for the noobish question but does this mean their will be no Catalina for 2011 MacBook Pro patch. I’m hoping this is not the case as apart from software machine runs like a dream.

yea it’s not metal compatible

 

[Starplayr]

that is a huge bummer, any cheap metal compatible MacBooks u guys recommend
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yea it’s not metal compatible

Mid 2012 would be the cheapest. Which is a very good year for both Mac Minis and MacBook Pros.

2014 and 2015s would be the next step up (No DVD-RW drive, but you have two Thunderbolt and two USB3 ports)

2016-2019 USB-C / Thunderbolt 3. Used to be Dongle hell, but finding the right cables has been getting much more affordable. Butterfly keyboard can have issues and many are under recall, and 2016s have short soldered video cables that can wear over time and is about a $750 dollar repair. Get apple care.

eBay is a good place.
Apple Refurbs are usually decent and are as good as new condition with new shells and displays.

 

[wiicart]

that is a huge bummer, any cheap metal compatible MacBooks u guys recommend
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yea it’s not metal compatible

so no macbook 7,1?

 

[jbiser361]

so no macbook 7,1?

no sorry bud
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Mid 2012 would be the cheapest. Which is a very good year for both Mac Minis and MacBook Pros.

2014 and 2015s would be the next step up (No DVD-RW drive, but you have two Thunderbolt and two USB3 ports)

2016-2019 USB-C / Thunderbolt 3. Used to be Dongle hell, but finding the right cables has been getting much more affordable. Butterfly keyboard can have issues and many are under recall, and 2016s have short soldered video cables that can wear over time and is about a $750 dollar repair. Get apple care.

eBay is a good place.
Apple Refurbs are usually decent and are as good as new condition with new shells and displays.

thanks i appreciate it 🙂
[doublepost=1559963369][/doublepost]wait one more thing, are we done trying to get acceleration on older machines?


or are we still gonna try

 

[ASentientBot]

no sorry bud
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thanks i appreciate it 🙂
[doublepost=1559963369][/doublepost]wait one more thing, are we done trying to get acceleration on older machines?


or are we still gonna try

Of course we're still going to try. But don't count on it.
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it will loop on IOConsoleUsers verbose lines.

This means WindowServer is crashing. You can look in /Library/Logs to see the reports (wait a minute before force rebooting, so the log can get saved).

 

[bmillz]

Of course we're still going to try. But don't count on it.
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This means WindowServer is crashing. You can look in /Library/Logs to see the reports (wait a minute before force rebooting, so the log can get saved).

I’m still gonna remain positive regarding GPU acceleration for non-Metal GPUs. Things were looking grim last year for Mojave when the amazing people here finally found a way (almost 2 weeks after the first beta was released). In any case, I also have an iMac with an upgraded Metal supported GPU so hopefully they’ll be some patch or script for those types of unsupported machines.

 

[jbiser361]

I’m still gonna remain positive regarding GPU acceleration for non-Metal GPUs. Things were looking grim last year for Mojave when the amazing people here finally found a way (almost 2 weeks after the first beta was released). In any case, I also have an iMac with an upgraded Metal supported GPU so hopefully they’ll be some patch or script for those types of unsupported machines.

i am extremely skilled in Objective-c if that’s any help, i’m like mega new to this unsupported Mac thing so i’ll definitely love to know what i can do to help

 

[0403979]

About attempts to bring back non-metal-acceleration , I guess we should consider that Catalina uses all the binaries with 64 bit coding, while instead all the frameworks/privateframeworks binaries taken from a Mojave installation will contain both the (FAT archive) architecture x86 and x86_64 , while the "mach 64 bit only" can be found on frameworks taken from a Mojave's BaseSystem.dmg , so I'd consider to use those.

I've also tried to replace only CoreDisplay.framework from 10.14.3 and the interesting thing is that from a verbose booting it doesn't crash and doesn't produce any pid crashes, but right after the stage2 apple logo (that will be showed for a moment during the verbose mode) it will loop on IOConsoleUsers verbose lines.

Of course in drawing the LoginUI or loginwindow are involved other very tricky frameworks, one for all the SkyLight privateframework.

Maybe who knows even in some OpenGL.framework for example could be suffice to replace only its binary exec leaving the Libraries or other subfolders untouched from Catalina. But unfortunately the elements to consider are many.

