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Hello to all,

Successful installation of 11.4 Beta 2 on 17” MacBook Pro 5,2 Samsung Evo SSD, C2D processor

Method: OCLP 0.1.2

Download and instructions link: https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher

Instructions link: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher

Download OCLP “patcher”: https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases/tag/0.1.2

Steps:

Start from Catalina partition.

Install 11.4 beta 2 via standard “createinstallmedia” command onto a USB thumb drive.

Download OCLP 0.1.2 as per instructions on Dartania website.

Run OpenCore-Patcher.app

Build Open Core as per instructions in above referenced guides. (See https links above)

Install OCLP EFI boot partition onto the USB thumb drive (where 11.4 beta2 was installed) (see guide for choosing which disk OCLP is to be installed)

Re-Boot while holding option key to reach apple disk selector: choose OCLP EFI boot icon

Once in Open Core Chooser: Double click on “Install macOS Big Sur Beta” icon.

Installation process should start.

Each time installation stalls, or gets into a loop, reboot into the OCLP chooser (option key on reboot) and reselect *MacOS Installer* (NOT the “Install Big Sur Beta” Icon)

Keep rebooting (as noted above) until an Icon for *Big Sur* appears (and MacOS *installer* icon is no longer visible)
in OCLP disk chooser. It’s a lengthy and time consuming process, but it worked (for me).

Boot back into Catalina OS.

At this point I moved OCLP onto the internal drive ( Could not get Big Sur to boot, after applying patches, when OCLP was on USB thumb drive.)

OCLP relocation to internal SSD allowed completion of installation of Big Sur onto internal disk's (SSD) partition and application of patches. It is possible that things would have been easier if I started with OCLP installation on internal SSD (not the Thumb Drive).

Launch OCLP patcher.app

Once OCLP lunches, choose option 5, then select to Disable SIP and SecureBootModel, by setting the command to “true”. Go back to main menu.

This time select Option 3, which allows Graphic Patches to be installed on BigSur Volume. After the process completes, go “back”, to main selection menu (as in previous step)

Build (rather re-build) Open Core again.

Reboot into disk chooser, select OCLP EFI icon, then in OCLP chooser double-click Big Sur icon; Big Sur should launch and function with graphic acceleration. Note, that there are some graphic glitches, but nothing that reduces functionality.

Please read carefully OCLP installation guide on Dartania website; the guide appears more complex than it is in practice. The biggest issue in the whole process is Big Sur’s raw installation, not the OCLP enabled patching.

This post is meant just as a rough guide.

Hope this may be of help.
 

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So, I did it. Installed 11.3.1 OCLP 0.1.2 over my 11.3.1 BarryKN micropatch 0.5.1. on my iMac 14.2 late 2013.
And have a problem. There is no signal on my 2nd monitor NEC PA301w wia TB. It was OK before OCLP installation. Need HELP!
If you are able to edit the boot-args within the opencore config.plist file or the config.plist at all (now please read the full OCLP docs) than you might try to add this agdpmod=vit9696 to the boot-args. If you have there already an entry (or in the DeviceProperties section) like agdpmod=pikera just replace the pikera with vit9696.

If these instructions sound like Böhmische Dörfer to you than please just wait for a fix in the official distribution. There is already a quite similar issue open and under exploration.

And I advice clearly against this installation over an existing patched one. The patching destroyed the cryptographic integrity of the root file system and other used hidden partitions and you can experience problems later on.

Backup, delete the APFS container/partition holding the complete Big Sur stuff, do a clean installation and do a restore. I have been though this several times on my test systems during the migration tests. The last installation with such problems has been deleted just a couple of hours, ago.
 
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Right, also here on MBP5,2 (on 11.4b1), the icons are invisible, but when placing the mouse over them, the descriptive text shows - so one can still select the desired option. Just above the dock.
Hello hvds:

I was actually able to install 11.4 beta 2 via OCLP 0.2.1 (see post on page 405). (My CPU is near twin to yours)
Jacklukes's method did not work for me to install 11.4 beta 2, but worked perfectly for 11.4 beta 1 installation;
I did not have a chance to investigate why this was the case.
The icon problem does exist in some windows, but majority of icons are fully "drawn".

Hope this helps
 
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Who is exactly we? The last guy insisting on using the 1st plural when speaking about himself got his head cut of more than 200 years, ago. Not a good idea to start this nuisance, again.

