macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[hvds]

same here

I have Safari 14.1.2 with my two 11.6 installations. Downloaded the 11.6 full installer via gibmacos on Sept.19, didn't use OTA. - 15.0 is now offered as upgrade in system settings in my installation with OCLP.

I'm having problems with 15.0 in Monterey b6 in my non-metal system... using Firefox instead. Safari getting unresponsive after short usage. So I'm happy/lucky that I still got 14.1.2 on 11.6.

 

[webg3]

OpenCore Legacy Patcher is still experiencing some crashes and freezes in Big Sur 11.6

MacBook Air 11" 2012 4GB RAM

I came back with OpenCore Vanilla, 0.7.0 and it's working fine so far.

 

[Hackintosh HD]

Updating just finished... so now I have 11.6 in two installations:

- installed with OCLP 0.2.5n (downloaded 10hrs ago), over 11.5.2 installed with OCLP 0.2.4, on a USB SSD
- installed with BigSurBaseSystemfix by jackluke, over 10.5.2 installed with BaseSystemfix, on internal SATA SSD.

Used full installer, and the relevant post-install patching of the system volume, in both cases. Working fine so far.

Thank you very much for the info! I took that as an encouragement and updated to macOS 11.6 via an in-place installation with a OCLP 0.2.5n full macOS 11.6 installer USB stick (in my understanding, I had to do it that way because my MBP5,2's Big Sur root partition is OCLP-patched for graphics acceleration, which makes OTA updates impossible).

Unfortunately, the outcome is a new Big Sur installation with my previous users removed - the user folders below /Users/ are still present, but the system itself has lost all users and has prompted me to create a new one. I however may have made a mistake after the process, when the system would always stall on the boot progress bar on its first post-update reboot despite clearing the NVRAM - I finally booted into safe mode using the shift key, which then brought me to the normal system setup dialogue (license agreement, time zone, location services, create a new user etc. pp.). So I think I'll have to do a clean 11.6 install and use the migration assistant with my old Mojave SSD again …

@hvds : What's your exact update procedure for your MBP5,2 with updates that require a reboot? OTA updates won't work, right?

 

[davemp88]

if you've already previously used OCLP, you can also use BenSova's Patched Sur app in order to get the full installer of macOS 11.6 downloaded, and then just do a direct install from the newly downloaded OS, instead of finishing the Patched Sur process

 

[webg3]

Release 0.2.5 · dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher

Hello everyone, we're proud to announce OpenCore Legacy Patcher v0.2.5! This release is one of our biggest yet including many long awaited features and fixes: Non-Metal Acceleration for Monterey N...

github.com

khronokernel released this 9 hours ago
Hello everyone, we're proud to announce OpenCore Legacy Patcher v0.2.5!
This release is one of our biggest yet including many long awaited features and fixes:

• Non-Metal Acceleration for Monterey
• Nvidia Kepler Acceleration for Monterey Beta 7+
• Wifi and Bluetooth support for legacy chipsets in Monterey
• Support for AMFI usage on non-Metal GPUs (ie. native Security and Privacy usage)
• FileVault support for Root Patched Macs
• Offline variant of TUI (for those without internet who want to root patch)
• FirmwareFeature upgrading for Monterey Beta 7+ upgrades/installs

And I want to give a huge thank you to all the developers who've helped out greatly, including @dhinakg, @ASentientBot and @educovas as many of these fixes would not be possible without their amazing work!

Changelog​

Changelog Details

• Implement Latebloom configuration via command line tool
• Implement Root Volume backups in addition to APFS snapshot reversions
  • Backups applicable to machines with sealed APFS snapshots
• Allow Root Patching on Mojave and Catalina
  • Currently experimental
• Allow disabling of faulty Thunderbolt controllers on 2013-2014 MacBook Pros
  • Currently limited to MacBookPro11,x
• Set iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS for Mac Pro and Xserve models
  • Allows for wider array of OS support (High Sierra+)
• Use plist override for BCM943224 and BCM94331 support in Big Sur+
  • Allows for older OS support through OpenCore
• Increment Binaries:
  • OpenCore 0.7.2 release
  • Lilu 1.5.5 release
  • AppleALC 1.6.3 release
  • WhateverGreen 1.5.2 release
  • FeatureUnlock 1.0.3 release
  • PatcherSupportPkg 0.1.2 release
• Allow iGPU/dGPU switching in Windows
  • Applicable to MacBook Pros with Intel iGPU and Nvidia/AMD dGPU
• Clean up Patcher Settings
• Allow disabling of TeraScale 2 Acceleration during root volume patch
  • Use for MacBookPro8,x with heavily degraded dGPUs
• Add non-Metal Monterey Acceleration
  • Currently supports:
    • Intel Ironlake and Sandy Bridge
    • Nvidia Tesla
    • AMD TeraScale 1 and 2
• Allow Trackpad gestures on MacBook4,1 and MacBook5,2
  • System Preferences will not report settings however
• Allow Root Volume Patched Systems to use FileVault 2
  • Requires macOS 11.3 (20E232) or newer
• Add offline TUI build
  • Allows for root patching without network connection
• Add Legacy Wireless support for Monterey
  • Applicable for BCM94328, BCM94322 and Atheros chipsets
• Add Legacy Bluetooth support for Monterey
  • Applicable for BRCM2046 and BRCM2070 chipsets
• Disable Library Validation allowing for AMFI usage
  • Remove reliance on amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1
• Add Kepler Accleration Patches for Monterey Beta 7 and newer
• Add FirmwareFeature upgrading to all Models
  • Fixes Monterey Beta 7 installation issues
• Add iMac7,1 USB map
  
