macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Barry K. Nathan]

My SSD is greyed out, I know I read it somewhere, not going to go over 1724 posts to look for the solution.

Can someone point me to the page or solution.

Cheers

Installed the 1st beta without the above greyed out SSD.

You need to use Hax.dylib or Hax2 or Hax3 just like I'm guessing you did the first time. If you tried and you're still getting the grayed out SSD, either you made a typo somewhere, or you're trying to do it from inside Big Sur beta 1 (for whatever reason, the Hax dylibs work under Catalina and they work under the Big Sur installer USB but, at least for me, they don't seem to work under a full Big Sur installation).

 

[jhumroo]

Hi, I have read through 60+ pages of this thread and it has left me very confused as to what works and what doesn't. Is there one post that is frequently updated with a definitive guide to installing Big Sur on unsupported Macs? Thanks

 

[jhowarth]

From single user mode, is to test if a legacy usb keyboard is responsive, and apple also suggest to type "exit" to continue normal booting, this not makes work "mount -uw /" for a snapshot booting but is simply to test if LegacyUSBInjector.kext has worked without booting the full macOS.
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After you installed BigSur beta 2, for Wifi on Ivy Bridge Mac this should still work: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28648091

Interestingly, if I boot the prelinkedkernel that I created under snapshots with chroot using 'cmd+s', I can type exit. Furthermore, after exit, the graphical interface boots up for Big Sur with fully functional usb keyboard and mouse. However, I reboot normally then the Bluetooth keyboard dialog appears because the usb keyboard couldn't be found.

Even stranger, if I boot in safe mode to the graphical interface (which has usable usb, wifi, bluetooth and airdrop) and then repeat...

sudo mount -o nobrowse -t apfs /dev/disk7s5 /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint
sudo touch /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Extensions
sudo chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
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 chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint kcditto
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot

and do a normal reboot, I find that the normal login window appears instead of the previous Bluetooth keyboard dialog but the mouse and keyboard are non-functional.

This all seems very strange as the original exiting from safe-mode allowed the kext for Wifi, bluetooth, Airdrop, etc to load so I assume those kext were loaded dynamically. Since 'kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel' is supposed to only use the loaded kexts, I expected it might have a slightly reduced set. Instead, creating a prelinked kernel through a safe-mode boot produced exactly the same sized prelinkedkernel. However it behaves differently from the one created under a jakeluke prelinkedkernel.

I am wonder if touching /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Extensions was sufficient to trigger a rebuild of the kernel caches and if I need to explicitly clear them before executing 'kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel'?

 

[hvds]

Hi, I have read through 60+ pages of this thread and it has left me very confused as to what works and what doesn't. Is there one post that is frequently updated with a definitive guide to installing Big Sur on unsupported Macs? Thanks

There isn't a definitive guide. I believe there can't be one yet as it is work very much in (incredibly fast!) progress. See for instance the important differences from beta1 to beta2.
I guess the work done here by our heros will be amalgamated to something like a new dosdude patcher for BS, if that is at all possible. If it is more about (early) usage of Big Sur, rather than experimenting to help the heros, it is probably better to wait for such a patcher. My 2ct.

 

[TimothyR734]

There's a steps like this to use in update case: BS Beta 1 to BS Beta 2???

I tried to install Big Sur Beta 2 following Parrotgeeks website but no luck I keep getting an error

 

[Fangio]

Successfully updated my Big Sur Beta 1 partition to Beta 2 on a 2012 MBP 9,1 using the @parrotgeek1 guide, and an USB stick this time. Seems to me the ParrotGeek method is the way to go currently, to avoid starting from scratch. Can also confirm re-applying the @jackluke 'BigSur IvyBridge prelinkedkernel Sound AirDrop fix beta1.command' still works great by running it directly in a Big Sur terminal. WiFi and AirDrop are fine.

The 'patch_installer.sh' v0.1.4 gave me the 'Internet connection required' error though. Thanks @TimothyR734 for the 'patch_installer.sh' v0.1.3 attached in #1708 which patched the USB Installer to work as expected.

 

[Armere Caruso]

Successfully updated my Big Sur Beta 1 partition to Beta 2 on a 2012 MBP 9,1, using the @parrotgeek1 guide and an USB stick this time. Looks like the ParrotGeek method is the way to go currently, to avoid starting from scratch. Can also confirm re-applying the @jackluke 'BigSur IvyBridge prelinkedkernel Sound AirDrop fix beta1.command' still works great by running it directly in a Big Sur terminal. WiFi and AirDrop are fine.

