macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Ausdauersportler]

Talking about Big Sur Potential for iMac 2011​

After waiting a long time for the explorations on this Big Sur thread I gave the micro patcher by @Barry K. Nathan a run and installed Big Sur (public beta) on my modded iMac 2011, BCM943602CDP, K4100M by @nikey22 and have now a running and sleeping system. The Kepler based Nvidia Quadro K4100M is metal compatible and at the performance level of the GTX 780M.

To get the additional (patched) extensions we need to be installed on this modded iMacs I modified the patch-kext.sh script (and renamed it), added a new zipped kext package to the kexts folder. After sleep problems during the first installation @highvoltage12v figured out that the current 0.0.20 micro patcher did not include the latest IO80211Family.kext he had published here on this thread.

For this reason I have attached the more recent and working one together with the iMac package and the modified script here. This works currently for iMac with Nvidia cards!

The AMD modded systems (WX4xxx and WX7100) need the iMacProID patched version of the AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext. This extension has to be added currently manually. Otherwise sleep will not work.

There are two new command line options:

--2011-iMac-no-wifi (to be used with an ac compatible WIFI card like the BCM94360*)

or

--2011-iMac (installs the IO80211Family.kext, to be used with the stock WIFI card)

I hope @Barry K. Nathan may include this changes to his patcher, soon.

Thanks to both @highvoltage12v and @Barry K. Nathan and the other well known contributors for letting me write this message sitting in front of a 9 year old iMac running Big Sur! Thanks to @meggle pointing out the mount method to modify the system.

Note:
Using the mount method editing framework plist files will work instantly and do not need a reboot and will be persistent and do not need a new snapshot. Did this to enable Continuity by editing the "/Volume/ROOT/System/Library/Frameworks/IOBluetooth.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SystemParameters.plist". After quitting the editor the change became active and my iPhone showed up.
One can easily add or modify extensions using this way, it needs to run kmutil and creating a new snapshot at the and.

 

[nandor690]

Big Sur beta 4 runs great on 5,1(flashed 4,1) Mac Pro. The only things it’s missing is Handoff/Continuity and Night Shift. Both of which aren’t a high priority but I’m sure will come later.

just wanted to thank all the people working behind the scenes. Legends!

 

[kral84]

Talking about Big Sur Potential for iMac 2011​

After waiting a long time for the explorations on this Big Sur thread I gave the micro patcher by @Barry K. Nathan a run and installed Big Sur (public beta) on my iMac 2011, BCM943602CDP, K4100M by @nikey22 and have now a running and sleeping system.

To get the additional (patched) extensions we need to be installed on this modded iMacs I modified the patch-kext.sh script (and renamed it), added a new zipped kext package to the kexts folder. After sleep problems during the first installation @highvoltage12v figured out that the current 0.0.20 micro patcher did not include the latest IO80211Family.kext he had published here on this thread.

For this reason I have attached the more recent and working one together with the iMac package and the modified script here.

There are two new command line options:

--2011-iMac-no-wifi

or

--2011-iMac (installs the IO80211Family.kext)

I hope @Barry K. Nathan may include this changes to his patcher, soon.

Thanks to both @highvoltage12v and @Barry K. Nathan and the other well known contributors for letting me write this message sitting in front of a 9 year old iMac running Big Sur!

You and @highvoltage12v are heros thank you

 

[Vacusuck]

I'm formatting my USB 32 GB and downloading the InstallAssistant.pkg at post 2982. I'll format my Big Sur SSD and reinstall the Public beta. I'll post the info later.

I reinstalled the Big Sur Public beta no problem with Barry instruction step 1 to 8 for my cMP 5,1 mid 2012

Did you open a Terminal window, drag and drop micropatcher.sh into the Terminal window, drag and drop the USB macOS into the Terminal window?
Follow Barry Quick instructions for use and you will install Big Sur without problem.

Quick instructions for use:

