Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

macOS 10.12 Sierra Unsupported Macs Thread

Status
The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
dosdude1 said:
If you used the latest version of my patch tool to create your installer USB drive, there's a patch for the Recovery Partition in the Post Install tool. And you don't have to use the Recovery partition to disable SIP, you can simply run "csrutil disable" in Terminal within the macOS Installer drive. My patch tool does this automatically when it's ran, as SIP must be disabled for the modified kexts to be loaded.
Click to expand...
Thanks dosdude1! The recovery patch worked perfectly (should have checked that when I installed, obviously) - also got SIP disabled, so I'll try to get my usb wifi working now. :)

Cheers!

Edit: Wifi working now. Farted around with another kext for the USB BT 4.0LE adapter, so the "wake" option showed up.

Next problem: Find My Mac says that my macbook doesn't have a wifi adapter, so won't enable the location (which I'm guessing is part of the secret sauce to get unlocking via apple watch working).
 
Last edited:
fischersd said:
Thanks dosdude1! The recovery patch worked perfectly (should have checked that when I installed, obviously) - also got SIP disabled, so I'll try to get my usb wifi working now. :)

Cheers!

Edit: Wifi working now. Farted around with another kext for the USB BT 4.0LE adapter, so the "wake" option showed up.

Next problem: Find My Mac says that my macbook doesn't have a wifi adapter, so won't enable the location (which I'm guessing is part of the secret sauce to get unlocking via apple watch working).
Click to expand...
Is that one of those cards that requires a piece of third party software to connect to a network? If so, that's why, as OS X detects those cards as Ethernet adapters, not wireless cards.
 
I have not been able to read through the entire thread. I see that MacOS 10.12 "Sierra" will run on a 2008 Mac Pro, but the Wifi card is incompatible. Is there a replacement or after-market WiFi card that will work with Sierra? At the moment I am using a USB2.0 WiFi dongle, but my internet is via the ethernet cable.

I am not so sure how much I will like Sierra. I don't want Siri getting in the way, and I am perfectly happy with El Capitan's functionality.
 
hartleymartin said:
I have not been able to read through the entire thread. I see that MacOS 10.12 "Sierra" will run on a 2008 Mac Pro, but the Wifi card is incompatible. Is there a replacement or after-market WiFi card that will work with Sierra? At the moment I am using a USB2.0 WiFi dongle, but my internet is via the ethernet cable.

I am not so sure how much I will like Sierra. I don't want Siri getting in the way, and I am perfectly happy with El Capitan's functionality.
Click to expand...

I have the same model. As far as wifi cards take a look at these links:
www.macvidcards.com/store/c4/Wifi_and_Bluetooth.html

http://www.osxwifi.com/adapters/app...th-4-0-with-adapter-for-macpro-2008-2007-2006

Google is your friend

As for Sierra , you won't notice some big sweeping UI changes. Not sure if I'm ready to speak to my computer yet so I've temporarily turned Siri off (Cortana suffered the same fate too). But that may just betray my age...However, besides Siri integration, there are some significant features that may or may not be of interest:

Universal clipboard
Auto unlock
Optimized storage (tighter iCloud integration)
iCloud desktop from any device
Apple Pay on the web
Tons of Safari and Messages improvements
Performance and reliability tweaks

From a developer's point of view, the changes are actually too numerous to enumerate. Not the least of which being a new file system APFS they are actually beta testing for the future (it's been over twenty years since they attempted this) and tons of framework and system enhancements that are only of interest to those who care about bits and bytes.

So, if El Cap works for you, and the pain of going through gymnastics to upgrade your now unsupported Mac doesn't float your boat. At least wait till it's released officially. Good news is, this thread and dosdude's tool will breathe new life in your aging but very much capable and performant investment.
 
dosdude1 said:
...You can't, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
I don't give up easy. :) Ok, so the USB Wifi adapter isn't a good fit. Luckily (via some searching and discussions with Czo), I found these guys: http://www.quickertek.com/products/mCard.html

And, no, Czo didn't recommend, as it's not an Apple part.

Going to try their mCard 2 (my A1261 MBP is on the compatibility list). Should give me 802.11AC and BT 4.0LE.

I'll let you guys know how it goes when it arrives (just ordered).

I figure that should fill all the requirements Apple is looking for.
 
I missed out on about 20 pages of this thread. Is there a solution yet for updating Sierra through the app store once you already have it installed on your unsupported Mac? Or are we still doing that manually?
 
Well, any combination of the El Capitan and Sierra AppleHDA kexts (that will load properly) doesn't fix the master volume issue on the iMac7,1 24", and VoodooHDA doesn't recognize the internal speakers, so that's also a dead end. Will have to keep brainstorming this one.
 
Stratus Fear said:
I did test this, and as you suspected, it didn't work since the 7,1 uses a different layout ID. I did a diff between the elcap and sierra kexts and implemented all the stuff removed between the two into the Sierra info.plist, but that didn't change anything. Using the elcap kext on Sierra fails due to a symbol from a debug function used by AppleHDAController being missing in a kext it depends on (I'm not at my iMac right now so I'll have to check what this was later). I was going to try replacing AppleHDAController in the elcap kext with the one from Sierra to try and work around the unresolved symbol, but ran out of time to test.

