macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[PBiscaia]

Yes, had that as well, I pressed the buttons on the side of both my trackpad and keyboard, didn't seem to work for a while, but then the mouse showed up and I could click the button to proceed.

Thanks for the reply.
Already tried that, left the computer on for 15 minutes trying to connect the keyboard or mouse but nothing!
This is most weird, never experienced something like this. Any sugestions?

 

[justperry]

Thanks for the reply.
Already tried that, left the computer on for 15 minutes trying to connect the keyboard or mouse but nothing!
This is most weird, never experienced something like this. Any sugestions?

Did you try to restart, a wired one will definitely work.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Hi,

My first try installing in a Imac 10,1(late 2009), make an usb installer following "parrot geek" method.
I'm able to boot into the installer, but the funny thing, I don't have mouse or keyboard working! No magic keyboard or mouse, no usb keyboard or mouse, nothing. Staring at the recovery screen without the ability to do nothing!
Anyone seen this problem, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

It's a known problem on some pre-2011 models. I plan to address it eventually with my patcher, but I need to balance it with other things in my life so I might not get around to trying to fix this problem until later in the month. (Maybe I'll get to it sooner, but it's possible I won't.) I think jackluke may have posted some workaround earlier (I think a key phrase to look for is "legacy USB").

Edit: An intermediate step to fixing it would be to add it as a patch to my patcher, so that you can install onto an external SSD using a 2011 or newer Mac (or some older models), then install the patch, then bring it over to the 2009 iMac (or 2009/2010 white polycarbonate MacBook, for another example) and use it there. My patcher can't do that yet, but I could add that over the weekend or early next week.

 

[PBiscaia]

It's a known problem on some pre-2011 models. I plan to address it eventually with my patcher, but I need to balance it with other things in my life so I might not get around to trying to fix this problem until later in the month. (Maybe I'll get to it sooner, but it's possible I won't.) I think jackluke may have posted some workaround earlier (I think a key phrase to look for is "legacy USB").

Thanks, I will investigate.

 

[jhowarth]

It's a known problem on some pre-2011 models. I plan to address it eventually with my patcher, but I need to balance it with other things in my life so I might not get around to trying to fix this problem until later in the month. (Maybe I'll get to it sooner, but it's possible I won't.) I think jackluke may have posted some workaround earlier (I think a key phrase to look for is "legacy USB").

Essentially, the legacy USB injection amounts to adding custom entries into IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist for the usb properties of the deprecated machines. The problem on Big Sur is that snapshots are currently fouling the process of building usable prelinked kernels (at least with regard to usb support).

 

[PBiscaia]

Did you try to restart, a wired one will definitely work.

Yes, restarted several times, and no a wired one didn't work also, very weird!

 

[justperry]

Yes, restarted several times, and no a wired one didn't work also, very weird!

Now that is odd, a wired one always worked when I had issues, I fiddled with OSX a lot, had it a few times that my mac didn't recognise the wireless ones, a wired one always helped.

 

[PBiscaia]

It's a known problem on some pre-2011 models. I plan to address it eventually with my patcher, but I need to balance it with other things in my life so I might not get around to trying to fix this problem until later in the month. (Maybe I'll get to it sooner, but it's possible I won't.) I think jackluke may have posted some workaround earlier (I think a key phrase to look for is "legacy USB").

Edit: An intermediate step to fixing it would be to add it as a patch to my patcher, so that you can install onto an external SSD using a 2011 or newer Mac (or some older models), then install the patch, then bring it over to the 2009 iMac (or 2009/2010 white polycarbonate MacBook, for another example) and use it there. My patcher can't do that yet, but I could add that over the weekend or early next week.

Yes, that could be an option if I had a newer mac, but I don't. So I will have to wait for some of you "pros" find a solution if possible.
But thanks anyway!
[automerge]1594409351[/automerge]

Now that is odd, a wired one always worked when I had issues, I fiddled with OSX a lot, had it a few times that my mac didn't recognise the wireless ones, a wired one always helped.