  
  
  Contributors
• dhinakg, educovas, and ASentientBot

 

[jgleigh]

So is Big Sur still a no-no with a Mac Pro 5,1 and OCLP?

Looks like a real fix is getting much closer!

Latebloom - An experimental workaround for the 11.3+ race condition

This is my happiest drive-by post yet: I have identified the race condition, and a fix will be forthcoming soon. Please be patient! As always, time is not my friend. I will write up the details as soon as I can, and I'll post the fix as soon as there is one (it's a bit tricky). However...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[TimmuJapan]

Looks like a real fix is getting much closer!

Latebloom - An experimental workaround for the 11.3+ race condition

This is my happiest drive-by post yet: I have identified the race condition, and a fix will be forthcoming soon. Please be patient! As always, time is not my friend. I will write up the details as soon as I can, and I'll post the fix as soon as there is one (it's a bit tricky). However...

forums.macrumors.com

Awesome! By the way, can someone tell me in one or two sentences, very simply and and plainly, what exactly the “race condition” is and what happens to your Mac when it enters “the race condition”? I remember reading through the post, and I can’t for the life of me imagine what is happening. The ”race condition“ makes it sound like the Mac is going into cardiac arrest.

What is the matrix?

What is the race condition?
😂

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Awesome! By the way, can someone tell me in one or two sentences, very simply and and plainly, what exactly the “race condition” is and what happens to your Mac when it enters “the race condition”? I remember reading through the post, and I can’t for the life of me imagine what is happening. The ”race condition“ makes it sound like the Mac is going into cardiac arrest.

What is the matrix?

What is the race condition?
😂

Race condition:

This is the chosen name of a problem with pre 2011 Mac systems during booting. Mostly boot sticks during bus checks in an early boot phase and ends up with a stop sign after a timeout. One can check this using verbose boot on the particular machine adding -v to the boot-args.

While 2011 and later (unsupported) systems are not affected during the boot phase it may cause problems later on. Recently @Syncretic posted to have found the real root cause, but he did not post and explanation or solution, yet. Right now we need to use the latebloom workaround which injects some stochastic delays into the early boot phase and this works pretty good.

 

[amishallin]

OCLP 0.2.5 now lists non-metal gpu acceleration in the notes. Has anyone tried this yet? I have an iMac 27" (11,3 2.93 i7 HD 5750 High Sierra default installation) that is just used as a monitor. Technically all I would have to do is install OCLP with the patch then install Big Sur/Montery from a USB like normal? Sounds almost too good to be true...

My next question is does target display mode (or maybe AirPlay) still work under Big Sur/Montery?

 

[trifero]

Race condition:

This is the chosen name of a problem with pre 2011 Mac systems during booting. Mostly boot sticks during bus checks in an early boot phase and ends up with a stop sign after a timeout. One can check this using verbose boot on the particular machine adding -v to the boot-args.

While 2011 and later (unsupported) systems are not affected during the boot phase it may cause problems later on. Recently @Syncretic posted to have found the real root cause, but he did not post and explanation or solution, yet. Right now we need to use the latebloom workaround which injects some stochastic delays into the early boot phase and this works pretty good.

Nice explanation. 👍

 

[j2048b]

OCLP 0.2.5 now lists non-metal gpu acceleration in the notes. Has anyone tried this yet? I have an iMac 27" (11,3 2.93 i7 HD 5750 High Sierra default installation) that is just used as a monitor. Technically all I would have to do is install OCLP with the patch then install Big Sur/Montery from a USB like normal? Sounds almost too good to be true...

My next question is does target display mode (or maybe AirPlay) still work under Big Sur/Montery?

