macOS 10.15 Catalina on Unsupported Macs

[ctaylora1231]

go to the macOS Mojave for Unsupported Macs forum try post 15432 I believe page 614
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unfortunately neither that page or number help with the problem I described. neither app crashes but they have the graphics issues

 

[Starplayr]

What system is this on? You could just edit the needed kext to get it working without having to use clover.

Mac Pro 3,1

What I am doing is editing the board # to enable the Display Port which broke in the GM and a some betas before it.

I tracked down where the iMac 10,1 27 2009 board ID is, and it is in 4 files and they are not all kexts. I know I can probably put my board ID there and remove where my board ID is listed elsewhere, but I am in the middle production work and don't have the luxury right now. I'm doing work for some pretty big clients and I can't miss a deadline. I spent the entire weekend searching for a good fix and finally settled on Clover for now and then a did a file search where the IDs I am looking for are located, but stopped there.

It's running fine with clover and will do something else when time permits. I am back on Mojave for my production stuff and have Catalina GM on 3 other partitions that I can mess with. One production and two I can hack away at.

Side note, it appears Apple has improved Apple Software Restore 'asr' on Catalina 10.15 GM, but I had problems with it when trying to clone 10.15.1 beta and after fighting with it went back to the GM and I plan to just stick with Apple's official releases at this point.

 

[ASentientBot]

im having same problem with the home app, similar issue in mojave. Also effects news app for me. I remember it working correctly briefly during Mojave beta days but stop working again once final release. I View attachment 869523 View attachment 869524

its gotta be possible. We would appreciate any help. @dosdude1 @ASentientBot @TimothyR734 @0403979

I'm not seeing this issue with either Word or News. (I'm not able to test Home.)

Not sure what is going on with your system. Does toggling "reduce transparency" help? This is very strange.

 

[lamerz78]

Yes I have a password so I can’t do a sudo without password.

I’ll try next days to swap the video card to original one and then install Catalina without video patch. Then reswap the card. It is tricky and a waste of time but I don’t see any other solution.

Target mode is the last one but I don’t have a FireWire to mini DP cable to connect my MacBook Air.

 

[jackluke]

Anyone else having issues with Safe Mode after installing 10.15 GM? It hasn't worked on the last 3 machines I tried it on. To wit, the machine boots normally into Mac OS 10.15, holding down the shift key while booting simply results in a prohibitory symbol. I tried clearing NVRAM, fixing the Recovery partition with the script from above (which DID work to fix the recovery partition, but Safe Mode still won't work) Note these tests were all on machines that needed the APFS software patch. Is there something with APFS containers that is different when booting into Safe Mode?

Verbose mode says "This version of the Mac OS X is not supported on this Platform!" Reason Mac-F22587C8

This is with or without the nvram -no_compat_check" argument.
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Do you have an actual password set for the account? You can't do sudo from terminal with a blank password.

I guess the shift-key is similar to CMD+R, I mean is associated to some other "-no_compat_check" to set some elsewhere, however to force entering "safe mode" from an unsupported Catalina (or Mojave) mac you can set a fixed nvram value: sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check -x"
If you are typing that from a root session or a recovery environment just avoid "sudo".

To return "normal mode" type: sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
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Yes I have a password so I can’t do a sudo without password.

I’ll try next days to swap the video card to original one and then install Catalina without video patch. Then reswap the card. It is tricky and a waste of time but I don’t see any other solution.

Target mode is the last one but I don’t have a FireWire to mini DP cable to connect my MacBook Air.

Yes, is very annoying to open/disassemble an iMac, using the original video card surely fix, but I read once that if you with a non-EFI GPU (without bootscreen) use some miniDP-to-hdmi(or DVI or VGA) to video output on an external tv/display/monitor (even a PC one) from there you could see the bootscreen.

About the Apple Mini DisplayPort adapters - Apple Support

Use these adapters to connect a Mac that has a Mini DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, or Thunderbolt 2 port to a display that uses a DVI or VGA cable.

support.apple.com

Also consider that if you MacbookAir has a thunderbolt port, iMac 2011 has one too, you can find a thunderbolt-to-thunderbolt cable and use the target disk mode, booting the internal iMac disk from the Air.

Or as you rightly wrote, a firewire800 cable, and a thundebolt-to-firewire800 for the Air.

With these cables and adapters you could avoid to open the iMac, since the GPU used is the one in your Air.