1. Obtain a copy of the macOS Big Sur Developer Preview and use `createinstallmedia` as usual to create a bootable USB stick with the installer and recovery environment, as you would on a supported Mac. This patcher is easier to use if the installer USB stick is not renamed after `createinstallmedia` is used, but it can still work if the USB stick has been renamed (see next step).
2. Download this micropatcher, then run `micropatcher.sh` to patch the USB stick. (If you are viewing this on GitHub, and you probably are, then click "Clone" then "Download ZIP".) If the USB stick has been renamed or micropatcher.sh is otherwise unable to find the USB stick, then try specifying the pathname of the USB stick to micropatcher.sh. The easiest way to do that is to open a Terminal window, drag and drop micropatcher.sh into the Terminal window, go back to Finder, choose Computer from the Go menu, drag and drop the USB stick into the Terminal window, then press Return.
3. Since Disk Utility in Big Sur may have new bugs, this may be a good time to use Disk Utility in High Sierra/Mojave/Catalina to do any partitioning or formatting you may need.
4. Boot from the USB stick.
5. If you need to do any partitioning or formatting with Disk Utility, and you didn't do it in step 5, it's best to do it now.
6. Open Terminal (in the Utilities menu), then run `/Volumes/Image\ Volume/set-vars.sh`. This script will change boot-args and csrutil settings as needed, and also set things up so the Installer will run properly. Don't forget that tab completion is your friend! You can type `/V<tab>/I<tab>/se<tab>` at the command prompt -- that's much less typing! (Run `/Volumes/Image\ Volume/set-vars.sh -v` instead if you want verbose boot, which can be very useful for troubleshooting.)
7. Quit Terminal then start the Installer as you would on a supported Mac.
8. Come back in an hour or two and you should be at the macOS setup region prompt! (If you actually watch the installation process, don't be surprised if it seems to get stuck at "Less than a minute remaining..." for a long time. Allow it well over half an hour. It should eventually reboot on its own and keep going.)
9. If you're on a Late 2013 iMac, or you've replaced the 802.11n card in your 2012/2013 Mac with an 802.11ac card, you're done. Otherwise, press Command-Q and wait a few seconds, then the Setup Assistant should let you shut down. After you shut down, start up again and boot from the patched installer USB again, then open Terminal again. This time, run `/Volumes/Image\ Volume/patch-kexts.sh /Volumes/<name of Big Sur volume>`, for example `/Volumes/Image\ Volume/patch-kexts.sh /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD`. It needs to be the name of the *system* volume. This will patch your Big Sur installation to add working Wi-Fi. (On 2011 MacBook Pro 13" and 2011 MacBook Air, add a "--2011" option after the ".sh" and before the volume name, for example `/Volumes/Image\ Volume/patch-kexts.sh --2011 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD`, to fix sound, brightness control, and sleep as well as Wi-Fi. If you're going to use the installation on a 2010 or older Mac, add a "--all" option likewise.) As of patcher v0.0.18, it is now possible to do this step without booting from the patched installer USB -- just open Terminal and run `/Volumes/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur\ Beta/patch-kexts.sh` with any command line options if needed (such as `/Volumes/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur\ Beta/patch-kexts.sh --2011`), but do not specify a volume name and patch-kexts.sh will automatically default to the boot drive.
10. If you will be using the Big Sur installation on a different Mac (for instance, installing on a 2011 or later Mac and using it on a 2009 or 2010 Mac), it is possible that the other Mac (the one not used for installation) may try to boot off the wrong APFS snapshot. To prevent this, run zap-snapshots.sh on your System volume, to remove all but the most recent snapshot. For instance, `/Volumes/Image Volume/zap-snapshots.sh /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD`. (Or you can also do this if you are running low on disk space.) This is basically the same as step 9, but with `zap-snapshots` instead of `patch-kexts`, and without any command line options like `--2011` or `--all`.
11. After step 9 (and 10 if necessary), reboot into your Big Sur installation.
12. On 2011 and older Macs, once you have installed Big Sur, make sure to enable Reduce Transparency to eliminate many seemingly random crashes, and if icons on the right-hand side of the menu bar are invisible afterward, try Dark mode. (If you will be using the installation on a 2009/2010 Mac, it would be a good idea to finish the Setup Assistant on a 2011 or later Mac and enable Reduce Transparency before moving the installation over.)
13. (only for 2008 Mac Pros & 2010 or earlier models of other Macs) Before you move the installation over from a newer Mac, you need to set nvram variables. Normally this would be done by the set-vars.sh script in step 6, but you ran that script on a different Mac because the patched installer USB either will not boot on your Mac or will not provide a functioning keyboard/mouse/trackpad on your Mac. To set the nvram variables on the older Mac, first boot into the installer USB or DVD for OS X Mavericks (10.9.5) or older. Yosemite (10.10) and later will not work! Then open Terminal and run the following commands (pay attention to zero vs. 8 -- it's 'w%08%00%00'):

nvram csr-active-config='w%08%00%00'
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
[/QUOTE]

I was finally able to get this to work. I used another iMac I have that does support the public beta. I transferred the big install file to my 2012 iMac, ran createinstallmedia as normal, applied Barry’s patch and rebooted into the installer. Works fine but without sound or WiFi.

I could never get this to work with the installassistant.pkg file with the .app it installs.

