macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[jackluke]

Thanks to @ASentientBot I noticed that someone is impersonating me on discord, where I am located there is high wind and flood, so totally opposite to what's written by the elusive "jackluke", just to say how fake it is, but I do have a discord account with "jackluke" that I used during Catalina (but haven't logged for months), that is also a very common nickname, anyway I advise to don't pay or make any money donation to him.

 

[rMBP2013china]

Thanks for all you instructions @jackluke.
In the first place, my Mac is early 2013 13 inch macbook pro retina.
Then, I followed some ways but every time installing Big Sur I got the same error, which is BIERROR DOMAIN ERROR2. I searched the internet, the error means there is no sufficient space. My usb stick is 64G. The most seen error is BIERROR DOMAIN ERROR3.

I was installing Big Sur public beta6 on my Mac. Big Sur is really new and I like it.

 

[borp99]

You should after downloading the beta 8 OTA packages let to complete the "Preparing macOS Big Sur beta 8" phase that can take up to one hour and it occurs directly on BigSur desktop (the UI becomes very slow responsive during this phase that is a kind of updating a non snapshot system mounted volume), after that phase completes a popup shows upper-right and tells that within a minute system auto restart to continue update, you should instead select from that window to postpone and update later.

Then you can access this folder (the stage2 installer): /System/Volumes/BigSurLabel/macOS Install Data/

and here you should find (or copy directly the one I linked UpdateOptions.plist.zip) a UpdateOptions.plist file where you can edit the DoNotSeal dictionary key.

Anyway it's not a big deal having a sealed system because you can anyway disable snapshot booting to use "sudo mount -uw /" and also you can mount and write a BigSur sealed System from other BigSur installation (other than from its recovery), for example from a BigSur beta 4 desktop (I have this version for non-APFS Mac) I can mount and write a sealed BigSur beta 8 System .

Hmm, I've never seen a folder 'macOS Install Data' (after DL'ing b8 from a fresh b6 install and halting the auto boot). I've repeated this process about 4x using OC 0.61 to see. I just keep having the files sitting in AssetData (inside V2/com_Apple_ etc), so can't replace or modify an UpdateOptions.plist which doesn't yet exist. I even experimented at hard-stopping the progress bar at different stages towards some of the full updates to see if AssetData would turn into that folder, but no.

Do you have any suggestions? There is an Info.plist (inside the AssetData folder) and an Update.plist (inside/S/V/Update) which contain relevant strings regarding the beta 8 update (esp. the latter one). Could the DoNotSeal/True key be added to either of these and become incorporated into a rebooted/mounted-in-ram macOS Install Data volume?

 

[jackluke]

Thanks for all you instructions @jackluke.
In the first place, my Mac is early 2013 13 inch macbook pro retina.
Then, I followed some ways but every time installing Big Sur I got the same error, which is BIERROR DOMAIN ERROR2. I searched the internet, the error means there is no sufficient space. My usb stick is 64G. The most seen error is BIERROR DOMAIN ERROR3.

I was installing Big Sur public beta6 on my Mac. Big Sur is really new and I like it.

That means you don't applied the ASentientBot Hax3.dylib, anyway to make a patched full installer use this: https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher

 

[jackluke]

Hmm, I've never seen a folder 'macOS Install Data' (after DL'ing b8 from a fresh b6 install and halting the auto boot). I've repeated this process about 4x using OC 0.61 to see. I just keep having the files sitting in AssetData (inside V2/com_Apple_ etc), so can't replace or modify an UpdateOptions.plist which doesn't yet exist. I even experimented at hard-stopping the progress bar at different stages towards some of the full updates to see if that folder popped up, but no.

Do you have any suggestions? There is an Info.plist (inside the AssetData folder) and an Update.plist (inside/S/V/Update) which contain relevant strings regarding the beta 8 update (esp. the latter one). Could the DoNotSeal/True key be added to either of these and become incorporated into a rebooted/mounted-in-ram macOS Install Data volume?

I don't exclude it could be added also there somewhere, but you should have on the "BigSur Data Volume" an hidden folder "macOS Install Data" (that is labelled "macOS Installer" at apple startup manager), after downloading and preparing at auto reboot hold alt-option key, you can notice a "macOS Installer", you should not boot yet from there but edit first the UpdateOptions.plist from another macOS, because if you boot BigSur the Update folder is cleared.

I guess it can be also mounted in ram, alt-option key selecting "macOS Installer" with CMD+S, then mount -uw / ; mount -P 1 ; mount -P 2 you could edit with pico the UpdateOptions.plist .

the path from single user mode is /System/Volumes/Data/macOS Install Data/

 

[Husseinabd40]

Regardless of that error, do you typed also kcditto before reboot to opencore ?

