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Hi all!

I did something evil, binary patched a Big Sur GUI patcher to include the Big Sur iMac micropatcher to get a (hopefully) completely command line free installation of Big Sur. I need volunteers to test it:


Have fun and report back.

Notes:
1. create a separate partition on your iMac for Big Sur test installation or use an external USB device
2. opencore will be installed on the Big Sur USB installer! No need to have a separate SD card.
Kudos for doing this! I imagine that we do this after doing the createmediainstall step. Can this be used to upgrade a computer? If yes, I can test it out today.
 
Patched Sur is based on the micropatcher wihich is based on my code at least for those metal modded iMacs. Unfortunately this development stopped months ago and I decided to fork and continue. I do not know why Ben is not moving on, but until he did you are better of with my fork - which contains OpenCore by the way.

Sleep etc. is working for Catalina, too. Everything has been documented, again, on the first post.

You will have to live with that black screen until you move on.

Edit:
This OpenCore never changes or changed the system serial and mlb, it just changes the system type to MacPro1,1 for AMD systems. I can guarantee you from a year of personal experience that there will be no problem with iCloud and iMessage and Apple if you use OpenCore in that way.

The separate OpenCore packages for the Catalina Loader image - linked from the first post - provided for NVIDIA cards do not even spoof the ID.
Ben is very active on reddit (r/BigSurPatcher ), from my understanding he tells that he don't have plans to release 0.1 until there's some fix that permits updating from Patched Sur without installing.

I read about the OpenCore Loader, going to test it will it run on Big Sur?
 
Ben is very active on reddit (r/BigSurPatcher ), from my understanding he tells that he don't have plans to release 0.1 until there's some fix that permits updating from Patched Sur without installing.

I read about the OpenCore Loader, going to test it will it run on Big Sur?
Right now I could implement and add it to the OpenCore we already use for more than a year here on the thread. But the ongoing discussion about firmware corruption makes me stopping this project.

The OCLP (OpenCoreLegacyPatcher) already provides such OpenCore configs which will allow to use OTA upgrades, *but* this patcher cannot patch the 2011 models. The 2009/2010 can be used with three problems to be solved:

  1. OLCP does not contain the config parts iMacs with K610M, K1100M, K2100M, and all AMD GPUs need!
  2. OLCP does not enable the internal Ethernet, although WiFi is working, but even the old Atheros does it fine!
  3. OLCP does deliver sound via a Voodoo.kext - works, but somewhat lame.
  4. OLCP cannot patch 2011 models
Current state:

Use micropatcher to initially install and initially patch 2009-2011 models and (possibly) OLCP to enable OTA upgrades every three month. Use the micropatcher after each upgrade to patch again. Otherwise use micropatcher to install minor releases, too.
There will be no OTA without using OpenCore.
 
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Right now I could implement and add it to the OpenCore we already use for more than a year her in the thread. But the ongoing discussion about firmware corruption makes me stopping this project.

The OCLP (OpenCoreLegacyPatcher) already provides such OpenCore configs which will allow to use OTA upgrades, *but* this patcher cannot patch the 2011 models. The 2009/2010 can be used with three problems to be solved:

  1. OLCP does not contain the config parts such iMacs need with K610M, K1100M, K2100M, and all AMD GPUs
  2. OLCP does not enable the internal Ethernet, although WiFi is working
  3. OLCP does deliver sound via a Voodoo.kext - works, but somewhat lame
  4. OLCP cannot patch 2011 models
Current state:

Use micropatcher to initially install and initially patch 2011 models and OLCP to enable OTA upgrades every three month. Use the micropatcher after each upgrade to patch again.
Thank you for the information.
But I think I will stay without OC for these reasons:
- I'm an absolute newbie here
- Brightness is not important, I can use a workaround with a dimming app
- Air Drop I almost never use.
- I can leave updating with full installs and the annoying black screen
 
You are completely mistaken!

We have hundreds of published successful GPU upgrades, possibly the thousands of known successful Mojave, Catalina and Big Sur installations on this modded machines. Adding an BT/WiFi card, new GPU makes this machines fully compatible with the latest macOS version - of course unsupported by Apple.

