Install Macos 10.15 Catalina

Installing Mac OSX 10.15 Catalina on HP EliteBook Folio 9740m

In this video I have my lastest walkthrough guide in how to install macOS 10.15 Catalina on an unsupported Mac. Using dosdude1 Patcher; I have successfully i.

– you then get a dialog box asking you to select the location of your “Install macOS Catalina.app” (either “10.9 to 10.12” OR “10.13.to 10.15”), then browse to where you downloaded the installation files and select the “Install macOS Catalina” installer; the HP Probook/EliteBook creator app will then copy files to the USB.
The problem with Mac OS Catalina 10.15 importing MP3/ WAV is still here. MacOS Catalina Direct Download. Step 1: Download these files from the respective URLs given below. MacOS Catalina 10.15.6 (19G73) / July 15, 2020. Right now, the newest iteration of macOS is 10.15, known as Catalina.

You need to create the Installation USB on a Mac (real or a VM).
You can find VM images for Mac OSX suitable for use with Oracle VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation on the Internet. In this research, I used the Mac OSX 10.13 High Sierra VM deployed on VirtualBox to create the Installation USB for Mac OSX Catalina (I had instability issues when I tried to use the Mojave/Catalina VMs). Please remember to follow the instructions associated with deploying the VM on VirtualBox/Workstation – e.g., there are “vboxmanage” commands you need to run otherwise the VM will be stuck in a continuous reboot loop.
Also I found out the hard way that the latest VirtualBox (6.1.4-136177) crashed my Windows laptop on which I deployed the Mac OSX VM consistently once I started the VM. I then tried the older VirtualBox version 6.0.18-136238 and that worked with no issues. Also note that on Linux, you must register the VM (“vboxmanage registervm “) before running the other vboxmanage commands specified in the procedure for deploying the VM. You also need to add the Linux user you are running VirtualBox as to the Linux group vboxusers otherwise you will not be able to attach a USB drive to the VM. Remmeber to install the VirtualBox extension pack as well.

Login to the mac OSX VM
Download “macoS Catalina Patcher” utility abd use it to download the macOS catalina installation files from Apple
Download https://github.com/chris1111/HP-Probook-EliteBook-Package-Creator
The instructions for running it to create the boot installation USB are on the same page. There is also an English walk-through video at https://www.hackintosh-montreal.com/t7559-hp-probook-elitebook-macos#111778
Summary:
– run the “Gatekeeper” app (it is in the HP-ProBook-EliteBook-Package-Creator directory after you decompress the downloaded zip file);
– run the Packager (needs Internet access) to create the “Create Install Media HP Laptop” app; attach a (minimum size 16GB) USB drive to the MAC oSX VM;
– run the “Create Install Media HP Laptop” app which launches disk utility app where you need to erase the whole USB drive with “Format” set to “Mac OSX Extended (Journaled)”, “Scheme” set to “GUID Partition Map”.
– once erase is completed, exit the disk utility and you will get a drive list from which you select the drive you just erased/formatted;
– you then get a dialog box asking you to select the location of your “Install macOS Catalina.app” (either “10.9 to 10.12” OR “10.13.to 10.15”), then browse to where you downloaded the installation files and select the “Install macOS Catalina” installer; the HP Probook/EliteBook creator app will then copy files to the USB;
– once completed, it will automatically launch the “Clover EFI” installation app, click the “continue” button, change the installation location to the USB drive that was just created (likely named “Install macOS Catalina”), click on the “Customize” button, the relevant selections for my laptop are below, then click “Install” button:

-> Install Clover in the ESP
-> Drivers off
-> Boot Sectors -> Install boot0af in MBR
-> Clover for BIOS (legacy) booting -> Clover EFI 64-bits SATA
-> BIOS Drivers, 64 bit -> Recommended drivers (all)
-> File System drivers (all)
-> UEFI Drivers -> Recommended drivers (all)
-> File System drivers -> apfs, Fat, HFSPlus
-> Memory fix drivers -> OsxAptioFixDrv
-> Additional drivers -> OsxFatBinaryDrv, PartitionDxe
-> Themes (select all)
-> Drivers Kext -> FakeSMC, VoodooPS2Controller

