Because you have a 2018 MacBook Pro, it is actually possible to run the Catalina installer on that system, but install Catalina on an external SSD.
For example:
- We can buy a cheap 128GB SATA SSD and install it in an equally cheap USB 3.0 external enclosure.
- The beauty of this approach is that the 128GB SATA SSD and USB 3.0 external enclosure can then be used for subsequent bootable backups.
- Then we connect the external USB 3.0 enclosure to the MacBook Pro.
- We use Disk Utilityto format the external SSD:
- Name: Catalina (or anything suitable)
- Format: APFS
- Scheme: GUID Partition Map
- Now we run the Catalina Installer on the MacBook Pro.
- Do not use the USB install disk.
- Instead, copy the full Install macOS Catalina app that was created by GibMacOS to the Applications folder on the MacBook Pro and double-click to run it.
- When it asks for the destination drive, we select the external SSD.
- Let the installation finish. When the Welcome screen appears, go through each page of the welcome screen to setup the new Catalina O/S and create a user account.
- Do not sign in to iCloud!! Click "Skip" at this step.
- When Catalina setup is finished, we keep the external SSD connected to the MacBook Pro and then:
- Mount EFI partition of the external SSD
- Copy the OpenCore EFI folder to the EFI partition of the external SSD
- Now we can eject the external SSD
- Then we connect the external SSD to the Hackintosh and start up the machine.
- We press F12 at the BIOS Splash Screen and select the external SSD.
- OpenCore Picker will appear and macOS will already be installed.
- Boot macOS and log in.
Now we can use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the external USB SSD onto the internal NVMe SSD:
- Ensure that the internal NVMe SSD has been formatted:
- Name: Catalina (or anything suitable)
- Format: APFS
- Scheme: GUID Partition Map
- Then clone the external SSD to the internal NVMe SSD.
- When cloning is done, mount the EFI partition of (a) external SSD and (b) NVMe SSD.
- Copy the EFI folder from external SSD to EFI partition of internal NVMe SSD.
- Reboot and remove the external SSD.
- When OpenCore Picker appears, boot from the internal NVMe SSD.