macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[ScreenSavers]

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

Almost all those things are due to a lack of graphics acceleration because the 2011 has no Metal GPU support.

 

[David403]

I’m not sure what the size is suppose to be but the installer I have is 9.58GB

The InstallAssistant.pkg is 9.56 Gb and the full installer that it gives you is 9.58 Gb

 

[ASentientBot]

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

Thanks for the heads up! It's hardly a "patcher" lol, but I recompiled the dylib with -mmacosx-version-min=10.10 so I think that'll fix the issue. I don't actually have a pre-Catalina system on hand to test immediately. Tagging @Adamscomputerrepair too, please @ me if it's still broken.
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After applying the launchctl setenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES $PWD/Hax.dylib in terminal my mbp mid 2012 locks up and won’t let me open any applications. And freezes up in the installer. Any advice?

Rather than $PWD/Hax.dylib, try putting a space and then dragging in Hax.dylib from wherever it's saved. Sorry for initially giving very little details. I didn't expect many people to use it.
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Try using my script (https://github.com/4ndv/big-sur-plz), it injects dylib only for InstallAssistant, not system-wide

I don't think that'll work. The reason I do it system-wide is so it will apply to a daemon that InstallAssistant launches. The freezes were probably caused by an incorrect path to the library (dyld will abort loading a binary if the inserted library can't be found). It shouldn't interfere with any other system functionality, and the launchctl command won't persist across reboots.
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For those unable to mount root volume as writable - this is likely because like me, your system is booting off a snapshot instead of the live volume. To bypass this, try the steps I wrote here: https://egpu.io/forums/postid/82119/

Basically the process to modify root volume is:

1. Disable Authenticated Root (ART)
2. Mount "live" volume as writable.
3. Modify volume as needed.
4. Create a system snapshot and tag it.
5. Reboot.

On next boot, the system will boot off the new (modified) snapshot. This worked for me when I added a text file to the root volume and checked snapshot volume post-reboot.

Note: I am running on a natively supported system [2014 15" MBP] and needed to modify the root volume for other purposes than running unsupported OSes.

Awesome find, it explains the weird behavior some people have seen. Thank you for sharing this! (Although strangely enough, that command reports "enabled" on my system, but I can still modify the root and haven't seen any "error 66" messages. Any ideas why?)
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That's disappointing. Which flavor? I recently switch an old Macbook Air that was just too slow on macOS to Manjaro. It's pretty cool.
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I have a machine that falls in this category. The part I don't get is if OpenGL is gone what is the strategy in patching? Putting OpenGL back or coming up with a Metal compatible video driver?

In my particular case, I have a Macmini 5,1 in a closet running Plex. Since I don't care about graphics acceleration or wifi does that mean I could upgrade it? Not sure there'd really be a point though huh?

Thanks again for all you do!

OpenGL is not gone.
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BIErrorDomain error 3. Looked it up. Seems like the same error people get when try to install in VMware. Im running the installer on Catalina 10.15.4. and trying to install to ssd. but all hard drives are greyed out with that error

"BIErrorDomain 3" is the new installer (written in Objective-C and part of an InstallAssistant internal framework, rather than JavaScript in OSInstall.mpkg/Distribution as previously) check's way of saying that the system is unsupported. In the context of my (rather ridiculously named) Hax.dylib, it means that didn't get injected into the relevant InstallAssistant daemon for some reason (probably Library Validation is enabled).

Edit: Sorry for the spam. I knew I was responding to a few messages, but had no idea it would become a text wall of this magnitude

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

Thanks for the heads up! It's hardly a "patcher" lol, but I recompiled the dylib with -mmacosx-version-min=10.10 so I think that'll fix the issue. I don't actually have a pre-Catalina system on hand to test immediately. Tagging @Adamscomputerrepair too, please @ me if it's still broken.
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Rather than $PWD/Hax.dylib, try putting a space and then dragging in Hax.dylib from wherever it's saved. Sorry for initially giving very little details. I didn't expect many people to use it.
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I don't think that'll work. The reason I do it system-wide is so it will apply to a daemon that InstallAssistant launches. The freezes were probably caused by an incorrect path to the library (dyld will abort loading a binary if the inserted library can't be found). It shouldn't interfere with any other system functionality, and the launchctl command won't persist across reboots.
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Awesome find, it explains the weird behavior some people have seen. Thank you for sharing this! (Although strangely enough, that command reports "enabled" on my system, but I can still modify the root and haven't seen any "error 66" messages. Any ideas why?)
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OpenGL is not gone.
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"BIErrorDomain 3" is the new installer (written in Objective-C and part of an InstallAssistant internal framework, rather than JavaScript in OSInstall.mpkg/Distribution as previously) check's way of saying that the system is unsupported. In the context of my (rather ridiculously named) Hax.dylib, it means that didn't get injected into the relevant InstallAssistant daemon for some reason (probably Library Validation is enabled).

