macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Barry K. Nathan]

I just released v0.0.9 of my patcher. I'll copy and paste from the release notes on GitHub:

A few changes:

• Added Intel HD 3000 kexts from High Sierra to the kext patcher, so that 13" MacBook Pro Early 2011 and similar machines can have functioning sleep and brightness control. (It also improved performance enough that I'm now able to watch full screen 720p60 YouTube videos in Safari with very few frame drops, even though it doesn't have true acceleration yet.)
• Made a few tweaks to the patcher to hopefully have compatibility with Big Sur beta 2 (of course we won't know for sure until beta 2 actually arrives). To be honest, this really has more to do with making up for deficiencies in previous versions of the patcher than any truly substantial changes Apple might make.
• Some updates to the README, including instructions on a way to update from beta 1 to beta 2 which should be almost guaranteed to work if the patcher turns out to be compatible with beta 2.

This release still does not try to support 2010 or earlier Macs (yet).

Further work on my patcher may have to wait until next week, although if beta 2 breaks my patcher I'll certainly try to fix it quickly.

GitHub - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher: A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs

A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher

github.com

 

[jhowarth]

BigSur.

csr-active-config    w%08%00%00

Odd. When I used the csrutil2 you uploaded from a patched 10.15.5 Catalina installer usb's Recovery mode terminal on my MacPro 3,1, it resulted in the same

csr-active-config w%09%00%00

that you saw. It would be interesting to find out the exact difference between the two values.

 

[jackluke]

Odd. When I used the csrutil2 you uploaded from a patched 10.15.5 Catalina installer usb's Recovery mode terminal on my MacPro 3,1, it resulted in the same

csr-active-config w%09%00%00

that you saw. It would be interesting to find out the exact difference between the two values.

You get that value because on a non-APFS or legacy usb you used the "csrutil2" method, but it will work anyway, the minimum BigSur csr-active-config to "csrutil authenticated-root disable" is this w%08%00%00 , but next higher value should work too, also the classic SIP "csrutil disable" from a non-APFS after csrutil2 is w%01%00%00 (while it should be w%00%00%00 ).

About LegacyUSBInjector.kext I used the same from parrotgeek1, but using only it with prelinkedkernel needs to boot with CMD+S and typing "exit" to making work usb devices.

Instead in my prelinkedkernel I added Syncretic telemetrap.kext (0.22) and AAAMouSSE.kext (0.93) , using those I can in some way delay the booting of BigSur allowing at least two of these: HID: Legacy Shim 2

In this way legacy usb work even without CMD+S .

 

[jhowarth]

About sound output speakers and mic input, if from keyboard you click F10 , F11 and F12 keys what's happen ?

And from BigSur terminal: open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Sound.prefpane

click "show volume in menu bar" and can you select manually a sound output ?

If you get the overlay sound icon with prohibitory symbol, I can provide a new prelinkedkernel that should fix that.

Regarding my problems with legacy USB injection in local prelinked kernel builds...

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28647054

are you using an explicit call to 'kextcache -prelinked-kernel' to create your prelinked kernel or are you using a more automated form of kextcache call that just triggers it. Since LegacyUSBInjector.kext doesn't actually contain any binary code, I am wonder if the 'kextcache -prelinked-kernel' approach fails to register it as a real kext to inclusion? Perhaps it has to be included explicitly?

sudo chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint kextcache -prelinked-kernel /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel -kernel /System/Library/Kernels/kernel -local-root --  /Library/Extensions/  /System/Library/Extensions/ /System/Library/Extensions/LegacyUSBInjector.kext /System/Library/Extensions/LegacyUSBVideoSupport.kext

 

[Maclinux]

@slears to install BigSur use the method described on this page:

macOS Big Sur Patcher Is No Longer Available

parrotgeek.com

I did a full system disk installation, no partitions.

Then, thanks to @jackluke WiFi and AirDrop are solved

@jackluke If I press the F10, F11 or F12 button, the prohibited symbol appears. I can manually select a sound output, but it does not emit sound. A new prelinkedkernel would do me great !! ?

Thank you very much.

 

[jackluke]

Regarding my problems with legacy USB injection in local prelinked kernel builds...

