macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Bmju]

...

Next time to avoid this unwanted firmware update you should continue the stage2 installer "macOS Installer" without OpenCore spoofing, just using -no_compat_check in nvram, in this case EFI firmware should not install .
...

That all makes sense except... the hang happened as I let it run into the stage 2 installer unattanded ... i.e. not using *any* spoofing, and must have been without even -no_compat_check (as that has to be reset by hand, and I didn't). i.e. in fact, stage 2 could not have actually started. So I think something in the stage 1 (?) preparation must have started to fiddle with my nvram/firmware already - maybe to prepare it for the firmware upgrade? - before ever getting into stage 2.

 

[jackluke]

That all makes sense except... the hang happened as I let it run into the stage 2 installer unattanded ... i.e. not using *any* spoofing, and must have been without even -no_compat_check (as that has to be reset by hand, and I didn't). i.e. in fact, stage 2 could not have actually started. So I think something in the stage 1 (?) preparation must have started to fiddle with my nvram/firmware already - maybe to prepare it for the firmware upgrade? - before ever getting into stage 2.

Then could be also OTA stage 1 while preparing the Update Volume that scheduled a firmware update in nvram, so at this point I advise to don't use more OpenCore spoofing to OTA update.

 

[BeatCrazy]

If it's newly created, then you can erase it as a HFS+ partition and try selecting that for the install? Big Sur will convert it to APFS during install? At least I think I remember that's how it worked with Catalina.

Doesn't appear you're able to create a HFS+ partition if your main volume is APFS.

I did find a fix, I hope this helps others.

I started with instructions here:https://www.chanhvuong.com/4428/revert-drive-back-from-apfs-to-jhfs-using-diskutil-command-line/

BUT didn't work on my internal drive, unless I booted into Recovery mode, and used the Terminal commands from there. I also had to specify the parent Volume diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk1, not disk1s5 where my destination Volume was listed.

In other words, I had to convert the entire container back to HFS+, I couldn't just do a single volume. And this wiped my entire High Sierra install

 

[Mac_tech]

I seem to making progress on my 11,1. However, upon launching the BS installer, when I choose a newly-created Volume as my installation destination, I get the following error. I'm running APFS volumes, already.

Your Mac needs a firmware update in order to install to this volume Please select a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume instead.

I would try booting it from a USB flash drive rather then launching the installer from your desktop. What version of MacOS are you upgrading from? I hope this helps.

 

[webg3]

I've upgraded my late 2012 13" retina display MBP to successfully running completely unpatched Big Sur 11.0.1 Beta (20B5012d) - OTA 3.69GB - using OpenCoreAPFSloader4s1, again. Thanks, @jackluke.

However... weird side effects during upgrade...

My MBP completely hung during the first upgrade reboot. Reset NVRAM and reset SMC did not fix it at all: powering up (as shown by external peripherals getting power), but completely black screen. I had to disassemble my MBP and disconnect the battery for a bit. After which... it all boots fine again, and the upgrade continued, but my 'prohibitory symbol' screen has changed:

View attachment 976478

[EDIT: I'm not worried by it being there; I know how to get rid of it, I just don't understand how come its graphics have changed.]

Previously I had a thicker 'no entry' sign, and no link. From a quick Google, all the Mac 'no entry' signs screen-grabbed on the web are like the one I used to have, except - I've just noticed - the one Apple is showing at that very link, which is the same (i.e. somewhat thinner lines than before) as the one I have now!

Has anyone seen this before? Have I reverted myself to some very old Mac 'no entry' symbol? Or have I somehow been upgraded to a brand new one?

I don't usually talk about going into details when I update versions, but I'll explain here, since I only update from beta 6 to 7,8,9,10 and now 11.0.1 beta 1.


I have an Air 11 "2012 4GB, very similar to the hardware of the 2012 models, except for the fact that it has less capacity.

I always send updates via OTA at bedtime, because in the morning some stage must be completed, it will have some restarts during this process, and it often happens that I am sleeping.


The secret to updating is to use OpenCore at every reboot.

If you ever lose, you will come across the screen with the forbidden symbol.

I also had the same problem of having to disconnect the battery, in all OTA updates I did, without supervision.

If you had started with OpenCore every time (if you had followed correctly), you did not need to disconnect the battery.

In the end everything went well.
Everything always works out.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I would try booting it from a USB flash drive rather then launching the installer from your desktop. What version of MacOS are you upgrading from? I hope this helps.

