macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Barry K. Nathan]

Hi everybody,
I'm a newbie here. Thanks to Barry and the others, I was able to install Big Sur on my Mac Mini 2011 using the 0.3.1 micropatcher (external SSD on USB 2)
It seems to work ok (including Wifi), but I'm a bit disappointed by the overall responsiveness of the system. It seems so sluggish.
I guess that is because of the HD3000 non-metal GPU. Disabling the animations and the transparency is better but it's not usable as a day to day real production computer. And that is without talking of the constant full speed fan noise.
I think it is time for my venerable Mini to get a much deserved retirement.
Looking forward for the ARM units...

On my own Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro, I've noticed that Big Sur is considerably more responsive when running from an internal SSD than an external SSD connected via USB 2.0. It's still a level of performance that a lot of people will find unacceptable, though.

 

[buckrock]

I have now released v0.3.1 to fix the beta 9 problem. I was able to fix the trampoline after all.

Release notes:

GitHub - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher: A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs

A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher

github.com

Barry, jackluke in https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28973673 reminds us of some good advice: "First requirement is that from any macOS Recovery terminal at least set csrutil disable".

My question: Is this required at the start of your ReadMe instructions? Just to make sure before proceeding with the createinstallmedia. Or does your micropatcher have the patched installer set csrutil disable when we boot from the usb stick in Step 9? It doesn't seem to me that it could but what do I know? [grin]

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Barry, jackluke in https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28973673 reminds us of some good advice: "First requirement is that from any macOS Recovery terminal at least set csrutil disable".

My question: Is this required at the start of your ReadMe instructions? Just to make sure before proceeding with the createinstallmedia. Or does your micropatcher have the patched installer set csrutil disable when we boot from the usb stick in Step 9? It doesn't seem to me that it could but what do I know? [grin]

Yes, it gets done in step 9. The recent Big Sur betas (definitely beta 9, possibly going back to beta 7) seem to require an extra bit to be set in csr-active-config to disable SIP (0x7f, not 0x77), so in v0.3.2 (not yet released but I'll release it very soon) I've changed the code that runs in step 9 to match.

 

[justperry]

I'm having App Store problems.
I can log in but some downloaded apps show up as "Corrupted."
Copying the app and validating them as purchased with credentials ends up with a repeating dialog.
Logging our, rebooting, and logging in has not solved the issue.

This might help although it's from an earlier OS, sometimes you get the corrupted message when only Apps from Apple are allowed.
Note, there's seems to be a bug in the tabs, there's no text but it's the first tab..General.

 

[haralds]

This might help although it's from an earlier OS, sometimes you get the corrupted message when only Apps from Apple are allowed.
Note, there's seems to be a bug in the tabs, there's no text but it's the first tab..General.

View attachment 961926

Thanks. I have lots of apps, so the I authorize Identified Developers. oddly, this is only for two apps so far - Fantastical and Tweeetbot3. I am now using the app downloaded from Flexbit's site.

I have deleted the apps multiple times including Container and Groupcontainer caches and doing it for Launchpad as suggested by a KB. Logged out of the store, rebooted, logged back in. Reset the keychain.

There must be some other cruft somewhere. Apple does not document any of these things and there are bits everywhere. Very messy.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

I have now released Big Sur Micropatcher v0.3.2. Release notes:

This release mainly has small fixes. In particular, Big Sur beta 9 disables SIP by storing a different value in nvram than previous macOS releases or Big Sur betas 1-6. The setvars EFI program has been updated to use the new value, and patch-kexts.sh has been updated to recognize the new value as a valid configuration. Other bugs in patch-kexts.sh were fixed at the same time, particularly a version detection bug that had the potential to cause Ethernet to stop working in the final Big Sur release on 2011 Macs.

Users who have already updated to beta 9 using v0.3.1 should download v0.3.2, then run unpatch.sh, micropatcher.sh, and install-setvars.sh in that order, then repeat step 9 (booting from the EFI Boot partition of the patched USB stick). For most users, no further action is needed. If patch-kexts.sh failed to make WiFi work in v0.3.1, then try that again with v0.3.2.