Once done, copy the Gatekeeeper application and the HP-ProBook-EliteBook-macOS.pkg post-installation package to the USB drive volume “Install macOS Catalina”
Eject the USB drive and plug it to your target HP laptop
Power on your target laptop, press ESC key to interrupt the boot process, press F10 to enter BIOS setup – make the changes recommended on the “HP ProBook EliteBook Package Creator” web page then save and exit. For my laptop, the BIOS settings are: Deactivate Fast Boot, deactivate “SecureBoot”, set “Boot Mode” to “UEFI Hybrid (With CSM)”, deactivate LAN switching, deactivate Wake On LAN and Wake on USB, “SATA Device Mode” to “AHCI”, disable firewire/IEEE1394, disable “Trusted Execution Technology (TXT)”
Boot the target HP laptop with the USB drive, use disk utility to erase the laptop’s disk – if you only see volumes and not the disk devices, select “View -> Show All Devices” from the Disk Utility menu (if planning to multiboot, use disk utility to create all the partitions you need – in my example I erased the HDD using “GUID Partition Map” scheme, then created 3 partitions: OSXHDD, LINUXOS, WINOS. I set all the non-OSX partitions set to type ExFAT), install the macOS Catalina to your newly formatted OSX volume.
When completed, reboot with the USB in place, once started from the USB, select the option to boot from the OSX disk you just installed Catalina to – the install will continue – when it reboots again, select the option to boot from the OSX disk again, it may reboot again, select the OSX disk again, it will then boot to the GUI to complete the setup – go through the setup wizard to complete the configuration and create your login user account.
At the desktop, open the USB install drive (should be named “Install macOS Catalina”), copy the Gatekeeper and HP-ProBook-EliteBook-macOS.pkg to your Desktop.
Run gatekeeper and choose “Disable” to allow you to run software from any source
Run the Post-Installer “HP-ProBook-EliteBook-macOS.pkg”, change the installation target location to your laptop disk, select the customize button, and select all the options necessary for your specific laptop (see video on the creator web page), and complete the clover installation. My customized selection were as follows:

HP-ProBook-EliteBook-macOS
-> HP Laptop Clover V2.5K r5103
-> 7 series macOS 10.12>10.15 -> Elitebook 9x70m
-> Intel HD 3000/4000 Graphics -> Intel HD 4000 -> Low screen 1366×768
-> HDMI -> HDMI Low screen
-> Fan Patch -> FanSmooth
-> SSDT Generator
-> Airport WIFI Fix -> AirportBrcmFixup (for Broadcom or Atheros for Atheros card)
-> Bluetooth
-> HWMonitor
-> Applications

DO NOT reboot the laptop yet otherwise you will get kernel panics and it will be stuck in a loading/panic/reboot loop.
Open Terminal app:

# sudo su - # mount -o rw / # mkdir /tmp/efi # df -h # mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /tmp/efi (*see note below) # cd /tmp/efi/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/ # rm DSDT.dsl DSDT.aml SSDT.aml origin.dsl

Note: the EFI partition on the HDD may already be mounted (usually under /Volumes/ESP) so this mount command will throw a “Resource busy” error. If it is already mounted as /Volumes/ESP then you should “cd /Volumes/ESP/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/ ” in order to delete the files indicated above.

Edit /tmp/efi/EFI/CLOVER/config.plist and set the DefaultVolume to your OSX volume name, and the ScreenResolution key to your actual resolution (1366×768 for my laptop) if necessary.

Fix Sound: To get sound to work properly (AppleALC kext that comes with the post installer enables the headphone jack but not the in-built speaker), you need to use the VoodHDA kext:

Download VoodooHDA 2.9.2 install package from https://github.com/chris1111/VoodooHDA-2.9.2-Clover-V15/releases
Unzip the downloaded file and open/run the package
Click the Continue button (x3), agree to the license terms, then click the Customize button -> Expand “VoodooHDA Clover UEFI/ESP” -> Select “macOS Catalina” -> “Install”

Eject the USB install drive, and reboot your “Mac” laptop, it should come up with WiFI, LAN, SD card, and Sound fully functional.