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28647054

are you using an explicit call to 'kextcache -prelinked-kernel' to create your prelinked kernel or are you using a more automated form of kextcache call that just triggers it. Since LegacyUSBInjector.kext doesn't actually contain any binary code, I am wonder if the 'kextcache -prelinked-kernel' approach fails to register it as a real kext to inclusion? Perhaps it has to be included explicitly?

sudo chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint kextcache -prelinked-kernel /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel -kernel /System/Library/Kernels/kernel -local-root --  /Library/Extensions/  /System/Library/Extensions/ /System/Library/Extensions/LegacyUSBInjector.kext /System/Library/Extensions/LegacyUSBVideoSupport.kext

I am using simply "sudo kextcache -i /" because I can use "sudo mount -uw /" from normal booting (or "mount -uw /" from its single user mode), but that command to specify manually the kernel and Extensions path should work too, but you should target your non-snapshot System that is : /Volumes/AnyDiskLabel/mount-point/BigSurSystemLabel/

For kext without binary is not easy to add them to a kextcache, and less easier adding them to BootKernelExtensions.kc .

 

[jhowarth]

I am using simply "sudo kextcache -i /" because I can use "sudo mount -uw /" from normal booting (or "mount -uw /" from its single user mode), but that command to specify manually the kernel and Extensions path should work too, but you should target your non-snapshot System that is : /Volumes/AnyDiskLabel/mount-point/BigSurSystemLabel/

For kext without binary is not easy to add them to a kextcache, and less easier adding them to BootKernelExtensions.kc .

Hmm. Perhaps I should be using...

sudo mount -o nobrowse -t apfs /dev/disk7s5 /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoin
sudo chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint mount -uw /
sudo chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint kextcache -i /
cd /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels
sudo cp /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel prelinkedkernel
sudo cp /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel immutablekernel
cd ~
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot

I hadn't thought of calling 'mount -uw /' through chroot on the mounted snapshot prior to calling 'kextcache -I /' through chroot on the mounted snapshot.

 

[jackluke]

I just made a new prelinkedkernel that should work for any Ivy Bridge Mac, and it should enable Sound, Mic, Wifi and AirDrop.

To properly use this you need possibly a vanilla BigSur installation (without any patches), and booting from an USB BigSur Installer (or its macOS Recovery CMD+R) open a recovery terminal and type:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
csrutil authenticated-root disable
reboot

If you instead use the script from a Catalina installation (or Mojave or HighSierra) you need from their respective Recoveries CMD+R just this:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
reboot

This time the script in a simple way should automatically detect if you are using a BigSur or another APFS macOS, I also included a second script to use even a patched BootKernelExtensions.kc .

To run the script directly from BigSur you need at least an ethernet internet connection.

Note: the attached is only for apple official APFS firmware supported Catalina Mac (but BigSur unsupported) that are typically the Ivy Bridge Intel x86_64 architecture.

This patched prelinkedkernel (or BootKernelExtensions) is for BigSur build 20A4299v (darwin xnu-kernel version 20.0.0 ) beta 1 .

edit:
this worked till beta 2, from beta 3 build 20A5323l the prelinkedkernel changed for IvyBridge so download the new patch BigSur IvyBridge beta3 .

 

[OKonnel]

iMac 27'' Late 2013 - 3.5 GHz - 24 GB of RAM - BTO from Apple
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M Video Card with 4 GB of SRAM
macOS Big Sur works great
but if restart my iMac with Catalina there are these problems:
1) Catalina immediately tells me that there is an unsupported hard drive.
2) A disc named "Update" appears on the Desktop.
3) If I open Disk Utility, Disk Utility crashes.
To install macOS Big Sur I used the Ethan Nelson-Moore / ParrotGeek Software Big Sur v0.1.3 installation tool and I respected their Tutorial about my iMac Late 2013

As can see from the two first attached clips (I quickly snapped the clips before Disk Utility crashes...), the "Big Sur" disk does not appear, but only "Big Sur - Data" appears.
As you can see, moreover, if enable the complete list of devices in Disk Utility I get duplicates!!!
I also attach a clip of the Terminal with diskutil list
As can see, instead of "Big Sur" there is only disk2s7, without the name and the "Update" disk also appears.
This disk named "Update" by Catalina, instead, doesn't appears when I booting the iMac with Big Sur but, in its place (disk2s8) there is an Instant Image of the System. So, in the Big Sur System the disk2s7 is correctly named "Big Sur"

I hope to be useful

 

[jhowarth]

{ignore}

 

[jackluke]

Which bit won't work on a MacPro 3,1 with the APFS ROM patch? The prelinkedkernel or the script to allow the BootKernelExtensions to work? I don''t see why the prelinkedkernel shouldn't work on that configuration.