 

[lamerz78]

In the malsane idea to boot the iMac in disk mode...... what is the right procedure di install Catalina?
My MacBook has official support to Catalina. But I’ve to use the patched one from dosdude to install a copy in the right partition (target mode).....

How? Boot from external USB the MacBook Air?
Or launch the dosdude installer from Catalina (MacBook Air) ???

Thanks

 

[jackluke]

In the malsane idea to boot the iMac in disk mode...... what is the right procedure di install Catalina?
My MacBook has official support to Catalina. But I’ve to use the patched one from dosdude to install a copy in the right partition (target mode).....

How? Boot from external USB the MacBook Air?
Or launch the dosdude installer from Catalina (MacBook Air) ???

Thanks

That's the point, from the Air you should do a clean Catalina installation with the post-install patches for your iMac 2011 except the "Video Patch" you have to uncheck it, you don't need it for a Kepler Metal GPU.

On the Air you could even make a Catalina patched installation on an external USB hdd, and then test it on iMac 2011, if works you clone that to the internal iMac disk from HighSierra.

 

[lamerz78]

That's the point, from the Air you should do a clean Catalina installation with the post-install patches for your iMac 2011 except the "Video Patch" you have to uncheck it, you don't need it for a Kepler Metal GPU.

On the Air you could even make a Catalina patched installation on an external USB hdd, and then test it on iMac 2011, if works you clone that to the internal iMac disk from HighSierra.

The first option involve the iMac in target mode is it correct?

For the second option....
So I have to run (on MacBook Air) Catalina dosdude patcher and install “on this machine” selecting the external USB disk correct? Not the middle one option to create a USB installer.
Is this correct?

Then I will plug the external disk on the iMac and from HS select the boot from USB.....

I’m not sure it will boot.....perhaps I’ll try.

 

[jackluke]

The first option involve the iMac in target mode is it correct?

For the second option....
So I have to run (on MacBook Air) Catalina dosdude patcher and install “on this machine” selecting the external USB disk correct? Not the middle one option to create a USB installer.
Is this correct?

Then I will plug the external disk on the iMac and from HS select the boot from USB.....

I’m not sure it will boot.....perhaps I’ll try.

First option: target disk mode holding T-key at power-on but you need the cables firewire/thunderbolt.

Second option: creating a patched and bootable Catalina installation on an external USB hard disk from MacBookAir

but you have also to post-patch for iMac 2011 without selecting the "Video Patch", if you don't patch you cannot boot after on iMac from external USB, because as you seen in your iMac APFS HighSierra (next time opt for an HFS+ HighSierra installation much better!) the only way to set "-no_compat_check" or "disable SIP" is from a recovery environment, unless you pre-patched the external USB disk (with SIPDisabler.kext and "com.apple.boot.plist" Preboot/System "-no_compat_check flags") that dosdude1 already provided in his post-patches tool, this you have to prepare from a Macbook Air.

You may ask here about your K2000M Quadro swapped GPU: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-26915430

 

[roysterdoyster]

@dosdude1 thank you very much for all the ingenious work you are doing! Would you be so kind to look into a small thing: on my MBP4,1 17-inch I am running [19A583] with only one problem: keyboard backlight isn't working. ..I re-applied the patches with the force rebuild cache option, to no avail. Is there a solution? Thanks alot in advance for your help.

 

[lamerz78]

First option: target disk mode holding T-key at power-on but you need the cables firewire/thunderbolt.

Second option: creating a patched and bootable Catalina installation on an external USB hard disk from MacBookAir

but you have also to post-patch for iMac 2011 without selecting the "Video Patch", if you don't patch you cannot boot after on iMac from external USB, because as you seen in your iMac APFS HighSierra (next time opt for an HFS+ HighSierra installation much better!) the only way to set "-no_compat_check" or "disable SIP" is from a recovery environment, unless you pre-patched the external USB disk (with SIPDisabler.kext and "com.apple.boot.plist" Preboot/System "-no_compat_check flags") that dosdude1 already provided in his post-patches tool, this you have to prepare from a Macbook Air.

You may ask here about your K2000M Quadro swapped GPU: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2011-imac-graphics-card-upgrade.1596614/post-26915430

I followed that 3D months ago to run Mojave with Metal support.....but I’ve installed everything on old/stock Video Card and THEN swapped it.....

I’m a little dummie....about second option....