Maybe this time also the OpenCL.framework is required to support an OpenGL.framework downgrade.

The semi-good thing is that frameworks (differently from kexts) can be replaced almost on-the-fly from single user mode, and their behavior can be evaluate directly from verbose booting and if some pid will crashes, then almost surely that chosen framework downgrade isn't good, attempt the next.

But I have one more observation to add, I guess that the less tricky GPU to test if on Catalina exists still an OpenGL fallback is the IntelHD3000 but the one used as singleGPU on MacbookAir 2011 or on MacBookPro 13" 2011, since these GPUs were the first that worked will full QE/CI on Mojave 10.14.0 beta1 almost OOB, and their kexts were taken from a Sierra installation, so just think, Sierra GPU kext brought the first non-metal-opengl-acceleration in Mojave, it was incredible, and this motivated to bring acceleration to other non-metal GPUs, since it was proved that OpenGL fallback was possible on Mojave.

After replacing CoreDisplay, AppKit crashes and subsequently loginwindow crashes because AppKit can't find a symbol it expected to find in CoreDisplay. If this symbol that is in 10.15 CoreDisplay can somehow be inserted into 10.14.3 CorrDisplay then we might have fixed the AppKit and loginwindow crash and maybe even fixed acceleration. I don't know if that's possible or not but I think we should focus on getting all the old patches working before we try new patches.

 

[bige12]

I cloned my Mojave’s to a external hard drive and downloaded the beta of catalinia and it is saying that it’s not formatted in APFS any to convert to APFS without loosing anything?

 

[TimothyR734]

After replacing CoreDisplay, AppKit crashes and subsequently loginwindow crashes because AppKit can't find a symbol it expected to find in CoreDisplay. If this symbol that is in 10.15 CoreDisplay can somehow be inserted into 10.14.3 CorrDisplay then we might have fixed the AppKit and loginwindow crash and maybe even fixed acceleration. I don't know if that's possible or not but I think we should focus on getting all the old patches working before we try new patches.

what about the coreDisplay's from 10.14.5-.6 they are both stable versions
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I cloned my Mojave’s to a external hard drive and downloaded the beta of catalinia and it is saying that it’s not formatted in APFS any to convert to APFS without loosing anything?

I am not to sure if there is a way I tried once from something I read using a terminal command but it still erased my drive

 

[0403979]

what about the coreDisplay's from 10.14.5-.6 they are both stable versions
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I am not to sure if there is a way I tried once from something I read using a terminal command but it still erased my drive

On 10.14.5 you need to replace CoreDisplay from 10.14.4 to get acceleration working. So on 10.15 you need to replace that and maybe more. But unfortunately we can't replace it because of the issue I mentioned in my last post. I think a binary patch may be able to fix it. @ASentientBot might be able to do so?

 

[FlorisVN]

Thunderbolt Macs could use an eGPU.
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I will in about an half hour. I am waiting to a fresh copy of Catalina to download and Xcode 11 beta. After those are downloaded, I am gonna clone it to another AFPS volume.
[doublepost=1559941241][/doublepost]I might have missed this, but what are the steps to get:

Sound and Broadcom WiFi working on a Mac Pro 3,1? I am going to mess around with that on a Clone.

My workarounds are fine. Actually my 2006 Mac mini is doing great for internet sharing. And my USB sound card's are working flawlessly. After I fixed my video power cable issue, I have not had a kernel panic. I have never seen a dev preview or beta 1 this stable before.

Magic Keyboard and Trackpad (iMac Pro styles) are working great too.

As soon as I said that, I KP'd when erasing a 4GB Hard Drive.

Fast boot still works with Ethernet and Firewire networking on. Using both incase one bombs as a backup on my 2006 Mac mini internet sharing. 🙂. I used to upgrade CPUs and RAM in the 2006 Mac minis. Wasn't much but it was fun. I still have extra parts laying around.

yeah but keep in mind, most of the Macbook users, won't have a thunderbolt eGPU running.
And there are also a lot of Macbook and Macbook Pro users out there, who don't have thunderbolt at all..

I don't see a thunderbolt eGPU a good solution for most users who still want to run Catalina on their Macbook's a good solution..