Apple Home, Apple Maps, Apple photos and others rely on the metal techology and will probably never work properly unless you buy a metal GPU based Mac. Patching back graphics acceleration for your old card means is bringing back mostly OpenGL - did I mention this before? The patches are not a metal emulator for old graphics cards. Nobody will do this without proper engineering docs - whohoo - these are Apple internal. These apps had their problems before on Mojave and Cataline, do not expect to get newer version with less metal technology included.

What is coming next? Final Cut Pro X does not work properly on your iMac?
Both Apple Maps and Find My issues with the initial buttons (not being there / clickable with the OpenGL framework patches) can be circumvented by force-quitting the app, keep the (missing) button position in mind, open app again and rapid-fire-click onto that area until the "whats new" popup window closes.
You have to only do this once and both apps are fully usable from then on.
Of course, satellite views are still too dark - but we had that since Mojave/Catalina.
Ohne Titel.png
 
Has anyone else had a virus warning when downloading and unpacking open core from GitHub? The anti-virus is Bit defender. I've been using an earlier version and it has been no trouble so not in a hurry to upgrade just thought I'd ask

Screenshot 2021-05-07.png
 
Hi! I just installed Big Sur using OpenCore successfully on my iMac Early 2009 and I hear no sound and no brightness control. Can someone please help me fix those two? Thx! Apart from that, just a few graphical bugs and everything is working fine!!!
 
Hello,

I just had a very smooth and successful install of Big Sur onto my late 2012 mini (macmini6,2) using OpenCore Legacy Patcher (Thanks!!).

Things worked well but then went south for a bit after making a full CCC backup and booting from it to test it out:

-Finder crashing, unable to relaunch, apps unable to launch, had to Cmd-Shift-Q to logoff and restart
-After this, even my main install started crashing in the same ways

I believe I have fixed the issue - this is for others who may experience the same:
-I had to re-install Open Core to my internal drive and re-boot from the EFI Boot partition (https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/BUILD.html, https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/BOOT.html)

What I think happened:
-when CCC does a full backup of Big Sur it first uses Apple's APFS replication utility (ASR) (see CCC docs), and it overwrote the backup's EFI Boot Volume
-that EFI volume had Open Core installed on it (Big Sur Installer is on another partition of that same backup drive)
-so I was booting from an unpatched EFI volume

Can anyone chime in to say if this makes sense?

I haven't tried re-patching the backup EFI and booting to my backup again to test it because I'm just happy to get some work done right now.

I think this can be avoided by not having a backup share the same device as the Installer, as it would be obvious that the EFI volume for the backup is unpatched (no Open Core logo for instance).

Hope this helps someone with similar issues.
 
If you are able to edit the boot-args within the opencore config.plist file or the config.plist at all (now please read the full OCLP docs) than you might try to add this agdpmod=vit9696 to the boot-args. If you have there already an entry (or in the DeviceProperties section) like agdpmod=pikera just replace the pikera with vit9696.

If these instructions sound like Böhmische Dörfer to you than please just wait for a fix in the official distribution. There is already a quite similar issue open and under exploration.

And I advice clearly against this installation over an existing patched one. The patching destroyed the cryptographic integrity of the root file system and other used hidden partitions and you can experience problems later on.

Backup, delete the APFS container/partition holding the complete Big Sur stuff, do a clean installation and do a restore. I have been though this several times on my test systems during the migration tests. The last installation with such problems has been deleted just a couple of hours, ago.
I confirm that this method work for me
 

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I also had this. I assume it is just a false positive. Can anyone confirm? I added it to the exclusion list.
For reference, Apple themselves notarize OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Our source code is also all public and built with pyinstaller to make the simple .app you see. Each time we commit or do a release, we have our server build the app, sign with apple and have it hosted on our repo through Github Actions.

Not entirely sure why Bit Defender would flag us, though I know on Windows all pyinstaller binaries seem to get flagged by Windows Defender. My guess is they copied Defender's rules and applied universally

 .png
 
For reference, Apple themselves notarize OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Our source code is also all public and built with pyinstaller to make the simple .app you see. Each time we commit or do a release, we have our server build the app, sign with apple and have it hosted on our repo through Github Actions.

Not entirely sure why Bit Defender would flag us, though I know on Windows all pyinstaller binaries seem to get flagged by Windows Defender. My guess is they copied Defender's rules and applied universally

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Thanks for the confirmation. And double thanks for OCLP! Looking forward to at least one more year using my Mac Mini. :)
 
And I advice clearly against this installation over an existing patched one. The patching destroyed the cryptographic integrity of the root file system and other used hidden partitions and you can experience problems later on.
Does it (root file system spoiling) happen while patched BS is clean installing or even when it's set up onto existing partition - over the existing Catalina, for example?
 
