MacOS – update unsupported mac with OS X lion to APFS 10.15. Apfs catalina hfs+ macos. Please confirm if one can help me update unsupported mac book late 2008. Current OS X Lion. Omt; Cpre 2 Duo processor. The easy way to run macOS Catalina on your Unsupported Mac. Download Latest Version View Changelog. Current Version Info. Current Version: 1.4.4. (if running OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later) to install the latest BootROM version (you MUST reboot after installing the package to apply the firmware update). When installing, ensure your system is. Feb 20, 2021 The process of Installing macOS Big Sur on an unsupported Mac is to use the macOS Big Sur patch file, which will be applied to the primary USB boot. NOTE: The method is not suitable for ordinary users. You should also avoid using Mac models without Metal GPU. On older models, performance will be deficient. (Classic Mac OS Forum) » DOWNLOAD BOARDS (Members Only) Updated in 2021! » Mac OS 7, 8, & 9 Install Images »; Mac OS 9.2.2 For Previously Unsupported G4s (G4s that shipped OS X Boot Only).
Update 2019-05-02: For those of you who want to install macOS 10.14 on an unsupported Mac,check this post.
I have a MacBook Mid 2007 (more technically named MacBook2,1) that officially can not be upgraded beyond Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). It is however possible to install Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) on it with quite good success and not too much effort.
I want to first write what does not work:
- Sleep mode – not working at all – leave on or shut down
- The build-in web camera – “works” but not as it did in 10.7, I think
- YouTube-video (etc), works occationally (now worse than in 10.7, my experience)
I suggest you read the user comments to this post. A few helpful readers have shared their experiences.
What you need:
Mac Os Not Supported
- A USB Memory, 8GB or larger
- Mac OS X Mavericks (i had the install/upgrade Application that I had myself
downloaded on another Mac, from App Store, when I upgraded it from 10.8 to
10.9. I always keep these for possible future use.) - SFOTT: I used version 1.4.4 which is currently the latest stable
- Audio/Video-drivers from (not here anymore, se comments below).
Warning, this is one of these horrible download pages where you don’t know
where to click to get the right thing, and what gives you spyware. You
should get the file mac-mini-mavericks.7z. Discard anything else without
opening. The 7z-file can be opened with StuffitExpander, that already
comes with Maverick
Mac Os Unsupported Catalina
Making a bootable USB-drive
You first need to use SFOTT to create your bootable USB-drive (it is called “key” in SFOTT). You simply double-click on SFOTT on a Mac where you both have your Mavericks Install App and your USB-drive. SFOTT is a self guiding menu-driven application. It will take some time to make all the settings in SFOTT (it took me perhaps 15 minutes), but it was self-explanatory and not very difficult. Use the autorun mode to create the drive.
Recovery Scenario
When you install a Mac OS upgrade there is a risk your Mavericks system will not boot. When upgrading from 10.9.0 to 10.9.5 like I did, it will not boot. My impression (after reading different sources) is that this recovery is needed when upgrading from 10.9.0 (or 10.9.1 / 10.9.2) but not later. Nobody knows about 10.9.6 of course, because it is not out. Minor upgrades to applications or security upgrades should not cause need to recovery.
When Mavericks fails to start you need to “re-Patch” using SFOTT. I installed Mavericks on a separate partition, side-by-side with Lion, so when Mavericks failed to start my computer automatically started Lion instead and I could run SFOTT in Lion to re-Patch my Mavericks system.
If you can not do side-by-side you can start from your SFOTT-key (which you still have) and instead of installing Maverick you start the Terminal application. Find the SFOTT.app on the key, and find SFOTT.sh inside SFOTT.app. Run SFOTT.sh and you can re-Patch your broken Mavericks system. I did the entire procedure on my working Mavericks just to test it, and it seems fine.
There is if course no true guarantee that a future Apple upgrade will not break everything completely.
Installing Mavericks
Installation of Mavericks from the USB-drive is very standard. To start the computer from the USB-drive, hold down the “alt”-key (not Apple-key, not ctrl-key) while starting the computer. Choose SFOTT and proceed normally. After about an hour you should have a clean 10.9.0 Mavericks with network/wifi working. Video will work, but with problems (try Safari, and you will see), and Audio will not work.
Upgrade Mavericks
I used App Store to upgrade Mavericks to 10.9.5. That works just fine, until Mavericks fails to start (I ended up in my old Lion system on a reboot, if you have no other system installed your computer with probably just not start). This is where you need to recover your system using SFOTT.
