macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[UdamanAl]

Start up in Verbose mode, see where it reboots.
I had this when I used Opencore once for installation of BS a few beta's ago, I intentionally deleted a snapshot, later on after reading a post here I got the idea to create a snapshot/bless the system, that did the trick.

Thanks !
I booted in Verbose mode but when it got near where it would crash and reboot- but it went by too fast to read.
Do you know any way to capture verbose mode to a log file?

 

[PeterHolbrook]

My younger son has a 2007 iMac 7,1 with an upgraded CPU, but no real Metal GPU. However, it is currently running Catalina very well indeed, thanks to dosdude1's Catalina Patcher. Can this specific computer reasonably run Big Sur? If so, what would be the best and/or easiest procedure to achieve such a feat?

 

[Franky1971]

Hello, I have problems getting Wi-Fi running. iMac 9.1. Can I get help with that, please? Thank you

 

[pyedog]

My younger son has a 2007 iMac 7,1 with an upgraded CPU, but no real Metal GPU. However, it is currently running Catalina very well indeed, thanks to dosdude1's Catalina Patcher. Can this specific computer reasonably run Big Sur? If so, what would be the best and/or easiest procedure to achieve such a feat?

Without upgrading the GPU you are almost guaranteed to have an unhappy experience. Maybe if you wanted to have it running as a headless server for Plex or something, but in that case why bother upgrading at all? Upgrading the GPU is (IMO) a lot of cost and effort for a 2007 machine. I upgraded my 2011 mac mini to 2012 so I could run BS and I kind of feel like it may have been more money than it will be worth.
Obviously your mileage will vary, but I'd leave it on Catalina ... you really won't be missing much. The ARM Macs are the ones that will gain a lot of nice new features (like iOS Apps) going forward.

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Without upgrading the GPU you are almost guaranteed to have an unhappy experience. Maybe if you wanted to have it running as a headless server for Plex or something, but in that case why bother upgrading at all? Upgrading the GPU is (IMO) a lot of cost and effort for a 2007 machine. I upgraded my 2011 mac mini to 2012 so I could run BS and I kind of feel like it may have been more money than it will be worth.
Obviously your mileage will vary, but I'd leave it on Catalina ... you really won't be missing much. The ARM Macs are the ones that will gain a lot of nice new features (like iOS Apps) going forward.

As I said, the iMac 7,1 can run Catalina very well indeed, provided its CPU has been updated. Are you positively saying that the same is NOT achievable in Big Sur or are you merely saying that an upgraded GPU would require less patching?

 

[pyedog]

As I said, the iMac 7,1 can run Catalina very well indeed, provided its CPU has been updated. Are you positively saying that the same is NOT achievable in Big Sur or are you merely saying that an upgraded GPU would require less patching?

Performance with my 2011 mac mini (HD3000 GPU) was awful. Just maximizing/minimizing some apps could take up to 15 seconds. You have OpenGL support in Catalina, but not in Big Sur. Some apps will just be very slow, but an increasing number of apps going forward will expect metal graphics available and won't run at all.
Like I said, YMMV - but I honestly think running on an older system without a metal capable GPU is something to do for fun, not a daily driver that you intend to use for general purpose. If Catalina runs well, I'd stay on that. There is always a remote possibility that someone will develop metal compatible drivers for some of the older GPUs, but I wouldn't bet any money on it. The main thing is to ask what moving to BS buys you except for bragging rights? I suspect for a 2007 iMac it would be a pretty significant net loss for little if any gain.
On the other hand, it may be fun just trying to get it working - but I'd keep a backup so I could return to Catalina ...

 

[jackluke]

Hello, I have problems getting Wi-Fi running. iMac 9.1. Can I get help with that, please? Thank you

You used my previous BigSur BaseSystem fix version but I recently updated it: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-29170178

Now it should work on any USB BigSur installer and after "basesystem fixed" can apply some BigSurFixes directly from the Installer.

For your iMac apply exactly these fixes: "BigSur Legacy USB patches" and "BigSur iSight camera fix".

