Mm 1,1-6,2 Installing Sonoma On A 2009 Mac Mini via OCLP

[TheShortTimer]

The legendary Greg Hrutkay offers further goodness.

I have to admit that I've not followed developments with OCLP that closely but would I be correct in assuming that if Sonoma can be coaxed to run a a 2009 machine then that means I should be able to set it up on my 2012 13" i5 MBP using this patcher?

 

[ToniCH]

would I be correct in assuming that if Sonoma that can be coaxed to run a a 2009 machine then that means I should be able to set it up on my 2012 13" i5 MBP using this patcher?

Yes. This week I have installed it to 2011 iMac i5, 2012 15" MBP i7 and 2012 Mini i7. All of them have 16GB RAM. And they all seem to run just fine. If your MBP has a working OS you can add a APFS-disk volume and do a clean install of Sonoma to that and then import your settings and apps from it (the Mac OS installer asks if you want to do it). Then update the apps to newest version if needed. Apps like Coconut battery, Macs fan control etc. will suggest updating automatically if you have that enabled. If you don't like how it works then you can just swap back to the old OS.

I guess the only problems I have seen this far are:
- in the iMac with non metal GPU some things in GIMP are slower than they used to be. Like the tool, for example the brush, lags behind the cursor. No HW acceleration I guess. Doesn't effect youtube playback etc.
- I can no longer choose smilies from ctrl+cmd+space bar. Have to use inbuilt smilie function in the forums and Thunderbird (email).
- Sonoma top menu bar is too lightly colored. But you can choose Dark Menu Bar from the patcher and it becomes more visible.

 

[theMarble]

I have to admit that I've not followed developments with OCLP that closely but would I be correct in assuming that if Sonoma that can be coaxed to run a a 2009 machine then that means I should be able to set it up on my 2012 13" i5 MBP using this patcher?

Yes, in fact it will run better for you as the 2012 MBP has a Metal-capable GPU (the HD 4000), meaning that graphics performance and stability will be way better.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Thanks @ToniCH and @theMarble for your replies.

I'm curious, which do you prefer out of the two most recent macOS versions - Ventura or Sonoma?

 

[ToniCH]

I've read so much bad about Ventura that I have not even tried it. I believe Big Sur and Monterey are much more mature OS's. Sonoma is of course in its first versions so not very mature but seems to work quite nicely this far.

Oh, I believe both Ventura and Sonoma have the new IOS-style System Settings -thing. Not a big fan, the old one was perfect. Now some of the stuff is hidden in seemingly random places. Oh well, maybe I'll get used to it some day.

 

[TheShortTimer]

I've read so much bad about Ventura that I have not even tried it. I believe Big Sur and Monterey are much more mature OS's. Sonoma is of course in its first versions so not very mature but seems to work quite nicely this far.

Oh, I believe both Ventura and Sonoma have the new IOS-style System Settings -thing. Not a big fan, the old one was perfect. Now some of the stuff is hidden in seemingly random places. Oh well, maybe I'll get used to it some day.

In that case I'll try Sonoma and if I dislike it, switch to Monterey. At present my 2012 13" MBP has Catalina - the final supported release but it doesn't work very well on my machine and at this point there's unlikely to be any fixes so I'm hoping that I'll have better luck with a later version.

 

[ToniCH]

In that case I'll try Sonoma and if I dislike it, switch to Monterey. At present my 2012 13" MBP has Catalina - the final supported release but it doesn't work very well on my machine and at this point there's unlikely to be any fixes so I'm hoping that I'll have better luck with a later version.

My 2012 MBP 15" also had Catalina previously. It seemed a bit slower. Sonoma feels little quicker, but that is subjective of course. And, yes there will be no more fixes to the Catalina.

This was surpricing though, iMac i5 2.7GHz Sonoma vs iMac i7 3.4GHz High Sierra. Note the Geekbench 5 single core score, don't know how much is because of the processor and how much because of the OS. Didn't expect that from the i5.

 

[headlessmike]

My 2012 MBP 15" also had Catalina previously. It seemed a bit slower. Sonoma feels little quicker, but that is subjective of course. And, yes there will be no more fixes to the Catalina.

My 2012 mini was much faster with Big Sur or Monterey than with Catalina. Ventura is somewhere in between. Got rid of it before Sonoma came out.

 

[Heindijs]

That Mini really flies with that cpu. Although I'll keep mine on Snow Leopard because I have enough Macs capable of running Sonoma a lot better than it

My 13 inch MBP is also running Sonoma but it's a 2013 model instead, is yours a Retina model? You'll definitely notice laggy animations on the Retina display since its such a high resolution, compare this to my 2012 Mini which has slower graphics but just a 1080p screen, that thing is buttery smooth.

My 2012 mini was much faster with Big Sur or Monterey than with Catalina. Ventura is somewhere in between. Got rid of it before Sonoma came out.

I have mine currently set up in the attic with Sonoma, you'd be surprised how well it runs it.

 

[TheShortTimer]

My 13 inch MBP is also running Sonoma but it's a 2013 model instead, is yours a Retina model?

