macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[iMac-iPad]

Breaking news: I discovered a way to boot BigSur without Opencore using the legacy prelinkedkernel instead of the new BootKernelExtensions.kc , here are the steps:

diskutil apfs list to identify your UUID-BigSur unique Preboot Volume string.

diskutil mount Preboot

or mount your BigSur Preboot Volume (it works also from HighSierra, Mojave, Catalina or directly from BigSur)

open /Volumes/Preboot/

check that in your UUID-BigSur folder is present this: /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel

current BigSur beta 1 prelinkedkernel size: 25,7 MB

locate this path : /Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSur/System/Library/CoreServices/com.apple.Boot.plist

if you don't have the file then consider to replace it also in this path:

/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSur/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

edit the file exactly this way:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel Cache</key>
    <string>System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

At next reboot your BigSur installation will use the prelinkedkernel

@ASentientBot and @dosdude1 might find this useful for their BigSur patches.

edit:
The same method can apply also to USB BigSur Installer, because it is still present also there on

/Volumes/USBInstallerBigSur/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel

so just redirecting the /Volumes/USBInstallerBigSur/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

adding to it <key>Kernel Cache</key> with <string>System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel</string> will override the default BaseSystem.dmg (ramdisk) BootKernelExtensions.kc and legacy prelinkedkernel is used.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>

    <key>Kernel Cache</key>
    <string>System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel</string>

    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>root-dmg=file:///BaseSystem/BaseSystem.dmg -no_compat_check keepsyms=1 cs_enforcement_disable=1 cs_debug=1 amfi_allow_any_signature=1 amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I attach the two files, I added many nvram boot-args for testing purpose.

Oh Great @jackluke, awesome !!! So now we have many ways to boot macOS 11, yours is legacy one so helpful
Thank You

@Barry K. Nathan go ahead man with your patcher we are here to test them all!
All the best our Devs ❤️ ?

 

[Jose C. Salazar]

so I did this on my MBPr late 2012 and got it all working including wifi. I did what the scattered instructions said so I dediced to compile it making it easier for the others. here's a link to the document. https://bit.ly/3g4gzqa

thanks to all the contributors!

please! Can you help me? I’m pretty noobon terminal and get stuck copying the kext...

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Just wait for it.
I was waiting around 1 hour @ 13” MBP 2012.

Ok, I have set fan to 5500 RPM and the macmini Is fresh, I can wait until october release ?

 

[JohnDoe12]

Hey everyone, sorry for spamming, I'm going to ask a really newbie question because there's a LOT of info in this place.

I have a MacBookPro10,2 (Late 2012 Retina 13 inch). It should work according to this post without WiFi capabilities. However, I upgraded the WiFi card to use Apple Watch unlock, so now it's the one used in the 2013 retina. I'm assuming WiFi should work properly now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for which guide I should follow? There seems to be a few. Also, will I need to patch my wifi? I'm assuming not since my card is upgraded. Many thanks, and sorry for the newbie question!

 

[ryanx30x]

Hey everyone, sorry for spamming, I'm going to ask a really newbie question because there's a LOT of info in this place.

I have a MacBookPro10,2 (Late 2012 Retina 13 inch). It should work according to this post without WiFi capabilities. However, I upgraded the WiFi card to use Apple Watch unlock, so now it's the one used in the 2013 retina. I'm assuming WiFi should work properly now.

Does anyone have a suggestion for which guide I should follow? There seems to be a few. Also, will I need to patch my wifi? I'm assuming not since my card is upgraded. Many thanks, and sorry for the newbie question!

Use the install guide that includes using the Hax.dylib and figure out whether you want to install on a separate partition or as an upgrade. I'm going to guess that since you have a wifi card in your MBP that is supported by Big Sur, you shouldn't have to fix the wifi after install, but in case you have to, use the guide that involves "mount -uw /" first and if that doesn't work then try this guide: https://medium.com/@andv/making-wif...d-macs-with-failed-with-66-error-36c98e3f7965

 

[JohnDoe12]

Use the install guide that includes using the Hax.dylib and figure out whether you want to install on a separate partition or as an upgrade. I'm going to guess that since you have a wifi card in your MBP that is supported by Big Sur, you shouldn't have to fix the wifi after install, but in case you have to, use the guide that involves "mount -uw /" first and if that doesn't work then try this guide: https://medium.com/@andv/making-wif...d-macs-with-failed-with-66-error-36c98e3f7965

Thank you my guy! I'll update this with whether the Wifi works with my card in case anyone else is curious.