If you did and stuck there, then try this updated USBopencore: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28952250

Yes, I did both , kcditto and updated USBopencore and it is still stuck.

 

[jackluke]

Yes, I did both , kcditto and updated USBopencore and it is still stuck.

From USBopencore kexts folder, try to remove them (that are mainly for legacy USB Mac hence not required for recent Mac).

Otherwise outside of opencore retry with CMD+S and type this: mount -P 1 ; mount -P 2 ; kcditto

 

[stevecc]

I can,t wait till dosdude 1 finishes the big sur patcher.I think my 2012 i7 2.3 ghz, samsung 250 ssd, 16 gigs of ram will make the cut.It says in the mac specs that the Intel HD 4000 1536 mb graphics card supports metal,,got lucky i guess!..this 2012 mac mini came configured to fully loaded thank god.Late 2012 Mac mini.

 

[vinsyl]

After being pointed in the right direction by @jackluke, I've got an *unpatched* Big Sur beta 8 running on a Late 2012 Retina MBP. I did not use big-sur-micropatcher or in any way patch the downloads, it relies on @jackluke's id spoofing and on manually setting -no_compat_check when needed.

I think this could be applied to any Mac where the only incompatibility with Big Sur is that the Wi-Fi card needs to be upgraded (and I think that means late 2012 and early + mid 2013 retina MPBs only?).

Here's a screenshot. :

View attachment 960556

To install unpatched Big Sur beta 6:

1. Upgrade the physical WiFi card on your Mac, to either of BCM94360CS or BCM94360CSAX (worth noting as a positive side effect of this, I found this gives much more reliable Bluetooth pairing than the original component)
2. Make a USBopencore4s1 Mac id spoofing disk from @jackluke's zip file
3. If you're happy to install in place over your existing OS then simply: enroll your Mac in the beta program; boot your existing OS via USBopencore, go to 'About This Mac/Software Update...' (and untick auto-update if ticked); you should be offered the beta upgrade and can upgrade in place, but you'll have to adapt the remainder of these steps yourself
4. If you want to install onto a separate partition (recommended):
5. Create a partition to install onto (min. 35Gb is recommended)
6. Create an SSD partition to install from (13.5Gb is needed for macOS beta 6); this is normally done using a USB, not a partition, but I could not get OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1 on a USB to successfully boot another USB (maybe I just didn't wait long enough?); though this means setting up more partitions, it at least has the advantage that creating the install media and installing from it is quicker than with a USB
7. Get hold of the Big Sur beta 6 download package, and run createinstallmedia from it onto the 13.5Gb partition
8. Boot holding down ⌘, select OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1, then select your (unpatched) install partition in the next screen
9. At a certain point this will try to reboot into a 'macOS Installer' partition, and you will get a 'no entry' sign
10. Set -no_compat_check as follows (which you will also need to do again later, after receiving the OTA update): reboot holding down ⌘+R, wait for recovery mode, open a terminal, enter the command nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
11. Reboot (without using OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1), allow to complete, you should now have a running, unpatched macOS beta 6

To receive the OTA update to beta 8:

1. Boot into Big Sur via OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1
2. Go to Software Update; now that your id is spoofed by booting via USBopencore, you should see the update available; get it
3. For me it went through 'An Update is Available' and 'Preparing...' twice, but it only downloaded the update once (downloading ~3.6Gb). Preparing this update takes quite a long time.
4. When it comes to restarting during the update, be *sure* to boot into the temporary 'macOS Installer' partition (which has been made for you by the beta 8 updater) using OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1 (I rebooted into the main Big Sur partition, without using USBopencore, and ending up having to fetch the update all over again; I'm not sure whether that's because I went into the wrong partition, or because I didn't use USBopencore, or both)
5. At a certain point this will reboot again and show a no entry sign: set -no_compat_check again, as above, reboot (without using OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1) and allow to continue
6. You should now have a completely unpatched macOS beta 8

Hello,
I tried to follow your instructions and I'm stuck on the step 5 "At a certain point this will reboot again and show a no entry sign: set -no_compat_check again, as above, reboot (without using OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1) and allow to continue". How do I have to enter the command "set -no_compat_check_again"?
Thank you. Sylvain.

 

[stevecc]

If you haven't seen the post on rmc.ch/newsroom: I'm switching to Linux and won't develop a patcher this year. I also think this isn't a desktop OS.

You,ll be there if dosdude needs anything!..lol..Nice work bro!