Unfortunately it does seem that getting volume control working on this old machine is going to be a Hackintosh-like effort lol
Click to expand...
Stratus Fear said:
Well, any combination of the El Capitan and Sierra AppleHDA kexts (that will load properly) doesn't fix the master volume issue on the iMac7,1 24", and VoodooHDA doesn't recognize the internal speakers, so that's also a dead end. Will have to keep brainstorming this one.
Click to expand...

Which combinations load? What is the specific error with the old hardware config?

I know that imac7,1 speakers didn't work on Linux until a quirk was added to alsa. I could try to port that code to voodoohda
 
parrotgeek1 said:
Which combinations load? What is the specific error with the old hardware config?

I know that imac7,1 speakers didn't work on Linux until a quirk was added to alsa. I could try to port that code to voodoohda
Click to expand...

As long as the main kext (AppleHDA) and the AppleHDAController plugin stay as the Sierra versions, I can get them to load (no unresolved symbol errors). I can replace any of the other kexts in the PlugIns subdirectory with the ElCap versions without incident, but none of that helps with the master audio level.

Output from kextutil when attempting to use the ElCap versions:
(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDA]: The following symbols are unresolved for this kext:
(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDA]: _gAudioStackDebugFlags
(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController]: The following symbols are unresolved for this kext:
(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController]: _gAudioStackDebugFlags
 
Stratus Fear said:
As long as the main kext (AppleHDA) and the AppleHDAController plugin stay as the Sierra versions, I can get them to load (no unresolved symbol errors). I can replace any of the other kexts in the PlugIns subdirectory with the ElCap versions without incident, but none of that helps with the master audio level.
Click to expand...
If you replace applehdacontroller what are the errors specifically?
 
parrotgeek1 said:
If you replace applehdacontroller what are the errors specifically?
Click to expand...

(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController]: The following symbols are unresolved for this kext:
(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController]: _gAudioStackDebugFlags

And then AppleHDA refuses to load at all since it depends on AppleHDAController.
 
Stratus Fear said:
(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController]: The following symbols are unresolved for this kext:
(kernel) kxld[com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController]: _gAudioStackDebugFlags

And then AppleHDA refuses to load at all since it depends on AppleHDAController.
Click to expand...
Have you tried the kext from DP1? The volume in DP1 worked fine on my iMac 8,1.
 
dosdude1 said:
Have you tried the kext from DP1? The volume in DP1 worked fine on my iMac 8,1.
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware of that earlier kext possibly working. I hadn't had Sierra on here until PB1. I'll give it a shot, thanks for the tip!

Edit: So the DP1 kext had the same unresolved symbol issue as the ElCap kext. I found out that said symbol should be in IOAudioFamily.kext. I put the DP1 IOAudioFamily.kext in place as well, no errors this time, but still no master control. Put the ElCap AppleHDA and IOAudioFamily in place and boom, working master audio control. Put the ElCap AppleHDA and DP1 IOAudioFamily in place, and also working master control. So Apple made some changes to IOAudioFamily in DP2/PB1. I imagine that any other audio kexts that rely on IOAudioFamily would also need to be replaced if one intends to use them (USB audio probably). Can't imagine that would be an issue for too many people though.
 
Last edited:
fischersd said:
@dosdude1 Thanks for that! The new image worked and I was able to load PB1. Now I'll patch it and see if I can't update to PB3 :). *fingers crossed*

Edit: PB3 installed with no issues. The software update patcher worked like a charm. Then installed iTunes 12.5. All good. Thanks again @dosdude1!! Really appreciate the work you guys are doing!! :)

Additional background info: (in case anyone else hits this).
The installer I downloaded from the App Store on the 29th had build number 16A238k (the same as the PB1 installer) - though, at that point is should have been PB2. Creation date and size were different than the PB1 installer (odd, right?)

The installer I downloaded last night had a version number of 16A269e and a creation date of July 28th (figured this to be PB3).

Both of these installers didn't work with the usb creation tool - both installers failed to load, stating that "The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged." (funny, but it looked like that detail wasn't available until I formatted the hard drive).
Any who - PB3 now running great - trying to get a functional driver for my Edimax usb AC450 wireless nic now.
Click to expand...

The "The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged." message is actually caused by a change to the Sierra installer in Public Beta 3 (16A269f) and in Developer Preview 4 (16A270f), where OSInstall.mpkg and other related packages are now checked to have valid Apple-provided signatures, and if the package's signature is invalidated (such as with editing), the installer stops.

That part is triggered by an updated OSInstaller.framework, at least.
 
Last edited:
Hello to all.
I have a problem.
Once download the sierra updater patch and refresh the update, I still view upgrade don't exist on your computer.
I have an MBP5,5 with DP1 e recovery HD installed. It's a fusion drive.
Please can you help me?
 
Yeah, the PB2 and PB3 installers don't work with my tool at this point, I'll be adding support for those in the near future.
 
dosdude1 said:
Yeah, the PB2 and PB3 installers don't work with my tool at this point, I'll be adding support for those in the near future.
Click to expand...

It's a very simple binary patch on OSInstaller.framework. It seemed to work fine after some testing (because I had to get Beta 3 on my 2009 Macbook Pro).

Edit: For anyone interested on getting the newer USB installers working, here's a patch alongside a script.
 
Last edited:
parrotgeek1 said:
can you explain what you patched
Click to expand...

The script (which is meant for USB installers) replaces /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/OSInstaller.framework with an earlier version (from DP1) that unsets setMinimumRequiredTrustLevel: PKTrustLevelAppleDistributedDevelopment to allow modified/unsigned packages.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back