macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[BeatCrazy]

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.

I had been using a patched version of OC 0.6.0 with modified files. I wanted to try the @khronokernel pre-built image, but when I open up the Discord link, I don't see any file to download.

I can take a shot at your patcher tomorrow, thank you Do you know if Target Display Mode will still work on applicable iMacs?

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

I had been using a patched version of OC 0.6.0 with modified files. I wanted to try the @khronokernel pre-built image, but when I open up the Discord link, I don't see any file to download.

I can take a shot at your patcher tomorrow, thank you Do you know if Target Display Mode will still work on applicable iMacs?

I don't know enough about how Target Display Mode works to answer your question, unfortunately.

 

[hvds]

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.

Sure, I'll do that a little later today.
But be aware there is no graphics acceleration for MBP5,2 (and probably 5,3) for the Nvidia GPUs 9400M and 9600M GT, which these machines have on-board. So the result is good enough for testing only.
Also at present I need an extra piece of hardware (USB3.0 expresscard from nanotech) during installation; there may be an OpenCore way around this.

Edit:
I just append here a (only slightly) updated version from this post https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-29066401 .
It is using the newer micropatcher, and 11.0.1 beta1 instead 11.0 beta10.

I used a rather special hybrid installation scheme:
USB BS installer made with createinstallmedia of 11.0.1beta1, then applied jackluke's BigSur BaseSystem legacy usb fix b9 to it, then copied the payloads of Barry K. Nathan's big-sur-micropatcher-0.4.4 to the root of the USB installer (necessary parts only *).
- USB installer boots fine. In installer's terminal executed jackluke's + ASentientBot’s Hax3.sh.
- Then started installation with target SSD on one of the on-board USB connectors. Phase1 finishes.
- Phase2 can't proceed very far: the legacy USB (power) problem.
- Hot swap the SSD to one of the USB3 ports of a nanoTECH ExpressCard34 which I had bought after Larsvonhier's hint earlier in this thread. Phase2 continues to the end of the long white-on-black phase.
- Swap back to on-board USB for booting of the volume now called MacOS Installer (can't boot from the express card ports), then after legacy USB problem (after some 15sec) hot swap to USB3 for continuation.
- Same for the next booting. Afterwards installation to the target SSD is finished, but can't boot BS yet due to missing/wrong kexts.
- Boot USB BS installer again and run Barry's patch-kexts.sh. That works successfully.

Then BS beta1 boots fine from an on-board USB port, no further use of USB3 or swapping needed.

* the necessary parts are highlighted in the attached screenshot. Note that preferences and PrivateFrameworks have been added temporarily to v0.4.4, and that IOHIDFamily.kext and CoreBrightness.framework are patched versions. Maybe good to wait for a newer version of micropatcher.
Anyway you can try the whole thing with parts of the real original 0.4.4. Very little functionality missing.

I'd strongly recommend to use a different disk for BS installations. Don't endanger your existing system.

And the USB swapping trick is only needed when installing on an external disk on USB. Some members of this forum use the 2nd SATA port (used normally for the DVD drive) for a 2nd disk, others swapped their usual production disk for the BS one temporarily during installation, others made an extra partition for BS on their production disk.
The least invasive way I found is to use USB, though with the extra effort needed during installation on our old "legacy USB" machines.

 

[hvds]

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. Yet to try iSight (EDIT: just tried with FaceTime - iSight camera works as well).

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.

I have a suspicion how the three kexts may have entered the otherwise clean system (no migration run):
I own a SATA II expresscard from LaCie which isn't supported anymore since High Sierra (I think). From time to time I plug it in to see what happens, and I may have done this for beta10.
At least the RAID kext rings a bell and sounds familiar.
But I could not reproduce the effect of having extra kexts in Data/Library/Extensions by plugging in the expresscard, neither in 11.0 beta10 nor 11.0.1 public beta.

 

[borp99]

Damn...problem again deleting the initial snapshot in Recovery from 11.0.1b. Am again getting '-69863: Insufficient privileges' error message. Anyone else?

