07/03/2020 macOS Mojave Patcher

macOS Mojave Patcher

Tool for Unsupported
Macs
*This utility is provided to anyone free of charge,
however if you'd like to donate, you can do so here:

Questions or comments? Feel free to contact me at

collinmistr@gmail.com. Please take a look at the
FAQ located at the bottom of this page as well.

I also have a YouTube video showing the process,

which can be viewed here.

Important Note:  10.14.4 and later CANNOT be

patched properly using Mojave Patcher version 1.2.3
and older. If you update to 10.14.4 or later, and HAVE
NOT updated your installer volume with version 1.3.0
or later of Mojave Patcher, you WILL NOT be able to
get your system to boot after updating! Please read
the updates section for more info.

Contents:

Requirements
Download
Known Issues
How to Use
Additional Info
Updates
FAQ

Requirements:
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• Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook

Pro:
• MacPro3,1
• MacPro4,1
• iMac8,1
• iMac9,1
• iMac10,x
• iMac11,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and
6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when
running Mojave. More details are located in the
Known Issues section below.)
• iMac12,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx
and 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable
when running Mojave. More details are located in
the Known Issues section below.)
• MacBookPro4,1
• MacBookPro5,x
• MacBookPro6,x
• MacBookPro7,1
• 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
• MacBook5,2
• MacBook6,1
• MacBook7,1

• Early-2008 or newer Xserve:

• Xserve2,1
• Xserve3,1
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Machines that ARE NOT supported:

• 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and

Mac Minis:
• MacPro1,1
• MacPro2,1
• iMac4,1
• iMac5,x
• iMac6,1
• iMac7,1
• MacBookPro1,1
• MacBookPro2,x
• MacBookPro3,1
• Macmini1,1
• Macmini2,1

— The 2007 iMac 7,1 is compatible if the CPU is

upgraded to a Penryn-based Core 2 Duo, such as a
T9300.

• 2006-2008 MacBooks:
• MacBook1,1
• MacBook2,1
• MacBook3,1
• MacBook4,1

• 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)

Things you'll need:

• A copy of the macOS Mojave Installer App. This can

be obtained from the Mac App Store using a
machine that supports Mojave, or by using the built-
in downloading feature of the tool. In the Menu Bar,
simply select "Tools > Download macOS Mojave..."

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• A USB drive that's at least 16 GB in size

• A copy of the tool - Download:

Direct
Mirror

(Current version: 1.3.7, SHA1:

6f96788c3e61240dde232d644d83a0d8f373dbdc)

• View changelog and download older versions here

Known issues:

• AMD Radeon HD 5xxx/6xxx series GPU

acceleration: Currently, it is not possible to get full
graphics acceleration when running Mojave on a
system with a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU.
Mojave will be almost UNUSABLE without graphics
acceleration. This includes the 15" and 17" MacBook
Pro systems (MacBookPro8,2 and 8,3). If you want to
enable GPU acceleration on these machines, you'll
need to disable the AMD GPU (This will work on
MacBook Pro 8,2 and 8,3 systems ONLY. You
CANNOT disable the AMD GPU in an iMac.) Weird
colors will also be produced when running Mojave
with one of these video cards installed/enabled. To
disable the AMD GPU on a 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 or
8,3, follow the guide found here.

• Built-in iSight cameras: Currently, built-in iSight

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cameras do not work correctly on some machines. It

seems to be hit or miss, but when installing, expect
your iSight camera to be non-functional.

• Trackpad (MacBook5,2 a ected only). The

trackpad in the MacBook5,2 isn't fully supported in
Mojave. While it works and is fully usable, Mojave
detects it as just a standard mouse, preventing you
from changing some trackpad-oriented settings.

How to use:

Important Note: If you have a machine that supports

High Sierra natively, you MUST ensure you have the
latest version of the system's BootROM installed if
you want to boot from an APFS volume. If you have
NOT previously installed High Sierra, you can
download and install this package to install the
latest BootROM version. When installing, ensure your
system is plugged in to power, or the update will not
be installed.