This is what im wondering as my mac mini 2012 is done being updated so if it is possible to just go oclp and and install big sur onto it... Then cool beans

 

[Hackintosh HD]

Just in case somebody here is using Big Sur on a MacBook Pro Mid 2009 (MacBookPro5,2): I've just written a tutorial on how to re-enable Instant GPU Switching / GPU Switching on the fly on a MacBook Pro Mid 2009 under High Sierra and Mojave. Unfortunately, I haven't had an opportunity to test this on Big Sur yet (at this point, I'm not too familiar with Big Sur's rootless / read-only system partition mechanisms). But if there's anybody willing to test the steps on Big Sur accordingly, any feedback would be highly appreciated!

 

[buckrock]

For Open Core installations: An easy way to revert Safari 15.0 back to 14.1.x

Download the full Big Sur 11.6 InstallAssistant.pkg (link -- http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...wd3i38zfogcscagmpwksdzce/InstallAssistant.pkg).

Open the InstallAssistant.pkg which puts the MacOS Big Sur Installer in your Applications folder. Start the MacOS installer while booted normally in BS 11.6; run the 11.6 installer over your present installation (takes a bit less than an hour on rMBP mid-2012 -- 10,1). FYI: My rMBP had B S 11.6 installed viaOCLP (Open Core Patcher TUI version 0.2.5) -- you don't need to run updates only from the MacOS Software Update (OTA)!

After re-installing 11.6 you will have Safari 14.1.x and immediately you will get a notification that Safari 15.0 update is available, which you can happily ignore.

Now, realize that I happen to like the new Safari 15.0 GUI! I do unselect 'show color in tab bar' tab setting in preferences.

 

[trifero]

For Open Core installations: An easy way to revert Safari 15.0 back to 14.1.x

Download the full Big Sur 11.6 InstallAssistant.pkg (link -- http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...wd3i38zfogcscagmpwksdzce/InstallAssistant.pkg).

Open the InstallAssistant.pkg which puts the MacOS Big Sur Installer in your Applications folder. Start the MacOS installer while booted normally in BS 11.6; run the 11.6 installer over your present installation (takes a bit less than an hour on rMBP mid-2012 -- 10,1). FYI: My rMBP had B S 11.6 installed viaOCLP (Open Core Patcher TUI version 0.2.5) -- you don't need to run updates only from the MacOS Software Update (OTA)!

After re-installing 11.6 you will have Safari 14.1.x and immediately you will get a notification that Safari 15.0 update is available, which you can happily ignore.

Now, realize that I happen to like the new Safari 15.0 GUI! I do unselect 'show color in tab bar' tab setting in preferences.

I also unselect "Convert to icon".

 

[mwidjaya]

After re-installing 11.6 you will have Safari 14.1.x and immediately you will get a notification that Safari 15.0 update is available, which you can happily ignore.

Now, realize that I happen to like the new Safari 15.0 GUI!

There is another way...

Stick with 11.6, ignore safari 15 update, but instead install Safari Tech Preview for Big Sur.
Downloads - Safari - Apple Developer

It is a separate app that you can use, and uninstall if you want.
You still have your regular Safari 14.x available anytime.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

OCLP 0.2.5 now lists non-metal gpu acceleration in the notes. Has anyone tried this yet? I have an iMac 27" (11,3 2.93 i7 HD 5750 High Sierra default installation) that is just used as a monitor. Technically all I would have to do is install OCLP with the patch then install Big Sur/Montery from a USB like normal? Sounds almost too good to be true...

My next question is does target display mode (or maybe AirPlay) still work under Big Sur/Montery?

Target Display Mode only works with High Sierra. Nobody really found out what Apple dropped in the later macOS versions to break it.

Your particular system could be upgraded with a (Nvidia or AMD) dGPU to get metal support. This really boosts this machine into a new decade. Another valuable upgrade ist the WiFi/BT one. Both upgrades are fully supported by OCLP.

Regarding AirPlay to Macs check out this extension and its description. If I understand it correctly it could work with a new AMD dGPU (which supports H.264 natively). Never tried it myself so far.

Long story short:
Most interesting features needs some hardware support and cannot be just magically patched back by software.

 

[Wagbmhon]

Can anyone give me a layman's explanation regarding OCLP on cMP 5,1 and why I have SIP Disabled. Is this something that I can easily resolve? Or point me to a thread or how to... to sort it out.
Cheers

 

[TimmuJapan]

This is what im wondering as my mac mini 2012 is done being updated so if it is possible to just go oclp and and install big sur onto it... Then cool beans

Why is your 2012 Mac mini done being updated? This machine runs Catalina natively, which is set to receive OS updates for another 1~1.5 years….

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Can anyone give me a layman's explanation regarding OCLP on cMP 5,1 and why I have SIP Disabled. Is this something that I can easily resolve? Or point me to a thread or how to... to sort it out.
Cheers

The latest versions cover Big Sur und Monterey.

Depending on your hardware Monterey may need real patching and SIP disabled.

If you do not intend to install and use Monterey you might re enable SIP using the patcher settings when installing OC through OCLP and override the default settings.