Good idea. I'm trying to update from (officially supported) 10.13.16

 

[Mac_tech]

Thanks, I couldn't remember the name of the OS but the wallpaper looked familiar. if you want to upgrade from High Sierra (10.13.6) assuming your machine is supported. I confirmed that it's supported officially via the MacOS Big Sur preview page.

You have an 11,1 MacBook Pro. Based on this, it's a Late-2013 or Mid-2014 If you want to beta test it you could sign up for the public beta officially. One thing you could do, upgrade to Catalina first and from there to Big Sur via the public beta if you want.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think you would need to patch your Mac it as it is is supported officially. My machine on the other hand is a MacBook Pro 9,2 so have been using it via the micropatcher and Big Sur has been smooth for me. If you wish to use the micropatcher instead I can walk you though the steps to do so.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Einen hab ich noch ....

iMac 11,2 - this is another new one

Using the OpenCore as suggested here I could install Beta 11 on this iMac 21.5 2010 with an Nvidia Metal card. I forced the patcher using patch-kext.sh --2011 and got a smoothly working system. Okay you saw this before. The --2011 flag does the job. Even then the HD3000 extension are not really needed

We can streamline this patching process and patch selection during the next days.

Thanks a lot @khronokernel and @Barry K. Nathan and @jackluke !

 

[jackluke]

I don't usually talk about going into details when I update versions, but I'll explain here, since I only update from beta 6 to 7,8,9,10 and now 11.0.1 beta 1.

The secret to updating is to use OpenCore at every reboot.

I also had the same problem of having to disconnect the battery, in all OTA updates I did, without supervision.

If you had started with OpenCore every time (if you had followed correctly), you did not need to disconnect the battery.

Continuing the "macOS Installer" stage2 with opencore spoofing (so also in your case you are spoofing to an Haswell or later architecture), maybe could work failing the attempt to update the EFI SMC firmware during the EEPROM checksum, but from @Bmju picture where prohibitory symbol showed http://support.apple.com/mac/startup

this is clearly an EFI BigSur firmware updated, even if I repeat some machines could work with a different apple firmware especially when the Intel architecture is enough similar, maybe machine bricking could occur if spoofed to a Mac with T2 chip where BridgeOS firmware is used.

Anyway in my USBOpenCore spoofing for OTA update I made a safe configuration, the fact is that many, reading my config.plist, then preferred to use their custom config.plist or maybe used my config.plist overwriting their OpenCore folders, this might lead to this unwanted situation where EFI SMC is updated to a different hardware.

I also when spoofing through opencore before stage2 installer encountered in some circumstances the big apple logo with big loading bar (that is a signal of an attempt of EFI SMC firmware update) but this failed and so after power off and reboot the installation continued.

Even if I guess that using exactly my setup this situation should not occur, here are some tips to troubleshoot these opencore spoofing issues:

- remove RAM from their slots for some minutes and then reseat one with lower frequency (if your Mac has removable RAM)
- disconnect battery for some minutes if is a MacBook (otherwise try the SMC reset for your Mac, if I don't get wrong Mac mini has internal CMOS battery removable or some pins to use with a paperclip)
- remove the SATA hard disk and try to install a supported MacOS, or maybe remove the PlatformSupport.plist from APFS Preboot Volume
- disconnect power cable and hold power button for about a minute
- if it's Mac mini or iMac (without internal keyboard) use a genuine original apple keyboard (wireless bluetooth or wired usb), third party keyboard won't allow after a kp or prohibitory symbol to use alt-option or PRAM reset or any apple EFI shortcut combination, so use an original expensive apple keyboard and it will work in most cases

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

@Barry K. Nathan @jackluke
Success updating BS beta 11.0.1 using USB Installer with micropatcher 0.5.0-C
-Mac mini 2010 patched --2010 (errors on boot and system kmutil rebuilding collection) , All OK with micropatcher 0.5.0-C + OpenCoreLoader4S on stage 3, USB keyboard and mouse still work only using CMD + S, Apple booter.
-iMac micropatcher used only to boot with the installer, since I cannot select BS directly from Catalina + @ASentientBot
hax3 as until beta 10. No patch-kexts applied, but a lot of reboots (crashes?) until complete system loading.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Would someone mind taking a look at my issue below and see if I'm making a fundamental error in installation?

