macOS High Sierra (10.13) Unsupported Macs Thread

[nandor690]

It is quite strange message and the attached log did not give much information too. Maybe the root (/) is not the root of the media. Have you tried creating usb install using createinstallmedia?

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ 10.13\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/your_volume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ 10.13\ beta.app

is there a OSINSTALL.dist to edit?

 

[pkouame]

I have, and that works just fine, however it results in a read-only root filesystem (it mounts BaseSystem.dmg and InstallESD.dmg at boot), preventing the necessary modifications to get the installer to boot on an unsupported Mac.

Lots of FS related issues. Could this be APFS related? Or maybe sha sums are off? Are you booting off a USB stick?

 

[dosdude1]

Lots of FS related issues. Could this be APFS related? Or maybe sha sums are off? Are you booting off a USB stick?

Yeah, this is booting off a USB drive. I don't see how SHA sums would be off, since I haven't modified any files... All I did was copy the Packages directory to the proper location in the restored BaseSystem volume, which has worked with every other Mac OS version thus far.

 

[pkouame]

Yeah, this is booting off a USB drive. I don't see how SHA sums would be off, since I haven't modified any files... All I did was copy the Packages directory to the proper location in the restored BaseSystem volume, which has worked with every other Mac OS version thus far.

Looks like the hackintosh guys just tweaked clover for 10.13. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/324194-pre-release-macos-high-sierra/page-9 Your error resembles this http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/324194-pre-release-macos-high-sierra/page-5

 

[MisterBiro]

As an FYI, the screen brightness / backlight issue (i.e. you can't change it above minimum with either the keys or display settings) is still present.

I have an Early 2009 iMac.

 

[Machist]

Hope that final version also work in my 2008 Mac Pro!
Then I don't need update new Mac yet.. 10 years full in 2018 summer!

 

[eurasian]

macOS High Sierra Patcher?

 

[hrutkaymods]

I can verify the MacBook 5,2 boots and sort of functions, the track pad seems a bit less responsive and is still detected as a USB trackpad... and the volume and screen brightness buttons don't work (you can't change the screen brightness in the display preferences either). Sound and Mic do work so does the WiFi and bluetooth.

 

[filipe.esposito]

Any news on MacBook Pro 5,5 (13" Mid 2009)?

 

[parrotgeek1]

As an FYI, the screen brightness / backlight issue (i.e. you can't change it above minimum with either the keys or display settings) is still present.

I have an Early 2009 iMac.

try to do the same Ambient light sensor patch as for macbooks
[doublepost=1496819175][/doublepost]

I have, and that works just fine, however it results in a read-only root filesystem (it mounts BaseSystem.dmg and InstallESD.dmg at boot), preventing the necessary modifications to get the installer to boot on an unsupported Mac.

it could be possible to hdiutil convert -format UDRW for the dmgs then edit them then hduitil convert -format UDZO?

 

[foxlet]

try to do the same Ambient light sensor patch as for macbooks
[doublepost=1496819175][/doublepost]
it could be possible to hdiutil convert -format UDRW for the dmgs then edit them then hduitil convert -format UDZO?

I've talked about disk shadowing previously for modifying macOS Sierra installation files, however it requires large amounts of space and that's not always available on user's hands.

 

[xorpi]

2 years ago I invested in the Mac Mini 3.1 upgrade, SSD: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB, 2x4 RAM. MacMini is stable and fast. Apple, a year later, has just quit support. I did not upgrade to Sierra, but I would have a real interest in installing High Sierra via your patch. Anyone who has just tested the installation on Mac Mini 3.1? For me, the new AFS file system is the most interesting thing on new OS. @dosdude1 any way?

 

[parrotgeek1]

2 years ago I invested in the Mac Mini 3.1 upgrade, SSD: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB, 2x4 RAM. MacMini is stable and fast. Apple, a year later, has just quit support. I did not upgrade to Sierra, but I would have a real interest in installing High Sierra via your patch. Anyone who has just tested the installation on Mac Mini 3.1? For me, the new AFS file system is the most interesting thing on new OS. @dosdude1 any way?