 

[brandonsierra]

im back!

 

[jackluke]

And now through my method to use the prelinkedkernel (instead of BootKernelExtensions) , using my opencore customized setup for non-APFS (or APFS rom patched) "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" or "El Capitan Supported Mac" is possible to use the @parrotgeek1 USBLegacyInjector.kext and @Syncretic telemetrap.kext (they are already included in my opencore setup), just make an external USB opencore bootloader with this:

USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3.app.zip

For "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" with working "Legacy IOUSB" you can boot (and use) a BigSur installation (while the USB BigSur installer still has unresponsive usb input output devices), to install BigSur on "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" just use the @ASentientBot method:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28589245

if you have a non-APFS machine you should pick from opencore the "macOS Installer" (or "macOS Install Data") to continue the BigSur installation, after is completed to use prelinkedkernel you should replace the file attached in the path as explained here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28610988

Then power on holding alt-option key and select the usbopencore to load its simple text menu, easily to identify any bootable volumes, it's totally harmless and safe for any mac.

edit:
The Arrandale cpu mac still can't boot BigSur even using the prelinkedkernel.

I tested and it worked for "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" (non-APFS firmware Penryn Core2Duo, MacPro3,1 included), but easiest way is if you use an external USB BigSur installation, or clone a BigSur installation, but even with installation from Catalina (using ASentientBot Hax.dylib method) following the previous steps you will have a working IOUSB legacy BigSur .

For "Unsupported HighSierra Mac", currently no wifi, but you could use ethernet or an USB wifi dongle with this driver:
https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-Big-Sur-Adapter

 

[aussieacorn]

please! Can you help me? I’m pretty noobon terminal and get stuck copying the kext...
View attachment 927997

I am not sure what you are are trying to do but if you are using cp -r command for the Wi-Fi driver, aren't you suppose to put dot ( .) at the end? like

# cp -r /Volumes/USBwifi/IO80211Family.kext .

If that is not the case... Perhaps you should find somewhere else to copy from. Like mine, I didn't do it with the USB, but I've put into the home folder and typed

# cp -r /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/username/IO80211Family.kext .

 

[KitKit0w]

please! Can you help me? I’m pretty noobon terminal and get stuck copying the kext...
View attachment 927997

if you are using a USB flash drive with the bootable Insall Mac Beta:
usb is always mounted at /Volumes/Image\ Volume : cp -r /Volumes/Image\ Volume/IO80211Family.kext .

 

[aussieacorn]

Although I can confirm that Mac mini (Late 2012, i5 with 16GB RAM) is capable running macOS Big Sur - with hardware acceleration working without further driver migration task, I decided to just go back to Catalina just because the process called 'secd' keep (wastes) uses nearly 80% of CPU. This keep happens even if I clean install, so maybe it is something to do with the unstableness of beta version.

And I found the only thing that is not working in the Mac mini is Wi-Fi so far, but in my case, I couldn't really confirm the patches and custom .kext driver as my system drive stays read-only status even though I've tried basically everything I can possibly do (also perhaps I wasn't really as desperate as I would normally do as the OS itself looks somewhat iPad-ish which I won't really like that much).

Thinking to install on MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012, i7 with NVIDIA 650M, 16GB RAM) or hopefully MacBook Pro (Mid 2009, 15 inch, Core 2 Duo with NVIDIA 9600M GT, 8GB RAM), so if anyone needs outcome in here, so please feel free to let me know so then I can test and confirm first before you take the risk.

(Thanks for all of your efforts anyway, really appreciate it.)

Leaving as a reference for anyone who might be interested or having same issue with mine...

I've actually tried anything I can possibly do about 'secd process' and 'secd' process turned out something that's closely related to the Keychain service. Even though I turned my Keychain service off from my iCloud setting, the "secd" process will keep running and more likely to cause memory leak regardlessly until the Mac got connected to the internet. Perhaps it is about authorisation bug or something like that but I couldn't really find out as I don't know much about Macintosh systems.

