2015 MBP SSD and Big Sur Upgrade

 If you do a search you probably would find lots of pertinent information.

The 13" 2015 MBP is on its last leg on being able to upgrade to the current macOS.  There is no way I can upgrade my 2008 MacPro and 2012 MBP to Big Sur without major major hassles.  They are in Catalina already.

The original 13" 2015 MBP came with 128GB of SSD.  This certainly on the meager side.  I changed the battery a few months ago after it started to bulge.

I gathered 3 items to do the upgrade.

1. The Rongdeson M.2 NVME SSD enclosure

2. SPG SX8200 PRO 512GB

3. Sintech NGFF M.2 adapter card

I didn't bother to backup anything on TimeMachine or otherwise.  Just do it.

Put 2 into 1.  Connect to the MBP, erase the new SSD into APFS and the rest default values.

Upgrade the MBP to Big Sur by downloading and installing on the new SSD

The upgrade will prompt you for anything it needs and it also prompts you to migrate your existing Mac to the new Mac, ie copy the old SSD data to the new SSD.

After the migration, the last step is to turn off the MBP, open the bottom cover, unplug the battery, remove the old SSD.  Remove 2 from 1.  Then slide 2 into 3 completely.  Take 3 with 2 attached and plug 3 into the existing slot, make sure they are inserted all the way.  It's like at an angle, seat it and screw it down.  Plug the battery.  Put the back cover back on and the screws.

Turn on the MBP, answer a few prompts like verify your Apple ID and stuff.  That's it.

this is the swapped out old 128GB SSD, it's not M.2 or NVMe.

Catalina 10.15.7

 Even Mojave has some supplemental update and security update.

After a few months I itch to upgrade again.

No surprise, the Catalina patch still won't go through the second phase.

Every time I do this I do this in a feverish pace and in the end, I don't know what I am doing.

But I have to say I am calm and a little bit more prepared.  When it failed to boot up to continue the second phase.  I was able to recover from the Mojave recovery snapshot though I forgot the details.  But it certainly emboldened me to go really to Catalina instead of just going update Mojave as I know initially I was able to upgrade to Catalina but somehow in subsequent update I wasn't able to complete.

No surprise I wasn't able to go to the second phase of the patch to complete but then it didn't destroy the last bootable OS I was able to boot back holding the Alt or Option key.

So here are the steps

Download the latest Catalina patch from dosdude1

Make the USB drive

Boot from the USB drive (for me I have to switch back to the supported GPU card, otherwise I can't do this ALT boot sequence)

The installation reboot and back to the USB installation screen and in some instances it gives me the mouse setup, just click Next or similar to back out

Reboot holding down Alt key, you should see the Install partition of whatever it's properly called, you should see the USB and other possible Boot EFI from previous failed upgrades but pick the installation thingy you've never seen before that was just created in the first phase of the update

This should complete the second part of the installation.

Once it reboots you should be home free 

Good luck.

PS:  you won't be able to stream Netflix on Safari, but Chrome is perfectly fine.

macpro3,1 Catalina 10.15.4

I think I somehow destroyed the system.

When you trouble shoot late at night and end up regreting.

I think the SSD is kind of sort of not doing its job but there is no way I can find out what causes the OS couldn't see it.

So against my better judgement I opted to re-install the OS on a separate HDD and in the course of the installation, the HDD got wiped.  And so went my data.  Except there is a copy in my Time Machine, hopefully.

You know there is something wrong just not know what.  In the middle of data migration, the system re-boot itself so in the end, I gave up migration.

I wish I'd stay in MOJAVE.  But I know I'd never learn.

macpro3,1 maOS 10.15.4

There is a good chance, I won't say for sure, that if I unplug the power cable, then reconnect and boot, my chances of booting back to normal is 100% or close to 100%.  So there is some state stored in the memory that tells the OS to reboot to Recovery inadvertently or what I think it is inadvertently.  By unplugging the power cable I sort of clear that so the system starts anew.

I try to make sense of the scenario the best I can by making up stories the best I could.

The things that could go wrong:-
This is a 2008 macpro3,1 so it's not even supposed to be running 10.15.4 which was make possible by running dosdude1's patch since Mojave
The GPU is not supposed to be the PC version like I have installed.  Without the EFI from Apple, I don't see the boot up screens except the very last stage where I was prompted to enter my login and password.
Wired the one internal SATA to a Blu-ray drive and re-connected the EIDE superdrive, though presently disconnected to narrow down the problems for troubleshooting purpose.