Assuming to install Catalina (from dosdude patcher) from the MacBook Air on the external USB hd....is there the faculty to run (obviously from the MacBook Air) the post install patches for the iMac directly from the MacBook Air? In this case I’m pretty sure the “Catalina patched installation on the usb hd” won’t boot from the MacBook Air.....no problem I’ve prepared it for the iMac.....

Please bag you pardon I’m a little dummie and my English is poor....
Thanks

 

[Arapaima]

How much ram do you have in the 2008 MBP you need at least 4GB I think 6MB is the max but not sure the difference between you iMac 9,1 and you 2008 MBP is the 2008 uses ddr2 ram where as the 2009 iMac uses ddr3

I have 4gb of ddr3 1067mhz in my mbp. It is also the highest amouth my system will accept.
Looking at activitymonitor my system uses around 2,6 to 2,7 gigs at idle.

 

[jackluke]

I followed that 3D months ago to run Mojave with Metal support.....but I’ve installed everything on old/stock Video Card and THEN swapped it.....

I’m a little dummie....about second option....

Assuming to install Catalina (from dosdude patcher) from the MacBook Air on the external USB hd....is there the faculty to run (obviously from the MacBook Air) the post install patches for the iMac directly from the MacBook Air? In this case I’m pretty sure the “Catalina patched installation on the usb hd” won’t boot from the MacBook Air.....no problem I’ve prepared it for the iMac.....

Please bag you pardon I’m a little dummie and my English is poor....
Thanks

A pre-patched Catalina/Mojave will run in most cases even from a supported Mac if subtract the "Video Patch", and in case won't boot it should be right at least for the iMac 2011.

Again, after you completed the external Catalina USB installation, do NOT apply the Video Patch.

I don't consider dummie who is capable to open an iMac and swap an MXM GPU inside.

Your issue is only that doing these stuffs without a EFI bootscreen is not easy.

 

[JimBeam_]

I'm working on that currently.

EDIT: Just fixed. You can install via Patch Updater.

I installed Catalina yesterday on my iMac9,1 and downloaded the lastest patches with the Patch Updater. brightness keys do react, but there is no brightness change at all. Will there be a fix?

 

[Flacko]

Hi, Please can you explain how I can mount my ESP and remove the EFI/BOOT? Thank you!

Have not done this for Catalina but this works for Mojave so give it a try. First find the name of your efi partition. In terminal use:

sudo diskutil list

You will be asked for your password then get a full list of all the drives. Find the efi one, for example mine is disk0s1 - yours may be different. Then mount this disk so it appears on your desktop. In terminal use :

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

You may need to replace my example disk name with yours. After a moment the efi drive should appear on your desktop. You can then use finder to delete the following: apfs.efi, /BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI and startup.nsh.

I have tried this in Catalina and it does bring up the disk onto the desktop. However, I have no files to delete (using APFS ROM) so have not actually deleted anything to see if it works fully. Catalina's system drive is now read only so I do not know if this will effect mounted efi drive. If you find that you are not allowed to delete the files inside the efi drive then try this command first to make the system drive read/write (SIP disabled):

sudo mount -uw /

 

[Mikki77]

Just a word of caution for users of video cutting software on the Mac. I upgraded FCPX (10.14.7) and iMovie (10.1.13) to the Catalina-compatible versions, which was a huge mistake. Both apps apparently use now metal-based video-processing in the viewer, meaning that non-metal macs only show a black window when playing videos. Just stay on the previous Mojave-versions, which work perfectly fine on Catalina as well.

 

[lamerz78]

A pre-patched Catalina/Mojave will run in most cases even from a supported Mac if subtract the "Video Patch", and in case won't boot it should be right at least for the iMac 2011.

Again, after you completed the external Catalina USB installation, do NOT apply the Video Patch.

I don't consider dummie who is capable to open an iMac and swap an MXM GPU inside.

Your issue is only that doing these stuffs without a EFI bootscreen is not easy.

Thank you very much.
I really appreciate your comment. ?

Tonight I’ll try the installation on USB disk obviously without Video Patch (post install patch).

See you all tonight!!!

Thanks a lot!

 

[0403979]

Same problem here!

Where can I find the beta 2? On dosdude1 website, the last downloadable is 1.1.7

I don't know if you noticed it but you replied to an almost 4 month old post.

 

[olad]

I have 4gb of ddr3 1067mhz in my mbp. It is also the highest amouth my system will accept.
Looking at activitymonitor my system uses around 2,6 to 2,7 gigs at idle.