So for someone like me - who turned off the Keychain service from Catalina or below then experiencing this issue after upgrading, perhaps you need to find any way to connect to the internet (It seems like Wi-Fi isn't necessarily required, just any network interface, e.g. LAN) and allow it stay connected for at least 5 minutes in order to solve this issue.

 

[jhowarth]

And now through my method to use the prelinkedkernel (instead of BootKernelExtensions) , using my opencore customized setup for non-APFS (or APFS rom patched) "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" or "El Capitan Supported Mac" is possible to use the @parrotgeek1 USBLegacyInjector.kext and @Syncretic telemetrap.kext (they are already included in my opencore setup), just make an external USB opencore bootloader with this:

USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3.app.zip

For "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" with working "Legacy IOUSB" you can boot (and use) a BigSur installation (while the USB BigSur installer still has unresponsive usb input output devices), to install BigSur on "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" just use the @ASentientBot method:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28589245

if you have a non-APFS machine you should pick from opencore the "macOS Installer" (or "macOS Install Data") to continue the BigSur installation, after is completed to use prelinkedkernel you should replace the file attached in the path as explained here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28610988

Then power on holding alt-option key and select the usbopencore to load its simple text menu, easily to identify any bootable volumes, it's totally harmless and safe for any mac.

edit:
The Arrandale cpu mac still can't boot BigSur even using the prelinkedkernel.

I tested and it worked for "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" (non-APFS firmware Penryn Core2Duo, MacPro3,1 included), but easiest way is if you use an external USB BigSur installation, or clone a BigSur installation, but even with installation from Catalina (using ASentientBot Hax.dylib method) following the previous steps you will have a working IOUSB legacy BigSur .

For "Unsupported HighSierra Mac", currently no wifi, but you could use ethernet or an USB wifi dongle with this driver:
https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-Big-Sur-Adapter

What is the graphics card and wifi card in the MacPro 3,1? If the graphics card is a GTX680, are you seeing Metal graphics acceleration under Big Sur?

 

[jackluke]

What is the graphics card and wifi card in the MacPro 3,1? If the graphics card is a GTX680, are you seeing Metal graphics acceleration under Big Sur?

I don't have a GTX680 but I guess it's BigSur Supported GPU with its stock Metal driver, for Wifi AirPortBrcmNIC is also BigSur supported without any patch, I can assure that using my method USBLegacyInjector.kext will work on BigSur beta 1 either for non-APFS (or APFS rom patched) "El Capitan Supported Mac" (Penryn Core2Duo), I summarize the steps:

- Make an USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3 on an external USB drive (holding alt-option it's showed on apple startup manager)
- Install BigSur with ASentientBot Hax.dylib method (or clone a BigSur installation on an external or internal disk)
- For non-APFS mac you should load USB OpenCore from apple startup manager and select the "macOS Installer"
- After you have a BigSur installation done, you have to use my method of replacing the Preboot BigSur com.apple.Boot.plist to redirect the prelinkedkernel (still present on BigSur)
- Then booting from apple startup manager select the USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3 (with its custom EFI boot icon) pick the BigSur volume and it should work without issues.

 

[kral84]

Imac 2011 with opencore k 2100 working perfectly....

 

[pkouame]

What is the graphics card and wifi card in the MacPro 3,1? If the graphics card is a GTX680, are you seeing Metal graphics acceleration under Big Sur?

gtx680 was my 3,1 gpu. worked fine as a metal supported card from HS, Mojave and Catalina. Anticipate no acceleration issues with BS.
[automerge]1593194912[/automerge]

And now through my method to use the prelinkedkernel (instead of BootKernelExtensions) , using my opencore customized setup for non-APFS (or APFS rom patched) "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" or "El Capitan Supported Mac" is possible to use the @parrotgeek1 USBLegacyInjector.kext and @Syncretic telemetrap.kext (they are already included in my opencore setup), just make an external USB opencore bootloader with this:

USBOpenCoreAPFSloader3.app.zip

For "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" with working "Legacy IOUSB" you can boot (and use) a BigSur installation (while the USB BigSur installer still has unresponsive usb input output devices), to install BigSur on "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" just use the @ASentientBot method:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28589245

if you have a non-APFS machine you should pick from opencore the "macOS Installer" (or "macOS Install Data") to continue the BigSur installation, after is completed to use prelinkedkernel you should replace the file attached in the path as explained here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28610988

Then power on holding alt-option key and select the usbopencore to load its simple text menu, easily to identify any bootable volumes, it's totally harmless and safe for any mac.

edit:
The Arrandale cpu mac still can't boot BigSur even using the prelinkedkernel.

