How to Install macOS Mojave & Catalina – Working Trick

Alright, here I will share the trick of how to install macOS Mojave and Catalina on my low budget Hackintosh PC. Which only a Core 2 Duo based PC.

As you know that macOS Mojave and Catalina require Metal Display in order to run the OS as it should. So, you may consider checking if your Hackintosh PC has a GPU that supports Metal Display before continue to follow this trick.

Yeah, I just upgrade my Video Card to NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 in order to update the macOS from High Sierra to Mojave and then to Catalina on my Hackintosh.

I also will share the config.plist and kext that I use inside the Clover Bootloader as well in the end of the post. Please read carefully if you want to succeed.

Here we go …

The tool you need to create macOS Mojave/Catalina USB Installer

Okay, we start we the tools, to create the USB bootable for macOS Mojave and Catalina you’ll need …

• A running computer that running macOS and Windows. If you already dual boot macOS and Windows then great it should simplify the process. It also important if there’s anything wrong, so … at least you still have one operating system to fix the issue.
• A 16 GB USB Flash Drive to make the macOS USB Bootable.
• Original macOS Mojave/Catalina Installer.App.
• Dosdude1 Patcher Tool. Download for Mojave here: http://dosdude1.com/mojave And for Catalina download here: http://dosdude1.com/catalina
• Boot Disk Utility (BDU) for working on Windows OS.
• Clover Configurator (for mounting EFI partition, edit config.plist, etc.)
• Paragon Hardisk Manager Free Edition (also for working on windows)
• Optional but really recommended, make sure to connect your PC to the Ethernet LAN for internet access.
• Patient 😉

1. First step, Creat the EFI partition for USB Drive from Windows.

You should know, that the Dosdude1 patcher is created to patch the macOS in order to run on a real Mac computer and not for Hackintosh PC.

So this trick is very useful if you need to use it to doing a clean install on other PC next time. Because you will have the Clover Bootloader inside the USB itself to boot the macOS system.

To create the EFI partition for USB Drive, go to Windows OS, plug the 16 GB USB stick, and run the BDU app. The BDU app will automatically detect your USB Flash Drive.

Go hit the Format button to let the BDU creating the GPT partition system for your USB drive.

When formatting process done, the USB drive now has two partition, the EFI partition and an unformatted partition.

Next, close the BDU app, and then use the Paragon Software to format the unformatted partition of your USB drive. Format it as Apple HFS.

For references, you can check the post on how to use BDU and paragon disk manager here: How to Make Hackintosh Bootable USB Drive From Windows

Please feel free to use the kext that I use along with the pre edited config.plist that you can choose for the Mac version that suitable with your Hackintosh build.

You can download the config.plist from Dropbox here.

Download the kext HERE. It also include the working Ethernet kext so you can connect to the internet while in the installation process.

Now we done with Windows OS, and from now we start to work on macOS.

Creating the macOS installer using Dosdude1 patch tool

To creating the macOS Mojave or Catalina on the partition that you have formatted with paragon software. You can follow the guide directly from the Dosdude1 website in the link below:

• Guide for Mojave (Also the patcher download page)
• Guide for Catalina (Also the patcher download page)

When you done with the patcher you can comeback to this page again for the next step.

Installing macOS Mojave/Catalina

To install macOS Mojave or Catalina you can choose to doing a clean install or doing a direct upgrade. In my case I am doing direct upgrade. For doing direct, either you can install the OS directly from the macOS Installer.App or from the USB.

But in Catalina case it’s better to install directly from the macOS Installer.App because you may got an error when install it from the USB.

Actually even if you are installing macOS Catalina from the Installer.App you’ll get the error message too. But just an error message about The bless tool.

The error message is like this;

You can ignore the message and just restart the PC. Because the process is actually already has done.

After restart the PC, do not boot from the main disk system. But, boot from the USB Installer to apply the Dosdude1 patcher.

Applying the patcher to make the Graphics fully working

Here are the secret on how to make the graphics fully working on Hackintosh. Even if your graphic card is support for Metal Display and you apply the patcher wrong, you may don’t get your video card not fully working. Glitch, etc.

So, click to apply to apply the patcher, this is the correct setting is to choose similar Mac version with your Hackintosh. And then, UNCHECK the “Legacy Video Card Patch” nah! now you get it. See the screenshot below for example.

Let the patcher tool rebuild the cache and will restart the PC automatically. After the PC restart, in Clover menu choose to boot from the main system disk. And it should works, next is to setting the macOS, setting the Keyboard, Language, iCloud, etc.

Post upgrade

Now you can eject the USB Installer, but wait! Before that make sure to copy the kext and config.plist to the main disk EFI partition. The kext is better to place it in “Other” Folder or in the macOS version folder.

You may need to update the patch too.

Troubleshooting

Try to boot in Vesa mode or Safe mode (-x) if you have a problem in the installation process.

And if there is any update of macOS (security update, etc), after update uses the patcher tool to patch the macOS again.

Note, etc

Please watch the video below for more references. Sorry for the bad video quality, because I record them spontaneously without any preparation. Lightning, etc. But I hope you got the idea …

Installing macOS Mojave Video

Installing macOS Catalina Video

Okay, hope you succeed with the installation. Will try to always refining the post along the go. Please feel free to leave your comment to discuss about this.

Credit goes to the Dosdude1 for the awesome Patcher tool. Say thanks to him!

Disclaimer! The link that refers to the GPU MSI NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 to Amazon site is my affiliate link. I may get a little commission. Thanks if you buy from my affiliate links, that is the best way to support this website.