In order to upgrade to the dizzying heights of Catalina your Mac must have Mac OS X Mavericks as its minimum OS

1. This is my one rule about Beta software. If you have to ask whether or not you should upgrade to Beta software from Release the answer is universally NO. This is especially true if the Beta is still in Developer stage and not even a Public Beta.
2. If you're using one of these computers with OS X Mavericks or later, you can install macOS Catalina. Your Mac also needs at least 4GB of memory and 12.5GB of available storage space, or up to 18.5GB of storage space when upgrading from OS X Yosemite or earlier. Learn how to upgrade to macOS Catalina.

requirement. As you are on Lion you will need to do an intermediate OS install. Mavericks is no longer available.

Under Scripts, add the 10.15 - Upgrade to Catalina script. Under Self Service, check the Make available in Self Service box and the Feature the policy on the main page box. Under Self Service, it is recommended to add a description warning that it will instantly reboot, and checking the Ensure that users view the description checkbox.

You can still get El Capitan (10.11.6) from here, How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

Update Os X 10.8.5 To Catalina

go to Section 4 and click on Get Mac OS X El Capitan, this will download a .dmg file which you then

double-click to start the installation.

After El Capitan is installed then you can upgrade to Catalina, but if you are not aware yet Catalina does not run 32bit apps.

Can I Upgrade From Os X El Capitan To Catalina

So I would suggest you install Mojave again and all the apps you would use, Upgrade to macOS Mojave - Official Apple Support

Once you have determined what apps you had previously on Mojave that were 32bit and whether or not the developers of those apps are updating them to 64bit then you can consider Catalina. Use this app, https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/ to check for 32bit apps.

Oct 30, 2019 2:19 AM