Mojave Unsupported Mac

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You can run MacOS in Virtualbox. Because? Because.

May 29, 2020 macOS Catalina Patcher (formerly macOS Mojave Patcher, macOS High Sierra Patcher and macOS Sierra Patcher) is a small yet powerful tool that can help you create a bootable USB drive that can be used to install macOS Catalina on Mac computers older than mid 2012, basically acting as a macOS Mojave patch for unsupported Macs. Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007 as the successor of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and is available in two editions: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a server version, Mac OS X Server. I will test it on other unsupported macs just for the fun of it, but if you are just going to use it for basic youtube, social media, email, web browsing and word documents, then upgrading to Big Sur will not feel that much different, especially with an SSD and maxed out ram from Catalina, Mojave or High Sierra IMO.

In the pursuit of Hackintosh, you need a Mac. That’s well and great, but I didn’t want to screw around with my partner’s Macbook. So what if you want to sandbox something? Virtualbox!

I had no expectations that this was going to work. OS X has always been runnable in Virtualbox for a while, but the performance has normally been lacklustre. While it’s not exactly daily-driver level, the performance in Virtualbox wasn’t too bad!

The macOS Virtualbox option is designed for genuine Apple hardware. You will not get community support from Virtualbox if you have trouble with this process, as it’s against Apple ToS.

🤔️ What do I need?

You need a donor Mac to start this process. You will not need access to it permanently, but just during the process of creating an ISO for your VM to setup with. Else, you need:

  • A Mac to create an ISO with.
  • MacOS Mojave installer from the Mac App Store.
  • Virtualbox (Windows, Linux or MacOS).
    • Virtualbox Extension Pack is required.
  • At least 4GB of RAM (8GB or more recommended).
  • 40GB of free disk space (more preferred).
  • 2 core CPU or more.

This guide will discuss installing MacOS Mojave, however installation process should be similar for all MacOS versions.

⚠️ At the time of writing, Virtualbox and Hyper-V cannot co-exist on Windows. MacOS is also not installable on Hyper-V. I use Linux in my screenshots as I use Docker on Windows. This also includes Windows Subsystem for Linux, which tripped me up from installing.

💿 Creating the ISO

Virtualbox installs generally prefer to use an ISO file, which unfortunately will require some handiwork to get a hold of. Persevere and you will get there!

On the MacOS machine, download the Mojave installer. Don’t worry about actually running this application, as we’re going to use some terminal magic to build the ISO from the package.

This process is not affected by MacOS Installer expiry.If your MacOS installer has expired, you can continue with this guide.

Once the package has been downloaded, pop open Terminal (Utilities folder in Launcher), and run the following commands:

hdiutil create -o /tmp/Mojave.cdr -size 8000m -layout SPUD -fs JHFS+

This will create a virtual ‘disc’ stored in your temporary directory. This is what we’ll stuff the Mojave installation stuff into.

hdiutil attach /tmp/Mojave.cdr.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/installer_goes_here

Now MacOS can ‘see’ your disc as an actual disc, ready for writing to!

asr restore -source /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/SharedSupport/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/installer_goes_here -noprompt -noverify -erase

We’re now grabbing the installation DMG from within the updater package, and storing it within the disc image. This will rename the disc image, so don’t panic that ‘installer_goes_here’ has vanished.

Now, detach the image from our MacOS. You can just eject it like regular DMGs. If not, run the command:

Mojave Unsupported Mac

hdiutil detach /Volumes/OS X Base System

(it may change since OS X is legacy. To check, run ls /Volumes and see if it’s there, renamed).

Now for the final process, let’s convert our CDR image to an ISO!

hdiutil convert /tmp/Mojave.cdr.dmg -format UDTO -o ~/Desktop/Mojave.iso

You should now have a file on the Mac desktop called ‘Mojave.iso’. Congratulations, you have your installation disc! Copy this over to where your Virtualbox is setup. The Mac is no longer needed at this point.

🛠️ Setting up Virtualbox

⚠️ Before continuing, install the Virtualbox Extension Pack, if you haven’t already. This comes with a special USB 3 driver that without, the Mac simply won’t see USB devices.

Virtualbox has the option for a MacOS virtual machine in it’s New VM dialog, but we will need to make further adjustments to make it truly Mac-ready.

Pop open Virtualbox, and Create a new Virtual Machine. Name this MacOS Mojave, and set it to Mac OS X (64-bit).

Set the RAM to 4096 MB (or higher if you can achieve it!).

When creating the disk, you can use either format versions. Dynamic will not immediately take up the storage size you chose, whereas Static immediately reserves the chosen size for the VM. The latter is slightly better for performance.

Now you should have a new, primed MacOS machine. But you will need to run some commands now. This can be hit-and-miss, and may require some Google-fu. The following works for my AMD FX computer:

Windows? Change VBoxManage to 'C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBoxVBoxManage.exe' (if you didn’t change your Virtualbox install location).

The above does the following, in order of command:

  • Sets a known CPU ID set that MacOS will recognise.
  • Especially for AMD machines, changes what MacOS sees as your processor to something it supports.
  • Tells MacOS you’re installing Mojave onto a mid-2010 iMac. You can change this to your preference.
  • These two specify a fake DMI, typically found in Apple PCs.
  • A device key to pass system checks.

Before starting the VM, open the VM settings and make the following changes:

  • System > Processor > Processor(s) is 2 or more.
  • System > Acceleration > uncheck Enable Nested Paging.
  • Display > Screen > Video Memory is 128MB.
  • USB > USB 3.0 Controller.
    • If greyed/not there, you did not install additions.

With all that done, we’re ready to start the VM!

