I found a way to download Sierra on unsupported Macs without using a virtual machine.
Go get this
https://github.com/argon/mas
(I personally moved 'mas' to /usr/local/bin/)
Open terminal and type 'mas list'
There should be "1127487414 Install macOS Sierra"
then type 'mas install 1127487414'
and you'll be asked to sign in and please do so
Your download will begin shortly
Very interesting. This caught my curiosity, so I decided to check it out, just to see if it really works.
I went to the Github page and tried to use the Homebrew install method for mas-cli, which according to the page, is the preferred installation method. However, for some reason, Homebrew was not able to find mas-cli in its repository. So, I went to the binaries page instead and downloaded mas-cli 1.3.0, which was released three days ago.
Following your above instructions, I made invisible files visible -- using Desktop Utility -- and then placed the binary in /usr/local/bin/ as you suggested.
Afterwards, without even a need to reboot, I ran "mas list" in the Terminal app, and "1127487414 Install macOS Sierra" was indeed listed there among other Mac App Store purchases.
Next, I entered "mas install 1127487414" in the Terminal.
After that, I got an on-screen message that one of Apple's agreements had changed -- I can't remember the name of the agreement, something about "Apple Media" -- and that I had to agree to it first.
The Terminal then printed out "Dialog has goto button".
The App Store app then launched, and I was presented with the new agreement, which I agreed to, and then it told me to go start shopping.
BTW, I was already signed in, so I was able to bypass that step.
However, at that point, the "Updates" tab didn't show any updates, even though I tried twice.
So I went to the "Purchased" tab and there was a "macOS Sierra" with the date September 9, 2016. On the far right, the status was "Downloaded". I think that was there from my previous attempt to download Sierra before I became savvy to dosdude1' tools. In other words, even though it says "Downloaded", Apple didn't really let me download it at that time.
Anyway, to continue, I deduced that the download hadn't started yet, because I hadn't signed their new Apple Media agreement before trying to install via the Terminal. So, I went back into the Terminal and typed "mas install 1127487414" a second time. This time, macOS Sierra did in fact begin downloading on the "Purchased" tab. It is a 4.77 GB file.
Also note that rather than create a new entry on the "Purchased" tab, the App Store simply used the same entry for macOS Sierra from Sept. 9, 2016, and downloaded the new installer in that slot.
The download progress also showed in the Terminal window as well. It went rather slowly, but the GM finally completed downloading. It is build 16A322.
Please also note that in my case, the App Store found the previous installer for 16A319 in one of my software installers backup folders, and it replaced that installer with the 16A322 installer.
Once the download completed, the installer was automatically launched. However, as we all know, it would not actually allow me to install on this machine, due to the machine check.
In other words, while you can download the macOS Sierra builds on an unsupported machine using mas-cli, you still need to use dosdude1's patch tools in order to actually install it on an unsupported machine, and you need to go the whole USB drive installer mode all over again.
So, I can indeed confirm that using mas-cli on an UNSUPPORTED machine will indeed allow you to download the latest build of macOS Sierra via the Mac App Store, without using dosdude1's patch tool first.
I don't actually intend to install this latest build, because it takes too long for me to migrate all of my personal files from my backup drive. I am still going to wait for 10.12.1.
But again, I can confirm that on my early 2009 iMac which currently has 16A319 installed via dosdude1's two tools, using the mac-cli binary has in fact allowed me to download the latest GM -- 16A322 -- via the Mac App Store.
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