It's not possible for it to boot from APFS disks without a firmware update, which does not exist because it is unsupported.

 

[dosdude1]

try to do the same Ambient light sensor patch as for macbooks
[doublepost=1496819175][/doublepost]
it could be possible to hdiutil convert -format UDRW for the dmgs then edit them then hduitil convert -format UDZO?

Yeah, I was thinking about that, but as Foxlet mentioned, it does use quite a bit of disk space... Also, if I'm not mistaken, the change in the image checksum will prevent the OS from using it... At least, that's what happened when I tried editing BaseSystem.dmg in the Recovery partition of Sierra..

 

[Czo]

Alternative Installer works indeed (this on top of APFS MacBookPro5,3).

Note that it doesn't rely on @dosdude1's Sierra patcher, it's a new implementation that has a new set of legacy kexts and support files.

How did you make APFS bootable? EFI Upgrade is not required to boot from APFS? Or APFS boot sequence is similar to booting from fusion drive (uses a separate partition for booting?).

 

[MisterBiro]

try to do the same Ambient light sensor patch as for macbooks

Unfortunately that makes no difference. It still doesn't work.

 

[Stratus Fear]

How did you make APFS bootable? EFI Upgrade is not required to boot from APFS? Or APFS boot sequence is similar to booting from fusion drive (uses a separate partition for booting?).

My guess is he copied the boot loader outside the APFS Preboot volume to the EFI partition or similar. Windows 10 with BitLocker enabled boots in this manner. I believe Sierra with FileVault enabled does as well. This of course means we’d need to do some manual stuff every time there was a point release for High Sierra...

 

[nandor690]

It's not possible for it to boot from APFS disks without a firmware update, which does not exist because it is unsupported.

theres always a way

 

[foxlet]

It's not possible for it to boot from APFS disks without a firmware update, which does not exist because it is unsupported.

Take a closer look at the model and Disk Utility...

[doublepost=1496864790][/doublepost]

How did you make APFS bootable? EFI Upgrade is not required to boot from APFS? Or APFS boot sequence is similar to booting from fusion drive (uses a separate partition for booting?).

APFS doesn't use a helper partition, it boots directly off the partition (much like a standard HFS+ installation). Part of the support files used in my installer is an implementation of APFS booting that runs in EFI (since no firmware update is available), before loading the kernel off APFS and booting the rest of the system.

That was written last year for testing macOS Sierra running in APFS (no Mac at the time had APFS booting capability). It's just a bonus that the predictions were correct as to how the system would boot in High Sierra, so there were little changes between both.

High Sierra does include extra APFS volumes that separate out certain parts of the system:

FileVault (which is really APFS in encrypted mode) both use the Preboot partition which hold EFI executables for decrypting the main volume before boot. VM holds the sleepimage, and Recovery is what the name says (even though it's empty for now).

 

[Luigi222]

Take a closer look at the model and Disk Utility...

Im confused, @foxlet , are you saying you were able to create such an installer ? Or do you have an alternative boot like those hackintosh guys with " clover " was it?

Or did you install high Sierra on a supported machine to an external drive, messed with the files on the supported machine and then booted it on a unsupported machine just to test it out?

Im just an amateur enthusiest that likes to keep up with this stuff, I try to understand as much I can but now I'm kinda lost with the current situation

I get that @dosdude1 want's to do just like his Sierra patcher to have something simple and elegant easy that any guy like me can use everything done as simple as possible, but right now he can't seem to create an install drive that let's him mess with the necessary files, but @foxlet has suggested another method that would create that drive but the user has to have a lot of space??? How much space are with talking about?

Thanks you guys

 

[foxlet]

Im confused, @foxlet , are you saying you were able to create such an installer ? Or do you have an alternative boot like those hackintosh guys with " clover " was it?

Or did you install high Sierra on a supported machine to an external drive, messed with the files on the supported machine and then booted it on a unsupported machine just to test it out?

Im just an amateur enthusiest that likes to keep up with this stuff, I try to understand as much I can but now I'm kinda lost with the current situation

I get that @dosdude1 want's to do just like his Sierra patcher to have something simple and elegant easy that any guy like me can use everything done as simple as possible, but right now he can't seem to create an install drive that let's him mess with the necessary files, but @foxlet has suggested another method that would create that drive but the user has to have a lot of space??? How much space are with talking about?

