macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[hvds]

I can’t really can’t remember because I haven’t used an 09 in a hot minute. What I do remember though is the option to switch gpus was under energy saver under El Capitan but I’m not sure if it’s under there on Monterey or Big Sur. I remember it would give you two options like energy saver and performance mode and it would then make you log out. Also it’s kind of strange that gfxstatus isn’t working.

On my MBP5,2 mid 2009, auto gpu switching I never used. As for manual switching, it was cumbersome in Catalina: change it in enery saving, then log out, reboot, and the new GPU setting should stay. Didn't always work, and in general the system behaved better with the 9600M GT GPU. In Mojave, was quite unstable across sleep/wake with the 9400M.
Trying to switch with gfxCardStatus didn't have an effect, as you observed as well.
In BS and Monterey, gfxCardStatus also doesn't work. When I thought I have to switch, I booted into El Capitan, switched there, then after booting back the new setting persisted.

 

[Person132]

On my MBP5,2 mid 2009, auto gpu switching I never used. As for manual switching, it was cumbersome in Catalina: change it is enery saving, then log out, reboot, and the new GPU setting should stay. Didn't always work, and in general the system behaved better with the 9600M GT GPU. In Mojave, was quite unstable across sleep/wake with the 9400M.
Trying to switch with gfxCardStatus didn't have an effect, as you observed as well.
In BS and Monterey, gfyCardStatus also doesn't work. When I thought I have to switch, I booted into El Capitan, switched there, then after booting back the new setting persisted.

If that works then I guess that will have to do being that once again there is no auto gpu switching on a 2009.

 

[richie8]

On my MBP5,2 mid 2009, auto gpu switching I never used. As for manual switching, it was cumbersome in Catalina: change it is enery saving, then log out, reboot, and the new GPU setting should stay. Didn't always work, and in general the system behaved better with the 9600M GT GPU. In Mojave, was quite unstable across sleep/wake with the 9400M.
Trying to switch with gfxCardStatus didn't have an effect, as you observed as well.
In BS and Monterey, gfyCardStatus also doesn't work. When I thought I have to switch, I booted into El Capitan, switched there, then after booting back the new setting persisted.

I did a clean install with Big Sur, the manually GPU switching is working flawlessly. Thanks for all the help.

 

[p_m_g]

I have been using Big Sur (11.6.1) under OCLP 0.4.2 on a late 2012 mac mini and wanted to upgrade to 11.7.

If i go through software update, it downloads and prepares the update. On restarting, i choose OCLP EFI and then my Big Sur disk, it says it is updating (approximately 10 minutes) and then when the OS comes up asks me to log in to icloud. Unfortunately, i end up back at 11.6.1.

The same happens if i use the full installer.

Before i try a clean install (by erasing the disk) am i missing something? Thanks.

 

[internetzel]

I have been using Big Sur (11.6.1) under OCLP 0.4.2 on a late 2012 mac mini and wanted to upgrade to 11.7.

If i go through software update, it downloads and prepares the update. On restarting, i choose OCLP EFI and then my Big Sur disk, it says it is updating (approximately 10 minutes) and then when the OS comes up asks me to log in to icloud. Unfortunately, i end up back at 11.6.1.

The same happens if i use the full installer.

Before i try a clean install (by erasing the disk) am i missing something? Thanks.

When rebooting during installation you have to pay attention to choose that special installer boot volume (I don't remember its exact name) on the OCLP boot selection screen, which is only there during installation.

 

[p_m_g]

Managed it. There was a disk called "Macintosh HD" which i thought odd,but selecting that did the upgrade.
Thanks

 

[uneven.textures]

hi, i've been ****ing around with mac pro 5.1 (2010) for a few days now. i have two video cards - 5770(native) and vega 64 lc. the problem is that vega 64 does not work in big sur... i already tried different variations of checkboxes in oclp, i followed all possible instructions, but it still doesn't work. Please help me.

 

[Rastafabi]

hi, i've been ****ing around with mac pro 5.1 (2010) for a few days now. i have two video cards - 5770(native) and vega 64 lc. the problem is that vega 64 does not work in big sur... i already tried different variations of checkboxes in oclp, i followed all possible instructions, but it still doesn't work. Please help me.

