Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread
- Thread starter dosdude1
- WikiPost WikiPost
- Start date
-
- Tags
- 10.16 macos unsupported
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Hi, thanks for this thread.
I have an old iMac 2012 (iMac13,2), that I tried to upgrade to Big Sur, I did 2 things, the first thing : I downloaded the Big Sur 11.4 (20F71) DMG file via MDS.
I did a mistake, I tried to use this upgrade as-is, the mac did reboot, and have displayed a gray forbidden icon, so, ok, it was expected, but now I have a "install macOS" boot entry that I can't remove, and is the first boot entry, I would like to remove it.
The second thing, I use the dmg and the apple method to create a usb bootable hard drive for the big sur installer. Then I patched it with OpenCore patcher (I did "build" then "patch"), this allowed me to use the alt key on boot to use opencore entry, then install macos entry.
My problem, is that the install is stuck when it tells me that it will remains 12 minutes, the mouse cursor disapear, and a spinning wheel is displayed and the all mac is frozen. The first time I did that, I had the install log window opened, and this freeze was just after the installer executing a bless command. I can still reboot into Catalina, it doesn't seems that anything was done.
What did I do wrong ? Is the opencore patcher still the way to do it ? what is the micropatcher ? Is the first wiki post still up-to-date ?
Thanks.
I have an old iMac 2012 (iMac13,2), that I tried to upgrade to Big Sur, I did 2 things, the first thing : I downloaded the Big Sur 11.4 (20F71) DMG file via MDS.
I did a mistake, I tried to use this upgrade as-is, the mac did reboot, and have displayed a gray forbidden icon, so, ok, it was expected, but now I have a "install macOS" boot entry that I can't remove, and is the first boot entry, I would like to remove it.
The second thing, I use the dmg and the apple method to create a usb bootable hard drive for the big sur installer. Then I patched it with OpenCore patcher (I did "build" then "patch"), this allowed me to use the alt key on boot to use opencore entry, then install macos entry.
My problem, is that the install is stuck when it tells me that it will remains 12 minutes, the mouse cursor disapear, and a spinning wheel is displayed and the all mac is frozen. The first time I did that, I had the install log window opened, and this freeze was just after the installer executing a bless command. I can still reboot into Catalina, it doesn't seems that anything was done.
What did I do wrong ? Is the opencore patcher still the way to do it ? what is the micropatcher ? Is the first wiki post still up-to-date ?
Thanks.
OpenCore is the safest way to install Big Sur. A good summary of the benefits and drawbacks of using OCLP is here: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/BENIFITS.html
You could try waiting and seeing if it "unfreezes". It can take a while to install. Do you have a HDD or a SSD?
You could try waiting and seeing if it "unfreezes". It can take a while to install. Do you have a HDD or a SSD?
My internal hard drive is a SSD 1TB from Crucial I did install a long time ago, my usb install media is a HDD with a sata to usb adapter.
I did used the link : https://nightly.link/dortania/OpenC...flows/build-app/main/OpenCore-Patcher.app.zip from https://github.com/dortania/Opencore-Legacy-Patcher/
I can't help you with OCLP, but I can tell you about micropatcher. BarryKN created this patcher and last updated it back in November of 2020. If you read his ReadMe you see that it is successful for many devices (still!!!) and you can check out his detailed instructions. You build a USB installer just like normal with "createinstallmedia", then run his micropatcher shell script, then run another script again in Terminal. Restart with option key to select EFIboot and then immediately restart with option key to select the patched MacOS Big Sur installer. It takes about 45 minutes and can be installed directly over your previous MacOS (thus not losing your apps and preferences.
I have used it for many Big Sur betas and most recently to install Big Sur 11.4 (20F71) into my 15 inch, rMBP, mid-2012, 10,1. I have a Wifi 802.11ac upgrade Broadcom wifi/bluetooth, so I can stop the MacOS install procedure at BarryKN's instruction: Step 15. I can even enable SIP and ARV security at his Step 7 using the -e option as he describes (since I don't need to patch kexts) as detailed in his Step 15.
It is surely a miracle that BarryKN's 0.5.1 micropatcher still works for installs of even Big Sur 11.5 betas!
I hope this helps!
Also, I forgot to mention: you may not know that Mr. Macintosh has a slew of detailed videos showing the steps to successful Big Sur (and even Monterey) installations using several different methods. His YouTube assortment is huge and impressive.
Just like to add for documentation/advice (@khronokernel) that I have two sucessful installs marked as "not reported" yet.
OCLP 0.1.9 - BigSur 11.4: MacBookPro5,5 - Expected slight graphical glitches, works perfectly well as an accelerated FaceTime Machine
OCLP 0.1.9 - BigSur 11.4: MacMini3,1 - Expected performance, great as a file/print server with occasional access over Apple Remote Desktop
SSDs in both made them significantly more useable.