Thanks you guys

There's two internal projects at this point:

• APFS Boot for Unsupported Macs - It enables APFS support in EFI and runs through boot sequence for loading from an APFS volume, since at the moment unsupported Macs did not get the firmware update which is needed for the Mac to understand the new APFS filesystem format. This is not required to use High Sierra, as it still supports HFS+ booting, but it is needed to get the new filesystem functions like cloning, encryption, or snapshots.
• Alternative macOS Installer - An installer for High Sierra that does not require a flash drive, and can run directly on a existing copy of OS X (from Yosemite to Sierra). It can do upgrades or clean installs to HFS+ or APFS drives on unsupported Macs. As of now it's successfully done both types of installations, although some disks don't appear on HFS+ Macs.

None of these rely on Clover, they simply extend the support that existed earlier in Sierra. They also did not use clones; I don't own a modern supported Mac for that matter.

From what I'm aware, @dosdude is having a problem getting the flat version of the installer (where BaseSystem.dmg is directly written to a disk rather than loaded as a RAMDisk, and packages are placed in /System/Library/Installation/) to recognize OSInstall.mpkg. I did find a solution to get past the error (there's no actual missing file issue, the error is just a default response), but the installer for this beta is generally unstable, so I would rather look to another installation method.

 

[Luigi222]

There's two internal projects at this point:

• APFS Boot for Unsupported Macs - It enables APFS support in EFI and runs through boot sequence for loading from an APFS volume, since at the moment unsupported Macs did not get the firmware update which is needed for the Mac to understand the new APFS filesystem format. This is not required to use High Sierra, as it still supports HFS+ booting, but it is needed to get the new filesystem functions like cloning, encryption, or snapshots.
• Alternative macOS Installer - An installer for High Sierra that does not require a flash drive, and can run directly on a existing copy of OS X (from Yosemite to Sierra). It can do upgrades or clean installs to HFS+ or APFS drives on unsupported Macs. As of now it's successfully done both types of installations, although some disks don't appear on HFS+ Macs.

None of these rely on Clover, they simply extend the support that existed earlier in Sierra. They also did not use clones; I don't own a modern supported Mac for that matter.

From what I'm aware, @dosdude is having a problem getting the flat version of the installer (where BaseSystem.dmg is directly written to a disk rather than loaded as a RAMDisk, and packages are placed in /System/Library/Installation/) to recognize OSInstall.mpkg. I did find a solution to get past the error (there's no actual missing file issue, the error is just a default response), but the installer for this beta is generally unstable, so I would rather look to another installation method.

Thank you very much @foxlet for your reply, I think I understood everything you wrote... based on that,

So to get the full experience with high Sierra, we "maybe" will have to rely on alternative boot options for unsupported Macs to load Sierra in APFS otherwise high Sierra on HFS we just get an improved Safari,smanter siri and a little thing or two, the actual benefits of APFS we don't get that ... right? unless somebody figures out how to boot APFS on older mac firmwares correct?

 

[foxlet]

Thank you very much @foxlet for your reply, I think I understood everything you wrote... based on that,

So to get the full experience with high Sierra, we "maybe" will have to rely on alternative boot options for unsupported Macs to load Sierra in APFS otherwise high Sierra on HFS we just get an improved Safari,smanter siri and a little thing or two, the actual benefits of APFS we don't get that ... right? unless somebody figures out how to boot APFS on older mac firmwares correct?

It's already possible to boot APFS on unsupported Mac firmwares... that's the whole point of the APFS boot project.

 

[foxlet]

Also for flash drive users, introducing NewCore Installer for High Sierra.

Screenshot Demo: https://imgur.com/a/so0RT

Please PM me if you are interested in trying it out.

 

[dosdude1]

Also for flash drive users, introducing NewCore Installer for High Sierra.

Screenshot Demo: https://imgur.com/a/so0RT

Please PM me if you are interested in trying it out.

Nice! Is it based on the El Capitan installer?