Check the first post!
Not 100% compatible. If you try to use Netflix (for instance) on safari, it won’t work under catalina or big sur, if your have a nvidia (with metal Support) card ...
 
so guys, I have a little gift for you to give back after such an incredible thread :D
hope you like it, the headaches to get it running were immens for me as a newb.

I couldn't stand it to use fckin windows to flash the cards and so I prepared this ~350mb drive

I created a Linux Live USB (based on grml.org) Thumb Drive with nvflash_linux and Nicks Bioses preloaded. and its booting by itself so you can work blind with a new unpatched nvidia card plugged in. Also, its starting a ssh daemon and using DHCP to get an IP so you can remote login :)

Steps

Download

14 days left to download, uploaded here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/cztz4xqj2sru9gj/2011_imac_usb.zip/file

mirror by NOTNICE, thnx: https://cloud.notnlce.com/index.php/s/xkJP34GD6a9WziE/download


Prepare USB Drive or SD Card
so, you take a small usb thumb drive, partition it with disk utility on a Mac: GPT + FAT32
and just unzip the files structure onto the drive, no dd or etcher or something. just copy paste it. folder structure see attached screenshot. (you can remove the .roms I downloaded and download itself if you want to be sure about the correct file size. I did not verify them at all. use/flash at your own risk please)

Test & Try
test your thumb drive with a more or less working GPU/ external Screen or just have faith in me

Swap Hardware
swap your GPU to NVIDIA and (!) disconnect every SSD/HDD, makes it easier to boot blindly from one USB or SD Card, connect the ETH Cable (!)

Find IP
let the iMac boot, everything is black, the boot loader is waiting 20s before booting, so give the whole process 1min time, then head over to your Router Page and find the right IP that the iMac got through DHCP

SSH to the iMac
now fire up your terminal on a Win/Mac/Linux Machine of your choice and ssh to your iMac with
ssh root@YOURIP
Password: flash
Confirm the ssh id with yes and you should be in your iMac

Working Directory
cd /lib/live/mount/medium/flash

read the RADME in there… I will enjoy my brand new k2000m in my 27" 2011 iMac with Catalina 10.15.3
… and because this is so easy, I rebuild it to a K1100M and flashed that also :D :D :)

(someone could write some fancy scripts but I thought its saver that everyone is doing it command by command and don't stop thinking and trusting some scripts)
@xanderon, congrats this tool is brilliant!
I have an iMac 21.5-inch Mid 2010 with an upgraded 3.6 GHz Intel Core i5, 12 GB RAM and a failing ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB GPU. I bought a NVIDIA Quadro K1100m which I installed and gave me a black screen with 2 diagnostic LED lights in the masterboard, so I assume it needs flashing. I ordered the CH341A USB to flash the card and I'll be waiting for about a month for it to arrive, but I found your method to do it via SSH to my iMac. Using the faulty HD 4670 card I tested the pendrive method, I removed the .rom files to be on the safe side, and I can remotely access the machine. Now I'm going to try the 'Swap Hardware' and the reminder steps but I don't know which and how to put back the .rom files in the folder structure. Should I only put back the 'Quadro_Beta1.2' folder with the K1100.rom file inside and ignore the other .rom files?
Once this is done, the next thing would be to SSH my iMac, access the working directory and then read the 'README'? Am I following the right steps?
Thanks in advance for your help.
 
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Hi all!

I did something evil, binary patched a Big Sur GUI patcher to include the Big Sur iMac micropatcher to get a (hopefully) completely command line free installation of Big Sur. I need volunteers to test it:


Have fun and report back.

Notes:
1. create a separate partition on your iMac for Big Sur test installation or use an external USB device
2. opencore will be installed on the Big Sur USB installer! No need to have a separate SD card.
This looks great, I'll try it out and let you know how it went if I have some time this weekend! :)

--Edit:
Schermafbeelding 2021-02-05 om 20.02.36.png

I think the picture says it all? :cool:
Very smooth installation on an external SSD for now, after installing the post-install patches it seems to work as it should.
As said in the description, the iMac will kernel panic when using the regular bootpicker, but the OC bootpicker does it's job and the iMac boots into Big Sur without problems.
Im going to try it out for a week and if all works well, I'll finally upgrade for real from Catalina to Big Sur as my second daily computer. It's fantastic that my 10 year old iMac now runs the newest OS, and it does it well! I rarely use my 2019 16" MBP since my iMac can do all tasks which I need it to.