The 'patch_installer v0.1.4' gave me the 'Internet connection required' error though. Thanks @TimothyR734 for the 'patch_installer v0.1.3' linked in #1708 which patched the USB Installer to work as expected.

hey I got a mid-2012 MacBook Pro now I tried to set up boot camp and kinda just gave up but still had the bootcamp drive may Mac originally created and I used the otwcatalina on it and magically I got Big Sur on it but I wanted and have been trying to make Big Sur go on my external Samsung 500 gb portable SSD cause I have a Samsung 860 emo 1 tb in my Mac already so I want to boot Big Sur from my external ssd and just have my in machine 860 evo holding all my stuff and all the im a music producer and artist so I run logic x pro and a lot of plugins so every time I try to make my Big Sur on my external it always says domain error3 (when I have it as a guy Mac OS journeled) or this disk is not formatted for apfs (wen I make a patition on the external ssd drive) can you please help me idk how on earth I got it to work on the bootcamp drive but wifi won't work tho so I gotta have u help me with the too if u can thank you @Fangio

 

[mrbubzie1993]

I just downloaded DP1 will be doing a clean install on a second portion on Mac Pro 5,1 wish me luck

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

Quick question has anyone tried Big Sur on a early 2013 imac? I know people have confirmed it works good on a late 2013 imac so did not know if it would be the same on an early 2013 imac. Interested to see what you all have to say. Thanks, Payne

 

[Maclinux]

Hi, I have read through 60+ pages of this thread and it has left me very confused as to what works and what doesn't. Is there one post that is frequently updated with a definitive guide to installing Big Sur on unsupported Macs? Thanks

What has helped me in my MBP mid 2012 (not retina) is to follow this method:

macOS Big Sur Patcher Is No Longer Available

parrotgeek.com

After installing the Beta you do not have WiFI in addition to other things ..., that has been solved with the help of @jackluke and its magnificent:
"BigSur IvyBridge prelinkedkernel Sound AirDrop fix beta1.command.zip"

Everything works perfectly for me, in fact, much better than in Catalina.

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

What has helped me in my MBP mid 2012 (not retina) is to follow this method:

macOS Big Sur Patcher Is No Longer Available

parrotgeek.com

After installing the Beta you do not have WiFI in addition to other things ..., that has been solved with the help of @jackluke and its magnificent:
"BigSur IvyBridge prelinkedkernel Sound AirDrop fix beta1.command.zip"

Everything works perfectly for me, in fact, much better than in Catalina.

So gad to hear it works on a mid 2012.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Quick question has anyone tried Big Sur on a early 2013 imac? I know people have confirmed it works good on a late 2013 imac so did not know if it would be the same on an early 2013 imac. Interested to see what you all have to say. Thanks, Payne

If your iMac has a spinner hard driver then you will want to consider using a SSD drive.

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

If your iMac has a spinner hard driver then you will want to consider using a SSD drive.

It has a 240 GB PNY SSD.

 

[David403]

Successfully updated my Big Sur Beta 1 partition to Beta 2 on a 2012 MBP 9,1, using the @parrotgeek1 guide and an USB stick this time. Seemed to me the ParrotGeek method is the way to go currently, to avoid starting from scratch. Can also confirm re-applying the @jackluke 'BigSur IvyBridge prelinkedkernel Sound AirDrop fix beta1.command' still works great by running it directly in a Big Sur terminal. WiFi and AirDrop are fine.

The 'patch_installer.sh' v0.1.4 gave me the 'Internet connection required' error though. Thanks @TimothyR734 for the 'patch_installer.sh' v0.1.3 in #1708 which patched the USB Installer to work as expected.

I tried the Parrotgeek1 installer guide referenced here but when I type xattr-c, a space, and then drag patch_installer.sh into terminal and press Enter I get -

zsh: command not found: xattr-c

I did try switching back to bash but I get the same result???

Any suggestions as to what the problem is here ?

 

[Taz Mangus]

I tried the Parrotgeek1 installer guide referenced here but when I type xattr-c, a space, and then drag patch_installer.sh into terminal and press Enter I get -

zsh: command not found: xattr-c

I did try switching back to bash but I get the same result???