NOTE: the SSDT.aml was responsible was responsible for the continuous reboot “memory panic stackshot succeeded …” kernel panic that made my laptop continuously reboot. The only file you should have in the EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched/ directory in the EFI partition on your boot volume is the SSDT-FIXCAT.aml

Bootloader Setup: The easiest way to use CLOVER bootloader is to mount the EFI partition and copy EFICLOVERCLOVERX64.efi to EFI/Boot/BOOTX64.efi (yes, overwrite BOOTX64.efi if prompted). Note that if you are multi-booting and you installed Windows or Linux after installing Mac OSX, you may need to repeat the copy again afterwards if you still want to use CLOVER bootloader. Alternatively, you may setup your laptop (BIOS) to use CLOVER by setting up the BIOS: System Configuration -> Boot Options -> Define Customized Boot Option -> Add -> enter “EFICLOVERCLOVERX64.efi” -> in “UEFI Boot Order” (Move “Customized Boot to the top position) -> Save -> Exit. If you choose this alternative option, you should delete any other file that is in EFI/Boot/ directory.

Fun stuff: You can cast sound or video or your laptop desktop to a recent TV such as the Samsung series 8 that supports AirPlay. If I select my TV, I am prompted for the Airplay code which is displayed on my TV. You can even decide whether to just mirror your desktop to the TV or use the TV as a second screen (“As Separate Display”)!

Other: In Microsoft Windows, to mount the EFI partition on a O/S disk, run “mountvol <driveletter>: /s” from any admin cmd.exe session. To mount the EFI partition on a USB drive, run “mountvol” which will list all available volume, you can then run “mountvol <driveletter>: <?volume-name-as-displayed-in-mountvol-output>”

Disclaimer: if you like Mac OSX buy a real Mac. This is for educational research purposes only.

Acknowledgement: chris1111

Refs:
https://github.com/chris1111/HP-Probook-EliteBook-Package-Creator
https://www.hackintosh-montreal.com/t7559-hp-probook-elitebook-macos#111778
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/129305/how-can-i-enable-access-to-usb-devices-within-virtualbox-guests

MacOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, and macOS High Sierra download directly to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS Catalina, Install macOS Mojave, or Install macOS High Sierra. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation. Hint: before reading the guide (How to Install macOS Catalina On VirtualBox On Windows), it is suggested to browse into the necessary File part of the article and get macOS Catalina 10.15 then, and you will have time to browse the post before downloading has finished. When you are downloading macOS Catalina Virtual Machine image file and Google Drive touches its download limit, then right-click on the file and choose COPY to make a copy in the Google Drive of your own. From here download the macOS Catalina virtual image file. Moreover, we have provided an alternative link of media fire too. MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 introduces iCloud Drive folder sharing, Screen Time communications limits, Apple Music time-synced lyrics view, and more. The update also improves the stability, reliability.

macOS Catalina 10.15 is the latest operating system that runs on Apple Mac laptops and desktops. However, it is still in beta test and only available for part of Mac computers with high profile or enrolled in Apple Beta Program. Is there any way to upgrade the macOS to Catalina manually or install Catalina on Mac from scratch? The answer is Yes. But you have to download macOS Cataina DMG or the installer app.

If you are looking for the easiest way to download macOS Catalina DMG on a Macand but don't know how? Well, there are three ways by which you can instantly get the latest macOS installer without a hassle.

Part 1. Get MacOS Catalina DMG Via Direct Download Link

Many people prefer the direct download link of macOS Catalina as it is more flexible. You can unpack the DMG file and make a bootable Catalina installer USB, which can be used to install macOS on other computers. However, it is not easy to find the direct download link because Apple wants you to upgrade from Mac App Store. Fortunately, there are a few good websites that host the direct download link of macOS Catalina DMG. After that, you can burn the macOS dmg to USB to make it bootable for installation.

macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 1: https://themacgo.com/macdownload/ (Wait a few seconds and the download starts automatically.)

macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 2: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ELQXMuuVWddamLPG0RHjyvaNW4r628CM (Password: Geekrar.com)

macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 3: http://www.mediafire.com/file/wazr84baudhi27h/macOS_Catalina_DMG_by_Geekrar.rar/file

macOS Catalina 10.15 DMG Download Link 4: https://sundryfiles.com/G54 (Premium account required for download!)

macOS Catalina 10.15 InstallESDDmg PKG Download Link : http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/61/56/041-83630-A_8RCIBB415Y/7jqh3nh97ood2mjej7hdgpx7fgh5c3fi9g/InstallESDDmg.pkg

macOS Catalina 10.15 VMware Image Download Link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yrd1py7od5911zt/Catalina_Virtual_Disk_Image_by_Techsviewer.rar/file

macOS Catalina 10.15 VirtualBox Image Download Link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yrd1py7od5911zt/Catalina_Virtual_Disk_Image_by_Techsviewer.rar/file

Tips: After downloading macOS Catalina .dmg file, it is time to make a macOS bootable USB from it. For this purpose, you can give a try on UUByte DMG Editor, one of the most popular software to create a Catalina USB installer on both Windows PC and Mac.

Part 2. Download macOS Catalina From Mac App Store

Apple always recommends its users downloading macOS install file from Mac App Store for security reasons. It is safe and easy. But the actual downloaded file is not an dmg file. Instead, it is an app called Install macOS Catalina, which is used to make the upgrade from current macOS to Catalina. For a clean install, it is better to download the dmg file and make an installer USB.

Note: Make sure to back up your Mac prior to installing macOS Catalina.

Install Macos 10.15 Catalina On Virtualbox

Step 1: Go to Mac App Store and search macOS Catalina. Then hit on 'Get' to download page.

Step 2: Doing this will open System Preferences followed by the section of Software Update, where you will find MacOS Catalina ready to download. Hit the option saying 'Upgrade Now' and download MacOS Catalina on your Mac.

Step 3: Next, macOS Catalina upgrade will ask for system reboot. Complete the process and install macOS Catalina on that computer.

Downloading macOS Catalina Install app works fine on my of newly devices but it could be problems for old Macs even it is officially supported by Catalina. If this is the case, then you have to patch the OS and install Catalina again. However, you need find a third-party app to do the dirty work. We will talk about this in Part 3.

Part 3. Download macOS Catalina 10.15 Installer with macOS Catalina Patcher

Although it may appear easy to try out the conventional approach of downloading macOS update in Software Update, there are a few known issues on old Macs shipped in 2013 or earlier, meaning the download progress can not be completed successfully. That's why macOS Catalina Patcher tool comes into help. This patching tool makes the job even simpler for installing macOS Catalina on unsupported Mac models.

However, the file size of these updates differs depending on the Mac device you are using. That means the downloaded update might not necessarily be the full installer version. For instance, if you wish to keep the installer file as archive for further application, or use it to generate bootable flash drive, this file size won't be sufficient.

Fortunately, with macOS Catalina Patcher tool, you can simply download the entire update of macOS setup from Apple's servers. Let's check out the stepwise instructions of how to use this software tool to download the macOS Catalina DMG.

Step 1: Download a copy of macOS Catalina Patcher from this link.

Step 2: After downloading and attempting to install, an error notification will be prompted. It is due to the unavailability of developer verification credential for macOS. Now, go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy. Then find the button saying 'Open Anyway' to let the app run.

Step 3: Open macOS Catalina Patcher app and from the main menu, navigate to Options to uncheck the box saying 'Auto-apply Post Install Patches'. As you are done with the previous step and move to the screen as in the link below, hit Download a Copy.

Step 4: The following screen will notify the file size of macOS Catalina you are to download. The resolution is around 7GB and after the download, it will automatically get stored in the Downloads folder. Then hit Continue to initiate the process of download.

Step 5: The download time of the file will depend upon the internet connection and its speed. So, you might have to wait for some while for the process to complete. Eventually, the entire macOS Catalina setup file will be available on your device.

Closing Words

Well, that is all for the day. Hopefully, the above methods were helpful in guiding you on how to download macOS Catalina for both supported and unsupported Macs. When the download is finished, the next step is to burn the DMG file to USB. Then boot macOS from USB and starts the installation wizard.

