Mojave install a disaster

SUCCESS! In fact the following did work and enabled me to sucessfully upgrade from High Sierra to Mojave resolving all issues. IMPORTANT: Make sure your spacing is correct when typing ls -l /etc/sysctl.conf into the Terminal.

A. If you can log in (even if slow), or you're still on High Sierra, and have not yet upgraded, follow these instructions:

1. Start the terminal app from Applications/Utilities

2. Check if the file exists, by typing

ls -l /etc/sysctl.conf

If this returns a result like the following, then the file exists. If it does not, then your issues are caused by something else

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 136 24 Nov 2013 /etc/sysctl.conf

3. Simply rename the file by typing in: sudo mv /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.conf.bak

(You’ll be prompted for your password)

4. Restart your computer, and you should be all set, or if you've rolled back to High Sierra, you should be good to attempt the upgrade again.

*The Mid-2010 and Mid-2012 Mac Pro models only support macOS Mojave (10.14) if they have a video card that supports Metal. Apple reports that these video cards are compatible with macOS Mojave:

• MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 580 8GB GDDR5
• SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
• NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

Site sponsor OWC sells the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition.

The Mac also needs to be running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or later, have 2 GB of RAM or more installed, and have at least 12.5 GB of free storage if you are upgrading from OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 or least 18.5 GB of free storage if you are upgrading from an earlier version of the operating system.

Finally found a solution, thanks to this post: Re: Mojave login UI sluggish & laggy

If you're booting from a usb drive, make sure to edit the file on the right volume. My MBP is now back to being healthy and working perfectly on Mojave... with WiFi!

TL;DR - on the native drive (/Volumes/Macintosh HD), got to /etc/ and rename the sysctl.conf file, reboot and voila!

I tried many things on this page for my older Imac with the symptoms described above. Hosed.

My final solution was to

1. erase disk

2 Reinstall High Sierra from USB ( tricker because my only other computer was on Mojave)

3. restore my backup filed from time before the Mojave upgrade attemps.

How to upgrade to macOS Sierra - Apple Support

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

His backup is presumabably located on an external HD or Time Machine. Hopefully he backed-up before he attempted to upgrade. Shut down the computer. Start up holding down the Command and R keys until the Disk Utility window appears. It should then allow him to select a restore from his back-up.

Shut down your computer. Wait 20 or seconds and power it back on holding down tthe Command and R keys. This will bring you to Disk Utility and from there choose the restore option from your external HD. Hopefully you’ve got a fresh backup.

If you have a time machine back up, you can restore from it after doing this. I would go with Cmd+R.

The 2nd option would try to install Mojave again and the 3rd will install whatever was on your machine when you first got it.

1. Start up from macOS Recovery

To start up from macOS Recovery, turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold one of the following combinations on your keyboard. Command-R is generally recommended, especially if you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later.

Command (⌘)-R

Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.

Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Shift-Option-⌘-R

Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.

Release the keys when you see the Apple logo, a spinning globe, or a prompt for a firmware password. When you see the Utilities window, you've started up from macOS Recovery.

If you’re trying to restore, say back to High Sierra or a previous OS, in order to access the Disk Utility, you need to 1) shut the computer down for 20 seconds or so, 2) power it back on while simultaneously holding down the Command and “R” keys UNTIL YOU SEE THE WHITE APPLE ON YOUR SCREEN. Only then can you let go of the Command and R keys.

THANK YOU!!! This fixed an extremely nasty problem instantly!

I guess the system was trying to access the network over and over and over and over and over and over and pausing everything for five to ten seconds while it did so.

Apple... this was really the .1 release? You really tested this operating system? Really?

PS> I shortcutted after looking inside the file: rm -rf /etc/sysctl.conf

With Option key at the startup chime, you should get bootable disks show up, USB or otherwise.

****. I guess the best thing you can do is restore back to High Sierra while any problems get ironed out. I thought it might've been some sort of 3rd party drive incompatibility or a non-Metal supporting GPU but that isn't the case with your trash can.

Yup! Same disaster on my iMac 27" 2017. after initial app store download and a reinstall from disk utility - no connectivity at all, slow to no performance at all, random messages that didn't make sense, - A COMPLETE BUST! SHAME ON APPLE. After spending the better part of my day trying with two apple techs and a senior advisor - every one gave up and I ended up erasing HD and reinstalling from Time Machine via My Passport, High Sierra. A disaster is an understatement. Sent an email with trouble ticket # to the senior advisor this morning asking him to call - nothing yet 6 hours later. I suspect that they are inundated with support calls after this catastrophe.

Apple announced on June 5 'macOS Mojave will officially be the last release to support 32-bit apps'. Comments from Apple Support also include 'Yes, you may continue to use 32-bit apps with your Mac today. Using 32-bit software has no adverse effects on your data or your computer.'

My thinking is that I had this issue due to legacy files and settings from older 32-Bit apps that I should have purged beforehand, however which ones and how to find them. Instead I did my first ever clean install, which has worked fine as my Time Machine backups were in place.

Several users are having the same issue (multiple threads now). Even the USB ethernet adapter wont work.

Try contacting apple and opening a ticket. They’ll ask you to bring the device to a store to get a copy of the log files.