Does it (root file system spoiling) happen while patched BS is clean installing or even when it's set up onto existing partition - over the existing Catalina, for example?
So generally reinstallation of Big Sur on root patched volumes shouldn't actually cause any concerns if done as Apple expects. With Mojave and Catalina, dosdude1 does in fact edit the system volume in a supported format.

With Big Sur, Apple always assumes that when you edit the root volume that you'll then apply these changes to the snapshot. That's where OpenCore Legacy Patcher and Patched Sur's methods differ:

OpenCore Legacy Patcher:
  1. Mounts the system snapshot based off Apple's KDK docs (with small enhancements based off BarryKN's findings)
  2. Patch Kexts, Frameworks, PrivateFrameworks and inserts a Launch Daemon as described on our documentation
  3. Rebuild cache with kmutil, then using --bootefi --create-snapshot to create a new snapshot based of our updated changes
Patched Sur:
  1. During initial installation, zaps APFS snapshot
  2. During patching, edits the root volume and therefore booting a live volume
As you can see, using a method Apple doesn't endorse can create extreme edge cases when reinstalling the supported way. So while it is in fact possible to reinstall Big Sur and retain a clean system volume, you can open yourself up to these odd edge cases Apple themselves didn't adjust for.

Regarding whether one is better than the other, I believe for end users that snapshots should be used to avoid headaches. However for developers, having a live volume is extremely useful as it's far quicker to make adjustments as well as undo issues. For this exact reason, ASentientBot requested the feature for OCLP and we're currently researching into implementing this smoothly
 
For this exact reason, ASentientBot requested the feature for OCLP and we're currently researching into implementing this smoothly
Do I understand correctly that when this feature's done, an opportunity arises to undo live volume boot and come back to normal snapshots? So, for Patched Sur users, it makes sense to wait some time and get a chance to switch to OCLP without mandatory clean install?
 
Do I understand correctly that when this feature's done, an opportunity arises to undo live volume boot and come back to normal snapshots? So, for Patched Sur users, it makes sense to wait some time and get a chance to switch to OCLP without mandatory clean install?
Unlikely, especially with the disappointedly absent documentation regarding what Patched Sur does for different models without delving deep into their logic(Hopefully this can be improved in the future on the author's part). We couldn't release work that we would stand by with so many edge cases that simply do not need to exist.

Overall the "zap snapshot" feature ASentientBot requested is simply for developers who wish to use OCLP for their testing. For end users, snapshots will always be prioritized.

While I understand that many Patched Sur users wish to leave, I would honestly recommend reinstalling Big Sur via the installer and OCLP and see how the overall situation plays out. If you find there to be legitimate issues that shouldn't be present with proper OCLP installs, then I recommend making a new partition, installing fresh on that partition and running migration assistant from the old partition to the new one. This then allows you to remove the old partition and have a clean Big Sur install with OCLP

Overall I've had dozen and dozen of users reach out saying they've successfully transferred from patched Sur to OCLP via just the regular reinstall method. We have had 1 or 2 users with issues that were later solved with a clean install.

Ofc everyone's experiences are different so I'd recommend having this as a weekend project when you have time cleared out for a couple drinks and a few hours of troubleshooting just in case ;p
 
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khronokernel, thank you very much for the expanded, detailed, and very informative answers.
 
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Stupid question and I have asked before but I have 11.1 on my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro installed using the Micropatcher. What is the easiest way to upgrade to 11.3 without starting from scratch?

Also what would be the best discord server to join re Big Sur on unsupported Macs?
 
Stupid question and I have asked before but I have 11.1 on my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro installed using the Micropatcher. What is the easiest way to upgrade to 11.3 without starting from scratch?

Also what would be the best discord server to join re Big Sur on unsupported Macs?
There is no other way to update than from the scratch, i.e. creating a new USB installer and install the latest release on top of the older one preserving your data and settings.

If you want to have working OTA upgrades just switch to OCLP - download link on post #1. We had a discussion recently and if you do not mind you just read if a few posts back what is is the best upgrade path to OCLP coming from different patchers, i.e. new installations on newly formatted partition including backup and restore vs. install over the existing one.

Please search back for keyword Discord on this thread to get your info.
 
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Stupid question and I have asked before but I have 11.1 on my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro installed using the Micropatcher. What is the easiest way to upgrade to 11.3 without starting from scratch?

See below post from fellow 2012 MBP user that switched to OCLP, using the official OCLP user guide as well as a simplified guide that I posted.

I would definitely recommend OCLP for yourself, as the 2012 MBP is fully supported. End result, you can do software update (OTA) as per normal means.

 
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