I used the full installer 11.0.1b firstly with a modified USB (using micropatcher 0.45) over the top of b10 - got the -69863 error. Secondly, installed 11.0.1b onto a blank partition using the same USB installer - still couldn't delete the snapshot. Lastly, installed 11.0.1b using Hax3 (full installer in Applications folder) from Catalina onto another blank partition and 'still' couldn't delete the initial snapshot. Both SIP & Auth-root disabled and an unsealed OS in all 3 cases.

I had previously posted that this error happened with the delta 10 beta ('replaced files after phase 1' method) on my cMP 2010 but I reinstalled the full beta 10 installer over the top and that then allowed me to delete the 'com.apple.update...' snapshot. Maybe I should reinstall 11.0.1b over the top of itself this time too and see if that works? It's all a bit hit and miss, with no real logic involved. Is Apple forcing us to live with the snapshot boot environment with this latest version (granted that it 'is' as extra layer of protection from hackers)?

 

[Joonyv]

Once again installed just fine on 2012 MacBook Air with Barry’s amazing patcher. Everything works and no need to bless like on previous beta.

 

[hvds]

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.

Today, installed 11.0.1 beta1 over my other 11.0 beta10, which has "everything" from my Catalina 10.15.7 workhorse disk via migration assistant.
Also successful, with similar problem encountered. Observations:

- quite a lot of kexts etc in Library/Extensions of the data volume. I deleted first the three kexts I also did yesterday (HighPointIOP.kext, HighPointRR.kext, SoftRAID.kext), but patch-kexts can't complete with error like yesterday. The others must have come in by migration, as they were not there in yesterday's beta10 setup made without migration.
- then after making a backup copy I was more courageous and deleted all these files. patch-kexts runs well, system boots and runs well.
- strange: the three kexts I deleted before running the installation, were there again after installation. Deleted them again and all others (of Library/Extensions of the data volume), for running patch.kext.

I can't cd to the data volume in the booted BS, only e.g. from USB installer. I'm using instead /System/Volumes/Data in booted BS, which seems to be the same.

 

[alfon_sico]

Install 11.0.1b1 over 11.0b9 in Mac mini 2012, the process was ok up to the step 15 when I need to patch Wifi again

- Instalation process end directly running 11.0.1 so Wifi is turn off and no chance to turn on . grey color

- Restart USB installation, run terminal to patch-kext.sh but get this error. Anyway I boot for try and Wifi card still was grey. I've try run terminal from the installed partition (Big Sur session, I guess tutorial talk about) but got the same error.

- With beta 9 I get Wifi card work. Any way I have a USB T4U wifi ac compatible and I have internet access but Hand Off or Airdrop doesn't work

No WiFi option specified on command line, so checking for 802.11ac...
Found 802.11ac WiFi card, so not installing a WiFi patch.
No patch mode specified on command line. Detecting Mac model...
(Use --2010, --2011, or --2012 command line option to override.)
Detected model: Macmini6,1
Detected a 2012-2013 Mac. Using --2012 patch mode.
Installing kexts to:
/Volume appears to have a Big Sur installation (build 20B5012d). Continuing.
Volume is mounted from device: /dev/disk2s5s1
Mounted device is a snapshot. Will now mount underlying volume
from device /dev/disk2s5 at temporary mountpoint:
/System/Volumes/Update/mnt1
Checking for KernelCollections backup...
Backup not found. Performing backup now. This may take a few minutes.
Backing up original KernelCollections to:
/System/Volumes/Update/mnt1/System/Library/KernelCollections/KernelCollections-20B5012d.tar.lz4
a BootKernelExtensions.kc
a SystemKernelExtensions.kc
Beginning patched IO80211Family.kext installation
patch-kexts.sh encountered an internal error while installing the WiFi patch.
This is a patcher bug. patch-kexts.sh cannot continue.

 

[alfon_sico]

I have one issues in Big Sur, I don't know if they could be for new macOS version or because my is an "unsupported Mac"

- TP_link adapter T4U installation. the driver is not updated for Big Sur however when I install it works, however the problem is the installation process. Just in the end show a message that doesn't complete the installation process. Anyway it works, load the manager and connect to wifi

The problem is that every time I reboot I need to re-install the driver and configure the wifi connection

Can I force the installation process in any way?