It does not matter whether you use macOS or Windows 10. It’s just a matter of time until your device will refuse to start, which could happen for many reasons, including (and not limited to) file corruption, hardware failure, and buggy update. If the unexpected happens with an Apple computer, you can use a macOS bootable USB with the installation media to repair it.

This is one of the main reasons you should consider making a macOS bootable USB when your device is working properly. However, if none of your devices (MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, or Mac Mini) aren’t working when you need them the most, then you can use a PC to rescue your Apple device. You can use a Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7 device to quickly create a USB bootable installation media to reinstall macOS Catalina or Big Sur on your Mac.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to create a macOS Catalina bootable USB installation on Windows 10, which you can use to reinstall or upgrade the Apple OS.

Requirements

Before proceeding, you’ll need the following:

Broken Mac computer running macOS (version 10.12, 11, or later).
A trial copy of the TransMac software.
One high-quality USB flash drive with 16GB of storage.
Copy of macOS (DMG file).

Create macOS bootable USB installation media

To create a bootable USB drive with macOS, use these steps:

Download and install TransMac on the Windows 10 device.
Quick note: This is a paid software, but it gives you a 15-day trial, which is more than enough time. (If this works for you and you want to support the developer, you can purchase the full version.)
Connect the USB flash drive. (If you have any data on the flash drive, remember to make a backup, as everything on it will be erased.)
Right-click the TransMac app and select the Run as administrator option.
Click the Run button. (If you’re using the trial version, wait 15 seconds.)
Right-click the USB flash drive, select the Format Disk for Mac option from the left navigation pane.
Quick note: You want to do this before creating the bootable media because there is a good chance that the drive was formatted using a Windows device. If this is the case, the chances are that it’s using an MBR partition, and the USB drive needs a GPT partition to work on a Mac.
Click the Yes button to format the drive on the warning message.
Confirm a name for the drive. For example, “macOS bootable USB.”
Click the OK button.
Click the Yes button.
Click the OK button.
Right-click the USB flash drive and select the Restore with Disk Image option from the left navigation pane.
Click the Yes button to confirm the erase of the USB flash drive data.
Click the browse button on the right.
Select the .dmg file with the macOS installation files.
Click the Open button.
Click the OK button.
Click the Yes button.

Once you complete the steps, you can now insert the USB flash drive on your Mac computer to install, reinstall, or upgrade the operating system to the latest macOS version, which can be Sierra, Catalina, Big Sur, or higher.

Create a GPT partition on USB flash drive

If the USB flash drive is not working with TransMac, it could still be a partition problem. In this case, you may need to redo the entire process again. However, this time you should use the following steps to use the Diskpart command-line utility on Windows 10 to create the appropriate GPT partition, and then follow the above instructions.

How To Create A Bootable Usb For Macos Catalina

To create a GPT partition on a removable drive, use these steps:

How To Create A Usb Installer For Macos Catalina

Open Start.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as an administrator option.
Type the diskpart command and press Enter.
Enter the list disk command to view all drives connected to your computer and press Enter.
Type the select disk command followed the number assigned for the USB flash drive (for example, select disk 4), and press Enter.
Enter the clean command and press Enter.
Type the convert GPT command and press Enter.
Enter the create partition primary command and press Enter to complete the process.

How To Create A Catalina Install Usb

Once you formatted the USB flash drive with a GPT partition, you can use the instructions mentioned above to use TransMac to create a bootable media, but this time skip steps No. 5 through 10 and continue on step 11.

Install Macos 10.15 Catalina Update

Create Macos Catalina Install Usb On Windows 10

Install Macos Catalina 10.15 On Pc

After the process completes, which can take up to an hour, connect the USB flash drive and power on your Mac holding down the Option key, select the USB drive to begin installing macOS.

How To Make A Bootable Usb For Macos Catalina

If you have problems creating the bootable media, you can get a USB flash drive that comes with macOS Sierra, El Capitan, Catalina, etc., on it with the link mentioned below. (I haven’t tried it personally, but it’s worth the try if nothing works.)