macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Kriter]

My main user is Admin

Check from BigSur System Preferences if your main user has been converted to standard rather than admin, because during this patched installation sometimes the user permissions are not set correctly for the root user.

 

[jackluke]

My main user is Admin

Maybe you have some FileVault enabled , firmware password or Fusion drive ?

Because in that case BigSur uses another layer of Preboot, otherwise I don't know.

 

[Larsvonhier]

This is why Apple is not wise to invest in - cook is destroying the Mac with a toy OS. Mac OS is nothing but a toy with iOS, a snow Leopard Big Sur will NEVER be !

Could you guys discuss those topics over at some rant/politics/eco thread, but stop bloating this technical solution oriented thread further? It´s already a mess to read through these 14 pages. (And no, vanishing into discord it´s not the solution).

 

[TimothyR734]

If you find createinstall media app and have instal macOS Beta in your applications folder you can create a bootable usb

 

[Kriter]

No, FileVault is not enabled and I don't have a firmware password.

Maybe you have some FileVault enabled , firmware password or Fusion drive ?

Because in that case BigSur uses another layer of Preboot, otherwise I don't know.

 

[Darkdes]

I have gotten Big Sur to work by cloning a supported machine and waiting a long time for first boot after running patches.

wifi doesn't work but everything else along with hardware acceleration work hope there will be a wifi fix later on!

 

[Jordan246]

I'm almost certain someone just drew a line through a list of Macs and decided which would be compatible or not.

you think that they might add compatiblity like in the future like they did with Mojave

 

[joelw135]

Interesting. Then I wonder why the iMac 2013 was dropped, since that had Nvidia and is definitely more powerful than a MacBook Air 2013.

I have the same question.

 

[libneko]

But how do you installed BigSur on fusion drive ?

Just ran installer from working Catalina and created a new Volume beforehands

 

[hintzsche]

You should try this: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28592102

i get only in internet recovery, and it loads recovery of lion. changing nvram boot args worked, but csrutil doesnt work it sais that csrutils command not found.

 

[oldmacs]

you think that they might add compatiblity like in the future like they did with Mojave

Sadly I highly doubt it

 

[ChefBapeSupreme]

Oh, I only posted my test in the Mac Pro forum. I should also post to here as well.

Anyway, it's fairly straight forward to install and run Big Sur on Mac Pro 5,1 (via OpenCore).
View attachment 926480
View attachment 926482

No patcher required. The OS can be downloaded and run "natively". The trick is to spoof the SMBIOS as iMac Pro 1,1 before you launch the installer (otherwise you will see that BIErrorDomain error 3).
View attachment 926483

Once the installation is finished, you can switch back to the 5,1 SMBIOS. Of course, we can still inject the iMac Pro board ID to activate HWAccel.
View attachment 926484

WOW. This is amazing. Did you use a patcher to get Catalina on your machine? And how did you spoof the SMBIOS to think you had an iMac Pro 1,1? Is there a website/youtube video that has a more in depth guide on what you just showed?

 

[canopic]

Late 2013 iMacs are capable, except for that HDD. Maybe they have data that a huge, huge percentage of them had the HDD, which really, really sucked on that particular year.

 

[ScreenSavers]

Late 2013 iMacs are capable, except for that HDD. Maybe they have data that a huge, huge percentage of them had the HDD, which really, really sucked on that particular year.

Even the current 2019 base model iMacs ship with a 5400rpm HDD. The rest of them have fusion garbage. So that's not it.

 

[hintzsche]

manged to boot in catalina internet recovery and changed boot args and disabled csrutil but now it hangs the progress bar it doesnt move. maybe i wait a while if somethi9ng happens. the system boots you see the mouse pointer and then progressbar gets back to the bweginning and nothing happens anymore.

 

[jackluke]

We need more documentation on how kmutil (the new kextcache) macOS command works, I noticed from single user mode if mistype some argument for example: "kmutil create boot"

some additional shell manual popups, also typing "kextcache -i /" , apple message says "kextcache" is depreciated use kmutil to create a kext collection and they make an example with a long string containing /Library/Apple/System/Library/Prelinkedkernels/prelinkedkernel and --kernel /System/Library/Kernels/kernel

but this won't fit on a single user shell, because seems a too long string to type.

using kmutil -help
doesn't tell much just few arguments

the fact is until we don't figure out how to rebuild a kextcache or kernerlcollection from BigSur single user mode, can't make many attempts in patching the kext, because adding a wrong kext can easily make unbootable the system, I personally don't want to re-install because of a mismatched kernelcollection, it takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes on an SSD.

 

[highvoltage12v]

This is my attempt for AirPort4360 driver Wifi kext, but is refused from "Big Sur" kernel from prelinking.

