macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[air.man]

I have created a video to show the speed of using Big Sur on a non-Metal, non-supported 2011 13" MacBook Pro i5. It is a Dual Core machine which has been upgraded to 8GB ram and a 240GB SSD.

https://streamable.com/k5orw9

Well done! Even if it's a bit laggy, it is absolutely usable for a "normal" daily activity. Completely different user experience if you need to run graphics oriented apps, of course.
I have the same experience with my MB5,1, while the performance is a lot better with the MBP8,2. For this last machine I decided to set BigSur as my daily driver.
To optimize the dock I suggest to set the "Minimize windows into application icon" too.
Cheers.

PS. Of course, it's only my opinion.

 

[vvapple]

here is a question which may be stupid, but it’s just a thought:

An iMac 27“ with fusion drive is said to have a terrible performance with BigSur. I therefore didn’t put BigSur on my iMac.

but: has anyone tried to to split up the fusion drive and create a fresh new fusion drive while running bigsur and der if that solves the performance problem?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

here is a question which may be stupid, but it’s just a thought:

An iMac 27“ with fusion drive is said to have a terrible performance with BigSur. I therefore didn’t put BigSur on my iMac.

but: has anyone tried to to split up the fusion drive and create a fresh new fusion drive while running bigsur and der if that solves the performance problem?

If you split it up use the SSD part to install Big Sur and the HDD part to store your archive data like movies, pictures even downloads - I cannot think of a home connection overrunning a normal HDD.

A newly setup of a fusion drive using the same hardware components will be a fusion drive after all - what changes do you expect?

 

[Cool_guy101]

I have created a video to show the speed of using Big Sur on a non-Metal, non-supported 2011 13" MacBook Pro i5. It is a Dual Core machine which has been upgraded to 8GB ram and a 240GB SSD.

https://streamable.com/k5orw9

How did you make the dock transparent?

 

[jowaju]

How did you make the dock transparent?

I was using CDock trial version. I sure wish I knew what command they were using to do their magic, they had tons of options for the dock to be transparent, emulate older versions of macOS, etc.

 

[vvapple]

If you split it up use the SSD part to install Big Sur and the HDD part to store your archive data like movies, pictures even downloads - I cannot think of a home connection overrunning a normal HDD.

A newly setup of a fusion drive using the same hardware components will be a fusion drive after all - what changes do you expect?

Good point.
I was assuming that it could help, since fusion drive machines from 2014, 2015 etc don’t have problems with BigSur.

 

[air.man]

I was using CDock trial version. I sure wish I knew what command they were using to do their magic, they had tons of options for the dock to be transparent, emulate older versions of macOS, etc.

Welcome to the club!
I bought the full version and it works flawlessly with BS.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Good point.
I was assuming that it could help, since fusion drive machines from 2014, 2015 etc don’t have problems with BigSur.

Since you will have a time machine backup and will follow all the advices made you may check the first installation attempt using a/the fusion drive yourself. If you run into problems after a short while you can split and reinstall.

Honestly I do not see the need of a fusion drive these days. The first thing I did with all my iMacs was replacing the HDD with an (sub 100 Euro) 1TB SSD.

 

[Alain13]

Good point.
I was assuming that it could help, since fusion drive machines from 2014, 2015 etc don’t have problems with BigSur.

I have an iMac 27" (iMac13,2 - late 2012) with Fusion drive. Clean installed Big Sur back in the days of beta 6 and never ever had any issues with it. Never experienced any slowness or whatever it performs just as good or even better then Catalina. So from my expierence with (clean install) Fusion drive there is no issues and you do not have to split it up.

When I first tried Big Sur it was on a seperate volume on the Fusion drive and that was running on the HDD part, so then Big Sur was considerably slower. But that is comparing SSD vs HDD performance off course and has nothing to do that it is a Fusion drive.

 

[jowaju]

Welcome to the club!
I bought the full version and it works flawlessly with BS.

View attachment 1725960

It definitely gives a lot of choices for the dock. I will say it seems like if you install the trial and get everything setup the way you want and then trash the application, the visual changes you made persist, even without the C-Dock program and even with multiple restarts.

 

[SinceApple2C]

Deleted

 

[justperry]

I was using CDock trial version. I sure wish I knew what command they were using to do their magic, they had tons of options for the dock to be transparent, emulate older versions of macOS, etc.

OT
It's not a command, before you could easily do that yourself, there where images in /System/Library/Coreservices/Dock/Contents/Resources IIRC, make them transparent next restart the Dock, voila.

