iATKOS | United Kingdom

The following guide is a complete walkthrough for updating to or installing a fresh version of macOS Catalina. It requires no experience and all of the basic installation and post-installation tools are available on tonymacx86.com.

Table of Contents



Before You Begin

1. Register here at tonymacx86! If you don't have a user account, create one!
2. Get our latest UniBeast and MultiBeast tools from the downloads section.
3. Purchase a 16GB or 32GB USB drive.
4. Do a full backup of your system. We strongly recommend performing a full backup of your existing system using Carbon Copy Cloner. By doing this, you can always go back to your working installation.

UniBeast is a tool that creates a bootable installer out of your downloaded version of macOS. In order to start fresh, you'll need access to a functional computer running OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 or later. This is a requirement, as you need access to the Mac App Store to download macOS and create the installation drive. To start from scratch, booting the 10.6 Snow Leopard Retail DVD directly, check out iBoot + MultiBeast.

Existing Clover users may do a direct update to macOS Catalina by simply running the Install macOS Catalina app as normal Mac users would. Follow these steps: Update Directly to macOS Catalina.

STEP 1: Download macOS Catalina
The full operating system is a free download for anyone who has purchased Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion or has a Mac preloaded with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra, or macOS Mojave.


The Application Install macOS Catalina will appear in /Applications.
STEP 2: Create a Bootable USB Drive with UniBeast
Take a deep breath and take your time- this is pretty simple, but it's easy to miss things if you rush. Follow each step to the letter.

1. If you are using a Mac running macOS Catalina that has System Integrity Protection (SIP) enabled, you must disable it using the following steps:
   1. Restart your Mac.
   2. Before macOS starts up, hold down Command-R and keep it held down until you see an Apple icon and a progress bar. Release. This boots you into Recovery.
   3. From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.
   4. At the prompt type exactly the following and then press Return:
      Code:

      csrutil disable

   5. Terminal should display a message that SIP was disabled.
   6. From the  menu, select Restart.
2. Insert the USB drive
3. Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility
4. Highlight the USB drive in left column (Note: in the Catalina version of Disk Utility, you must first select View / Show All Devices before you can see the USB drive there)

UniBeast will now create the bootable USB drive. The process will only take about 10 minutes, depending on system and drive speed. Do not unplug or stop during this time.

Clover Note: UniBeast delivers basic bootloader support based on our testing on recommended CustoMac systems. For further bootloader customization, download and run the official Clover package. Advanced users may also compile Clover by downloading the full source.


STEP 3: Recommended BIOS Settings
If you're installing on a recommended CustoMac desktop with AMI UEFI BIOS, the options are simple. For other systems make sure to set your BIOS to Optimized Defaults, and your hard drive to AHCI mode. Here are standard AMI UEFI BIOS settings for
Gigabyte AMI UEFI BIOS, Gigabyte AWARD BIOS, ASUS AMI UEFI BIOS, and MSI AMI UEFI BIOS.

1. To access BIOS/UEFI Setup, press and hold Delete on a USB Keyboard while the system is booting up
2. Load Optimized Defaults
3. If your CPU supports VT-d, disable it
4. If your system has CFG-Lock, disable it
5. If your system has Secure Boot Mode, disable it
6. Set OS Type to Other OS
7. If your system has IO Serial Port, disable it
8. Set XHCI Handoff to Enabled
9. If you have a 6 series or x58 system with AWARD BIOS, disable USB 3.0
10. Save and exit.

STEP 4: Install macOS Catalina
You're almost done! All you need to do is boot from the USB drive and install!

1. Turn on the computer
2. Press the hotkey to choose boot device (F12 for Gigabyte motherboards, F8 for ASUS motherboards, F11 for ASrock motherboards)
3. Choose USB

If you have issues reaching the installer, you can use spacebar on boot screen to enter alternate boot modes such as verbose and safe mode. For more instructions on entering boot flags see Clover Basics and Switching Advice.


STEP 5: Post Installation with MultiBeast

MultiBeast is an all-in-one post-installation tool designed to enable boot from hard drive, and install support for Audio, Network, and Graphics. The installation is complete, but the drive isn't bootable yet. Boot from the USB again, this time choosing Catalina.

1. Press the hotkey to choose boot device (F12 for Gigabyte motherboards, F8 for ASUS motherboards, F11 for ASrock motherboards)
2. Choose USB
3. At the Boot Screen, choose your new Catalina installation.
4. Complete macOS setup
5. Open and run MultiBeast

Yay! You now have a fully updated bootable version of macOS Catalina on your CustoMac! And a super handy USB rescue drive. It's easy to get frustrated, but don't give up! If you get stuck, there are many users with similar hardware in the tonymacx86 Forum to provide support.

Thanks to all of the hard working developers, hackers, and testers all over the world without whom this guide would never have been possible.

Troubleshooting and Optimizations:
After you've completed the guide, things such as HDMI audio and iMessage may not work automatically. The list below should serve to fully optimize your system after initial setup.

Update Directly to MacOS Catalina
MacOS Catalina (10.15) Problems and Workarounds
UniBeast Troubleshooting Notes
macOS Catalina Cleanup: Remove Kexts From /Library/Extensions and Recache
macOS 10.15 Catalina: How to Mount Root Partition Read/Write for Post-Installation
EFI Mounter v3.1
Video Guide to making a UniBeast Installer
[GUIDE] Installing 3rd Party Kexts - El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave +
Full Acceleration for Intel HD 3000 and older NVIDIA Graphics in macOS Catalina
An iDiot's Guide To Lilu and its Plug-ins
An iDiot's Guide To iMessage
The New Beginner's Guide to USB Port Configuration
[Release] Hackintool (configuration utility)
[GUIDE] General Framebuffer Patching Guide (HDMI Black Screen Problem)
[Guide] Intel Framebuffer patching using WhateverGreen
macOS Native CPU/IGPU Power Management
[TOOL] [GENERATE PROPER PROBLEM REPORTING FILES]
[FAQ] READ FIRST! Laptop Frequent Questions
[Guide] Booting the OS X installer on LAPTOPS with Clover

This list will be updated.

Clover Note: UniBeast and MultiBeast deliver basic bootloader support based on our testing on recommended CustoMac systems. For further bootloader customization, download and run the official Clover package. Advanced users may also compile Clover by downloading the full source.

Contains Clover 5.0 r5106
UniBeast and MultiBeast contain and deliver files from the Clover EFI Bootloader project. Clover is an open source bootloader project based on different projects: Clover, rEFIt, XNU, VirtualBox. Copyright © 2019 CloverHackyColor. Source and official downloads are available here.

Developers:
Slice, with help of Kabyl, usr-sse2, jadran, Blackosx, dmazar, STLVNUB, pcj, apianti, JrCs, pene, FrodoKenny, skoczy, ycr.ru, Oscar09, xsmile, SoThOr, rehabman, Download-Fritz, Zenit432, cecekpawon…

Source code credits to:
Intel, Apple, Oracle, Chameleon, rEFIt and Xom. Copyright © 2012-2020

Clover Source and Downloads:
Github: Clover