Any suggestions as to what the problem is here ?

Try using xattr -c (there is a space after xattr).

 

[Maclinux]

I don't notice any difference between Beta 1 and Beta 2, but I like to be in Beta 2. Hopefully Beta 3 will come out soon to reinstall everything from 0. 😉

I install the Betas on my main computer and without partitions. "A lo loco se vive mejor"

 

[David403]

Try using xattr -c (there is a space after xattr).

Thanks - That worked ... but I don’t understand how the space disappeared the first few time I tried it as I used copy and paste from Parrotgeek1's instruction sheet. Worked this time when I just typed it in with the space.

 

[Maclinux]

So gad to hear it works on a mid 2012.

My computer supported Catalina without problem, but it was obsolete for Big Sur and curiously it works much better with Big Sur ...
😂

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

I think I found a fix for the LegacyUSBInjector flakiness. At least, it worked on my MacBook6,1 -- if I use this instead of the LegacyUSBInjector, then it reliably works, whether I'm using prelinkedkernels or kernelcollections.

Basically, take the Info.plist.new in this zip file and use it to replace /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist, then rebuild your prelinkedkernel or kernelcollections as usual. (It feels early to call any of this "usual" but hopefully you get the idea.) The zip archive also has a diff file (so it can be applied as a patch against later betas, using the patch command) and a copy of IOUSBHostFamily.kext's unmodified Info.plist from beta 2 (although this was redundant in retrospect, because you can just take the new Info.plist and apply the diff in reverse to get the original).

What I did, essentially, was to inject the injector into IOUSBHostFamily. It's really just a copy-and-paste of ParrotGeek's LegacyUSBInjector for Catalina -- but I figured that embedding it into IOUSBHostFamily would more or less eliminate the chance that it would not get included in the prelinkedkernel or kernelcollection, or the chance that it would not get loaded. It's always possible that my theory is wrong, but on my own MacBook6,1 it seems to be working out so far...

Edit: Oops, accidentally attached the file twice so I deleted one of the duplicates.

 

[macsba]

I followed ParrotGeek's instructions from: https://parrotgeek.com/bigsur/
I'm coming up with this error below from the Terminal. What am I doing wrong? I'm using a Mac Pro 5,1.
I tried the copy and paste the first time and it failed. I then used the suggestion from Taz Mangus in post # 1740. Still the same error.

Big Sur installer patch tool v0.1.4 by Ethan Nelson-Moore/ParrotGeek Software
ERROR: You need to pass in the installer disk as an argument

 

[jhowarth]

I think I found a fix for the LegacyUSBInjector flakiness. At least, it worked on my MacBook6,1 -- if I use this instead of the LegacyUSBInjector, then it reliably works, whether I'm using prelinkedkernels or kernelcollections.

Basically, take the Info.plist.new in this zip file and use it to replace /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist, then rebuild your prelinkedkernel or kernelcollections as usual. (It feels early to call any of this "usual" but hopefully you get the idea.) The zip archive also has a diff file (so it can be applied as a patch against later betas, using the patch command) and a copy of IOUSBHostFamily.kext's unmodified Info.plist from beta 2 (although this was redundant in retrospect, because you can just take the new Info.plist and apply the diff in reverse to get the original).

What I did, essentially, was to inject the injector into IOUSBHostFamily. It's really just a copy-and-paste of ParrotGeek's LegacyUSBInjector for Catalina -- but I figured that embedding it into IOUSBHostFamily would more or less eliminate the chance that it would not get included in the prelinkedkernel or kernelcollection, or the chance that it would not get loaded. It's always possible that my theory is wrong, but on my own MacBook6,1 it seems to be working out so far...

Edit: Oops, accidentally attached the file twice so I deleted one of the duplicates.

Fantastic catch. Removing LegacyUSBInjector.kext and patching IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist instead solved the problems that I was having building prelinkedkernels under snapshots using chroot. Attached is my current recipe for doing that.