It doesn't include the telemetrap.kext (so Penryn C2D needs to remove it manually with a System sealed snapshot mounting not so easy to do), the AAAMouSSE.kext (because Ivy Bridge supports the SSE4.2 and AVX), but mainly it doesn't include LegacyUSBInjector.kext because on some recent IOUSB this caused some issues.

And it includes the stock BigSur AppleHDA.kext because seems Ivy Bridge can use it.

 

[fireguy286]

I just made a new prelinkedkernel that should work for any Ivy Bridge Mac, and it should enable Sound, Mic, Wifi and AirDrop.

To properly use this you need possibly a vanilla BigSur installation (without any patches), and booting from an USB BigSur Installer (or its macOS Recovery CMD+R) open a recovery terminal and type:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
csrutil authenticated-root disable
reboot

If you instead use the script from a Catalina installation (or Mojave or HighSierra) you need from their respective Recoveries CMD+R just this:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
reboot

This time the script in a simple way should automatically detect if you are using a BigSur or another APFS macOS, I also included a second script to use even a patched BootKernelExtensions.kc .

To run the script directly from BigSur you need at least an ethernet internet connection.

Note: the attached is only for apple official APFS firmware supported Catalina Mac (but BigSur unsupported) that are typically the Ivy Bridge Intel x86_64 architecture.

This patched prelinkedkernel (or BootKernelExtensions) is for BigSur build 20A4299v (darwin xnu-kernel version 20.0.0 ) beta 1 .

Followed to the letter, everything was fine, till I rebooted, progress bar gets to the end after a few minutes seems to hang. I'll leave it for a bit.

 

[jackluke]

Followed to the letter, everything was fine, till I rebooted, progress bar gets to the end after a few minutes seems to hang. I'll leave it for a bit.

Do you used the BKE or prelinkedkernel script ?

And on which machine ?

Maybe retry only using the prelinkedkernel script.

I could provide a fix to copy the stock BootKernelExtensions without reinstall BigSur.

It is easier if you have another macOS install for example Catalina from where you can boot, but also from USB BigSur Installer it is recoverable without reinstall, but reinstalling surely fix it.

Retry only the prelinkedkernel script, because I guess BKE are incompatible for different machines.

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

iMac 27'' Late 2013 - 3.5 GHz - 24 GB of RAM - BTO from Apple
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M Video Card with 4 GB of SRAM
macOS Big Sur works great
but if restart my iMac with Catalina there are these problems:
1) Catalina immediately tells me that there is an unsupported hard drive.
2) A disc named "Update" appears on the Desktop.
3) If I open Disk Utility, Disk Utility crashes.
To install macOS Big Sur I used the Ethan Nelson-Moore / ParrotGeek Software Big Sur v0.1.3 installation tool and I respected their Tutorial about my iMac Late 2013

As can see from the two first attached clips (I quickly snapped the clips before Disk Utility crashes...), the "Big Sur" disk does not appear, but only "Big Sur - Data" appears.
As you can see, moreover, if enable the complete list of devices in Disk Utility I get duplicates!!!
I also attach a clip of the Terminal with diskutil list
As can see, instead of "Big Sur" there is only disk2s7, without the name and the "Update" disk also appears.
This disk named "Update" by Catalina, instead, doesn't appears when I booting the iMac with Big Sur but, in its place (disk2s8) there is an Instant Image of the System. So, in the Big Sur System the disk2s7 is correctly named "Big Sur"

I hope to be useful View attachment 931388 View attachment 931389 View attachment 931390

I confirm. It also crashes my Catalina Disk Utility while opening (immediatly after trying to reorder containers, it closes) Works fine on Big Sur. @jackluke I bet you will fix that, too.

PS: Have you acceleration with Nvidia?

 

[jhowarth]

It doesn't include the telemetrap.kext (so Penryn C2D needs to remove it manually with a System sealed snapshot mounting not so easy to do), the AAAMouSSE.kext (because Ivy Bridge supports the SSE4.2 and AVX), but mainly it doesn't include LegacyUSBInjector.kext because on some recent IOUSB this caused some issues.

And it includes the stock BigSur AppleHDA.kext because seems Ivy Bridge can use it.

Speaking of LegacyUSBInjector.kext, on your MacPro 3,1 with your https://github.com/jacklukem/BigSurfixes/tree/master/legacy usb prelinkedkernel beta1 prelinked kernel, do you really see LegacyUSBInjector showing up as loaded in System Profiler? For both patched Catalina using dosdude1's Catalina Patcher or Big Sur with your prelinked kernel, I get the system profiler extension tab below.