You cannot get both working simultaneously. The 5770 is an officially unsupported card, which requires patched system frameworks, while the Vega 64 ist officially supported and thus requires a stock system. This is due to Metal graphics acceleration which modern macOS' use. With your Mac you'd be better off without OCLP anyway. Take a look here.

 

[uneven.textures]

You cannot get both working simultaneously. The 5770 is an officially unsupported card, which requires patched system frameworks, while the Vega 64 ist officially supported and thus requires a stock system. This is due to Metal graphics acceleration which modern macOS' use. With your Mac you'd be better off without OCLP anyway. Take a look here.

I know I can't run both at the same time, I don't need to, the problem is that with vega 64 the system won't boot, even if you remove all the graphics patches.

OC I tried, but I can't get the config right...

 

[alphascorp]

Hi all

11.7.1 on Mac Pro

 

[Hackintosh HD]

Hey Community! I have a Macbook pro mid 2009. The graphical switching between igpu and dgpu are working on big sur or monterey? I tried with monterey, with no luck. In system report there is the 2 gpu. Thanks for the help!

If you’re talking about automatic gpu switching, the 2009 MacBook Pro doesn’t actually have any and only the 2010 and newer has auto gpu switching.

Thanks for your reply. Maybe manual switch? I tried gfxcardstatus but wont switch the gpus.

On my MBP5,2 mid 2009, auto gpu switching I never used. As for manual switching, it was cumbersome in Catalina: change it in enery saving, then log out, reboot, and the new GPU setting should stay. Didn't always work, and in general the system behaved better with the 9600M GT GPU. In Mojave, was quite unstable across sleep/wake with the 9400M.
Trying to switch with gfxCardStatus didn't have an effect, as you observed as well.
In BS and Monterey, gfxCardStatus also doesn't work. When I thought I have to switch, I booted into El Capitan, switched there, then after booting back the new setting persisted.

As already mentioned above, GPU auto switching was never available on the MacBook Pro Early/Mid 2009 (MacBookPro5,2).

Manual instant GPU switching however was possible with tools like gfxCardStatus up to macOS 10.12.6 Security Update 2019-005 (AppleMuxControl.kext version 3.14.52). The feature was broken in macOS 10.13(.0) High Sierra, when Apple decided to split /System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleMuxControl.kext into two separate kernel extensions, while obviously removing the necessary code for the 5,2's two nVidia chips (9400M and 9600M GT). I somehow managed to reinstate the feature in Mojave, but with the cost of loosing backlit control. See also How to re-enable Instant GPU Switching / GPU Switching on the fly on MacBook Pro Mid 2009 (MacBookPro5,2).

In Big Sur, I mainly use the dedicated 9600M GT and use gpu-switch on an additional LMDE5 installation, if I really have to switch between the MBP5,2's two GPUs.

 

[Hackintosh HD]

I did a clean install with Big Sur, the manually GPU switching is working flawlessly. Thanks for all the help.

Do you mean manual instant GPU switching with gfxCardStatus or "only" manual GPU switching via the PrefPane?

 

[Hackintosh HD]

Warning: I've applied the full OTA update from Big Sur 11.7 to 11.7.1 on my MacBook Pro Early/Mid 2009 (MacBookPro5,2) with OCLP 0.4.11: While the update itself went flawlessly and I could normally boot to the 11.7.1 (20G918) update assistant dialog and to the desktop - albeit without acceleration, of course - the following step of patching the root volume via OCLP 0.4.11 again has led to an unbootable machine. Booting verbose seems to display a short kernel panic, but I've yet to figure out what's exactly displayed see below.

Are there any similar experiences concernig 11.7.1 by MacBookPro5,2 users here?

Kernel panic (UUIDs anonymized):

IOPlattformPanicAction -> AppleAHCIDiskDriver
IOPlattformPanicAction ->AppleSMC
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff801d767a3d): "System KC UUID [UUID1] linked against [UUID2], but [UUID3] is loaded"@/System/Volumes/Data/SWE/macOS/BuildRoots/
caa7c9a488/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/xnu/xnu-7195.141.42/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 -disable_sidecar_mac -lilubetaall ipc_control_port_options=0

Mac OS version:
20G918

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 20.6.0 […]

EDIT: It seems I was already facing the problem on a prior update ...