Fixing Audio and Video
The 7z-file I referred to above contains Audio and Video drivers. You run the application “Kext Utility” and the you drag the contents of the folder Extensions into the Kext Utility, and it will install the drivers. There is a folder with “optional wifi drivers”, I have not installed those because wifi has been fine all the time for me.
The MacBook2,1 has Intel GMA950 Video, and there are no supported 64-bit-drivers for Mavericks. The drivers I suggest you to install are supposed to be drivers from a public beta of 10.6 (Snow Leopard) that Apple once released. They seem to work quite fine for me though. And not installing them is worse.
I suggest you upgrade to 10.9.5 before fixing Audio and Video. I guess a later Apple-upgrade could break Audio and Video and require you to reinstall drivers.
Problems booting the SFOTT key
I first created the SFOTT key using the SFOTT beta (that is also supposed to work with Yosemite), and I used System Preferences/Startup Disk (in Lion) to start the installion. This failed and my computer just started up in Lion.
I then created the SFOTT key using 1.4.4, AND i restarted the computer holding down the alt-key. This worked. This key also later worked when I used System Preferences/Startup Disk (in Mavericks) to choose startup drive.
Driver Problems
There are open source Audio drivers called VoodooHDA. I installed those ones with success, but audio volume was low. I tried to fix with no success. Later I found the drivers I referred to above and that I recommend.
I found another download for what was supposed to be the same Video Drivers. But the Kext-utility did not work, and I installed the drivers by copying them directly into /System/Library/Extensions and this gave me a broken unbootable system. I don’t know what went wrong, but I recommend the drivers I linked to.
Video/YouTube Performance
Some videos seem to play perfectly, others dont. I had problems with 10.7 too.
Background and about SFOTT
There are several Apple computers that can run 10.7, that have a 64-bit processor, but that can not officially run 10.8 or later. There are a few issues:
- Video Drivers – and in the case of my MacBook2,1 the unofficial ones mentioned
above may be good enough - 32 bit EFI. Even though the computer has a 64 bit processor, the EFI, the
software that runs before the Installer/Operating system, is 32 bit, and not
capable of starting a 64-bit system. - Mavericks does not believe it can run on this hardware.
As I understand it SFOTT installs a little program that 32 bit EFI is capable of starting, and that in turn is capable of staring a 64 bit system. Also, SFOTT patches a few files so Mavericks feels comfortable running on the unsupported hardware.
You can do all of this on your own without SFOTT. SFOTT “just” makes this reasonably easy.
There are plenty of forums, tools and information about running Mac OS X on unsupported hardware (also non-Apple-hardware: a Hackintosh). Those forums of course focus a lot on problems people have.
Yosemite
It is supposed to be possible to install Yosemite in a similar way. SFOTT has a beta release for Yosemite. For my purposes going to Mavericks gave me virtually all advantages of an upgrade (supported version of OS X, able to install latest Xcode, etc).
Conclusion
In the beginning of 2015, it is not that hard to install Mavericks on a MacBook Mid 2007, with a quite good result. I have pointed out the tools and downloads you need and that will work.
macOS Catalina is the most advanced version of the macOS which came in our hands on October 7, 2019. The introduction of Catalina happened in WWDC 2019. The public beta of macOS Catalina was out later on in July 2019. Apple introduced Catalina with fantastic features and amazing wallpapers by describing macOS Catalina, is a fantastic listener and she can understand you better than anyone. Catalina also has a Time-Shifting desktop which turns light into dark or dark into light according to your time zone. Here’s how to Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac.
The profile picture of macOS Catalina is a lovely picture of Santa Catalina Island which changes depending on the time. The night time wallpaper is a picture of a navy blue ocean and dark blue sand mountain and the day time wallpaper is a beautiful picture of light yellow sand mountain which we can’t explain in words. The name of Catalina is taken from the Santa Catalina Island of Los Angeles. But according to some sources, it is taken from a girl’s name in Spanish and which means “Pure”.
macOS Catalina
Catalina’s complete version was down on October 7th, 2019. After Catalina was completely out, there were many new things and as well as many problems. I personally use macOS Catalina and I like it very much and have no problem with it except a little difficult to find things. However, there are lots of features and updates I haven’t still touched off.
With the help of Catalyst, you can use macOS and iPadOS simultaneously. Apple has made so many new updates and features which let us edit my photos and videos like a pro editor. Catalina is loved by so many people and people like to use macOS Catalina not only by Mac users but also by Windows and other operating system users. In this article, I’ll show how to Install macOS Catalina on unsupported Mac.