Disable authenticated-root in nvram using csrutil from Big Sur from the root level of a patched Catalina usb installer with..

sudo csrutil2 authenticated-csr disable

Also make sure to set...

sudo nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check"

Install Big Sur on an external drive from a supported machine. Attach this drive under Catalina mount it's Preboot volume.

cd /Volumes/Preboot/*/System/Library/CoreServices/
curl https://github.com/jacklukem/BigSurfixes/raw/master/prelinkedkernel%20fix/com.apple.Boot.plist --progress-bar -L -o /private/tmp/com.apple.Boot.plist
sudo cp -a /private/tmp/com.apple.Boot.plist .
curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jacklukem/BigSurfixes/master/legacy%20usb%20prelinkedkernel%20beta1/prelinkedkernel?raw=true" --progress-bar -L -o /private/tmp/prelinkedkernel
sudo mv PlatformSupport.plist PlatformSupport.plist2
sudo cp -a /private/tmp/com.apple.Boot.plist .
cd ../PrelinkedKernels
sudo cp -a /private/tmp/prelinkedkernel .

Attach a usb memory stick with Kext-droplet.dmg and the following kexts files

from Catalina Patchers kext)
AppleHDA.kext
AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext

(from 10.15.5)
IO80211Family.kext

AAAMouSSE.kext v0.93
telemetrap.kext v0.22

Download and uncompress https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/iousbhostfamily-info-plist-zip.932079/ as IOUSBHostFamily-Info on /Volumes/Untitled

*** commands below remove the incompatible kext ****

mkdir /Users/howarth/mntpoint
sudo mount -o nobrowse -t apfs /dev/disk7s5 /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint
cd /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/System/Library/Extensions
sudo rm -fr IO80211Family.kext
sudo rm -fr AppleHDA.kext
sudo ditto /Volumes/Untitled/IO80211Family.kext IO80211Family.kext
sudo ditto /Volumes/Untitled/AppleHDA.kext AppleHDA.kext
sudo chmod -R 755 IO80211Family.kext
sudo chmod -R 755 AppleHDA.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel IO80211Family.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel AppleHDA.kext

**** patch LegacyUSBInjector Info.list changes directly into IOUSBHostFamily.kext ***
cd IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents
sudo patch -p0 < /Volumes/Untitled/IOUSBHostFamily-Info/Info.plist.diff

cd /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Extensions
sudo ditto /Volumes/Untitled/telemetrap.kext telemetrap.kext
sudo chmod -R 755 telemetrap.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel telemetrap.kext

*** commands to rebuild and move new prelinkedkernel to /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels for kcditto to find ***

*** add missing directory ***
sudo mkdir /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels
*** add missing symlink for kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
sudo ln -s /System/Library/Caches /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Apple/System/Library/Caches

sudo chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint mount -uw /
sudo touch /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/Library/Extensions/
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 chroot /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint kcditto
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/BigSur/Users/howarth/mntpoint/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot

*** reboot to make modified snapshot active root ***

Jakeluke, now that LegacyUSBInjector.kext can be dropped, I wonder if the KCs that kcditto installs along side the prelinkedkernel can be used to boot instead. Any idea how your com.apple.Boot.plist would be changed to use the installed KC instead?

 

[Payne Mononymous Bachman]

Don't know what I did wrong but when I try to install mac OS beta on a mid 2012 macbook pro I am having issues which I will list below:
First issue is when I run this command sudo nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check” in the terminal it comes back with not permitted even though I am the administrator of the computer and have an admin account.

The second issue I have is when I go to install big Sur off the USB it says can not install and needs internet connection to install even though I have the computer plugged into ethernet.

I am curious to see if any one else is having these issues and I do realize and understand and have no problem that this is just a beta release so there is bound to be bugs.

 

[TimothyR734]

I followed ParrotGeek's instructions from: https://parrotgeek.com/bigsur/
I'm coming up with this error below from the Terminal. What am I doing wrong? I'm using a Mac Pro 5,1.
I tried the copy and paste the first time and it failed. I then used the suggestion from Taz Mangus in post # 1740. Still the same error.

Big Sur installer patch tool v0.1.4 by Ethan Nelson-Moore/ParrotGeek Software
ERROR: You need to pass in the installer disk as an argument

You need to drag the install macOS Big Sur Beta usb into the patcher fir it to be patched

 

[macsba]

You need to drag the install macOS Big Sur Beta usb into the patcher fir it to be patched

Yes, I did that.
Additional information: Mac Pro 5,1 (2012) running Catalina 10.15.5.

 

[TimothyR734]

Yes, I did that.

I think on the previous page I posted an update patch installer try that