Edit: Sorry for the spam. I knew I was responding to a few messages, but had no idea it would become a text wall of this magnitude

Trying now

EDIT: that did it! It’s installing as we speak. I’m going to obviously have to delete the telemetry thing, but then there’s some things I’m going to try. Namely I’m trying a USB WiFi adapter I have to use anyway due to my internal WiFi being broken. On top of that, I’m going to play around and see if I can get graphics even partially working. probably can’t, but what the heck. Might as well try

 

[nandor690]

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"BIErrorDomain 3" is the new installer (written in Objective-C and part of an InstallAssistant internal framework, rather than JavaScript in OSInstall.mpkg/Distribution as previously) check's way of saying that the system is unsupported. In the context of my (rather ridiculously named) Hax.dylib, it means that didn't get injected into the relevant InstallAssistant daemon for some reason (probably Library Validation is enabled).

Edit: Sorry for the spam. I knew I was responding to a few messages, but had no idea it would become a text wall of this magnitude
[/QUOTE]
what do I do with this HaxYosimite.dylib once I downloaded it? I assume it goes into the installer somewhere?
Thanks for your help
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Trying now

EDIT: that did it! It’s installing as we speak. I’m going to obviously have to delete the telemetry thing, but then there’s some things I’m going to try. Namely I’m trying a USB WiFi adapter I have to use anyway due to my internal WiFi being broken. On top of that, I’m going to play around and see if I can get graphics even partially working. probably can’t, but what the heck. Might as well try

how did you add that in? Im using the script big-sir-plz

 

[shadowapple]

AFAIK, that means you are going well. Now you need to set the "No compatibility check" in NVRAM. Easiest way would be to boot in previous macOS and in terminal, issue:

sudo nvram boot-args='-no_compat_check'

I'm not really sure if this step can be done in the OS Recovery terminal. For what I've read, should be done with the full system running, but I haven't tested it myself.

Once that's done, the Big Sur OS will be able to boot and continue installing.

Thank you! That was Thank you!

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

OpenGL is not gone.

By the way, Apple has documented that macOS 11 still has OpenGL. Screenshots in case Apple does anything with that documentation:

 

[eVasilis]

The CPU and GPU share memory... No plans for discrete GPUS?

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

Okay is it normal to be stuck at the progress bar for an ungodly amount of time?

 

[toru173]

There's a mistake in your video, you drag the file to the Users Folder, should be in the Home Folder as per instructions giving here and elsewhere.

Tidbit, installer files are in a Zip format...first time I see this on a mac., see screenshot.

View attachment 926762

Yeah! UpdateBrain contains the majority of the update/install logic, but doesn't seem to be callable directly (it's just a service). 0d....394.zip is essentially an ipa file with the extension already changed to .zip (.ipa files are really just .zips). Inside is a heap of pbzx encoded payload chunks that don't seem to decompress with any public tools. I'm investigating the format at the moment, but also trying to find what utilities Apple uses to decompress them rather than having to start from scratch

 

[highvoltage12v]

I was digging in the payloads section of the installer. And for a version of Mac OS that doesn't support many of the 2012-2013 iMac's (2012 mini is there as well) they still included the firmware updates.... Something tells me this OS release is less half-baked than usual, especially with all the UI bugs I feel like 2 months of work was missing on this release. We all know why of course.

 

[toru173]

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

Interestingly, just after reading this I found an undocumented 'donotseal' arg in startosinstall:

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

Okay successfully installed on my MacBook Pro, however it is now just crashing and rebooting before getting to any kind of start screen. I’ve heard I need to delete telemetry, but I can’t find it. Thoughts?

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Okay successfully installed on my MacBook Pro, however it is now just crashing and rebooting before getting to any kind of start screen. I’ve heard I need to delete telemetry, but I can’t find it. Thoughts?