1. Insert your desired USB drive, open Disk Utility, and

format it as OS X Extended (Journaled).

2. Open the "macOS Mojave Patcher" tool, and

browse for your copy of the macOS Mojave Installer
App.
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*Ensure that the tool successfully veri es the app.

3. Next, select your USB drive in the Target Volume

list, and click "Start Operation."

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4. When the operation completes, boot your target

unsupported Mac o the USB drive you just created
by holding down the Option key while turning on the
machine, and selecting the drive.

Note: Only perform steps 5 and 6 if you

intend to do a clean install. Otherwise, you
can simply skip these steps and install to
your volume containg a previous version of
OS X, and it'll do an in-place upgrade.

5. When the installer boots, open Disk Utility from

the Utilities menu, or by double-clicking it in the
Utilities window on the bottom left corner of the
screen.

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6. Select the disk or partition you want to install on,

and erase it, ensuring to use either Mac OS Extended
(Journaled), or APFS as the lesystem type. If
formatting an entire drive, ensure GUID is selected.

Important Note:  Using APFS is REQUIRED in Mojave

in order to receive system updates via the normal
Software Update method. If you choose to continue
using macOS Extended (Journaled) as your
lesystem type, you will NOT receive System
Updates via System Preferences.

• Using APFS on Late-2009 and later machines will

work no di erently than it did with High Sierra.
• If you have a machine that did NOT natively
support High Sierra (and therefore cannot boot
APFS volumes natively), please note the following:
— If you use APFS, you will not have a bootable
Recovery partition.
— If you decide to use APFS, a custom booting
method will be installed by the post-install tool, as
the rmware of these unsupported machines
does not natively support booting from APFS
volumes. It is not quite as clean as native booting,
but will not cause any issues while running
Mojave. A demo of the modi ed booting process
can be viewed here.

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7. Install macOS normally onto the desired volume.

8. When the install completes, reboot back onto the

installer drive. This time, open the "macOS Post

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Install" application.

9. In the application, select the Mac model you are

using. The optimal patches will be selected for you
based on the model you select. You can also select
other patches of your choosing.

10. Select the volume you have just installed macOS

Mojave on, and click "Patch." When it nishes
patching, click "Reboot". It may sit there for a few
moments rebuilding caches before rebooting.
• If for some reason the system fails to work
correctly after rebooting, boot back into your
installer drive, run the post install patch again, and
select "Force Cache Rebuild" before rebooting. This
isn't necessary under most circumstances.

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11. When it reboots, it should now boot into a fully

working copy of macOS Mojave.

Additional Info:

• If selected in the macOS Post Install tool, your

Mojave install will have a program named "Patch
Updater" located in your /Applications/Utilities
folder. This program will alert you when new updates
to patches are available for your machine, and will
prompt you to install them. If you do not have Patch
Updater installed, but would like it, you can
download and run the script found here to do so.

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Re-installing Patches

• During system updates, some patches may get

overwritten. Using the Patch Updater tool, it is
possible to re-install these patches with one click. To
do so, open the Patch Updater application, and
select "View Installed Updates", or use the "View >
Show Installed Updates" menu in the Menu Bar.
• To re-install a patch, simply right-click on it in the
list and select "Re-install". You can also select the
"Re-install All" button to re-install all currently
installed patches at once.

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Updates

Important Note:  Using APFS is REQUIRED in Mojave

in order to receive system updates via the normal
Software Update method. If you choose to continue
using macOS Extended (Journaled) as your
lesystem type, you will NOT receive System
Updates via System Preferences. If you are not using
APFS, you can follow the 10.14.1 installation steps
below.

10.14.6

10.14.6 can be updated normally via Software

Update if using an APFS volume, and will need to be
patched using an installer volume created with
Mojave Patcher version 1.3.2 or later after installing.

10.14.5

10.14.5 can be updated normally via Software

Update if using an APFS volume, and will need to be
patched using an installer volume created with
Mojave Patcher version 1.3.1 or later after installing.