The latest updates happened in macOS Catalina march 24 2020. Due to this update changes came into Screen Time Communication Limits, a feature first brought to the iPhone in the iOS 13.3 update, it adds iCloud Folder Sharing, and it brings a new Head Pointer Accessibility option that allows the cursor to be controlled with head movements using Mac’s camera. We’ll see how to Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac.
Check If Your Mac is in The Unsupported List
macOS Catalina is excellent but if users can’t use it, then it makes no sense to know it. From while ago, Apple has been cutting and making the compatible Macs list larger for their new versions and this list is also applied to Catalina. As Apple is rolling more versions they are cutting more old Macs from the list. The list of unsupported Mac is getting larger and is already too large. Maybe that’s because Apple wants more users to buy their new products instead of using their old ones.
Since the list of unsupported Macs has increased now some users who run Mojave also can’t install macOS Catalina. According to Apple, they said, we are decreasing the number of Mac supports because old Macs don’t have enough capacity and Metal graphics processors. According to Apple, they said, we are sorry for all the old mac users who can’t experience MacOS Catalina in their Mac. Not everyone can afford to get a new Mac every year and Macs aren’t cheap too. Don’t worry, we are going to show you how to install macOS Catalina on unsupported Macs.
Before heading towards installing macOS Catalina on your Mac, check out the unsupported list of Macs and if your Mac is from the unsupported list. Here are the list of unsupported Mac.
- Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro:
- MacPro3,1
- MacPro4,1
- MacPro5,1
- iMac8,1
- iMac9,1
- iMac10,x
- iMac11,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when running Catalina.)
- iMac12,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when running Catalina.)
- MacBookPro4,1
- MacBookPro5,x
- MacBookPro6,x
- MacBookPro7,x
- MacBookPro8,x
- Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook:
- MacBookAir2,1
- MacBookAir3,x
- MacBookAir4,x
- MacBook5,1
- Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook:
- Macmini3,1
- Macmini4,1
- Macmini5,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when running Catalina.)
- MacBook5,2
- MacBook6,1
- MacBook7,1
- Early-2008 or newer Xserve:
- Xserve2,1
- Xserve3,1
If you’ve checked and found out your Mac is in the unsupported list, step to the next step which is how to install macOS Catalina on unsupported Mac.
What You’ll Need
Before you step ahead, here are what you’ll need for this procedure.
- A 16GB USB Drive
- Backup Mac
Once that’s with you, now dive into how to Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac.
Backup Your Mac
Before installing any operating system, its important to take backup of your computer completely. We recommend backing up your device. Because if anything goes wrong and you hadn’t backed up your device everything will be deleted but if you had backed up your device you can simply restore that. Here are the steps.
First if you want to backup, Time Machine Backup will help you do it without deleting any of your folders.
Connect an external hard disk or a USB with some space.
On the upper left corner of your screen, click on the Apple icon. Go to the dropdown menu and select System Preference.
By clicking on Time Machine you can make a machine which will back up your device.
Choose your backup and click on Backup.
With that done, we’ll start the process and how to Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac.
How to Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac
After checking your Mac, if your Mac is in the unsupported list, you can install macOS Catalina slightly without this tool and steps. If your Mac is unsupported follow the steps below.
Once the tool is there, open it. Click on Continue.
That done, if you’ve the macOS Catalina copy, select Browse for a copy. If you don’t select Download a copy.
macOS Installer App
On this window, click on Start Download.
After it’s completed, insert the USB and click on “Create a Bootable Installer”.
Installation Method
Let the process finish and once it’s done, take out the USB. After a few moments, insert the USB again then reboot the Mac.
When powering on hold the Option key for a while until the startup manager appears. After the Startup Manager opens click on the USB Drive with the help of arrow keys.
In this point, select Disk Utility and click on Continue.
Unsupported Mac Os X
If you have done the previous steps correctly, you are now in the Disk Utility window. To format your internal drive with APFS format, select the drive and click on Erase. When you’re done, close the window.
Erase Disk
Wait for the window and select Reinstall macOS to start the installation.
Click Continue with the simple installation wizard and on the install window, select the appropriate disk and click on Install. It might take some while. And you will see many commands going up and down.
Unsupported Mac Os
Click on the Force Cache Rebuild option and click Restart.
Welcome
By this step, you will see macOS Catalina Setup running on your Mac.
After the installation process is done you need to shut down your Mac and insert the USB drive for booting your computer. we are doing this step to verify patches.
Now you are completely done with the settings and everything, we have installed the latest version of macOS booted on an unsupported device.
The installation process might be difficult but it is not impossible and even if others say it is impossible we will make possible for you.