According to post #264 it's at /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.telemetry.plugin

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

According to post #264 it's at /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.telemetry.plugin

Yeah I don’t have/see a UserEventPlugins folder.

 

[mac_4eva]

Awesome find, it explains the weird behavior some people have seen. Thank you for sharing this! (Although strangely enough, that command reports "enabled" on my system, but I can still modify the root and haven't seen any "error 66" messages. Any ideas why?)

Most likely scenario is that your system is booting off the live volume directly instead of a snapshot. Not sure why this happens but perhaps this behavior is limited to some Macs (I experimented with several clean installs on my 2014 mac). I anticipate it will change to booting from a snapshot eventually, as a recent WWDC article explains the adoption of SSV. A good indicator that a snapshot is being used to boot your system is to boot and check Disk Utility - what should be live volume will be in unmounted state - bizarre when I first saw that. So if you're booted off the live volume, it should show up as mounted.

 

[Semmo]

My 2012 MacBook Pro has an upgraded Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0, (WiFi 802.11AC) hopefully this might get around the lack of WiFi drivers for this model.

Hi mate. started looking into this last night. could you provide a part number for the card. is it 3x3 wifi a/c? thanks. btw I'm assuming you have a1398 mid-2002 15 2.6 pro? thanks

 

[Pendleton115]

Hi mate. started looking into this last night. could you provide a part number for the card. is it 3x3 wifi a/c? thanks. btw I'm assuming you have a1398 mid-2002 15 2.6 pro? thanks

That is correct, not sure about the card specs, but will provide the Forum Link https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...s.2171056/page-15?post=27872006#post-27872006

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Yeah I don’t have/see a UserEventPlugins folder.

My best wild guess/stab in the dark is to suggest that you try redoing the nvram settings (I think I saw a post saying that nvram can get cleared during Big Sur installation, although I haven't found it again yet). Edit: Found it, post #345.

 

[Humble-X]

Ok just finished work. I was impatient... so I brought my 💻 to work😁. Anyways I haven’t got to do my full tests but all my plugins for logic
Works! Will report back in the morning With further findings. O yea things like macfan works and turbo boost app that all I could see so far because I’m kinda in a rush to get home... anyways in the morning.👋🏾

 

[linwe]

I was digging in the payloads section of the installer. And for a version of Mac OS that doesn't support many of the 2012-2013 iMac's (2012 mini is there as well) they still included the firmware updates.... Something tells me this OS release is less half-baked than usual, especially with all the UI bugs I feel like 2 months of work was missing on this release. We all know why of course.

That's quite interesting.
Maybe there's some hope for 2013 iMacs after all... 🤞

 

[0403979]

That's disappointing. Which flavor? I recently switch an old Macbook Air that was just too slow on macOS to Manjaro. It's pretty cool.

I've been using Ubuntu. It's simple to use and is quite clean. It has all I need for now

 

[freqrider]

I have a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 with an 8gb Sapphire RX580 gpu with metal support currently running Mojave. It should be able to run Catalina by simply installing a patcher. At that point, would it be possible to upgrade to Big Sur via patcher, assuming one can be made?

It's so stupid that Apple has cut support on these machines especially since they are significantly more powerful and capable than the majority of the 2013 computers they are continuing to support. Apple should cut support on macs like they do on iPhones. Support should only be cut when the device no longer has the hardware needed to run the operating system. I should not have to downgrade to a less capable but newer mac just to get the latest operating system Apple has to offer.

Anyway, if anyone has any idea if a Big Sur patcher is possible for a Mac Pro 5,1, let me know. And if not, any suggestions on what to upgrade to would be helpful aswell.

you can install Big Sur on a 5,1 with openCore. Been done already.

 

[Larsvonhier]

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.

You might also cross check with Apple´s own long list of known bugs. Windowserver crashes might be related.
I also have the impression this time the beta is not even "half-baked". Devs on supported machines also noticed it. Will hopefully change until GM or .1 then.

 

[libneko]

I don't think that'll work. The reason I do it system-wide is so it will apply to a daemon that InstallAssistant launches. The freezes were probably caused by an incorrect path to the library (dyld will abort loading a binary if the inserted library can't be found). It shouldn't interfere with any other system functionality, and the launchctl command won't persist across reboots.

Yup, finally got to test it myself, changed method back to system-wide. Anyone interested could update the script with `git pull` in the folder.