macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[ricoc90]

I did successfully install Big Sur on my late 2012 Mac Mini. However, like a couple of others have mentioned I was unable to mount the root partition as read write (permission denied). no matter what I've tried. I did notice that the apfs partition is labeled as "apfs, sealed, local, journaled, nobrowse". I've never seen that before.

Catalina doesn't seem to be able to mount the volume either, so my attempt in removing it failed

 

[Elonmusk]

What things did not work? Audio? Ethernet? Anything, I'm very puzzled why Apple dropped the late 2013 model.

as far as i see everything works

 

[libneko]

I did successfully install Big Sur on my late 2012 Mac Mini. However, like a couple of others have mentioned I was unable to mount the root partition as read write (permission denied). no matter what I've tried. I did notice that the apfs partition is labeled as "apfs, sealed, local, journaled, nobrowse". I've never seen that before.

Catalina doesn't seem to be able to mount the volume either, so my attempt in removing it failed

Do you have Filevault enabled or, maybe, a Fusion Drive? Is Big Sir in the same APFS Container as Catalina? I do have same problem and currently decrypting my drive, maybe it's the reason.

 

[justperry]

I just installed BS, a few hick-ups like the *stop sign but it works now although performance is impacted by indexing.
Now, the only thing to do is get Wifi working again, shouldn't be that hard, wired now.

A quick terminal command fixed it, although it took some time for my mac to recognise my keyboard.

 

[jhumroo]

Following the developments, since I have a late 2012 Mac Mini that I would like to update to Big Sur as well. It's a 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 with 16GB RAM, and Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB. Runs Catalina beautifully so the processor should be plenty powerful to run Big Sur. Not sure if it's the GPU that's not up-to par.

 

[ricoc90]

Do you have Filevault enabled or, maybe, a Fusion Drive? Is Big Sir in the same APFS Container as Catalina? I do have same problem and currently decrypting my drive, maybe it's the reason.

It's not a Fusion Drive neither is Filevault enabled.

I installed Big Sir on an external HDD at first, but wasn't able to mount / as read write. Since this was painfully slow anyways I did do a reinstall of Big Sur on the internal SSD in the same APFS Container as Catalina, but still wasn't able to mount / as read write.

 

[PiggyGamingYT3]

Here's some issues I experienced while testing macOS Big Sur on my Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro

1. WiFi card not working
2. No Sound
3. Brightness keys not working
4. Logs off randomly
5. Animations lag
6. Settings shows System update notification
7. Calendar icon displays the wrong date
8. Menu bar and dock are not translucent (both light and dark modes)
9. Launchpad lags
10. Siri works, but not without internet
11. White border around dock in Dark Mode
12. Sleep Mode not working
13. Computer randomly freezes
14. Finder tags not showing color
15. Patch Updater application for Catalina removed, PrefPane is still present
16. Video Memory only registers as 3MB
17. Display size shows as 21 Inch

 

[brandonsierra]

Here's some issues I experienced while testing macOS Big Sur on my Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro

1. WiFi card not working
2. No Sound
3. Brightness keys not working
4. Logs off randomly
5. Animations lag
6. Settings shows System update notification
7. Calendar icon displays the wrong date
8. Menu bar and dock are not translucent (both light and dark modes)
9. Launchpad lags
10. Siri works, but not without internet
11. White border around dock in Dark Mode
12. Sleep Mode not working
13. Computer randomly freezes
14. Finder tags not showing color
15. Patch Updater application for Catalina removed, PrefPane is still present
16. Video Memory only registers as 3MB
17. Display size shows as 21 Inch

oof, a lot of issues there.

@dosdude1 will need to make a patcher gui for applying the kexts

 

[libneko]

I've created simple script, that automates some of the required actions: https://github.com/4ndv/big-sur-plz

Huge thanks @ASentientBot for the patcher!

This script:

- Checks if SIP disabled
- Checks if FileVault disabled (will remove in the future if error 66 not caused by FileVault), this check can be skipped
- Disables library validation
- Adds -no_compat_check to the boot-args
- Automatically downloads and extracts patcher
- Runs installer with patcher, with a little bit different, but more stable method

 

[ASentientBot]

Here's some issues I experienced while testing macOS Big Sur on my Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro

1. WiFi card not working
2. No Sound
3. Brightness keys not working
4. Logs off randomly
5. Animations lag
6. Settings shows System update notification
7. Calendar icon displays the wrong date
8. Menu bar and dock are not translucent (both light and dark modes)
9. Launchpad lags
10. Siri works, but not without internet
11. White border around dock in Dark Mode
12. Sleep Mode not working
13. Computer randomly freezes
14. Finder tags not showing color
15. Patch Updater application for Catalina removed, PrefPane is still present
16. Video Memory only registers as 3MB
17. Display size shows as 21 Inch

These are almost all to be expected on a machine that wasn't supported since High Sierra and hasn't had any patches applied.