 

[tokyogentleman]

I have a MBP(5,3) 2009. I installed to an external USB3 drive on my MBA(5,2) 2012 and then run the patch-kexts.sh --2010 (Thanks Barry!). In the MBP I swapped the DVD for a SSD caddy and made a RAID0 HFS+. Inside the RAID array I created an APFS container and restored from USB3 drive with superduper, CCC, etc. It runs pretty well for a notebook over 10 years old. The RAID drive really improves the performance a lot. around 500MB/s read and 400MB/s write. Before that I was running Dosdude Catalina patcher. Very slick program with nice Nvidia video support. I also patched my firmware to natively boot APFS even though Nvidia chipset was risky. It worked well and gave me a backup ROM that I can flashback if I need to. Hopefully my experiences will help some of the other users soup up their old hardware. Thanks everyone for the good posts. Happy Holloween!

 

[MacHacJac]

I have a MBP(5,3) 2009. I installed to an external USB3 drive on my MBA(5,2) 2012 and then run the patch-kexts.sh --2010 (Thanks Barry!). In the MBP I swapped the DVD for a SSD caddy and made a RAID0 HFS+. Inside the RAID array I created an APFS container and restored from USB3 drive with superduper, CCC, etc. It runs pretty well for a notebook over 10 years old. The RAID drive really improves the performance a lot. around 500MB/s read and 400MB/s write. Before that I was running Dosdude Catalina patcher. Very slick program with nice Nvidia video support. I also patched my firmware to natively boot APFS even though Nvidia chipset was risky. It worked well and gave me a backup ROM that I can flashback if I need to. Hopefully my experiences will help some of the other users soup up their old hardware. Thanks everyone for the good posts. Happy Holloween!

Nice! Oh shoot I forgot it's halloween today haha!

 

[djr004]

Not sure what's going on. I haven't been able to install Beta 10 or the latest beta. I haven't had any issues on my Late 2013 iMac up through Beta 9 and now all of sudden I keep getting "The update cannot be installed on this computer."

I have been using the same install method as rumormiller #579 with all the beta updates. I've been running this on the main SSD of the iMac for a while now. Now I get the error mentioned. Any help?

 

[macsba]

Well everybody. Hope nobody has any spooky adventures installing the Big Sur beta on their unsupported Macs.

Happy Halloween!

 

[AplUSAndmINUS]

I figured I may as well share my experience of upgrading to Big Sur 11.0.1 on my Mac Pro 2012 5,1 Westmere system.

I created a standard USB installer and patched it using barrykn's Big Sur Micropatcher (https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher/tree/dev-v0.5.0). I have a non-EFI graphics card, so I had to swap it with an EFI card that was compliant to get to the boot screen. This installed everything without a hitch after following the instructions.

My Wi-Fi is currently out due to having an out-of-date card, which isn't a big deal because I use Ethernet connectivity and will be upgrading the card to BT 4.0 later this month. Thanks for the awesome steps and tips here!

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Not sure what's going on. I haven't been able to install Beta 10 or the latest beta. I haven't had any issues on my Late 2013 iMac up through Beta 9 and now all of sudden I keep getting "The update cannot be installed on this computer."

I have been using the same install method as rumormiller #579 with all the beta updates. I've been running this on the main SSD of the iMac for a while now. Now I get the error mentioned. Any help?

My iMac 2013 (iMac14,1) works fine with beta 10 and 11.0.1 (Used micropatcher 0.5.0-C) Only a lot of reboots during installation, but it is stable and fully compatible.

 

[Pinarek]

Hello friends

In Big Sur, I miss USB UASP support.