Thank you @Ausdauersportler and of course the other dev's for putting this together.
 
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Not 100% compatible. If you try to use Netflix (for instance) on safari, it won’t work under catalina or big sur, if your have a nvidia (with metal Support) card ...
it might not be the best option, the work around for this is to use chrome. Netflix works ok on my machine.
 
There are solutions, of course, but i use friendly streaming. It uses Safari and i cannot change that...
1. Safari / Preferences / Advanced / Show develop menu
2. Go to Netflix
3. Develop / User Agent / Microsoft Edge
4. Netflix works in Safari :)

You can setup a keyboard shortcut to open Netflix and change the user agent, so you don't have to manually select it each time. Maybe you could ask the developer of Friendly Streaming to add a feature to set user agent manually in the app, its not that complicated to implement i believe.
 
@Ausdauersportler

I created an OC loader SD card after many attempts and finally using the restore option in disk utility... renamed the config.NVIDIA.plist to config.plist, and copied the entire 0.6.0 folder into the sd card. Is this correct? Or do I need to remove a few layers and start with the EFI folder? I rebooted and saw a rEFInd text window pop up very quickly and my machine booted into Windows. Not sure how to make changes to the plist file to extend the boot time just so I can see what's going on, I haven't read into that much yet.

configplist.PNG


On a side note, I've also noticed that my "Reboot in os x" does not work from bootcamp on Windows, I always end up back in Windows after the restart. And if I set the startup disk to BOOTCAMP Windows in startup disk on macOS it seems to try to boot in BIOS mode and hangs on the no boot disk error. Not a big deal since I can set OC as my boot (or holding control and selecting Windows from alt boot screen sets the correct Windows partition as boot), but it would be nice if I could have windows reboot into OS.

Note: I'm still working using my 6770m until I figure out how to install NVIDIA drivers for the Quadro M4000M card.
 
Note: I'm still working using my 6770m until I figure out how to install NVIDIA drivers for the Quadro M4000M card.
That screenshot is on Catalina? How did you get Catalina to run with 6770m without graphics glitches? Do you have transparency as well?
 
@Ausdauersportler

I created an OC loader SD card after many attempts and finally using the restore option in disk utility... renamed the config.NVIDIA.plist to config.plist, and copied the entire 0.6.0 folder into the sd card. Is this correct? Or do I need to remove a few layers and start with the EFI folder? I rebooted and saw a rEFInd text window pop up very quickly and my machine booted into Windows. Not sure how to make changes to the plist file to extend the boot time just so I can see what's going on, I haven't read into that much yet.

View attachment 1725641

On a side note, I've also noticed that my "Reboot in os x" does not work from bootcamp on Windows, I always end up back in Windows after the restart. And if I set the startup disk to BOOTCAMP Windows in startup disk on macOS it seems to try to boot in BIOS mode and hangs on the no boot disk error. Not a big deal since I can set OC as my boot (or holding control and selecting Windows from alt boot screen sets the correct Windows partition as boot), but it would be nice if I could have windows reboot into OS.

Note: I'm still working using my 6770m until I figure out how to install NVIDIA drivers for the Quadro M4000M card.
EFI folder must go to the root of the Catalina Loader. Move out and read docs :)
 
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That screenshot is on Catalina? How did you get Catalina to run with 6770m without graphics glitches? Do you have transparency as well?
The screenshot is on High Sierra which I need in order to run my Quadro M4000M card (basically a Maxwell 970m). However, I was able to install Catalina natively from USB and run long enough to download the High Sierra patcher, and then High Sierra installer and burn it to USB. Didn't run any tests or anything though to see stability. It seemed okay.
 
Now you know why I moved from 780M to WX4170 :)
Since you're using Opencore, have you ever tried using an SSDT to inject the VBIOS for eeprom-less WX cards?

It could prove to be as simple as loading the attached SSDT under ACPI in OC.

