macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[air.man]

Hello Air.man,
you mention that BigSur runs flawlessly on your MBP 8,2. Would be interested in your feedback:
1. Is your discreet GPU disabled? and
2. do you have backlight or run an external app for that?
3. all major apps (Office, Adobe, photoshop, etc.) run smoothly?
4.Did you do a clean install or upgrade from Catalina (or other)?

thanks for your info.It would be very much appreciated since I have been looking at Big Sur but hesitant to make the jump from Catalina 10.15.7 (19H1602).

Hi @zfrogman,
hope to help.
1. dGPU disabled via nvram setting.
2. LabTick provides the backlight, no way to get it native.
3. Office, Photos, Music, Maps, printing, video playback, utilities, Calibre, Telegram, Whatsapp and Zoom work fine. I don't use Photoshop or any other intensive graphic app.
4. Clean install.
The performance is generally better than Catalina. Wear your parachute and jump!

 

[zfrogman]

Hi @zfrogman,
hope to help.
1. dGPU disabled via nvram setting.
2. LabTick provides the backlight, no way to get it native.
3. Office, Photos, Music, Maps, printing, video playback, utilities, Calibre, Telegram, Whatsapp and Zoom work fine. I don't use Photoshop or any other intensive graphic app.
4. Clean install.
The performance is generally better than Catalina. Wear your parachute and jump!

Thanks for the info; I am tempted however to do an upgrade install from Catalina as shown in

(Mr. MacIntosh) although that would not be the best "safe" way. Seems there is a Monterey Install also from Mr. Macinstosh that seems to work. Have you had any feedback with MBP 8,2 or maybe that is pushing the limits; what do you think?

 

[air.man]

Thanks for the info; I am tempted however to do an upgrade install from Catalina as shown in

(Mr. MacIntosh) although that would not be the best "safe" way. Seems there is a Monterey Install also from Mr. Macinstosh that seems to work. Have you had any feedback with MBP 8,2 or maybe that is pushing the limits; what do you think?

We have the same config and since 11.3, BigSur is my primary OS. It is fast and reliable. I'm also testing Monterey: it works fine but not as well as BigSur, at least up to now, but the wizards are working hard!.

 

[air.man]

Cancelled

 

[zfrogman]

We have the same config and since 11.3 BigSur is my primary OS. It is fast and reliable. I'm also testing Monterey: it works fine but not as well as BigSur (for now!).

Ok thanks for the feedback; I will try the "lazy" approach to upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur 11.6.1. I assume it will perform like 11.3 that you have installed?

 

[TigerA]

My Photos app now shows totally corrupted photos after updated my iMac10,1 (non-metal GPU) from 11.6.1 to 11.6.2 running OCLP 0.3.1 / latest 0.3.2n. The symptom is that photos look good when I flip through quickly by holding one of the arrow keys. But once I release the key, the photo always gets pixelated and presents a totally corrupted image. This issue is for all photos with no exception. I've tried the fix by changing the OCLP spoofing from none to Minimal, repairing the Photos library, swapping RAM positions, resetting NVRAM,... with no any effect. This issue is very persistent and just wonder if others have encounted the same issue and if it's OCLP related?
Note: I've also noticed that there are only handful number of patterns for the corrupted images even though there are heaps more of the original photos when flipping through.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

My Photos app now shows totally corrupted photos after updated my iMac10,1 (non-metal GPU) from 11.6.1 to 11.6.2 running OCLP 0.3.1 / latest 0.3.2n. The symptom is that photos look good when I flip through quickly by holding one of the arrow keys. But once I release the key, the photo always gets pixelated and presents a totally corrupted image. This issue is for all the photos with no exception. I've tried the fix this issue by changing the OCLP spoofing from none to Minimal, repairing the Photos library, swapping RAM positions, resetting NVRAM,... with no any effect. This issue is very persistent and just wonder if others have the same issue and if it's OCLP related?
Note: I've also noticed that there are only handful number of pattens for the corrupted images even though there are heaps more of the original photos when flipping through.