In the extensions, the kext should actually be: IOUSBAttachedSCSI and / or IOUSBMassStorageUASDriver
be inside, but nothing can be seen. Or is there no longer any USB UADP support?

thank's for the Tipps

Update:
Buying such a USB with a UASP option was worth it. Complete success, you
Get approximately 430MB/s read and 430MB/s write speeds. With normal USB3.0 housing
with a fast SSD inside, max. 350 MB/s read and write.
Work in Catalina and Big Sur 11.0.1. I tested this on the iMac late 2012.
Here are the links to the 2 products purchased:
Sabrent Popp Star

 

[alfon_sico]

Sorry for this question, I admit that I'm enough to follow tutorial but amateur with a lot of things you ask in this forum

Appreciate get a simple answer with this, maybe, simple question

First installation 11.0b9 was great in Mac mini 2012, step 15 patched kext and got Wifi work
Second update 11.0.1b1 was great with 0.5pre patch up to step 14, the system get in the macOs directly with previous programs and configuration but Wifi and sound doesn't work

Try to follow step 15 as previous time but get this error
"patch-kexts.sh encountered an internal error while installing the WiFi patch.
This is a patcher bug. patch-kexts.sh cannot continue"
Could it be because a bad copy of file? Is this for "pre" version?

I've tried apply the patch with a previous version, I guess was 0.44, I it seems that was applied. The process was completed but when I try to boot up but it was broken and was stuck in a error screen. I have no problem and reinstall the system with the USB installer and get the system up again although now I need apply the step 15 of patch-kext.sh

What is the correct version that I have to use or maybe if better I wait till the definitive version of the patch?

 

[IbrahimFmc]

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.)

I booted from the usb stick but nothing fixed ,what do you think , shall I reset nvram and try to install from the beginning , or it can be fixed by some commands

 

[furdi]

Tanks to @Barry K. Nathan's patch 0.4.4. I have managed to install without any hitch the new Big Sur 11.0.1! No need to bless like the previous version. All working perfect (wifi, airdrop, handoff). Thank you for all your time and effort! MBP 13" mid 2012 with metal. Have a great one!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I booted from the usb stick but nothing fixed ,what do you think , shall I reset nvram and try to install from the beginning , or it can be fixed by some commands View attachment 977138

Did you really follow steps 4 to 7 of the micro patcher guide? I cannot see the EFI partition in this boot screen selection.

 

[IbrahimFmc]

Did you really follow steps 4 to 7 of the micro patcher guide? I cannot see the EFI partition in this boot screen selection.

Thank You @Ausdauersportler , now it is working after I applied this command /volumes/image\ volume/set-vars.sh

 

[vinsyl]

Hi all,
I need your help because my iMac (2012) doesn’t boot anymore. I was using BS beta 10 without any problem and I tried to upgrade to the last beta by booting with my USB key OpenCoreAPFSloader4s1. The update was detected and after the download my iMac tried to do a restart but the display was black and now it is always black (not white). I tried to reset the SMC, vram and pram but nothing changes and I’m not sure the reset was done as I saw nothing or no change. Do you know what I can do?
Thank you.

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

Hi all,
I need your help because my iMac (2012) doesn’t boot anymore. I was using BS beta 10 without any problem and I tried to upgrade to the last beta by booting with my USB key OpenCoreAPFSloader4s1. The update was detected and after the download my iMac tried to do a restart but the display was black and now it is always black (not white). I tried to reset the SMC, vram and pram but nothing changes and I’m not sure the reset was done as I saw nothing or no change. Do you know what I can do?
Thank you.

You should reboot from your backup, because you have a backup, don't you?

 

[vinsyl]

You should reboot from your backup, because you have a backup,

BS was installed on a external SSD in parallel of my Catalina installation also on the same SSD but I can’t use the alt option to change the boot option. I also tried to remove the external SSD but still black screen. I also tried to boot on a USB key to reinstall Mac OS X but still black screen with no chime sound

 

[Pascal Baillargeau]

BS was installed on a external SSD in parallel of my Catalina installation also on the same SSD but I can’t use the alt option to change the boot option. I also tried to remove the external SSD but still black screen. I also tried to boot on a USB key to reinstall Mac OS X but still black screen with no chime sound

What did you do exactly? Did you spoof another iMac ID via Opencore for instance?