catalina

SBGrid and MacOS 10.15 'Catalina'

SBGrid is not compatible with MacOS 10.15 "Catalina"

The next version of Apple's MacOS operating system, 10.15 "Catalina" was released October 7, 2019. This is a major update that imposes significant changes and is currently incompatible with the SBGrid software collection.

The OS enforces strict filesystem controls that break SBGrid installation. The upgrade process silently repartitions the hard disk into system and data partitions. The system partition is then mounted read-only with the data partition 'firmlinked'. Firmlinks are a new apple system-only link divised for this release. Because of the read-only filesystem, creating a /programs symbolic link is not possible without disabling SIP and remounting the disk with write permissions.

10.15 also drops support for 32-bit binaries required by many older applications. We are activly cataloging the application versions that will no longer be available after 10.14 and will make that list available .

We strongly recommend against upgrading to 10.15 on any Mac with SBGrid installed until we can support the new OS. That process is currently underway, but it may be some time before 10.15 is officially supported. We are also compiling a list of software applications that will no longer be available on MacOS after version 10.14.

How to stop nagging macOS update alerts

It is possible to turn off the nagging pop ups.

  • Open System Preferences.
  • Click on Software Update.
  • Deselect Automatically keep my Mac up to date

How to restore SBGrid on an upgraded Catalina machine

To restore the /programs symlink in Catalina, the system filesystem must be remounted as read/write. To do that in Catalina, SIP must be disabled.

Disable SIP

  • Restart your Mac.
  • Before OS X 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.
  • From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.
  • At the prompt run the following and then press Return:
csrutil disable
  • Terminal should display a message that SIP was disabled.
  • From the  menu, select Restart.

remount disk as read/write to create /programs

To remount the disk as read/write, run :

sudo mount -uw / 

To create the SBGrid /programs link, run :

sudo ln -s /opt/sbgrid /programs

Re-enable SIP

  • Restart your Mac.
  • Before OS X 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.
  • From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.
  • At the prompt, re-enbale SIP with :
csrutil enable
  • Terminal should display a message that SIP was enabled.
  • From the  menu, select Restart.