GitHub - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher: A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs

A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher

github.com

 

[buckrock]

Yes, it gets done in step 9. The recent Big Sur betas (definitely beta 9, possibly going back to beta 7) seem to require an extra bit to be set in csr-active-config to disable SIP (0x7f, not 0x77), so in v0.3.2 (not yet released but I'll release it very soon) I've changed the code that runs in step 9 to match.

Ah, that's why we can repeat Step 9 if we encounter the no-entry sign!

Just a minor point: READMe now says version 0.3.2 at top, but still says v0.3.1 (this release) in compatibility section

 

[webg3]

For those who have a 2012 model (Pro or Air) and would like a vanilla installation, use the USBOpenCoreAPFSloader4s @jackluke just use the NVRAM parameters of a Terminal from a bootable installer (Mojave or Catalina)

nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

create your pendrive with bootable installer from Big Sur Beta 6 or 9

the only thing that would be interesting to change would be /com.apple.Boot.plist in your USB Installer Big Sur Beta ,

USB/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist


<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>root-dmg=file:///BaseSystem/BaseSystem.dmg -no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>



boot from USBOpenCoreAPFSloader4s and select Install macOS Big Sur Beta

follow all steps and on each reboot enter from USBOpenCoreAPFSloader4s,
always selecting Install macOS Data until it finishes the installation and on a last reboot
only your default boot disk (SSD or HDD)

this tutorial is for those who replaced their wifi card with one compatible with Big Sur and does not need any further configuration.

if you want to start without USBOpenCoreAPFSloader4s use the NVRAM parameters of a Terminal from a bootable installer (Mojave or Catalina)
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

 

[edgyimager]

On my own Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro, I've noticed that Big Sur is considerably more responsive when running from an internal SSD than an external SSD connected via USB 2.0. It's still a level of performance that a lot of people will find unacceptable, though.

Barry, first of all, thank you for your great work and to those of others. Second, I'm curious about your Early 2011 13" MacBook Pro. I have one too and have installed the BS betas on it using your micropatcher. Do Maps, Photos, and FindMy work for you? I only get a black image, which I assume is because of the lack of metal. I've been following this thread from the beginning and have searched these topics, and can't seem to get a clear answer. Sorry if this has been answered and I somehow missed it!

 

[buckrock]

Ok, version 0.3.2 worked perfectly on Developer Seed version of Big Sur beta 9 (20A5384c) install over beta 6 on a MacBookProRetina (10,1) mid-2012 -- upgraded Broadcom card to 802.11ac.

Also, for the first time in a whole series of updates and even just switching between my internal SSD (Catalina 10.15.7) and external SSD (Big Sur) I did not have to re-establish my Apple ID/iCloud Account credentials. That is a nice thing!

And ... it is nice to see a difference in Safari's active tab finally!

...however, dyamic switching (graphics) still needs to be turned on for every restart even though displaypolicyd remains inactive. Not a big problem since I use gfxCardStatus to switch it on.

 

[rumormiller]

I have now released Big Sur Micropatcher v0.3.2. Release notes:

This release mainly has small fixes. In particular, Big Sur beta 9 disables SIP by storing a different value in nvram than previous macOS releases or Big Sur betas 1-6. The setvars EFI program has been updated to use the new value, and patch-kexts.sh has been updated to recognize the new value as a valid configuration. Other bugs in patch-kexts.sh were fixed at the same time, particularly a version detection bug that had the potential to cause Ethernet to stop working in the final Big Sur release on 2011 Macs.

Users who have already updated to beta 9 using v0.3.1 should download v0.3.2, then run unpatch.sh, micropatcher.sh, and install-setvars.sh in that order, then repeat step 9 (booting from the EFI Boot partition of the patched USB stick). For most users, no further action is needed. If patch-kexts.sh failed to make WiFi work in v0.3.1, then try that again with v0.3.2.