To recap:
The system has been very stable starting Mojave.
Then comes Catalina 10.15 which was still stable for me.
Then I put in the Blue Ray and moved things around ... my SSD used to be using the internal SATA and put in the empty drive bay.
When I tried to connect the SSD and the Blue Ray drive using the SATA ports, it gives my problem, the system won't boot up.
In the end, I was able to put the SSD to drive bay 1 using some caddie, put all the HDDs onto bay 2 and 3.  The BR and Superdrive into the optical drive bay.
By and large it's working except after a while the superdrive would disappear.  But I can live with that.
Then somehow somewhere along the line, it develops this boot and sleep and wake up problem.  I decided to upgrade it to 10.15.4 to see if that removes the problem, alas it didn't.
Overnight, the system rebooted itself into recovery, it actually prompted the mouse setup and language setup before getting into recovery.  There were instances when the wake up screen appeared but after entering the login and password, the beach ball appeared and spins it went then it just froze.  Maybe something to do with the AFPS script boot or some kernel text with the patch ...

When the system is up and running it pretty solid.  Just don't let it go sleep or shut down.  Chances are it may boot to recovery.

Mac Storage space can vary a lot, I mean a lot between Disk Util and Mac Storage

If you can a meager size SSD and some 4TB HDD and use time machine, you will have a hard time when try to re-install the OS to the SSD with you simply delete files or moving files around.  No matter how hard you try or how much free space you you squeeze out on storage, it doesn't matter as long as Disk Util says you only have a few GB available.  Even after you disable Time Machine along the way.

I'm sure I found a similar solution but I just forgot and in retrospect that might not be as effective as this one here.

https://youtu.be/JfvYkhXrqAs


Terminals codes - sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots / com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-19-151241 com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-19-151441 com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-19-153720 tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2017-12-19-151241


this frees up the space.

MacPro 3,1 on 10.15.2

I have no intention to upgrade to the latest 10.15.4, at least not now or maybe ever.  The system has been solid, that's until a few days ago.  If I could recall any changes it would be the updated Xcode.  Ever since that, I experience some wake up issue.  Given that my keyboard and trackpad are bluetooth only.  Plus my GPU is PC based without the EFI rom or some shit like that.  But I swear, once in a while I do see the Apple logo booting up, that the weirdest shit.

Short of updating the software or removing the Xcode as a trial and error, I proceeded to change the button battery inside.  I don't know but I think this little guy was there from day one so I just changed it now.  Maybe that would help with the sleep wake up issue as the battery is supposed to keep the state of some ROM, or whatever it's called.  I have some faith not a lot that it might just take care of the problem.

Well this whole thing is a hack on borrowed time anyway.

UPDATE:  Well it didn't help...

macpro3,1 2008 hidden sata and power

it seems like i can limit 2 HDD on the HDD bays if i connected the hidden sata cables and use the ATA power.
Anyway.  I think figured out how to resolve or at least work around this problem.

Present configuration that works

Inside the 5 1/4 drive bay
1 Blu-ray drive connected to hidden sata port, with power from the original power molex to an adaptor to the drive
1 Superdrive, the stock one.  Once I connected with the ATA cable and power I was able to bootup the whole thing, even with 3 drives in the drive bays.
Drive Bays
1 the boot SSD drive
2 HDDs in drive bay 2 and 3.
Before connecting the superdrive I wasn't able to make the 3rd drive to work, I mean the system won't even bootup.

When I got this system, the superdrive was there but not connected.  Initially when I put my SSD into the 5 1/4 drive I just snaked 2 SATA cables and never bother to reconnect the Superdrive and at one point I even removed it out of the caddy.

It seems like I need to complete some circuit or something for the system power to work correctly.  Otherwise some sata won't work as previously.  I know it doesn't sound very scientific but I am not a science guy.  No excuse though.

Mac3,1 2008 Power

I am not technical enough to know for sure what goes wrong.

At some point I am able to run the following at the same time
SSD as the macOS
Blu-ray drive
The above are parked at the 51/4 drive bay with SATA connections snaked from the board and power from the original drive bay.
Originally I have the power split cable connected to the SSD and the BR drive but it won't boot up so I bought another one with no split and everything works.

The 4 HDDs bay only has 1 4TB drive running.  At some point one of the 4TB turned bad and the OS couldn't use it.  I don't know if at any point all the drives were working.

But I am sure the SSD, BR and one internal 4TB and one 2TB USB drive were working happily together.

Then came the replacement of the 4TB.  When I plugged it into one of the 4 HDD bay the Mac won't even boot up.  Nothing.  Initially I thought it's the replacement drive but I know it can't be right.  It's supposed to be a new replacement.  Not that new new but new replacement like new refurbished.  So I swapped it with the USB.  And viola it works.  So I know something is wrong with the system but not the HDD per se.