Pretty positive it's this image, make it transparent and you've created yourself a transparent Dock.
Beware though, it's in the System Folder now, not easily edited.
Edit: I just tried to make my SSD R/W, get a 66 Error code, can't mount as R/W
I know there are ways, I will try again one day.

 

[RogueB]

Hello to all,

Installation of Big Sur 11.2 on iMac 13,2 (late 2012)

I. Reporting successful installation of Big Sur 11.2 on iMac 13,2 (late 2012, 27 Inch, 28 MB RAM, 1TB fusion HDD) using Barry K. Nathan’s micro patcher (https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher), version 0.5.1,
and following these linked instructions (https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher#instructions-for-use)

The Big Sur 11.2 is installed on the 1TB fusion drive, and I found no discernible slowdowns using said drive
configuration. System operates within parametrs seen on supported macs. (Note: did not test side-car)

Installation of Big Sur 11.2 on Macbook Pro 5,2 (mid 2009)

II. Successful installation of Big Sur 11.2 on MacBook Pro 5,2 ( 17”, 8 MB of RAM, and 1 TB Samsung SSD).

For installation details, see post #8194 on page 328 of this thread; it contains step by step instructions.

To reiterate (from post# 8194), I used following patches from jackluke’s base-system-fix:

1. BigSurFixes snapshot booting
2. BigSurFixes legacy USB
3. BigSurFixes graphical framebuffer (this module restores brightness control and allows sleep function to activate, among other interface improvements)
4. BigSurFixes iSight camera fix

In addition, I applied the patch listed below:

5. Continuity fix

I used various preference setting to disable animation, followed by free Tinker Tool (I have no association with the program) to further augment “no animation settings”.

Just to make sure I had not missed something, I executed the following command in the terminal:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO

Please note, that I found the above command on the internet by searching “Disable window animation in OS X”, or something close to it, and there is no guarantee that it will work on all systems.

Post install: WiFi, internal sound, internal mic, iSight camera, screen brightness and sound keyboard controls, are functional. Added bonus: SIRI is functional with this installation.

Over all, the Big Sur 11.2 is definitely usable for most tasks (on my CPU), with the exception of those which require significant graphic acceleration.

Hope this post is of help.

 

[iMac-Oldschool]

Hello to all,

I. Reporting successful installation of Big Sur 11.2 on iMac 13,2 (late 2012, 27 Inch, 28 MB RAM, 1TB fusion HDD) using Barry K. Nathan’s micro patcher (https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher), version 0.5.1,
and following these linked instructions (https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher#instructions-for-use)

The Big Sur 11.2 is installed on the 1TB fusion drive, and I found no discernible slowdowns using said drive
configuration.

II. Successful installation of Big Sur 11.2 on MacBook Pro 5,2 ( 17”, 8 MB of RAM, and 1 TB Samsung SSD).

For installation details, see post #8194 on page 328 of this thread; it contains step by step instructions.

To reiterate (from post# 8194), I used following patches from jackluke’s base-system-fix:

1. BigSurFixes snapshot booting
2. BigSurFixes legacy USB
3. BigSurFixes graphical framebuffer (this module restores brightness control and allows sleep function to activate, among other interface improvements)
4. BigSurFixes iSight camera fix

In addition, I applied the patch listed below:

5. Continuity fix

I used various preference setting to disable animation, followed by free Tinker Tool (I have no association with the program) to further augment “no animation settings”.

Just to make sure I had not missed something, I executed the following command in the terminal:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO

Please note, that I found the above command on the internet by searching “Disable window animation in OS X”, or something close to it, and there is no guarantee that it will work on all systems.

Post install: WiFi, internal sound, internal mic, iSight camera, screen brightness and sound keyboard controls, are functional. Added bonus: SIRI is functional with this installation.

Over all, the Big Sur 11.2 is definitely usable for most tasks (on my CPU), with the exception of those which require graphic acceleration.

Hope this post is of help.

Are you sure that you don't have graphics acceleration? My iMac 13,1 2012 with a 21.5 inch screen supports acceleration under Big Sur 11.2 installed with BKN's Micropatcher. Sidecar does not work, but is not supported on 2012 iMacs in any case. Not sure about Siri, since I don't use the app.

 

[Tockman]

Are you sure that you don't have graphics acceleration? My iMac 13,1 2012 with a 21.5 inch screen supports acceleration

I guess, mention of acceleration refers to MacBook Pro 5,2.

 

[lesliewong]

I was able to update to 11.3 Beta (20E5172i) from 11.2 (20D64) on my MacBookPro10,1 using dortania's Opencore-Legacy-Patcher. I have an upgraded Broadcom BCM94360CSAX Airport.