I tested and it worked for "Unsupported HighSierra Mac" (non-APFS firmware Penryn Core2Duo, MacPro3,1 included), but easiest way is if you use an external USB BigSur installation, or clone a BigSur installation, but even with installation from Catalina (using ASentientBot Hax.dylib method) following the previous steps you will have a working IOUSB legacy BigSur .

For "Unsupported HighSierra Mac", currently no wifi, but you could use ethernet or an USB wifi dongle with this driver:
https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-Big-Sur-Adapter

great work!

 

[jmbZ]

Gotta admit. Battery on mid 2012 mbp. Is a lot better on Big Sur then Catalina

 

[quaccOS]

Breaking news: I discovered a way to boot BigSur without Opencore using the legacy prelinkedkernel instead of the new BootKernelExtensions.kc , here are the steps:

diskutil apfs list to identify your UUID-BigSur unique Preboot Volume string.

diskutil mount Preboot

or mount your BigSur Preboot Volume (it works also from HighSierra, Mojave, Catalina or directly from BigSur)

open /Volumes/Preboot/

check that in your UUID-BigSur folder is present this: /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel

current BigSur beta 1 prelinkedkernel size: 25,7 MB

locate this path : /Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSur/System/Library/CoreServices/com.apple.Boot.plist

if you don't have the file then consider to replace it also in this path:

/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSur/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

edit the file exactly this way:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel Cache</key>
    <string>System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

At next reboot your BigSur installation will use the prelinkedkernel

@ASentientBot and @dosdude1 might find this useful for their BigSur patches.

edit:
The same method could be applied also to USB BigSur Installer, because it is still present also there on

/Volumes/USBInstallerBigSur/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel

so redirecting the /Volumes/USBInstallerBigSur/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

adding to it <key>Kernel Cache</key> with <string>System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel</string> should override the default BaseSystem.dmg (ramdisk) BootKernelExtensions.kc but this require more testing, probably the /System/Library/Extensions/ folder should be added also to the USB BigSur Installer for kext matching or BaseSystem.dmg (740 MB) restored to a volume and from there attempt to make a BigSur Patcher.

The ≈25.7 MB prelinkedkernel file exists in the ./UUID/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels directory of Big Sur's Preboot volume.
diskutil apfs list revealed that the UUID shown in /Volumes/Preboot/2B9C924F-9B05-4337-9383-0C2057994587 was in fact the UUID of the Big Sur - Data volume (disk1s2) — not the Preboot volume (disk1s1) as I would've expected.

Editing the default com.apple.Boot.plist files seem to be vital in making Big Sur boot up.
The other tasks in order were:
disabling SIP & Library Validation; injecting Hax.dylib; installing macOS Beta with app; adding the NVRAM boot args; making a bootable Big Sur installer; deleting/renaming Telemetry plugin — so the last task seems to be editing Boot plist files.

There seem to be 4 different Boot plists in question.
1st is in the Big Sur USB Installer, 2nd & 3rd in the two SystemConfig folders in Big Sur's Preboot volume, and the 4th is the one I copied to the CoreServices directory because a Boot plist did not exist there

1/Volumes/USBInstallerBigSur/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
2/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSurData/Library/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
3/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSurData/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
4/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSurData/System/Library/CoreServices/com.apple.Boot.plist

Based on what I read, I edited the 4 com.apple.Boot.plist files to look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel Cache</key>
    <string>boot\System\Library\KernelCollections\BootKernelExtensions.kc</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>root-dmg=file:///BaseSystem/BaseSystem.dmg -no_compat_check cs_enforcement_disable=1 cs_debug=1 amfi_allow_any_signature=1 amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

When I did this, Big Sur would boot to the grey Apple logo but the usual boot loading bar would not appear.
This was different to the previous outcome of booting successfully to the macOS setup language prompt, but obviously crashing.

I tried diskutil apfs updatePreboot /Volumes/Big\ Sur/ and it updated the Preboot volume successfully – but the loading bar still did not appear. Let me know if plist files are incorrect, because this is a confusing step.