 

[mwidjaya]

If you do not intend to install and use Monterey you might re enable SIP using the patches settings when installing OC through OCLP and override the default settings.

Yes, I kinda figured that out myself.

Intend to stay on Big Sur for now on my 2012 Mini, noticed the default 0.2.5 patcher is for SIP and Secure Boot off.

So I changed it back to SIP and Secure Boot to True.

All working as I update OCLP from 0.1.5 to 0.2.5.

 

[trifero]

I have never used SIP in my life. In none MacOS. Really hate it.

 

[jowaju]

Target Display Mode only works with High Sierra. Nobody really found out what Apple dropped in the later macOS versions to break it.

Your particular system could be upgraded with a (Nvidia or AMD) dGPU to get metal support. This really boosts this machine into a new decade. Another valuable upgrade ist the WiFi/BT one. Both upgrades are fully supported by OCLP.

Regarding AirPlay to Macs check out this extension and its description. If I understand it correctly it could work with a new AMD dGPU (which supports H.264 natively). Never tried it myself so far.

Long story short:
Most interesting features needs some hardware support and cannot be just magically patched back by software.

I just did a few tests on some machines I have at the moment and Target Display Mode seemed to work just fine with both Catalina and Big Sur. I tried 5 iMacs along with 2 MacBook Pro’s and a MacBook Air.
The Air is a 13” 2011 model, the Pro’s were both 13” models, 1 2009 and one 2012 model (non retina). The Air and 2009 Pro had Catalina 10.15.7 loaded. The 2012 had Big Sur 11.6. Four of the iMacs were 27” models. 2 of them 2011 models, one 2009 model, and one late 2013 model. The lone 21.5” iMac was a 2014 model. All the iMacs had 10.15.7, except the 2014 model which had 11.6. There was a mix of Catalina patched macOS and OCLP machines. All had stock video cards and the 2011’s had OCLP with working Nvidia Terascale 2 acceleration.


I could not get the 2009 27” iMac to work at all, but I was using multiple adapters since I don’t have a mini dp to mini dp straight adapter, so that’s likely the problem. Also the 27” 2013 model failed to work with ANY other Mac. It did blank the screen upon pressing Cmd+F2 and came back after pressing it again, but never showed any video when it was obviously in Target Display mode. I think it might actually have an issue, so more testing is necessary on that one.

However, every other combination worked perfectly, whether the iMac had Catalina or Big Sur and whether the source machine had Catalina or Big Sur did not seem to matter. A single Cmd+F2 instantly switched on TDM, and a double press of the same Cmd+F2 immediately brought it back. (A single press failed to bring it back on every try, it always took two presses to come back out of TDM).

 

[MBAir2010]

There was a mix of Catalina patched macOS and OCLP machines.

do we need a patch to install BigSur off a usb drive?
MacBook Air 20103,1 running Catalina 10.15.7
im reading conflicting results and info.
im doing this upgrade now
(dosdude had great instructions, not abbreviations and links in one sentence)
thanks in advance!

 

[Jack Neill]

I just did a few tests on some machines I have at the moment and Target Display Mode seemed to work just fine with both Catalina and Big Sur. I tried 5 iMacs along with 2 MacBook Pro’s and a MacBook Air.
The Air is a 13” 2011 model, the Pro’s were both 13” models, 1 2009 and one 2012 model (non retina). The Air and 2009 Pro had Catalina 10.15.7 loaded. The 2012 had Big Sur 11.6. Four of the iMacs were 27” models. 2 of them 2011 models, one 2009 model, and one late 2013 model. The lone 21.5” iMac was a 2014 model. All the iMacs had 10.15.7, except the 2014 model which had 11.6. There was a mix of Catalina patched macOS and OCLP machines. All had stock video cards and the 2011’s had OCLP with working Nvidia Terascale 2 acceleration.


I could not get the 2009 27” iMac to work at all, but I was using multiple adapters since I don’t have a mini dp to mini dp straight adapter, so that’s likely the problem. Also the 27” 2013 model failed to work with ANY other Mac. It did blank the screen upon pressing Cmd+F2 and came back after pressing it again, but never showed any video when it was obviously in Target Display mode. I think it might actually have an issue, so more testing is necessary on that one.

However, every other combination worked perfectly, whether the iMac had Catalina or Big Sur and whether the source machine had Catalina or Big Sur did not seem to matter. A single Cmd+F2 instantly switched on TDM, and a double press of the same Cmd+F2 immediately brought it back. (A single press failed to bring it back on every try, it always took two presses to come back out of TDM).

I wish I could get it working on my 2011 27" All my other Macs have Big Sur and none were able to work with TDM.

 

[jowaju]

I wish I could get it working on my 2011 27" All my other Macs have Big Sur and none were able to work with TDM.

What video card does yours have?