Yes, for most of the situations, and on several OS, a wired keyboard and mouse should work. But Big Sur presents some surprises and challenges.

 

[jhowarth]

It's a known problem on some pre-2011 models. I plan to address it eventually with my patcher, but I need to balance it with other things in my life so I might not get around to trying to fix this problem until later in the month. (Maybe I'll get to it sooner, but it's possible I won't.) I think jackluke may have posted some workaround earlier (I think a key phrase to look for is "legacy USB").

Edit: An intermediate step to fixing it would be to add it as a patch to my patcher, so that you can install onto an external SSD using a 2011 or newer Mac (or some older models), then install the patch, then bring it over to the 2009 iMac (or 2009/2010 white polycarbonate MacBook, for another example) and use it there. My patcher can't do that yet, but I could add that over the weekend or early next week.

Rather than the traditional method of adding the LegacyUSBInjector.kext, you should consider just patching the Info.plist in the Big Sur installed copy of IOUSBHostFamily.kext as described here...

IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist patching

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

Rather than the traditional method of adding the LegacyUSBInjector.kext, you should consider just patching the Info.plist in the Big Sur installed copy of IOUSBHostFamily.kext as described here...

IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist patching

Yes, that's probably what I'll do.

 

[gosvamih]

I've found that is not working yet. Iphone don't show itself in sidecar via WiFi, and volume control keys of Apple earphones don't manage the system volume.

 

[jackluke]

Rather than the traditional method of adding the LegacyUSBInjector.kext, you should consider just patching the Info.plist in the Big Sur installed copy of IOUSBHostFamily.kext as described here...

IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist patching

Can't get a working "legacy USB prelinkedkernel" using only this IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist (instead of LegacyUSBInjector.kext), somewhat worked when using CMD+S and typing "exit" to continue booting, almost same behavior with kmutil BootKernelExtensions.kc , and a kext matching is required on the non-snapshot SLE, otherwise no boot to the loginUI, because the "stock snapshot IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist" tries to re-load (as occurred for example for AppleHDA.kext).

And have no idea how to make work an USB BigSur Installer (or its BaseSystem.dmg) with legacy usb .
[automerge]1594416593[/automerge]

Hi,

My first try installing in a Imac 10,1(late 2009), make an usb installer following "parrot geek" method.
I'm able to boot into the installer, but the funny thing, I don't have mouse or keyboard working! No magic keyboard or mouse, no usb keyboard or mouse, nothing. Staring at the recovery screen without the ability to do nothing!
Anyone seen this problem, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

You need to install BigSur through a Mojave or Catalina (you need csrutil disable and nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1") using from desktop the "Install macOS Big Sur beta.app" on an internal SATA disk through the ASentientBot Hax3.dylib method (or opencore spoofing to a supported mac), then after the installation is complete from Mojave or Catalina apply the "prelinkedkernel fix4" to get on BigSur usb input output devices responsive (Bluetooth is also an usb internal device).

 

[PBiscaia]

Can't get a working "legacy USB prelinkedkernel" using only this IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist (instead of LegacyUSBInjector.kext), somewhat worked when using CMD+S and typing "exit" to continue booting, almost same behavior with kmutil BootKernelExtensions.kc , and a kext matching is required on the non-snapshot SLE, otherwise no boot to the loginUI, because the "stock snapshot IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist" tries to re-load (as occurred for example for AppleHDA.kext).

And have no idea how to make work an USB BigSur Installer (or its BaseSystem.dmg) with legacy usb .
[automerge]1594416593[/automerge]


You need to install BigSur through a Mojave or Catalina (you need csrutil disable and nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1") using from desktop the "Install macOS Big Sur beta.app" on an internal SATA disk through the ASentientBot Hax3.dylib method (or opencore spoofing to a supported mac), then after the installation is complete from Mojave or Catalina apply the "prelinkedkernel fix4" to get on BigSur usb input output devices responsive (Bluetooth is also an usb internal device).