 

[LegacyUser12]

Oh thank you so,much! That did it! I did apply the legacy USB fixes in the wrong order.

could you elaborate or point me to the specific thread?

 

[MacHacJac]

Hello everyone,
I would like to let you know that I am working on a new, NEARLY FULLY AUTOMATED patcher for Big Sur. It will probably be command-line style, unless I can learn to do it in a dosdude1 style. It should be out by next week. If you are interested in beta-testing this, please like this post and I will DM you when it is ready. Please also mention in the DM with me what Mac model (e.x. MacPro5,1) you have. Thanks!

EDIT: I am also working on a name of my development team (just me ). If you have any ideas, please DM me that too.

EDIT2: The reason why I'm doing this beta-testing is so I can tell people what works and what doesn't on different Macs.

 

[darthgeekonius]

Has anyone created a one stop patch solution for a 4.1 flashed to 5.1 Mac Pro yet? I have a RX580 and latest firmware running latest Catalina. I just keep going to the first post hoping for the click here/download solution. Like there was for Catalina. Maybe I missed it. Thanks

 

[jackluke]

could you elaborate or point me to the specific thread?

To install BigSur on non-APFS or legacy USB Mac try this: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28737950

After installation to boot the BigSur desktop you could use this bootloader: USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3b.app.zip
or you should apply this fix from Catalina (or Mojave or HighSierra): BigSur Penryn beta3 prelinkedkernel fix.command.zip

 

[nandor690]

Has anyone created a one stop patch solution for a 4.1 flashed to 5.1 Mac Pro yet? I have a RX580 and latest firmware running latest Catalina. I just keep going to the first post hoping for the click here/download solution. Like there was for Catalina. Maybe I missed it. Thanks

I have the same machine. Barrykn patcher works nicely

 

[GDMSR]

I have the same machine. Barrykn patcher works nicely

I'm another one with an early 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 5,1 and RX580 very happy with Big Sur after following Barrykn's micro patcher - highly recommended!

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

I'm another one with an early 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 5,1 and RX580 very happy with Big Sur after following Barrykn's micro patcher - highly recommended!

I think there have been a couple of cases where a flashed Early 2009 Mac Pro ends up just rebooting over and over and never finishes installation. I don't know what causes this or how it could be solved, but I just figured I should mention it.

 

[Vacusuck]

For me, I found the only thing not working is WiFi. And, for some reason, handoff does not work - there's not even an option to enable it in General. Odd. I was wrong about sound, it's working fine.

 

[Jib2000]

Thanks so much for your hard work! What's the likelihood of getting this working on a mid 2010 MacBook pro? When I try to boot from USB installer it restarts after just a few seconds.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

To get the additional (patched) extensions we need to be installed on this modded iMacs I modified the patch-kext.sh script (and renamed it), added a new zipped kext package to the kexts folder. After sleep problems during the first installation @highvoltage12v figured out that the current 0.0.20 micro patcher did not include the latest IO80211Family.kext he had published here on this thread.

Oops, sorry about that. Thanks for letting me know! I'll address this in v0.0.21.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Thanks so much for your hard work! What's the likelihood of getting this working on a mid 2010 MacBook pro? When I try to boot from USB installer it restarts after just a few seconds.

Try not to forget to mention screen size. I'm guessing it's a 15" or 17". Chances are slim. Ideally, someone with one of the affected machines would create a binary patch for the kernel to fix it. (I have a totally nuts idea for a less ideal fix that I might investigate later this week, which I don't want to describe yet because as I said it's totally nuts, but don't get your hopes up, it probably won't work.)

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Using @Barry K. Nathan's patcher 0.0.20 I created a series of snapshots during my patching. Is there an easy way to revert back to the original state before applying the first patches, i.e. to the stock installation state? Cannot find a suitable doc how to handle these snapshots...

I might eventually try creating another shell script for reverting to an earlier snapshot, if it doesn't prove to be too difficult. (I'm working on other improvements to the patcher first, though.)

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Could somebody help me get started with Big Sur Public Beta (or Dev Beta 4) on a MacBookPro4,1 (early 2008)? BootROM APFS-patched already, Mojave and Catalina running nicely, thanks to @dosdude1’s various patchers.

Most probably LegacyUSB patch is needed there, and big-sur-micropatcher (at v0.0.20) has no support for these machines yet, right?

Also a big Thank You! to all contributors here.

Try booting a patched USB and see what happens. I'm expecting one of three possible outcomes:
(a) It boots fine
(b) It boots fine but keyboard and trackpad don't work
(c) It sits there for a minute or two during boot, then finally shows a prohibited sign

(b) or (c) means Legacy USB is needed, but there have been several Macs that I expected would do (b) that actually did (a) so go ahead and give it a try. I think a MacBookPro4,1 is going to do (c), but I'd like to know if my prediction is correct.