 

[karesake]

I can,t wait till dosdude 1 finishes the big sur patcher.I think my 2012 i7 2.3 ghz, samsung 250 ssd, 16 gigs of ram will make the cut.It says in the mac specs that the Intel HD 4000 1536 mb graphics card supports metal,,got lucky i guess!..this 2012 mac mini came configured to fully loaded thank god.Late 2012 Mac mini.

Will @dosdude1 even release a patcher this time?

 

[Bmju]

Hello,
I tried to follow your instructions and I'm stuck on the step 5 "At a certain point this will reboot again and show a no entry sign: set -no_compat_check again, as above, reboot (without using OpenCoreAPFSLoader4s1) and allow to continue". How do I have to enter the command "set -no_compat_check_again"?
Thank you. Sylvain.

As step 10 of the beta 6 instructions

 

[stevecc]

Will @dosdude1 even release a patcher this time?

I think he will right Dosdude?..He usually makes the easy to use patcher a week of so after big Sur is released to the public.But he doesn,t like when people keep texting him 24 /7 well hes working on the finished video..He deserves a donation from all of us when this one comes out for sure..I think we all agree on that one!...at lease 20$

 

[vinsyl]

As step 10 of the beta 6 instructions

Yes sorry it was already indicated. Thank you for your help.

 

[Bmju]

1. Upgrade the physical WiFi card on your Mac, to either of BCM94360CS or BCM94360CSAX​

These cards are wifi n, not wifi ac. What is the difference with the original card of the MBP mid 2012 ?

@sinbad21 I believe you are wrong, those cards are ac.

The card which was in my MBP was a BCM94331CSAX, which reported as follows:

The card which is now in my MBP is a BCM94360CS, which reports as follows:

See also, e.g.:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broadcom-Bcm94360cs-Bcm94360csax-Bluetooth-Wireless/dp/B00PDN4H9E

https://www.google.com/search?q=macbook+pro+2012+2013+BCM94331CSAX+BCM94360CSAX

 

[Bmju]

The second one does have AC.

Both of the cards I listed have Wi-Fi ac. The difference between AX on the end of the serial number or not seems to be just whether it was fabricated specifically for Apple or not, and the two of them have the same features and capabilities - as best as I have understood from researching it, before buying my card without AX on the end, and which works as expected: connects to ac, no problems with Big Sur, and also (bonus!) better bluetooth.

 

[Bmju]

Yes sorry it was already indicated. Thank you for your help.

Okay, thanks! I updated my instructions slightly, to try to make it unambiguous. Hopefully the whole thing worked for you? I'm guessing from your likes that maybe you bought and fitted a BCM94360CS (not AX?) too?

 

[borp99]

I don't exclude it could be added also there somewhere, but you should have on the "BigSur Data Volume" an hidden folder "macOS Install Data" (that is labelled "macOS Installer" at apple startup manager), after downloading and preparing at auto reboot hold alt-option key, you can notice a "macOS Installer", you should not boot yet from there but edit first the UpdateOptions.plist from another macOS, because if you boot BigSur the Update folder is cleared.

I guess it can be also mounted in ram, alt-option key selecting "macOS Installer" with CMD+S, then mount -uw / ; mount -P 1 ; mount -P 2 you could edit with pico the UpdateOptions.plist .

the path from single user mode is /System/Volumes/Data/macOS Install Data/

Thank you "jackluke" for your suggestions, which I'll certainly try out. I always have hidden files showing during these experiments, to see what appears as each build is prepared. I admit that I was focusing on the BS System volume and not the Data one (but assumed that while in b6 the System and Data files are visually combined anyway). I'll halt and boot back into Mojave, where the volumes show up separately.

 

[justperry]

Beta 9 is out.

Apple Releases Ninth Beta of macOS Big Sur to Developers

https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.16seed-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz

Shows

<string>http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...qay4n78q85cpe85rcsdu00qy/InstallAssistant.pkg</string>

Seems like Software Update only, the above is beta 6, might take a while to update the sucatalog for a full installer but I have my doubts.

 

[jackluke]

Beta 9 is out.

Apple Releases Ninth Beta of macOS Big Sur to Developers

https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.16seed-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz

Shows

<string>http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...qay4n78q85cpe85rcsdu00qy/InstallAssistant.pkg</string>

Seems like Software Update only, the above is beta 6, might take a while to update the sucatalog for a full installer but I have my doubts.