My 13" MBP? I had to clarify who this was addressed to as you hadn't quoted me.

It's the mid 2012 pre-Retina model.

 

[Heindijs]

My 13" MBP? I had to clarify who this was addressed to as you hadn't quoted me.

It's the mid 2012 pre-Retina model.

Ah pre-Retina, that'll probably run Sonoma a lot smoother than mine

 

[swamprock]

The legendary Greg Hrutkay offers further goodness.

I have to admit that I've not followed developments with OCLP that closely but would I be correct in assuming that if Sonoma can be coaxed to run a a 2009 machine then that means I should be able to set it up on my 2012 13" i5 MBP using this patcher?

I ran Monterey on my 2009 Mini for a while, but it would just hard freeze on me on occasion. Then again, I installed High Sierra on it afterwards, and it did the same thing, so something more nefarious is at play (probably needs a repaste). It's been mothballed for a few months now, but I'll dig it out, repaste it, and try out Sonoma on it.

 

[ToniCH]

it did the same thing, so something more nefarious is at play

Could be a bad HDD-cable, failing drive or RAM, bad RAM-socket, bad solder joint, oxidized anything etc.

 

[headlessmike]

I have mine currently set up in the attic with Sonoma, you'd be surprised how well it runs it.

I bet it does. I replaced mine with an M1, which handles Sonoma quite well too.

At work I have a late 2013 13" Retina MacBook Pro and I'm really impressed by how well it handles Sonoma. The case is all bent though due to a swelling battery.

At home I just have my 2010 MacBook and 2003 PowerBook G4 to hold me over with older hardware.

 

[Heindijs]

I bet it does. I replaced mine with an M1, which handels Sonoma quite well too.

At work I have a late 2013 13" Retina MacBook Pro and I'm really impressed by how well it handles Sonoma. The case is all bent though due to a swelling battery.

At home I just have my 2010 MacBook and 2003 PowerBook G4 to hold me over with older hardware.

I also bought a newer Mini as a replacement, an M2 Pro and I'm incredibly happy with it of course, but the 2012 is no slouch.

I'm also very happy with my 2013 13inch mbp but do you also notice the general lagginess of the interface, or was that also already a thing with Big Sur?

 

[headlessmike]

I also bought a newer Mini as a replacement, an M2 Pro and I'm incredibly happy with it of course, but the 2012 is no slouch.

I'm also very happy with my 2013 13inch mbp but do you also notice the general lagginess of the interface, or was that also already a thing with Big Sur?

Nice! I wanted an M1 Pro when I got my mini, but even the standard M1 works great. Mine is maxed out with memory and drive space and should last me a long time.

I was always happy with Big Sur. But for some reason I always felt that it performed worse on the late 2013 MacBook Pro that supported it than on the 2012 Mac mini that didn't. I'm not sure why. Both the GPU and CPU are measurably better and the SSD is much faster on the late 2013 models with the move from SATA to PCIe based drives. I don't find Sonoma any worse than Big Sur though (at least with a clean install like I did).

The late 2012 mini (I had the quad core 2.3 GHz i7 with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD) is really an awesome machine even today. I kind of regret getting rid of it, even though I know it was the right choice. I have too much old (but functional) electronics as it is.

 

[hrutkaymods]

The legendary Greg Hrutkay offers further goodness.

I have to admit that I've not followed developments with OCLP that closely but would I be correct in assuming that if Sonoma can be coaxed to run a a 2009 machine then that means I should be able to set it up on my 2012 13" i5 MBP using this patcher?

LOL "legendary" I appreciate that bud... Sonoma has ran on everything I've thrown at except for a late 2008 Air (that was during the 1.0.1 release haven't tried since). Works great so far for everything

 

[TheShortTimer]

LOL "legendary" I appreciate that bud...

You're very welcome. It's a fitting descriptor.

Sonoma has ran on everything I've thrown at except for a late 2008 Air (that was during the 1.0.1 release haven't tried since). Works great so far for everything

Very interesting! What's the absolute minimum RAM requirements? I've got a couple of Air models (2010 and 2011) with 2GB that I'm curious to see how much further they can be pushed (currently at Catalina) and would appreciate your insights on this front.

 

[840quadra]

Will have to watch. I just upgraded my 2011 to 16gb of RAM and then to Monterey. All is working decent except for the fact my system now refuses to play HDCP content. The mini can still act as a home sharing server, as well as drive a few other server applications for me, however not being able to use it in my kitchen as an iTunes / AppleTV video player is a big problem for me .

 

[hrutkaymods]

Will have to watch. I just upgraded my 2011 to 16gb of RAM and then to Monterey. All is working decent except for the fact my system now refuses to play HDCP content. The mini can still act as a home sharing server, as well as drive a few other server applications for me, however not being able to use it in my kitchen as an iTunes / AppleTV video player is a big problem for me .

Safari doesn't support HDCP with the patches... If you use Chrome or Firefox HDCP should work fine

 

[840quadra]

Safari doesn't support HDCP with the patches... If you use Chrome or Firefox HDCP should work fine

No issues with browser, it’s with Apple Media and content from their stores.