Move the library to your metal iMac and retry your experiments - if it surprisingly works you got your answer. Photos is known to be one of the first Apple apps showing metal artifacts - the famous missing all photos tab.

 

[hvds]

My Photos app now shows totally corrupted photos after updated my iMac10,1 (non-metal GPU) from 11.6.1 to 11.6.2 running OCLP 0.3.1 / latest 0.3.2n. The symptom is that photos look good when I flip through quickly by holding one of the arrow keys. But once I release the key, the photo always gets pixelated and presents a totally corrupted image. This issue is for all photos with no exception. I've tried the fix by changing the OCLP spoofing from none to Minimal, repairing the Photos library, swapping RAM positions, resetting NVRAM,... with no any effect. This issue is very persistent and just wonder if others have encounted the same issue and if it's OCLP related?
Note: I've also noticed that there are only handful number of patterns for the corrupted images even though there are heaps more of the original photos when flipping through.
View attachment 1910409

Sorry to hear of this problem with Photos.

I also rely on this app. Problems I had with it in Monterey upto 12.0 beta7. OK from beta8 on.
The symptom was that it crashed after having converted the library from Big Sur. The log indeed pointed to a problem with Metal unavailability. Don‘t know if data got corrupted, I always started over with an intact photos library from Big Sur.

Didn‘t have problems with Photos in Big Sur as far as I remember. Just yesterday updated from 11.6.1 to .2 with OCLP main 0.3.2 nightly of 13Nov.
If you have an intact backup of photos library, could try to plug this into your 11.6.2 and see how Photos behaves.

 

[Hackintosh HD]

Does anybody here know how to fix an after-11.6.1-update boot problem with a stalling boot progress bar and the following "System KC UUID <> linked against <>, but <> is loaded" panic? (UUIDs anonymized)

IOPlattformPanicAction -> AppleAHCIDiskDriver
IOPlattformPanicAction ->AppleSMC
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff88197697fd): "System KC UUID [UUID1] linked against [UUID2], but [UUID3] is loaded"@/System/Volumes/Data/SWE/macOS/BuildRoots/
228e8a1b79/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/xnu/xnu-7195.141.8/libkern/c++/OSKext.cpp:12953
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address

[…]

Process name corresponding to current thread: kernelmanagerd
Boot args: -v keepsyms=1 debug=0x100 -bsdmgroot

Mac OS version:
20G224

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 20.6.0 […]

Background of my question: I've applied the OTA update from 11.6 to 11.6.1 on my MacBookPro5,2 with OCLP 0.3.2 nightly and while it went through flawlessly on my secondary Big Sur test volume, my primary Big Sur productive, FileVault2 encrypted volume stalls on the boot progress bar afterwards.

I've had a look into the productive volume's APFS file system with @jackluke 's BigSurmountsrw. Afterwards, booting with Apple+v displays the panic quoted above. I'm a bit unsure what could have gone wrong - I've used Apple's Migration Assistant on the productive volume for migrating my earlier Mojave data, then there's the fact that FileVault2 is activated and finally BigSurmountsrw AFAIK also creates a new APFS snapshot (?) on closure. My first impression from what I've googled is there might be kmutil commands able to fix this, but I'm a bit unsure what exactly to apply here …

Thank you very much for every possible hint!


EDIT: The only apparently relevant Google result I get on the subject is this tweet here.

 

[TigerA]

Sorry to hear of this problem with Photos.

I also rely on this app. Problems I had with it in Monterey upto 12.0 beta7. OK from beta8 on.
The symptom was that it crashed after having converted the library from Big Sur. The log indeed pointed to a problem with Metal unavailability. Don‘t know if data got corrupted, I always started over with an intact photos library from Big Sur.

Didn‘t have problems with Photos in Big Sur as far as I remember. Just yesterday updated from 11.6.1 to .2 with OCLP main 0.3.2 nightly of 13Nov.
If you have an intact backup of photos library, could try to plug this into your 11.6.2 and see how Photos behaves.