EDIT 2: Another example of similar kernel panic output on GitHub (unfortunately always without a clear solution).

 

[uneven.textures]

Hi all

11.7.1 on Mac Pro
View attachment 2101347

Hi! If you don't mind, could you share your EFI folder?

 

[ivankuraev]

Hello.

With OCLP v0.5.0 gui transparency is broken, reverted OCLP version to 0.4.9.

iMac14,1. Big Sur 11.7.1 (20G918)

 

[alphascorp]

Hi! If you don't mind, could you share your EFI folder?

Hi @uneven.textures
Yes, here is my EFI folder, it was created with OCLP 0.4.7, I didn't update it to newer versions because everything works fine like that.
It may not work properly in your case because we may have hardware differences, especially at PCIe.

 

[Machist]

I installed updates and run OCLP.
After restart I cannot login anymore? Login screen -> ask password -> it try to login, but then it goes back in login screen?? I have 4 account and same for all..

 

[rehkram]

I installed updates and run OCLP.
After restart I cannot login anymore? Login screen -> ask password -> it try to login, but then it goes back in login screen?? I have 4 account and same for all..

Which machine? Sounds like you need to install OCLP Post-Install Patches. Search this thread for "login loop", "boot loop" etc. Try booting in safe mode, or recovery mode(?), and apply the OCLP post install patches from there.

 

[Machist]

Sorry, I have Monterey, not Big Sur so this is in wrong thread. Mac is my signature iMac.
But solution: Start safe mode and install patches

WARNING
MacBookPro11,3 Note: When booting macOS Monterey, you'll need to boot into safe mode if acceleration patches are not installed yet. Otherwise you'll hit a black screen due to missing NVIDIA drivers. (opens new window)Safe Mode can be entered by holding Shift+Enter when selecting macOS Monterey in OCLP's Boot Menu.

#​

 

[honeycombz]

Hi, I used the jacklukem USBOpenCoreAPFSLoader3 to install Catalina on my MacPro 3,1...plus DosDude Catalina Post Install patcher...wondering if the process to install BigSur on this machine would be the same or do I need to bail on all that stuff and download the Dortania OpenCore Legacy Patcher tool to handle everything now.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi, I used the jacklukem USBOpenCoreAPFSLoader3 to install Catalina on my MacPro 3,1...plus DosDude Catalina Post Install patcher...wondering if the process to install BigSur on this machine would be the same or do I need to bail on all that stuff and download the Dortania OpenCore Legacy Patcher tool to handle everything now.

The latter...

 

[rathbone]

Hi I used OCLP to install Big Sur on my 2011 Macbook Pro . Today i installed Ubuntu on a separate partition. But when I boot the machine, with holding the option key or not holding the option key, the only thing I can load is Big Sur. I know there is a custom bootloader called rEfind but it says I have to disable SIP through recovery mode by using the Terminal command "csrutil disable" but Terminal says no such command. Can someone please tell me how to dual-boot Ubuntu on machine that used OCLP to install Big Sur.

 

[honeycombz]

Hey, I got Big Sur installed on my 6,1 Mac Mini no problem with OCLP v0.5.1. Noticed that OCLP v0.5.2 is out, if I update OCLP is that fine or am I supposed to Build and Install OpenCore again or Root Patches or if everything is running fine you only do that if you are trying to install a security update or another OS again?

Also, can I install versions of XCode appropriate for the OS on these unsupported Macs or does that not work?

 

[mikelets456]

Hello all,
I usually browse this Forum for upgrade information. I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro and I originally had "Dosdude1" Catalina but recently went to Big Sur---it's running great. However, I have a few update questions.

I have the notification message on my "settings" icon for Safari 16.1.....Can I simply update or do I update, restart and reinstall the patches? Also, with future updates to Big Sur, is it done the same way?

 

[honeycombz]

Anyone run Boot Camp on their patched systems? Partitioning drives fine?