#1-3, 12, 16-17 are easily fixed with kexts. #5, 8-9, 13-14 are caused by a lack of acceleration, which I'm hoping to fix eventually, but it's extremely difficult.

I also got the random logouts (most likely WindowServer crashes) even without any patches. It's probably due to a lack of Metal, but I didn't check.

In any case, I hope you didn't expect this to be even remotely usable yet. It's going to be a while. Thank you for testing though.

 

[Humble-X]

Ok I took a nap. So the WiFi works with that upgraded Airport Card I stated I have.

 

[apostmi]

Has anyone found a way to get Wi-Fi on MBPs?

 

[libneko]

I've created simple script, that automates some of the required actions: https://github.com/4ndv/big-sur-plz

Huge thanks @ASentientBot for the patcher!

This script:

- Checks if SIP disabled
- Checks if FileVault disabled (will remove in the future if error 66 not caused by FileVault), this check can be skipped
- Disables library validation
- Adds -no_compat_check to the boot-args
- Automatically downloads and extracts patcher
- Runs installer with patcher, with a little bit different, but more stable method

Updated my Mac Mini 2012 guide with the script: https://medium.com/@andv/how-to-install-big-sur-to-mac-mini-late-2012-9d674b563174

 

[brandonsierra]

@ASentientBot can I just put the wifi kexts from Catalina onto Big Sur then refresh kext cache then I will have wifi?

 

[apostmi]

@ASentientBot can I just put the wifi kexts from Catalina onto Big Sur then refresh kext cache then I will have wifi?

I tried & no success

 

[jhumroo]

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

I have the same model (Late 2012 Mac Mini). Sorry for the newbie question. How did you install Big Sur? Can you please share details since it's difficult to follow by reading all the different posts. Thanks!

 

[libneko]

I have the same model (Late 2012 Mac Mini). Sorry for the newbie question. How did you install Big Sur? Can you please share details since it's difficult to follow by reading all the different posts. Thanks!

I would much appreciate if you help me and try my new script, which automates some actions, and was written on Late 2012 Mini, here's guide: https://medium.com/@andv/how-to-install-big-sur-to-mac-mini-late-2012-9d674b563174
[automerge]1592948893[/automerge]
It covers installation, but not Wifi, I'm trying to do something with it, but still no success

 

[Humble-X]

Sleep also works, later ima test out Logic Pro X with my plugins. I have to head to work now. Will report my findings?

 

[Han98]

I get after the first reboot and complete loading bar the error: An Error ocured preparing software update

 

[shadowapple]

Thanks for telling me, I have noted it in the video description and pinned a comment now.

I cannot copy the file hax.dylib where you indicate in the correction, it puts as a symbol of a circle.

Edit:
I already could, thanks.

 

[andresro14]

Im surprised with how many posts are here and the presentation was yesterday.

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

I've created simple script, that automates some of the required actions: https://github.com/4ndv/big-sur-plz

Huge thanks @ASentientBot for the patcher!

This script:

- Checks if SIP disabled
- Checks if FileVault disabled (will remove in the future if error 66 not caused by FileVault), this check can be skipped
- Disables library validation
- Adds -no_compat_check to the boot-args
- Automatically downloads and extracts patcher
- Runs installer with patcher, with a little bit different, but more stable method

Is there any way we can make this work with High Sierra and Mojave? I kinda borked my Catalina installation....

 

[libneko]

Is there any way we can make this work with High Sierra and Mojave? I kinda borked my Catalina installation....

In my script, there is not a lot of things that prevents running on HS/Mojave, but idk if patcher itself works on Mojave/HS or not.

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

In my script, there is not a lot of things that prevents running on HS/Mojave, but idk if patcher itself works on Mojave/HS or not.

The script said (and I quote) “dyld: symbol not found: _objc_opt_class Referenced from /Users/default/big-sur-plz/Hax.dylib (which was built for Mac OS X 10.15) Expected in: /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib”

Did I do something wrong?

 

[libneko]

The script said (and I quote “dyld: symbol not found: _objc_opt_class Referenced from /Users/default/big-sur-plz/Hax.dylib (which was built for Mac OS X 10.15) Expected in: /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib”

Did I do something wrong?

Looks like patcher itself is not compatible with HS/Mojave, will tag @ASentientBot on this one