Thanks. I did build another OCLP earlier today with the latest 0.3.2 nightly and it did not make any difference. Luckily all my photos were imported as reference photos only and the original ones are still intact (stored on internal FusionDrive under Catalina). I may try later to reinstall Big Sur from OCLP recovery mode. But as @Ausdauersportler said before that it may be related to the non-metal GPU, or perhaps the corrupted external SSD hosting the Big Sur macOS.

 

[trifero]

Hi @zfrogman,
hope to help.
1. dGPU disabled via nvram setting.
2. LabTick provides the backlight, no way to get it native.
3. Office, Photos, Music, Maps, printing, video playback, utilities, Calibre, Telegram, Whatsapp and Zoom work fine. I don't use Photoshop or any other intensive graphic app.
4. Clean install.
The performance is generally better than Catalina. Wear your parachute and jump!

You see artifacts, I suppose.

 

[daniell_l]

Hello! I have the following problem: I tried upgrading my Mac Mini (late 2012) with OCL patcher (version 0.3.1) from Catalina 10.15.7 to the latest version of Big Sur. I left the installation of Big Sur (it said about 15 min were left) and came back to a bootlooping screen with white text, which resulted in a menu with three options (I think two were "install Big Sur" and one option was to start the internal SSD). I tried both options of installing but they always failed near the end of the progress bar (although the last one was the apple symbol with a bar below and remaining minutes) and now I am stuck with a prohibitory symbol and the mac won't react to any inputs from they keyboard (I tried resetting the combinations option, option+command+p+r, and also command+r with no luck). I do not have a keyboard from apple, I read that using a original keyboard could solve the problem. I also should mention that I will probably be able to borrow an original apple keyboard today, what should I first try? Resetting the nvram? Then try to restore from the internal drive or a backup (time machine)? I would be happy about any help.

 

[air.man]

You see artifacts, I suppose.

Not at all. Why do you think so? Artifacts are fixed in BigSur since OLCP 0.2.5 or maybe earlier.
Ah, now I understand... Yes there are remaining artefacts in sidebars, you're right.

 

[mbp2010liveson?]

For me, I updated the OCLP to 3.1 and reinstalled the Post-Instal Volume Patch and it fixed my issues. Thanks for your help @TigerA

Many thanks to everyone helping out on this forum and those who took the time to build these amazingly proficient patchers/boot loaders.

@Tony Vee 73 I'm running the same setup (2010 MBP 15") and recently used OCLP 0.3.1 (TUI) to update to Big Sur and subsequently successful update to 11.6.1 (20G224). I was previously using dosdude1's patchers for Mojave and Catalina functionality. Everything appears to be running as smoothly as can be expected, some issues with webgl and canvas, a few shading issues (menu bar, folders, etc) as well as the issues with Messages app scrolling and functionality as @TigerA mentioned (Catalyst app problem).

However when I'm connected to my external display (ACD 30") the menu bar funkiness goes into overdrive with the application menu items on one display and the system icons (on the right: date, volume, etc) on the other display. Clicking the date, for instance, causes the item to jump from one display to another. Does this ring any bells @Tony Vee 73 ? Or are you spared of this wackiness.

 

[cMP MACPRO]

Hello! I have the following problem: I tried upgrading my Mac Mini (late 2012) with OCL patcher (version 0.3.1) from Catalina 10.15.7 to the latest version of Big Sur. I left the installation of Big Sur (it said about 15 min were left) and came back to a bootlooping screen with white text, which resulted in a menu with three options (I think two were "install Big Sur" and one option was to start the internal SSD). I tried both options of installing but they always failed near the end of the progress bar (although the last one was the apple symbol with a bar below and remaining minutes) and now I am stuck with a prohibitory symbol and the mac won't react to any inputs from they keyboard (I tried resetting the combinations option, option+command+p+r, and also command+r with no luck). I do not have a keyboard from apple, I read that using a original keyboard could solve the problem. I also should mention that I will probably be able to borrow an original apple keyboard today, what should I first try? Resetting the nvram? Then try to restore from the internal drive or a backup (time machine)? I would be happy about any help.