 

[avz]

I am wondering what's the deal with a new macOS every year? Since OpenGL is no more, surely there will be no need for a new macOS in 2020? Am I missing something? I know it is a question that should be directed to Apple.

 

[xc70]

I have a cMP 8-core 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with Mojave and an Asus Strix Radeon RX560 4GB. I have the known problem of not waking up after putting it to sleep.

The new Mac Pro carries an AMD Radeon Pro 580X. Is an Apple rebranding like the popular Metal GPU Sapphire Pulse RX580 compatible with Mojave?

Should I sell my RX560 and buy an RX580 to help have a more compatible cMP? I'm a graphic designer and I just want the RX560 for the 4K monitor. I really do not need more graphics because I make few video works and never render 3D works.

I appreciate your opinion. Thanks in advance.

 

[jackluke]

Side car may rely on AirPlay and I can programmatically get AirPlay to work on a Mac Pro 3,1 to my AppleTV because I when written HLS software that does this.

Apple blocks the AirPlay menu on unsupported Macs which will probably block Side Car.

I'll need to install iPadOS to confirm. There may be a workaround as AirPlay does run on the Mac Pro.

AstroPad also does this and that may work on an unsupported Mac.
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I got some slowness. Seems to be from my MagicTrackPad not connecting at boot.

This is interesting, which GPU are you using on MP3,1 to "airplay screen mirroring" to an AppleTV ?

I know HLS, and about iOS devices there were already third party apps for example "Duet" that allowed to Airplay mirror MacOS to an iPad , and other apps to do also the opposite airplay mirror an iPad screen to a macOS airplay server app, and other third-party apps that used ARD/VNC/RDP protocols to have a kind of "Sidecar" effect.
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I cloned my Mojave’s to a external hard drive and downloaded the beta of catalinia and it is saying that it’s not formatted in APFS any to convert to APFS without loosing anything?

If it's a cloned Mojave, why do you care if loose something?

Anyway you should not loose nothing and you can surely convert a "Mojave HFS" into APFS booting from a Recovery or USB Installer (minimum HighSierra) and open DiskUtility, target/highlight your "Mojave HFS" and from the finder-top-menu select "Edit" and "Convert to APFS".

There are also Terminal commands to do that, but can be easily done from DiskUtility.
Maybe you can convert it also from a booted macOS, but personally for these operations I prefer to use a Recovery Environment.

 

[bige12]

The option to covert to APFS is grey out?

 

[jowaju]

The option to covert to APFS is grey out?

Unmount the volume and try again

 

[pkouame]

On 10.14.5 you need to replace CoreDisplay from 10.14.4 to get acceleration working. So on 10.15 you need to replace that and maybe more. But unfortunately we can't replace it because of the issue I mentioned in my last post. I think a binary patch may be able to fix it. @ASentientBot might be able to do so?

Not just "missing symbols" but missing functionality aka methods and functions.

 

[0403979]

Not just "missing symbols" but missing functionality aka methods and functions.

Is there any chance these missing methods and functions can be added back into CoreDisplay from 10.14.4? Without a CoreDisplay replacement I don't see us getting anywhere with acceleration.

 

[jbiser361]

wait isn’t the tesla architecture for the nvidia chipset still supported?

Is there any chance these missing methods and functions can be added back into CoreDisplay from 10.14.4? Without a CoreDisplay replacement I don't see us getting anywhere with acceleration.

earlier u mentioned something about a binary patch, can u shed some light on that?

 

[0403979]

wait isn’t the tesla architecture for the nvidia chipset still supported?

earlier u mentioned something about a binary patch, can u shed some light on that?

The GPU kexts can be loaded but on 10.14.4+ you also need to replace two other frameworks, and on 10.14.5+ the CoreDisplay framework as well, to get acceleration working. On 10.15, I've got the GPU kexts loaded and the 10.14.4+ frameworks replaced but when the CoreDisplay framework is replaced, AppKit crashes because of a missing symbol and then loginwindow crashes. So no acceleration until we get that fixed. The binary patch I mentioned would be attempting to add that symbol back to the CoreDisplay framework. Unfortunetly, I have no idea if this is possible but the only way forward is to somehow load the CoreDisplay framework without AppKit crashing. And before you ask, no, replacing AppKit isn't possible.