It seems like I can't have all the drive running at the same time.  Mind you I don't ever have drive bay 3 and 4 mounted.

So I took the SSD down mounted it on the HD1 bay and the 2 HDD on bay 2 and 3.  So the 5 1/4 only has the BR drive.  Still won't boot up until I unplugged the BR power.  That's very odd.

I don't know if there's anything with the Y splitter cable even I only use on end of it.  So I am ordering another one without the split.  Or the BR drive drawing too much power?  I have no idea.  It seems like if I only put 1 HDD into the drive bay then it would boot up when the SSD and BR are plugged in and powered.

This is just a bit weird to me.

MacPro3,1 and Catalina macOS10.15.2

Everytime there is an update pushed out by Apple I tend to apply it and update my system.
My system being a MacPro3,1 early 2008 with a half ass supported or not quite supported graphic card is really a pain in the rear end when it comes to upgrade.  Mainly, I can't get in all those necessary reboot modes without the EFI or boot rom for the graphics.  So I have to pull the card and plug back in the original card which is mildly painful.  Everything adds up.  And in the end, what seems like a rather straight operation invariably ends up like life or death, at least for the system, operation.  Usually it spans for hours to get it done.

Again, it's a dosdude1.com patch.
download the patch
download the full Catalina install from Apple via the patch
create a Catalina bootable USB finger using the patch
reboot from the USB
And good luck.

Somewhere along those steps something will happen I guarantee you that.

I am not on macOS 10.15.2 after hours of patching ...

Xcode 11.1

I wasn't able to download and install Xcode 11 after Catalina.

It would download but unable to install, tried many times, but just a waste of bandwidth.

In the end, I deleted the existing Xcode version, do a restart of the mac, then do a download and install, success.

Apple, why are you screwing up?

Free Space macOS style

Sometimes you aren't aware of a problem until it becomes a problem.

Normally I notice my hard drive or OK, SSD space by going to the About This Mac, then Storage.  This is where I am happy when I see lots of free space.  Didn't care about Disk Util until I need to do some more low level job like formatting a new hard drive or a SSD.

Finally I noticed there was a vast difference between what's reported in Storage than what's reported in Disk Util.  What matters to me is Disk Util as when I tried to install Catalina there it complains I don't have enough space.  This is a WTF moment for me.  Disk Storage clearly has enough space while Disk Util is barely not enough.

After much Googling, I found a way, which is kind of counter intuitive, I went ahead and created numerous large files and then deleted them.  I don't quite understand what I was doing but in the end it worked.

From what I understand it has to do with iCloud and optimisation.  So I had to deactivate them when I did the create and delete files trick.

-----

Also, I just also noticed I can't update Xcode, it would download and install and fail in the end.  Again I searched and found out I am not alone on this.  Yet another mystery.

macOS 10.14.6 macpro3,1 internal speaker disappears

After the second supplemental updates, I found out the internal speaker is missing.  That's it no longer shows on the Sound.  I don't know if it's just a coincident or not.

I tried to reset the whatever RAM by pressing the Alt Command P R keys when restarting, and you know how that is:  I can never be sure if I indeed hitting the keys at the right time given the fact that I am using the wireless Bluetooth keyboard and a non supported GPU.

Anyway, no luck with any of the resets I performed.  The machine connects with the Samsung Bluetooth speaker OK, just like before.  (One of the very odd things from day 1 is say I turned on the speaker and the machine connects for a second then it would immediately drops the connection and the video would get congested so much so Youtube thought there is a internet connection issue, well there is indeed a connection issue.  At that point I have to manually connect the BT speaker.  But this is just an aside.)

Hopefully money can work around this problem.  I ordered a CR2032 3V battery.  Maybe the existing one lost its power but even so I don't think it affects the presence or absence of the internal speaker.  But I just like to buy stuff.  Another prong of attack to this problem is I bought a USB mic and headphone jack adapter.  The latter solution hopefully can work around the problem.

UPDATE:
Apparently, or not so apparently, after the Supplemental updates, I need to manually do the patch updates because my whole macpro3,1 is a hack in order to upgrade to 10.14.6.  In the past, the dosdude patch would do a prompt automagically but not this time.  So after scratching my head for some hours I finally remember ahhh maybe I need to do that manually.  Unfortunately I placed the order to get some hardwares and hopefully the cancellation can go through.  After re-installing all the patches, the headphone port, internal speakers all work as they should be.  Magic.