Or if the ROM needs adjusting/replacing/updating with a new ROM, you just replace the info on the SSDT (with MaciASL)

Food for thought
 

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Since you're using Opencore, have you ever tried using an SSDT to inject the VBIOS for eeprom-less WX cards?

It could prove to be as simple as loading the attached SSDT under ACPI in OC.

Or if the ROM needs adjusting/replacing/updating with a new ROM, you just replace the info on the SSDT (with MaciASL)

Food for thought
This was a project @Nick [D]vB was talking about when the first eeprom-less cards came by. He owned one am tried to sell it on eBay for a long, long time. There is a Spaniard working on such a WX4170....trying to install a chip and the needed parts. Same problem, different approach.
 
hi everyone I have a problem with a K5100M N15E-Q5-A2 flash error

have you ever encountered this problem??

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...
Adapter: Quadro K5100M (10DE,11B8,1028,15CD) H:--:NRM S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00
Current - Version:80.04.C9.00.02 ID:10DE:11B8:1028:15CD
GK104 Board - 20530503 (Normal Board)
Replace with - Version:51.00.01.30.37 ID:10DE:11B8:1028:15CD
NVIDIA Quadro K5100M by nikey22 (Normal Board)
Update display adapter firmware?
Press 'y' to confirm (any other key to abort): y
Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (7F,9D21) : PMC Pm25LD010 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S, page
Nothing changed!
ERROR: Cannot program a non-page boundary or invalid range for EEPROM.

PEACE
 
hi everyone I have a problem with a K5100M N15E-Q5-A2 flash error

have you ever encountered this problem??

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.414.0)
Simplified Version For OEM Only
Checking for matches between display adapter(s) and image(s)...
Adapter: Quadro K5100M (10DE,11B8,1028,15CD) H:--:NRM S:00,B:01,D:00,F:00
Current - Version:80.04.C9.00.02 ID:10DE:11B8:1028:15CD
GK104 Board - 20530503 (Normal Board)
Replace with - Version:51.00.01.30.37 ID:10DE:11B8:1028:15CD
NVIDIA Quadro K5100M by nikey22 (Normal Board)
Update display adapter firmware?
Press 'y' to confirm (any other key to abort): y
Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (7F,9D21) : PMC Pm25LD010 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S, page
Nothing changed!
ERROR: Cannot program a non-page boundary or invalid range for EEPROM.

PEACE
Have you read the error message?
 
Okay, it seems to me the BIOS chip is not big enough to store the vBIOS. You need to solder a bigger chip (256KB) on the card and yes, we had this and there is a warning about that on the first post in red letters :)
 
EFI folder must go to the root of the Catalina Loader. Move out and read docs :)
Thanks! Got it... Now the issue is that I downloaded OpenCore Configurator to enable the DSDT audio patch, but when I turn it on with the nvidia config.plist I get a stop code ACPI UEFI ERROR. Hopefully it's because I have the AMD card installed? I tried with the AMD config.plist and I got an ACPI BIOS ERROR stop code. Sorry for all the questions! The boot process seems much faster than when I was on BIOS mode, and I also dropped the Timeout from 10 to 5 seconds.

configurator.PNG
 
Thanks! Got it... Now the issue is that I downloaded OpenCore Configurator to enable the DSDT audio patch, but when I turn it on with the nvidia config.plist I get a stop code ACPI UEFI ERROR. Hopefully it's because I have the AMD card installed? I tried with the AMD config.plist and I got an ACPI BIOS ERROR stop code. Sorry for all the questions! The boot process seems much faster than when I was on BIOS mode, and I also dropped the Timeout from 10 to 5 seconds.

View attachment 1725721
First, move on to a more recent version and second this patch should work with 27“ 2011 iMacs, only. The timeouts are needed because some vBIOS versions have the same timeouts and you would not see a picture before the 5-10s are gone.
The patch is needed for UEFI windows installations, only. BIOS installations do not suffer the sound driver problem.

I am out - Windows is not my thing.
 
Okay, it seems to me the BIOS chip is not big enough to store the vBIOS. You need to solder a bigger chip (256KB) on the card and yes, we had this and there is a warning about that on the first post in red letters :)
Thank you, I'm sad, is there a tutorial? i try to send her back to china
 
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