GitHub - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher: A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs

A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher

github.com

Thanks Barry - just updated my late 2013 iMac with beta 9 full installer and micro patcher v0.3.1 then did the v0.3.2 update from the EFI boot partition. Everything went well ?

 

[furdi]

@Barry K. Nathan you are the MAN! Used your patcher 0.3.1 to install the BS B9 on my MBP mid 2012 13" and it worked like a charm, even with the EFI initial boot I have to mention that I did that on the internal drive, one partition runing the BS B6. All good after runing kexts! All working perfect, wifi, handoff, airdrop! Again, thank you for all your effort sir!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Here the updated 0.3.2 compatible version of my little iMac 2011/metal GPU patch-kext-iMac script. The patches are the same as posted before...

EDIT:
Some minor fixes for AMD users, corrected installation of AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB, deleted Whatevergreen and Lilu in this case, too. These are injected by Catalina Loader / Open Core normally.

 

[Crusher1]

I tried to update to beta 9 with 0.3.2 patch on a 2013 imac 27 but it will not accept my password to unlock the disk before I install beta 9. I tried change my password not and testing it again but that did not work. I also have file vault enabled which I cant seem to disable.

 

[jackluke]

Yes, it gets done in step 9. The recent Big Sur betas (definitely beta 9, possibly going back to beta 7) seem to require an extra bit to be set in csr-active-config to disable SIP (0x7f, not 0x77), so in v0.3.2 (not yet released but I'll release it very soon) I've changed the code that runs in step 9 to match.

I couldn't explain why even using a stock boot.efi, through my customised setup when loading BigSur I had for csrutil status a "Custom Configuration" while csrutil authenticated-root was correctly disabled, till Catalina SIP disabled is csr-active-config w%00%00%00 .

Then reading your post I manually set that way 0x7F and now also on BigSur SIP is disabled with correct message:

nvram csr-active-config
csr-active-config    %7f%00%00%00

csrutil status     
System Integrity Protection status: disabled.

Hence if I set 0x87F then I have both disabled without "Custom Configuration".

Infact it worked:

nvram csr-active-config
csr-active-config    %7f%08%00%00

csrutil status      
System Integrity Protection status: disabled.

csrutil authenticated-root
Authenticated Root status: disabled

But as you know currently for USBopencore I use csr-active-config w%09%00%00 because even with a SIP "Custom Configuration" this allows me to boot a patched BaseSystem.dmg with a stock boot.efi .

 

[Toledospod]

I tried to update to beta 9 with 0.3.2 patch on a 2013 imac 27 but it will not accept my password to unlock the disk before I install beta 9. I tried change my password not and testing it again but that did not work. I also have file vault enabled which I cant seem to disable.

If you have partitioned your iMac and still have an install of Catalina, you might need to use that to patch the USB installer. If you are just using the one volume/partition and only have Big Sur Beta on it (which I prefer not to do as its beta and its on an unsupported Mac), then you might have to either try resetting password from MacOS Recovery or you could be possibly looking at an erase and clean install of Beta 9

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hello,
do you have idea that is it possible to change GPU (iMac 10,1 C2D) from HD 4670 to Metal GPU?

thanks!

Hi!

Currently not with the cards we have listed on the thread you find in my signature below. Check out the first post there, the C2D systems are incompatible.

Additionally I have not been able to boot an installer on a more recent 11,x system. Only the 12,x systems are working so far. May be @jackluke and other find a way to create a bootable installer. The last experiment here ended with a forbidden sign, which is slightly better than the shutdown before

 

[Crusher1]

If you have partitioned your iMac and still have an install of Catalina, you might need to use that to patch the USB installer. If you are just using the one volume/partition and only have Big Sur Beta on it (which I prefer not to do as its beta and its on an unsupported Mac), then you might have to either try resetting password from MacOS Recovery or you could be possibly looking at an erase and clean install of Beta 9

Thanks, I unpatched it and repatched the usb drive from Catalina then ran the efi boot but it still did not accept my password. Any ideas other than reinstalling everything?