At next reboot you can boot without OpenCore (if you don't have an APFS patch, then use also "BigSurFixes opencore preboot"), without CMD+S, with Wifi, Sound, Nvidia brightness control and iSight camera too.

 

[justperry]

Thanks !
I booted in Verbose mode but when it got near where it would crash and reboot- but it went by too fast to read.
Do you know any way to capture verbose mode to a log file?

Sorry about the late response, I was installing the RC myself last 1 ½ hour.

See screenshot below.

Edit: I had the same experience, mine also rebooted again and again, as in a bootloop, as I said earlier, you could try to bless the system and make a snapshot, search my post history in this thread or just go back page by page and use the Command-F shortcut to search with "justperry" without the quotes.

 

[tom33231]

My younger son has a 2007 iMac 7,1 with an upgraded CPU, but no real Metal GPU. However, it is currently running Catalina very well indeed, thanks to dosdude1's Catalina Patcher. Can this specific computer reasonably run Big Sur? If so, what would be the best and/or easiest procedure to achieve such a feat?

Yes but there will be no hardware acceleration on this computer maybe you can upgrade the gpu. I am trying to look into getting hardware acceleration on Big Sur for non metal macs but that will require me to replace a bunch of frameworks and probably will take a long time. Other people are working on this.

 

[justperry]

Thanks !
I booted in Verbose mode but when it got near where it would crash and reboot- but it went by too fast to read.
Do you know any way to capture verbose mode to a log file?

I just made a new post to show you the link to the post I mentioned above instead of editing the old post, you might overlook it otherwise.
See

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....2242172/page-208?post=29046257#post-29046257

You have to do this in Terminal on a separate OS or in Recovery.

SSD is the name of my disk, put the name in there of you disk, otherwise it won't work.

I'm a happy camper again.
What I did is creating a snapshot again, got the idea from Ausdauersportler

Instead of using his code

me@iMac ~ % sudo bless --folder /System/Volumes/Update/mnt1/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot
Password:
me@iMac ~ % sudo reboot

I Used

 bless --folder /Volumes/SSD/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot

That worked, I thought it wouldn't cause it took a while to boot into the login screen, it did and also without using opencore.

Edit: And...Wifi works.

 

[alfon_sico]

View attachment 1403397
someone help me? I have successfully installed the Release Candidate, but when I try to patch for Wi-Fi I get this error. What am I doing wrong? in previous betas this command has worked well for me. It's a late 2012 iMac and micropatcher version 0.5.0.

It happens to me. You have a USB wifi device plug in USB. You can read that the patch detect it in the begging of the text

I unplugged the usb wifi and boot with usb system and run the kext patch

 

[Dustman]

I have a 2012 MBP (model 9,2). Would it be worth it to get the third-party WiFi AC card available before installing Big Sur via the patcher? I don't care about AC, nor unlocking with my watch.

Subtle Design

I’d also like an opinion on this.

 

[Franky1971]

You used my previous BigSur BaseSystem fix version but I recently updated it: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-29170178

Now it should work on any USB BigSur installer and after "basesystem fixed" can apply some BigSurFixes directly from the Installer.

For your iMac apply exactly these fixes: "BigSur Legacy USB patches" and "BigSur iSight camera fix".

At next reboot you can boot without OpenCore (if you don't have an APFS patch, then use also "BigSurFixes opencore preboot"), without CMD+S, with Wifi, Sound, Nvidia brightness control and iSight camera too.

Thank you, Jack, for the quick answer. 👍

 

[tom33231]

Performance with my 2011 mac mini (HD3000 GPU) was awful. Just maximizing/minimizing some apps could take up to 15 seconds. You have OpenGL support in Catalina, but not in Big Sur. Some apps will just be very slow, but an increasing number of apps going forward will expect metal graphics available and won't run at all.
Like I said, YMMV - but I honestly think running on an older system without a metal capable GPU is something to do for fun, not a daily driver that you intend to use for general purpose. If Catalina runs well, I'd stay on that. There is always a remote possibility that someone will develop metal compatible drivers for some of the older GPUs, but I wouldn't bet any money on it. The main thing is to ask what moving to BS buys you except for bragging rights? I suspect for a 2007 iMac it would be a pretty significant net loss for little if any gain.
On the other hand, it may be fun just trying to get it working - but I'd keep a backup so I could return to Catalina ...