Also, some 2009/2010 Macs are having problems where it's completely impossible to write to nvram from the Big Sur installer USB, but this could be specific to Macs with Nvidia chipsets.

 

[Jib2000]

Try not to forget to mention screen size. I'm guessing it's a 15" or 17". Chances are slim. Ideally, someone with one of the affected machines would create a binary patch for the kernel to fix it. (I have a totally nuts idea for a less ideal fix that I might investigate later this week, which I don't want to describe yet because as I said it's totally nuts, but don't get your hopes up, it probably won't work.)

It's a 15". Is the issue that it's an Nvidia chioset? I have Catalina running just fine thanks to dosdude's patches.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

So far I wasn't able to install the public beta with 0.0.20 of the patcher onto my Macbook Air 2012.

What I tried...

1. Created the installer on 3 different OS'es: iMac High Sierra, Macbook Air Mojave and Macbook Air Big Sur Dev4
2. I tried with 4 different USB sticks, all 64 GB and USB 3.0

It aborts at around 12-13 mins left.
Hopefully Barry can find a cure

One of the bug fixes coming in v0.0.21 (in the next few days) is absolutely vital in your case.

Awsome, I'll get on it, thanks

I'm pretty sure MacPro3,1 is one of the machines that needs Legacy USB. Definitely patch the installer USB and try booting from it before you go to the effort of adding an SSD or whatever. (I expect it'll sit there for a minute or two then show the prohibited sign.) Or maybe go ahead and add the SSD anyway, I think @jackluke has a method to get Big Sur to work on MacPro3,1 that he posted earlier in this thread.

Right now Legacy USB is on the backburner for me because so many other things need fixing first. Currently I'm planning to revisit it around the end of August or beginning of September. I'll do it sooner if other things go faster than I expect, but we'll see what happens...

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

It's a 15". Is the issue that it's an Nvidia chioset? I have Catalina running just fine thanks to dosdude's patches.

No, the issue is the so-called 1st gen Intel Core CPU. The previous (Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn) and subsequent (2nd gen Intel Core, a.k.a. Sandy Bridge) generations work, but not that generation. Edit: It's some kind of kernel incompatibility, basically.

 

[nandor690]

I think there have been a couple of cases where a flashed Early 2009 Mac Pro ends up just rebooting over and over and never finishes installation. I don't know what causes this or how it could be solved, but I just figured I should mention it.

I had this problem with Beta 1. I took out my rx 580 and put the GeForce 120 in. And rebooted holding the option key. I had to pick the ‘Installer’ disk 2 times in a row before it would finish installing after the first reboot. And it was the exact same way on beta 1 each time I reinstalled it.
It happened to me on Beta 4 and I reran nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check” in recovery mode and then rebooted back into the installer and it finished installing beta 4.

if you’re interested into looking into why at any point just let me know what logs you would need and I’ll save them the next time it happens

 

[luccax]

well I guess one needs to install a new wifi card to get wifi.
I think at the end of the day i will buy a cheap 2016 or so. this will all be crap as soon as silicon MacBooks arrive. you guys are definitely bright figuring out all this. If I can't sell my current early 2013 i will use it to try all the stuff you guys tell me to use thanks

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

I had this problem with Beta 1. I took out my rx 580 and put the GeForce 120 in. And rebooted holding the option key. I had to pick the ‘Installer’ disk 2 times in a row before it would finish installing after the first reboot. And it was the exact same way on beta 1 each time I reinstalled it.
It happened to me on Beta 4 and I reran nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check” in recovery mode and then rebooted back into the installer and it finished installing beta 4.

if you’re interested into looking into why at any point just let me know what logs you would need and I’ll save them the next time it happens

/System/Volumes/Update/install-log-*.log
/System/Volumes/Update/patchd-*.log

(or just /Volumes/Update/... if you're accessing the files from High Sierra/Mojave/Catalina)

 

[GSXB]

Big Sur beta 4 runs great on 5,1(flashed 4,1) Mac Pro. The only things it’s missing is Handoff/Continuity and Night Shift. Both of which aren’t a high priority but I’m sure will come later.

just wanted to thank all the people working behind the scenes. Legends!

How did you achieve this ? as mine just bootloops after the installer first reboots

 

[GSXB]

I'm another one with an early 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 5,1 and RX580 very happy with Big Sur after following Barrykn's micro patcher - highly recommended!

How please
Explain I just get reboots and bootloops