 

[jackluke]

Additionally I have not been able to boot an installer on a more recent 11,x system. Only the 12,x systems are working so far. May be @jackluke and other find a way to create a bootable installer. The last experiment here ended with a forbidden sign, which is slightly better than the shutdown before

This should work to make a bootable patched BigSur beta 9 USB installer (with responsive usb input devices) for Penryn Core2Duo Legacy USB Mac and if you update or install BigSur on internal SATA it will work: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28973673

While instead if you install BigSur on external USB disk, during the staged installer you need USBopencore to boot with CMD+S and exit for Legacy USB and APFS driver for "macOS Installer", then to boot if you know how to tag an empty snapshot or skip stage3 installer you can with mount -uw / make any system kext change, otherwise you need USBopencore to block telemetry plugin to avoid the C2D kp during booting.

 

[treee111]

Here the updated 0.3.2 compatible version of my little iMac 2011/metal GPU patch-kext-iMac script. The patches are the same as posted before...

Hey!
why don't you put them also into the git-repository?
Should be easier to maintain and find later on I think.

 

[internetzel]

This should work to make a bootable patched BigSur beta 9 USB installer (with responsive usb input devices) for Penryn Core2Duo Legacy USB Mac and if you update or install BigSur on internal SATA it will work: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28973673

While instead if you install BigSur on external USB disk, during the staged installer you need USBopencore to boot with CMD+S and exit for Legacy USB and APFS driver for "macOS Installer", then to boot if you know how to tag an empty snapshot or skip stage3 installer you can with mount -uw / make any system kext change, otherwise you need USBopencore to block telemetry plugin to avoid the C2D kp during booting.

Trying to boot the Big Sur installer on iMac 11,x systems results in an early kernel panic with the following kexts in the backtrace (had to capture this using high speed camera mode):

com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform
   dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleSMC
   dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily
   dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily

So I guess one should try to use some kexts from Catalina instead - but that would require being able to build a different kernel collection (and I only have that HP Laptop with Penryn CPU as other machine that maybe could boot into Big Sur - but it doesn't have any EFI...).
Do you happen to know a way how achieve this?
Or maybe it's just an ACPI/DSDT related problem one could fix using OpenCore?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hey!
why don't you put them also into the git-repository?
Should be easier to maintain and find later on I think.

It is close to the integration into the patcher....later we need only the single patcher package for the GM of Big Sur. I guess we will not look back to check on older versions.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

This should work to make a bootable patched BigSur beta 9 USB installer (with responsive usb input devices) for Penryn Core2Duo Legacy USB Mac and if you update or install BigSur on internal SATA it will work: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28973673

While instead if you install BigSur on external USB disk, during the staged installer you need USBopencore to boot with CMD+S and exit for Legacy USB and APFS driver for "macOS Installer", then to boot if you know how to tag an empty snapshot or skip stage3 installer you can with mount -uw / make any system kext change, otherwise you need USBopencore to block telemetry plugin to avoid the C2D kp during booting.

Thanks, I tried exactly this today and currently I cannot get the patched USB installer to boot a 2010 (i3-540) system. Get the stop sign - whatever I try to get around this

 

[treee111]

It is close to the integration into the patcher....later we need only the single patcher package for the GM of Big Sur. I guess we will not look back to check on older versions.

Sounds good!
I personally don't need these additional scripts in particular. But I find it very hard to find other attached scripts, zip's, whatever in posts rather than than on git.

 

[MacTechAaron70]

Got Beta 9 installed on my Mac Pro 5,1 with the newest patcher.. easy peasy...... runs perfectly fine (except the WiFi isn't working)
I can boot back into my 10.13.6 NVMe drive just fine.... I CAN NOT though boot back into Big Sur!! The disks just do not show up in the disk restart pane. Something I'm missing??