Jackluke, thanks for your directions. So, to be clear, I have to install from Catalina on other internal disk not an external one right?

 

[jackluke]

Jackluke, thanks for your directions. So, to be clear, I have to install from Catalina on other internal disk not an external one right?

On a non-APFS or legacy usb Mac, you should install BigSur on internal SATA disk (it requires 50 GB), and you need the 9,56 GB "Install macOS Big Sur Beta.app" (to copy on Catalina /Applications/ ) and this tool to install directly from Catalina desktop: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28619108

after installation to make work usb devices (and wifi), you should apply this from Catalina: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2242172/post-28643133

edit:
From BigSur Beta 3 the install app is 12.88 GB

 

[jhowarth]

Can't get a working "legacy USB prelinkedkernel" using only this IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist (instead of LegacyUSBInjector.kext), somewhat worked when using CMD+S and typing "exit" to continue booting, almost same behavior with kmutil BootKernelExtensions.kc , and a kext matching is required on the non-snapshot SLE, otherwise no boot to the loginUI, because the "stock snapshot IOUSBHostFamily Info.plist" tries to re-load (as occurred for example for AppleHDA.kext).

And have no idea how to make work an USB BigSur Installer (or its BaseSystem.dmg) with legacy usb .
[automerge]1594416593[/automerge]


You need to install BigSur through a Mojave or Catalina (you need csrutil disable and nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1") using from desktop the "Install macOS Big Sur beta.app" on an internal SATA disk through the ASentientBot Hax3.dylib method (or opencore spoofing to a supported mac), then after the installation is complete from Mojave or Catalina apply the "prelinkedkernel fix4" to get on BigSur usb input output devices responsive (Bluetooth is also an usb internal device).

Doh. It looks like we aren't patching all of the Info.plist buried in IOUSBHostFamily.kext. Both IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist and IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHostPlatformProperties.kext/Contents/Info.plist have <key>IOKitPersonalities_x86_64</key> sections where the LegacyUSBInjector changes need to be applied!

Update: My initial attempt with patching both Info.plist files buried in IOUSBHostFamily.kext didn't fix the missing usb when booting from a prelinkedkernel built on a snapshot with chroot. However we really don't even know if that approach works on machines that don't need LegacyUSBInjector.kext.

Please ago ahead and repeat your attempt to rebuild a "legacy USB prelinkedkernel, using your non-snapshot prelinkedkernel build approach, but with only IOUSBHostFamily.kext patched at both IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist and IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHostPlatformProperties.kext/Contents/Info.plist this time. If that works, we at least know that the problem resides in snapshot/chroot build approach of the prelinkedkernel and isn't inherent in the patching of IOUSBHostFamily.kext.

[automerge]1594421891[/automerge]

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.

It looks like we aren't patching all of the buried Info.plist contained within IOUSBHostFamily.kext. Both IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist and IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHostPlatformProperties.kext/Contents/Info.plist contain <key>IOKitPersonalities_x86_64</key> sections that need the LegacyUSBInjector changes. This probably explains why your current patch to IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist can't create a usable prelinkedkernel in the absence of LegacyUSBInjector.kext.

 

[David403]

There's another oddity, I opened InstallAssistant before today, a BIG Sur Installer more or less is created instantly in the Applications Folder, that's an almost 10 GB installer, some magic done here.
I know it can't be 10 GB, it takes considerable more time to create a ~10GB App than just a second or so, even on fast SSD's it takes long, CPU is normally also involved for instance for unpacking.
I think it's all links and some trickery, like fooling the Finder it's 10 GB

Not sure how it's done but I've seen this many times with torrents.