Despite my attempts to reformat my main SSD from APFS to JHFS+, I ended up screwing up the drive so bad that not only was my original High Sierra installation wiped, but I was unable to format the SSD for another re-install. I literally had to crack open my iMac 11,1, pull out the drive, and format the SSD on another computer.

Once back in, I did a fresh High Sierra installation on the wiped SSD. The installation of High Sierra to a "new" SSD will of course format it as APFS.

I am using (what I believe to be) a properly patched version of OpenCore loader that will allow the Big Sur installation. And I've created the Big Sur USB installer, and patched that as well per instructions from this thread.

However, I'm still unable to install on the new APFS Volume I created for this purpose (BIGSURB). I even tried to install it on an external USB, but get the error that the installation cannot occur on this (USB) disk.

 

[hvds]

Hi Barry

removing the *Tesla* files worked.
Thanks for your help

On MBP5,2, successfully installed 11.0.1 beta1 over 11.0 beta10.

The latter was a clean install, without using migration assistant, with createinstallmedia / BigSur BaseSystem legacy usb fix b9 / patch-kexts of micropatcher 0.4.3 (slightly modified to include patched CoreBrightness and patched IOHIDFamily).

11.0.1 beta1 installed over this with again its createinstallmedia / BigSur BaseSystem legacy usb fix b9 / patch-kexts of micropatcher 0.4.4 (modified the same way).

Importantly, I encountered the same problem as Jeanphil - thanks for your finding and for testing the fix!
I looked at the Library/Extensions of the data volume from the USB installer's terminal before successful execution of patch-kexts (BS not bootable on MBP5,2 at that point). There were three kexts, which looked as unrelated to the problem, as they looked useless. After deleting them, patch-kexts worked well.

NightShift, internal audio, Ethernet and WIFI all work well.
EDIT: just tried with FaceTime - iSight camera works as well.
EDIT2: and USB keyboard, USB mouse work (no CMD+S / exit booting needed).

Edit - forgot to say that I use USB2/USB3 hotswap during installation to overcome the legacy USB power problem, as mentioned in earlier posts.
Not using OpenCore at present.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Thanks, I couldn't remember the name of the OS but the wallpaper looked familiar. if you want to upgrade from High Sierra (10.13.6) assuming your machine is supported. I confirmed that it's supported officially via the MacOS Big Sur preview page. See screenshot below:

View attachment 976549
You have an 11,1 MacBook Pro. Based on this, it's a Late-2013 or Mid-2014 If you want to beta test it you could sign up for the public beta officially. One thing you could do, upgrade to Catalina first and from there to Big Sur via the public beta if you want.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think you would need to patch your Mac it as it is is supported officially. My machine on the other hand is a MacBook Pro 9,2 so have been using it via the micropatcher and Big Sur has been smooth for me. If you wish to use the micropatcher instead I can walk you though the steps to do so.

Hope this helps.

No, I have 11,1 iMac. Late 2009, not officially supported.

 

[abbotsford1980]

Would someone mind taking a look at my issue below and see if I'm making a fundamental error in installation?

Despite my attempts to reformat my main SSD from APFS to JHFS+, I ended up screwing up the drive so bad that not only was my original High Sierra installation wiped, but I was unable to format the SSD for another re-install. I literally had to crack open my iMac 11,1, pull out the drive, and format the SSD on another computer.

Once back in, I did a fresh High Sierra installation on the wiped SSD. The installation of High Sierra to a "new" SSD will of course format it as APFS.

I am using (what I believe to be) a properly patched version of OpenCore loader that will allow the Big Sur installation. And I've created the Big Sur USB installer, and patched that as well per instructions from this thread.

However, I'm still unable to install on the new APFS Volume I created for this purpose (BIGSURB). I even tried to install it on an external USB, but get the error that the installation cannot occur on this (USB) disk.

Easy to fix. Because you’re using opencore you need to toggle the below on for the install to avoid this error. Search for the below in the opencore config file and update.

I would also recommend using the usb installer instead of installing from within your current os.

Toggle the VMM flag

• Find Cpuid1Mask and make the appropriate change

ON	OFF
AAAAAAAAAAAAAACAAAAAAA==	AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==

 

[Mac_tech]

No, I have 11,1 iMac. Late 2009, not officially supported.

Thanks for this, it helps a lot.

 

[Mac_tech]

Would someone mind taking a look at my issue below and see if I'm making a fundamental error in installation?