You should be greeted with the following screen:

Click on the folder icon, and find your ISO created on the Mac before, then click Start.

And wait. yes, this process takes a long time. If your installation stops, try googling the last output message to see if there is a community fix, or post below… Otherwise, this is generally a slow process.

If all has gone well, you should be greeted by the MacOS installer language selection. If so, you’re almost there! On the top menu, open Utilities > Disk Utility.

There should be a disk named VBOX HARDDISK or similar. This is the VDI you created during the setup process, and not your actual hard drive. So go ahead and full-erase this disk, with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID Partition Map.

Once the disk formatting has completed, close it down. You should now be able to start the installation!

Once this is complete and you filled all the required details in, congratulations! You’re running MacOS Mojave within Virtualbox!

❓ What works?

Mac Mojave On Unsupported

✔️ Does

  • Screen (No 3D).
  • Regular input methods (mouse sharing).
  • Networking.
  • USB devices.
  • Mac App Store.

At the end of the day it’s still a virtual machine, and a technically unsupported one at that. However, considering the matter it’s still impressive how Virtualbox can cope with MacOS.

Files can be shared using typical Windows share features. If you share a folder on your network from your host machine, your Mac VM should be able to connect to it.

🌟 Special Thanks

This required a lot of Googling, and these are the people who saved me at the end of the process!

  • This How-to Geek article, that started this whole process. They have a much better step-by-step guide on this!
  • Forchia on Reddit for a different instruction set.
  • miranhasan on Reddit for AMD processors.
  • kvotheV on Reddit for disabling nested paging.

🐛 Troubleshooting

You get Guru Meditation, “A critical error has occurred while running the virtual machine and the machine execution has been stopped” when machine gets to RandomSeed.

This is a difficult one, and will require investigation. I checked the logs as the error message said, and discovered:

HM: HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM: AMD-V is not available

If you’re on an Intel processor, it’ll likely say VT-x instead.

Obviously, check if this is enabled. If you’re on a legacy BIOS computer, it’s a straightfoward scan for AMD-V/VT-x in your settings. If it’s UEFI, you’re gonna have to Google it.

Strangely, on my machine it was enabled. Supposedly Virtualbox and Hyper-V can run side-by-side, so at this point I decided to remove Hyper-V, to see if that would improve. It didn’t, but I forgot something. For this to work, you must turn off Windows Subsystem for Linux!

I completely forgot that WSL uses Hyper-V, and apparently still does when it’s disabled. Unfortunately, it would seem (for me at least) you need to trade it off for macOS in Virtualbox.

I will retest this when WSL2 is launched.

Helps you create a bootable USB drive for macOS Catalina which will work with older Macs, not officially supported by the operating system

IMPORTANT NOTICE

What's new in macOS Catalina Patcher 1.4.4:

  • Fixed compatibility with Catalina version 10.15.5
Read the full changelog

macOS Catalina Patcher (formerly macOS Mojave Patcher, macOS High Sierra Patcher and macOS Sierra Patcher) is a small yet powerful tool that can help you create a bootable USB drive that can be used to install macOS Catalina on Mac computers older than mid 2012, basically acting as a macOS Mojave patch for unsupported Macs.

The tool extends the list of compatible hardware to the Mac Pro, iMac and MacBook Pro computers released in early 2008, Aluminum Unibody MacBooks or MacBooks Air manufactured in late 2008, or white MacBooks and Mac Minis produced in early 2009.

Get the macOS Catalina Installer app and make sure you have access to a compatible USB drive

To be able to use the app you must make sure that you have a USB drive that has at least 8 GB available, and that you have the macOS 10.15 Catalina installer app on your Mac.

Note that you can download the macOS image from the Mac App Store application only on a machine that supports Catalina: otherwise, you must find an alternative solution.

For your convenience, macOS Catalina Patcher offers you the possibility to download the image through its interface: just navigate to the Tools menu.

At the same time, you must prepare the USB drive with the help of the built-in Disk Utility application: just format the disk using the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) standard.

Easy to configure patcher tool that can create bootable macOS Catalina USBs

Within the main window, you must simply load the macOS 10.15 image you want to use and select the target USB drive. The app will verify the image to make sure everything is OK, and all you have to do is press the Start Operation button.

You have the option to monitor the process in the macOS Catalina Patcher main window, and the utility lets you know when the task is complete.

Worth mentioning is that after you install the OS by using the macOS Catalina Patcher bootable drive, you must launch the macOS Post Install utility to get access to patches specifically designed for your Mac’s model.

Make a bootable drive that allows you to install Catalina on unsupported Macs

Bottom line, if your Mac has been manufactured before early 2008, chances are that you will not be able to install macOS Catalina on your computer.

Mojave On Unsupported Mac

All things considered, macOS Catalina Patcher is a small and user-friendly utility designed to help you bypass this limitation if your Mac is not in macOS Catalina's compatibility list, created to be used as an unsupported Mac Mojave patch.

Filed under

macOS Catalina Patcher

Mojave Unsupported Mac Isight

was reviewed by Sergiu Gatlan

Mojave Not Supported Mac

4.5/5
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  • 64-bit processor
  • 16 GB USB drive
  • macOS Mojave Installer App
  • Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro
  • Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook
  • Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook
  • Early-2008 or newer Xserve
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macOS Catalina Patcher 1.4.4

add to watchlistsend us an update

Mojave Unsupported Mac List

12 screenshots:
runs on:
Mac OS X 10.6 or later (Intel only)
file size:
223.4 MB
filename:
macOS Catalina Patcher.dmg
main category:
System Utilities
developer:
visit homepage

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