Edit: I forgot to mention: deleting PlatformSupport.plist from ./System/Library/CoreServices. I also seen this line sudo bless --folder /Volumes/YourBigSurLabel/System/Library/CoreServices --label "YourBigSurLabel" you mentioned, but I'm not sure what it is.
If I made it far as booting to the setup page, I just need to update the Boot plists correctly to not cause kernel panic. I will re-edit now

 

[jackluke]

There seem to be 4 different Boot plists in question.
1st is in the Big Sur USB Installer, 2nd & 3rd in the two SystemConfig folders in Big Sur's Preboot volume, and the 4th is the one I copied to the CoreServices directory because a Boot plist did not exist there

1/Volumes/USBInstallerBigSur/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
2/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSurData/Library/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
3/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSurData/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
4/Volumes/Preboot/UUID-BigSurData/System/Library/CoreServices/com.apple.Boot.plist

Based on what I read, I edited the 4 com.apple.Boot.plist files to look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel Cache</key>
    <string>boot\System\Library\KernelCollections\BootKernelExtensions.kc</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>root-dmg=file:///BaseSystem/BaseSystem.dmg -no_compat_check cs_enforcement_disable=1 cs_debug=1 amfi_allow_any_signature=1 amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

When I did this, Big Sur would boot to the grey Apple logo but the usual boot loading bar would not appear.
This was different to the previous outcome of booting successfully to the macOS setup language prompt, but obviously crashing.

I tried diskutil apfs updatePreboot /Volumes/Big\ Sur/ and it updated the Preboot volume successfully – but the loading bar still did not appear. Let me know if plist files are incorrect, because this is a confusing step.

"root-dmg" is only used for ramdisk not for Preboot, so edit your 4 (that is the one used from APFS BigSur Preboot) as this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel Cache</key>
    <string>boot\System\Library\KernelCollections\BootKernelExtensions.kc</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

and it should boot to the loginUI, if still can't boot, otherwise you might try to edit this other way:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel Cache</key>
    <string>System\Library\PrelinkedKernels\prelinkedkernel</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

 

[Bruno Berchielli]

For those with rMPB Retina 15 with NVidia 650M, is video acceleration working properly?

 

[pkouame]

For those with rMPB Retina 15 with NVidia 650M, is video acceleration working properly?

I believe that's a 2012ish model and the 650M supports metal right? so good chance that Sur acceleration is fine too. scan this thread some folks should have it running on your box. note: may not be a simple install - so research there are some pretty good installation summaries in the previous few pages alone.

 

[GameRoof]

Dude, Your MBP is practically the same as mine, except mine is 13", I saw that your WiFi is working perfectly too. Did you install it by going over your macOS Catalina? Or did another partition including it and then migrated Catalina data for Big Sur?

Is there a step by step of what you did to install so that I can do it here with me? It is impressive that with 4Gb of RAM it is running smooth. I have 16 Gb of RAM

I followed the steps in my own video on it here:

Also I installed it over my Catalina (by accident!, but it works great! ?) , but I had to make a bootable Big Sur USB to access the Big Sur terminal since I demolished Catalina haha, so DO NOT install over Catalina if you want to save a lot of hassle.
[automerge]1593203330[/automerge]

That is quite fast for just 4gb ram. Can't wait to see how it looks with 16gb ram+gpu accel

You don't have to wait. I have two MacBookPro9,1 models next to me. One is 4GB RAM 2.3GHz i7 (in the video), one is 16GB RAM and 2.6GHz i7. They perform very similarly, although the 16GB boots slightly faster despite having the same SSD inside. It also unsurprisingly performs better when lots of Safari tabs are open.

 

[FlorisVN]

For those with rMPB Retina 15 with NVidia 650M, is video acceleration working properly?

should work just fine..

 

[GameRoof]

For those with rMPB Retina 15 with NVidia 650M, is video acceleration working properly?

I have the non Retina with the same GPU and it works brilliantly! So it should work properly on the Retina since they will be using the same GPU drivers.

 

[FlorisVN]

I have the non Retina with the same GPU and it works brilliantly! So it should work properly on the Retina since they will be using the same GPU drivers.

yes, expect all kepler based nvidia cardsto still work like before.

 

[marcellux]

I hope somebody comes up with one patch that will let my end 2012 iMac update to Big Sur. I'm not that into terminal