I am not skilled to fix symbols, but I guess it is fixable.

sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

replaced the IO80211Family*.kext with stock Catalina ones

sudo -s
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/
chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions/

kextcache -i /


Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil install --volume-root / --check-rebuild
rebuilding local auxiliary collection
kmutil done

kmutil install --volume-root /
Error: Please specify one of --check-rebuild, --update-all or --force.
Usage: kmutil install [--variant-suffix <variant-suffix>] [--arch <arch>] [--no-authorization]
[--verbose] [--repository <repository> ...] [--volume-root <volume-root>] [--check-rebuild]
[--update-all] [--force] [--authentication] [--no-authentication] [--update-preboot]


kmutil install --update-all


rebuilding release collections: boot, system
rebuilding release collections:
    boot kernel collection
    system kext collection
failed to build release collection:
    One or more binaries has an error which prevented linking.  See other errors.
    Could not use 'com.apple.driver.AppleBCMWLANCore' because:
Cannot find symbol for metaclass pointed to by '__ZN28AppleBCMWLANSkywalkInterface10superClassE'
    com.apple.driver.AppleBCMWLANCore:
        Cannot find symbol for metaclass pointed to by '__ZN28AppleBCMWLANSkywalkInterface10superClassE'
failed to build any collections (expected: 1)
rebuilding local auxiliary collection
kmutil done

Here is my IO80211Family kext version 12.0 if you wan to try it. Of course I'm using an Atheros card at the moment, all my MBPs have been upgraded to the BCM94360 from @troop231 i'll try a Mac mini once I get ahold of one.

A New (Fixed) Airport Kext has been updated to fix BCM94360/BCM943602 Kernel Panics waking from Sleep.

 

[apostmi]

My guide (You have to be on Catalina for some reason)

Step 1:

• Download the PKG file from “http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...kxzj3zjshu1srsh4n74a41n4/InstallAssistant.pkg “
• ALTERNATIVE LINK: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x6tovnmWyLK68CRzquzrdbF3ja6GGE1-
• Open & run it.
• Check that you indeed have Mac OS Beta Install.app in the Applications Folder.

Step 2:

• Boot into Recovery Mode (Reboot and hold CMD+R)
• Open Terminal
• Type in “csrutil disable”
• Type in “reboot”

Step 3:

• Download Hax.dylib from “https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/really-simple-installer-hack-zip.926156/ “
• Move Hax.dylib to Home folder (Shift+CMD+H)

Step 4:

• Open Terminal and paste this: “sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.libraryvalidation.plist DisableLibraryValidation -bool true”
• Now paste this: “launchctl setenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES $PWD/Hax.dylib”

Step 5:

• Open MacOS Beta Install

 

[jackluke]

Here is my IO80211Family kext version 12.0 if you wan to try it. Of course I'm using an Atheros card at the moment, all my MBPs have been upgraded to the BCM94360 from @troop231 i'll try a Mac mini once I get ahold of one.

I tried to add Catalina stock AirPortBrcm4360.kext to the BigSur IO80211Family.kext Plugins and seems also correctly added to the kmutil's KernelCollections and prelinking without errors, but I get a line on the Wifi finder icon (as if disabled), even if something is detected on the Network.prefpane .

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Late 2013 iMacs are capable, except for that HDD. Maybe they have data that a huge, huge percentage of them had the HDD, which really, really sucked on that particular year.

i'm using a T5 Samsung External USB 3.0 500 GB SSD and my 2013 iMac works perfectly

 

[0403979]

and you should unban me from the discord thanks

Don't appeal our Discord moderation decisions here.

 

[Darkdes]

Here is my IO80211Family kext version 12.0 if you wan to try it. Of course I'm using an Atheros card at the moment, all my MBPs have been upgraded to the BCM94360 from @troop231 i'll try a Mac mini once I get ahold of one.

What are the steps of installing this kext

 

[Lycestra]

manged to boot in catalina internet recovery and changed boot args and disabled csrutil but now it hangs the progress bar it doesnt move. maybe i wait a while if somethi9ng happens. the system boots you see the mouse pointer and then progressbar gets back to the bweginning and nothing happens anymore.

When I had this problem in the past (Mojave), it was a bad extension (from an old iPad-as-secondary-display program in my case) that it couldn't boot past. Can you boot without 3rd-party extensions (hold shift during boot)? If that does work, you might want to move any extensions in /Library/Extensions to somewhere else harmless (or delete them if you don't care) so it can't load them. Since this was Mojave in my case, I think some of mine were so old, they were in /System/Library/Extensions. Catalina, with it's read-only mount volume might be different. Should have moved them at least.

 

[PiggyGamingYT3]

Can someone help me in getting Big Sur to run on my MacBook Pro 8,1? I'm having some difficulty installing it. Thanks.

 

[highvoltage12v]

I tried to add Catalina stock AirPortBrcm4360.kext to the BigSur IO80211Family.kext Plugins and seems also correctly added to the kmutil's KernelCollections and prelinking without errors, but I get a line on the Wifi finder icon (as if disabled), even if something is detected on the Network.prefpane .

I have working Wifi in a 2012 Mac mini with my kext, sound as well. Will verify the BCM94360 next with a 2015 MBA.