10.14.4

10.14.4 adds new changes that ARE NOT patchable

by the post-install tool of Mojave Patcher v1.2.3 and
older! Before updating to 10.14.4, you you will need
to use the latest Mojave Patcher version to create a
new installer volume, using the 10.14.4 installer app.
Then, update to 10.14.4, either by installing via

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Software Update, or by just using the installer

volume you've created to install.

10.14.3

If you are currently running 10.14.1 or 10.14.2, you can

simply use the Software Update pane of System
Preferences (if using APFS) to apply the 10.14.3
update. Once the update is installed, you will most
likely need to re-apply post-install patches to get the
system to boot again. This process is detailed in
steps 8 - 10 above. If you are currently running
10.14.0, you'll need to proceed with the 10.14.1 update
method described below.

10.14.2

If you are currently running 10.14.1, you can simply

use the Software Update pane of System
Preferences (if using APFS) to apply the 10.14.2
update. Once the update is installed, you will most
likely need to re-apply post-install patches to get the
system to boot again. This process is detailed in
steps 8 - 10 above. If you are currently running
10.14.0, or are using a non-AFPS volume, you'll need
to proceed with the 10.14.1 update method described
below.

10.14.1/macOS Extended (Journaled) volumes

The Mojave 10.14.1 update does NOT install properly

on unsupported machines, and could result in an
unbootable OS. If you want to install the 10.14.1
update (and are not currently running 10.14.1),
perform the following steps:
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• Download the latest version of Mojave Patcher

• Download the installer using the Tools menu of
Mojave Patcher
• Create a patched USB installer
• Boot from that, and install 10.14.1 onto the volume
containing an older release.
• Once done, apply the post-install patches, and you
should now be on 10.14.1.

FAQ:

Q: The tool created the USB drive successfully, but

when booting, the progress bar hangs a bit more
than half way.
A: Check your copy of the Install macOS Mojave App.
If you're using the latest version of the tool, you
must be using the latest version of the Install macOS
Mojave App. Version 1.1 of the patch tool and older
support older versions of the installer app.

Q: The patch tool gives me errors, such as "Error

copying les...".
A: Check to make sure your USB drive is writeable.
Try re-formatting it, or just try a di erent USB drive.

Q: The patch tool gives me a "Mounting Failed" error

A: Open up Disk Utility, and verify that "InstallESD" is
not mounted. If it is, eject it, and then try again. Also,
check to make sure your Install macOS Mojave App
is the correct one. It should be around 6GB in size. If
you used the "Skip App Veri cation" option, you
have most likely selected an invalid app that doesn't
contain the necessary les.

Q: I don't see my hard drive partition in the installer

screen or in the post-install tool.
A: Make sure FileVault is disabled, or use the
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instructions found here to unlock it manually using

Terminal.

Q: I get a "NO" symbol when starting up after

successfully installing Mojave.
A: Make sure you have run the post-install patch on
the correct volume, as detailed above in steps 8-10.

Q: I get a "NO" symbol when starting up from the

patched USB drive
A: Check the supported/not supported list at the top
of this page. Ensure your machine is in the supported
list.

Q: I get "NSURL" errors when trying to update my

machine or use the App Store
A: This is usually the result of having an invalid
CatalogURL set. To revert to stock, simply run "sudo
softwareupdate --clear-catalog" in Terminal, and
then run the software update patch script located
above.

Q: Safari, App Store, and/or Mail stopped working

after installing a system update
A: Download and run the Onyx application, select
"Maintenence" at the top, then click the Run button.

Q: I get a "No packages were eligible for install"

error when attepting to install Mojave
A: This is due to your system's date and time being
set incorrectly. To x it, you can either boot into your
current OS X install and set the date, or you can use
Terminal after booting from your patched USB
installer drive to set the date. Instructions to set the
date using Terminal can be found here.

Q: System updates are not appearing in the

Software Update Prefpane
A: Make sure you're running Mojave o an APFS
formatted volume. If you are using a macOS
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Extended (Journaled) volume, then you will either

net to convert the volume to APFS using Disk Utility
in the patched installer drive, or simply apply the
desired system update by following the method
detailed for 10.14.1 in the above section.

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