What OCLP settings ?

 

[zfrogman]

Not at all. Why do you think so? Artifacts are fixed in BigSur since OLCP 0.2.5 or maybe earlier.
Ah, now I understand... Yes there are remaining artefacts in sidebars, you're right.

Hello air.man and Trifero update successfully from Catalina 15.7. to BS 11.6.1. I do get artifacts in Safari

You see artifacts, I suppose.

Hello air.man and Trifero update successfully from Catalina 15.7. to BS 11.6.1. with OPCL 0.3.1. I do get artifacts in Safari but after opening several tabs the artifacting seems to go away. However iMessage scrolling "stutters" very noticeably- a bit of a nuisance. I did use a a 4.0 bluetooth USB dongle to obtain better BT and handoff and airdrop in Catalina but with update have now lost connectivity to USB. Copied the IOBluetooth family kext provided by jackluke used in Catalina to system/library/extensions folder in BS using the now painful process to enable modifying root files but didn't work. Any suggestions? thanks

Additional observations: like some in the forum, Photos has issues: not corruption on my MBP 8,2 but when launching open photo or video app crashes; I can return to photo but crash happens as soon as attempting to open specific image or video memory. Have not installed 11.6.2 yet as shown in software update on machine.

 

[cMP MACPRO]

Hello! I have the following problem: I tried upgrading my Mac Mini (late 2012) with OCL patcher (version 0.3.1) from Catalina 10.15.7 to the latest version of Big Sur. I left the installation of Big Sur (it said about 15 min were left) and came back to a bootlooping screen with white text, which resulted in a menu with three options (I think two were "install Big Sur" and one option was to start the internal SSD). I tried both options of installing but they always failed near the end of the progress bar (although the last one was the apple symbol with a bar below and remaining minutes) and now I am stuck with a prohibitory symbol and the mac won't react to any inputs from they keyboard (I tried resetting the combinations option, option+command+p+r, and also command+r with no luck). I do not have a keyboard from apple, I read that using a original keyboard could solve the problem. I also should mention that I will probably be able to borrow an original apple keyboard today, what should I first try? Resetting the nvram? Then try to restore from the internal drive or a backup (time machine)? I would be happy about any he

I’ve had that before. I could help you. What OCLP settings ?

 

[TigerA]

Move the library to your metal iMac and retry your experiments - if it surprisingly works you got your answer. Photos is known to be one of the first Apple apps showing metal artifacts - the famous missing all photos tab.

I must admit that upgrading to a metal GPU for my iMac12,2 is the best move which has totally rejuvenated this 10 years old PC. Everything is working correctly and prompt, at least for my user-case: Thanks for your excellent work & encouragement 🙏
The 21,5" iMac10,1 can't be upgraded to metal so that I am still using Catalina & patiently waiting for miracles 😅🙏

 

[EugW]

My Photos app now shows totally corrupted photos after updated my iMac10,1 (non-metal GPU) from 11.6.1 to 11.6.2 running OCLP 0.3.1 / latest 0.3.2n. The symptom is that photos look good when I flip through quickly by holding one of the arrow keys. But once I release the key, the photo always gets pixelated and presents a totally corrupted image. This issue is for all photos with no exception. I've tried the fix by changing the OCLP spoofing from none to Minimal, repairing the Photos library, swapping RAM positions, resetting NVRAM,... with no any effect. This issue is very persistent and just wonder if others have encounted the same issue and if it's OCLP related?
Note: I've also noticed that there are only handful number of patterns for the corrupted images even though there are heaps more of the original photos when flipping through.
View attachment 1910409

That looks very similar to the errors I would get on my MacBookPro5,5 and MacBook5,1 in High Sierra with the dosdude1 patcher, except that it was in video.

 

[koalb]

Posted this on the other thread. Thought it might be helpful to folks here.

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

So I've got a 2012 5,1 cMP. 12 cores @ 2.66 Running an RX580 GPU I'm not a coder by any stretch of the imagination, but I understand the basic concepts and am willing to spend time researching whatever I don't know or understand. (Also good at following directions.) After a solid weekend of...

forums.macrumors.com

Here's my TLDR.

