The Upgrade Journals

I’ve run a home server since the dawn of computing networking. In the earlier days, it was connected via modem 24x7 to the internet and shared that connection to the other computers around my apartment. It started as a Pentium with MMX, became a PowerBook G4 and these days ChaosServer is running on MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011). This version started under Mavericks, and it’s time to clean install it to Mojave and get all my services up and running.
The first step is to trigger a SuperDuper bootable backup of the system, just in case. I have this super-cheap silicone case external drive case I use with bare drives to do all this stuff. Once that backup is complete, it’s Mojave time.

Except I hit my first problem, a Mid 2011 MacBook Air isn’t supported with Mojave. Well, let’s just go crazy! I’ll use MacOS Mojave Patcher to install it on an unsupported computer. Well, I tried to anyway, but it didn’t work.

Still, High Sierra does have the killer feature I wanted - AN EXCUSE to reinstall macOS. I’m just going to move forward with that. I use the process to create an bootable installer and I use my 250GB external micro drive. Ever year I think, “I really should just have a 32GB thumb drive” but every year I don’t have one and I just work with that I do have. You’d think at least this process would be easy, but that external installer just keeps stalling out on me and It’s been a couple hours tonight, so it’s time for bed.