OCLP 0.1.9 - BigSur 11.4: MacBookPro5,5 - Expected slight graphical glitches, works perfectly well as an accelerated FaceTime Machine
OCLP 0.1.9 - BigSur 11.4: MacMini3,1 - Expected performance, great as a file/print server with occasional access over Apple Remote Desktop
SSDs in both made them significantly more useable.
I tried to install it again with the opencore, the install freeze exactly at the same point, and because I did something else, and forgot about it, it more or less had something like 6 hours, that did nothing, still freezed. Should I use micropatcher ? where can I find the "steps" ?
Last edited:
See my post #10,884. Complete description and instructions are in his ReadMe file. Before you use it however, you should do a search at this thread for your device and 'micropatcher' to see how successful others are/have been. As I said, I have had great success, but it is really good that I have a compatible WiFi/bluetooth card so I can enable SIP, etc.
Did you follow the instructions from here: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/INSTALLER.html#downloading Building the install USB w/createinstallmedia is key. 🧐
OCLP v.0.2.2 fixes the NVIDIA glitch from 0.2.1 and fully enables Firewire boot in Big Sur and Catalina plus the very nice new icons are installed. https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases/download/0.2.2/OpenCore-Patcher.app.zip 😁
Last edited:
@PG7 You posted in the wrong thread. Issues with OCLP and Monterey should go in the Monterey for unsupported Macs thread.
If you are desperate to have the latest fixes and the latest release (currently 0.2.2) isn't working for you then you could try the nightly (currently 0.2.3)
If you are desperate to have the latest fixes and the latest release (currently 0.2.2) isn't working for you then you could try the nightly (currently 0.2.3)
Last edited:
So I recently got Big Sur installed onto an old 2009 Mac Mini and I'm pretty surprised that it actually runs pretty well. However, there is a single thing that doesn't work: sending videos over messages. The message just hangs for several minutes and then eventually a red exclamation mark appears next to it prompting me to try again if I click it.
I tried checking the console and did a sysdiagnose, but I couldn't find anything particularly interesting in the messages logging output. My suspicion is Big Sur expects some hardware support for encoding the video before sending it, and of course, this computer doesn't have it.
Anyone figure out a way around that one yet?
I tried checking the console and did a sysdiagnose, but I couldn't find anything particularly interesting in the messages logging output. My suspicion is Big Sur expects some hardware support for encoding the video before sending it, and of course, this computer doesn't have it.
Anyone figure out a way around that one yet?
No, with Big Sur all software decoders have been dropped and it needs a supported dGPU to get this done. Check this page...
Last edited:
Updated the MBP5,2 to 11.5b3 from 11.5b2. Using the full installer. Updated two installations:
- one made with jackluke's BigSurBasesystemFix on a partition of internal (SATA) SSD
- one made with oclp, now using 0.2.2, on an external (USB) SSD.
Both working fine. Using 11.4 as production system on a separate partition of the internal SSD.
Catalina, on another external SSD, still kept up to date (with a set of rsyncs for user data), just in case.
Also using 12.0 beta experimentally (because of no graphics acceleration) on yet another SSD, again installed both ways via oclp 0.2.2 and via jackluke's fix/fix2 method, resp., plus using jackluke's BigSurmountsrw.app to inject additional kexts I need.
Attachments
Well, I actually had Catalina installed on this machine before and experienced the exact same issue. I was hoping upgrading with a fresh install would fix it.
The videos can play locally and are my own (no DRM), so doesn’t seem like there are decoding issues? If anything, it seems like a lack of or a broken encoder (assuming it’s not just some issue with larger media payloads in general).
Curious if other people with similarly old machines are having the same problems.
If you are allowed to download copy right protected and otherwise decoded content it should be available after download in decoded form, otherwise one would need a complex method to assure you are legally entitled to watch this content. Long story short: download and replay of AppleTV worked all the time.
The situation becomes more complex if you watch streamed content - sender and receiver need some encode/decode method to ensure no third party in the middle watches for free.
So from my understanding it needs a decoder on the receiver sides to decode the encoded content. Since software decoding does not work any longer (unless you stick with Catalina) all other people with a dGPU not listed to be compatible running Big Sur will face the same problem.
OCLP now comes in GUI. Test it, here: https://nightly.link/dortania/OpenC...s/build-gui/main/OpenCore-Patcher-GUI.app.zip
Hello, I'm also on a MacBook4,1. (Not pro!)
With the MacBook5,2 option, did you get mouse and trackpad/keyboard working? For me with 4,1 config or 5,2 config I can boot with internal hdd but mouse and keyboard doesn't work. Thanks.