It pays to learn the basic concepts and terminal commands outlined here if you're trying to use OpenCore on an older Mac. Makes the whole process that much easier. Thread here:

OpenCore on the Mac Pro

This guide explains how to use the excellent OpenCore boot loader to install, run, and update the latest version of macOS on the MacPro5,1, resulting in a clean, unaltered operating system just like on a supported Mac.

forums.macrumors.com

Martin Lo's OpenCore package works amazingly well. Thread here:

Quick guide to installing OpenCore on a Classic Mac Pro (cMP) - The House of Moth

A detailed guide on how to install OpenCore on your Classic Mac Pro. Plain and simple!

thehouseofmoth.com

 

[trifero]

Not at all. Why do you think so? Artifacts are fixed in BigSur since OLCP 0.2.5 or maybe earlier.
Ah, now I understand... Yes there are remaining artefacts in sidebars, you're right.

Also, if you reduced transparency to solve it, the left side of the Menu bar dissappears. Really a pity.

 

[trifero]

Hello air.man and Trifero update successfully from Catalina 15.7. to BS 11.6.1. I do get artifacts in Safari

Hello air.man and Trifero update successfully from Catalina 15.7. to BS 11.6.1. I do get artifacts in Safari but after opening several tabs the artefacting seems to go away. However iMessage scrolling "stutters" very noticeably- a bit of a nuisance. I did use a a 4.0 bluetooth USB dongle to obtain better BT and handoff and airdrop in Catalina but with update have now lost connectivity to USB. Copied the IOBluetooth family kext provided by jackluke used in Catalina to system/library/extensions folder in BS using the now painful process to enable modifying root files but didn't work. Any suggestions? thanks

Not a suggestion, but as I said before, I gave up. I have bought a 2014 15" Macbook Pro. I know I lost 1,5 inches from my 17" 2011, but all works now like a a charm.

 

[hvds]

Also, if you reduced transparency to solve it, the left side of the Menu bar dissappears. Really a pity.

Yes, one still can't reduce transparency in Big Sur on non-metal macs, only in Monterey.

BUT... ASentientBot made a new version of his acceleration suite which is contained in the newer OCLP 0.3.2 nightlies. This does fix the artefacts. Needs to enable it though, as it is still beta, from the terminal:

defaults write -g ASB_BlurBeta -bool true

It works in Monterey and Big Sur (at least on my MBP5,2). And it is really very good!

Always be careful with nightlies of OCLP, don't put on the EFI of the main disk right away but on a USB medium first for trying. Will need to re-apply the post-install patches to use ASB's latest.

 

[pietruszkim]

Hi,
once again BIG THNX for your great job- creating OCLP tool!
Now I would like to make alive my old MacBook Pro 5,4 Mid 2009, Intel Core 2 Duo (P8700) 2,53, 8 GB RAM, 256 SSD. Did anyone use this machine to install BS? Any problems? Should I apply PostInstalPatches in this case? Greetings from Poland.

 

[hvds]

Hi,
once again BIG THNX for your great job- creating OCLP tool!
Now I would like to make alive my old MacBook Pro 5,4 Mid 2009, Intel Core 2 Duo (P8700) 2,53, 8 GB RAM, 256 SSD. Did anyone use this machine to install BS? Any problems? Should I apply PostInstalPatches in this case? Greetings from Poland.

I'm running Big Sur 11.6.2 (and Monterey 12.1beta) on a similar machine , MacBook Pro 5,2 mid 2009 17".
It runs very well, esp. after the most recent upgrade to non-metal GPU acceleration by ASentientBot.
I am using OCLP for installation and booting.
Maybe good to wait until OCLP 0.3.2 is released (currently beta/nightlies).
11.6.1 is available as full installer, see 1srt page of this thread. I'd recommend to use a full installer for the first installation of BS, and then use the standard Apple upgrade mechnism to go to 11.6.2. I assume you start with Catalina.
Cheers from Bern and good luck!