Despite my attempts to reformat my main SSD from APFS to JHFS+, I ended up screwing up the drive so bad that not only was my original High Sierra installation wiped, but I was unable to format the SSD for another re-install. I literally had to crack open my iMac 11,1, pull out the drive, and format the SSD on another computer.

Once back in, I did a fresh High Sierra installation on the wiped SSD. The installation of High Sierra to a "new" SSD will of course format it as APFS.

I am using (what I believe to be) a properly patched version of OpenCore loader that will allow the Big Sur installation. And I've created the Big Sur USB installer, and patched that as well per instructions from this thread.

However, I'm still unable to install on the new APFS Volume I created for this purpose (BIGSURB). I even tried to install it on an external USB, but get the error that the installation cannot occur on this (USB) disk.

I did a little research and found this, can't install using OpenCore because "Your Mac needs a firmware update" I know it's for MacOS Catalina but it could help you.

Hope this helps.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

From another test with recent IOUSB Mac, seems that FaceTime iSight webcam crashed also with non Metal AppleIntelHDGraphics Arrandale kext loaded, so I guess when non Metal framebuffer video kext are loaded on BigSur iSight crashed, weirdly with basic graphics kext (without video framebuffer) iSight FaceTime works.

The webcam works with HD3000 on my MacBookPro8,1, however.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Possibly the patch-kext.sh --2011 mode should work, too. I cannot see the need of the GeForceTesla extensions

Yes, there are decisions I will have to revisit after I finish and release v0.5.0, now that more 2010 Macs are usable.

 

[brkr1]

On MBP5,2, successfully installed 11.0.1 beta1 over 11.0 beta10.

I didnt know our Macs were capable of running Big Sur.. Took a look sometime ago and they were not yet compatible. I have a MBP5,3 running Catalina 10.15.6.. Could you please write a how-to for our machines? Whenever you have time, please!
Thank you in advance.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

No, I have 11,1 iMac. Late 2009, not officially supported.

What's the build number on your current High Sierra installation? (Go to About This Mac, then click on the version number.)

Also (and maybe this is more to the point), try running SilentKnight (download the latest version, not the older v1.8) and see whether it says your firmware is up to date.

SilentKnight, Skint, silnite, LockRattler, SystHist & Scrub

Skint – a watchful eye on security settings Updated! Checks key security settings and features including SIP, SSV, Gatekeeper, XProtect, XProtect Remediator and macOS security updates. Runs a…

eclecticlight.co

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

@Barry K. Nathan hello there my friend, finally I installed beta 9 Big Sur on my 8.1 MacBook Pro late 2011 ”13 with fresh install after erasing my ssd drive (made full time machine backup)
i want your help asking you , will I transfer my system files again from the backup ? will it affect any extensions ??

In my testing, Big Sur Time Machine restores did not transfer system files from the backup. (In fact, I think Big Sur, unlike previous macOS releases, is excluding the system files when doing the backup.)

 

[BeatCrazy]

For those of you that installed Big Sur on an iMac 11,1 with Metal-GPU like K2100M (or similar), do you still have Target Display Mode available?

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Hello Mr @Barry K. Nathan , please note that i got this error when i tried to apply the patch , big sur 11.0.1 with micro

Look at your first screenshot again. Did you try following those directions? (In other words, try booting from the patched USB stick's EFI Boot partition again, and see if that fixes the problem.)

 

[BeatCrazy]

What's the build number on your current High Sierra installation? (Go to About This Mac, then click on the version number.)

Also (and maybe this is more to the point), try running SilentKnight (download the latest version, not the older v1.8) and see whether it says your firmware is up to date.

SilentKnight, Skint, silnite, LockRattler, SystHist & Scrub

Skint – a watchful eye on security settings Updated! Checks key security settings and features including SIP, SSV, Gatekeeper, XProtect, XProtect Remediator and macOS security updates. Runs a…

eclecticlight.co

Build is 10.13.6 (17G14033) and BootROM 63.0.0.0

^^Those are the latest builds and BootROM

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

I am using (what I believe to be) a properly patched version of OpenCore loader that will allow the Big Sur installation. And I've created the Big Sur USB installer, and patched that as well per instructions from this thread.

If you used my patcher, you might need to boot from the patched USB stick before the installer will work properly. (I believe OpenCore should be able to do that, if I'm not mistaken.) Please let me know whether that resolves the error messages about firmware, or if the errors still appear.