A file is created before it has been downloaded (as a placeholder with something like .part after the extension of the file being downloaded.) It's the same size as the file will be when it's completely downloaded. This happens within a second or two of starting the torrent download.

 

[Barry K. Nathan]

It looks like we aren't patching all of the buried Info.plist contained within IOUSBHostFamily.kext. Both IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist and IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHostPlatformProperties.kext/Contents/Info.plist contain <key>IOKitPersonalities_x86_64</key> sections that need the LegacyUSBInjector changes. This probably explains why your current patch to IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Info.plist can't create a usable prelinkedkernel in the absence of LegacyUSBInjector.kext.

Hmm. I thought I tested it and it created a usable prelinkedkernel for me -- but it's possible that I'm remembering wrong and I only tested it with k*collections (kernelcollections or kextcollections or whatever).

The whole reason I tried doing it that way is because, for me, LegacyUSBInjector.kext was creating a usable prelinkedkernel but not a usable k*collection.

BTW, it's possible that I may not be able to work on my patcher this weekend after all -- I may have to wait until sometime during the week. We'll see...

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

@jackluke Also with SIP (apparently) disabled from Catalina, I cannot change nothing on BigSur volumes (beta 1 and 2) from Catalina Recovery. Could you verify OpenCoreLoader not enabling BigSure Recovery commands? (Only way to access BS Recovery for me) PS: killing spindump process (kill -STOP PID) increases CPU performances. Maybe we could rename It from LanunchDaemons with a fix.

 

[justperry]

Not sure how it's done but I've seen this many times with torrents.

A file is created before it has been downloaded (as a placeholder with something like .part after the extension of the file being downloaded.) It's the same size as the file will be when it's completely downloaded. This happens within a second or two of starting the torrent download.

The program claims space on a disk, it then fills that space with Data.
This however seems different, has to be links or so.

 

[jackluke]

The program claims space on a disk, it then fills that space with Data.
This however seems different, has to be links or so.

From my test, apple uses its zlib compression for Installer.pkg , then decompress it quickly to an /Applications/ "Install macOS.app" , these two require about 20 GB on internal disk, then stage1 installer copies to the "APFS Data Volume" a "macOS Install Data" (on BigSur they use the Update APFS Volume) that is a decompressed "Install macOS.app" that requires on disk other 10 GB , hence BigSur (or Catalina) installation requires at least 50 GB to complete install, after install those temporary packages should automatically removed so BigSur install takes about 25 GB .

 

[Yebubbleman]

This thread is awesome, but kind of overwhelming to navigate.

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012). At least, that's the only spare Mac that I can safely use for testing at this point. Is there anything special that I need to do to get at least the Public Beta to install on my machine (like to bypass whatever mechanism checks to see if I have a supported model)?

I've glanced a little bit and it seems that once on Big Sur, the only thing not working is the WiFi and that I can copy the kext from Catalina over and install it on Big Sur to resolve that problem and then I'm basically fine as far as running Big Sur stably is concerned (or as stable as the public beta can be at this point). Is there a recommended way to do all of that?

Apologies for not combing the 76 pages of thread to look this up. Until I can acquire a spare Mac that actually meets the minimum requirements, this is my best bet to be able to try out Big Sur before it releases.

 

[LuisN]

This thread is awesome, but kind of overwhelming to navigate.

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012). At least, that's the only spare Mac that I can safely use for testing at this point. Is there anything special that I need to do to get at least the Public Beta to install on my machine (like to bypass whatever mechanism checks to see if I have a supported model)?

I've glanced a little bit and it seems that once on Big Sur, the only thing not working is the WiFi and that I can copy the kext from Catalina over and install it on Big Sur to resolve that problem and then I'm basically fine as far as running Big Sur stably is concerned (or as stable as the public beta can be at this point). Is there a recommended way to do all of that?

Apologies for not combing the 76 pages of thread to look this up. Until I can acquire a spare Mac that actually meets the minimum requirements, this is my best bet to be able to try out Big Sur before it releases.