Great advice 😁

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Performance with my 2011 mac mini (HD3000 GPU) was awful. Just maximizing/minimizing some apps could take up to 15 seconds. You have OpenGL support in Catalina, but not in Big Sur. Some apps will just be very slow, but an increasing number of apps going forward will expect metal graphics available and won't run at all.
Like I said, YMMV - but I honestly think running on an older system without a metal capable GPU is something to do for fun, not a daily driver that you intend to use for general purpose. If Catalina runs well, I'd stay on that. There is always a remote possibility that someone will develop metal compatible drivers for some of the older GPUs, but I wouldn't bet any money on it. The main thing is to ask what moving to BS buys you except for bragging rights? I suspect for a 2007 iMac it would be a pretty significant net loss for little if any gain.
On the other hand, it may be fun just trying to get it working - but I'd keep a backup so I could return to Catalina ...

Well, thank you for your opinion, which doesn’t take into account that the iMac 7,1 does indeed run Catalina BETTER than it used to run El Capitan. Anyone can actually answer my question? I didn’t ask whether better performance is achievable on some other hardware, but, SPECIFICALLY, if this computer will be able to run Big Sur roughly as well as it runs Catalina. Don’t give me hunches.

 

[tom33231]

Great advice 😁

Carbon copy cloner should be updated for Catalina so I would use that.

 

[tom33231]

Carbon copy cloner should be updated for Catalina so I would use that.

It’s great for making complete copies of Mac OS. Just use another partition or another separate drive.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Big Sur (B11.01) on iMac 11,x and 12,x​

Everybody with an iMac 11,x and new metal graphics card interested in trying Big Sur on an iMac please read this post to get an idea which OpenCore version to be used and how to patch...

Users of the 12,x do not need a special OC patch or better no OC at all to install, but I would strongly recommend all users of AMD cards using OC to spoof the iMacPro1,1 ID to change the config.plist during the installation process to avoid getting an unwanted firmware update. Just use an NVIDIA plist file or disable spoofing. As pointed out before the blocking of firmware upgrades through OC might not work at all.

To use the latest 0.5.0 micro patcher you have to put the attached zipped extension files into the payloads/kexts folder before patching the USB thumb drive in the downloaded micro patcher or after patching on the USB thumb drive in the kexts folder and use the attached version of the patch-kext.sh script.

Model detection is automated, patches are selected according to hardware found on the system (NVIDIA or AMD). User of NVIDIA K610M/K1100M/K2100M cards have to currently use the --useOC option. In this case no versions of BacklightFixup.kext, Whatevergreen.kext and Lilu.kext will be installed, these will be injected via OC. I cannot detect this special card type currently automatically. The same happens on all systems with AMD cards.

All users of 11,x iMacs will need OC all the time to boot the Big Sur. So I assume all the extensions just mentioned above will be injected there, too. Bottom line: You will need OC to use Big Sur! There is currently no way around it.

All this needs a deeper knowledge of the MacOS and the usage go Terminal command line. Who is not really familiar with this should stay away from this experiment.

Any questions?

Have fun!

Notes:

1. Make the OC the standard boot object before starting the installer. It will come back there some times during the reboots.
2. AMD cards are AMD Polaris cards and metal compatible
3. NVIDIA cards are Kepler GPU based cards and metal compatible
4. Installing Big Sur on an original iMac 11,x or 12,x with Apple branded ATI/AND Radeon 4xxx, 5xxx, 6xxx cards will be possible, the result barely usable. There is no graphics acceleration and there will be no for all times
5. about the --useOC option: all iMac11,x system need OC and so this option will be chosen automatically. 2011 systems may use AMD Polaris cards (use--useOC), the already mentioned NVIDIA K610M/K1100M/K2100M card (use --useOC, too) or other NVIDIA cards not needing OC.

Hi, and thank you again for your work.

I've got Big Sur installed on my iMac 11,1 (Late 2009 27" i7-860), but no more brightness control with my K2100M.