Can someone else chime and can confirm what they see on Patched Catalina for their machines that use LegacyUSBInjector.kext?

I would note that on patched Catalina, I routinely purge out the AAAMouSSE.kext with...

sudo mount -uw /
cd /Library/Extensions
sudo rm -fr AAAMouSSE.kext
cd /
sudo kextcache -i /

and that never causes the LegacyUSBInjector.kext to not function. I guess I should recheck though tonight that this also is rebuilding the prelinked kernel. If the prelinked kernel never got rebuilt but also never contained
AAAMouSSE.kext, I assume it would be getting it from the rebuilt kext cache which now has that kext purged.

 

[jackluke]

Speaking of LegacyUSBInjector.kext, on your MacPro 3,1 with your https://github.com/jacklukem/BigSurfixes/tree/master/legacy usb prelinkedkernel beta1 prelinked kernel, do you really see LegacyUSBInjector showing up as loaded in System Profiler? For both patched Catalina using dosdude1's Catalina Patcher or Big Sur with your prelinked kernel, I get the system profiler extension tab below.

View attachment 931400

I don't have a MacPro , for that prelinkedkernel I copied it here /System/Library/Extensions/LegacyUSBInjector.kext but as I wrote also telemetrap.kext and AAAMouSSE.kext are included in the same path, with these two Syncretic kext the prelinking for LegacyUSBInjector works without using CMD+S (and "exit").

 

[jhowarth]

I don't have a MacPro , for that prelinkedkernel I copied it here /System/Library/Extensions/LegacyUSBInjector.kext but as I wrote also telemetrap.kext and AAAMouSSE.kext are included in the same path, with these two Syncretic kext the prelinking for LegacyUSBInjector works without using CMD+S (and "exit").

Do you have a link for the exact copy of LegacyUSBInjector.kext that you are using in your prelinked kernels? There appears to be a number of versions floating around.

Also, I assume you have some machine that does require the LegacyUSBInjector, right? If so, does it really show up as loaded in the same graphical display of System Profiler that I posted?

 

[jackluke]

Do you have a link for the exact copy of LegacyUSBInjector.kext that you are using in your prelinked kernels? There appears to be a number of versions floating around.

Also, I assume you have some machine that does require the LegacyUSBInjector, right? If so, does it really show up as loaded in the same graphical display of System Profiler that I posted?

Even if date modified from yours is different the content is the same, you can use "diff" unix command to check that.
[automerge]1594126175[/automerge]

@slears to install BigSur use the method described on this page:

macOS Big Sur Patcher Is No Longer Available

parrotgeek.com

I did a full system disk installation, no partitions.

Then, thanks to @jackluke WiFi and AirDrop are solved

@jackluke If I press the F10, F11 or F12 button, the prohibited symbol appears. I can manually select a sound output, but it does not emit sound. A new prelinkedkernel would do me great !! ?

Thank you very much.

Try this: BigSur IvyBridge prelinkedkernel Sound AirDrop fix beta1.command.zip

I uploaded before a version including also a patched BKE (BootKernelExtensions) but I guess it is incompatible with some machines so I removed, instead using only prelinkedkernel with stock apple BKE should work for any machine.

If for some reason doesn't fix Sound you can re-use previous AirDrop fix.

 

[Maclinux]

I just made a new prelinkedkernel that should work for any Ivy Bridge Mac, and it should enable Sound, Mic, Wifi and AirDrop.

To properly use this you need possibly a vanilla BigSur installation (without any patches), and booting from an USB BigSur Installer (or its macOS Recovery CMD+R) open a recovery terminal and type:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
csrutil authenticated-root disable
reboot

If you instead use the script from a Catalina installation (or Mojave or HighSierra) you need from their respective Recoveries CMD+R just this:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
reboot

This time the script in a simple way should automatically detect if you are using a BigSur or another APFS macOS, I also included a second script to use even a patched BootKernelExtensions.kc .

To run the script directly from BigSur you need at least an ethernet internet connection.

Note: the attached is only for apple official APFS firmware supported Catalina Mac (but BigSur unsupported) that are typically the Ivy Bridge Intel x86_64 architecture.

This patched prelinkedkernel (or BootKernelExtensions) is for BigSur build 20A4299v (darwin xnu-kernel version 20.0.0 ) beta 1 .