The only issues I have noticed are the built in (sound) output device sometimes disappears and I occasionally see Night Shift a little confused.

When the built in sound device disappears, the two Airplay devices on my network are still available. I am using Boom 3D, so I'm not sure if it's related. A reboot restores the devices.

Also, I occasionally see Night Shift a little confused. I have it scheduled from sunset to sunrise and a few times in the evening, I have seen the display switch to day - distinctly more blue.

 

[RogueB]

Are you sure that you don't have graphics acceleration? My iMac 13,1 2012 with a 21.5 inch screen supports acceleration under Big Sur 11.2 installed with BKN's Micropatcher. Sidecar does not work, but is not supported on 2012 iMacs in any case. Not sure about Siri, since I don't use the app.

I have full functionality on the iMac 13,2, inclusive of graphiac acceleration and continuity features; lack of acceleration refers to MacBook Pro 5,2, which dose not have a metal compatible GPU.
I should have made my post clearer.

 

[RogueB]

I guess, mention of acceleration refers to MacBook Pro 5,2.

You are correct. I should have separated the two installation processes more clearly.

 

[Rob1n]

Hi!
I have been using big sur for a while now on my mac pro 2008 and noticed these little white corners/edges in control center. This is not an issue for me but I wanted to ask if there was any way to fix this or if this is normal? The gpu I have is a mac flashed gtx 680 2gb. It is metal supported so I don't think that can be the issue here.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi!
I have been using big sur for a while now on my mac pro 2008 and noticed these little white corners/edges in control center. This is not an issue for me but I wanted to ask if there was any way to fix this or if this is normal? The gpu I have is a mac flashed gtx 680 2gb. It is metal supported so I don't think that can be the issue here.

View attachment 1726213View attachment 1726214

You are the last in a long line of people finding this (NVIDIA) bug. No fix available, ask Apple.

 

[webg3]

EFI MacBook Air 2012 OpenCore 0.6.6 (partition primary)

is configured to start directly on the macOS Big Sur, there is no need to do anything just follow up, no boot screen

holding Option for on the standard Apple boot selection screen

 

[electricimp123]

Hello to everyone - special thank you to @Ausdauersportler

Reporting successful upgrade to Big Sur on mid-2011 iMac 12,2.

Details:
27" iMac 12,2 (mid-2011) i7-2600
+ hardware upgrades:
- BCM94360CD (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with Bluetooth 4.0 Upgrade Kit from osxwifi)
- SSD 960GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD 7MM (OWC)
- Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX860M by nikey22

Used @Ausdauersportler dev-v0.5.4 fork of big-sur-micropatcher to do an in-place Upgrade from High Sierra (not clean install):
Followed this thread's instructions:
Steps: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, x, 9, 10, x, x, 13, x
(Did not have to do Step 14 because when I came back to the iMac it was already on the Big Sur login page!)
(Logged in, everything seemed to work at this stage and I couldn't find anything wrong, but I proceeded)
Steps: 15
(did it without rebooting, just using terminal when I was logged in after Step 13)
(only flag I used was: patch-kexts.sh --nikey22)
Reboot
That's it

It was overall extremely painless and frankly everything worked right out of the box with no shenanigans. I was surprised that I did not have to deal with Setup Assistant but I am guessing this is because I did an upgrade not a fresh install.

 

[Dayo]

If it was a problem, but OC could otherwise inject all the fixes a given machine needs, then it sounds like it might be an idea to have TWO OC boot disks: one for fetching updates, with faked hardware info; and one for day-to-day use without faked hardware info.

This is the premise behind the setup with MyBootMgr (See my sig).

Currently only supports MacPros and Xserve but can be run and the two OC setups it provides replaced with ones from the OCLP if one other computer types.

Will incorporate the OCLP in the next release for laptops and others.

 

[Bmju]

This is the premise behind the setup with MyBootMgr (See my sig).

Currently only supports MacPros and Xserve but can be run and the two OC setups it provides replaced with ones from the OCLP if one other computer types.

Will incorporate the OCLP in the next release for laptops and others.

Interesting! But FYI having done some research on this, I no longer believe that there are any iCloud issues at all (not even long term) with running one's machine with its existing hardware ids and serials, while faking just the product name (e.g. MacBookPro11,1) and product serial (i.e. Mac-XXXXX) using OC.

 

[Dayo]

I no longer believe that there are any iCloud issues at all

Not looked into these issues but still prefer to run one spoofed version (from the OC Thread here which is not as highly spoofed as the OCLP but with some spoofing all the same) and one largely vanilla version for interacting with Apple on updates etc ... mainly updates.

You get the two instances when booting and can just select and go.