I have tried to rebuild a new OC per your instructions above. Keeping in mind that I was never able to successfully use OC 0.6.2, always relying on 0.6.0.

Would you kindly review my screenshots below and provide guidance? I see your reference to using --useOC option, but after diligent searching, I don't see any instructions on where to designate this --useOC option.

 

[UdamanAl]

I just made a new post to show you the link to the post I mentioned above instead of editing the old post, you might overlook it otherwise.
See

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread....2242172/page-208?post=29046257#post-29046257

You have to do this in Terminal on a separate OS or in Recovery.

SSD is the name of my disk, put the name in there of you disk, otherwise it won't work.

Thank You Justperry

I'm looking on the new target APFS drive
The micropatcher v0.5.0 Mac os Journalded GUID USB disk i created is 12,812,836,864 bytes
The USB Disk installed a 12.36gb macOS Install Data folder on the target drive
and that's as far as I got.
Meaning After I installed from Big Sur 11.0.1 RC from the USB
it rebooted for the first time and then went into the reboot loop.
So there are no system files yet to Bless.

I do have Big Sur Beta 10 working on another drive, but it was created by pulling the drive out of my Mac Pro and installed the OS using my 2013 Macbook Pro with out any patcher needed.
When I put that drive back into the Mac Pro 5,1 it booted without a hitch.

I am thinking maybe the createmedia or the installassistant.pkg file or somehow the USB is corrupt is corrupt ?
I ran disk utility on it and there is no error

 

[tokyogentleman]

I have a 2012 MBP (model 9,2). Would it be worth it to get the third-party WiFi AC card available before installing Big Sur via the patcher? I don't care about AC, nor unlocking with my watch.

Subtle Design

hi my MBP2009 works with patch-kexts.sh --2009 so maybe your 2012 model will also work.
I have a MBA2012 i7, 8GB that I put AC card into so that I could skip using the patch-kext.sh file. I was concerned about the firmware whitelisting the PCIe card so I used the same card available in the MBA2013 (BROADCOM BCM94360CS2).

 

[tokyogentleman]

flashrom using brew on any other Mac - but honestly the internet search machines would have given you the same answer...

AsProgrammer_1.4.1 (2017) for the hardware programmer. flashrom will try to use your existing hardware if it is not bricked. i bought the SPI cable for macbook (and many other models) from korea so i dont have to remove the board i can just plug it in and flash a EFI locked, bricked, etc device. this is a similar device to what they use to program the device in the factory. $50 is well work it if you do quite a few times. good luck flashing!

 

[Th3odor3]

Version 20B5022a IS the release candidate

I installed macOS Big Sur Beta 11.0.1 beta 2 and its running magnificently.

 

[David dongfox]

I installed macOS Big Sur Beta 11.0.1 beta 2 and its running magnificently.

me too , installed on my Mac mini last 2012. everything ok.

 

[justperry]

Thank You Justperry

I'm looking on the new target APFS drive
The micropatcher v0.5.0 Mac os Journalded GUID USB disk i created is 12,812,836,864 bytes
The USB Disk installed a 12.36gb macOS Install Data folder on the target drive
and that's as far as I got.
Meaning After I installed from Big Sur 11.0.1 RC from the USB
it rebooted for the first time and then went into the reboot loop.
So there are no system files yet to Bless.

I do have Big Sur Beta 10 working on another drive, but it was created by pulling the drive out of my Mac Pro and installed the OS using my 2013 Macbook Pro with out any patcher needed.
When I put that drive back into the Mac Pro 5,1 it booted without a hitch.

I am thinking maybe the createmedia or the installassistant.pkg file or somehow the USB is corrupt is corrupt ?
I ran disk utility on it and there is no error

Did you boot into refi the first time after installing the Mac Big Sur Installer and before booting into the installer?

 

[xtrem]

I have a MacPro 2013 where I've replaced the airport card with BCM943602CDP (ac & Bluetooth 4.2). Works 100% in Catalina.

I can't get the wifi working in Big Sur (clean install). Do I need to patch and change ktexts to get it to work?