Follow this guide to the letter and chances are that you end with Big Sur with WIFI working:

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

I advise you, when you got some spare money, to upgrade your wifi adapter to a compatible one.

 

[jhowarth]

From my test, apple uses its zlib compression for Installer.pkg , then decompress it quickly to an /Applications/ "Install macOS.app" , these two require about 20 GB on internal disk, then stage1 installer copies to the "APFS Data Volume" a "macOS Install Data" (on BigSur they use the Update APFS Volume) that is a decompressed "Install macOS.app" that requires on disk other 10 GB , hence BigSur (or Catalina) installation requires at least 50 GB to complete install, after install those temporary packages should automatically removed so BigSur install takes about 25 GB .

FYI, did a sanity check on using the IOUSBHostFamily.kext patching (using a patch created under Big Sur... hence the fuzz) with the removal of LegacyUSBInjector.kext on a clean patched install of Catalina.

1) Clean installed patched Catalina
2)

sudo mount -uw /
cd /System/Library/Extensions
sudo ditto IOUSBHostFamily.kext ~/IOUSBHostFamily.kext
cd IOUSBHostFamily.kext
sudo patch -p1 < /Users/howarth/IOUSBHostFamily-Infos.patch
sudo rm Contents/Info.plist.orig
sudo rm Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHostPlatformProperties.kext/Contents/Info.plist.orig
cd /Library/Extensions
sudo rm -fr LegacyUSBInjector.kext
sudo rm -fr AAAMouSSE.kext 
cd /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels
sudo cp prelinkedkernel prelinkedkernel.installation_copy
cd /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels
sudo cp prelinkedkernel prelinkedkernel.installation_copy
sudo kextcache -i /

This results in the prelinkedkernel in /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels being updated to the new version but not the copy in /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/
After a reboot, the copy of /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels is also updated to match the copy now in /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels.

The results show that this works using the attached patch. A few interesting things though.

1) Catalina doesn't appear to ever install a prelinkedkernel in the /Volumes/Preboot.
2) 'sudo kextcache -i /' seems to only recreate the prelinkedkernel in /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels
3) The reboot process seems to copy the prelinkedkernel in /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels over to /Library/Apple/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels

 

[jackluke]

On my BigSur beta 2 (sealed snapshot), I tried to use this @ASentientBot method to delete the annoying BigSur snapshots (the purpose is to use "sudo mount -uw /" in normal booting)

csrutil authenticated-root already disabled , tried either from a BigSur recovery or normal booting:

cd /S*/L*/F*/apfs.fs/C*/R*/

./apfs_systemsnapshot -v "/Volumes/mountpoint/BigSur/" -r ""

-r "" should tag no snapshots booting directly the unsealed BigSur System

But I can't tag it, system says:

Attempting tagging of snapshot on volume: /Volumes/BigSur
fs_snapshot_root: Operation not permitted
fs_snapshot_root failed with /Volumes/BigSur

While from BigSur beta 1 (I can use "sudo mount -uw /"), I am able to remove snapshots in this way:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /Volumes/BigSur/

tmutil deleteLocalSnapshots /Volumes/BigSur/ snapshotdatetime

 

[Yebubbleman]

Follow this guide to the letter and chances are that you end with Big Sur with WIFI working:

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

I advise you, when you got some spare money, to upgrade your wifi adapter to a compatible one.

Very much appreciated! Thanks!

As far as upgrading my WiFi adapter, is there a list of supported components? Are they not of a proprietary socket (and/or is there a common selection of models that will work that are also found in other PCs)? Or am I buying an OEM (compatible) part from a newer 13" MacBook Pro/MacBook Air/15" MacBook Pro that happens to fit with the same connectors? Also, once I upgrade the WiFi adapter, will the Big Sur installer simply recognize my Mac as being compatible?

Apologies for all of the questions. And again, thanks for the info!