Hello @jackluke

Thank you very much for the work. Wifi and AirDrop perfect, but MBP sound still doesn't work. The installer terminal returned an error after typing:

csrutil authenticated-root disable

I attach an image. In any case, now the sound options appear in the menu bar, although the prohibited signal continues to appear on the F10, F11 and F12 keys

 

[jackluke]

Hello @jackluke

Thank you very much for the work. Wifi and AirDrop perfect, but MBP sound still doesn't work. The installer terminal returned an error after typing:

csrutil authenticated-root disable

I attach an image. In any case, now the sound options appear in the menu bar, although the prohibited signal continues to appear on the F10, F11 and F12 keys

That's weird you still don't have sound speakers on an Ivy Bridge Mac, because both Sound and Mic worked either with BigSur AppleHDA.kext or HighSierra one, I'd exclude that FileVault could block it, because you are using a patched IO80211Family.kext in the prelinkedkernel.

If you open the Sound prefpane from "Sound effect" tab can't you select as output device "Internal Speakers" ?

Try to unplug your external "t24d-10" I guess it's an HDMI monitor (and any other plugged digital audio devices), and reboot without it, and check if Internal Speakers are detected.

If still doesn't work then try this from a BigSur terminal: kmutil install --update-all

Otherwise you should try to disable FileVault, then do a PRAM reset, and check if Internal Speakers are detected, because BigSur AppleHDA.kext works for any Ivy Bridge Mac.

 

[MacManMatt]

I have Successfully installed BS onto my MacbookPro 8,2.

WiFi Working - Thanks to @jackluke
Sound Not working - Volume Up/Down and Mute keys work but there is no Output Device
No GPU Acceleration - This is a known for now.

Love everybody's work in how far you have gotten with getting it all going.

 

[minman]

I just made a new prelinkedkernel that should work for any Ivy Bridge Mac, and it should enable Sound, Mic, Wifi and AirDrop.

To properly use this you need possibly a vanilla BigSur installation (without any patches), and booting from an USB BigSur Installer (or its macOS Recovery CMD+R) open a recovery terminal and type:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
csrutil authenticated-root disable
reboot

If you instead use the script from a Catalina installation (or Mojave or HighSierra) you need from their respective Recoveries CMD+R just this:

mount -uw /
nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"
csrutil disable
reboot

This time the script in a simple way should automatically detect if you are using a BigSur or another APFS macOS, I also included a second script to use even a patched BootKernelExtensions.kc .

To run the script directly from BigSur you need at least an ethernet internet connection.

Note: the attached is only for apple official APFS firmware supported Catalina Mac (but BigSur unsupported) that are typically the Ivy Bridge Intel x86_64 architecture.

This patched prelinkedkernel (or BootKernelExtensions) is for BigSur build 20A4299v (darwin xnu-kernel version 20.0.0 ) beta 1 .

thanks to this patch activates wifi on mine MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

 

[fireguy286]

Do you used the BKE or prelinkedkernel script ?

And on which machine ?

Maybe retry only using the prelinkedkernel script.

I could provide a fix to copy the stock BootKernelExtensions without reinstall BigSur.

It is easier if you have another macOS install for example Catalina from where you can boot, but also from USB BigSur Installer it is recoverable without reinstall, but reinstalling surely fix it.

Retry only the prelinkedkernel script, because I guess BKE are incompatible for different machines.

MBP 10,1.

Closing the loop here, rewiped, reran the kernel script and boom, everything as expected on reboot and Wifi works

Nice work.

 

[jackluke]

MBP 10,1.

Closing the loop here, rewiped, reran the kernel script and boom, everything as expected on reboot and Wifi works

Nice work.

Right, it was the BKE incompatible with different machines, it should be the stock BigSur one (66,7 MB currently), after the prelinkedkernel fix, do you have also AirDrop on BigSur Finder, and does Sound (Internal Speakers) and Mic (maybe try Siri also) are working ?
[automerge]1594129464[/automerge]

thanks to this patch activates wifi on mine MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

Could you check also if you have AirDrop on the BigSur Finder ?

Or from About This Mac, System Report, Wifi tab if the AirPortDriverBrcm4360 driver loaded and AirDrop channel is correctly detected.

 

[fireguy286]

Right, it was the BKE incompatible with different machines, it should be the stock BigSur one (66,7 MB currently), after the prelinkedkernel fix, do you have also AirDrop on BigSur Finder, and does Sound (Internal Speakers) and Mic (maybe try Siri also) are working ?

Yes, never had a sound issue, still works. Mic works. Bluetooth works. AirDrop works, just moved stuff back and forth no problems. Wifi was the only hang up and now good to go.