Apple's official maximum RAM is 4Gb. In reality, your machine can take 8Gb RAM. Check it out on Mactracker app.

 

[joevt]

Apple's official maximum RAM is 4Gb. In reality, your machine can take 8Gb RAM. Check it out on Mactracker app.

Also, www.macsales.com has a My Upgrades button where you enter your Mac model and it tells you what kind of upgrades (including total RAM) you can get.

 

[jowaju]

I guess the shift-key is similar to CMD+R, I mean is associated to some other "-no_compat_check" to set some elsewhere, however to force entering "safe mode" from an unsupported Catalina (or Mojave) mac you can set a fixed nvram value: sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check -x"
If you are typing that from a root session or a recovery environment just avoid "sudo".

To return "normal mode" type: sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
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Adding the -x to the nvram boot args did work, but the actual fix was pretty easy so I'll leave it here for the next person.

The offending file is the PlatformSupport.plist on the Preboot volume. We need to mount it then rename the file. Unfortunately the folder it is in is unique to each computer, so I used Finder once the volume was mounted to make it easier. All this can be done from the booted Catalina drive, no need for recovery or anything else.


Open Terminal
sudo -s
diskutil mount disk1s2 (this may be different if you have more than one drive installed)

You should see output "Volume Preboot on disk1s2 mounted"

cd /Volumes/Preboot
open .

Finder will open in the Preboot folder. Simply browse into the only folder showing (UUID long string of numbers and letters), then rename the /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist to BackupPlatformSupport.plist

Exit and reboot, Safe Mode should work simply by holding down the Shift key again.

 

[CsYager]

macOS Catalina works perfectly on my MacBookPro5,3, but no matter what I do I can't get the SkyLight patch to work on the full release of Catalina. it gives me the following error message when I run BlueSky.sh from terminal and tell it to install the Skylight Patch:

dyld: dependent dylib '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLightOriginal' not found for '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLight', tried but didn't find: '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLightOriginal' '/usr/lib/SkyLightOriginal'

After giving me this error message, I could no longer move, edit, or delete files, open apps, restart my computer, or basically do anything useful. I had to reinstall the os in order to fix this. I tried to do @jackluke's fix from post #4,411. However, the file is just overwritten if I place it before installing the patch, and I can't place the file after installing the patch because I am unable to move files anywhere.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

 

[CsYager]

Oh, and I can't drag SkyLightOriginal into /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A, because I can't get permissions to edit this folder. I try to change my permissions, but it says I do not have the permissions to do so.

 

[jackluke]

macOS Catalina works perfectly on my MacBookPro5,3, but no matter what I do I can't get the SkyLight patch to work on the full release of Catalina. it gives me the following error message when I run BlueSky.sh from terminal and tell it to install the Skylight Patch:

dyld: dependent dylib '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLightOriginal' not found for '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLight', tried but didn't find: '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLightOriginal' '/usr/lib/SkyLightOriginal'

After giving me this error message, I could no longer move, edit, or delete files, open apps, restart my computer, or basically do anything useful. I had to reinstall the os in order to fix this. I tried to do @jackluke's fix from post #4,411. However, the file is just overwritten if I place it before installing the patch, and I can't place the file after installing the patch because I am unable to move files anywhere.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

I read recently @ASentientBot updated his wrappers (SkyLight included), maybe is this, or before replace you should try from Catalina Terminal to type: sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

However I haven't tried yet my previous "hybrid patched file" on latest Catalina, I am replacing it right now, I prefer to do frameworks replacement from another macOS (APFS support) or from its recovery.

edit: tested and it still works correctly.

 

[CsYager]

And when I try moving the file using 'sudo mv' in terminal, I get the following:

override rwxr-xr-x root/wheel for /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLightOriginal? (y/n [n]) y

mv: rename /Users/myusername/Downloads/SkyLightOriginal to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/SkyLightOriginal: Read-only file system

So even though 'system' has permission to read and write this folder, sudo does not work to do so
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I read recently @ASentientBot updated his wrappers (SkyLight included), maybe is this, or before replace you should try from Catalina Terminal to type: sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

However I haven't tried yet my previous "hybrid patched file" on latest Catalina, I am replacing it right now, I prefer to do frameworks replacement from another macOS (APFS support) or from its recovery.

Where can I get his updated wrappers?