Yep, here is a fetched beta 9 delta update :

http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2.../bd2481305a8cef715acd11d889ad3e08b93b2ee4.zip

I am OTA updating 3,5 GB from Software Update (opencore spoofing), I am using a sealed system, snapshot booting and patched Wifi kext, seems this time "Preparing macOS Big Sur beta 9" hasn't yet failed delivering a full beta 9 OTA package.

edit:
No, with a patched Wifi kext it failed as expected, now delivering 11,32 GB full beta 9 OTA package: http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2.../60bc4f9bbe760a327193b3bafd04eaf746a3e371.zip

that's due to the fact I removed the stock apple snapshot.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Beta 9 is out.

Apple Releases Ninth Beta of macOS Big Sur to Developers

<string>http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...qay4n78q85cpe85rcsdu00qy/InstallAssistant.pkg</string>

Seems like Software Update only, the above is (AFAIK) beta 6

I had to redownload the installinstallmacos.py program -- it has received updates recently -- and erase its content directory, before it would properly list the available macOS installers. After having done that, it appears that beta 9 is once again a delta update, and beta 6 remains the last full installer.

Based on Apple's history with delta updates vs. full installers for betas, I had figured that this was possible but unlikely. In any case, I'm sure the GM will be available as a full installer. (On the other hand, I don't know if next week is going to be the GM candidate/seed, or just beta 10.)

(On the bright side, the updated installinstallmacos.py can now download Catalina 10.15.7.)

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

You simply needed to set nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check" , or to use Barry Micropatcher current release booting from EFI Boot.

In fairness to @Caeed, I did not document this adequately in the README for the current version of the micropatcher, and I also forgot to mention it in the post about how I applied the delta update. (Yesterday I updated steps 9 and 10 in the README for v0.2.2 of the micropatcher after another user on Discord experienced something similar. I plan to finish and release v0.2.2 later today, but it could slip to tomorrow.)

 

[rMBP2013china]

For enabling Wifi 802.11n on any 2012 Mac or any other unsupported Big Sur but supported Catalina Mac (in few words those who use the AirPortBrcm4360 driver), this will work:

macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

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...

forums.macrumors.com

To install it properly, simply open a BigSur terminal and copy paste (one line at once) :

sudo mount -uw / ; killall Finder

cd /System/Library/Extensions/

sudo mv IO80211Family.kext IO80211Family.backup

open /System/Library/Extensions/

copy using Finder the IO80211Family.kext from the link attached

return to BigSur terminal and continue typing:

sudo -s

chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions/

chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/

kmutil install --update-all

kcditto

At next reboot you should have a working Wifi 802.11n and a working AirDrop channel.

@jackluke
I tried following your suggestion. Now Big Sur is successfully installed on my Mac. The only problem is WIFI. I found the above instructions finally and am going to ask you a silly question before doing it. The file "O80211Family.kext" has been downloaded from another computer, and where shall I put it on the Mac to make copy and paste. Thank you very much.

 

[justperry]

@jackluke
I tried following your suggestion. Now Big Sur is successfully installed on my Mac. The only problem is WIFI. I found the above instructions finally and am going to ask you a silly question before doing it. The file "O80211Family.kext" has been downloaded from another computer, and where shall I put it on the Mac to make copy and paste. Thank you very much.

Copy paste won't work, you should run the patch-kexts.sh from terminal after booting from your installer USB stick.
The kext is already installed in a Folder on the installer USB stick when you used Micropatcher, running the command will install the Kext.

 

[buckrock]

Beta 9 is out.

Apple Releases Ninth Beta of macOS Big Sur to Developers

https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.16seed-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz

Shows

<string>http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...qay4n78q85cpe85rcsdu00qy/InstallAssistant.pkg</string>

Seems like Software Update only, the above is beta 6, might take a while to update the sucatalog for a full installer but I have my doubts.

Just some info as of this morning: (this is from MrMacintosh webpage.)

Today Apple released macOS Big Sur Beta 9 (20A5384c) to Developers
MacOS Big Sur 11 Beta 9 (20A5384c) was released on September 29nd, 2020 only 7 days after Beta 8! We are starting to get weekly beta releases. MacOS Catalina had 11 beta releases including the gold master, so again we are getting very close to release. Beta 7 & 8 did not get a full installer so hopefully we get one this time around. I’m still waiting to see if any changes are listed around screen recording, I will update as soon.

macOS Big Sur 11 Installer Info
Note: Combo and Delta updates are not available as standalone downloads.

Full Installer.app
Link – developer.apple.com or installinstallmacos.py

Size = Waiting on Full installer??

Product ID =

Big Sur Beta Delta Update
This is the update is for updating from Beta 8 > Beta 9

Size = 3.5GB

Big Sur Beta Combo Update
This is update should be for updating from Beta 1-8 > Beta 9

Size = 3.82GB